How best to transition(or add to) from a Powerlifting program(1-5reps) w/conditioning (Prowler/HASD) to a high volume (25+reps) for Military PFT?
Military PFT is standard push-ups (60+), situps (50+), 1.5mile (2400m) run (<12:00min).
Integrate simultaneously, or periodize for a 2mo period of BW work?
Mentally, I don’t want to slack on my progressing gains.
Thank you for any help.
Do you have weight available? If so I would recommend keeping up at least some amount of heavy work to at least maintain strength. Heck, one of my clients is a high level olympic lifter and even while stationed in Afghanistan he kept on lifting heavy.
Currently on, Beyond 5/3/1 Phase 1, 3rd cycle. I know I have a PFT scheduled when I get back home. I have a full facility here on base.
In the past, when dedicated to a strength program, my hi-rep endurance dropped.
Theory states that increasing Max strength should equal to increased low weight muscular endurance, but it never seems to work out as simple as it sounds.
[quote]carlos_anton wrote:
Currently on, Beyond 5/3/1 Phase 1, 3rd cycle. I know I have a PFT scheduled when I get back home. I have a full facility here on base.
In the past, when dedicated to a strength program, my hi-rep endurance dropped.
Theory states that increasing Max strength should equal to increased low weight muscular endurance, but it never seems to work out as simple as it sounds.
[/quote]
Gaining strength cannot interfere with strength-endurance. It is more the act of devoting a high volume of work to developing strength that might interfere. Why? Because doing a lot of strength work can be hard to recover from and as a result you have less energy to do the higher reps work and might have neural fatigue, hurting performance on the higher rep stuff.
5/3/1 is low volume if you only do the main lift of the day. I don’t know what you did in the past but from experience doing one lift per day, 4 days a week at a low volume of work will not interfere with your high rep work and will allow you to maintain your level of strength.
My previous work was much higher volume, BB style with much more volume. So if I understand correctly, I should be able to interval high-rep work (at mod intensity) seperate from the low volume strength work, as long as I give time for recovery? Eg; Monday - max effort bench, Wednesday - 20 rep high volume bench. Wednesday - max effort squat, Friday - 20 rep high volume squat?
[quote]carlos_anton wrote:
How best to transition(or add to) from a Powerlifting program(1-5reps) w/conditioning (Prowler/HASD) to a high volume (25+reps) for Military PFT?
Military PFT is standard push-ups (60+), situps (50+), 1.5mile (2400m) run (<12:00min).
Integrate simultaneously, or periodize for a 2mo period of BW work?
Mentally, I don’t want to slack on my progressing gains.
Thank you for any help.[/quote]
I had a friend in the military who benched 255. He tested his pushups one monday and got only 13. Wednesday got 19. Friday got 26. Next monday got 38. Next Wednesday got 55. Next Friday got 71. Third monday got 87. That’s basically where he peaked. I think that at least for the pushups reps, its a lot about reflexes, and about a quick building up of glycogen, CP, ATP and lactic acid coping mechanisms. 7 workous (just 7 sets to near failure) over 15 days. That’s all.
I also went from 225 x 3 x 10 in the squat to 225 x 3 x 25 in the squat in a week by doing lots of triples at 315.
Thank you for the help and input.