I know you're eager to see what we've been up to. You cannot wait any longer. Well, let me satisfy your curiosity. Here's the work done so far this week, including what I plan on doing tonight.

All in all, a nice plan is emerging. Adaptation is happening (Yay!). Mostly, I'm getting used to sets of 10. It's amazing, actually, how quickly these go from sucking to quite easy. 

Monday, 2/6

1. Standing press to 205 for an easy 5. 

I'm fighting my way back into shape on these. This load was heavy last week for some reason, so I didn't add top the prescription...I'm in no rush to stale out. This week, the reps came easy. 

2. Close-grip bench press, 5 sets of 10 at 205

This is a very light load, but I'm not concerned with how much is on the bar for these sets of 10. I want the adaptation from the volume. If I add too much load, I won't adapt very well…Baby steps. The load will increase 10% or so in the coming weeks. 

3. I’m pretty sure I did some rowing, but cannot remember just what I did. It doesn’t matter too much, actually. They call it assistance work for a reason. 

4. Triceps extensions, 3*10

5. Airdyne, 3 sets of 30 seconds at 100 rpm

Let me tell you, these are brutal when you’ve been away from them for a while. My quadriceps were on fire for 10 minutes afterwards. Wow. 

Wednesday, 2/8

1. Deadlift to 455 for an easy set of 5, then on to block pulls for an easy 5 with 500

I’m leaning towards a two-tiered approach for the deadlift. First, some work with carefully prescribed loads. Second, I’ll do some specific exercises thrown in for variation. 

All of these loads tonight were very easy, no motivation required. That will change in the coming weeks as I ramp up the loads a bit. 

2. Cambered bar squats, 5 sets of 10 with 300

I barely made it through this work last week. Also, I was sore for 3 days afterwards! But oddly enough, I breezed through this week. Go figure. The weight will stay the same for another week, then there will be an unloading week, then I’ll increase the load by 10% for another block of 10 rep sets. 

That was it!

Thursday, 2/9 – The planned workout

So this is what I plan on doing tonight. The day is designed to complement Monday’s work. 

1. Bench press to 305, reps will be around 5 but I’ll take more if it’s easy. It will likely be a bit too light.

2. Two-board press to 385 for 5. 

This would be a nice marker for me. Last week I just did 3. Nothing maximal here, I’m just taking my time working back up on these exercises. Once it’s time to pursue some singles, I’d like to be back around 475 on this lift. I’ll likely never be back near my all-time best here. When I was quite a bit larger, I managed something around 550 on this lift.

3. Standing press, 5*10 at 135-150, easy work

4. Ski-erg intervals, 30 seconds all out*5

I should be doing some kind of pull-down, but I don’t want to. They are so damn boring. I’m doing these for the conditioning work, and for the novelty. 

5. Prowler…why not?

Notes: Overall, there's a fair amount of work being done. You won't notice too much speed or maximal effort lifts. That's intentional. While all reps are done quickly, and there will be some heavy lifts and variation, I want to focus on the volume. Once I've adapted and have pulled all the benefit from this, I'll move towards more heavy stuff, and will dial the assistance work from 10's and 8's to 6's. 

There it is,

Chris

Here is some training from the last two sessions. 

Monday, 1/30

1. warm-up and mobility

2. Standing press to 205*5

Let me tell you...When you focus on benching for a month, your press goes to shit. It should not be neglected. 

3. Close-grip bench press, 5*10 at 205

Chest pumpage.

4. 10 sprints pushing the Rogue Yolk

For a time, I was doing these as my warm-up before my strength work. Well, let's say that this night sucked! But I will get better very quickly. 

Wednesday, 2/1

1. 500m row in about 2 minutes...get the juices flowing

2. Snatch pulls to 315 for 3

3.  Halting deadlift from the floor to 405 for 8

Let me tell you, this exercise is much harder than it seems. My glutes were trashed, and my back was cramping a bit. Just what I need to improve my pull from the floor. 

4. Cambered bar squats, 5*10 at 300

So hard...Haven't done reps in some time. Goodbye belly. 

Tomorrow we have some benching, and more sled. Till then, 

Chris

TheChrisMooreBlog.com

I wrote some time back about the idea of riding the wave.

Picture yourself paddling in open waters. You position yourself the best you can. You try your best to be patient, waiting for the perfect opportunity. When the time is right, you start paddling with everything that you’ve got - a mad bustle of hands and feet. That gives you the chance of catching the wave. If all goes well, and if you’re a bit lucky, then you will be in one hell of a ride.

But there’s another key thing to grasp…You must know when to get off! Try and ride the wave for too long and you may be in for a wipeout. 

This analogy describes the process of training perfectly. There’s the initial fight to adjust to the training - The growing pains. Next comes the process of getting on top…the adaptation. In other words, these are the good times. But! …There’s the wipeout for those who try and stay on top for too long. This is the inevitable stagnation and maladaptation that comes with pushing for the same damn thing day after day after day. 

