Powerlifting

Practical
Programming
for
Strength Training,
2nd
Edition
Mark Rippetoe & Lon Kilgore
with Stef Bradford

Revised 2nd edition Copyright © 2010
by the Aasgaard Company
Second edition 2009
First edition 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publica-
tion may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in a form by means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recor-
ded, or otherwise without the prior written
consent of the publisher. The authors and
publisher disclaim any responsibility for any
adverse effects or consequences from the
misapplication or injudicious use of the in-
formation presented in this text.
Editor & Digital Edition – Stef Bradford
The Aasgaard Company
3118 Buchanan St
Wichita Falls Texas 76308
www.aasgaardco.com

Contents
1. Introduction
• Educating Practitioners
• Periodization in Print
• Cooking up Training Programs in the Gym
• A Theoretical Approach
Training and Overtraining
• General Adaptation Syndrome
• The Single-Factor Model of Training
• The Two-Factor Model of Training
• Understanding Overtraining
• Factors Affecting Recovery
• How Hard and How Much
Understanding Training Goals
• Starting at Square One
• Power and Its Components
• The Next Step

The Physiology of Adaptation
• Muscular Contraction: The Foundation of
Movement
• Energy Metabolism: Powering the Muscle
• Training-Induced Muscle Adaptations
• Neural Integration: Stimulating the Muscle to
Move
• Hormones: Mediators of Physiologic Adaptation
• Cardiovascular Considerations
• Genetic Potential
• Going Backward: Detraining
Training Program Basics
• Repetitions
• Sets
• Rest Between Sets
• Workout Frequency
• Exercise Selection
• Exercise Variation
• Exercise Order
• Speed of Movement
• Warm-up
The Novice
• The Basics of Novice Programming
• Basic Program Variables
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• The Starting Strength Model
The Intermediate
• General Considerations
• The Texas Method
• The Split Routine Model
• The Starr Model
The Advanced Trainee
• The Pyramid Model
• The Two Steps Forward, One Step Back Model
• The Building Blocks Model
• The Hormonal Fluctuation Model
Special Populations
• Women
• Youth
• Masters
• Post-Rehabilitation Trainees
Example Program: Novice
Example Programs: Intermediate
Credits
Authors
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“Does history record any case in which the majority was
right?”
—Robert Heinlein
“The Iron never lies to you ... The Iron will always kick you
the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-
knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the
pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend.
It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come
and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred
pounds.”
—Henry Rollins

Chapter 1:
Introduction
“The most erroneous stories are those we think we know
best – and therefore never scrutinize or question.”
— Stephen Jay Gould
The ability to effectively design, organ-
ize, and implement training programs is an
absolute requirement for success in all areas
of exercise: performance, coaching, physical
education, and rehabilitation. Volumes have
been written on programming aerobic exer-
cise for a variety of populations. They are
usually written by academics with practical
experience and publishing history in long,
slow distance training. Guidelines exist for
programming aerobic exercise for virtually
any population, little of it based on more
than mere conjecture and opinion. The liter-
ature in the scientific, medical, and exercise

journals on this topic is abundant, even
though its quality may be suspect.
On the anaerobic side of the street,
where weight training resides, the situation
is much different. While there is a great deal
of material available for consumption by the
general public, its quality is equally suspect.
The supposed “gold standard” for exercise
prescription recommendations, the Americ-
an College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Pre-
scription, provides only a cursory descrip-
tion of a method for programming weight
training. Frequently, the “experts” on whom
the public relies for guidance come from one
of two camps: 1) individuals with practical
experience and little or no specific education
and training, or 2) individuals with degrees
(usually not in the area of anaerobic
physiology) who have very little practical ex-
perience with weight training. The end result
is that the typical coach, gym member, or
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athlete trying to maximize performance is
very poorly served by inappropriate instruc-
tion in weight training and inadequate pro-
gram design.
Professionals – both practitioners and
academics – in weight training seem to avoid
addressing this issue, likely for a variety of
reasons. With little or no available informa-
tion providing strong evidence in favor of a
particular approach to programming, a prac-
titioner can never actually be “wrong” in pro-
gramming for a client, athlete, patient, or
student as long as the program stays reason-
ably close to the ACSM’s nebulous position.
And if it is close, he cannot be legally chal-
lenged in terms of professional liability. Even
if he obtains less than optimal results for his
trainee, according to the conventional wis-
dom he is being “technically correct” in his
approach. As a result, there is really no initi-
ative to rock the boat within either the in-
dustry or academia – to find out what really
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works, what actually doesn’t, and therefore
to potentially be held to more rigorous
standards of practice.
Practitioners without education are not
truly “professionals,” in the sense that one
prepares oneself academically as a profes-
sional before practicing as such. But it is not
only the practitioners who have failed to ad-
dress the shortage of informed guidance on
weight training programming; it is also the
academics. Many well-meaning professors
have taken it upon themselves to write texts
on how to train with weights and how to pro-
gram weight training. With very few excep-
tions, there is something missing in these in-
dividuals’ professional preparation: practical
experience. How many of these exercise sci-
ence teachers have experience on the plat-
form? How many of them have worked in a
varsity weight room as athletes or coaches?
How many have coached actual weightlifters
or powerlifters? How many have trained
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bodybuilders? How many have operated
commercial gyms, serving clients with a wide
range of age, ability, and motivation? A true
strength and conditioning professional must
be versed in all areas of practice and compet-
ition, through experience and education. To
ignore either the contributions of experi-
enced practitioners or the underpinning the-
oretical concepts of any professional special-
ization is to actively choose to be a less com-
petent professional.
Many books have been written by prac-
titioners, but they typically lack a sound sci-
entific basis. For each of these, there is at
least one book written by a Ph.D. lacking the
usefulness that only experience can provide.
The gap between theory and practice is a
large problem within the strength and condi-
tioning profession, one that has yet to be ad-
equately addressed by either academicians
or coaches.
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The training of academics is a problem.
How many universities have masters and
doctoral programs specifically aimed at the
extension of knowledge surrounding weight
training and its role in health and human
performance? They can be counted on one
hand. The paucity of institutions where the
physiology, mechanics, and psychology of
weight training is a focus at the graduate
level means that academics operating as “ex-
perts” in the field were not trained by experts
in the field. This is a problem. Quite fre-
quently you can find expert field practition-
ers who have trained themselves through
reading and on-site applied research who
possess a much better command of the ap-
plication of research into weight training
than many academic “experts.”
There is a trickle-down effect here. Aca-
demics at universities train our coaches,
trainers, and teachers. Poorly trained pro-
fessors produce poorly trained practitioners.
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This is an area of tremendous concern, espe-
cially in athletics. The strength coach will
likely spend more individual time with an
athlete than any other coach during the ath-
lete’s career. Would we send an inexperi-
enced, untrained, unmentored, person out to
run a season of practices for a football or vol-
leyball team? Obviously not. Just because
someone has run a marathon or played Divi-
sion I football does not mean that they are
capable of coaching the sport. Playing and
coaching are two different skills. The same
applies to weight training: just because an
individual exercised with weights while they
played a sport does not mean that they are
qualified to coach strength for that or any
other sport. It takes training, mentorship,
and education – either formal or practical.
Disregarding the value of proven, certifiable
knowledge and practical ability and
gambling an athlete’s or team’s physical
readiness on the effectiveness of the good-
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ol’-boy system of hiring strength and condi-
tioning staff is not wise. Further, this system
of hiring limits the potential for professional-
ism and public recognition in the career
field.
The lack of preparatory courses in the
average physical education or kinesiology de-
gree program is a problem for other reasons
as well. Data from 2004 U.S. exercise parti-
cipation statistics indicates that 21% of the
population trains with weights two or more
times per week. The lack of educated and ex-
perienced professionals in the classroom,
weight room, and fitness club means that
there may be 63,000,000 Americans train-
ing with weights who were not taught to do
so correctly. Additional data from the Sport-
ing Goods Manufacturing Association shows
that weight training is consistently in the top
three recreational exercise activities in the
United States, which further underscores the
importance of providing quality instruction
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specific to teaching and programming weight
training to physical educators, coaches, and
personal trainers. This void in professional
preparation prevents a huge number of
trainees from making the progress that they
expect and are capable of. Professional edu-
cation programs should begin to address this
overlooked area of instruction.
Educating Practitioners
The root of the problem can be found in
the lack of a sense of identity within physical
education: who are physical educators, and
what do they do? An academic exercise de-
partment at a large Division I school will
generate teachers, clinicians, coaches, athlet-
ic trainers, fitness trainers, gym managers,
sports administrators, recreation workers,
cardiac rehabilitation specialists, exercise re-
habilitation specialists, exercise physiolo-
gists, biomechanists, and sports
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psychologists. Programs are typically general
in nature, producing generally trained stu-
dents intended to occupy specific occupa-
tional and professional jobs. The names of
the university departments that offer what
are considered traditional “physical educa-
tion” degrees are generic, nondescript names
that the public does not recognize as being
related to physical education. This lack of re-
cognition actually starts on college campuses
themselves; other academic program faculty
will refer to kinesiology, exercise science, or
any other permutation of the name simply as
“the PE department.”
It is a common practice among graduate
PE programs to prepare students as “gener-
alists,” meaning that the curriculum is con-
structed to produce faculty who are sup-
posed to be able to teach exercise psycho-
logy, biomechanics, motor control, PE ped-
agogy, exercise anatomy, and exercise
physiology. Generalists working in small
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college and university PE programs reduce
the cost of operation; since they feel capable
of teaching a variety of courses, there is no
need to hire trained experts in the special-
ties, and the program remains viable. But by
the very nature of his preparation, a general-
ist is not in a position to be an expert in any
field.
It would behoove “physical education”
departments to clearly define a mission, a
philosophy, and a specific professional em-
ployment preparation track, and staff it with
experts in that specialty. A program that is
intended to produce public school physical
educators, as they are currently prepared,
cannot at the same time produce top-flight
cardiac rehabilitation specialists. By the
same token, a clinical program intended to
produce an athletic trainer, a cardiac rehabil-
itation specialist, or an exercise rehabilita-
tion practitioner, as they are currently pre-
pared, cannot at the same time produce a
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strength coach. A rethinking of modern
physical education is warranted. Without
change, trained professionals capable of con-
tributing to the profession of sport and exer-
cise will be a rarity. Graduates capable of oc-
cupying low level jobs subservient to some
other professional managerial group, one
that is actually less qualified to supervise and
program exercise, will be the rule.
There are more than 300 different certi-
fications available to exercise professionals,
with nearly as many businesses and organiz-
ations offering them. California alone has
nearly 40 organizations offering some type of
credential. This is an unregulated industry,
and as such there are “professional certifica-
tions” that can be obtained by writing a
check to a company, receiving some course
material in an envelope in the mail, taking a
test at home or online, and then receiving
your certification in the mail in a second en-
velope. Suddenly you have become a certified
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training professional with letters after your
name. Others offer an evening or Saturday
workshop that upon completion renders you
a “certified professional.” These certifica-
tions benefit no one except the business of-
fering the certification. They certainly cannot
develop – or even measure – the skills and
knowledge required of a competent strength
professional. An untrained person with no
previous education or mentored experiences
cannot develop the necessary knowledge and
skills to become an effective practitioner by
quickly reading a study guide before a test or
by spending an afternoon with a certification
instructor. An “education” is required, form-
al or otherwise, as is time in the trenches
working with trained, knowledgeable profes-
sionals. Only after gaining a satisfactory
working theoretical knowledge and a set of
practical skills should someone sit for a rig-
orous certification examination offered by a
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professional organization with a professional
membership.
Periodization in Print
The scientific literature related to weight
training is frequently limited in scope and
applicability. The individuals conducting the
research are not trained to ask the right
questions, and they frequently have no
concept of how the research they do in the
lab actually applies in the field. For example,
a common problem is that findings derived
from a specific population – untrained
college-age males, for example – are fre-
quently considered to be generalizable to all
populations, including trained athletes. But
where can an academic researcher gain ac-
cess to a trained population of athletes to ex-
periment upon? Specifically, where can you
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find a large experienced group of athletes to
participate in experimental programs that
potentially might not provide an increase in
performance, or worse, a performance loss?
You don’t. Their coaches will not allow it. We
will see later why this problem is sufficiently
serious that it invalidates much of the re-
search that has been done. Experienced
coaches and trainers are frequently amused
by the writings of the scientific “experts” who
dogmatically propose and defend all-encom-
passing theories of training that have little
relevance to the real world, or who claim that
rehabilitation-based exercise programs are
applicable for improving the performance of
healthy athletes.
Specific to the task of programming
weight training, consider the concept of peri-
odization and its supporting research. Peri-
odization has been called one of the “core
principles” in the preparation of athletes for
competition. It is a very simple idea: the
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athlete trains very hard for a “period” of a
time and then trains less hard for a “period.”
One would expect a core principle such as
this to be heavily supported in the scientific
literature, since a joint consensus statement
from the ACSM and the United States
Olympic Committee states that the primary
reason athletes are overtrained is that
coaches fail to periodize. The fact is that
Western research regarding periodization is
sparse. There are far more reviews and inter-
pretations of how to use periodization than
there is data to support its use. A search on
the Medline and SportDiscus academic
search engines reveals only a dozen or so re-
ports that can be characterized as controlled
experimental studies of periodization. In
fact, one of the “hallmark” texts on periodiz-
ation, written in a very scientific tone,
provides 12 pages of more than 120 refer-
ences to support the author’s concepts of
periodization. While this may appear
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impressively thorough, none of the research
cited in that text actually came from experi-
ments in periodization. The most definitive
case for periodization comes from Hans
Selye’s 1936 original synthesis of the General
Adaptation Syndrome, a statement of hypo-
thesis regarding human adaptation to stress.
Why is it that the evidence supporting
periodization is not present? Why is it that
there has not been a concerted effort on the
part of the major exercise professional or-
ganizations to encourage their scientific
members to systematically investigate peri-
odization, both as a concept in itself and in
its many proposed variant applications? One
possible explanation is that exercise per-
formance enhancement research is not an
area identified by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (the parent or-
ganization of the National Institutes of
Health and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention) as relevant to their mission
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to improve and safeguard America’s health.
The implicit duty of the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) is to de-
termine how much physical activity is
needed to stave off disease, not improve a
maximum bench press or advance athletic
performance. This means that the major sci-
entific research funding pool in the U.S. has
no interest in determining the most effective
means of improving fitness.
This has trickle-down effects that are far
reaching with respect to research into fitness
and sports performance. The most apparent
result of HHS’s position is that virtually all
research into sports and fitness is confined
to small-scale studies. Conducted with only a
handful of research subjects, these projects
are limited in scope and duration, and there-
fore plagued by an inability to exclude con-
founding external and unidentified internal
variables.
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Physiological systems are among the
most complicated things studied by science,
and inherent in the vast majority of biologic-
al research is a large degree of uncertainty.
Many relevant (and irrelevant) variables
have overlapping effects; many more vari-
ables may be as yet unidentified in the sys-
tems in question. The awareness of this tem-
pers the conclusions of responsible investig-
ators, and plays an important role in the res-
ulting quality of the research that actually
gets done. When the effects of one training
protocol versus another are compared, even
in the most stringently controlled setting,
any conclusions must be taken with a rather
large grain of salt.
Large-scale research into human per-
formance – the kind that is actually required
to draw valid conclusions in the context of
human adaptation – is expensive and under-
funded, and therefore many projects that
could answer valuable basic questions are
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never conducted. The small-scale research
that represents the norm in the exercise sci-
ences can at best move us along the con-
tinuum of understanding from pure conjec-
ture to the point where we can form intelli-
gent hypotheses. But all too often, with no
larger, better designed, more reliable studies
out there, the findings of small-scale re-
search in exercise are both inappropriately
extrapolated to apply to larger populations,
and at the same time given the standing of
theory or even law. This is the case with re-
spect to periodization.
So the dearth of valid periodization liter-
ature is the product of a lack of funding to
support it, as well as the infeasibility of doing
the required research into complex physiolo-
gical systems whose many variables are hard
to control or even identify. What is present
in the existing literature on periodization is
of limited utility, as it is almost always done
over short experimental periods on small
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groups representing inappropriate
populations.
The quality of the literature notwith-
standing, the history of periodization is quite
interesting. The communist-bloc countries’
sports scientists applied a form of periodiza-
tion to a variety of training models used in
the development of Olympic athletes in the
1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. If you compare
their models of periodization with the re-
views and opinion pieces in Western sports
science literature, you’ll see that the ideas
and content presented in Western literature
are essentially adapted from old Soviet
literature.
Bud Charniga (fig. 1-1) did a great ser-
vice to American sports scientists when he
translated a series of Soviet documents into
English in the 1980s. However, the informa-
tion presented in those works must be ap-
plied cautiously. Communist-bloc sports sci-
ence literature is very loosely annotated. It is
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not necessarily bad science, but it is reported
in a form that does not lend itself to the inde-
pendent verification of results. There is no
accurate, reliable way to evaluate their con-
clusions or methods, since they often sum-
marize their findings without providing any
substantiating data; it is as though they were
writing it for their own purposes and were
unconcerned with the subsequent verifica-
tion of their work.
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Figure 1-1. Bud Charniga, translator of Russian
weightlifting literature into English, snatching 358
lbs. at a 1976 competition in Kansas City.
And sometimes the literature to which they
refer is not accessible. The bottom line is that
the works of Leonid Matveyev, Yuri
Verkhoshansky, Alexey Medvedev and other
Communist-bloc writers have been adopted
as truth without independent confirmation
of their theories and practices. And their
practices are often applied to all populations
without regard to their original intended
uses and intended target populations.
Periodization and the American Kid.
Periodization fits well with a worldview char-
acterized by a high degree of planning, an at-
tempt to quantify everything, and the need to
control it all. (This may be why academics in
the American education system like it so well
too). Communist societies suffered the con-
sequences of this manic desire to apply order
to systems that cannot be easily ordered,
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systems composed of too many variables to
handily control. As a weightlifting regimen,
this kind of Soviet-type periodization pro-
gram works when it has sufficient numbers
of available athletes, enough that it can
simply replace the ones who can’t function
within the training paradigm dictated by the
coach’s particular periodization model. It
doesn’t work as well with smaller talent
pools and in situations less tolerant of artifi-
cially imposed order, as in the culture of
American youth.
When evaluating Communist-bloc sport
science data, we must also consider which
data may have been acquired while the sub-
ject athletes were taking part in “better lift-
ing through chemistry” experiments. Train-
ing models appropriate for chemically en-
hanced athletes are not applicable to fre-
quently tested drug-free athletes.
Communist-bloc countries had (and still
have) large-scale sports performance
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selection processes intended to direct young
athletes into the most appropriate sport,
based on specific criteria. Once there, ath-
letes achieve and stay in the program or fail
to achieve and are sent home. The result is a
pyramidal selection structure that eliminates
less competent athletes, leaving only those
who have the best chance for international
success. In the United States and most
Western countries, some sports have a devel-
opmental pipeline. Football does. Basketball
does. In fact, most nationally recognized
high school sports that have a counterpart at
the collegiate and professional levels have se-
lection pipelines comparable in scale to those
seen at the zenith of the Soviet bloc’s sport-
ing success. High school sport in the United
States is the base of our selection pyramid.
However, high school students in the United
States represent a different population than
students of the same age in the old Soviet
Union. U.S. kids play sports to get in shape,
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while kids in Soviet-type systems get in
shape to play sports. In the former bloc
countries, sport was one of the few ways to
rise above the constraints of the economic
system, and this was a very powerful motiv-
ator. This difference is fundamental and sig-
nificant, creating two distinct populations of
athletes that reflect two distinct cultures gen-
erating two different levels of motivation for
success. Soviet models of periodization were
developed for and apply best to only one of
these groups.
The U.S. high school student of today
does not have the level of general physical
preparation (GPP) and movement skills de-
veloped by the programs inherent in com-
munist systems, programs in which children
learned how to move effectively and began
developing base fitness at age 6, long before
they entered sport-specific training. Ele-
mentary school PE programs in the United
States are underemphasized and
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understaffed and ignore GPP as a formal
part of what abbreviated curriculum might
exist. Effective physical education is best
done in small groups with adequate time.
While the educational literature supports
this concept, the actual norm is one instruct-
or, sixty students, and 45 minutes of class
time. “Roll out the ball” physical education is
the mode in which the teacher (whose own
training may not be in physical education at
all) operates in the context of overcrowded
classrooms, poor administrative support,
and inadequate equipment. And now that
physical labor (farm chores, household re-
sponsibilities, etc.) has been largely removed
from the daily life of a child, an incoming
high school freshman “athlete” is a huge
challenge. He typically has no fitness base,
few movement skills, and presents the coach
with a daunting task, in that he must be pre-
pared to participate in possibly combative
high school sports in as little as two weeks
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from the day the coach first lays eyes on him.
Periodization cannot be applied to incoming
freshmen who are going to play fall sports.
Even in the presence of the desire to use it,
there is no time.
But if the schedule permits and there
happens to be sufficient time prior to the
playing season, the coach must use the most
effective means available to make the athlete
as strong as possible as quickly as possible.
These methods are examined in detail in
subsequent chapters.
Periodization’s American Heritage.
Periodization is practiced widely in track and
field and is used by a majority of NFL and
virtually all NCAA strength and conditioning
programs. The concept of periodization is lo-
gical. Some very avant garde thinkers and
practitioners, such as Carl Miller in 1974
(weightlifting), John Garhammer in 1979
(track and field), and Mike Stone in 1981 (all
sports) turned on the light for those who
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followed. The idea that the practice of a sport
itself was sufficient conditioning for the
sport became inadequate for preparing high-
level athletes many years ago. The early
models of periodization used with advanced
strength and conditioning techniques have
been absolutely essential to sport develop-
ment in the United States. Dr. Stone fol-
lowed his early work with a few experiments
further examining the effects of periodiza-
tion. But by and large, research on periodiza-
tion has been extremely limited in volume.
What has been produced is narrow in scope
and has limited broader application.
Even in the absence of science to sup-
port its use, periodization has worked in the
field, and 30+ years of Western athletic suc-
cess has earned it a place in the elite coach’s
arsenal of training tools. But what is the cor-
rect model of periodization for an athlete or
team, and how does a coach learn its actual
application? In most university physical
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education programs, periodization is a small
footnote somewhere in the curriculum, if
presented at all. PE courses are intended to
prepare physical educators and coaches to
teach general physical fitness and some com-
monly practiced sports skills. Very few
courses, if any, are available that teach exer-
cise programming beyond ACSM guidelines,
which were developed to enhance health and
wellness, not to optimize sports perform-
ance. Even the best texts on periodization do
not teach the reader how to program training
plans. Rather they present lots of line graphs
and bar charts, lots of data tables,
physiology, and biomechanics, but little
useable material for either coach or athlete.
So the questions remain: How do you
design an effective program for your ath-
letes, students, or clients? When is it appro-
priate to periodize that program? What fol-
lows in this text is a logical approach to un-
derstanding the concepts of programming,
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including periodization, and examples of
how it is used. We have made every attempt
to incorporate the relevant science into a
practical approach to programming barbell
exercise. It is derived from our academic
training, decades of combined experience in
the weight room, participation in more than
300 competitive events in powerlifting and
weightlifting, experience in coaching hun-
dreds of elementary, middle school, high
school, collegiate, amateur, and professional
athletes toward their goals, and from work-
ing with thousands of average people who
just want to be stronger.
Cooking Up Training
Programs for the Gym
This is not a typical programming
“cookbook.” There are many weight training
books for sale, some at rather exorbitant
prices, that lay out a program in current use
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by a winning sports team or an individual of
some note (athlete, actor, model, etc.). These
are “cookbooks”: they propose to provide re-
cipes for training success. Follow the recipes,
they promise, and you will be as good as the
Spurs and as ripped as Vin Diesel.
Actual cookbooks are usually written by
skilled chefs who design the dishes with their
trained staff, test them privately, and then
cook them publicly – in restaurants or on TV
shows – using their skills and experience,
specific tools, fully equipped kitchens, and
just the right high-quality ingredients. Many
people have attempted to cook gourmet food
from cookbooks and had results that were
less than satisfactory. Why did the recipe
fail? After reading a recipe, do you magically
develop the skills of a chef? Did you use the
right tools? There is a big difference between
a good Solingen steel French knife and a
Veg-O-Matic. And the ingredients might not
be quite the same; when the recipe called for
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shiitake mushrooms, did you use a can of
stems and pieces? When the recipe called for
Maui onions, did you use onion salt?
If a coach decides to use a weight train-
ing cookbook, the following are required: 1)
the coach must be trained and think the
same way as the original coach (the chef who
wrote the recipe), 2) the training equipment
(cooking tools) used in the program must be
available, and most importantly, 3) the ath-
letes to be trained (ingredients) must be ex-
actly like the athletes who trained with the
original program, the one that actually might
have worked. Failure to meet these require-
ments will result in a less-than-ideal per-
formance (an inedible mess). Following
someone else’s specific program is usually a
recipe for failure.
Reading the training cookbooks and see-
ing how other people solve the programming
puzzle is part of the education process, but
coaches and athletes must understand why
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successful programs are put together the way
they are so they can develop their own pro-
grams specific to their circumstances. Copy-
ing and cannibalizing successful programs
without understanding why they were suc-
cessful is never a good idea. An understand-
ing of the realities and practicalities of pro-
gressive training and periodization is.
A Theoretical Approach
In this book, the terms “novice,” “inter-
mediate,” “advanced,” and “elite” describe
the trainee with respect to the time it takes
for recovery from a homeostatic disruption
induced by training. We do not use these
terms as descriptors of a trainee’s strength or
absolute athletic ability. These terms may in
fact be applied differently to athletes in dif-
ferent sports, but our use of the terms here is
specific to the model illustrated in figure 1-2.
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Because a novice lifts weights that are
light relative to his genetic potential for
strength and power development, the rate of
recovery following training should be rapid.
Essentially, this trainee can recover from a
single training session in a period of 24 to 72
hours. The novice can train “heavy” on
Monday and be ready to go “heavy” again on
Wednesday. These trainees are quite far
away from their genetic potential, and there-
fore lack the strength and the neural effi-
ciency to generate a stress heavy enough to
impede rapid recovery. For them, “heavy” is
not really heavy. At the same time that
strength and power are improving, recovery
ability is improving too. Recovery processes
are as trainable as any other physical para-
meter, and this is an extremely significant
factor in training progress. But it is import-
ant to remember that recovery processes can
always be exceeded by the injudicious
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application of training stress. Recovery must
occur before progress can be made.
Figure 1-2. The generalized relationship between
performance improvement and training complexity
relative to time. Note that the rate of adaptation to
training slows over a training career.
Simply put, a novice, as we use the
term here, is a trainee for whom the stress
applied during a single workout and the
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recovery from that single stress is sufficient
to cause an adaptation by the next workout.
The end of the novice phase is marked by a
performance plateau, typically occurring
sometime between the third and ninth
month of training, with variations due to in-
dividual differences. Programming for the
novice is essentially the linear progression
model that is described in the ACSM manual
and defined specifically for weight training
in our book Starting Strength: Basic Barbell
Training (Aasgaard, 2007). It is important
to understand here that the novice is adapted
to inactivity (as it relates to weight training)
and therefore can make progress even with
training programs that are not specific to the
task involved. For example, doing high-
volume hypertrophy work would also in-
crease a novice’s absolute strength for a one-
repetition lift. A previously sedentary begin-
ner can even improve his 1RM (one-repeti-
tion maximum) squat by riding a bike. This
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would not be the case with intermediate or
advanced trainees, where progress in
strength, power, or mass is absolutely linked
to appropriate application of specific training
programs.
Novices accomplish two things with
every workout: they “test” their strength, and
the test loads the body to become stronger in
the next workout. The act of moving 10 more
pounds for the prescribed sets and reps both
confirms that the previous workout was a
success at improving the novice’s strength
and causes his body to adapt and become
stronger for the next workout.
As the lifter begins to handle training
loads closer to his genetic potential, his re-
covery ability is also affected differently by
the stress. Recovery requires a longer period
of time – a period encompassing multiple
workouts (efficiently managed using a
weekly schedule). This is because the athlete
has developed the ability to apply stress to
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the system that requires a longer period of
time for recovery. For an intermediate
trainee, the stress required for a disruption
of homeostasis exceeds the capacity for re-
covery within that period of time (say, within
the week). To allow for both sufficient stress
and sufficient recovery, then, the training
load must be varied over the week. This vari-
ation can take several forms, but the critical
factor is the distribution, which allows
enough stress to be applied in a pattern that
facilitates recovery. The key to successful
training in this stage of development is to
balance these two important and opposing
phenomena. Simple weekly periodization of
training loads facilitates recovery following
one or more heavier training bouts within a
single week.
Intermediate trainees benefit from ex-
posure to more exercises than novices. These
athletes are developing their skills with new
movement patterns, and as this happens
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they are developing their ability to acquire
new skills. It is during this period that train-
ees actually become athletes, choosing a
sport and making decisions that affect the
rest of their competitive careers. These de-
cisions are more effectively made if they are
based on a broad exposure to a wide variety
of training and competition options.
The end of the intermediate phase of
training is marked by a performance plateau
following a series of progressively more diffi-
cult weekly training organizations. This can
occur in as little as two years or in as many
as four or more, depending on individual tol-
erances and adherence to year-round pro-
gressive training. It is likely that 75% or
more of all trainees will not require pro-
gramming complexity beyond the intermedi-
ate level (remember, the amount of weight
lifted or years of training do not classify a
trainee). Virtually all sports-specific weight
training can be accomplished with this
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model. Athletes in non-weightlifting sports
will not train progressively in the weight
room all year; they will focus much of their
training on their primary competitive sport.
This effectively extends the duration of this
stage in the trainee’s development to the ex-
tent that even very accomplished athletes
may never exhaust the benefits of
intermediate-level weight training
programming.
Advanced trainees in the barbell sports
work relatively close to their genetic poten-
tials. The work tolerance of the advanced
trainee is quite high, given that the ability of
an athlete to recover from training is itself
trainable. However, the training loads that
the advanced athlete must handle in order to
produce an adaptation are also quite high,
since the adaptation that brought the athlete
to the advanced stage has already occurred.
This level of training volume and intensity is
very taxing and requires longer periods of
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recovery than do intermediate training loads.
Both the loading and the recovery paramet-
ers must be applied in more complex and
variable ways and over longer periods of
time. When combined, the loading and re-
covery periods required for successful pro-
gress range in duration from a month to sev-
eral months. For example, we may apply a
single week of very heavy training to induce
adaptation. That week of training may re-
quire three or more weeks of work at lighter
loadings for complete recovery and improve-
ment to occur. The average slope of the im-
provement curve here is very shallow (fig.
1-3), closely approaching maximum genetic
potential at a very slow rate, and rather large
amounts of training effort will be expended
for rather small degrees of improvement. For
this reason too, the number of exercises ad-
vanced trainees use is typically lower than
for intermediates; they do not require expos-
ure to new movement patterns and stress
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types, since they have already specialized
and adapted to those that are specific to their
sport. Complex manipulation of training
parameters is appropriate for use with these
trainees. The majority of trainees will never
attain the level of development that makes
advanced periodization necessary, since
most trainees voluntarily terminate their
competitive careers before the advanced
stage is reached.
The elite athlete is in a special subset of
the advanced category. Elite athletes are the
genetically gifted few who also happen to be
motivated to achieve success despite the
enormous physical and social costs. They
have stayed in their sport by virtue of their
success and have dedicated themselves to
training at this level because their training
investment has been returned. An advanced
lifter is one who has progressed beyond the
intermediate; an elite lifter is one who per-
forms at an elite level within the standards of
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the sport. (By this definition, the “elite” des-
ignation could actually be applied to an in-
termediate lifter performing at the national/
international level. There occasionally exist a
few athletes so talented and genetically en-
dowed that this situation occurs.)
