Leading up to my competition in June my training was focused on maintaining strength and developing endurance. I took most July off to travel and in August we started a new three month cycle to build a new base of power and strength. It's weigh-lifting centric for sure:
4 week micro cycles each month:
Week 1 - 4 sets of 12 reps (4X12)
Week 2 - 5X5
Week 3: High volume 4-5 sets of 15-18 reps
Week 4: Drop sets of 45 reps (15 at high weight, drop weight slightly for another 15 and repeat a third time)
It's a mixture of bodybuilding, powerlifting, and muscular endurance all designed for muscle growth. I didn't think it was such a big change until we started doing it. We're really pushing a lot of weight and a lot of volume every session. It's been a huge challenge every day and it feels like I've just started working out rather than haven lifted for almost three years I'm exhausted after each session, usually starving when I leave the gym, and have been taking a lot of unplanned naps.
My massage therapist asked me what I was doing different because she said my muscles have gotten a lot denser in the last couple of weeks - so there is something going on there.
I've had to add some additional carbs back into my diet in order to make it through these training sessions and I've gained about 4 pounds in a month. Still not sure how much of that is lean mass so I've started back to doing an hour cardio each day in order to keep the fat gain to a minimum.
