Post-meet training week, a new training block and the Eternal Now

Two videos this week everyone, in honor of me not writing last week and eating with great vengeance and furious anger. This first one is an awesome compilation of power/squat jerks in international competition. The Chinese in particular are insanely good at squat and power jerking.

The second video is the 85kg champion from 2013 European championships, Apti Aukhadov. Staying with the theme of the day (and unbeknownst to everyone watching), Apti switched from split jerks to power/squat jerks. High fives for the awesome multi-directional views here as well. Epic consistency and technique; notice the final jerk is faster and caught higher than the first two.

The week right after a meet is such an individual thing. Some people are so banged up physically that they can't do much of anything besides go for some walks. For some people the body feels good but the nervous system is bashed up and a 50% lift feels like a max lift. You just have to see what you're feeling and react accordingly. I did three workouts this week, all of which consisted of sled work, Prowler work and high rep dumbbell circuits for the upper body. I didn't spend more than 45 minutes in the gym at any one time. The first time I picked up a barbell was one week after the meet and I did some power clean/power jerk and power clean/push press singles at 90kg. Nothing special, just moving a bit.

As far as the week post-meet, there are a couple general guidelines that I can suggest. In A System of Multi-Year Training in Weightlifting, Medvedyev stated that recovery methods involved approx 60-85 mins PER DAY. This is difficult to do for those that work full time jobs or don't train full-time, but it's something to keep in mind the week after a meet, when your training is throttled back. This is an ideal time to dial up the accumulation of recovery time.

-Get outside. Go for walks. Get in the sun.
-Nap and foam roll. A LOT.
-Keep the time in the gym to a minimum and emphasize prehab/rehab movements and things you haven't done for awhile. I did some DB bench for the first time in probably a year.
-Get outside. Get in the sun.
-Nap A LOT.

Here's an example of what my Tuesday/Thursday workouts looked like:

Foam Roll/Reverse Hypers/Fire Hydrant Series/Agile 8
Abs x100/TKEs 2x20
Band Shoulder Circuit
25 minute circuit - DB Single Arm Press 15+15/Chins x10/Parking Lot Sled Drag
Abs x100
Reverse Hypers and Traction

I also ate like a total fat ass basically this entire week. I stayed carb-free during the days all week, but Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun nights were carb explosions. Really just let the diet chill out a bit and didn't stress. No idea where my weight is at and I don't care. No meet for the foreseeable future so no worries. If anything this past meet solidified my thoughts that it's better for me to stay in the 94s rather than try and move up to the 105s. Mostly I need to think about getting my body composition squared away a little bit and get a little more Jacked, Tan and Vascular. To that end I'm gonna make a couple changes for this upcoming block:

-I'm going to actually start counting my carbs on my backloads; 200g seems like a nice round number to start and can tweak it up or down.
-I'm also going to start eating breakfast every morning and try to dial the calories up a little bit in the morning.
-Trying two PWO shakes instead of just one. I got the chance to have a chat with Kiefer and he discouraged the idea of just carbs intra-workout and encouraged me to just have an additional PWO shake. My preferred PWO is Muscle Feast's Anabolic Recovery, so I'll probably dial up two scoops of that during my workout and another two scoops for the drive home. This also decreases the amount of food for my backloads, which is probably a good thing.
-Same recovery methods as always: not pushing the recovery means on training days so as to not interfere with adaptation. I would like to push the contrast showers a bit more in the mornings.

I will do a better job of writing out training, recovery means, etc with this block than I did on the previous one. Better to do it here than try and read the chicken scratch from my training book.

With this upcoming block (courtesy of Greg Everett at Catalyst Athletics), a lot of this is going to be going by feel. Last training block I didn't squat more than three days a week; this block I'll be squatting twice a day and around ten times a week. When I hit my all-time back squat PR of 190 I did it when I was experimenting with Bulgarian training, squatting daily and doing all singles. I have a better base to build off  now with my best back squat set of five increasing from 140-170kg and my SSB squat pushing up to 400lbs. I'm excited to get back to singles now and see what happens.

