Category Archives: Content

Using the Olympic Lifts for Powerlifting

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I started to answer this question in a Q&A and thought it was a good topic, so I saved it for a post. It starts with the question below. Thanks for the question, Jared. I think that this topic will be informative and interesting.

Hey Justin,

[spoiler]

I wrote you awhile back talking about Thoracic Mobility. Thanks for the response. I have a question about the Oly lifts in a power lifting program and you are the only coach I know that trains both types of athletes. I focus mostly on power lifting for amateur competitions. I feel that the snatch and the clean both do a lot for my upper back and shoulders, as well as my explosive power off the floor and out of the hole. I am pretty technical at the power and hang variations of both Oly lifts but I have recently started focusing on learning the full version (catching lower instead of with a quarter squat like in the power variant). I have noticed that due to the need to relearn the technique, my weights have dropped considerably. My question is; In your opinion, is it worth the time to learn the full lift or should I just stick with the power variants considering that I am only using these movements as assistance for a raw power lifting program? Am i going to get a performance boost worth the time that it takes to learn the new technique? By the way 70’s big is what inspired me to learn the Oly lifts in the first place. I am 235 and when I saw someone that weighs 180 snatch my body weight when I couldnt even do an overhead squat with the bar, I was embarrased. I thought, how can I call myself strong when I cant even perform one of the basic lifts. Time to fix that. I know that you are busy and it means a lot to me that you take the time to help me out. Anyway, thanks for the inspiration and the advice. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

WO1 xxxx, Jared
AV, US Army[/spoiler]

TL;DR – Learn full lifts, or stick with power variations to supplement powerlifting training?

Here’s an old picture of me doing the jump method. Please ignore it.

The Olympic lifts can be looked at in two ways: a) using the lifts to supplement another activity or sport and b) doing the lifts to compete in the sport of Olympic weightlifting. Personally, I would teach the lifts in different ways depending on the end product. The first method above would do the simplified “jump” version while actual weightlifters would use a more specific method to allow them to get under the bar with heavier weights (the distinction is briefly explained in this post). I’m sure weightlifting coaches may disagree with me, but if I’m training some Army Rangers, I don’t give a damn if they are getting under the weight properly. Instead, I want them to jump the weight to train a loaded hip extension movement so that it can augment their “operational capability” (i.e. ‘cool guy’ term for ‘doing their highly demanding job’).

The same concept would apply to anything else like martial arts, field or court sports, or any other activity or sport not called weightlifting. The exception is CrossFit; CF competitors need to learn the more technical version in order to excel in their hypothetical competitions. Powerlifting fits into the “any other activity or sport” category.

The value of these pursuits lies not just in the physical exertion but also in the mental acuity and strategic thinking they demand. Whether it’s the disciplined movements of martial arts, the teamwork in field sports, or the precision required in court sports, each endeavor presents an opportunity for personal growth and skill development. For instance, Youth Martial Arts programs play a crucial role in instilling discipline and focus in young individuals. The structured training in martial arts not only imparts self-defense skills but also cultivates qualities such as resilience and respect. Much like other sports, the journey of learning martial arts is a continuous process that not only shapes physical abilities but also nurtures essential life skills, making it a valuable pursuit for individuals of all ages.

How the Olympic lifts should be used in powerlifting

If your primary goal is powerlifting, then all of your training should funnel into that sport. The power clean and power snatch are usually good at developing power necessary in the slower lifts in powerlifting (ignore the fact that the slow lifts erroneously use the prefix “power”). However, this depends on training advancement. Lesser adapted trainees will benefit from using the power variants of the Olympic lifts, but more advanced trainees will not receive much benefit out of them.

For example, Chris can deadlift 705 pounds. He uses 435 on his speed deadlift sessions (and performs ten singles on the minute). He cannot clean or power clean 435. When he was deadlifting around 633, his power clean singles (performed on the minute) were around 275 lbs. If the power clean weight was any heavier, he would have had to squat them and I didn’t want that to happen since it would add more squatting stress to the program. This is one key point on why the full lifts aren’t used in powerlifting: it will increase the squatting stress without significantly improving the power stress.

