Saturday, October 09, 2010

The Work Capacity is back.



Good timing too. It sucked feeling weak and not capable of even half of my former workloads. But, as with all training programs what worked is what always worked: consistent progressions that allow for back off times as well.

I really focused on listening to my body and attempting workloads that were only small increases from the previous workout, also always taking into account external recovery factors: sleep or lack thereof, food or lack thereof, stress or lack thereof. You get the picture. It all counts and it all adds up. Ignore these factors and just try to hit the numbers on the program that you wrote down weeks or months ago when you were feeling one way is folly. At least for me now.

I like small steady increases each week. It give my mind and body confidence to know that what I am asking my body to do today is just a little more than what it strongly handled last workout( hopefully). Big jumps make things contract too hard and my joints can't handle that anymore.

I also have to be very careful to REMEMBER just how jacked up I was not too long ago and not be too greedy for more, heavier and longer. Just being out of pain is a miracle and being able to train fairly hard and heavy again is even moreso. Slow steady progress is just fine with me.

But as usual I still didn't know what I would be able to do this morning. Last weeks set of 10/10 and 130 snatches and Tuesdays pr on kb presses made me think I could do multiple sets of 10/10 with the 24 kg. Just didn't know how many.
A decent amount it turns out, and I left with more in the tank, although not much more. Multiple sets of 20 is way more than I've done in forever and I never knew what was going to happen next set.

Ed Coan talks in his video about how his progressive cycle works so well for him. Each week he goes up and each weeks he knows he can because he fulfilled his mission the last workout. It gives him confidence knowing he can do just a bit more and I feel the same.

This is not max effort training at all but classic ,old school, western style periodization, ala Coan and Karworski. Instead of adding pounds to the bar each week I'm adding reps and or sets. A different kind of overload.

I still want to do the snatch test with the 24 kg and the SSST still is on my wish list, despite how much I LOATHE high rep training of any kind.Still something draws me to it; perhaps because I'm scared of it, perhaps because I know how big an accomplishment for me it would be. To really overcome my weakpoint.

SO to that I need to be able to cruise sets of 10 each arm and SLOW DOWN my pace. I'm so used to sprinting everything and that is not conducive at all to 5 or 10 minute sets. Pacing is but it's way harder than sprinting to me lol.

Not training max vo2 has helped slow me down as well as laddering my sets and volume up. Really fixing the bell overhead and MAKING it a rest position is part of the plan and it's working.

warmup:
45 minute stretching, rolling.

kb snatch
16 kg x5/5x2
20 kg x7/7
20 kg x4/4

24 kg x10/10 x 5 sets
x 7/7 x 3 sets
142 reps
7526 lbs

NICE! Just 12 reps more in total than I did last week but doing the first 100 of them in sets of 10 was a big increase in intensity for me.I just relaxed and focused on not going too hard so that I didn't exceed about 75% heartrate. Having a much better overhead position on my right side now is key. I can rest their much better.

Today's sets felt as good as these done in Dec of 2006. Man that's four years ago!Slower but even more solid,especially overhead.

Two hand swings
28kg x10
32kg x10 x 5 sets

this was hard, lol. I was getting tired and I did these as Hardstyle as I could with downward eccentric speed and as much hip snap as I could. Thought about laddering up but decided with the snatch workload I had to back off here. the 32 still felt plenty heavy. 45 seconds rest between sets too.

Clubbell Arm Casts
15 lbs x 10/10 x 4 sets

Clubbell shield casts
25 lb x 5/5 x 2 sets

these are really getting my arms ,pecs and upper back growing. Nice. Three days of these this week, I'm really prefering the two hand version, just like in the swings. 9 years of one arm stuff; I've paid my dues there,lol.

A great training week!

Datsit:))

9 comments:

Boris T said...

Some great advice, factor the outside non gym influences into the training.

I hear people complain all the time about lack of progress, and injuries. Many lack the ability to listen to their own bodies and adjust accordingly.

Mark Reifkind said...

boris

EVERYTHING in our lives influences recovery, which is THE limiting factor in whether we increase or decrease our fitness from training.

The more outside stress the less stress we can apply from training ,lol.

Roland Denzel said...

Mark,

Glad to see the steady progress. You seem very happy and positive. That must play a large role, too.

BTW, if you have a post on what happened to you (from which you are recovering), I'd like to read it.

Roland

Mark Reifkind said...

roland

I just had a rough year with a lot of personal things that happened that took precedence over training.It tooks awhile for things to get stabilized so I could fully concentrate on the training and the recovery that was necessary to make progess.
I thrive on a very simple life that revolves around progressive training and progressive recovery.

Roland Denzel said...

Thanks. I hear you on that stuff. I had a hard year and half at work, and I'm just getting things back on the training front, but still dialed way down from before.

The hardest part for me was that I used training to de-stress, but when you have a ton of stressors, you better pick training that's not going to make things worse, and even then, less is better.

Mark Reifkind said...

roland

exactly. one's stress box is only so big and you can fill it with stress from training or life or any combination in between.

when life stress is huge less is more in training.

jockeRKC said...

Jepp this 2 weeks has been full of stress for me (PTSD) so my training has not been that good, but then i just took a little weight and it was good again.

Mark Reifkind said...

joakim

yes, taking some time to back off and have some patience does wonders. I'm so much better at that now than before. being injured puts so many things in perspective.

no one workout is important and yet, they all are.there is always, if one is lucky, another day to train again.

Mark Reifkind said...

joakim

yes, taking some time to back off and have some patience does wonders. I'm so much better at that now than before. being injured puts so many things in perspective.

no one workout is important and yet, they all are.there is always, if one is lucky, another day to train again.

More press mistakes from today

 1) Gotta engage the rhomboids when setting the low rack position.Lock in 2) Elbows up is crucial 3) 'Straight  up' on the unracking...