Q&A with Mike Tuchscherer

[deant]

Mike,
This is super interesting. Thanks for doing this. As a USMA grad, I needed to add, "Go Army!"

Good luck with the move and the new baby. Exciting times!
Dean

[MikeTuchscherer]

Hopefully within the scope of the Q & A...

1) It possible to get a god picture from Instagram etc but, as someone who has followed his career from the early days, what's the current skinny on Mike the Lifter? Current goals, future comp plans etc...

Currently I'm happy just training pain-free. So I'm emphasizing Front Squat, Bench, and Pull ups for now. I just finished a dev cycle, so I'm headed into a pivot block. I got my friend Jacob Tsypkin to write this one for me. I'm going to be doing a lot of really new stuff and trying to gain some proficiencies that I haven't worked on in a long time -- maybe ever.
As for returning to competition... Yes, I think I will, but I'm in no hurry. I've taken a little more than a year away from the powerlifts at this point. I've been training for 21, so that's a drop in the bucket. I've kinda gotten fixated on this 600lbs Front Squat goal, so maybe once I do that, I'll see if I can squat or deadlift pain free. But we'll see. For now, I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing.

2) Perhaps linked to the above, what does Mike the Coach think of Mike the Lifter? Might make for some interesting observations...?

lol that's a hard question to wrap my mind around!

3) A more general Q - Mike has said he doesn't necessarily have a lot of experience with beginners, so what are the set of skills / abilities he would like to see a lifter possess when they sign up for their first day of RTS? Not in terms of poundage lifted perhaps, though that would be a factor of course.

Mostly I want to see a basic technical proficiency in the movements. We can refine it and teach most everything else. We just need them to be able to train in a non-dangerous way.

[MikeTuchscherer]

What kind of exercise selection would you pick for someone who experienced diminishing returns squatting 2-3 times a week and would rather focus on another movement altogether?

It's just gonna be whatever your goals are. The only reason (IMO) that you HAVE to squat is if you're a powerlifter. If that's not you and you want to do lunges... go for it. I'm doing front squat because I can do it without pain and it doesn't have any huge negatives to me.

[MikeTuchscherer]

I noticed you've been training the front squat heavily (from your Instagram). Has your experience taught you anything about training the front squat for someone who treats it was a primary movement?

Yeah for sure. It's NOT a back squat! The technique feels very different. It's also not that hard on my legs. It's one of those movements that doesn't seem to help PLers that much if it's just done now and then. But I bet if you stick with it long enough to develop some proficiency, then it could be useful.

[MikeTuchscherer]

Hi Mike, thanks for all of the content you put out and work you do for the powerlifting community. I’ve had great success doing RTS programming this year.

If you find any of the following questions interesting I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on them.

1. I’ve seen some of the proposals for developing TRAC and I think the potential for TRAC is huge. What are the current plans for developing these proposals? What do you see the future of TRAC looking like?

This is tough to answer in this format. We would like to do a total overhaul on the TRAC interface. Incorporate some HRV, view data differently, ask a few more questions, etc. The trouble right now is development time. There is SO MUCH we want to do on the tech side that there's just no way we're going to get it all done. What we need is for the core business to grow enough to support expanding our development team. That will help. But my guess is we'll always have more ideas than time to do them. That's not a bad thing in and of itself though.

2. How is emerging strategies different from highly customised block periodisation?

It depends on how exactly you define Block Periodization. But unless we just make it silly, ES is far, far more flexible. The block lengths in BP are tied to residual training effects. In ES they are tied to response times. But I'm assuming that's what you mean when you say "highly customized". So if we take that off the table, we can see probably the biggest differences. BP assumes a certain phasic structure. It always goes Accum >> Trans >> Real. ES does not. Sure, you can do that if it's what the athlete responds best to. But what if you get your best response from low intensity, second best response from middle intensity? Then ES is going to look like "reverse linear" because your last block would be the lowest intensity. Of course some practical concessions would need to be made to ensure they are comfortable handling heavy weights in comp, but ES is not beholden to anything other than athlete response. We can use other models to give us ideas. But ES gives you a clear way to judge the effectiveness of those ideas.

3. I train in my garage and want to pick up some new training toys but there’s so much to choose from (ssbs/bands/chains etc). Is there any stable equipment that you would advise getting or that you find yourself frequently using with you/your clients?

Once you've got the basics, I find chains to be very versatile. Incline benches. Bands are versatile and cheap enough. SSB is nice to have, but the others come first IMO.

4. I find the RTS store is poorly organised and it’s difficult to navigate all of the overlapping bundles, 404 links and clearly outdated material. What is the best thing to buy if one is interested in learning more about how RTS currently plans the long term development of athletes?

RTS Classroom.

5. What does the yellow in the RPE Chart mean?

It really just helps you see the pattern in the chart. It's around 80% because Hatfield's research showed that's where peak power was produced and some people care about that. That's all.

7. What do you think about the recent events with Powerlifting Australia, Robert Wilks & the IPF.

IDK. I don't know any Aussies that are happy about how it was handled (and they are the ones that know Wilks closest). I'm sure they exist, but I don't know them.

[MikeTuchscherer]

A couple more:

Do you have plans for releasing trainee data, even if anonymously, to help the S&C field with regards to data collection for analysis?

Have you considered acquiring a PhD so that you could do your work in an academic setting (while also running your current ops)?

I haven't thought about it yet. I don't know anyone who has expressed interest and I'm not sure 100% how we'd do it.

As for a PhD... I don't want to close the door on it, but that's so far off in way-off-land that I can't think about it too much. There's so much to be done right where I'm at. Maybe if I had my company to the point where it was self-managing for the most part and I had a lot of free time I'd consider it. As it is, I'm getting up at 5am to get to work and most weeks feel like I'm further and further behind. But I'm 33. There's a lot of time left between now and the end of the game.

[MikeTuchscherer]

Hey Mike, hopefully not too late

Do sets of 8-12 rep squats have their place in a strength-focused program? If looking to add more hypertrophy

Yeah, absolutely. Maybe not all the time. And maybe in conjunction with other stuff. But they aren't inherently weakening.

[MikeTuchscherer]

Thanks for doing this Q&A, Mike!

I will ask my own question...

Using a real life example from training, I have squatted up to 550x1@8 (~92%), then used the RPE chart to try to hit 515x3@8 (~86%), but it ends up being more like a x3@10. Most of the time the standard RPE percentages are pretty accurate for me. I am using bar speed as a reality check on RPE to make sure things aren't too out of whack.

What do you think is happening here?
a) I'm so out of shape that I'm fatigued by x1@8 and it affects readiness for the rest of the session
b) I'm getting hyped for the single and then not as hyped for back off work
c) something else

Generally I do not intentionally get hyped up during training, but heavy singles get some adrenaline flowing, especially when they are near PR levels.

Good question! If we can rule out the RPE chart being incorrect and your RPE ratings being inaccurate, then I'd say a combination of A and B (maybe mostly B). Also keep in mind that B is going to contribute to A as well.

[MikeTuchscherer]

1. I know people don't often ping on you for nutrition, but you've stayed pretty lean while being a big dude. Do you have any tips or tricks that you've figured out along the way?

1) For me, I monitor my intake with My Fitness Pal and I weigh myself daily. I've been following an algorithm I learned from Helms for almost a year and it's been great, but for the most part it's monitoring + calorie manipulation. I'm not even that great about protein tbh.

What is the algorithm (or how can we find it)?

Thank you so much for your answers so far. Truly wonderful!

Hmm... I've tweaked it in the time since, so this isn't exactly his thing, but it's close.

During my development cycles, I'm "bulking" or maintaining. During maintenance, I expect to gain .15% to .25% of my bodyweight each week (7 day average). Bulking is .3% to .4% per week.
During my pivots, I'm cutting. I expect to drop .5% to 1% of my bodyweight each week.

Calories are adjusted in 5% increments depending on if I'm above the range or below the range.

If I need to drop weight, I'll go MX in the development cycles and cut during the pivots. Assuming a 3:1 ratio (which is normal), that will lead to a slow drop in weight while being in a very slight surplus during the development cycles. If I need to gain weight, I'm bulking during the dev cycles and cutting during the pivots.

[MikeTuchscherer]

Have you tried a Gym Aware as well? If so, what do you prefer about the Open Barbell? Other than price, I suppose.

Yes, I like Gym Aware a lot. OB is what I'm using now in large part due to price, but also because of low-speed accuracy. And it's made by powerlifters, so I like to support our people.

Unfortunately true. What ever happened to your forums? They seem to just be filled with spam nowadays, and otherwise dead.

Yeah, we've been talking about taking them down for a while. Although this convo has made me consider reviving them.

[MikeTuchscherer]

Mike, thank you for your time!

A couple of questions regarding RPE vs intensity.

1. What's the difference fatigue-wide if a high rep set @9 vs a single or double @9?
2. Is RPE similar to intensity in that with higher RPE work one must perform less volume?
3. When is high RPE (9-10) work called for, and is it common to have an entire block with frequent/large amount of high RPE sets?

1) I think the main difference is what the fatigue affects (central vs peripheral). But in general, I think it affects to a similar level. Robert Frederick wrote about Exertion Load. The outputs of his formula and my stress index are very, very similar. His has an advantage that it can be parsed out into central and peripheral, which is nice.
2) No, not really. Higher RPE gets you more stress per set. But you can still do high RPE and high volume work.
3) It's up to you and how you program. There are so many strategies to use....

[MikeTuchscherer]

Mike,
This is super interesting. Thanks for doing this. As a USMA grad, I needed to add, "Go Army!"

Good luck with the move and the new baby. Exciting times!
Dean

I wish I could respond with a meme...

[MikeTuchscherer]

This has been super enjoyable! Thanks everyone!

[Murelli]

Mike, thanks so much for all the time you dedicated into dishing out so much knowledge.

There's a few people in this community who are coaches and/or trainers, full or part time, so this is for them:

What's the most valuable advice you have for someone who wants to make a living out of the strength training market (coaching, gyms, etc.)?

[Kregna]

Hey Mike, hopefully not too late

Do sets of 8-12 rep squats have their place in a strength-focused program? If looking to add more hypertrophy

Yeah, absolutely. Maybe not all the time. And maybe in conjunction with other stuff. But they aren't inherently weakening.

Thanks for the response!

And thanks to Manveer / ES members who got Mike over here

[SeanHerbison]

OB is what I'm using now in large part due to price, but also because of low-speed accuracy.

Interesting. If I can ever get my hands on one (failed to on the last release, which is why I bought the GymAware), I'll take the chance to compare them.

Yeah, we've been talking about taking them down for a while. Although this convo has made me consider reviving them.

Doooo it.

As a USMA grad, I needed to add, "Go Army!"

I wish I could respond with a meme...

Heirpower.

[perman]

I think maybe older Q&As should be gathered in a sub-forum.

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

Hopefully within the scope of the Q & A...

1) It possible to get a god picture from Instagram etc but, as someone who has followed his career from the early days, what's the current skinny on Mike the Lifter? Current goals, future comp plans etc...

Currently I'm happy just training pain-free. So I'm emphasizing Front Squat, Bench, and Pull ups for now. I just finished a dev cycle, so I'm headed into a pivot block. I got my friend Jacob Tsypkin to write this one for me. I'm going to be doing a lot of really new stuff and trying to gain some proficiencies that I haven't worked on in a long time -- maybe ever.
As for returning to competition... Yes, I think I will, but I'm in no hurry. I've taken a little more than a year away from the powerlifts at this point. I've been training for 21, so that's a drop in the bucket. I've kinda gotten fixated on this 600lbs Front Squat goal, so maybe once I do that, I'll see if I can squat or deadlift pain free. But we'll see. For now, I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing.

2) Perhaps linked to the above, what does Mike the Coach think of Mike the Lifter? Might make for some interesting observations...?

lol that's a hard question to wrap my mind around!

3) A more general Q - Mike has said he doesn't necessarily have a lot of experience with beginners, so what are the set of skills / abilities he would like to see a lifter possess when they sign up for their first day of RTS? Not in terms of poundage lifted perhaps, though that would be a factor of course.

Mostly I want to see a basic technical proficiency in the movements. We can refine it and teach most everything else. We just need them to be able to train in a non-dangerous way.

Many thanks for the replies!

[MattNeilsen]

@MikeTuchscherer I thought I replied and just realized I didn't - my silence is not a lack of gratitude! Thanks a bunch for dropping in and answering questions. I'm still going through all the responses and thinking through what you said. One quick question, however, regarding this:

it does seem like we've seen a lot less injury since incorporating 530 tempo work in the pivots

Are you utilizing the tempo work for all three comp lifts? I started incorporating Front Squats recently and have been quite happy with their addition - I'd be open to considering tempo work as well. I've also begun incorporating more rowing/farmer's walks as well and feel generally better (which aligns nicely with your comment about getting work outside the sagittal plane).

As an aside, I really enjoyed your talk with Julien Pineau. I think I probably need to listen to that podcast 2-3 more times to really flesh out what he's getting at. I would be interested to hear you do a follow-up.

I'm also stoked that you're speaking with Joel Jamieson soon. I would love to see more discussion about combining conditioning and lifting.

[Manveer]

Moving this one to the archives.