My new macrocycle

[alek]

I have a meet this coming Saturday, which culminates my current macrocycle, and I'm starting to plan my next one. I think I'll be doing another meet in mid to late May of 2023, which gives about 6 months of training. My plan right now is to do a DUP/HPS setup with the set/rep scheme:

1. Monday - 4 sets of 8 reps
2. Wednesday - 4 sets of 2 reps
3. Friday - 4 sets of 4 reps

on the four main movements:

1. Squat
2. Bench
3. Deadlift
4. Row

I've tried to amalgamate what worked for me with respect to Hanley's stuff, Austin's stuff, and what I learned from the JuggAI app into... something. Additionally, I will do bro work afterwards, targeting arms mostly. At the end of each mesocycle, I want to do an AMRAP with each main movement on M, W, or F depending upon the type of mesocycle.

I'm thinking of setting up the 7 "month"-long mesocycles as follows

November	Cutting
December	Cutting
January	M8s
February	M4s
March	M4s
April	M2s
May	Peak/Taper

where

• Cutting - I'll be losing weight, hopefully, but not sure how the AMRAP will go. The main movements will be
  1. Leg Press
  2. DB Bench Press
  3. Sumo/SGDL
  4. Lat Pulldown/Pullups
  on Monday and Friday throughout the mesocycle. On Wednesdays, I'm going to keep the comp lifts, comp squat, comp bench, and comp deadlift.
• M8s - Return to maintenance calories and normal-for-me movements. AMRAPs will happen with the 8s. The main movements will be
  • Monday - 8s
    1. SSB
    2. TnG Bench Press
    3. RDL/SLDL
    4. Lat Pulldown
  • Wednesday - 2s
    1. Comp Squat
    2. Comp Bench Press
    3. Comp Deadlift
    4. Lat Pulldown/Pullups
  • Friday - 4s
    1. Paused Squat
    2. Paused Bench Press
    3. Paused Deadlift
    4. Lat Pulldown/Pullups
• M4s - Surplus calories. AMRAPs will happen with the 4s. The main movements will be the same as M8s.
• M2s - Surplus calories. AMRAPs will happen with the 2s. Same main movements as M8s and M4s.
• Peak/Taper - Surplus calories. 2s change to 1s. Drop bro work. Reduce number of sets, then reduce intensity as mesocycle continues. Same main movements as above.

Progress will be autoregulated, and my rpe meter should get regular calibration with the AMRAPs. I'm mostly focused on "what works for me?", and I'll make changes if necessary. The above does mimic past training where I saw improvements in strength and hypertrophy.

For Cutting, I want to take the main movements closer to failure. During the rest of the mesocycles, I want the squat, bench, and row movements to be around 7/8 while the deadlift movements should stay around 6/7 on MF. I should be okay if deadlift on W is closer to 8, but that proximity to failure with comp deadlift can mess me up if I do too much of it. Bro movements should be real close to failure during all mesocycles.

I'm planning to stick with the same weekly volume. One thing that I didn't really care for with JuggAI was the ramping number of sets each week during a mesocycle. It was kinda weird, to me anyway, to increase intensity along with the volume. I guess that's a traditional method of training, but I prefer the Medium-medium-medium volume/intensity approach as opposed to a Low-medium-high volume/intensity then deload approach.

Also, if I miss some training, which I will, then it shouldn't mess up the whole plan the same way it did when I missed training with the JuggAI app.

I also like that once I get past the cutting mesocycles, I'm doing high intensity work on all comp lifts; with JuggAI, I feel like I didn't get enough training at higher intensities with comp deadlift and comp bench.

I've done a few workouts over the past few weeks using the above set/rep scheme, and I usually finished those in under an hour and a half. So I don't think I'll be taking all day to finish the workouts.

I may also include a "chasing the pump" workout on Thursdays, doing just a bunch of bro stuff for shoulders, upper back, etc.

Thoughts, comments, insults?

