Training Thoughts

Missy and I made a mutual decision to hold off on training until after the weekend for  us. We have been training very hard since the last week of November and we were on a small vacation so we decided to take it easy. I did some sled dragging Friday but other than that we hadn't actually lifted since Tuesday. I am not a fan of taking time off and we never made a conscious decision to take the weekend off, we just kept putting it off and putting it off. Late Saturday we decided we would do it first thing in the morning on Sunday. Wake up, eat breakfast, and then train an hour later. That obviously didn't happen so we said we would do it in the afternoon. Then when it was the afternoon we pushed it back to evening. Finally around 7 pm we just said screw it lets just do it on Monday.

I think it was the right decision. I enjoyed the hell out of my weekend with Missy and sometimes those small breaks from training can make all the difference in the world. We came back and did excellent tonight. I am yet again in stunned disbelief just how quickly Missy has picked up everything and improved. I find myself asking her a lot of times about how we should train. In fact she is the one who picked the max effort lift we would use for the next 2 week cycle. She chose Good Mornings and I decided since she was new to the movement (as a max effort lift she has performed plenty in training as a supplemental lift) that we would go to a 5 rep max rather than a 3 rep max.

Overall I feel this worked out great. My previous best on the good morning for a 3 rep max is 405 lbs. but that was over a year ago. I wanted to make sure that while I was going very heavy I was making sure the movement was going to make my squat and deadlift stronger and not just make my good morning stronger. To that end I cut it off when my form started to break down. I left a bit in the tank so I have something to shoot for next weekend.

Missy did great with the lift. She had excellent form and nailed a good "opener" weight. Next week her goal will be to beat that weight by at least 10 pounds. If she is feeling particularly strong she can go even higher but I would rather she not go all out. Always good to leave a little something in the tank most of the time. It gives you room to go heavier next time.

That might sound weird but say I can absolutely go no higher than 300 pounds on the bench press and I am on a two week cycle for the bench press. On my first week I would hit a 285 or 290. It is very heavy weight but I could of had "just a bit" more. The next week if say I did 285 I would do 290. It beats my previous weight, is a max lift and sets me up for a new goal. So a few weeks roll by and I come back to bench presses again for max effort lift. This time on week 1 I hit 295. On week 2 I might finally hit that 300 but by this point I could probably nail 305 but I keep that in the tank for on down the road. Maybe I can't hit 305, in that case when I do go for that weight it lets me know I should back off again and go back to say 295 and work up again. It sounds a bit complicated and it really is. Most of the time you will do this instinctively. Most people will miss a lift that they should by every right make but their form might be slightly off or they psyche themselves out of it. On rare occasion will you actually hit that absolute max because quite frankly it damn near kills you to do it. Beginners never will and intermediates will only do it rarely.

When I hit that good morning that was my absolute max. I saw stars after I made the lift and almost passed out. I really feel that I left a year or two of my life in the gym that day. The human body isn't meant to be pushed to that kind of limit.

As a side note a lot of people wonder whether they are a beginner or advanced lifter and some people (most) quite frankly throw out those terms far too loosely. Honestly if you have any doubt then you are a beginner lifter. My best explanation would be that unless you have trained with weight training non stop for over 5 years under good coaches and people who know what they are doing then you are a beginner. You should easily be able to total over a 1000 pounds on the bench press, squat, and deadlift (if you are a man at least), and should preferably be at least a class II lifter or above. That is to simply not be a beginner. And off and on training does not count, all that means is generally you have spent more time off than on. I was out of lifting for close to a year with two hand surgeries but I would never say that I have trained off and on.

And no I do not consider myself an advanced lifter. I know what I need to know, I am more than capable of training anyone whether they want to be a powerlifter, bodybuilder, or just get fit, but I know that I still have a long ways to go. Maybe when I finally total in the top ten in my weight class then I will consider myself advanced.

As far as the rest of my training it went pretty much as I laid out in the entry on Friday but I will repeat here for clarity sake.

Worked up to 5 Rep Max on Good Morning
2 Sets of 5 reps Squats (we went for as many reps as we could on the 2nd set which meant I hit 8 and Missy hit 10).
2 Sets of 5 reps Romanian Deadlifts
2 Sets of 5-10 Reps Bent Over Good Mornings

We are going to do our abs in the morning. Be good to get moving first thing.

****** I have to take a brief time out and congratulate Missy in an outstanding training session. Tonight on Squats she took the weight that was her one rep max a month ago and nailed it for 10 reps and she made it look nice and easy. She could of easily busted out 3 or 4 more reps as a grinder. Talk about a huge improvement! I couldn't be more proud but as she knows this just means we will both expect more out of her next time. I am confident she will more than meet that challenge as well.