Its always great to actually see some activity on these boards. Two questions-
1.) Where are your strength levels right now?
2.) What has your set-up looked like this past year?
My strength levels are certainly better than they were a year ago, although I don’t have any official 1RM figures to throw at you yet, that’s part of my schedule though.
My setup for the last year has comprised mostly of things like weighted lunges, bench press, power cleans, and squats in the gym, plus the general strength circuit we’ve been doing the 3 months at training.
Trying to use what Charlie said about keeping my sessions under my CNS capacity (which will need some fine tuning once I get started) I’ve started off with higher reps and low percentages. And then as the weeks go on, I’m gradually dropping the reps to allow for the increased intensity. After this 6 week period I should have a good idea of what I’m capable of, and I can then plan out the next block of 4 weeks, which will be more of a max strength phase and contain much lower reps, but higher percentages on the lifts.
Week 1: Testing, pick a manageable weight for each exercise and go for max reps so I can calculate my 1RM
Week 2: 3×10 at 40%
Week 3: 3×8 at 50%
Week 4: 2×8 at 60%
Week 5: 3×6 at 60%
Week 6: 3×5 at 65%
The reason for using this tapered plan was to give me time to practice my technique during the early weeks, while the weight is lighter, before increasing the weight from week 7 onwards. But once I’m through this practice/testing phase I will be going for 1-3 reps for up to 5 sets, as this should reduce hypertrophy and CNS stress.
I was also considering doing my weights after track sessions, so I will always have a full day of recovery until the next track session. As I worry that if I put my gym work between track sessions, it won’t give me time to recover as I’ll burn myself out in the gym?