Doug Furnas, Ed Coan, Fred Hatfield,
Mike Bridges, Doyle Kenady.
Many people have experienced dreams in which an extraordinary idea or concept passes through their mind. Awakening in a startled state, often excited to near hysteria, they reflect on the idea and promise themselves that they’ll write it down the next morning. Sun up, they find to their dismay that they can’t remember what they dreamed! I had such a dream once and determined not to forget, wrote it down before going back to sleep. The next morning, I read what I had written during the night and it was nearly unintelligible. The meaning of my sleep-writing has only recently become clear to me. It is an idea I would like to throw out at the weight training world.
Almost all powerlifters follow
some kind of weekly training schedule that involves a light, moderate, and
heavy workout. Until recently (a year or so), I used a similar schedule. Then
came my revelation. Why not train heavy all
the time? What possible benefit is derived from training loads that are so
light that no significant overload is accomplished? The revelation came to me
in mathematical form. If I trained for 10 weeks following the traditional light
and heavy system, I’d get in 10 heavy workouts. These workouts would be the
only ones out of the total 20 that would yield significant gains. However, if I
trained heavy every 4th or 5th day, I would be able to
get in fully 15 significant workouts in 10 weeks. My nimble brain quickly
calculated the advantage – on such a system I would be able to make gains fully
50% above what I used to get!!!
Many questions arise.
What’s light?
What’s heavy?
Is four or five days enough time
for full recuperation?
Is the ideal physiologically
sound?
Psychologically sound?
Is there any reason under the
sun why I should train light?
Is there any reason under the
sun why I shouldn’t train heavy all the time?
I’d like to answer the last
question first.
It works and it works better
than the old method! It worked for me and it’s working for the guys who train
with me. But, let’s take a look at the concept more systematically and
objectively.
When lifters talk about training
loads, there are no magic numbers, no holy percentages – only ballpark figures
that experience and research tells us are good guidelines. The critical
threshold (on the average) for strength gains to occur maximally is with
training loads in excess of 80% maximum. The average lifter can pump out at
least 10 good reps with such a load – usually closer to 15 reps, but most
strength-based lifters deal with lower reps than that. Off season training
generally should involve 6-8 reps at loads in excess of 85%. Peaking cycles
generally include heavy triples with loads in excess of 90% of max. Both
research and experience tells us that such training loads yield the best results
for strength and power. So, ‘light’ (for our purposes) means below the critical
threshold of 80% , and ‘heavy’ means doing the appropriate number of reps with
a weight that is heavy enough to make you fail if you go beyond the required
number of reps.
Recuperation time is a variable
that must be determined by the
individual. There are some rather objective methods to determine whether
you are recuperated sufficiently to engage in another heavy workout (blood
pressure, white blood cell count, blood lactate concentration tests), but the
most practical method is trial and error. Younger and smaller lifters generally
recuperate faster than older and/or bigger lifters. 3-5 days is generally
enough time for the in-shape lifter. The big guys sometimes need 5-7 days for
full recuperation. The short and long of this fact is that if you engage in a
moderate or light workout before recuperating from the last heavy workout, you
are actually slowing down the recuperation process – you are not enhancing it.
Let me reiterate an important point
– maximum benefit is derived from your heavy workouts, and light workouts only
serve to hold you back. The only reason ever given to me for doing light
workouts (besides the old standby response, ‘this is the way everyone does it’,
or ‘it helps me to recuperate’) is that an overpowering feeling of guilt forces
lifters to work! If they’re not in the gym almost every day, lifters feel that
they’re not working hard enough, or that they’re lazy. They become overwhelmed
by the need to excel and want to do everything they can to get better! Noble,
but I submit, nearsighted.
When the gains begin to come
more rapidly, the guilt feelings go away. The extra time spent home with the
family, or out with friends will, I suspect, be a welcome relief to them, and
it certainly won’t hurt in allowing the lifter to become a bit more attuned to
life around him (oddly enough, there actually IS life outside the gym!)
My experience with such a system
has been nothing but positive. I now love to go to the gym! The drudgery is
gone. I love to handle the big weights – it’s good for my head. The guys I
train with have become infected with the same kind of enthusiasm and our
training sessions are ALWAYS nothing less than great! I even have time on my
hands so that I have been able to sit down and write this article.
Maybe it’s an idea whose time
has come.
Give it a try!
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