I was sitting on a city bus the other day heading down to the Pride parade. I had my headphones on, so I wasn’t expecting the tap on my shoulder that came from the gentleman beside me.
“How much do you bench?” He asked as a plucked Copperhead Road from my ears.
I find this question kind of funny. One, that someone would lead off a conversation with it; and two, who really cares how much I bench?
But he seemed genuinely interested so I answered. And I’m glad I did.
The gentleman told me about a strength problem he had, and I think it’s a pretty common one.
“I just reach a point where I can’t get much stronger.”
I hear this problem pretty regularly. Let me see if I can elucidate it for you and then offer a possible course of action.
When you first start training with weights, you get the best improvement you probably ever will again in your life. Due to neurological changes and fiber recruitment the beginner lifter enjoys much faster increases in strength. During this time, one should just continue to add weight to the bar and lift progressively heavier weights with a moderate amount of repetitions. For example:
Week one
100 x10
Week two
105 x10
Week three
110 x10
Etc. etc. etc.
But sooner or later (usually around 3 to 4 month range), these gains will slow down. Your body is working with much more efficiency, and already contracting as much muscle as it can.
What do you do then?
As far back as the 40s elite coaches have been using periodized strength programs in an effort to get their athletes to elite levels of competition on a particular day. More and more, this is becoming common practice in gyms around the world.
In a nutshell, it is alternating repetitions and weight in order to get stronger for a planned event.
There are different types of periodization, But today I’m just going to give you what I believe to be the easiest one so that we can get you all growing again.
The thing to keep in mind is the exercises do not change. Only the weights change and the repetitions change. It looks something like this:
Week one high reps with low weights (50% X 15)
Week two low reps with high weight.(65-85% x 4-7)
Repeat
This is called a “weekly undulating periodization” scheme.
Can you see how these weights/reps undulate from week to week?
So the idea is, you establish your training maximum (this is the maximum amount of weight that you can lift every day for at least one repetition), and then work within the given percentage of that weight, adjusting the repetitions accordingly.
So, if you can squat 100lbs, on week one you might place 50 pounds on your shoulders and squat for three sets of 15 repetitions; whereas the next week you might do three sets of five repetitions at 75 pounds.
Week three, repeat week one. Week four, repeat week two
I should probably mention that the fifth week should be what’s called a deload. This is a lighter week where you might only do a set or 2 to 5 repetitions at no more than 60%. This gives the joints a chance to rest and reduces the chance of injury.
The next week (week six) when you go back to heavier weights you may find that you can now squat 110 pounds instead of 100. So now you make your calculations off of that new training maximum. And so you will go until you are no longer achieving increases in strength.
Congratulations you have just created your first periodized program. There many ways of doing this. Some are more effective, some are less effective. But give this a try over the next few weeks and let me know how it goes. Or better yet, why don’t you come on in for a free assessment and we’ll determine what the exact right approach is for you!
I might even tell you how much I bench 🙂
I just want to take a second to say thank you for reading this! See you in the power cage!
The trainer.
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