As I start looking at my own programming moving forward for X amount of time out of the gym with minimal equipment there’s a few things I wanted to share with everyone in terms of how I go about putting something together for myself & my online clients that is going to serve me long term that I think everyone can benefit from.
WE CAN’T JUST THINK NOW,
What can we be doing now to improve performance & increase our ceiling of potential for down the track once things normalize? We all of a sudden have an abundance of time available – well most of us anyway.
There is a big difference in lifting a given weight with sloppy technique, automatically adding more load next week, continuing to run the bigger risk of injury & never really contracting muscle tissue properly because ideal positions when it counts each rep is lost …
& what I like to call “OWNING A GIVEN WEIGHT”.
I’ll admit I’ve been pushing the last month to get my SQUAT back up in tripple figures, now I’m there I plan to stay there for a good 6 weeks or so with the same load on my back & rep range.
I want that 100kg for 6 to end up feeling light, but I will still make steady progress every week.
Initially the plan is to hit slightly more depth & tighten up at the bottom to improve muscle tissue demand where it counts.
In 2 weeks time I’m planning to add a pause at the bottom, I want to OWN the bottom position at 100kg’s.
I’ll work on that pause & tightness for a solid 3-4 weeks.
Finally I’ll add thin-ish bands from the bottom to that 100kgs.
This will make it harder as the squat pattern naturally gets easier (top half), it will give me something extra to push into once I’m out of the bottom, this is incresing load somewhat becasue the bands create more resitance & a more consistent demand on the working muscles over more of the strength curve.
The bands draw more effort out of the working muscles as they gain easier positioning in the movement so the tension is higher for more of the time performaing each rep.
So there you have it, 6+ weeks progress with the same weight on the bar & rep range.
This will allow me to keep making progress without putting more & more load on my spine & give my connective tissue time to build up its tolerance to the current training demands.
If staying injury free or if you’re prone to getting injured this is something worth considering.
Simply improving execution at the same weight is progress!
HAPPY LIFTING