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Forums › Trooper’s Training Forum – In memory of Col. James “Jim” R Tirey, USA › Microcycle planning
Guys, a very basic question about planning a simple microcycle. What should be the difference between the starting and ending weight in terms of a percentage and whould would be a reasonable step increase?
Let’s say it’s a deadlift template. The microcycle starts at 100 kg, increasing the weight by 2.5 kg (5 lbs) every session. So it would look like this:
100 kg, 102.5 kg, 105 kg, 107.5 kg, 110 kg. End of the microcycle. The next starts at 102.5 kg and so on.
My question is, what are reasonable steps in terms of the weight increase? Are larger steps better? Smaller? Dragging the cycle longer, say 6 – 8 session?
I guess the question is about experiences here – what worked for you guys?
The reason I am asking is that I still want to get somewhat respectable deadlift. I would be extremely happy with twice my bodyweight. The problem is that every time I get to over 100 kg my back gets fucked. Most of the time, by far, the problem is my discipline. o I slowly build it up, get to 100kg, then 102.5 kg, then 105 – great! Next session – I have to keep pushing… Next thing – I am out of lifting for three weeks.
I want to give it an intelligent attempt. I understand my loads are laughable, but still, wat worked for you? And wat didn’t?
I personally don’t like using fixed percentages for heavy lifting.
Forcing yourself to lift X on a given day is a good way to tweak yourself.
The following is the best routine I’ve ever employed for safely building strength in the lower body. Squat went from 235 to 315, Deadlift 315 to 365, Trap Bar Dead to 405, Good Morning to 225 x 5.
The accessory exercises help strengthen the knees and lower back, and squatting/deadlifting heavy once a week total reduces overall stress on the spine.
Day 1 — Max Effort…usually Mondays
Weeks 1-2: Heavy Push (usually back squats)
Work up to a 3-5RM in week 1 + lunges, hamstrings, calves, lower back x 2-4 sets of 8-15.
Work up to a 1-3RM in week 2 + lunges, hamstrings, calves, lower back x 2-4 sets of 8-15.
Weeks 3-4: Heavy Pull (a deadlift, good morning, or trap-bar dead)
Work up to a 3-5RM in week 3 + lunges, hamstrings, calves, *lower back x 2-4 sets of 8-15.
Work up to a 1-3RM (if doing good mornings, keep to a 3-5RM) in week 4 + lunges, hamstrings, calves, *lower back x 2-4 sets of 8-15.
*lower back accessory exercise optional on heavy pull days.
Cycle repeats.
Day 2 — Dynamic Effort…usually Thursdays
8 sets of 2 Back Squats x 50, 55, or 60% of 1RM (wave load each week)…rest 1 min between sets…done explosively with perfect form.
+ lunges, hamstrings, calves, lower back x 2-4 sets of 8-15.
When I’m back in the gym I think I’m going to follow 2 weeks deadlift/2 weeks squat ME, Bram. I love squatting weekly but I think my lower body needs things mixed up, particularly when I get too keen.
Smaller steps, Sango.
From working with Daiki Kodama and reading Christian Thibideau’s work (name drop so it’s coming from them not me!) there’s mention of setting clearance parameters to go up in weight. This builds in a governor to stop you wrecking yourself.
Kodama: [paraphrasing] “when I can achieve 3 sets of 8 at this weight with strictly 5 minutes between sets, I’ll move up” – you can add your own extra caveats such as “when these feel RPE 7 and not RPE 9” etc.
Thibideau: [paraphrasing] If you can get 3 sets of 1,2,3 rep ladders at a challenging weight. Stay with it for 2 more sessions before adding more. Focus on increasing speed and explosiveness, or add more series of 1,2,3 rep sets until the 4th session. You can add more sets, but you can’t add more weight.
The criticism levelled at something like 5/3/1 – is that it’s a loonnngg time of “sub-optimal” training.
Or just do what Jack recommended ages ago. This has worked well for me. – https://www.t-nation.com/training/back-off-and-grow/
Jack’s split lets you have different lifts and assistance.
