Deloads, Volume, Intensity

Agreed that your progress looks like excellent progress.

As for the deloads, the training reports he’s sent me do show a deload week, but those weeks haven’t been anything like the deloads I used to do and I honestly don’t notice much of a difference. Maybe a slight reduction in volume and frequency, but not much.

I didn’t read a lot that was posted so I apologize if any one has repeated what I am saying. I hardly ever “deload”. Most of my training revolves around numbers in the 60-75% of my 1rm possibly creeping up into the 85% very very occasionally in the off season. Almost all " high fatigue movements " are dropped UNLESS in a speed work fashion. Low bar back squatting is pretty much taken over by front squatting and Hack Squats, Deadlifting by heavy barbell rows and block pulls, and bench doesn’t really ever bother me but it is a heavy week alter with a light volume speed week usually close grips. This allows me to stay fresh and feel pretty damn good going into a 6-7 week meet prep where weight loads start around 85% working their way up as meet closes in and accessories become almost non existent.

With that being said there are times about once every 12 weeks I will “deload”. I do it in a fashion that I don’t see many consider a deload but, it def helps me. I’ll go in on a deload week 2-3 times that week (normal is 3 maybe 4) and instead of a session looking like this…

Front Squat 2x5,1xAMRAP
Leg Press or Hack Squat 3-4x10-15
Row of some sort 3-4x 10-15
Leg Curl/Leg Extensions/Pull Through circuit 3-4x10-15 each
Calves: 3-4 x 8-20

It will look like this…
Front Squat up to a ME Single
Pull Ups
Go home.

This allows me to " test" my self while drastically reduces my volume and allowing a nice little rest. Same for bench day and if I go in on a third day it is a very high rep pump arm day just out of boredom.

I always use a movement that I can’t really cheat or grind and is generally mechanically inclined to not put as much a stress on my body ie front squat, stiff leg Deadlifts(yes I have maxed on this), maybe high bar close stance pause squat, Incline Bench or Close Grip Bench. You get the idea.

10 days out of a meet I take full rest. If I step into a gym during this time period it is because I am using the sauna to help make weight.

[quote]burt128 wrote:
Agreed that your progress looks like excellent progress.

As for the deloads, the training reports he’s sent me do show a deload week, but those weeks haven’t been anything like the deloads I used to do and I honestly don’t notice much of a difference. Maybe a slight reduction in volume and frequency, but not much.[/quote]
As far as progress, my squat and dl have been pretty much stuck for the last 2-3 months, very small gains if any. Most of the progress I made was in the first 4 months with RTS. In Dec-Jan I tried a Bulgarian-type 6 day a week program, during that time I squatted 425 (on 3 occasions) and deadlifted 500, although the dl wasn’t quite an all-out max. That was in a fatigued state too, so I figured I could probably get close to 450/550 back then. I have been “lifting weights” on and off for over 10 years but I only started training for powerlifting a little over a year ago so maybe I’m expecting unrealistic gains, back in the fall if you asked me my goals for the meet I July I would have said 500/365/600. Only bench went according to plan. It’s definitely not a complete failure, but I was hoping for something more.

My plan right now is less volume and more work at 85-90%. If things go well I might be able to exceed my current expectations, but I don’t want to get too hopeful.

[quote]Reed wrote:
I didn’t read a lot that was posted so I apologize if any one has repeated what I am saying. I hardly ever “deload”. Most of my training revolves around numbers in the 60-75% of my 1rm possibly creeping up into the 85% very very occasionally in the off season. Almost all " high fatigue movements " are dropped UNLESS in a speed work fashion. Low bar back squatting is pretty much taken over by front squatting and Hack Squats, Deadlifting by heavy barbell rows and block pulls, and bench doesn’t really ever bother me but it is a heavy week alter with a light volume speed week usually close grips. This allows me to stay fresh and feel pretty damn good going into a 6-7 week meet prep where weight loads start around 85% working their way up as meet closes in and accessories become almost non existent.

With that being said there are times about once every 12 weeks I will “deload”. I do it in a fashion that I don’t see many consider a deload but, it def helps me. I’ll go in on a deload week 2-3 times that week (normal is 3 maybe 4) and instead of a session looking like this…

Front Squat 2x5,1xAMRAP
Leg Press or Hack Squat 3-4x10-15
Row of some sort 3-4x 10-15
Leg Curl/Leg Extensions/Pull Through circuit 3-4x10-15 each
Calves: 3-4 x 8-20

It will look like this…
Front Squat up to a ME Single
Pull Ups
Go home.

This allows me to " test" my self while drastically reduces my volume and allowing a nice little rest. Same for bench day and if I go in on a third day it is a very high rep pump arm day just out of boredom.

I always use a movement that I can’t really cheat or grind and is generally mechanically inclined to not put as much a stress on my body ie front squat, stiff leg Deadlifts(yes I have maxed on this), maybe high bar close stance pause squat, Incline Bench or Close Grip Bench. You get the idea.

10 days out of a meet I take full rest. If I step into a gym during this time period it is because I am using the sauna to help make weight.[/quote]
I’m with you, I’m not really into deloading but I think there might be some benefits. A couple weeks ago I was pretty beat up from the volume I was doing so I just went for rep maxes (3-5rm) with one down set after, that’s still fatiguing but in a different way. If there is a benefit to deloading it’s that you can go all-out for a few weeks and then ease up and recover, it will also prevent you from having to increase volume too much, which is the issue I have been having. I took some advice from a couple guys on the RTS forum,they
said that if you’re not feeling beat up and not making gains then raise the volume. I tried that for a bit, but it doesn’t look like it paid off. For now at least, I’m going with Mike Israetel’s idea of dropping volume and raising intensity, I’m already pretty muscular and at the top of my weight class so I don’t think I need any hypertrophy work.