Figure 1-3. The rate of strength gain in trainees over
a training career. Note the slope of improvement to-
wards genetic potential is slower in an intermediate
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than that of a novice trainee. The slope further flat-
tens as a trainee reaches the elite level of training pro-
gression. Although the rate slows, strength can be
gained for one to two decades with continuous, pro-
gressive, and planned training.
Previous training has brought the elite
athlete very close to genetic potential, and
additional progress requires much greater
program complexity to scratch out any small
improvements that might still remain un-
realized. These athletes must be exposed to
training programs that are very complex –
highly variable in terms of stress, although
probably simple in terms of exercise selec-
tion – forcing the already adapted athlete
closer to the ultimate level of performance.
At this point the program may be considered
in terms of several months, a year, or even
an Olympic quadrennium. Any approach to
the training of an athlete of this caliber is a
highly individualized matter and is beyond
the scope of this text. We propose that far
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less than 1% of all trainees regardless of
training history will ever reach this level.
Unlike beginners or intermediates, ad-
vanced and elite trainees need large amounts
of intense work to disrupt homeostasis and
force adaptation. This means that the stress
required for progress will creep nearer and
nearer to the maximal tolerable workload
that the body can perform and recover from.
An elite athlete who is doing ten sets of
squats and making progress may not make
any progress with nine sets and may “over-
train” by doing eleven. The window for pro-
gress is extremely small.
If workload is not increased, then
neither performance nor comprehensive re-
covery processes will improve, since no dis-
ruption of homeostasis is forcing them to do
so. The manner in which increases in train-
ing load are applied is determined by the
level of training advancement. The ability of
a novice to adapt to training differs enough
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from that of the intermediate and advanced
trainee that similar training organizations
will fail to produce results for both. Each
level of training advancement requires its
own specific approach.
Periodization is a useful tool in achiev-
ing training goals, but like any tool it must fit
the job it is being used for. By understanding
the theoretical basis and proper application
of the models of programming, anyone who
coaches weight training can become better
equipped to improve the fitness and per-
formance of those entrusted to their
guidance.
“Sometimes exercise can be painful, but it’s worth it in the
end.”
—The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
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Chapter 2: Training
and Overtraining
When considering the need for specific
programming approaches for trainees of dif-
ferent levels of advancement (novice, inter-
mediate, or advanced), one must clearly un-
derstand the processes working to affect
physical readiness. The coach and athlete
need to have a firm grasp of how training af-
fects the basic anatomy, physiology, and
physics of human movement. An effective
coach must be able to use that information to
teach athletes. All such human responses to
training can be considered within the context
of a single overarching theory, the General
Adaptation Syndrome, proposed by Hans
Selye on July 4, 1936, in his paper titled “A
Syndrome Produced by Diverse Nocuous
Agents” in the journal Nature. The basic

premise of this theory states that the body
goes through a specific set of responses
(short-term) and adaptations (longer-term)
after being exposed to an external stressor.
In our context, the external stressor is lifting
weights.
General Adaptation
Syndrome
Selye considered exercise to be a “nocu-
ous” or poisonous stressor capable of causing
death if the loading was too large or applied
too frequently. His theory was the result of
observations of animals under stress and op-
tical microscope examinations of stressed
cells. He was working without any know-
ledge of the basic details of human metabol-
ism and the mechanism of skeletal muscle
contraction, which were not yet understood
when his paper was published. Despite the
comparatively sparse information on which
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he based his observations, his ideas were at
the time, and remain, quite sound. Now, sci-
entific data allows us to better interpret and
apply Selye’s theory. Our understanding of
the acute phase response and the stress pro-
tein response, both possessing very identifi-
able time courses, along with modern in-
sights into post-stress cellular events, has
added weight to Selye’s prescient concepts.
Selye’s premise is that repeated sub-
lethal exposures to a stressor lead to a toler-
ance of subsequent exposures to the same
stressor (thus lending support to the concept
of specificity – that a training stress needs to
be relevant to the performance being trained
for to elicit an applicable adaptation). The
theory holds that the body will go through
three stages, the first two contributing to
survival and the third representing the fail-
ure of the body to withstand or adapt to the
stressor.
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Stage 1 - Alarm or Shock. The Alarm
phase is the immediate response to the onset
of stress, in which a multitude of events oc-
cur. Selye noted that a major characteristic
of stage 1 was a rapid loss of “muscular tone”
lasting up to approximately 48 hours. We
now know that other occurrences during this
stage are inflammation, the acute phase re-
sponse, and the stress protein response, pro-
cesses which enable adaptation at the cellu-
lar level. One of the major results of these
latter responses is a general suppression of
basic cellular processes in order to stabilize
cellular structure and metabolism until the
withdrawal of the stressor. This is a survival
process, and one that can also serve as a
marker of an effective exercise stimulus.
Mild musculoskeletal discomfort may ac-
company this stage, indicating the disruption
of homeostasis and the possible micro-rup-
tures of muscle cell membranes, events that
are thought to stimulate structural and
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functional changes in the muscle after train-
ing. A trainee may not perceive soreness or
pain in this stage; he is more likely to de-
scribe the sensation as “stiffness,” feeling
“flat,” or having “heavy legs.” Regardless of
the subjective perception, a transient reduc-
tion in performance accompanies this stage,
although it may be imperceptible within the
constraints of a barbell’s typical 2.5-lb incre-
mental loading system. Performance de-
creases will be more discernible in tech-
nique- and power-based exercises and less
noticeable in absolute strength exercises.
Selye did not foresee his theory being
central to exercise programming for healthy
individuals. If he had, this first stage might
have been described with more variation in
duration dependent on an individual’s work
capacity. With novice trainees, disruption of
homeostasis occurs with smaller loads than
those used by advanced trainees, since train-
ing has not yet developed either strength or
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work tolerance. As the level of advancement
increases (from novice to intermediate to ad-
vanced), so does the magnitude and/or dura-
tion of stress needed to induce stage 1.
Stage 2 - Adaptation or Resistance. In
stage 2, the body responds to the training
load through the modification of gene activ-
ity, increased production of the relevant hor-
mones, and the accumulation of structural
and metabolic proteins. In essence, the body
is attempting to ensure survival by equipping
itself to withstand a repeated exposure to the
stress. In the context of exercise, fitness and
performance increase when this occurs.
Selye generalized that the Adaptation stage
typically begins at about two days post-stress
and that if the same stressor is reapplied
periodically, complete adaptation could oc-
cur within four weeks or less.
We now believe that adaptation occurs
on a sliding scale that varies with an indi-
vidual’s existing level of work tolerance and
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proximity to their genetic potential.
Someone far away from genetic potential
(the novice) will adapt quickly, within 24 to
72 hours; a stressor large enough to disrupt
such an individual’s homeostasis is not really
a gigantic physical insult, and it can be easily
recovered from within that time frame under
even sub-optimal conditions. On the other
end of the spectrum, the advanced trainee
might require one to three months, and pos-
sibly longer, to adapt to a training stress suf-
ficiently large and cumulative that it exceeds
his highly developed work tolerance enough
to disrupt homeostasis and permit further
adaptation.
Stage 3 - Exhaustion. If the stress on the
body is too great, either in magnitude, dura-
tion, or frequency, the body will be unable to
adequately adapt and exhaustion will occur.
Selye proposed that an overwhelming stress
of one to three months in duration could
cause death. This is an interesting
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observation if we consider maximal exercise
to be an overwhelming stress. In practice this
concern is most applicable to intermediates
and advanced trainees, and probably means
that an extended period of excessively relent-
less maximal work should be avoided. The
bottom line is that no one wants to be in
stage 3, which we call “overtraining.”
The application of Selye’s theory to exer-
cise training is presented graphically in fig-
ure 2-1. Progressive training within the con-
text of the General Adaptation Syndrome re-
quires that an increase in training load be
applied as soon as it is apparent that recov-
ery has occurred. Continued use of the
initial, already-adapted-to load will not in-
duce any disruption of homeostasis and
therefore cannot lead to further progress.
Using the same training load after adapta-
tion to it has occurred represents ineffective
(if not typical) coaching and training if per-
formance or fitness improvement is the goal.
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Figure 2-1. Within the parameters of Selye’s theory,
there are three possible outcome pathways following a
training stress: no progress, progress, or loss of pro-
gress, depending on the appropriateness of the stress
applied.
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The Single-Factor Model of
Training
If a single episode of weight training can
disrupt homeostasis in the novice, a predict-
able set of outcomes can be detailed based
on the degree of disruption. This model is
presented in figure 2-1. We can examine this
concept in both simple and broad terms as it
affects a single factor: an individual’s ability
to lift a maximal weight, as measured by his
one- (or two-, or five-) repetition maximum.
In the novice, a single training session
will disrupt biological equilibrium locally
within the muscle and systemically within
the body. The result of this is a transient and
very slight depression of performance. It is
only slight because novice performance
levels are already low and typically inconsist-
ent, and small losses are hard to measure at
this level. This depression occurs immedi-
ately after the training session and
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represents stage 1 of Selye’s theory. In the
hours and days after the training session,
performance abilities will recover to normal
and then performance ability will exceed the
pre-stress level. This is supercompensa-
tion. At this point the trainee has success-
fully completed Selye’s second stage and has
adapted to the initial workload (fig. 2-2, line
A).
It is important to understand that the
trainee is not getting stronger during the
workout. He is getting stronger during the
recovery period after the workout. The next
logical step is to increase the workload in the
next workout – i.e., to employ simple pro-
gressive overload. Applying the same work-
load again produces no progress, since this
stress has already been adapted to, but
merely reinforces the existing level of fitness.
At this point, a small increase in exercise
load will once again take the trainee through
Selye’s stages 1 and 2 to repeat the overload/
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adaptation cycle at a slightly higher level.
When the overload increment is the same for
each successive increase, the training pro-
gram is referred to as a linear progression.
This organization of training can contin-
ue for many months, until the trainee’s pro-
gress plateaus. At this point it is likely that it
will require a series of two or three training
sessions specifically arranged to have a cu-
mulative effect, plus a longer work/recovery
cycle of perhaps a week’s duration, to ad-
equately take the trainee through Selye’s first
two stages. This represents the response of
the intermediate trainee (fig. 2-2, line B).
The intermediate period of a trainee’s career,
depending on the purpose of training, can be
quite long, possibly years.
As the body gets better at producing
force against a load, it is also getting better at
recovering from that stress. As both per-
formance competence and recovery ability
increase with progressive training over time,
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eventually it will take weeks to adequately
disrupt homeostasis to stimulate adaptation,
and then another length of time for recovery
and supercompensation. The advanced
trainee may require even up to a month’s
time to progress through stage 1 and stage 2
(fig. 2-2, line C).
Figure 2-2. The intended result of a training stimu-
lus is to induce supercompensation in the form of per-
formance competence above baseline. As the trainee
progresses from novice to advanced, a longer training
and recovery cycle is required to induce
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supercompensation increases. In fact, the duration of
the supercompensation cycle is one way to classify the
level of training advancement. In the novice, a single
training stimulus results in supercompensation in 24
to 72 hours (A), just in time for the next training ses-
sion. For the intermediate trainee, multiple training
sessions in a week are required to induce supercom-
pensation (B). For the advanced trainee, the cumulat-
ive effects of weeks of training are needed to induce
supercompensation in a month’s time or longer (C).
Arrows represent workout sessions.
The Two-Factor Model of
Training
The two-factor model derives from and
elaborates on the single-factor model, in that
it considers the reasons for the performance
response typical of training, not just the per-
formance response itself. Two-factor models
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of training responses and adaptations are
not new. Vladimir Zatsiorsky proposed such
a model in his years at the Central Institute
for Physical Culture in Moscow and reiter-
ated it in his text The Science and Practice of
Strength Training (1995). In his model, “fit-
ness” and “fatigue” are the factors that affect
“preparedness.” Although the details of his
theory are not well defined, the basic concept
is sound.
If we consider performance competence
the result of “metabolic and structural fa-
tigue” and “comprehensive recovery pro-
cesses,” we can better understand the ra-
tionale for using different programming
models for specific levels of trainee advance-
ment. “Metabolic and structural fatigue” can
be defined as the localized intramuscular and
synaptic perturbations that are associated
with the slightly reduced performance capa-
city in Selye’s stage 1. Such fatigue is short-
lived, an acute variable. “Comprehensive
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recovery processes” are the collective repair
status of the various organ systems and pro-
cesses affected by the training bout: endo-
crine and immune systems, chronic inflam-
matory processes, and protein synthetic re-
sponses. Fatigue and recovery together con-
tribute to adaptation and progress, with su-
percompensation considered complete ad-
aptation to the workload used in the training
session or series of sessions – stage 2 of
Selye’s theory (fig. 2-3). For optimal fitness
and performance gains, the effects of meta-
bolic and structural fatigue must abate be-
fore the effects of comprehensive recovery
processes diminish.
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Figure 2-3. The two-factor model of the human re-
sponses and adaptations to a single bout of training.
During and immediately after training, there is a sup-
pression of comprehensive recovery processes (Selye’s
stage 1). Shortly after training ceases there is a general
increase in recovery process activity (Selye’s stage 2).
An important observation here is that the increase in
fatigue that results from training has a short-lived
negative effect on performance. This deficit is not
made up until recovery processes near completion.
The more advanced an athlete becomes,
the greater the importance and usefulness of
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the two-factor model and its approach to bal-
ancing the two opposing forces of construct-
ive human adaptation, in that: 1) the work-
load must be sufficient to disrupt biological
equilibrium enough to necessitate an adapta-
tion, and 2) recovery must be sufficient to
enable the adaptation to occur while avoid-
ing overtraining (figs. 2-4, 2-5, 2-6, and 2-7).
The athlete walks a knife’s edge here. For the
novice, it is very dull and wide, not really
much of an edge at all, and rather easy to ne-
gotiate. The edge for the intermediate trainee
is sharper, requiring a more complex ap-
proach. For the advanced trainee, it is razor
sharp, and balancing on it without damage
requires careful manipulation of all the pro-
gramming variables.
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Figure 2-4. Two factors affecting both performance
and tolerable workload in the beginner are 1) meta-
bolic and structural fatigue and 2) comprehensive re-
covery processes. There is an inverse relationship of
fatigue to performance: as fatigue increases, perform-
ance decreases. The relationship of recovery to per-
formance is direct: as recovery increases, performance
increases. Gray bars represent workout sessions.
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Figure 2-5. The two-factor model of an intermediate
trainee’s responses and adaptations to a series of
training stresses over a week’s duration. While similar
to the single-workout cycle of the novice, note that fa-
tigue does not entirely dissipate between each train-
ing session, nor do recovery processes catch up until
the conclusion of the week. This defines the difference
between the novice and the intermediate trainee. The
workout load presented here is a heavy-medium-
heavy-light organization that would repeat the follow-
ing week.
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Figure 2-6. The advanced trainee responds to period-
ized programming over a longer period of time than
either the novice or the intermediate trainee. Gray bars
are days of training. White bars are days off. Per-
centages are loads relative to 1RM.
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Figure 2-7. The relationship between workload and
work tolerance. Regardless of training classification
there is a ceiling of work tolerance (designated by ar-
rows) that once breached decays into “overtraining”
and an inevitable loss of work tolerance and perform-
ance capacity. Note that 1) work tolerance increases
significantly throughout the training career, and in-
creased tolerance is due to a progressive increase in
workload, and 2) a descent into overtraining and the
manifestation of performance decrements will occur
more rapidly and precipitously as the training career
advances (note the sharper drop-off for more ad-
vanced trainees after the work tolerance peak is
reached). Although overtraining can be a problem at
every stage, prevention is critical at the advanced and
elite stages, as the rate of performance decay is very
rapid once work tolerance is exceeded. Conversely,
the diagnosis of overtraining may be a problem at the
novice and intermediate stages, as the reduction in
performance capacity occurs at a much slower rate
after work tolerance is exceeded, and easily could be
missed or misinterpreted.
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Understanding Overtraining
Key to understanding progress in any
athletic endeavor is the concept of over-
load. Overload represents the magnitude of
work required to disrupt biological equilibri-
um and induce an adaptation. For progress
to occur, the physiological system must be
perturbed, and in weight training the per-
turbation is heavier weight or more volume
(or, for an intermediate or advanced trainee,
less rest between sets) than the athlete is ad-
apted to. The overload is applied to the sys-
tem through training, with the specific work
that disrupts equilibrium referred to as an
overload event. For novice trainees, each
workout constitutes an overload event. For
intermediate and advanced athletes, the
heavier elements in a week or more of train-
ing might constitute the overload events.
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But without recovery from an overload
event, the overload does not contribute to
progress. Overload without adequate recov-
ery just induces overtraining. The term mi-
crocycle, traditionally defined as a week of
training, is better thought of as the period of
time required for both the overload event
and the recovery from that overload event.
This period will vary with the level of train-
ing advancement of the trainee. For a novice,
a microcycle is the period of time between
two workouts. The more advanced a trainee
becomes, the longer the microcycle becomes,
until the term loses its usefulness for elite
athletes, who might require a period of time
for this process that would more tradition-
ally be described as a mesocycle. For us
then, these terms lack the concise nature re-
quired for utility.
Overtraining is the bane of any program.
When the demands of training outstrip the
ability of the body to adapt, the trainee is at
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risk of not only ceasing to progress but actu-
ally regressing. To put it in the terms we
have been using, the overtrained athlete has
entered into Selye’s stage 3. Understood
within the single-factor model of training, an
imbalance between training volume or in-
tensity and recovery has occurred, such that
the trainee will not recover from the stress
and supercompensation cannot occur. Per-
formance will remain depressed from the
initial overload and will suffer further de-
cline with continued loading. Or, in the two-
factor model, overtraining can be understood
as the failure of comprehensive recovery pro-
cesses to overcome metabolic and structural
fatigue. The effects of fatigue are so pro-
nounced that recovery processes, which may
be either unaffected or diminished, are nev-
ertheless overwhelmed, leading to persistent
and potentially escalating fatigue. The end
result is the inability to train and to perform
at the previous level.
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There are three possible effects of exer-
cise stress: 1) fatigue, 2) overreaching, and 3)
overtraining. Each of these is associated with
a reduction in performance ability, but only
one is a training problem.
Fatigue. Fatigue is usually defined
physiologically as a reduction of the force-
production capacity of a muscle. It could be
described as simple and transient “tiredness”
resulting from physical effort – a necessary
component of training and the one that res-
ults from the stress necessary to enter Selye’s
stage 1. In the novice it is expected that fa-
tigue will abate within 24 to 72 hours. In the
intermediate lifter fatigue may not dissipate
completely until the completion of the train-
ing week. And in the advanced trainee com-
plete recovery to supercompensation may
not occur for a month or more. For the inter-
mediate and advanced trainee it is not expec-
ted nor desired that each workout begin free
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from fatigue. If an intermediate, advanced,
or elite trainee is persistently fatigue-free,
the loading scheme is not rigorous enough to
induce homeostatic disruption and adapta-
tion. In fact, if an athlete is chronically
fatigue-free, he is by definition still a novice.
Overreaching. Overreaching has been de-
scribed as the cumulative effects of a series
of workouts, characterized by a short-term
decrease in performance, feelings of fatigue,
depressed mood, pain, sleep disturbances,
and other miscellaneous effects that require
up to two weeks to recover from. Certain
hormonal changes such as a short-term re-
duction in testosterone and increase in
cortisol occur at this level of perturbation,
and in fact these are among the factors that
produce the positive systemic effects of bar-
bell training. A significant problem with this
definition is that it differs from that of over-
training only in that “overreaching” can be
recovered from with approximately two
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weeks of reduced work or rest – a rather ar-
bitrary distinction – whereas recovery from
overtraining takes longer.
In addition, this definition of overreach-
ing does not consider the level of training ad-
vancement of the individual and the recovery
abilities associated with that level, a problem
typical of the conventional exercise science
literature. The novice trainee will not
experience so-called overreaching on a prop-
erly constructed novice program, since re-
covery to supercompensation occurs within
the 24- to 72-hour period. It is important to
understand that the novice trainee will not
overreach unless far more than the recom-
mended load is used, because the hallmark
of novice status is the ability to recover
quickly from the incremental increase in
workload used to produce gradual, steady
progress. Even when a late-stage novice plat-
eaus within a simple progression regimen, a
single additional short-term reduction in
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training load is adequate to restore homeo-
stasis. The intermediate trainee can recover
from a stage 2-level homeostatic disruption
in the time allotted for a weekly training
period, since intermediate-level trainees
characteristically respond to short-term cu-
mulative training loads. The advanced train-
ee, after a long cumulative disruption of
homeostasis, might require four or more
weeks to recover and supercompensate,
more than the two weeks allowed for by the
definition. The utility of the term “overreach-
ing” is therefore questionable.
Moreover, the concept of overreaching
defined as a negative effect misses the point.
Overreaching simply represents the target
stress necessary to disrupt homeostasis, in-
tentionally breaching the maximal workload
the trainee has adapted to in order to induce
supercompensation. It is more relevant,
practical, and understandable to discard the
term and simply use the term “overload,”
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since it describes both the load and the stim-
ulus for inducing adaptation in all trainees,
regardless of advancement level. Every fit-
ness or performance enhancement training
program should include periods of overload,
as is required by any practical application of
Selye’s theory; these periods should be un-
derstood as adaptive, not detrimental; and
they should be appropriate to the trainee’s
level of advancement if they are to produce
the desired effects. Judging this level of ef-
fort can be difficult and requires vigilant
monitoring, since a rapid descent into over-
training can occur if loading is too severe or
recovery is inadequate.
Overtraining. Overtraining is the cumulat-
ive result of relentless high-volume or high-
intensity training, or both, without adequate
recovery, that results in the exhaustion of the
body’s ability to compensate for training
stress and adapt to it. The primary diagnost-
ic indicator is a reduction in performance
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capacity that doesn’t improve with an
amount of rest that would normally result in
recovery. Although the accepted (American
College of Sports Medicine and U.S. Olympic
Committee) definition of overtraining holds
that recovery from it requires no less than
two weeks, overtraining is obviously relative
to the advancement level of the trainee, and
there are actually no hard and fast rules gov-
erning its onset or its abatement. Even the
heinous abuse of a novice with an over-
whelming workload, one that induces a loss
of performance ability, would resolve fairly
quickly. Although the time frame would be
compressed, the symptoms observed by the
coach would be those of overtraining. Al-
though overtraining in the novice can occur,
it may not be easily diagnosed because the
magnitude of the loss of performance might
be difficult to perceive, due both to a lack of
training history for comparison and the low
level of performance overall (as represented
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in fig. 2-7). Once again, as with overreaching,
the overtrained intermediate fits the com-
monly accepted ACSM/USOC definition: an
overtrained intermediate will not be able to
recover in less than two weeks. In the ad-
vanced trainee, however, recovery is never
planned to be complete for a minimum of
four weeks anyway, and for the elite trainee,
it may be considerably longer than that. The
existing definition is inadequate for these
trainees. It is also easier to diagnose over-
training in advanced and elite trainees, since
the performance reduction is quite notice-
able against the background of an extensive
training history.
A working definition of overtraining that
applies to all levels of training advancement
requires a better way to quantify recovery
time in each stage. Overtraining occurs
specifically when performance does
not recover within one reduced-load
training cycle. The duration of that cycle
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will vary according to the athlete’s level of
advancement. For example, if a novice train-
ing every 48 hours has a workout that is
markedly off due to excessive load in the pre-
vious workout, this will be apparent during
warm-up. His range of motion will be de-
creased due to the soreness, and his bar
speed will be noticeably slower and more
labored as the weight increases through the
sets. The coach should then stop the
workout, having determined the problem (in
the last workout he did five extra work sets
while another trainee was being coached in
the other room, for example) and send him
home with orders to rest until the next
workout 48 hours later. He comes back in for
his next workout, and warm-ups reveal that
he is fine now, recovered and capable of the
sets he should have done the previous
workout. He was overtrained, and now he is
recovered. This is possible because he is a
novice, and this recovery time frame is
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consistent with a novice’s ability to recover,
both from normal overload and from over-
training, since the mechanism is the same.
If an advanced trainee on a four-week
cycle of loading declines below expected per-
formance levels during a cycle, either the
athlete has come into the cycle overtrained
or the current cycle has exhausted recovery
capacity. In such a case, as much as four
more weeks of reduced training load might
be required to facilitate recovery. For both
the novice and the advanced trainee, a re-
peated and dramatically reduced load cycle
of equal duration should immediately follow
the diagnosis of overtraining in order to
reestablish homeostasis. Elite lifters using
very long training cycles cannot afford the
time required to deal with a programming
error that might take months to notice, and
even longer to correct.
Overtraining is yet another example of
the profound differences between novice and
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advanced athletes, in that the more advanced
an athlete becomes, the more costly over-
training becomes. A novice might be incon-
venienced by a missed training session or
goal, but that inconvenience lasts for a
couple of days, and is of no consequence to
anything other than the next workout. Inter-
mediate athletes have committed to their
training to the point of selecting a sport, and
are in the process of becoming competitors.
An advanced athlete is by definition always
training for a competition, has invested
many thousands of hours, many thousands
of dollars, and many gallons of sweat in his
training up to this point, and has much to
lose as a result. Elite athletes may have titles,
sponsorship money, endorsements, and
post-competitive careers riding on their per-
formance at the next competition. As careers
advance, so does the price of failure, even if
it is temporary.
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Is consideration of overtraining import-
ant? According to the USOC/ACSM “Con-
sensus Statement on Overtraining,” 10 to
20% of all athletes are suffering from over-
training on any given day. If this is true, it is
a problem. How many coaches can afford to
have 20% of their team performing below
par on game day? Having a significant num-
ber of athletes overtrained at any given time
has important ramifications for team suc-
cess, as well as for the careers of the indi-
vidual athletes. The culprit here is a lack of
the appropriate application of the principles
of exercise programming to the training of
athletes.
Diagnostic signs of overtraining in non-
novices are severe, when finally apparent:
obviously compromised performance, dis-
rupted sleep, increased chronic pain, abnor-
mal mood swings, elevated heart rate,
change in appetite, and other physical and
mental abnormalities. (In fact, these are the
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same physical symptoms characteristic of
severe depression, a clinical problem also
arising from the accumulation of unabated
stress.) However, not all trainees will display
the same symptoms even if they become
overtrained on the same program. Once
again, the coach’s eye is essential in determ-
ining changes in the performance and well-
being of the trainee. Once overtraining is
diagnosed, it is imperative to take remedial
action, as longer periods of overtraining re-
quire longer periods of recovery. It quite pos-
sibly can take as much as twice as long to get
a trainee out of overtraining as it took to pro-
duce the condition. Horror stories about
severe overtraining abound, with examples
of athletes losing entire training years. No ef-
fort must be spared in recognizing and treat-
ing this very serious situation.
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Factors Affecting Recovery
The topic of overtraining is usually
treated in a fairly narrow sense, with only the
ratio of work to recovery discussed. These
are the two controlling factors in disrupting
homeostasis and forcing adaptation, but, ul-
timately, recovery is multifactorial and is af-
fected by much more than just time off
between workouts. The importance of atten-
tion to detail during rest and recovery is es-
sential in avoiding overtraining. Unless the
coach and trainee both understand and act-
ively attempt to facilitate optimal recovery,
no method of training can produce optimal
results or be effective in preventing
overtraining.
Aside from the work/rest ratio, several
factors affect or contribute to recovery, the
most important being adequate sleep, hydra-
tion, and proper intake of protein, energy,
and micronutrients. Each of these factors is
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under the direct control of the trainee (but
not the coach). A good coach will explain
why these things are important for progress,
attempt to reinforce their importance on a
regular basis, and then realize that better
athletes will treat this responsibility as they
should, and that average athletes will not.
The best training program in the entire uni-
verse will be a dismal failure if athletes fail to
hold up their end of the deal. The success of
any program is ultimately the trainee’s
responsibility.
Sleep. It should be intuitive, but trainees
and coaches alike often overlook the import-
ance of sleep during periods of increased
physical demand and stress. While rather
limited in scope, the scientific literature on
this topic does support the following
observations:
1) Lack of adequate sleep during recov-
ery leads to a decrease in competitive
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ability, reduced determination, and lack
of tolerance for intensity in training.
2) Lack of adequate sleep negatively af-
fects mood state, leads to a greater level
of perceived fatigue, promotes depres-
sion, and can induce mild confusion.
3) Lack of adequate sleep can reduce the
capacity of the physiological mechan-
isms that enable adaptation to the stress
of training.
A number of physiological changes oc-
cur during sleep. Among them, hormonal se-
cretion is perhaps the most important for re-
covery from physical exertion. An increase in
anabolic (muscle-building) hormone concen-
trations and a decrease in catabolic (muscle-
wasting) hormone concentrations and activ-
ity take place during the sleep cycle. Levels of
the anabolic hormone testosterone begin to
rise upon falling asleep, peak at about the
time of first REM, and remain at that level
until awakening. This means that sleeping
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shorter durations limits the recovery contri-
butions possible from testosterone. Another
anabolic hormone, somatotropin, or human
growth hormone, also has a characteristic se-
cretion pattern during sleep. Shortly after
deep sleep begins, growth hormone concen-
trations begin to rise, leading to a sustained
peak lasting 1.5 to 3.5 hours. A major func-
tion of growth hormone is the mitigation of
the negative effects of the catabolic hormone
cortisol. A disruption or shortening of the
sleep period will reduce the beneficial effects
of these important anabolic hormones.
How much sleep is required? The U.S.
military believes that four hours of continu-
ous sleep per night allows for survival and
the maintenance of basic combat function.
Your mom tells you that eight hours a night
is needed to be healthy and happy. The aver-
age American adult gets somewhere between
six and seven hours per night. So what is
right? Military combat is a rather specialized
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situation, and during non-combat times the
Army advises more sleep. The “average”
sedentary person is not significantly stress-
ing the body’s recuperative capacity. But
Mom knows. An average of eight hours of
sleep, especially during very rigorous train-
ing, will aid in recovery. After all, the pur-
pose of sleep is to induce a state of recovery
in the body. The longer the period of sleep,
the better the quality of recovery.
The number of hours of sleep is not ne-
cessarily the same thing as the number of
hours spent in bed. Very few people go to
sleep when their head hits the pillow. A
trainee going to bed at 11:00 and getting up
at 7:00 may not be getting eight hours of
sleep. It is more realistic to add extra time to
account for any delay in actually falling
asleep, ensuring that eight hours is obtained.
Hydration. Water is essential for recovery
from strenuous exercise. After all, nearly
every biochemical process occurring in the
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human body takes place in water. Dehydra-
tion causes loss of performance, and when it
is severe it can be catastrophic. But how
much water do we need to drink to support
recovery and avoid overtraining?
Everybody’s physician, dietician, nutri-
tionist, trainer, coach, and friend “know”
that it is “absolutely necessary” to drink “8 ×
8”: eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day.
This equals half a gallon, or about 1.9 liters,
of water a day. Note that standard beverage
cans or bottles are 12 ounces or 20 ounces,
and that a 16-ounce cup is usually a sold as a
“small” drink at a restaurant, so the require-
ment is not necessarily eight commonly
available “drinks.”
But do we really need to drink this much
water? The 8 × 8 recommendation is not ac-
tually based on any scientific evidence ob-
tained through research, but on a subjective
viewpoint stated in a 1974 nutritional text
that was seized upon by the clinical
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professions and has slowly entrenched itself
in both clinical dogma and conventional wis-
dom. Most fluid intake values found in the
research data indicate that between 1.2 and
1.6 liters per day, less than the 1.9 liters of
the 8 × 8 prescription, is sufficient for main-
taining hydration status in healthy humans
who exercise mildly. These recommenda-
tions must of course account for different en-
vironmental conditions – the hydration
status of a person in Florida in June will be
different than that of a person in Manitoba
in October – so in reality there can be no ab-
solutes with respect to fluid intake. It is also
hard to imagine that the human body has
spontaneously lost the ability to self-regulate
hydration status since the bottled-water in-
dustry developed; after all, very few human
societies developed a penchant for sipping
water all day from a convenient container
carried in the hand or the backpack. So self-
selected fluid intake in response to thirst
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probably represents an appropriate method
for maintaining health and function under
most circumstances. But does it represent an
intake that can support recovery from in-
tense training?
