One valid concern about following any sort of “peaking” or “specialisation” routine is loss of strength, muscularity, cardiorespiratory fitness or any other hard-won result that is not the specific focus of the programme.
Even weight gain is a worry, particularly when pursuing new one rep maxes in the core lifts.
As I said, it’s a valid concern because there’s no way to stop it from happening (apart from weight gain, but that’s a whole ‘nother email).
All you can do is mitigate the impact.
“And how do I do that, oh shiny-headed one?”
Easy.
Smart programming.
Alright, maybe not “easy” in practice, but certainly in principle.
Basically, what you need to do is put anything that is not the focus of your specialisation routine “on maintenance”. This means cutting it back to the bare essentials, yet still doing enough of those essentials to not lose heaps of progress you’ve sweated bullets to make.
This is not an exact science because everybody’s work capacity is different, so it’ll probably take you a few tries to strike the balance.
But when you get it right, you’ll not only come out the other side of your specialisation or peaking routine with a bucketful of new personal bests, but you’ll also have a much easier time maintaining those new performance levels as you won’t have to subsequently spend a few weeks to a few months bringing everything else back up to par.
Incidentally, I talk a lot about putting things “on maintenance” and explain, in some detail, how and when to do it in my very short eBook “The Six Week Peak”.
This eBook was once an integral part of a 6 week coaching package which is no longer for sale.
But it’s such a sleek and simple little system I figured it’d be a shame to let it sit on my hard drive gathering dust.
The price?
£20.
A lot less than a bag of whey protein (apart from those “bargain basement” tubs that will give you diabetes).
And, I daresay, the info inside, properly applied, will do more for your ability to add weight to the bar than circa 50 servings of slimy gunk.
But I am biased.
Whatever.
If you want it, go here to fully inform yourself prior to purchase:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/peak
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman