High volume training has been used successfully by a multitude of powerlifters and bodybuilders. It tends to be more popular among bodybuilders. Some of the best have used it to not only become big, but to become tremendously strong. A few of these bodybuilders include: Franco Columbu, Bill Pearl, Sergio Oliva, Serge Nubret, Jay Cutler, and Ronnie Coleman. While powerlifters tend to emphasize load and intensity, some of the elite Russian powerlifters who are trained by Boris Sheiko include high volume training to achieve their unusual strength.  

Calculating Training Volume

Training volume consists of the total of weight lifted from all reps of all sets for an exercise or muscle group. For example if you did 4 sets of 10 reps with 200 pounds for an exercise, the total workload would be 4 x 10 = 40 total reps times 200 pounds = 8000 pounds.  If twice as many total reps were done with the same weight, the total workload or training volume would increase by twice as much. The basic idea is that more total reps with a given weight will yield a greater training volume (or total workload). 

 The More You Train –The More You Gain 

When used correctly, high volume training can significantly contribute to strength gains.

The More You Train –The Less you Gain

When used incorrectly, high volume training is a perfect formula for disaster, and a great way to do a ton of training with little in return. Phrases such as “the more you train the less you gain,” and “all pain no gain,” are appropriate when describing the misuse of high volume training that is applied without discretion. 

In my early years of weight training, both high volume and high intensity training were often emphasized. There were bodybuilders who claimed that a lot of sets were needed and that you should push hard on every set. There are very few people who can benefit from high intensity training on every set of a high volume workout, it’s just over kill. High volume training can be effective, but it must be used wisely to work.

How Champions Accumulate Training Volume

Ronnie Colman’s bench press workout is a perfect example of how to accumulate training volume without burning out. His first set with 20 reps is about one fourth of the amount of reps he could do if he were to push to failure. He only uses 25% of his single rep max for his first set. Ronnie then adds weight on each successive set, but his second set with 16 reps is still only about one fourth of the maximum reps that he could do. His third set with 12 reps is about half the amount of reps that he could if he pushed to failure. His fourth set with 10 reps is probably about two reps short of failure, and he only goes for max reps on his fifth and final set when doing a heavy set of 5 reps.

There are also powerlifters who accumulate tons of training volume when working up to a heavy poundage. Eric Spoto (a world class bench presser) commonly does 20 reps on some of his warm up sets for the bench press and accumulates a huge total workload in the process. Richard Hawthorne (an elite powerlifter) starts out with sets of 20 reps when working up to a heavy set for the squat and deadlift. The key is that both of these lifters use weights that are light in comparison to their single rep max when doing high reps, and they don’t come anywhere near to the point of pushing to failure on their high rep sets. They then add weight and reduce the reps across approximately ten sets to work up to a final heavy weight of high intensity. In the process of including high reps and plenty of sets, they accumulate a huge amount of training volume.  

Serge Nubret and Bob Gajda’s High Volume Workouts

Serge Nubret was a 500 pound raw bench presser at a bodyweight of just over 200 pounds. Most of his training was done with weights that were less than 50% of his single rep max. Serge did not usually work up to a heavy weight during his workouts, he simply used a light weight and stuck with it for tons of sets (as in 30 to 50 sets). His goal was not to push hard on any given set, but to accumulate a high total workload without excessive strain. Bob Gajda was also famous for his high volume workouts. He was an advocate of training without straining and used circuit training with a given amount of weight for each exercise until he began to weaken, at which point he would reduce the weight to avoid straining to complete his sets.

The Right Way to Combine High Volume with High Intensity

The point I’m emphasizing in regard to the use of high volume training is to use moderately light weights and don’t push for max reps on your sets. If you want to incorporate high intensity training and high volume training in the same workout, I recommend doing like Ronnie Coleman, Richard Hawthorne, and Eric Spoto; start out with light weight and high reps to accumulate volume without excessive fatigue, then work your way up to heavier weights. Save the intensity for the final set or two.

Work Your Way Into High Volume Training Slowly

I must emphasize that it is important to still be at nearly full strength when you finish your workout; even when doing a high volume workout. Training yourself down to a low strength level by the end of a workout is not a good long term strength training strategy. High volume training is something that you must work into, so don’t immediately add five or ten sets to your workout and expect good results. Adding a moderate intensity set every two or three weeks is a much better strategy than to suddenly add on a bunch of high intensity sets. Too much too soon will burn you out and you’ll end up thinking that high volume training doesn’t work when the real problem was that it was misused.

More guidelines on high volume training in the next article. Best of Training to you.
Elite Sprinters and Strength Training

At the time of this writing, the 2016 Olympics have just ended. Some of the most publicized competitions revolve around the sprinting events. Sprinting may be the most basic skill that exists in athletic competitions, but it draws huge amounts of attention. How do the top runners get so fast? Of course they practice sprinting, but most of the best sprinters include a variety of conditioning activities; one of which includes weight training.

Sprinters and Weight Training Workouts

Strength and speed often complement each other and there are great sprinters who take advantage of this concept. Sprinters usually utilize both heavy lifting and explosive lifting with lighter weights. If you want to increase your speed, it’s to your advantage to increase both explosive power (which some coaches refer to as speed strength) and maximum strength. By taking the time to watch the following videos, you will see that some top sprinters rely upon weight training workouts and they are surprisingly strong.

Sprinters Working Out

 

Asafa Powell Makes a 225 pound clean and jerk look easy

 

Justin Gatlin Bench Press

 

One of the greatest things about weight training is that it is highly adaptable to achieve the conditioning effect desired. It can be done with light weights, medium weights, heavy weights, in a multitude range of reps that can qualities such as endurance, cardiovascular fitness, speed, explosiveness power and strength. Different exercises can also be done with varying amounts of resistance to simulate movements that are used for different sport skills. While there was a time in the past where weight training was often vilified as an endeavor that would hinder athletic performance, it has now become one of the standard conditioning tools for many sports. If you are in sports, learn how to use weight training to your advantage. Best of training to you.   

 

Eric Spoto’s Enormous Bench Press Strength

Eric Spoto is one of the few people in history to break the 700 pound barrier for a raw bench press with a meet lift of 722 pounds (327.5 kilos). For years he was virtually unmatched in terms his raw benching strength. The fact that he is way ahead of the majority of elite lifters in the world would make any serious lifter wonder how he developed his benching strength. This article will take an in depth look at the distinctives and attributes of one of his bench press workouts.

One of the characteristics of an Eric Spoto bench press workout is the accumulation of a massive total workload. Many lifters choose to minimize their warm up sets while working up to a heavy weight in order to save their energy for their heaviest set. They accomplish this by limiting the number of reps to five or less per set, even when starting out with light warm up weights.

In the video of Eric Spoto’s bench press workout, he does not do a few easy warm up sets with light weight and low reps to save his strength for the last hard set. Spoto starts out with high reps on his initial warm up sets when lighter weights are being used. While he doesn’t push himself hard on all of his warm up sets, he uses them to accumulate a massive total workload and then focuses on high intensity for just two out of his nine sets.

The basic sets, reps, and poundages for his nine set workout are listed below along with the total workload of the workout:

Set 1: 135 pounds x 18 reps = 2,430 pounds lifted

Set 2: 225 pounds x 12 reps = 2,700 pounds lifted

Set 3: 315 pounds x 10 reps = 3,150 pounds lifted

Set 4: 405 pounds x 10 reps = 4,050 pounds lifted

Set 5: 495 pounds x 10 reps = 4,950 pounds lifted

Set 6: 585 pounds x   3 reps = 1,755 pounds lifted 

Set 7: 635 pounds x   1 rep =  635 pounds lifted 

Set 8: 675 pounds x   1 rep =  675 pounds lifted

Set 9: 705 pounds x   1 rep = 705 pounds lifted

 

Total workload for all sets and reps combined = 21,050 pounds

Total reps for all sets combined = 66 reps

 

The workout that is listed is shown in the following video:

 

How does Eric Spoto’s workout translate into percentages relative to his single rep max? This is critical information if you are trying to get a feel for how hard he works out and want to try a similar bench press workout with the percentages of a single rep max that he is using. The percent of weight that he uses relative to his single rep max are based are shown for each set below. The percentages are based on what appears to be Eric’s best official lift of 722 pounds. These percentages for each set are listed below:

 

Set 1: 135 pounds = 18 reps using 19% of his single rep max

Set 2: 225 pounds = 12 reps using 31% of his single rep max 

Set 3: 315 pounds = 10 reps using 44% of his single rep max

Set 4: 405 pounds = 10 reps using 56% of his single rep max

Set 5: 495 pounds = 10 reps using 69% of his single rep max

Set 6: 585 pounds = 3 reps using 81% of his single rep max

Set 7: 635 pounds = 1 rep using 88% of his single rep max

Set 8: 675 pounds = 1 rep using 94% of his single rep max  

Set 9: 705 pounds = 1 rep using 98% of his single rep max

Average weight per rep = 319 pounds = 44% of his single rep max

 

How hard Does Eric Spoto Push His Sets?

It is evident that Eric Spoto does tons of sets and reps, but he is smart in his approach to doing this. Even though he does eighteen reps on his first set, it’s only 19% of his single rep max. This would be equivalent to eighteen reps with 40 pounds for a 200 pound bencher, 60 pounds for a 300 pound bencher, and 80 pounds for 400 pound bencher. In other words it would be easy. Likewise, ten reps may seem like a lot of reps with 315 pounds, but you can find an internet video of Eric doing 45 reps with 315 pounds, so ten reps is easy for him. You can also find a video of him doing 26 reps with 405 pounds, so once again, the 10 reps that he blasts out with 405 for his fourth set do not come close to testing his strength or maximum capacity for reps.  

 

When does Spoto really push himself in this workout? He pushes hard on his fifth set where he does 10 reps with 495; he pushes moderately hard on his eighth set, and he has to push hard on his last set when using 705 pounds. This basically amounts to seven sets that didn’t require a high intensity effort, and two sets that did require a fairly high intensity of effort. Of the two sets where he had to push hard, one was done with higher (10) reps, and the other was done for a single rep. By using this strategy, he incorporates both a high amount of volume and intensity into his workout.  

 

Spoto Never Grinds in this Workout

Eric Spoto maintains what I refer to as a positive workout state for every rep of every set of the workout. He never goes into a negative workout state where he begins to strain, struggle, or grind on his reps. If you observe closely, you will notice that Spoto never slows down his rep speed as a set progresses, and he always uses a steady even rep pace throughout the entire set for every set. This type of lifting insures that the creatine phosphate system is the dominate energy system being used during the workout, and it develops consistent firing patterns within the nervous system.

 

The only time Spoto slows down his rep speed during a set is to pause the bar on his chest before doing his last rep of each set. He doesn’t pause because of fatigue, or because he is going to failure, he pauses in order to simulate the lifting form that is used at a power lifting meet.

 

Testing Strength and Going to Failure

Although Spoto doesn’t push to failure on his sets in this particular workout, I have observed other videos where he does push to failure when going for a personal rep record with various weights. Whether or not he goes for personal rep records on a regular basis, or he only does so occasionally is not clear.

 

Finishing Strong

Even though Eric Spoto does tons of reps over the course of nine sets in this workout, he is obviously still at full strength, or close to full strength when he reaches his last set. If he wasn’t at full strength, he would have been buried by his last set with705 pounds. It appears that Eric has a huge workload capacity that enables him to do a tremendous amount of sets and reps without weakening.

 

I am a believer in the philosophy that it is best to still be at full strength as you finish your workout. If you push yourself to the point where you are significantly weaker by your last set, it makes it harder to recover, plus your body may focus on adapting to improve endurance instead of strength.      

 

Rep Speed and Rep Pace

Eric Spoto uses a fast rep speed for most of his sets in the bench. If you look at the data in regard to how long it takes him to perform each set, simple math will tell you that each rep takes a second or less to perform when doing his first his five sets. You’ll also notice that his rep speed is fairly constant across the first five sets, although it slows down just a little bit as he adds on weight.

