Post-Holiday Bulking

Listen, you've been downing eggnog and candy like a madman this past week (if you're me) and this upcoming week you're probably going to make some BS resolution to lose whatever weight or become like Brad Pitt in (Fight Club, Snatch, Oceans 11).

But don't. Please.

Firstly, you're probably not going to last. Secondly, resolutions are dumb. When was the last time you ever took anyone seriously about them?

So I posted this a while back, but it's a general eating guide for bulking, or as I termed it: Meathead Dietetics. It's intended to replace the food pyramid/my plate/ zone diet/ paleo/ whatever.


For the swole/bloat/strong eater there are new food categories:

• Plates (e.g. chips, wings, etc- anything that you can put something else on, preferably ranch, cheese, ketchup or something processed)  This is what we call "functional food."
• Whole hand foods- because finger foods won't cut it. Forks, knives and spoons will just slow you down. Sandwiches, pizza, ribs, etc.  Dan John once said if you're eating to get big, get rid of forks. They slow you down. Or maybe it was spoons. Point is, if God wanted you to eat with a utensil, he wouldn't have given you the cow or pig with their delicious ribs or the chicken with its wings.
• Vegetables- a great way of eating more ranch dressing.  
• Quick service food- the dollar menu is a great value. Get one of everything on it along with your meal.

Now, to be clear, this is not a continual thing. This is essentially riding the Mancember bulk well into Manuary. By the time you stop caring about food, it's time to wind down. Start by only going crazy after the workout. Then transition into a Leangains or whatever recomp/fat loss diet you like. I like Leangains. Following those basic principles, I managed to lose 20 lbs in 6 weeks, no strength loss, and I don't look like a catabolic weakling.

My current plan is basically just maintaining until competition. Lots of protein- somewhere in the range of 350-400 g a day, carbs are around 300 g, and fats are incidental + plenty of fish oil and olive oil. I take about 15000 IU of vitamin d E3D, and 3 g of vitamin C a day when I remember to. Other than that, I've run through my biote$t cache (good riddance) and am using a custom made cookies and creme protein mix from trueprotein (50% hydrolyzed whey, 5% fructose, 10% dextrose, 15% maltodextrin, 5% ALCAR, 5% citrulline malate, and 10% creapure). I add some table sugar to make it tolerable to drink. It looks like sewer water, but I can drink a whole 2L pretty easily, so that's a good thing. 

Coming soon: blogs on the gym bag, my meet report, accessory work and why and how to use blocks of training.

Developing Mental Toughness

I don't know about you, but 90% of the time when I read a post about developing mental toughness, it's a very general, motivational, fluffy post. The advice is generally "Get yourself pumped!" or "Mentally prepare for the lift" which are nice, but I like things to do. This post has two main functions, the first of which is to introduce you to the best article I've read on mental preparation and performance from t-nation written by Craig Weller. To sum it up:

• "The skills you possess in a calm, controlled environment will probably not be the skills you possess when it really matters... The good news is that the effects of stress can, to some extent, be controlled."
• When under stress, the sympathetic nervous system kicks up the heart rate, which is divided into 4 or five levels ranging from white to black which describe certain levels of functionality- heightening, peaking, and then degrading at higher levels (however, these are psychologically induced things- basic functions like running are still there, and even peak) and "It's also possible to reach Condition Black for its gross motor-skill performance benefits, such as sprinting or deadlifting, and then quickly recede to a calmer state to allow nervous system recovery." 
• 175 bpm is really the upper level for that sort of performance peaking. After that, it's no-man's land. We can however become "stress-innoculated" which is the type of mental toughness we're seeking to develop. It basically involves repeated exposure to a high stress activity while being allowed to recuperate.
• "Adapting yourself to a stressful situation seems to create a sort of "stress immune system," which allows greater tolerance and more rapid adaptation to other stressful situations." And there's a lot of good stuff to read that follows.

While what I'm suggesting is not necessarily the direct application of this article, these suggestions are about shifting towards the mental (psychological) black. Being able to get in that state, and quickly, then lift, is extremely useful. Anthony Robbins, love him or hate him, is a smart guy. One of the themes he focuses on in his books and seminars is this idea of "getting in state." You have certain states that are more useful than others, and he's not wrong- it's something you see in athletes and in yourself.

