Legs are back!

Man it feels good to get back under the bar pain-free. It seems like injuries have been a common theme of my last 6 months. I have taken some time off from compound movements with my lower body and finally feel able to start getting back in a squat rack.

Around Thanksgiving I couldn't even do a rep with 275 without my back feeling like a gnashing of my teeth. Seriously, I tried multiple times to do 275 and was so beaten by not even being able to do one rep with what I used to use for a set of 12 for a warmup. Progress is to be made on this, but I am encouraged by my last two leg days.

1/14/2011
Back squat
the bar x 10
135 2x12
185 2x10
225x6
275x6
315 x 4,1

I felt like myself again. I had my max squat PR in March 2010 at 445lbs, obviously raw.

I felt so good I did squat again on the following Monday. I am going to continue the really low volume leg days and continue to inspect my form to make sure it is flawless. As my confidence increases, so will the volume.

1/17/2011
135 2x10
185 x 10
225 x 10
275 x8
315 x6
345 x 1-----> could have gotten more but wanted a heavier set
355 x 2

I am really pleased with my legs coming back and even happier about the soreness in my quads.

what are you currently working on? how are those resolutions going?

SUMMER FREAK PROGRAM

For the last two weeks this has been my new split:
Monday: Deadlift, back thickness (all rowing movements), and hamstrings
Tuesday: Chest and core
Wednesday: Arms and calf muscles
Thursday: off
Friday: Quads and back width (pullups, chinups, pulldowns, etc)
Saturday: Shoulders and Traps
Sunday: Off

The goal here is to individually tear up every body part and to shock my system into adapting to something new. I also want to bring up my hamstrings, traps, and arms. these are self-defined weak points that I don't have a reason to have around.

I also have some consistent workout partners, which I have been lacking for about five months. This is important to gains, if you don't remember why, read this and this. The group of present and future freaks that I get to hit the gym with are: Luke Beggs, Andrew Lewis, Tyler Brewer, and Jake Beggs.

I also am throwing some type of cardio into the week... whether it be sled pushes, full contact basketball, sprints, jogging, plyometrics, etc... something is thrown in.

Let me know what you are doing in the comments

Periodization = Changing Your Workout's Sets and Reps with the Same Eventual Goal

I was flipping through my workouts that I completed during my masters program (last 2 years) and since I got my current job in May 2009... I noticed something peculiar. Out of the rough 148 weeks that I have been training since I arrived at UK, I only completed 15 weeks of sets of 12 reps (mainly focusing on hypertrophy, which is increase in muscle size).

source: elitetrack.com

Periodization can be linear (seen above) in which volume graduallt decreases and intensity of your workouts gradually increases to peak at your season, spring break, competition, or some other random end point) or undulating, seen below, in which intensity increases, but the ride looks more like a roller coaster, with dips and small peaks before the highest peak at the end.

source: elitesoccerconditioning.com

Aside from those 15 weeks (only 10% of my training since august 2007) I have been focused on strength. All my core, structural lifts (bench, squat and all its variations, deadlift, and all back movements) had been 4-6 sets of 6 or less repetitions... needless to say my periodization graph would look more like a horizontal line at a high intensity with a couple of twitches in it.

I am not a fan of lifting for high reps, but I should be... at least for a couple months a year. I love the shock undulating periodization gives to your body. If some skinhead looking guy approached me with this past programming, I would smack him in his fat head and tell him that you (and more importantly your joints) need some type of break from going heavy on every lift ALL THE TIME.

Now I'm sure there are some nay-sayers out there that never, EVER go for higher reps. I can only assume that they have their fair share of injuries as well. I am not talking about one set of 25 reps per exercise... that would be moving you into an endurance program for some one that could care less about any real type of results. I do not mean 5 sets of 20 reps--- you might as well shoot yourself. I am talking about 3-5 sets of 10-12 repetitions, with a drop set once a week per muscle group.

I am on week three of my high rep month and hitting every exercise as hard as I can, knowing that my master plan is playing itself out. I want to be strong... like, what is he taking strong, you know? I don't want to be a powerlifter whose stomach combos as a table/shelf when he sits down. I also don't have any attention of getting super lean (sub 6% body fat). Don't get me wrong, being a giant powerlifter means you work hard, being a body builder that gets to 4% body fat menas you work hard. I want to be around 11% body fat and still be pushing 315 on flat bench for reps.

I am going to do one more week of this high rep scheme and then go to sets of 8's, then 6's, then 5's, at 4-6 weeks at each interval. I will let you kow how it goes. What does your current program look like? Let me know in the comments.