Hi Guys, i have been back training for a couple of months due to extended lay off because of chronic fatigue syndrome from cmv viral reactiviation and im on antivirals for this as well as other treatments which have helped alot. My training has been very stop start of the last few years because of this illness but of late have had the right treatments and hopefully improved enough to train more consistently. Muscle memory is a good thing, i found after a month of training using light weights i put 5kg on, wasnt expecting that.
What i have found is that i am too wiped out to train during the week when i am working so i mainly train on my days off, so after some opinions.
My first day off
1)Power clean work up to a 1 rep max
2)deadlift work up to a 1 rep max
3)benchpress work up to a 1 rep max, last set rep out with a lighter weight
Im still a fair way off my PR’s but weights used are increasing slowly. In my experience 1 rep training has been the most effective for me as im able to continually increase the weight used more consistently then higher rep ranges.
Second day off, I call it fluffing around as im not pushing myself in these work outs just using good form and getting a sweat up.
1)power snatch/overhead squat
2)front squat
3)shoulder press/push press
4)db row
5)pull down
6)laterals
7)bb curl
I am jumping rope as a warm up for a few minutes and also to give the cardio a tickle.
Mid week if i feel ok i will add some rope work and squatting.
All my workouts are short, keep sets low, too large a volume tends to increase fatigue drastically. most night i do lower back/hip stretching as i tend to be tight there, also history of lower back prblems/arthritis.
I usually work 5 ten hour shifts and get 3 days off so i have one day of just to vege which i find i need after working and 2 workouts.
I have an oly lifting background as one might tell by my exercise selection.
Anyone else find training on days off only, still able to make good improvements??
Be interested to see how others train on a similar schedule.
cheers!!!
Hey there. Well I’m no expert and I’m experimenting myself at the moment with getting back into oly lifting after some back and rib issues. These last couple of weeks I’m doing empty bar snatch work usually on Saturday when I have not been sitting at a desk all day.
However, most of the pain management advice is to breakdown the workload in increments over a few days and to pace yourself. I’m not sure how this applies to CFS though. Sounds like what you are doing works for you though and you are experiencing improvements without making your condition worse.
I am going to try adding more frequency over the next few months though, but work up towards intensity and duration.
Any particular reason you are working up to a 1RM in PCs and DLs on the same day? Seems like it would be more sensible to alternate between those two on a weekly basis. Dan John has some good suggestions on articles here and his website about making the most out of two days of training.
[quote]novaeer wrote:
Any particular reason you are working up to a 1RM in PCs and DLs on the same day? Seems like it would be more sensible to alternate between those two on a weekly basis. Dan John has some good suggestions on articles here and his website about making the most out of two days of training.[/quote]
do them on the same day as im only training hard once a week plus moving from pcleans to deadlifts just seems like an easy progression of exercises and the pcleans are a good warm up for deads and i can use close to my best within the first set or 2 of deads as i am warmed up nicely.
I have just finished my 5 ten hour shifts and had a good nights sleep, so now just waiting to wake up fully. been using acetyl tyrosine as a pre workout wakemeup and a pepsi max.Once in awhile i get 4 or 5 days off so i can spread my work outs abit more.
My power clean PB is 120kg and last workout did 90kg,my deadlift is 200kg but happy with just deadlifting 20-30kg above my power clean for now. my best bench is 140kg and last workout was 110kg. Im really just being instinctive with increasing weight but also doing it slowly staying with a certain weight for awhile and nailing good form. I would really like to reach my PB in the pclean and the bench plus abit.
the only thing with such a low frequency is that its hard to knock some weight off, i really have to be strict with diet which is hard but im slowly getting there.
cheers!!
[quote]minimaltechno wrote:
Hey there. Well I’m no expert and I’m experimenting myself at the moment with getting back into oly lifting after some back and rib issues. These last couple of weeks I’m doing empty bar snatch work usually on Saturday when I have not been sitting at a desk all day.
However, most of the pain management advice is to breakdown the workload in increments over a few days and to pace yourself. I’m not sure how this applies to CFS though. Sounds like what you are doing works for you though and you are experiencing improvements without making your condition worse.
I am going to try adding more frequency over the next few months though, but work up towards intensity and duration.
[/quote]
Thanks for replying mate. the snatch is a great exercise. i do a few light ones on my fluffing around days, just getting a good technique etc. down the track i may swap the clean for the snatch as my heavy exercise just for variety. If my recovery ability gets better i will just have a clean day and a snatch day with a couple of extra exercise added to them, short and sweet.
My heavy day workouts a pretty short and keeping reps low makes workload even less, but it helps with recovery. I probably do about 5-6 sets of power cleans and 2-3 sets of deads and then 5-6 sets of benches.
I mention other supps i use in the previous post but im also finding ribose/creatine quite helpful, before cfs i didnt get much out of these supps but now its abit different, they arehelping me make a difference when exercising.
cheers!!!
2 days ago i did my main workout of pcl, deads and benches and hit the numbers i wanted and have recovered ok. today i will do my fluffing around workout which i will do fr squats, shoulder press, db row and pull downs, maybe some curls. At the moment im still making progress so training infrequently isnt holding me back getting stronger, i suppose a plateau will eventually happen with this frequency. if i can reach my hold numbers that will be good. i loaded the bar the other day for deads and had 120kg on it, i stood back and thought wow i use to clean that, it looked impressive on the bar. only 30kg to get there lol.
cheers!!!