Post by Dennis on Aug 22, 2004 18:20:27 GMT -5
Joe Average
Part 2
The Body Factory Powerlifting training program consists of 6 ten-day training cycles. The first 5 days of each cycle consists of the speed work for the squat and bench and the second 5 days of each cycle consists of the max effort work. Each 5 day block also includes assistance / recovery exercises as well as conditioning. The key to our training program is the fact that on specific exercises we train to absolute failure. In addition, I have learned that conditioning is most important to the success of our program. The biggest mistake that I made in the past is that I over trained. Our workouts are short, quick and to the point. Once the muscle has been stimulated it is time to leave the gym. Too often I see lifters spend hours in the gym, pounding their muscles. I tell them that once the horse is dead, it is dead, and continuing to shoot it will not change anything. This same principle applies to muscle. Once it is stimulated and the tissue is torn down, it is time to go home. When most lifters start our program they are surprised at how little we do. I ask them to have faith and look at the results of our team.
As I said in my last article I will first cover the various aspects of powerlifting before I go into the specifics of my program. First, I am a weak person. Genetically, I am not a gifted athlete. Being able to lift the weight that I lift does not come easy for me. My training partner, Blaine Rundle is also genetically weak, and his road to being strong has been long and hard. There are certain aspects of powerlifting that I have paid specific attention to that has allowed me to excel when many have quit or given up. The most important aspect is technique. Paying attention to technique has propelled my lifting to the next level. Second, learning to wear the gear correctly has added hundreds of pounds to my total.
Technique: Learning to sit back when squatting was the toughest of all. I could not understand what Louie was talking about when he would say "sit back". My first problem was that I was squatting with a conventional stance. When I began attending IPA events, I would notice how wide members of Westside would squat. I began to implement the wide stance, and suddenly, I could feel my self sitting back, and being able to squat more upright. With a conventional stance and a tight suit, I would lean forward, which would cause me to miss my second and third squat attempts. When switching from a conventional stance to a wide stance you may experience sore hips. Keep in mind, you are developing an area that was not used very much. It may take about two months for the soreness to disappear. Most of our stances our about 55 to 58 inches wide.
The hardest part of proper bench technique is learning to wear the bench shirt properly. My entire team has switched to using an open back denim bench shirt. Once we learned to fit and wear the shirts properly, most added anywhere from 50 - 75 pounds to their bench. Gene Rychlak benched 640 in a single ply poly in June. We opened up the same shirt and last Saturday he did 700 on a 4th attempt. I'll explain later on how we wear our shirts.
The deadlift causes the most problems for lifters, yet it is the easiest to correct. I have observed that many lifters, when deadlifting, are almost doing a straight legged deadlift. Most approach the bar, bend down, their glutes up too high, and are using all back to pull the weight. When a lifter complains of a sore back after deadlifting, I know he is using poor technique. I have learned that by squatting to the bar and squeezing the shoulder blades together will allow you to keep your shoulders behind the bar and thus enable you to pull more weight. I have transitioned from a conventional stance to sumo, which allows me to keep my back straighter when pulling. This puts less stress on the lower back. Remember, "Squat to the bar", is our first deadlift rule.
Conditioning: "I'm a powerlifter, I don't have to do cardio" How often have you heard that? One of the things that I notice at a meet is the many lifters are sweating in the warm-up room. This tells me that they are out of shape and have poor conditioning. Very rarely, if ever, will you see a Body Factory Powerlifter sweating during warm-ups or in training. Sweating is not a sign of hard work; it is a sign of being out of shape. This is especially true when lifting in a controlled environment. If you are warming up in an air-conditioned facility, you should not be sweating. You are warming up, not training to failure. Powerlifters are not sprinters or cross country runners. Running 3-5 miles is not the answer. The most effective conditioning for a powerlifter is pulling the sled. Pulling the sled not only allows you to recover from your workout, but it allows you to be more effective during your workouts. I refer to our sled work as power cardio. In a 10 day cycle, we will pull the sled 4 times. Depending on the lifter, we will pull about 300 lbs. for 4-6 trips, each trip being 200 feet.
