From yesterday’s comments:
Justin, do you have any leanings one way or another in squatting two times a week vs. three times a week on a novice program?–RD
With most of my answers: it depends. The trainee’s goals should be assessed first. If they only care about strength — and don’t have a tangent athletic goal like football, highland games, etc. — then three days a week will allow them to progress faster. A novice just starting out will benefit from three squatting days to A) establish the motor pattern and B) have another local and systemic stress that will C) increase strength and D) increase muscle. However, that same novice may progress to a point where three days of squatting nears the limit of what they can handle in week’s worth of time. When I was squatting above 450 for three sets of five in three workouts a week during my linear progression, I was miserable. Toeing the line of what is possible isn’t optimal in this case, and squatting two times a week will continue that progression, albeit slightly slower. I’d recommend it for someone in the later stages of their progression.
As for the trainee that has ulterior motives for competition; I may have this trainee squat twice a week and deadlift once so that they retain some recovery capabilities for the practice of their sport. However, this would depend on what phase of training we were in with respect to the competition date or season. Strength gaining would have more of an emphasis the farther away from competition while strength maintenance may be important leading into competition. It would still be dependent on the training advancement of the person; if they were a rank novice (i.e. just starting), they could improve their strength while in the competitive phase. If they are farther along in the progression, maintaining their gains will be the minimum goal.
Answers regarding programming are neither simple nor straightforward. It will always depends on things like goals, current state of adaptation, and recent training history.
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PR Friday
Post your personal records, training updates, thoughts, and musings to the comments. F you Pittsburgh Steelers.
Remember: don't step over the line.
End of week 1 of 5/3/1. Final rounds of max reps listed (85%)
Press: 127.5 x 7
Snatch balance: 127.5 x 6
Power clean: 145 x 21
Back squat: 212.5 x 10
(power clean 1RM clearly not correct)
Then we did a strongman WOD in open gym.
405# yoke walk 40′
5 chin ups
5 log presses 105#
5 chin ups
405# yoke walk 40′
We took about 1:15-1:30 to complete. We forgot that the yoke weighs 1 plate. We were both wondering why the damn thing was so hard to run with. We thought we were moving 315. Fun stuff!
I try not to shit on people in the gym no matter how stupid they come off but yesterday I saw something I deemed remarkable. There was a woman (who was shaped like a gigantic pear) wearing a weighted vest while walking on the elliptical. After “talking” to my buddy about her, he and I had a debate about it. I argued that wearing a weighted vest on an elliptical could actually make it easier. Thoughts?
PR on being healed from a million injures in 2010. (Car wreck, torn muscle in back, dislocated shoulder, broken ankle, fractured right foot…)
Clean 310lbsx2
Bench 250×3
Squat 365×5
Found Big Iron Gym on Thursday. got 1 year left in Omaha. Hope to see massive gains.
Question: Due to being hurt so much last year, my left leg is significantly smaller than my right. Anybody have any suggestions to fixing this problem?
Split squats (and other unilateral work)?
Better late than never: Hit 100kg Clean with good form on friday, yeah
Good clean Joe Smash!
I lifted in the British drugs free powerlifting association’s welsh regional qualifier today. It was my first ever foray into both competitive sport and powerlifting competition.
I weighed in at 87.1kg
Squat 135, 142.5(pr) 150(pr)
Bench Press 105, 110, 115(f)
Deadlift 190, 207.5 (pr), 215(pr)
Total- 475kg
I was 7.5kg into the qualifying total for the nationals in the 90kg junior (20-23) class. Nationals are in March so I have 2 months of linear progression to get stuck into before then! I only knew about this competition 2 weeks before so there was no taper, I just took a week off so I would be fresh. Competition was such a buzz. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to compete again. I’m going to try and add 45kg to my total at the nationals- I’m going for a 175kg squat, 120 bench and 230 deadlift, which would give me a total of 520- the qualifying total for a senior at my weight. Thank you Justin, your work on this site inspired me to compete and I’m so glad I did.