Linear Progression Update: New Year, New Gains

Yeah buddy, lightweight!

-Ronnie Coleman

As you know, I recently set out an experiment of sorts to see how long I can linearly progress from not having lifted in years. Reporting in now - about 5 weeks since the time of the last update - it's been a lot of fun.

Things have been going great; weights are going up, muscles are noticeably bigger, body-weight only slightly increased, and joints are feeling healthy.

Changes

• I realized pretty quickly that I just enjoy lifting heavy shit, so I started to incorporate a belt and knee sleeves on the relevant lifts. I'm sure I'll soon start wearing my wrist wraps too. Currently alternating between the Inzer Advanced Design, and Stoic knee sleeves; both are great.
• My muscles are likely saturated with Creatine at this point. Taking ~3g per day since starting this experiment.
• Small changes to accessory ordering and selection. Trying to maximize my ability to super-set antagonistic accessories on days where I'm time limited
• Tracking every calorie and doing daily weigh-ins; goal is to maintain BW of 100kg. MacroFactor has been great.
• Bought 1.25 and 2.5 pound plates so I can micro-load. My gym does not have any plates below 5lbs.
• Started incorporating heavy, RPE-based, triples prior to my straight sets of 5
  
  

Post-activation potentiation

These were all great changes, but I think one of the more interesting game-changers has been the heavy triples prior to the rep work. In the Exercise Science literature this is referred to as post-activation potentiation; in the bro-science lore this is referred to as priming the CNS.

The idea is to hit some heavy set (could be single, double, triple) before your first set of rep work; whatever that means to you. I think something in the 6-8 RPE range should be good. Introduces basically zero fatigue, and gets you in a good state for feeling strong.

Give it a shot; it would take an extra 5 minutes in total to see if it works for you? That's a pretty good risk to reward.

Results

Previous write-up's starting points were 225/185/315 for the SBD; all for 5x5.

Current straight-set weight:

Squat: 295 @ 4x5

Bench: 205 @ 4x5

Deadlift: 365 @ 2x5

Current heavy-triple weight:

Squat: 375 @ RPE ~6

Bench: 255 @ RPE ~8

Deadlift: 455 @ RPE 8

A 70/20/50 pound increase in SBD! Can't complain about that.

I don't see it slowing down, so I'm not going to change it (significantly, at least). If (more like when) things do slow down, I plan to deload, rotate some exercises and rep zones, then apply the same linear periodization protocol. Fingers crossed that's a long way out though.

Happy new year,

Caden

ps: my email should be easy to find if you ever want to chat; I'll respond to anything