I agree with that. The last few hard workouts you know you have to complete, before you can take it a bit more easy. That’s what keeps me going, I know I just have to complete a few more hard workouts before I can deload.[/quote]
Not to be a parrot, but I agree also.
Here’s the thing. As some point you just have to trust your cycle and do it as it’s written. Sometimes you will be at the end and feel pretty good. The problem is the next one may push you harder (read probably should) and if you back to back them you have added a variable that doesn’t allow you to determine (if you have trouble completing it) wether it was necessarily the total training volume or not. In most cases, you are in a spot where you are going to basically have to repeat the previous cycle as it was written to get back on track.
I write a lot of meet prep cycles for PL’s and nothing irks me more than meet time comes, they don’t perform to the cycle, and as I am talking to them about it I find out they started changing shit and didn’t follow the plan. This can lead to peaking too early or not doing enough total training volume (basically under training) to support the lifts that were expected.
It completely throws out any ability to gather meaningful data from the cycle from my point of view other than to say, “That wasn’t the plan.”
The template we follow is basically what Maile and Ribic presented when they were doing training camps.
In addition to having lots of experience implementing it with a lot of different level lifters, I was also fortunate enough to have several years watching them write and implement the cycles, ask questions about what they were doing, and wathcing the results. I was in an excellent position to learn.
I think that most novice lifters really struggle with two key components. Incremental increases in total training volume and when to back off. I tell people all the time, who ask, that you can never discredit the role of training volume in building limit strength.
I am actually against drug-free lifters taking a week off because of specificity. We will come in the week after the cycle and basically hold the accesory work constant but do basically silly light weight on the core movements.
However, Wendler structures his stuff differently, his shit works and there is a reason why it is written the way it is. I trust his judgement (obviously) and if you are doing a cycle that he has provided you need to trust him and do what he says.
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
The template we follow is basically what Maile and Ribic presented when they were doing training camps.[/quote]
Care to share? I’ve spent a lot of time training with the conjugate method and more recently using Wendler’s stuff. I’m always interested in how top USAPL lifters train.
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
The template we follow is basically what Maile and Ribic presented when they were doing training camps.[/quote]
Care to share? I’ve spent a lot of time training with the conjugate method and more recently using Wendler’s stuff. I’m always interested in how top USAPL lifters train.
[/quote]
Sure.
This probably isn’t the thread but if there is interest I just started a new lifter that I met at the gym on a training cycle and could show you how it’s structured.
PM me if you are interested. If other people chime in, I could try to post it on the training forum. He is leaving for 2 weeks Saturday so it wouldn’t be until after then…
FWIW, I have been reading PLUSA for 20+ years and have been reading and trying Louie’s stuff since I was a teenager. Chuck has always been prominent and there wasn’t a young kid around that didn’t dream of posting the lifts he was as a middle weight back then.
I guess what I am saying is I am familiar with conjugate, as well and think all training methodologies have a role in a well structured training program. We use bracket setting (that’s basically the term for how the cycle is structured) for meet prep and several times a year as it incorporates a 7 week cycle and we build it around cycles of predominantly 6-8 reps and also 3-5 reps, but we also do a Russian FS cycle (3X per week) at least once a year, Jackal’s 5x5, a 10 week pulling cycle Tylutki gave me that is brutal in the early weeks but remarkably effective, and brief periods of conjugate so it’s not the only tool we use. I have also worked with lifters who were doing 5/3/1 and then used bracket setting for meet prep so I have some experience with implementing 5/3/1 with intermediate lifters.