Chris Anderson's training log V. 2.0-- Tom Kallas is a dead man

Show up to lab in just compression shorts, trust me.

One of them put an electrode on my bicep. The veiny one.






no, i do not mean my penis

2/9-

Bench-
4x9@230, first/last rep paused

Pullups- some
Face pulls- a lot
Cable external rotation work- a bunch

Notes: weight moved fast but felt kind of heavy--I had a PT test today (and a busy weekend overall) and I'm sure that played into it. This is my last week the base mesocycle of Swolov. I will test my bench next week, take a pair of active deload weeks, then move into the intense mesocycle for my meet prep.

2/10-

Squat-
6x5@265, no belt

GHR- 4x10
HS high row machine- a fucking lot

Notes: Light unwrapped day today. Felt good, technique is solid. I'm glad I've put the focus on my upper back and bracing technique, because everything is feeling a lot more efficient. I will have a heavy wrapped day on Wednesday.

So excite... Such anxious...

Quote :

Squat-
6x5@265, no belt

Look out, we've got Paul Carter Jr over here!

But I did use wrist wraps.

Chris Anderson wrote:

But I did use wrist wraps.

Daddy is disappointed

But I did widen my stance a bit.

Chris Anderson wrote:

But I did widen my stance a bit.

Daddy is probably indifferent?

Copied from another forum:




Alright, so a little while ago, I said that I would do a little write up of my periodization for my upcoming meet (UPA Power Bash, April 12th, Sun Prairie, WI). I won't go into a lot of extensive detail, but I had a bit of fun writing everything up, as I had been getting discouraged with my back injury and I'm excited to get back into training and preparing for a meet.


General overview:

As of Sunday, I am eight weeks out from meet week. My overall prep program will essentially be block periodization, with a bit of a deload week in between the accumulation and intensification blocks. I'm writing almost all of this programming completely from scratch, and each lift will be trained differently. I will break the programming down further by each lift:



Bench press:

This one is pretty straightforward. Swolov (Smolov, but using it for bench) is the basis of everything here. Right now, I'm finishing up the last week of the base mesocycle. I will test my max sometime next week, and then move into an active deload. This will be two weeks long, focusing on my incline bench and my press. Percentages will be around 80% for not very many reps during this period, with higher volume on the other lifts.

After the active deload block, I will move into the intense mesocycle for Swolov. The intense mesocycle reduces frequency to 3x/week and focuses more on low-rep sets. This will last all the way through meet week. The last week of this mesocycle is only one session, so this will work quite well as a peaking program (what Smolov is really intended for). My last bench day will likely be 3-4 days out of the meet.



Squat:

Everything here is set by Prilepin's table. If you don't know what this is, Google it. In a nutshell, it's a chart saying "at this percentage range, do X-Y total reps per session, and do A-B reps per set".

The accumulation block consists of a medium unwrapped day, a heavy unwrapped day, a light unwrapped day, and a heavy wrapped day, in that order. This essentially follows a medium-high-low-very high intensity pattern. I will have two squat sessions per week, so I will be using wraps once every other week.

Percentages range from 60% of my unwrapped training max, to 87.5% of my wrapped training max. The percentages bump up slightly (2.5% per session) throughout the block. The accumulation block lasts a total of five weeks--I am in the second week now.

There will be a one-week deload in which I lower the percentages and do light and medium unwrapped sessions.

The intensification cycle will change slightly, following an unwrapped medium-wrapped heavy-unwrapped light-wrapped heavy pattern. I will squat in wraps once a week during this cycle. Again, percentages will bump up slightly each week. The wrapped days will begin at 87.5% and rise to 97.5% by meet week. The intensification cycle will last five weeks.



Deadlift:

This will be somewhat similar to my squat training, in that the accumulation, deload, and intensification blocks will all coincide with that of the squat, and that the percentages and total reps will be based off of Prilepin's table. The big differences are that I will only deadlift once a week, and that the accumulation block will consist of deficit deadlifts and block pulls from mid-shin. I will not competition deadlift during this block.

I am going to be alternating which variation is my "main" lift of the day. One week, I will deficit deadlift in the 80% range, and do block pulls at 70%--then the next week will be the opposite. Percentages will rise after both lifts have been the main lift of the day.

My reasoning for this is that I can still train my deadlift without doing the actual deadlift. My deficit deadlift has always been a good indicator of where I am from the floor. In addition, this will keep the overall poundage in my hands lower than it would be if I were to use the competition deadlift in this block. I need to make sure my recovery goes well, especially as I build my squat and deadlift back up after the clusterfuck that was my lower body training while dealing with my back injury.

The deload week will be my first week pulling from the floor. After that, the intensification cycle will be incredibly simple--start at 87.5%, bump up each week to 97.5%, reduce total number of reps each week.


