HYPertrophy

Today was my first day of the Hypertrophy phase of the Morris Strength Training. This occurs of course after a 3 week transition period that consisted of progressively harder weights and more sets. In fact my first day of transition consisted of squating just the bar. And I was very sore the next day.

Today I did 6 sets with increasing weight on the 3rd and 5th sets and it wasn't too bad. I was fasting for a cholesterol test at 10am and that probably wasn't a good idea for lifting, but it was ok.

A tenant of the Morris way is block training with back to back days. The strength training is no different. The key though is that the weights are reduced on the second day just like the duration of riding is typically reduced on a consecutive riding day.

I encourage anyone to try out the Morris strength training plan if anything just to be amazed at how your body is able to adapt in such a short period of time. I fill out a spreadsheet based on some estimated 1 rep maximums. The weights are all calculated off this 1RM for each excercise. You proceed through the phases of lifting and on the last day of the Strength phase you will be doing multiple reps at your original 1RM.

Somewhere around the middle of hypertrophy I've seen my body and some friends really adapt and you make some big gains quickly. So much so that I typically need to adjust my weights up.

Anyway it's just kind of neat to work through this plan. At the begining it seems difficult to picture myself lifting this kind of weight especially after being so sore from just lifting the bar or body weight.