The most obvious application of the analogy is in the actual workout. You warm-up, get into the meat of your work, put in the absolute best reps that you can, then stop before fatigue begins to muck with your form too much. But there’s also the bigger picture. This scale of training time is measured in weeks, months, and years. The wave still applies. You fight for your adaptation and your new goals, then you move on to the next thing when the time is right.
The time after a competition is the perfect opportunity to catch another wave. Over the past year, I’ve learned quite a few lessons, and I’ve made some real progress. That enabled me to have a pretty good showing at my recent powerlifting meet. However, prepping for this contest came with a price. My bodyweight is up, my conditioning is down, and my training is much too specific and predictable. 

So here are the new goals for spring. First, I want to get my bodyweight down to at least 275 lbs. I currently eat pretty good, and keep a pretty tough training schedule. So, I guess my first step will be to eat even better, and train much harder!

Next, I want to remain strong. I’ve learned from past weight loss ventures that if you’re not smart, or if you rush the process, your strength will disappear like a vapor. I don’t want that. My goal is to take my renovated physique on to a powerlifting show in the early summer and do well. 

Nothing is set in stone quite yet, but here’s the basic offseason plan for now. 

1. Train 4-days per week

I’ve been following a 3-day per week schedule for about two-years or more. It’s been completely awesome. But nothing lasts forever. I think it’s time to move to a 4-day training week for one specific reason…I can manage my heavy conditioning a bit better with that split. 

• Tuesday – Heavy Press, Repetition Bench, Heavy Sled

• Wednesday – Deadlift, Repetition Squat, Light conditioning

• Thursday – Heavy Bench, Repetition Press, Heavy Sled

• Saturday – Heavy Squat, Repetition Deadlift, Moderate Conditoning

The big downside here is that I will not be able to squat 3 times per week. However, if you count heavy sled pushes as unilateral leg work, I will now be training my lower body on a total of 4 days. So, the training volume will be up. That’s bad news for my belly!

2. Increase the reps

The basic law of any offseason training period is that your training volume will increase while your training load will come down. I will not violate that here. 

While I will keep enough load on my back to stay strong, I need to spend some time on reps. Here, I’m going to borrow an approach from Jim Wendler. After my primary strength work, I’m going to perform 5 sets of 10 reps with the barbell. If I squat heavy, I’ll pull for reps*…and vice versa. For upper body work, the rep work will alternate between variations of the press and bench. I think that’s a very nice, balanced approach. 

*This all seems like a good idea now. However, that all changes during the 7th rep of a tough set of squats or deadlifts. I’ll do my best to stay focused. 

3. Be precise with the strength work

In years past, I would try and deviate from the lessons I’ve learned over the course of my powerlifting career. I’m not going to make those mistakes this time around. I’m resolved to this goal…If I’m going to screw up this time, it’s going to be in some new and exciting way!

• My squats will be done with a lot of variety, including some chain and band, and lots of specialty barbell use. This 1) keeps training fun, and 2) helps me manage the wear and tear of my shoulders. One difference? A lot of deep, and bouncy reps on the repetition days. 

• On deadlifts, I’ve always had success by training hard, but changing the style of pull frequently. I’ll have to stay with that. However, I must build my strength off the floor. For that, I’m going to do halting deadlifts as often as I can (Pulling from the floor to just above the knee). This allows you to build the bottom strength in a very specific way, while limiting the work that would be done locking out the barbell. And no, I don’t plan on losing lockout strength. Every other workout will feature a strict rack/block pull. Ying-Yang, my friend. 

• For upper body work, I’m still convinced that the key to real strength is the overhead strict press. It’s just so hard! So every other pressing day will feature the press. However, I must remain competent and ready in the bench. While I’m not willing to push the loads too much here, I will be using some special exercises to keep strong. I’ll be doing some floor, pin, and board presses to target the various zones of the range of motion.

4. Continue to ramp

I like to use the ramp for judging my training loads. It makes since. It’s conservative. It’s progressive. It allows you to train heavy frequently. I do not see much need in changing now. 

So, this is the plan for the next few months. We shall see where it takes me. 

Sometimes I ask myself why I continue to chase these strength goals. I guess the primary reason will always be that it’s fun. Also, while I don’t take the process too seriously any more, I love the hunt for the new record. I love the idea of continually refining myself, mentally, but also physically. This keeps me under the barbell. I hope the same for you. 

Chris

TheChrisMooreBlog.com

Well, maybe I'm a bit tired from the meet. Everything feels heavy...Motivation is down. Classic "Dummy, take a break. This is the offseason," scenario. 

Tip of the day: Do the obvious thing. Don't overthink.

1. Some warm-up, although likely not enough.

2. Clean pulls, 5*3 at 300

3. 2/3 squats down to chains

Here, you squat down, set the weight on the chains, pause, then drive up. It's not quite full range of motion.

I wanted to just do 315 for 5. However, when I walked over to the rack, there was already 150lbs of chains hanging on the barbell. So I just left it on. Ended up working to 340 for 5 with the chain. No, a 500 pound squat for 5 isn't that light.

Always learning this lesson. 

4. Floor press, 5*10

I ended with 275. My arms, much like everything else, are blitzed. 

5. 500m Ski-erg, 1:58

I should do more for conditioning, but I didn't care tonight. I wanted to wrap it up. 

We'll get back in the groove. Right now, the keyword is "offseason." 

Chris