Strength Training: 2024-07
Strength Block starting July 2024
No one said it has to be pretty, you just have to get there; and what’s more, keep going.
This wasn’t my most successful training block in terms of PR numbers. However, it was emblematic of my recovery process throughout the summer.
In June of 2024 I tore the meniscus and partially tore the MCL in my right knee — I was in a wheelchair for a day afterwards, and barely walking for a week.
That gives some perspective to where I came from before starting this 8-week strength training program. As soon I could walk somewhat normally, I walked… a lot. When walking didn’t hurt I started to ride a bike, and then run. Shortly after, I started drilling normally, and carefully choosing partners to roll (spar) with from very select positions.
In August, with most of my range of motion restored, it was time to start strengthening. I followed a template taken from my Morpheus certification program for “general fitness”, with a specific focus on strength.
The general outline looked like:
Weeks 1 - 3: Accumulate Volume
Week 4: Stabilize / De-Load
Weeks 5 - 7: Intensity
Week 8: Stabilize / De-Load
Note: This was the planned programming, but not exactly how it transpired in real life. See my training logs for more details.
Exercise Selection:
Following the immortal advice of Dan John, I wanted to select a push, squat, and hinge movement. Typically, you’d add a pull movement as well, but I do plenty of that grappling. Plus, with deadlifts there’s a lot of pulling already baked in.
Admittedly, I hate horizontal / flat bench pressing. Fortunately, the strict / push press translates well to the Olympic lifts, which I do like and plan on working in the next training block.
Similarly, with the hinge, a snatch-grip deadlift is the first part of the actual power / snatch. The front squat, as well, is a precursor to power / clean movements as well as heavily targeting the knees / quads that I was trying to rehabilitate.
Phase 1: Accumulation
The focus here was on progressively adding volume, typically in terns of reps or sets. For me specifically, I chose to add sets and focus on “tempo” for time-under-tension.
This phase also brought a focus back to relatively long warm ups. My standard “general” warm up is 10 minutes of Zone 2 work — usually on an Echo Bike. That was followed by bilateral movements to “specifically” warm up for the compound (unilateral) working sets.
During this time, I also measured grappling progress by relative density — active time / total time. A much more conservative progression was in my support mobility work. Zone 2 “recovery” or endurance work was held consistent throughout this phase.
It’s hard to estimate 1-rep-maxes (1RM) during tempo sessions, but subjectively I felt freakishly strong on the mat. This isn’t a surprise given the benefit of isometric strength, or time-under-tension, to grappling in general.
Because of the relatively low intensity (load), from a logistical standpoint, it was easier to lift and grapple on the same days throughout most of the first 4 weeks. As I’ve said before, this isn’t “best practice”, but it’s the way I managed to get the work done.
During the first “de-load” week, I effectively cut my training volume in half, while benchmarking some higher loads to give me a reference point for the next phase.
Phase 2: Intensity
Admittedly, this phase felt rushed and short. I kept tearing huge chunks of callouses off my palms which made deadlifting a bitch.
My overall global training load also seemed to add up during this phase. I didn’t think I was training that hard during private lessons or teaching classes, but it seems that adding intensity has a compound rather than linear effect. What a surprise…
The focus for these three weeks was lifting heavy. That’s it, just put more weight on the bar. Interestingly, Week 7 was probably my best week. For whatever reason, Week 8 — which should have been either a de-load or regular progression week — found me in a funk on my testing days.
The final results came out like this:
Strict Press: 155 x 2
Snatch-Grip Deadlift: 375 x 1
Front Squat: 285 x 1
The strict press roughly converts to ~270 (flat) bench press. I couldn’t find a conversion from wide to conventional deadlifts, but a couple weeks prior I had pulled 365 x 8 conventional. Using both of those estimates, I came within 95% of my “modern era” (since 2022) PRs.
My final front squat day was wonky as well. The previous week I ran 280 x 2 and in the final testing week dropped 285 on the second rep. Comparing this lift to the above in terms of lifetime PRs this was a bit behind, reaching ~90%. That’s still not bad considering I was specifically trying to target the joint I had torn apart 3 months prior.
This Program vs. NonProphet’s Strength Manual
Regular readers will recall that I’ve previously reviewed NonProphet’s (NP) Strength Manual. That manual, specially, produced the aforementioned “modern” PRs — which simply refers to “as old as my current record keeping system.”
I’m not sure if it was the added private lessons, police jiu jitsu classes, or just a bad week, but my HRV was relatively low during my testing week. Admittedly, it was a bit rushed. The timelines just paired nicely to cross 3 months post-injury and conclude a program at the same time at the end of a month.
At first I was stricken with disappointment at the result of the program. What went wrong? Am I really not as strong as I was 2 years ago? What was the problem? What was I missing?
What I was missing was recalling that I broke my fucking leg 3 months ago! Alright, fair enough… chill out ego.
Another thing that I hadn’t considered initially is that the NP program was a full 8-week build with supportive hypertrophy. This time around, I really only had 3 weeks to build (intensity) because the previous hypertorphy was required rehabilitation.
While my injury wouldn’t have universally impaired my (horizontal) pressing, it would have been damn hard to push any kind of decent weight vertically with a bum leg.
Taking things in perspective, after a devastating injury that left me in a wheelchair, I was able to reach 90 - 95% of my modern PRs. To further slap myself back to reality and out of obsessive specialization, the question of “am I strong enough” has already been answered many times over.
Conclusions & Moving Forward:
A few great things came out of this process other than getting my knee working again.
The first is putting a time limit on, especially intensity, training sessions. NP has mentioned this in different forms before. I’ve reiterated to many teammates that my favorite strength split is 5 sets of 2, followed closely by EMOM/10.
The point here is that it:
Forces you to intentionally recover between sets, because you don’t have forever to waste. Even though, if you want to life heavy, you need to rest long.
It naturally inhibits “ego lifting.” Sometimes it’s just not your day. Knowing when to fold, go home, rest, and come back strong is maturity in training. This is especially true when fitness isn’t even the sport you want to be great at.
Putting the first two points together, you can only get into so much “recovery debt” in 45 minutes and still be able to train tomorrow, not to mention if you want to put up big (heavy) numbers today.
The second big takeaway is a focus on trusting the process — i.e. “never missing a rep.” As with the above mentioned “ego lifting.” There’s a time to go heavy and to test yourself. That time is certainly not every, or even most, training session(s).
A test is a rare event that answers some questions and leaves you with many more; but most of all it leaves with the irrefutable understanding of exactly where you are.
Download the exact rep/set schemes and exercises I used and follow the same training program yourself!
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