How I Derailed My Training by Blowing Off Good AdviceBy Lonnie WatsonFor www.EliteFTS.comFor several years, I’ve been powerlifting with nominal results. I say “nominal” because I would make great progress only to make little or no progress for a long period of time. Sometimes I would even go backward. I was in the Army for twenty years. Out of those twenty years, five and a half were spent jumping out of planes at Fort Bragg. For training, we performed land navigation (Land Nav), which involved taking a map, compass, and your LPCs (leather personnel carriers, i.e. boots) and navigating over long distances. Sometimes we would get disoriented and head in the wrong direction or where we thought we were on the map didn’t match up with what we were looking at on the ground. We were semi-lost. What did we do? We backtracked to the last known point where we knew where we were and regrouped. Often times, it was a minor mistake. We had taken a right instead of a left or zigged when we should have zagged. I recently turned 43 years old, and my dream of reaching the elite level in powerlifting seemed to be as far out of reach as when I started. So I backed up to the last “known point” and regrouped. I started analyzing a few things that I was doing and came to a few serious conclusions. I remember reading things that Louie Simmons from Westside, Jim Wendler and Dave Tate from Elite Fitness, and others had said in articles and interviews all through my “career” as a powerlifter and how I had responded to what they had said. I came to the realization that I had blown off some very important advice. That advice, if I adhered to it, would start me progressing in the right direction again. In this article, I want to elaborate on some things that are basic and may get you saying, “Duh, I know that.” However, they’re important things that powerlifters and strength people in general forget, slack off on, or blow off altogether.
Controlling volume I used to read articles by Wendler or Tate that discussed controlling volume. If you read any article by either of these guys on ME work, you’ll see an admonition to control your volume. You’re making a huge mistake if you don’t control your training volume. Some drug-free lifters have a volume that exceeds that of chemically-enhanced lifters. Jim Wendler has written a number of articles that address this.[1] The biggest mistake I made was that I tried to build too many things at the same time. I wanted to bring up too many weak body parts or too many different kinds of strength simultaneously. I trained for powerlifting but used assistance work to make my physique look better instead of addressing my weaknesses. It’s very hard to concentrate on hypertrophy and get bigger while using a rigid powerlifting template like Westside. Now, can you build some mass using Westside? Sure, but you can’t get ready for a meet and do a hypertrophy mass cycle at the same time. You’ll overtrain. Which brings me to my next point... Pick one kind of strength and build it up. Bring up one or two weaknesses at a time. Recently, I decided that my upper back was holding back my bench. So I incorporated a lot more shrugs into my routine. I also added lat training twice a week instead of only once a week. I made sure that on bench day I got in some direct lat work in the form of rowing and some kind of shrug or face pull. Also, I needed to understand that volume on assistance work must be lessened on ME days. I had to remember that training isn’t about a seven-day week. I don’t need to do DE bench every week. I don’t need ME training every time I work a particular lift. Volume has to be controlled throughout the entire month. One of the best programs I’ve ever seen that controls volume is Joe DeFranco’s “Westside for Skinny Bastards” routine.[2]
Deloading
Periodically deloading is one of the big things that is related to volume and helps control recovery. This is something that I would read[3] about and think I didn’t need to do because I felt fine. I “felt” strong. What is deloading? It’s taking a planned or unplanned break in the training cycle to recover. It’s a period of less volume, less intensity, or no training at all throughout the period of the deload. Some guys, like the members of Metal Militia, deload every fourth week. Others deload in the fifth and tenth weeks of their program. If chemically-enhanced lifters need to deload, I, as a drug-free lifter definitely need to deload. This is something that I never did until recently. I woke up totally depressed one Sunday morning. I take antidepressants for a chemical imbalance that I developed from my days back in the army. I knew that I was taking my medication and doing everything correctly. I didn’t have any financial, marital, work stress, or other related problems, yet I felt depressed. Something was wrong. So on a hunch, I checked my training log. I looked and the date was August 24th. I look backed in my log from July 23rd up through August 24th and there it was. I had performed tons of ME work—ME squats, ME deadlifts, ME overhead presses, ME bench, etc. I did really well and hit several PRs. Here’s how it looked: 07/23/07: ME deadlift, worked up to 5RM (PR) 07/30/07: ME bench, 5 reps at 95% 08/1/07: ME squat, worked up to 3RM (PR) 08/4/07: Birthday strength feat, deadlift 405 for 43 total reps (80–85% of max). Insane! (This was Saturday, and I took off until Wednesday.) 