Glenn Pendlay recently posted an article on his blog explaining how he trains the Muscle Driver USA Olympic weightlifting team (article).
It’s your standard fare of doing the competitive lifts, doing power and other variants when necessary, and getting stronger with presses and squats. There are some peculiarities that help distribute the work load throughout the week, like making the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon workouts the heaviest days, doing doubles and power variants in the morning sessions, and always trying to improve the squat.
Glenn sits with his beard at the National University Championships
Pendlay also mentions using the Texas Method to push the squats. For those of you who never read my Texas Method e-books, the style of programming was coined when the Wichita Falls Weightlifting team fell into it with Pendlay as the head coach. It’s a good general approach that can push an Olympic weightlifter’s squat without interfering too much with the competitive lifts’ training. The way I program the Texas Method is more for general strength trainees and raw powerlifting, but a weightlifter will have success with the core program of using a volume day, light day, and intensity day.
Anyway, check out Glenn’s article; his system is a simple outline that he dials in for specific lifters depending on what they need, whether their weaknesses are in squatting, overhead strength, cleaning, snatching, or jerking.
David C asks, “If you were going to hire/follow one of the bigger CrossFit coaches out there to help you prepare for the Open, Regionals, and Games, who would you choose?”
Rudy Nielsen of Outlaw. In part because he has a deep and sound understanding of how to program effectively – but there are a lot of people with that. What Rudy has that a lot of others lack, is a deep and sound understanding of how CrossFit – the SPORT, not the fitness program – functions. He doesn’t debate silly shit like “is CrossFit too strength biased” or “has too much cardio” or whether the “definition of fitness” is legit. He observes the parameters of the sport, and trains people to compete in them.
Dave F asks, “I am training the Olympic lifts three times a week, one day being committed to the snatch, one day to the clean & jerk, and one to both. What is a good rep scheme for a novice?”
First: if you are a novice, I do NOT think that 2x/week per lift is enough. You need to be doing them 3x/week so that you can learn the patterns and learn them well.
About rep schemes…don’t worry about them. Focus on sets of 1-3, get a lot of good reps in, and when you feel great, go for a new PR, whether it be a single, double, or triple. If you’re training alone, don’t do so much that you are exhausted for the last third of your session and do nothing but shitty reps.
Vee G asks “I was trained using the ‘scoop method’ ala Coach Burgener. A lot of my fellow weightlifters have been taught in a style more similar to Coach Pendlay’s, which does not teach the scoop. What are some advantages/disadvantages of either technique?”
I’m assuming that by the “scoop method,” you mean teaching an intentional rebending of the knees – sometimes referred to as the double knee bend – under the bar before the second pull.
Did someone say scoop method?
I personally do not teach the scoop/double knee bend as such. I teach the lifter to move into the correct position, and the knees move into the right spot – slightly in front of the bar – just before the lifter extends into the finish. It is my opinion that teaching the intentional double knee bend only serves to confuse new lifters, slow down the transition, and lead to the lifter pushing the bar forward and shifting the weight onto the front of the feet too early.
Although there are certainly good coaches who have made this method work, I cannot see any advantages this way of teaching has over those which do not coach the lifter to intentionally perform the double knee bend.
Editors’s Note: Please remember to ask Tsypkin anything your crazy little heart desires on our facebook page. Otherwise, he’s going to have to come up with his own questions to answer, and that would just be crazy.
Jacob Tsypkin is a CrossFit and weightlifting coach, the co-owner of CrossFit Monterey and the Monterey Bay Barbell Club in Monterey, CA. He is available for weightlifting seminars and has excellent taste in shirts and gainz.
Remember that time you said “Man, I wish my back was weaker?” Yeah, I didn’t think so. This is the first of a two-part series by Jacob Tsypkin on effective movements for training the posterior chain. Tsypkin coaches competitive weightlifters, CrossFitters,and even a powerlifter or three (if you force him) so his advice works well for most of you. As with most things in the gym, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do these, so read this carefully, watch the videos, and get to work.
Ariel says “Don’t be such a guppy. Get swole.”
To anyone remotely familiar with strength training, it is quite obvious that the posterior chain plays an important role in the sport of weightlifting. However, developing strength in the hamstrings, glutes, and back for improving performance in the snatch and clean & jerk isn’t quite as simple as it may seem.
I break the movements I use for this purpose down into two groups. This article discusses the first of those groups, the general: These movements are designed to create strength throughout the posterior chain in a way which is not specific to the snatch and clean & jerk. You are probably at least familiar with most of these movements.