I'm operating with the below max lifts in mind as far as making percentage calculations for this block:

Front Squat - 160
Back Squat - 190
CJ - 130
Snatch - 105

One of Greg's guidelines for this block stood out to me: no sitting down. Isn't this weightlifting? Hell, the Iranians and the French basically take smoke breaks in between reps. I tested it out a bit as I was getting ready for my last meet and I actually really enjoyed it. It's really easy to sit and relax a bit and let five minutes go by without knowing it. Plus pacing around the platform makes me less of a target for people who want to just sit and chat.

Don't get me wrong: I love talking to people. I love talking lifting, teaching lifting and it still makes me giggle and beam with pride whenever someone asks me for suggestions or training ideas. BUT one of the few places that I've found peace and quiet is on the weightlifting platform, both in competition and in training. For my money it is the epitome of being in the present moment, or the Eternal Now, as it is often referenced in Zen. I very much like that feeling. I'm not worried about a trade, my bank account, if a girl likes me, if I'll ever get married and have kids, if my mom is OK, if I'll ever pay off my student loans or if I need to fart. I'm there. I'm here. I'm everywhere. Going to war with gravity while you have a barbell somewhere on your person tends to focus the mind.

The Training Week That Was - 11/11 - 11/17

I've added a couple of Don McCauley's drills for the Oly lifts to my warmups. This and this are staples. This one is good, but I'm embarrassed to admit that I tweaked an ab muscle in performing it, so it's on the shelf for the time being.

11/11
Shoulder complex from NBS Fitness (my standard shoulder warmup)
Front Push Press - 40x5 60x5 75x4 85x4 90x4 95x3 100x1 105x1 110x0 80x10
(I'm no good at grinding out push presses at max weights; when I'm done, I'm done)
Chinese Row - 85x10 105x10x3
Lat Pulldown 4x10
Low Back Traction - strong band and medium band from Elitefts

11/13 (examples of today's snatch and CJ exercises here; I'm using the power jerk off and on)
Agile 8 Warmup/Shoulder Complex
Snatch - Two Pulls + Snatch: 40x1x3 60x1x2 70x1 80x1 90x1 95x0 95x1 100x1 105x0x2
Down Sets - 85x1 90x1 90x1
CJ - Two Pulls + CJ: 50x1x3 70x1x2 90x1 100x1x2 110x0 110x1 115x0 115x1
Down Sets - 95x1 100x1 105x1
Back Squat 3x5 120kg (nice and fast, just grooving after a week off)
Cal Hypers 4x10 40lbs
Rev Hypers - bunch
Low Back Traction

11/14 Off (being super careful with the back this week)

11/15
McCauley Drills - Snatch
Snatch - Box Just Above Knee: 40x2x3 60x2x2 70x2x1 80x2 90x1 97x1 102x0x3 100x0x1 100x1 102x0x2
Down Sets - 85x2 87x2 90x2
McCauley Drills - Clean
CJ - Box Just Above Knee: 50x2x2 70x2x2 90x2x1 100x1 110x1 120x0x2 120x1
Down Sets - 100x2+1 105x2+1 (only took two down sets; gassed)
Front Squat 60x3x2 80x3 100x3 115x3 120x3 125x3 (heavy, but nice and sharp)
GH Raise - 5-6x5, w/ 2x5 w/ 10kg plate behind head
Rev Hyper - 3x12
Band Traction

11/17
Snatch 40x2x3 60x2x2 70x1x2 80x1 90x1 95x1 (switched platforms) 95x0 100x0x3 (tried these eyes closed, then went back to other platform) 70x1 80x1 90x1 97x0
CJ 50x2x3 70x2x2 90x1 105x1 115x1 122x1 127xFJ 127xFJ
Hypers and Traction

I got jammed up by the high school kids in the gym and kinda f'd up my snatch work. Still good day with the CJ and good training with the snatch, if not accurate pulls. I probably should have just done some pulls and moved on to CJ, but that's all good.

