It makes me sad when I can’t find the time, and/or the motivation to train. Sometimes, you just need to do something stupid to get your ass back in gear…so I decided on the following stupidity. There was an article on T-Nation by Charles Staley where he describes a protocol he likes using to help clients break through plateaus – this protocol is called Stack-10. The idea is to work up from an empty bar with sets of 10, using jumps of 10% of your 1RM for each set.
Coach Staley does specify that this protocol should only be used for 1 lift at a time, and only once per week so that you allow for ample recovery, and performing a 2nd workout with the same lift in a more strength focused format (lower reps, higher intensity). Here’s where the stupidity comes into the picture: I’m going to be using this protocol but anywhere 3-4 times per week for the same movement pattern. My squatting is garbage, and it never seems to make the progress that I want, and sometimes doing stupid things is an absolute necessity to make progress.
My plan is to take every squat variation that I can think of and apply the Stack-10 protocol. The caveat is that I’m going to use my low bar, competition squat max as my measure of weight jumps regardless of the variation. I’m going to use an estimated max of 315, which means for each lift I’m making 30 lbs jumps for each exercise.
The purpose in all this is going to be greasing the groove of the squat patterns and really train up my back to maintain position. So regardless of the movement, I’m going to be using a high volume of warm-up sets to focus on the greasing of the groove: 2 or 3 sets with the empty bar, and start working up from there.
After the squatting, I can do whatever I really want, there’s nothing set in stone, but I’m thinking that hitting some kind of pressing movement would be a good idea. So I might try a similar protocol with a wide variety of pressing variations from seated OHP to decline bench press. I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing for upper body, but ultimately the volume should cause a huge stimulus in my body to cause hypertrophy and fat loss.
Week 1 I’m going to go with low bar squat, then front squat and then Zercher squats. After this week is done, I’m going to start looking at other variations involving bar placement as well as the addition of bands, and even paused reps. It’s all about variety within a movement pattern to cause a regular total body stimulus, and retraining my hips and legs to move properly.
Also, I think every 3 workouts I’ll revert back to low bar squatting and see what kind of progress I’m making…if any. Who knows how this stupidity is going to effect me, but it’s worth trying it out and trying to learn how my body reacts.
Ramble on Fitness 