The power cleans were 43% of his 1RM (275/633 = ~43%) while the speed deads are 62% (435/705 = ~62%). As you see, his speed deads are a higher percentage of 1RM. If we used the same percentage to figure what his power clean weight would be based on his current 705 deadlift, he would be using right around 300 pounds on the power cleans (.43 x 705 = ~303). 300 pounds is over 100 pounds less than 435. Some may argue that he can pull the 300 pounds faster than the 435 through a longer ROM. I’m telling you, if you watch Chris speed deadlift, the bar can’t move much faster; he rips the hell out of the bar. More importantly, the speed deadlifts are specific to deadlifts. The mechanics are exactly the same, he uses more weight (causing a greater power stress), and he gets more practice greasing the groove of his deadlift technique. Power cleans are absolutely inferior to speed deadlifts for Chris.

A weaker lifter may get a good power stress out of power cleans because a) their deadlift 1RM is lower and b) their power clean is a higher percentage of deadlift 1RM. This is really only relevant to “novices”, “beginners” and “weak lifters” (all of the terms are in quotes because they’re arbitrary). Keep in mind that we’re specifically talking about training for powerlifting here. If a trainee had a 600+ deadlift, but he played American football, I would still have him power clean because it trains physical traits necessary for his sport.

Specificity

As previously stated, power cleans are not as specific to “intermediate and higher” powerlifting programs. It also stated that the full Olympic lifts wouldn’t be applicable to someone focusing on powerlifting. This is because the amount of specificity the full Olympic lifts demand will leave the scope of powerlifting training. The opposite is true as well: using a powerlifting focused version of the squat (low bar) and deadlift would leave the scope of specific Olympic weightlifting training.

To answer Jared’s question, no, I don’t think it’s worth his time to learn the full Olympic lifts if his goal is to improve his performance in powerlifting. Jared said that he is training for “amateur competitions”. Well, most competitions are amateur in nature and I could argue that all competitions are since nobody is getting paid. Nevertheless, Jared may want to be the best he can be in powerlifting, or he may do powerlifting competitions once in a while because they are fun. What if he wanted to be a strong guy all around? Maybe he’s just training to be strong and conditioned, but competed in powerlifting to shut me up about choosing a competition or meet?

Being a manly lifter

The readership of this site is sort of equal parts powerlifter, weightlifter, and CrossFitter, yet there’s a larger percentage that are concerned with “General Physical Preparedness (GPP) or strength and conditioning”. This type of trainee typically has the following generic goals:
– press 200
– bench 300
– squat 400
– deadlift 500
– snatch 220
– clean and jerk 330

Those are cool numbers. Being able to hit them on any day of the week means you’re pretty strong, manly even. And sometimes that’s what it is all about. Some of you may do a powerlifting meet, but you don’t devote your life to powerlifting. That’s okay. My advice would be to acquaint yourself with the Olympic lifts, because they are pretty cool and will augment your physical attributes. Don’t get me wrong, having a big squat or deadlift are impressive too, but you don’t want some 180 pound dude snatching more than you. That’s just wrong.

What about other sport competitors?

We already know that the power variants of the Olympic lifts will benefit other sport competitors, but should they bother learning the full movements? Eh, this depends more on the person’s skill. If Guy A is a spaz and finds the full clean or snatch difficult, then I’m not going to waste time training the specific motor skills to do the lifts well. I’ll just use the power variants. If Guy B can seamlessly learn and implement the full Olympic lifts, then I’ll probably use them in his training. I’d probably use both the power and full variants of the Olympic lifts for Guy B. A good example is Peter Upham’s athlete in Sydney named Blake. Blake is going into his sophomore year of playing football at Hawaii and regularly snatches and clean and jerks.