So I Baked: Big Whoop, Wanna Fight About It?

This past weekend I did something I hadn't done in ages: I baked. After almost a year living in my current utilitarian hovel, I finally managed to use the oven. And since I had a ginormous zucchini from a friend's garden, I went looking for zucchini bread recipes. Preferably with chocolate.

What I found was a recipe for MOIST Chocolate Zucchini Bread from Denver, Colorado's own Juli Bauer of PaleOMG and Crossfit Broadway fame. I did make a couple minor tweaks to her recipe (sorry Jules):

-I went with almond butter instead of sunbutter (1:1 exchange), purely because I already had an unopened jar of Justin's Nut Butter. A well-prepared baker would've bought Justin's chocolate almond butter. Next time. 

-I also dropped two scoops of Muscle Feast Whey Isolate into the batter. Anything to squeeze in a little extra protein whenever possible. And yes, I realize the high temps from baking probably denatured the protein a bit.   

SIDE NOTE: (People always seem to mention protein denaturing when you cook with protein powders like it's the end of the world, but never when you cook with meat or eggs. The main point of cooking is to denature and break down foods (not just the Precious protein powders), which in turn makes them easier to digest and more bioavailable. Do some Googling on the Tron and you'll see that cooking our meats and plants has had a tremendous impact on our evolutionary path.)

And that's it. Follow Juli's excellent recipe and you should end up with a couple loaves of an awesome cake/bread-type thing that stays really MOIST. Mine didn't rise a whole lot (I probably shorted the baking powder), so keep that in mind. I took both loaves into the office on Monday morning and they were terminated with extreme prejudice by 10am by the entire trading desk. 

(I didn't frame my pics quite as awesome as she does, but you get the idea)

(Mini-Band from Elitefts.com; supersetting band pull-aparts and grating zucchini is great rotator cuff prehab)

Gym Zen - The Will to Truth

I don't remember the exact time that I started to stop lying to myself about sport, but I have a pretty good idea. I had just gotten back from a very successful dryland bobsled camp in Park City. I made all the qualifying times for the combine and actually scored relatively well (numbers translated to "World Cup brakeman", whatever that means). One of coaches had said I should stick with it and keep working because I had great potential. Surely my invite to winter camp in Lake Placid was just a phone call or email away.

I checked my email religiously. Nothing.

I checked voicemails like it was my job. I "star-69'd" three telemarketers in the hopes that one of them was the head coach of USA Bobsled, extending a heartfelt congratulations and asking when I could move into the OTC.  Nothing.

I can't pinpoint the exact moment when I realized that this wasn't a communication breakdown. I think it was somewhere around the time that summer combine dates were announced in the following spring. Yes, I have a very thick noggin from rugby.

I can, however, tell you when I finally stopped lying to myself about sport. It was about twenty minutes after I finished an awful Olympic meet (see "How to go 2/6 in an Olympic Meet") last December. I spent that summer/fall training as Ivan Abadjiev had trained his Bulgarian champions. I trained every day, twice on the weekends, and did the classic exercises daily. I also squatted daily. For some variety, I did a max jerk and some chins to give the legs a "day off". I also managed through a new job working in derivative trading. There was only work, training and sleep. My body felt great and set PRs for the first eight weeks, then went to hell in a hand basket right before the meet. My results speak volumes.

Where does this incredibly long-winded example get us to? Shobogenzo! Dogen believed that the Will to the Truth is a vital aspect of Zen Buddhist study. And it sounds great, right? So easy; just seek the truth and accept the truth as it is. Everyone seeks the truth, right? Everyone wants the truth and everyone wants to accept the truth, right?

Can I handle the truth?

