Post by Steve Gardener on Apr 8, 2007 17:22:49 GMT
This one ties in with another listed in this section but with a slight difference.
Why do you train that way?
Recently (again being a big strong guy who just so happens to own a supplement company and so on may be the reason I get asked) I've had a few of the Gymnation lads and one or two of the WC unti visitors ask for 'advices'. It starts with me talking to one or two others and of course then you get another one asking, then another and so on. Anyway, sometimes having someone else look over a program analytically can be enough.
Two subjects spring to mind where I've asked the question. Subject a lifts as a powerlifter with the drug free boys and girls. I looked over their programme for them and saw two things 'wrong' in my opinion. Firstly as a powerlifter they naturally had flat bench press. But on the same day they worked that they also included, incline bench, dumbbell bench, flyes and I seem to recall pec dec in their as well. God help me there may have even been crossover pulley work to. So I asked 'why?'. I backed up the question by pointing out that one of the top coaches in powerlifting, the infamous Louis Simmons of Westside Barbell, is well-known for looking over programs with the same informed eye. He will often have a lifter come in and bench, squat whatever. If they are available he'll look at meet videos the lifter has and so on. With god only knows how many years experience he can spot where they are going wrong or where a small change will reap huge benefits.
He obviously has them benching but it might be with boards one session, speed benching another, shirt on another and shirt off yet another and so on. He will get them to use exercises which help them bench more - not shape the inner pec. Every single part of the program he designs for that individual lifter is there to help them bench the most they can for one single all out rep come the next competition. So if our subject 'a' is a powerlifter why then is he doing more or less every varition of bodybuilding and lifting movements known to mankind including 3 different kinds of flyes and three different kinds of bench. There's no board work, no speed bench, nothing. No use of reband straps, no chains, no rotator cuff work and nowt to strengthen the rest of the support work. No tricep work - fuck all. Why?
The same guy also, with some insight, had different lengths of recovary depending on what was being worked - much like myself. However, chest might be on a 7 day cycle, deadlifts 10 days and so on. This meant that on occasion he would find chest and deadlift etc would be back to back - say Monday and then Tuesday. When this happened he found his training very hard going as he was better suited to having at least one days rest between sessions. I suggested that when it happened he take an extra day so 9 becomes 10. 24 hours obviously will not make that much of a difference and better to be more rested and raring to go than shagged out and injured.
By the same token I also see some of my fellow competitors in the grip competitions seemingly training for something else other than the lifts I see listed as events. Like them I used to train on what I liked rather than what I needed to be doing. The absolute bare minimum is event lifts. You can, as above, add in some support work. I have seen, a la David Horne, that some rotate variations - so one pinch day is 2HP, another is one hand pinch, tghe next time pinch is worked it's wide and so on. This works very well if you know months and months in advance or train in phases. But I have seen one well known guy using a 2" V-bar for months when using a power rack pin he could train one inch without having the cost of a FBBC V-bar or LGC bar. Although he develop some strength on the 2" and there IS crossover of strength a one inch will tear his hnds to shreds. Ditto another guy using the same wide width pinch set up for MONTHS with no changes. The same guy is STILL doing one, two and three finger closes with his grippers - same as he has been these last two years - and needs to be doing competition style training NOW. Of course if these guys do not so much the better for me but still.
Take our lads here at our training camp. We have enough equipment, weights n' all to pretty much train for any kind of strongman event bar truck pulls. Mondays is good old solid compound strength training with a choice of three routines rotated (ie: one week session one, week two session two etc). Thursdays is half sensible training and some weakness worked. Saturdays is 99% pure event work. When no event is coming up soon they rotate the movements so no 2 Saturdays are identical. A few weeks out and then they pratice and attempt to gain strength on the very events which are coming up. You can ask then why and the answer is blatent and obvious.
The same not only should but MUST apply to your training. Do not allow it to become diluted. If training for strength do that - don't bench well then go all bodybuilding stylie. Ditto training for shape as a bodybuilder and then including speed benching for power.
