Beyond-Brawn-2nd-Edition

HOW TO SET UP YOUR TRAINING CYCLES FOR BIG RETURNS
and physically—by needing to take longer than you should need to, to get
back in the flow of productive training in your next cycle.
7.31 A medium-to-long duration cycle could run in these four phases:
a. Start with three or four weeks of form and concentration consolidation.
But do not ease back mentally. Still attack the weights with controlled
aggression. During this phase the poundages are built back from 85–
90% of your previous best weights, to 95%.
b. Next are a few weeks of creeping back to your previous best weights.
c. en comes the start of the growth phase—the first few weeks of moving
into new poundage territory. Reduce the number of sets you do, and
even reduce the training frequency of some of your secondary exercises,
if the total demand feels excessive.
d. Keep the growth phase going for as long as possible. If necessary cut
back on your secondary work to give greater focus to the core exercises.
Notch up a pound or two a week on each of your core exercises. Keep
the secondary exercises progressing, too, if they are not inhibiting the
core ones.
7.32 e net gain from an entire cycle lasting 15–26 weeks could be 10–20
pounds on your best working poundages in the core exercises. While this
underestimates what a beginner or early intermediate can gain, it is terrific
for anyone else.
7.33 Some people sneer at this rate of gain, thinking and advocating that almost
everyone, regardless of age and lifestyle, can add lots of poundage to any
exercise in a mere month or two. Had these people added just 10 pounds
to their squat each 4–6 months for the last few years, they would be much
bigger and stronger than they are now, even though such a rate of gain, when
looked at as a per-week gain, is tiny.
7.34 How much did you add to your 6-rep bench press over the last 4–6 months?
Would you have been happy with a 10–20 pound gain, and then another
over the next 4–6 months, and then another over the next 4–6 months? Add
up these small per-cycle gains and they become large increases. Remember,
for typical people who have demanding jobs and family responsibilities, and
who have little time in which to work out, successful training is about the
long term.
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