08/8/07: ME bench, 5 reps at 95% (10 more pounds than 7/30/07) 08/13/07: ME bench, incline press, worked up to 3RM (PR) 08/16/07: ME deadlift, 3RM (new PR) 08/21/07: ME bench, incline press, worked up to 3RM (max didn’t go up from week before…there’s a clue) 08/23/07: ME squat, worked up to 3RM I was mentally fried. The depression was from a fried central nervous system. A radio talk show on stress and depression that I happened to catch confirmed it. I was so fried that my brain wasn’t secreting serotonin, the chemical that keeps you from being depressed. What did I do? I implemented a deload plan ASAP! The thing that I learned about deload is you can’t always go by feel. I can’t anyway. You have to start off by just doing a planned, periodic deload every so many weeks. If I wait until I feel I need it, it’s already too late. So I implemented a planned deload every four weeks. Another mistake I made was that I didn’t totally deload. I deloaded upper body, but kept training my lower body hard. You can’t deload on certain body parts or lifts and expect to get the effects of a good deload. You have to deload completely. Extra workouts
This is an area where I did everything wrong. Extra workouts are not an excuse to get in another butt busting workout. Extra workouts, as Dave, Jim, Louie, and others have stated before, are to compliment and help your main workouts. They have no other reason. I never did that. I did extra workouts that were too intense. You can use extra workouts for different things like recovery, bringing up a weak area, increasing GPP, and increasing muscle mass. If you’re doing it for any reason other than for recovery, you need to proceed with caution. You can do too much in a hurry if you aren’t careful. Add only one extra workout in at a time if you aren’t used to doing them. For example, if I want to bring up my hamstrings and increase my work capacity, I decide to drag the sled. Well, for one thing, I’m already sending up red flags because I want to do two things at once. Remember what we said about volume? So I get out there and take the sled on several trips of 200 feet because I need stamina. While I’m at it, I decide to load it up heavier because my hammies aren’t really feeling it. Before long, I’ve thrown my squat in the dumper because of too much volume. Now I have a recovery problem as well as a GPP problem. Or perhaps I want to bring up my triceps. I used to scoff at throwing a band over a door and doing 100 reps. That wasn’t studly enough for me. I went in and did too much and guess what? My bench went in the toilet. Or maybe it was delts. Too many side laterals. Read Louie’s article on extra workouts.[4] The truth be known, if people trained optimally, they wouldn’t need extra workouts or at least not to the level that they think they do.
Weak body parts Most people think that the way to fix this is with extra (or more) work. I remember reading that Dr. Mel Siff once said, “Training optimally is better than training maximally.” For me, one way to fix weaknesses without extra work was exercise selection. I had to pick exercises with a high payoff. If I selected the right exercises (and not too darn many), I made progress. That’s what I do now, and guess what? I’m hitting PRs right and left again. Translation: Picking the right exercises and the right number of exercises is making me stronger. And I’m making progress without extra workouts. My advice to anyone whose progress has stalled is go back to the basics. Get basic programs from Joe Defranco or Louie Simmons and start over. Reread the Elite Fitness Systems articles on these three subjects. Like we used to say in the army, “Back up and regroup.” Lonnie Watson is a powerlifter, strongman, motivational speaker, minister, and 20-year Army veteran. He currently serves on two Christian strength teams. These teams use feats of strength to do motivational, anti-drug, and anti-suicide assemblies in public schools and religious meetings in churches and other venues. He is leader and founder of MaXXimum Force (www.xanga.com/maxximumforce) and a team member of Team Delta Force. Lonnie resides in Arkansas. Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit us at www.EliteFTS.com. |
