Starting to get some strength back. I went a tad wider on bench grip today and it felt good. Reason being, I’m feeling weaker in the bottom so I figured working the grip wider would help some. I also tried out some nutrition tips from an article by John Keifer. Skipped breakfast for a few hours, had some walnuts then chicken and broc for lunch, then had my workout an hour later. Now I’m chuggin some whey and eggnog. I’m gonna keep with this eating style for a while and see what happens.
Weighted crunches and Bird dog done for core work. I’m finally getting stronger again. The last two weeks had me worried. The change in my diet could be helping, I’ve been shoving down some food post-workout. Or it could be all the core work I’ve been doing lately, IDK. All that really matters now is the PRs I’m gonna hit next week.
[quote]AquaCruzer wrote:
Nice session man! Looks like you had a bit in the tank.
EDIT: btw have you bought the RTS manual?[/quote]
Yea it felt way heavy than it looked, but my torso kept giving towards the end and I didn’t want to risk any back pain. The first set looked like @8, but the hardest part for me is keeping my core from buckling.
I have bought the manual, about 6 months ago. I’m looking to get his latest DVDs cause it has more info on the force curve analysis and how to train for each force curve shape (wedge, balanced, and flat). My squat was a wedge, BP and DL were both flat. So my basic understanding so far is time under tension for squat and speed work for the other two.
[quote]AquaCruzer wrote:
Nice session man! Looks like you had a bit in the tank.
EDIT: btw have you bought the RTS manual?[/quote]
Yea it felt way heavy than it looked, but my torso kept giving towards the end and I didn’t want to risk any back pain. The first set looked like @8, but the hardest part for me is keeping my core from buckling.
I have bought the manual, about 6 months ago. I’m looking to get his latest DVDs cause it has more info on the force curve analysis and how to train for each force curve shape (wedge, balanced, and flat). My squat was a wedge, BP and DL were both flat. So my basic understanding so far is time under tension for squat and speed work for the other two.[/quote]
I’m also wanting to get his DVDs for the info on force curve analysis. Using FCA to help focus one’s training seems really intriguing.
Did you do your own FCA? Or did you get Mike to analyze your lifts to determine the type of force curves you have?
With a wedged force curve TUT is the gist of it in that you would want to use higher reps, but I believe the main thing is to target wherever you are weakest w/o letting your strengths take over.
I suppose speed work would help with a flat force curve. At least with a flat force curve you don’t need to worry about your strengths taking over your weaknesses, you just need to hit everything.
btw, the sample individual weakness analysis given on the RTS site offers some cool insight. It seems Mike’s force curves are similar to yours.
[quote]AquaCruzer wrote:
With a wedged force curve TUT is the gist of it in that you would want to use higher reps, but I believe the main thing is to target wherever you are weakest w/o letting your strengths take over.
I suppose speed work would help with a flat force curve. At least with a flat force curve you don’t need to worry about your strengths taking over your weaknesses, you just need to hit everything.
btw, the sample individual weakness analysis given on the RTS site offers some cool insight. It seems Mike’s force curves are similar to yours.[/quote]
Yea I looked through that a lot. And Mike has been writing my programming for about 2 months now so he did my FCA and changed my program up to suit that. Squats were done for x5 @10, DL x3-4 @8.5, and BP a lot of pauses @8.5-9.
I have learned just recently how to use the Tracker program he uses and I can do my own FCA now, I just don’t know how to read the graph yet to tell the shape.
[quote]AquaCruzer wrote:
With a wedged force curve TUT is the gist of it in that you would want to use higher reps, but I believe the main thing is to target wherever you are weakest w/o letting your strengths take over.
I suppose speed work would help with a flat force curve. At least with a flat force curve you don’t need to worry about your strengths taking over your weaknesses, you just need to hit everything.
btw, the sample individual weakness analysis given on the RTS site offers some cool insight. It seems Mike’s force curves are similar to yours.[/quote]
Yea I looked through that a lot. And Mike has been writing my programming for about 2 months now so he did my FCA and changed my program up to suit that. Squats were done for x5 @10, DL x3-4 @8.5, and BP a lot of pauses @8.5-9.
I have learned just recently how to use the Tracker program he uses and I can do my own FCA now, I just don’t know how to read the graph yet to tell the shape.[/quote]
That’s pretty awesome. What made you decide to get Mike to do your programming? Did you run RTS a bit on your own before getting programming from Mike?
I’ve been been tinkering around with Tracker as well. I’m sure getting the DVD’s with the info on FCA will help a ton.
Well the reason I started was because I was VERY unsuccesful programming it on my own using his book. Not that his book isn’t any good, I just really suck at programming and wanted a good example applying directly to me lol. It was more than enough to help push me in the right direction, and a 50 lb total PR in 4 weeks helps a lot.
[quote]chazdaman wrote:
Well the reason I started was because I was VERY unsuccesful programming it on my own using his book. Not that his book isn’t any good, I just really suck at programming and wanted a good example applying directly to me lol. It was more than enough to help push me in the right direction, and a 50 lb total PR in 4 weeks helps a lot.[/quote]
50 lbs in 4 weeks is an awesome way to get you started in the right direction!
Monday: Trained with LiquidMercury at Marietta Barbell with a few 600 lb benchers. Awesome experience.
Reverse-band BP(light or average): 135x6(x2), 225x5
295x3
315x2
Sling-shot added
335x3 @9
2-board added
385x2 @10
3-board added
405x1 @10
385x3
2-board
335x10
Incline Bench: 135x8, 155x8, 185x5
DB Bench: 55x8, 75x8, 85x5, 70x8
Tricep Pushdowns: lotsofweight for 3x8
Had an awesome time. The workout took over 2 hours, sort of a slow pace but fine by me. When you have guys benching over 600 it takes time. I’m going to bed now.
Thanks dude. It felt awesome to go up so much on DL, 40lbs in 8 weeks, and 75 to my total in 8 weeks. I’m done with Mike now, though, and used the training generator to come up with my next phase. It’s sort of vague, so I printed it out and changed up the reps and RPEs for certain lifts. All in all it looks good and I’m starting the TRAC too so we’ll see how it goes.
[quote]chazdaman wrote:
Thanks dude. It felt awesome to go up so much on DL, 40lbs in 8 weeks, and 75 to my total in 8 weeks. I’m done with Mike now, though, and used the training generator to come up with my next phase. It’s sort of vague, so I printed it out and changed up the reps and RPEs for certain lifts. All in all it looks good and I’m starting the TRAC too so we’ll see how it goes.[/quote]
Great progress! I’ll be looking forward to seeing how your training goes. Would you mind sharing what you have planned?
Well right now it’s not any different than what I’ve done the past 8 weeks, just a different exercise selection I think would benefit me more. So far I’ve only planned out the next 4 weeks. Haven’t decided how I’m going to approach the meet yet, but I can’t imagine it being much different than what’s brought me this far (it ain’t broke yet lol). After the meet, however, I’ll probably give the fullbody template a go. We’ll have to see. My favorite thing about his training was every 4th week was a Test week and the template changed to 3 days/week, then back to 4.
Had a bullshit weight training session at school yesterday. He had the class doing a circuit of every machine in their, cool… So I’m still getting my TRAC set-up. I’ve logged 3 days so far, but I’m having a hard time with my pulse. I just get distracted easy and lose count -__-. Oh well I’ll get it figured out.
