After 20 weeks on the same training block, I couldn’t face a 21st, so I decided to summon some courage, level up, and start a new one. This scares me a little because there are some exercises coming up in later training blocks at this level that I’m not strong enough to do yet.
But it’s time to lay the foundation, and since my pressing is weak, and some forms of pulling are weak as well (inverted bodyweight rows, that means you!), I decided to start a block of low-intensity (nothing to failure) but high-volume ladders to work on these things.
The flexibility in my hip flexors has improved dramatically over the past 20 weeks, also thanks to targeted warm-ups and stretching each day, but I still have a long way to go. For the leg and core days, I’ll focus on exercises that help increase strength and range of motion.
All of this is designed to prepare for when things get very ugly later (military press with feet raised, for example, and dips, and one-legged squats).
But for now, I’m on a two-day split (push/pull and legs/core) that repeats, for a total of four training days per week. In addition, I’m hoping to keep chipping away at the PLP, but I might need to lower the volume there a bit, depending on joints and recovery. We’ll see. I’ll take one day per week off completely. And then, just to try out some new things, perhaps I’ll pick some lighter, fun exercises to do on the other recovery days, depending on the intensity of the PLP at that moment.
I don’t have a plan so much a s sketch of a plan, so I have no idea how long I’ll be running this training block. Ideal would be to get to 12 reps on the ladder for each exercise, but that rarely happens for all of them all at the same time, so I’m playing it by ear for now.
(And yes, if it sounds like I’m a complete novice, pretending to know what I’m doing here, that’s because that’s exactly what’s happening.)
