Random Thoughts: Progression Methods, Supplements and Moving In
After finally settling into a new routine in the new place, I finally have a little more time to write on here. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier but I moved to a new apartment last month. It's a nice upgrade from my last one, I finally have a patio! But all moves take time and it took me a full month to settle into my daily routine.
It's funny how little things throw off your habits, but the biggest adjustment for me was getting used to the fact that I didn't have grocery stores a block away from me. That gave me slight anxiety the first couple weeks but now it's under control and my grocery shopping routine is back to normal.
On another note, I'm still on a modified Germain Volume program, which I found better to put on size. The one aspect that interests me the most in any given program is the progression. How is it designed to gradually challenge me more and more? If your training plan doesn't do this, you will only go so far. The following method is best used when you hit a plateau.
The progression in this program is pretty simple. On the first workout you do 10 sets of 6 reps. On the second workout, you drop a rep, add a set and add 5%-10% of the weight. Repeat the same thing for workout 3. Now the cool part is workout 4, where the progress happens: you go back to the 10 sets of 6 with the weight of workout 2.
So say you are squating with 100 pds on the first workout, the progression looks like this:
Workout 1: 10 sets of 6 @ 100
Workout 2: 11 sets of 5 @ 105
Workout 3: 12 sets of 5 @ 110
Workout 4: 10 sets of 6 @ 105
Workout 5: 11 sets of 5 @ 110
Workout 6: 12 sets of 4 @ 115
Workout 7: 10 sets of 6 @ 110
Rest periods: see lower for more details.
Tempo: 2-0-1-0
Couple notes about this approach:
- You need to do it for at least 7 workouts, which depending on your split can take 1-3 months. But the results are promising: a 10% increase in work output. I'll take these results any day.
- The most important thing about this technique is patience! You will not see progress until week 4! Trust the process.
- Add 3-4 auxiliary exercises to your main lift. I'll touch on this a bit later, it all depends on your split.
Rest periods
When doing less than 6 reps, I do 90-120 seconds rest, anything over 6 reps ill do 30-60 seconds.
You also need to vary rests period according to which muscles you use. When squatting, your big leg muscles use up a lot of oxygen and take longer to replenish it, so you need a longer break than exercises such as curls or lat raises that aren't very taxing from an oxygen point of view.
Finally, I've been looking a little more about which supplements I can or should take before bed. I've been using ZMA for zinc and magnesium with vitamin C. Both are aimed at improving recovery. I'm also playing around with tumeric for a the same reason, I just haven't found a nice way to consume it yet.
Any one have other supplements they find useful for recovery that are good to take pre bed?
Cheers,
Clem