Everyone thinks that they seek the truth and they will accept it, but do we really?

I think most people see "Seek the truth and accept it for what it is" as a call to identify all of your faults and all of the shitty things that you've been glossing over. This is FALSE. Well, it's sort of false. It's true that we should fully realize and accept the faults or things that we have been lying to ourselves about, because this is the first step in addressing them or at least the first step in reducing their power over you.

One of the biggest issues as it relates to acceptance of the truth is the need to compare ourselves to one another. We measure our success by creating an imaginary battle in our minds between ourselves and some we classify as a "measuring stick". Conversely, we find someone at the top of the sport (Klokov, the strong guy in the gym, etc) and logic dictates that, if we train as this person trains, we will have comparable results. We "know" that these methods aren't rational and untrue, but we haven't accepted it.   

I think that I'm starting to seek the truth. Well, I think I've always looked for the truth, so it might be more accurate to say that I'm starting to accept the truth. The main thing I'm starting to wrap my head around is as follows:

"I am no longer qualified to train myself as a competitive athlete"

This stings, as I have what you'd consider to be decent credentials and previous experiences. I've held CSCS and USAW certs, an undergrad in sports medicine, two years spent as an intern and as an assistant strength coach at a Division I university, a couple Top 3 finishes in lightweight strongman, an All-American year of collegiate rugby and some close calls with the US National rugby team plus the previous brush with bobsled glory. I troll EliteFTS and I consider Michael Keck, Jen Comas Keck and Jen Sinkler to be friends. Surely I'm qualified to train myself for athletic endeavors, right?

No, I am not. That is the truth. I am qualified to make adjustments specific to my body. I'm ok at coaching other people as far as technique and making suggestions, but not in writing any sort of full training program. In no way, shape or form am I qualified to be giving myself a full program. I also have too many biases to previous training experience and certain methodologies. Upon full realizing this, I made some decisions and reached out to some coaches to provide higher level guidance. This has lead to some PRs and a nice reduction in BF from 14%-sub 11% through some nutrition coaching from Michael Keck. Yes, I mentioned Mike twice (now three times), because he knows his shit.

So what can I say? Find some truths (positive AND negative) and fully realize them for what they are. In realizing and accepting the truths, they cease to have power over you and you can either address them or simply move on from them. As with most things (especially as it relates to the gym and sport) this is a very simple endeavor, but it is not easy. Fully realizing truths, whether they are positive or negative, will lead to making good choices. As the below scientific diagram shows, good choices = awesomeness.

Thanks to Steve Pulcinella for the above graphic as well as his help writing my training program and providing some coaching for Highland Games. Steve's lifting program as well as throw coaching has yielded mucho PRs. Some slow-motion throwing breakdowns here, but be warned: I practice in Rehbands and they do not leave much to the imagination.

Gratitudes of the Day

1. Immensly grateful for this steaming hot cup of Novo Coffee that I'm currently slurping down as I type this. My sleep patterns got all screwed up over the weekend so I've been waking up between 3-4am the past few days instead of my usual 4:50. Easy to do on off days from the gym, but coming off of workout days makes that a bit more of a challenge. On the plus side, it allowed me to get these written down before I hit the office, so I'm grateful for that!

2. I'm grateful for a couple emails yesterday with Steve Pulcinella. Steve's one of the US's best ever Highland Games athletes and strongman competitors and I reached out to him looking for some training info for the upcoming Highland games season, as well as Olympic lifting. I've always prided myself on programming my own training, but I'm really getting hooked by the idea of being able to get programs written specifically for me by great coaches and then being able to rotate through them.

If you're frustrated by lack of progress in the gym, I encourage you to hire an online coach and have something written for you. Almost everyone out there who writes articles on any of the popular training websites (T-Nation, EliteFTS, etc) does online coaching (nutrition, training or both), and the pricing is very reasonable.