Gear: I have observed that most lifters wear Inzer suits and knee wraps. I strongly recommend the Titan Dual Quad suit for squatting and deadlifting. You will notice that there is reinforced stitching along the side and in the hip area. The stitching in the hip area resembles an X. This is what gives the lifter additional support in the bottom of a squat attempt. Inzer suits have no reinforced stitching in the hip area and thus provide less support. Regardless of what suit you choose to wear if it must be fitted properly. Most do not wear their suits tight enough. If you can slide the straps on and off yourself, the suit is useless. Ron Zavacky, one of our Master lifters, custom fits all of our gear. It takes at least 1 - 2 people to pull our straps on. We wear our Titan Dual Quads so tight that it slightly bruises our traps, chest and thighs. We also experience severe discomfort in the crotch. Because it is only for one rep, it is worth the pain. Wearing the suit like this will give you unbelievable explosion out of the bottom on both the squat and deadlift. For those with more experience, I recommend the canvas squat suit by Ginny Phillips. This will add an instant 75-100 pounds on your squat, as long as you are strong enough at the top. I see many lifters in suits by Karin. She uses a denim material, which is only slightly better than polyester. Denim will give and stretch. There is absolutely no give in the canvas suit.
I strongly recommend the Titan signature series knee wraps. Most lifters use Inzer knee wraps because they are thicker. The key to a good knee wrap is not how thick the wrap is, but how tight you can apply the knee wrap. Titan's are a little thinner, stretch better, and can be put on the knee tighter. In the near future I will devote an article to gear and will explain how we put on the knee wraps. By doing this correctly you may be able to add 50 pounds to your squat.
As for bench shirts, I strongly recommend the Inzer open back denim. Again, the biggest problem is getting the shirt properly fitted. Once we receive a shirt from Inzer, Ron completely takes the shirt apart and custom fits each shirt to the lifter. I have yet to see Inzer properly fit a shirt. If you wear a full polyester shirt and can slide the shirt on, it is too loose. When we were wearing them, it would take at least 2 guys to put the shirt on. You want to wear the absolute tightest shirt that you can get on. It should be painful when benching, but you will benefit from the results. When ordering a full poly from Inzer, whatever size they recommend, reduce it two sizes. I will address the open back shirts in the near future. Most have no idea how to correctly wear the shirt, including the top benchers. I don't care who you are or how much you bench, I can add an instant 50-75 pounds to your bench just by custom fitting your shirt and putting the shirt on correctly.
Supplements and Diet: I personally think that supplements are a mental crutch. I see many lifters spending too much money at GNC. There is no magic pill or powder that will make you big and strong. Training smart is the only answer. Every day I take Brewer's Yeast by Lewis Lab's. It has the worst taste, but has high quality protein, minerals and BCAA's that the body needs. I also take Joint Fuel by Now Foods and Glutamine. The most important thing to consider is your diet. When a new lifter is having a bad workout, I ask, "what did you eat for breakfast?" If I hear “I had Cocoa Puffs”, I know he is missing something. Everyday, I eat 4 eggs and toast for breakfast. Throughout the day I eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches, fruit, yogurt, pudding, cake, and granola bars. I am constantly putting something in my mouth. Every afternoon, I cut up a banana in the blender, fill it with high quality vanilla ice cream and milk and then drink it down. What your body needs everyday is not a bunch of powders and pills; it needs high quality calories. Use your money wisely; spend it on high quality food and lifting gear.
Remember that the ideas in this article are only my opinion. I'm not saying that I am right and everyone else is wrong. I have made many mistakes in the past and have learned from them. The Body Factory Powerlifting team is a relatively young team and they are benefiting from my past mistakes. I am teaching them what not to do. What is most impressive is the speed with which my lifters are approaching elite status.
