I received my first 4-week block of Garrett “Blessings” Blevins’ AI coaching program. I watched the instructional video, checked out the posts on the Facebook Group, and gave the program considerable pondering.
I’ve decided not to pursue it, because while I like the idea of getting a more individualized program, with some semblance of a coach’s input, the design of the program is not to my liking.
Blevins spent some time with renowned Russian Powerlifting Coach Boris Sheiko, and his influence is clearly seen in Blevins’ programming. The program is a 12-week peaking plan designed to get the lifter to a Meet or at least a Mock Meet/test at the end of the cycle. The first 4 weeks are best described as a preparatory block, featuring a healthy amount of volume at submax loads. And when I say submax, I mean light. Very light.
I know the next four week block will increase the intensity, and the volume some more, but it’ll still be relatively light. The third block will be heavier, with lower volume, followed by the peaking block which will be higher intensity with lower volume.
I understand the concept behind this training style, but I don’t agree with it. I’ve spent lots of time lifting submax weights and they did not produce significant improvements in top end strength. You get better at what you train. Lots of sets of 5’s, 8’s and 10’s will get you good at doing sets of 5’s, 8’s and 10’s. When suddenly you’re called upon to so a single rep with significantly more weight than you’ve ever used in training, there’s both a psychological and physical concern with the attempt.
Strength is a combination of motor learning, neural adaptations and hypertrophy. I’ve gained significant improvement in the first two by training the competition lifts with frequency and progressively increasing the intensity. My skill at actually executing the lift has improved from the practice, and the transference of that practice to a true test of my maximum strength will be great because the practice was with sufficiently heavy loads as to be comparable to a competition attempt. The weight was also heavy enough to create the neural adaptations necessary to get better at lifting heavy weight. Hypertrophy is the biggest hole in my recent training, and I think Izzy’s intermediate program addresses that nicely.
No, I will not allow the AI Coach to coach me. Not because it’s an AI, but because the underlying premise from which it starts doesn’t jive with my NI.
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