Block Periodization week 1, day 2 and a lesson learned

I have a couple things to fill you guys in on about the happenings of the last couple days, but first i want to let you know how my first deadlift workout went in the Block Periodization program that I’m working through.

Two Words: IT SUCKED!!! and it was 100% my fault. For those of you that haven’t done your reading on the Block Periodization Concept (BPC) the first stage, or block, is an accumulation phase. Nothing really heavy, but the volume is massive. Here is what my workout should have been:

Deadlift 5x6x225

1 leg RDL – 30 reps

Step up – 30 reps

Calf Raise – 50 reps

Back extension – 50 reps

Abs – 250 reps

The point of the accessory work isn’t to move as much weight as possible but to get the volume in. Well, put simply… I FAILED.

I cut everything by 2/3 and still got squished flat. This did teach me a couple things though. My conditioning is CRAP! It also showed me that this phase should have some pretty astounding effects on my fat loss efforts. I did my best to either super set exercises or run them in a circuit training fashion. Both of these are great ways to burn off body fat and since volume not intensity is the point of this block, it seemed like a great idea.

At least until i got started. With the supersets you get the revved up fat loss through condensing the amount of work you do within a specific time frame. Say you usually do three sets of an exercise with 2 minutes in between and you do this for four exercises. If each set takes a minute to complete the workout should take 48 minutes to complete. If you superset 2 exercises you spend a minute doing exercise 1, rest 1 minute, do exercise 2, rest 1 more minute and then repeat. You are still starting exercise 1 every 3 minutes, but instead of waiting around you are using your rest period to do exercise 2. This effectively cuts your workout time in half.

Its a great idea and it will do wonders for your conditioning and fat loss, but if you push too hard right at the start then it will leave you feeling “green around the gills.” Think about trying to sprint the first 400m of a 5k roadrace as fast as you can and then trying to complete the race. odds are it won’t turn out well for you… well, that was me today. It was rough enough that i ended up leaving a decent portion of my lunch in the parking lot next to my truck.

I plan on sticking with my supersets and circuits, but i am going to really stretch out the rest periods as i get started. This way i can shoot to cut down my total workout time over a period of a few weeks and use that as another gauge of my progress.

Combining this with an increased protein intake and plenty of stretching and active recovery should lead to steady improvements in both my conditioning and body fat levels.

I am looking forward to what my next workout, which is focused on the upper body, so hopefully things won’t get quite as ugly.

As always, please tell your friends or anyone else you think might enjoy this site about us. Just click on one of the share links below and help spread the word.

 

Thanks for reading,

Z

Great Bench Press article by Mike Robertson

This is a great article about benching from Mike Robertson over at Robertson Training Systems. It covers everything from the set-up, often neglected in articles about benching, performing the bench, and ways to un-stick your bench if things have gone wrong in your training. MR is always good for information about lifting and in particular preventing or correcting problems with your lifting. He got labeled as the “corrective exercise guy,” but that is short changing his abilities.

I have 4 of his DVD offering so far, Magnificent mobility, inside-out, building the efficient athlete, and assess & correct. They are all great and are my go to resources for warm ups and mobility work.You can pick up copies through his website, Robertson Training Systems.  (I’m not making any money for saying this, i am just that impressed with the products.) For the last few months I have been using the powerlifting warm up from assess and correct and have noticed much better movement during my sets, like my body isn’t fighting with itself, and better recovery from heavy sessions.

So check out mikes article, sign up for his newsletter if you want, and check out the rest of the info on his site.There’s enough to keep you busy for a long, long time.

Be Strong, Get Stronger! -Z

I did it again…

So i’ve managed to let this page slide once again. I don’t have a good reason for it, it just happened. I can say that I have been away from training and have had plenty of other things going on in my life.

Over the next few weeks i am going to be changing somethins up on the site and redirecting it’s focus a bit. In the past I have tried to offer tips and suggestions on how to get more out of your coaching and lifting, the changes will focus more on the lifter and how to get more out of your own training. I will be keeping my own log on here as well.

There are a couple of things that I want to put out there to give everyone some ideas about my motivations. 1) I set a goal for myself back in late winter of totalling 2000#. That’s still a goal and to add fuel to the fire one of my good friends and lifting partners, Tim Pigeon, did just that a few weeks back. 4 years ago tim and i were neck in neck in terms of totals, i even had a better pull than him. Needless to say, at this point he is kicking my ass. 2) for the first time ever i am going off a program that someone else is writing. I have always written my own programs or flown by the seat of my pants on these things. Recently a number of the guys that i have lifted with for years have been seeing great gains so i asked one of them to write one out for me. I’ll hold off on mentioning his name at this point, because if I F this up I want everyone to know that it was my fault. If it’s awesome, trust me you’ll know who he is.