If you want to concentrate on your deadlift get RDLs going, snatch grip, different stances, front/box squats help too etc. etc. The front squat can help your deadlift while also being back friendly – for the most part. You might need an indirect approach if it’s getting snarky often, but it does seem you might be shooting too far which is flaring it up. I’ve been there this year.
Powerclean your warm ups as much as you can.
Drag a sled / carries for cardio.
When I’m back in the gym I think I’m going to follow 2 weeks deadlift/2 weeks squat ME, Bram. I love squatting weekly but I think my lower body needs things mixed up, particularly when I get too keen.
I’m pretty sure I got the idea from an old Joe DeFranco blog post on elitefts…it worked great! And since you’re dynamic squatting every week (and training lower back 1-2x a week) you don’t lose your groove on either lift.
I want to stick to a minimalist program, for couple of reasons. I don’t cope well with volume, and so adding various assistance lifts is likely to make me tired. It also makes planning more difficult. I am a crappy lifter, and relying on my lifting intuition and things like PRE left me injured more often than not. That’s why I would like something simple, like Pavel’s PTTP.
In regards to the actual weight increases I am curious about the optimal steps. On one hand, once you hit the max at the end of the microcycle you have to back off far enough off that max in order to make the decrease meaningful. On the other, it should be too much of a back off so that you don’t lose the achieved strength. I am probably overthinking it, and 2.5 kg steps are probably ok.
I want to stick to a minimalist program, for couple of reasons. I don’t cope well with volume, and so adding various assistance lifts is likely to make me tired. It also makes planning more difficult. I am a crappy lifter, and relying on my lifting intuition and things like PRE left me injured more often than not. That’s why I would like something simple, like Pavel’s PTTP. In regards to the actual weight increases I am curious about the optimal steps. On one hand, once you hit the max at the end of the microcycle you have to back off far enough off that max in order to make the decrease meaningful. On the other, it should be too much of a back off so that you don’t lose the achieved strength. I am probably overthinking it, and 2.5 kg steps are probably ok.
I totally get it. Do you know your maxes? This old Coan routine is pretty straight forward. It’s not *that* Coan routine but iterations of it have worked for me. Going beltless, short rest breaks or making life a bit harder in the outset can get around the “this feels too easy” vibe.
Week 1: 8×3 @ 70%
Week 2: 8×3 @ 75%
Week 3: 6×3 @ 80%
Week 4: 5×2 @ 85%
Week 5: Attempt new Max
Week 6: New cycle or new program.
Thanks, Luke. I don’t know my max, but I am happy with a very rough approximation. Around 100 kg is where my lower back starts getting in trouble.
For now I am going to stick to singles, 10 reps per session. My technique is crap and my back unforgiving, so I have to make every rep technically perfect. My cycle for now is six steps, 2 kg. When I get to 100 kg I will switch to 2.5 – 3 kg increases, probably shorten the cycle to 5 steps.
The rest of the workout – KB presses, chins, KB front squats.
I think the point of any template is to provide a framework, and following it to the letter can be counter-productive. As an example, there are plenty of Sheyko routines floating on the Net that use very precise percentages of RM. The problem is that these routines were written for specific lifters for specific purposes. So one could use the principles of progressions in these routines for their goals – peaking, off season, maintenance etc., while following them precisely is counter-productive.
I think it’s the same with PTTP, Justa singles or anything else. Use tge principles, but adjust the details to suit your goals, physiology and personality.
I would recommend you try my timed deadlifting idea. Here is something I wrote about it long ago.
Timed Deadlifting
The idea is simple. Pull a single repetition of the deadlift (this method can easily be used for any exercise) on the minute for a standardized time. I have found 20 minutes was ideal for my purposes, 10 minutes might be good for a break in period, and more than 20 minutes may have value for something.
The Simple Start
Pick a weight that is probably around a 5RM. Set a time or watch a clock. Pull a repetition every minute. I recommend you look up this article and read it: http://robbwolf.com/2012/05/10/breathing-anterior-pelvic-tilt-voodoo-witchcraft/
This maybe be second nature to you, but it also can induce a very dramatic improvement in stability for some lifters. When I mastered this technique, all of a sudden I was feeling more DOMS in my middle back, glutes, and hamstrings, not my lower back and lumbar area.