1. Romanian Deadlift
If you are a consistent reader of 70’s Big, it is pretty unlikely that you haven’t heard plenty about the RDL. I’ll keep it simple here: we train it once a week, usually for 3×5, occasionally building up to a top set of 5 with good form before resetting. For mechanics, I’ll refer to you Justin’s post on the topic.
2. Pendlay Row
Basically a strict barbell row. The man himself tells you how to do it in the video below. We usually do these for heavy sets of 3-5 across, occasionally doubles or singles. In a lighter training phase, or for a lifter who needs some hypertrophy, we’ll do sets up to 10-12 reps.
3. Glute Ham Raise
I like sets of 5-10 on these. If 10 reps is easy, add some weight. Use with great care; these will make you sore for days. Once a week is plenty, and start with a low dose, like 3×5 (if you can do them at all…a lot of very strong people can’t.)
(I had Tsypkin create a GHR video because 90% of the GHR’s I see out there in the cold dark world are turrible. Just turrible. He got Ariel to be his lovely assistant. You’re welcome. – Cloud)
4. Back Extension
This is a true back extension, as taught here by some strange non-bearded Pendlay impersonator. Typically I start a lifter with 3×10-15 at bodyweight, and increase the reps up to 20 over a week or two, then add load at 3×10.
5. Back Raise
This is what most people refer to as a back extension. In reality the hips and hamstrings are doing the work here, but it’s still a very useful exercise. I follow the same protocol for applying these to a lifter’s training as I do for the back extensions, and Glenn covers this in the back extension video.
In the next segment, we will discuss posterior chain exercises specific to the sport of weightlifting.
Jacob Tsypkin is a CrossFit and weightlifting coach, the co-owner of CrossFit Monterey and the Monterey Bay Barbell Club in Monterey, CA, and a very handsome young man. He is available for weightlifting seminars and orders triple meat on his Chipotle burritos with a straight face.
Last Friday you were tasked with pulling your balls out from between your legs and committing to a competition. The day you sign up will be one of the greatest days of your life because your training will suddenly have new meaning. You won’t understand this until the end of the competition. You’ll either walk away from the competition’s last effort thinking, “This was one of the best experiences of my life and I can’t wait to do it again,” or “I could have been better, I should have been better, next time I will reach my full potential.” Either way, you will be of the mindset that your life craves competition, needs it.
If you haven’t signed up for something: do it. There’s no better time to sign up. It’s like cleaning a toilet; the longer you wait, the more it stinks and the less likely you will be to do anything about it.
Assuming you’ve signed up, it’s now time to ensure your training is efficient so that you have a fun and successful first competition. Most likely you can just keep doing whatever program you’re doing now, but just do it better. Increase your bar speed on every rep. It’s easy to go through the motions, but when you actually grit your teeth, clench your B-hole, and attack every rep like it owes you money/sex/bacon/chocolate, you’ll accomplish much more. Make the bar go fast; make the weights go boom.
I found this when Googling “B-hole”
If your program has a lot of dicking around — activities that will not improve your performance in the competition — then cut them out. This is, of course, an individualistic and circumstantial thing, but you don’t need to do conditioning or irrelevant assistance exercises in the six weeks before your lifting meet (other competitions may have different guidelines). Let this be a time where you train primarily for something, and you’ll be rewarded with good progress. Especially if you put a premium on spending all of your recovery resources on specific training (i.e. recovering from compound strength lifts instead chest flyes and wiener lifts).
Next, pay attention to the “outside the gym recovery”. Improve your daily protein requirement, hydrate, sleep, do your mobility (this post is a little dated, I’ll write a new one), and eat well. If you do any of these things poorly, you will not be as prepared for your competition as you could be. If you don’t go 9/9 in powerlifting or 6/6 in weightlifting with PR’s, then you could have done something better. To be clear, PR’s are not necessarily the goal in competition because competition lifts are different than gym lifts. But, if you walk away from a good or bad competition thinking you could have done better, chances are that these “outside the gym recovery” variables could have been improved. And they can’t just be worked on a few times a week like lifting — they have to be done well every day.
Summary
Commit to something. Bash the shit out of quality reps in training and then start good habits outside of the gym. Eliminate the fluff in your program. Have a week of reduced training leading into the competition and be smart with weight choices (there are many resources on this site pertaining to meets), and you’ll walk away knowing that you busted your ass for something, and it paid off. Is there a better feeling?
A few guys were recently asking questions about linear progressions in the comments. The discussion even got so specific guys were saying, “I like the Greyskull LP better than Starting Strength.” I find this distinction trivial, because 100% adherence to a program is not necessarily a good thing. The “cookie cutter approach” would state that a given program should be implemented with everyone or with a person in a specific group (i.e. a “novice”). Being a cookie cutter trainee and blindly following a program may not be optimal.