 

If you look at Spoto’s last four sets, it looks like his rep speed slows down a lot compared to his earlier sets. While it does slow down some due to an increase in weight, part of the reason for this is that he lowers the bar very slowly on his single rep lifts, and when lowering the bar for the first rep of a heavy triple for his sixth set. He consistently takes about 2.5 seconds to lower the bar for each of these sets. Notice also that his nine sets consist of only 71 seconds of actual lifting time.

 

Set 1: 135 pounds x 18 reps 13 seconds

Set 2: 225 pounds x 12 reps 9.5 seconds

Set 3: 315 pounds x 10 reps 9.2 seconds

Set 4: 415 pounds x 10 reps 10 seconds

Set 5: 495 pounds x 10 reps 10.6 seconds

Set 6: 585 pounds x   3 reps  7.5 seconds  Lowers the bar for 2.5 seconds on first rep

Set 7: 635 pounds x   1 rep    3.5 seconds Lowers the bar for 2.7 seconds

Set 8: 675 pounds x   1 rep   3.5 seconds   lowers the bar for 2.5 seconds

Set 9: 705 pounds x   1 rep    4.3 seconds  lowers the bar for 2.6 seconds

 

Total lifting time for all nine sets combined = 71 seconds

That’s 21,050 pounds lifted in 71 seconds!

 

Lifting Form

Eric’s lifting form is basically stellar. The only thing that you might be able to find fault with is that he doesn’t lock out on most of his reps, however, if you watch him in a powerlifting meet, he seems to have a very good lockout.

 

You’ll see that Spoto always takes time to set his body up right for each set, and each single rep. When setting up for a lift, his feet are spaced fairly wide, he squeezes his shoulder blades together and slightly arches his back to get his chest as high as possible and reduce the distance the bar must travel from his chest to a lockout. He has a medium to medium wide group so that his hands are directly over his elbows and his forearms are straight up and down and perpendicular to the floor when the bar touches his chest. He touches the bar down to the lower part of his sternum and pushes the bar up and a little bit back so that it ends up over his upper chest or clavicle. As he lifts, he also applies leg drive to push his chest up as high as possible.

 

Spoto discusses the details of his bench press set up and lifting technique in the following video.

The take aways from Spoto’s workout are his ability to know how to incorporate both high volume and intensity into the same workout. He has a great feel for doing as much work as possible without exceeding his ability to finish at full strength for his last set. Hard work is evident, but strain, struggle, and grinder reps are nowhere to be seen; he pushes just hard enough without reaching a point where he is overworking. Spoto also uses excellent form and a smooth rep cadence for all his sets. If you study his form, his advice, and his workouts, he is a great bencher to learn from. Best of training to you.  

Ronnie Coleman: Bench Press Workout

If the ten best bodybuilders of all time were to line up side by side, I believe that Ronnie Coleman’s immense proportions would cause him to stand out from the rest. Not only is Ronnie massive, he has the strength to go with it. No doubt, Ronnie is genetically endowed with an enormous ability to build muscle size and strength, but his eight year reign as Mr. Olympia suggests that his genetics were complemented by effective training.

Analysis of a Bench Press Workout

As you shall soon see when analyzing one of Ronnie’s workouts, he did basic exercises in a manner that included an effective balance between training volume, training intensity, and heavy lifting. To demonstrate this, I have provided a breakdown of the bench press portion of one of his chest workouts. This analysis includes workout variables such as how many sets, how many reps, and his total workload for each set and all sets combined. In addition, the percentage of weight he used in relationship to his single rep max is listed for each set, and his lifting form and rep speed are addressed.

The video of Ronnie’s workout is shown first, followed by a written analysis of the workout variables.

The statistics and analysis of Ronnie’s workout are provided below:

Total Sets = 5

Weight, Reps, and Workload

Set 1: 135 pounds x 20 reps = 2700 workload pounds

Set 2: 225 pounds x 16 reps = 3600 workload pounds

Set 3: 315 pounds x 12 reps = 3780 workload pounds

Set 4: 405 pounds x 10 reps = 4050 workload pounds

Set 5: 495 pounds x 5 reps = 2475 workload pounds

Total workload for all sets combined = 14,070 pounds

Total reps = 63

Percentage of Single Rep Max for Each Set

It’s hard to say what Ronnie’s single rep max is for the bench press, but based on his ability to do 10 reps with 405 pounds, and five reps with 495 pounds, he could probably bench somewhere in the vicinity of 550 pounds, but this is just an estimate. Assuming he could bench about 550 pounds for one rep, his workout percentages for each weight of each set are calculated below.

Set 1: 135 pounds = About 25% of single rep max

Set 2: 225 pounds = about 41% of single rep max

Set 3: 315 pounds = about 57% of single rep max

Set 4: 405 pounds = about 73% of single rep max

Set 5: 495 pounds = about 90% of single rep max

Notice that the amount of weight that Ronnie uses in relationship to his single rep max is pretty low for his first three sets, but he uses those sets to do a lot of reps and accumulate a substantial amount of training volume.

How Hard Does Ronnie Push?

Ronnie has a fantastic feel for achieving the right training state in order to produce positive results. What do I mean by achieving the right training state? I am referring to his feel for working out hard enough, but not too hard. This ability often plays an enormous role in regard to a lifter’s success. In Ronnie’s case, it’s important to realize that he did 20 reps on his first set with 135 pounds, but he probably could have done 80 reps. He did 16 reps for his second set, but he probably could have done close to 50 reps. For his third set, he did 12 reps with 315, but he probably could have done around 18 to 20 reps, and I wouldn’t be surprised if these are conservative estimates. It wasn’t until he reached his fourth set that his training intensity increase to the point where he came within a rep or two of failure, and only when he reached his fifth and final set did he push to a point of true high intensity training by pushing to failure with a very heavy weight.

Some people make the mistake a wearing themselves out on the first couple sets when pyramiding up to heavy weight over the course of four or five sets. Ronnie does not make this mistake. In spite of the fact that he performs a lot of reps when doing his first three sets, they are nowhere near being high intensity sets. I point this out because it is important to understand that just because Ronnie does 20 reps with 135 pounds for his first set, it wouldn’t be wise to imitate him by doing 20 reps with 135 pounds on your first set unless you are as strong as he is. Wasting your strength on your warm up sets will greatly hinder your strength when performing your final sets with heavier weights.

Translating Ronnie Coleman’s Workout to Your Strength Level

If you are a 300 pound bench presser, and you want to do 20 reps like Ronnie does, then start with 25% of your single rep max like Ronnie does. If you do this, you will be using 75 pounds for your first set which you will find to be ridiculously easy. Your second set would be done with 125 pounds for 16 reps; your third set would be done with 170 pounds for 12 reps; your fourth set would be done with 220 pounds for 10 reps, and your last set would be done with about 260-270 pounds for five reps.

If you are an intermediate with a 200 pound bench press, the equivalent poundages based on percentages for each of the five sets would be 50 pounds, 80 pounds, 115 pounds, 145 pounds, and 180 pounds. It’s ok to do a lot of reps for your first sets of a pyramid as long as the weight is light in relationship to your single rep max. Don’t be afraid to start out with very light weights when working up to a very heavy weight as this is what Ronnie does.

Rep Speed

Ronnie incorporates fast rep speed into his workout; especially when doing his first three sets. His fast rep speed is apparent when you look at the time it takes him to complete each set:

Set 1: 20 reps in 19 seconds

Set 2: 16 reps in 15 seconds

Set 3: 12 reps in 12 seconds

Set 4: 10 reps in 12 seconds

Set 5: 5 reps in 12 seconds

When you look at the time it takes Ronnie to complete a set, you can see that he does about one rep every second during his first four sets. It takes about a half second to lower the weight, and a half second lift it, and this remains fairly constant throughout every rep of every set for his first three sets and slows down just a little bit when he reaches 405 pounds on his fourth set. The only variation you’ll see in Ronnie’s reps is that he lowers the bar slowly on his first rep to find his lifting groove and to feel a stretch. After his first rep, he lifts and lowers the bar rapidly throughout the rest of the set.

Ronnie is an explosive lifter when doing bench press. Even on his last set of five reps, which takes about 12 seconds, he does his first three reps in four seconds. The last two reps take eight seconds out of a twelve seconds set. The break down of rep speed for each rep of his last set is as follows:

rep 1: 2.2 seconds (he always lowers the bar slow on his first rep)

rep 2: 1.2 seconds

rep 3: 1.2 seconds

rep 4: 2.5 seconds

rep 5: 5.5 seconds

Ronnie’s fifth set is the only set where his rep speed slows down at the end of the set. His rep speed remains constant from the upward push of the first rep to the last rep for each of his other sets.

Bench Press Form

If you watch closely, you will notice that Ronnie’s bench press form is specific to bodybuilding and is generally different than the form a powerlifter would use. For the most part, Ronnie brings the bar down all the way to his chest, but he appears to stop two to three inches short of lockout at the top of his lifting motion. This is in contrast to some powerlifters who are adamant about pushing all the way through the whole range of motion to develop a strong lockout at the top of the lift. Notice also that Ronnie does not pause at all at the bottom or the top of the lift. The absence of a pause at any point during the lift produces constant tension on the pecs which is the goal of a bodybuilder who’s main objective is to train for size, shape, and a pump. This is in contrast to many powerlifters who tend to pause at the bottom of their bench, as well as at the lockout position to refine the form needed for a legal competition lift.

The width of Ronnie’s grip is in agreement with the common philosophy that as the bar is lowered to the chest, the hands should be directly over the elbows so that the forearms are vertical and perpendicular to the floor. Ronnie also lowers the bar to his lower pecs while holding his chest high and pushes the bar straight up. Note that he does not appear to arch his back to accentuate the height of his chest as many powerlifters do.

Ronnie Coleman has definitely developed a formula for achieving massive strength and size. If your quest is to maximize your own strength and muscle size, taking a good hard look at the details of Ronnie’s training may help you improve our own training. In the next article, I will do an analysis of a bench press workout by Eric Spoto. Until then, best of training to you.

Richard Hawthorne: Analysis of His Squat Workout

Richard Hawthorne is a small but super strong powerlifter. He is one of the few people in history who has come close to a deadlift that is five times his bodyweight. At a bodyweight of 132 pounds, Richard has deadlifted 650 pounds and has also squatted 562 pounds. Pound for pound, he is among the strongest powerlifters in the world.

Being that Richard is a great lifter, I would like to do a brief analysis of one of his squat workouts that is listed after the following video that shows his workout. The video shows the last four sets of the workout, but five sets with lighter weights were also done before the actual video footage began.

Note: Actutal training begins at 35 seconds in the video

Reps, Weight, and Workload of each set

1^st set

Reps = 7

Weight = 285 pounds

Total workload for the set = 7 x 285 = 1,995 pounds

 

2^nd set

Reps = 8

Weight =315 pounds

Total workload for the set = 8 x 315 = 2,520 pounds

 

3^rd set

Reps = 8

Weight = 335 pounds

Total workload for the set = 8 x 335 = 2,680

 

4^th set

Reps = 8

Weight = 375 pounds

Total workload for the set = 8 x 375 = 3,000 pounds

Total Sets = 9 (the first 5 are not on the video)

Total Reps for all 9 sets combined = 82

Total Workload for all 4 sets combined on the video = 10,195 pounds

Total workload for all 9 sets of the workout = 19,045 pounds

 

Analysis of Actual Lifting Time per set:

This actual lifting time starts with the initiation of the first rep and the ends with the completion of the last rep for each set.

1^st set = 18 seconds (only seven reps instead of eight)

2^nd set = 20 seconds

3^rd set = 20 seconds

4^th set = 25 seconds

Eight reps per set basically takes the same amount of time to perform for each set except the last set, even though the weight increases from set to set.

I watched another video that showed Richard warming up with 145 pounds. His first eight reps still took 20 seconds, but his second set with 145 pounds only took 16 seconds. Richard uses a fairly constant rep pace regardless of the weight until he reaches between 65 to 70% of his max, at which point, reps begin to slow down.

