before you leave. Do not leave yourself short of time and unable to get well
into new poundage ground. If your wife is expecting a child to be born in
November, then plan your training so that you will have voluntarily ended
a cycle just before the baby arrives (because the first weeks of having a new-
born at home is likely to devastate your sleeping habits). If you are relocating
in February, and know well in advance, plan things so that you will be in the
first few weeks of a new cycle at the time—so your hard and most important
training is not destroyed by the commotion that can accompany a major
move.. By intelligently thinking ahead you can design your annual training sched-
ule and the timing of your full-bore stretches so that your working out is
not ruined by some out-of-the-gym factors over which you have no control.
is is real-life training, and something you need to get to grips with, or else
it will cause no end of frustration.Poundage increments and progression slavery
. While it is essential to add poundage to the bar as often as possible, it is
imperative not to be enslaved by it. If you get so besotted with poundage
progression, even when using tiny discs and making only very small weekly
increments, you may find yourself getting lenient with your exercise form.
You may find yourself ignoring aches and pains in order to be able to persist
with increasing the load too often.. Make each increment as soon as you can, but only if you have made your
full quota of target reps in good form, and thus have truly earned the incre-
ment.. If you are not feeling well enough to push yourself very hard, then do not
push yourself so hard. With experience you will be able to distinguish
between the times when you need a kick in the seat of your pants, and the
times when you are just not up for training hard. Do not be foolhardy, or
else you may regret it later. Back off and come back next week for a harde greatest number of consecutive full-bore workouts is no good
if you are not recovering fully from each of them. In practice, you
need to adapt your training intensity and frequency so that you are
getting stronger and stronger, albeit it very slowly.