Week 6 Check-In

The past 6 weeks have been awesome. I’m already getting better results from this program than I have from any program I’ve run before. I think this is for a couple of reasons:

Accurate Maxes

I tested my maxes right before starting this program, with spotters. Before this last training cycle, I had always been nervous to push myself to failure, because I’ve been really worried about hurting myself. I finally felt like my core strength and technique were solid enough that I could really push it.

Nutrition & Cardio

I went vegetarian in September of 2024. For the first 3 months, I was just trying to learn new recipes, but I’m certain my calories, and especially protein intake, absolutely tanked. Since I hit every workout that fall, I believe this to be the reason my maxes fell. One of my main goals for this training block was to maximize my protein. I have 25g per meal, plus a 30g shake, and typically 1-2 additional high-protein snacks.

It’s also been absolutely frigid in Boston the past month or so, so I haven’t been biking to work. I can definitely feel my cardio suffering a bit after 6 weeks, but I think it’s been helping me put on muscle. My commute is about 30mins on the bike, and cutting out 60 minutes of Zone 2-3 will certainly reduce my calorie output.

Improvements

One of the big differences with this program is the 4x/wk benching cadence. As someone with an absolutely abysmal bench, I think this has helped me immensely. I’m already doing my previous max for reps at RPE 8 6 weeks in. Squats and deadlifts are moving really easy.

In the first 8 weeks, the weights are primarily determined by % of 1RM, but the back half of the program is RPE based. I’m really excited to see what the weights get to once the RPE part starts up, because it’s all feeling very light at the moment.

Conclusions

The program is going fantastic so far. Fatigue and pain have been consistently good so far, and I can feel myself getting stronger. Weight gain is progressing steadily, and muscle mass has been increasing. My goals moving forward with this training block is to continue high protein intake, and slowly adding back in some cardio.

Calgary Barbell Starting Point

Background

I’ve lifted on and off since about 2019, with a lengthy detour into triathlon. As part of training for tris, my strength has dropped off pretty much completely, so I’m coming into this training block at a much lighter bodyweight and lower total than I’ve ever had. I’ve previously run GZCL and 5-3-1, both for 4-6 blocks of 4 weeks, before I moved on to a plan I built for myself off of GZCL, all pre-triathlon. I’m 27, 6 feet tall, around 160lbs bodyweight. These maxes were tested at a local gym with spotters so I feel fairly confident that they’re accurate.

Lift	Current Max
Squat	~100kg
Bench	50kg
Deadlift	~120kg

Goals:

My primary goals are to be consistent with the plan, and fuel as well as I can. I’ll talk more about fueling in a later post, but it’s my biggest challenge/risk going into this training block. I am not hoping for any specific numerical increase in my lifts, other than that I would generally like to see my bench go up.

Calgary Barbell 16 Week Program

I’m planning to run the 16 week free powerlifting program from Calgary barbell, which I’ve heard great things about. Although my total doesn’t reflect it, I have been lifting for a while, and feel comfortable in my form, and I’m familiar with RPE based training, which features heavily in the later weeks of this program. Starting right now (mid december) is a bit tough considering I’ll be traveling for the holidays and my usual gyms are closed (I split my time between a university where I’m taking night classes, and at my office). I’ve been running 5-3-1 for the past couple of weeks, and the first week of the Calgary Barbell plan looks to be a moderate increase in volume, such that I’m not super worried about hurting myself right off the bat. I’ll definitely need to stay ahead of my knees and IT band, and plan to supplement with prehab workout from Strava’s new Recover app, which I have found really helpful.

Cardio, Fueling, and Overtraining

While I’m shifting my focus to resistance training, I don’t want to totally give up my cardio. I currently bike to work or go for a short run most days of the week, and I think I’m going to start off keeping that roughly the same, maybe run a little less. I enjoy feeling like I can walk up the stairs without gasping for air, which is not something the average powerlifting can claim, and I’m willing to accept a lower total for that privilege. It’s cold as hell out there these days anyway, so I’ll naturally be doing less anyway, at least for the next few months. Like I said, I’ll be talking more about fueling in the future, but I’m a vegetarian, so protein in take is the absolute priority here. As the block progresses, I may also need to be more intentional about upping the total volume as well.

My secondary goal for this block (not in importance, but in focus) is to be constantly checking in with myself about overtraining. I’ve pushed it too hard in the past and lost weight, or hurt myself, so I need to be paying attention. I’m tracking general fatigue and pain numerically, so I’ll hopefully be able to catch any trends before they bite me. Maybe I’ll share my data approach in one of these.

Conclusions

I’m really looking forward to this training block. It’s been a long time since I’ve really focused on strength, and I’m excited to see what I can do. I’ll probably check in once a month or so to update progress and share my thoughts on the program.