Strength training relies on cycles too. Lift heavy. Afterwards eat beef. Get strong. Another obvious cycle. So how does this relate to anything useful so you can get strong?
See, science hasn't figured out all the cycles necessary to get strong. I haven't figured out all the cycles to get strong. Maybe someday somebody reading this will go to college and apply a detailed analysis in a lab setting to figure out all the biomechanics and chemical reactions that go into making strength gains.
This blog is far from the end all be all of strength training. This blog is about as unrefined and crude as strength training principles can get. If any further research is to be done in strength training it would have to be in refining the strength training process. Protein intake and how it converts into muscle growth. Rest periods. Training session duration. Night time vs. daytime training. Fast twitch muscle fiber analysis after training are just a few of the areas I can think of that deserve much needed research.
So now for the latest kick that I'm on: winter vs summer strength gains. I don't know what type of environment you live in, but here in Chicago during the last winter I had to survive through subzero temperatures multiple days from January to March. And yes it is survival especially when if you stand out in subzero temperatures for more than fifteen minutes you can basically die.
My theory is that it's easier to get stronger in the winter than it is in the summer. Why? Calorie intake. On some days in January I could pound into my gut easily four or five thousand calories in a day, and yes I could definitely feel myself getting strong quickly. I was also getting fat quickly as well, and I had no problems digesting the massive amounts of protein I was taking in.
Now that it's summer my body is in fat burning mode. I'm having problems digesting protein. It seems like the only time I can fully utilize massive amounts of beef protein are after I workout. Even then I'm having to wait sometimes three or four hours after training to make sure my body goes into an almost catabolic phase and doesn't crap out all the expensive protein I had to shell out my hard earned dollars for.
My strength gains seem to be slower, but since it's the start of summer I don't have any hard data to back up my claim. It's just something I'm feeling.
The problem with going with the cycle theory and the whole hippie dippie "Oh I'm just listening to my body man" is that most of the time you're either undershooting or overshooting. For example, my protein intake for the summer is about ten ounces of beef and a couple eggs one time a day. The rest of the day I'm going very little protein and focusing on carbohydrates and fats. Yogurt. Fruits. Pizza. Basically anything to subside my appetite Sometimes thirty minutes later I'll have to go eat some beef because I can feel myself getting weak. But then my appetite is greater than what my body can actually digest and utilize to build muscle and I'll have to sit on the toilet and watch my expensive protein go down the drain.
Anyways here's my numbers.
What the numbers mean:
These are records of my one rep max's. I rate them on a five point scale. 5 means I completed the lift with perfect form. 4 is a completed lift with noticeable shakiness. 3 is completing the lift 3/4 of the way up. 2 is half way up. 1 is a couple inches up. 0 is no noticeable separation between the weight and whatever the weight was resting on.
Gym Thursday 230 a.m. 6/5/14
Seated shoulder press 205-1
Stiff legged deadlift 525-1
Free motion leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 350-3, 370-1
Life fitness seated lat row 260-3
Tricep extension rope attachment 60-1
Pec fly machine free motion 200-5
Gym Sunday 6/1/14 1045 a.m.
Leverage chest press machine 325-1
Rack pull 535-0
Good morning 275-1, 285-1
Free motion chest press cable machine 200-1
Free motion bicep curl cable machine 140-1
Life fitness seated leg press
Right 70-1, 80-1
Tricep extension free motion machine 200-3
Workout notes:
When I do cable machine tricep extensions with a rope attachment, from now on I'm hitting it from behind like this guy. It's supposed to activate the long head of the tricep muscle. It also dropped my tricep extension lift by forty pounds. But the good thing about doing it this way is the tendonitis in my elbows has subsided because I'm not trying to move as much weight as I would be if I'd been doing tricep pushdowns. However, my triceps feel more fatigued and exercised when compared to the tricep pushdown. I can feel the lactic acid buildup soreness extending the full length of the tricep and extending back into my rear deltoids. To me exercising the triceps like the guy below seems far more effective than the tricep pushdown.
Before I was doing it like this guy.
Here's what happens when you experiment with good mornings and you don't know what you're doing. I scraped the skin off my back letting the bar chafe up and down where that red mark is.
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