Overreaching

[The Wall]

Big week of training starting monday...one solid week of overreaching coming up

Overreachin= intentional overtraining for around a week followed by 3 weeks of normal training to induce a adaptive reponse from your body for the extra stress

figure this isnt such a new principle to most of you but im desperate for posts so probably do workout for 5 straight days 2 times a day

increase calories from 6k to 8k (this is gonna be a tough one cuz i barely get 6k a day sneaking in a giant hershey bar here and there to boost me up, but ill do my best to get um in

im a big fan of training smarter + harder so any training theory questions i would love to discuss...gettin my degree in exercise physiology/science

[Stubborn]

How has this worked for you in the past?

[The Wall]

ive lived and learned from it...

the keys to doing it right are to realize that by the end of the week you should be doing worse than when you started...if your not than you F'd it up..

second you gotta pick a week that is gonna have the fewest outside stressors possible...i jus finished up a bunch of exams and have a week of nothing to do school wise, so i went to the grocery store and loaded up on extra food for the week

third and hardest part after you finish that colossul week of training ...expect your next weeks numbers to be slightly lower than usual...but close

but the week after you should notice a significant increase from when you started the overreach session

so its week 1 overtrain
week 2 normal training (with a slight decrease due to being fatigued)
week 3 you should notice a big increase in strength on most core lifts

it works really well for me because ive learned what to expect and how to deal pyschologically with not always getting a pr when i lift...trusting your program is a big part of it working, if you dont beileve its gonna work chances are pretty good that it wont

i usually lift in 4 block cycles consisting of a musclular endurance, strength, power, and then a strongman/neuromuscular component

so one rotation is 16 weeks long after which i take a week and lift real lite focusing on recovery and rest

mostly though i use overreaching as a tool to hit new PRs that ive been wanting or to peak for a competition

[The Wall]

its important to note that there is a big big big big difference between strength and power...the two are related but just only

strength= maximum force generation
power= work/time ...so its about how fast you can move something heavy

both work different sets of muscles...which is the reason a world class powerlifter will probably have alot of trouble doing power cleans/snatches....powerlifting is lifting a monster weight at a relatively slow speed...olympic lifting is all about Rate of force

i cant stress enough how important it is to minimize outside stressors when doing an overreaching week...bad things can happen if you dont plan in advance in terms of food...rest...and trainign schedule

but if you learn to use it right i feel like you will achieve some prs youve been trying to get for a while..i know i did it with my front squat and it shot up close to 40 lbs

[The Wall]

focus on 1 or 2 lifts that you have been trying to get a PR on...if you try to make everything go up at once youll prob just end up injured or below when you started

be confident but not foolish when choosing your goal

sorry for the choppy posting but im anxious to get to 100 so please forgive me

[Stubborn]

Interesting way of doing things. That is somewhat a natural cycle for people in the way that they overtrain, back off the weight a little, and then end up doing better once they've calmed down a bit. I may give your specific example a try if I hit a plateau for too long.

"anxious to get to 100..." haha! The Wall will disappear at 101 posts along with his prizes.

How many pullups are you aiming for?

[The Wall]

not really sure how many i can do to be honost with you...like i said i was in a cast a week ago for a severly broken hand which i had to have surgery for...luckily the hand specialist i went to was able to restore it to nearly normal without any permanent damage

before i broke it...using the style seen in the video im pretty sure i could have easily done 40...but now im not really sure how well my grip will hold up

ive always been a big grip fan since i got my first captain of crush when i was 15 lol still havent closed that damn number 3 yet though...startin to think maybe i wasted 20 bucks on that bitch, could rep the #2 for 10-15 reps but never put in the extra effort needed to close the #3...in an effort to rehab my hand though ill be bringin back the grip strength and try to throw up a vid or 2 of my doin some grip work

my goal is 40...that may prove to be a bit to lofty but hell i shoot for the stars...land on the moon

[The Wall]

btw its really not the normal cycle for most people....most people overtrain for weeks and weeks before they finally get sick or get injured

1 week of over training takes 2 weeks of normal lifting to restore balance and benifit
2 weeks overtraining takes like 4 weeks...so on and so forth...it stops being a practical way to bust plateaus if you exceed a week of overreaching...you greatly increase your chance of getting sick or injured or BOTH lol

give it a shot jus be sure to do everything mentioned previously my guess is youll end up hitting all your PRs early before the week is even over

[The Wall]

and if that is the case be sure to still take the scheduled normal week and not push yourself to hard...took me a long time to learn that after you hit a pr you dont imediately try to go for another one lol sounds simple but you know exactly what im sayin...you aim for 405 for 10 on squats and finally get it...then you decide that maybe its time you try gettin that 575 rep youve been wanting

jus stick to your plan no matter what the outcomes of the lift and i think youll see the results you want

[Stubborn]

btw its really not the normal cycle for most people....most people overtrain for weeks and weeks before they finally get sick or get injured

1 week of over training takes 2 weeks of normal lifting to restore balance and benifit
2 weeks overtraining takes like 4 weeks...so on and so forth...it stops being a practical way to bust plateaus if you exceed a week of overreaching...you greatly increase your chance of getting sick or injured or BOTH lol

give it a shot jus be sure to do everything mentioned previously my guess is youll end up hitting all your PRs early before the week is even over

I dont mean to say that everyone does it in the same time frame. Just saying that is the order in which people typically train, unintentionally (train til overtrained, back off or get injured as you mentioned, and after some recovery you hit a PR).

My favorite saying has always been "nobody ever got big or strong by lifting weights." Nobody understands that when I mention it but its true. Its all about recovery and, more often than not, if you take a week off (or light) you come back stronger.

[The Wall]

took me a long time to learn it myself...ive found that just doing 70% of my maxs for some power/speed reps is usually and adequate rest week whenever i have outside stress piling up...

let me know how it goes ill keep everyone posted on what i get accomplished...been trying to get 405 overhead on my pushjerk for a while hopefully once i get a lil more hand function i can get it.