Notes From The Trainer

Get With The Program

Let me take a moment of your time to put this year in context. I've had some pretty positive feedback on the programming over the last couple of weeks (also, death threats). Thanks! Also thanks Rob McDonald of Gym Jones (http://www.gymjones.com), whose "Mass Gain" and "Mass Gain 2" cycles formed the basis for June's program.

Our overall programming strategy follows a repeating cycle of 4-week / 3-week Accumulation/Restitution.

• 4 weeks of "accumulation" means we're accumulating stress on the neuromusculoskeletal system.
• 3 weeks of "restitution" means we're decreasing loads and allowing the neuromusculoskeletal system to not only recover, but "supercompensate." This means it gets bigger/stronger/faster than it was before the accumulation phase. #gainz

We started this strategy in January, and we've gone through three iterations. Each iteration of accumulation was characterized by a specific goal.

• In Accumulation 1, we were promoting muscle growth (hypertrophy).
• Accumulation 2 was taking the muscle we'd built and making it work better (strength / recruitment).
• Accumulation 3 was taking that strength and adding a timing factor (power).

As I'm writing this, we're in the middle of Accumulation 4, which is a more challenging attempt at promoting hypertrophy. I was looking for a method and perspective other than mine to accomplish this. Hence, I went back to my first programming mentors at Gym Jones. I hope everyone likes how their bodies are responding to it!

Looking ahead, we'll do some assessment and benchmarking in July as part of the 4th Restitution phase, then reprise a strength/power accumulation phase in August before starting all over again in September/October.

As always, I welcome your feedback and appreciate your interest and continued trust and confidence in what we're doing here.

RLTW,
Jared

By Jared on Sunday, June, 21, 2015