GRILLMAN: THE PLOT THICKENS
30 September 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
HELLO MARTY,
THE LAST SESSION WITH PULLS (deadlifts) WAS NOT AS SNAPPY ON 605X5 AS WAS THE PREVIOUS WEEK WITH 585X5. EARLIER IN THE WEEK I HAD DONE SQUATS PAUSED FOR THREE SETS OF 5 REPS WITH FIVE SECOND PAUSES AT THE BOTTOM ONLY WITH 295 AS I WAS STILL FEELING A BIT TIRED FROM PULLS THE PAST FRIDAY. ALTHOUGH THESE WERE VERY EXPLOSIVE OUT THE HOLE, I BELIEVE THESE CUT INTO MY EXPLOSIVENESS OUT THE BOTTOM ON MY PULLS WITH 605. I THINK TOMORROW I MAY JUST RIDE THE STATIONARY BIKE FOR A FEW MINUTES AND STRETCH THEN DO SOME CHEST AND ARMS, REST, EAT AND COME BACK ON FRIDAY FOR 625X5 ON PULLS. JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, I WAS WIPED OUT SAT AND SUN AND AM STILL REELING A BIT TODAY (TUESDAY) EVEN THOUGH MY CALORIE INTAKE WAS 5 THOUSAND ABOVE THE NORM TO OFFSET THE INROADS INTO THE RECUPERATION FACTOR. I WOULD LIKE TO GO 625, 645, 665, 685, 705 X 5 LIKE MADONNA (A VIRGIN) THAT WOULD BE MOST EXCELLENT AND SWAHZEET! PERHAPS TIME TO PULL EVERY OTHER WEEK IN SESSIONS LIKE BEFORE? OR I MAY JUST CHARGE AHEAD TILL I PETER OUT AND DOWN SHIFT IN REPS AS YOU’VE SUGGESTED. WE’LL SEE ONCE I GET THERE FRIDAY. THANKS AGAIN FOR THE TIME AND INPUT…I KNOW YOUR PLATE IS FULL.GRILL
No sense pulling (deadlifting) until you are fully recovered from the previous session. You recovery problems are easy to spot: youre size (340-pounds, 13% body fat percentile) means your recovery is going to take a hell of a lot longer than say a 170-pound guy. There is literally twice the muscle tissue to cleanse of waste products and toxin build-up related to a body-shattering workout. Secondly, you work a real job driving trucks delivering freight in the heatah yes, the lovely Arizona temperaturemakes it tough to recover when you are huge and sweltering, sitting in traffic or off-loading pallets when its 100-degrees, as is often the case. Plus overtime. Need it. Got to have it. Baby needs new shoes.
Then there was the introduction of a radical new exercise (5-second pause squats) and even though the poundage was a paltry 295 the introduction of any new exercise causes the target muscle fibers to scream in agony; particularly when you amplify the already high intensity associated with squats by light-years by making the excruciating pause squat a continuous tension exercise: during each pause squat set you held 295 suspended for 25-seconds. (5-reps, 5-seconds each) Three sets resulted in a cumulative mid-air suspension of 300-pounds for 75-seconds. Im sure it seemed easy at the time but this type of crazed training done for the first time has GOT to drive a muscular inroad the size of the Munich Autobahn right through thigh and lower back muscles.
I would suggest that if you did nothing else the past week but the crazy 5-second pause squat, 75-second cumulative hold, you would be a hurting unit. Then lets not forget that touch-and-go deadlifts done with straps and no lifting belt are also new for you and (see above) new exercise deep inroad blah, blah, blah. Be on guard against the bounce as the poundage creeps towards 700×5, the reps are going to get tougher and the temptation will be after a tough 4th rep to get a little bounce off the platform, create some upward momentum in order to make the 5th rep. Pretty soon youre bouncing not only the 5th but the 4th then the 3rd - this has to be avoided at all cost! Nothing is more potentially injurious than bounced deadlifts (with the exception of limit, single rep squats without spotters or safety pins) and Ive seen some nasty back injuries as a result of guys with their sights set on a PR 5-rep set bouncing the bar to make that final rep.
In addition this changes the exercise so dramatically that it is rendered virtually useless. Remember: in addition to 605×5 using this delicate, precise deadlift technique you also did 495×5 for two sets in the stiff-legged deadlift immediately the 605; again, a lot of work in and of itself. Your instinct to calorie up was sound, eating lots of calories speeds recovery and eating 5,000 extra calories a day is about all that can be done in that particular direction. Human nature causes us to gravitate towards a schedule of some type and psychologically we want to adhere to a timeline whether it is related to career, life or training. Initially when we constructed this deadlift periodization plan it was thought that blasting the back once a week would work.
When it does you can get to the destination real damn fast. Reality has a habit of derailing the best laid plans of mice and men. Heres what we know: if you insist on sticking to the plan youre going to miss reps soon and while a less experienced lifter might attribute that to a lack of strength we both know that it will be due to lack of recovery, not a lack of strength. Every other week? Again I think that the psyche is seeking a schedule: being the intuitive type I wouldnt set a day, I would go when I felt ready and right, not before and not after, going too soon will be disastrous and going too late will result in an unacceptable degree of technical degradation. I would jettison multiple sets of 5-second pause squats, deadlift when healed and ready. Not before and not after. Just right. Keep me posted son.
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