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.