Total lifting Time of all 4 sets = 83 seconds

Analysis of Rep Speed for each set:

The time it took to perform each individual rep:

1^st set (285 pounds): 2.2 sec., 1.9 sec., 1.9 sec., 1.9 sec., 1.9 sec., 1.9 sec ., 2.1 seconds

2^nd set (315 pounds): 2.4 sec., 1.9 sec., 1.8 sec., 1.9 sec., 2.0 sec., 2.1 sec., 1.9 sec., 2.1 seconds

3^rd set (335 pounds): 2.2 sec., 1.9 sec., 1.9 sec., 2.0 sec., 2.1 sec., 2.0 sec., 2.2 sec., 2.4 seconds

4^th set (375 pounds): 2.6 sec., 2.2 sec., 2.2 sec., 2.2 sec., 2.6 sec., 2.4 sec., 2.6 sec., 3.5 seconds

Notice the relatively even rep speed from one rep to the next, and from one set to the next, even though the weight increased from one set to the next. The last set is the only set with a substantial difference (decrease) in rep speed.

Analysis of Pauses Between Reps

Richard’s tendency is to do a slower first rep to get the feel of the exercise groove. He also pauses a little after the first rep, then he proceeds through the rest of the set at a faster rep speed with very little pause between reps.

However, Richard did pause substantially between his 5^th and 6^th rep during his first two sets. He also paused substantially between his 7^th and 8^th rep during his third and fourth (last two) sets of the video, which were actually his 8^th and 9^th sets of the squat workout because he had already done five sets before starting the video footage.

Training State

Richard maintains a fairly even training state. His rep speed stays nearly the same and he does not struggle and strain when he lifts except for the very last rep of the last set. You could call this his marker rep. Rather than struggle and strain to stimulate a training effect, he accumulates a large workload across nine sets. This strategy certainly works for him. Richard is also very meticulous about his form and how each exercise should feel throughout the exercise movement. He will stress this to his students when coaching them.

Analysis of Technique

Richard uses a medium width squat stance. While it is wider than the stance that a lot of Olympic lifters use when doing a training session for back squats, it is narrower than what a lot of powerlifters use for the back squat. He also places the bar pretty low on his upper back (low bar squats) and bends forward a lot as he descends into the bottom of his squat. Even though he bends over a lot at the hips, his back stays straight and does not round over as he comes up out of the bottom of his squat.

Richard has an immensely strong lower back so it is advantageous for him to bend over a lot and let his back play a prominent role in the lift. In contrast, lifters who have very strong legs, but lack strength in their lower back may need to stay in a more upright position. While it is very common for Olympic lifters to practice squats in an upright position, there is a great deal of variance in regard to being upright as opposed to bent over among highly successful powerlifters. To view an example of an upright squatter, check out the video of Max Aita. He is a great Olympic lifter, and extremely strong in powerlifting as well:

Max is a great coach when it comes to coaching the upright squatting technique that he uses. For squatting tips from Max, check out the following video:

In the next article, I will do an analytical breakdown of a bench press workout that is performed by Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman. Until then, best of training to you.

Idalberto Arranda: Analysis of His Squat Workout

Over the next several weeks I will be featuring an analysis of workouts performed by different Olympic lifters, powerlifters, and bodybuilders. The analysis will feature just one exercise that each lifter does in terms of how many sets, how many reps per set, their total reps, total workload, rep speed, how much actual lifting time was accumulated during the workout, and some comments on their form.

Idalberto Arranda

This is probably the third time that I have included this video footage of of Cuban lifter Idalberto Arranda doing squats in a training article. The reason is because he is a fantastic squatter who uses great form, plus the video moves at a fast pace from one set to the next. These factors make it an ideal video to learn from.

Idalberto Arranda is in the 77 kg (170 pounds) weight class. You can watch the video and then refer to the analysis that follows in regard to Idalberto’s squat workout:

 

Set 1:

Reps = 5

Weight = 125 kilos (275 pounds)

The set takes 14 total seconds

Each individual rep takes a total of about 1.2 seconds (a half second down, a half second up)

Adalberto pauses one to two seconds between each rep.

 

Set 2:

Reps = 3

Weight = 175 kilos (385 pounds)

The set takes 8 total seconds

Each individual rep takes a total of about 1.2 seconds

Alberto pauses one to two seconds between each rep

 

Set 3:

Reps = 2

Weight = 205 kilos (451 pounds)

The set takes 3.7 seconds

Each individual rep takes a total of about 1.2 seconds

Alberto pauses about one second between his two reps

 

Set 4:

Reps = 2

Weight = 255 kilos (561 pounds)

The set takes 4.5 seconds

Each individual rep takes a total of about 1.4 seconds. His rep speed is slightly slower than his first three sets.

Alberto continues to pause about one second between his two reps

 

Set 5:

Reps = 1

Weight = 285 kilos (627 pounds)

The set takes 1.4 seconds

His one individual rep took 1.4 seconds.

 

Other Measures of Adalberto’s workout

Total reps from all 5 sets = 13 reps

Total workload for all 13 reps combined = 2,155 kg = 4,741 pounds

Average workload for all reps = 165 kilos = 365 pounds

Total actual lifting time for all 5 sets combined = 31.6 seconds

Summary of Analyses

Since Idalberto is an Olympic lifter, he drops quickly into the bottom of the squat and immediately springs back up into an upright position as this skill is needed for the clean and jerk. His rep speed of a little over one second per rep remains virtually the same for each set, although it slows down slightly on his last two sets. Idalberto uses a fairly narrow stance and squats with a very upright position throughout the whole squatting motion as this is another dimension of his squats that closely resembles the body position that is used for the squatting portion of the clean and jerk. His squatting form is text book perfect for an Olympic lifter and is an excellent example that anyone can learn from if they want to improve at squats.

Next Article

In the next article, I will present an analysis of a squat workout performed by powerlifter Richard Hawthorne. He is ridiculously strong for a 130 pound lifter. Until then, best of training to you.

 

Progress vs. Performance in Strength Training

Progress vs. performance, which is more important to you when you do a weight training workout? If you are consumed by performance, your eye will constantly be on pushing yourself to break a record by doing more reps or using more weight. Many would say, isn’t that the goal? Yes, it is the eventual goal, but it should not be the perpetual goal that a lifter tries to achieve in every workout.

There was a time when I thought I was cheating if I didn’t push myself to break a new record in a workout; now I think differently. I understand that if I exceed my threshold capacities to train at full strength, then I am cheating. What do I mean by exceeding my threshold capacities? I mean pushing past the point where my strength and performance are noticeably compromised during a set, or compromised from one set to the next, or when reaching a weight that exceeds my ability to maintain good form and steady speed throughout a rep.

Advice from a Champion

Consider listening to Mikhail Koklyaev has to say in the videos below. Koklyaev is a champion Olympic lifter and power lifter from Russia. He draws a distinction between the mindset that many American lifters have when approaching a workout, and the mindset that the Russian lifters have when doing a workout. Koklyaev doesn’t try to break a record in every workout. He does a lot of training using 70% of his single rep max. He can lift 417 kilos, but he sticks with doing a large volume of training with 290-300 kilos for weeks and months until he gets better at lifting it. When I say a large volume, don’t mistake that for thinking that he pushes to failure with 70% of his max. Most Russian lifters stick with five reps, even though they can do many more per set. They often do many sets in this manner with lower reps.

Are you focusing how much you can lift in today’s workouts, or are you focusing on consistent strength gains over time? Progress vs. performance; you must decide which to focus on. Progress comes from pushing to your capacity to train strong, but not exceeding it by training past your ability to maintain a steady-even rep pace within a set, or by training past your ability to remain at full strength from set to set. It also means staying within your capacity to lift heavy without grinding or slowing down within a lifting motion.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, even though it goes against what many others say: you can do the same workout again and again using 70% of your single rep max and make progress, if (and that’s an important if) you push to your capacity of training strong without exceeding it. This means you can do the same amount of reps for the same amount of sets, using the same amount of weight from one workout to the next, and you will gain strength without having to push to failure, or do grinder reps, or do a marathon workout. The workout will eventually get easier, then you add weight.

Am I saying that it should be rule that you always do the same workout from workout to the next? No, you can vary the weight from one workout to the next, but learn how to train within your capacity to train strong. The books Strength Training Thresholds and Strength Training Capacity go into a lot of detail to explain how this works. These books are for free, just click on the titles access a download.

Breaking a Record with Easier

If you want to break a record, your first goal should be to break a record in terms of how easy it is to do the same number of reps and sets that you have been doing in your workouts with a given amount of weight. The easier it gets, the stronger you are getting, and you will eventually be able to add weight. This requires a mindset that is focused on long term progress instead of daily performance. If you are struggling to make progress, consider applying these concepts to your workouts. Best of training to you.  

Heavy Lifting

Most strength training strategies incorporate a variety of different weights for the purpose of gaining strength. There are tons of periodization strategies to help people do this. However, there are some training methods that focus primarily on heavy lifting. Perhaps the most notable method that has a focus on heavy lifting is the Bulgarian single rep max effort method. The max effort lift makes up the vast majority of this type of training. When coached by Ivan Abadjiev, not only did the Bulgarians Olympic lifting team focus on extremely heavy lifting, they did it on a daily basis. It was brutal, but it produced results.

John Broz is a lifting coach who picked up the Bulgarian method and now teaches it to the lifters in his gym in the U.S. His lifters lift long, heavy, and often. Like the Bulgarian’s, the lifters from Broz gym are strong.

Squatting at Broz Gym

Both Broz and the Bulgarians use single rep max training in the context of Olympic lifting, which includes the clean and jerk, and the snatch, although they often squat heavy as part of their training. Using the single rep max as the total focus of training hasn’t caught on as much with powerlifting. Perhaps this is because a single rep max for the Olympic lifts is more of a speed movement (or dynamic, ballistic, or elastic; whichever term you like to use), whereas a powerlifting max tends to be a slower lift, and it may take several seconds to complete one movement.

For powerlifters, the frequent use of grinder reps with maximum weights can obliterate recovery ability in no time flat, but some are able to use near max weights for powerlifting movements on a fairly frequent basis. Damien Pezzuti is an example of this as he goes very heavy three times per week for squats and deadlifts, and does lighter bench and squat workouts on Tuesday and Thursday. This strategy has definitely worked for him.

Mark Challet is an example of an immensely strong powerlifter who focused almost exclusively on heavy single reps for his workouts. He didn’t go all out in every workout, but gradually added on weight from week to week until he surpassed his previous single rep record.  Mark was not a high frequency lifter. He did squats and   bench press on Mondays, and deadlifts on Thursdays, nothing more, yet his focus on heavy weights proved to be highly effective for him.

Guidelines for Heavy Lifting

A pure focus on heavy lifting is not for everyone. Many lifters will also need to include lighter training in order to incorporate total workload training, muscle building, and high rep speed training to maximize their progress with heavy lifting. Other lifters have the ideal physiology to focus on heavy training as a means for producing consistent strength gains.

Whether you choose to use heavy weights occasionally, or on a weekly basis, there are some important guidelines for heavy lifting:

• Master your lifting form before lifting extremely heavy.
• Work your way into heavy lifting. Don’t go for a max until your joints, tendons, and ligaments have been trained to the point where they are ready for heavy weights.
• Pay attention to what your body is telling you. If you have a sore joint or muscle group, don’t go for a max that involves that joint or muscle group.

In order to get as strong as possible, you will need to lift heavy at some point in your training. You may work up to heavy lifting by using linear periodization, or block periodization, or you may prefer to work it in to your training on a regular basis. The only way to know how your body will respond to heavy lifting is to try it out. If it gives you results when you focus on it, stick with it. If you don’t seem to get results when you focus primarily on heavy lifting, then balance your training with rep speed training, bodybuilding, and use various rep ranges to stimulate your progress. Analyze your results and keep doing what works, while throwing away or adjusting what doesn’t work. Best of training to you.

 

 

 

Forceful Lifting for Strength Gains

Forceful lifting is often overlooked as a key variable that can produce strength gains. People often understand the concept of increasing sets and reps to increase total workload. They also understand the concept of doing as many reps as possible within a set which is emphasized with high intensity training. While these two concepts were emphasized in regard to the role they play in gaining strength in the last two articles, the emphasis of this article will be in reference to the use of applying maximum force into each rep as a means for producing strength gains.

