My brief experiment with the linear progression is over - the workout done April 2nd was the last one, in which I completed a 3x5 at 285 and 145 on the squat and press, respectively. Every rep of the workout managed to feel like a 1RM, where in previous workouts it was only the last two sets that felt that way - I'm positive that I will fail the next workout (5x5 @ 295), and given my goals, two competitions in may, one of them being a weightlifting meet, I would rather get the extra day to start the next phase of training rather than spend it possibly failing and having to rest for two days before I come back. I believe this decision to skip my "fail" on the progression is sound, as I am definitely nearing the limits of my gains on this current cycle of linear progression - the last workout was done at 90% of my old 1RM.
I'm going to start monday with something I've been thinking about for a while - doing the double from the 1st day of the VA sectionals - weighted cindy followed by AMRAP C&J at 185. My reasoning is that if I'm going to do a workout that could possibly trash my mechanics it would be better to do it sooner rather than later, during a transition from pure slow lifts to Olympic ones.
I'll be starting the coaching of a new client saturday as well - he's scheduled for 3 workouts per week, fit in for tuesdays, thursdays, and saturdays. This should mesh perfectly as my heavy lift days are monday, wednesday, and friday, and the other days were originally going to be reserved for metcons - still workable given the short amount of time I'll need for them.
Strength days will be o-lift focused, with slow lifts (primarily push presses and front squats) added in as supplements. Rep schemes will be roughly bulgarian style, though this will all likely be moderated as wear is assessed. Metcons will consciously avoid o-lifts to preserve mechanics and work on bodyweight movements with strength endurance as an overall focus over explosiveness. Likely lots of cherry picking as far as workout specifics.
The linear progression diet has been interesting - by my estimates I'm eating at least 30oz of protein a day, coming to around 200g of protein and 1800 calories a day from the protein alone. Interestingly enough, my weight has not gone up and is still hovering at 175.
3 comments:
Milk is the obvious answer. More of it tends to solve most problems with linear progress hehe.
I'm curious as to why you decided to go with a 5x5 progression of sets across instead of the 3x5 from Rippetoe or the incremental 5x5 from Starr.
Also, have you considered the use of a belt? It's been helping me greatly to continue my progression on the squats, and will continue to use it once I hit my previous wall on the deadlift. The trunk muscles seem to have hit a temporary wall, while my legs and hips continue to progress. Maybe the same holds true for you?
Yeah, I've been getting a ration of raw milk lately and have been working hard on that.
I went with the 5x5 because I was actually looking for a program that would fail fairly soon - as long as I was doing a linear progression I was going to avoid any other heavy lifts (the o-lifts) to maximize my strength gains. I realize this goes a little counter to the general approach for starting strength or a linear progression, but I wanted something fairly quick that would also get me into a "lifting" mode. I'm pretty pleased with the progress I've made, and have also been itching to do the o-lifts.
I don't think the belt would have helped, at 285 every rep felt like full-body pain - I actually got a few people's attention with all the yelling during those sets. For now at least, I also want to avoid using belts specifically to build up midline strength - it's definitely a major limiting factor for my deadlifts, and I think it would help my o-lifts greatly if I had midline strength as a focus of mine.
Definitely understand the itch for the O-lifts. Check this out though:
http://www.70sbig.com/?p=1315
That's the novice template that they've been using at Rippetoe's gym for his O-lifters. I hear it works really nicely.
As for the belt, I really think it would work to strengthen your trunk immensely if properly used. I didn't really buy any of the arguments they posted on 70s Big about it, but then I ran into this guy in the forums, and he had some pretty good arguments (and numbers) to justify its use in order to increase midline strength while doing the basic lifts:
http://startingstrength.com/articles/powerlifting_year_one_gibson.pdf
You can skip a lot of it and go straight to his numbers for the front squat (which he did beltless after training with a belt). And this guy's anthropometry is about as ugly as mine for the front squat.
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