Does anyone here plan their training longterm or do most of you simply go with the flow of things? In a year’s time, do you know what phase of your training you’ll be in? I’m curious to see how everyone juggles variation, intensity, frequency, volume over time…
Cheers,
-Zulu
I plan a few months in advance. Not as long term as a year (but I’m still inside 2 years of serious training). Mostly, I plan diet considerations, but I’m trying to time my twelve week programs with a good diet to complement them.
Zulu,
I don’t believe in planning out training too far in advance.
Too many things come up in life to say I’m going to be doing 6x2 w/85-90% in 3 weeks and I will follow that protocol for 4 weeks. What happens if you get sick or hurt? That would through your entire training schedule out the window.
Also what if while your following the 6x2 method your just having a shitty day. Normally such a method would have you go up in weight by 4-5% per workout.
So if you have a day where your strength is just the shits what do you do? Would you procede to go up another 4-5% the next week? would you use the same weight as the week before? As you can see this type of training has more holes in it then a pair of Goldbergs undies. The Russians stopped using this type of training in 1969. Why? Because it didn’t work. It really was only productive for a a handful of genetically gifted athletes.
Rather then plan far ahead I like to have goals. These goals dictate what I’m going to do. For example one of my goals right now is to bring up my rep work. I’m trying to set PR’s with 100 db’s in flat and incline press. There are a few different methods I’m using to achieve this. If you want more info on this you can PM me or read my training log at www.elitefts.com.
Again I recomned setting short term and long term goals. Let these goals dictate your training. I plan my training either each day or possibly set it up for the week but no further then that.
I hope this helps clear things up a bit.
Last but not least find what works for you!
-JackAss-
Check your PM 
When the sport is powerlifting or something similar I can see how goals would dictate your training. I wasn’t thinking more along the lines of general hypertrophy (not for a contest or anything). If that’s the ultimate goal, how would you plan your training?
I’m thinking of keeping several exercises as virtual constants and then cycling assistance exercises and variations as well as training styles.
Cheers,
-Zulu