Look and feel like a titan with this protocol

BTB Year 7 Block 6 Stage Descending

Rep Scheme 

8, 8, 6, 6, 4, 4

Tempo 5/0/X/0

We got an Intensification block, but it may not feel like that. There is a reason behind that, so let's unpack that in this month's BTB. 

One of the things behind Intensification blocks is that they have to be based on stress through intensity. This will come in the form of working qualities such as power, relative strength, or functional hypertrophy. This translates in lower reps/shorter time under tension (TUT) combined with heavier intensities >85%. 

This month we are hitting a Stage Descending protocol of 8, 8, 6, 6, 4, 4 with a 5/0/X/0 tempo. If you do not know what that means, you should stop reading this and sign up for a membership at Allegiate IMMEDIATELY! If you are a member you know that doing 8 reps with a 5/0/X/0 tempo does not sound like it is Intensification at all. So what gives? 

What gives, is that we hit a pretty high level of muscular endurance in our Block 6 with Clusters 5+5+5. This creates a difficult job as a programmer, (that's me, coach Tim) for the athlete, that's you, to transition to an intensification block. We have a rule for month-to-month progressions: never get outside of the range of 8-15% average intensity fluctuations. 

The 8-15% change is more gradual and we need that. Violent transitions from one block to the next is too hard for the system to recover from as well as adapt to. So we need some sort of upper/lower limit in which we can change from one block to the next without compromising long-term development. This makes it tough to program coming off a muscular endurance block working up to 15 reps at 70%. 

This is where something like Stage Descending comes in. The average intensity of the total 8/70%, 8/70%, 6/75%, 6/75%, 4/80%, 4/80% (average 75%) is much closer to the number we hit for 4x15/70% (average 70%) because we have 2 sets of 8 in there. Not only that we added a 5/0/X/0 which lowers the intensity we can use because we have longer TUT. So we can transition more seamlessly from one block to the next without compromising recovery or impeding adaptation. 

If none of that makes any sense, just think of this way: we can get more from the previous block’s adaptations if we have smaller changes. The benefit of increasing muscular endurance is based on if we can parlay that increase in fitness to the next block. If we were to go to a super high intensity at a very low volume, we would not have the physiological development to optimize that set and rep scheme. Muscular endurance should transition to hypertrophy. 

This will be a fun training block filled with tons of cool new variations of exercises and opportunities to pack on some serious muscle.

You will feel like a titan with the fitness you developed in Block 6, and that is by design.