Clarifying the Use of Forceful Lifting

Lifting forcefully simply means to push or pull as hard as possible throughout the whole lifting motion of a rep. When emphasizing forceful lifting, the greatest potential for force production occurs at the start of a set before fatigue begins to interfere with force production. This being true, the start of set is emphasized, and the end of a set is often deleted. This basically means that you may use a weight that allows you to perform ten or more reps, but you will only do three to five reps. When using this method, you never strive to do as many reps as possible for a set, instead, you strive to perform each rep with as much force as possible and quickly terminate the set before fatigue causes a decrease in force production. 

Forceful Lifting is Used by Elite Lifters

The West Side lifters are notoriously strong and rely upon forceful lifting as one of the components to their success. They refer to their focus on forceful lifting as dynamic effort, or speed training for bench, squat, or deadlift. This is not done with super heavy weights, but with weights that consist of about 50 to 60% of their single rep max for a lift. It must be clarified though that they do their dynamic effort speed lifting in conjunction with bands and chains, which causes the resistance to increase throughout the range of motion. While the resistance at the start of the lifting motion is only 50 to 60% of their single rep max for a lift, the amount of resistance at the top of the lifting motion may be as much as 70 to 80% of their single rep max. Even with bands and chains, the reps are done at a very fast speed.

When to Use Forceful Lifting

Forceful lifting with lighter weights and a moderate total workload is a fabulous way to promote active recovery after a taxing phase of training. Utilizing a short phase where seven to ten sets of three reps are used with weights that consist of 55 to 65% of your single rep max will provide you with a workout(s) that optimize your body for heavier lifting. Let’s look at some examples of when to use forceful lifting with moderate weights and a moderate total workload.

Forceful Lifting for Active Recovery

If you have done a phase of lifting that was very taxing in terms of high total workload, or high intensity training, you would be much better off recovering to some degree before going into a heavy phase of training with heavy weights. This is where forceful lifting with moderate weights and a moderate total workload would be ideal in preparation for heavy weights. When your body feels reenergized from the lighter workout(s), then head into the heavier lifting phase.

Forceful Lifting with a Linear Cycle

If you prefer linear periodization, you may notice that the end of a linear periodization cycle consists of so much slow reps with heavy weights that your body loses some of its firing power. Once you hit 80 to 85% of your single rep max in a linear cycle, start including one day per week with forceful lifting and lighter weights. Do at least 18 total reps, but don’t do any more than 30 total reps per exercise as you want to energize your muscles for heavier lifting, not drain them.

When you combine forceful lifting while using moderate weights with a gradual increase of weight over weeks, months, and years, you have an excellent formula for long term progression. If you can slightly increase the weight over and over again without slowing down on your rep speed, you will get progressively stronger. The systematic use of forceful lifting can make a big difference in your long term training success and you can consider using it if you are not using it already. Best of training to you.

 

 

Making the Most of Training Intensity

Training Intensity

In the last article, I discussed how total workload can be gradually increased as a means for consistently inching your way up to higher and higher training poundages. However, focusing on training intensity is a far more common method that is used for gaining strength and muscle mass.

How Bodybuilding Think of Intensity

In bodybuilding circles, the amount of intensity used during a set often refers to how far a lifter pushes relative to reaching a point of failure. If they push all the way to failure or beyond, they would refer to it as a high training intensity. On the other hand, the further they fall short of pushing a set to failure, the less the training intensity.

How Powerlifters Think of Intensity

Powerlifters tend to see intensity a different way and base intensity on the percentage of their single rep max. The closer they come to their single rep max, the more intense they are training. The lighter they are training relative to their single rep max, the less intense they are training.

In this article, I will be referring to intensity both in terms of how hard a lifter pushes relative to failure, and in terms of increasing the amount of weight lifted. Bodybuilders who prefer high intensity training often push to failure or beyond in every workout, or every other workout. They use intensity as the driving force for gaining both strength and muscle mass and tend to use five to twelve reps for their sets.

One Way that Powerlifters Cycle Training Intensity

Powerlifters are more likely than bodybuilders to vary the intensity across a training cycle. When using straight line periodization, their training intensity may vary throughout the cycle in relationship to how close they come to reaching a point of failure. On the other hand, the intensity increases more and more in terms of the amount of weight they are lifting throughout a cycle. 

We can look at an example of a powerlifter who uses linear periodization by increasing the weight every week while also using a rep scheme of 8 reps for three week, 5 reps for three weeks, and 3 reps for three weeks. This training plan would constitute a nine week training cycle. The starting weight for week one is 70% of the lifters single rep max for the bench press, squat, and deadlift, and the weight is increased by 3% each week throughout the nine week cycle. The full nine week plan would be done as follows:

Week 1

8 reps at 70%

Week 2

8 reps at 73%

Week 3

8 reps at 76%

Week 4

5 reps at 79%

Week 5

5 reps at 82%

Week 6

5 reps at 85%

Week 7

3 reps at 88%

Week 8

3 reps at 91%

Week 9

3 reps at 94%

Variations in Intensity During a Training Cycle

If we look at each three week cycle for each rep range, the sets are going to come closer and closer to failure with each successive week for three weeks. While the intensity continues to rise in terms of the amount weight that is being used throughout the entire nine week cycle, the intensity zig zags up and down in terms of how hard the lifter is pushes relative to training failure throughout the nine week cycle. Each three week cycle with a given rep number starts out below failure the first week, and is very close to failure by the third week. By the ninth week, a lifter will have to push for all they are worth to reach three reps at 94% of their single rep max.

The basic point is that many bodybuilders look to training intensity to failure as the focal point for stimulating strength and muscle growth. Powerlifters also focus on training intensity as the basic focal point for increase in strength, but powerlifters tend to use a process where they progressively work their way into more and more intense training over the course of a training cycle. Whether you choose to focus on intensity the way a bodybuilder does, or the way a powerlifter does, intensity can be used as a means to boost your strength and muscle mass.

Gaining strength through the use of increasing total workload was the topic of the last article. This article focused on intensity, and the next article will focus on improving force and rep speed as a means for increasing strength. Best of training to you.

 

Total Workload Training

Try Total Workload Training

If you need a break from heavy lifting, you can always turn the focus of your training to an emphasis on a high total workload for gaining strength. What do I mean by total workload? It simply means to add up all of the weight lifted from every rep of every set for an exercise or body part. Focusing on total workload works best when using moderately heavy weights that range between 50 to 65% of your single rep max.

Serge Nubret was an example of a bodybuilder who trained primarily with light weights and a high total workload in order to become enormously strong. Serge was a 500 pound bench presser at a bodyweight of just over 200 pounds. This was a raw lift before bench shirts existed.

Fundamentals of Total Workload Training

The idea behind a focus on total workload is to do as many sets and reps as you can while remaining at near max strength throughout the workout. You can’t do very many reps with super heavy weights without overtraining. Likewise, do not use high intensity training by pushing to failure, or even near failure when focusing on total workload. It is far better to push only about half way to failure for each set when focusing on total workload. If you train too heavy or push to failure, you will quickly accumulate fatigue and will be in a weakened state early in the workout. This will hinder your from doing as many sets and reps as possible while staying at full strength. 

If you follow the advice of training as long as you can at full strength without training too heavy, and you stop your sets about half way to failure, you will do a sufficient amount of work without developing excessive stress or fatigue. Because of the avoidance of high stress and fatigue, you can train each body part or exercise as often as three to six times per week. If you start at 55% of your single rep max the first week, you can increase the weight to 60% of your single rep max the next week, and 65% of your single rep max the third week. After the third week, start the cycle over again with 55% of your single rep max. If you nail it by training hard enough but not too hard, you will find that your workouts will become easier over time and that you are getting stronger without lifting heavy.

It Works if you do it Right

This type of training goes against everything I learned in my early years of training. It seemed like the weights were too light, and that I was avoiding the strain and struggle that many believe should occur at the end of a high intensity set, but I have found that total workload training with moderate weights is a great way to build strength if you understand how to apply it correctly. If you need a break from heavy weights, but you still want to continue to gain strength, consider total workload training. Best of training to you.

 

 

High Frequency Short Workout Bursts

Short Workout Bursts

In this article, I will address the use of high frequency short workout bursts. These workouts can be done with light to moderately heavy weights, or heavy weights according to your preference. The workouts that I am about to list are meant to be short, quick-paced workouts, with a minimum of rest between sets. How can this be accomplished without over fatiguing your muscles and turning the workout into a cardio session? The answer is to do sets using low reps, even if you are not lifting heavy weights. More explanation is needed.

The West Side Barbell Club uses what is referred to as dynamic speed training.This is done by doing about ten sets of three reps for basic exercises such as the bench press and squats. The weights are not heavy and consist of 50% to 60% of a lifter’s single rep max (although the Westside lifters usually employ extra band resistance or chain resistance to the bar). If you want to see a visual demonstration of this type of workout, click here to watch a video. This same concept of lighter weights for low reps can be used in order to do rapid paced, brief workouts that lasts about 15 minutes. These workouts should not produce a great deal of fatigue enabling you to do them on a frequent basis without overtraining. I will give an example of a short workout that is designed to be done often. 

Just Two Exercises per workout

Select the bench press and squat for the two exercises that you are going to do for one workout. If you set up the weights ahead of time, you can quickly switch back and forth between squats and bench presses. Use about 60% of your single rep max and do six sets of five reps for both exercises. This means the whole workout consists of twelve sets. You should be able to easily do the whole workout within fifteen minutes if you switch back and forth between exercises from one set to the next. The workout should not be highly taxing, and you should not feel wiped out when you finish. Since it’s not a highly taxing workout, you can do it often. Three times a week is the minimum, and you can do it six days per week if you want to.

Of course you can vary the weight ranges, yet still keep the workouts simple and short. If I were going to give you a series of short workouts across a period of six consecutive days during a week, I would prescribe three workouts to be done twice each for a total of six workouts. This is the program I would prescribe:

Workout #1 to be done on Monday and Tuesday

Deadlifts and Bench press

5 sets of 5 reps using 65% of your single rep max

Workout #2 to be done on Wednesday and Thursday

Squat and Bench press

6 sets of 5 reps using 55% of your single rep max

Workout #3 to be done on Friday and Saturday

Either Deadlift or Squats, plus Bench press

Warm up Set #1:  10 reps using 40% or your single rep max

Warm up Set #2: 5 reps using 50% of your single rep max

One single rep using 60% of your single rep max

One single rep using 75% of your single rep max

One single rep using 90 to 100 percent of the maximum weight that you can lift using a smooth nonstop lifting motion with perfect form.

Fifteen Minutes per Workout – An Hour and one half per week

Once again, if you have the option of setting up two exercises in a manner that allows you to switch back and forth between the two exercises, do it. Give yourself only enough time to catch your breath so that you are not breathing heavily when you start a set, but don’t wait any longer than you need to. All of these workouts should be done within fifteen minutes. The total workout time per week should be no more than one hour and thirty minutes. You can get stronger without spending a lifetime in the gym if you do these workouts right. Best of training to you.

Single Rep Minimalist Training vs. High Frequency Minimalist Workouts

In the last article, I began a series on minimalist training which refers to doing the least possible amount of training while still experiencing optimum strength gains. The workouts are simple, brief, and infrequent. Perhaps the most extreme example of a great lifter who used minimalist training was Mark Challet. According to Marty Gallagher in his article The Eternal Resistance Training Schism-Intensity vs. Volume, Mark’s dead lift routine consisted of five reps total. He simply started with a single warm up rep with 255 pounds and increased the weight over the course of his next four single reps until he reached up to 800 pounds. He did this routine once per week to become the best deadlifter in the world for his weight class with several competition lifts in excess of 850 pounds.

