I hope everyone’s training is going well so far this year. Post your updates or weekly PR’s to the comments to celebrate PR Friday

Also, I don’t have confirmation on this, but apparently Allison Bishop (AllisonNYC for you CF vets) has allegedly committed to doing a max effort clean and jerk in a bikini if Donny Shankle gets to his fundraising goal (read the first part of this post). Now let’s get on with the bloody Q&A, eh?

sdanleyjr asks:

This week’s collection of articles has me all worried about balanced ham/quad development. If I look in the mirror I’d say I’m pretty quad dominant, however I just LBBS my way up to 405# before switching back to HBBS. If I’m doing all of the following once a week – HBBS, front squat, snatch, C&J, deadlift – should I be doing some RDLs as well?

Dear sdanleyjr,

I’m a huge proponent of RDL’s, especially for lifters who aren’t in the ‘later intermediate stages’ and beyond. I’d even to venture and say that the RDL’s will be better for your programming than the deadlifts — CRAZY TALK. It looks like you’re training for weightlifting, and heavy deadlifts are going to require significant local and systemic recovery. Not only are you using your limited supply of recovery credits on the expensive deadlift, but you may be inhibiting the clean, snatch, or squat workouts that occur after the deadlifting (even if they are the following week). If you’re primarily training to be a weightlifter, you’ll get good hamstring and lumbar musculature work out of the RDL and still have some zing for the rest of your program.

jaygreenshirt asks:

At the Chicago lifting seminar you discussed the phenomenon of one’s hamstrings sputtering during a heavy deadlift (you referred to it as ‘tut-tut-tut’). I can’t remember your explanation on this and was hoping you could explain it on the site. I recently pulled a one rep max deadlift and my hamstrings were tut-tut-tutting like The Little Engine That Could.

Dear jaygreenshirt,

It’s awesome to hear from you. For everyone else, Jay was one of two Jays at the Chicago workshop, and when I said the name “Jay”, my friend Jay S. kept saying, “What?” So I resorted to calling this Jay “Jay Green Shirt” since he was wearing a green shirt. Apparently Ellee still has him saved as that in her phone.

Anyway, this is a good question. The “tut-tut-tut” sputtering that occurs when locking out heavy deadlifts (watch the second rep at 625) is a neurological result of not being adapted to high levels of tension in the hamstrings. Assuming good mechanics (that would maintain hamstring tension), the intrafusal muscle fibers (in this case, the golgi tendon organ) of the hamstring are monitoring levels of tension in the muscle. If tension is too high, then the GTO will essentially shut the muscle off to prevent injury. Your conscious effort to pull the weight forces a resuming in the contraction, or “turning the muscle back on”. The GTO then senses high levels of tension and turns it off again. This back-and-forth could occur several times and feels like a stuttering lockout that I sum up as a “tut-tut-tut” (usually I mimic the move as I say it in a workshop).

So what the FUCK does all of that mean? You are relatively unadapted to the higher levels of tension that you were imparting on the muscle and it’s associated nerve functioning. How can this be fixed? Rack pulls are usually the go-to method of improving that ability to experience high tension. If you watched the linked video above of Chris first couple reps at a 600+ pounds, you can see it occur. Shortly after that I had him do rack pulls and he never had those tension issues again (see below for Chris pulling 655×2 the other day). RDL’s are also another good way to improve the hamstring’s ability to experience tension. The weight won’t be as heavy, yet the different mechanics will still stretch the hamstring and make it contract under tension. Regularly using both of these lifts will eradicate the tut-tut, yet also getting more reps with higher intensity deadlifts will help in the short term as well.

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Readers occasionally ask me what the 70’s Big’s “official stance” on steroids is. That boils down to what my stance is, albeit with the opinion of some friends. We have talked about steroids on this website in the past (the first two links were posted by me, the last two posted by Gant):
One
Two
Three
Four

For the sake of discussion, when I say “steroids” in this post, I’m referring to steroids and anabolic type compounds — the whole gamut of stuff that enhance performance via hormonal manipulation.

When I was younger, I was staunchly against steroids. Nowadays, I don’t really give a shit. If someone wants to use them, then it doesn’t bother me. And for the record, I think that it’s their right to decide if they want to or not. I haven’t ever used steroids, do not currently, and won’t in the future any time soon. I don’t have a problem with guys around the age of 35 to 40 and up supplementing a little bit of testosterone to stave off negative health effects (though I currently don’t have research to link to support this idea). Technically, I don’t have a problem with anyone currently using steroids. But when someone asks me, “Should I use steroids?” my answer is always the same:

1. Do you do everything in the realm of training consistently including, but not limited to, eating right, regularly training, mobbing, sleeping right, etc.?
If not, then it’s clear there are things to address that could improve your goals, whatever those goals are.
2. If you make the decision to use steroids, then do so with an informed opinion. Learn as much as you can from people who do it right. Don’t learn from some dickhead at the local Gold’s. Don’t learn from some guy on the internet who has gotten results from them. Learn from someone who has done it properly and has learned from or actually is a knowledgeable person that you can actually trust. This person should be able to explain the ‘why’, ‘how’, and ‘what’ about steroids. Changing the hormones in your body is serious business, and I wouldn’t want you to have something bad occur because of negligence or ignorance.

Personally, I know very little about steroids. In every book I write, I clarify that I don’t have experience in coaching anybody that uses them, and I’ve already pointed out how I don’t have any experience taking them (though I’ve been accused of it at various points in the last 8 years). I also never knew a simple, direct source to learn about steroids basics. Every resource either seems to be chemistry related that is a bit over my “steroid knowledge” head, or it’s forum-type information saying “use this and this, it’ll work like a charm”. However, now there is such a source of information in the Beginner’s Guide to Steroids by Brent Larson at Strength Villain.


