keep intensity up....but maybe drop some volume.

Hahhaha Kane, I totally agree... but until they make a special weight class just for me... :(

Pity: so you'd keep the 1-2 max effort exercises in those workouts, but drop some of the accessory work?

or drop some of the volume on the max effort exercises.

I'm not fully understanding the rationale behind cutting some maximal effort work. Who cares if your gains eventually flatten out, there are ways around that, even at a caloric deficit, which is not a huge deificit for a slow weight loss plan.

Why are you thinking of cutting out maximal work? Is it only because you think the gains will stop?

Your strength gains may be a bit smaller than normal but your goal has shifted to something else. Besides, maximal work is not known for adding slabs of mass anyway.

If you give me a bit more of your thought process it would help me a bit.

You make a really good point Kane. Basically my reasoning (which I didn't mention before, so it wouldn't have made sense lol) is that I'm trying to avoid overuse. I'm wrestling a lot, which is a lot of twisting, lateral movements, high contact, etc etc, and I'm sprinting a lot as well. I think my squat form is pretty solid (my pulls are getting there) but I've had patellar tendonitis before (recently, even) and it sucks, and I want to avoid that or similar stuff because I really can't afford to lose training time.

It's not that I don't think maximal work helps. The way I thought about it was something like - if my body can only cope with a certain number of workouts a week, I have to choose which ones are most important to my goal. Obviously I'm going to keep wrestling, and I think next to that sprinting is pretty crucial if I'm going to keep losing weight. So max effort work in a state where I might not be making much of a gain anyway seemed like it was on a lower priority than usual (all spring, it was pretty much my only priority).

What do you think? I really appreciate your help, Kane, thanks a lot for taking the time.

you should write out your workout so we can have viewing pleasure :)

No problemo, Cradler.

That plan makes more sense then. But you can take your wrestling and sprinting and everything and package it up as one big bundle in terms of figuring out what to leave out or include in your gym/maximal work.

So instead of having a squat workout and a deadlift workout (or workout A and B), plus wrestling and sprinting, you have your wrestling workouts (training, mat work, whatever), sprints (cardio, weight loss) and your workouts.

You mentioned there's alot of twisting and lateral movement during wrestling, so if you do any of that type of movement in the gym keep the volume very low, or cut it. Same with sprints. You may want to keep hip dominant exercises to a lower volume and maybe even knee dominant exercises just as a precaution.

Think of it this way. You wouldn't go in and do maximal deadlifts today and then do them again tomorrow or the next day. Same thing goes with all your other stuff. Adjust the gym workout volume according to the fatigue your accumulating from your non-gym workouts. Just because you're not doing a deadlift or a squat doesn't mean that you can't accumulate the same kind of fatigue.

It also works the other way. Suppose your out of the gym training doesn't work your shoulders much. You can include shoulders, in the gym, with a moderate volume because they're not really being used.

You pretty much summed this up in your post anyway, lol.

Like Pity said, a sample workout would be nice. :)

That makes a lot of sense Kane, I hadn't thought of it that way. I think (at least for now) reducing the volume should be enough, I'll see what happens.

My workouts rotate a lot but are based on a Westside split, I just changed the days to accommodate my schedule better. These are a few from the past week or so:

Aug 15th – Dynamic Lower
Cambered Bar box squats, against bands: 8x2
Speed Pull (banded): 6x1
Cambered bar Zercher squat: 3x8
Glute ham raise: 3x12
DB Shrugs: 3x12
Rope crunches: 3x10

Aug 13th - Dynamic Upper
Speed press from pins (banded): 12x2
Overhead tri extensions (DB): 3x6
High row: 2x8
Close grip chin ups: 3x10
Wide grip lat pulldowns: 4x12
Janda situps: 3x25

Aug 11th – Max effort lower
Platform deadlifts: work up to a heavy triple
Box squat w/ bands: work up to heavy triple
Front Squat: 3x8
BB Lunges: 2x12
Pullups: 3x15
Leg raises: 3x12

i wonder if anti-rotation ab training would help you. looks like mostly all you've got is upper ra, lower ra/hip flexor ab work.

you could probably safely get away with ditching the front squat on your ME lower...and the high row/wide grip pulldowns on dynamic upper.

The front squat isn't a usual thing - normally that'd be an RDL, reverse hyper, or occasionally a good morning. Same goes for the upper ones - usually that's weighted pullups, facepulls, and usually a shoulder press variant. I should have been more clear, I just picked the last three things in my log.

What is anti-rotation ab training?