Training Attitude and Approach

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anuj Deadlifts were ok. I don't regret not doing another set. At the time it didn't seem worthwhile to go completely balls to the wall. This was a reasonably ok workout.

Good lord you're tough to please. Let's see…at the beginning of this cycle you did that workload in TEN sets. Now after once simple cycle you do the same workload in TWO sets.

When you did the TEN sets you called it a "decent" workout. Now after this accomplishment it was a "reasonably ok" workout.

This is all mind games. And you know it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anuj You're very right, sir. I'm being stupid. I worry too much about jinxing my progress which is why I always downplay these good workouts…So you're right: it is a mental thing, sir.

Well you know that silly saying about it being 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent training? Yeah right. It's ONE HUNDRED percent mental with a smattering of other stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anuj Understood. Words of wisdom. I'm gonna write this down as a quote from you in my journal. From now on whenever I'm being an idiot in the gym and second guessing myself I'm gonna look at this and wisen up. How much energy we waste on this sort of sillyness. I've gotten better with time….I've stopped feeling angry at people simply because I won't allow them to have that control over me. After learning to do that (you taught me which is why I bring this up) I have learnt to control who can arise what emotion from me….Atleast most of the time I am like this. Every now and then I slip up. BUT….this mental shortcoming in the gym is something I'm going to start working on from now. Baby steps and this is the next step.

Well the truth is it's not about comparison. I mean, I just did that in order for you to put this last deadlift workout in perspective with the first one of this consolidation cycle. But really, I can imagine very easily all these conversations you are having with yourself while your working out and comparing it with all sorts of other things

1. what you've done in the past
2. what you expected to be able to do
3. what you expect it to "feel" like
4. how you expect to feel about it

etc. and so on.

All that stuff gets combined in a perception that centers on number 3 in the lift. So ask yourself..do you really want to "experience the feeling" of a great workout or do you want to "analyze the feeling of a great workout"?

You know in quantum physics…the uncertainty principle? You look at a particle and you can never get the complete picture of it. This is all about flow and as you know I'm still working on the "getting in the zone" posts but how it works with quantum physics it also works with your mind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anuj When I am actually IN the gym, there is only ONE fear: What if I fail? And because this is my biggest fear - that I will fail to do that which is expected of me, because of this fear, I then start thinking about: 1. what I've done in the past 2. what I expected to be able to do 3. what I expect it to "feel" like 4. how I expect to feel about it etc. and so on. This is what runs through my mind, sir…..I can't fail. I just cannot bring myself to failing. Take Week 4 of my Deadlft workout. You had specifically asked me to do 5-7 triples. I did 5 triples. So I got my 15 reps. I had achieved the minimum reps I needed. BUT, I was not satisfied because I had not achieved that which I had set out to. I wanted 7 triples. 21 reps. So I did those last 2 doubles to squeeze in 18 total reps. I thought it was a crappy workout because I didn't do what you expected me to (from my perspective). The positive of this way of thinking is that it builds a desperate desire in me to achieve that which I set out to: which is why I got a total of 18 reps. If I did not have this hunger in me, I would've stopped at 14. So this is my problem: I am scared of failing. But we discussed this: how negative reinforcement to progress is NOT mentally healthy. Which is why what I now need to think or rather: what I have found successful over the last 4 weeks is psyching myself up by telling myself one simple thing: You've done this before and you can do it again. Thats it. I did this when I did those triples even though I had never done this much volume before. But that didn't matter. In my mind I had hypnotized or convinced or made myself believe that I have done this before so I do have the power to do it again. I don't think this is a permanent solution because this (to me) is like a shade less morose than doing it out of fear….but it's a step I feel. This is why I am so hell bent on reading those Zen books you mentioned, E. I want to stop thinking like this - and this only works for lifts in which I experience high levels of anxiety: deadlifts, pistol squats and abs. I think that my current approach of convincing myself of having done the lift before is better in giving me confidence when you compare it to approaching a lift out of fear of either getting weaker or fear of failing. But, I need to think with a different mindset. Approach this differently, I think.

Well, like I told you The Way of Zen is the best strength training book I ever read. And pretty much anything by Alan Watts will help you in the gym. As long as you use it as a tool and not as a way to 'become like' someone else.

The problem I see with all these 'mental tricks' are that they are just that…tricks. And the nature of tricks is that they only work a few times.

Let me try to come at it from a different direction. Many people say that the difference between winners and losers is that winners have the 'desire' to win and they 'expect' to win. Like most aphorisms of that nature it's complete bullshit:

1. Nobody really knows what makes the winner…not even the winner himself.

2. To say that a winner 'desires' and 'expects' to win implies that they also think about the opposite and that they can conceive of losing. Further implying that there is a situation in which this person could expect to lose.