Don’t be afraid to start light, this is a long term strategy.
Some things to expect your first time through:
-Hand fatigue: You are doing 20 singles, which is more work than your hands are probably used to. Use chalk, don’t let blisters form, I’d rather have you harden your hands up instead of losing training time.
-Neck fatigue: This doesn’t happen to everyone, but it happens frequently to me when I start this style of training. Just make sure your neck isn’t doing anything funny.
-Conditioning effect: My HR will go from ~60 bpm and steadily climb to about 140 and cycle between 120 and 140 for the duration of the workout.
What to expect a few weeks in:
-The bar starts jumping off the floor. Most of the people I’ve given this to have remarked that after a few weeks, their bar speed become noticeably faster. This happens to me whenever I restart this program…first few weeks, the start is a bit ponderous, then suddenly stuff gets fast.
-The deadlifting portion of your training starts getting less and less obtrusive into the other aspects of your training. Your back isn’t sore all the time, and this style of pulling lets you practice other sport skills less hindered by lower back soreness and fatigue.
Progression
If the first session is easy, bump it up by 10-20# or so. If it’s not, stay at that weight for a few sessions then start bumping the weight up. Smaller jumps is generally better, but the first few initial sessions you might start pretty low, so go ahead and bump it up until the whole session is an RPE of 7-8
I recommend staying on this for 8-10 weeks or until you stop being able to add weight, then you do a few weeks of triples and singles, then come back to this program with some variation. Alternately, keeping the OTM parameters constant but moving to other variations has been effective as well.
Suggested Variations
-Deficit or surplus deadlifts: A logical place to go for a cycle after the initial cycle plays itself out is to change the level of the bar. Doing the OTM lifts from a deficit lets you drop the weight a bit then come back up. This tends to strengthen the start of the lift. Doing pulls from a surplus can also offer improvements to the lift, but these tend to be more subtle. In the past I’ve seen the sticking point of the deadlift move when OTM pulls are done from a surplus. Also, many lifters can pull more from a small surplus than the floor. I don’t like more than a 2” deficit or surplus here.
-2” diameter thick bar work: Instead of the standard barbell use a thick bar. Even in experienced lifters who claim “I have no problems with my grip when deadlifting” this makes a difference. Let me emphasize this a bit more…even experienced, strong handed lifters have improved something about their deadlift by doing a timed cycle with a thick bar. Your hands will be tired, especially after the weight starts coming up again.
-Work capacity tweaks: The OTM lifting builds a big specific work capacity. You can push this even higher by a few ways. The first way, and this can be implemented at any time is just to pull a high repetition set as your last set. Don’t go all out on this set, but make it harder. This can also be used as a metric for work capacity. The second method, which can ramp up volume rapidly, is to start to pull doubles or triples instead of single. I don’t recommending starting this for all the OTM sets. That would basically be adding 100-200% more volume. I like to slowly ramp this up, pulling a double every 5 sets isn’t a bad way to start. Gradually add sets of doubles and triples as you go along.
Another easy work capacity tweak is compressing the rest periods. Instead of pulling a rep every minute, pull one every 45 seconds, or 30 seconds, or whatever. This can be periodized, too.
-Randomizing parameters: After the above strategies are explored, I like the start randomizing things intra-workout. Randomizing weight is a very effective strategy. I would go 20-40 # lower and higher than my normal working weight. Be random, including pulling the same weight 2-3X in a row, and don’t neglect dropping the weight under the working weight either. Note, weaker lifters will need smaller ranges, but I’m not sure even the strongest lifters should vary much over a 40-50# differential from the working weight.
Another randomizing strategy is surplus/deficit. Simple step on a plate to pull from a deficit, and roll the bar on top of some mats or plates to pull from a surplus.
Finally, you can randomize both loads and levels. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. The randomization is easier with training partners helping, and even further than that, you can randomize repetitions and rest periods as well. This is where I feel most people should end up, kind of varying each repetition enough so the body doesn’t just work like a metronome.
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