If you’re not committed to one type of sport, or you aim to compete in several, I would urge you to learn the fully Olympic lifts in order to be well rounded in the weight room — and subsequently in other sports or activities . Some of you will simply suck at them. It’s okay if you have “spaz athleticism”; good coaching and practice will help. Program them in a classic S&C style by putting one of the lifts first in the workout.

If you’re a powerlifter, then your advancement will dictate whether or not the power variants will augment your training. If you choose to see how far you can go in powerlifting, any version of the Olympic lifts will eventually be a divergence from optimal training. In this case, I wouldn’t worry about lighter dudes snatching more than you as long as your powelifts are decent. Comparing lifts, especially ones you don’t compete in, is just a dick measuring game that children play.

To learn more about the “more advanced” powerlifting programming mentioned int his post, check out The Texas Method: Advanced.

The Enemy

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HarveyMushman AKA Kyle has been reading 70’s Big for a while. His wife, Julie (hi Julie!), competes in roller derby and also had an ACL replacement in March of 2011. When she started her linear progression, they focused on using the leg press to help strengthen her knee through a full range of motion.

One day when Julie was using the leg press at the gym, a woman approached them and said (according to Kyle, who shits you not), “Women shouldn’t use this leg press with plates because they’ll get big. You should be over there [gestures to the selectorized side of the room] using the machines with light weight and high reps to tone instead of get big.”

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we’re up against. This is The Enemy.

This is a persistent myth that women hold onto, but it ends up being an excuse that keeps them from doing anything that is hard. I want to review why this is such an absurd assumption — aside from how it isn’t based on any factual evidence.

1. Women have 1/10th the testosterone of men. 

Hormones regulate our body and our life, yet women lack significant amounts of this very important hormone that creates a domino effect in a complicated neuroendocrine system to “get bigger”. In fact, you can’t even truthfully say that “lifting heavy weights makes men bigger” because there are thousands of goobers who prove this wrong every day. “Hard gainers”, skinny guys, and the misinformed prove to us that lifting weights hardly results in getting bigger, even when it’s the goal.

So why would we assume this would be the case for a female? And even if it was the case for men, women have a small fraction of the testosterone that a man does making it incredibly difficult to “get bigger”.

2. Muscle is metabolically active tissue. 

When you have more lean body mass (AKA muscle), your metabolism is higher. That means you use more energy when you have more muscle. That also means your body is more efficient at using fat as energy, thereby reducing body fat. Lower body fat also results in a higher metabolic rate. All of this means your body is efficient at being lean and strong, which is what “being toned” really means.

Erin Stern is my stock example of a fit woman. She competes in figure competitions, but implements a variety of training methods

3. Lifting weights to get stronger with compound movements significantly raises metabolism too. 

Crayola style:
When you lift weights, you damage muscle fibers. When you lift weights with compound movements, you damage muscle fibers all over the body. When you recover from lifting weights, the body will repair this damaged muscle. When you recover from heavier, compound movements, your body will repair lots of muscle all over your body. It requires energy to repair things, and a greater energy demand is a higher metabolism. Of all the women I’ve trained, I’ve never had anyone gain body fat; they’ve always lost body fat while increasing muscle (by a little bit). 

4. Why would a woman suddenly become bulky anyway?

I know, I know, I’m trying to apply more logic to a person that holds onto a belief without any factual evidence. But if you’re a female, especially a skinny one, why would you suddenly become bulky if you’ve been skinny your whole life? If you’re a heavier female, you definitely are carrying more body fat. If you accept # 2 and 3, then you know your metabolism will be higher and you will burn more fat by a) lifting and recovering from lifting  lifting weights with compound movements, b) having a greater lean body mass (even if it is only several pounds).

In order to be truly bulky with muscle mass, a women usually needs chemical help (AKA steroids). The women who are naturally muscular are genetically gifted and comprise a very low percentage of the population. If you were one of these women, you would already know (and you’d probably be proud of your physique anyway). 

