AYCE notes... (We have lift-off!)

[Refer to notes below the "END" break for earlier "paradigms" that I have trained with. I am still tinkering with a cyclical training program, based on Dan John's maxim that "Everything works, for six weeks or so". I am currently loving HIT, but also realize that my own (favorite) Even Keel regimen was in certain key ways a HIT program. -- 25 January 2015] 

Here's a tentative, conceptualized outline of my 6-month regimen for ongoing meta-progress:

I. 
HIT (full-body, one-set workouts, ample rest) 
January 1-February 5
REST 9 days 

II.  
Even Keel (full-body, higher volume workouts, ample rest)
February 15-March 22
REST 9 days 

III. 
Attempts For Personal Bests (SQ, FSQ, DL, Grip/Crush)
April 2-May 7
REST 9 days 

IV. 
Olympic Lifts (cf. bottom of this Dan John article) 
OR 
Mass Made Simple (also thanks to Dan John) 
OR 
5/3/1 
OR 
5x5 
OR 
Bodyweight Power
May 17-June 21
REST 9 days 

---

REPEAT THE ABOVE for another six months 

As always, I just don't know, yet I am intrigued enough to keep tweaking, based on what I do know. Meanwhile, come what may, I want to be able to include:

boxing
rowing
trap workouts

in any long-term regimen.

Hmmmm...

--- END 2015-25-01 ---

[NB: After almost six months out of the gym, as of early November 2014 I am doing a three-day split, designed by Schwarzenegger in his old The Education of a Bodybuilder, in order to regain a solid base. Beginning in 2015, I will start a HIT program (as presented by Ellington Darden), which will last for at least 6 months. After that, I think I will return to my lifetime PR goals. Stay tuned! -- 1 December 2014] 

Monday, 7 April 2014
45 min., 226 lbs

Warm-up (9 min.) - movements, OHS, stretching

DL: 5 x 5 @ 285 lbs

Guillotine: 12, 10, 8 @ 135, 145, 155 lbs

ZSQ: 5 x 5 @ 135

PNF (3-4 min.)

+ + + 

This article from Pavel gave me the break I think I needed. I really like training every day, but I've had difficulty figuring out how to program the lifts over a week. 5 x 5 is tried and true, and as simple as a stone. Along similar lines, this interview with Perryman reminded me about the distinction he makes between volume responders and intensity responders. I'm a volume responder, meaning, I need more reps (i.e. more time under tension). What I was doing the past couple weeks offered a decent amount of intensity, but too little volume. And so, in my never-ending variations-on-a-theme progress:

Monday: heavy DL + Guillotine + ZSQ 
Tuesday: heavy BP + HSQ + PU (reps)
Wednesday: heavy FSQ + IBP + Pendlay row
Thursday: light FSQ + db press + PU 
Friday: light SQ + CLP 

As always, except for the primary "big lifts" on the first three days, and squatting every day, of course, the exercises are subject to change (e.g. Kroc row instead of Pendlay row, or OSQ instead, or DBP, etc.). I could have gone heavier today on some lifts, but I'm going to start modestly, shoot for 5 x 5 ten pounds heavier next week, and just keep at it for a while. Oh, and, that's right: I'm throwing some back squat into the mix again. My upper back needs a break from FSQ's--heck, the bar will make for a nice massage! Still, my primary goal is FSQ 285 x 4 before making (high-bar, narrow-ish stance) SQ my bread and butter again. 

The good news is, this weekend I finally got a clear sense of my overall goals. It's so hard to go into the gym without a goal. "Getting a pump" is too short-sighted. I'm not interested in real powerlifting (triple bdw everything, lifting equipment, etc.), nor in bodybuilding per se. My sport is weightlifting: I want to be good at maneuvering heavy weights in classical, primal movements. As such, the cycle I envision are like so:

4 months of sheer strength training (5x5, 5-3-1, etc.) -- POWER

4 months of calisthenics and bodyweight -- MOBILITY

4 months of bulking and building (Mass Made Simple, HIT, etc.) -- MASS

MASS --> POWER --> MOBILITY

Leaning out before bulking makes bulking more effective --> 

bulking gives me more mass to apply to power training --> 

then I will have power to apply to bodyweight skills and more focused kb drills

 Wash, rinse, repeat. It's been many years since I cold say I trained for a sport. In high school it was rowing and cross country (and a season of wrestling, woohoo!). In college it was road cycling. In Taiwan... I sort of floated from one martial art to another, and mantained "general fitness" (when I wasn't de-maintaining it with lots of food and beer and late nights, woohoo!). I realize now, however, that I need the structure of being an athlete in training, even if only on an amateur scale. Indeed, what better way to live than as a lover? Whichever third of the year I choose to emphasize--and right now it's strength and power--I can view the other cycles as off-season, prehab/rehab, etc.  

It's still a work in progress, of course, but I no longer feel like I'm flying totally blind as a weightlifter... simply bewildered with my eyes wide open. (Now I just need an erg to reignite my ineradicable rower's identity!) Best of all, it's amazing how holy and mellow all this exercise is keeping me.Idle hands, and all that.

"7 But avoid foolish and old wives' fables: and exercise thyself unto godliness. 8 For bodily exercise is profitable to little: but godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." -- I Timothy 4