BECOMING A BETTER SCIENTIST

BECOMING A BETTER SCIENTIST

Every program out there in some way, shape, or form is cookie cutter because it cannot be tailored to meet the needs of every single individual. However at the same time, as the saying goes, we’re not all special snowflakes. We know what works from a training standpoint, for the majority of people out there. There will be genetic outliers on both ends of the spectrum. More than likely, you’ll be able to become as good as you ever could following all of the principles that have worked for the last 60+ years.

You as an individual need to bestow the responsibility upon yourself, to be introspective enough and honest enough, to make changes in your programming as you see fit. As you see that it will benefit you. If you aren’t far along enough in your training to be able to do that, then follow the guidelines set in front of you with the base building model. If you have a substantial amount of training under your belt, however, follow the guidelines, and then makes small changes here and there, based on what you find yourself responding to.

Keep in mind also, that just because a change that benefits you at the moment may not be the road you need to stay on forever. In fact, it probably will not be. Everything in training has a point of diminishing returns and eventually, you will have to make small or subtle changes once again. This will be an ever-repeating part of your training journey.

This is also what base building is about as well. Have a methodology of training design in place. Then make minor changes to those methodologies that are beneficial for you. The foundation of it will always be what you are basing those changes around, you aren’t overhauling the program. Adding in a back off set here or there, as you see fit, doesn’t change the entire paradigm of the program. Just don’t make changes without a reason, and don’t make wholesale changes when you do.

This was a scenario that played out well on nights where when I got to the gym, I didn’t feel great, or feel at my best. Yet after 3 or 4 sets at my working weight, I suddenly felt very good.

What I would do during those sessions is, I would do me over warm-up singles AFTER all of my working sets.

For example, on bench, if I were slated to do 315 for 5 sets of 8, but my elbows were hurting, and I didn’t feel like doing the over warm-ups, I would just stick with the 315 and get my work in. However if after, I felt lathered up I might then do the scheduled over warm-ups, and hit singles at 365, 385, and 405, etc whatever.

The best part about this is, you’re in a fatigued state. So one way you can “PR” is to judge the speed of your fatigue singles and try to get faster on those after the work sets.

This is a great way to keep your working weight slow, yet still, get some “strain” in. You could run training this way for a long time, and work on building up your post-fatigue singles until you’re basically hitting your EDM as a post-fatigue single. Once you can hit your EDM in a PF single with great speed, there will be NO DOUBT that your baseline of strength has increased significantly. The best part about it all is that you didn’t have to add more weight to the bar to get stronger, to KNOW that you’re stronger without actually testing new maxes. That’s a win all the way around.

SETTING UP FATIGUE SINGLES BASE BUILDING 

With the traditional over warm-up method, you work up over your working weight and then come back down to it. It doesn’t have to be an astronomical amount over that working weight for it to be effective. With PF singles, however, you are already warm, so the purpose here is to gauge speed on upper intensities in a fatigued state, and base progress off of that.

With all of these numbers based off of your EDM here is how I would set this up:

FATIGUE SINGLES BENCH PRESS 

PF PHASE I

 75% x 5x8 - 80%x1, 85%x1, 90% x1 

102 

Phase 2

80%x5x5 - 85%x1, 90% x1, 95-100% x1

FATIGUE SINGLES SQUAT 

PF Phase I 

60%x5x5 - 70%x1, 80%x1, 90%x1 

PF Phase II 

60%x8x5 - 75%, 85%, 95%

FATIGUE SINGLES DEADLIFT 

For deadlifting, I set this up a little different because I almost always have the programming for the dead lift in an ascending pattern. For pulling I simply recommend for everyone to do the Fatigue Singles.

DEADLIFT - 3x3 @ 75% - 80% x1, 85% x1, 90% x1 

Because the deadlift tends to take away a little more than it gives back (in terms of recovery) the volume is a bit lower overall here, and there’s no pulling at the 100% range for the EDM. Again, if you can smoke 90% of your EDM in a fatigued state like it was a warm-up, your baseline strength went up.

“Paul, why not use over warm-ups, and Fatigue Singles as well?”

Over warm-ups and Fatigue singles are used for two different reasons.

Fatigue singles offer an option for when you come in, and you’re not feeling your best, yet after getting in the base work, you feel better and want to gauge your speed in a fatigued state. The over-warm up is to mainly prime the system to be more efficient when you come back down the ladder. Could you go back up it after that? Sure. But eventually, the volume intensities are going to short circuit the recovery process. You can still use the fatigue singles base method even if you feel good. There’s no rule against that. I would just pick one method or the other and not try to combine the two.