AB's Keeling Over Reeling Through Exhaustion

[blut wump]

Total workload at appropriate intensities would be closer to my thoughts. I can't recall whether I ever tried to analyze the Korte with Prilepin's table in mind but it could be appropriate. Do a Google if you've forgotten about Prilepin and his table.

There is carryover to a 1RM but you have to spend time working the neural efficiency side to take advantage of it which is the purpose of the intensity phase. It's one of the problems of periodized training: you end up working for muscle adaptation or concentrating more on neural adaptation. One suffers while working the other which led to conjugate training.

In the consideration of total workload, adding or losing a rep can make a huge difference to workload. I think Wade Hanna when he ran the Korte, it's on the deepsquatter site, missed a rep from the bench sets. The difference to workload was huge. The Korte keeps reps-per-set constant so that leaves total sets as your dial for manipulating volume.

Since you've probably become unaccustomed to the volume used here, you may find your volume-phase progress to be beyond expectations and figures approaching 85% may be possible. I think you'll burn out before you get there but could be wrong. Either way, just keep adding sets or weight as you see fit, always holding in mind that, with the weight, at least, there's no stepping back.

There's also my earlier suggestion of adding some extra for one of the exercises on given days of the week. Deads on Mon, Bench on Wed, Squats on Fri, for example.

It's probably reasonably personal how to balance intensity and volume but when you're deep into loading it can be very hard to keep grinding those sets out. It's interesting to see your analysis and you have at least one avid viewer.

 

[anotherbutters]

More spreadsheet fun. I've added a delta column at the end to show the increase in tonnage from one workout to the next, which helped spread the increases more evenly. The total tonnage on both plans is almost identical (1000 tons ), which raises another interesting question - is tonnage all that matters?

The second workout just 'looks' harder because of the higher weights. Would the higher weights hit the CNS harder, independently of fatigue?

PLAN A – 73% projected 1RM (BW/Jim's percentages)

SQUAT			BENCH			DEAD			TONNAGE	DELTA
Weight	Sets	Reps	Weight	Sets	Reps	Weight	Sets	Reps		
67	6	5	48	6	6	87	6	5	6348	
67	7	5	48	7	6	87	7	5	7406	1058
69	7	5	50	7	6	90	7	5	7665	259
71	7	5	52	7	6	92	7	5	7889	224
71	8	5	53	7	6	94	7	5	8356	467
73	8	5	54	7	6	96	7	5	8548	192
73	8	5	55	8	6	98	7	5	8990	442
75	8	5	56	8	6	100	7	5	9188	198
77	8	5	57	8	6	102	7	5	9386	198
79	8	5	58	8	6	104	7	5	9584	198
81	8	5	59	8	6	107	8	5	10352	768
84	8	5	60	8	6	110	8	5	10640	288
TOTAL									104352

PLAN B – 78% - 83% projected 1RM

SQUAT			BENCH			DEAD			TONNAGE	DELTA
Weight	Sets	Reps	Weight	Sets	Reps	Weight	Sets	Reps		
67	6	5	48	6	6	87	6	5	6348	
67	7	5	48	7	6	87	7	5	7406	1058
69	7	5	50	7	6	90	7	5	7665	259
71	7	5	53	7	6	94	7	5	8001	336
73	7	5	55	7	6	98	7	5	8295	294
75	7	5	58	7	6	102	7	5	8631	336
77	7	5	60	7	6	106	7	5	8925	294
80	7	5	62	7	6	110	7	5	9254	329
82	7	5	64	7	6	114	7	5	9548	294
85	7	5	66	7	6	118	7	5	9877	329
87	7	5	68	7	6	123	7	5	10206	329
90	7	5	70	7	6	125	7	5	10465	259
TOTAL									104621

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EDIT: our messages 'crossed in the post'.

It's interesting to see your analysis and you have at least one avid viewer.

I'll take quality over quantity any day . Thanks again for your comments. I don't want to appear to be overthinking this with the spreadsheets, but I do think they're useful for comparing different scenarios, even if I end up doing something slightly different due to how things unfold in reality.

 

[blut wump]

The million Kilogram workout.

Actually, I think it's only 100,000 Kg or 100 tons.

 

[anotherbutters]

I thought it was 1 million kg too, at first

... and then I converted it to tons and still got it wrong

 

[blut wump]

I think the only way you can hope to be able to grind out 30-35 reps at 83% intensity over the three exercises in a single workout is if it's no longer your 83% intensity figure by the time you get there. Prilepin indicates optimal total reps in the 80-90 percent range to be between 10 and 20.

It might be worth aiming that far but it's difficult to say at this stage not knowing how you'll progress. You can try for it and hold steady when the going gets tough. The problem arises that the going may get tough too soon and then the program will be broken as you'll be buried.

 

[anotherbutters]

That's a very good point. I already have thoughts of running two of these back to back with a deload in the middle, rather than an intensity phase, which would give me the opportunity to load more optimally in the second round.

I think the sensible choice is to follow Plan A next week and then see where I stand. I could still increase the intensity afterwards if I wanted. Like you say, if I increase it now, I can't go back.

These weights seem easy sat here on my sofa on a lazy Sunday afternoon

 

[BiggT]

AB, some thoughts.....

% of 1rm during loading would depend greatly on the level of lifter you are. Weights lifted are relative and not NECESSARILY indicative of one's status as beginner/intermediate/advanced. The most accurate guage to measure a lifter's 'level' is the rate at which they progress and how much planning they require to make progress.

For beginner-intermediate lifters, progress can be make with anywhere from zero to moderate planning, and mostly loading/building fatigue occurs as more or less a by-product of just adding weight to the bar and working with increasingly heavier weights. The advanced lifter, who needs very long-term planning to make continued progress (think guys who would be ecstatic with a 5lb increase in 1RM after a 9 week training cycle), uses lower %'s of a 1RM and manipulates workload through more volume, this builds the fatigue for them because just adding weight to the bar will either be not possible, blow them out after 2 workouts, or both. An example of this is kind of like doing 20 total reps a week at 75%, then increasing the total reps a week until they reach, say, 40, then backing off the total reps, but raising the weight.

The Korte is probably geared for the advanced lifter who needs to manipulate workload more to make progress, but I think it can be tailored to an individual's specific loading needs.

If I were you, I would use your judgement, you can most likely use a heavier load to build the fatigue at this point, as I think you've got lots of untapped potential yet. Do I think you need spreadsheets at this point and long-term planning to this degree? No, most likely not, however, it will be a great experience for you and you'll learn a lot about your body.

I wish I could give you a more 'definitive answer', but it doesn't really exist, if I were you, I would just aim to up workload more by using heavier weights, because that would be the most logical approach and be the best bet to maximize your gains (at your level,don't shortchange yourself, you should expect greater gains than a guy who has been training for over 20 years).

Basically, I agree with Blut Wump. If you have room to play with what you're going to do and experiment a little, it just means that you don't require long-term planning, and would be better suited to make the most gains by increasing workload with weight.

 

[BiggT]

Another thing I just want to stress with regard to the level of lifter and potential progress is that age isn't a factor (obviously age can change one's recovery needs, but that is about as far as it goes)....I feel the need to mention this to you AB, because I see in the beginning of the journal you say 34 with only a year or so of lifting experience, and I remember you mentioning age in other posts, and while I forget the specifics, you didn't exactly think of yourself as a Spring chicken. That works to your advantage, though, as the aches and pains of lifting are more related to 'mileage on the body' than the age of the body.

 

[super_rice]

Hey AB,

I think if you skim through my old journal (linked from my current one) you'll be able to find some of my experiences from the Korte 3x3.

Biggt is right regarding the level of programming this is, as especially when an athlete is a beginner, one of the major things that is different is work capacity. I found that as I progressed through the workouts, I felt stronger every time, despite small aches and pains as I got toward week 3. In fact, I did 8-9 sets of 5 backsquats with a 2 second pause in the hole up till week 2. I credit this recovery ability to the fact that I was more green then, and my recovery ability was experiencing the newbie gains as well.

This became apparent when I had seemed to "peak" strength wise after the 6th week. I pulled 375lbs DL in the sixth week (though I felt like a trainwreck in the fifth week) for a single, and was not able to repeat in the following weeks. Again, this was because I was (and still am) a beginner, and I believe I recovered much faster than a more experienced athlete that would also use more weight.

 

[Protobuilder]

Wow, there's some serious work going on in here. I"ll have to read later when my brain is on.

In the meantime, I"ll offer my best advice, given the above comments: work hard, add weight to the bar, and eat. LoL