Gary III: The Comeback

[Gary Gibson]

Chapter One: Texas Method and Linear Progression

Due to injury and travel I am down quite a bit from all my peak lifts. I high bar squatted my best ever without a belt with 365 at 182 at the beginning of the summer. Right now I weigh 172 and my best high bar raw squat is 300 lbs. My best bench is 215 and my best beltless conventional pull is 375.

I was looking at my competition results at 165. I could low bar back squat 347 and then 369 (after Russian squat routine). Took my bench from 209 to 231 at that weight too. Sumo deadlifted 440 twice with a belt and just missed 469 at the second competition.

The low bar + belt numbers are about 80 lbs or so over the high bar without a belt numbers, at least once I've had a chance to practice the low bar with a belt. So when I could low bar + belt ~360, I could probably high bar without a belt ~280, 300 tops.

My point is that I'm about as strong as I can expect to be at 170. I could be stronger at this weight, but not very much. I need to get back over 180. I was a little over 180 when I high bar squatted 365 (no belt), the most I ever squatted completely raw (neoprene knee sleeves). I was about 180 when I low bar squatted 418 in competition with a belt. Each pound of trained-up bodyweight I gain gives me about 5 lbs on my squat.

I was thinking of using Russian Squat Routine, alternating the heavy day for squat and bench, but that sort of wave loading may be wasting some of my time. I could probably gain a lot faster with linear progression and a lot of calories to get my weight back over 180. This is the same tactic I used to put on 20 lbs in early 2010 and add about 50 lbs to my squat and deadlift.

I used Smolov back then, but this time I'd give the Texas Method a go along with GOMAD.

Back squat, high bar no belt x 5 x 3
Bench Press x 5 x 3
Pull Up ladders

Front Squat x 3 x 5
Press x 5 x 3
Chin Up ladders

Back Squat to max single
Bench Press to max single
Deadlift to max single or x 5 x 3

I'd also do some mobility, agility and speed work, particularly using maintenance sprint and vertical jump practice.

With GOMAD I could probably add 3-5 lbs/week to my body and 15-20 lbs/week to my squat and deadlift before my gains slowed down. I've done it before from this weight to over 180. I just really get the feeling that I'm spinning my wheels unless I seriously go after more mass. I could maybe squat 405 at 190 this way. Anything over 2x bodyweight is great. I could probably top out at 450 @ 200. 2.5x bodyweight is the stuff of the physically talented, which I am not. 2.25 is just fine by me, but it sure isn't going to happen at 5'10" and 170 lbs. Time to triple the calories again.

Right now I just want to feel solid with a 315 high bar squat, 225 bench and 405 beltless pull, 135 press and 265 front squat before too long. Going to need about 3 more pounds of bodyweight for that. Shouldn't take me more than a week to get it. Let's see what I can put up Friday.

[simonsky]

231 bench @ 165 ? i recall you said you suck at benching haha, i would like to have that high of a bench.

[medwards]

Thanks for spelling our your thought processes. I was wondering what you were going to do.

[Gary Gibson]

High bar squat, no belt
45 x 10
135 x 6
185 x 4
225 x 3
255 x 2
275 x 1
(loose wraps)
245 x 5 x 3
255 x 5
265 x 5

...

Bench Press
45 x 11
95 x 6
135 x 5
175 x 3
205 x 1
165 x 5 x 3

Chin Up
x 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
x 1, 2, 3
x 1, 2
x 1, 2, 3
x 1

True fact: knee wraps save lives.

Once again, let me point out that the wraps allow me to train more while drastically reducing strain on the knees. They give me another 20 lbs on my lifts, but they prevent post-workout pain and effusion. It's the bottom part of the squat where the harm is done, when the knees are fully stretched and bearing the load, especially with any bouncing. The wraps bear the brunt of the load in the knees' most vulnerable position.

Used heavy singles as warm up and stayed away from maximal effort. A fairly heavy single makes the work weights feel lighter. Was surprised to get 265 for reps, even with the wraps. Very good form too. Didn't lose back angle except for a rep or two. Lots of hours between squat and upper body work. A little sad that 165 x 5 x 3 was pretty much all I had in me. Fairly satisfied with the chin up ladder results.