5. Higher reps with lower weights seems to be the thing that actually increases muscle mass the most in women. 

Perhaps a literature review is in order for this topic, but those of us that are actually practitioners in the fitness or strength and conditioning field see that women seem to develop muscle very well with higher reps. I’ve heard of various people (including Robb Wolf) talk about how this seems to stimulate growth hormone. It’s an observation I’ve had for a while, because when you look at fitness/figure competitors and CrossFitters, they carry more muscle than average. The commonality in training is doing higher amounts of volume for sets of higher reps.

I’ve pointed out in the past (can’t find the post) that a good program for a girl who wants definition in her musculature is to strength train, then do some back-off work like walking lunges and leg curls to accumulate reps and volume. That’s what the gals do who get paid to do it. The point is that the method of training that women typically use (lower weights, higher reps) to avoid “getting bulky” is actually what helps stimulate lean body mass gain anyway. It’s just that they are doing it with three pound dumbbells instead of 50 pound dumbbells. Getting stronger is the key to metabolic activity, lower body fat, and being a kick ass woman.

The truth is that none of this really matters. I could keep going with a list of bullets 50 items long. Facts or statements are just a hodge podge of information that won’t sway an emotional belief. Some of you can print posts out like this and show it to your clients, spouses, or friends and they may take action. I don’t expect that to work in non-gym environments (i.e. It’s easier to convince a woman who is doing CrossFit than someone who lives and dies on the elliptical). Instead I’ll take the Robb Wolf approach and say, “Just try it for a month.” There are plenty of examples in the “Getting Girls to Train” series to get women training, but the hardest part is convincing them that the big scary physique that they think they’ll grow is just a silly myth.

Q&A – 34

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Sæl!

Jesus, what a busy week on the site, eh? For all of you new readers, welcome. You probably came here because you thought there were gonna be hot babes or you wanted to argue with me. That’s fine. This website will entertain you (albeit poorly), but it’ll also aim to educate. Regardless of your training goals, there are gems you can glean for your mechanics, mobility, programming, nutrition, health, sleep, strength training, conditioning, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and more. It won’t all come at once, because that’d be an information grenade that would make your head explode (and not necessarily the head on your shoulders).

Doug Young is one of Chris’ dads

PR Friday

Every Friday we post about our training personal records (PRs) in the comments. If PRs weren’t achieved, then readers can at least update everyone on their training. Posting regularly means that other people remember you and enjoy hearing about you; it helps them stay motivated as well. Join the fun.

Weekly Challenge

This is where I pose a challenge for readers to complete. Last week I actually forgot to write something and included a .gif that basically said, “Don’t suck.” Woops.

Next Week’s Challenge:  Perform these foot drills every day in the next week. It should help those of you with lower extremity issues, but let’s see if it does anything else. You can do it prior to lifting and running.

Week In Review

Oh boy. The week started quietly with a post about the New England Women of Strength. Then things got interesting on the subject of treating very simple neural issues. Then things got kinda rowdy. Mark Sisson linked to the site; he runs Mark’s Daily Apple, an enjoyable website about health, nutrition, and primal living (Mark: Do you ever read fiction? My gods, man!). However, in conjunction with that I wrote a post about not needing sexy programming or equipment in training, but at the same time making a point about superficial websites that focus on selling “sexy” things, like pictures, slogans, memes, or catchy phrases instead of content with substance. The following day I pissed off a bunch of runners because I’m not impressed with completing a marathon. I’ll be honest, I only read the first half of the 80 or so comments. I get bored of the same, “Well, why don’t YOU do a marathon, tough guy,” comments over and over, which only prove my original point. I don’t enjoy people who get offended easily.

Q&A

This is the one day of the week where I pick a few questions from the Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, comments, or other messages and answer them. It keeps me on my toes, and I don’t know the answer I have a lot of friends who are smarter than me that I can ask.

