Fixed Weight Progression

Thank you very much for the article. The Best Way to Keep Getting Stronger
I have a few issues (who doesn’t) but one of them may be that I ‘might’ develop rheumatoid arthritis. So it is in my best interest to make sure that not only my muscles are strong but also the tendons, ligaments and joints, and to put as much energy into it while I can.

I was also thinking that maybe using the same principles for getting a muscle pump like in your other article, would be beneficial for the tendons as well, or am I off base here?

Or if anyone on has any other methods that I am missing that might be of help?
Thanks!

Just wanted to report my experience (warning, nothing really impressive at all), even though I would say that I am not the ideal candidate with my issues. The fixed weight progression doesn’t sound sexy on paper, but I enjoyed this program, found it challenging certain weeks and plan on using it again sometime. I’ve only really used this method for sumo deadlifts, as it is the only real exercise I can progress with (with significant amount of weight) because of my back area and ribs hurting me for the last 3 years. I did some prowler stuff and other light lifting in between days.

There were probably 3 out 12 weeks where I only deadlifted twice a week, and maybe about 3 workouts where I wasn’t able to perform all 5 reps. I think mainly because I was tweaking my diet here and there, low carb did not seem to work during the weeks of paused deadlifts.

I started out light enough, 65 kg, adding around 4% each cycle, which weeks 1 & 2 on all 3 cycles felt too light at first until the 4th week came around, OOFFF!!!, is all I can say. I only completed 3 rounds due to moving but the 1st and 3rd cycle I added a 5th week to them as suggested to someone else by CT, with the paused concentrics and eccentrics. This was rather interesting the first time I tried to do it.

The first cycle I found slowly lowering the weight to be quite effective in feeling my hips and glutes really work through the sumo deadlifts, I enjoyed that. By Cycle 1, Week 4 I started to feel a little beat up, especially in the forearms/hands (I use a hook grip). I think the paused eccentrics felt harder than the paused concentrics so on the 3rd cycle I switched the concentric pauses to the 3rd week and the eccentric ones to the 4th week. Also the concentric pauses felt more like I was working on my deadlifts than the eccentrics, if that makes any sense.

Cycle 2, Week 1, felt like heaven, but in retrospect think I should have emphasised lifting as fast as possible on all week 1s, because by Cycle 3 felt like my lifting was slowing down a bit, even though everything felt lighter. I also timed my rest periods the first cycle but felt like they were not helping my recovery so around week 2 or 3 on the 2nd cycle I stopped.

I took a 2 week break in between Cycle 2 & 3, doing complexes, only 2 sessions of heavy deadlifts (working up to 102.5 kg) and fiddled with my diet to work on losing some very stubborn weight. I can probably safely say that without doing those previous 8 weeks of fixed weight progression, I would not have felt as “safe” with my back and all, working up to those heavy dls while losing some weight (lost about 5-7 kg during the 12 weeks). Cycle 3 felt very good and stronger even while being extremely stressed and getting sick.

[quote]minimaltechno wrote:

I was also thinking that maybe using the same principles for getting a muscle pump like in your other article, would be beneficial for the tendons as well, or am I off base here?

Or if anyone on has any other methods that I am missing that might be of help?
Thanks!

Emphasizing the eccentric by lowering the weight slowly (4-5 seconds per rep) works well to strengthen the tendons. It is often used to treat tendinosis and tedinitis
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