Edit: I changed the name of the mesocycles to remove confusion with block periodization, which the above is not.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Here's a flurry of insults:
- Why do you only do lat pulldowns for upper back ? Since it is just a bunch GPP to boost muscle growth anyways why not mix it up every workout ?
- Also, why do you do so much high intensity stuff during your hypertrophy block (4s and 2s) ? Why not stick mostly to high reps and maybe throw a bit of high intensity just trying to maintain your skill of lifting heavy weights ?
- Lastly, why do you do a hypertrophy block eating at maintenance and then a strength block eating at a surplus ? I would have done the contrary: use the caloric surplus to boost muscle growth and deal with a huge training volume during your hypertrophy block, and then later eat at maintenance while working on the skill of lifting heavy weights

But then again if this is based on what has worked well for you in the past, you should probably ignore all my remarks and just go for it. And you're stronger than me. So once again probably ignore my remarks.

[alek]

Here's a flurry of insults:
- Why do you only do lat pulldowns for upper back ? Since it is just a bunch GPP to boost muscle growth anyways why not mix it up every workout ?

Mostly because I really like them, and I'm hoping to see transfer to actual pullups. I also want to not involve my lower back so I don't over fatigue it, which is why I probably won't do a lot of rows with barbells. There is a seated, chest supported row machine in another room across the building, but I don't want to walk over there to use it when the lat pulldown is just a few feet away from the racks.

- Also, why do you do so much high intensity stuff during your hypertrophy block (4s and 2s) ? Why not stick mostly to high reps and maybe throw a bit of high intensity just trying to maintain your skill of lifting heavy weights ?

Eh, I really should rename the mesocycles since I'm not really doing block periodization per se, it's just the names reinforce which movement will get AMRAPed rather than if I'll focus on hypertrophy or strength.

The 8s, 2s, and then 4s in a microcycle is a DUP setup. I saw the most progress across all lifts doing that a few years ago.

- Lastly, why do you do a hypertrophy block eating at maintenance and then a strength block eating at a surplus ? I would have done the contrary: use the caloric surplus to boost muscle growth and deal with a huge training volume during your hypertrophy block, and then later eat at maintenance while working on the skill of lifting heavy weights

The names again... After the cutting, I want to do maintenance for a bit to not immediately regain the hopefully lost fat, but I plan to go into a surplus throughout the rest of the macrocycle.

But then again if this is based on what has worked well for you in the past, you should probably ignore all my remarks and just go for it. And you're stronger than me. So once again probably ignore my remarks.

No, the feedback is good. It forces me to think more about why I'm doing what I'm doing. Sometimes I have to remember that just because I read/think something a certain way, that doesn't mean it's immediately obvious to everyone else.

[meow89]

going from leg press --> comp squat doubles is gonna be rough. why can't you keep a free weight squat in and cut at the same time?

also why are you planning 6 months in advance?

[MarkKO]

Here's a flurry of insults:
- Why do you only do lat pulldowns for upper back ? Since it is just a bunch GPP to boost muscle growth anyways why not mix it up every workout ?

Mostly because I really like them, and I'm hoping to see transfer to actual pullups. I also want to not involve my lower back so I don't over fatigue it, which is why I probably won't do a lot of rows with barbells. There is a seated, chest supported row machine in another room across the building, but I don't want to walk over there to use it when the lat pulldown is just a few feet away from the racks.

- Also, why do you do so much high intensity stuff during your hypertrophy block (4s and 2s) ? Why not stick mostly to high reps and maybe throw a bit of high intensity just trying to maintain your skill of lifting heavy weights ?

Eh, I really should rename the mesocycles since I'm not really doing block periodization per se, it's just the names reinforce which movement will get AMRAPed rather than if I'll focus on hypertrophy or strength.

The 8s, 2s, and then 4s in a microcycle is a DUP setup. I saw the most progress across all lifts doing that a few years ago.

- Lastly, why do you do a hypertrophy block eating at maintenance and then a strength block eating at a surplus ? I would have done the contrary: use the caloric surplus to boost muscle growth and deal with a huge training volume during your hypertrophy block, and then later eat at maintenance while working on the skill of lifting heavy weights

The names again... After the cutting, I want to do maintenance for a bit to not immediately regain the hopefully lost fat, but I plan to go into a surplus throughout the rest of the macrocycle.

But then again if this is based on what has worked well for you in the past, you should probably ignore all my remarks and just go for it. And you're stronger than me. So once again probably ignore my remarks.

