Reactive Training Systems

Grant Gavran · Senior Member

RE: Nick's Training Log

Nick U · Senior Member

had the meet today results

squat 1 - 530 good
squat 2 - 560 good PR
squat 3 - 600 good PR

Bench 1 - 395 good
Bench 2 - 405 good (shirt finally got settled, very easy)
Bench 3 - 440 good PR

Deadlift (pulling conventional)

dead 1 - 505
dead 2 - 555 PR

My form fell apart on deadlift, so I dropped the last attempt. My form was really good on 505 but I just lost focus on the 555 so I'll need to address it before the next meet. Probably do some GM for secondary work. Bench was not as great as I would have liked either, I was thinking high 400s and maybe even a 500 attempt but I couldn't get the shirt to hook up right during warmups and the 600 squat took a bit more out of me than I thought it would. Happy about the 600 squat, had a bit more in me so my collegiates goal of 640 is probably realistic. Still need to get alot more out of the deadlift though.

Grant Gavran · Senior Member

Dude the numbers are looking really good man. Who was judging this thing? Did you have to cut weight? Also what did you do/do you do for deload? This is the thing i always screw up and i am just trying to put something together for tomorrow and the rest of next week. I have some ideas just looking for a little input since i tested two weeks ago like you have always done.

Nick U · Senior Member

we used members of the team to judge so it was not official but good enough for what we were doing. My peaking cycle and deload is posted. With me I considered stretching and staying at 65% a pretty good deload. Before collegiates I actually put the gear on during the meet week just to make sure I had the groove set. I didn't figure I needed it this time.

I didn't cut weight for this since there was no one to worry about. My weight was 203. I'm gonna have a trial run at cutting weight for States just so I can figure out how hard it is, this being my first time and all.

Oh and another thing, I always get a deep tissue massage about a week out from the meet in addition to the monthly ones I get. They hurt like hell but I honestly think its making a big difference, the pain I use to feel in my arms is gone and she has done alot of work on my illiac muscles that have allowed me to sit out better in the squat.

Nick U · Senior Member

First WO after the meet, felt kinda sore still but mentally I couldn't handle another day out of the the gym. Since this is a transition cycle the percents are low and a little soreness wasn't going to hurt anything

Raw Bench

50%-205-5
60%-245-4
70%-275-3
-3
-3@7
-3@7

75%-2@8
-2@8
-2@8
-2@8
-2@8
-2@8
-2@8
-2@8.5

Lunges 75%

135x5x4@8
-I haven't done this for awhile so the groove was off and it felt awkward. I really like this exercise cause it really works on my hips, which had obviously tightened up on me quite a bit

Lat Pulldown
190x4x6

I've made oneof my bench supplement movements into a upper back focus. This is because my bench is moving along well and I don't feel like i need to hammer it to keep up the progress. In addition I'm developing a muscle imbalance because I'm not getting in the number of extra work outs that I need.

Mike Tuchscherer · Guru

Do you have any other indications of a muscle imbalance? Usually deadlifting frequently takes care of most of your back work.

Nick U · Senior Member

I have alot of knots in my upper back and my posture is affected. My shoulders are curved in slightly. Plus flexibility is limited.

and I don't deadlift as frequently as most which is another mistake I won't make again

-- Edited by Nick U at 19:56, 2008-11-17

Nick U · Senior Member

Raw Dead
still really stiff, didn't stretch the few days after the meet which was dumb

60%-265-4
70%315-3@7-8
3@7-8
3@7-8
75%-335-2@7-8
2@7-8
2@7-8
2@8
2@8

T-Bar Row 75%

90-4x4@8

Wide Stance Squat

225-4
225-4
-never came close to depth, my hips were just destroyed so I just stayed light and ditched the exercise after two sets. This really opens my eyes to the importance of stretching during the three or four days after a meet (assuming I'm not lifting at all)

I have some new ideas for this program and I changed my set allocation tables for future workouts around to put less of the majority of the work in the heaviest sets. I didn't cut a whole lot out of the upper percentages but I'm working on forcing more fatigue into the muscle just before reaching the upper sets. Its contrary to popular belief but I'm toying with an idea where strength is a function of recovery. I seem to function a bit differently so I'm "reacting" to it. This may be a failed experiment but it should help me create better programs in the future.