Part 2
The Body Factory Powerlifting training program consists of 6 ten-day training cycles. The first 5 days of each cycle consists of the speed work for the squat and bench and the second 5 days of each cycle consists of the max effort work. Each 5 day block also includes assistance / recovery exercises as well as conditioning. The key to our training program is the fact that on specific exercises we train to absolute failure. In addition, I have learned that conditioning is most important to the success of our program. The biggest mistake that I made in the past is that I over trained. Our workouts are short, quick and to the point. Once the muscle has been stimulated it is time to leave the gym. Too often I see lifters spend hours in the gym, pounding their muscles. I tell them that once the horse is dead, it is dead, and continuing to shoot it will not change anything. This same principle applies to muscle. Once it is stimulated and the tissue is torn down, it is time to go home. When most lifters start our program they are surprised at how little we do. I ask them to have faith and look at the results of our team.
As I said in my last article I will first cover the various aspects of powerlifting before I go into the specifics of my program. First, I am a weak person. Genetically, I am not a gifted athlete. Being able to lift the weight that I lift does not come easy for me. My training partner, Blaine Rundle is also genetically weak, and his road to being strong has been long and hard. There are certain aspects of powerlifting that I have paid specific attention to that has allowed me to excel when many have quit or given up. The most important aspect is technique. Paying attention to technique has propelled my lifting to the next level. Second, learning to wear the gear correctly has added hundreds of pounds to my total.
Technique: Learning to sit back when squatting was the toughest of all. I could not understand what Louie was talking about when he would say "sit back". My first problem was that I was squatting with a conventional stance. When I began attending IPA events, I would notice how wide members of Westside would squat. I began to implement the wide stance, and suddenly, I could feel my self sitting back, and being able to squat more upright. With a conventional stance and a tight suit, I would lean forward, which would cause me to miss my second and third squat attempts. When switching from a conventional stance to a wide stance you may experience sore hips. Keep in mind, you are developing an area that was not used very much. It may take about two months for the soreness to disappear. Most of our stances our about 55 to 58 inches wide.
The hardest part of proper bench technique is learning to wear the bench shirt properly. My entire team has switched to using an open back denim bench shirt. Once we learned to fit and wear the shirts properly, most added anywhere from 50 - 75 pounds to their bench. Gene Rychlak benched 640 in a single ply poly in June. We opened up the same shirt and last Saturday he did 700 on a 4th attempt. I'll explain later on how we wear our shirts.
The deadlift causes the most problems for lifters, yet it is the easiest to correct. I have observed that many lifters, when deadlifting, are almost doing a straight legged deadlift. Most approach the bar, bend down, their glutes up too high, and are using all back to pull the weight. When a lifter complains of a sore back after deadlifting, I know he is using poor technique. I have learned that by squatting to the bar and squeezing the shoulder blades together will allow you to keep your shoulders behind the bar and thus enable you to pull more weight. I have transitioned from a conventional stance to sumo, which allows me to keep my back straighter when pulling. This puts less stress on the lower back. Remember, "Squat to the bar", is our first deadlift rule.
Conditioning: "I'm a powerlifter, I don't have to do cardio" How often have you heard that? One of the things that I notice at a meet is the many lifters are sweating in the warm-up room. This tells me that they are out of shape and have poor conditioning. Very rarely, if ever, will you see a Body Factory Powerlifter sweating during warm-ups or in training. Sweating is not a sign of hard work; it is a sign of being out of shape. This is especially true when lifting in a controlled environment. If you are warming up in an air-conditioned facility, you should not be sweating. You are warming up, not training to failure. Powerlifters are not sprinters or cross country runners. Running 3-5 miles is not the answer. The most effective conditioning for a powerlifter is pulling the sled. Pulling the sled not only allows you to recover from your workout, but it allows you to be more effective during your workouts. I refer to our sled work as power cardio. In a 10 day cycle, we will pull the sled 4 times. Depending on the lifter, we will pull about 300 lbs. for 4-6 trips, each trip being 200 feet.
