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Thread: Rehasing a past question

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    Default Rehasing a past question

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    So I once asked about increasing strength without increasing bodyweight before. You said that once you arent terribly underweight that you wouldnt necessarily have to just keep packing on pounds just to get stronger but rather you would have to adjust the programming. Your suggestion was to start doing higher intensity work and eventually more advanced programming in order to "trick" your body into strength gains.

    So my theory is that something like the westside method would be of benefit since indeed you are working to a high intensity max lift every week on different exercise variants but I think once you would need more advanced programming would it be as simple as maybe working up to a 5rm on the lifts for 6-8 weeks then maybe 3rm then 1rm to cap it off? Is that volume discrepancy going to be enough to "trick" your body or would you suggest something totally different? Did not want to get too much into the details of a program like that just looking for clarification of the theory.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Kingwood TX
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    8,914

    Default

    My experience with weight class athletes or even just someone trying to diet and lose weight is that intensity must be kept high. As we know you can't really train at 90%+ week in and week out on the same lifts over and over again. You'll stagnate very quickly and then start to back slide. You have to have some volume in there too though. It can't just be high intensity training. That's where i think a "Westside-esque" system comes in handy. Once per week you hit some volume on the competitive/focus lifts (ex: Squat, Bench, Dead) and once per week you hit a max effort movement that is a CLOSE variation of the main lift.

    Ex:
    Monday - Max Effort Bench Variation
    Tuesday - Max Effort Squat or Deadlift Variation
    Thurs - Volume Bench (75-85% of 1RM)
    Fri - Volume Squat (75-85% of 1RM)

    Keep the variations pretty close in mechanics and ROM:
    Bench, Close Grip Bench, Floor Press, Rack Press, Specialty Bar Press, Band Press, etc
    Squat, Deadlift, Pin Squat, Box Squat, Band Squat, Specialty Bar Squat, Rack Pull, Deficit Deadlift, etc.

    You don't have to do a variation every week. About every 3-4 weeks to the main lift for a heavy single or singles across. Keeping the intensity very high every single week as you lose weight will help your body keep pace with the weight loss. You don't want to hit a heavy single, lose 25 lbs, and then try another heavy single. You'll lose WAY more ground doing that than if you keep very regular with your very high force production work the whole time you are losing weight.

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