This Training Block, Heavy Singles, and Walkouts

We're deep in the workout block now, and the weights are getting heavy. On purpose. 

Shawn breaks down why we're doing heavy singles, what a walkout is actually training, and why level 2 keeps the tempos and pauses while level 3 and 4 shed them. Plus the three things that make or break your recovery between sessions. 

Shawn calls the walkout "nervous system priming." Your body feels something heavier than the lift, so when you get under the real weight, it's already awake and saying let's go.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome back to the Ritual Barbell Podcast. This is Sean.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hey everybody. This is Coach Mark from the gym as well. Thanks for tuning back in. Well, I sometimes maybe it's good to announce the days we're actually recording these because sometimes we're in training blocks, but it's August 19th right now, Wednesday. And we just wanted to talk about a few things that are in this training block and a couple of questions we had lingering from the old board, uh, kind of like why do we change exercises? So I guess I just wanted to ask Sean maybe that first question. So what's coming up for us next? And why do we kind of change those exercises so often that it seems sometime, or maybe not enough for other people's opinions?

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Um so for what's coming up next, it's more of the same of this week, where for level three and four, we're sticking with the the heavy walkouts for the squats, the lockouts for the bench, and doing singles, like heavy singles. You know, they're not as heavy as that top set, but we're doing the back offs now, where it's like five to ten percent less than our top set. And a lot of that just comes down to skill practice because you know, doing a one rep like that is its own skill, especially when it's like very limit weights, as opposed to, you know, doing three sets of five or something like that, right? And that's always been a hang up for me in the past, especially the first three, four years of programming for the gym, is I had tested so often it wasn't it wasn't really a thing for me. But I noticed that like if I wouldn't prepare people for the test, just getting under the heavy weights is enough to freak somebody out and make them not get it, even though maybe like physiologically they could have gotten it, because of that psychological component of getting under a challenging, a limit weight, right? Um, so that's really uh the big piece of why we're doing the singles these next couple weeks is just the practice of it. The practice of getting under it, walking it out, getting tight, doing that one solid we're up, right? And when it comes to the the walkouts, the heavy lockouts, that's um more nervous system priming, right? So, like especially, I mean, it really applies to both, but it's a matter of getting that heavy weight on you, letting your nervous system feel it, having you brace against it to prepare you for something even lighter so that you're you know, we're already revved all the way up. It makes that the actual single that we're doing feel that much smoother because you've kind of like over prepared for it, if that makes sense, right? So the the weight of those is gonna go up as we approach test week, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Hmm. That's great. That I guess that helps me as a coach to uh to answer some questions because I have been hearing that like, wow, it's getting heavy. I've felt it too as I did my squats this week already. Um, but yeah, the heavy singles. In fact, that was something I've I've heard um right in the middle of the week. So if you're listening to this, I got I went through the first uh reps of the squats and I didn't know there was more after it. So maybe look look ahead in your programming sometimes. That's a really wise thing to do, anyways. Um yeah, the walk. So what I hear with the heavy singles is just getting used to that, doing something challenging as a coach running around the gym, yell out loud for a spot or grab somebody near you for a spot. Um, it's really important, especially with uh the bench press and of course the squats. Um, but on the walkouts, this is interesting. You use the well, I actually had two questions. I want to balk back away from that. My first question is this feels kind of like a soft max week. I think I heard Ben use those words, like, oh, this is kind of like a little soft max before you do max out. Do you use those terms? I guess that was appealing to me, maybe just from a wordplay standpoint. But is this kind of a soft, uh heavy lift before we go into that next kind of wave over the next month?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Kind of. So um I think that's a fair way to put it. Um it's you know, soft max. I'm still thinking, you know, submaximal, right? Um, but it is really that preparatory idea where we're like getting ready for that test week, right? We're getting accustomed to those heavy weights now, now that we're not doing doubles, we're not doing triples, we're not doing sets of five, anything like that, right? For those level three and four people in particular. Um, so I feel like I'm missing half the question.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

No, that's all right. I I think it was just the soft max week, like if this is a pre-preparatory, so I think you answer that. And then the other question I was gonna ask, kind of to base off of that. So that helps me just understand what we're doing, like from a zoomed out standpoint. And maybe it helps others too. So maybe the the thing, at least for me, trying to learn like this is really important. Week, do your best this week, right? Keep your form lined up, right? Perfect practice. Yeah, perfect practice. And then to kind of go to the walkouts, like the why has always come up for me on that, but you use the word nerve nervous system priming.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

I guess I just want to hear more about that. Um, and what's your recommendation is kind of like form-wise on those walkouts.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

