I read the book through twice and looked at the spreadsheets that came with it. I have a bunch of questions and I may have more as these are answered....
1. Do you use a different protocol every week from the list for the volume phase and intensity phase for each respective blocks? In other words...if I pick a protocol for my volume block do I do it for the entire 3 week block or do I pick a different one each week?
2. If I pick doubles as my protocol do I just keep doing doubles with the same weight that I initially use for my goal RPE and keep doing sets as long as I don't exceed my planned RPE for the day? And when I exceed it I stop and move on?
3. I compete with double ply gear. Will that affect how I pick my exercises?
4. My training is heavily based in Sheiko? How can I apply RTS to it since I am suppossed to do, say 80% x3x3 then 85%x3x2 for a workout?
Here is my basic template which I was going to follow until 5 weeks out. My meet is April 18th. Can someone help me work with this? I am kind of pressed for time if I want to apply RTS to this cycle.
Day 1 Squats-week 1 and 2-80%x3x3,85%x3x2 week 3-80%x3x3,90%x3x1 week 4-80%x5x3 Speed Bench-10 singles Abs Lower Back
Day 2 Deadlifts-same set up as squats but switch weeks 2 and 3 Bench Press-Sheiko pyramid-raw Dumbbell Flyes
Rack Pulls or Goodmornings
Abs
Day 3
Shirt Work-Use progressively lower boards as the weeks progress
Read Mike's training log, the last few pages up to his raw meet and his current training - he's using a set and rep format which is very Sheiko-inspired.
To answer your questions... Yes, pick a new protocol every week. If you have something Sheiko inspired and you want to keep with that, that's fine, too. But if you have no root program and you're doing it all yourself... rotate protocols weekly.
for #2... you're right if you're using Fatigue Stops. If you use Fatigue Percents, then this changes, but there are examples for this.
for #3... yes, slightly. You'll want your top-end exercises to be more aggressive than, say, a raw lifter. For example, "lockout" for a raw guy might be a 2 board, where for you it might be a 4 board. Make sense?
for #4... if I were you, I'd start by using the RPE's and tracking your training in a spreadsheet. Then, use that info to modify the program as you see fit and as you notice trends about how your body responds to training. After a while, if you want to add more RTS in, you can do that. This "start slow" approach works pretty well for most folks and helps them to avoid the mentally overwhelming component of starting a completely new system.