[blowdpanis]

Howdy Gary, glad to know you're still alive. I miss our chats.

A handy rule of thumb I've found, a sort of poor man's Brozing, is to single up to (intended working weight) + ~10% for lifts under maybe ~85% 1 RM. Perhaps more like ~5% for lifts a bit heavier in the ~85-90% range. Bear in mind that's 10% of the working weight, not (working weight as a % of 1 RM) + 10%. E.g. a 200 lb intended working weight in the bench, if that were a 5 RM, would have you warm up to a ~220 single beforehand. Your actual 1 RM in the bench in the above scenario would probably be ~235ish, so the single is heavy, but not maximal, if you follow.

But yah, you get a nice neural boost by going a little heavier than the intended weight, without ever risking grinding.

[hbriem]

Good to see you back Gary.

[LeonidasfromSparta]

True fact: knee wraps save lives.

Once again, let me point out that the wraps allow me to train more while drastically reducing strain on the knees. They give me another 20 lbs on my lifts, but they prevent post-workout pain and effusion. It's the bottom part of the squat where the harm is done, when the knees are fully stretched and bearing the load, especially with any bouncing. The wraps bear the brunt of the load in the knees' most vulnerable position.

Gary, would you suggest people who have no knee issues should use knee wraps in order to prevent potential injury? Also what kind of wraps do you use, and were the work sets done with loose wraps (approx. as loose as Rip suggest using them in the knee wrap video)?

[Draft]

Care to comment on the chin up programming? I've been doing chins/pull ups in 5/3/1 and sort of ended up alternating intensity and volume days, but I don't know if that's especially effective programming...

[Gary Gibson]

Gary, would you suggest people who have no knee issues should use knee wraps in order to prevent potential injury? Also what kind of wraps do you use, and were the work sets done with loose wraps (approx. as loose as Rip suggest using them in the knee wrap video)?

I started a thread on this at IGx. "If My Knee Wraps Had Dicks..."

UberSmet: "Quite a few Russian guys I read recommend wrapping knees from the very beginning of training. Every time you squat, light or heavy. Faleev is one of them."

I can see the wisdom in this. The general interwebs advice is to put off any gear usage as long as possible, to let your body have a chance at adapting to the load. This leaves a lot to chance, however. People like me with thin builds and sensitive, tiny joints just can't take a beating the way natural lifters can. I've had tremendous benefit from using knee wraps instead. The wraps don't prevent adaption; they prevent damage. I get stronger with them and can squat more weight totally naked if necessary thanks to the wraps that allow me to train far more than I could without them.

So it's an art. You can play it safe and use wraps and compression shorts from the beginning. Or you could hold off till you feel you need them. Like I said in that thread, if you have robust joints and are of a thicker build, odds are you can get away with much less gear for much more of your lifting career. If you are especially reedy like me, and if you started the heavy stuff later in life, or both, you may want to start experimenting with supportive gear a lot sooner than later.

Don't look to the phenotypically perfect lifters who end up in the Olympics as your guides. They are suited to this shit in ways the rest of us will never be.

Care to comment on the chin up programming? I've been doing chins/pull ups in 5/3/1 and sort of ended up alternating intensity and volume days, but I don't know if that's especially effective programming...

Ladders make you good with a given weight. They're akin to greasing to the groove, practice while mostly staying away from failure. You can get a lot more reps in with ladders than you could with straight sets of five. For example I got a total of 31 chins last night whereas I might have gotten three sets of five for a total of 15. Chin/pull ups cannot go below a certain weight without special setups and most people can't do enough reps to justify adding weight even if they can knock off a few reps unassisted. I am doing the ladders till I am able to do at least 10 or 12 reps in a set comfortably. Then I will start adding weight to these movements again like I would with presses.

[Carlos Daniel]

This seems to be opposite to your experience, but I definitely feel much weaker now without my wraps in comparison to before when I didn't use them at all. I did 420x3x10 the other day and my 300 something warm-up, without wraps, felt heavier than the work set.