-- Edited by Nick U at 20:13, 2008-11-17

Nick U · Senior Member

Military Press

60%-125-4
70%-145-3
-3
75%-160-2@7-8
2@8
2@8
2@8
2@8-9
80%-170-2@9
2@9
1@10
-I was really off with my 1rm estimate on these, i'll fix for later in the cycle

GMs (still staying light with these to work on form)
245-4@7ish
245-4@7ish
265-4@7
265-4@7
My form is really improving on these, I will likely step up the weight to get the desired RPEs next week

RackLockouts

315-4x3@8

I'm excited to get some weight on the GMs. I've put them in their as a deadlift supplement to help with my mid back rounding issues.

Mike Tuchscherer · Guru

Can you expand on the idea of strength being a function of recovery?

Nick U · Senior Member

Its not really a developed theory, mostly I'm just testing a variable. Here's how my reasoning goes

we know that strength/weight training works by forcing the body to adapt to a stimulus, in bodybuilding the concept is probably more conceptually simple, as muscle breaks down it is rebuilt larger, but in powerlifting the nervous system is primarly stressed meaning the body has to adapt a different way. I don't care in this theory about how the nervous system adapts per se but I care about what forces the adaptation. Do the first few sets at my working weight cause that adaptation or is it the last few sets. We've spoke on this before and the answer was "well they both do". But which ones to the greater extent? So my theory is the latter ones in the working set do the most and therefore if poassible I want to do the most work in a state of minor fatigue. Kinda like a micro look at concentrated loading. So in the same way that body builders train muscle by training to fatigue, I'm going to train the nervous system in a state of fatigue without actually training to failure. In my theory this should cause the body to overcompensate in recovery and cause bigger strength gains than simply doing alot of the work at the highest programed sets.
I should still say that I'm not affecting my macro cycle and will still be waving my stress levels to avoid over training.

Here is what a set x percentage program would look like for a single day with a target percentage of 80% (low volume week)

1x60% 2x70% 5x75% 3x80%

Again, I'm testing a theory just to gain more understanding of my body, I'm aware this could fail.

One more thing about my training that may help this program, I train only three main workouts a week and move training days throughout the week based on how I feel the morning of a workout. I've gotten very good at reading my body and I'm trying to use that to my advantage.

Hope that is what you were looking for, I have some empirical data to back up my assumptions but its not organzied and wouldn't mean much out of the proper format.

Mike Tuchscherer · Guru

Cool, Nick! Let me know what you find!

Grant Gavran · Senior Member

huh i never thought about it that way. I am excited to see how this progresses.

Nick U · Senior Member

I realize I haven't posted for awhile but I've been swamped with project turn ins and ect. I did the state meet last weekend, I didn't peak and just treated it as a standard training week. My program has me in gear about every three weeks so the timing worked out great. I did very well considering i didn't peak or even come near it ( I've been training at 80% for the last three weeks). Here are the numbers

507-good
545 (I think) - good
587- good (feel forward in the lift and had to GM it so I was pissed, but good lift)

403-good
435-good
448- miss (there was no reason to miss this one, I had my elbows way out, and my head screwed on wrong)

487-good
530-good
562-good

the 562 was a PR so I was pleased with that, but it was a slow pull and it reminded me of how much work I still have to do on my deadlift. Another point worth mentioning is the big jumps I took all day. I really like taking the big jumps and now that my form is pretty much nailed down (with a few exceptions) I am confident in my ability to take large jumps in weight

-as I re-read this post I started thinking that its wrong of me to say my form is nailed down, so instead I'll just say it has vastly improved enough to were I can be pretty reliable.

-- Edited by Nick U at 18:38, 2008-12-16

Nick U · Senior Member

Raw Squat
50%-205-5
60%-245-4
70%-285-3@7-8
-3@7-8
-3@8
75%-310-2@8
-2@8
-2@8
-2@8
-2@8
80%-330-2@8-9
-2@8-9
-2@10 (not an actual 10, I came up pretty fast on the first rep and the bar jumped up a couple inches higher on my neck, this change is leverage made the lift much harder but I learned something cool, it put alot of stress on my quads, probably a good secondary exercise)
-2@9

Lat Pulldown 80%

200-4x3@9
210-4x2@10

SLDL (god I love these things)

235-5@6
285-5@7
325-5@8-9
325-5@8-9

abs

I've heard of using the high bar squats for quad emphasize before but never tried them. I have done front squats in the past to hit quad weakness but didn't see the carryover. I think the high bar squats may produce a better carryover since it more closely resembles the main movement