Thanks for sticking around for all this and let’s see how it goes.

Z

Warming up, Joe Defranco, and Assess and Correct

Warm ups have become the hot topic in the lifting world lately. To do them or not to do them, that is the question. Personally, I feel it is a stupid question. Simply put if you don’t have time to warm up you simply don’t have time to train. And if you are just too lazy to warm up then you are full of it, it takes way less motivation and energy to warm up properly that it does to train. Then again if you don’t know the difference between training and working out then you probably also don’t see the need to warm up.

The basic concepts behind a warm up are to prepare your body for the training session ahead, increase joint mobility, and address muscle/tension imbalances. Depending on how beat to hell you are a warm up can last between 10-30 minutes. This can also be influenced by wehat training day you are on. I actually spend more time warming p for my bench days than i do for either squat or deadlift. The reason being that my arch in the bench is comically bad and i need all the help i can get due to my go-go-gadget arms. One of my training partners likes to remind me that I can pick pockets from across the room. So when I bench i not only have to warm up my shoulders/chest,back but also my hips and in particular my hip flexors, which are extremely tight after a few too many years working at a desk.

A thorough warm up should consist of tissue work, stretching, and mobility work. Don’t bother chirping in that stretching before you lift will make you weak. That defense shows two things 1) you aren’t actually strong and 2) you never bothered to read the research. (Read the study you think you are referencing and you’ll see the discrepancy that I am referring to.) Just in case you insist on keeping up with that line of thinking let me ask you a question. Which input negatively influences strength more stretching or major muscle tear/joint injury? Moving on.

Think of your warm up as having 3 phases. The first being Tissue work, i.s. foam rolling and lacrosse ball work. What do do? Roll whats stiff, or hurts, or tends to tighten up after a training session. Second ohase is stretching, and static stretching is fine but if you are still paranoid that static stretching is going to hamper your 135# bench max, go with some dynamic work… just don’t over do it. The final piece is mobility work. This is where you address issues with hip/shoulder/t-Spine/knee-ankle mobility. At the base level you need to be able to get into the positions that your sport or activity require. I.e. can’t hit depth in the squat without a board or 10# plate under your heels, your ankle and hip mobility probably suck.

As far as warm ups go there are two real choices in my opinion. On the simple side you have Joe Defranco’s Agile 8 (lower body) and simple 6 (upper body) and then you havethe more clinical, and the big dog in the yard in this category is Assess and Correct by Mike Robertson, Eric Cressey, and Bill Hartman.

That’s the bottom line on getting a good warm up and why you should be doing one. If you have any questions or any good resources drop them in the comments below.

Keep Hitting!!! -Z

6.14.11 Workout and Assess and Correct

Today’s workout.

1) Hang clean work up to 3×3

2) Deadlift work up to 3×3

3) GHR 3×8

4a) Reverse Hyper 2×12 superset w/

4b) Pulldown abs 3×12

Am still using Mike Robertson’s Assess and Correct warm up and am having great success with it. Definitely recommend it if you are in anything less than 100% injury free condition.

Scott Porter’s Desert Strength Gym is a great place to workout but damn it gets hot. It’s more the fact that it is getting to be an AZ summer, but it still has an impact. Upside is that water weight won’t be an issue this summer. If you are in Phoenix make sure and check his place out.

Coach Chain

In the last couple of weeks i have been able to revisit some of my old lifting tools and techniques. Like anything i got away from them over time for various reasons, and none of them really all that good.

The first one that i have reintroduced is chains on the squat. There have been countless articles about why to use chains, how to set them up, etc. (I’ve even written a couple of them myself) but recently they have been brought back to my attention.

Initially it was watching the Dan John seminar DVD. He made multiple references to “Coach Chain,” and how he used it as a self reinforcing tools with his HS athletes. The short of it being that the chains taught both stability during the squat and the need to be explosive out of the hole. Any one who has lifted for any period of time will tell you that these are two things that you can never get good enough at.