3. I'm very grateful to Shelby Starnes for introducing me to the books Sit Down and Shut Up and Hardcore Zen, both written by Brad Warner. I've always gravitated towards Buddhism but I've found it difficult to really digest many of the writings of Buddhism outside of the Dalai Lama. Brad's writing and breaking down of some of the Zen Buddhism concepts has made for excellent reading and I'm gravitating towards a lot of these ideas and teachings.

On Personal Outsourcing

So it’s a New Year, 2012, full of promise and potential. Rather than resolutions, the beginning of the year bring some purging and donating of clothing and other unnecessary things I’ve accrued throughout the previous year. I’m a minimalist guy in the first place, so it isn’t a huge load of stuff. It gives me a sense of renewal and rejuvenation, as well as some extra distance from that Sword of Damocles that always feels just a little too close. 

Along those lines, I’ve taken this a step further by outsourcing my training programming as well as my nutrition. For those who are curious, I’m turning training over to Chad Smith and my nutrition to Michael Keck. This allows me to take two items off my plate and redirect that time and energy towards actual performance, as well as other aspects of my life. With very few exceptions, you get what you pay for. And by “pay”, I don’t necessarily mean monetary. 

Indulge me in a quick,"back of the envelope" math lesson: Let’s say your time is worth $20/hour; this is 33.3333 cents per minute. You spend 5 hours per week reading, researching and writing out your training program and another 10 hours per week training and commuting to/from the gym (no need to factor in vehicle depreciation or gas). In one week, you’ve spent $100 planning to train and another $200 actually training. To extrapolate this further: $100 per week=$400 per month=$5,200 per year in planning alone. Hiring someone sure seems cheap as hell now, doesn’t it?  Spending fewer actual dollars and doing something yourself can get expensive.

One of the greatest aspects of online coaching is your ability to vet the person you are hiring. How many horror stories have you heard about people who hired "personal trainers" from their local gym. The Internet really allows you to do a great bit of research on coaching and find people who are truly top class in their profession. I'll write more on this specific topic in the future but let me say this: this is NOT purely related to athletic training and nutrition.

To expand the idea of outsourcing to other parts of your life, have a look at this blog on Living in the Cloud. These are all fantastic examples of outsourcing aspects of your life and collaborative consumption. Changes in social mood and technological advances are creating what Edward Norton in Fight Club called "Single serving friends", but on a global level and across different services and mediums. Ironically, while embracing the impermanence of possessing "things", this turn in social mood has caused us to emphasize personal networks and communities. Never before in history have the people that we truly want to interact with and build meaningful relationships with been so readily available.

I had to nerd out on that for a minute as it has really been at the front of my cerebral cortex for awhile. I'll write more about collaborative consumption in the future; I only hope I'm not late to that party.

Questions that I've been asking myself as we roll into 2012: What else can I take off my plate and outsource? What can outsourcing and collaborative consumption do for me and my life? And more importantly: what can I do for outsourcing and collaborative consumption?

Christmas Night randoms

Just a few random things here on Christmas Night while I listen to Bears/Packers and try to keep from calling EMS to pump my stomach:
1. Falafel, hummus, cucumber salad, baba ganouj, pita and homemade cheesecake DO NOT mix well together. Currently having a Royal Rumble in my stomach; no matter who wins, I lose.

2. Addendum to training plans: Chad Smith from Juggernaut was gracious enough to get me a program now, so I'm starting on that and I'm just going to train through the meet in Vegas in three weeks. I won't be posting the program Chad put together for me (gotta protect the guy's intellectual property), but suffice it to say I'm very excited to get back to training like an athlete rather than strictly as a weightlifter. Starting to look for Highland Games in 2012 as well as a PL meet to do towards the back end of the year. I love to travel for meets, so fire me a Tweet or hit my comments with some ideas. I'm curious to try the 60m indoor track sometime, but I don't even know where to start looking for such a thing besides USA Track.

