My Training Funk

It happens to the best of us. For the last month or so my training has been in the shitter; I've been lifting inconsistently or not even training at all. My last lift was about 3 weeks in Mexico and the heaviest I did was Goblet squats with a 50 pound dumbbell in the resort gym. Needless to say, I feel shitty.

I fell off the wagon about a week or so before I went to Mexico. Then, when I got back from Mexico I had an awful stomach bug for a few days. Right after I started feeling normal from that, I strained my left quadratus lumborum. I'm still recovering from that but I've realized what kind of rut I've gotten myself into. I'm stuck in the deadly cycle of shitty training!

The big over-riding problem is that I haven't been on a consistent program since the beginning of summer. I had been following The Outlaw Way and felt great, but had to stop because I couldn't keep it up while playing so much volleyball. Once the fall came around, I would lift sporadically and do what felt good that day, but didn't have a program to follow. I tried restarting Outlaw, but the volume of Olympic lifts that you perform wreaks havoc on my wrists.

The other problem is that I feel fucking awful about myself when I lift; my baseline level of strength has decreased so much that I just feel like a huge sissy when I go lift. Weights that I used to use at warm-up sets were now my working sets. I know academically why my strength had diminished, but I'm still not happy about it. I just felt very civilian.

So, just today I sat down and wrote myself a program. I know I always say "don't write your own program" but, oh well! I combined everything I want out of a program; athleticism, power, strength and conditioning. Everything is auto-regulated (no percentages) so I can feel out the lift every day. I cut down on the volume and variation of Olympic lifting that I was doing so that I can focus on quality reps that feel heavy for that day. The strength work is basic and allows room to go heavy; basic compound lifts for low reps. Here's the program (a 3 day split) not including warm-up.

Day 1:
A1) MB Slam: 3x5
A2) Weighted Box Jumps: 3x3

B) Clean: 4x2

C1) High Bar Squat: 5x3
C2) Romanian Deadlift: 5x5

D) Battle Rope Tabata

Day 2: 
A1) MB Overhead Throw: 3x3    (Note: that video sucks, I'll be doing that but more savage.)
A2) Hurdle Bounding: 3x5

B) Snatch: 4x2

C1) Fat Bar Push Press: 5x3
C2) Chin-ups: 5x5

D) Airdyne Tabata

Day 3: 
A1) MB Shot Put: 3x3/side
A2) Lateral Bounding to Broad Jump: 3x3/side

B) Snatch High Pull: 4x2

C1) Trap Bar Deadlift: 5x3
C2) Glute Ham Raise: 5x5

D) Sled until I Die

Notes:
- The A superset is intended to neurally activate my body, and prepare me to lift.
- No conventional deadlift is being performed because of all the pulling I will be doing with the Olympic lifts and the RDL's. The TBDL is intended as a strength exercise, not as a conventional deadlift replacement. Relax.
- I will be applying the Bulgarian Method of auto-regulation to these lifts. That is, I will be going as heavy as I can with pristine form and without having to psyche myself up for a lift. If I have to get really psyched up for a set, then it's too heavy.
- Conditioning is something I need to force myself to do. The Tabata's are just short enough that I'll be able to make myself do it every day.
- There is a lacking of scapular retraction work in this program. I will be implementing a ton of band pull-apart variations in-between sets (probably during my Olympic lifts) to make up for this.

If anyone out there is looking for something new to try, give this a shot and let me know what you think! Have a great day, and go lift something heavy!