This is what I meant about 'outcome' oriented versus task oriented' individuals. You are stuck in an outcome oriented mindset. Our hypothetical winner does not analyze outcomes in his mind. He does not 'expect' anything he just DOES the thing. There is no concept of compromise. There is not concept of winning versus losing. There is no concept. There is just the thing. The task.

3. This all implies that the winner approaches the task with his conscious mind running through scenarios. The most sure fire way to screw up a scenario is to run through the scenarios. Because running through the scenarios tends to always involve analyzing WHAT CAN GO WRONG. And you know what that leads to? Doing those very things.

I think for you imagery and positive mental cues are the best way to go for now. For someone that can't do it naturally that is a great way of getting task focused and letting go of the outcome dwelling. This should involve having a mental "picture" of yourself doing it perfectly. And using some very simple words that act as triggers to keep you on task. These words should always be about what you WILL do not what NOT to do.

I know that this all sounds like a bunch of new age amateur psychology but there is only one reason to put labels like that on stuff, isn't there?

Watts can help you learn to let go of the judgment and just let your mind work naturally and be in the experience in a mindful but non judgemental way. If and when you can grasp it which takes a bit, lol. But it's not about mastering something it's about opening up to something. I cannot explain to you how this can help you just have to experience that for yourself. But I will say that it helps you be more in-tune to yourself in an effortless way, which, is really because you AREN'T MAKING an effort to do that. It's not easy to put into words. Heck, that is what most of "way of zen" is…Watts trying to put into words things which are not really about words…which he explains again and again.

And the other more 'self-help' oriented ones are gold-mines.

The SINGLE most important thing I have ever learnt from Eric

Well you know that silly saying about it being 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent training? Yeah right. It's ONE HUNDRED percent mental with a smattering of other stuff.

More Deadlift Advice

Actually, what you're doing here (what I think and you already mentioned consolidation) is what you had me do when I was lifting 255-285. You had me really get that down. After that phase, my Deadlift shot up to 315. So hopefully I'll be able to DL 455 sometime next semester :-)

That's it. That's exactly what it's about. Only this time there is a "method". Most people look at ONE number. And when they can't pass that they call it a "plateau". So everything focuses on breaking through a plateau. Problem is that being stuck on 405 and then finally getting 410 or even 412.5 doesn't mean a whole lot in the big scheme of things. It could be "a good day" in the gym. All the stuff about recovery, adaptation, etc, becomes a moot point when you think of it in terms of "ranges".

So right now you've lifted heaver but on any given day you can't walk into the gym and do it again. At the same time you are very consistent with the range of 385 to what? 415 or so….

What we are doing is taking that range and making owning it.

Most of the time when people break a number plateau it takes everything they got. And not only is the new number hard..the previous number is still hard as well! So the goal of this is that the weight range we are talking about becomes "easy" and consistent. So it's a maturity factor and for that it helps to get into more volume and density.

When I say volume it's relative of course which is why I use single, double, triple. High volume when you can lift 400 is different than when you can lift 500. At any one point you can focus on "extending the anaerobic threshold" but we are not doing strongman training so we are just doing it as a means to and end but not THE END.

As for the plan:

Week 1: 385 for 2 reps x 2 sets
Week 2: 395 for 2 reps x 2 sets (single progression)
Week 3: 405 for 2 reps x 3 sets (double progression)
Week 4: 415 for 3 reps x 3 sets (double progression)

Here's the thing..if all that is easy than fine. But IF it is easy then I'd end up wanting you to extend it with the goal of increasing density (more reps per set in the same weight range). Because if you really look at that plan and take away the "single and double" it's just a bunch of doubles and triples at higher and higher weights. If you can do that then you wouldn't have need the previous plan. I doubt very much that week 3 and 4 would be easy, though.

There is no way for me to give you a plan or approve of a plan based on a system that has not set plan as its plan! You see the quandary. If I'd wanted to write down a schedule I would have but this whole thing is designed on being open. If you follow that plan you've made and it is too agrressive you could end up doing more harm than good.

Truthfully I'd rather you be able to do MORE at 385 and 395 rather than worrying so much about getting up to 415.

I only say this because I know that I can 395 for 2x2 and 405 for 2x3 tomorrow if you want.

This is the kind of thing that you MUST stop thinking about if you really want to train this way. You are still engaging in this type of thinking in your journal at times as well. Stop thinking about what you "can" do and what you "can't" do. Go in and DO it and what you do is what you do.

It think you would be able to go in and do things the way I explained in the previous pm IF numbers weren't floating around in your head. You say you CAN'T do it. I think you WON'T do it because you CAN'T let go of the numbers.

My reply:

Ok I see where you're getting at. I am still approaching this wrong. Let me try again, please.

You want me to dig in and get settled in between the ranges of 385 and 415.

You want me to focus on single and double progression.

But the plan is not really a plan - it is mostly a set of guidelines.

So, what you DO expect me to do is to:

1.) Stop focusing on what I can and cannot do. That is completely irrelevant. All that matters is what I DO.

2.) Go in on Week 1 and do a bunch of sets with 385. I assume you want me to keep the reps the same throughout the workout otherwise Week 1 of that is damn similar to week 4 of this current mesocycle.

3.) Now, I am supposed to base Week 2 off Week 1's workout. So, I can either add weight, add reps or add sets OR reduce rest intervals.

4.) Week 3 will involve me increasing either one of the three factors (sets, reps or weight).

5.) Week 4 follows the same pattern of progression.

Am I correct?

So my 2 concerns are:

1.) Week 1 will involve me starting with 385. Am I supposed to just go in and do X number of sets for Y number of reps based on how I feel?

2.) What if in one of the weeks I cannot add weight without reducing reps. Or if I cannot add reps without reducing weight?

Actually, I think I know the answer to question #2. Just tell me if I'm right here:
- We can cross that bridge when we come to it
- There is no need to plan failure
- If something like that DOES happen, then I simply do a couple more sets of 1-2 reps and in the end I will still have more volume than the previous week overall.

Correct?

1.) Yes

2.) Not more than 3 sets. Don't worry about week 4 except for starting at 385

3). Don't bother with reducing rest intervals…just don't ADD lots of time between sets. When I speak of increasing density, although reducing rest intervals does that, I usually mean adding reps to existing sets because the extra couple of seconds that takes is irrelevant, so in effect you are increasing density because you are getting more work done in a space of time.

I'll give you an example of what I mean but none of this has ANYTHING TO DO with your current program..it's just a hypothetical example. If you think about taking 3 sets of 5 and adding 2 reps to each set over period of weeks:

A. Say it takes you 8 minutes to do the three sets of 5.

B. Week two = 3x7 Add about `12 seconds.

C. Week three = 3x9 add another 12 seconds

D. So you've added a total of 12 reps to the original 15 reps but it only took 24 seconds longer and that 24 seconds was divided into 2 second intervals. Stahley would probably still think that 24 secs was significant. Bullshit. Only if you took that all at once would it begin to be significant. If the extra time it takes to add reps doesn't affect recovery then in effect it is increasing density…since we are not machines. Hence why I pretty much consider adding reps to sets as increasing density and of course volume.

Another point is that you can't do that forever. If you could my analysis would be wrong.

1a) Not based on how you "feel" based on how you perform. Saying it's how you feel makes it seem like you are supposed to walk into the gym and no how many reps and sets you can do. Just warm up, take t he 385 and do some reps until you feel like you have maybe one rep left in you. Rest and repeat. Try to repeat the same reps. If you can't you're done. If you can but it takes every thing you've got, you're done. If you can but it's fairly easy, try for another set (you can go to failure on the last set).

2b) Exactly..there is no need to plan failure. Boy….I am glad you're getting the Alan Watts books, lol.

Regarding Supplements

For pre/during if you want protein + carbs all you really need is a good whey and a mix of carbs. All the complicated stuff we got into a few years back is not really such a big deal. If you can afford it you might like a nice whey isolate because that will taste good but a good concentrate or mix will be fine too. And for carbs you can throw in some malto, dex, regular sugar, any other type of carb thing they have out there these days, lol…

The trick is to make a nice big dilute shake. Don't worry too much with the amount. About 15 to 20 grams of proteins and twice the grams of carbs or so..you can lessen it if it's too much. Drink half the shake before and sip the rest during. The thing with a shake is to not wait more than 10 to 15 minutes after drinking half of it to begin as if you do you can end up crashing.

Drinking half first and sipping the rest during is the best way to go because it actually enhances gastric emptying..which I've tried to explain to people again and again and they won't listen. If you drink the whole shake before, as the stomach empties it empties at a slower and slower rate as it becomes MORE empty. So, a lot of the shake sits in your stomach for a long time as you workout.

But when you drink half, it starts to empy, and then you continually sip a bit more and you are in effect keeping the rate of emptying more steady. Combined with the exercise which supposedly enhances gastric emptying.

So all in all better absorpion and less stomach aches. Also slow delivery of carbs so less chance of crashing. Really chocalate milk or anything would be fine I've learned but I still don't see how the hell someone would want to drink milk before a vigorous weight workout. Ugghh…

Quite often my pre and during shake is nothing more than whey mixed with cool-aid.

You can put more in the shake if you want as long as it's somewhat dilute and you spread it out like you said. And on the 15 minutes you don't HAVE to wait 15 minutes. You can probably begin your warmup immediately. Just don't go MORE than 15 minutes. See, a lot of guys drink a big shake at home then drive to the gym and end up starting their workout a good 30 to 40 minutes later then have a big crash (or stomach ache). They think it's the carbs fault but it's really that they don't know how to use the shake properly.