3. Saw an excellent show on Dec 23; the Shaloms and the Nuns of Brixton. The Shaloms are a Ramones tribute band and the Nuns of Brixton are a Clash tribute band. They put on an insane live show and one that I feel very fortunate to have seen, especially since it was a backup plan. If either of these groups come to your town, I highly encourage you to get out and see them.

4. Due to temporary insanity, I've signed up to run 1.5 miles in my skivvies (in Denver, in February) and raise some money for the Children's Tumor Foundation. Please have a look here; any donations would be greatly appreciated. I am also accepting any suggestions for running attire as I've been trying to lose this last tiny bit of shame for quite awhile now. I have no doubts that WAAAAYYYY too many pictures will be taken and posted to various social media sites such as the Twitterz and the Bookface for public consumption/embarassment.

Seriously though: It's a great cause to give some kids a helping hand. Every little bit counts; hell just donate a dollar. Do it anonymously if you're embarrassed at only being able to give a dollar. Sidenote: NEVER be embarrassed about anything that you are GIVING. It's still more than the majority of people out there will do. One size doesn't fit all with regards to helping people; the important point is to DO SOMETHING. Be part of the solution.
5: Elitefts.com is currently selling it's annual Make A Wish manual, entitled "Programs That Work" here. Additionally, they have re-listed the previous years' manuals for sale as well. All proceeds go to the Make a Wish Foundation of Ohio. Having purchased each one of these manuals, including the "Lift Strong" manual in 2007, I can say without a doubt that it is the best collection of information you will find for $10.

Hope everyone is in the midst of an excellent time of year with loved ones, regardless of your belief/religious denomination. Five more days to make your mark on 2011, then the books are closed forever.

Always be a work in progress...

My Trip To Bulgaria...and I didn't even get a passport stamp

One of the most hotly debated topics in athletics is the "Bulgarian" method. Developed by Ivan Abadjiev, the premise is to take maximal attempts in the classic lifts (snatch and clean and jerk), as well as the front squat, as the vast majority of your training. This runs counter to many of the generally accepted truths about weightlifting training regarding CNS burnout, injury, accomodation from limited diversity of movements, etc. Despite these reservations, it seems to be working pretty well for many of the Eastern European champions of the past 30-40 years as well as lifters of California Strength and Average Broz Gym. Me being a glutton for punishment, I decided to give it a shot for this meet cycle, from mid May to mid December.

Note: David Woodhouse wrote an extremely good article on Abadjiev on Weightlifting Exchange, found here. There is also a translation of the Bulgarian documentary School of Champions as well as a lecture (with English notes) from Abadjiev found here. These resources formed the basis for my initial training thoughts and I borrowed some ideas from Cal Strength and Average Broz along the way.

The whole thing became an amalgamation of ideas. My goal every day was to get a max snatch, a max CJ and a squat. I used snatches and cleans from the box, the power lifts and the classical lifts as well as the front and back squat. Including presses and jerks, I believe I used around 10 barbell exercises in total during the 24-odd weeks. I still did a very small percentage of supportive work (lots of pullups, a little ab work and some Prowler).

The theme for this training was this: "To Get Through It, You Have To Go Through It". Simple concept, but not easy. These methods go against everything I'd read from the Russians, everything I had learned during my undergrad and CSCS as well as what I'd learned from listening to the US coaches speak. On the other hand, I'm a great believer in Knowledge Without Mileage = Bullshit (thank you Henry Rollins). If I don't "go", I'll never "know". So I went.

Results: the first month or so was great. I set a new clean max at 130kg and a new snatch record at 100kg. I equalled this 130 clean 5 separate times over the first 5 weeks. I matched my snatch record twice and surpassed it twice, hitting 102 on two separate occasions and having a couple near misses at 105 and 107, along with a miss at 107 that nearly decapitated me. My back squat reached a PR of 190kg, suprassed later in the cycle at 195kg. My back jerk topped out 140kg, which I later surpassed at 142kg. I set records in the power snatch, topping out at an ugly 95kg. My power CJ topped out at a pretty ugly 125kg. Oddly enough, my front squat actually regressed to 140kg; I've done a triple at 160kg in the past. My push press topped out around 110kg for a set of 5 and I did multiple sets of 5 at 100kg.