Gear: I have observed that most lifters wear Inzer suits and knee wraps. I strongly recommend the Titan Dual Quad suit for squatting and deadlifting. You will notice that there is reinforced stitching along the side and in the hip area. The stitching in the hip area resembles an X. This is what gives the lifter additional support in the bottom of a squat attempt. Inzer suits have no reinforced stitching in the hip area and thus provide less support. Regardless of what suit you choose to wear if it must be fitted properly. Most do not wear their suits tight enough. If you can slide the straps on and off yourself, the suit is useless. Ron Zavacky, one of our Master lifters, custom fits all of our gear. It takes at least 1 - 2 people to pull our straps on. We wear our Titan Dual Quads so tight that it slightly bruises our traps, chest and thighs. We also experience severe discomfort in the crotch. Because it is only for one rep, it is worth the pain. Wearing the suit like this will give you unbelievable explosion out of the bottom on both the squat and deadlift. For those with more experience, I recommend the canvas squat suit by Ginny Phillips. This will add an instant 75-100 pounds on your squat, as long as you are strong enough at the top. I see many lifters in suits by Karin. She uses a denim material, which is only slightly better than polyester. Denim will give and stretch. There is absolutely no give in the canvas suit.
I strongly recommend the Titan signature series knee wraps. Most lifters use Inzer knee wraps because they are thicker. The key to a good knee wrap is not how thick the wrap is, but how tight you can apply the knee wrap. Titan's are a little thinner, stretch better, and can be put on the knee tighter. In the near future I will devote an article to gear and will explain how we put on the knee wraps. By doing this correctly you may be able to add 50 pounds to your squat.
As for bench shirts, I strongly recommend the Inzer open back denim. Again, the biggest problem is getting the shirt properly fitted. Once we receive a shirt from Inzer, Ron completely takes the shirt apart and custom fits each shirt to the lifter. I have yet to see Inzer properly fit a shirt. If you wear a full polyester shirt and can slide the shirt on, it is too loose. When we were wearing them, it would take at least 2 guys to put the shirt on. You want to wear the absolute tightest shirt that you can get on. It should be painful when benching, but you will benefit from the results. When ordering a full poly from Inzer, whatever size they recommend, reduce it two sizes. I will address the open back shirts in the near future. Most have no idea how to correctly wear the shirt, including the top benchers. I don't care who you are or how much you bench, I can add an instant 50-75 pounds to your bench just by custom fitting your shirt and putting the shirt on correctly.
Supplements and Diet: I personally think that supplements are a mental crutch. I see many lifters spending too much money at GNC. There is no magic pill or powder that will make you big and strong. Training smart is the only answer. Every day I take Brewer's Yeast by Lewis Lab's. It has the worst taste, but has high quality protein, minerals and BCAA's that the body needs. I also take Joint Fuel by Now Foods and Glutamine. The most important thing to consider is your diet. When a new lifter is having a bad workout, I ask, "what did you eat for breakfast?" If I hear “I had Cocoa Puffs”, I know he is missing something. Everyday, I eat 4 eggs and toast for breakfast. Throughout the day I eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches, fruit, yogurt, pudding, cake, and granola bars. I am constantly putting something in my mouth. Every afternoon, I cut up a banana in the blender, fill it with high quality vanilla ice cream and milk and then drink it down. What your body needs everyday is not a bunch of powders and pills; it needs high quality calories. Use your money wisely; spend it on high quality food and lifting gear.
Remember that the ideas in this article are only my opinion. I'm not saying that I am right and everyone else is wrong. I have made many mistakes in the past and have learned from them. The Body Factory Powerlifting team is a relatively young team and they are benefiting from my past mistakes. I am teaching them what not to do. What is most impressive is the speed with which my lifters are approaching elite status.