I hope you are enjoying your holidays. If you trained through the the last week or so, then today is PR Friday. Otherwise share your goals for 2012. Let’s get to some questions. Unless otherwise noted, these are all from a recent thread on the Facebook Fan Page.

Spencer B.:
No gym access for two weeks…what should I do to maintain strength?

Dear Spencer,

Strength is a persistent adaptation and you won’t be losing much of it in a two week period. What you’ll most likely lose instead is your adaptation to the strength training. When you start training again you’ll be more sore than normal and your blood vessels won’t be used to the higher pressure of lifting. This is why I have always advocated having a light day when first getting back in the gym. Gradually increase the weight and stress over a few training sessions. If you had a significant layoff, then use the first week as a ramp up. It’s better to do to little than to do too much.

As for training or working out during your break, consider what physical attributes are lacking with respect to either overall fitness, athletic ability, or your specific goal(s). It may be a good time to work on muscular endurance via calisthenics (especially if you’re in the military and have to deal with PT tests). 99% of you need to work on mobility on a daily basis. Others could implement a sprint or conditioning program. Still, if strength and size are your primarily goal, you could do some sort of plyo calisthenics to focus on a speed and power element. For example, clapping pushups, speed pull-ups, and jumping squats could be done for sets of five to ten. Gymnastics type stuff can apply a strength training stress through a different angle or range of motion.

The overall point is that it’s not a long break and you won’t lose significant strength. Take care of your body and feel free to dabble in some un-used training modalities.

Kyle S.
‎1. What’s the recommended grip for the barbell row? I’ve been using bench width, but does it matter or is it just personal preference/which muscles you want to focus on?
2. Can you work on pull ups every day (or even multiple times a day), or is that too much stress to recover and adapt?

Dear Kyle,

1. For the same reasons as the bench press, the optimal grip will be similar to the bench in which the forearms are vertical and the elbows are over the wrists. This should be pretty much the same position on the bar (for me, it’s pinky on the rings). My opinion is that if you’re using the row for strength training purposes, use this efficient grip. If you’re going for a swollertrophy effect, do whatever you want. However, just like in the bench press, the most efficient method will train all of the musculature evenly. After a rowing session, my entire lat will be sore all the way down to my iliac crest. But I’m also sore in the upper middle back area where the middle traps and rhomboids are. It’s a very effective exercise. I don’t really see a point with messing with the grip until the hypertrophy is a primary goal. For example, the close grip bench is used to improve the lockout of a raw bench, but the close-grip row wouldn’t have utility to improve the performance of another lift.

2. Whether or not pull-ups can be done every day depends on what else is in the training program and what the trainee is adapted to. If you have a break from strength training, then daily pull-up training is probably fine if don’t do too much. If you’re only adapted to about 30 reps, don’t do 50. To be safe, just take a day of rest in between pull-ups sessions. However, if you’re using the frequency method then you’ll be doing a low enough number that can be done daily (yet you’ll obviously take a day or so of rest at some point in the week).

Blake S.
Taco Bueno vs. Taco Cabana vs. Taco Bell? Choose your answer wisely.

Dear Blake,

Dude, all of those fucking suck. I can’t imagine a shittier quality of food. You clearly like torturing your digestive system. For real, if any of you eat at these places regularly, you’re unconcerned with optimal performance, aesthetics, health, or…anything. I’d rather wax my grundle.

Justin C.
1. How many sets for volume day when moving squats to 3rm? I’ve been doing 8×3 but should I go to 5×3 with heavier weight?

2. Also, in the book you mention a back off set on ID when using 3 reps or less, with your example being 15lbs lower than the PR attempt. Does doing this back off set change VD or not?

Dear Justin,

1. Don’t focus on the number of sets, but the overall volume. In the first year or so in the TM, we use a relative drop in volume as a stressor (this is explained in detail the second book). Your volume will be relative to what you’ve been doing recently, so it’s hard to answer this questions. You do not need to do eight triples on VDy just because you’re doing a triple on the ID. In fact, if you remember from the book, trainees should aim to get to 3×5 on the VD.

2. The back off set does not change the VD. The 15 pound drop is a minimum, so feel free to have a greater decrease. The point is to get some more reps with decent intensity.

Jason K.
I’m only just learning the Oly lifts. I want to get back to lifting heavy, but continue doing the Oly stuff at least twice a week. Any programming advice? FWIW, my best strength results have come from 5/3/1.

Dear Jason,

Now that I’m reading this again, I have no clue what you’re asking. You want to strength train but have been doing Oly stuff? You want to do an Oly program? It’s more important for me to point out that your clarification that 5/3/1 has given you the best results is irrelevant — unless you’re older. It works well with older guys because it doesn’t have a lot of volume so it prevents the hard-headed overtraining associated with the male gender. However, we don’t know anything else about you, specifically your training history and current state of adaptation. The fact that 5/3/1 “worked” for you may be because you were on shitty programs before doing it. Who knows, maybe you were doing CrossFit before it. In any case, saying that 5/3/1 gave you best results may or may not be relevant when committing to a programming style.

Marquis B.
Using 4×5 as a volume scheme on texas method. yes, no terrible idea?

Dear Marquis,

It depends. The current state of adaptation and the prior training history will dictate this. 4×5 may be useful in a portion of the program when the lifter is gradually reducing the volume over time, and it may be a bad idea when the lifter is adapted to lower amounts of volume. Folks, remember that context isn’t just relevant, but entirely necessary when trying to talk about programming.

Jose C.
Should someone who is only focused on olympic lifts bench press? My experience before focusing on olympic lifts was that I benched once or twice a week depending on programing and I had some bench strength but no mobility for overhead. Now after not benching for nearly 6 months, 135 feels heavy, but I am a lot stronger overhead than I have ever been and much more mobile. Able to snatch over bodyweight etc. Thoughts?

Dear Jose,

My first response is that 135 should never, ever feel heavy for someone who lifts regularly. Assuming you didn’t mean kilos, it’s okay, but I think that this weak bench is something to address. My next statement is objective and not mockery: If 135 pounds on the bench press is heavy, then you aren’t lifting enough in the Oly lifts to warrant a specific weightlifting focus that ignores the bench. Another way of saying is that you are pretty weak, so the bench press is something that will help you not be weak.

Anatomically, the bench press trains structures that will help improve your strength and stabilization in overhead movements. Consider a snatch in which the bar travels to far back. By having decent anterior shoulder and pec strength, you’ll be able to wrangle it back forward to it’s proper positioning. More strength around the shoulder means more stability when going overhead, even if the mechanics aren’t perfect.

My last point is that most famous weightlifting programmers from countries with better historic results in the Olympics and world competitions will have beginning lifters bench press. The frequency might range from once every seven to ten days. Eventually, an intermediate weightlifter will drop the bench in favor more weightlifting specific training, yet the bench can be useful early on in order to establish musculature and strength to support shoulder strength and stability.

Here is another point from Brent:
jose it depends on if you’re ok with some high school fuck head in junior varsity football benching more than you. that’s mainly why i bench. mobility shouldn’t be an issue if you have a resistance band and a lacrosse ball. it’s not necessary for oly but it absolutely doesn’t hurt and may even help if your shoulders need to be stronger. imo touching bottom with good external rotation and driving through the middle of a pr bench feels just as good as smoking the pull in a pr snatch and receiving it exactly where it needs to be

I still have some questions from the Facebook thread, but I’ll save them for another time. I used to care about answering all the questions, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
See you guys next year. And please…be safe.

About a year ago I started cleaning all of my press sets, and I prefer it. There’s a lot of utility in doing it, but it’s just cool. Here’s an example:



Weightlifters in the press era (before ’72) always cleaned their presses because it was a contested lift. In the early days, there weren’t even racks, so cleaning the weight was the only way to get it on the shoulders for overhead movements. Whenever Bill Starr writes about pressing, he encourages lifters to clean it and even said that it’s possible to lift more weight that way. Bah, how could that make any sense?

Lift More Weight
Yet, the first time I cleaned and then pressed the weight, I completed a weight that was typically difficult out of the rack easier. I believe this was because my grip widened slightly (I have broad shoulders) and perhaps I was using a more narrow grip. However, other lifters have echoed similar experiences in lifting more after cleaning the weight. Some possible explanations include better wrist position after doing a clean compared to a normal un-racking, better intra-thoracic/abdominal pressure post-clean, or better thoracic extension post-clean. It also could be a combination of all three reasons, plus some other factors that are specific to an individual.

Practice The Clean
Since you’ll be cleaning every set of press or push-press, you’ll significantly enhance the number of cleans you perform IRREGARDLESS of program. This may not be relevant for a stress application — for example, my best press of 240 is at most 68% of my max clean — yet it can solidify starting position and teach attention to detail regarding “finishing the pull”. It can be used as speed practice; really focus on a fast jump in the power clean. It can also be practice for “getting under the bar” in a full clean. Since it’s probably a lower percentage of your max, it won’t significantly inhibit the press itself or the rest of the training session. Whether you want to power it for general strength work or do a full clean for Oly practice, you’ll get more repetitions which will only improve your skill. Uh, assuming you don’t suck really bad or something.
Continue reading →

The other day in the Foot Awareness we talked about being aware what our feet are doing. Faults such as walking “duck footed” or having a collapsed arch (AKA “navicular drop”) is is important for running economy, but also lifting technique. Either way it’s important because if the mechanics aren’t efficient, then more energy is consumed to accomplish the same task. Solid mechanics will utilize less energy, therefore you can run faster or lift more weight with the same energy and effort.

If you have either of the above problems, then the first thing to do is learn awareness of what is wrong and what is right. If your toes are habitually rotated out, then make it a point to walk and stand with them forward. If your toes have been habitually pointed out, then it’s likely that the arch is habitually collapsed. While standing with your toes pointed forward, shift your weight from your normal collapsed position (which is the inside of the foot) to the outside of the foot. Take note of where your knee shifts to when you do this (it will externally rotate slightly). Use this video as a guide if you’re confused. This new position is your habitual goal. To help learn it, do a set of at least 20 contractions shifting your weight from the inside to the outside of the foot. This will use tire some of the muscles in the foot and shank to help learn positional awareness.

Now that you are aware of this new position, you need to walk on it. Make it a point to walk with the toes forward and on the outside of your foot. It will feel very funny and you’ll find that you often forget to do it. For example, my right foot (the problematic one) will revert back to its collapsed position when I take a piss. After several weeks of paying attention to keeping the force application on the outside of my foot, I’ve shifted my focus to the distal end of the metatarsals of the “middle” and “ring” toes — it’s the lateral portion of the ball of the foot. This maintains the proper arch and knee position, but it’s overly emphasizing the lateral portion of the foot.

The first set of drills I want to bring to your attention are Russ Ebbets foot drills. These simple, non-equipment drills take about four minutes to complete. In the article, Russ has this to say:

Done daily these six drills will eliminate shin splints, Achilles’ tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, lessen the chance of a severe ankle sprain and virtually all knee problems. The famous Rice Study done in the early 90s found that 79% of running injuries are from the knee down. One of the reasons I had successful teams is that my athletes made it to the competition day healthy and ready to compete. Season after season was completed with virtually no injuries.

Intriguing. I’ve started doing these drills every day and can definitely understand their utility. Whether you want or need to run, sprint, ruck, or move on your feet, they can help. You’ll feel various parts of your lower leg working that typically don’t get any specific work, and some of the drills will even have an effect all the way up through the hips. The six drills are based on three variations of movement: lateral change in the ankle (inversion/eversion), rotation of the hip (external/internal rotation), and frontal action of the hip (plantar/dorsi flexion).


The first drill focuses on inversion and eversion. Be sure to walk with a controlled “heel to toe” when doing all of these drills as it will have more of an effect on the muscles of the foot compared to stepping down with a flat foot. The eversion drill will probably show you how bad your eversion mobility is; a lack of eversion will make it difficult to shove the knees out. If you’ve ever noticed that shoving your knees out lifts the inside of your foot off the ground, then you probably need to improve your lateral ankle mobility.


These two drills will force stretching and contraction in the hip. You’ll feel like an idiot doing it, but you’ll also feel work throughout your hips. Remember to maintain the “heel to toe” walk.


I didn’t feel much when I did the “walking backwards on the toes” drill, although it helped warm-up my calf and achilles. However the dorsi-flexion “walking on the heels” will force contraction in the tibialis anterior, or the front of the shin.

Keep in mind that these drills aren’t a quick fix to any foot or ankle issues. They should be utilized daily to gradually improve the lower leg structures, but they can be used as a warm-up for running or sprinting. They will help improve the awareness of the foot’s articulation with the ground which will only improve mechanical efficiency in locomotion.

All of the attention spent on changing walking gait and doing these easy exercises may produce some soreness in the arch or lower leg. In future posts we’ll get into more drills, exercises, and mobility, but in the mean time just work a lacrosse ball over your arch to alleviate some tension.

Happy PR Friday
Post your weekly PR’s or training updates to the comments. Be on the lookout for a nice Christmas post this weekend. Happy Festivus in the mean time!

Kyle S. asks on the Facebook Fan Page:
What are some cues I should keep in mind for teaching my wife (or anyone) to high bar squat? I’ve looked on YouTube but I never know who is full of shit.

Dear Kyle,

I briefly answered this in the wall thread, but figured it would be good for others to hear too. Irre-fucking-gardless of type of squat, the knees need to be shoved out. This will prevent hip impingement — a pinching of the femur and the ASIS (hip bone) that can prevent full ROM, prevent the lumbar from maintaining extension, and can pinch tissues like skin, fat, tendons, or muscles. There’s no point in explaining it further when a comprehensive article has already been written. So “knees out” is an important cue for any squatting, including the high bar squat.

The chest also needs to be up so that the thoracic spine is held in extension from the time the bar is un-racked until it is re-racked. I’ve been meaning to do a post on this for a while, because I see a lot of you fucking it up. Think “chest into chin”, which is the cue that means, “pull your chest up as high as you can, as if you were going to try and touch your chin without actually lowering the chin”.

The eyes need to be forward. Some look up, but this puts the cervical spine in extension and I’m not a fan of that. Eyes straight ahead will help maintain proper positioning throughout the entire spine.

Those last two things (the chest and eyes) are passive cues — the lifter shouldn’t have to think about them at all because they should be automatic every time. Assuming “knees out”, “chest to chin”, and the eye positioning is all correct (or at least the passive cues are automatic), then “heels” can be cued. That’s the cue to imply “drive the heels out of the bottom” in order to prevent any forward torso inclination during the ascent as a result of shifting the weight to the balls of the feet.

And for fuck’s sake, if you’re trying to high bar squat without weightlifting shoes then that’s the first thing to correct. Here’s the gear post.

Continue reading →

Here are some vids to entertain you before tomorrow’s Q&A post.

This is a great vid of Donny Shankle lifting. He jerks from blocks all the way up to 225kg, then hang clean and jerks up to 200kg (the latter is a PR). Then there’s some good fun after all that — watch until the end.

Continue reading →