Off-season weight lifting, periodized training

I had a great season last fall with hypertrophy specific training, a program by Bryon Haycock. It starts out ridiculously light for 15 reps, you increment each time until for two weeks until you're lifting as heavy as you possibly can for 15 good reps (i.e., not to failure of muscles, but to failure of form.)

The next two weeks you start over with sets of 10 reps.

The next two weeks you start over with sets of 5. Because the start of every two week cycle is ridiculously easy you adapt well. You figure your max reps for each exercise for each cycle and then decrement backwards to get your weights for the previous days. For example, if I can squat 145 for 10 reps my squat cycle might be:
10 x 95, 10 x 105, 10 x 115, 10 x 125, 10 x 135, 10 x 145

It's a full body routine concentrating on a couple of sets of compound moves each time. I had to set up my workout schedule on an Excel spreadsheet, but then it was really easy to just bring my clipboard to the gym and know what 8 sets I was going to do. And because really only three weeks out of the entire 6 weeks is really hard, it was easy to make myself go to the gym. :-)

Another nice thing about HST is the concept of "strategic deconditioning": after a cycle you ought to take 2 weeks off of lifting to heal, etc. I generally go on a Caribbean vacation every winter and plan the two weeks to fall during that time. :-)

The hardest part is coming up with your rep maxes. You can guess if you want to. I wouldn't recommend you start out with HST - it's more of an intermediate to advanced program - but it is good for both cutting (retaining lean body mass so weight loss comes from fat) and bulking.

Hey Sunny, It's Donna from the CF4W board. Try some straight arm pulldowns maybe and some front step ups to balance and pull ups are always great. Sounds like the ones you are doing are fine but you may want to vary the exercises each phase to prevent adaption. Just choose similar moves to replace the old ones. Try the kickbacks with a cable instead of dumbell fo example. Also maybe do some RDL's (romainian deadlits) in the power phase emphasizing powering through the hips. Squats are great here to powering it up. Squat jumps. Try to stick with multijoint moves and focus on the movement. Good ole squat thrusts(burpees) are great too. I can help you with the weight training planning if you help me with the tri training planning. Give me a call when you get a chance. I have been doing a lot of reading on tri training and could use an experienced persons brain to pick. Your periodized plan is similar to mine. When is your first race of the season? Donna

Edited by donnajo 2005-10-12 6:42 PM

OK, fess up, what's CF4W...Cross Fit for Women?

Hey Donna, Nice to see you here -- I've got your number and will be calling over the weekend to talk training with you! Together, we'll combine and share info for both of our benefit. I'm really glad you're so interested in tri's and willing to share your smarts on strength. Many of the movements you mentioned were ones that I was thinking of trying, so thanks!

And Gwendal, I'm really glad to hear that you had a good experience using HST. I'm just a little surprised that the rep count in progression goes from 15, to 10, to 5 in the two week cycles. As you saw from my earlier post, my periodization plan goes from 10, to 6, to 4, and ends with 15 for the endurance element of the training. I can see the logic in both. HST would produce more muscle gains while the periodization works overall conditioning with an aim towards some muscle gain, but more endurance gain as well. I guess I shouldn't get bogged down in how to choose, but instead, just try one and see how it goes.

I must say, it's pretty appealing that HST works in just 6 week cycles. Hmmm...

It's harder to get psyched for longer 3-month periodization plans, but trust me, I will!

Any other thoughts or ideas out there?

Cheers, -Sunny

P.S. CF4W isn't cross fit for women, thought that would be cool...
It's a UK-hosted forum spin-off of a M&F Hers magazine forum circa 2003?? Donna and Marina are two women that I know from that forum that I also see here. Maybe Adrienne, too?

Thanks for the book suggestion -- it sounds like a new title worth seeking out at my local store, or if that fails, on-line.

Cheers, -Sunny

I looked at that book at borders and was not impressed. It was a very general program that did not seem sport specific to me and all the workouts at the end of the book are the same as all the books they have for other sports. I also checked out its reviews on amazon and they were not good. Just my opinion though. Donna

Re: donnajo's reply about the book --

Darn, so it was just a good/new title on the "same old stuff"....hmm, thanks for the heads up on that!