STOP WASTING TIME IN THE GYM
Setting a Planned System in Place to Achieve Long Term Success
January 4th 2016 was the first time I had ever had a barbell on my back. I maxed out my back squat at 270, deadlift at 350, bench press at 195, and strict press at 115. I had absolutely no experience in any powerlifting moves but I knew two things following graduation from U.S. Army Ranger School:
1. I was weak and I needed to be stronger if I was going to be competitive with my peers physically.
2. I was skinny and emaciated and I wanted to look like I thought a “Ranger” should look.
By the end of that first year, I back squatted 405, deadlifted 455, bench pressed 265 and strict pressed 170. I realize that these results are not mind-blowing and I believe that is because they are completely replicatable by anyone willing to put in the work. To insert some context, I achieved these results without injury and while working 10–12 hours days attending various Army schools and training events. The way I was able to keep plodding along in making consistent progress in my strength training was a combination of patience, periodization, and prioritization.
Patience
I cannot stress enough the importance of patience in developing strength. If you want to have any long term success in strength training, you need to be patient in how quickly you progress the load you’re putting on your body. This probably sounds like an obvious statement but when you’re only squatting 185 for 5x5 and your friends are repping 315 it can be severely tempting to allow your ego to get the best of you. I would encourage anyone who wants to become significantly stronger than the average population to check their ego at the door when they enter the gym. Your ego will just f*** up any plan you had in place. I’m of the opinion that a good mantra to lift by is:
The gym is for developing your body, not your ego.
The major issue with ego lifting is that it forces most people to go too heavy too quickly (see lack of patience). Strength development begins at a load of 60% of your 1RM so even though 60% of 270 is only a measly 160, if your programming calls for 5x5 at 60% stick to that shit! Speaking from experience, the people that train patiently are more consistent and their slow strength progression builds over time until eventually they are stronger than the people they used to feel inferior to in the next rack.
Periodization
If you crack open any textbook that covers physical development or training methodology, one of the introductory chapters will be entirely dedicated to one subject: periodization. This concept is extremely well known in the fitness industry from strength to endurance sports, but it’s such a tried and true, non-sexy concept it gets very little love from clickbait-ey writers. Despite the lack of provocative headlines, periodization HAS to be a part of your plan. Periodization works because the human body responds to physical load by supercompensating. What this means is that the body actually prepares to respond to a greater workload than what it just moved. This pattern can continue to happen for a period of weeks, after which the body needs a deload week to recover from the long term fatigue. What proper periodization generally looks like is some form of Base, Build, Peak. In strength sports you might call it a Volume, Strength, Power sequence. If you are preparing for a competition, that provides a good date to plan around for the end of your training period. However, if you don’t have a planned competition to prepare for the ideal length of a full training cycle is around 16–18 weeks. I have laid out my current training plan below as an example.
NOTE: This training plan is specifically tailored to MY training goals. The timeline and rep scheme can likely be replicated with some success but the exercises are specifically tailored to my needs as an athlete.
Volume Exercises: Front Squats (Beltless, Paused if Possible),Strict Press (No Wrist Wraps), Deadlift (Beltless, Speed Pull), Push Press (Beltless, No Wrist Wraps)
WK 1: 4x10 @ 55%
WK 2: 4x10 @ 60%
WK 3: 4x8 @ 65%
WK 4: 4x7 @ 70%
WK 5: 5x5 @ 75%
WK 6: DELOAD 5x5 @ 50%
Strength Exercises: Front Squats (w/ Belt),Strict Press (wrapa), Deadlift (w/ Belt), Push Press (Beltless, w/ wraps)
WK 1: 5x5 @ 80%
WK 2: 4x4 @ 85%
WK 3: 4x3 @ 90%
WK 4: 4x2 @ 95%
WK 5: DELOAD 5x5 @ 50%
Peaking Exercises: Front Squat, Strict Press, Deadlift, Push Press, Back Squat (Max Only), Bench Press (Max Only)
WK 1: 5x2 @ 90%
WK 2: 4x2 @ 100%
WK 3: 4x1 @ 105%
WK 4: 3x1 @ 105, 106, 107%
WK 5: DELOAD 5x5 @ 50%
WK 6: Max!!!
Prioritization
A commonly used saying in the U.S. Army is: if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. This saying is a nod to the fact that in all things, limited resources must be reconciled with massive demand. In training, we have unlimited performance demands. Everyone want to be able to squat 800 and run a 4 minute mile. However, the human body has very limited resources to repair damage caused by training. If your body is attempting to repair itself from too many different micro traumas from training, it will take longer to repair. This increased recovery time will lead to lower performance in successive training sessions and the trauma resulting from training will be lessened. Since the body has less training trauma to recover from, physical adaptations will occur at a glacial pace.
Alternatively, by limiting the amount of trauma and training stimuli you expose your body to you can achieve rapid improvements in concentrated areas. I utilize this principle to inform my compound movement selection when I plan out a training cycle. My compound movement selection is done following some basic video analysis of my max effort lifts (because the goal is getting better at those lifts). Seeing a video of the lift makes it clear where the weakness in the movement lies. For example, when back squatting I shoot my hips up out of the hole which indicates I have weak quads (preach). In order to remedy this, I have incorporated front squats as one of my primary compound lifts this cycle.
If this seems concept seems basic and simple, it’s because it is! However, I see many of my friends and acquaintances failing to attack their weaknesses in this manner. Instead of focusing on a weakness for a short time to shore it up, many people I know use an unplanned, flavor of the day method. This methodology completes fails to prioritize any specific strength/skill work and can be compared to a vehicle just spinning its wheels with little traction. However, if you can apply these principles to your training and follow some sort of a focus planned for a 16–18 week block you will see substantial improvement. If you start stacking blocks of training one after another, focusing on recovery and executing good reps (those topics are each a post in themselves) you will see massive changes in your athletic ability each year. Yes, each year. The game of athletic performance has to be thought of in years if you want to achieve anything that truly puts you a few standard deviations above the average person. Good luck, trust the process.