An increased metabolic rate increases
the requirement for water. Increasing stor-
age of energy substrates (such as ATP, CP,
and glycogen) in the muscle increases the
need for intracellular water. So how much
fluid is needed beyond the 1.2 to 1.6 liters per
day that reportedly supports a healthy mildly
active life? Larger, more active individuals
require more water intake to support their
greater quantity of metabolically active tis-
sue, the increased caloric cost of increment-
ally larger workloads, and their less-efficient
heat dissipation characteristics. One size
does not fit all in terms of hydration. A good
rule of thumb might be one liter for every
1000 calories expended. A 5000-calorie per
day expenditure would require five liters (or
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1.3 gallons) of fluid. This volume of fluid may
seem quite high, but considering the needs of
an extremely active athlete training several
hours per day, it is a reasonable recommend-
ation, and in fact might still be inadequate
for a warm training environment. This re-
quires that attention be paid to fluid intake,
since 5+ liters per day is a lot of water to
drink. Excessive water consumption is ex-
tremely dangerous, but the intake of toxic
levels of water requires a conscious effort far
above any effort to assuage thirst under any
circumstances, and it cannot be done
accidentally.
One last consideration is which fluids
count toward hydration. Many popular
health practitioners and advocates will
boldly state that only water and a few other
“natural” beverages count toward hydration.
They discount anything with caffeine or alco-
hol or even sugar as a viable rehydrating
beverage. The statement has actually been
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made that “You wouldn’t wash your car with
a diet soft drink – why would you use it for
hydration?” Such an attitude demonstrates a
misunderstanding of the mechanism by
which water is absorbed from the gut: any-
thing that contains water, even food high in
water, counts toward water consumption.
Water itself is the best rehydrating fluid
since it can be taken up faster than com-
monly consumed commercial beverages (if
that is actually a practical consideration in
normal hydration situations), but every fluid
consumed contributes. The water content of
a 20-ounce diet cola counts toward hydra-
tion even though it contains caffeine and ar-
tificial sweeteners. A 20-ounce regular cola
full of high-fructose corn syrup also counts
even though it contains caffeine and sugar.
Alcoholic beverages have been quite effective
hydrating agents at various points in human
history. Beer and wine, in more primitive
times, were major rehydrating fluids
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necessary for survival, since they were safer
than the available untreated water supply, as
was the grog – rum mixed with water – of
the British Navy in the eighteenth century.
We are not proposing that soft drinks, beer,
and wine should be staple components of the
training diet, but honesty compels the con-
sideration of the realities of the American
lifestyle and how it may affect recovery.
Aside from the question of their other bene-
fits or detriments, moderate consumption of
these beverages does in fact contribute to
hydration.
Protein. How much protein do athletes
really need? Recently, a growing pool of re-
search has surfaced regarding the protein
needs of strength-trained athletes. The Un-
ited States Recommended Daily Allowance
(RDA) values call for a protein intake of 0.8
+/- 0.35 g/kg/day (grams per kilogram of
bodyweight per day) for males and females
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fifteen years and older. The RDA is based on
the needs of the average population, and the
average American is sedentary. Is it logical to
expect the nutritional requirements of a
sedentary individual to be the same as the
requirements of anyone undergoing a pro-
gram of systematically increasing physical
stress and adaptation? It has been well docu-
mented that any type of exercise increases
the rate of metabolism in the muscle and
also accelerates the rate of muscle protein
degradation and turnover. Research shows
that resistance exercise stimulates muscle
protein synthesis that lasts well past the end
of the exercise bout.
Protein synthesis, the process by which
new muscle is built, requires a dietary pro-
tein source. The primary way muscles recov-
er from stress and improve in fitness is for
muscle protein synthesis to occur faster than
the muscle protein breakdown that is the in-
evitable result of exercise. If protein
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synthesis is to exceed protein degradation,
anabolism, or constructive processes, must
exceed negative catabolic processes. If nutri-
ents needed for protein synthesis (to main-
tain or repair damaged tissue) are not suffi-
ciently available from dietary sources, the
body will take them from its own protein
stores – its existing muscle mass. In essence,
the body will rob Peter to pay Paul in order
to maintain function. By ensuring adequate
dietary protein intake, the trainee provides
the body with the building blocks necessary
for new protein synthesis.
So, how much protein is needed to sup-
port training? The literature includes a broad
range of recommendations that go as high as
2.5 g/kg/day. Some coaches and trainees
don’t like to do arithmetic, or aren’t comfort-
able converting pounds to kilograms. An
easy way to ensure enough dietary protein,
and the tried-and-true method used by the
weightlifting and strength training
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communities for many years, is simply to eat
one gram of protein per pound of body-
weight per day: a 200-pound athlete should
try to get about 200 grams of protein per
day, from various dietary sources. This
works out to 2.2 g/kg/day, a value that, while
in excess of the consensus recommendation
of between 1.2 and 1.8 g/kg/day, remains be-
low the highest recommended value in the
literature of 2.5 g/kg/day, and will ensure a
target high enough that missing it a little will
still be sufficient for full recovery. This calcu-
lation disregards considerations of lean body
mass and therefore assumes an already “nor-
mal” body composition; individuals with a
higher bodyfat percentage should take this
into account when planning protein intakes.
It is important to note that there is abso-
lutely no evidence to support the notion that
“excessive” amounts of protein are harmful
to normal kidneys with unimpaired excret-
ory function, despite the ill-informed advice
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of some health-care professionals. In fact, in
people without active kidney disease there
are no unsafe levels of protein consumption
in the context of dietary intake.
Protein supplementation is useful in
that it can help an athlete get a sufficient
protein intake, making up the difference
between that found in the diet and the re-
commended level. And a protein drink, being
convenient to make and consume, is useful
for post-workout recovery. Despite the mar-
keting efforts of many manufacturers, there
is very little difference in the net effect of the
quality or purity of the protein supplement –
in the grand scheme of things, the most ex-
pensive whey protein has no significant ad-
vantage over ground beef in terms of the
body’s ability to use the amino acids it con-
tains for protein synthesis.
Energy Intake. Since calories are expen-
ded during exercise, mostly derived from the
body’s ready reserves of stored carbohydrate
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and fat, an obvious requirement for recovery
after exercise is an increased need for energy
to replace that consumed during training.
There are two reasons exercise creates a
need for calories: 1) exercise of all types,
volumes, and intensities expends some frac-
tion of the body’s energy stores, and these
must be replaced before another bout of
activity, and 2) exercise of sufficient load dis-
rupts homeostasis and muscle structural in-
tegrity, producing a requirement for both
protein and fat/carbohydrate calories to fa-
cilitate repair and recovery.
The source of the energy – carbohydrate
or fat – is not terribly important as long as is
sufficient in caloric content and a protein
source accompanies it. Fat requires a longer
time for breakdown and utilization than car-
bohydrate, but the body’s metabolic rate is
elevated for many hours after exercise and
having a very energy-rich substrate (fat has
more energy by weight than carbohydrate)
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slowly metabolized over a number of hours
rather than a mass of carbohydrate digesting
for an hour or so after eating may be benefi-
cial. In fact, it has been clearly demonstrated
that the primary fuel source used in the 18
hours following exhaustive exercise is, in
fact, fat. Given adequate caloric intake and
adequate protein, the composition of the diet
must also consider the requirements of vit-
amin intake, essential fatty acids, and fiber,
as well as the glycemic index of the balance
of the food and the resulting insulin effects
of the meal. The quality of the diet should be
as high as the resources of the trainee
permit.
It is important that the total caloric con-
tent of the diet be at least equal to, but
preferably greater than, the total caloric ex-
penditure of the training day. Matching in-
take to expenditure will maintain fitness and
strength but will not support maximal fitness
gain. As a practical matter, caloric surplus is
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needed to drive progress, regardless of the
precision with which we are able to calculate
energy expenditure and intake. If we simply
pay back the energy used during exercise and
daily activities, we are not providing the ex-
tra energy required to drive homeostatic re-
covery and adaptation through muscle mass
increase. To get stronger and more fit, the
conventional literature advises the consump-
tion of around 200 to 400 calories more en-
ergy than we expend. It has been the experi-
ence of the authors that a more reasonable
intake to ensure recovery and strength gains
would be 500 to 1000 calories per day. If a
gain in muscular bodyweight is the primary
goal, a surplus of at least 1000 calories per
day, and perhaps much more for some
people who are inefficient metabolizers, will
be needed.
Vitamins and Minerals. Frequently, it is
stated that the average American diet
provides all the vitamins and minerals
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necessary for a healthy life, and that state-
ment is almost always considered to extend
to hard-training men and women. Virtually
no one is ever tested for vitamin and mineral
levels unless they display deficiency disease
symptoms. Therefore, few individuals,
sedentary or athletic, ever know for sure
whether they have all the required vitamins
and minerals present in sufficient quantities.
Severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies
are not common in the United States, but
they do occur. Mild deficiencies are much
more common – the majority of American
females are consistently iron and calcium de-
ficient to a small but significant degree, for
instance. Calcium has a tremendous variety
of functions in nervous and muscular
physiology, growth, and performance and a
deficiency can limit recovery from training.
Iron has a crucial role in oxygen transport
and metabolic function. A mild iron
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deficiency can have significant negative ef-
fects on the body’s ability to recover after
exercise.
Vitamins and minerals act as mediators
of biochemical reactions in the body. Re-
ferred to as “micronutrients,” they are
needed in relatively small amounts and oc-
cur naturally in foods in varying concentra-
tions. To obtain all the vitamins and miner-
als required for life – and certainly for train-
ing – we must consume a variety of foods.
The average American kid does not. If par-
ents were aware of the basic need to provide
young athletes with a diet of high quality and
variety, this would not be an issue. But we
are a culture of convenience and habit, and it
is common that people consume a very lim-
ited selection of foods and food types, often
those that are processed to increase the con-
venience of storage and preparation. Such
processing typically reduces the vitamin and
mineral content of food to the extent that the
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quality of the diet – even though sufficient in
calories and maybe even protein – is quite
low.
The result is that while the typical ath-
lete’s diet may not be so woefully inadequate
that deficiency symptoms are present, it may
contain less than optimal amounts of essen-
tial vitamins and minerals, nutrients needed
to assist in recovery from rigorous training.
Recent research on normal sedentary popu-
lations has concluded that vitamin supple-
mentation has no effect on longevity; we are
not concerned here with longevity, but rather
performance. After all, if it is logical that an
athlete in hard training needs increased cal-
ories, water, and protein, then a higher vit-
amin/mineral intake would also be required.
Given the diverse regional, ethnic, cultural,
and economic tastes and habits within the
U.S. population, and without specific and
costly laboratory testing, there is no easy way
for the coach or athlete to assess the
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vitamins and minerals present in any given
diet. Thankfully, this is not necessary: nutri-
tional supplementation to ensure that these
important micronutrients are present for
training and recovery is safe, effective,
simple, and economical.
The best way is to start simple and
cheap. An inexpensive generic vitamin and
mineral supplement containing all the com-
monly supplemented vitamins and minerals
is readily available at grocery stores or on the
Internet. More money will get you a better,
purer, more readily absorbable product. Bill
Starr in his famous book The Strongest Shall
Survive advocated the use of the “shovel
method”: just take a lot, and the body will
excrete what it doesn’t use. Since vitamin
toxicity is excruciatingly rare, especially
among hard-training athletes, this is good
advice.
Fatty acids. Another set of compounds that
affect recovery are essential fatty acids
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(EFAs). Although a bias against dietary fat
remains currently in vogue in some circles,
fats are essential nutrients as well as efficient
sources of energy. While there are no essen-
tial carbohydrates, there are some essential
fatty acids – the body can synthesize many of
the lipids it needs from dietary fat sources,
but it cannot make omega-3 and omega-6
fatty acids. These two types of lipids play an
important role in the maintenance of the
body’s structural integrity, are crucial to im-
mune function and visual acuity, and are in-
volved in the production of eicosanoids, the
precursors of the prostaglandins which regu-
late the inflammatory process. Of the two,
omega-3 fatty acids are the most important
to recovery: they support anabolic processes
and assist in the management of post-exer-
cise inflammation and pain. They are also
less likely to be present in adequate amounts
in the diet. Omega-6 fatty acids may actually
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contribute to inflammatory processes if they
are present in the wrong proportions.
Deficiencies in EFAs are fairly common
in the United States, since fish, the primary
source of omega-3 fats, has never tradition-
ally been an important component of most
American diets. Chronic profound deficien-
cies result in growth retardation, dry skin,
diarrhea, slow wound healing, increased
rates of infection, and anemia. Sub-clinical
deficiencies would likely not produce symp-
toms that could be easily diagnosed by ob-
servation. Acute clinical deficiencies quickly
develop in individuals with very low-fat di-
ets, with symptoms evident in two to three
weeks.
Only a few grams of omega-3-rich oils
are required. This can be done with about
one generous serving of fatty fish, such as
salmon, per day. Many people find that tak-
ing an omega-3 fish oil supplement is help-
ful, since hard training benefits from higher
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dietary levels of EFAs. Cod liver oil too is an
inexpensive source of EFAs, and is also very
high in vitamins A and D.
How Hard and How Much
Periodization. Possibly having en-
countered Selye’s theory and realizing that it
had direct applications to the training of ath-
letes, Soviet exercise physiologists proposed
several methods of training that capitalized
on the body’s ability to adapt to increasing
workloads. The roots of this method, called
periodization, are often attributed to
Leonid Matveyev in the Soviet Union in the
1960s (advanced versions of Soviet-style
periodization can be traced further back to
Hungary in the 1940s and 50s). Periodiza-
tion was brought to the attention of the U.S.
weightlifting community in the 1970s by Carl
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Miller and molded into a hypothetical model
for weight training for sports performance by
Mike Stone in 1981. Since then, periodization
has become one of the primary tools of suc-
cessful training program design, regardless
of the sport.
The objective of all training for perform-
ance improvement should be to take the
body through Selye’s stages 1 and 2 of the
stress model, providing enough training
stress to induce adaptation without reaching
Stage 3, exhaustion. Correctly designed pro-
grams achieve positive results by controlling
the degree of stress placed on the body
through the manipulation of the volume and
intensity of training. It is therefore import-
ant to have a method of quantifying volume
and intensity.
Volume is the total amount of weight lifted
in a workout or group of workouts:
repetitions × weight = volume
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The following table shows an example of
volume calculations for a squat workout:
For this one exercise, warm-up reps in-
cluded, the trainee lifted a volume of 4150
pounds. This calculation is repeated for
every exercise included in the workout ses-
sion. In that way the total volume of stress
applied can be quantified. It may be more
useful to consider only work set volume,
since it is the work sets and not the warm-
ups that are disrupting homeostasis and
bringing about stage 1. As shown in the table,
this significantly reduces calculated volume.
If a trainee does an inordinately large
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number of warm-up sets, it might be appro-
priate to consider their effect on training
volume.
Intensity is the amount of weight lif-
ted, or the average amount of weight lifted in
a workout or group of workouts, in relation
to the trainee’s 1RM (“one-rep max,” or the
maximum weight that the trainee can lift for
a single repetition):
volume / repetitions = average weight
used
average weight used / 1RM × 100 = %
intensity
For the example in the table above, the aver-
age weight used is 4150 pounds/30 reps, or
138.33 pounds per rep. If the trainee’s 1RM
is 225, the intensity is 138.33/225 × 100 =
61%. It is easy to see how an excessive warm-
up can affect the average weight of all the
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reps, and the average intensity, making it de-
sirable to use only work sets in the intensity
calculation. For only the work sets in this ex-
ample, the intensity is 82%.
Let us reiterate: Intensity is considered
as a percentage of 1RM. An intensity of 80%
of 1RM is greater than an intensity of 50% of
1RM. While this is a simple concept, there
are many different ideas about “intensity” in
the scientific, medical, and popular literat-
ure. Intensity is sometimes equated with the
level of power production in a given exercise.
Things as abstract as the amount of mental
focus given to a repetition (“Let’s really focus
on this next rep and get your intensity up!”)
or the individual’s subjective perception of
their effort during the exercise (the Borg
Rating of Perceived Exertion scale, for ex-
ample) have been proposed as definitions.
Another proposed description is related to
fatigue: if it fatigues the muscle, the exercise
was intense. All these concepts have been
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elaborated upon in the literature, but
without exception they are not practical for
the strength training professional because
they are not quantifiable, a characteristic
that both scientists and practitioners regard
as pivotal. Intensity, as defined with respect
to % of 1RM may be somewhat simplistic,
but is the most practical and useful method,
especially for coaches and trainers who pro-
gram for large groups and need a way to ob-
jectively assess work and improvement.
The simple calculation of a range of in-
tensities of an exercise weight relative to
1RM:
Squat 1RM (lbs) 225
95% = 225 x 0.95 = 214
90% = 225 x 0.90 = 203
85% = 225 x 0.85 = 191
80% = 225 x 0.80 = 180
75% = 225 x 0.75 = 169
70% = 225 x 0.70 = 158
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Traditionally, the manner in which peri-
odization controls volume and intensity –
and therefore the degree of stress placed on
the body – is by dividing training into peri-
ods whose lengths and load characteristics
vary according to the level of the trainee.
Interpretation of the literature on over-
training must be done with an awareness of
the fact that much of it is based on aerobic
training. The overtraining that can be in-
duced by anaerobic training such as weight-
lifting has different characteristics than that
induced by the quite different stimulus of
aerobic work – referred to by lifters as long
slow distance work, or LSD. The different
ways in which volume and intensity are
defined between the two disciplines have a
bearing on the analysis of overtraining.
Modern competitive road cyclists, for ex-
ample, may spend hours each day on the
bike, generating a huge volume of training.
When they want to work harder, they add
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miles, hours, or training days, accumulating
what have been termed “junk miles.” They
also tend to ride at a sustainable percentage
of their VO2 max, and if this is used as a
measure of road cycling intensity every train-
ing session typically averages out to be simil-
ar to the one before it. It is important to note
that VO2max occurs at about 30 to 40% of a
muscle’s maximal strength of contraction.
So, intensity (measured as a percentage of
absolute strength) is not usually a major
training factor in the average self-coached
American competitive cyclist’s training pro-
gram. But because volume is essentially the
overloaded training variable, road cyclists
generally suffer from volume-induced
overtraining.
Because weight training programs ma-
nipulate both volume and intensity of train-
ing, trainees can experience either volume-
induced or intensity-induced overtraining.
Extremes in programming styles are
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represented by the “go-heavy-or-go-home”
approach, which may precipitate intensity-
induced overtraining, and the “train-to-fail-
ure” approach on the other hand, which may
produce volume-induced overtraining. More
common is overtraining that has elements of
both types, since most programs manipulate
both variables. Understanding the rate of re-
covery from both types is important. In well-
trained weightlifters, intensity-induced over-
training – a function of the nervous system
and its interface with the muscular system –
seems easier to recover from than its
volume-induced counterpart, which affects
primarily the contractile components and
metabolic systems of the muscle cells. When
peaking for a strength or power event, in-
tensity continues to be included in the pro-
gram, at greatly reduced volume, up to very
near the event. When peaking for an endur-
ance event, both the volume and intensity of
weight training should be curtailed several
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weeks in advance, since longer period re-
quired for volume recovery will directly af-
fect the competition.
The basic cure for overtraining is the
combination of time and reduced workload.
The time spent dealing with overtraining
costs the coach and athlete valuable pro-
gress: reduced workloads do not produce im-
provement, or even maintenance; a complete
layoff results in detraining to some inevitable
extent. Since the costs of overtraining are
high, prevention is the best approach. Cor-
rectly designed training programs appropri-
ate for the athlete and the sport are the key.
Although properly executed simple pro-
gression can produce rapid progress without
overtraining in the early stages, for more ad-
vanced trainees, more complex program-
ming – periodization – is necessary.
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“How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do
not first remove your delusions?”
—Doctor Pinero in “Life-Line” by Robert A.
Heinlein (1939)
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Chapter 3:
Understanding
Training Goals
Starting at Square One
Planning a program of weight training
requires a clearly defined set of goals for the
athlete. Once the goals are established, train-
ing must be relatively specific, meaning that
exercises and programming should pertain
specifically to the sport. Training without
planning is not much of a program, and if
progress occurs it will be in spite of the pro-
gram rather than because of it.
The average trainee has some type of fit-
ness goal in mind when beginning an exer-
cise program. The competitive athlete

certainly does. Despite the fact that most in-
dividuals know what they want out of a pro-
gram, the academic community is less clear
about what fitness actually is. Physical fit-
ness is poorly defined in the literature, and
the published and conventionally accepted
approaches to gaining it are misdirected in
many, many instances. A useful definition of
physical fitness should center on the “physic-
al” and describe physical readiness in terms
of function, as does the following one, pro-
posed in a 2006 article by Kilgore and Rip-
petoe in the Journal of Exercise Physiology
Online [9(1):1-10]:
Possession of adequate levels of
strength, endurance, and mobility to
provide for successful participation in
occupational effort, recreational pur-
suits, familial obligation, and that is
consistent with a functional phenotypic
expression of the human genotype.
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After all, human survival in a human envir-
onment depends on being able to perform a
variety of physical tasks at a moment’s no-
tice. We can divide the broad spectrum of
abilities required to conquer the average per-
son’s life tasks into three basic categories:
strength, endurance, and mobility. Lifting
weights can help develop each of these three
areas of fitness to varying degrees, depend-
ing on the emphasis of the program, but the
usual focus with lifting is on strength and its
related characteristics, power and mass.
Coaches and trainees, either consciously
or unconsciously, tend to bias their weight
training toward strength, power, or mass.
Each is defined by specific physical,
physiological, and functional characteristics,
so training for each requires different
strategies and program organization. Any
training program needs to reflect the specific
needs of the particular training objective it
was designed to achieve, since excellence in
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each requires specific focus on its unique
characteristics.
Poor programming choices will signific-
antly affect the development of the desired
performance characteristics. In the barbell
sports, this can be illustrated by comparing
the training objectives of a weightlifter (a
competitor in the sport of Olympic weight-
lifting) and a powerlifter. The weightlifter
hopes to achieve a great deal of explosive
power in order to successfully perform the
snatch and the clean and jerk with big
weights which requires great speed. The
powerlifter hopes to gain absolute strength
in order to squat, bench press, and deadlift
big weights. The difference between these
goals may not seem apparent, since both lift-
ers need to move heavy weights and thus ul-
timately depend on strength. But the speed
with which the bar moves and the distance it
travels, the factors that determine power, are
the distinguishing characteristics. As it turns
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out, the development of power is – or at least
should be – the primary goal of training for
most athletes in the weight room. To clarify
the difference between strength and power
we need to understand a few more terms.
The modern fitness industry’s concept of “toning”
muscles is specious—it might sound cool, but it lacks
any tangible and definable meaning. The term “muscle
tone,” or tonus, describes an electrophysiological phe-
nomenon, a measure of ionic flow across muscle cell
membranes. It can be thought of as the muscle’s readi-
ness to do anaerobic work. The more “fit” the muscle,
the more electrophysiological activity it exhibits at
rest. Lack of exercise leads to poor tone, aerobic exer-
cise improves tone a little bit, low-intensity weight
training improves tone more, and high-intensity
training improves tone the fastest. As a test, go poke
the traps or quads of an elite weightlifter at rest, if
she’ll let you. They’ll be hard as a rock. The same
muscles of an elite road cyclist at rest will be firm, but
not hard. Then compare both athletes’ muscle tone to
that of a sedentary person. The results will be quite en-
lightening. Most exercise programs that claim to im-
prove muscle tone are actually lower-intensity hyper-
trophy programs and are only moderately effective
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for improving muscle tone. If “tone” is the goal,
strength is the method.
Power and Its Components
Strength. Strength is a measurement of the
ability of a muscle to exert force against ex-
ternal resistance. In its broadest interpreta-
tion, strength is the ability to move a weight
irrespective of the amount of time it takes, as
with a heavy deadlift moving slowly to lock-
out. The benefits of improving strength for
athletes in anaerobic sports are obvious,
since force production is such an important
aspect of these activities. Less obvious are
the benefits of increasing strength in aerobic
athletes, but it has been well documented
that strength increases improve endurance
performance by prolonging the time it takes
before muscles fatigue.
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Measures of strength are often associ-
ated with slow movements or no movement
at all. Powerlifters move heavy weights relat-
ively slowly. In so doing, they display a great
deal of strength. Consider as an example a
lineman trying to move an opposing player
after the initial contact (the opposing player
is the weight). Upon contact, the movement
might stop completely, resulting in isometric
muscle action. As the opposing force is over-
come, movement speed increases from zero
but remains slow relative to the explosion off
the line. Overcoming the resistance that the
opposing player provides takes superior
strength – the ability to hold position iso-
metrically while better mechanical position
is obtained, and the ability to produce more
force concentrically once it is. Strength im-
provement should be a goal for all trainees
because it always contributes to
performance.
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Speed. The amount of time it takes an ob-
ject, or one’s own body, to move a given dis-
tance is an important component of the vast
majority of sports. Speed is critical to the
correct performance of many barbell exer-
cises, specifically the Olympic lifts and their
variants; bar speed in a snatch is a critical
analytical marker for coaching the lift. An
object’s speed is determined by measuring
the distance traveled and dividing it by the
time it took for that movement to occur; it is
thus the rate of change of the object’s posi-
tion in space. (The object’s velocity is the
rate of change of its position in a given direc-
tion, a technical distinction of little import-
ance to this discussion. For our purposes
here the terms are used interchangeably.)
Beating an opposing player to the ball re-
quires speed. Strength contributes to speed
by enabling the body to overcome inertia and
initiate acceleration, the rate at which speed
increases. Once movement is initiated,
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strength is required for the continuing rapid
transfer of force that maintains the velocity
of the object against its tendency to slow
down.
Power. The production of power is the key
to most sports. It is the amount of work per-
formed per unit of time. Work is the force
applied to an object and the consequent dis-
tance it is moved by that force; an easily un-
derstood unit of work is the foot-pound, the
energy needed to move a 1-pound load a dis-
tance of 1 foot. Therefore a unit of power
would be 1 foot-pound per second – the rate
at which the work of moving the object is
performed. Power is understood best as the
ability to exert force rapidly, or as strength
applied quickly. If a large muscular force is
generated that moves a heavy weight very
quickly, power production is high; the
highest peak power outputs ever recorded in
all of athletics have been produced during
the second-pull phase of the snatch. It can be
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considered as the rate of force production,
usually measured using a force plate.
On the other hand, if an athlete in train-
ing climbs ten flights of stairs faster today
than he did last week, he has moved the
mass of his body the distance of ten flights of
stairs more quickly. Or if an athlete finishes
the task of doing three rounds of 30 pull-ups
and running 400 meters faster than she did
it last month, the mass of her body has
moved faster over a shorter period of time.
These are examples of rate of work produc-
tion, and could be improved by merely rest-
ing less between the components of the work
without increasing the rate of the force pro-
duction of the movements themselves. In
other words, the density of the cumulative
efforts increases – an increase in frequency
without an increase in the amplitude of the
individual component efforts. Improvements
in rate of force production and rate of work
production require different metabolic
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adaptations, which may or may not overlap.
For our purposes here power is the ability to
generate high levels of force rapidly. The suc-
cessful lineman comes off the line very fast,
accelerating his bodyweight quickly enough
to meet his opponent, completely stop the
opposing forward momentum, and start the
process of pushing him out of position. The
effects of his power – the momentum created
by his speed and the mass of his body mov-
ing at that speed, and his subsequent ability
to quickly generate force against his oppon-
ent – determines more about his perform-
ance during the play than any other aspect of
his movement.
Some aspects of work, and therefore
power, are difficult to measure. If we con-
sider only the power developed against the
bar, the calculation is simple, but incom-
plete. The athlete and the bar form a system,
both components of which move. Work done
by the muscles against the skeletal
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components of the system – the maintaining
of isometric back extension during a deadlift,
for example – is difficult to measure. But the
force expended during the effort to maintain
a rigid spine for improved force transfer effi-
ciency is in fact a quantity, and must there-
fore be a part of the development of the
power of the movement. Force is being ap-
plied to a part of the system that cannot be
quantified by measuring its movement. It is
usually unnecessary to be this precise, but an
understanding of the system as a whole is
important for an appreciation of the import-
ance of good technique and its dependence
on strength.
This is of extreme importance to every
athlete and coach: the ability to generate
power directly affects performance in
all sports. Training programs that increase
power output should be used for all athletes,
from novice to elite, from tennis players to
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shot putters. It was noted in the 1980s that
even elite Soviet weightlifters could improve
their performance by increasing their power
development. All other things being equal,
the more powerful athlete will always beat
the less powerful athlete.
The development of power requires
careful program design based on the require-
ments of the specific sport, a careful assess-
ment of the strengths and weaknesses of the
athlete, and an understanding of the effects
of various exercises on power production.
The simple act of increasing strength for the
novice lifter will increase his power, since
power depends on strength and strength im-
proves rapidly for a novice. For example, an
increase in the deadlift will immediately de-
crease sprint times for an inexperienced kid
much more productively than time spent
working on sprint mechanics. For the more
advanced trainee, training for power re-
quires the use of exercises in which heavy
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loads are moved quickly, such as the
Olympic lifts – the snatch and the clean and
jerk and their derivatives – which cannot be
done slowly. For a competitive lifter, sprint
training combined with heavy squats will in-
crease sprint velocity and strength, but not
necessarily power output. Performing power
snatches at 50% of 1RM and then doing
snatch-grip deadlifts might very well leave
peak power production – as measured by an
increase in 1RM snatch – unaffected. An at-
tempt must be made to improve the ability to
accelerate increasingly heavy loads if peak
power production is to be improved.
The results of two different training
methods on power output can be evaluated
with a simple set of calculations. Take the ex-
ample of a very strong offensive lineman who
trains with traditional powerlifting exercises:
Bodyweight = 140 kg (308 lb)
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Deadlift personal best (1RM) = 300 kg
(660 lb)
Distance from floor to lockout = 0.65
meters
Time from floor to lockout = 4.0
seconds
To calculate his power output in the deadlift,
first calculate the work performed (force ×
gravitational constant × distance):
Work = 300 kg × 9.8 m/s² × 0.65 m =
1911 Newton meters (N-m)
Next, calculate total power generated (work/
time):
Power = 1911 N-m / 4.0 seconds =
477.75 watts
This can be expressed in a form that allows
for the comparison of two individuals, by
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calculating watts per kilogram, or relative
power output (power/bodyweight):
Relative power = 477.75 watts / 140 kg =
3.41 watts/kg
This measurement of relative power is now
scaled for the mass of the athlete.
Next, use the same formulas to calculate the
power generated by an offensive lineman
who trains specifically for power develop-
ment by using the power clean (from floor to
shoulder):
Bodyweight = 140 kg (308 lb)
Power clean personal best (1RM) = 150
kg (330 lb)
Distance from floor to lockout = 1.27
meters
Time from floor to lockout = 0.6
seconds
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Work performed (force × gravitational con-
stant × distance):
Work = 150 kg × 9.8 m/s² × 1.27 m =
1866.9 N-m
Total power generated (work/time):
Power = 1866.9 N-m / 0.6 seconds =
3111.5 watts
Relative power output (power/bodyweight):
Relative power = 3111.5 watts / 140 kg =
22.2 watts/kg
The main difference between the two is the
time it takes to move the load. The work
done in the two lifts is essentially the same:
1911 N-m for the deadlift and 1867 N-m for
the power clean. The power clean is faster, so
much faster that it generates more than six
times the power despite the fact that it is
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only half the weight and moves twice the dis-
tance of the deadlift. (See fig. 3-1.) This cal-
culation clearly demonstrates that Olympic-
style weight training is “high-power” where-
as traditional – and obviously misnamed –
powerlifting-style training is “low-power”
(but “high-strength”). This doesn’t mean that
absolute strength training should be avoided
by power athletes; in fact, force production is
inherent in the production of high levels of
power, and strength is actually a neglected
component in the training of many American
Olympic weightlifters these days. It does
mean, though, that the Olympic lifts and
their derivatives should be included in any
program designed to increase an athlete’s
power output, because if power is improved
during training, the ability to generate power
on the field improves too. Both strength and
power training have important places in a
comprehensive program for athletes.
