Brady Stewart

 

This is the first article in a series entitled Case Studies in Programming.  In this article series, I will discuss some of the applications of the Reactive Training System for strength athletes, primarily powerlifters.  The first article will focus on my own application of RTS.  The articles following will be case studies of my training partners and other Reactive Training System athletes, as well as some ideas that we have implemented involving strength training and how it applies to other sports.  We have seen some great individual successes with the implementation of basic, intermediate, and advanced RTS programming principles.  The results speak for themselves.

These are our experiences…

 

Brady Stewart

Age: 27

Sport:  Powerlifting / Bench Press Specialist

Referee Experience: USAPL State Referee, Strongman Referee

Hometown: Germantown, IL

Training Location:  The Belleville Weightlifting Club (Belleville, IL) and in my basement gym

Competing in powerlifting since 2002 in the USAPL/IPF and non-sanctioned events

Best Lifts-Equipped:
Squat: 675 x1 @9
Bench Press: 640 x1 @10
Deadlift: 645 x1 @10 (RAW)
Training Total: 1960
Competition Total: 1830 (2007 USAPL NATIONALS)
Competition Bench Press: 611.7 (2009 IPF Bench Press Worlds)

Best Lifts-Raw:
Squat: 573 x1 @9.5 (no belt)
Bench Press: 490 x1 @10
Deadlift: 645 x1 @10
Training Total: 1708
Competition Total: 1631 (2008 Arnold Classic Raw Competition)

Past Injuries:  Displaced Ribs, Pectoralis Insertion Scarring

Goals:  To win a USAPL Bench Press Nationals and IPF Bench Press Worlds, eventually would like to give the 242 World Bench Press Record a shot.  To win a few more Arnold Classic Raw competitions and the USAPL raw nationals a few times.

Accomplishments: 
Member of the Gold Winning 2009 USA World Bench Press Team (IPF)
2008 USAPL Bench Press Nationals – 3rd Place @242 (OPEN)
2009 USAPL Bench Press Nationals – 3rd Place @242 (OPEN)
2008 USAPL Arnold Classic Raw Powerlifting Competition – 1st Place @242 (OPEN)
2004 and 2005 USAPL Bench Press Nationals – Junior HW Best Lifter
USAPL American Record – Full Powerlifting Bench Press Record @242 (OPEN)
USAPL National Record – Junior Bench Press @242
USAPL American Raw Record – Full Powerlifting Bench Press Record @242 (OPEN)
Multiple Illinois State Records

 

 

            Programming RTS has always been enjoyable to me.  It’s almost as fun as training.  When done properly, it can be a very rewarding experience.  When I begin attempting to write out a plan of attack, I typically do two things.  First, I do a thorough analysis of my last competition, lessons learned, what worked, what didn’t work, what I can improve, weaknesses, strengths, etc.  Second, I look to see when my next contest is.  When I have these things established and have given some thought on how I want to train for the next contest, I start up with a macro plan.  In other words, I plan my training for the “long term”; outlining how many weeks of training I have and identifying if I’ll have time for an off season, in season, and peaking blocks.  I use the terms “off season” and “in season” loosely.  I am still training very hard in what I consider to be an off season.  I use the terms off/in season to help me determine exercises.  Obviously, the closer I am to the contest, the more of the actual competition lift will be used.  The further out, I use a broader range of exercises similar to that of the competition lift without exhausting the competition lift beyond progress.  I do not want to get too far ahead of myself, nor do I want to get too detailed into how I exactly program training, but I will give you my general ideas.

When I set up training for any contest, I always work backwards from the contest date to determine how I want to divide my training blocks.  I know exactly how long I need to peak for that contest.  I have kept very detailed assessments and spreadsheets for every contest since I started training with RTS.  I’ll plan around vacations, important dates, family time, etc.  I leave nothing out so I will be ultimately prepared and won’t miss a workout.  The great thing about RTS, is that there is always a way to make the system work for you when life happens.  Although the programming may not be “optimal” during periods of difficult time management, it is better than not getting a training session in. 

I like to use the off season to really hammer my weaknesses and try to make them a strong point as well as challenging my general physical preparedness (GPP).  I feel that my major weakness is currently in my pecs.  I feel that most powerlifting philosophies overlook the pecs as a major contributor to the bench press.  I do agree with these schools of thought when saying that the triceps are the most important, however without a strong base to support that weight, my chest may not be able to handle what my triceps can push out.  Another major weakness of mine is my current state of conditioning.  I don’t have a high body fat percentage by any means or a very large waist, but I believe that the most important muscle in my body is my heart.  I will plan for at least 2 sessions of cardio in a week’s time.  My wife talked me into getting a treadmill and it truly has been worth it.  I have had it for less than 2 weeks and I already feel like I am improving my cardiovascular health.  I do have other weaknesses, but I like to emphasize no more than 2 at a time in the off season.  If I did more than that, it would take away from the powerlifting aspect of training and I can’t build up everything at once.  I indirectly work on my other weaknesses throughout all of my training phases. 

