Old Forum Power to the People

[kelliott]

Hi Pavel,

I have been on your Power to the People program since January and it seems to be going well.  However, I bought another book (I know... but at least you were a co-auther), Deadlift Dynamite.  In that book Andy says that cycles less than 4 weeks are a waste of time, but maybe that is working out three days a week with a ton of weight.  I wanted to tell you what I'm doing just to verify that I understand the program.

I start a new cycle tomorrow (Thursday May 28th).  I'll start with a deadlift weight of 200 lbs x 5 and a 5% reduction x 5.  Sidepress is 30 lbs x 5 and a 5% reduction x 5.  I am doing 10 day cycles, incrementing 5 lbs a day.  I can only get to 50 lbs on the side press so I'll roll back to 30 lbs on day 6.  I'll have sessions on Thurs, Fri, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Mon, Tues, Wed.  On Wednesday I should hit a PR of 245 lbs on the deadlift.  Then I'll take off the rest of the week and start the next cycle on Monday.

Have I got that right?  My plan has been to stick to those orders for the rest of the year, pushing the cycles by 5 lbs every time I get all 5 reps at the end.

Thanks,

Kevin Elliott

 

[Steve Freides]

Kevin, not all programs play by the same rules - if you are planning and executing PR's, it sounds like you're doing very well and I'd stick with it until it stops working for you.  And you're right, 3 days/week programs shouldn't be compared to every day programs.

-S-

 

[kelliott]

Steve, thanks for the affirmation.  I like Pavel's program because it is simple and it is very different from what I've done in the past.  I wanted to try something different to see if it will help me improve.  I'm also time crunched (like everybody else) so doing just essential lifts was appealing.  I did add a few exercises; straight leg deadlifts, squats, and pullups.  That workout takes about 20 - 25 minutes.  I'm also on an indoor rowing program with workouts that average roughly 35 minutes or so.  That makes my gym time roughly an hour.

The one thing that I've been using out of Deadlift Dynamite is the hamstring stretch with the feet on the wall.  I've had a hip replacement on both hips due to arthritis, and the arthritis limited my range of motion for years.  I have trouble keeping my back straight on the lifts and I know the hamstrings are at least one of the contributors.  The last three months I've been doing this stretch for at least 15 minutes a night.  I know Pavel says I shouldn't time stretching, but if I wasn't timing it I'd probably stop at 12 minutes!  I think it is helping but it is hard for me to gauge improvement in range of motion, which is one of the reasons I hate stretching.  It never seems to do anything for me.  But I told myself I'd commit to this hamstring stretch for a while (at least the year) and see what happens.  I'm hoping to regain hamstring range of motion and then not have to spend as much time every night to maintain it, at which point I'll focus on something else.  I do have Pavel's book Relax into Stretch.

 

Thanks,

Kevin