Of course the minimum number of exercises that you can do in a workout is one exercise. The minimum number of reps you can do for a set is one rep. Mark Challet used this concept for his workouts and did no assistance work and no other exercises for his deadlift workout, just five single reps of deadlift. A complete workout that consists of single reps for a single exercise is not completely unique to Mark Challet. The Bulgarian Olympic lifters under coach Ivan Abadjiev were known to also do very simple workouts of one or two exercises for single reps. However, the Bulgarian’s worked out constantly. Even though they did very simple workouts, they generally worked out three or more times per day and had no reservations about doing more than one workout for the same exercise on the same day.  

Minimalist Workouts vs. Minimalist Training

While you could say that the Bulgarian’s often did what appeared to be a minimalist workout, they did not use a minimalist training frequency. There is a difference between a minimalist workout, and minimalist training. Pure minimalist training is done on an infrequent basis, however minimalist workouts can be done on a high frequency basis.

High Frequency Minimalist Workouts with Single Reps

If you love heavy training, and incorporate it into infrequent minimalist training, but you are not getting the results that you would like from it, you have the option of trying high frequency minimalist single rep workouts. When training heavy on a frequent basis, I would caution against doing all out single rep max attempts. Instead of grinding out heavy single reps, I strongly recommend using a training max that is based on using the heaviest weight that you can use while maintaining a smooth nonstop lifting motion throughout the entire lifting motion with excellent form. Working up to one heavy single rep using your training max for one or two basis exercises (such as squat or deadlift, or a pressing exercise) is enough for a single minimalist workout, and you can do these workouts often if you take your time and gradually work up to high frequency training with heavy weights. 

Warm ups

When doing a minimalist workout for heavy singles, I recommend doing a very light warm up set with ten reps. After you do a warm up set, increase the weight across at least five single reps until you reach a heavy single rep using your training max. Use perfect form without any jerking, grinding, or displacement in your form, as this is one of the keys to lifting heavy without injuring yourself.  If focusing on heavy singles leads to sore muscle or joints, I highly recommend incorporating more light warm up sets for ten reps, and some light cool down sets after lifting heavy. These sets should be very light in order to rehabilitate instead of debilitate your muscles.

Work Your Way into High Frequency Training

If you do minimalist workouts on a high frequency basis, I suggest starting out with just three workouts per week for a few weeks, and then moving to four workouts per week for three weeks, followed by five workouts per week for three to six weeks. If you are comfortable with five workouts per week, then you can increase to six workouts per week. You must listen to your body as you may find that you can do pressing exercises every day, but squats and deadlifts may wipe you out if you do them too often.

When doing heavy singles on frequent basis, there is a fine line between lifting heavy enough and too heavy. All you need to do is find a weight that is heavy enough to challenge you without wiping you out, and then add on a little to that weight occasionally. Only add weight if you can do so while maintaining perfect form without any grinding.

Many people have found minimalist workouts to be highly effective and the only way to know if it will work for you is to experiment, listen to your body, evaluate your progress, and make adjustments as you go. In the next article, I will discuss the use of brief minimalist workouts in conjunction with lighter weights on a high frequency basis. Until then, best of training to you.

 Minimalist Training

There are Olympic lifters and powerlifters who have used minimalist training with great success. Minimalist training basically means dong the minimum amount of work necessary to stimulate a positive training effect. True minimalist training consists of selecting a minimum amount of exercises which are done for a minimum amount of sets for a workout. Workouts are then done a minimum amount of days per week to stimulate strength gains.

Those Who have Succeeded with Minimalist Training

Perhaps the master of minimalist training in terms of success both as a coach and a lifter is Marty Ghallagher. His book The Purposeful Primitive goes into detail on how to apply minimalist training for best results. I also recommend his free internet article, The Eternal Resistance Training Schism…Intensity vs. Volume. This article takes a look at Mark Challet and Kirk Karwoski as examples of world record powerlifters who used minimalist training to become the best in the world. It is astounding how much they accomplished with just a little training.

I personally have found aspects of minimalist training to be effective; especially in terms of limiting workouts to a small number of exercises and a small number of sets. However, this has only worked for me if I apply it on a high frequency basis. In other words, short basic workouts that are performed six days per week. We are not all the same as other people have succeeded with minimalist training on a low frequency basis because their physiology is set up for it.

Example of Minimalist Training

What does a minimalist workout look like? You basically just select one basic exercise and do enough warm up sets to work up to one work set. For example, you could select a squat workout on Monday, a bench press workout on Wednesday, and a deadlift workout on Friday. Do the following sets and reps for each workout:

Do four warm up sets as follows:

Warm up Set 1: Choose a weight that allows 30 reps, but only do 10 reps

Warm up Set 2: Choose a weight that allows 18 reps, but only do 6 reps

Warm up Set 3: Choose a weight that allows 10 reps, but only do 3 reps

Warm up set 4: Choose a weight that allows 8 reps, but only do 1 rep

Follow your warm up sets with one work set as follows:

Do one heavy work set for:

8 reps during weeks one through three

5 reps during weeks four through six

3 reps during weeks seven through nine

1 rep during weeks ten through twelve.

Marty Gallagher would recommend doing this routine with increasingly heavy weights over the course of twelve weeks. Find your weekly weights by starting with your projected one rep max weight for week twelve and counting back three percent each week until you reach week one (percentage calculators are available on the internet by clicking here). For instance if you are shooting for a 300 pound bench press at the end of a twelve week cycle, plan your workouts by starting with 300 pounds for week twelve and subtract three percent for week eleven, and an additional three percent each preceding week until you reach week one. An example of this is shown below

Example of counting backward by 3% each week:

Week 12: 100% of 300 = 300 pounds for 1 rep

Week 11: 97% of 300 = 291 pounds for 1 rep

Week 10: 94% of 300 = 282 pounds for 1 rep

Week 9: 91% of 300 = 273 pounds for 3 reps

Week 8: 88% of 300 = 264 pounds for 3 reps

Week 7: 85% of 300 = 255 pounds for 3 reps

Week 6: 82% of 300 = 246 pounds for 5 reps

Week 5: 79% of 300 = 237 pounds for 5 reps

Week 4: 76% of 300 = 228 pounds for 5 reps

Week 3: 73% of 300 = 219 pounds for 8 reps

Week 2: 70% of 300 = 210 pounds for 8 reps

Week 1: 67% of 300 = 201 pounds for 8 reps

You will notice that 3% of 300 is nine pounds so the weight will increase by nine pounds each week from the start to the finish of the cycle. Of course it is difficult to increase the weight by nine pounds each week because weight plates don’t usually come in nine pound increments. You could easily round nine pounds off to ten pounds. The extra pound will translate into a poundage that is twelve pounds lighter the first week than if you could truly used nine pound increments. You can adjust for this by using five pound jumps the first two or three weeks, and then switch to ten pound jumps each week for the remainder of the cycle. 

Picking the Right Numbers is Critical

Using the right amount of weight each week is critical to your success. I believe that one of the keys to training success is to train hard enough without training overly hard. Ed Coan has said that reason he never missed a lift while becoming successively stronger in cycle after cycle was that he did his best to use perfect technique, and he picked his numbers right in terms of how much weight he lifted from week to week.

If your personal physiology is set up right for it, or you simply don’t have much time to train, minimalist training would be a great option to experiment with. In the next article, I will be discussing minimalist training again, but in the context of high frequency training instead of infrequent training. Short workouts consisting of only a couple exercises and a small number of sets will be emphasized, but the training will be set up to be done four to six days per week. Until then, best of training to you.   

 

 

Fast Gains For a While, Slow for a long Time

If you want fast strength gains, what I am about to say in this article doesn’t sound good, it’s not popular, and a lot of people don’t want to hear it. I could tell you what most people want to hear, including myself. I would like to be told that there is a method of training that delivers fast strength gains forever, but it doesn’t exist. Training methods that deliver quick results do exist for beginners and intermediates. Quick results are also possible for those who finally figure out how to train correctly when they have been training incorrectly with ineffective methods in the past. However, anyone who trains for very long will reach a point where they will have to accept the idea of making slow gains on a consistent basis.

Is a strength gain of five pounds per month too slow? It will add up to a strength gain of sixty pounds by the end of the year, and it will add up to a 300 pound strength gain in five years. If you only gain half that fast, you will still be 150 pounds stronger for each lift in five years.

Slow is Insignificant in Scientific Research

Even scientific studies tend to classify slow gains as “insignificant” because slow gains always show little numbers instead of big numbers. Researches often want to see substantial numbers by the end of their study to validate their research and little numbers won’t do this for them. Unfortunately, a lot of studies only last twelve to eighteen weeks at the most, which won’t produce big strength gains for an advanced lifter. The result of this is that scientific studies that show significant results revolve around methods that work quickly for beginning and intermediate lifters, so that the researchers can present better evidence for supporting a valid conclusion by the end of a study. Unfortunately, what brings the fast strength gains in the beginning, doesn’t always work as a long term lifting strategy for building strength next year, or several years down the road.

I often advocate repeating the same workouts until they become easier. This will work if training thresholds (or precision points) are used. These are explained in the basics of PPT, and are explained in even more detail in the free books Training Thresholds, the Key to Consistent Strength Gains, and Strength Training Capacity. Repeating the same workout is completely unacceptable in the minds of the vast majority. Doing the same workouts again and again makes it seem like you are not making any progress, but if the workout is getting easier, then you are making progress. Instead of trying to break a record by doing more reps, more sets, or lifting a heavier weight, the emphasis should be on breaking records in terms of how easy it is to lift the same weight. Once this is accomplished, then add weight, but first focus on allowing the same weight and reps that you have been using in workouts to become easier, easier, easier.

Does it take time? Won’t progress be slow? Yes it does take time, and progress is often slow. You can try to speed up your progress by pushing harder and harder and harder. Even though it may speed up your progress for a short time, it will slow your progress down for a long time. Once your body is through with rapid gains, slow is the way to go because fast will never last.

Slow is the Fastest Way to Big Numbers

Richard Hawthorne is closing in on a deadlift that is five times his own bodyweight, but he explains in this video that in the long run, trying to gain fast will only slow you down, and going slow is the fastest way to big numbers. If you don’t want to watch the whole video, I recommend fast forwarding to 5:39 in the video to get to the bottom line of what he is saying. If your goal is long term strength gains, then you must think long term and the patience to build strength little by little. Best of training to you.

 

Mixed Strength Training Routines

Three Types of Strength Training Routines

In the last article I discussed three basic training strategies that are used to build strength. The most common is max effort overload training which works wonderfully for intermediate lifters. Max effort overload training simply means to push with maximum effort until you fail to do any more reps with the amount of weight you are using (i.e. training to failure). When using this strategy, the training stress is very substantial and it is best to frequently switch exercises to avoid overtraining the same exercises.

Linear Periodization: Progressive Overload

The second method is progressive overload or linear periodization where a lifter starts out with fairly light weights for eight to twelve reps. They then add to a little to the amount of weight they are lifting every week until they reach a very heavy weight by the end of a training cycle. As weight is added from week to week, the amount of reps that are done throughout the cycle will decreased appropriately to match the weight.

Repeating the Same Workouts

The last method is based on repeating the exact same workouts until they become easier; then a little weight is added and the process is repeated.  This strategy is based on using moderately difficult workouts on a frequent basis. To make it work, a set should never be pushed past the point where rep speed starts to slow down, and a lifter should never push past the point of being at full strength at any point during the workout. Over time, the repeated workouts become easier so that weight can be added without the workouts ever becoming difficult.

Mixed Strength Training Routines

The three strategies can be used separately, or they can be combined together within a cycle of strength training routines. In this article, a mixture or the combing of strategies into a cycle will be addressed. Since most of the workouts are based on high frequency training where the same workouts are repeated for part of the week or cycle, it is best to do just a few basic exercises per workout (i.e squats, presses, and a pulling exercise). Too many exercises with high frequency training is a recipe for an overtraining disaster. The first workout listed is an example of a workout that incorporates all three training strategies into a week of training.

The second workout utilizes two strategies. The main basis of the workouts is to keep repeating a simple workout five to six days per week until it become easy enough to add a little weight without the workout ever becoming difficult. The second strategy is to use the max effort overload principle by training to failure every ten to fourteen days.

The third workout is combination of repeating the same workouts for most of the week and doing a linear periodization cycle by adding weight every Fridays over the course of nine weeks.