So the first month looks great right? PRs, records, velvet ropes parting, champagne falling from the heavens! Around week 5-6, while all this is happening, my body was slowly descending into the Smackdown Hotel. My CNS went to hell. I noticed when speaking that my words wouldn't quite come out right. This isn't really a new problem, but it's usually for something I say rather than not being able to finish a sentence. I couldn't sleep more than a couple of hours a night for weeks in a row. My joints got brutally stiff when I trained, even worse if I skipped a day. My waking HR, usually in the mid 40s, started getting up into the 60s. I noticed myself getting short and snappy with people and my eyes were pretty much constantly hurting and bloodshot.

This is part of the beauty of the system: you're programming/brainwashing your body to perform a limited number of motor tasks. Accommodation becomes your best friend. After that first month, despite feeling completely awful and sickened by the sight of a barbell, I was still hitting 90-100% of my max snatch and CJ each and every workout. My squats also stayed high, but the drop was a bit more pronounced since I always performed the squats at the end of the workout. I didn't need to warm up with anything besides a set of reverse hypers, some pullups and bar work. Had I tried to introduce brand new stimuli here (sprinting, strongman, etc), there is no doubt I would've become injured. The fact that you have limited biomechanical means to stimulate the organism removes that aspect of variation. The loading becomes the sole means of stimulation as the body has become accustomed to the movements.

This is probably one of the most psychologically damaging aspects of this style; the monotany creeps into your psyche. I have anecdotally read that many of the athletes did not fail physically, but rather psychologically. One must also understand the conditions these athletes operated under were far different than the conditions of US-lifters; for these lifters, their total was their livelihood as well as the livelihoods of their families. The comparison is not "apples to apples", so I hesitate to use this as support for the physical demands.

After progress stagnated around week 6 or so, there was a point where I could've made a different decision. In looking at my log, I see that this was an excellent time for a deload, maybe keeping frequency but only working to 80-85%, anything to take my foot off the gas. BUT, in my limited research, this was something that every source seemed to agree on: when you reach this point, you had to keep going. The key was to drive through the "dark times" as this was precisely the time where the body is retooling. So I kept going. I upped my use of the back squat as a means to increase the absolute loading and kept driving hard for new maxes.

At this point, I was basically alternating the following 7 days a week:

Pwr Snatch, Full CJ, Back Squat
Full Snatch, Pwr CJ, Front Squat

I was still hitting my 90% minimum, but it was getting more and more difficult and I was moving further and further away from my all time PRs. Some technical flaws started becoming a little more evident; I started leaving the bar in front on my snatch, catching it low on my clean and not getting my heels to the ground. Trying to catch a snatch or a clean is tough enough; try doing it on your toes!  I also had a slight scare with my back during this time and I dialed down the intensity for a few weeks. This didn't help and I think it may have thrown my body into all sorts of jacked-upded-ness (write that down).

The past few weeks I've dialed things down as I'm getting ready for a meet on Dec 10. I will still take maximal classical lifts and squats leading up to the meet, but at a reduced frequency and I'll probably add some lower level power lifts (something along the lines of a dynamic day ie 10-12 reps of each at around 60-70%) to groove the lifts and get my CNS snapping. Something I read from Medvedyev that has stuck with me: highly skilled athletes have the ability to tense their muscles faster than others, but also the ability to relax their muscles quicker than others. Think of an Oly lifter like Ronny Weller, who doesn't set up the lift so much as drop and go. That ability to tense is what Louie Simmons references when he expounds on the benefits of dynamic squatting off of a box. Squatting on a box requires you to generate a ton of muscle tension quickly with no room for the stretch reflex to use elastic energy.

