what weights for next blast?

[bicep_grind]

Hey Scott,

I'm wondering if I started my blast correctly, right after the cruise.
I did the cruise properly and then ended it with 5 or 6 solid days of no training.

So do you pick up where you left off at or do you start back at new progressed weights...because that's what I did and man everything feels retardedly heavy.

Man on Monday I pulled my damn ass cheek and Tuesday I pulled a bicep and now its Wednesday and every muscle is sore as hell lol.

Matt

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Scott,

I'm wondering if I started my blast correctly, right after the cruise.
I did the cruise properly and then ended it with 5 or 6 solid days of no training.

So do you pick up where you left off at or do you start back at new progressed weights...because that's what I did and man everything feels retardedly heavy.

Man on Monday I pulled my damn ass cheek and Tuesday I pulled a bicep and now its Wednesday and every muscle is sore as hell lol.

Matt

Matt,

First things first, I'd take care of the muscle pulls. Unless you're exaggerating or I'm not following what you mean by a pulled muscle then I'd address that first.

Did the weights just feel heavy or did your reps go down as well?

How did your weight change over the Cruise? What did you do dietarily? When was the last time you took that many days off training? Did you feel mentally refreshed and ready / wanting to train when you came back to the gym?

What did you do for the intermittent cruise in terms of Tier and workouts?... (Have you looked at the different examples in the book as to how one might do an IC?)

-S

[bicep_grind]

Hey Scott, thanks for the reply.

Not exaggerating about the pulls, I heard and felt a twang/pop under my glute doing sldl towards the end of my loading set. And a strain feeling in my bicep/pec doing pulldowns.
Both injuries were minor since they feel ok doing muscle round workout today.

I cruised how its laid out in the book. I'm used to cruising with time off from the years of dc training. I actually felt very eager to train when I had time off so I was mentally ready to blast again.
I did mon/wed/fri m.r. Days week one and week 2 I just trained Monday all at tier 1.
Strength stayed good, I dropped 4lbs on the rest days on week 2 actually.

When I started the new blast, I kept all same excercises since I did not fail any rep ranges...infact they were all no lower than 9 for loading sets.

I started all the weights at new weights I hadn't done yet and it all just felt very heavy, reps came as low as 7. But not a nice 7...an absolute grinding 7 reps dude.

Should I of started back at the weights I did at the end of the last blast bro and tried to better the reps or did I do the right thing?

Matt

Matt,

First things first, I'd take care of the muscle pulls. Unless you're exaggerating or I'm not following what you mean by a pulled muscle then I'd address that first.

Did the weights just feel heavy or did your reps go down as well?

How did your weight change over the Cruise? What did you do dietarily? When was the last time you took that many days off training? Did you feel mentally refreshed and ready / wanting to train when you came back to the gym?

What did you do for the intermittent cruise in terms of Tier and workouts?... (Have you looked at the different examples in the book as to how one might do an IC?)

-S

[Scott Stevenson]

How high did you increase the weights when you started back?

It sounds like you might need to:

1.) Keep food intake HIGHER during the last part of the Cruise.

2.) Start back with the same weights, perhaps, or at least not move the weights up as if you're expecting a really large increase in strength. Just continue on based on what you'd have done based on your past training session: If you're at the top of the rep range then increase weight, but if not, stay with the same loads until your reps go above the range you've set.

You're strong as hell and have been at this a while, so fine tuning your cruise might be necessary. It sounds like you did things right as far as training, but I'd keep the food high per #1 above. Or, if you're dieting now, then at least try to not lose so much weight.

(I bet if you GAINED 4lb during the cruise, things would have been different. )

-S

[bicep_grind]

I increased the weight on most things by 5kg...i was easily doing this during the blast...especially with the muscle rounds.

Perhaps it was way too much of a jump after a cruise.
I think I should of started back at the weights I left off with but hit higher reps. I guess that's still progression bro.

I kind of favour higher reps nowadays anyway...it keeps the injuries away lol.

I'm not dieting as such but I'm trying to drop a fee more pounds before I start prepping.
I have like 6 weeks left so it a perfect amount to time to fit a blast in.

Matt

[Scott Stevenson]

I increased the weight on most things by 5kg...i was easily doing this during the blast...especially with the muscle rounds.

Perhaps it was way too much of a jump after a cruise.
I think I should of started back at the weights I left off with but hit higher reps. I guess that's still progression bro.

I kind of favour higher reps nowadays anyway...it keeps the injuries away lol.

I'm not dieting as such but I'm trying to drop a fee more pounds before I start prepping.
I have like 6 weeks left so it a perfect amount to time to fit a blast in.

Matt

Matt,

The above sounds like a good plan. (I think regardless of program, if you drop 4lb over just a few days, it'll have an impact on strength.)

-S

[bicep_grind]

I was doing cardio on those rest days plus lower non training day calories.
I usually always do that.

Lol I think I was being too ambitious with increasing the weights instead of maxing out the rep ranges like I should be.

I was also thinking a higher rep range for chest since I have an on-going shoulder injury which has good and bad days.
Would 12-18 rep range work well?

Matt

[Altamir]

I increased the weight on most things by 5kg...i was easily doing this during the blast...especially with the muscle rounds.

Perhaps it was way too much of a jump after a cruise.
I think I should of started back at the weights I left off with but hit higher reps. I guess that's still progression bro.

I kind of favour higher reps nowadays anyway...it keeps the injuries away lol.

I'm not dieting as such but I'm trying to drop a fee more pounds before I start prepping.
I have like 6 weeks left so it a perfect amount to time to fit a blast in.

Matt

Just thought adding my liminted experience might help a bit here. I have found that my first week back after an IC I have to play things a bit conservative. It's not my best week. I know Scott and a lot of guys say they come back from an IC and are way stronger the first week. For me its the 2nd week where things really take off and benefits of the IC really show. It just gets me longer to get going. It's also why I think a 6 week blast is more productive for me than a 4. I just need a little extra time to get the most out of it.

Also, I was VERY stiff coming back after my first IC (this would also happen when I did deload weeks when I was training powerlifting). I did some cardio, but with the extra days off my hips and shoulders seemed to stiffen up really bad and it made for some pretty cruddy training the first few times. Moving forward, after my last IC training day I just spent 5 or 10 minutes doing some hip and shoulder mobility work and I'm good to hit the ground running week one of my blast.

Hope this helps some and best of luck on your next blast.

[bicep_grind]

Thanks for the input bro.
I'm the same....the 1st week blasting is fight as hell and I get absolutely trashed.
The 2nd week onwards however I feel pretty good and more so get into the swing of things.

Matt