Sunday

Deadlift: 405x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Calf Raises: 4x10
w/
Barbell Curls: 4x10

Shrugs: up to 455x5, 315x20

Conditioning: not easy, not too hard

Well, my foray into high frequency training has come to an end.  In the past twelve weeks I've trained five times per week, most of them coming on week days.  In the beginning things were going awesome.  I was getting stronger.  I wasn't putting on any scale weight, but I think I was leaning out a little bit.  And I was really enjoying the training.  Then a little past halfway things started to turn sour.  I was sore all the time.  I was tired all the time.  My training weights were going down.  I never got injured, but I could feel it coming a few times. 

I think this was a great lesson in having the ability to recognize when you need to shake things up.  I can't remember exactly who but a famous strength coach once said, "Everything works...for six weeks."  I didn't change protocols because I set my sights on going twelve weeks with it and I did.  Had I had the option I would have dropped one or two training days half way through.  My body became adapted to the stressors I was giving it and my progress stopped.  Ultimately I think I would have done a lot better on this program had I done a few things differently.

• Used lighter weights. 
• Planned a progression of weights to be used.
• Utilized better recovery methods.

Those three things I feel would have helped a lot.  The biggest one of all being the last one.  In a perfect world I'd be able to sleep in, eat, train, eat, take a nap, eat, do some active recovery, get a massage, eat, go to bed, repeat.  Of course, this was not the case.  Many Olympic lifters train with a much higher frequency than I did, but they also have made lifting the highest priority in their lives and are either subsidized by the government of the country they live in or have structured their lives to resemble that model.  I didn't do that.  I'm not an Olympic athlete.  I work, I have a life outside of training, and I wouldn't want it any other way.  I love to train, but I'm not married to it.

I'm going to take things easy next week while I draft up my next training plan.  I'm not 100% on how it's going to look but I've got a pretty good idea.  It's going to have a progression based on where my maxes are at and it's going to be more powerlifting based.  That much I know. 

For right now I'm on a big Beastie Boys kick.  Well, I'm a 6.7 on the Richter scale!

Song of the Day:

“The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose” -Plutarch