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Figure 3-1. A comparison of the deadlift and the
power clean. The deadlift (A) moves a heavy weight
over a short distance slowly, while the power clean (B)
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moves a lighter weight over a longer distance quickly.
Much greater power is produced in the power clean.
Figure 3-2. Velocity-power graph. The dashed line
represents velocity, and the solid line represents
power output. Peak power occurs at approximately
30% of maximal isometric force and 30% of maximal
movement velocity. This would equate to 50 to 80% of
1RM, depending on the exercise. Strength movements
above are those that are limited by strength, such as
the squat, press, deadlift or similar exercises. Power
movements are those limited by power output such as
the snatch, jerk, clean or other similar exercises.
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Mass. Muscle size is normally associated
with strength. We’ve all seen people who just
look strong. They have an imposing muscu-
lar appearance. And there is truth in this
perception: absolute strength increases as a
muscle’s cross-sectional area gets bigger. It is
an inevitable consequence of weight training
that muscles will get larger, and this is why
most people do it. This growth happens
whether the intent of the training is strength,
power, or mass. But by specifically using
high-volume lower-intensity training, one
can maximize muscle-mass gains. Body-
builders know that performing five sets of
twelve reps of an isolation-type exercise with
minimal rest between sets is optimal for pro-
ducing muscle hypertrophy in the muscle
group trained in the exercise. Bodybuilding
workouts are organized so that all the muscle
groups are trained, although since they are
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trained separately their coordinated per-
formance remains untrained.
Mass, not strength or power production,
is the primary training goal for bodybuilders.
Frequently though, coaches and trainers of
actual athletes place them all on
hypertrophy-type training under the as-
sumption that all hypertrophy is the same
and that big muscles – no matter how they
are produced – are always equally strong and
powerful. This is not the case. The hyper-
trophy resulting from bodybuilding training
is physiologically and functionally different
from the hypertrophy resulting from
maximal-strength or power training. High-
rep, low-intensity training of isolated muscle
groups results in hypertrophy of those isol-
ated muscle groups, but strength and power
training that relies on multi-joint barbell ex-
ercises provides a functional advantage over
bodybuilding-type training: more strength
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and more power, and a body that functions
as a coordinated system.
Training for hypertrophy is an import-
ant consideration for athletes involved in
sports that favor size. Football, for example,
is a different game today than it was many
years ago, before the advent and necessity of
300-pound linemen and 245-pound defens-
ive ends. Most heavy-implement throwers
and strongman competitors are bigger ath-
letes as well. It’s simple: size is commonly
associated with strength athletes because, in
general, stronger is bigger. Bigger is also use-
ful in team sports involving contact, like
rugby and basketball, and even those tradi-
tionally played under endurance conditions,
like soccer, because heavier players are
harder to push around than lighter ones.
But bigger muscles also mean more effi-
cient leverage around important joints.
Knees, elbows, hips, and shoulders work bet-
ter when the muscles that operate them are
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larger, since the angle at which the muscles
cross the joint is more mechanically efficient
for the joint’s third-class lever system: the
steeper the angle of attack that the tendon
has on the bone, the more efficient the pull.
Big quads thus work better than small quads,
both because they are stronger in terms of
cross-sectional area and because at least a
portion of the muscle mass is positioned to
extend the knee more efficiently.
When training for mass, specialization is
less effective than generalization. The endo-
crine system responds in a dose-dependent
manner to stress. Large-scale, multi-joint
(sometimes called “structural”) exercises are
more effective in producing an anabolic hor-
monal stimulus than small-scale, single-
joint, isolation-type exercises, even when us-
ing the same intensities and repetition
schemes. In the context of non-chemically
enhanced training, exercises such as the
squat and the bench press are more effective
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in producing hypertrophy for athletes who
train the body in a systemic, coordinated
manner than for those who use isolation-
type exercises such as leg extensions or the
pec deck.
The Next Step
The conventional wisdom holds that all
strength and power training for sports
should be done in a manner that mimics the
metabolic demands of the sport as closely as
possible, requiring specificity with respect to
the energy systems used (ATP/CP vs. glyco-
lytic vs. oxidative; see chapter 4), the muscle
groups primarily involved in the sport, and
the requirements for force generation, speed
of movement, range of motion, and fre-
quency of contraction. But as with all other
training program considerations, this must
be tempered with an understanding of the
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level of training advancement of the athlete
as well as an understanding of the contribu-
tion of strength to the sport in question. For
example, the marathon or any other long-
distance endurance event would probably
not greatly benefit in terms of performance
from the type of training an Olympic weight-
lifter would do. Endurance athletes require
adaptations in oxidative metabolic capacity
to improve performance, an adaptation that
weight training at high intensity and low
volume develops only peripherally. But high-
er repetitions and lower-intensity weight
training do not develop oxidative capacity
anyway. Endurance athletes benefit from the
increased strength provided by a typical
novice program because the vast majority of
endurance athletes are novices with respect
to strength development, and increased
strength decreases the percentage of the en-
durance athlete’s absolute strength required
to sustain the repeated submaximal efforts
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which accumulate into an endurance per-
formance. An advanced sprinter, however,
who operates entirely in anaerobic metabol-
ism during performance, and who needs a
great deal of explosion and power, would dir-
ectly benefit from high-intensity strength
and power training. Every coach should be
familiar with the metabolic demands of his
sport: the longest and shortest effort; the in-
tensity of these efforts; the recovery time
between them; the normal duration of the
event, and the typical length of its rest peri-
ods. He should also be familiar with the be-
neficial effects of a simple increase in
strength, because the absence of sufficient
strength limits the development of all other
athletic parameters.
So the concept of specificity of training
has its limitations. While training should be
relevant to the goal at hand in terms of se-
lecting exercises that develop the muscles
used in the sport, it is neither necessary nor
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desirable to exactly mimic either a sport skill
or the exact metabolic demands in the
weight room. Strength is a very generally ac-
quired and utilized characteristic, developed
through training. Strength is developed by
exercises that use lots of joints and lots of
muscles moving lots of weight over a long
range of motion. Fundamental strength exer-
cises like the squat, the press, the deadlift,
and the bench press, along with power exer-
cises like the clean and the snatch, always
form the basis of any strength and condition-
ing program that is actually useful to an ath-
lete, irrespective of the level of training ad-
vancement. This is true precisely because
these exercises are quite nonspecific – they
develop useful strength and power that can
be applied in any athletic context. Sports
practice involves motor patterns and meta-
bolic pathways that apply the general
strength of the athlete in ways extremely
specific to the activity. In an attempt to be
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sport-specific with strength and power train-
ing, it is quite possible to be so specific with
respect to both the movement pattern selec-
ted and the anticipated metabolic pathway
that the ability to induce strength and power
gains is compromised; high-rep training may
seem more applicable to a sport that requires
sustained effort, but it is an inferior way to
develop strength, and strength may be the
limiting factor in the ability to sustain an ef-
fort. Specificity in programming must be
considered in terms of the optimal way in
which the most fundamental athletic attrib-
ute – strength – is acquired, and the needs of
the athlete relative to his level of training
advancement.
Metabolic specificity refers to the degree
of similarity between the energy substrates
used to power the sports performance and
that used to power the training activity, and
is a more important consideration for
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intermediate and advanced athletes who
have already developed their basic strength.
For example, a shot put lasts a little longer
than one second, is powered by ATP stored
in the muscle (more on this later), and never
even remotely approaches muscle fatigue. It
depends entirely on the ability to generate
force rapidly in a coordinated manner con-
sistent with the technique the athlete has
practiced. A training activity specific to the
shot put would be one that also utilizes
stored ATP at a rate consistent with that of
the shot put and that generates force rapidly,
even if in a movement pattern that does not
at all resemble the shot put. An Olympic
weightlifting-type exercise done for very few
repetitions at high effort would fit this de-
scription. Something like long- or middle-
distance running, powered by carbohydrate
or fat metabolism and lacking a rapid force-
production component, would not. If meta-
bolically similar exercises are utilized to
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prepare for a sport activity, the transfer of
the training adaptation to performance im-
provement will be larger than if non-similar
exercises are used. This should be intuitive to
anyone experienced in sports preparation.
The degree of specificity, however, exists
on a sliding scale. Compare, for example,
push-ups for many, many repetitions,
bodybuilding-style bench presses with light-
er weights at 12 to 15 reps, and bench presses
with heavy weights at 3 reps. For our shot
putter, the push-ups, which may take 45 to
60 seconds, are less specific metabolically
than the bodybuilding bench press, which in
turn is less specific than the heavy bench
press. Work-to-rest ratios must also be con-
sidered within this metabolic context. An ob-
vious example is a football play, which may
involve 6 seconds of intense activity followed
by 45 seconds of very low-intensity activity
and recovery. Training in the weight room or
on the track with similar periods of exercise
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and rest will better prepare the athlete for
the demands of on-the-field performance,
while longer durations of rest during barbell
workouts may assist in better development
of maximal strength, also useful on the field.
The coach must use his judgment in order to
select the best work-rest ratio to augment the
performance of his athletes, often on an indi-
vidual basis.
Motor specificity refers to the degree of
similarity in movement pattern between a
sport activity and a training activity. If we
consider three superficially similar exercises
for the shot put – the press, the incline press,
and the bench press – we might visually se-
lect the incline press as the most specific,
since it most closely mimics the angle of
primary effort and release of the shot. Many
trainers and athletes regard the incline press
as an important exercise, but the press and
the bench press develop both the horizontal
and vertical ability to generate force, and
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overlap the area trained by the incline. And
the press is the only one of the three with an
important characteristic for the throw – the
use of the whole body all the way to the
ground as an active component of the exer-
cise. All three are useful, and the coach must
decide which to emphasize for the needs of
each athlete.
Consider another example: a cyclist and
the squat. A cyclist’s knee is never flexed
beyond 90 degrees, so if specificity is con-
sidered only in terms of knee flexion, the
conclusion would be that squatting above
parallel is specific to cycling performance,
and that full squats are not. This, in fact, is
what many coaches and trainers believe and
advise their athletes to do, in more sports
than cycling. This is misguided. The problem
here is a misunderstanding of the exercise
and its relationship to the sport skill: a par-
tial squat does not produce a strong ham-
string contraction. Any cyclist who does
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partial squats is not developing balanced
strength around the knee and is neglecting
the muscles used in the hip-extension aspect
of a properly executed pedaling cycle. In cyc-
ling jargon, the trainee will be developing
only the ability to “pedal in squares,” the
mark of a beginner and of mechanical ineffi-
ciency, when she should be developing the
ability to pedal in circles, the mark of a skill-
ful, strong rider. So although the partial
squat may superficially look more specific, in
anatomical action and in the quality of mus-
cular function and development the more
generalized full squat is more applicable to
the activity. The addition of leg curls to the
program is not the answer; correct analysis
of the squat is.
In a novice, the need for specificity in
training is low, since the trainee is far away
from his genetic potential for performance. A
novice is untrained, and may be accustomed
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to little or no activity. For a trainee at this
stage, any type of training that improves fit-
ness will improve performance. In contrast,
an elite athlete must be trained with a high
degree of specificity. This trainee is very
close to genetic potential in fitness, condi-
tioning, and strength, and is at the elite
levels of the sport. Practice that contributes
directly to maintaining expertise in the sport
activity is required but is insufficient in and
of itself (fig. 3-3). It is very important to un-
derstand that absolute specificity – doing
only the sport activity – is not adequate for
the vast majority of the athletic population.
For everybody except a tiny fraction of the
genetically gifted (who quite unfortunately
come to represent the norm to the general
public), performance skill is developed by re-
peatedly practicing the sport activity, but
higher-level expression of that skill requires
the improvement of other physical paramet-
ers that are best affected by training.
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Training should never reach 100% spe-
cificity, as this does not allow for varying the
nature of training stress in order to continu-
ally drive adaptation.
In the clean and jerk, for example,
simple performance of the exercise will at
some point fail to drive adaptation. Once
maximal technical performance has been
well established, repetition of the maximum
will fail to satisfactorily disrupt homeostasis.
This is because at maximal weights, several
factors contribute to the lack of progress –
technique, psychological factors, power, and
strength. Of these, the easiest to affect with
other exercises is strength. For this reason,
less specific exercises that allow for over-
loads are necessary even in elite trainees who
require the highest level of training spe-
cificity. General strength exercises such as
the squat, heavy pulls of various types,
presses, and overhead support work provide
overload, yet are sufficiently specific to the
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force production requirements of the clean
and jerk to be applicable. The additional
strength obtained by increasing the squat
and the deadlift thus applies to the execution
of the clean and jerk.
Figure 3-3. Specificity of training as a function of
proximity to goal performance in a task. As a trainee
comes closer to achieving a performance goal near his
genetic potential, the training stimulus must more
closely mimic the physical nature of the performance
goal. Whereas a novice can make substantial progress
with generalized training, an elite trainee must use
more specific methods, although absolute specificity
is not productive.
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“An approximate answer to the right question is worth a
great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong
question.”
– John Tukey
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Chapter 4: The
Physiology of
Adaptation
Muscular Contraction: The
Foundation of Movement
To understand how to train the body for
improved performance, you must under-
stand how the performing body actually
works. Muscle is the basic physiologic unit of
movement. The structure of muscle dictates
its function, and training is intended to bring
about changes in both structure and func-
tion. A familiarity with basic physiologic
principles related to muscle and to its train-
ing for peak performance is essential for ef-
fective program design.

Muscle Structure. The largest structural
unit of the muscular system is the muscle it-
self, which attaches to the skeleton at a min-
imum of two points by connective tissues
called tendons. Individual muscles are separ-
ated from each other by a thin sheet of an-
other type of connective tissue called fascia.
An individual muscle is an organized mass of
thousands and thousands of individual
muscle cells, also called muscle fibers.
These cells are arranged in bundles, and sep-
arated from other bundles by more connect-
ive tissue. The muscle cells that make up the
bundles contain hundreds of myofibrils, or-
ganelles which contain the contractile com-
ponents. These structures are organized into
repeating basic contractile units, the sar-
comeres. Sarcomeres are composed of pro-
tein strands that interact with each other to
produce shortening, or contraction. Muscle
cells also contain organelles required for
normal metabolic function: cell membranes,
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cytoplasm (called sarcoplasm in muscle
cells), nuclei, mitochondria, ribosomes, en-
doplasmic reticulum, etc., all of which are
important contributors to muscle function
and all of which also adapt to training.
The myofibrils within a muscle cell have
a characteristic striated appearance due to
the structural arrangement of each sar-
comere. The major contractile proteins, actin
and myosin, are aligned in an overlapping
thin filament/thick filament pattern (fig.
4-1). There are several other proteins associ-
ated with the thin filament, actin. Two of
these proteins, troponin and tropomyosin,
are major parts of the regulatory mechanism
of muscle contraction.
There are several types of muscle fibers.
These different types are often generally re-
ferred to as “fast-twitch” and “slow-twitch”
muscle fibers (fig. 4-2), but this classification
scheme does not indicate the actual breadth
of difference between the types. A better
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system of categorizing fiber types is by their
primary method of fueling metabolic activity.
Table 4-1 illustrates the continuum of fiber
types, with a range of anatomic and metabol-
ic properties. These properties dictate how a
muscle composed of varying percentages of
the different fibers performs and responds to
training. Weight training can dramatically
change muscle architecture and metabolism,
thereby altering function.
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Figure 4-1. Sarcomeric structure (A). Note the ori-
entation of the contractile elements, actin and myos-
in. Huxley's sliding filament theory holds that ex-
penditure of ATP will cause actin and myosin to tran-
siently interact with each other in a shortening action
that pulls the z-lines at each end of the sarcomere to-
gether (B).
Figure 4-2. Type I, sometimes called “slow-twitch”
muscle fibers (A, stained black) are chemically, struc-
turally, and functionally distinct from the two cat-
egories of type II or “fast-twitch” fibers: fast oxidative
fibers (B, stained dark grey) and large, fast glycolytic
fibers (C, stained light gray).
Muscle Function. The muscle is composed
of several functional units, the largest being
the entire muscle itself. When a muscle
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contracts, it pulls the bones attached at
either end toward each other, resulting in
movement around the joint between them.
Improving this large-scale ability to move is
the ultimate goal, and the smaller-scale com-
ponents of muscle tissue are the elements
that must actually adapt to training.
Actin and myosin, proteins of the my-
ofibril (usually referred to as “contractile
proteins”), are two of the major players in
muscle contraction. When actin and myosin
bind to each other, there is a shape change in
the myosin molecule that pulls the ends of
the myofibrils – and the cells that they are
inside of – toward the centerline.
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Table 4-1. Muscle fiber types and their properties.
While there are other fiber-type classifications in
common use, this one applies best to the discussion of
adaptation for strength and power.
When adequate numbers of these units
interact, enough force is generated to cause
the entire muscle to move, producing large-
scale movement around a joint. The energy
needed to induce the configurational change
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in myosin comes from adenosine triphos-
phate (ATP), the high-energy product of a
variety of metabolic pathways.
The amount of force a muscle can poten-
tially exert is generally considered to be pro-
portional to its cross-sectional area. This
means simply that the bigger the muscle, the
more force it can generate. All other factors
being equal, the only way to make a stronger
muscle is to make a larger muscle, one that
contains more contractile protein. But all
other factors are seldom equal, and there are
several that contribute to effective muscle
function. One factor directly related to mus-
cular function is the availability of ATP and
the efficiency of the mechanisms by which
ATP is utilized and regenerated within the
muscle. Low concentrations of ATP or a poor
ability to synthesize or utilize it will diminish
muscular function, and training induces an
increased ability to store and synthesize
ATP.
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As previously mentioned, there are sev-
eral types of muscle fibers, each with a char-
acteristic set of metabolic properties that re-
late to ATP generation and utilization. Type I
fibers are described as slow oxidative, mean-
ing that they rely primarily on aerobic or
oxidative (oxygen-requiring) metabolism
and its associated pathways. These fibers are
smaller, are capable of generating less force,
and have less potential for enlargement than
other fiber types. But they are extremely fa-
tigue resistant since they preferentially rely
on enzymes that enable the use of an essen-
tially inexhaustible energy substrate: fatty
acids. The enzymes that break down fatty
acids are dependent on the presence of oxy-
gen for their function; they are thus referred
to as oxidative, or aerobic, enzymes.
Type II fibers depend to a greater extent
on energy production from carbohydrates
than do Type I and display a higher glycolyt-
ic activity. Type IIb fibers are termed fast
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glycolytic, meaning that they primarily use
the process of glycolysis, by which glucose is
broken down to yield ATP, a process that
does not require the addition of oxygen. Type
IIa fibers are intermediate between Type I
and Type IIb. Their function can be skewed
toward either purpose, depending on the
training stimulus. Type IIa and IIb are much
larger than type I fibers, have higher enlarge-
ment potential, metabolize ATP more rap-
idly, and are less fatigue-resistant. But
weight training can change how all of these
muscle fiber types behave.
Energy Metabolism:
Powering the Muscle
Energy Sources. Muscle contraction, and
in fact all intracellular activity, is powered by
ATP. It is the very stuff of life. Our bodies
produce ATP from the breakdown of food.
Everything we eat – carbohydrate, fat, and
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protein – can serve as a source of ATP. (Fat
and protein are less important in power per-
formance energetics, since carbohydrate is
selectively utilized for this purpose, when
supplied in adequate amounts, by the type
IIb muscle fibers which dominate this type of
activity.) This indispensable molecule is pro-
duced during a series of biochemical events
that occur after the breakdown of food in the
body. For the purposes of this discussion,
ATP is produced in three ways: 1) through
the regeneration or recycling of previously-
stored ATP by creatine phosphate, 2)
through non-oxygen dependent glucose
metabolism (glycolysis), and 3) through
oxygen-dependent metabolism that utilizes
both fatty acids and the end products of gly-
colysis (oxidative phosphorylation). Conven-
tionally, the first two mechanisms for ATP
production are termed “anaerobic” and the
third “aerobic”. Each of these distinct path-
ways provides ATP at different rates and
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contributes a greater proportion of the re-
quired ATP under different circumstances.
Energy Utilization. Stored ATP is always
the energy source utilized during muscular
contraction. During contraction, ATP loses
one of its three phosphate groups and be-
comes adenosine diphosphate (ADP), liber-
ating energy stored in the molecule and al-
lowing its use in muscle contraction. As ATP
reserves are depleted, which takes just a few
seconds, ADP is rapidly recycled back into
ATP by the transfer of a replacement high-
energy phosphate ion from a creatine phos-
phate (CP) molecule back to the ADP. Creat-
ine phosphate thus serves as a carrier of this
replenishing energy for ATP.
ATP utilized and resynthesized by this
two-part mechanism powers intense, short-
duration exercise (less than 10 to 12 seconds)
such as sprinting and weight training. If the
exercise is longer than this few seconds
worth of stored ATP can cover, the ATP that
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would normally serve to replace that just
used becomes the ATP that now must power
the exercise. Sources for these slightly longer
efforts are 1) ATP produced through glycolyt-
ic metabolism, if the effort lasts up to a
couple of minutes, and 2) ATP produced by
oxidation of fatty acids and glycolytic
products, if the effort is of very long dura-
tion. However, all the ATP utilized during
muscle contraction comes from this stored
ATP pool, and the other processes function
to replace it there.
The form of energy stored within the
muscle is glycogen, the storage form of gluc-
ose, which is made up of long branched
chains of glucose molecules stuck together.
Intense exercise longer than 12 seconds and
up to a few minutes in duration, such as
longer sprints and high-repetition weight
training, requires the breakdown of glycogen
molecules into glucose, a process called gly-
cogenolysis. The resulting individual glucose
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molecules are further broken down through
the processes of glycolytic metabolism. Steps
in this process generate ATP, and the ATP
produced by glycolysis is available as a fuel
for continued intense exercise. In addition to
ATP, glycolysis produces pyruvate and lact-
ate as end products. These glucose break-
down products can be further used to pro-
duce ATP through oxidative metabolism.
Lactate is able to move out of the cell and be
taken up for use by other cells as a fuel for
oxidative metabolism or, in the liver and kid-
ney, as a precursor to new glucose formation.
Under conditions of very high energy de-
mand, lactate levels in the blood rise as re-
lease outstrips uptake.
Of lesser importance to individuals who
train for strength and power is the produc-
tion of ATP through oxidative metabolism.
Lower-intensity rhythmic repetitive exer-
cises that can be sustained for minutes to
hours, like jogging, walking, or distance
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cycling, depend on the processing of fatty
acids and glycolytic end products through
the Krebs cycle and then the electron trans-
port chain (ETC). Fatty acids are broken
down into acetyl coenzyme A (Acetyl-CoA)
through the process of beta-oxidation before
entry into the Krebs cycle. Pyruvic and lactic
acids also enter this system after they are
converted to Acetyl-CoA. Both beta-oxida-
tion and oxidative phosphorylation take
place in the organelles known as mitochon-
dria. Large amounts of ATP are produced by
oxidative metabolism. Oxygen is required for
this process.
But since a single set of a weight train-
ing exercise takes considerably less than a
minute, is very intense, and consumes a lot
of ATP, oxidative metabolism is not a factor
in this type of training. Even though it does
operate (all of the various processes of ATP
production are always operating), oxidative
metabolism contributes very little to the
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actual performance of a heavy set, since it
transpires over a much longer timeframe and
yields ATP more slowly. An overview of basic
energetics is presented in figure 4-3.
Figure 4-3. The metabolic speedometer. How hard
and how long we exercise directly affects which meta-
bolic pathways our bodies primarily use to fuel the
activity. All physical activity lies along a continuum,
from rest to all-out maximal effort. All activities are
powered by the ATP already present in the muscle,
and all bioenergetic activity acts to replenish these
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stores. Low-intensity exercise depends on cardiopul-
monary delivery and muscular uptake of oxygen, the
ready availability of which enables the body to utilize
aerobic pathways and fatty acids as substrates. These
aerobic processes take place inside the mitochondria
within the muscle cells. As activity levels and energy
requirements increase, the ability of oxidative meta-
bolism to meet the increased demand for ATP is ex-
ceeded. Weight training and other forms of high-in-
tensity training exist at the anaerobic end of the con-
tinuum, utilizing substrate that does not require ad-
ded O2. The diagram above represents the relation-
ships between the energy substrates and the metabol-
ic pathways in which they are used in different types
of exercise. With the exception of short-duration, all-
out maximal effort, no activity uses only one metabol-
ic pathway, so the scale above represents a sliding
scale of continually increasing intensity of activity.
There is a huge interest in the supplement creatine
monohydrate, so huge that nearly half a billion dollars
annually are spent on it by athletes and recreational
exercisers. So huge, in fact, that about 50% of all high
school football players and about 75% of all strength
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and power athletes take it routinely for its purported
benefits. But the NCAA bans its distribution by affili-
ated schools and school-associated personnel, and lots
of other clinical and consumer protection groups criti-
cize its use and propose that it is both ineffective and
unsafe. How can it be both worthy of a ban and inef-
fective, both biologically useless and unfair to use?
Creatine is a component of the “CP” part of the ATP-CP
system discussed in this chapter. It is part of the meta-
bolic machinery that powers short-duration activities
such as weight training. It is obtained from meat in the
diet, and it is produced in the liver, with about half our
daily requirement coming from each source. The daily
requirement is determined by body mass; bigger people
need to eat more and make more creatine. If we are us-
ing 2 grams of creatine a day to support general life
processes, we need to consume about 1 gram and our
body will make the other gram. The one gram of creat-
ine we need to eat could come from eating two 4-ounce
steaks. So providing our bodies with an external source
of creatine is a normal human activity. Creatine mono-
hydrate is a stable form of creatine that is manufac-
tured for use as a dietary supplement. It is supplied as a
powder, and is suspended in liquid for consumption by
stirring it into water or juice. It does not dissolve well in
cold liquids, and is not stable for long periods in liquid,
so it is best purchased in powder form.
There is more to creatine than simple survival. It is well
documented that increasing high-energy phosphate
stores in the body improves the ability to produce force.
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A good analogy is that of a gas tank. Our normal tank is
half or 3/4 full. We never really get close to our genetic
potential for storage on a daily basis if we are un-
trained, since we aren’t strenuously active and our
muscles have no reason to be full. When we start to lift
weights or do other power training, our body’s stores of
creatine increase by about 10 to 20%. Driven by the
body’s adaptation to new, high-intensity physical de-
mands and facilitated by an increase in food consump-
tion to support the new level of activity, creatine sup-
plies from both internal and external sources increase.
Studies have shown that creatine monohydrate supple-
mentation provides a rapidly assimilated source of cre-
atine that optimizes storage beyond the additional 20%
driven by exercise and diet, pushing it up to near genet-
ic potential. Our creatine gas tank becomes much fuller.
A huge body of well-controlled research has clearly
demonstrated that creatine supplementation is quite ef-
fective, with improvements in performance noted in as
little as seven days. The real value of creatine supple-
mentation, though, lies not in its short-term perform-
ance enhancement but in its ability to assist in recovery
between sets and workouts done repeatedly over time.
Better recovery as a result of a full creatine tank leads
to better quality and quantity of work done during a
series of sets and a series of workouts. This leads to bet-
ter gains in strength and performance. The best re-
search results are always found in longer-duration sup-
plementation studies, precisely because of this.
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The second point to consider is safety. Creatine is fre-
quently kicked around in the press by “experts” using
individual case studies of diseased individuals who de-
veloped further health problems during creatine sup-
plementation, or silly people doing silly things at the
same time they were taking creatine. But no study of
any duration has demonstrated negative effects of sup-
plementation on healthy athletic populations. A wise
man once said, “You can prove anything with one ex-
ample.” The very thing the detractors of creatine sup-
plementation accuse creatine supporters of doing is ex-
actly what the detractors are guilty of: using poorly de-
signed research and faulty logic to make their case.
Heed the advice of Nobel laureate Kary Mullis: “It
doesn’t take a lot of education to check things out. All it
takes is access to resources and a minor distrust of
everyone else on the planet and a feeling that they may
be trying to put something over on you.” Go to the lib-
rary and read the research. Thus enlightened, make
your own decision.
Creatine Safety Starting Points
Schilling, B.K., et al. 2001. Creatine supplementation
and health variables: A retrospective study. Medicine
and Science in Sports and Exercise 33(2):183-8.
Waldron, J.E., et al. 2002. Concurrent creatine mono-
hydrate supplementation and resistance training does
not affect markers of hepatic function in trained
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weightlifters. Journal of Exercise Physiology
5(1):57-64.
Training-Induced Muscle
Adaptations
Weight training elicits numerous
changes in both muscle structure and func-
tion. If the training program is well planned
and the exercises are correctly performed,
exercise-induced changes can be beneficial
and enhance fitness and performance. If
workouts are poorly planned and/or incor-
rectly performed, gains may be slow or ab-
sent, or performance may actually decay.
Figure 4-4 illustrates the continuum of re-
sponses to different organizations of training
programs with respect to reps per set.
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Figure 4-4. The repetition continuum. Different re-
petition schemes result in different anatomical and
physiological adaptations. The program chosen
should match the goals of the trainee. Black = greater
effect, white = little effect. (Rippetoe & Kilgore 2005)
When it comes to understanding the ef-
fects of various repetition schemes in train-
ing programs, there is a difference of opinion
between those who rely on practical experi-
ence and those who have only the academic
interpretation of limited research to go on.
Several academic sources have proposed
that, in essence, all repetition schemes will
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result in the same gains in strength, power,
mass, and endurance – that is, that doing a
set at 3RM will yield the same result as doing
a set at 20RM. This is in stark, obvious con-
trast to the observations of practitioners fa-
miliar with training athletes for strength,
power and mass, and performance. It ig-
nores the basic tenets of metabolic spe-
cificity, the same principles that are eagerly
applied to endurance training. A 40-meter
sprint is a much different race than an 800--
meter event. Running a mile is different
from running 26.2 miles. Training for these
events requires some degree of specificity,
and no one would suggest that all running
yields the same result. Why would anyone
with even a passing interest in the training of
athletes suggest that a 3RM squat, which
takes a few seconds and exists entirely within
the ATP/CP end of the metabolic spectrum,
yields the same training result as a set at
20RM that takes 60-120 seconds and exists
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squarely within the glycolytic middle of the
spectrum? There is good quality research
that supports the validity of the repetition
continuum presented in figure 4-4 and
provides for a thorough understanding of the
physiologic basis for the concept. That data
has the added benefit of more than a century
of recorded practical application to back it
up. The failure to correctly apply this inform-
ation results in wasted training time and in-
effectively designed programs.
One of the results most closely associ-
ated with weight training is an increase in
muscle size. This phenomenon, hyper-
trophy, is the result of increased protein
synthesis and decreased protein degradation,
which leads to an increased accumulation of
proteins within the muscle cell and a result-
ing increase in the size of the whole muscle.
There are two basic types of hypertrophy. In
myofibrillar hypertrophy, more actin,
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myosin, and other associated proteins are
added to those already existing in the cell.
More contractile elements within the cell
mean more actin/myosin interactions and
more force production. This type of hyper-
trophy is typical of low-repetition, high-in-
tensity training. It adds less mass but pro-
duces greater increases in the force gener-
ated per unit area of muscle than the second
type of hypertrophy, sarcoplasmic hyper-
trophy. In sarcoplasmic hypertrophy there
are more cytoplasmic and metabolic sub-
strate accumulations than in myofibrillar
hypertrophy. Lower-intensity, high-volume
training produces a significant addition of
myofibrillar elements but less than that ad-
ded by high-intensity, lower-volume work.
