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Thread: Dealing with schedule interruptions

  1. #1
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    Question Dealing with schedule interruptions

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    What programming do you use when you are faced with commitments which prevent a normal workout frequency? That is when workout frequencies are limited to once per week or less. Geezers generally move from the SS linear progression to the Texas Method. After some time on the Texas Method, many geezers may move to a TM with 72 hours between workouts, or even a twice a week program. Dr. Sullivan’s blog had such a program for a while.

    I notice Mark recently said he does one set of squats and one set of pulls every other week. I know from other advanced lifters do heavy workouts as infrequently as once per month. They may do lighter workouts in the time between the heavy ones.

    I am not advanced and I would guess most geezers would not consider themselves advanced lifters, so once a week workouts are not for us. However, life seems to wreak havoc on plans to workout anywhere close to three times a week for either LP or TM. Would you please share how you can successfully handle periods where you can not do a scheduled program? How to you attempt to maintain your gains? What do you do for recovery when you can get back to a more regular schedule?

  2. #2
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    I don't know if I can be considered advanced. Probably not except in years. But I follow Rip's squats and pulls frequency myself. I just need the recovery from the biggest of the bigs.

    I've worked out twice a week for a few years and even 3 times over the course of two weeks for a few years too. I made gains with both of them. When something came up, I could shift a day or two one way or the other. I've also had to skip days on those two schemes and that never set me back either.

    I'm not sure if this really asnwers your question or not. If not, let me know.

  3. #3
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    I do 3x5 ramping sets when coming back from an illness, or whenever I'm unsure what my current strength level is. Each set is heavier than the last, but I pick the jumps based on how hard the last set felt. Basically, it's just a strategy for not destroying myself on the first workout after a layoff.

    Workouts at irregular intervals of 5 to 14 days means you're always "coming back from a layoff". So maybe this strategy would make sense.

  4. #4
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    Mark and CWD thanks for the response. A couple of clarifications. The term advanced is from Novice , Intermediate and Advanced. Not the advanced where the hair gets thinner and the waist gets thicker. CWD's response addressed coming back from a layoff, which is part of my question. Mark, your work out schedule is close to the ideal, twice a week or more. Considering your workout added to your instructional duties, it seems to me, you get quite a bit of work done each day. That will keep you young.

    I work similar to CWD's approach with increasing weight on each set, a mini-LP schedule within the recovery work out. I guess the other part of my question is answered within CWD's response. That is if your body tells you it has been a while since your last workout, this could be a week, a month or longer, start back in with a mini-LP approach until you need to reset a few times. Simple.

    So if one is only able to workout one every week or two, approach the maintenance as a mini-LP.

    When I do the mini-LP I try and do 15 reps of the lift, even if I need to do four or more sets and if I have to drop weight. I think the total volume helps maintain the existing strength. Any comments about how others address layoff or busy times would be appreciated.

  5. #5
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    I'm running 5/3/1 on a 4-day rotation, for instance, press on Monday, deads on Wed, bench on Friday, squat on Sunday. Then I just skip Monday and move to Tues/Thurs/Sat/Mon.... All days have assistance as well. Almost without fail I will miss two days in a row due to work, family, travel or something, although the last two weeks have been pretty solid schedule-wise. When I do miss 2 days I just pick up right back where I left off. Also, I'm able to work out any time that fits a particular day-- early morning, lunch time or evening. Saturday was at 11:00AM, today was at 6:30PM, Wednesday is planned for noon but we'll see. I really like this program-- moving from SS 'advanced novice' to Texas Method seemed pretty daunting to me so I'm glad I stumbled onto this plan. It seems like it's an extension of LP to me but I suppose technically it's not. My goal is a 1000 pound total by the end of the year--I was worried that switching to 5/3/1 would make this an impossibility but I finally nutted up and did the calcs today and it looks like I can make. So, now, of course, I have to.

    I realize this isn't spot-on for your question; if I could only workout once a week I'm not sure how I'd approach it. Honestly, after a full year of hitting the gym ~3 times a week I'm not sure I could handle it.

  6. #6
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    Thanks for the response Joe. Good luck in achieving your goal. You did answer a part of the question. The question is more open ended. I am looking for suggestions on how to deal with short lapses in training or where one has to deal with a workout schedule that is sporadic or less frequent and regular than the "normal" geezer intervals. CWD titrates the weight, which makes sense for a longer break, e.g. a week to a month. The method you describe seems suitable for a missed day or two. Mark’s schedule of bi-weekly (a word with two different definitions) heavy lift seems to be a sensible maintenance program if the workout frequency is affected for a longer period of time.

    I agree that a regular twice or thrice weekly workout schedule is desirable and even necessary for novice and new intermediate gains, but life and priorities need to be balanced. I am willing to go on a maintenance program for several weeks to cope. I think it is more important to do something than to give it up altogether, like may people who join gyms.

    I know the question has as many correct answers as people responding, I am curious as to what work for other lifters.

  7. #7
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    I should qualify that I work out 3 times a week now. What I described in my original post were my lifting frequencies prior to arriving here a few years ago. Not that it changes anything of what I said, I just wanted to be sure you understood I was speaking of then rather than now.

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    I think it depends on how long you have been off and what level you can commit to when you come back. To layoff for a few months and to ramp back up to a consistent 3 times a week is very different from wanting to maintain your strength while you get at best 1 work out for the next 6 months. I think that if you worked out 1 time a week keeping the same volume as before the layoff that you wouldn't detrain much, if at all. You probably wouldn't make any progress and I would bet you would still get DOMS (possibly worse) but your 1RMs would probably stay pretty close. I've heard people say that the elderly can do 3 extremely slow heavy negatives and maintain muscle mass and 1RM. I've asked for sources for the basis of that opinion and never got them so I don't know if that is true or not. I doubt that it is.

    If you do layoff (without any lifting) it will not take you as much time to get back to your 1RMs as it did the first time. Although when I layoff it does take me more time to get back to the volume I was at before the layoff.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnRoman View Post
    I think that if you worked out 1 time a week keeping the same volume as before the layoff that you wouldn't detrain much, if at all. You probably wouldn't make any progress and I would bet you would still get DOMS (possibly worse) but your 1RMs would probably stay pretty close.
    All of this makes sense to me. While I'm not lifting heavy (like Hurling!) I'm only doing each main lift ~once a week. Honestly, a lot of times, it seems like going 8 to 9 days between (for instance) benching is no where near enough. But it's working well so far. I'll get back to you in December--if it keeps working well I'll be closing on that 1000. Damn, that seems like a looooooong time from now.

  10. #10
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    When I was starting and a very weak novice, at age 61, I could tolerate 3 workouts a week. This lasted about 2.5 months. Then I moved to Advanced Novice programming for a couple of months (light squat day) on Wednesday, but still three workouts per week. After 5 months of this the weights got heavy enough that I couldn't tolerate 3 workouts a week and moved to working out every 3rd day. That became difficult to manage logistically and I'm now on a twice a week schedule and tolerating it well.

    I've had a number of resets due to travel and illness, and some big ones to retool faulty technique. If I miss a week I try just using the same weights as the last work out. Usually this works, but not always. If my form breaks down, I take a small reset the next workout. If I miss two weeks, I take a 10% deload. I once missed 3 weeks from a serious bout of flu and took a 20% deload.

    I recently took a huge deload on my squat to fix a serious technique problem.

    In every case, the secret is to just get back on your schedule as soon as you can, take whatever deload you need and start progressing again.

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