If you love variety and experimenting with your workouts, then you can try these routines. Best of training to you.

 

 

 

Three Basic Methods for Strength Training

There are three basic strength training methods that lifters use to gain strength. They consist of:

1. Max effort overload training  (ie training to failure or going for a new single rep max record).
2. Progressive overload. Start out with fairly light training and utilize frequent increases of weight over time: (i.e. linear periodization).
3. Repeating the same workout for a substantial amount of time until it becomes easier, then add weight.

Max Effort Overload Training

Max effort overload training is the first strategy listed and may be used more than any other method because it works; especially for beginning and intermediate lifters who have been working out for less than a year. The basic idea behind max effort overload training is very simple; push yourself to break a new record as often as possible. You break a record by doing more reps with the same weight, or using more weight with the same amount of reps. This is usually done by training to failure or going for a single rep max record. As good as this method works, it has a short lift span in terms of effectiveness. If you have a huge reserve of adaptive capacity, it may work for several years, but most people are fortunate to experience a year of steady progress using this method. Teenagers may experience several years of success with max effort overload training as they are growing and maturing at the same time that they are training.

Once max effort overload training ceases to work, the next two strategies that are listed at the start of the article must be used. The most common strategy is to use a gradual progressive overload cycle where a lifter starts out with fairly light weights and adds weight to their lifts every week. Reps are generally decreased every one to three weeks as weight is being added from week to week. This is also called linear periodization  

Linear Periodization

Linear periodization is based upon a goal that your body is trying to accomplish when it gains strength, which is to keep additions of weight from escalating into a severe training stress. This means that it won’t work very well if you start out by using a severe training stress by training to failure in your first week of the workout cycle, because this is what your body is trying to avoid. Instead, you must start out by using an amount of weight that is not a severe training stress so that a strength gain will make it possible for your body to avoid a severe stress as weight is added. If your body gains strength as weight is added each week, it can minimize the effect of workouts becoming harder and harder as weight is added. This is exactly what your body is trying to accomplish when this system is used.

Same Workouts Become Easier

The last strategy listed is to keep doing the same workout until it becomes easier. One of the goals that your body has for gaining strength is to make it easier for you to lift the same weight. Do not train to failure when using this method because workouts never become easier when you always train to failure. Do as many reps as possible for your work set within the context of maintaining a steady even pace from one rep to the next, but don’t strain out slow reps at the end of your sets. As you gain strength, the same amount of weight and reps will become easier. Eventually you will be able to add weight without struggling to complete the same amount of reps that you have been doing for the various sets of your workout. 

Many training strategies are based one of the training methods discussed, some are based on two of the strategies, and some are based on all three. I will give examples of this in the next series of articles. Best of training to you.

 

 

Gain Strength by Programming for Overcompensation

In a previous article that was titled, Increasing Total Workload for Strength, I explained how a four set pyramid can be turned into a ten set pyramid to increase the total workload. Increasing total workload by doing more warm up sets with light weights can often trigger an increase in strength that will eventually help you to increase the top poundage of the pyramid. 

The Extensive Warm up

Having observed a few elite powerlifters work out, they often do an extensive warm up to work their way up to a heavy poundage for their last set. The key to the effective use of an extensive warm up, such as a ten set pyramid, is to still be at full strength for the last set. This can only be done if the start of the warm up is done with very light weights that can be done for a lot of reps without causing substantial fatigue. In addition, as the weight increases, the number of reps must decrease enough to still remain at full strength for the last set.  

If you were to have the ability to work your way up to 315 pounds for five reps for a given lift, the following workout could be an example of how you might work up to your last set of five reps:

1^st set: 10 reps x 135 pounds = 1350 pounds

2^nd set: 10 reps x135 pounds = 1350 pounds

3^rd set: 10 reps x 155 pounds = 1550 pounds

4^th set: 8 reps x 185 pounds = 1480 pounds

5^th set: 8 reps x 205 pounds = 1640 pounds

6^th set: 6 reps x 225 pounds = 1350 pounds

7^th set: 5 reps x 255 pounds = 1275 pounds

8^th set: 1 reps x 275 pounds = 275 pounds

9^th set: 1 rep x 295 pounds =   295 pounds

10^th set: 5 reps x 315 pounds = 1575 pounds

Total workload for all 10 sets = 12,140 pounds

Notice the substantial total workload of 12,140 pounds when all ten sets are accounted for. One of the advantages of using a substantial workload is that it can be utilized in conjunction with programing for overcompensation by cutting back on your total workload for a period of time.

Program Your Body with a High Workload

What do I mean by programming for overcompensation? It simply means that when you use a greater workload by doing a lot of warm up sets, your body will learn to adapt by programming itself according to the demand of the workload. The total workload will demand a certain amount of protein synthesis to rebuild your muscles for full recovery to occur. In addition, creatine phosphate, and glycogen, which are the chemical elements within your muscles that provide fuel for muscle contractions, will be restored and resynthesized according to the demand of the workout. The bottom line is, your body will program itself to replenish your muscles in proportion to the demand of the workload.

Overcompensation by Cutting Back on Total Workload

If the total workload is temporarily decreased by doing less warm up sets, your body will be in the habit of replenishing itself in proportion to the previous workouts that consisted of a greater total workload. This means your body will replenish itself more than the demand of the workout, which is referred to as either overcompensation, or super-compensation. It will actually over recover. The result of overcompensation is added strength. 

While I suggested that you can increase strength by increasing your total workload with more warm up sets, you can also increase your strength by temporarily cutting back on your total workload by cutting back on your warm up sets to produce overcompensation. For example, the ten set pyramid can be reduced to a four set pyramid. The four set pyramid requires that you will start your warm up with heavier weights, and that you push harder on each warm up set, but you won’t do as many warm up sets. This will reduce your total workload from 12,140 pounds, to 6,775 pounds if you do the following four set pyramid: 

1^st set: 10 reps x 175 pounds = 1750 pounds

2^nd set: 8 reps x 225 pounds = 1800 pounds

3^rd set: 6 reps x 275 pounds = 1650 pounds

4^th set: 5 reps  x 315 pounds = 1575 pounds

Total workload for all 4 sets = 6,775 pounds

Change According to How Your Body Responds

It may seem as though I am psychotic for suggesting that you do more warm up sets to increase strength in one article, and then suggest doing less warm up sets to gain strength in another article, but if you do it right, then doing more will help you to improve, and so will doing less. If you increase your total workload with more warm up sets, give yourself at least three workouts to program your body to recover in proportion to the increased workload. Once you cut back, only do so as long as you sense your body is overcompensating with an increase in strength. If you reach a point where you feel stuck at the same strength level, then increase your warm up sets again. Make sure you make your changes within the context of staying at full strength for the whole pyramid. Best of training to you.  

 

Eric Spoto’s Warm up Sets Equal a Huge Total Workload

Eric Spoto is an example of a powerlifter who does an extensive high workload warm up to reach his top bench press poundage. His total workload for his first eight sets before ever reaching his top weight is a huge 20,345 pounds. Most of his total workload occurs during his first five sets in which he amasses 17,280 pounds of workload. The following workout is an example of how Spoto works up to a heavy lift: (Note: The percentages listed with each poundage refer to the percent of weight that Eric is using relative to his single rep max in this workout). 

1^st set: 18 reps: x 135 pounds (19%) = 2,430 pounds

2^nd set: 12 reps:x 225 pounds (32%) = 2,700 pounds

3^rd set: 10 reps: x 315 pounds (45%) = 3,150 pounds

4^th set: 10 reps: x 405 pounds (57%) = 4,050 pounds

5^th set:  10 reps: x 495 pounds (70%) = 4,950 pounds

6^th set:  3  reps: x 585 pounds (83%) = 1,755 pounds

7^th set:  1 rep:  x  635 pounds (90%) =   635 pounds

8^th set:  1 rep:  x  675 pounds  (96%) =   675 pounds

9^th set:  1 rep: x  705 pounds  (100%) = 705 pounds

Total workload for all sets  =  21,050 pounds

The video of the workout is shown below.

Many people completely overlook warm up sets as though they are a non-factor in regard to what contributes to strength gains, but they can be a critical factor.

A Real Example

I already wrote about increasing total workload with warm up sets to increase strength gains in a previous article titled, Increasing Total Workload for Strength, but I thought I would address the issue again with a real example of how one powerlifter (Eric Spoto) accumulates a large total workload during his warm up sets. If you choose to follow Eric’s strategy of a high workload warm up, then it is critical that you adjust the poundages for each warm up set according to your own strength level. This is done by using the percentages of your single rep max that are listed next to each poundage.

Adjust to Your Own Strength Level 

If you don’t adjust the warm up to your own strength level and start out with eighteen reps with 135 pounds for your first warm up set just because Eric Spoto does, you may not have much left for the rest of your work out. It is highly important that you are still at full strength when you reach the last set of your workout.

Remain at full strength for Your Last Set

Don’t squander your strength before you do your heaviest lifting. In my own case, I would need to adjust by dramatically cutting back on the number of reps on the fifth set with 70%, which Eric Spoto does for ten reps. I would only do three reps because ten would wipe me out for the heavier lifting. The main thing is to adjust the workout according to your own capacity to remain at full strength by your last set. Best of training to you.

Top up Progression vs. Bottom up Progression

There are multitudes of progression strategies that lifters use to increase their strength. I refer to one of these strategies as bottom up progression as opposed to top up progression. In my own case, the focus of progression has always been on the heaviest work sets. This is top up progression. I would start my workout with lighter warm up sets and work my way up to heavier work sets, but I pretty much ignored the role that the lighter sets played in progression. From my observations, most lifters think the same way. The focus of top up progression is almost exclusively on progressing in terms of the heaviest sets.

Warm ups are Barely Mentioned

When describing their workouts, many powerlifters don’t even bother to mention how many warm up sets they do, or how much weight they use for their warm up sets when working up to a heavier weight. They may spend twenty to twenty five minutes doing tons of warm up sets to work their way up to one work set of 400 pounds for 5 reps for the squat, and then describe their workout as 1 set of 5 reps with 400 pounds.

Progress from the Bottom, Not the Top

When a lifter who has been working up to a top weight of 400 pounds for 1 set of 5 reps decides to increase the weight, they may keep all of their warm up sets at the exact same weight, and try to increase their top weight from 400 pounds to 410 pounds for five reps. The total focus is on the heaviest weight. It seems rare that anyone gives credit to the warm up sets for having any training effect, but I have come to a point in my own training where I believe that the first step of progression is to use progressively heavier warm up sets. I refer to this as bottom up progression and believe it can be a vital element that contributes to eventually being able to increase the heaviest weights that are done after the warm up sets.

In the last article on Increasing Total Workload for Strength, I gave two examples of working up to a 315 pound squat. The first example consisted of a four set pyramid, and the second example consisted of a ten set pyramid. The point of the article was simply that increasing your total workload by doing more light warm up sets instead of more work sets can often trigger a strength gain. In this article, I am going to refer back to the ten set pyramid that was discussed in the last article and explain bottom up progression where the lighters sets are increased in weight first as a basis for eventually enabling you to increase your top weight. I’ll start by listing the ten set pyramid.

1^st set: 10 reps x 135 pounds = 1350 pounds

2^nd set: 10 reps x135 pounds = 1350 pounds

3^rd set: 10 reps x 155 pounds = 1550 pounds

4^th set: 8 reps x 185 pounds = 1480 pounds

5^th set: 8 reps x 205 pounds = 1640 pounds

6^th set: 6 reps x 225 pounds = 1350 pounds

7^th set: 5 reps x 255 pounds = 1275 pounds

8^th set: 1 reps x 275 pounds = 275 pounds

9^th set: 1 rep x 295 pounds =   295 pounds

10^th set: 5 reps x 315 pounds = 1575 pounds

Total workload for all 10 sets = 12,140 pounds

How to Implement Bottom Up Progression

This workout can easily be adjusted by using bottom up progression and increasing the weight of the lightest weights first. For example, the first three warm up sets can be increased by five pounds each the first week. The second week, you can increase the fourth, fifth and sixth warm up sets by five pounds. The third week, you can increase the seventh, eighth, and ninth sets by five pounds. This will increase your total workload by 295 pounds, while still doing the same amount of reps. Once you have increase the weight of all your warm up sets, keep doing the same workout without changing the weights for the next two to three weeks in order to give your body a chance to adjust to the increased workload. Eventually, the workout will become easy enough to add weight to your top set, which is your final goal.

