Afraid to lower volume on Powerbuilding 1

Training Q&A [Moderated]
, ,
1

Hello Everyone! Thanks for the great content. I just completed week 5 of Powerbuilding 1. I was not used to the volume so the first 4 weeks were an slow, uncomfortable slog with minimal results; however, on Week 5 everything fell into place: all my lifts improved more than they had in years and my recovery was excellent. I am now afraid to move on to Week 6 where the volume goes way down.

I believe I heard on your podcasts that one can add a set if they feel up to it. Would that be okay in this context? Would it be okay to repeat Week 5? I am afraid to change something that is working so well.

2

CCL,

Thanks for the post :slight_smile: You can keep repeating week 5 if you want as long as things are improving. After things go sideways, move on to the next week of the program to move into the 2nd block. I think if this is your first time through the template I would just do it as planned and then consider if you should modify it the second time through. The volume will go back up for the 2nd block of the program.

-Jordan

3

Thanks for the advice. It is my first time through so I will run it as is for now. Just curious: is running the same week until things go sideways what is meant by “emerging strategies”?

4

That is one tenet of the Emerging Strategies approach, yes :slight_smile:

5

Hi Jordan (and Crabcakelover), quick hijack here. I have recently watched / read a bit about the emerging Strategies which I found quite interesting, then looking back at my previous template runs I see a similar problem around week 5, which caused me to question whether it was the volume or the increase in weight on the bar (following RPE still as close as possible, but aiming to increase e1RM weekly)

Anyway the real question, could this repeating of an earlier week, say build up to week 3, then repeat that only increasing weight (using RPE as prescribed of course), effectively not increasing volume on the bar, until it no longer works? The idea being to separate increase in volume / intensity or weight on bar increases to try to see how I personally respond to either?

I am asking more out of curiosity than actually planning to do so, but figured it could be useful when troubleshooting performance.

Thanks,
Ryan.