unreal strength gain

[memnoch]

I've been 'on" now for 7 weeks. have been steadily gaining at a decent pace the whole time. Every Sat. me and my boy do a max/heavy day at his house. From last saturday to this saturday my bench went up 30 pounds. no BS I swear to God. we were both friggin awestruck. he was like holy shit dude WTF??? Can it possibly be that the deca is just now really kicking in good. I have decided to extend my cycle after today. i can't wait to see how much I add this week

 

[dmxdmx112v]

why must u max out every saturday??? ego boost?

 

[pharmguy]

nothin wrong with ego boosts.....

 

[genarr3]

You would get better strength gains by maxing once a month.

 

[memnoch]

me and him are pretty competitive with each other, plus the ego boost it gives I fuckin owned him 2day

 

[memnoch]

You would get better strength gains by maxing once a month.

really? did not know that....how come?

 

[IHateCrunches]

yeah i find that statement very interesting... i thought the more you put your muscles to complete failure the stronger you get especially with 3 reps

 

[TxLonghorn]

yeah i find that statement very interesting... i thought the more you put your muscles to complete failure the stronger you get especially with 3 reps

It's not just your muscles you're stressing on max lifts, but your cns. And your cns takes longer to recover than your muscles. Why do you think people say sets of 1 rep or 2 reps with heavy weight won't build much muscle?

 

[IHateCrunches]

i dunno.. i wasnt disagreeing.. just wondeinrg how it works thats all. I was interested in the topic. I was always taught to NEVER do 1 rep or 2 rep max, but your actual max is what you do 3 reps of + 15lbs

 

[genarr3]

really? did not know that....how come?

Don't take that statement to mean only work hard once a month. But when you "max out" single rep weight you heavily tax your CNS system. If you do this every week it won't fully recover. For now only go as high as triples and judge your progress that way. It will also decrease your chances of injury. As you become more advanced you should only max every 3 months.
Some powerlifters never max out in the gym, only in meets. If you're truely interested in moving the big weight browse the powerlifting forum. There's a science behind achieving your body's maxium strength make no mistake about it. It's not about how much gear you use.

This is a very basic, possibly oversimplified routine. It's intended for the advanced lifter that has platued on a lift, or even has seen a decrease in strength. I might not be for you at the moment, but if you understand it you'll get the idea.

The idea behind it is you're not going to be at your strongest every single day. Strength has peaks and valleys. So when they prepare for a meet they want to cycle their lifts so they will be rested and at maximum strength on meet day.

This is a very simple one that I have used with good results on my Squat; it'll work equally well on your Dead. I haven't had much success with these things on my bench however, but others have.

It's a 10-week cycle.
Every week you're going to do 3 sets of 5 reps. That's it, no more on the core movement. You can/will do other back/leg/chest movements, but don't go crazy.

Pick the highest weight you can 5 clean hard reps. Let's say it's 400lbs on the dead.
Your goal will be 425 for 5 reps. This should put you in sight of a 500lb single.

Week one you will do 325lbs 5 reps - 3 sets. This will be very easy. So you make it harder by using perfect form, and practicing exploding the weight up. Faster bar speed then you usually do. Think bar speed, bar speed..... Really try to learn the movement. Use only the muscle groups needed to move the weight, all others should be at rest. Then you add ten pounds to the lift for the next week.

Keep doing this for 10 weeks. By the end hopefully you'll now be able to do 425lbs for 5 clean reps. the next week try a new personal record.

Try it, it works.

 

[Mythicalbeing]

With rapid strength gain comes injury...watch out for torn muscles and aching tendons...if this happens cool it a bit and let the tendons and leigemonts catch up....don't risk an injury, BUT isn't it great to see gains?

 

[memnoch]

thx for that informative post genarr, that was awesome. It was really cool of you to take the time to give me some sound advice. I'm gonna be trying that method you posted, good lookin out bro.

Mythical--when i was lifting today i noticed that my forearm bones really ached bad. still feels like the actual bone is sore even now. you think this might be a sign of undue stress on the ligaments?

 

[silver_shadow]

good post genarr- informative. this is actually similar to needsizes 5x5.

 

[mic79]

Hey memnoch what kinda strength gains where you makin before this?Also ,are you cycling the deca with anything else?

 

[Frango]

How about Westside? Maxing every week.

 

[genarr3]

How about Westside? Maxing every week.

I don't know enough about Westside to comment. I have Louie's bench press tapes and I got through the first one then my VCR broke.
But I do know they train chest around the bench shirt, meaning heavy emphasis on tricep/lockout work. It's strickly a competitive powerlifting system as far as I know. It's not for everyone, I like to judge my strength in raw lifts.
However this is why I suggested he browse the Powerlifting forum. There are as many different training methods as there are trainers. I would be surprised if they maxed out every week, I didn't see any indication of that on what I have learned about his system thus far, and goes against most training methods whatever the sport. I know they have "ME" day but I was under the impression this applied to assistance movements.
But like I said ... Powerlifting Forum.

 

[eviction]

i got a good 40 lb boost on my bench from week 2 to week 5 during my first cycle... feels good doesnt it

 

[jerkbox]

you don't max every week with westside....in fact they only max at competitions.

 

[rvd_brock]

As far as "bench shirts" go, how exactly do they work? Do they like add support to your tri's so it's easier to lift up the weight? Also, where can I look into getting one. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[memnoch]

Hey memnoch what kinda strength gains where you makin before this?Also ,are you cycling the deca with anything else?

mic---I had pretty much levelled of b4 this cycle. had been pretty much seeing a 5 maybe ten lb gain every couple of weeks until i hit a plateau. was stacking with winny for the first 6 weeks. had some good jumps from the winny during that time but nothing like this result over the last week.

 

[Lumberg]

in WS you actually DO max out once per week but not on the core lifts. one week you might max 3 board presses, the next week rack deads, the next week floor presses, the next week good mornings, etc.

the idea is to set aPR every week but there are so many variations on exercises that it's relatively easy to do.

the idea is to a) get you used to the amount of effort it takes to set a PR and b) get your confidence up so you're ready to set a PR at the meet.

it's called a "ME" or max effort day

I'm no exper go to the PL board for details. check out the postings of spatts.