What's Your Current Training Volume?

[quote]Ryan71 wrote:
Total tonnage or workload is a nice figure to use, but average intensity also needs to be measured.

Example taken from a post on Lyle McDonald’s site:

Example:
“240x5 280x5 320x5 360x5 400x5, for a total volume of 8000 lbs. The same volume is accomplished with 320x5x5”

assuming good form, say 400x5 is a 5RM, thus = 100% effort
so 360x5 = (360/400)^(# greater than 1) = call it 85%*
so 320x5 = (320/400)^(# greater than 1) = call it 70%*
the rest are crap

so 320x5x5 is like 5x5 @ ~ 70% effort … maybe decent for hypertrophy, but that’s going to suck for strength

both examples provide the same volume
the first has much better potential for strength gains
the second has much better potential for wasting your time
[/quote]

Good post!

I usually judge intensity by my testicles. When they suck up close to my body and I look like a penguin, I know I was close to death and “me balls” were trying to survive… Numbers just confuse me :smiley:

Undesired:

Been following your smolov cycle posts… you’re testing next week, right?

From the looks of your training, you are kicking some major ass.

Major props!

I was thinking of jumping to a Sheiko program next for 9 weeks (4 week block + 5 week peaking block) and then after that jumping into a 13 week Smolov (by sheer force of will I plan to get myself back to where I was or die trying).

…I guess the total number of lifts matters more…

[quote]Checkmate wrote:
Undesired:

Been following your smolov cycle posts… you’re testing next week, right?

From the looks of your training, you are kicking some major ass.

Major props!

I was thinking of jumping to a Sheiko program next for 9 weeks (4 week block + 5 week peaking block) and then after that jumping into a 13 week Smolov (by sheer force of will I plan to get myself back to where I was or die trying).[/quote]

Thanks, man. It’s hard for me to remember what life was like before Smolov. I will be testing in 2 weeks, I still have 4 workouts left (I am thinking about doing a fifth during test week at 85% of my 1RM).

I have heard maybe one negative remark regarding Sheiko and I don’t believe that guy gave it a full run. For me, I am going to do a couple 5x5 rotations before my next meet, to get my bench and deadlift active again. After my second meet this year, I will probably hit another Smolov to close out the year. After that, I will look at Sheiko more fully to see where it can help me advance.

I was actually thinking of doing something that is probably stupid, and that is to run the full Smolov for squats in an a.m. workout and then do Smolov Jr. for bench in a p.m. workout. Luckily, I work from home, and have a fully loaded home gym now, also, recovering lost strength and mass is easier than building new strength and mass… so I might be able to get away with it.

I guess we’ll see…

It can be done. Personally, I would be conservative with my numbers for Jr. for bench. The base was really brutal for me, but I was able to do 5x5’s on bench (75-80%), chin’s, dips, and/or pulldowns after squatting. So, I think an am/pm is doable. Not easy, but not impossible.

Did I mention that I hate you for for having a home set-up! j/k, maybe…

You’d hate me even more if I could post pics off of photobucket and you could see it for yourself…

But in the absence of pics, I’ll give a brief run down of the major highlights of my equipment:

*Power rack (sitting on an 8’x 8’ platform with rubber matting I built) with pullup bar and dip attachment
*Adjustable bench
*20 kg. Ivanko competition PL bar
*8’ x 8’ O-lifting platform (built it myself)
*20 kg, Pendlay Bar (not the cheap starter bar)
*630 lbs. of Iron weight (including plates as small as 1/4 lb. for microloading)
*140 kg. of bumper plates
*Two adjustable KBs from American KB (35-70 lbs.)
*10’ x 20’ Dollamur ultralight wrestling mats (2.5" thick) and wall matting
*8’x 8’ 1/2" Dollarmur ultralite wrestling mat (which goes over the o-lifting platform when I need the space)
*90 lb. throwing dummy
*90 lb. heavy bag
*Glute-Ham bench
*Full range of jump stretch bands
*Various weight belts (and dip belt)
*Foam tubing
*Various wrestling/BJJ/MMA equipment (headgear, pads, gloves, etc.)
*Leather jump rope
*Swiss Ball

There is probably some stuff I am forgetting too…

Hate me more now?

:wink:

Checkmate,
I feel it is only right for me to let you know that you are such a DICK! Of course, that is just me being jealous. That is an awesome equipment list.

Thanks bro!

About the only thing off the top of my head that I can think of that I am missing are some adjustable DBs, chains, and a reverse hyper.

I don’t really have room for a reverse hyper, but I found schematics on how to build one that you can fit in a power rack and remove when not in use (hard to describe in words).

BTW, the mats are where I spend most of my time (getting tossed like a ragdoll by a friend of mine who was a Div IA wrestler and who has had about a dozen or so MMA fights).

Better be careful, you may break a hip at your age! (I’ll be hitting the big 40 in 33days)

Heh, don’t I know it.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to training when you get older.

The first is to really reduce volume and pay way more attention to recovery.

The second is to force your body to stay young by refusing to budge and inch (and even increasing workload).

I have chosen the second option.

My body keeps whispering to me to take the first… but I’m not listening!