Just ask yourself - why am I doing this - is it helping me get to my target??
Why do you train that way?
Recently (again being a big strong guy who just so happens to own a supplement company and so on may be the reason I get asked) I've had a few of the Gymnation lads and one or two of the WC unti visitors ask for 'advices'. It starts with me talking to one or two others and of course then you get another one asking, then another and so on. Anyway, sometimes having someone else look over a program analytically can be enough.
Two subjects spring to mind where I've asked the question. Subject a lifts as a powerlifter with the drug free boys and girls. I looked over their programme for them and saw two things 'wrong' in my opinion. Firstly as a powerlifter they naturally had flat bench press. But on the same day they worked that they also included, incline bench, dumbbell bench, flyes and I seem to recall pec dec in their as well. God help me there may have even been crossover pulley work to. So I asked 'why?'. I backed up the question by pointing out that one of the top coaches in powerlifting, the infamous Louis Simmons of Westside Barbell, is well-known for looking over programs with the same informed eye. He will often have a lifter come in and bench, squat whatever. If they are available he'll look at meet videos the lifter has and so on. With god only knows how many years experience he can spot where they are going wrong or where a small change will reap huge benefits.
He obviously has them benching but it might be with boards one session, speed benching another, shirt on another and shirt off yet another and so on. He will get them to use exercises which help them bench more - not shape the inner pec. Every single part of the program he designs for that individual lifter is there to help them bench the most they can for one single all out rep come the next competition. So if our subject 'a' is a powerlifter why then is he doing more or less every varition of bodybuilding and lifting movements known to mankind including 3 different kinds of flyes and three different kinds of bench. There's no board work, no speed bench, nothing. No use of reband straps, no chains, no rotator cuff work and nowt to strengthen the rest of the support work. No tricep work - fuck all. Why?
The same guy also, with some insight, had different lengths of recovary depending on what was being worked - much like myself. However, chest might be on a 7 day cycle, deadlifts 10 days and so on. This meant that on occasion he would find chest and deadlift etc would be back to back - say Monday and then Tuesday. When this happened he found his training very hard going as he was better suited to having at least one days rest between sessions. I suggested that when it happened he take an extra day so 9 becomes 10. 24 hours obviously will not make that much of a difference and better to be more rested and raring to go than shagged out and injured.
By the same token I also see some of my fellow competitors in the grip competitions seemingly training for something else other than the lifts I see listed as events. Like them I used to train on what I liked rather than what I needed to be doing. The absolute bare minimum is event lifts. You can, as above, add in some support work. I have seen, a la David Horne, that some rotate variations - so one pinch day is 2HP, another is one hand pinch, tghe next time pinch is worked it's wide and so on. This works very well if you know months and months in advance or train in phases. But I have seen one well known guy using a 2" V-bar for months when using a power rack pin he could train one inch without having the cost of a FBBC V-bar or LGC bar. Although he develop some strength on the 2" and there IS crossover of strength a one inch will tear his hnds to shreds. Ditto another guy using the same wide width pinch set up for MONTHS with no changes. The same guy is STILL doing one, two and three finger closes with his grippers - same as he has been these last two years - and needs to be doing competition style training NOW. Of course if these guys do not so much the better for me but still.
Take our lads here at our training camp. We have enough equipment, weights n' all to pretty much train for any kind of strongman event bar truck pulls. Mondays is good old solid compound strength training with a choice of three routines rotated (ie: one week session one, week two session two etc). Thursdays is half sensible training and some weakness worked. Saturdays is 99% pure event work. When no event is coming up soon they rotate the movements so no 2 Saturdays are identical. A few weeks out and then they pratice and attempt to gain strength on the very events which are coming up. You can ask then why and the answer is blatent and obvious.
The same not only should but MUST apply to your training. Do not allow it to become diluted. If training for strength do that - don't bench well then go all bodybuilding stylie. Ditto training for shape as a bodybuilder and then including speed benching for power.
Just ask yourself - why am I doing this - is it helping me get to my target??
