AYCE Anterior
37 min, 234 lbs
[Rather than devote a separate time just for warming up, I used my "ramp-up" sets as the warm-up for each exercise. I may have been a little too hasty in that regard, but it wasn't really a problem. I'll try some usual stretching and shaking next time.]
DBP:
225 x 1, 2, 2
235 x 2
245 x 2
255 x 2*
[* my spotter was grabby, but I'm sure I could have gotten them without his overzealous pawing]
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FSQ:
205 x 4
225 x 2
235 x 2
245 x 2
255 x 2
265 x 2
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Dip: 14, 12
PU: 10, 10
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db supinated press: 100 x 10
[I'm not sure what to call this exercise. It's based on the idea of "scooping" to activate the pecs. Like a chicken press, bring the weights low, but then arc them upwards into a squeeze. Sort of a chicken flye, I guess. Very fun.]
+ + +
Today was a very fruitful workout. Maybe even a sort of milestone. I think I PR'd on my FSQ (though I'm not concerned with a PR: my goal is to get 4 reps at 285 lbs, at which point I'll bring back squats into my routine).
A possible PR was nice, but the real benefit was the two-fold insight I had about AYCE. First, I need to do an upper-body semi-split (anterior/posterior or push/pull). Second, it's called "Squat Every Day", not bench press or row every day! The upper body simply cannot keep up with the rigors which daily leg work is meant to provide. My legs haven't really been sore for a couple weeks. This will not do. Happily enough, then, today I realized the problem: I am basing the intensity of my upper body exercises on the intensity I want for my legs (which is unsustainable), while I'm limiting the volume which my lower body needs based on a reflex for symmetry. Instead, I need to divert more volume to my legs and less to my upper body.
Lest I keep rambling, let me just lay it out:
AYCE Anterior
DBP / db press - 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2
FSQ / HSQ / OSQ - 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2
neck press / dip / pullover / db flye / underhand BP - 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
AYCE Posterior
CLSQ / DL / SDL / RDL / JSQ - 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2
MP / one-arm press - 5, 4, 3, 2, 2
Pendlay row / Rope row / T-row / PU - 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
(The slashes indicate options I can choose depending on how I feel or what I think needs more work.)
The simplicity of this program, like Even Keel, but even more so, is among its most attractive features, so I don't want to over-think it. At the same time, I'm experimenting into a new approach to training, so it's enjoyable cutting out excess exercises and going for the essentials with heavy low-rep sets. It's too distracting right now to try to figure out what percentages to use for the above reps. I'm just going by feel these first few weeks--and today felt just about perfect. Nonetheless, I will use a ratcheting principle to guesstimate weights from one workout to the next. It's what Perryman calls your daily minimum: imagine right now what you could do on various lifts if you just walked into the gym and hit them cold. That's your daily minimum, your confidence-boosting warmup-baseline. By the end of the workout, you should have gone heavier than your baseline, of course, so you then use that number as your rule of thumb for a new daily minimum over the ensuing workouts. Mind you, this is different from a mechanistic, highly regimented planned progression scheme. Sometimes you'll simply perform sub-par and punch the clock based on your older baseline--and that's perfectly fine. Why should one bad workout--and they will happen!--derail your progress? Why should you shackle yourself to such a fragile and finicky regimen? Train your body, not a set of numbers. The key is to show up, get the lifts in, and keep developing a "fatigue-hardened" neuromuscular system.
Now, Perryman acknowledges the awkwardness of fitting the DL into a daily regimen like this. I have learned two things about the DL: 1) I go heavy when I do it, and therefore 2) I must not do it twice in too short a time (i.e. once a week is not a bad idea, as it worked out when I was doing Even Keel in Taiwan). I think I will execute the DL every fourth AYCE Posterior workout. I did one last Wednesday and Friday, and will do another tomorrow, so I'll go for the DL on Thursday.
Again, though, what makes high-frequency training counter-intuitive is that it focuses more on consistency than rigid programming. The goal is to develop athletic preparedness, with daily (perhaps sometimes even will-o-the-wisp) attempts for 1RM, so, unless you simply stop training, it's almost impossible to "derail" your program with a bad workout or more. By contrast, highly regimented programs only work like they are supposed to if you "conquer" every workout as prescribed. As Perryman notes, though, we've got to stop seeing the weight as the enemy, and see it simply as a tool for athletic improvement.
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