May I ask what happened to end your 6 week Bulgarian run? You seem to be saying you made good gains with it, and 6 weeks is barely even a trial… Perhaps alternate between a Bulgarian variation (mostly) and a bodybuilding phase (when you feel you need a change)? That would solve your “junk volume” issue immediately - 100% everyday, a few back-offs at 90% and you’re done!

Regardless, if your estimated maxes are correct you’ve done pretty well with what you’ve been doing, so don’t jump ship before making sure you haven’t just overlooked some little technique or recovery issue. 50lbs on a lift is by no means a failure.

[quote]Reed wrote:
…Almost all " high fatigue movements " are dropped UNLESS in a speed work fashion. Low bar back squatting is pretty much taken over by front squatting and Hack Squats, Deadlifting by heavy barbell rows and block pulls, and bench doesn’t really ever bother me but it is a heavy week alter with a light volume speed week usually close grips…[/quote]

Reed do you not back squat and deadlift off the floor unless you’re prepping/peaking? Do you think training that way doesn’t require a deload or you just personally don’t need it?

[quote]halcj wrote:
May I ask what happened to end your 6 week Bulgarian run? You seem to be saying you made good gains with it, and 6 weeks is barely even a trial… Perhaps alternate between a Bulgarian variation (mostly) and a bodybuilding phase (when you feel you need a change)? That would solve your “junk volume” issue immediately - 100% everyday, a few back-offs at 90% and you’re done!

Regardless, if your estimated maxes are correct you’ve done pretty well with what you’ve been doing, so don’t jump ship before making sure you haven’t just overlooked some little technique or recovery issue. 50lbs on a lift is by no means a failure.[/quote]

My Bulgarian experiment was going alright until I caught the flu, I got over it pretty fast but when I got back to maxing out it was like I just didn’t have the drive to go all out every day. I went back to the RTS-style template, in March I tried to give the Bulgarian thing another try but after a week my upper back, shoulders, and biceps were killing me from squatting heavy every day. I tried switching to high bar, but after a few days the same thing happened. Someone else recently showed me some pretty convincing information that this has to do with infraspinatus overuse and tightness. I’m not sure why I didn’t have that problem the first time, although I was having some bicep aches which were solved by doing curls. The bicep/infraspinatus thing is actually the most common issue with high frequency squatting, Abadjiev eventually had his lifters only front squatting - this may have been a contributing factor. John Broz has a lot of his guys alternating FS and BS every day as well. Some guys like Damien Pezzuti and Tom Martin can get away with it, but they also squat high bar which seems to be less of a problem. Actually, Greg Nuckols told me himself that when he does daily squatting he avoid low bar for that reason.

At this point I think I have a reasonably solid plan for my meet and the following training cycle. Some people have made great gains with RTS - my bench definitely did well and is still improving - but long term block periodization has certain advantages which can also prevent adapting to high volume. A few weeks ago I was doing about 36 work sets per week for sq/dl (combined) and over 40 for bench/variations. Not only is that kind of volume fatiguing and takes a long time, at this point it also doesn’t do a whole lot for me. My average intensity was around 75-80% with some singles here and there at 90+, basically I was doing volume equal to or higher than a Sheiko program and higher intensity. Right now it only makes sense to raise the intensity, I’m going to adjust my next 7 weeks to Mike Israetel’s guidelines. Mike T/RTS would have me doing high rep work and fairly high volume up to the week before the meet, judging by the way I’m progressing that isn’t going to work out in my favor.

[quote]Haldor wrote:

[quote]Reed wrote:
…Almost all " high fatigue movements " are dropped UNLESS in a speed work fashion. Low bar back squatting is pretty much taken over by front squatting and Hack Squats, Deadlifting by heavy barbell rows and block pulls, and bench doesn’t really ever bother me but it is a heavy week alter with a light volume speed week usually close grips…[/quote]

Reed do you not back squat and deadlift off the floor unless you’re prepping/peaking? Do you think training that way doesn’t require a deload or you just personally don’t need it?[/quote]

Correct at least heavy. I have not pulled heavy off the floor in 3 months which was done at my meet. Last heavy back squat was also done at that meet which was 650 and have not been over 415 for 18 reps since ( which was a misload was suppose to 405 forgot the 10lbs for the bar). We back squat every week but it 60% 5x5 for time and deadlift from the floor is only 50-60% pause deadlifts or stiff leg deadlifts. We push movements like the front squat really hard but, that movement you cant really grind or fry your self on and if you get out of the groove you lose it rather than kill your self trying to muscle through it. The rest of our training is boy building type stuff usually keeping one rep in the tank and hardly ever doing any forced reps or stuff like this. This keeps our joints feeling pretty fresh and other than some muscle soreness we are hardly ever “fatiqued”. We dont push for weight PRs that much we prioritize rep and volume which once again is less stressful so easier to recover from.

7 weeks out from a meet we get heavy with more traditional prep

week 1- heavy deadlift still from a block/heavy bench
week 2- heavy squat/rep bench
week 3-heavy deadlift still from a block/heavy bench
week 4-heavy squat/rep bench
week 5- heavy pull from floor basically second attempt/ heavy bench
week 6- heavy Squat/ Rep Bench
Week 7- Opener squat/ opener bench
Week 8- complete rest then meet

Good thread Chris O/Everyone. Some great info is coming up in these long, detailed questions/answers. I always like to hear what everyone else is doing or trying, and how it’s working for them. Thanks guys.