If I'm alternating between two work outs - question on the last workouts

[rickcr]

I'm currently alternating between two workouts... this means if I start with A for a cycle it goes:


A B A (weekend) B A B

I take it that it's ok that on the second to last work out (workout 5) of a 2 week cycle, that I'm not hitting my max? I'm guessing the goal should be only on the last day of the 2 week cycle I should be hitting my max? Currently the splits look like:

A
--
Overhead Press
Squat
Flat Bench
Bent Over Row
Triceps Press Down
Chins

B
--
Dead Lift
Incline Bench
Pull Down
Close grip bench
Dumbbell curls
leg extension

The problem is depending on which program starts the cycle, I won't be hitting my max on certain lifts. For example if I start program A, then I won't be hitting my max on squats on the 15s (or 10s.) The 5s is not as a big a deal since I end up extending the next 2 weeks working with my max 5 rep maxes so I'm not concerned about the 5s.

I think what I'll do for squats and deadlifts is be sure I hit my max on those exercises regardless of whether it's workout 5 of the cycle or not. For the others I'll just pretend that there is another day. The incline bench and regular bench seem close enough to each other that it would be silly to be hitting your max in both of them on workout 5 & 6.

How do others handle this situation?

 

[grunt11]

I set my increments to hit a max on the last day I do each particular exercise. Not just the last day of the cycle. So I would do maxes for both the A and B routine.

 

[whistledixie]

I 2nd what Grunt said. I alternate squats and deads, so the last 2 workouts are max sessions for each. I haven't alternated any similar movements like incline and flat bench, but if I did I'd probably still set it up so I hit max on both for the final 2 sessions. I'd probably try to arrange it where I hit max incline bench on session 5 since it would be the lighter of the 2 loads and easier to recover from.

 

[Lol]

Come the end of the cycle, it actually makes very little difference (if any) whether you have hit maxes or not during the cycle. As long as you are incrementing loads throughout the cycle you will be keeping ahead of the effects of RBE on the muscle tissue you are stressing. By the end of the 5s all your loads will be maxing out and then you have two weeks (at least) to stress the tissue with these loads. The effects of RBE are reduced when the loads are heavier so using the same loads repeatedly for a few weeks can still elicit a PS response (although it will start to diminish the longer you stretch out the cycle). Hitting maxes is psychologically a nice thing to do because it gives you a boost if you feel you have a new PR. It's not necessary for muscle growth however. The most important thing is that the load on the bar keeps moving up over time, workout on workout, cycle on cycle, year on year (because you are in this for the duration, right? )

I'll add one rider to this: hitting maxes might actually impact on your lifting come the end of the cycle because you will accumulate more fatigue the more times you train to failure. Zig-zag helps with this as it allows some fatigue to dissipate. If you have set up your cycle without zig-zag then you may want to avoid pushing insanely hard in the RM workouts. So no need to blow your eyes out trying for that one extra rep!