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Despite the increase in popularity in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, there are still aspects of it that always work “behind the scenes”. The average fan doesn’t really understand why the U.S. may or may not have a spot in the 2012 Olympics in London. Instead of grumbling and talking about how much American weightlifting sucks, let’s review the process that will determine what male weightlifter will represent the U.S. in London.
Note: If I’ve misconstrued or left out anything, just let me know and I’ll amend it.

I had a quick phone call with Glenn Pendlay the other day so that he could explain this to me. Basically we need to first earn a spot, and then whichever lifter has the best total (relative to the world average in their weight class) will be chosen. The timing of how this will occur is what makes it weird.

First the men need to earn a spot to go to the Olympics, and that is done at the Pan American Championships a couple weeks after Nationals. Chances are very good, almost certain, that the men will earn a spot. Pendlay even said, “God would need to strike down four or five of the best lifters in order not to earn it.” He even said that if everyone had a bad day then the spot would still be earned. However, earning a spot is still dependent on performing reasonably well at the Pan Am Championships to lock a spot up.

Olympic hopeful Donny Shankle rests with Jon North between attempts

This article is written by my Australian friend Peter Upham. Peter owns Shire Speed and Strength but also has coached, played, and S&C coached American style football for many years. He’s a student of sport history and loves talking about the theory behind training. Two of his kids have received scholarships to play at the University of Hawaii, and that’s where our journey begins.

GENERALLY FOOTBALL
by Peter Upham

Its playoff time for the NFL, College Football has reached its climax, and so as we have just bypassed the Perihelion (the furthest point from the Sun of the Earth’s orbit), those players are also the furthest point from football summer camps and the heat of preseason training.

An athlete does not just ‘do’ their sport. The athlete, does what is necessary to enhance their general abilities whilst they continue to master the technical-tactical skills of their game. For football, players give their all to win; if you’re interested to see the games live, you may want to look into these Liverpool hospitality packages.

In 1976, Terry Albritton would set the world record in the shot put at the University of Hawaii’s Cooke Field in an all-comer’s meet. The same year, Bill Starr published ‘The Strongest Shall Survive.’ Bill was the Strength and Conditioning coach at Hawaii and would hand over the job eventually to Albritton. Previous to that, he had been the Strength and Conditioning coach for the Baltimore Colts. Meanwhile, for those who are eager to bet on any sports event, a site like WSM Casino would provide them some ease of access. You can also check out online casino platforms like level up casino NZ for exciting prizes! And slot gacor hari ini for the best slot machine games.

Terry Albritton

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Is it possible for a female to come in 3rd at an Olympic weightlifting national meet with only three months of training? Typically not, but that’s exactly what Lindsay Taylor at California Strength did. The CrossFit CenCal co-owner has a background in sports and CrossFit that has prepped her for the dedication and aggressiveness to be a great weightlifter.



When Lindsay and Glenn Pendlay realized she had potential in weightlifting, she committed to a lifestyle that focuses her available time to train at Cal Strength. Her typical week looks like this: Bright and early Tuesday morning she drives about an hour to Glenn’s house and trains two or three times on Tuesday. Then she stays at Glenn’s house (AKA the weightlifter storage center) Tuesday night and trains another two or three sessions on Wednesday. Then she drives home Wednesday night. Thursday afternoon or Friday morning she drives back to Glenn’s, trains twice on Friday, sometimes trains on Saturday, and drives back home. That’s commitment, folks.

And it’s working. In this video you can see Lindsay working with around 50kg on the clean and jerk. The video embedded above is her hitting 103kg for a single. Astute determination yields great progress, and this 92kg clean and jerk in early December helped her win third place at the American Open.

Glenn told me that on a decent day Lindsay can snatch 86 or 87 and clean and jerk 103kg. But aside from the commitment, the willingness to get better, and natural talent, Lindsay is a damn fine competitor. Most of you know that the Friday training sessions at Cal Strength are fueled by a cash prize for the best lifter. Pendlay will put a total on the board for each lifter, and whoever goes above that total the most wins the cash prize (which is usually at least $100). For example, Jon North’s might be something like 340 and Shankle’s around 365. One day Lindsay had already PR’d her total, but needed more to win the cash prize. Her best clean and jerk at the time was 95kg and she needed 99kg to win. Guess what she did? She put 99kg on the bar — never having done it before — and killed it. You can’t teach that.

In this video Lindsay cleans and jerks 97kg, then LOWERS IT, then jerks it again. If you aren’t a weightlifter then “lowering the bar” may not make sense, but just imagine doing sort of a negative with about 213 lbs. There are a lot of guys who can’t do that. What’s more impressive is how she came back from an unstable first-rep jerk and solidly put the second jerk overhead.


“She’s not scared to go under the bar, not scared to put weight on the bar. She’s an aggressive competitor.” That’s just one phrase Glenn used to describe his flourishing lifter. Now Lindsay, Glenn, and California Strength have their eyes set on Nationals at the Arnold Sports Festival in March. I asked Glenn what he thinks Lindsay can hit at Nationals and he said, “Probably snatch 90, clean and jerk 110. I’m confident she’ll total over 200 at Nationals.” It seems doable for Lindsay to increase another 5 kilos or so in each lift in a couple months. Yet her recent history has shown that it doesn’t matter what’s on the bar; just load it up to whatever will win and Wonder Woman will do the rest.