No, the feedback is good. It forces me to think more about why I'm doing what I'm doing. Sometimes I have to remember that just because I read/think something a certain way, that doesn't mean it's immediately obvious to everyone else.

This is very unlikely to happen as far as I am aware (talking about the bolded bit).

There is absolutely nothing wrong with lat pulldowns, but to the best of my knowledge and in my own experience (whatever either of those are worth) there is little to no transfer in either direction between them and pullups.

Inverted rows however, especially with the feet elevated, have a significant degree of transfer to pullup ability. They're also a great exercise in their own right and can be very useful for the bench press.

The main problem with using lat pulldowns to build pullup capacity is that you would need to be able to use around your own bodyweight (or more) with VERY strict technique to have even a slight chance of seeing carryover. That's going to be a pretty big challenge in itself.

A second problem is that pullups need a degree of control over your whole body that lat pulldowns just don't require, ever. One of the hardest things I found with improving my pullups at any bodyweight was being able stay at least marginally locked into position without swinging all over the place. The only way to learn that is by doing pullups, although inverted rows will help quite a bit too.

I am a huge fan of pullups even though I'm not particularly good at them yet so I totally understand wanting to get better at them. They are absolutely worth the effort.

[DCR]

Stuff about pullups.

+1 to all of that, most especially regarding the usefulness of inverted rows.

[alek]

@MarkKO, hmm, I'll have to think about that. I could probably do pullups/weighted pullups on Wednesday and Friday.

[alek]

going from leg press --> comp squat doubles is gonna be rough. why can't you keep a free weight squat in and cut at the same time?

also why are you planning 6 months in advance?

I've done squats while cutting before, but I get frustrated with loss of strength. I'm also going to be using several different gyms due to traveling through the rest of the year. They all have leg presses, but one has pretty crappy racks--like they're unsafe--for squatting.

I'm expecting to do another meet in May 2023, and I'm trying to structure my training leading up to that.

[meow89]

going from leg press --> comp squat doubles is gonna be rough. why can't you keep a free weight squat in and cut at the same time?

also why are you planning 6 months in advance?

I've done squats while cutting before, but I get frustrated with loss of strength. I'm also going to be using several different gyms due to traveling through the rest of the year. They all have leg presses, but one has pretty crappy racks--like they're unsafe--for squatting.

I'm expecting to do another meet in May 2023, and I'm trying to structure my training leading up to that.

fair enough. I guess I would do a different scheme for the first block back (maybe 10-8-6?). that transition just doesn't strike me as very safe. then I'd go from there/start planning a prep after the first block with real squatting.

could be me, though. I just can't envision myself going from not squatting for 2 months to doing doubles unless they were outrageously light. I'd be sore/beat up instantly.

[alek]

going from leg press --> comp squat doubles is gonna be rough. why can't you keep a free weight squat in and cut at the same time?

also why are you planning 6 months in advance?

I've done squats while cutting before, but I get frustrated with loss of strength. I'm also going to be using several different gyms due to traveling through the rest of the year. They all have leg presses, but one has pretty crappy racks--like they're unsafe--for squatting.

I'm expecting to do another meet in May 2023, and I'm trying to structure my training leading up to that.

fair enough. I guess I would do a different scheme for the first block back (maybe 10-8-6?). that transition just doesn't strike me as very safe. then I'd go from there/start planning a prep after the first block with real squatting.

could be me, though. I just can't envision myself going from not squatting for 2 months to doing doubles unless they were outrageously light. I'd be sore/beat up instantly.

Oh, it could just be terrible, which is definitely possible. You're making me think that I could keep the comp squat doubles on Wednesday while cutting, but keep them intentionally light.

[alek]

Meh, I did some of it, and I didn't do some of it.

There's another meet in early November that I plan on doing, and I want to chase a 230kg deadlift. Here are some of my thoughts at the moment.

Weight: I pretty much did what I wanted to with my weight since my last meet in November. I did gain a little too fast there starting around mid-May, but it's fine.



I plan to, not cut per se, but just bring a little more discipline to my diet for a while. I do want to slowly fill out the 90kg weightclass at the meet in November and then truly cut again afterwards.