Bodybuilding-type training utilizes very
high-volume repetition and set configura-
tions that cause an increase in metabolic
substrate stores in the muscle. The addition
of glycogen and high-energy phosphates to
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the cell causes additional water to be stored.
This effect, combined with minor accumula-
tions of fat droplets, enzymes relevant to the
additional activity, and a moderate increase
in contractile proteins, causes the cell
volume to increase. However, since this type
of hypertrophy lacks a significant force-pro-
duction component, it explains why some in-
dividuals with smaller muscle mass are
stronger than individuals with much more
extensive muscular development derived
from bodybuilding training.
Concentrations of the enzymes respons-
ible for driving ATP production also increase
as a consequence of training. Several re-
searchers in the 1970s independently
demonstrated increases in the concentra-
tions of enzymes responsible for catalyzing
all three of the ATP pathways discussed
earlier. Of primary interest is the finding that
concentrations of enzymes driving the resyn-
thesis of ATP from ADP and creatine
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phosphate, as well as those responsible for
glycolytic metabolism, can be increased with
weight training. The degree of increase in en-
zyme concentrations is related to the dura-
tion, frequency, and intensity of training.
Programs that elicit increased enzyme con-
centrations enhance performance through
more efficient production and utilization of
ATP.
Energy stores within the cell also in-
crease in response to weight training. ATP
and CP reserves increase by about 20% after
a prolonged (multi-month) training pro-
gram, resulting in more energy immediately
available for contraction. Larger stores of
ATP and CP correlate with improved power
output. Glycogen stores are also increased as
a result of prolonged training, which both in-
creases the amount of rapidly available en-
ergy and also contributes to muscle
hypertrophy.
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Measures of contractile properties, such
as power output, absolute strength, and rate
of force production are obviously improved
by training. These changes are likely related
to the effects weight training has on the fiber
composition of muscle, since the rate of ATP
utilization differs according to fiber type. In
decades past, changes in muscle fiber types
were thought not to occur, but more recent
research has shown that shifts in fiber type
do in fact occur in response to various types
of exercise. Furthermore, even in the ab-
sence of a fiber type change, fibers with slow-
twitch contractile properties can assume
more fast-twitch properties following
strength training. Resistance training of four
to six weeks in duration has been shown to
reduce the number of muscle fibers classified
as slow-twitch. This trend away from fibers
suited for endurance activity may potentially
affect increases in contractile performance.
It is also interesting to note that the
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intramuscular concentrations of ATP and CP
are related to the fiber composition of a
muscle; if ATP and CP are depleted in the
muscle for long durations, there will be a
switch from fast-twitch contractile properties
to slow-twitch properties. It is also likely that
the elevated ATP/CP stores associated with
heavy weight training may drive this rela-
tionship in the other direction, toward fast-
twitch characteristics.
Neural Integration:
Stimulating the Muscle to
Move
Structure and Function. While the
muscle fiber is the basic unit of contraction,
without its intricate link to the nervous sys-
tem, coordinated movement could not occur.
The central nervous system is linked to
muscle fibers by way of motor neurons.
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These neurons vary in size and innervate
varying numbers of muscle fibers depending
on fiber-type and muscle function. Slow-
twitch fibers are innervated by smaller motor
neurons. Fast-twitch fibers are innervated by
larger motor neurons. In terms of speed and
magnitude of conduction, think of the motor
neurons for type I fibers as drinking straws
and those of type II fibers as fire hoses.
The number of fibers innervated by a
single neuron depends on the muscle and its
function. Large muscles responsible for
large-scale movements, such as the rectus
femoris muscle of the thigh, have a low ratio
of motor neurons to fibers, with a single mo-
tor neuron innervating a large number of
fibers, up to one neuron for as many as 1000
fibers (1:1000). Muscles responsible for fine
motor activity, such as certain eye muscles,
may have a high ratio of neurons to fibers,
nearing 1:10. The term motor unit is used
to describe a motor neuron and all of the
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fibers it innervates, and the term neur-
omuscular system describes the function-
al integrated whole of the body’s nerves and
muscles. The motor unit is the basic func-
tional unit of the neuromuscular system,
since muscle fibers fire only within motor
units and never individually. Heavy, high-ve-
locity training over time improves recruit-
ment, defined as the quantity of motor units
in the muscle actually generating force dur-
ing contraction. A higher percentage of re-
cruited motor units means more force and
more power. Average novice trainees can re-
cruit around 70% of their available motor
units on the day they start training. Interme-
diates have increased their neuromuscular
ability to recruit motor units and generate
force, and by the time they become advanced
trainees they may be able to recruit in excess
of 95% of the available motor units. Neur-
omuscular improvement is one of the main
reasons strength and power can be gained in
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the absence of muscle-mass increases, al-
though hypertrophy normally accompanies a
strength increase.
The number of fibers innervated by a
motor neuron dictates the maximum amount
of force the motor unit can produce during
contraction. The more fibers contained in the
motor unit, the higher the force production.
An active motor neuron stimulates all the
fibers it innervates to contract. The amount
of force a muscle generates will vary with the
number of motor units recruited. If all the
motor units in a muscle are recruited simul-
taneously – an event that occurs only as a
result of a planned 1RM in training – max-
imal force is generated.
There has been and continues to be debate between
various factions of the exercise science community re-
garding how muscle hypertrophy actually occurs,
whether through “cell hypertrophy,” the enlargement
of individual cells, or through “cell hyperplasia,” an in-
crease in cell numbers. In reality, there should be no
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debate, since the works of Phil Gollnick and Ben Tim-
son clearly demonstrate that cell hypertrophy is re-
sponsible for muscle hypertrophy.
Hyperplasia, either through fiber splitting or cell divi-
sion, is inconsequential and occurs in only one situ-
ation. There is a population of undifferentiated stem
cells immediately adjacent to the outer cell membrane
of the muscle that are referred to as “satellite cells.”
Weight training can induce microruptures of the
muscle cell membrane (not necessarily a bad thing),
which then stimulates any satellite cells at the site of
the microrupture to differentiate into tiny new muscle
cells in an effort to repair the damage and assist in ad-
aptation to the stress that caused the microrupture.
These little mononucleate cells start to produce sarco-
plasm and myofibrillar proteins as they assume their
new identity as muscle cells. This constitutes an altern-
ative version of hyperplasia. But this process is re-
sponsible for no more than 5% of muscular hyper-
trophy, and then only transiently, as the newly differen-
tiated satellite cells quickly fuse with existing muscle
cells for zero net increase in cell numbers at the com-
pletion of the hypertrophic process.
Motor units are recruited in a specific
order, according to each one’s threshold of
stimulus required for the contraction to
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occur. Lower-threshold slow-twitch motor
units are recruited initially regardless of the
intensity of the exercise. These motor units
are associated with the maintenance of nor-
mal posture, and as such they fire most of
the time the body is upright. Walking
increases low-threshold motor unit recruit-
ment, since posture is being maintained
while the body propels itself forward. The
muscles associated with posture and walking
therefore would be expected to have propor-
tionately higher percentages of slow-twitch
fibers, and they do. During low-intensity
aerobic-type exercise, slow-twitch motor
units are preferentially recruited, but as in-
tensity increases higher-threshold fast-
twitch motor units get called into
contraction. Low-threshold fibers continue
to be recruited at high intensities but their
contribution is negligible relative to the con-
tribution of the high-threshold fibers. If high
power output is the objective of the training
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program, it must be designed to improve the
ability to recruit high-threshold fast-twitch
motor units.
It is often noted in novice trainees that
strength gains are larger than would be ex-
pected as a result of muscle size gains alone.
An individual becomes more efficient in
neuromuscular function by improving both
technical competence and motor unit re-
cruitment. As expertise increases, strength
and power gains become more directly re-
lated to gains in muscle mass than to neural
function, since muscular growth can occur
long after technical and neural improvement
plateaus. Nevertheless, whether for novices
or for elite athletes, a primary training ob-
jective should be more complete, coordin-
ated, and effective recruitment of motor
units in the working muscle. Neuromuscular
efficiency is the easiest, fastest way for im-
provement to occur, and well-designed train-
ing programs optimize its development.
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Hormones: Mediators of
Physiologic Adaptation
Hormones are compounds produced by
glands, and they are integral regulators of
the vast majority of the physiological func-
tions in individual cells, the organs, and the
body as a whole. Hormones are secreted into
the entire body systemically, and their spe-
cific function is produced in the tissues that
contain receptor sites sensitive to those par-
ticular hormones. Each hormone system is
capable of responding to external stress,
since the body uses these systems to cope
with stress and to facilitate adaptation to fu-
ture stress exposure. As such, hormone sys-
tems are an integral part of the mechanisms
by which the processes in Selye’s theory of
adaptation operate. Each hormone has a
characteristic effect or effects on specific tar-
get tissues (table 4-2). Muscle magazines are
filled with ads and articles about hormones
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and how to manipulate them through exer-
cise, diet, and supplementation to get bigger
and stronger, huge and muscular, more
massive and powerful. As you might ima-
gine, not all of these ads are exactly accurate.
Hormone Function. Hormones affect
physiologic events in two basic ways. First,
hormones can change the rate of synthesis of
specific substances. Examples of this are an
increase in contractile protein synthesis or
increased enzyme production. Second, hor-
mones change the permeability of cell mem-
branes. Membranes are selective barriers, al-
lowing certain molecules to pass into the cell
while keeping other molecules out.
Hormone-induced changes in permeability
affect cellular function in many ways, all of
them important, since substances outside
the cell are usually necessary for the modific-
ation of the environment inside the cell.
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Training program composition (fre-
quency of workouts, duration of workouts,
exercises, sets, repetitions, and rest periods)
affects hormone production in the body. Ef-
fective program design capitalizes on the
body’s innate hormonal response to these
changes.
Hormonal Adaptations. There has been
considerable research in the area of
hormone-specific exercise physiology. While
exercise in general affects numerous hor-
mone systems, a few hormones have a direct
effect on muscle structure and function as
they relate to weight training.
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Table 4-2. Hormones of specific interest to training.
Testosterone. This hormone has been the
center of much scientific and popular atten-
tion for many years as its role in anabolism
– protein synthesis and tissue growth – is
well known. It is also associated with bone
growth, metabolic rate, glycogen reserves,
red blood cell production, and mineral
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balance. Elevated levels have a beneficial ef-
fect, but there is limited experimental evid-
ence that exercise or training of any type eli-
cits increased testosterone production.
Researchers have produced many stud-
ies of high-intensity, short-duration exercise
such as weight training which show in-
creases, decreases, or often no changes, in
testosterone levels over the course of an ex-
ercise bout. The inconsistency and lack of
clear pattern between these studies may be
due to the relatively complex nature of res-
istance training. Protocols used have varied
widely in the volume, intensity, load, rest in-
tervals and total muscle mass involved in the
exercises. Each of these factors interacts with
the others to influence the nature of the exer-
cise stress and thus the response that is pro-
duced. Study design and its interpretation
are further complicated by the circadian fluc-
tuations of testosterone which may make
changes more difficult to elicit and observe,
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especially where few time points were selec-
ted for analysis.
Although the acute effects of each train-
ing session on testosterone levels remains
obscure, the cumulative effects of multiple
sessions is more clear. Resting levels of
testosterone can be significantly reduced fol-
lowing multiple sessions over longer periods
(one to eight weeks) of sufficiently high-in-
tensity or high-volume training. Testoster-
one levels recover to previous baseline or
greater levels (that is, they supercom-
pensate) after the training load is reduced to
an appropriate level for an adequate period
of time. While this reduction of testosterone
levels may seem counterproductive on its
face, it is an important result of training, part
of the process that produces the adaptation
to the training. Training programs designed
to produce a disruption of normal testoster-
one levels followed by its recovery have been
successfully used to improve performance in
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advanced athletes (see discussion of
testosterone-cortisol ratio below).
Cortisol. In contrast to testosterone, the net
effects of cortisol may be more negative than
positive for the athlete. The role of cortisol in
normal physiology is catabolic – it acts as an
anti-inflammatory by dismantling damaged
tissues and ushering them in the direction of
the excretory pathways, thus making room
for the synthesis of new tissue. But when ex-
cessive stress (both physical and non-physic-
al) is applied to the body, cortisol production
goes up, often in excess of the levels associ-
ated with normal anabolic/catabolic balance.
In fact, excessive cortisol levels are one of the
main influences and contributors to meta-
bolic and structural fatigue after training.
Normal cortisol secretion promotes protein
degradation and the conversion of proteins
into carbohydrates, and conserves glucose by
promoting fat utilization. At higher levels it
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inhibits protein synthesis, promotes hyper-
glycemia, depresses immune function, pro-
duces perceptions of fatigue, and is probably
one of the mechanisms that produce the
symptoms of clinical depression often associ-
ated with severe overtraining. As a catabolic
hormone it counters the effects of the ana-
bolic hormones testosterone, growth hor-
mone, and insulin-like growth factor. It
would be beneficial for the hard-training ath-
lete to maintain lower concentrations of
cortisol. It has been shown that cortisol
levels increase with normal training and with
any external stress, including the mechan-
isms that hamper recovery, such as inad-
equate diet, lack of sleep, and psychological
and emotional stress. Resting cortisol levels
are significantly increased after long periods
of high-volume or high-intensity training,
but they return to baseline with adequate re-
covery, rest, and nutrition.
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Cortisol response is also trainable. After
a bout of maximal exercise a novice may ex-
perience a much greater than 100% increase
in blood cortisol levels, whereas maximal ex-
ercise in an elite trainee may induce as little
as a 20% increase. The novice’s cortisol re-
sponse is more acute on both ends – it comes
up higher and goes back down quickly,
whereas a more advanced trainee has both a
more blunted increase and a slower decrease
in cortisol levels. As we progress through the
training stages, novice to elite, this is one of
the ways it becomes incrementally more dif-
ficult to disrupt homeostasis. Proper pro-
gramming, progressive or periodized, is or-
ganized so that it disrupts homeostasis and
increases cortisol levels but then facilitates a
reduction in resting cortisol levels. This re-
quires that adequate recovery be incorpor-
ated as an integral part of the program.
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Testosterone-Cortisol Ratio. The relat-
ive amounts of testosterone and cortisol may
be a more important and practical measure
of training stress and recovery than either
hormone alone. The ratio of testosterone to
cortisol provides a glimpse of the general
hormonal balance and removes the complic-
ation of accounting for the circadian fluctu-
ations in the systemic levels of each hor-
mone. Although we know that we benefit
from higher circulating levels of the anabolic
hormone testosterone and lower levels of the
catabolic hormone cortisol – a high
testosterone/cortisol – it is the depression of
this ratio in the body that marks a significant
training stress. Data from much research in
advanced athletes suggests that a short series
of workouts can initially reduce testoster-
one/cortisol productively. This occurs as
testosterone levels decrease while cortisol
levels rise. A change in testosterone/cortisol
of less than 10% indicates that stress
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inadequate to force adaptation has occurred;
on the other hand, levels that are chronically
depressed by 30% or more are associated
with overtraining. The goal of programming,
in terms of testosterone/cortisol, is to train
hard enough to initially reduce its value by
more than 10% but not more than 30%, and
then provide appropriate loading and recov-
ery to re-attain and then exceed the previous
baseline value. The application of this obser-
vation to novice and intermediate athletes is
unclear, but we suggest that the basic mech-
anism is in operation there as well, varying
only in magnitude, but nonetheless still the
probable mechanism. Supercompensation is
strongly associated with strength and per-
formance gain, and this concept will be ex-
plored further in association with advanced
training programming in chapter 8.
Changes in testosterone/cortisol in re-
sponse to training stimulus are predictable
and intensity dependent. Further, it is likely
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that these systems adapt predictably to long-
term-training, and that these adaptations are
both intensity- and volume-dependent. It is
also apparent that the recovery of hormonal
status after a workout or series of workouts
is strongly associated with improved per-
formance. Understanding that both short-
term responses and long-term adaptations in
hormone levels relate to Selye’s theory and
the two-factor model – since they are an es-
sential component of the comprehensive re-
covery processes discussed in chapter 2 –
can help us design effective training
programs.
Growth Hormone. Human growth hor-
mone is a peptide hormone that has numer-
ous physiologic effects: it increases bone
growth, cartilage growth, cell reproduction,
and protein deposition in the cells. It stimu-
lates the immune system, promotes glucon-
eogenesis in the liver, and drives metabolism
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toward fat utilization. Studies have demon-
strated that weight training induces an in-
crease in circulating growth hormone. Con-
centrations change little during the first few
sets of a whole-body workout composed of
large-scale multi-joint exercises but increase
about twelve sets into the workout. Concen-
trations peak about 30 minutes after the
workout then return to normal approxim-
ately an hour and a half later. This data
comes from an experiment using a forty-
minute workout, and it is possible that
longer workouts may elicit a larger or more
prolonged growth hormone response. Isola-
tion exercises targeting only one segment of
the body are probably ineffective in altering
growth hormone levels. The effect of shorter
duration higher intensity whole-body
workouts has yet to be investigated.
Insulin. A highly anabolic hormone, insulin
regulates the permeability of cell membranes
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and facilitates the transport of glucose and
other substances into the cell. This function
is crucial for recovery from training, since
depleted glucose and amino acids must be
replaced so that comprehensive recovery
processes can occur. Animal research has
demonstrated that hypertrophy can proceed
in the absence of insulin, so other mechan-
isms are also at work, but insulin remains
one of the most potent, abundant, and easily
manipulated anabolic hormones.
Insulin-Like Growth Factor. IGF-1 is a
peptide hormone similar to insulin in
configuration. Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1
has a strong anabolic effect in both children
and adults. It is secreted by the liver in re-
sponse to growth hormone, and low levels of
GH as well as inadequate protein and calorie
intake can inhibit its release. It affects al-
most every cell in the body, and is a potent
regulator of cell growth. Production of this
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hormone has been linked to weight training
in a few studies, but this finding has not been
consistently demonstrated.
One study has shown that bathing isol-
ated muscle cells with IGF-1 in a Petri dish
induces hypertrophy, but there is no good
data showing that IGF-1 can be easily and fa-
vorably manipulated with training. It has
been observed that IGF-1 is found in milk,
possibly contributing to milk’s reputation as
a growth food for heavy training.
Epinephrine/norepinephrine. These
catecholamines have widespread effects all
across human physiology as both neuro-
transmitters and hormones, and are largely
responsible for the “flight-or-fight” response
familiar to all humans. Epinephrine (EPI or
adrenaline) and norepinephrine (NE or
noradrenaline) acting as endocrine hor-
mones are produced in the adrenal glands
located on top of the kidneys and are
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secreted directly into the bloodstream. NE is
the dominant neurotransmitter released at
sympathetic nerve endings. Among many
other things, the combined effects of direct
sympathetic nervous system stimulation and
EPI/NE released into the blood cause an in-
crease in the amount of blood the heart
pumps each minute and promotes the break-
down of glycogen. During intense bouts of
training, epinephrine concentrations can in-
crease a dozen times over. This may help the
body cope with the rapid onset of exercise
both by quickly increasing blood supply to
the working muscle and by helping provide a
rapid energy source
(glycogen?glucose?ATP). This response is
transient, with exercise-induced increases
returning to normal within six minutes of the
cessation of exercise.
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The bottom line for the athlete is that
the body reacts to the stress of training with
a specific sequence of hormonal responses.
These responses derive from the body’s
general stress-response/adaptation mechan-
isms, as predicted by Selye’s theory. If the
coach designs an appropriate training pro-
gram and the athlete adheres to it and gets
adequate rest and good nutrition, the body
will respond – largely through hormonal
mechanisms – optimally to training, and im-
proved performance will be the result.
Coaches can attempt to employ training
methods that induce and capitalize on short-
term hormonal responses and long-term
hormone-mediated adaptations. However,
with very few exceptions, coaches are forced
to approach this task by the seat of the pants,
as it were. Blood tests are not widely avail-
able or useful to the average coach; he must
rely on his own observations of his athletes
and correlate those observations with the
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signs and symptoms of what he knows to be
the effects of desirable and undesirable hor-
mone responses. Essentially, a coach must
make an educated guess as to how to tailor
the training program to induce the necessary
hormonal changes required to drive im-
proved performance. Later chapters will
present some programming models that
have been shown to induce productive
changes in testosterone and cortisol, prob-
ably the two most important hormones rel-
evant to strength training.
Cardiovascular
Considerations
When a heavy weight is lifted, several
events occur that stress the cardiovascular
system. One of the first is that the contract-
ing muscles compress the blood vessels and
thus increase their resistance to blood flow.
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This increase in resistance causes a dramatic
increase in blood pressure. There are reports
of blood pressure increases as high as two to
four times their normal values. These pres-
sures place a tremendous load on the heart,
which has to pump harder to compensate
and to continue to deliver blood not just to
the compressed working muscle but to all
areas of the body.
After long-term weight training, the
heart adapts to this stress by increasing the
thickness of the muscular wall of the left
ventricle (fig. 4-5). The increase in heart
muscle mass enables the heart to deliver
blood efficiently in spite of temporary blood
pressure increases during exercise.
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Figure 4-5. There are a number of different types of
cardiac hypertrophy. The normal, unadapted heart
has a “normal” left ventricular (LV) chamber size and
muscle wall thickness (A). Long-term resistance train-
ing increases the thickness of the muscle walls
without significantly changing chamber size (B).
Long-term endurance training increases chamber size
without increasing muscle wall thickness (C). Patho-
logical hypertrophy results in increased chamber size
and reduced muscle wall thickness (D).
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Requirements for Cardiorespiratory
Fitness. An issue of importance to the
strength or power athlete is cardiorespirat-
ory fitness, sometimes confused with aerobic
fitness or endurance. Aerobic/endurance fit-
ness relates directly to the efficiency of oxid-
ative metabolism and is not the same as car-
diorespiratory fitness – the capacity to effi-
ciently deliver oxygenated blood to working
muscles. Specifically, aerobic fitness – the
oxidative mechanisms of ATP generation ad-
apted for prolonged, low-intensity exercise –
does not contribute to power performance,
either directly or indirectly. Exercise scient-
ists trained in academic programs where aer-
obic exercise is the focus will usually say that
aerobic training is necessary for all athletes.
Exercise scientists trained in programs
where anaerobic exercise is the focus will ar-
gue against that point vehemently, as studies
have shown that aerobic training actually
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interferes with maximal strength and power
gains.
These arguments should be evaluated
with four things in mind. First, cardiorespir-
atory fitness is primarily a health issue, and
competitive athletes do not normally fall
within the population that needs to be con-
cerned about heart attack prevention. (The
fact is that elite competitive athletes are not
concerned about their health; they are con-
cerned about winning.) Individuals with
below-average levels of cardiorespiratory fit-
ness are in fact at a higher risk for develop-
ing high blood pressure and cardiovascular
disease, both of which are certainly detri-
mental to health and performance. Compet-
itive athletics has already selected against
these individuals. People for whom aerobic
training addresses a problem that does not
exist would be better served by devoting the
time to skill acquisition, more complete re-
covery, or a hobby.
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Second, although a degree of cardiores-
piratory fitness is needed to more efficiently
recover from sets or workouts, supply
needed oxygen and nutrients to the working
muscle, and carry away waste products fast
enough for adequate recovery, a VO2 max
only 2-3 ml/kg/min above normal is ad-
equate for accomplishing this task in
strength and power athletes. This is not a
tremendous improvement in cardiorespirat-
ory fitness above normal level. In fact, anaer-
obic training alone, over time, develops aer-
obic fitness to just above average levels and
therefore negates the argument for including
aerobic training in power athletes’ programs.
Limited early-season aerobic work would be
sufficient to solve any endurance problems
that might be encountered. If power athletes
stay in the weight room year-round, there
will be no real need for long slow distance
work outside the weight room.
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Third, even if an increase in VO2 max
were desired, long slow distance-type endur-
ance training is not as efficient a way to ob-
tain it as a more intense approach to train-
ing. A concentrated dose of high-intensity
glycolytic-type work lasting several minutes,
utilizing exercises that incorporate a full
range of motion for a large amount of muscle
mass, which putatively produces significant
O2 desaturation, has been shown, in practice,
to drive improvement in VO2 max better
than low-intensity long slow distance exer-
cise that produces no oxygen desaturation at
all. Small scale pilot data from our laboratory
has shown that 4 consecutive weeks of multi-
modal exercise that elicits depression of
blood oxygen saturation to 91% or below,
when performed 5 days per week improved
VO2 max by 33.4%. In is interesting to note
that in our experiment the longest bout of
training was 21 minutes in duration, the
shortest was 8 minutes. The popularity of
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CrossFit and its use of “metabolic condition-
ing” has demonstrated the value and practic-
ality of developing significantly greater en-
durance capacity without actually doing tra-
ditional forms of endurance exercise.
Finally, research regarding the use of
endurance training for strength and power
athletes rather strongly suggests that endur-
ance work interferes with all the parameters
such athletes are concerned with developing.
The most recent research into interference
deals with the tendency of aerobic training to
reduce the magnitude of anaerobic improve-
ment when the two are done together or in
close sequence. And this research does not
consider what happens to existing power
performance. It has been well known since
the 1980s that a program of endurance train-
ing will cause large reductions in vertical
jump height. For athletes whose sport re-
quires a mix of anaerobic and aerobic/en-
durance training, studies suggest that
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separating the two by as little as an hour
blunts the negative effect of the endurance
workout. The studies, and practical experi-
ence, indicate that aerobic training may be
included at low volumes and intensities if de-
sired by the athlete or coach, but the ques-
tion remains as to whether it contributes to
effective training and time management.
Many athletes have for decades excelled in
their sports in spite of the inclusion of en-
durance training, not because of it.
Research examining aerobic-anaerobic
interference typically looks at the effects of
long slow distance-type training on strength
performance. It is quite likely that the inter-
ference between the two occurs due to differ-
ences in the nature of the activities and the
metabolic pathways involved. We suggest
not only that high-intensity glycolytic exer-
cise drives improvements in VO2max, but
that this type of training can be used
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alongside weight training programs without
significantly reducing strength gains.
The distinction between cardiorespirat-
ory fitness and aerobic training is particu-
larly important. Anyone who has ever done a
20RM set of deadlifts knows that there is a
cardiorespiratory component to the work.
The depression in O2 saturation produced by
this high level of glycolytic intensity is much
more disruptive to the homeostasis of oxy-
gen transport and utilization than traditional
low-intensity types of aerobic (“cardio”)
training. This is probably what drives both
the moderate improvement in VO2max seen
in traditional weight training programs and
the high degree of improvement associated
with high-intensity glycolytic exercise.
Genetic Potential
“Genetics” is a term bandied about fairly
loosely in sports. A good definition of genetic
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potential is whether the athlete possesses the
active genotype necessary to excel in sport.
In simpler terms, does the athlete have a
suitable set of genes, and enough of them
turned on, to be good in the sport of choice?
There are at least 78 genes associated
with fitness and performance. While humans
all swim in the same genetic pool, there is a
huge amount of variation in both the genes
possessed and the genes actively expressed.
These variations lead to differences in per-
formance potential. And so, like it or not,
here is the rule: DNA ? RNA ? protein ? func-
tion. The reality is that genetic potential ulti-
mately affects the performance of every
individual.
As an example of how a specific gene
may affect performance, consider the ACTN3
gene, a little segment of DNA that ultimately
codes for the production of alpha-actinin, a
structural protein in the z-line of the sar-
comere (see figure 4-1 above). Studies have
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shown that possession of specific variants of
this gene was strongly associated with elite
sprint performance. Three variants of this
gene have been identified; RR, RX, and XX.
Possession of a specific actn3 profile is
strongly associated with either an elite power
or an elite endurance performance. In elite
sprinters (up to the Olympic level), 50% of
the ACTN3 variants present were RR, 45%
were RX, and 5% were XX. Elite endurance
athletes were markedly different, with only
31% RR, 45% RX, and 24% XX. In light of
this data, the RR variant was termed the
“sprint” variant and the XX the “endurance”
variant. It seems clear that the possession of
the two different variants in significantly dif-
ferent ratios is associated with different per-
formance capacities. A vast number of genes
code for functional or metabolic proteins
that can exert the same type of effect.
Occasionally an athlete possesses an ex-
cellent genetic profile, is highly motivated to
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succeed, responds well to training, and im-
proves beyond expectations. These are the
exceptions, those rare individuals that can
make an average coach look exceptional. But
most coaches and trainers must deal with all
types of athletes, genetically gifted or not.
Athletes cannot change genetic profile unless
they are willing to enter into the moral and
ethical quagmire of gene doping (inserting
exogenous genes into a human to improve
performance. It is sad to say that, at the time
of this writing, it has been suggested that
there was at least one genetically enhanced
human competing in the Olympics in 2004, a
number that is expected to increase dramat-
ically in future Olympiads.) Only coaches
who work at the highest levels of sports have
the luxury of working with many gifted ath-
letes. Most coaches must learn to deal with
the average athlete, since they will make up
the bulk of any normal team or clientele, and
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must relish the rare opportunities presented
by the occasional genetic freak.
Genetic redundancy is a useful feature
of our biology. Within every human’s gen-
ome there are multiple copies of many genes.
These duplications function as backup in the
event of damage or malfunction. Even
though we have multiple copies of genes, not
all of them are active at any given time;
many or most of the copies are inactive or
suppressed. In times of need, the genes can
be expressed through various biological pro-
cesses and can allow for large-scale produc-
tion of important end products which then
affect performance (fig. 4-6). If we stress the
body appropriately, we can turn on the spe-
cific set of genes that would drive the adapta-
tion to that stress. For example, if a trainee
has a number of dormant ACTN3 RR genes,
we may be able to use high-intensity, low-
volume training to activate those genes while
not activating the additional associated
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ACTN3 XX (endurance) gene variants. This
preferential activation will help power ath-
letes attain their fullest performance poten-
tial without the clutter of unnecessary aer-
obic adaptation. Alternatively, an endurance
athlete could be preferentially trained with
higher-volume, lower-intensity work to ac-
tivate the ACTN3 XX variant copies they
possess in order to make a better aerobic
athlete.
Figure 4-6. The effect of gene redundancy on per-
formance potential. Note that an individual with few-
er gene copies (dashed lines) will have a lower
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potential for strength gain than and individual with
more copies (solid lines). Failure to train leads to less
gene activity and reduced performance.
The take-home point is that, while
coaches cannot alter an individual’s “genetic
potential,” they can program appropriately
to capitalize on each trainee’s genetic profile,
if that potential is recognized. An athlete
who is genetically favored will progress
faster and ultimately reach higher levels of
performance if the nature of his potential is
correctly identified and trained for. Everyone
responds to training in much the same way,
through the same mechanisms; only the rate
of progression and the magnitude of the res-
ult will vary. This is why it is possible to
define useful generalizations about training
and coaching. But it also means that indi-
vidualized training is necessary and that you
must know your athletes – their strengths,
their weaknesses, and the nature of their ge-
netic potential.
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Although an individual with only a few
copies of a gene such as ACTN3 may not
reach the same level of performance as
someone with multiple copies of a specific
variant, appropriate programming can still
produce impressive results. Frequently, indi-
viduals with great genetic potential fail to
train appropriately, since success has always
come easily. A lack of work ethic is some-
times the result of exceptional genetics, and
cockiness occasionally allows a genetically
gifted athlete who trains inappropriately to
be beaten by a less gifted athlete who is re-
ceiving proper coaching and programming.