Justin,

[spoiler]

More of a lurker, but I’ve been following 70sbig since the beginning.  After reading your marathon post today, I felt compelled to tell you how utterly awesome that was.  Please write a history book describing significant battles and “athletic events worth emulating” in the same way as you have done today.
I recently bought the TM Part 1 e-book and have been debating whether or not to buy Part 2.  Heading over to the 70sbig store after I send this to you to pick it up.  The quality of information you put out is some of the best in the fitness community and it dawns on me that I need to do my part to support you in this so you can continue to do it for a long time.
Enough ass-kissing, just wanted to say thanks.

[/spoiler]

While I’m at it, I’ll throw out a question.  I’m a pretty tall dude at 6’5 with a very short torso relative to my long femurs.  Current bodyweight around 215.  Current 5RM low bar squat around 315.  All time best is 360×5 at 240 lbs bodyweight.  However I can deadlift mid 400’s for a set of 5 (all time best 500×5 at 240 lbs).  Squatting is just a very difficult movement, and anything above 225 feels slow as shit; while deadlifting feels completely natural.  Is there a certain type (low, high, front, etc.) of squat a guy in my situation should focus on?  Goals are general athleticism for basketball, jackedness, but would also like to hit a 400 lb squat in a powerlifting meet.
I recently dropped some excess bodyfat, so I’m back on an LP for a few weeks and then will transition to TM.  I’ve read your posts about low bar vs. high bar squatting and you’ve addressed this in your Q&A before, but was just wondering if there were any special considerations/recommendations for a tall guy with long legs?  Just continue driving up my low bar squat 2x/week?
Thanks man,
Tim

Dear Tim,

As you know, I’ve talked at length on high bar and low bar squatting. To simplify:

Powerlifting: low bar
Weightlifting: high bar
GPP/S&C: Kinda doesn’t matter, but whichever suits goals best

Guys with your body type — long femurs and a short torso — have difficulty with the vertical style squats (high bar and front) because of the angles and lever arms. That means that you’ll have to lean over a bit more because your torso is shorter. If you have good mobility and “not as extreme” segment lengths, this may not be as much of an issue.

The reason your deadlift is so much better is because you probably have longer arms (judging by the long femurs), and this helps tremendously with the deadlift. Since your back is short, it may not round as much relative to a guy with a longer torso, and it results in a lever system that is more efficient than normal (or at least more efficient when compared to your back squat).

Without seeing your technique (which could limit you), you just need to keep plugging away at the low bar squat. Part of your issue will be filling out the musculature on the front and back of your legs, and proper squatting, deadlifting, RDLs, or other posterior chain work will do that for your hamstrings. It may be necessary to work on your anterior chain a bit in the form of front squats, but if you’re still sloppy in the movement don’t worry about this for a while. The vertical alignment will train a different motor pathway and it’s some times hard for people to go back and forth between vertical squatting and low bar squatting. This would be something I could determine if I was coaching you, or even had some video.

Continue squatting twice a week with the low bar. Your segment lengths will work best with that style for now, and you stated a powerlifting goal so it reinforces my support for the low bar. The front or high bar squat may augment your low bar (by improving the strength and musculature of your quads), but it may be a bit soon to use that. Be consistent, make sure your technique is solid, and train hard.

Paul posted this link and said, “Look where weightlifting was placed. Discuss.

Dear Paul and whoever wants to discuss,

The guy writing the article is just some editorial doofus with arguably no athletic experience. And the piece included several poor attempts at humor. Let’s ignore all that.

To really rank these, we’d have to define what we mean by “hardest”. Hardest to do that activity on any level? Hardest to excel at the highest level? Hardest to win a gold medal?

