Singles

OK, one problem with your singles is your build up. You are doing between 30 to 50 "reps" if not more before you get to your max for that day. It's a bit much. Also, are you rushing throught this? You have to rest and then rest more than you think you need between attempts. There is no medal for speedy.

You start out with 30 reps on the empty bar as opposed to the one set of 10 from last time. No surprize if things didn't go as planned. You want to avoid a big buildup of waste products. Lactic acid, blood pump all that. A little can help you lift more efficiently. A lot will shut you down.

One set of 8 to 10 with the empty bar should be sufficient. All you need to do is grease up the joints a bit.

After that, with the 95 I would avoid going over 5 reps. It would be better, imo, to do a couple of sets of lower reps if you really think you need so many…which you probably don't.

But here you do a set of 10 with 95 and then a set of 8 with around 50 percent of your projected max. Again….much more repping than needed. One set of 3 should do it. (Remember your body should be WARM already before you even start lifting)

Then after that you can start adding about 10 pounds at a time for SINGLES until you get to your max for that day. If you are feeling really good and you know that you can hit your max you can skip ahead as long as things feel nice and tight.

So for this last workout say something like this:

You guestimate that your max is somewhere between 260 and 270 (not really necessary to guess at all though)…

BarX8-10
95 5
155 X3
185X1
195X1
205X1

Then you could keep building up 10 pounds at a time or move up a bit. Either way it's a LOT less than what your were doing. But say…

220x1
245X1
255X1
270X1

You want to rest at least a minute between the earlier sets and then as you move into the heavier sets and once you get past the 220 range you need to recognize that you are already probably upwards of 85% of your max so you don't want to be rushing through that. Good rest periods as long as needed. Anything above 90% will COUNT afterall.

So in this example, once you hit 270 you already have 3 singles. Then all you have to do is accumulate however many more is in the plan. For me that would usually be something like a three week period with 7 to 8, then, 5, then 9 to 10 then backoff with some easy triples or something (so 4 week cycle). No, that is not a lot. But I'm good at high intensity work.

If you think that you cannot do more than, say 5 singles (that is the max PLUS whatever singles you do above 90% before or after the max) then do less. Say 3 or 4. Then next time do 2. Then next time after that try for 6 or so. But I bet you can do more than that you just need to take your time and net fatigue yourself with the warmup sets at the beginning.

You will probably be find it goes a lot better if you use a better buildup but the one I gave is just an example for reference…you got to figure you what works for you but definitely what you were doing is TOO much. You should use as many singles in the buildup as YOU need. But don't put so many triples or doubles in. I think 0311 mentioned that before. Volume doesn't count for anything here.

Remember that your relative max for the day and all your single attempts should be good form. You are not going for an all out PR like you are in a powerlifting comp.

My suggestion would be that you backoff with something easier for a week or two and then go at the singles again with a more moderate approach. And you can't do singles all the time. You gotta mix it up. You may be a person who needs to build up so that the singles cycle is more of a "peak" or you may be able to do it more by feel just making sure that the intensity cycles down and up so you don't end up losing ability through too much CNS intensive stuff.

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Right, so for me to look at your workout and tell your what you shoulda, coulda, woulda is pointless. So as usual, keep in mind that this is just me "imagining" an example of what could have happened. So the individual numbers are just there to fill in the blanks..not as a reference.

@ 92% = 115 kgs (253 lbs) x 1 rep x 6 sets
@ 100% = 125 kgs (275 lbs) x failure x 2 attempts
I failed at hitting 275 lbs. I failed while coming up. The bar slid down my body both times.

Right off the bat..I see you calling the first 6 singles a certain percentage and i'm going to react like wtf, regardless of what the numbers are. Because to me working off numbers from weeks ago just makes no sense. The first order of business is to work up methodically to your best max of the day.

You're expectations of what you wanted to lift beforehand were to concrete. I say that all the time right? It doesn't matter what you expect to happen. And the problem is expectations lead you down certain paths and make you ignore all the forks in the road that may be worth exploring.

So imagine..

You're plan was to hit around 7 or 8 singles.

You know you did 275 a while back (or whatever) so you're going to work up toward that range (meaning within 20 pounds or so..depending on the person) and based on how thing feel at that time you try for a best max for that day, good quality, etc..so say that ends up being 260. You can't do any more AT THAT TIME.

That's one single.

So you drop it down to about 235.

That's two. That felt pretty good, especially since your potentiated by the one heavier single.

So your bring it up to 240.

That's 3.

You take a good rest but your not so sure you want to try for any more so you hit 240 again.

That's 4.

It kinda felt sluggish so you drop it back down after a really good rest to 235. You have your groove back and 235 is actually a bit easier than it was before. Maybe a good bit easier.

So that's 5.

Now you're feeling froggy. So you break out your fractional plates and put on 238 or so and knock that out nicely.

So that's 6.

So you hit 240 again.

That's 7

You take one more real good rest and decide you are the man and put on 255. It is very difficult and just on the verge of being bad..but definetly acceptable.

That's 8 MUCH heavier singles than what you did.

Depending on the person, that scenario may be way to heavy or it may be conservative. But what matters is working within your ablilty at the time.

For me that is actually conservative because I respond very well to cns intensive stuff. I get stronger as I go along for the most part. There have been plenty of times where my first "best" ended up NOT being my best for that day because lifting heavy makes me stronger very quickly thought potentiation. Some people do not respond exactly that way, so I can't tell everyone to do what I do, only say say "this is the method" I use.

