SPRING TRAINING

SO, it's Sunday. Yesterday I went in the gym just to move, did some front squatting and stretching, but overall I felt like SHIT from that heavy deadlift hahaha. Soreness like I haven't had in a LONG time, and it petty much just sapped my will to do anything hahaha. BUT, I ate a ton yesterday and slept, and I'm going to try and eat a lot today and really rest up so that I will be good to go tomorrow. But, on this last day of my rest week, I think it is time to talk a little bit about the coming months of training.

These past few months have been awesome. My programming has been great, and I was able to nail tons of PR's, including a max out week that went AWESOME, where I hit every single goal I set, putting 85 lbs on my total and breaking 1000 for the first time. Here are some things I feel like I have learned, and will be keeping in my training for a long while.

1) 9 week cycles seem to work great for me. Just long enough to make me WANT a rest, and I seem to PR right up until the end.

2) Do NOT be afraid to take the weights back if you need to. EVERY time I have reset my 5/3/1, I have gotten stronger and hit new PR's. Every time. I am slowly starting to really see that for me, working hard with moderate reps helps my technique and my strength gains more than anything else.

3) For the vast majority of lifts, keep calm. Go into every training session wanting to do your best and push yourself, but when it comes to a big lift there is nothing to fear. Take a deep breath, and treat it just like it is a warmup.

4) Lifting without the belt 98% of the time is the way to go. Then, when you put it on to max out, it makes a HUGE difference.

5) Paused work for upper body seems to work wonders for me.

So anyways, those are some take-aways from this past cycle. Now here are some things I am going to experiment with:

1) Less heavy squatting. Chaos and Pain was a great experiment, but honestly I think that focusing on volume and technique with my squats at lighter weights will help me make more gains than triples doubles and singles have. I'm going to try this high-volume squats on thursdays as my main movement (something I have always done only as accessory work), and hope that it helps me gain mass, strength, and perfect my technique.

2) Snatch grip deadlifts. This is a movement I have never done, but I am hoping it will help me in a number of ways - first, to help my pull off the floor/to the knees, which is the hardest part of my deadlift, to help me get some extra posterior chain work, and to help my back grow. I think a big back will make a BIG difference to all of my lifts, and snatch grip deadlifts might be the way to get thatbig back.

3) Maxing out - Mock Meets and "Other"Meets. I have a tendency to want to go heavy on my lifts when I shouldn't, and I am going to try and break this habit - I'm going to commit myself to focusing on rep work and BUILDING my strength, rather than testing it - which fucks with me mentally and physically. When I do max out, it's going to be every 9 weeks, on the tuesday, wednesday or thursday of my rest weeks. First week off, i'll do an "Other" meet, where I test my max Front squat, strict press, and snatch grip dead. And then in my second rest week, I will do a mock meet where I test my squat, bench and dead. I think from now on, I will always test my lifts in one session - I need to start learning what a full meet feels like, and also start focusing more on TOTAL, rather than individual lifts.

SO, there you have it. My training these past few months has been great and these changes are things I think will help make it even better.

A few other thoughts as well. I'm approaching the goals that I set almost a year ago now for the end of May, which is very exciting. I have a lot of work to do, but I feel confident that if I focus and stay healthy, I will achieve those goals. After that, I think I will set some new goals - although I'm not sure whether I will do a year, or start to set smaller goals than that (6 months perhaps). We will see.

I'm really going to try and keep my ego out of my training these next 6 cycles. The weights will be light for the next few weeks especially, but I'm going to embrace that and really work on technique and reps. I think this will allow me to grow tremendously, and without pushing to my breaking point every single session I will make huge gains, especially in the second three cycles. I need to just keep my head in the right place, not doubt myself, and realize that staying healthy and consistent is more important than any one workout, set, or rep. I've seen how well that attitude served me this last training cycle, and I hope I will trust in myself and my programming enough to continue training smart, and smash my goals at the end of this next semester.

Also, breaking a 1000 lb total really helped me think in terms of all my lifts combined. I think I should start to focus more on my total, as that is what my end goals are really based on anyways. I hit 1000 lbs at age 20. Now, I think I should try and focus on hitting the next 100-lb mark at each age - 1100 at 21, 1200 at 22, 1300 at 23, etc. Obviously it would be great to make MORE progress than that (especially in these earlier years), and there will be times when even that 100 lbs over the course of a year may be a LOT. But, if I can focus on just adding 100 lbs to my total each year, I will hit my 2000 lbs total at 30. It's a good way to think about my long-term goals I think.

Finally, as far as diet goes - I am hoping that the increase in volume over the next few weeks spurs some fat loss and some serious muscle gain. However, the plan as far as diet goes is to just keep growing. Moderate carbs on my 4 main workout days, high carbs on saturday and no carbs on my rest days. Hopefully this strategy will keep my bodyfat from getting too high, but still allow me to continue to grow. I'm still a long way off from 242, and I should be doing the majority of my growing before I leave college (where I have nearly unlimited food). The plan is to try and get to 242 without gaining too much bodyfat, and then try and keep myself at that weight, slowly but surely re-comping until I am a very lean 242. That is going to be a long journey, but I am looking forward to packing on some serious muscle in the next few months/years.

So, that's pretty much it. I'm really pumped to start working again tomorrow, although I am still very sore and tired hahaha and squats seem daunting. But, I'll just do my best to get some solid work in and enjoy the changes to my programming. Lets keep at it.