As is often the case, sports preparation
can shed light on the human condition. Hu-
mans are built to move. We evolved under
conditions that required daily intense phys-
ical activity, and that hard-earned genotype
is still ours today. The modern sedentary
lifestyle leads to the inactivation of the genes
related to fitness and performance,
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attributes that were once critical for survival
and are still critical for the correct, healthy
expression of the genotype. The genes are
still there, they just aren't doing anything be-
cause the body is not stressed enough to
cause a physiological adaptation requiring
their activation. Heart, lungs, muscles,
bones, nerves and brain all operate far below
the level at which they evolved to function,
and at which they still function best. Those
among us who are sedentary suffer the
consequences.
Going Backward: Detraining
When an athlete stops training for a
substantial period of time, there will be a re-
gression in strength levels. Although
strength is a much more persistent adapta-
tion than endurance (strength declines much
more slowly than VO2 max does), a trainee’s
ability to generate force can be reduced
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within a few weeks time and can drop at a
rate of about 15% a year depending on indi-
vidual circumstances. This loss of fitness is
perfectly consistent with what we know
about the stress-response/adaptation re-
sponse. In this case, the stressor is a lack of
activity, and the corresponding adaptation is
detraining.
If an athlete stops training for a period
of a few months and restarts training again,
he should start back one level below where
he was when he stopped. For example, an in-
termediate trainee who stopped for 6 months
would re-start using a novice’s program. He
would continue using this program until his
previous levels of strength were regained,
and then move to a program consistent with
where he was before he quit training. This
process will occur much faster than the first
time, due to a group of phenomena collect-
ively referred to as “muscle memory.” A com-
bination of persistent neuromuscular
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adaptation and increased numbers of muscle
cell nuclei make the rebuilding process pro-
ceed quickly. The replacement of the layoff-
depleted glycogen stores and cytoplasmic
volume are the main reasons muscle size re-
turns as quickly as it does. In other words,
the presence of all the metabolic machinery
originally built during previous training and
a diminished but quickly replaceable level of
the substrate that makes it work are the
factors that make regaining previously ac-
quired muscle size and function and fitness
occur in a fraction of the time it originally
took.
A longer training hiatus requires a dif-
ferent approach. If an advanced or elite
trainee “retires,” and then a year or two later
decides to once again start training and com-
peting, it would be best to begin with a ver-
sion of a novice program, rather than redu-
cing just one level to an intermediate pro-
gram. This athlete has regressed far enough
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away from genetic potential that a short peri-
od of simple progression will be useful for
reestablishing fitness. After the gains from
simple linear progression begin to plateau,
the athlete would follow an intermediate
program for the short time it would be use-
ful, and then, when improvement plateaus or
when the coach judges him ready, he would
adopt an advanced training organization
again. This entire process might take any-
where from 3 months to a year, depending
on the athlete, the sport, and the length of
the layoff, but in any case, the process would
take a fraction of the time originally invested
in the progress from baseline.
It is very important to understand that
previously trained athletes returning from
layoffs – even relatively short layoffs – must
be handled with care. Ambition is useful;
greed is dangerous. Athletes with even an in-
termediate training history have developed a
neuromuscular system that is far more
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efficient that that of an untrained individual;
this athlete can still recruit a high percentage
of his available motor units, although they
are not in shape to be used very hard. This
athletic neuromuscular system enables the
muscles to generate more force than they are
currently conditioned to produce. In practic-
al terms, this means that these trainees are
going to be very, very sore, unless marked re-
straint is used for the first few workouts. The
athlete or coach ignores this fact at peril. Ex-
treme cases of soreness, to the point of loss
of function, disability, or even rhabdomy-
olysis (the breakdown of muscle caused by
mechanical, physical, or chemical injury that
can lead to acute renal failure due to the ac-
cumulation of muscle breakdown products in
the blood) can and certainly do occur. So
coaches and trainees need to resist the urge
to push to the limit when returning to train-
ing after a layoff. During simple progression
we are redeveloping the mechanical and
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metabolic adaptations within the muscle to
match the neural abilities that have persisted
over the period of detraining. Patience here
is a priceless virtue.
An interesting phenomenon has been noticed in the
training of cyclists in the weight room. High-level cyc-
lists, especially good time-trial riders and track cyc-
lists, who have no previous barbell training experience
are nonetheless very strong and tend to be able to
squat relatively heavy weights even though untrained
in the exercise. This presents immediate, potentially
serious problems to both coaches and athletes who are
not aware of the need to practice restraint.
Cycling lacks a significant eccentric component – a
“negative” movement. An eccentric contraction, one in
which the muscle lengthens under a load, occurs in
most slow barbell movements, since lowering the
weight is an integral part of most exercises (this is not
necessarily true of the Olympic lifts, which modern
equipment allows to be done in a concentric-only fash-
ion: with bumper plates and platforms, we can now
drop our snatches, cleans, and jerks without tearing
up the weight room). Cycling has no equivalent load-
ing pattern, since a correct pedal stroke either pushes
down or pulls up. Never is the pedal resisted
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eccentrically. So the eccentric phase of the contraction,
and the ability of the muscle to lengthen under load,
remains untrained. Add to this the fact that cycling
utilizes a limited range of motion, one that never ap-
proaches the extent of that used in a full squat. A cyc-
list very well may be strong enough concentrically to
come up from the bottom of a deep squat, even without
ever having lowered a weight that far. He is therefore
in the position of being quite capable of pushing a
weight that is relatively heavy for an untrained lifter
up from the bottom of the squat while at the same time
being completely unadapted to carrying it down.
It is widely recognized that the eccentric phase of a
resistance exercise is the part of the movement that
produces the majority of the soreness associated with
training. A cyclist is unadapted to eccentric contrac-
tion but able to generate high concentric force. Ex-
treme care must therefore be used when training these
athletes, lest they be crippled by soreness from squat-
ting weights they appear to handle easily. Coaches
should recognize the need for light workouts at first,
and although this may lead motivated cyclists to be-
come frustrated with the seeming ineffectiveness of the
barbell program, it is necessary. These problems may
also be the reason many cyclists fail to stick with
weight training as part of their sports preparation:
the choice between extreme unaccustomed muscle
soreness or what is perceived as slow progress on an
ineffective and irrelevant exercise is often one that
competitive road cyclists refuse to make.
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“The radical of one century is the conservat-
ive of the next. The radical invents the views.
When he has worn them out, the conservat-
ive adopts them.”
— Mark Twain
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Chapter 5: Training
Program Basics
Strength training programs may vary
considerably depending on the sport, the
goal, the athlete, and the coach. But all
strength training is based on the use of a few
basic tools. These have been developed over
the past hundred or so years out of the ex-
periences of millions of smart folks who paid
attention to what worked and what didn’t
while they were getting strong.
Repetitions
Organized training programs are based
on the concept of the “repetition maximum”
(RM or max) or personal record (PR). This is

the maximum weight that an individual can
lift for a specific number of repetitions:
1RM = maximum weight that can be lif-
ted one time
10RM = maximum weight that can be
lifted ten times in a single set
All RM tests that are lighter than a 1RM are,
by definition, done with a submaximal
weight, since a 1RM defines maximal. A 5RM
will be done with a weight that is 85 to 90%
of the 1RM, and is thus submaximal. It is
very heavy relatively – the maximum that
can be done for 5 reps – but it is still sub-
maximal to 1RM.
There is no single repetition scheme that
is appropriate for achieving all training goals
(fig. 5-1, and see fig. 4-4 above). The number
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of reps per set is important because differ-
ent numbers of reps produce different
types of adaptations. This is an extremely
important principle of exercise program-
ming, and it often goes unappreciated by
those without a background in the subject.
Strength, a basic objective of training and an
important component of power perform-
ance, is gained using lower repetitions (1 to
3) with heavier weights (90 to 100% of 1RM).
Muscular hypertrophy is produced by using
higher reps (8 to 12 or more) at lighter
weights (65 to 80% of 1RM). Power, the
combination of speed and strength, is de-
veloped by using moderate numbers of reps
(3 to 5) performed at maximal velocity with
loads between 50 and 80% of 1RM. The
speed component of power is developed
when each individual repetition is performed
at maximum velocity. The load range of 50 to
75% of 1RM allows most people to develop
maximum power in each rep. This weight is
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heavy enough that a high amount of force
must be used to accelerate it, but light
enough that the velocity is sufficiently high
for power production. Power training of this
type also increases strength at heavier
weights by teaching the neuromuscular sys-
tem to recruit high-threshold motor units
more efficiently. When heavy weights are
used, this improved ability to “explode” is
useful even at the slower velocities of 1 to 5
RM sets.
Figure 5-1. The repetition continuum. Different
numbers of reps have different training effects, and it
is important to match the correct reps to the goal of
the trainee (Rippetoe & Kilgore, 2005).
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In power sports that involve lengthy
competition periods (football, basketball,
etc.), endurance represents the ability to pro-
duce many consecutive bursts of anaerobic
effort, as opposed to the more conventional
understanding of the term “endurance” to
mean long durations and low intensities.
This type of anaerobic endurance is depend-
ent on strength, and for the already-strong
athlete is best produced by increasing the
number of low-rep sets, rather than by in-
creasing the number of reps per set, since
this more closely duplicates the metabolic
demands of the sport. An approach would be
to condition with multiple short sprints, per-
haps 40 reps of 20 meters, as opposed to do-
ing longer distances for fewer reps.
Although endurance is usually associ-
ated with aerobic exercise, it is important to
understand that there are different types of
endurance. Aerobic endurance for long slow
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distance is one example, but endurance can
mean several things. Local muscular endur-
ance – the ability to tolerate the pain that de-
velops in the muscles during intense efforts
lasting 30 seconds to several minutes – can
be very effectively improved through weight
training. High-rep sets are used for this pur-
pose. And by increasing the absolute
strength of an endurance athlete, it is pos-
sible to quite effectively increase the time to
fatigue by reducing the relative effort re-
quired for each submaximal contraction.
High reps, in excess of 15, can be used effect-
ively for such athletes to increase pain toler-
ance and the ability to contract while fa-
tigued, and sets of 5 can be used on alternat-
ing workout days to increase absolute
strength. Even though neither of these rep
schemes directly improves any aspect of ox-
idative metabolism, both do in fact improve
aerobic endurance performance.
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Sets of more than 15 to 20 reps will sig-
nificantly improve muscular endurance, but
will not produce large strength gains due to
the lighter weights necessarily involved, and
this is certainly not optimal for any athlete
with the primary goal of improving either
power or strength. Athletes for whom power
must be produced repeatedly for extended
periods must still be trained to produce
power in the first place, and high-rep sets do
not accomplish this. The advantage of using
multiple low-rep sets is that both power and
strength are trained in the precise metabolic
context in which they will be used in
competition.
Sets
Most national exercise and credentialing
organizations recommend 1 to 3 sets (groups
of repetitions) per exercise, irrespective of
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the fitness goal. This is generally acceptable
in that it works better than no exercise at all
and therefore improvements will occur for
those people who have never exercised be-
fore, but results will be better if the number
of sets is actually designed to produce a spe-
cific result and achieve a definite training ob-
jective. Doing one set at 8 to 12 RM will yield
about 80% of the potential gains from train-
ing in the 8-to-12-rep range. This may be
enough to achieve the fitness goal of a typical
health club member, or it may be adequate
for assistance exercises after the actual bar-
bell workout. It is inadequate for athletes
trying to improve strength and power.
As with other aspects of training, the
number of sets must produce the metabolic
effect desired as an adaptation. One set of an
exercise is not capable of producing the
stress that multiple sets can produce, be-
cause stress is cumulative. If one set is all the
work that is necessary to force an adaptation,
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then the athlete has not been training either
very long or correctly, because an athlete’s
ability to adapt to training stress is itself one
of the aspects of physiology that adapts. As
an athlete progresses through the stages of
advancement, more stress is required to dis-
rupt homeostasis. One set of an exercise – no
matter how hard, or long, or heavy – is not
enough stress to cause an adaptation in an
already adapted athlete. As an athlete pro-
gresses past the novice stage, his adaptive ca-
pacity becomes advanced to the point where
stress must be accumulated, not just with
multiple sets during one workout but over
several workouts, and training complexity
must accommodate this fact. This will re-
quire programming more complicated than
one-set-to-failure, one set of twenty, or other
types of single-set training organizations that
might work well for some novices or in body-
building and physique activities.
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Multiple sets are required to make the
best use of a trainee’s gym time. Basic exer-
cises that are critical for enhancing sport
performance should be done for multiple
sets. Depending on the trainee’s level of ad-
vancement, this could be as few as 3 to 5 sets
for novices or as many as a dozen sets for the
elite athlete. Numbers of sets, as mentioned
above, can accumulate for an emphasis on
endurance for sports that involve long peri-
ods of time under competitive stress, such as
football or boxing. Lighter-percentage sets
can be done under controlled rest intervals
to simulate the metabolic stress of the sport
for a very effective preparatory tool. The pos-
sibilities are limitless, depending only on
your ingenuity in creating the metabolic con-
ditions necessary for further, specific
adaptation.
When referring to the number of sets, a
distinction must be made between warm-
up sets, the lighter preparatory work that
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readies the trainee for heavier work, and
work sets, which accomplish the training ob-
jective for that workout. Warm-up sets pre-
pare the tissue and the motor pathway for
the coming work. As such, they should not
fatigue or interfere with the work sets; their
purpose is to facilitate the work sets, not
function as work themselves. When properly
planned, warm-up sets need not be counted
as work, since they will always be light
enough that in the absence of the subsequent
work sets no adaptation would result from
their having been done.
Work sets are the heavy sets that pro-
duce the training effect of the workout; they
constitute the stress that causes the adapta-
tion. They may be progressive – they may go
up five or ten pounds per set until they are
all done – or they may be done “across,” with
the same weight for all sets. Progressive sets
are a good way to explore an athlete’s capab-
ilities with a load if uncertainty exists about
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his ability with it. For instance, coming back
from a missed week, an injury, or an illness
might indicate the need for small progressive
jumps at work-set intensity. Sets of 5-rep
squats at 285, 295, 305, 315, and 325 are an
example of progressive sets for an athlete
otherwise capable of 315 × 5 × 5 (5 sets of 5
reps each, all done with 315 pounds on the
bar), which is an example of sets across. Sets
across is a marvelous way to accumulate
total set volume of high quality, since the
weight chosen is repeated for all the work
sets, producing higher average load at the
limit of the trainee’s ability.
Rest Between Sets
The time between sets is an important
variable in workout configuration. Several
exercise organizations recommend 30
seconds to 2 minutes between sets. This also
varies with the goal of the training program.
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If strength gains are the primary training ob-
jective, rests of greater than 2 minutes are
not only okay but necessary. While partial
recovery from anaerobic exercise is rapid
(50% of ATP/CP stores recover in 3 to 5
seconds), complete recovery doesn’t occur
for three to seven minutes, depending on
several individual factors such as the intens-
ity of the set, the fatigue and nutritional
status of the lifter, as well as the trainee’s
age, the temperature of the facility, and in-
jury status. Competitive strength and power
athletes are often instructed to use rests of
much greater than two minutes. In contrast,
if muscle hypertrophy is the only concern,
rests of 45 seconds or less are best. There
seems to be a link (although not necessarily a
causal relationship) between lactic acid pro-
duction from resistance exercise, hormonal
status, and increases in muscle mass.
Between-set rests of about 45 seconds would
be optimal in maintaining this relationship.
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If a training regimen is undertaken to in-
crease muscular endurance, very little, if any,
rest should be taken between the sets of dif-
ferent exercises.
It is also important to consider which
sets the rest occurs between. Warm-up sets
function as preparation for work sets, and
they should be approached with this in mind.
The lightest warm-ups will not be heavy
enough to produce any fatigue, and no rest
need be taken longer than the time it takes to
load the bar for the next set. As they get pro-
gressively heavier, more time should be
spent between warm-up sets. As a rule,
warm-ups facilitate work sets; they should
not interfere with them. If three heavy sets
across are to be done after warm-up, 15
warm-up sets done as fast as possible up to 5
pounds away from the work set would be in-
appropriate, since the fatigue of
inappropriate warm-up would interfere with
the work-set intensity.
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Workout Frequency
The American College of Sports Medi-
cine (ACSM) prescribes training two days
per week for improving “muscular fitness.”
Many exercise organizations propose a three
day per week schedule, yet the vast majority
of elite weightlifters train six days per week,
with multiple workouts per day. Why such a
discrepancy? First, the ACSM’s guidelines
are minimal recommendations for the
sedentary, completely unadapted-to-exercise
general American public, not for athletes
who have been training for years. Second,
textbook recommendations often fail to ac-
count for individual differences in ability,
level of training advancement, training ob-
jective, and all other parameters that may in-
fluence the ability to recover from more fre-
quent training. Finally, elite athletes are
highly adapted to training and can not only
tolerate, but in fact require, much higher
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training loads than novice or intermediate
trainees to sufficiently disrupt homeostasis
and facilitate further adaptation. This level of
training stress cannot be administered in
three sessions per week without overwhelm-
ing the athlete’s recovery ability; it must be
distributed more uniformly over the week.
This will require many more than three
workouts per week and possibly multiple
daily workouts for some athletes. These spe-
cific details are addressed in subsequent
chapters.
Careful selection of the exercises in-
cluded in a series of workouts can enable the
trainee to recover more efficiently and there-
fore perform more work per week. Basic
guidelines are a good starting point, but
every trainee is different. Table 5-1 offers
some basic guidelines regarding workout fre-
quency. Experimentation with various
workout frequencies is the best way to
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determine each trainee’s capacity and optim-
al workout frequency.
Table 5-1. Factors involved in determining the num-
ber of workouts to include in a training program.
Too few workouts per week will not ad-
equately stress the body, and no positive ad-
aptation will occur. A common way to organ-
ize training among recreational lifters and
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bodybuilders is a “split” routine, where one
body part or “muscle group” is worked each
day, until the entire body has accumulated a
workout. If “chest” is trained only once a
week, even though training may occur sever-
al days per week, “chest” will not receive
enough work to constitute overload, and op-
timal adaptation cannot occur. By the same
token, “chest” will usually include triceps,
since the bench press is the favorite chest ex-
ercise; if “shoulders” involves pressing,
“arms” get their own day too, and “back”
really means lats and therefore lat pulldowns
or chins, it is possible to expose the triceps to
four or more workouts in a week. This is an
example of poor training organization pro-
ducing a schedule that includes both inad-
equate and excessive exercise frequency.
It is also worthwhile to note that the in-
cidence of training injury is not significantly
increased with greater strength training fre-
quency. However, it is quite high with more
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than five aerobic workout days per week,
particularly monostructural (single-activity)
workouts. These kinds of aerobic exercise
programs involve thousands of identical and
repetitive movements over a short range of
motion, and are thus inherently different
from weight training, even when weight
training workout frequency is very high. The
end result is a higher incidence of repetitive
use injuries in endurance training than in
strength training.
Exercise Selection
The combinations of exercises included
in a workout and in a long-term training pro-
gram directly affect progress. The most im-
portant consideration is to select exercises
that have functional application to the train-
ing objective. The exercises included should
develop the muscle mass, strength, or power
of the athlete in ways that apply to the sport
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or event he is training for. They should pro-
duce strength and power in ways relevant to
performance, using the muscle groups in-
volved in the sport in ways that are metabol-
ically relevant. It is not necessary, or even
desirable, that exercises exactly mimic or du-
plicate the skills or movement patterns of the
sport. It is necessary, though, that exercises
adequately prepare the neuromuscular sys-
tem for the range of motion, power require-
ments, strength requirements, and endur-
ance requirements of the sport. Specific
sport skills are acquired in sport practice;
fitness for sport is enhanced by appropriate
strength and power training outside of sport
practice. And the whole panoply of athletic
performance characteristics can be enhanced
by “general physical preparation,” or GPP,
the practice of general movement skills
which may not be specific to the sport but
which enhances its performance nonethe-
less. Sprints, jumping, gymnastics skills
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work, rope climbing, and intense recreation-
al sports unrelated to the primary sport are
examples of productive GPP.
Virtually every single effective exercise
program for sports performance will include
the following rather short list of weight room
exercises: squat, press, deadlift, bench press,
clean or power clean, jerk, snatch or power
snatch, and chin-ups or pull-ups. These
movements and their simple variations can
be used in various ways to satisfy all the re-
quirements for exercises that contribute to
performance. It is imperative that their per-
formance and correct use be mastered by
both athlete and coach.
The next consideration in exercise selec-
tion is how many times per week an exercise,
or type of exercise, should be done. To make
exercise selection more logical, it is best to
consider specific groups of related exercises.
For an Olympic weightlifter, there would be
four basic groups: 1) snatch-related, 2)
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clean-related, 3) jerk-related, and 4) squats
and deadlifts. An athlete in a less specialized
sport concerned with strength and power
might use three categories: 1) squats and
squat variants, 2) pressing and pressing vari-
ants, and 3) pulling, which includes dead-
lifts, cleans, and snatches. The example here
for a weightlifter can also be used as a basic
template for power sports, such as field
events. Football players would use the less-
specialized template, since there is a signific-
ant strength component in addition to the
power demands of the sport. There is a great
degree of possible variability within each of
these templates. For weightlifters on a three-
workouts-per-week schedule, two workouts
might be devoted to more technically
demanding snatch-related exercises and one
day to clean- and jerk-related exercises, and
then the emphasis could be reversed the fol-
lowing week, with two clean and jerk
workouts and one snatch workout. Squats
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and pulling strength movements would be
included in workouts on all three days, since
athletes need strong hips and legs. Football
players should also squat all three days, and
could alternate bench presses with presses
and deadlifts with cleans.
Note that this represents a whole-body
workout every time, the preferred approach
to training. It is not productive for athletes to
think in terms of body parts or muscle
groups, as bodybuilders do. The human body
functions as a system – in both sports and
life – with all its component parts operating
together in coordinated synergy. It makes no
sense to separate it into its constituent com-
ponents for training when the desired result
of the training is the improvement of the
whole system. It does not function that way,
and it cannot be effectively trained that way.
Workouts should consist of three to five
exercises, appropriately selected from the
template groups. Athletes seldom need more
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exercises than this, but if circumstances war-
rant, say, six exercises, it may be more effect-
ive to do them in two workouts per day
rather than all in a single session. Few
coaches and athletes are afforded the luxury
of unlimited time in the gym, so if six exer-
cises are required and they must be done in
one workout, try to do them efficiently.
Workouts should not consist of ten to
fifteen exercises. If they do, there are two
possibilities. They could be composed of too
many core exercises, like squats, cleans,
snatches, deadlifts, and chins, along with
benches and presses, and will produce over-
training. Or they are composed of ten differ-
ent isolation movements like leg extensions,
leg curls, three kinds of dumbbell curls, two
kinds of dumbbell flyes, and two kinds of calf
raises, and are a waste of time. Three to five
correctly chosen and performed exercises are
all an athlete needs, and should be able to
do, in one workout. Any energy left over for
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arm exercises means energy not used where
it should have been, and is typically a sign of
an unfocused athlete or a badly designed
program.
Exercise Variation
It is normal to vary the individual exer-
cises and total number of exercises included
in a training program at several levels: the
individual workout, the training cycle, and
according to the advancement of the trainee
(fig. 5-2). For the novice, effective workouts
are short, basic, intense, and progressive. Ex-
ercises are chosen to accomplish the pro-
gram’s specified goal in the most efficient
manner possible. This means large-scale,
multi-joint exercises involving large muscle
masses working in a coordinated manner. It
therefore requires that coaches be effective
teachers of movement skills and that athletes
become better at learning them. Among
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other things, novices are developing motor
skills that will allow them to handle a larger
variety of exercises later in their training ca-
reers. As they proceed from the novice stage
to the intermediate stage, the number of ex-
ercises in the program increases. This is be-
cause they have gained strength and motor
skill and can now tolerate and directly bene-
fit from a wider variety of exercises.
Figure 5-2. The selection and total number of exer-
cises used in a training program varies by advance-
ment level and the goal of training. Initially the begin-
ner has few exercise skills and the primary purpose is
to teach basic technique and develop basic strength,
so only a few exercises are included. As the trainee de-
velops strength and motor control with free weights,
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additional exercises can be added. The intermediate
trainee benefits from a wider variety of exercises to
reach his sports preparation objectives. The advanced
trainee will have already selected a sport and is a com-
petitive athlete. This allows the coach to narrow the
exercise selection to those exercises most relevant to
the sport. The elite athlete is an accomplished expert,
competing at a high level, and uses only those exer-
cises that have proven to be necessary and useful for
continued performance at that level.
During the late novice and the interme-
diate stage, an athlete who will ultimately
proceed to advanced or elite levels defines
the course of his career, choosing a sport to
train for and compete in. Many decisions are
required of the athlete at this point.
Strengths and weaknesses, abilities and in-
terests, time and financial restrictions, and
the support of family and friends are gauged.
This involves experimentation with training
and its application to the chosen sport, and it
requires a greater variety of exercises than a
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novice either needs or can tolerate. An inter-
mediate’s skills are developing as fast as his
strength, power, and recovery ability. It is at
this time, when the ability to learn is peak-
ing, that an athlete benefits most from ex-
posure to new movement patterns and new
types of stress. For these reasons, exercise
variety for intermediates is higher than for
novices.
It is also higher than for advanced ath-
letes, who already know the things an inter-
mediate is learning and who have by defini-
tion developed in their competitive careers
into specialists at one sport. These athletes
use fewer exercises, because they know ex-
actly which ones are relevant to competitive
success and know how to manipulate their
well-developed stress/adaptation mechan-
isms. Elite athletes are accomplished com-
petitors, experts in their sport, and are well
into their careers. They have developed
highly individual training programs that
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might involve only four or five exercises but
that very specifically develop critical aspects
of their already highly-adapted muscular,
neuromuscular, and psychological abilities.
Variation in exercises improves the
stress/adaptation response to training,
thereby delaying the inevitable performance
plateau as long as possible. Essentially, the
purpose of exercise variation is to make the
body treat each workout as if it were a new
stimulus, so that further adaptation can oc-
cur. From a psychological perspective, it also
reduces the boredom that can accompany
monotonous workouts and further stimu-
lates progress by keeping motivation levels
higher. Motivated trainees tend to push
harder, contributing to the quality of the
stimulus on the stress/adaptation system.
Exercise selection must be based on a
thorough understanding of both the benefits
and limitations of the exercises and the re-
quirements of the sport for which they are
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being used. A few basic principles should be
kept in mind whenever designing weight
training programs for sports. First, the exer-
cise must fit the sport biomechanically. The
vast majority of sports that use weight train-
ing as a conditioning tool rely on the co-
ordinated effort of all the muscles in the
body as they generate force against the
ground and apply that force through the up-
per body; effective weight training exercises
for these sports should do the same. Large-
scale structural exercises – squats, presses,
cleans, deadlifts, bench presses, and
snatches – provide the best quality, bio-
mechanically applicable work for sports that
require strength, power, balance, and agility.
Exercises that attempt to divide the body in-
to segments for separate training are much
less effective, since it is the coordinated use
of all the segments working together that
produces the sport-specific movement.
Whole-body exercises have been shown to
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produce superior results, through their abil-
ity to train the system as a coordinated whole
as well as their capacity to perturb homeo-
stasis and affect the entire hormonal milieu.
The second principle for programming
weight training for sports is that the exercise
must benefit the sport metabolically. If the
sport requires brief, explosive bouts of high
power generated by the whole body, the
chosen exercises must be capable of produ-
cing this adaptation. If the sport requires
pulses of explosion for several seconds re-
peated over a longer period of time, the exer-
cises must challenge the depth of the ATP-
CP system’s ability to provide for this. If the
sport demands muscular endurance at in-
tensities near anaerobic threshold for exten-
ded periods, the exercise must be capable of
producing this stress in a controllable, pro-
grammable way. All these requirements are
predicated on the athlete’s strength, which
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must be adequate to the task before more
elaborate preparations are necessary.
Meeting the demands of sports with this
degree of specificity involves more than just
matching sets and reps to the expected loads;
the exercises themselves must be capable of
producing these specific qualities of the ex-
pected stress in ways that fit the mechanical
requirements of the sport. It is not enough to
do 50-rep sets of leg extensions if hill climb-
ing on a bicycle is to be prepared for cor-
rectly, since more muscles than the quads
are involved in the sport. Heavy preacher
curls do not prepare a defensive lineman for
the job of moving a guard and making a
tackle, since the biceps are probably the least
important muscle group in the kinetic chain
that accomplishes the job.
Third, the exercise must be workable
within the context of the program – the time
and equipment available, the skill levels and
maturity of the trainees, and the ability of
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the coach to teach and administer the pro-
gram. A $10,000 barbell-based weight room
in the hands of an experienced coach is infin-
itely superior to a $300,000 collection of ex-
ercise machines run by an inexperienced
trainer. Every situation is different and few
are ideal, but at a minimum the program
should include as much barbell time as pos-
sible, and the complete absence of machines
should not be considered a drawback to the
success of the program.
Adding variation to the program is ac-
complished within the context of function.
New exercises should have a purpose other
than just being new. For example, for an
Olympic lifter, reasonable squat variations
might be high-bar (Olympic) squats and
front squats. The leg press would not be
reasonable because it is not a functional
movement – it does not provide either the
biomechanical specificity to sports or the ca-
pacity to produce the systemic stress
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necessary to be considered functional. If leg
presses are done at all, it should be only as
an assistance exercise, not as a variation of
the squat, and as such they would occupy a
different place in the workout hierarchy.
If an intermediate trainee needs to add
another workout – a medium or light day –
to his week, or if the decision is made to cut
heavy pressing work back to twice per week
and substitute a variant for the third day, it
might be appropriate to introduce a dumb-
bell exercise as the variant workout. This is
what is meant by “variation,” where the qual-
ity of the workout remains high due to the
careful choice of substitute exercises that ac-
complish the same purpose as the basic
movement but in a slightly different way.
For the novice lifter, each training day of
a three-day week should be a heavy day,
since this is consistent with linear progres-
sion. As intermediate status is achieved,
more variation becomes necessary, and light
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and medium days become part of the week.
New exercises should be initially included on
light and medium days because the neur-
omuscular novelty of these exercises will
produce beneficial adaptations at lower in-
tensities. This way, a light day of training can
produce a significant training stimulus while
still allowing for recovery from the preceding
heavier workouts.
It is important to note that with any new
exercise, the weight that can be used in-
creases quickly, much like the general re-
sponse seen in a novice trainee. Adaptations
in neuromuscular efficiency and motor co-
ordination are responsible for much of this
early improvement. After this early progress
tapers off, the variant exercise is no longer a
variant, and can then join the standard exer-
cises for inclusion on heavy days. In this way
the intermediate increases his training rep-
ertoire as more exercises accumulate.
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Exercise Order
Workouts should be ordered in a way
that allows the most important exercises to
be done first. “Important” is obviously a rel-
ative term, and the most important exercise
to a novice is very likely different from that
for an advanced athlete. Basic strength for a
rank novice is the primary training consider-
ation, and this means that squats should al-
ways be done first. Between strength move-
ments that use some or most of the same
muscle groups, it is useful to insert exercises
that use other muscles so that some measure
of recovery can occur. Bench presses or
presses are commonly done between squats
and deadlifts, so that the best performance
can be obtained from both of these lower-
body exercises done in the same workout. If
power cleans are to be done, they can usually
be performed effectively by novices after the
short break from squats provided by benches
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or presses, since these trainees are not yet
proficient enough at power cleans that a
small amount of fatigue will adversely affect
them. Any other assistance work would be
done after the structural exercises, if time
and energy levels permit, since their inclu-
sion in the workout is not as critical to the
basic effects of training.
As the trainee advances, other consider-
ations complicate the scenario. If power be-
comes a primary training objective, as it will
for Olympic lifters and throwers, the em-
phasis will shift to those exercises and they
will be performed first, with squats moving
to the end of the workout. As a general rule,
the faster the movement, the more precise
that movement must be, because of the de-
creased amount of time during the rep in
which position adjustments can be made;
and the more precise the movement must be,
the more important it is to do it without the
interference of fatigue. For intermediate and
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advanced athletes, snatches, cleans, jerks,
and their related movements should be done
early in the workout, with slower strength-
focused movements done later.