BTW, I would never say a workout was pointless.

Relative Max

What you experienced with hitting your "max" again is exactly what I am talking about. That is why I harp on the term "relative max". It is so important when you see this stuff in action and I didn't just pull that term out of my ass, lol. When I say relative I mean relative to your preparedness or ability at the time. When you realize that that "preparedness" can change between the beginning of a workout to the middle or end..you realize just how powerful this is.

So think about the difference between basing everything off a 1RM or PR you got two weeks ago, or a month ago but having no idea what your ability really is and therefore just how heavy you are working at any one time. Not only have I repeated my "max" but I've many times exceeded that..now that is an empowering workout.

You just have to adjust things based on what you accomplish. Yes, it is reactive but not purely reactive. Purely reactive would have you reacting to what happens without any thought process as to how primed you are to lift, how warmed up you are, etc.

Anyone who has really experimented with this stuff knows that with these very low reps and high intensities what it feels like at any one time does not necessarily mean anything. You can start out slow as shit and end up throwing the weight around like a feather. You can feel like everything starts out good but then you get a bit sluggish and then you have certain things in place that can get you moving again. You just have to be willing to slow down and think for a second.

This is one reason I hate volume protocols for strength and I hate percentage based protocols for strength. Yes, I know we are talking about percentages in these posts but they are guidelines to get us in a desirable ballpark. That is not what I mean by percentage based which is when you base a progression on something you did once upon a time which means at any time you can be lifting really light in terms of your true ability because you don't test enough.

I remember one of the sections of that "starting strength faq" giving all these complicated guidelines as to bar speed and how that would tell you how to progress. All the while counting the damn reps and sets. And I reacted to that like I thought it was the stupidest thing I've ever read. And I still think so. I'm going to base everything off of one damn moment in the middle of 3 sets of 5? When everything becomes about "getting the reps" instead of lifting heavy weights I start falling asleep. I'm supposed to be working on an article right now and it is about "meaning what we say". I am saying intensity is job one and I MEAN it. There are no buts like "intensity is the most important BUT you must get a certain amount of volume to properly stimulate the muscles" or some such shit. It's easy to accumulate volume. Any dumbass can accumulate volume.

You know the thing I'd like to get across about acclimation is that you don't ever have to stop acclimating. Acclimation has nothing to do with warmups or just some sets you do right before you do the main sets. The whole time..if you play your cards right you are continuing to acclimate. I.E. hopefully you are acclimating and not going the other way. The trick is of course learning how to play your particular hand as opposed to any other person's hand.

And that is why I said "I'd like to get it across". It's can and will be quite different for each person. So all I can say is to keep in mind that it aint over just cuz you miss a lift. OR just because it feels slow.

You may have a workout where you work up your singles very well and have some good lifts..then his a max that your are a tad bit dissapointed with. And many times you are standing there thinking, wait a minute, I feel great, wtf? That is the time to think of your feet, to experiment and begin to learn more about how you acclimate to heavy loads.

I related this thing I do where I'll drop back down and do a cluster. Then a really long rest. Then hit a max I missed and continue with my singles based on that. The question is, of course, whether something that is reasonable for me, isn't downright crazy for you.

BUT if you play with it you probably will find things that work. Maybe there are some days where you need a slow acclimation and others where jumping right in will serve best. There are staged sets and all sorts of tricks.

Advice for Banded Deadlifts

Now that you've double looped the band you might want to not just automatically start out with 50% on the bar.

When I first did them I ended up starting with more like 40 or a little less.

What you did is fine and that is ok to do as well. But you might want to experiment with different things.

For intance, one thing I love to do is start out with a load I know I won't make at first so that the bands shut me down at about mid shin or a bit higher. Then I pull like hell like i'm going to get it up anway. Take a good rest and do it again.

You make sure you are properly warmed up and somewhat acclimated and you pick a weight that is not impossible for you to do again't the bands but simply that you are not ready to do..i.e. it's a very difficult weight your would need to work up to...perhaps as high as 60 percent load but you be the judge. But you intentionally try this weight anyway.

I like to do some static core stuff, btw, before this since when you pull at like that at mid shin (or a bit higher) it feels like almost all lower back. The thoracic may round over some during this and that is ok.

THEN drop down to 40 percent of so and really concentrate on ripping the bar off the floor and then excellerating againsn't the bands.

That was one thing that was missing, btw, from those lifts. It looks like you were just "lifting" the bar. I want to see you TEARING it off the floor like it's glued down.

So, back to the plan. You start with 40 and you slowly work upwards until you get to the weight you started with. All the time you want to concentrate on explosion. Take long rests and it's best to stick with singles.

Then, you may be surprised, that you can lock out the weight you started with. fairly easily, two or three times.

Or course other times you may want to stick with light loads where you can generate lots of speed.

Start out with some bandeds and then go to reg deads sometimes if you want to see some magic. You should pretty much immediately see the gains form the banded deads when you take the bands away. Basically, 65 or 70 percnet load may go up like 50 percent and the bar should really have that floating effect because of the rtd you've developed.

This is a way of seeing just how quickly you can get stronger through nervous system effects. But the trick is to "set" the effects. Becasue with neural gains it is easy come easy go.

The andersons look ok..heavy looking. I'd like to see you take a bit more time at the bottom and set the back. You may be a bit low. Try to initiate the lift by driving up agains't the bar instead of just "pushing" with your feet. A good way of looking at it is you are "extending" your body against the load rather than just pushing against the ground.

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