I would treat it just like any other rep, right? I mean, if you're very consistent with how you do your squats or your bench or whatever, which hopefully you are if you're at level three and four, it's just that practice of getting under a heavy load and feeling it, right? Letting your mind understand what it's gonna be like to put that heavy ass bar on you on test week, right? I think we're only going up to 98% this week, which like realistically, I mean it's heavy, but you've squatted more than that, you've benched more than that. That's why it's still less than 100% for you, right? Um, but we are gonna go beyond 100%, right? Especially come test week. I think squats get up to like 110% or something like that. That's usually what I put it at for test week. Um, just to again, like over prepare you, right? Um, it's a very similar idea to why we use the jumps and the throws, where like uh when you when your nervous system is exposed to that kind of stimulus, it just turns everything on, right? So we're not getting under the bar and your your nervous system's like, oh shit, now it's time. It's like oh no, I'm already ready. We already felt something heavier than this. It's go time, let's fucking get it, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah, like that. Yeah, you're you're feeling that heaviness in a different way without needing to rep it.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Uh-huh. And like psychologically, psychologically just a huge benefit because it just it just feels less heavy when you've already gotten something heavier on you, right? When you go for that 104% or whatever on test week, it just doesn't feel as heavy, right? And psychologically, you just feel like, okay, fuck yeah, I got this, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

I like it. Yeah, and I think that's important. I I've felt it too. I think walking out with that heavy weight, there's that first mental barrier. And you can get help too. So at least from a coach in the gym, like ask for a spot if you need it. You can even get people on each end. Yeah, get people on each end of the bar, especially, you know. So um what do you say to people that are really freaked out by those numbers?

SPEAKER_01 7:37

This is your opportunity. This is your opportunity to get past that because you're you're not gonna get past it by just looking at it, right? You gotta feel it, you gotta do it. It's the experience of it that's gonna get you over that fear. It's just like you know, going through level one the first time and hitting that first point that you actually fail a squat. You know, you get stuck in the bottom, right? Um, the way you get over that fear is just by doing the fucking thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yeah, this is your chance. You like it. Yeah, and I I guess I go back to the nervous system priming. I think that's what that walkout is doing, making your mind really aware. I think I remember when I first started coming to the gym and obviously training for years, but just walking out with a couple hundred pounds on your back or whatever that is for you, like all of a sudden your awareness kind of comes online. You feel that heaviness in your body, in your spine, and tense up that fascia tense up, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, and like reflexively, that's I mean that's a piece of the nervous system priming, right? It's reflexively your body is going to have to brace harder, right? So that's another big key to doing that is getting yourself trapped to race well before we can actually get to the one rep max.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Awesome. Well, and kind of moving on, trying to keep these uh episodes tight. And again, if anybody has any questions out there, send them via email to Sean, leave them on the marker board. I think I brought the container over to wipe down the board today that didn't do it because I was running around spotting uh a little bit this morning. Anyways, yeah, leave us questions if you have anything you want answered that maybe comes off of this. I guess one more thing I wanted to talk about before we get to the end of today was I texted you this morning and level two and level three and level four are doing tempos and not doing tempos. So, in the uh in the sake of helping people understand what's coming up with tempo and pauses over the next couple weeks, could you speak to that on the different levels?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yes. So level two, I keep the pauses in right now and the tempo. Um, just because level two, that's for me more like a beginner intermediate level, right? Where they still benefit a lot from having that practice. And um, you know, we're still building up to that skill of doing one rep maxes. They're not doing one rep maxes in the same sense that level three and four is, right? Because at level two, they're still gonna be doing uh plus sets ultimately come on test week, where it's gonna be like 100% for as many as we can do, right? And for some people that'll be one, for some people that might be five. Um, or you know, it'll be different lift to lift as well. But for the reason they still have that tempo and they still have the pauses, is it's really just the down to the skill practice. There's also this um idea for me that it's kind of like uh putting the brakes on them a little bit, right? Uh not that those things are terribly fatiguing, but it'll help um just make sure that you can handle whatever the weight that we get to is, right? It's just less likely that you're gonna break down technique-wise once we get to that max because we've had that earlier practice. Or it's like, you know, the same thing as doing the pauses in the level one program for the deadlifts for the squats. Uh, they they put the brakes on you a little bit. Because, like, sure, you probably could do more objectively if we took the pauses out of it, but that's not necessarily the point yet, right? It's not like truly trying to get as much onto the bar as we can. It's just trying to maximize the stimulus while um maintaining safety, right? If that makes sense. Then at level three and four, because we're getting more to advanced or advanced intermediate, uh level three, advanced at level four, just in how I frame things, um, they don't they don't need that as much. They've already had the practice, they're already have the body awareness, they're more familiar with like how hard they can push themselves before they break down. So it's less important at that level, and I'm more interested in um reducing the fatigue as much as possible going into the final weeks.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Got it. Yeah, so level two with the tempos and stuff. Just watch your app. If you have any questions, ask the coach who's on duty that day. But it should so if I'm hearing you right, level two is kind of like just after the level one, and you're gonna continue to work on the pause and tempo for those first couple sets.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Just the same as we have the whole time. This this whole block, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Okay, and then level three and four will be moving on from those because they kind of have some of the pre-preparatory stuff done. Okay, cool. I guess since we have a couple minutes left before I wanted to wind it up, we had one thing, and I think this aligns good going into the next couple weeks. There was a question on repro, I'm sorry, not reproving, improving your recovery in between sessions. I was wondering if you could spend a couple minutes talking about how you improve your recovery and maybe things that we could bring to our kind of recovery practice um when we're at home and obviously in between lifts. Uh, and I've said this as a coach myself a lot, like train your recovery is a really good concept to kind of take to it. Um, it's hard to sometimes when we want to move all the time, or we're very movement-based. But yeah, could you just speak to improving our recovery and what you do for yourself and recommend for others?