Warning

A warning must be issued when using this strategy. If you are already in the habit of pushing nearly to failure on your warm up sets, this strategy will back fire. The basic strategy is to do a lot of easy warm up sets that produce a substantial total workload volume without wearing you out. If you are stuck and your progress won’t seem to budge for your heaviest set, do plenty of warm up sets, and focus on increasing the weight of your warm up sets first. By doing this, you will eventually be able to increase the weight of the heaviest set. Best of training to you.  

Increasing Total Workload

If you are training on a consistent basis, but you are stuck at the same strength level, there are several methods that you can use to start making progress again. The method I discuss the most on this website is to use precision points. If you are not familiar with how to use precision points, please refer to the menu and go the section called “The basics of PPT.”

Increase Total Workload

There are additional methods that can be used to help you break through a sticking point. One of the most basic is to increase your total workload volume by doing a more extensive warm up. The key is to increase your training volume without growing weaker by your last set of an exercise for a muscle group. How is this done? By starting out lighter on your warm up sets and doing more sets and reps with lighter weights before reaching the last set. The lighter weights will permit you to do more sets and reps in order to increase your total workload poundage without wearing you out when you reach your last set. Further explanation is needed.

A four Set Pyramid

Let’s take a look at a lifter who uses a typical pyramid where he works his way up in weight until he reaches his heaviest weight on his last set of squats. To accomplish this, the lifter starts out with 185 pounds in the squat, and works his way up to 315 pounds to complete a four set pyramid. Look closely at the poundages and total workload that the lifter uses in the following example: 

1^st set: 10 reps x 185 pounds = 1850 pounds

2^nd set: 8 reps x 225 pounds = 1800 pounds

3^rd set: 6 reps x 275 pounds = 1650 pounds

4^th set: 5 reps  x 315 pounds = 1575 pounds

Total workload for all 4 sets = 6,875 pounds

Increase to a Ten Set Pyramid

We’ll assume that the lifter who is doing the four set pyramid is stuck. He keeps trying to move up to 325 for five reps, but he can only do it for three reps. One strategy that this lifter can consider is to increasing his total workload to see if his body responds with a strength gain. He can do this by still working up to 315 pounds for five reps, but he will start out lighter and do many more sets and reps before he reaches 315. His previous workout consisted of a four set pyramid, but the following example consists of a ten set pyramid. Look closely again at the poundages and especially at the total workload. 

1^st set: 10 reps x 135 pounds = 1350 pounds

2^nd set: 10 reps x135 pounds = 1350 pounds

3^rd set: 10 reps x 155 pounds = 1550 pounds

4^th set: 8 reps x 185 pounds = 1480 pounds

5^th set: 8 reps x 205 pounds = 1640 pounds

6^th set: 6 reps x 225 pounds = 1350 pounds

7^th set: 5 reps x 255 pounds = 1275 pounds

8^th set: 1 reps x 275 pounds = 275 pounds

9^th set: 1 rep x 295 pounds =   295 pounds

10^th set: 5 reps x 315 pounds = 1575 pounds

Total workload for all 10 sets = 12,140 pounds

The first thing that is important to notice is that the four set pyramid consisted of a total workload of 6,875 pounds as compared with a total workload of 12,140 pounds for the second pyramid. The increase in workload almost doubles in the second workout as compared with the first, but much of the increase in workload is done with more reps and sets using lighter weights so that the lifter won’t be worn out by his last set. Sometimes the increase in workload provides the right kind of stimulation so that you can start gaining again by adding weight to the last set. In addition, the extended warm up provides the potential for other strategies to be used to enhance progression such as bottom up progression, and cutting back on the warm up for overcompensation, but these strategies shall be discussed in the next article. Best of training to you.

Richard Hawthorne can deadlift almost 5 times his body weight. He discusses his high volume warm up starting at 1:45 in the video.

Richard Hawthorne’s warm up

 

 

 

 

Linear Periodization

Linear Periodization is a very popular form of training. It simply means that you start out with a fairly light weight at the start of a training cycle, and you add weight week by week until you are using a very heavy weight at the end of a training cycle. When lighter weights are used at the start of the cycle, more reps per sets are done. As the amount of weight increases from week to week over the training cycle, the amount of reps decreases, although the amount of reps doesn’t necessarily decrease every week, and may decrease every two or three weeks as weight is added from week to week.

Increase by the Right Amount of Weight from Week to Week

As you read through this article, an eight week linear periodization plan will be listed. It starts with ten reps and ends with one rep. The amount of weight that you use each week is based upon your own strength level when using various rep ranges. Using the right amount of weight as weight increases each week is the biggest key to making the training work. If you increase the amount of weight by too much from week to week, you end up straining more and more as you progress through the weeks. This is a sure way to fail. If you don’t increase by enough from week to week, you come to the end of the training cycle way under your single rep training max. This is why I would urge you to be very careful to follow the guideline in the right hand column for how much weight to use each week. You may have to go through the cycle more than once before you get the feel for how much weight to use for each exercise.

Stick with Strong Reps, Avoid Week Reps

I must also give my opinion by saying that I feel it is best to avoid training to failure and to stay within the boundaries of using  strong reps. Strong reps are reps that you can do while using a steady even pace from rep to the next without slowing down your rep pace. Weak reps are the slower reps that occur at the end of set and should be avoided.

Training Frequency

People vary widely in how often they need to train to respond best to their workouts. Personally, I am amazed at the number of people who experience incredible long term results by working a muscle group only once per week with a linear periodization program. It is also quite common to work a muscle group twice per week by using the linear periodization workout once per week for each muscle group, and then work each muscle group a second day of the week by doing two or three sets of ten reps using about 60% of a max single rep. This can be done as whole body workouts or split routines. You can also try the linear periodization cycle in combination with high frequency training by repeating the workout that is listed for each week three or more times per week. If you are working out within the boundaries of strong reps, high frequency training with a limited number of sets (as in 2 or 3 sets) tends to work well.

When to do More Warm up Sets

When using linear periodization, the training volume drops very low when you reach the weeks where you are only doing one to three reps per set for an exercise. This does not cause a problem for everyone, but others may lose strength and muscle mass from doing so few reps per workout. If this happens to you, do more warm up sets to increase your total workload and training volume. I recommend at least five to six warm up sets for five reps using forty to fifty percent of your single rep max if you need the extra training volume. You may add to your warm up volume even more by preceding this with a set or two of ten reps with 30% of your single rep max.  

 By doing extra warm up sets, you can increase your total workload and stimulate your metabolism and nervous system during the weeks where only a few reps are being done per exercise. This will help you to maintain the strength that you have built up from the earlier weeks of the training cycle. Precision training and sensible adjustments according to what your body needs is a huge key to experiencing success with linear periodization or any type of training. If you have been using linear periodization or may be using it in the future, consider giving these principles a try. Best of training to you.

Lamar Gant King of the Deadlift

Pound for pound, the greatest deadlifter of all time may be Lamar Gant. He was a great deadlifter, but he was just flat out strong and tough in every single lift. Lamar was a small lifter at 123 pounds, but he put up huge numbers for his size. He managed a 638 deadlift at 123 pounds, and a 688 pound deadlift at 132. That’s over five times his body weight, which makes him ridiculously strong.

A 12 Week Cycle

Lamar believed that strength is developed from doing reps, not singles. He took his time to build up to heavy lifts. One of his deadlift routines consisted of a twelve week linear periodization cycle in which weights were increased on a weekly basis. He preferred doing five sets of deadlifts and began the twelve week cycle with a four week block in which 5 sets of 8 reps were used each week with an increase of weight every week. He would start the four week block with eight reps by using about 65% of his projected training max, and would finish with about 72 to 73% of his projected max. This was followed by 5 sets of 5 reps for the next four weeks with an increase in weight every week. The training block with five reps started with about 75% of his projected max and finished at about 82%. His final training block of four weeks consisted of 5 sets of 3 reps with weight increases every week. The training block with three reps started with about 86% of his projected single rep max and finished at about 92 to 93% of his projected max. You can read about his training and a sample routine by clicking here on this Link.

Lamar Gant Deadlifting 672 (He starts his lift at about 45 seconds into the video)

A Feel For How Hard to Train

I believe one of the keys to Lamar’s training was his feel for knowing how hard to work out in order to make consistent progress. Lamar says that, “People tend to over train or under train in the deadlift.” He goes on to say that even though the deadlift takes a lot of mental toughness, you have to pace yourself. According to him, this meant that, “When doing an eight rep work set, you should be using a weight that you are actually capable of doing eleven reps with.”

I don’t have any video footage of Lamar’s training sessions, but my guess is that he perfectly understood how to stay within the boundaries of strong reps and strong sets. This means to only do repeat reps of a set as long as a steady even rep pace can be maintained, and to only repeat sets as long as you are at full strength. Many of the best lifters seemed to have an instinctive feel for this, and it allowed them to make progress year after year.

Smart Training

Lamar Gant had great natural ability. People with natural ability are often able to make quick progress that puts them way ahead of the rest of the field. Lamar Gant did this. However, those who have natural ability don’t always get better year after year for decades, but Lamar broke records across an eighteen year time span. In other words, he didn’t just have natural ability, he also trained smart and was able to zero on a personal training zone that was neither too hard, nor too easy, but precisely right. This was the key to effective training for Lamar Gant, and is the key to effective training for you, and for anyone who wants to get stronger over a long period of time. Best of training to you.

 

 

Explosive Power

Many years ago, weight training was not well accepted as a means of conditioning for sports. Coaches seemed to be aware that weight training could help people improve in terms of muscle mass and strength, but they believed that it would hinder athletic abilities such as speed and flexibility. Perhaps this idea came from athletes who were big and strong, but they didn’t move well and lacked speed, quickness, and skill. This does not have to be the case.

The Way You Train Makes a Difference

The way you train can make a huge difference in athletic performance. There may be some bodybuilders and powerlifters who care nothing about speed or quickness. Their only quest is to get bigger and stronger, and their training is devoid of anything that resembles speed, quickness, and explosive power. Slow training has the potential to produce slow athletes. If an athlete is loaded with fast twitch muscle fibers and has a high degree of natural speed and quickness, it is doubtful that slow training will cause them to become a lumbering klutz who loses all of their inborn speed. However, their speed and quickness may not be enhanced by slow reps and slow training. On the other hand, fast explosive training with weights can definitely enhance speed, force, and explosive power.

Seeing is Believing

While powerlifters and bodybuilders can get by with slow reps, Olympic lifters can’t. Explosive power is the name of the game when it comes to the clean and jerk, and snatch. It is not unusual for Olympic lifters to have fantastic jumping ability. To illustrate this point, take a few moments and watch the following videos of these world class Olympic lifters.

Ilya Ilyin

Sa Jae Hyouk

Korean Weightlifters

Joey Persia Westside Barbell

Train in Short Bursts

If you want the benefit of explosive power, then use it in your training. Explosive cleans, explosive deadlifts, and explosive squats of all kinds will all help you improve in the area of jumping and developing explosive power in your lifts. The athletes who successfully develop this are not trying to see how many reps they can do, nor are they trying  to annihilate their quads during a leg training session, rather they are doing one to three explosive reps at a time. If you are a coach, and are telling your athletes to hold a deep knee bend position until they are screaming and crying because of the pain, and you are trying to make men out of your athletes by seeing how much they can endure before they drop, you won’t be training them for explosive power, you’ll simply be abusing your athletes. Avoid fatigue when training for explosive power, and train in brief bursts. Best of training to you.  

