Part 1: General Overview
Mark Brown
December 25, 2022
This year has been a period of progress in my strength training. It also saw multiple shifts in my thought process towards lifting and everything that goes into it. Certain areas and lifts saw more improvement than others did. I will detail them in subsequent entries. This review will serve as an update for those who follow the blog and be a bit of a formal report for my future self if I decide to compete at any point or need to look back at past years.
First part of this overview involves the lifting itself. The primary lifts all saw some level of improvement in terms of volume and intensity. Squat and overhead press saw the most improvement for both volume and max weight lifted. That is somewhat surprising given that I didn’t have either as stated goals to improve in that way coming in. I wanted to push my 1RM in bench press to 315 pounds by the end of the year. That hasn’t happened yet, nor will it. I stated I I wanted to increase my deadlift this year by an unspecified number. That didn’t happen either because I ended up putting so much more emphasis on training on squat. I did a lot of heavy pulls but so many more less than I did squat reps. In many ways, the pulls became supplemental lifts solely. They were very rarely the main lift. My 1RM for my lifts at the end of 2022 are as follows: Squat – 435 pounds, deadlift 405 pounds, bench press – 305 pounds, Seated Overhead Press – 178 pounds, Strict Log Press – 161 pounds, Clean and Push Press 175 pounds. I listed more than just the primary lifts because I do have so much equipment that I use regularly and keeping track for it is useful. My max squat increased by 20 pounds, max bench increased 10 pounds, and max overhead increased 20 pounds. The deadlift is the only one of the primary to see no 1RM improvement.
A major reason for why there wasn’t a lot of movement in any lift’s 1RM is the second point in this overview. I have always worked in heavy volume all the way up to 90-95% 1RM on a weekly basis. What I have discovered this year as a result of using this tactic is that raw strength improves the most, not max weight possible on a single rep. If I had wanted to truly raise my single rep max lifts, then I would have had to emphasize single reps in weekly training instead of working main lifts in sets of 3 reps and done less sets on the main lifts while doing more of strength building supplemental and accessory lifts. While I see value in always chasing the ability to lift more in a single rep setting, in part because it helps inform the program itself, increasing raw strength just has more value to me overall. It helps me in all areas of my life. Squatting up to 405 pounds or more followed by pulling up to that weight in some form or another every week has the effect of helping me become more resistant to wear and tear injuries at work. I have felt muscular development in my upper and middle back during this time. Practicing hard makes game time easier. Simple as that.
I mentally made the switch back to essentially what is more of a powerbuilding program around September when I realized it’s where my head was at. It’s not the same one that I detailed in the summer of 2021. That one had far more of the bodybuilding elements and tactics in it than the program I currently lift does. The main difference is the lack of accessories in my current iteration. I just don’t a lot of accessory work on what I would call main movement days, which accounts for at least 75% of my lifting days. I know I still need to tricep and bicep work for muscular development, but it’s worth working that on its own day. I just like the idea of being able to improve raw strength slowly throughout the year more than I do putting the effort into hitting numbers. I guess that’s the difference between training for competition and not doing so. Choosing that program has also likely be one of the main reasons why I have stayed relatively the same weight the entire year, even after I started not eating as much.
The mental and learning phase of training saw the most development, without a doubt. Last fall, I began to introduce 3 week waves of main lifts into my own program for a 12 week program in which I experienced a “peaking” phase. This year I made essentially made it the plan. Throughout the year I learned more about how to implement change and rotate lifts to gain progress in strength, power and technical developments. It also allowed me to learn how to better implement my wide variety of equipment I own into one cohesive lifting strategy. If anything, I learned that strength training has more of an impact on mental, emotional and intellectual development than it does on physical growth. It really takes more than just effort to make the improvements desired. There needs to be hard, focused effort on specific goals to make them happen. Aimless effort only results in progress that is scattershot across interests that weren’t intended.
The effect of working in the 3 week waves as the central part of the lifting plan was one I didn’t quite know would happen. It helped me really understand the nature of the strength training I was doing. That alone was worth pushing myself to experiment with it it fully. It helps I have 4 or 5 specialty bars to integrate into it the plan to the max. In listening to Dave Tate and others talk about working in these waves, I have learned anecdotally about the importance of always working the weakest lifts the most to bring them up in line with the stronger ones. In that way, working lifts that are less strong and technically proficient helps raw strength development overall by forcing the body to get better at the various variations of lifts, especially main ones. The small differences in the lifts causes the muscles involved in the the lift work in different ratios. The effect of moving my grips on bench press, for example, showed me a real difference in the strength levels of the different parts of the lift. It showed me what accessories I needed to start locking in on to improve. I will get into that more specifically when discussing the bench press, but the concept works for every major lift I do, regardless of equipment. It all feeds off each other and and provides more information for me to better understand where each lift stands in terms of progression or regression.
The blog this year had the effect of forcing me to become a better planner. Writing takes time, even for the best. I know I definitely don’t fall into that category so I really needed to find a balance of working, eating, lifting, sleeping, and writing. I was able to do that in the first half of the year but not in the second. There are a few different reasons for it, most of it being I just need to do a better job doing more writing daily, even if it is just a page or 2. Writing the multi part essays or essays that correlated with a bigger topic forced me to stay atop my mind so it didn’t get a chance to wander. The Road to Discipline was a series of essays that showed me I could connect individual ideas together under one topic coherently. I look to use that experience in 2023 once again. The blog is also a place where I use the lessons of the gym in other places in my life. I need to find my writing discipline again and just get the work done.
Come back for Part 2! I will be reviewing what I did on main movements this year to helping them make progress. There could be some information in there to glean on. It will be up on Tuesday.
Life Through Lifting 