Training: Rather than try to lay out complete mesocycles and such like I did before, I'm going to describe more of a philosophy maybe. I'm still going to do a DUP-ish program, but I'm going to squat and deadlift only twice per week rather than three times. Bench will still be three times per week.

For squat and deadlift, I'm going to start with doing a Hypertrophy(H) and Strength(S) workout each week. When I get closer to the meet, I'll switch to a Hypertrophy and Power(P) workout each week. For the H workouts, I want to do high SFR (stimulus to fatigue ratio) exercises that will allow me to really hit the legs and back pretty hard without inducing a lot of debilitating fatigue. That means I probably won't be using a bar for squat and deadlift on H days--leg press worked really well for my squat this spring, and I've got ideas for deadlift.

For S workouts, I'll do comp squat on Wednesdays, probably doing 4 sets of triples, and I'll do some type of deadlift training on Friday, likely with 4 sets of 3 or 4. I haven't quite decided what I'll do, but it probably won't be just comp deadlift. I may do a variation during the HS weeks and switch to comp deadlift during the HP weeks. Or maybe I'll do a set of comp deadlift and then switch to a variation--I'm still thinking about it.

For the P workouts, I had a lot of success with doing a small pyramid scheme for squat this spring, and I want to do it for both squat and deadlift this macrocycle. So I'll do a triple, a double, a single, and another single.

I want to try doing HS -> HP rather than HPS since I'm not sure that I got much out of doing a third squat workout on Fridays, and I think trying to deadlift and squat 3 times a week may not be conducive for progress for me any more.

For bench... well, we'll see. I've not had much luck progressing my bench in a long time. At the moment, my thought is to do the H workouts with the machine chest press plus accessories. I may start the weeks with an HSS scheme or an HSH scheme. I'm still not sure what the S workouts will look like, but I'm thinking things like pin bench, feet up bench, slingshot bench (maybe save this for P workouts?).

Edit:
Maybe I ought to spell out what I'll doing on each day.

HS Workouts further away from meet
Monday: H squat, bench, deadlift
Wednesday: S squat, bench
Friday: S bench, deadlift

HP Workouts closer to the meet
Monday: H squat, bench, deadlift
Wednesday: P squat, bench
Friday: S bench, P deadlift

[quikky]

Minor thing I would tweak is to do 5/2/8 (or even 5/1/8) instead of 8/2/4. I think 2s are a bit too close to 4s, and I also think the mid-load fits nicely on the freshest, i.e. first day of the week, and the 8s being last.

[alek]

Minor thing I would tweak is to do 5/2/8 (or even 5/1/8) instead of 8/2/4. I think 2s are a bit too close to 4s, and I also think the mid-load fits nicely on the freshest, i.e. first day of the week, and the 8s being last.

I don't think I'll be doing 8/2/4 during this macrocycle. That was so last macrocycle... I'll keep the 8's on Monday for now since I seem to fully recover by Wednesday; if it needs to change, I hope to be smart enough to do so.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

For bench... well, we'll see. I've not had much luck progressing my bench in a long time.

I might be completely wrong but I suspect that what's holding your back is "just" lack of upper body musculature (I am saying this because I was browsing your log and I was astonished by the discrepancy between your squat and deadlift strength versus your strength on things like DB bench, DB press, rows and so on).

[alek]

For bench... well, we'll see. I've not had much luck progressing my bench in a long time.

I might be completely wrong but I suspect that what's holding your back is "just" lack of upper body musculature (I am saying this because I was browsing your log and I was astonished by the discrepancy between your squat and deadlift strength versus your strength on things like DB bench, DB press, rows and so on).

That’s certainly possible. I didn’t say this in that post, but I plan to do more hypertrophy related accessories aimed at my upper body.

[augeleven]

For bench... well, we'll see. Maybe augeleven will chime in with some lame, meme advice on what to do for upper hypertrophy.

I got you fam - I’m calling it the smuggle.
The problem - you want to do more upper hypertrophy work, but you leave it it to the end of the work out and then skip or half ass it.

The solution: superset the hypertrophy stuff in with your main stuff. Wendler mentions this in his 531 Forever, Brian Alsruhe always recommends an antagonist and an ab movement in a giant set. The Natural Hypertrophy guy has a video tweaking Alsruhe’s 4 horsemen with isolation instead of cardio exercises.