 

 

 

 

A Third Common Training Mistake: Expecting Constant Rapid Gains

This is the last in a series of three articles on three common training mistakes. The first mistake is to believe that workout must become increasingly severe and difficult in order to keep on making progress. The second common mistake is that seventy two hours or more of rest is needed in order to recover between workouts. This is not true unless you make mistake number one. A third common mistake will be covered in this article which focuses on the belief that weight or reps must be added every time you workout or your training is non productive. This is pure nonsense, but I believed it for a long time .

Shock Training

In my early years of training, I would occasionally figure out how to shock my body into strength gains so that I could add on five or ten pounds by the next week. Every time this would happen, I thought I had finally found the magic method of training. I eventually figured out that a quick gain was usually followed by no gains, and I would eventually revert back to my previous strength level. Shock training seemed to be a strategy that could be used occasionally for instant gratification, but it proved to be a terrible strategy for long term results.

In the Beginning

Part of the reason that I was so focused on quick gains was that I had gained quickly as a beginner. Actually, when I first started training with weights, I didn’t gain very much at all because I had no idea how to train for about a year. Once I bought some weight training literature, I had a better idea of how to train and my strength really took off for about three months. I could practically count on adding five or ten pounds to my lifts every week. Within that three month period, my bench press went up by sixty pounds, and my squat and dead lift increased close to 100 pounds. My gains then slowed way down for a year and a half, followed by almost no gains for years (as in decades). The problem was that I kept looking back to the quick gains I made as a beginner. My mind was locked in on the idea that I should be able to add weight every week or my training wasn’t working.

Short Term Thinking

After years and years of training, I started to actually do some basic math. I realized that if I added five pounds to my lifts every week for a year, I would be over 250 pounds stronger than I was at the start of the year. It dawned on me that this was not be realistic, so instead of thinking about how much I could gain in a week, I thought about it in terms of how much strength I could gain in a year.

Long Term Thinking

What if I only gained ten pounds of strength per year? Of course that would be pitifully slow, but it would add up if it were done year after year. What about a twenty pound strength gain over the course of a year? A little better, but still not much unless you consider that in five years it will add up to 100 pounds. A strength gain of thirty pounds per year would make me 150 pounds stronger in five years, and a forty pound strength gain would add up to 200 pounds in five years. When I looked at strength gains of twenty, thirty, or forty pounds over the course of a year, and broke those gains down into how much I would need to gain every week, or every month, the gains looked insignificant.

A Month and a Week 

A strength gain of twenty pounds per year breaks down to a little under two pounds per month, and a forty pound strength gain over the course a year breaks down into 3.5 pounds of strength per month. These same gains translate into gaining a little less than a half pound per week in order to get twenty pounds stronger in a year, and a little less than a pound per week in order to get forty pounds stronger in a year. This is almost negligible to a short term thinker, and it sounds like almost no gains at all, but to a long term thinker, it adds up to 100 to 200 pounds in five years.

 If you looking for a predictable way to become stronger so that you can add weight to your lifts on a scheduled basis, my advice is to use training thresholds, which are the precision points that are discussed on the basics of PPT page of this website. I you do this, you will gradually be able to add weight to your exercises; maybe not by the end of the week, but within six to twelve weeks you will, and it will add up by the end of the year. Adding weight too quickly will eventually keep you from gaining at all. On the other hand, patience is a key that will lead to long term success. Best of training to you. 

 

 

 

 

A Second Training Mistake, 72 Hours of Recovery

In the last article I discussed that the biggest training mistake I had ever made in training was to believe that I must continuously find ways to train harder in order to continue making progress. In this article, I will discuss a second big training mistake, which was to listen to the “experts” who said that muscles take 72 hours to fully recover. Some said it took longer. The experts were actually right because they were the same experts who believed that you should annihilate your muscles if you want them to grow bigger and stronger. There came a time when I realized that following expert advice on recovery was not helping me to improve at all, and I had absolutely nothing to lose by trying something they said would not work because my training was already failing to work.

I Took The Risk of Training my Whole Body Every Day

I took the risk of training my whole body every day. I thought it might lead to a training disaster, but I was surprised to find out I didn’t lose any strength. I didn’t gain any either until I learned how to change the way I trained. When I learned to stop a set when rep speed started to slow down, and I learned to only repeat sets for a muscle group as long as I was at full strength, I found that training my whole body five or six days per week actually worked. This went against everything I was taught about training and recovery as a skinny hard gainer, but it no longer mattered what I had been taught, or what other people thought, I cared more about results than I did about popular weight training trends.

Variable Recovery Times

I do not proclaim that everyone must work their whole body every day to get bigger and stronger. This would be absurd as there have been multitudes of lifters, bodybuilders, and athletes, who train a body part only once or twice per week with fantastic results. What I advocate, is to start out training a muscle group three times per week, and see if it works. If it works, stick with it. If it doesn’t work, you can try using a higher or a lower training frequency until you find one that works best. However, please understand that recovery time between workouts can be highly variable according to how hard, how heavy, and how long you work out. If you try training three or more times per week and it’s not working, the problem might not be with your training frequency, instead, it may be related to how hard, how heavy, and how long you work out. I learned that if I couldn’t maintain a steady even rep speed during a set, and I trained a muscle group past the point of being at full strength, progress would stop.  

While I do not advocate that you should use high frequency training if you are already making progress by training a muscle group once or twice per week, I would encourage anyone who is not making progress with a lower training frequency to give high training frequency a try regardless of the constant warnings that it causes over training. You may be surprised to find that it works for you if you use it in conjunction with correct training practices. Best of training to you.

 

 

 

 

3 Common Training Mistakes Part 1

The biggest strength training mistake I have ever made was to believe in the philosophy that training must continually increase in difficulty in order to keep making progress. According to high intensity training methods, if I started with a moderate training intensity, I would make progress for a while, and then fail to make any more progress when my body adapted to the training intensity. I would then need to up my training intensity by training to failure until it quit working. In order to keep making progress, the next steps would be to advance to techniques such as forced reps, negatives, rest pause reps, giant sets, and strip sets. Not only did I see very little results, but I eventually reached a point where I was pushing as hard as I possibly could and had run out of torture methods.

It took years (two decades to be honest) to fully rid myself of the belief that I must train harder and harder to make progress. Eventually I realized that effective training revolves around using the right energy system within my muscles, which is the creatine phosphate system. The creatine phosphate system doesn’t function optimally when fatigued from pushing a

 

 

 

 

Optimum Strength Training Capacity 

You have an optimum strength capacity. Your optimum strength capacity is not your ultimate capacity for how hard you can possibly push yourself until you can barely move. Your optimum capacity for strength refers to how hard you can push yourself while maintaining the ability to perform optimally in terms of strength. You can exceed this capacity by pushing to your emergency capacity; which is a suboptimal capacity in terms of strength.

Your optimum capacity for strength specific training consists of your capacity for strong reps and strong sets when using submaximal weights, and it consists of a strong lifting motion when doing heavy single reps with near maximal weights. Strong reps are forceful reps that can be repeated using a steady even pace from one rep to the next before you weaken and the pace of your reps start to slow down. Strong sets are simply sets that are done while you are at full strength before fatigue sets in and causes you to weaken. There is also an optimum capacity for the most amount of weight that you can use while maintaining a smooth nonstop lifting motion.

If you train to these capacities, your body is designed to expand its capacity of strong reps, strong sets, and a strong single rep lifting motion in order to insure that you don’t exceed it. On the other hand, if you exceed this capacity, you will transition into your emergency capacity. What is your emergency capacity? Glad you asked.

Emergency Capacity

Your emergency capacity is the capacity that is left over after your optimum capacity for strength is used up. It is a suboptimum capacity. When you exceed your optimum capacity for strength specific training, you are forced to use slower weaker reps at the end of the set, and you will be forced to do weak sets when you are no longer at full strength. If you exceed your optimum capacity for the amount of weight that you use for a single rep, you will not be able to maintain a smooth continuous lifting motion throughout the rep.

If you don’t train hard enough by pushing to your optimum capacities of strong reps, strong sets, and a strong lifting motion, then your body isn’t motivated to expand its capacity to the full measure that it is capable of. If you push past your optimum strength capacities, your body begins to focus on adaptations that are not specific to strength, or if it is overstressed, it altogether shuts down its desire to increase any of its capacities.

Lifting within your optimum capacity for strength specific training is within your body’s ability to manage. On the other hand, exceeding that capacity by pushing to your emergency capacity is difficult for your body to manage. If you continue to push into your emergency capacity with weak reps and sets in every workout as you grow stronger, your body is never able to reduce the emergency that it would like to reduce or avoid. Since it is already overstressed when you push to emergency capacity, it is likely that it will eventually make an intelligent decision to stay at the same strength level so that it doesn’t have to experience even more weight or more reps in an overstressed state. The bottom line is that if you want to keep gaining strength, train to the limit of your optimum strength capacity, but do not exceed that capacity.

You Can Get Stronger by Repeating the Same Workouts IF…..

The main reason that I say all of this is because it is a common belief (I recently read again) that repeating the same workout with the same exercises, the same amount of weight, and the same amount of sets and reps will not make you stronger, so the same workouts should never be repeated. People who say this are absolutely right if you exceed your optimum capacity for strength when training, but if you learn to train to your strength specific capacities, they expand which causes your strength to increase. In other words, you can get stronger by repeating the same workouts again and again for weeks, or even two or three months if… (and this is a big if) if you push to your optimum capacity for strength specific training without exceeding it. Best of training to you.  

 

 

 

 

 

Andrey Malanichev: Simple Training That Works

I am a firm believer that effective result producing workouts can be simple. By simple, I mean that it does not take tons of assistance exercises or elaborate training cycles to effectively build strength. You can stick with a few basic exercises and the same basic workout for a long time and get tremendous results. I would never say that no one should ever use assistance exercises or periodized training cycles, but what I am saying is that simple workouts work if you understand the basics of how to make them work.

There are two huge factors that must be addressed in order to make simple workouts work. Perfecting your technique for each basic exercise is one of the major factors that causes simple workouts to be highly effective, and the other is pushing yourself hard enough, without pushing too hard.

Andrey Malanichev

Andrey Malanichev is an excellent example of an enormously strong powerlifter who understands how to make the concept of simple training work. He has squatted over 1,000  pounds in competition and made it look easy. Take a look at the following lift.

 

 

In an interview with Andrey Malanichev, he was asked to tell about his training. In part of his description about his training, he said, “First, I am in favor of simple training. I am skeptical of complicated systems and gimmicks in training, diet, and lifestyle.” When asked to give advice to beginners he said, “Do a lot of basic exercises-do everything in perfect form.” (click here for the entire interview)

Part of Good Form Means Don’t Grind

Malanichev was asked? Do you ever actually grind out squats or would your absolute maximum squat also be explosive and smooth? He replied, I do it with controlled speed. I think it’s dangerous when you don’t control the movements but I do not “grind” on purpose, I just squat at the speed I can control.” In other words, Malanichev only lifts as long as he can maintain a consistent rep speed throughout the set. When doing heavy singles, he will not use weights that are so heavy that he can’t use a smooth nonstop lifting motion through the whole lift. This seems to be true even in a meet; and even when going for a world record.

In the following video, Malanichev works up to a heavy triple for his squat workout. Notice that on his last set he does three smooth reps using the same rep speed on all three reps. He doesn’t push to the point where rep speed slows down at the end of the set. He only does strong reps and avoids weak (or slower) reps. (If you want to skip through the first part of the video to his last set, he does his last set at about 8:45 in the video).

 

 

 Malanichev Trains Only as Long as He is at Full Strength

After a heavy triple, Malanichev stops his leg workout and doesn’t do any more because he only trains a muscle group as long as it is at full strength. He only does strong sets and avoids weak sets.

 Assistance Work

For those who think that enormous strength cannot be built without assistance exercises, when Malanichev was asked what his favorite assistance lifts were for the squat, bench press and deadlift, he replied, “I don’t have any assistance lifts—as I mentioned earlier, I train very simply; just a lot of basic lift exercise.” 

Simple workouts are highly effective, when they consist of using perfect exercise form, and training hard enough, but not too hard, by doing strong reps, strong sets, and using a strong lifting motion. Put these concepts to work, and they will work for you. Best of training to you.

Continue to more strength training articles (click here)