Instead, let’s just talk about what Olympic sports could be considered some of the hardest and ignore how they relate to each other. I don’t know where I’d put weightlifting, but I know that it wouldn’t be the “hardest”. The lifts are very technical, yes, but all athletic skills considered, it’s just repeating the same movements over and over. It’s been documented that there are plenty of successful lifters that are not great athletes in other sports. In fact, I think Glenn Pendlay said that in one of our podcasts; the American weightlifter is typically someone who couldn’t cut it in another sport, like football, and they found something they could flourish in (let’s ignore the fact that is specific to our country’s situation for now). Generally speaking, being able to repeat the same movements over and over doesn’t necessarily make you very athletic, though they are athletic movements (especially by a novice’s standards).

Personally, I’m more impressed with sports that are dynamic. Things like weightlifting, swimming, and sprinting are all very impressive, but true athleticism is shown through reaction to an opponent. This would include wrestling, judo, taekwondo, hockey, boxing, volleyball, basketball, soccer, fencing, and rugby. Personally, I’m more impressed with sports that require significant physical skills, perhaps a broad spectrum of them, to be successful in the sport. This would eliminate things like tennis, table tenis, handball, and fencing from “the hardest” category. Soccer and basketball seem to require a specific kind of skill set, and you can develop the physical attributes to participate purely through playing them, so they fall off of my list. Rugby and hockey aren’t relatively technical, they they are both physical. They are high on my list, but maybe not the highest. Taekwondo appears to be more skill dependent than boxing (though boxing is technical, there are only two weapons compared to, well, more than two in taekwondo). This leaves wrestling, judo, and taekwondo. To be able to react to your opponent is so significant in the realm of athleticism, and it’s something we ignore in our “online S&C communities”.

In the realm of precision and consistency, where the skill lies in executing a repetitive motion with unwavering accuracy, archery stands as a testament to both focus and discipline. While it may not demand the same physical exertion as some other sports, the mental fortitude required to consistently hit the mark cannot be understated. Much like a steady hand drawing back an arrow from its arrow quiver, each shot requires a blend of technique, concentration, and control. So while it may not fit the mold of traditional “physical exertion,” archery holds its own unique challenge within the realm of sporting endeavors.

You’ll notice archery or shooting sports, while incredibly technical, did not really get mentioned. It’s not because they aren’t hard, but because they are more in that “doing a skill repeatedly without too many changing variables” group, yet they also have the, “not really exerting oneself physically, relatively speaking” tag. All kinds of things are hard, like triathlons, rowing/kayaking, curling, and golf, yet they are more hard in one kind of way than several ways.

All this being said, I think that decathlons are the hardest thing to be successful in. There is such an array of skills across a broad spectrum of physical attributes. If decathletes were more jacked, they’d probably be my favorite athletes. Oh, and gymnastics is pretty hard and has a large skill set and demand of physical capacity. However, both gymnastics and decathlons don’t have that reaction component, and I deem that as incredibly important

If I had to pick one sport that is the hardest, I would pick wrestling. There’s not too many sports that are so heavily dependent on physical capacity, technical skill, as well as the ability to react to an opponent.

What do you guys think?

Kind of limited on questions this week, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of discussion with people still pissed off from the running post. 

Marathons Are Yawn

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I’m getting sick of the runner’s narcissism that permeates throughout life.

“You mock marathons because you can’t do one!”

That’s such an 8 year old mentality. I cringe whenever I see the “26.2” stickers on car windows; it’s just a participation sticker. I went to kindergarten too, so I guess I understand their pride. You don’t see anyone putting a “500 lbs” sticker on their window, but if they did it would make more sense. After all, being able to do anything with 500 pounds requires some sort of development. There’s a huge portion of the population that will never understand what 500 pounds feels like. On the other hand, a huge percentage of the population can complete 26.2 miles if they gave enough of a shit. You can even walk part of it! It’s not that impressive.

I’m almost tempted to go do a marathon to prove a point, but, oh yeah, I don’t care.

Marathons aren’t even practical. If you need to run over 20 miles to avoid something, you can probably avoid it by walking. Or you would have died already. In fact, the storied hero Pheidippides dropped dead after completing his “marathon”! Even if this story was real (it isn’t), it’s not near as impressive as what actually happened.

