The time has come. It's on between Wendler, Rhodes, and me. Our inaugural NOV meet is less than a month out. I need to dial my training in for strength. I have been training relatively light since the spring so I could focus on getting in better condition as well as recovering from a number of nagging injuries. I have succeeded with that on both fronts. I feel great.
Feeling great came at a price. Strength training has been on the back burner. Most of my training has been in the 70% range. However, I believe in the accumulation of strength. All that training never goes to waste. With one month left I can't really get much stronger, but I can at least maximize my potential.
For my main lifts I am raising my work sets to be in the 80% range. With that I will not be performing rep maxes. Instead, after my work sets I will take approximately 10% jumps for joker sets based on how I feel. If the first joker set feels great, I will go up again. The plan will be for three sets with this top weight. The rep count will be what is prescribed for the week so 5's for week 1, 3's for week 2, and 1's for week 3.
Here's an example of this week's deadlift:
Work sets
315x5
365x5
410x5
Joker sets
450x5
475 3x5
Assistance
Back raises 3x15
Ab wheel roll outs 3x15
I want to explain my rep scheme here. I don't like the idea of only doing singles for joker sets. The goal here is not to test my strength, that's what the meet is for. I find far too many people use joker sets to test. Also, never forget the first rule of jokers, DON'T MISS! If you ever miss a joker set or rep, you don't understand the program.
For assistance, it's all going to be either body weight or band work. I'll be choosing from dips, pull ups, inverted rows, band push downs, band pullaparts and face pulls, back raises, single leg deadlifts, bulgarian split squats, and ab wheel roll outs. These exercises are just enough to stimulate the body and keep the blood flowing. Also, by utilizing movements such as inverted rows, ab wheel roll outs, and push ups you have to get up and down off of the ground a lot. In his infinite wisdom, Wendler has taught me how this is actually mobility work. It's kind of like how sleep is recovery work. It's something you do without really thinking about it, but it works.
As always I will be doing the little things outside of the gym that most people take for granted. For recovery I will be focusing on getting good sleep and performing short recovery sessions as needed. Nutrition wise I am adding in more carbohydrates to support the increased training demands. Conditioning will be limited to steady state walks outside or on the treadmill.
This is all just a lot of common sense. It's funny, the longer I'm around, the more I realize there are new people joining the strength community all the time. With the voluminous amount of information so readily available today, they need to know basic programming works. It does not have to be fancy. For those of us who have been here for a while, don't forget to embrace simplicity and hard work.
Thanks for reading.
