After last weeks somewhat disastrous session I decided to play it a bit safer, and went too far the other way. The reason I stopped last week was a bit of discomfort in the right knee threatening form and introducing risk. This time when I was warming up with the bar I felt the same sensation so for this block I will use what in power lifting terms is considered light support or knee sleeves rather than wraps, it was enough to mean I could get below parallel with virtually no discomfort at all, and none on most sets.
Weight wise I started lower and stayed cautious, I felt it was a bit too cautious at the time, and to show how far off I was the last set I didn't bother reducing weight to go from 12 to 15 reps. I have a sensible ache today, not the sort of thing I expect 2nd week into a block, next time I will be putting 10kg on each of the weights building up and see what is left for the way back down because it would have meant having to remove 25kg plates to put on 20s. Haven't used 100kg for a set of 6 in years and I won't be doing it again unless in full remedial.
As gets posted often the only bad session is one you didn't do, but this should have been a lot more intense. At least I went all out on the tuck jumps, see how those go next time when I actually hammer the squats properly.
Squats with neoprene supports
15 x 60kg, 12 x 70kg, 10 x 80kg, 8 x 90kg, 6 x 100kg, 8 x 90kg, 10 x 80kg, 12 x 70kg, 15 x 70kg
Tuck jumps target 150
40, 34, 37, 38
All but past 30 on final set the take off and landing point were pretty close to each other, aft 30 on 4th set, a few may have been in different counties.
I train using the Heavy Duty style as popularised by the late, great Mike Mentzer - high intensity, low volume. I got up to 140kg for reps (at 49 years of age) after pre-exhausting with a set of leg extensions.
ReplyDeleteLately, however, I have switched from squats to heavy leg presses just for variety.
The key is intensity. Give your best shot after a proper warm up (nine sets is too much). You will see better results by cutting down on the sets but upping the intensity
I prefer high intensity low volume work myself, simple sets etc. but I am on a 2 year 'remedial' after hurting the same area 2 years in a row so going more into endurance work at the moment. 10 months till I can go heavy again, really missing it.
DeleteThe damage was due to not warming up properly which I am normally careful about on weight training.
Did pre exhaustion last block on squats.
Pyramids are always high set volumes by definition of the fact you are going up weight and down reps then vice versa, hence only doing that and 1 other exercise on this session.
I train in 8 week blocks so a lot of the gains I make are by doing things that are a bit different to previous how ever many blocks I have done. Not everything is a good block but I only find out by trying some of them.
I train using the Heavy Duty style as popularised by the late, great Mike Mentzer - high intensity, low volume. I got up to 140kg for reps (at 49 years of age) after pre-exhausting with a set of leg extensions.
ReplyDeleteLately, however, I have switched from squats to heavy leg presses just for variety.
The key is intensity. Give your best shot after a proper warm up (nine sets is too much). You will see better results by cutting down on the sets but upping the intensity