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yeah, I I would say like the big three prioritize sleep, prioritize nutrition, and keep moving, right? Um you know, sleep, especially for parents or people with lots of responsibilities, things like that. It's easy to let that go to the wayside. And like for me right now, um my kids go to bed at like fucking nine o'clock at night, and I usually try to wake up at 4 30, which doesn't leave me enough time to sleep at night. So, like a big thing for me is trying to prioritize naps in the middle of the day because I have the flexibility to do that, right? And that's not going to be the case for everybody. Um, you know, maybe you could try to get some extra sleep on the weekend or get naps on the weekend or something like that, if you can figure out a way to work that out. You know, maybe put on some PBS shows for your kids for 20 minutes, 40 minutes while you take a quick nap or something like that. That's definitely something I've done on the weekends. Um, and that's, you know, just do your best is the big thing. Don't don't always strive for perfect because if you're always looking for perfect, that can fuck you up too. Like I used to have an issue where I'd be like, oh man, I'm only gonna get seven and a half hours of sleep tonight. And I'd sit there, I'd stress about it, like, oh now it's only seven hours, I'm only gonna get seven hours of sleep, and I never like really get my state to a point that I'm relaxed enough to fall asleep. Well, um I don't have that issue as much anymore. But uh that used to be a big thing for me in like using breathing exercises and things like that would help me get out of that mindset, but also just like don't get caught up in perfect, just do good enough and we'll do our best, right? Uh as far as nutrition, the big thing is the protein, right? Um, making sure that you're getting the protein in to actually recover and improve between sessions. Uh, you know, again, fats, carbs, they're great fuel, but they're not actually going to rebuild the tissue, right? Um, and then movement, active recovery, right? You want to continue to get that blood flow because that's what's going to clear the metabolic byproducts, the waste, and start to bring in the new nutrients so your body can build and repair. Um, it's also good, like I don't always do a good job of putting cooldowns in, but some sort of cooldown can be beneficial because it'll help bring that nervous system state down, you know, out of that like fight state and back into more of a resting and recovering state uh sooner, right? Um which you know, the the more soon you are recovering well, then the faster you're gonna be recovered for your next workout, right? Um so just like easy stretching, an easy walk. Like honestly, my bike ride on my way home is usually my cooldown. I'm just chilling, um just trying to listen to nature, right? Feel the wind, kind of come back to my body in a relaxed state, and then go from there, right? Or I'll also usually also once I'm done with my workouts, like water my plants, walk my dog, things like that. Things that just help center me. And then while I'm walking my dog, I'll put on the Healthy Minds app, which is something I can use for some active, um, guided meditation, right? That's that's my routine.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yeah. I love it. So recovery, kind of three big pillars or three components sleep, active recovery in the sense of movement, um, and eating well. Yeah, dialing in the protein, dialing in the nutrition, probably all the things we already know.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah, so that's that's yeah, that's just such a big thing, right? And it comes up all the time. It's like there's not really like a secret answer, it's the shit that you already know. Yeah, it's just the shifting your mindset to prioritize it now, right? Because unfortunately, there's not like a silver bullet, there's not a pill that's gonna get you what you need. You just gotta remember that you're a human, you're an animal, and you need all these different things to continue to improve. There's not like a technological advancement that we can do to make it so that you don't have to sleep as much or you know, whatever, and still get your recovery. It's just the basics.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Yeah, right. Which people want the pill. And I I would maybe say there is a pill in the sense, and it kind of it's almost like a circle because it comes back around. You talked about your mindset and missing sleep and that active perfectionism that comes in. And one thing I like to say to myself and others is like perfectionism, perfectionism is an enemy of good.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

And sometimes it is just good enough, but get that good quality sleep, get that good quality movement, and just uh get that. I liked what you said at the end, not to go on terribly long about this, but the cool down, the post-workout, taking that two to three minutes to breathe deeply to do a little stretching. I know you you've had it in there in the past, but maybe if somebody is struggling with recovery in between sessions, start to put in like a two to three minute, really um relaxing post-recovery with some stretches and deep breathing and closing your eyes, feeling your hand on your chest and stuff. It might be hard with the heavy metal on the radio or whatever, but um, anyways, that might be something you could do for yourself, like Sean mentioned at the end. Well, awesome. I thought this was a good uh episode. So uh I just want to thank everybody for tuning in and thanks to Sean for answering some of the questions. I don't know if you had anything to end it, uh coach.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Nah, that's enough. We're already at too long. I talk too much.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Oh, it's good. I think there's a lot of value in it. So thanks everybody. We'll catch you on the next episode. Bye. Thanks, guys. See ya.