Accessory work:

Some sort of pulling movement every day. Mostly lats. I do need to focus on my traps more, however, so I will do shrugs once a week and I will likely find a place to throw in farmer's carries once a week as well. GHR's will be prominent. Every now and then, I will do some front squats, strict good mornings, and possibly RDL's. I will work on strengthening my midsection throughout the accumulation block.

Everything else will be minor stuff just to fill in the gaps and keep me feeling healthy. Band pull aparts, face pulls, curlz, back raises. I might end up doing calves now and then because I think they are important for the walkout.

2/11-

Swolov base, W3D2

Bench-
5x7@245, first/last rep paused

Shrugs- a bunch, from 315-415 and back down
Curlz- a lot

Notes: Reps were smooth and quick but I need to do a better job of staying in the groove at the top or I'll never get the top-end strength I'm looking to build. Video of last set incoming.

2/12-

Squat accumulation, week two, wrapped heavy

Squat-
4x3@405

RDL- glute said no thx jeff

HS low row machine- 5x10, holy fuck I love this

Notes: Squats were pretty fast and felt good other than my glute--it's hurting again. Still, it usually resolves itself without too much trouble and it's almost never been something to prevent me getting my training in. It really just prevents me from doing pure hip hinge work, a la RDL's.

This was a good first wrapped session, and I have a good feeling about my squat. My back is feeling 100% healthy, no issues whatsoever. My confidence is back.

2/13-

Swolov base, W3D3

Bench-
7x5@260, touch and go

Curlz- a lot
Band tricep pushdowns- a lot

Notes: Elbow was pretty achy today but I went right through this session. Good speed throughout--I would say my fifth set was the best overall. My bench is getting a lot stronger. One more session and I will get ready to test.

Hey you said you set your squat off of Prelipins table, not saying your wrong, but prelipins table was set for Olympic lifts, so the % for the reps are off a little because on the squat your dealing with a much bigger muscle group. so you might be able to do some tinkering an find a heavier sweet spot for the squat an still base the reps off of prelipins

2/14-

Swolov base, W3D4

Bench-
10x3@270, touch and go


Notes: Elbow was pretty achy, but I survived. Bar speed was good, and the reps got better right around set 6 or 7. Everything felt better when I really focused on squeezing and getting tight. I gotta practice what I preach.

I'm giving my elbow some rest, and I'm planning on testing on Tuesday, or even as late as Thursday. I'll shuffle my days around a bit this week to take advantage of not benching on four of them.

2/15-

Deadlift accumulation, W2

Block pull-
8x2@415

Deficit deadlift-
3x7@350

HS low row machine- 1x20, 4x10
Trap bar shrugs- dickbutting around

Notes: Good pulling day today. I did a bit of a Poage-esque warmup with some RDLs and paused-at-the-knee deadlifts, and my glutes and hams were feeling joocy. I think that rotating those two movements, along with front squats, around as a secondary movement on my unwrapped squat days would be worthwhile. I will also use them as a warmup, as I did today.

That 270 x 3 was fast.

Is your main reason for not pulling off the floor during this cycle to reduce the amount of weight and stress on your lower back while training?

Andy Awad wrote:

That 270 x 3 was fast.

It actually felt really slow and my elbow was affecting my eccentric to a pretty good degree. I suppose with that being the 10th set I should expect it to be a bit slower.

Andy Awad wrote:

Is your main reason for not pulling off the floor during this cycle to reduce the amount of weight and stress on your lower back while training?

I'm just using this block to focus on some weaknesses and doing some other stuff. My deficit deadlift is a very good indicator of my pull from the floor, so I'm really going to hammer that and get back to 500+. The block pull is then to get more heavy work in and just keep a bar in my hands a bit more--I also really fucking suck at block/rack pulls.

I wanted to work more on these two lifts, and if I was pulling from the floor as well, it just wouldn't end well for me. I'm trying to do more volume during this block (it's not a classical accumulation block, but it's close), and high volume deadlifts just don't build my deadlift.

Sounds like a solid plan for training you deadlift, and I'll be interested to know how you end up liking it. I've started doing some deficit pulling because I'm pretty slow off the for, but I have yet to try rack pulls.

I like deficit deadlifts simply because they're more difficult. I'm not necessarily weak off the floor.

2/16-

Met my future wife


Notes: yes plz

2/17-

Medium unwrapped squat, W3 accumulation

Squat-
4x5@315

RDL-
3x5@225
2x5@275, belt on

HS high row machine- a bunch
Curlz- a lot

Notes: Poage's warmup has been working well for me thus far. I like it. I feel that actual barbell movements get me prepared better than doing band stuff, although that helps a bit too. I will adjust the warmup according to how I feel each day and just find out what works for me.

The squats felt fast and efficient. My glute gave me no problems. Technique felt better than it has in a while.