The super smooth Lionel and his Commodores had a cool, mellow and super-groovy version of Sundays, specifically Sunday mornings. They were easy. Just listening to the song makes you think of relaxing on the couch with your favorite morning beverage and the newspaper with no particular place to go.
My Sunday will not resemble that, at least not for the span of about 90 minutes. Oh no, my good friends… tomorrow begins the first wave of my new training plan and I begin with deadlift day. It’s not a complete change of what I have been doing, but it’s definitely going to be some tweaking on what I’ve been doing. The goal is to continue to improve strength across the board while incorporating some new movements for explosiveness and keeping my conditioning cranking along.
Strength Training: Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 (which is by far the best training template I have ever used). Lifting 3 times per week. The core lifts will be Deadlifts, Bench Press, Cleans (this is new), Squats and Military Presses. The Cleans will be done on the Squats day and I’ve never done them consistently, so we’ll see how these bad boys go. The Cleans are mostly to incorporate a new element of explosiveness to my training. The accessory work to go along with these lifts will be a lot of the basics (dips, pull-ups and all that fun) and I am shooting to complete my lifting sessions a little more quickly.
Conditioning: This is mostly going to be comprised of playing sports. I play indoor soccer on Thursdays and I will now start playing basketball (for the first time in a really long time) on Wednesdays. I am going to pick one other day out of the week to push the Prowler around and look to have one full off day per week. I may (just may) look to do some bikram yoga at some point because I think it would be a huge help to my horribly inflexible behind. I am also t
hinking about adding in some “finishers” at the end of my lifting sessions to get in an extra dollop of conditioning. Yeah that’s right… dollop. Like sour cream baby! And yes, I know that makes absolutely no sense. Work with me, people.
Oh and to all of you hoping to see video of my using the Prowler and puking? So far I have kept down all my food – HA!
Diet: I have phased out of the formal plan I was on with Shelby and the weight difference was about a 2.5 lb increase which has stayed consistent over the last 2 weeks. I will be incorporating several of the elements of what I learned from Shelby along the way. Essentially, it will be working from that carb cycling idea of “earn your carbs” with less carbs on non-lifting days. Outside of that, I looking to just eat well and very balanced. If I can eat things that organic or get grass-fed beef/bison, that is what I am looking to do.
That’s the plan and now it’s a matter of execution. In keeping with the overall theme of the blog (i.e. it’s not just about lifting or ideas or developing your mind and spirit, but the interrelation of all of those things), I am hoping to gain a better appreciation for attacking my plan now that it is set. The plan is not terribly complicated, nor does it need to be. What it certainly does need is for me to go after it with full spirit. I think a lot of people fall into the “paralysis by analysis” trap instead of going after things full bore for a while and then stopping to assess after some practice. Hopefully, I will avoid that.
Time to SFW.
(And if you do not know what SFW means, feel free to click here. Pardon the language though.)
“That’s the plan and now it’s a matter of execution. ”
Ha, the Achilles-heel of every plan.
However, considering the details you have put into this, I believe you will achieve what you set out to do.
After all, the devil is in the details. And you have mastered it.
Would love to hear and cheer your progress.