I’ve had good luck supersetting bench and press with rows (barbell or cable) or pull-ups. When I was making my best progress I was tri setting a pull, a press, and banded pullaparts or facepulls.
I’ve also supersetted curls with my squat warmups and dips with my deadlift warmups.
I’m probably going to try supersetting front raises and flyes with my lower warmup stuff. Worse case scenario is I have a pump more often.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Here's a helping of broscience:

I think that one of the problems that people who train for strength/powerlifting is that they don't give the hypertrophy work enough respect because they are not excited about it, and they're tired from all the "main work", and they think it's not that important anyways. The bodybuilders don't have this problem because the hypertrophy is their main work to begin with.

I feel that if they focused on progression (like they do for their main work) and getting stronger on those exercises they'd be better for it.

@augeleven I think that supersets are a good tool if you're pressed for time, but if you are not, you always end up using less energy and effort than you would if you just did the exercises one after the other. But I guess it depends on a bunch of things. Supersetting things like bandpullaparts is OK though.

[augeleven]

@augeleven I think that supersets are a good tool if you're pressed for time, but if you are not, you always end up using less energy and effort than you would if you just did the exercises one after the other. though.

I’m sure this isn’t optimal, but more work is better than less work. Here are some counter-considerations

-time efficiency often trumps optimal structures, especially for parents/people with limited time
-supersetting larger hypertrophy movements during your main lift warmups, and your smaller movements in with your main sets, ie dips with your deadlift warmups, but lateral raises with your main sets.
- splitting up your rest times between the super set exercises. Instead of resting 4 minutes in between sets of bench, you rest 3 minutes, do your rows, wait 2 minutes do your bench
- you can adapt to the general cardio demands of this, and it’s probably an adaptation that transfers to everyday life more than that 4 plate squat I may never actually hit.

[Hardartery]

Here's a helping of broscience:

I think that one of the problems that people who train for strength/powerlifting is that they don't give the hypertrophy work enough respect because they are not excited about it, and they're tired from all the "main work", and they think it's not that important anyways. The bodybuilders don't have this problem because the hypertrophy is their main work to begin with.

I feel that if they focused on progression (like they do for their main work) and getting stronger on those exercises they'd be better for it.

@augeleven I think that supersets are a good tool if you're pressed for time, but if you are not, you always end up using less energy and effort than you would if you just did the exercises one after the other. But I guess it depends on a bunch of things. Supersetting things like bandpullaparts is OK though.

I think it's a weird new trend to care about hypertrophy work at all if strength is the goal. It really is not important. Lifting for strength will result in some hypertrophy, the reverse is not necessarily true. Case in point, Mitchell Hooper has roughly 225 lbs of LBM. He has total Dad bod from the waist up. He won WSM in a walk this year, and believe me there were plenty of guys there with more LBM who didn't make it out of the heats. Sure, theoretically bigger muscles are stronger. There is no real evidence that focussing on hypertrophy is particularly useful for producing any strength gains whatsoever.

[DCR]

I think that supersets are a good tool if you're pressed for time, but if you are not, you always end up using less energy and effort than you would if you just did the exercises one after the other.

I’m not sure that this is true in a way that matters for hypertrophy. Strength, yeah.

I think it's a weird new trend to care about hypertrophy work at all if strength is the goal. It really is not important. Lifting for strength will result in some hypertrophy, the reverse is not necessarily true. Case in point, Mitchell Hooper has roughly 225 lbs of LBM. He has total Dad bod from the waist up. He won WSM in a walk this year, and believe me there were plenty of guys there with more LBM who didn't make it out of the heats. Sure, theoretically bigger muscles are stronger. There is no real evidence that focussing on hypertrophy is particularly useful for producing any strength gains whatsoever.

I’m not sure the idea is bigger muscles being stronger so much as it is that size provides better leverages / advantages on particular movements. I don’t think anyone disagrees with the proposition that one’s bench tends to rise with one’s upper body mass. You can fat fuck yourself to a bigger bench (ask me how I know), but if one would rather not, some jacked up chesticles will do the trick as well.