Fatigue decreases the precision with
which motor unit recruitment patterns can
be managed and has a direct bearing on the
skill with which a movement can be executed
and practiced. Movements that depend
highly on skill of execution – those for which
technical components are more limiting than
strength level for determining the 1RM –
should be done first in the workout, before
fatigue has blunted the unimpeded contribu-
tion of efficient force production to the
movement. A snatch is limited by the ability
of the lifter to execute the movement in a
technically correct manner more than by the
absolute strength of the athlete. But if the
athlete’s strength is compromised by fatigue,
the ability to apply that strength in the cor-
rect way will interfere with the technical
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execution of the lift, since correct technique
depends on the ability to deliver maximum
power to the bar at the right time in the right
position, all of which are affected by the abil-
ity to produce maximum force, the very thing
that fatigue affects (fig. 5-3).
Figure 5-3. Electromyogram (EMG) and force pro-
duction tracings from a high-rep set. Note that the
muscle fatigues as more repetitions are completed
and that motor control erodes with fatigue, as evid-
enced by the amplitude scatter of the EMG tracing.
This effect can result from a single set, as presented
here, or can be the cumulative result of repeated sets.
Speed of Movement
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There is a persistent belief among the
public, many personal trainers, some
coaches, and even among many exercise sci-
entists, that weight training exercises must
be done slowly. The intentional use of slow
movement in weight training reflects an in-
adequate understanding of the nature of effi-
cient power production, the physics of work,
and weight-room safety.
A slow cadence increases the time under
tension (how long the muscle spends in con-
traction) and is thereby thought to increase
the amount of work the muscles do and the
resulting amount of muscular development.
An examination of the physiology of power
production, though, is enlightening. The vast
majority of research demonstrates a clear re-
lationship between high movement speed
and the ability to generate power both at that
speed and at all slower speeds. Conversely,
exercising at a slower speed develops
strength only at that speed and does not
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improve power at faster movement speeds.
Complete power development across the
whole range of movement speeds requires
high-velocity loaded movement.
This is because high power production
depends on the recruitment of a maximum
number of motor units to generate the high
amount of force necessary to produce that
power. More power requires an increased ef-
ficiency in the number of motor units firing
during contraction and – most importantly
for the person interested in more muscle – a
resulting increase in the actual amount of
muscle tissue involved in the work. As more
high-threshold motor units are recruited to
generate more power through increased
force production, more of the muscle fibers
in the muscle go to work, using more ATP
that must be replaced through active meta-
bolic recovery processes. Studies have found
that longer duration repetitions with a longer
time under tension actually demand less
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metabolic work when compared to the fast
moving repetitions. This is because only the
lower-threshold motor units are recruited
and fatigued by lower-movement-speed ex-
ercise. It is true that the motor unit fatigue
produced during sustained contractions or
with higher repetitions (8 to 12 or greater)
produces a “burn,” a sensation that we may
believe to be an indicator of high-quality
stimulation. But the fact is that more muscle
tissue is recruited and worked by higher-ve-
locity movement than by slow exercise
speeds. In the interests of both muscle mass
and power training, higher velocity works
better.
The commercial emphasis on exercise
with machines may be the source of a lot of
the misinformation about weight training,
due to considerations other than the
physiology of exercise. Because of their con-
struction, weight machines generally have
limitations in their use, one of which is that
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if the stack is dropped, the plates may frac-
ture. Over the decades since the invention of
weight machines, this limitation has resulted
in the dogma that a specific exercise cadence
(a count of 2 up and 4 down or something
similar) is needed for optimal results from
weight training. This also controls the noise
level in the spa. Thus, the conventional wis-
dom developed from the desire of spa man-
agement to extend the life of their machines
and make for a more placid business envir-
onment, not from exercise science or experi-
ential evidence. The practices that benefit
health club management are not necessarily
the ones that contribute to your increased
development and performance.
Safety also gets dragged into discussions
of movement velocity, under the assumption
that fast is dangerous, as in driving a car. But
just as in driving, it really depends on the
ability of the operator. The more experienced
an athlete becomes with barbell exercises,
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the more efficiently and safely he can per-
form them at higher speeds. Squats can be
dangerous for novices at high speeds, but for
advanced athletes high-speed squats are a
very productive power exercise. If technique
is correct, all multi-joint exercises can be
performed in a way that enhances power
production. Safety is the result of cor-
rect technique, at any velocity. High-
speed exercise is necessary if power is to be
trained. This obviously means that power
training is not inherently dangerous; if it
were, the only powerful athletes would be the
ones that were born that way. Bad technique
is inherently dangerous, whatever the speed
or load. Good technique increases safety, and
that should be the emphasis in every weight
room.
The correct movement velocity of an ex-
ercise should be determined by the move-
ment pattern of the exercise and the effect
the exercise is intended to produce, not by
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arbitrary notions of intensity or safety. Many
exercises cannot be performed slowly. A slow
clean is not a clean; in fact, a clean cannot be
performed without an explosion at the top
that converts the pull to a catch. On the other
hand, some single-joint exercises cannot be
performed both quickly and correctly. A bar-
bell curl cannot be performed rapidly
through the entire range of motion. In fact,
one might argue that the more slowly an ex-
ercise must be executed, the less valuable it
is for sports training. Also, the closer a
weight is to 1RM, the slower it moves; this is
true for any exercise, regardless of its nature.
A heavy snatch comes off the floor more
slowly than a light one, although it will still
be faster than a heavy deadlift. Movements
that are limited by absolute strength will ap-
proach zero velocity in a true 1RM, and will
always be slower than a 1RM explosive
movement. Many factors affect movement
speed, and blanket statements about what is
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best are seldom useful – except for this one:
faster is almost always better.
Warm-up
Warming up is an essential component
of training, but it need not be a tremend-
ously creative affair, with lots of arm waving,
hopping, wiggling, and calisthenics. Once
again, the warm-up should fit the workout,
and if weight training is the workout, then
the warm-up should prepare the body for
weight training. Preparation is both muscu-
lar and neuromuscular: it elevates the tem-
perature of the muscles and associated tis-
sues, making them more flexible and less
prone to injury, and it improves muscular
contractile properties while at the same time
allowing the movement pattern to be prac-
ticed so that it is familiar, comfortable, and
more automatic at work set weights. Begin
with a simple five minutes on an exercise
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bike or rower; other types of aerobic exer-
cises, like treadmill walking or the elliptical
trainer, are less desirable since they involve
an inadequate range of motion and less
muscle mass. Five short minutes with a
gradual increase in intensity elevates body
temperature and prepares the body to exer-
cise. Then move directly to the first barbell
exercise. Do the complete range of motion
for that exercise with an empty bar first, for
as many sets as necessary to warm the range
of motion (this might be as many a five sets
for an injured athlete, or a creaky old mas-
ters guy). Then increase the weight in even
increments for 3 to 5 sets until the trainee is
ready to handle the work set weight. After
the work sets, repeat the process (without
the aerobic part) for every exercise in the
workout.
In more experienced trainees, warm-up
reps can be tapered down to two or even to a
single rep for the last warm-up set, saving
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gas for the work sets. Novices who need the
motor pathway practice should stay with the
full number of reps all the way up, until skill
level permits the taper.
And it is very important that the athlete
understand the proper role of warm-ups:
they prepare for the work sets; they do not
interfere with them. If the last warm-up set
is too heavy – i.e., too close to the weight of
the work set – it will fatigue rather than
warm. The warm-up sets are valuable in that
they ready the body for the work sets, but
they do not themselves make anything
stronger. If 295 × 5 × 3 are the bench press
work sets, 285 × 5 is not a good idea for the
last warm-up. If 295 is heavy enough to con-
stitute an adaptive load, 285 will reduce the
likelihood of succeeding at all 15 reps of work
since it is close enough to be tantamount to
another heavy set done before. By the same
token, if 295 × 5 × 3 will actually go for all 15
reps, 285 × 5 will not produce a strength
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increase, because that adaptation has already
occurred or 295 would not be feasible.
Flexibility is traditionally defined as having complete
range of motion around a joint. It is probably more
usefully described as the ability of the muscles that
limit motion around a joint to extend beyond their
resting length, which affects the range of motion
around the joint. Stretching increases flexibility by in-
creasing the ability of the muscles to lengthen, and it
should not be thought of as acting on the connective
tissue of the joint itself. Stretching has traditionally
been included as part of the pre-training, pre-event
preparatory ritual. It is thought that stretching before
exercise prepares the joints to move through their
complete range of motion, thus improving perform-
ance and reducing the incidence of injury. A great deal
of money has been spent on posters and books dealing
with how to stretch effectively, and it is nearly univer-
sally accepted among exercise professionals that
stretching must precede exercise. But hang on...
An examination of the scientific and medical literature
paints a different picture. The majority of the data
available indicates that pre-training stretching neither
reduces the frequency of injury nor effectively improves
flexibility, the two areas in which it is supposed to
provide benefit. Studies of marathon participants failed
to show a difference in injury rates between athletes
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who stretched before the race and those who did not.
But wait, there’s more!
Evidence from studies on vertical jump and broad jump
performance indicates that pre-event stretching actu-
ally reduces power output, and other studies suggest
that this is true for other explosive activities, such as
weightlifting, as well. This may be due to a reduction in
the effectiveness of the stretch-reflex portion of the
concentric contraction caused by proprioceptive reset
during the stretch.
If pre-training stretching doesn’t increase flexibility or
reduce injuries, what does? Proper warm-up safely
does both. The loaded human body moving through its
maximum range of motion actually provides a stretch-
ing stimulus for the antagonist muscle groups, the very
ones that are tight. (The agonists cause the motion
around the joints, while the antagonists resist or decel-
erate that motion. A lack of extensibility in the antagon-
ists is the usual cause of flexibility problems.) A num-
ber of studies have shown an increase in flexibility as a
result of complete-range-of-motion weight training.
Improvements in hip and knee flexibility on the order
of 40% or better are commonly experienced. This is be-
cause proper form requires complete range of motion
of the involved joints and, if proper position is main-
tained, the weight puts the body into a properly
stretched position at the bottom (or top) of each rep,
exposing the antagonists to a stretch stimulus each
time the load is moved. This obviously requires good
form, and good coaching. Properly done, each weighted
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rep provides a better stretch than an unweighted tradi-
tional stretch, because the complete range of motion is
easier to reach with the help of the weight. More im-
portantly, and most especially for the hamstrings, the
postural position of the back – the very critical lumbar
extension that must be maintained to fully stretch the
hamstrings – is best accomplished with a loaded spine,
since the load gives the spinal erectors some resistance
to contract against to maintain proper lumbar
curvature. It is common to see athletes attempt to
stretch the hamstrings with a rounded lower back; this
cannot be done effectively.
If traditional stretching exercises are desired, they
should be done at the end of the workout, when the
muscles are warm and the stretch will not interfere
with performance. There are several methods of
stretching currently practiced, but the only type of
stretching really needed, beyond the active flexibility
work inherent in full-ROM strength training, is static
stretching. Move the joints into a position of mild dis-
comfort and hold the position for 30+ seconds. Repeat
2 to 3 times for maximum benefit. Problem areas –
hamstrings often need extra attention from both very
young and older lifters – should be stretched after
every workout.
But a more critical question might be: how flexible does
an athlete need to be? If full range of motion in all the
positions encountered during training and performance
can be properly expressed under load and during skill
execution, the athlete is sufficiently flexible. Training
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through a full range of motion and the correct practice
of sport skills will maintain flexibility, just as they have
established it to begin with, and an attempt to further
increase flexibility is at best a waste of time.
“Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time
and annoys the pig.”
—Robert A. Heinlein
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Chapter 6: The Novice
Programming for the novice is the most
important task a coach will encounter, and
the most important task an athlete can un-
dertake. Done correctly, it sets the stage for a
lifetime of proper training habits, long-term
progress, and athletic achievement far above
what would be possible without it. Insuffi-
cient attention to detail, and to the trainee’s
response to training during this phase, can
cost valuable progress that may not be recov-
erable later.
In one very important respect training
novices is easy: virtually anything that makes
a novice work harder than bed rest will pro-
duce positive results. As a result, many
people have an erroneous impression of the
quality of their training system. Single sets,
multiple sets, high volume, high intensity,

super slow, supersets, giant sets, gnarlmon-
ster sets – quite literally anything resembling
a training program will produce better res-
ults than no program at all in novice train-
ees. The ignorance of this simple fact has
produced profound confusion among both
academics and coaches in the strength and
conditioning profession, with many coaches
believing that there is only one right way to
train all athletes, and many academics be-
lieving that research conducted on untrained
eighteen-year-old males is relevant to all
populations, including athletes.
Most research into weight training has
been done on the untrained populations
commonly found in college weight training
courses – unfit young adults eager to earn
bonus points by participating in a study. Un-
fit and inexperienced people are by defini-
tion far removed from their genetic potential
for athletic performance. Older adults,
middle-aged women, large populations of
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nurses, active 30-year-old walkers, and any
other relatively sedentary population that
has never trained with weights for any signi-
ficant period of time or with any degree of
organization – the groups most commonly
studied – will be quite distant from their ge-
netic potential for strength and power. The
subjects used in these experiments, and all
novice trainees for that matter, will exhibit
large increases in fitness and performance
following a short series of exposures to
weight training, regardless of the nature of
that exposure. The literature provides many,
many examples of statistically significant in-
creases in fitness within a very few weeks us-
ing virtually any training program. Figure
6-1 illustrates the steep slope of performance
improvement for the novice trainee. It is
quite easy to produce fitness gains in a
beginner.
These studies may be valid for the popu-
lations studied, depending upon the training
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acumen of those designing the study pro-
tocol. Quite often, however, even this is not
the case, since researchers inexperienced in
the weight room sometimes design studies
using unrealistic, impractical methods that
an experienced coach would consider
bizarre. But this is not really the problem.
Frequently, the data acquired from these es-
sentially novice populations has been gener-
alized as valid for all training populations,
from novice to Olympian, from healthy to
diseased, young to old. It would be a gross
understatement to characterize this as
merely inappropriate. The results of a study
done on a specific population – one with
specific characteristics that make it very dif-
ferent from other specific populations – ap-
ply only to that specific population. These
results cannot be applied to other popula-
tions, because their differing characteristics
will change the results. In the same way that
a training program must be specific to the
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sport that it is designed to produce an adapt-
ation for, the program must also be specific
for the athlete’s level of adaptation.
The very essence of training is the cor-
rect application of the stress/adaptation
cycle, and the outcome of this cycle is ex-
tremely dependent on the physiological char-
acteristics of the individual to whom it is ap-
plied. As the characteristics of the individual
change, so must the stress, if the adaptation
is to continue. Novices eventually become
“trained” and thus move to the intermediate,
advanced, and possibly elite stages. Diseased
populations respond differently depending
on their pathologies. The elderly adapt to
stress less efficiently; children and adoles-
cents adapt more efficiently, but only to cer-
tain stresses; males respond differently from
females; motivated athletes progress faster
than casual trainees. Specific training organ-
izations are necessary for each population
and for each stage of life and of fitness, and
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the blanket application of one program
across all populations is absurd.
Yet we claim above that all novices re-
spond to any stress by adapting – an appar-
ent contradiction. The point is that in an un-
adapted trainee, any stress serves to cause an
adaptation, but a program that makes optim-
al use of the novice trainee’s ability to adapt
quickly is better than a program that doesn’t.
And as the novice trainee becomes more ad-
apted to stress and more closely approaches
the limits of genetic potential, the stress
must become more and more specific to that
individual’s level of advancement in order
for adaptation to continue.
The Basics of Novice
Programming
The result of the universal “novice re-
sponse” is that there are nearly as many
training programs for beginners that
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produce at least marginal improvement as
there are coaches. They all produce results
because the beginner adapts to an increased
training load quickly, in as little as 24 to 72
hours (fig. 6-2). This means that, as long as
the novice training program provides over-
load at some point, performance improve-
ment will be the result.
This actually means that any program-
ming model fits within the context of Selye’s
General Adaptation Syndrome theory when
applied to novices. Any stress causes an ad-
aptation, because so little adaptation has
already taken place.
So what’s the fuss? If everyone is right,
can’t we all just train? Actually, everyone is
right, but some are much more right than
others. And some are right only accidentally.
Being “more right” means basing the train-
ing program on the optimal recovery rate of
the athlete being trained. To be most effect-
ive and efficient at improving fitness for
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novices, a program must progressively in-
crease training load as rapidly as tolerable so
that meaningful results happen in a useful
timeframe – and that they can continue bey-
ond the trainee’s universal novice response.
relative to time.
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Figure 6-2. The two-factor model of the human re-
sponses and adaptations to a single bout of training.
During and immediately after training, there is a sup-
pression of comprehensive recovery processes (Selye's
stage 1). Shortly after training ceases there is a general
increase in recovery (Selye's stage 2). An important
observation here is that during the period when fa-
tigue has increased as a result of training, there is a
negative effect on performance.
Most people arrive at this conclusion in-
tuitively. In gyms all over the world, inexper-
ienced people training by themselves know
they can successfully add weight to the exer-
cises they did last time, and most will do so
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unless told they can’t by someone who is
supposed to know more than they do. Most
individuals enjoy testing themselves with
heavier loads or more reps. They derive a
sense of pleasure and accomplishment from
the improvement, and only become frus-
trated with exercise when improvement
stops. Simple progression is everyone’s
friend. It works well. It’s how weak people
can get very strong very fast.
Up to a point. The keys to maximum ef-
ficiency in using simple progression are se-
lecting the correct amount to increase the
load each time and timing these increases to
coincide with recovery from the previous
training session. This is where the role of a
coach becomes important: applying the dis-
cipline of a program to an eager trainee who
might otherwise not exercise discipline or
the judgment that comes from experience.
Novice trainees adapt to stress more
quickly than is usually recognized by the
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typical strength and conditioning academic
or coach. As illustrated in figure 6-2, the best
time to train again after the first session
would be somewhere between 48 and 72
hours later: train Monday, rest Tuesday,
train again at the same time on Wednesday
or Thursday. The goal is to drive adaptation
as quickly as possible. In a rank novice, a 48-
to 72-hour recovery can generally be expec-
ted, meaning that 2 to 3 workouts per week
will generate excellent results (fig. 6-3).
All successful, productive training relies
on the body’s innate ability to adapt to stress.
Novice training may very well be the athlete’s
first exposure to truly hard work done in a
planned, logical, progressive manner. This
regimented approach to work is not neces-
sarily fun, but the results it produces are
something that motivated people find re-
warding and encouraging. The desire to test
one’s limits is harnessed for the first time in
a program of this type, where hard work is
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done in a logical manner to produce a pre-
dictable, directable outcome. Athletes’ re-
sponses to this phase of training – in several
different ways – determine their ability to
move to the next level.
Figure 6-3. A week of simple progressive training
according to and integrated Selye/two-factor model
would look like this.
Novice trainees, by definition, have little
or no weight training experience. Having
been a member of a health spa, using the
machines at the Y, or curling with the
plastic-coated weights in the garage doesn’t
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count. Novices lack the motor skills to per-
form the basic barbell exercises that form the
core of the program, and they must learn
proper and safe exercise execution. The
novice is also unexposed to systemic exercise
stress and has not developed the ability to re-
spond to the demands of exercises that cause
whole-body adaptation. Since the trainee is
both inefficient and unadapted, only a few
basic exercises should be used, and they
should be repeated frequently to establish
the basic motor pathways and basic strength.
The squat, deadlift, press, and bench press
should be learned first, with the power clean
and the power snatch introduced as skill and
ability permit. These core strength and
power exercises develop the foundation of
strength, flexibility, and motor control that
will allow for the later inclusion of more de-
manding exercises, because they utilize all
the muscles in the same coordinated fashion
that more advanced exercises do.
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It may be tempting for individuals who
are very fit from other activities to assume
that that fitness translates to the barbell ex-
ercises. Even fit individuals who have not
trained with weights before are novices and
their programs should be designed accord-
ingly. More importantly, even people who
have trained with weights extensively but
who have never followed a program that
drives progress in a linear fashion are still
novices with respect to their response to lin-
ear programming. Progress through the
novice stage occurs very rapidly for everyone
since an increase in weight every workout
generates the fastest possible progress math-
ematically, and this therefore constitutes the
most efficient possible use of training time.
But if the trainee is placed immediately into
an intermediate program, the rapid initial
improvement of the novice will not occur,
since the weekly workload increase is slower
for the intermediate than the every-workout
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increase for the novice. The fit trainee can
tolerate incremental increases in loading
every 24 to 72 hours just like a decondi-
tioned person, and rapid initial progress is
the objective of a well-designed program.
There are two important differences for
the very fit novice. First, a very fit trainee
might be able to make bigger initial incre-
mental increases through the novice phase
than a poorly conditioned person. Second,
and as a result, the period of time before
intermediate-type training programs are ne-
cessary will probably be shorter, since the
initial progress has occurred more quickly.
This is because a very fit person, although
unadapted to barbell training, is closer to his
genetic potential than a completely uncondi-
tioned person and thus has less far to go.
Basic Program Variables
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The first goal for the novice should be
the development of basic usable whole-body
strength. At this stage in a trainee’s develop-
ment, even short-term goals unrelated to
getting stronger are irrelevant. Sports per-
formance, general fitness, and improved ap-
pearance all depend, first, on the acquisition
of basic strength. It is the foundation for all
other physical improvement, and it must be
the trainee’s first concern.
Exercises. The core of the novice program
comprises just a few “big” exercises to devel-
op the novice trainee’s strength base: the
squat, the press, the bench press, and the
deadlift. After a few weeks of successful
training – or sooner, depending on the
aptitude of the athlete – the power clean can
be added to the program. Power cleans are
considered a core exercise for most sports,
but they not are included in a beginner’s pro-
gram until the basic strength and motor
skills have developed enough that they can
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be done with reasonable form. The four basic
exercises have been used for many decades
by strong men and women to improve basic
strength, and no substitute exists for them.
Together they form a complete package of
loaded movements that stress the whole
body in exactly the patterns that get used in
sports and in life. It is critical to a program’s
success that everyone involved learn to per-
form and coach these exercises correctly.
Once the basic exercises have been
mastered, accessory exercises can be added
into training. The most valuable assistance
movements are those that improve any
weaknesses in the basic exercises or other-
wise benefit their performance. To the extent
possible, they should also be multi-joint,
since more muscles involved in an exercise
make it both more functional and a better
use of training time.
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A coach who is responsible for a large number of be-
ginning trainees at one time, such as a PE teacher or
a public school sports coach, should consider using
only the four basic exercises. The power clean does
not lend itself well to some programs due to the limit-
ations imposed by time, experience, and equipment.
The technical demands of the power
clean are such that many trainees will
require individual attention from a
coach experienced in solving the prob-
lems encountered in Olympic
weightlifting-derived exercises. Some-
times neither the time nor the expertise
is available for this. Cleans and snatches
are best coached by people who have
been trained to do so by competent
coaching instructors. Complex multi-
joint movements have lots of potential
for error, and they are harder to get
right than slower lifts because the errors
happen faster and are thus harder to ob-
serve. Coaches who lack the experience
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to work with athletes on the clean and
snatch serve their charges better by not
teaching things wrong. Cleans also tear
up the floor in the absence of bumper
plates, since heavy cleans will get
dropped. This is unavoidable, and if the
equipment is not available, power cleans
will be a costly exercise to perform.
For these reasons, in certain contexts
and for certain coaches, it might be
prudent to leave power cleans out of the
program and concentrate just on the
correct execution of the four basic
strength exercises. Focusing on these
four exercises without the power clean
accomplishes several important things:
• They develop an excellent strength
foundation.
• The elimination of the power clean exped-
ites the teaching process.
• Training will be more inclusive, since dif-
ferences in existing motor skills will not be
as significant a factor in learning the slow
lifts.
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• Time can be managed more effectively.
• Performance-related fitness will still be
significantly improved.
Back extensions and their derivative the
glute-ham raise are very useful for adding
extra work on the spinal erectors and hip ex-
tensors, as is the Romanian deadlift, a spe-
cial version of the stiff-legged deadlift that
starts at the hang position rather than at the
floor. The classic barbell row is a good build-
er of back strength when done properly,
starting each rep off the floor like a deadlift
and finishing each rep touching the abs (they
are, however, not a substitute for power
cleans). Chin-ups (with hands supine) and
pull-ups (prone hands) are the staple upper-
body assistance movements, since they work
the entire arm and the upper back muscles in
a way that closely duplicates the pulling and
grasping functions of the arms and hands in
sports and work. Chin-ups also build a nice-
looking set of arms, since biceps get used
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more in this version of the movement, thus
satisfying the normal male concerns about
arm appearance while at the same time being
a more useful exercise than curls. Arms
should probably be included in the program
– a certain amount of “beach work” will get
sneaked in anyway, and lots of chins do the
job better than any other exercise.
Focused abdominal exercises may be the
most important assistance movements to in-
clude. The lower back is supported from the
anterior by the abs, and ab work, done cor-
rectly, protects and assists lumbar stability.
“Done correctly” means that the abs are
strength-trained, as opposed to endurance-
trained with high reps and low resistance.
Weighted sit-ups or some version of them,
knees-to-elbows from a hanging position on
the chin-up bar, and exercises that isomet-
rically load the abdominals in a fashion sim-
ilar to their normal postural-support func-
tion, are preferred over exercises (e.g.,
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crunches) that do not adequately stress the
muscles in a way that actually applies to
their role as spinal supporters.
Reps and Sets. Figure 5-1 illustrates the
continuum of physiological responses to
varying repetition and intensity schemes.
Absolute strength is gained by using very low
reps (1 to 3) per set, mass is increased with
higher reps (10 to 12), and local muscular
and systemic endurance is developed with
even higher reps (20+). For the novice, a re-
petition scheme that is right in the anaerobic
middle works best: sets of 5 reps. Fives are
close enough to the strength end of the con-
tinuum to provide tremendous increases in
strength, the primary goal of the novice.
Fives are also enough reps to develop a toler-
ance for elevated work levels, and provide for
a good amount of hypertrophy so that mus-
cular weight gain occurs too. This mix of ad-
aptations provides a very good fitness base
that allows for progress. Fives are optimal
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for the novice; they effectively stimulate
strength gains and other forms of progress
without producing sufficient muscular or
neuromuscular exhaustion to cause tech-
nique deterioration at the end of the set.
Some assistance exercises, when finally
integrated into the program, will be done
with higher reps. Chin-ups and pull-ups, for
instance, might be done with up to 15 reps
before weight is added. They function as an
arm and upper back exercise, and are useful
for satisfying most trainees’ desire for rapid
positive effects on their physiques. They are
also a very good basic strength indicator; a
trainee who cannot do many chins needs to
work on them, since chinning strength is
closely related to pressing strength and im-
proving a weak chin-up/pull-up will improve
the pressing movements.
The number of sets to be done varies
with the athlete’s circumstances: first
workout ever, or second month of training;
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sore from the previous workout, or fresh as a
garden tomato; perfect form, or in need of
technical practice to hone a skill. It also var-
ies with the exercise being done: core lift or
assistance exercise; presses, which do not tap
in too deeply; or heavy deadlifts, which are
hard enough at 5RM that one set is plenty for
most people. These decisions must be made
on an individual basis each time, but it is
possible to establish some general
guidelines. As a rule, work sets for squats,
bench presses, and presses should be three
sets across (three sets at the same weight) for
novices, but as much as five sets across or as
little as one work set might be appropriate,
depending again on the circumstances.
The number of sets per exercise is the
sum of the warm-ups and the work sets.
Warm-up sets are done as necessary, more if
the trainee is sore, inflexible, or older, fewer
if he is already warm from previous
exercises. Warm-up sets add to the total
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number (and total work done), which might,
in atypical cases, be as high as twelve sets if
extensive light warm-up sets and three work
sets across are done.
As mentioned in chapter 5, sets across
have several advantages. They allow suffi-
cient tonnage to be accumulated to produce
the necessary adaptive stress, more than is
possible with only one work set. But they
also allow a coach to observe enough reps to
analyze any form problems a trainee might
be having, and then observe the effectiveness
of the correction in the next set. Gross tech-
nique problems can be seen immediately by
anyone familiar with the movement; less
pronounced or intermittent form problems
need more reps for diagnosis. Sets across
provide that opportunity.
Scheduling. For a novice trainee, the ad-
aptation to a new training load occurs within
24 to 72 hours. Three days per week yields a
training session every 48 hours with one
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72-hour interval at the end of the week (the
longer break following what might be a
harder workout). Three days per week fits
well into most people’s work schedule, an
important factor for most novices just get-
ting started, trying to integrate a training
schedule into their lifestyle.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are the
most obvious training days for most people
on a three day-per-week program. In fact,
Monday and Wednesday are the busiest days
in all gyms everywhere, Monday being re-
ferred to as Guilty Conscience Day since so
many people show up on Monday to apolo-
gize to themselves for Friday’s missed
workout. Depending on the facility, this
might be an excellent reason to use a Tues-
day/Thursday/ Saturday schedule, or a
Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday one.
Depending on individual scheduling
flexibility, recovery ability, and personal
preference, a trainee might decide to use an
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every-other-day schedule, where each week
is different but each break between workouts
is the same 48 hours. This schedule does not
allow for a longer break between two harder
workouts, and works best if two different
daily workouts are being alternated, an op-
tion we will explore later.
Workloads. Any novice learning a new ex-
ercise, regardless of training history, appar-
ent fitness level, aptitude shown on previous
exercises, or protestations to the contrary,
should begin with an empty bar. And that
empty bar may need to be a lighter one than
the standard 20-kg/45-lb type, depending on
the trainee. For the novice, the law is: learn
first, and then load. There will be plenty of
time to put weight on the bar later; the first
task is to learn the movement pattern
without having to worry about how heavy it
is. Heavy always competes with correct, and
at this point correct is much more import-
ant. The vast majority of the time, a trainee
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will learn the movement well enough that the
load can be increased during the first
workout, but it is important that a good com-
mand of the movement pattern be estab-
lished before any plates are added to the bar.
This process may take three sets, or it may
take three workouts, depending on both
coach and trainee. Do not rush this process:
this is not the place for impatience. If the
first workout for a 150-pound trainee pro-
gresses through the empty bar for three sets
of five, then 75 × 5, 95 × 5, and 115 × 5, and
then ends with 135 × 5 × 3 sets, all with good
form and the bar speed on the work-sets
slowing down just a little, it is a very good
first day.
This is enough work to disrupt homeo-
stasis and bring about Selye’s stage-1 re-
sponse. The trainee has done more work
than he is accustomed to already, and adding
more weight is pointless on the first day of
training. If the trainee has worked through
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the entire range of motion of an unfamiliar
exercise, he will experience some muscle
soreness. The goal for the first workout
should be a little soreness, but not so much
that daily tasks are markedly impaired. It ac-
complishes absolutely nothing for a novice
trainee to wake up the day after the first
workout with crippling soreness, and many,
many people are discouraged to the point of
quitting when faced with what they think will
be a second workout with the same result.
An exercise professional will never let this
happen intentionally, although it is some-
times unavoidable.
After the first workout has established
the trainee’s strength level, subsequent
workouts should progressively increase the
work-set weights of all the exercises. This
should occur at every workout. Weight is the
only variable in the progression that is adjus-
ted up. The number of reps is fixed by the
physiologic effects that the training program
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is designed to improve, as discussed earlier,
and if five reps is the assigned workload, rest
cannot be decreased without compromising
the ability to do all the reps. The increments
by which the weight of the work sets increase
are determined by both the exercise and the
ability of the trainee.
As a general rule, the smaller the num-
ber of muscles the exercise involves, the
longer it will take for the trainee to get
stronger at it. Exercises that use large num-
bers of large muscles, such as deadlifts and
squats, get strong much faster than upper
body exercises like the bench press. Exer-
cises such as the press, clean, and snatch,
which use a lot of muscles but are limited by
the contribution made by smaller muscles or
technical proficiency, get strong more slowly
as well. Chins and assistance exercises that
involve only one joint get stronger very
slowly, and progress on them is expected
only on a monthly basis.
