Week 10 - Intensify the Gains - Thrower Preseason Training

I hope your body is feeling better after week 9 last week.

My quads were burning for a few days after last Monday. I had trouble getting out of bed and let's not even talk about going up and down the stairs. Rough!

This week we up the intensity again with a special AMRAP set at the end of our working sets. Believe it or not, you might actually find this easier than last week as long as you do the math correctly.

Last week I asked you to take 80% of your heaviest weight (normally your 2 rep max) and perform 5 sets of 3 reps. For many of you this meant picking a weight that you could probably do for 4 or 5 reps and only performing 3 reps at a time.

This is a good thing because in all you did 15 total reps with that weight. If we went heavier you may have been able to finish but the last set or two would have pushed you way beyond a normal recoverable fatigue level.

This week however, we are going heavier. How much? About 5% heavier.

Here's what I mean by "about" 5% heavier. I want you to find 85% of your heaviest weight (your 2 rep max) and really take a look at that number. If you feel confident that you will once again be able to do multiple sets of 3 reps with that weight...go for it. If that number scares you a little bit and you think that you might not be able to get multiple sets of 3 with it, split the difference.

The video below explains this but I wanted to explain it below:

Say your 2 rep max was 400 pounds. 80% of 400 pounds is 320 pounds. In week 9, you should have done 320 pounds for 5 sets of 3 reps. This was tough but not impossible. This week, 85% of 400 pounds is 340 pounds. That might be a scary number to you. Based on last week you might be thinking there is no way that you will get 5 sets of 3 with that amount of weight. In this case, you might want to go a little lighter than 340. 335 or 330 might be better for you.

It is up to you. I want you going heavier but not failing or missing any reps.

The reason for this is because on your squat and bench day you will be doing your final set as an AMRAP set. This means you will be doing as many reps as possible with whatever weight you chose.

Here is the week 9 video that explains all of this:

To give you an example, yesterday I did the day one squat workout and chose 290 as my working weight. I did 4 sets of 3 with 290 and it felt ok. I maybe could have gotten 4 reps if my life depended on it. For my 5th set, I ended up going all out like a crazy person and got 6 reps!

Leaving one rep in the tank meant I had extra energy to bang out a few extra reps on the 5th set. I walked away from the workout feeling extra confident going into my testing day a few weeks from now.

The one difference is going to be deadlift this week. This week we are going to increase the weight the same as we did for bench and squat, but you aren't going to do an AMRAP set. You are going to add one more set and do 7 sets of 1 rep instead of 6 sets like last week.

Lots of work this week but you are ready. Oh, and you'll be sore. As I type this my legs are hurtin for certain!

As always...THROW FAR!!

Coach Matt Ellis