#1368
Post
by augeleven » Thu Apr 02, 2020 9:28 pm
Here is a kind of block review of my latest run of MM, from 1/5/2020 to 3/5/2020 or 9 weeks. I changed a bunch of things, probably violating the spirit of the whole thing; I lived, laughed, loved and maybe even learned a thing or two.
tldr: I moved deadlift to first on Monday, low bar squatted on power day, high bar on strength day and front squats on hypertrophy day. Squat blew up, deadlift did ok and bench stagnated. I missed chins, rows and stupid bro stuff I was doing. 8/10 would run again, but there are other programs I wanna try first.
My “Montana Method, Mostly” (MMM) template
*Monday*
Deadlift - alternating triples across and GZCL GG style top set and singles
Bench - first 4 weeks HVLF 7s, last 4 weeks H-day 5s
Front Squat w/ straps -3 sets of 6
*Wednesday*
Low Bar Squat - work up to a top single, 3-5 back off singles
Bench - same as above, with a long pause and more back-offs
CGBP - 1-3 sets of high rep close-ish to failure
Deadlift - work up to a single @8ish (last 4 weeks only)
Other stuff curls, metcons, light jogging etc.
*Friday*
High Bar Squat - Strength day triple across
Bench - HVLF 5’s then strength day triples for the second half
SGDL for the first half, Block Pulls for the second
*Non lifting days*
I did some treadmill work. In the 9 weeks I ran 15 times and incline walked 7. January’s running was intervals and February was superslow Maffetone running.
But Why?
Here are some rationales for the changes I made:
-I moved my main deadlift to first on Mondays because I don’t like training deadlifts fatigued.
-I used three variants for squat. I hadn’t low barred since spring of 2017, when my elbow pain officially overwhelmed my need to DTFP. So I cautiously introduced low bar with singles only on power day. I probably could/should have done more front squat volume, but I think I don’t respond as well to high volume in the squat.
-I did no extra pulling (chins or rows) in an attempt to keep my elbows happy.
-I went with a one week microcycle for simplicity and so I could put more weight on the bar faster than I should have [/s]
Progression
This was initially meant as a 10-11 week run up to a meet, but the meet was cancelled.
The original plan was to start light, add weight each week, then drop reps as I got closer to the meet, like an adlib linear periodization
Issues
After 4 weeks I was feeling pretty run down so I took a light deload week. I also shifted from a HVLF approach on bench to something to week 1 on MM classic. I also ditched SGDL for block pulls because I hate SGDLS so very much.
Results
Because my meet was cancelled, and I developed some weird guitar related wrist pain, I didn’t test my lifts in a meet situation. I did, however, max out my squat. I low barred 365 for a single at around RPE 9. My previous best was a super grindy 335 done high bar. I also tripled 300 high bar, where my previous best was 275. Bench didn’t seem to move: I got 265 paused, my previous best from a year ago was 280 TnG. Maybe I was using too high an intensity on bench? My wrist couldn’t handle deadlifting, so I didn’t get a chance to test it, but my e1rm was up 20-25 pounds and I had pulled 500 with straps from mid shin, so that was cool.
What Now
It’s spring, so I’m currently focused on getting my cardio together and enjoy outside running. Lifting will be in maintenance mode for at least another month. I really liked the setup I had going for the squat. I may try Hanley’s new 3 week program, but with less squat volume and some variation in the lower lifts.