So, as I sit here, assessing the last few months and debating where my training should go after this meet, what did I learn?

1. Intensity is King. Periods of maximal and submaximal loading (90-100+%) are beneficial/necessary and something that I hadn't done with regularity since I was previously using my interpretation of the conjugate system. If you're a proponent of using blocks, maybe program 2-3 weeks of a limited exercise range and 90-100% lifts, especially around 4-6 weeks outside of your meet date. Use Prilepin's chart and aim for 4-7 lifts over 90% of your max for that day. Read that again; your max ON THAT DAY, not your absolutely maximum. This goes along with some re-reading I'm doing from Medvedyev and Siff, essentially stating that the average weight of the barbell lifted has a high correlation to making new records. Implication: more repetitions performed at a higher %. I also found some interesting info on 90-100% lift guidelines, but I haven't fully fleshed those out as of yet.

2. Waving Works. Many of my best results in the snatch and CJ came after missing weights multiple times. I would work up to a couple misses in the snatch, then drop 20-30kg and work back up. The first time I made 102, it was on a third wave where my initial miss had been at 90 and second wave miss had been at 97. I believe it was my 5th or 6th miss of the session before I made it. The CJ is a little different and I only used one wave since the load on the barbell (as well as complexity/CNS impact) is much higher than the snatch. Also: I'm much more comfortable snatching than cleaning. I haven't tried waving squats, but for the quick lifts (the Oly lifts as well as the jerk) the response was very positive.

3. Ignore Recovery Methods At Your Own Peril. As I tweeted a few days ago, the Russian lifters averaged 400-500 hours of restorative work per year. This equates to 65-82 mins PER DAY of restorative work. I did nearly nothing as far as restoration outside of eating, sleeping, supplementing (very bare bones: protein powder, fish oil, creatine, multivitamin, mineral supp, curcumin) and some foam rolling. Massage, epsom salt baths, contrast shower and many other means can be done to assist in recovery. I wanted the "full effect" and I ignored some of these methods intentionally to see how the body would respond. Maybe not the smartest idea, but one of my themes of this block was to Trust My Body to be smarter than me and find a way.

I say that with a caveat: recovery methods need to be cycled. The point of training, after all, is to irritate the organism to the point that it adapts to imposed demands. Going overboard with recovery can actual blunt the training effect. Medvedyev addresses this in stating that recovery should be emphasized on "rest" days, or days in which fundamental loading is minimal or non-existant (ie GPP days) so as not to interfere with the training effect from fundamental loading sessions. Even in the weekly training cycle, the Russians are making a reference to a High/Low methodology (introduced to my by James Smith of Power Development Inc).

4. Eating Patterns Matter. A modified Warrior-style of nutrition works incredibly well with this type of training. Michael Keck gave me some ideas that I put into practice during this cycle. Never once did I come into a workout feeling hypoglycemic or cloudy from my eating; I was always just a little hungry and on edge. I carried out this style of eating through the entire span of this cycle, starting out weighing 223 and currently sitting at 208 as I type this (with a belly full of Wahoo's Fish Tacos). The weight loss came with no real cardio and I see how this style, coupled with morning track work or cardio, can yield great body composition results. For my purposes, it kept me feeling edgy and sharp both in the gym and in my career. I anticipate using this style for the forseeable future; Thanks Mike!

Do I think the Bulgarian system "works"? Obviously. It has produced (and continues to produce) great results in the world of weightlifting.

Is it the best system for a 31 yr old professional with long hours in a fairly high stress job? Maybe, maybe not. I definitely didn't set myself up for success, but I had a plan and excluding the one setback with my back, I executed it about as well as I could have hoped. Win, lose or draw, it has been an excellent learning experience, one that makes me a better lifter and gave me a deeper knowledge about my body and its abilities.

The proof comes in two weeks.