By now you may have noticed that I have not posted a workout in a while.
Firstly, I was laid low by the Spanish Influenza. At least it felt that bad.
But, I bounced back, and went at it with my training. But, there is a catch.
I was questioning the validity of my training paradigm. Not the effectiveness of 531 or 5x5.
Rather, I was questioning whether it was the best for me. And I was thinking long term.
My shoulder is not happy with the low-bar position, or with overhead pressing.
My lower back has started to talk to me in language I've never heard before.
In short, I felt like I was barreling along toward an early retirement from training. That is unacceptable.
At the same time, I was reading some prehab\rehab\injury prevention type stuff. One article stood out.
"21 Exercises For Injury-free Mass" by Bret Contreras.
Its geared toward the man made of glass, which isn't me, but it gave me an idea.
What if I used the big exercises to "test" my strength, and stuck to safer versions to "train" it?
Could it work if I only had to load up the barbell and strain once a month? (Less exposure).
Could the "safe" exercises still help me to improve, but save me from further injury?
It was a theory that I had to test, as there are several advantages:
1. No injuries means more training time.
2. Less spinal loading means increased recovery.
3. Less chance to grow stale on the big exercises.
Yes, there are negatives, like not getting practice at the specific lifts. Nothing is perfect.
I've put together a simple A-B Split using the exercises from the article.
The plan is still geared more towards a 5-rep strength approach (with a bit of hypertrophy thrown in).
I'll go for one cycle of 4 weeks, then retest my strength and see where I am.
Hopefully the same-but-different exercises I chose will work.
Time will tell...
