Strength gains

[star61]

@Pioneer

I am not advocating moderate loads throughout the block, only not going so heavy in the first week(particularly) that it serves as inducing more fatigue than stimulation with week two heavier still. In general, though, the best executed, results producing schemes I’ve seen have been mostly submaximal with only week 3 or 4 (in a 4 week intensification scheme) should be performed at maximal levels.

If all you are doing is lifting, then the intensities can be increased somewhat in my opinion but when you have others stressors/high intensity elements present in the program, being a bit conservative is more beneficial to obtaining results in both the lifting and the more important sport performance.

I disagree that you need to lift close to maximal levels on a regular basis. This so compromises your ability to recover that the other elements in the program have to suffer. I think he’s doing more than just lifting. If he was only lifting than perhaps the weights could be pushed up a bit more but I would not suggest by much.

Low volume and low load should come at the end of a cycle for sure but the volume can also be dropped throughout the block to obtain the overreaching effect. In some blocks the volume might stay constant for 2-3 weeks but the ones I’ve typically used have dropped off throughout.

Obviously many roads to Rome.

I think if you and I compared actual plans we would be very close…its just in the wording. And as long as volume and frequency are controlled, and adequate time is taken between similar workouts (at least 72hrs) and recovery weeks are used as needed, recovery will not be an issue.

I agree that every workout cannot be maximal in terms of intensity. In fact, I think you can make great progress NEVER lifting maximally. But by that I mean intensity, or 1RM. I think you can make great strength gains doing doubles with your 3RM, maybe pushing to an actual 3RM or even a 2RM every three or four workouts. BUT, I think you need to lift close to failure, or close to the rep max, in most work sets. I’m not counting those sets used to pyramid up to a weight, but you should quickly get up to your work sets and they should be performed at a very high effort with a load close to the rep max you are using. Another way to put it would be to leave only one rep in the tank on your work sets, and occasionally leaving none.

However, when most athletes think in terms of submaximal, they are also thinking in terms of effort, so I believe it is important to make the disctinction and why I think you need to be careful with the term ‘submaximal’. When I think in terms of submaximal, I think in terms increasing the number of reps to say 5 per set (for strength) or to around 8 for hypertrophy. This higher rep scheme requires a lower load, but that does not mean the effort can’t still be very high. I like to back off slightly in week 1 as you do, because there is a jump in volume from the recovery period. After that, its high effort lifting for 2-4 weeks or until the next recovery week is necessary. However, anytime you feel strong in the gym, I think you should take advantage of it. I have hit many PRs, including a recent PB after a long layoff, when I had expected to go in and just have a good solid workout.