Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Are you explosive enough? Am I? (my current program)

In my last post on the topic of powerlifting, strength training and programming I mentioned I had completed the last part of my strength macrocycle (with less than stellar results, but it is what it is, and better not to fool oneself about it), and was transitioning into shot putting mode again. In this one I’ll outline my current routine and the rationales behind the selection of moves, sets and reps. To put things in perspective, I’ll share with you all the two main concerns I wanted to address with my new routine: a) be able to exert force with greater velocity (to impart greater momentum to the shot) and b) recover a bit mentally by doing shorter, less strenuous sessions in the gym. The second point requires some elaboration, as I have always championed pushing oneself and it may be interpreted as just not applying much effort and pussying out of a demanding program. As my yearly program just placed two powerlifting mesocycles contiguously (for a reason, I wanted to keep pushing for gainzzzz after ending last year with all time PRs in the three powerlifts), I have been for almost six months trying to improve (either the max load moved or the number of reps with a given load) every single friggin’ time I grabbed a bar. The last two months were pretty lousy, as they coincided with a very busy period in my daytime job (what I get paid for doing) and whilst I tried to finish once and for all my dissertation (which anybody that has attempted will tell you requires a freakin’ amount of dedication all by itself). Unsurprisingly I dreaded more and more each time I had to get my sorry ass to the gym, and once there I struggled to keep focus and psych myself up for the toughest lifts of each day, which closer to the end I started missing (although I tend to keep my missed lifts rate pretty low, it slowly creeped up). Using a concept borrowed from Dan John I have used before, I had spent too much time in Bus Bench Mode, and it was time to relax a bit and get back to  Park Bench Mode.

Not just because neither work nor study were giving me any respite, but because at some point going either to max intensity or to max volume every single day starts being counterproductive, and you stop progressing. I know from one of the forums I used to frequent more that some guys boast about training to a max every session, for years on end, without ever taking a deload. All I can say is “good for them”. I tended to be more impressed about their dedication when I first knew of their system (which, by the way, tend to be quiet unsystematic… I’ve come to believe that “instinctual training” and going all too frequently to a max is normally the cover and the excuse for very limited programming abilities, and a very incomplete understanding of how the body adapts to the demands we impose on it), as nowadays I realize most of them are still lifting what they were lifting two or three years ago, give or (more frequently) take 5 kg…

So it was time for me to loose the fear of submaximal training and spend some time having fun in the gym, focusing on “density” (how many quality reps I could get in a certain amount of time), staying in the 70-80% of my daily max (which should be no more than 90% of my true 1RM, the proverbial weight you can lift any day of the week without needing to conjure a psychotic rage and go berserk), on regaining some cardiovascular capacity and some mobility and flexibility which all were somewhat compromised by my previous mores.

Now back to the first concern, I also wanted this cycle to increase my “explosiveness”, which right now I think is pretty lousy. A typical assessment of how efficient one athlete is when he has to produce force quickly is to consider the ratio between his max deadlift (a slow movement, very much dependent on brute strength regardless of how fast it is displayed) and his max power clean (a ballistic move that requires  the lifter to accelerate the bar as much as possible in a very short space, without being as heavily dependent on technique, coordination and flexibility as the full clean). Very explosive athletes can power clean around 80% of what they deadlift. Average ones stand somewhere between 60 and 80%... and yours truly, with a max deadlift of 220kg (485 pounds) and a max power clean of 105 kg (231 pounds), can only declare himself to be an abysmally explosive lifter which can move quickly a paltry 48% of what he moves slowly. I can claim in my discharge that age is a factor, as type II fibers (the “fast twitch” ones on which fast movement depends) are the first to go after one passes the 35 years mark, which shows in the typical ratios being calculated for much younger lifters. Be it as it may, being a slow grinder does not mean I have to stay content with my current lot, and it is in my hand to at least try to change it. There is a lot of discussion in the (pseudo) scientific literature about how possible it is actually change muscle composition, and grow the percentage  of Type II fibers, although there is no doubt about what kind of exercises recruit more successfully those fibers (and thus, imposing greater demands on them, are more conductive to their development): compound movements that force the whole body to work in unison to maximally accelerate a resistance as heavy as possible, which in turn impose strict limits in the number of reps that can be safely executed. That means squats (because you always have to squat, there is no exercise with a comparable systemic effect in turning you overall stronger), cleans, snatches and push presses. I’ll add bench presses because they develop the same muscles used in putting, and chin ups and pull ups to keep the back work balanced with the pec and front delt work. I’ll also do farmer’s walks and suitcase carries, both to maintain (or even improve) grip strength and to reinforce the core, specially the obliques (extra important for a glider like me, spinners can do with less rotational force in the core as they impart it with the legs). Finally, I’ll be sprinting and jumping more and more (and, of course, putting).  Regarding progress, the main measure is going to be how far the shot flies, and all the rest of the training is going to be subordinated to that. I’ll be adding volume slowly, staying mostly within intensities of 70-80%, and only towards the end of the cycle, if I feel like it, I may go to a max in some barbell movement to check how things feel.

A final note on exercise selection (having to do with the frequency each move will be practiced). During this long past powerlifting cycle, and looking towards the following weightlifting one, a couple of weaknesses have to be addressed: my quads are weaker than my hamstrings (product of low bar back squatting, plus deadlifting a house almost weekly), and my overhead strength has become very meh. So squatting will be more quad dominant (I’ll be alternating high bar back squat with front squats), even if that means using less weight, and every single time I step on the gym I’ll do some move that requires putting the bar over my head and keeping it there for a few seconds.

With all that considered, this is how my weekly schedule will look like (after the exercice I write number of sets x number of reps in each set):

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Low Bar Back Squat:
5 x 8, 6, 4
Close Grip Bench Press:
5 x 6, 5, 4
Power Snatch:
6 x 3, 2
Snatch Grip BTN Push Press:
5 x 4, 3, 2
SS with chin ups:
6 x 5
OH backward throw:
2 - 5
Standing Put:
3 - 6
Gliding put:
15 -20
Hill sprints (20 yds):
5 – 10
Bounded jumps:
5 – 8 x 3
Front Squat:
5 x 7, 6, 5
Close Grip Pin Bench Press:
5 x  4, 3, 2
Power Clean:
6 x 3, 2
Push Press:
5 x 3, 2
SS with pull ups:
6 x 4
OH backward throw:
2 - 5
Standing Put:
3 - 6
Gliding put:
15 -20
Hill sprints (20 yds):
5 – 10
Bounded jumps:
5 – 8 x 3
Jumping squats:
5 – 8 x 3
Farmer’s walk:
6 – 8 x 20 yds
Suitcase carries:
3 – 4 x 20 yds (per hand)


I still have to decide how I’m going to deal with the unavoidable misses due to work/ having an exceptionally good day writing. In the past I just moved the day, and attempted the same planned workout the day after (or two days after, sometimes even three), so the scheduled weeks ended up dragging on and taking anywhere between 10 to 16 days to complete. That didn’t work all that great, so in this case I may accept some minimal juggling around (a maximum delay of one day, and after that if I can not train I’ll move to the next planned session) and keep a number of sessions labeled as “optional” (days 2 and 5 are the most evident candidates) to sacrifice if the week has been too demanding, so I do not space the main sessions too much.

As usual, I’ll adapt as I observe how it is working, will keep everybody posted.

No comments:

Post a Comment