Concurrent Strength & Endurance Training 2017: Cycle I

Nice write-up! Very inspiring to read about your adventures, although always tinged with a bit of nostalgia for my past ones as well. Yah, you're a true ultraholic now. But it seems like you've learned how to do it safely, know your limits, so why not go for it? I'm hoping that by limiting myself to one bike ride a week, I'll be able to get in some longer rides again and get back that feeling of adventure a little bit too. But there aren't too many inspiring places to pedal nearby.

And your deadlift was inspiring as well. Lifting 220 today, 400 seems unattainable, but my faith in progressive overload is absolute now and I know with enough consistency I can get there too. I have no idea how long it will take though. I feel like this week I'm close to establishing my true, current strength levels, which are about 70% of where they were a year ago. So not too bad. But it's still an open question how quickly I can progress from here. I doubt it will take the same amount of time it took me the first time my Deadlift and Squat climbed over 200, but how much quicker? Twice as fast? I'm thinking six months but it could just as easily be three months or a whole year. And then it will be a question of whether it's worth it or not to push on beyond that.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement! I think the early morning routine is going to stick this time. I have enough built-in flexibility that I should be able to better handle all the interruptions that come with family and work life. The garage gym is still there for afternoon a workout if I miss the morning one, and I'm becoming less self-conscious about hitting Anytime Fitness during the day with my bare feet and poor conditioning. In fact, I think I'm beginning to warm to the idea of having a bit of an audience once my loads start to get up there a bit more.

 

Yah, I'm thinking 3-6 months is probably realistic, barring any setbacks, knock on wood. I read somewhere that when you get stronger you actually permanently change the structure of your muscles cells, so there's less work the second time around. In the past, this has always seemed true for my bench press. Once I got up to 225-245, I've found I can always get back there pretty quickly, like 1-3 months. Squatting and Deadlifting heavy are new experiences for me but I would imagine the same rule applies. It's just that I'm extra cautious now. There was a good article in T-Nation today: https://www.t-nation.com/training/the-best-way-to-get-motivated-for-the-gym. Actually I only read the first entry and then skimmed the rest, but I like what Thibaudieu says about different programs yielding similar results, so just choose whatever you enjoy the most. That's how I'm feeling about the KISS Triple approach. Three lifts, three reps, three sets, that works for me.

 

Hey good to hear from you Sid!

Abide, let us know if you find something useful. For my part, I feel like I've more or less covered all I need to know, and have found what works best for me.

Sounds good! Good to have you on board.

As a bass player, I'm very happy to be living in the era of amp heads that weigh less than four pounds!

I've found getting serious about back work (deadlifts, rows, pullups/pulldowns) has really helped me keep my shoulders healthy.

 

Cool. Apologies for not reading through, but I'm trying hard these days to limit my non-essential online time. I looked up the acronyms just now however.

Seems to me, in an older vocabulary, 'AMRAP' was "lifting to failure." A common finishing technique, often using drop sets. I may begin doing some of this once I'm back up to my past strength levels in 2-6 months.

'Auto-regulation' is pretty much what I do these days, constantly adjusting my loading as I make progress, or taking a day or two off when I feel a slight niggle. I think auto-regulation is pretty much what all lifters learn to do once they attain intermediate status.

Then 'INOL' appears to codify the basic notion that there is a balance between volume and intensity. We've discussed this a lot in previous threads and I used to incorporate this in my "weekly 5-7-3 wave" programming, with my three-rep workout representing high intensity, the seven-rep day representing high volume, and the five-rep workout having about equal intensity and volume. I even used bar graphs!

Anyway, this cycle I'm experimenting with an extremely simple "high intensity, low volume" approach. Just three lifts x three sets x three reps, each rep @ 90% 1RM. The advantage, for me, is mostly mental--making each workout very easy and doable, which in turn encourages consistency, the single most important training protocol, one which has been severely lacking for a long while.

I agree all three concepts are very helpful. But perhaps the single biggest insight I gained when I was looking through the lifting literature 2014-2015 was that there are essentially just six essential lifts or movements, plus or minus one or two, depending on who you talk to. These are the approaches espoused by Wendler and Rippetoe.

I've come up with my own set of basic lifts, based on a simple notion of push/pull pairings along three planes: Horizontal (Bench Press & Rows) and Upper Vertical (Overhead Press & Pullups/Pulldowns) and Lower Vertical (Squats & Deadlifts).

This cycle, these lifts are organized into a Push Workout (Squat, Bench Press, Overhead Press) and a Pull Workout (Deadlift, Row, Pullup).

I'm also trying to incorporate sled work this cycle, so I do a sled push on the Push workout day, and a sled pull on the Pull workout day.

Then, finally, I'll try to do something aerobic at the end of the each workout that also corresponds, roughly, to a pushing or pulling movement. For pulling, it's pretty easy: I'll do stationary rowing. For pushing, I'm going to first try the elliptical machine, and if I don't like that, stationary bicycle, but I would prefer to reserve pedaling for real cycling outside once a week.

Are you still running?

 

OK, I get it. Have you been trying it? If so, what have the results been like?

 

Yah, once I get up closer to my old strength levels, I may have to do something similar, emphasizing different lifts on different days. But I'm hoping the low volume of my 3x3 protocol will mitigate this.

Are you cutting back on the running in order to concentrate on strength, as recommended in that article link? Or are you just needing a break? I found cycling much more compatible with lifting. Running definitely takes more out of you.