freeflowme
Level 4 Valued Member
Hey all,
I just got to looking ahead at the calendar and realized that there's 7 weeks until the week of Thanksgiving, when we'll be traveling to visit family, which makes for a pretty nice little cycle of 3 weeks waving up, a deload the 4th week, and then another 3 weeks hopefully peaking in a PR.
I've been going back over my PTTP logs, and have noticed a couple trends:
Please let me know what you think:
Previous PR: 290x5 / 300x3 (225 = ~77% which might be a bit high of a starting point - my previous cycles started at ~67% of what my PR ended up being - but the book says to start with 70-80% of your 5RM)
Week 1: 225, 240, rest, 255, 260, rest, rest
Week 2: 240, 255, rest, 270, 285, rest, rest
Week 3: 255, 270, rest, 285, 300, rest, rest (beats previous PR by 2 reps)
Week 4 (deload), 200, rest, 200, rest, 200, rest, rest (I could use some ideas here on how to deload)
Week 5: 240, 255, rest, 270, 285, rest, rest
Week 6: 255, 270, rest, 285, 300, rest, rest
Week 7: 270, 285, rest, 300, 315, rest, rest, (set new PR)
And if I'm too fatigued at the end of Week 7, I do have the Monday of the next week to try for the PR again after the weekend to rest.
Honestly, looking at this part of me thinks it might work, and part of me is really hesitant. 225 breaks off the floor just from getting tight in my set up, but I haven't pulled heavy weights in a while, so I don't know how things will progress. Another part of me thinks I should pull a true 5RM or 1RM and base my cycle off that, but I really want to get started on Monday, not waste a few days resting, testing, then resting again. I guess a few days "wasted" might save my whole 6 week cycle.
Anyways, thoughts appreciated.
I just got to looking ahead at the calendar and realized that there's 7 weeks until the week of Thanksgiving, when we'll be traveling to visit family, which makes for a pretty nice little cycle of 3 weeks waving up, a deload the 4th week, and then another 3 weeks hopefully peaking in a PR.
I've been going back over my PTTP logs, and have noticed a couple trends:
- 2x5 w/ 2nd set @ 90% has seemed to work better for me than the 5, 3, 2 (slightly lower intensity, built-in variation in load)
- 15 lb jumps also worked better for me than 10lb ones in my progress from a ~265 -> 300lb 5RM (good blend of easy and hard every week)
- My PRs were reached after about 10-12 sessions (~2.5-3wks)
- My PRs were about 90lbs above where I started the cycle
- Fatigue was a limiting factor DL-ing 5x/wk. I was always in dire need of a deload after 3 weeks, which I unfortunately didn't know about as a training principle at the time, but since cycles were built around when we were going to be going out of town, I always had something of a deload built in.
- Adding pullups to the program robbed from my ability to recover for deadlifts. I should stick to 2 lifts, as the program is written.
Please let me know what you think:
Previous PR: 290x5 / 300x3 (225 = ~77% which might be a bit high of a starting point - my previous cycles started at ~67% of what my PR ended up being - but the book says to start with 70-80% of your 5RM)
Week 1: 225, 240, rest, 255, 260, rest, rest
Week 2: 240, 255, rest, 270, 285, rest, rest
Week 3: 255, 270, rest, 285, 300, rest, rest (beats previous PR by 2 reps)
Week 4 (deload), 200, rest, 200, rest, 200, rest, rest (I could use some ideas here on how to deload)
Week 5: 240, 255, rest, 270, 285, rest, rest
Week 6: 255, 270, rest, 285, 300, rest, rest
Week 7: 270, 285, rest, 300, 315, rest, rest, (set new PR)
And if I'm too fatigued at the end of Week 7, I do have the Monday of the next week to try for the PR again after the weekend to rest.
Honestly, looking at this part of me thinks it might work, and part of me is really hesitant. 225 breaks off the floor just from getting tight in my set up, but I haven't pulled heavy weights in a while, so I don't know how things will progress. Another part of me thinks I should pull a true 5RM or 1RM and base my cycle off that, but I really want to get started on Monday, not waste a few days resting, testing, then resting again. I guess a few days "wasted" might save my whole 6 week cycle.
Anyways, thoughts appreciated.
Last edited: