As detailed here, Dr. Hartman released a free competition prep program for Olympic weightlifting. With over 500 downloads, most of the users were asking what they should do after the competition taper. After putting some work in, Dr. Hartman came to the conclusion that most lifters need or want one of three things: strength, technique, or a mixture of the two.

Strength is important for weightlifting; after all, you’re putting weight over your head. However, strength in the absence of quality mechanics won’t mean dick on the weightlifting platform. Dr. Hartman’s e-book, “The Next 8 Weeks…” is comprised of programs to increase weightlifting strength (Note: this is different than powerlifting or general strength), technique on the lifts, and an efficient hybrid of the two. Combined with the competition prep program (available for free), these programs can plan out at LEAST 8 months of training.

When I read through the programs in the e-book, it made me want to grab a bar and start lifting again (alas, logistically I currently can’t). These programs are designed for someone who is an experienced weightlifter. They would need to have competed in at least a few competitions. I won’t speak for Dr. Hartman, but it would take someone at least six months to get the point of using the programs from “The Next 8 Weeks…“. The reason is Dr. Hartman uses a very precise variable manipulation to shift volume, intensity, and technique appropriately for quality performance peaks. Personally, I’d feel good knowing that my training was on a long-term plan to create those peaks; too often Olympic weightlifters who train by themselves are in various stages of overreaching beyond their capability without having the discipline to allow a peak.

To prepare yourself for Hartman’s programs, I suggest learning the lifts and getting on an weightlifting focused program. Depending on your strength level, you may need a program that continues to establish a strength base as you do the lifts. I created a novice weightlifting program that would allow a trainee to get some experience with the Olympic lifts while improving their strength. I think it’s a good program to run for four to six weeks to get the joints and structures ready for more weightlifting frequency. After this base with the lifts is established, a trainee should compete and also shift their training to an intelligent three day-a-week program (perhaps it would consist of snatch and C&J every day with Day 1 as medium to moderate, Day 2 as a little lighter, and Day 3 as the heavy/max day with some strength work thrown in after the two lifts). After another four to six weeks on such a program, the trainee might be eligible for Dr. Hartman’s programs, but the more experience the better. Hartman’s programs from “The Next 8 Weeks…” include a good amount of work, and you don’t want to set yourself up for failure by not being adapted to doing the lifts at least three times a week.

I like the programs Dr. Hartman created. Again, I would feel confident that my training was preparing me for performance peaks instead of having to structure my training by trial and error. These programs are worth a read. I consider them to be solid the way they are, but you could still pull concepts and ideas from studying them. To get some examples of the different programs, Dr. Hartman has included some information on each one in THIS blog post. If you have any questions, I’m sure he’d be happy to answer them in the comments of that post.

You can buy the book HERE.
You can visit Dr. Hartman’s blog HERE.

Edit: Images not uploading. Will fix soon.

New Sites
A lot of you have asked for training logs of those that are involved in this website. My tech-savvy friend Adam (who helps out with the site — thanks again, Adam) helped set up some sub-sites. AC, Chris, and Mike now have their own sub-site to be used as a training log, but will also be used for whatever they want to post about. As far as their programming goes, they are all younger intermediate lifters who compete in raw powerlifting. I took all three of them to USAPL Raw Nationals last year.

AC
Chris
Mike

I nagged Ben Claridad to make a site that would allow him to show his art work, and he turned into an amusing training log that also hosts his art work. Here is Ben’s site.

These sites are updated a few times a week, so be sure to check them out.

PR Friday
Post all of your PR’s and training updates to the comments. Regardless of your strength level you are a part of this brotherhood of lifters on the quest to 70’s Big, so don’t be shy.

Oh, and fuck the Steelers.

Today I was working on a project for this site and sorta forgot to make a post. Here’s a quick hitter.

Here’s a recent video of AC deadlifting 560. I’m pretty sure his meet PR is 568.



Some of you keep homo-erotically asking where Gant has been. He’s busy doing man stuff and kicking ass.


Here’s a video that Lewis found in his nightly YouTube session (he’s like a bigger and blacker version of Brent):

I don’t really need an engaging intro today because I already know that talking about conditioning gets you wet and bothered. Strength is a little more abstract, something you have to follow for a while to get gains. Gaining and losing strength is a slower process. Gaining and losing conditioning happens within days. And you fucking love talking about it.

My friend Johnny Pain from Strength Villain knows you fucking love it, so he put together an e-book that contains 50 conditioning workouts that are Greyskull approved. Interestingly enough it’s called “50 Greyskull Approved Conditioning Workouts for the Modern Viking“.



There isn’t any fartin’ around in this book. You get a quick intro on some fundamentals, and then it jumps right into the 50 workouts in no particular order. Each workout has a description and pictures that help explain what is going on or what movement is being done. The fan-favorite Bony makes a self-deprecating appearance throughout the workouts. There are plenty of interesting captions such as this one that references Bony doing a tuck jump: “Bony could teach Buffalo Bill a thing or two about ‘the tuck’.”

The workouts aren’t difficult, and that’s the point. In order to be Greyskull approved they need to be simple (after all, Bony is doing them) yet hard hitting. One example is the 400m run, 100 kettlebell swings, followed by another 400m run. Simple. Tough. Efficient. Testicle building.

You can buy the book HERE from StrengthVillain.com.

Hopefully you are at the point in your training career when you have A) been strength training consistently, B) have recorded your progress in a log, and C) have taken notes on how you feel during that time. The more data you have on subjective feelings and objective progress, the more you can discern whether or not certain events (like binge drinking, not eating enough, staying up all night studying, or participating in the horizontal rambas) have effected your training. You will have learned the difference between regular pain and injury pain (the former can be trained through smartly, the latter should be rehabbed). Now start paying attention to the difference between “not feeling well” and being sick.

“Not feeling well” means you have the sniffles, like a cold. Being sick means you have some kind of bacterial or viral infection. Sometimes you will “not feel well” and it will be the beginning stages of infection — again, you need to learn the difference. It should be pretty clear; having a runny nose, congested sinuses, and a sore throat is different than general fatigue, alternating hot and cold spells, swollen lymph nodes, and general and reverberating body pain. There are many examples of “not feeling well” and infection, but you should know the difference because you’re a fucking adult. The point is that having the “tough guy mentality” in some cases makes you stupid.

Need proof? Here. In any case, tough guys are just stupid people trying to make up for their stupidity with perceived machismo. Eventually they’ll fail (e.g. Debo in the movie Friday).

If you have some kind of infection, whether it be viral or bacterial, your immune system is now hampered with a systemic stress. Bacterial infections can be helped along with antibiotics, yet there isn’t any help against viruses. You’ll just have to wait it out and treat the symptoms. We already know that training, especially the bigger lifts that use the most muscle mass (squat, deadlift, cleans, etc.), produces a systemic stress on the body. That systemic stress is needed in order to get stronger. However, when you have an infection you’re body is already straining to reduce a systemic stress. If you add more stress to it via training (whether it be from lifting or conditioning), you’re going to exacerbate the problem with the additional stress.

Look at it this way: if you only have 100 credits that can be spent on recovery (reducing inflammation, healing things, etc.) and a typical workout will require 75 credits to recover from, and you are experiencing an infection that has already depleted 110 credits, you don’t have any credits to use for training, and you increase your defecit. The system is in a weakened state, and then you weaken it significantly more by asking it to do more when it can barely do less. It’s like a nation being trillions of dollars in debt, and then continuing to spend billions of dollars to try and make money — it doesn’t make any fucking sense.

What can you do if you feel that you’re getting sick? I don’t get sick often, but if I feel anything that would indicate a lack of supreme health, stuffy nose or otherwise, I pound water and vitamins. I feel that it has helped me stave off some minor stuff in the past. What if you’re having symptoms of an infection? Obviously don’t go to the gym. We already clarified that it’s stupid because it can fuck you up to the point of hindering progress longer than the original infection would have. While you’re sick, do your best to hydrate and get as much protein in. You’ll have fat and glycogen to use if needed, but you should still try and get protein in. If you have a hard time keeping food down, then do your best. Depending on what you’re infected with, you may feel better the next day. This is not the time to fucking train. I’ve done this in the past and AC just did it the other day (even mildly gloating about it in the PR Friday comments), and now he’s worse off. I suggest getting two days of good food intake before attempting a training session. If anything you’d get a surplus of calories and protein in the days when you can finally eat.

When you resume training, you probably shouldn’t “resume it as normal”. You’ve just been in a systemic deficit; why would you think you can train as if nothing happened? Instead, a very intelligent progression would be doing a light-to-medium workout, a medium/moderate workout, then a heavy workout with days of rest in between. It’s intelligent because it’s patient; it doesn’t do too much too soon. Post-infection training is not the time to start back up on a volume day; just get a light workout in. If you feel great and think you can do more, than swallow your pride (your annoying fucking pride) and hold yourself back. It’s always better to be safe than sorry with training and programming.

I’m not suggesting that you sit out every time you aren’t feeling super. But you do need to be in tune with your body. If you’re thinking the cough is more than a cough, ratchet the workout back or wait till the next day. You now understand that not feeling well and infection are two different things. You know that shit will get worse if you try and train while infected (and you shouldn’t be going to a place where you can infect other people anyway, you dickhead). You know that you can try and manage the sickness by hydrating, getting protein in, and some over-the-counter symptom helpers. You know a pretty good guideline that requires two days of feeling and eating well before training, and you also know that you should slowly progress your training (or your systemic stress) back up to pre-infection levels to optimally resume training. All I can do is tell you this shit. It’s up to you to recognize and react like a smart person instead of a stupid person.