As far as off season GPP, I have been really enjoying doing circuit type cardio training 2 times per week.  This is typically done in conjunction with or during my conditioning workouts.  I like to select from many multi joint exercises such as kettlebell swings, bar squats, bar benches, RDL’s, jump rope, sprints, jumps, rows, band pulls, medicine ball work, get ups, and many more.   I also like to throw in curls, other rows, rotators, abdominal work, and grip training to these circuits.  I do have a sled that I will use as a possible extra workout, but will not be a staple for my GPP work.  It is great to utilize, but it isn’t the greatest thing to improve GPP.  Just think of the word and meaning of GPP.  It is General Physical Preparedness, not General Physical sled Pulling.  With a sled, all you are doing is dragging weights in different ways and directions.  This will not holistically build mobility, endurance, strength, athleticism, and physical fitness like other forms of training can.  It is a great tool to use, but I feel that no one should rely solely on the sled to build GPP.

 

 

My in season training is intended to maintain and slightly improve GPP, but focusing more on special physical preparedness.  I will increase my number of barbell lifts in different ways, not only through my main slots, but through extra workouts/exercises.  This is intended to accumulate tons of volume to prepare me for the peaking mesocycles.  So, after some training sessions I may do dumbbell pressing, chest flyes, or very high rep bench presses.  I may even do this on extra workout/conditioning days.  I typically keep the weights around 50% intensity and never go to failure on these sessions.  I keep the stress low to very low so I can still recover between sessions.  After all, I am benching more frequently (4x per week) than most and do not want to over stress my systems to the point of no return.  On the other hand, they can also be used to increase stress when necessary, but there is a fine line between extra work and extra stress. 

In a peaking mesocycle, a lot of the extra lifts and extra exercises designed to increase my special physical preparedness will be used less frequently.  I don’t want to throw them out completely, but I will probably cut their volume in half or more.  This is done so that my body can focus more on the purpose of increasing my strength potential in regards to the contest lift.  If need be, I can increase the stress of my main slots to shift the focus to more important exercises.  During this mesocycle, I stick to full range movements aside from an occasional close-grip 2 or 3 board press for triceps accessory work.  I’ll train the contest lift in full gear.  Lately I have been pausing every rep in the shirt.   Not touching/pausing with the bench shirt on is like a pole vaulter practicing with a longer pole.  At contest time, we tend to think we are stronger than we really are as the pole vaulter thinks he/she can achieve a higher mark with a competition pole.  In my experience, and watching many contests from all levels, this will lead to contest bomb outs or shattered expectations.

Traditionally, I have been testing at or just over 95% of my estimated shirted max about 12 days out from contest day.  For my next contest, I will try pushing that date back another week to 19 days out just to see how I perform on contest day.  This doesn’t mean that it will be my last shirt session either.  I will put it on again 12 days out and work up to 85% for a perfect triple and maybe some singles.  Without getting into too much detail, I’ll give a rough example of a 7 week peaking meso.

Week ) Stress / Intensity
6) HIGH / 75-85%
5) MED / 70-80%
4) HIGH / 75-85%
3) MED / 80-90%
2) MED / 80-90% (testing on Monday to 95%)
1) LOW / 75-85%
COMP) LOW /  80%-72.5%-65%

I program each mesocycle independently, and each phase within builds on the next all the way through my peaking mesocycle.  The ultimate plan is to peak on contest day, not weeks before.  Keeping that in mind, I like to stick with specific themes during my mesocycles.  Some of my exercises within the slots won’t change over the course of the meso, but others will.  This solely depends on how I am reacting or adapting to the exercise.  If I don’t feel any physical strength increases over those few weeks, I may switch.  However, if I feel that I haven’t had enough time with the exercise I’ll stick with it and give it a shot.  Some exercises benefit me more in volume/accumulation phases than in intensity/transmutation phases and vice versa.  Knowing this has taken many many meso’s of trial and error, analysis, and insight.

