Questions To Answer And A Preview

nSo often times I am not the best at explaining workouts and/or the details surrounding certain movements or progressions. Therefore, I want to give some details for the current Bulgarian cycle that I have not given yet and in doing so answer the questions I got over the past couple days as well as the questions I will likely get in the future. Also, I want to give a preview of what your body will feel like how to maximize the benefit of this cycle without the expectations of daily PR lifts.
Questions:n1- What do I base my percentages off? When you are working up to your maximal lift you base your percentages (if any are indicated) off your best max lift in training. When you are completing the drop-down sets those percentages are based off the max lift you hit that day. Thus if you had a PR day your drop down sets will likely be EXTREMELY hard but if you had a non-maximal day then the drop down sets will be easier and your opportunity work out the technical faults that may have caused you to miss.
2- What do I eat in between snatch and clean and jerk on days when we max them both? That really depends on you specifically. When I have completed cycles like this in past I always eat some sort of fruit (normally berries) and some protein like a chicken breast or sliced roast beef. Lastly, I drank a gatorade for the extra calories and sugar. However, each of you will find what works best for you. I suggest staying away from protein shakes as they tended to make me feel sluggish.
3- What if I can’t break the work up into two sessions how should I best approach the workout? If you can’t split everything into two sessions your best bet is to limit misses to even fewer that I indicate in the work. Misses expend a lot of energy, take as much time as a make, and don’t get you much closer to the end of the work. If you are in a time crunch and have to do all the work in one session, for the sake of your energy level limit your misses further than allowed already.
Preview For Mental and Physical Strain:n- Some of you are likely already experiencing this but there will be days when you feel sluggish and lack the power and energy you have had previously. There will be days when 90% is laughable at best. The key to success in this type of cycle however is establishing a minimum. I remember when I first completed a cycle of this type I was able to set 110kg and 135kg as minimums for my snatch and clean and jerk. Those numbers were number that no matter the day, no matter how I felt, no matter my energy level I could always hit them. I could always count my day as successful if I hit those numbers and as the cycle progressed those minimums increased ever so slowly.
The key to this cycle is NOT (contrary to popular belief) your ability to hit your PR every day but your ability to increase your minimums ever so slowly as the cycle progresses so that by the end of the cycle your consistently hitting a number that was once inconsistent.
Doing this will help you survive the cycle and come out on the other with a greater confidence and consistency at heavier weights.