I had to drop out of the Arnold and the NAPF championships in st.croix this year due to an injury that I am getting surgery on Friday. Shit sucks. But, I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve been lifting heavy for about 18 years and this is the first real problem I’ve had. Apparently, I slightly tore my left labrum (shoulder) playing football. It finally exploded a few months ago on my second rep with 805 on deadlifts. I’ve just been pumping the breaks and working on going down a weight class. For now anyway. I really want to set the world records for the raw 105 and 120 class deadlifts. I know they wouldn’t stand for long but it would be cool to have them both at the same time.
2 Likes
Thanks for the info. I hope surgery goes smoothly.
If you were planning a longer block, like 10 or 12 weeks, how do you “undulate?” over the weeks? If you are focusing on one emphasis for a long time, do you push as “hard” and progress “as fast” as you would during shorter blocks?
And so was born the “conjugate sequence” method.
Agree, I like concurrent training a lot (which honestly can end up being really close to the USSR’s conjugate sequence method of organization depending on how you decide to approach maintaining qualities)
Sorry to hear that mate! But I’m glad you’re low on the injury list compared to many of the people I know lifting for that long. Best of luck on recovery, go smash the WR’s after.
I think I’m finally getting periodization. Basically, periodization was created out of necessity, because an athlete (not beginner) cannot train all qualities ( strength, hypertrophy, endurance etc.) at the same time, atleast not to a high level (but conjugated, or concurrent, periodization says otherwise). So that’s why they divide a training period with an end date into phases of training ( or in the case of conjugate sequence - emphasizing) a given quality.
2 Likes
An athlete at any level can and absolutely should be training all relevant trainable qualities all the time. Periodization (done correctly) just shifts the emphasis on certain qualities based on the time out from competition/game/season.
Still, smart training plans are all set up the same. You start with a lot of general stuff and whittle it down to a little specific stuff as competition approaches.
2 Likes
pretty much. It’s probably more accurate to say they can’t emphasize all qualities at the same time, because you can and should maintain some qualities while you’re emphasizing others in your training, as you said. But yeah that is pretty much exactly why it was and is developed.
Guys, sorry if I’m being annoying, but I have been thinking for the past days how I could set up a periodized program and I thought I’d share it with you and get feed back. So basically, because I’m still a beginner/intermediate I don’t need something very complex (probably won’t ever), so I chose a simple linear approach. The program is laid out like this: 12 week macrocycle - 5 weeks focusing on hypertrophy, 4 weeks focusing on strength, 2 weeks peak and 1 week Deload. The structure within the week: Monday - Deadlift and assistance, Wednesday - Bench and assistance, Friday - Squat and assistance. The periodized plan is for the main lifts; the assistance Is going to be: for bench - Incline close grip work or Weighted dips and Shoulders and triceps work (my weakness in the bench are my delts and tri’s) and Rows and weighted pull ups; Squat - Paused squats (because I’m weak from the hole), leg press, Weighted decline sit up; deadlift - Deficit work (weak off the floor), more squats, Weighted back extensions Ala pete rubish and Ab work. The assistance is going to be medium/light intensity, medium/high volume, nothing too taxing - 3-4 sets of 8-10 on compound Assistance work, and 3-4 x 10-15 for isolations. General trend is going to be to strip the assistance as I’m nearing the peak phase. The main lifts progression is going to be as follows: For the Hypertrophy phase I’m going to use as main lifts not so distant variations ( bench- CG bench; Squat - HB squat; deadlift - stiff legged deads). First 3 weeks 4x10; the next 2 weeks 4x8. On the strength phase I’m going to use the standard lifts for my main lifts - first 2 weeks 5x5; second 2 weeks 5x3. On the peaking phase- first week 3x2; second week 3x1; the next week deload and test. After that, start the cycle again with more weight and repeat.
This is just an example and I might even try it out, because if I want to get this stuff I have to experiment, it’s not enough to know it on theory.
Edit: Oh, and one more thing: could you guys give me some suggestions how to maintain the the adaptations from the Hypertrophy phase going in to the strength phase and maintaining strength going in to the Hypertrophy phase again?
Not that I’m a big expert but some things I’d consider:
-
Training your upper body only once per week is not much. If you have time for a fourth day per week, I think that would be highly beneficial. Especially since you say your delts and triceps are a weak point, Overhead Press as a main movement on this day seems sensible.
-
Don’t drop the assistance work too far back too soon. Personally, I would not start to really decrease assistance work volume before the last heavy week.
-
Personally, I would not use reps as high as ten for your main movement of the day. I’d start with fewer reps so that load can be increased more gradually throughout the cycle.