            I have gone through many training templates and have tried all kinds of different approaches to them.  Again, I try to stick with a theme.  If I feel that I have exhausted frequency training to the point that I am stagnating a little, I may try more of a fatigue template.  I have tried training upper body and lower body 2x per week each, to training upper and lower body 6x per week mainly out of curiosity and how I’d react to it.  So far, I seem to really react well to 4x per week frequency.  Yes, that means that I bench 4x per week, and train lower body 4x per week.  I have even switched templates mid mesocycle if I feel that I need a little more fatigue tolerance to boost my recoverability when I train for higher frequencies.  This type of training works very well for me.  As far as arranging the slots within the template, I take more of an instinctual approach. This is based upon personal experience and historical data within my spreadsheets. 

Here is the current template that I am rolling with. Additional work is in parenthesis and is performed last in the training session.

Sun) – off day
M) WG Lockout / Triceps / Main SQ (DB Bench Press)
T) CG Raw / DL assist (DB Flyes)
W) Extra and Conditioning, GPP, Abs, Lats
R) WG Raw / Military Press / Main DL
F) CG Lockout / SQ Assist (DB Key Press)
S) Extra and Conditioning, GPP, Abs, Lats

You will notice that I only have 4 exercise slots for the lower body.  There are a few reasons for this.  I am increasing my conditioning and doing more cardiovascular work on my feet.  Historically, this has taken away from my power training.  To remedy this, I cut 2 slots from the standard template and am able to focus a bit more on cardio/conditioning without making my squat and deadlift suffer.  In actuality, training this way has allowed me to increase my squat and deadlift.  Currently I do not have a full meet scheduled, but when I do, I’ll back off a little from the conditioning and add a slot or two for the lower body.  This is another interesting way to make RTS work for you.  Unfortunately for me, low to moderate cardio/conditioning seems to slow/halt progress through normal RTS protocols of exercise slots.  So, I adjusted, experimented and found out what seems to work well for me.  As I get in better shape, I may be able to add some lower body slots back in. 

            The last topic of discussion I’d like to go over are the little things that I do during my training week that I feel add up to large results. 

I always get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. 

I work on stretching/mobility through basic stretching exercises and foam roll at least twice a week.

For every press that I do, I try to pull/row that many reps.

I always perform extra abdominal work any time my back aches.  Even if it is as simple as some crunches, stability ball situps, or planks.  Unless I am out in public, I almost always drop what I am doing and hit the abs for a set.  Nine times out of 10, the tightness/aching goes away.

I am what I eat.  I try not to eat food sources with refined sugars.  I stick to 2-3 servings of fresh fruit per day and 2-3 servings of veggies.  I also get 150 grams of whey in outside of my regular diet.  Quest Nutrition supplements seem to give me the best results.

Active Release Techniques have worked wonders for me.  Utilizing this therapy has cleaned out most of the scar tissue in the soft tissue areas I’ve had a hard time keeping healthy.  I was a skeptic at first, but I am a believer now.  Without this treatment, I doubt I would have ever pressed over 600lbs. 

 

 

More extra workouts.  I do some grip training with heavy grips, micro band face pulls and shoulder rotation exercises, additional stretching, more walking when I have the time, and I even include yard work into this.  This isn’t included in my template, but it is injected into my weekly routine from time to time if I feel I need the work. 

I analyze every training session and pay attention to the trends in my strength curve week to week.  This isn’t that hard to do.  The Training Log application on the RTS website can do it for you.  Each exercise, day, week, phase, and meso has calculations for intensity, RPE, NL, and volume.  I have done this for every mesocycle and contest I’ve ever done since beginning RTS.  This way I can look back at training as a reference on how I want to program future training cycles.  The cool thing is now I feel that I don’t need to spend as much time on this because I know how to read my training log and fully understand how training is syncing with my goals.

Videotaping sets is great tool to use when I train alone.  Sometimes it is hard for me to assign an RPE to a set when there is no one else there to offer their opinion on the set.  So I almost always review every set by video.  That way I can assign more accurate RPEs when I am unsure.

I am never satisfied with my current state of strength, conditioning, or health.  I believe this mentality is responsible for my successes.  I always study, research, and analyze new ideas and ways to make myself a better athlete.  My wife will tell you that I am very hard on myself and am probably overly critical of how I train.  We have a saying at the Belleville Weightlifting Club that says “who can you rely on?” and the answer is “yourself”.

I truly hope that some of you can benefit from this article.  Please bear with me as I haven’t written many articles, but I hope that they get better and are easier to read in the months to come.  Next month I may cover one of our oversized noobs (newbie) or a guy with some tissue issues.  Until next time, train hard, train smart, stay positive, and God Bless!

 

Discuss this article!  Click here!

 

Reactive Training Systems always strives to provide the most advanced and effective training system on the planet as well as the equipment you need to train and compete with unrivaled success.  For the most recent news on RTS developments, follow us on Facebook, or LockerBlogger.  If you would like to discuss this article, please visit our Forum or Contact page.