The Persians were planning an attack on Athens by landing 24 miles north along the coastal plains of Marathon with an army 80,000 strong. The Athenians only had 10,000 infantry to deflect such an attack. One Athenian leader, Miltiades, had big coconut sized balls (equally hairy, no doubt); his idea was to march their asses straight to Marathon and fight the Persians at the pass. Everyone realized it was either a) get their asses kicked or b) try and have a Leonidas moment (which wouldn’t happen for ten more years, but stay focused). The Athenians marched up to Marathon to find 80,000 assholes camping in the plains.

“We are so fucked,” the Athenians thought. A few days later they got word that the Persians slipped off into the night to sail the bulk of their army down to Athens. They only left a 15,000 strong holding force. Miltiades, that guy with the gigantic balls, said, “Good,” and let everyone know that it was clobberin’ time. It would take the Persians 10 to 12 hours to get to Athens, so if they whipped some Persian ass and then rushed back home, they should have time to defend their wives and children. While some of the leaders pleaded to wait for the Spartans to get there (which was not a certainty), Miltiades whispered, “We attack at dawn,” and then he put a cigarette out on his own arm to prove a point. Okay, that last part may not have been true.

“Oh, how I love the smell of blood and carnage in the morning,” is probably what Miltiades said when the battle ended at 9 AM. After three hours of fighting, the marshy water ran red with Persian blood. The Athenians lost fewer than 200 men.

Now imagine this. You have been strung out for several days at the though of your entire way of life being annihilated. A Persian victory would destroying the Athenian government, sell your children into slavery, and rape your wife countless of times. After days of this prospect, you finally unleash fury in a three hour battle. All of that pent up emotion has been wrought down on your foe, but as the final battle cry of victory ebbs away, you think of your son back home, sitting in your wife’s arms. Your dog sits with them wagging his tail. And those Persian fucks are on their way to kill everything you love.

“Ruck up, boys, we’re headin’ home,” Miltiades said followed by swigging straight whiskey. The Athenian soldiers had 7 hours to travel 24 miles in full battle gear. Armor, weapons, and rations. They pounded home as fast as they could. Imagine the pain of each step with their blistered feet. Imagine the fatigue their bodies felt. Imagine the fire in their bellies knowing that every second counted to protect their wives, their children, their city. At 4:00 PM some of the Athenians crested the cliffs facing the ocean where the Persian army was  arriving. After seeing those fierce Athenians caked with blood, no doubt flashing their asses and clanging their shields, the Persians thought, “Uhh, this probably isn’t such a good idea, mmkay.” Deuces.

Now that’s a fucking story. That’s an athletic event worth emulating.

 

Sexy Isn’t Always Better

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Did OP deliver?

Sex certainly sells. There are plenty of training websites that put up scantily clad women to accumulate traffic (I’ll prove it today with the images). In fact, some of the most popular days in 70’s Big history include scantily clad ladies. The fact that pictures of me in a speedo compete for that top spot is immaterial.

Sexiness also comes in the form of shouting things at you and using cheap tactics to get you to click on a post. “7 WAYS TO GET STRONGER” or “THE 15 REASONS TO DEADLIFT”. Catch phrases, memes, and slogans result in traffic activity, but they lack substance. The same concept applies to training.

Pick a sport, any sport, step right up. How do the best in the world train for that sport? Neat! Fun! Let’s be like them! Now how should you train for that sport? By the gods, we’ll train just like the experts!

It doesn’t work that way.

The best and strongest competitors in a given sport are that way because they have accumulated years of training. They started at the beginning and toiled away to get where they are. It’s foolish to think that any of us can step in, emulate their program, and experience the same results. We can watch Ray Lewis focusing on plyometrics, agilities, and some dumbbell work and draw the conclusion that those training activities make one of the greatest linebackers ever. Ray developed his genetic talent of strength and power as he grew up, and he maintains those qualities. Now, late in his career, he refines agility and explosiveness with a weighted vest as well as keeps his body healthy. He works on solidifying his overall athleticism because he isn’t weak and lacking power for the sport of football.