In the past I have predominantly used chains as accommodating resistance on my primary movement of the day. In the past couple of weeks i have moved them to the 2nd exercise of the day. So Last week looked like this:

1) Squat (following 5/3/1 percentages)
2)Chain Squat 3×3
3)GHR 4×8
4)Abs 4×20

On the chain squats we were using 5 sets of chain so it was roughly equivalent to my best raw squat at the top. But at the bottom it was between 65-70%. The kept it manageable in the hole and really forced me to stay tight to keep the chains from swinging. On the first set i did not set up as solidly as i should have and it showed in my set, not only as the chains were loading and unloading, but when they started to sway. When i lost tightness my chest caved in and i shifted forward onto my toes. This inturned forced me to correct myself and start fighting mid way up. On subsequent sets I payed closer attention the the set up and things went better.

A couple of ideas that were discussed with using the chains are how to load them, where to program them, and how to construct a circa-max or meet prep phase with them. In my current plan, Wendler’s 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, the programming is easy 3×3 at a constant weight with enough chain to equal my projected contest max for my next meet. So bar weight is starting between 275-300# and we are adding 200# of chain. I will look for small increases in bar weight over the course of the cycle, but that will only happen as long as the main sets and reps are going according to plan.

The Circa-Max or meet prep phase is going to take some time to flesh out. Sean Donegan of Bad Attitude Gym has done some experimenting on this and I am looking forward to getting in touch with him about what he has done. The results speak for themselves. Last winter he posted up a qualifying total for the Raw Unity Meet, and that’s no small feat. Keep an eye out as the plan starts to develop, and i’ll do better at keeping the ideas flowing and this page up to date.

Do something EPIC, for yourself

Sometimes I question that if I never stepped on the platform again if I would even notice. Joseph Campbell once remarked that people aren’t actually searching for the meaning of life, but searching for the rapture of being alive. Amazing how much meaning is conveyed in those 18 words.

I struggle with this all the time. I want to do that something epic that makes the hairs on the back on my neck stand up. I’m not all that worried about the hairs on anyone else’s neck, except for my wife…I’d prefer that my shenanigans not cause all of hers to just fall out. So I am torn between multiple ambitions and none of them seem to agree with one another. Lift big, climb high, bike fast, all very specific in their demands on the body. But maybe that’s part of the concept that I’m missing. I don’t want to be the worlds strongest man, or the worlds best climber, or even the best mountain biker on the block, I want to be able to enjoy doing all of these things and do them at a level of profiency that increases my enjoyment.

A great example of this is playing the piano, which I can’t do but this example is the best I have ever heard of this concept, there is a joy in being able to tap out chopsticks on a piano, but the potential for joy is increased as one gets better at playing the piano. The skills needed to play Beethoven are the same as those required to play chopsticks, simply put press fingers to the right keys in the right order in the right rhythm. The level of these skills needs to play Beethoven are far advanced for those needed to play chopsticks and with that advancement comes an opening of doors not only to play an increased number of pieces of music but to enjoy playing music of all levels and delving into the emotional content of pieces within your abilities when your technique is not your only focus.

Climbing and biking are all the same in this way. By improving the abilities in each of these disciplines the joys, and opportunity for joy are increased many fold. Climbing or biking at the edge of your physical or technical abilities is thrilling and challenging but being able to cruise around on less difficult terrain allows you to stop and smell the roses as it were. If the easiest MTB trail in your area is at the edge of your abilities you will always spend your attention in trying to survive the trail and not be able to enjoy the experience and thrive on that trail.

Lifting is similar but allows expression in another way. With the controlled environment of lifting you have a greater ability to manipulate the challenges you will face. A max attempt will always heighten the senses and send the worm turning in even the most experienced lifter. There are other ways to challenge yourself under the bar, more repetitions, less rest, bigger weight, new exercises. To competitive lifters there are lifts that represent their chosen sport. Powerlifters compete in the squat bench and deadlift while Olympic lifters compete in the snatch and clean and jerk. These are very personal pursuits that no one but you can complete, at least not if one wishes to maintain any sense of dignity about the enterprise. Out on the platform it’s just the lifter and the bar. At the end of the day, either the lift was completed or it wasn’t. It doesn’t matter what the final outcome of the larger meet was, only how the lifter did compared to their previous efforts. Even at the top levels of competition this spirit remains. Many world level lifters in both PL and OL have said to me that once you are out on the platform the training and thinking is behind you, all that is left is to go out and put as much of yourself into the bar as possible and know that you did all you could. If that ends up being more than the other guy could do that’s great but if you go out and half ass it and beat someone with out trying then you didn’t actually beat anyone, just yourself. If the guy that always finished last had told me that then I would have let it slide but when the person telling the story is a world champ, you listen.