Now, for the good stuff: here's a 4 part list of things to do and learn how to do:

1. Sniff Ammonia. This is a good starter for anyone who doesn't have the toughness. Crack a pack and then inhale through your nose. Don't pull it away. The first time you do this you will see stars and probably not be able to make the lift. I wasn't- I coughed and gagged and couldn't even attempt the lift. But around the third time of using ammonia I hit a new squat PR- 495 x2. Don't get dependent on it, but learn to use it as a tool.
2. Lift explosively. This is key to learning toughness- you can't be a wimp and throw a barbell over your head. Olympic lifts, speed squats, speed pulls, jumps, throws and sprints will teach you toughness if you do them and do them regularly. 
3. Grind your lifts. I know, doesn't this contradict the one above? Not really, because they can work together. Learn to go a little heavier and grind- you're already a little fatigued from warming up and your working sets, so this grinding is a way to get the pattern in a fatigued state. Great also for partial movements- and please, make sure you're okay if you're going to fail on this movement. Don't be stupid about this. Spotters or catches are best.
4. Learn to yell. This is my favorite. I love this, and I practice it whenever I'm alone in the car and anytime right before the gym. Full force yelling- unrestrained. It's just not something we know in this day and age- we know how to scream reacting to a scare or thrill, but we don't know an aggressive yell. It really does help you tap into the primal mindset and, just knowing that you're able to yell full force at any moment is extremely empowering. Being able to yell on cue will put you in the driver's seat of life. Don't believe me? Just try it. It's made me more focused in my aggression.

So that's the general idea- learn how to get in the black, get to the point where you're in control of your stress by inoculating yourself to stress. I've given you a few suggestions of useful things that will help you, but it's by no means comprehensive. You have any other ideas? Leave them in the comments.

Stupid Simple Deadlift Cycle

So, when I was bringing my deadlift from 405 to 495, this was the basic pattern I used- minus a rest week for the first two times through, and I tested my new max and then did the week 1 two days later. 90 lbs on your deadlift in ~10 weeks ain't bad. This works well for squats as well.

(% of 1 rm x sets x reps)
Week 1:
75% x3 x3
85% x3 x1

60% x4-6 x2

Week 2:
80% x3 x3
90% x3 x1

60% x4-6 x2

Week 3:
85% x5 x2
95% x3 x1

60% x4-6 x2

Week 4:
Retest Max ( at least 48 hours away from last deadlift day and before the next deadlift day)

Week 5:
Lighter work/ deload

Mental toughness post is being worked on. I jumbled some of the things I wanted to say and points I wanted to make, so I'm revamping it all. Hope this holds you over.

Small Tweaks

Sometimes small steps will allow you to make leaps forward. Sometimes small steps will derail everything. Think about when you're benching- the barbell is maybe 2 inches from falling at all times- it's a small thing but it makes the difference between hitting a 1 RM and having a fully loaded bar drop on you.

Small things are meaningful only if they produce a big difference. Foot position is one thing that I personally don't pay much attention to- my sumo pull is a little bigger than my regular one. My wide squat and medium squat are a little different, but I get stronger doing either and sometimes both of them. Hand position on the other hand is huge for me- if I go too wide or too narrow on bench, I struggle with 335. If I get the right hand position I get 350 x2 on any day. For overhead press if I go too wide I have to take a month off to recover. If I go too narrow I can't get the bar to lock out.

Now, I'm not you. Foot position may be a huge thing for you and hand position may not be as important. Everybody has roughly the same mechanics, but there is variance, especially based on height. Weight makes a difference initially, but it takes quite a bit for that to make as much difference after a year or two.

This will come forth in a post later, but I'm really anti-weaknesses. I think if you have a weakness then overcoming it is important. I talked about assessing weaknesses, and soon I'll talk about how to overcome weaknesses. My general philosophy is for any weakness that isn't doctor-serious, you need to go at it in a couple different ways and preferably twice a week. Guess what? It's small changes to what you already do- you don't have to learn some new movement or spend thousands to get a piece of equipment.

Small things can make big differences, but only if you're smart about them.

One Week Program

Sometimes, you have a busy week and you can only get in a couple times a week to train. So I thought I'd give you a basic two day program. You can do this program twice a week if you get a little more time. It's basic, straightforward, and you'll be in and out in an hour or so.

A
Squats- warmups, then 3 x70%, 3 x80%, 2-3 singles x90%
Abs- 3 sets of 20 of either hanging leg raises or decline situps
Overhead press- warmups, then 5 x65%, 5 x75%, 3-5 x85% , 15 x50% (take two sets if needed)
Seated DB raises- something medium weight, raise to front and to side as one rep 3 x10-12

B
Deadlifts- warmups, then 3 x70%, 3 x80%, 2-3 singles at 90%
Back Raises- hold at the bottom, 3 x8-10
Bench Press- warmups, 5 x65%, 5 x75%, 3-5 x85%, 15 x50% (take two sets if needed)
DB Press- choose a good weight (combined about 50% of your bench 1 rm) and get to 50 however you can

If you do this twice a week, drop back raises on B, replace with the abs from A, and replace abs from A with a quad exercise- front squats, leg extensions, hack squats or even jumps. Also, lower the working weights by 10-15% on the second day and up the reps by 2-3 (e.g. second squat day would be 6 x55%, 6 x65%, 5-6 x75%).

There's no progression built into the program because it's meant to be sustained for a week, maybe two at the most. Help you bridge the gap between programs if you so choose.

Assessing and Correcting Failures

When a person fails at a lift, there could be dozens of reasons as to why. One could guess and wonder, but the truth is if you spend your effort in an a way that fails to address the core problem, it's effort wasted. One of my favorite things is to attack weaknesses, but before you do, you have to know what the weakness is. Taking aspirin all day won't help if you've got the flu.


A few caveats: firstly, we're talking about max effort stuff. Form will break down on repetitive effort because of muscle exhaustion, not necessarily any of the things we talk about here. Secondly, we always talk about how on ME attempts, form will go out the window. While that is true to an extent, ignoring systemic form errors will not be good. For example: with the problem of squat-mornings, if you have it ingrained as part of the lift, that's bad. If it happens as a consequence of straining on the way up, that's less bad.


That being said, I would suggest a priority of assessment to determine things:

1. Form- do you have pretty good form? Have someone cue you, watch you, coach you until it's automatic. We all have form weaknesses, so learning cues and being coached will help, especially early on. Yes, falling forward in the squat can be a sign of weak abs or lower back or whatever you think it could be, but sometimes it's just that you haven't learned to arch hard and consistently. You wind up squat-morning the weight. If it's form and you think it's musculature, you might get really strong abs that allow you to squat morning a little more weight rather than learning the actual form and squatting a lot more.

2. Spot failure or Sticking Points- where do you fail? There's tons of references for if you fail here on this lift, this is why, so I won't enumerate. Googling the phrase "sticking points deadlift" will give you ideas for that. Going back to falling forward in the squat- maybe your abs and lower back do need more work. Add in the accessory work here to help with this. In fact, this should be a guiding reason for your accessory work- what are my muscular weaknesses? There are some other issues that play into this- different muscles taking over, not being able to utilize core muscle, etc, but those are for a different post.

3. Lack of neural conditioning- perhaps part of the reason you fail is because you don't practice the actual movement pattern enough. This is one of the reasons I love the Westside Method. Hitting squat and bench twice a week ingrain those movement patterns. This is related to form, but it has more to do with frequency. The better a lifter you are the more important it is you lift often to keep up the pattern and be able to increase the weight. Now, every time isn't ME or even DE. You may just do a 5x5 squat with 50% of your 1RM on days you don't have a ME squat.

4. Mental toughness- are you just not grinding? Is it wimping out when you could finish? This is one that's hard to teach. I have a post that I'm working on addressing the idea of developing mental toughness that will actually teach you a few tricks that I've had success with. I'm going to try and avoid fluffy posts that promise to address a topic but never give you ideas of what to do.


5. Form- let's face it, even the most advanced lifters have form issues. Get on it. Few of the strongest guys have never lifted with somebody to help. Being great requires external critiques by others who are stronger or smarter. If you have a 500 lb squat, don't listen to the kid who quarter squats with 315, and don't ignore the guy who can only do 315 but clearly knows his stuff. Distinguishing between them isn't always easy, but keep a look out for phrases like "ignites metabolism" or "stability balls" and run the other way.


Failing at a lift is almost never a bad thing (assuming you can avoid injury). Failures should be viewed as opportunities to grow, but you need to assess them correctly. 

Intro

What's up?

I'm byukid. I post on reddit and t-nation. I'm  working on getting stronger and better at everything I do. This blog is just a place for me to post some general ideas about training, recovery, programming and nutrition. I figure if SilverHydra can have his own blog, why not me?

I can't promise consistent updates, but you can check up on my training here (fitocracy) or here (t-nation). Those both get updated pretty consistently.

My philosophy isn't radically unique: lift heavy things a lot, lift heavier things, lift not as heavy things faster, and hammer weaknesses. I will go over how I brought my bench up from 315 to 365, got my squat from 545 to 605, and my deadlift from 555 to 585(I'll be straight up, the deadlift is my favorite, but worst lift) all in 3-8 weeks.

I lift at the BYU gym and occasionally with some other powerlifting types. I'm eyeing a competition coming up early next year in Nebraska. Utah needs its own competitions though, because the closest ones are 8-10 hours away.

And so that's that for the intro.

Stay strong, stay swole, stay growing.