All the stuff about nutrient timing that was so big a few years ago (even having whole books written) has died down for your general strength trainee or bodybuilder. Having something immedieately pre (and during) is still considered a good idea. But it's the kind of thing that for a natural trainee was way blown out of proportion. It's kind of like you do that for 20 years and it makes the difference of 1.5 pounds on your frame, lol. Maybe.

But how the timing IS important is to keep a huge dose of quickly absorbed carbs in your system that you don't do anything with. The exercise helps regulate you blood sugar levels so you don't get the sugar crash. And there is the fact that the whey can add to the sugar crash…

Last workout of Deadlift Cycle

Eric,

A few days ago I wrote you an email regarding my next training cycle. You haven't replied back to that as yet. Good.

Please discard that email.

I have thought of something and I wanna share.

Firstly, come next Wednesday I need a new plan. This last week ahead of me is the final week of this mesocycle. I have a question regarding Deadlifts. I am supposed to deadlift 385 for 3 sets. How many total reps would you want me to do? I need a goal…Please tell me what you'd prefer I do. This is important because Deadlift day is tomorrow.

Secondly, I have new plans for my next mesocycle.

I was looking over this mesocycle and my training has been stellar. Apart from this nagging shoulder pain and tricep soreness, everything has gone alone really well.

So, I need to ask you:
1.) Can I repeat this same Deadlift cycle with 405 lbs? Would you recommend I do that?
2.) Do you want me to add in a heavy squat day? It's been 3-4 months since I have done any substantial squatting. Your thoughts, sir?

Ok, I have 2 different outlines for my training. Option #1 is considering you want to stick with what I have been doing so far (because it's been working):

Deadlift Day
- Deadlifts using the same cycle as what you had me do this month but I take 405 lbs instead.
- Abs
- Grip Work

Bench Press Day
- Bench Press
- Different Rows
- Facepulls & Shrugs
- Abs

Squat Day
- Anderson Squats
- Supine GHRs
- Abs

Pistol Squat Day
- Pistol Squats
- Pull-ups
- Head Supported Rows
- Abs

That was option 1 assuming you want me to do heavy squats. Now, if you do not want me to do heavy squats, then I was thinking I just do what I have been doing this last month with some minor changes:
- Deadlift cycle with 405 lbs
- More Pull-ups
- More Back work in general

So what do you feel, sir? I dunno what you want me to do. I've been doing "Conditioning" work for 3 months straight now. I think a break is in order - even if its only for a month. At the same time I don't wanna drop Pistol Squats.

What do you think I should do? I like the way I've laid out Option 1. It seems nice on paper. The problem is, do you think it's all fluff?

Thanks in advance, sir. I'm terribly confused on what to do…

Anuj

NO, NO. You do not HAVE to deadlift for three sets. This should completely up to how easy it is.

1. Do a set of 385 deadlifts to NEAR failure…that maybe about 2 good reps left, or one good rep left, or 1.5 good reps left..that depends on how it works for you. Doesn't matter how many reps. Even if it's only 3 that's fine. Or 4 or 5. Whatever happens happens.

2. After a GOOD rest..and I mean as long as you want or need up to 5 or 6 minutes, do another set, same as first. This time TRY to repeat the same number of reps because that will just make it easier to progress off…don't bother doing more reps than the first set unless it is just ridiculously easy..which is doubtful.

Take your time between reps so that you can be thinking whether this set will be it. The best way to no that is if this second set is more to failure than the last. In other words if the second set feels much like the first set then you can probably move on. If the last rep is the LAST rep, you're done. Hopefully you get that, lol.

3. Only after you gauge the toughness of the second set should you try to go on to a third. There is no need to push it. Two sets is fine. If you do go on to a third set don't worry about what happened on the first two. If you only have two reps in you then just do two. If all you have is one rep in you…then you probably shouldn't have bothered moving on to the third.

Anyway, if you do three sets, adding reps to the third set next time will be a logical way to progress. If you only do two sets you have the choice of adding reps to either or both sets, OR adding a third set…

So, after this next workout you just use single or double progression depending on what seems good. I think triple progression is probably out of the question.

DO NOT REPEAT THE SAME CYCLE YOU JUST DID WITH 405! ABSOLUTELY NOT. It's too much to repeat this cycle twice and you'd likely never get through it. AND all you'd end up doing is wasting the first cycle because you will not have cosolidated this range but instead pushed it too hard and possibly end up a step back.

During the next "cycle" you can add weight as part of single or double progression. Microloading would be entirely appropriate too. I envision this as you working off 385 and going from there up to the 405 range. But, even if you don't get near 405, 405 should be easy when you're done.

The workout plan looks fine. I don't know if you should do rows, facepulls, AND shrugs on the same day though.