Mark Brown
January 5, 2022
Well, snow has fallen here in Iowa and the temperature is starting to stay in the 20s or lower most of the day so that means a shift in my training is coming pretty fast. First week of January last year is about when I started full time going to the Genesis Fitness Clubs Merle Hay location in Des Moines, Iowa for the season. I wanted to stay lifting in the garage at least for at least 1 leg/back session and 1 upper body day because the garage is where I have all of my specialized equipment. The primary reason for that is that I wanted to maintain skill work on the specific exercises like log press, yoke bar and cambered bar squats and block pulls. Looks like the weather is pushing me towards the gym for the time being. This time I will go back to the gym having learned the lessons from the mistakes I made last year, mostly in programming.
Moving to the commercial gym I lift at for the season means a shift from barbells to dumbbells for the most part. I think dumbbells should be a part of any training plan, barbell based or not. The biggest mistake I made last year when I shifted to the gym was that I completely avoided all barbell work for upper body training. Dumbbell press, done either flat, inclined or seated for overhead, was my main press movement last year. I did that because it has been my inherent go to for years when I’m in a setting where I can’t go all out with a barbell press without a spotter. I also just done’t like doing standing overhead press with barbells that much. The consequence of that avoidance of barbells last year was that I had to re-learn how to bench press during the summer when I could have been making progress on that lift during that time. It took me about 10 weeks into my summer program to finally get back to 275 pounds. That’s 10 weeks of progress I missed out on because I didn’t want to bench press at the gym. That’s not a mistake I will be making this winter. In addition to the heavy dumbbell work as main, I will be looking to maintain skill in the bench press by doing it more often and for volume work in the 50-80% 1RM range. The same will apply to standing overhead press because it will transfer over to the log when I get back to it.
Leg training won’t change a ton but it just eliminates some of the highly specialized lifts I have been doing for the last couple months. The yoke bar box squats and the assisted squat with the handles on the power rack have been the main leg movements for the last 3 months and have been fairly eye opening in effect. The assisted specifically was used to work the quads for a very short range power movement. It was legitimately eye opening when I figured out how much I could overload the lift. In many ways, it imitates a leg press or a hack squat because of the way it is just pushing into the floor with my feet as hard as I can. The gym has a leg press that I have been using on the second leg day as a supplemental lift so that assisted squat is covered. I can still do box squats, and will be part of the plan on one of the days. I have even recently seen an old looking safety squat bar, not of the same design as the one I own, against the wall so I will have to see how it feels. I’m not entirely comfortable with a SS bar squat with the racks in the gym so might not be in the cards that often. I know how much more difficult yoke bar squats are than straight bar squats. I can probably execute about 75% of my current garage leg plan at the gym but I think changing it up will benefit me in the long run. A big part of my garage leg day comes from the fact that I don’t have all of the hypertrophy based machines at my disposal during the session so I have to make the big power movements also be responsible for some volume. Being in the gym both days just means some rearrangement of lifts and a fuller use of what is available to me.
The gym, through specific members, has been getting more specialized equipment over the last couple months. It’s not one of those commercial gyms that is afraid of powerlifting. I already mentioned the SS bar. One of the gym members had his Texas deadlift bar left at the gym. I have used it occasionally and only learned it was his when he stopped me to make sure I knew it was his, not the clubs, and to make sure I wasn’t doing anything crazy with it. It has absolutely wicked knurling on it. It’s sharper than the Ohio deadlift bar that I have. My main deadlift movement, a Romanian deadlift done from mats totaling 3 inches off the floor, is done as a supplemental lift after my main squat on my first leg day and is done up to 95 to 100% 1RM. I think a lot of people would also say it’s done in heavy volume as well. I do between 20 and 25 lifts per deadlift session on the first leg day. One possible change I will make for the winter is to use a regular power bar as opposed to the deadlift bar to pull from the floor with. The difference being the bar itself, which makes the pull different. The second heavy pull of the week has always been a challenge to program in because I’ve never been set on how I want to approach it. I’ve done it with regular pulls from the floor, heavy dumbbell pulls and recently a trap bar.
The biggest shift from the garage to the gym isn’t the lifts or the equipment but the intent. When I am in the garage, strength development always takes lead. The biggest reason for that is my best weapons in my arsenal for strength training are the big complex movements than can be done at max intensity because I don’t have to worry about killing myself if I fail a lift. I have been overdue for giving myself a cycle of high volume lifting so for the next couple months the lion’s share of the focus will be on muscular development. The formula of main lift – supplemental lift – accessory lifts will still be the same but I won’t be actively pushing the accessories to the side. Those lifts are the ones that the gym does best. Another of last year’s mistakes was that I didn’t really have a well thought out plan. There are a few reasons for that but that will not be the case this time around. The goal for this winter’s training is to get myself primed for spring when I can get back into the garage. I went from struggling with 245 pounds on bench press the first week June last year to 295 the last week of November. I fully believe I can be at 315 or possibly above that on bench press by the end of the year but that starts now with a focused strategy while at the gym.
A couple wildcards that I could play here is beginning the process of skill acquisition of Weighlifting and expanded cardio/conditioning. I dabbled with it here and there last year in the garage with no real eye towards improvement because I was so intent on getting stronger with the 3 main lifts. There is a real opportunity during this stretch of 12 weeks to really begin the process of learning the lifts, especially the snatch, without compromising the rest of my plan. It might start out simply with a snatch grip deadlift and front squats and moving up from there. It can’t hurt to add explosive movements to what I do already. The gym has some nice conditioning equipment I don’t have in the garage like a couple sleds, rowing machines, bouncy and soft medicine balls,. They will definitely become part of the program this winter.
The winter plan for lifting won’t look all that different than it does now. A change in location and focus but not the formula for increased strength. If anything, it will be closer to the summer powerbuilding program than the fall program, which had a heavier powerlifting focus. I can already feel the de-load doing it’s work rebuilding the neural connection. The movements have been smoother over the last week. I’m ready to put the work in over winter.
Life Through Lifting 