After 40 club

[TBPenguin]

I’d think you mean strength/muscle maintenance by “scaling up” in a sense of different approach to lifting volume and exercise selections. Well I do find myself in stubborn mode trying to pretend I can keep increasing my TM from block to block like good old times. Well…

Exercise selection - no change as of yet. But I am well aware of the pattern of what happens to older powerlifters in that regard. I can envision that happening in the future.

Increasing the TM

Volume is one of the factors where things get different. You've probably noticed a bit of this already, but it kind of ramps up - the need for more warmups. It used to be that the 2nd work set felt easier than the first. At 60, after 3 warmup sets, sets 1 and 2 would not be as snappy as they should have been with TB. it wouldn't be until the 4th or 5th set at 75% (no TM on that number) that the work sets would start getting easier. (Not saying 4 or 5 work sets is generally needed or wanted - the point is that the body required 6 or 7 sets before it was really ready to do the 75% sets right.) With more warmup sets (not just 3) those early work sets could be snappy. Now those extra warmup sets could be done very lightly, but I at least could never get there with some non-specific work, like treadmill/bike (bike was better but still...) before squats. No matter how you get there, more warmup takes time and energy. It might be fine for the lift, but near the end of the workout? KB specifies 3 lifts, or maybe 3 lifts and maybe a BW exercise, for OP. Maybe make that 2 lifts and maybe a BW exercise? Otherwise that workout starts to get long, even if your energy and focus are good.

But higher volumes at lower intensity, for some kind of base building? The older, the worse this works.

Another thing that gets worse and worse over time is that the loss of strength is faster. What helps in TB is doing those 90% and 95% weeks. I think I've posted that I didn't get much from 95% weeks before, but that was mid-50s. Now at the least, if doing something like OP I/A, that 3rd week should have some 90%, not just be 85% across (for those of us using TMs). I think what Mr. Hill wrote would also work, taking the sets closer to failure, but that wouldn't fit with TB and doing other domains well.

Anyway, just some ramblings. Some are bound to be wrong.

[Barkadion]

I’d think you mean strength/muscle maintenance by “scaling up” in a sense of different approach to lifting volume and exercise selections. Well I do find myself in stubborn mode trying to pretend I can keep increasing my TM from block to block like good old times. Well…

Exercise selection - no change as of yet. But I am well aware of the pattern of what happens to older powerlifters in that regard. I can envision that happening in the future.

Increasing the TM

Volume is one of the factors where things get different. You've probably noticed a bit of this already, but it kind of ramps up - the need for more warmups. It used to be that the 2nd work set felt easier than the first. At 60, after 3 warmup sets, sets 1 and 2 would not be as snappy as they should have been with TB. it wouldn't be until the 4th or 5th set at 75% (no TM on that number) that the work sets would start getting easier. (Not saying 4 or 5 work sets is generally needed or wanted - the point is that the body required 6 or 7 sets before it was really ready to do the 75% sets right.) With more warmup sets (not just 3) those early work sets could be snappy. Now those extra warmup sets could be done very lightly, but I at least could never get there with some non-specific work, like treadmill/bike (bike was better but still...) before squats. No matter how you get there, more warmup takes time and energy. It might be fine for the lift, but near the end of the workout? KB specifies 3 lifts, or maybe 3 lifts and maybe a BW exercise, for OP. Maybe make that 2 lifts and maybe a BW exercise? Otherwise that workout starts to get long, even if your energy and focus are good.

But higher volumes at lower intensity, for some kind of base building? The older, the worse this works.

Another thing that gets worse and worse over time is that the loss of strength is faster. What helps in TB is doing those 90% and 95% weeks. I think I've posted that I didn't get much from 95% weeks before, but that was mid-50s. Now at the least, if doing something like OP I/A, that 3rd week should have some 90%, not just be 85% across (for those of us using TMs). I think what Mr. Hill wrote would also work, taking the sets closer to failure, but that wouldn't fit with TB and doing other domains well.

Anyway, just some ramblings. Some are bound to be wrong.

Right..

As far as number of lifts.. I remember that during ICAT I really enjoyed having 2 major lifts plus BW pullups. And even better OP Pro setup with one main lift up two 2 reps max and 65% for the other two lifts.

[cwdell]

hey folks, posted something similar on reddit but didn't get any traction, so i'm dropping it here. Short version: after ~8 months of TB, i'm re-running BB with some tweaks, and want opinions/critiques from the AA pros.

Details:
-46M, steady training for 2 years, no physical limitations but for the occasional joint flare-up (see below)
-ran a full BB using Tango in feb/march, then went through cycles of operator I/A and Zulu I/A. also ran Black conditioning; did not go great, as any running/sprinting/hills seems to cause knee inflammation a day or two after the fact. working on that...
-Current Primary Goal: build up aerobic and SE bases, so i'm re-running BB through January.
-Current Secondary Goal: maintain/improve WPUs. i'm good with high weight/low rep, but i struggle with the high reps (meaning I have to dial back my 1RMs to get 5 good reps in, which forces me to reduce load on the doubles and triples)

So, i'm doing tango again, but i'm adding a paired-down version of Russian Fighter Pullup Program. My plan is to run a modified weeks 1-5; looks like this:
Day 1 - PUs (87654 no resistance, with 6+mins rest in between) and LSS (elliptical, it's nice to my knees)
Day 2 - SE (includes KB swings and inverted rows, which is at least PU-adjacent)
Day 3 - recovery
Day 4 - PUs (87655) and LSS
Day 5 - SE
Day 6 - recovery
Day 7 - PUs (87665) and LSS
Day 8 - Off

I'm on day 12 of this, and so far so good. I do worry about the overall energy sap, particularly in weeks 3 and 5 because of the short RIs. So, questions:

1. given i'm starting a bit lower (8) than my 1RM on pullups (i can do 11-12 clean), do you think it reasonable to run this alongside a BB program? i know it's ideal to take a full break from ST, but i'd really like to level up on PUs for when i re-introduce WPUs, and this seems like a doable quantity to get my rep ranges more balanced without taxing me (no sets to failure, of course)
2. is there some magic sauce about BB being run on a 7 day cadence, or does the extra day not have a significant impact on results? I could do 7, obviously, but i'd have to remove the pullups.
3. For those that have run a pull-up specific program like RFPP, am I mistaken in thinking every other day (er, 3 out of 8) is going to be productive? Stock plan says 5 on 1 off, but that's too much for me with BB. So far i've hit the daily amounts with relative ease, but it only gets harder from here...

It's a lot for one post, so appreciate y'all reading, and thanks in advance for your thoughts!
-CA

[TBPenguin]

Hey cwdell, welcome. Some thoughts on PUs, WPUs for you to consider. If you can do 11 - 12 BW reps clean - your BW is the equivalent of your 75% or 80% weight in TB (assuming you to be using a TM). If not using a TM, maybe about your 70% load. You didn't give your BW, but once you add 10% of your BW, TB would have you doing maybe 3 rep sets. So if your progress has not been satisfactory, maybe review the weights you have been using.

I don't think the Russian FPP is very good for our club members. If somebody can't do many reps, they are doing too much work too heavy. I.e. it can be like doing a bunch of 2RM, 3RM etc sets. If somebody can already do 10+ reps (hmm, who could that be?) it ends up just being a lot of volume.

Doing RFPP and then doing high volume inverted rows the day after is a lot of volume in one area. Your total workload is not excessive, but suspect you are doing too much on the area you want to improve.

Maybe take a look at https://www.tacticalbarbell.com/se-options/ see the section on pullups and do your SE that way. You will probably recover better, which will make the biggest difference in your long term PU progress.