It’s a pretty good sign when you’re intentionally training with light weight and low volume to allow fatigue to dissipate and during the workout you feel amped up to lift more. That’s how Day Two went, which is a dramatic improvement over Day One where I basically felt like I shouldn’t be lifting at all.
Training looked like this:
- Competition Bench 2 x 3
- Incline Bench 2 x 3
- DB Press 1×12
- Cable Crossovers 1×12
- Overhead cable tricep extensions 1×12
- Underhand pulldowns 2×12
For load selection I used the e1RM calculator and determined what my x5@8 would be for the competition bench and used that. For the others, I just checked my training log for the last time I did that movement and used a little less.
My aches and pains are diminished, my TRAC results are improved, and my entire mood has elevated. I suppose next time I won’t wait until I’m beaten to a pulp before deloading. 🙂
Brad Schoenfeld posted the results of a meta analysis on different loads for inducing hypertrophy and it was quite fascinating that with volume equated, and all sets taken to failure, 30% of 1RM and 80% of 1RM produced the same levels of hypertrophy. His posts, both on Instagram and Facebook, generated lots of commentary from the masses, including one of the more arrogant and obnoxious strength coach wannabes Paul Carter. I used to like Paul, but as typically happens, the more you get to know someone, the more they start to suck.
I guess the takeaway from the study is that hypertrophy is a byproduct of overloading the muscular system forcing adaptation. Which road you take to get there is up to you, and there are lots of options. Personally, I have no interest in doing multiple sets of 20-25 reps to failure, but it’s good to know that for a change of pace, I can do some light, high rep sets and that they’re still productive assuming they produce any overload stimulus at all. That may be the most frustrating aspect of training, at least for hypertrophy. Our bodies aren’t very cooperative. Every bout of resistance that causes enough stress to force adaptation comes with a protective system to prevent further stress. Do this enough times and your body is tough as nails, fighting your efforts at getting swole. From that perspective at least, strength training is more satisfying. I may look the same, but I know I’ve gotten stronger through painful effort. But even that eventually suffers the same fate. Without more muscle tissue to generate increased force production, there’s only so far technique, neural adaptations and motor skills can take you. You are back in the hypertrophy camp and once again, dealing with a body resistant to the stress of moving heavy things.
Today, I will focus on the deadlift and will add some deficit pulls and block pulls to the pulling madness. It’s something Dan Green is fond of, which I think he swiped from the Finnish lifters who deadlift like it’s the only lift that matters. I really like the idea of training one particular lift on a day vs. the full body stuff Izzy and Mike Tuchscherer are partial to. I’m basically willing to try anything to make improvements, as my constantly evolving training programming should indicate. But as Dr. Eric Helms detailed in his Pyramid, Adherence is the base block of the structure. The best plan in the world doesn’t matter if you won’t actually do it.
Looking back over all my experiments, I can definitively point to things that worked well. I made my best improvements when I followed some type of planned, linear progression in weight. My bench increased the most using Greyskull LP, which added weight every workout, and Izzy’s PNP which also added weight every workout. My Squat improved the most when I did Squat Every Day, which I took quite literally and performed high bar squats to a max 5-6 days each week. My deadlift has never been the same after my bicep rupture and related surgery back in 2013. It’s probably a protection scheme my mind has built to prevent injury, as the deadlift has hurt me worse than any other lift. I know I’ve got more in me than what I pull on a regular basis today, but I don’t mind staying well within my limits and avoiding breaking something.
After this deload week concludes, I will embark on a higher volume approach, ensuring I get at least 80 reps per week per muscle group, with 2x per week frequency and use both linear weight progression and rep progression on smaller lifts to try to keep this ball rolling forward.
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