Grimwood Cycle Training: Building Strength Peaks

Aristotle

Unlike traditional weight training where you would increase the weight every workout, cycle training incorporates a series of workout days and weeks which are performed at percentages less than your maximum lifts.

The central idea of this type of training is that you will train your main lifts according to a system of percentages which will allow you to concentrate on your assistance exercises to build and strengthen your supporting   muscular areas. Your training cycle could last from eight weeks upwards to twenty weeks.

Most cycles are compiled utilizing past performances to determine projected goals. Before actually designing a cycle, the lifter will need some pertinent information. If he is planning his first cycle, it will be critical that this information is accurate and truthful.

As we spoke of earlier, cycle training should be directed at improving one or all three of your power lifts. Obviously, it is much easier to design or compile a cycle for one lift than it is to delicately balance cycles for two or three lifts. It should be pointed out that each power cycle will dramatically influence the other or others if performed simultaneously.

Let's assume that you have never really trained with a power cycle,   however, you were performing a variety of exercises. You probably noticed significant strength gains in one lift all the while another equally exercised lift remained stagnant or even went down. You inevitably asked yourself why this happened. Without realizing it, you were actually losing strength while training those lifts.  How can that be? You thought that if you trained hard you would get stronger. No, all too often a lifter will over-train because of the poor design of his or her program.

Let's examine what a power cycle really is. First of all you must swallow your ego and learn to train your muscle and connective tissue in stages. If you have not completed a pre-conditioning program and this is your first power cycle than you will need to do that first. Learn to discipline yourself and apply yourself equally throughout the cycle. You should consider every workout to be equally important regardless of the weight.  Concentrate on your technique and build on each workout like you are creating a magnificent machine, one piece at a time! This is where it all begins!

Traditional power cycles will always start with a conditioning phase and move right into lighter lifting. Many times through the year a lifter will move from one cycle to another without any more conditioning. This system of stringing cycles together can be very beneficial if the lifter remains injury free and if he or she can keep up the mental intensity that is required.

Let's create a skeleton of a cycle showing you the principles that are   usually employed.  The very first week will always be light. The lifter will acquire a feel for the movements and will warm up their muscles with correct form. They will train approximately three days a week taking the weekends off. Perhaps they will squat on Monday, bench press on Wednesday, and deadlift on Friday.  Their cycle will probably be twelve weeks long. After determining their most recent maximum weight in the three main lifts and in their assistance exercises, they will be able to plan their cycle.

Beginning with week two they will lift approximately 60% (sixty percent) of their calculated max lifts. This includes their assistance exercises as well as their main three lifts: the squat, bench, and deadlift. They will perform about three sets of five to eight reps for each main exercise and three sets of ten or more reps for each assistance exercise. In other words if their most recent max squat (without a lifting suit) was 400 lbs. than they would squat 240 lbs. for three sets of five to eight reps. Equally, if they were training with 100 lbs. on leg extensions, now they would be training with 60 lbs. for ten or more reps! Get the idea!

In a traditional power cycle you would increase the weight by a calculated few percentage points each week while diminishing the repetitions throughout the cycle until you were training Your main three lifts at a very heavy weight for only a very few repetitions. In essence, the heavier the weight, the fewer the reps.

For instance, the second week training percentage might jump to 65% (sixty five percent), the third to 70% (seventy percent) and so. All the while their supporting assistance training percentages would increase gradually and remain at the same rep range. This pattern would continue for the duration of the cycle. By the final week the lifter could expect to have made significant gains while feeling more comfortable with the heavier weight.

This system allows You to build to a strength peak by overloading the muscle gradually over a period Of time. Initially, it also incorporates lighter repetition training which is critical for conditioning Your tendons and ligaments.

The idea that a cycle only lasts for a few months allows the lifter to peak quickly and then back off the heavy training while the body rests and recuperates for a short period and through the beginning of the next cycle.

These shorter planned routines help the lifter stay motivated as well as provide essential rest and recovery from week to week. Perhaps more importantly is that Cycle training allows the body to condition itself for gradual weight overloads. By gradually and consistently overloading a muscle it will become conditioned, or in other words it will become capable Of supporting that load over time.

This brings to mind a story that I once heard while beginning to workout with percentage overloads and cycle training. Its application to these principles helped me better understand and believe in them!

Once there was a farmer with a small herd of cows. One day one of the cows gave birth, and the farmer carried the calf into the barn. Everyday the farmer would check on the calf and pick it up and hold it in his arms. The farmer continued to do this almost as a ritual. After quite some time a friend asked the farmer how he had gotten so strong to pick up a full grown cow. The farmer replied, "I really don't know, I never really even thought about it from day to day!"

That little story has stuck with me over the years, and it made me think about strength in a whole different way. Training with cycles and percentages and overloads are unquestionably the keys to gaining strength and gaining it quickly!

The Grimwood Strength System incorporates cycles, percentages, and overloads with a unique yet simple set of training principles which will make you stronger, faster than ever before!

Copyright 1995 Rainwater Grimwood Enterprises, Inc.