Perhaps internet readers are pressured into adhering to a specific program. Maybe it represents a devotion to the person who created the program. For example, Mark Rippetoe had to shout, “Do the fucking program,” because there were former bodybuilders, CrossFitters, or non-lifters who would try to add or change too much to the Starting Strength linear progression that it no longer was a simple strength progression with barbell movements. That “do the program” message was probably necessary around 2008 and 2009 because it was irritating to see people not making progress and asking why, or maybe even doing something that was no longer ‘Starting Strength’ and still calling it by that name.
My perception is that lack of adherence to a program doesn’t happen much anymore. Perhaps Rip influenced that by convincing people to just do Starting Strength like it’s listed, but CrossFit had to have helped too. CrossFit started as a, “Just do whatever workout shows up on this home page,” kind of thing. As many of us in the CF community realized that strength training needed to play a predominant role to increase performance or be better at CrossFit, various gyms started programming their own stuff. These gyms became popular and other people “followed their programming”. Let’s ignore the fact that a good program is tailored to an individual, so programming for an entire gym — or thousands of people — is not specific and inherently not optimal. The result is that hard training folks have gotten in the habit of “following” programs.
But programming is not intelligently putting exercises in a weekly schedule. Programs featured online usually have a goal — aiming for strength, power, and conditioning — but without the context of the population it remains a schedule on a calendar. Sure, some guys can put some Olympic lifting, some strength training, and not-retarded looking conditioning workouts and get results — many things can work. But true programming is what works optimally for the person doing it.
I get comments, messages, and e-mails from CrossFitters asking, “What is the 70’s Big program? I can’t seem to find it.” There isn’t a 70’s Big program. I may have what I call a “strength and conditioning” program or The Texas Method (and advanced), but there is not a single program that people come to this site to do. Why? Because I actually program. I take into account the person’s current state of adaptation (which includes their body type, age, nutrition, recovery, injuries, current or past programs, etc.) along with what they need and want (i.e. goals). From there I devise a plan for someone to accomplish those goals.
There are existing programs that work well for a type of person. For example, linear progressions work with ‘novices’, Texas Method stuff works with ‘intermediates’, 5/3/1 works with ‘intermediates’ or ‘advanced lifters’ who want or need to avoid volume. Factor in the desire or need to do conditioning and it can complicate the application of these programs.
But this isn’t about my ability or difference in programming. It’s not about what coach or program is good or bad. It’s about the type of program you select and how you implement it. Instead of thinking of “doing a program”, think about “using a program”. Programs are not indentured servitude where the user cannot tweak it for their goals; a program is an outline, a tool, to use to accomplish your goals.
Let’s assume a person who decides to use the Starting Strength program. Unless you are in your late teens or early twenties, it’s likely that squatting 3 times a week in a linear progression (i.e. increasing the weight every session) will be too much work. Does that mean you have to “switch programs” to something like the Greyskull LP? No. Just stop fucking squatting 3 times a week. And if you want to deadlift on Wednesday and squat Monday and Friday, does that make it the Greyskull LP. No, it’s just arranged similarly.
Use programs as a template or foundation for structuring your training. Pay attention to the good and bad in a program, or more specifically what is helpful or not to you. For example, if you are weak on the bench and press and you are making progress from alternating them each training session, then you don’t need to drop them for weighted dips or push-press. But eventually just alternating the bench and press won’t be enough to continue progress. Another example is that the stock Starting Strength template would have you deadlifting every other session. If you’ve never lifted before and are weak, then this will be fine for 8 weeks or so. But eventually the frequency will need to drop to deadlifting once a week.
If I were structuring a generic novice’s training, their program would modify every 4 to 8 weeks to accommodate their progression. Since I’m not programming for all of you individually, you need to understand that you are allowed to make tweaks — it’s your program after all. Just don’t be stupid with your changes, and, as I stress in the Texas Method e-books, just make one small change at a time in a program instead of of revamping it entirely.
I try to teach basic principles through this website, but you can learn a lot about programming by reading the Texas Method books or FIT (which is basically a manual on programming strength and conditioning). I honestly feel that reading both Practical Programming and FIT creates an excellent foundation on how to program (and not just because I authored one and know the authors of the other).
It’s hard to wade through bullshit online, but try and take advice from people that not only have success with their programming, but regularly teach and challenge your knowledge of it. Develop a working understanding of physiology and how it adapts to training stress. Consider the stress/adaptation relationship when looking at your own programming. And for gods’ sakes, don’t feel like you’re trapped in a program.
