PRIMITIVE INTUITIVE TRAINING: Inaugural Edition
This is the 1st of my monthly training articles Marty asked me to do. In these articles I will discuss my training and the progress I achieve toward my goals. My goals are varied and having a set training structure to follow is not conducive to this sort of progress, so you wont see a set periodized powerlifting template, for example, with a regular M,W,F plan of workouts but rather I will share my varied workouts which are based on achieving my goals. Marty and I call this type of training Intuitive training where you lift when you feel recovered and aggressive. I will discuss my goals next and you will see then why I do the workouts I do.
First of all, my primary goal for the next few months (til July), is to lose body fat. I would like to drop to below 220 am at 242 now so I have a ways to go. Ideally, I will not lose much strength in this effort so therefore, I am focused on losing the weight slowly via the 3 legs of the fitness triad that Marty has drilled into my head: cardi, diet and strength training.
For the diet part, I am, at this point, simply taking a few mouthfuls less and cutting out some breads, all sugar and the starchy carbs. I envision the time ahead when I will clean up the fat by eating leaner cuts of meat, forgoing bacon, etc. As Marty put it one day, I need to do, reduced fork and spoon curls. Actually, the dieting is working. I weighed in at 254 on Feb 26th and am at 242 now on April 18. That is slow weight loss.
Next, should you browse the log I keep on the Training Log page, you will see that I do cardio on a Treadmill with a heart rate monitor. Although encouraged to go outside to walk, I am okay with the treadmill I have in my own purposefully primitive steel house. I have a stereo system blasting the classic rock usually and can open the windows and doors for fresh air and can gaze out upon my blueberry bushes and the garden of fresh veggies I have planted in the field. I have an a/c for when it is required and it will be scorching here in NC in the not too distant future. I am doing cardio walks right now at least 2 days a week and will add days sometimes I may do 3-5 days of walking for cardio. In addition to the TM walking, I love to mow grass, have 1.82 acres of open grassy field and a push mower and riding mower. I typically will start with the push mower doing what I call Yard Cardio. I may cut up to an acre with that mower before I get on the rider. Great fun ! It comes with a drenching of vitamin D from the sun.
Thirdly, comes the strength training aspect of my intuitive training. I am a newcomer to competitive powerlifting and have a meet scheduled for October, so I plan to begin specific powerlifting training around July to prepare for that meet. For now, however, I am concerned about keeping my bench press where it is and increasing my squat and deadlift. So, although I am not training specifically for powerlifting, I do take some training days and focus just on the bench press or just on heavy back squats or even deadlifts.
However, during this lean out phase, in my primitive intuitive training, I am learning Olympic style weightlifting the snatch and the clean and jerk are the lifts in that sport. So, the weights I use are light for now but I am doing lots of leg and lower back work (important to Olympic style weighlifting) as I choose on some days to do 1) overhead squats and snatches or 2) front squats and clean and jerks, for a couple examples.
In summary, you may have wondered is there a method to his madness while viewing my log, I hope you understand now that yes, there is. It is all a part of achieving the goals I have set for myself: losing weight (fat), mastering Olympic style weightlifting technique and not losing a lot of powerlifting strength as I diet down to a more healthful weight. To close, here ar the lifts I hope to acheive in this year 2005:
Bodyweight < 220
Raw Squat > 450
Raw Bench > 400
Raw Deadlift > 500
Front Squat > 250 *** Made this already with a front squat of 255
Snatch > 185
Clean and Jerk > 255
Stay tuned for my future progress notes in my Primitive Intuitive Training !