Let’s look at two examples that are more relevant to all of us: weightlifting and powerlifting.

Weightlifting

There are different successful systems of weightlifting in the world. To simplify, we could look at Russian and Bulgarian training. The Russian system traditionally integrates variety and periodizes the training approach. The Bulgarian system is limited to specific movements done at high intensity with high frequency. Budding weightlifters will see videos, past or present, and are awed at the capacity of Klokov or Süleymanoğlu and immediately want to do what they do. Whenever Klokov does any kind of complex, there is a crashing wave of YouTube videos of novice lifters imitating it. The complex is sexy! Klokov is sexy (no homo BRO)! We must do as he does if we are going to be jacked in a speedo and lift more than 70kg.

This even occurs with the top American lifters. The California Strength or MDUSA crews will train a certain way and everyone follows suit. What’s missed is that even our American lifters, who receive so much scorn from USA haters, have trained and advanced to a level in which they can actually handle their programming. That means that the recreational, beginner, and early intermediate lifters of the world have no business trying to follow their program in the same way that they shouldn’t emulate stone cold Bulgarian or Russian programming styles. It’ll just result in the lifter doing too much when a simple 3 or 4 days-a-week program with a basic approach will suffice.

Powerlifting

The same thing occurs in powerlifting. Some of the strongest guys in the world are lifting at Westside Barbell, one of the most badass training environments with a badass program. However, in order to train at Westside a guy or girl has to be exceptionally strong already. They have to advanc enough to be worthy of acceptance. Westside’s specific approach is designed for the most advanced powerlifters in the world. To think that it applies to a beginner crowd is clearly a mistake. Does that mean that Westside, or any advanced training approach, can’t be broken down into concepts that can be applied to beginners? Of course not, but that’s not what the training public does. They see bands, chain, boards, sumo variations, wide grips, and boxes and throw them into their training. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen videos of weak people benching 200 with chains or box squatting 300.

The same goes for weightlifting. Trainees will jump into 6-day-a-week programs and squat to max every day. If some training is good, then more training is better! If regular powerlifting is good, then powerlifting with a bunch of random-ass tools and equipment will be better! It’s so fucking sexy.

Potential customers of crazy programming in weightlifting or crazy equipment in powerlifting have to keep in mind several things. First, they are not advanced. You can’t just skip ten years of stress-recovery-adaptation, sorry. Second, they are not on performance enhancement drugs. Most of the best guys in the world are using. Again, I don’t care that they are, but it’s an incredibly important distinction to make when you look at their programming. But keep in mind that even if you are on drugs, you still don’t have the training advancement (the stress-adaptation) of a guy who has been lifting since he was 9 years old. Drugs help with recovery, but they don’t let you jump right into the extremely advanced realm.

Simple programs will always out-weigh complicated programs, especially for weak or beginning lifters. There’s a whole generation of guys out there who don’t make a lot of money because all they say is, “Do less. Be simple. Rest hard.” I’ll point out that the principles in The Texas Method: Advanced are still quite simple. Each lift in training uses the same mechanics as in the meet. Work is distributed across the week, the lifter goes heavy, and he won’t use a bunch of weird exercises or equipment to get there. Because he doesn’t need to yet. The last chapter in the book provides some options of where we’ll go with the programming, and those options include using the slingshot, bands, chains, and maybe a box. However, we’re just throwing these new methods in with the same mechanics because there’s no sense in using different mechanics in training from the meet until we need to.

Take a look at your programming. Is it overly complicated? You’re either trying to do too much for too many goals or you’re trying to emulate a sexy lifter, programming style, or use of equipment. Sex certainly sold you something, but is it providing quality gains? At the end of the day, you can’t ignore the stress-adaptation cycle, even if the alternative is hotter and sexier than a simple and efficient program.