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People of different sexes, sizes, ages,
levels of experience and athletic ability, and
levels of motivation make progress at differ-
ent rates. As Selye’s theory predicts, those
populations most capable of adapting to ex-
ternal stress will make the fastest progress.
People whose hormonal, dietary, rest, and
motivational circumstances are optimal for
recovery from physical loads – well-fed
young men on sports teams, for example –
will make more rapid gains than any other
population when subjected to intense train-
ing. All other groups will progress more
slowly, and will attain commensurately lower
levels of absolute performance, although
their relative performances may certainly be
comparable.
So, for young males who weigh between
150 and 200 pounds, deadlifts can likely
move up 15 pounds per workout, and squats
10 pounds, with continued steady progress
for perhaps three weeks before slowing down
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to half that rate. Bench presses, presses, and
cleans can move up 5 to 10 pounds for the
first few workouts, with progress on these
exercises slowing down to 2.5 to 5 pounds
per workout after only two to three weeks.
Young women tend to progress on the squat
and the deadlift at about the same rate as
young men, adjusted for bodyweight (which
would mean 5-10 pounds instead of 10-15),
but more slowly on the press, bench press,
clean, snatch, and assistance exercises. Pro-
gress can be made for quite some time, and
specific strategies to maximize it and delay
the onset of a training plateau should be em-
ployed as progress starts to slow. These
methods are discussed below.
Linear progress, for as long as it is pos-
sible, is the most efficient way to utilize a
novice’s training time, since every workout
yields a strength improvement. This is true
even if the increases are very small; two
pounds per week on the press still adds up to
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104 pounds per year, pretty good progress if
you can make it. As progress begins to slow –
i.e., as work sets become harder to do and to
complete – or as reps begin to get missed,
smaller incremental increases should be
used. Smaller jumps will allow for more lin-
ear progression, so that more progress is ac-
cumulated before a radical change in pro-
gramming is necessary.
The Starting Strength Model
As outlined in Starting Strength: Basic
Barbell Training, a novice starts with three
or four basic whole body exercises and after
warm-up does three work sets (except for the
deadlift) at a weight that is based on the per-
formance during the previous workout.
When the prescribed sets and reps are com-
pleted at the assigned weight, the load is in-
creased for the next workout. This is very
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simple, and it works for quite a while for
most beginners. In the presence of adequate
rest and nutrition, it would be unusual for
someone to fail to add quite a bit of muscle
and strength before any changes to the
workout are needed at all. In fact, the failure
of a novice to progress on this simple pro-
gram means that it was not followed
precisely.
For a rank novice, the simplest of
workouts is in order. This short program can
be followed for the first few workouts:
The two workouts alternate across the
Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule for the
first couple of weeks, until the freshness of
the deadlift has worn off a little and after the
quick initial gains establish the deadlift well
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ahead of the squat. At this point the power
clean is introduced:
After this program is followed for a short
time, chin-ups and pull-ups can be added,
along with back extensions or glute/ham
raises for a break from pulling every
workout. This somewhat more-complicated
program looks like this:
In this variation, the deadlift and power
clean alternate every time workout A is done,
and the chin-up alternates with the pull-up
likewise. The 2-week schedule would look
like this:
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The squat, bench press, and press are done
for 3 sets of 5; note that the bench press and
the press alternate in all variations of the
program. The deadlift is done for 1 set of 5
reps every fifth workout, due to its harder
nature at heavy weights, and alternates with
the power clean, which is done at 5 sets of 3
reps across. Squats continue each workout
uninterrupted; this is possible because they
start lighter than the deadlift due to a longer
range of motion but are less fatiguing due to
the inherent stretch reflex at the bottom.
Unweighted chin-ups or pull-ups are done to
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failure for 3 sets unless the trainee can com-
plete more than 15 reps per set (unlikely for a
rank novice), in which case weight is added.
Chin-ups use a supine grip (and thus more
biceps), while pull-ups use a prone grip. If
the athlete can maintain his chin/pull-up
numbers as his bodyweight increases, he is
actually getting stronger.
This is a reasonable exercise selection
for a novice, and a reasonable weekly plan. It
can be followed for several months if careful
attention is paid to the increments of in-
crease, rest, adequate nutrition, and the
elimination of activities that compete for re-
covery resources during this important peri-
od of rapid strength increase.
Back-off Periods. Inevitably, progress will
stall. There are two basic scenarios, one in
which the trainee does everything right but
still fails to stimulate further progress and
another in which progress stalls or regresses
because of greed for quick progress or
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because of a lifestyle factor that affects re-
covery. In either case, something must be
done to salvage the novice’s ability to use
simple linear progression and milk all pos-
sible progress from the first level of training
advancement.
The first scenario assumes proper ap-
plication of all the progression principles,
adequate attention to recovery, sleep, and
nutrition, and proper technique on all the ex-
ercises. This may be a bit of a stretch, since
few novice trainees execute all parts of the
plan without flaw. But for purposes of illus-
tration, we’ll make the stretch, we’ll use the
bench press as an example, and we’ll ignore
the effects of the press workout done on al-
ternate days to simplify the example (a factor
that would obviously have to be considered
in an actual situation of this type).
If the trainee correctly follows the
simple progression program, does not get
greedy, and eats and rests correctly, then he
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will be able to add weight to the bar at every
workout for quite some time. He might start
by adding weight in 5-pound increments at
each bench press workout and progress to 1-
to 3-pound increases. At some point, adding
weight will cause missed reps in one workout
(usually in the last set), followed by all three
sets of 5 completed at that weight the follow-
ing workout. Finally, he will begin to miss
the last reps in the work-sets for two to three
workouts in a row.
Quite a few things could be changed
about the workout, but the correct approach
will accomplish two things. First, it will offer
the highest probability of restoring linear
progress as quickly as possible and, second,
it will keep the trainee as close as possible to
his most recent 5RM, thus avoiding the loss
of hard-won progress. The trainee needs a
change but will do best with a change that
disrupts the essence of the program as little
as possible. A slight back-off in training
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weight with the immediate resumption of
slow and steady progress identical to what
has taken place in previous months is
appropriate.
Any time a trainee working very hard is
allowed a bit of extra rest and recuperation,
performance will increase. This is evidence
not of a dramatic unexpected increase in
overall physical ability, but of the increased
ability to display it on a given day. It’s not
that he’s actually stronger; he’s just not tired.
“Peaking” for a contest or testing procedure
works the same way: no dramatic increase in
strength occurs at a peak, just the ability to
demonstrate the strength that is actually
present as a cumulative effect of the training
program. And, in this case, this is exactly
what is necessary. A trainee at this stage is
not terribly “stuck” and will not take much
unsticking to get back on the road to pro-
gress. A little extra rest will always allow a
small increase in the weights that can be
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handled afterward, and the accumulation of
strength through progressive loading can re-
sume from there.
For example, say work-set weights for
the bench press have been 165 × 5 × 3 (three
sets of five reps at 165 pounds) on Monday,
167 × 5 × 3 on Friday, 170 × 5 × 3 on Wed-
nesday, 172 × 4, 172 × 4, 172 × 3 on Monday,
and then the same for the next bench
workout. The following Wednesday the same
workout would be done, with an 8-to-10%
reduction in training load, and then a return
to incremental increases from there. So the
work sets would be 160 × 5 × 3 on that Wed-
nesday, 165 × 5 × 3 on the next bench press
day, and 170 on the next one. These will be
perceived as light weights, and the tempta-
tion to do extra sets must be resisted if the
unloading is to do its job. It will take about
two weeks to get back to the previous level of
performance, the precise number of
workouts depending on the weight being
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used and the jumps in weight between
workouts. At this point the weight that was
missed, 172, should be used at the next
workout. The following workouts with 175,
177, and on up, can be done just as if the
little “detour” never happened. The extra rest
and recovery – the small “peaking” effect
from the temporary reduction in training
load – should allow success with a weight
slightly above that which the trainee was suc-
cessful with previously, and the act of lifting
this heavier weight should spur further pro-
gress for several more workouts.
The second scenario, in which progress
stalls because of impatience or other external
factors, is different. Here, the trainee has ac-
tually regressed slightly, or possibly more
than slightly. The build-up of fatigue is more
pronounced, and the back-off should there-
fore be more drastic. The first example had
the trainee dropping his bench press pound-
age back from 172 to 160. Assume that the
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second trainee is also stuck at 172, except
that instead of getting 4 reps for 2 to 3
workouts in a row, the last workout with 172
netted only 1 or 2 successful reps. In this cir-
cumstance there is really no point in backing
off only 8 to 10%, because that would still be
somewhat difficult and it would not allow
sufficient rest and recovery. The first back-
off workout should be very light and easy,
and lower in volume than a normal workout.
For example, 3 work sets of 5 reps at 160
should be reduced to only one set of 5 at 145.
Another approach might be to warm up nor-
mally, using standard incremental sets up to
the last warm-up, and then stop, doing no
work sets at all and letting the warm-up sets
serve to maintain the motor pathways.
The second and third workouts will de-
pend on how much work the trainee was do-
ing when progress stalled. If he was at 3 to 5
work sets, then in the second workout he
would warm up to 10% below the point
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where progress stalled, and then do that
weight for one set. This prevents detraining
but still allows some rest. The content of the
third workout will depend on how the train-
ee feels. The warm-up and first work set
should be the same as the second workout,
but a decision should be made after the first
work set. If the weight feels light, as such a
weight should, and the trainee feels good,
then he should do three sets across there. If
the weight feels heavy or he still feels tired,
then he should again stop after one work set
and try again the next time. When possible,
usually within two short workouts, training
can proceed with three normal work sets be-
ing done at 10% lighter than the pre-stall
work sets, progressing right back up to and
through the previous loads.
Small plates are necessary for small jumps, and small
jumps are necessary for progress. An understanding
of this very practical matter is fundamental to contin-
ued improved performance under the bar.
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As training progresses, the ability to adapt to the stress
of training slows, as discussed at length previously.
What were once easy 10-pound jumps for sets of 5 reps
become difficult 5-pound jumps for 5 reps. With
standard 2½-pound (or 1.25kg) plates, sets of four is
the inevitable result. The object is to use sets of five, for
the physiologic effects produced by five reps, and train-
ing is designed around a certain number of reps for this
specific reason. So it is necessary to be able to make in-
cremental increases while holding the reps constant,
and this requires that the increments be small enough
that an adaptation can occur during the time allotted. A
novice trainee who has correctly followed the program
will eventually not be able to adapt to 5-pound jumps
between sets.
But that trainee can get strong 1 pound at a time, or 1.5
pounds or 2 pounds at a time, depending on the exer-
cise. Certainly for small-muscle-group exercises like the
press, bench press, and even chin-ups, small jumps are
the only way progress will accumulate smoothly. And if
a 2-pound jump is loaded, it will have to be loaded with
1-pound plates. Several companies make small plates,
in both pounds and kilos. Or they can be made in the
garage out of 2-inch washers glued, taped, or welded
together in varying increments. Or 2½-pound plates
can be shaved down at a machine shop. In pounds, the
range should be ½, 1, and 1½; in kilos, 0.25, 0.5, and
0.75.
It is also important to understand how the small plates
relate to the rest of the equipment. Standard “Olympic”
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barbell plates are castings, and castings are inherently
inaccurate. Even good-quality calibrated plates, which
are milled to tolerance, are not dead-on. When loading
a bar, which will itself have a small error, with several
plates, all of which have a small error, it is likely that
the face value loaded weight is not actually what is on
the bar.
This is not important for warm-ups, or for back-off sets,
or for anything else during the workout that does not
represent a measured incremental increase over the
previous workout. But when the load on the bar is sup-
posed to be 173.5 pounds, and it actually weighs 175.5
due to plate error, the target has been missed. It may
not be possible, or even necessary, to have dead-on
plates; it is possible to have the same big plates on the
bar as last time, so that the increase made with the
small plates is exactly what it is supposed to be. That is
the concern anyway – that the amount lifted today be
exactly the specific intended amount more than last
time. If training is done in a commercial gym or school
weight room, number or mark the bar and a set of
plates so that they can be identified for use at every
workout, and buy and bring with you your own small
plates. This way, the amount of the increase can be ex-
actly what it needs to be, the increase will be exact
every time, and progress can be better ensured.
One aspect of back-off workouts is that,
to the extent possible, intensity should not
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drop more than 10% for more than one
workout. This is an important concept to fol-
low if the back-off period is to be kept short
and new personal records for 3 sets are to be
set afterward without much time elapsing.
Again, the key feature of novice training is
linear progress – the ability to steadily in-
crease the weight on the bar at each workout
– and every effort should be made to keep
this from stopping.
The reason intensity is kept relatively
high while the volume of training is dropped
is to maintain neuromuscular efficiency, the
ability of the neural system to fire the motor
units in a way that allows all the muscles to
work together to efficiently display strength
in a movement pattern. Basic muscle
strength remains relatively constant (fig.
8-4) even with reduced training. Neuromus-
cular efficiency, however, is much more in-
fluenced by short-term changes in training.
This is why we keep intensity relatively high
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and cut volume drastically: high intensity de-
velops and maintains neuromuscular effi-
ciency, while high volume with low intensity
does not. Keeping the weight within 10% of
where it was while drastically dropping
volume maintains a high state of neuromus-
cular readiness, while at the same time al-
lowing for some additional recovery. It al-
lows the trainee to resume personal record
(PR) performance after the back-off period.
This back-off method is an important
tool that will be used throughout the train-
ee’s career, from novice through advanced.
For each different rep and set scheme and
level of fatigue there is a different “ideal” way
to do it. But the basic concept is simple: rest,
but don’t detrain. The more fatigued the
trainee, the more his performance has
dropped, the longer the progress lasted be-
fore reaching a sticking point, the more gains
that were made, and the longer the training
history, then the longer the back-off period
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will have to be. A novice who has trained
three months and then simply stalled in his
progress and not regressed will need only a
short back-off period and a moderate reduc-
tion in load, while an advanced athlete who
has trained seven years, has hit a serious wall
at the end of a very hard training cycle, and
has regressed quite a bit due to fatigue over
his last 2 to 3 workouts will need a much
longer back-off period and much lighter
workouts to begin it.
Once a back-off period has become ne-
cessary, other changes can be made in the
program that are appropriate for the more
advanced novice. The squat can go from
three days per week to two, with the intro-
duction of lighter squats at 80% of Monday’s
work set weight into the program. They
provide a break in the intensity due to the
unloading, which helps to prolong linear in-
creases. The program would now look like
this:
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Deadlifts are still done for one set of
five, although more sets could be added due
to their reduced frequency in the program.
Deadlifts are very easy to overuse; they are
important for basic strength, but too many
sets make recovery difficult because of the
weights that can be used and the amount of
stress they can produce cumulatively. Chins
and pull-ups should have improved, or at
least kept pace with added bodyweight. If
chin/pull-up reps are consistently above 10
on all of the three sets, they should be done
every other workout with weight, either hung
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from a belt or with a dumbbell held in the
feet, so that failure happens at 5 to 7 reps.
This will increase the reps on the
bodyweight-only days and increase arm and
shoulder strength for the presses. Any other
assistance exercises should be done after the
basic program exercises, and then for no
more that three sets.
A simple recycling of the training intens-
ity will work once, and maybe twice. If train-
ing has been going well in the context of
proper progressive programming and proper
recovery, more than two training intensity
back-off periods usually will not be product-
ive. A need for a third usually indicates a
need for more complex programming. If,
however, there were problems the first and/
or second time through, with progress stop-
ping suddenly because of lack of rest, im-
proper or inadequate diet, or greed for un-
reasonable incremental increases, one more
back-off period might fix a sticking point.
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After the second back-off period, an honest
evaluation of training status is warranted.
This is a rough outline of the first three
to nine months of training for most novices.
Starting with three work sets, the weight in-
creases steadily until progress stalls. The
weight drops 10% to get unstuck, the exer-
cises are changed slightly, and progress is
made again until another plateau occurs.
Finally the point is reached where the
amount of work needed to disrupt homeo-
stasis exceeds that which the trainee can re-
cover from between workouts, and more
elaborate programming is needed. Key to
this novice level of training advancement are
the workout-to-workout increases that are
possible during these first months. The
trainee has made rapid progress and is now
much stronger than he would have been had
simple linear progression not been used.
At some point, usually between the third
and ninth month of training, the standard
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variations on linear progression will have
been exhausted, and training will need to be
organized into weekly periods instead of the
workout-to-workout periods that character-
ize the novice phase. At this point, the train-
ee can be considered an intermediate.
“Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a
chain or freed a human soul.”
–Mark Twain
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Chapter 7: The
Intermediate
After several months of steady linear-
progression training, with no layoffs and un-
interrupted steady progress, all trainees will
get stuck. This is the normal, inevitable res-
ult of progress having advanced the trainee
closer to the limits of genetic potential. By
this point both strength and muscular body-
weight have improved quite a bit. So has the
trainee’s ability to recover quickly from
heavy training, but this is offset by the fact
that increased strength levels allow heavier
and therefore more taxing loads. This more
advanced trainee is more efficient, in both
recovery and in the ability to tax recovery ca-
pacity. And with increased efficiency comes
change: simply increasing the workload at
each workout can no longer be relied on to

spur continued progress. When the training
overload of a single workout and the recov-
ery period allowed for by the 48- to 72- hour
schedule does not induce a performance im-
provement, the novice trainee needs a
change of program. A single training stress
constitutes an overload event for a novice,
and this overload and the recovery between
that training stress and the next one is
enough to disrupt homeostasis and induce a
gain in strength for the beginner. Once this is
no longer the case, the trainee is no longer a
novice. His program must be adjusted
accordingly.
An important characteristic of interme-
diate trainees is that they have specific train-
ing goals developed from their experience at
the novice level. The high school kid who
simply wanted to “learn how to lift” and get
bigger and stronger for sports might now
realize that he wants to concentrate on train-
ing that will increase his performance in the
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shot put. The 35-year-old who started off
wanting to get back in shape might have
been bitten by the bodybuilding bug, and
now wants to concentrate on muscle size.
Even competitive athletes who knew from
the start that they were training for a sport –
but as wise novices to weight training de-
cided to begin with a novice program – will
find that this is the time to tailor their train-
ing to their now more-specific needs.
Simple progression works for months
when the trainee is new to a program of or-
ganized training. At this level, the amount of
work that disrupts biological equilibrium
and results in an adaptation – the overload –
can be applied in one workout. As the trainee
adapts to the stresses of training, he becomes
capable of applying enough stress in one
workout that he will not be recovered from it
before the next one. A “heavy” load for an
athlete at this level is relatively more stress-
ful on the body than a “heavy” load for a
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novice, and so requires a longer recovery
period. At this point, if progress is to contin-
ue, training must be reorganized into periods
of work that constitute a recoverable over-
load for the trainee at this level of adapta-
tion. This involves training periods that in-
clude more than one workout – enough work
to accumulate into sufficient stress to consti-
tute an overload event and enough built-in
recovery time to allow adaptation to take
place. At the intermediate level of adapta-
tion, training organized in week-long periods
functions well for this purpose (fig. 7-1).
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relative to time.
There is nothing magical about one
week of time. It might very well be that 96
hours (4 days) might suffice to allow enough
work to accumulate and be recovered from,
since the previous work/recovery period was
48 to 72 hours. But it is likely that more than
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4 days will be necessary, because only one
workout in 72 hours has probably been
barely sufficient – in terms of both sufficient
stress and sufficient recovery – for some
time. The trainee has not suddenly flipped a
switch and become unable to produce an
overload/recovery in 3 days, so increasing
the cycle period to 4 days will probably not
really solve the problem. Five days might,
and 6 days probably will, but given the fact
that society is organized along weekly time-
frames, one week works most easily into
most people’s schedules.
The intermediate program must differ
significantly from the novice program. A
novice using 3 sets of 5 repetitions on the
squat three days per week will find that those
3 sets are sufficient to stimulate progress,
and that recovery from that quantity of work
occurs quickly enough that each subsequent
workout can be done with heavier weight. A
novice bench press program might be 3 work
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sets of 5 reps on Monday and Friday, with
the press done on Wednesday. An intermedi-
ate lifter using 3 work sets of 5 reps on
Monday will not receive sufficient stimula-
tion to spur progress. Five sets might be
enough, but it also presents a problem. Do-
ing 5 work sets across at an intensity high
enough to drive progress may exceed recov-
ery when done twice per week. Some vari-
ation of the work must be introduced to ac-
commodate the intermediate trainee’s need
for both more work and sufficient recovery
from that work (fig. 7-2).
Figure 7-2. Two-factor model of an intermediate
trainee’s responses and adaptations to a series of
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training stresses over a week’s duration. While similar
to the single-day cycle of the beginner, note that fa-
tigue does not dissipate between each training session
(gray bars) nor do recovery processes catch up until
the conclusion of the week. This defines the difference
between the beginner and the intermediate trainee.
The workout load presented here is a Starr-model
heavy-medium-heavy-light organization that would
repeat the following week.
There are many ways to accomplish this
and produce the desired variation across the
week. Three methods will be presented later
in this chapter, all proven to work well for
different applications. But first, let’s look at
the general principles guiding intermediate
programming.
General Considerations
Exercises. The most important considera-
tion for programming at the intermediate
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level is the selection of exercises, which will
be determined in large part by the trainee’s
choice of sport or training emphasis. If
powerlifting is the sport of choice, training
will based around the squat, bench press,
and deadlift; if it is weightlifting, the snatch
and the clean and jerk will form the basis of
the program. Athletes training for heavy field
events will incorporate power exercises such
as clean and snatch variants into the basic
strength program. Those interested primar-
ily in hypertrophy will use more isolation ex-
ercises at higher reps along with the basic
strength-based program.
It is likely that athletes in sports that are
less dependent on strength – the lighter field
events, sprinters, basketball and baseball
players, non-grappling martial artists, etc. –
will never have a need to advance much bey-
ond this initial phase of intermediate train-
ing. Strength acquisition is perhaps the most
important part of any athlete’s preparation
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because it has such a profound impact on the
ability to efficiently develop and express all
the other parameters of athletics. But these
athletes are engaged in activities that are
more dependent on skills acquired in the
practice of their sport than the strength and
power provided by training in the weight
room under the bar. One reason it is import-
ant to identify training goals is that the level
to which a trainee is intentionally advanced
depends on the need for such advancement.
The degree of specialization in exercise selec-
tion is therefore also determined by the need
for more than basic strength enhancement. A
javelin thrower might opt for a 3-day pro-
gram that involves squats, presses, cleans,
snatches, and chins; any more complexity
than this is unnecessary and would take
away training time better spent on this
highly practice-dependent sport.
Exercise selection will, to a certain ex-
tent, determine sets and reps. The basic
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strength exercises – squats, presses, bench
presses, deadlifts – can be used at a variety
of rep ranges, from singles to sets of twenty.
This is one of the reasons they are so useful:
they can be used throughout the repetition
continuum to obtain the entire range of
physiologic response, from absolute strength
to power to hypertrophy to endurance.
Less versatile are the weightlifting-de-
rived movements, the snatch and the clean
and jerk, and their variants the power
snatch, the power clean, and hang snatches
and cleans. These exercises, referred to as
the “quick lifts,” are seldom used at high reps
in programs specifically designed for
strength or power development because their
technique-dependency renders them less
valuable under conditions of high-rep fa-
tigue. The fact that they cannot be done
slowly is both an asset and a limitation. It is
common to restrict snatches and cleans to
singles and doubles, occasionally using sets
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of 3 reps for cleans, the thinking being that
since fatigue causes technique to break down
the reps should be restricted to 3 or less so
that fatigue is not the limiting factor.
However, high-rep snatches and cleans and
their variants have been used quite success-
fully for a long time as very good condition-
ing exercises, in part because the full-body
nature of the movements produce an output-
demand and quality of fatigue that are hard
to duplicate with other training modalities.
Assistance exercises will be used by
intermediate-level trainees. These move-
ments are more valuable here than at any
other period in a training career. An inter-
mediate trainee is developing a feel for the
direction he wants his training to take, and
assistance exercises are a necessary part of
learning the ropes. There are thousands to
try, but only a few are valuable. The most
useful assistance movements are functional
in nature (they utilize normally encountered
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human movement patterns), use multiple
joints, incorporate a balance component, and
contribute to the performance of the basic
exercises. Chin-ups satisfy these criteria, for
example; wrist curls do not.
Front squats can be used by intermedi-
ate trainees interested in Olympic weightlift-
ing as a squat variant; they are regarded by
some not as an assistance exercise but as an-
other core lift, in our view their omission of
significant hamstring involvement limits
their consideration as such. Chins and pull-
ups are quite useful upper-body exercises
that support pressing strength and function-
al arm strength for sports that involve throw-
ing or pulling with the hands. Romanian
deadlifts (RDLs), a deadlift variant that
starts at the top instead of on the floor, and
barbell rows (pulled from the floor on each
rep) can be added at this stage of training.
Lower-back-specific exercises such as glute/
ham raises and reverse “hyperextensions,”
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are used by intermediate trainees to improve
trunk stability for the basic movements,
along with weighted sit-ups. These exercises
can be varied along the repetition continuum
depending on the result desired, but gener-
ally they are used at higher reps than the ba-
sic strength movements, since their role is to
support the function of the basics, not re-
place them.
Sets and Reps. The number of sets will
also vary with the exercise. The bulk of the
work should always be focused on the exer-
cises that produce the majority of the disrup-
tion in homeostasis. This means that the
core lifts will receive the majority of the work
in terms of sets per week and time devoted to
them, since they deliver more results for the
time spent doing them. Cleans and snatches,
being used at lower reps, will need more sets
per week to equal the amount of work; to
match the reps from 5 sets of 5 squats with
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that from cleans, you would have to do 8 sets
of 3 cleans to be nearly equivalent.
Assistance exercises using higher reps
per set might accumulate more total reps
than the core lifts. If squats are done for 5
sets of 5 across after 3 warm-up sets of 5,
and 5 sets of 10 glute/ham raises are done af-
terward, more reps of glute/hams have been
done than squats. But in terms of total
volume (weight x reps) – and in terms of
their contribution to homeostatic disruption
– the squats have been worked far harder.
So, within the framework of the exer-
cises used, our training goals will generally
determine the nature of the sets and reps.
Strength work needs up to five sets of 1 to 5
reps on the core lifts, hypertrophy calls for
five sets of 12 to 15 reps, and power work re-
quires five to ten sets of 1 to 5 reps at weights
light enough to move fast. Cleans and
snatches will be done with five to ten sets of 1
to 3 reps. Assistance exercises will be done
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with higher reps, usually 10 to 15, and fewer
sets, usually three to five.
Scheduling. At the intermediate level, the
weekly schedule conforms to the trainee’s in-
dividual needs with regard to continued pro-
gress, not to the calendar. At the advanced
level, quite often the training cycle will be
tailored to a competitive schedule, but inter-
mediate trainees are still making relatively
rapid progress and they should be allowed to
do so as long as possible with minimal inter-
ference from scheduling factors external to
the training program. If a competitive calen-
dar is superimposed on the training program
at the intermediate level, the disruption to
both the competitive performance and to the
training schedule itself will be relatively min-
imal. High school football players are often
in this position: they are making good pro-
gress on a training program despite the fact
that football season is on, and with adequate
rest and nutrition are able to do both, to the
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benefit of both. Intermediate trainees are not
so far along in their training that an occa-
sional game day will destroy the delicate bal-
ance between stress and recovery; the bal-
ance is not yet that delicate, as it will be at
the more advanced, specialized levels.
As a general rule, squats will be done at
every workout – 3 days per week – until the
trainee goes to a 4-day-per-week schedule.
Squats at 80% of the heavy day work set
weight are done as the unloading day
workout. As proficiency increases, the per-
centage moves up to 87 to 90% for medium-
day loads. The pressing movements are still
alternated for shoulder balance, with presses
and bench presses alternated every other
workout. This results in a two-week cycle,
one week pressing twice and the next week
benching twice. The deadlift and the clean
will alternate as well, and as the trainee ad-
vances and the deadlift gets very strong,
RDLs, stiff-legged deadlifts, and eventually
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power snatches may be substituted for dead-
lifts every other workout to allow for more
recovery if necessary. Assistance exercises
should be used only once or twice per week,
placed in the schedule so as to create the
maximum benefit without interfering with
the execution of the core lifts by causing ex-
cessive soreness or fatigue. Chins, for ex-
ample, if done too hard the workout before a
heavy bench press day, would be
counterproductive.
The time allotted for a training session
will obviously vary with the number of exer-
cises, sets, and reps. Rest time between sets
should be adequate for recovery but not
enough to allow “cooling off,” or a decrease
in preparedness for the next set. Too much
time between sets represents wasted training
time and, in institutional contexts, an ineffi-
cient use of the training facilities. Too little
time between sets causes failed reps and
missed work sets and defeats the purpose of
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training. Make sure that enough time is al-
lotted that the whole workout can actually be
done in one session. Any workout that takes
longer than two hours probably involves too
many exercises, too many sets, or too much
talking.
Intensity. In intermediate programming,
the intensity of the work varies across the
week (table 7-2), and this means that for the
core lifts and the quick lifts, the percentage
of 1RM and the numbers of reps must be cal-
culated for each workout. Using the progres-
sion outlined in table 7-1, a little math, and
some experience and common sense, weights
for the work sets of the core lifts and quick
lifts can be assigned across the week. Light,
medium, and heavy correspond to different
percentages, depending on the number of
reps used for the exercise, as the table shows.
If several sets across are to be done, the
weight will have to stay a little below the cor-
responding RM to allow for accumulating
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fatigue: 355 × 5 done as a 5RM would need
to be reduced to 335 or 340 × 5 for 5 sets
across.
While a measured 1RM is nice and
makes workload calculation easy, an accur-
ate evaluation of daily performance is better,
because minor variations in technique, re-
covery, and daily status are the realities of
training human athletes. This is one of the
most important functions of the coach, and
one of the best reasons to have one. Perform-
ances vary for many reasons, and human re-
sponse is not an exact science. A coach with a
good eye can judge a “relative maximum,”
the weight the individual trainee can lift on a
given day under specific individual circum-
stances. This coach/athlete interaction in-
volves a great deal of experience and feed-
back from both the coach and trainee. In that
context, “heavy” could be defined as the
point where technique begins to break down,
or the point where the more experienced
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trainee says it is. “Medium” could mean that
technique is well maintained and the trainee
feels like he’s working hard but lots of
“room” is left. “Light” should always mean
that form is perfect and several sets across at
that weight would not amount to a signific-
ant training stress. This is somewhat similar
to using the RPE (rating of perceived exer-
tion) scale in aerobic exercise programming,
but RPE depends entirely on the subjective
judgment of the trainee, and this is not al-
ways useful, especially in the weight room. It
takes an experienced coach to be able to ap-
ply this method effectively. For trainees
without access to high-level coaching, the
percentage of 1RM classification works well.
As training progresses and strength and
power are developed, the rate of improve-
ment slows down. The closer the trainee is to
his genetic potential, the slower the progress
toward it will be. The squat may advance 5
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pounds per week, instead of 5 pounds per
workout, and the bench may go up only 2
pounds per week, if that much. The more an
exercise depends on smaller muscle groups,
the more slowly that exercise will get strong.
It is prudent to keep this in mind. There is
no point in getting frustrated when the press
moves up only one pound. Any steady pro-
gress is good progress for the intermediate
trainee, and this becomes more true as the
athlete advances and progress inevitably
slows.
There will be many times over the
months and years of using this weekly train-
ing model that a change within the program
will be required to continue adaptation and
improvement. Many things can be done to
accomplish these changes. Reps and sets can
be varied as needed, and will be changed by
the observant coach or the perceptive trainee
to accommodate changing conditions as they
arise. Warm-ups will vary almost daily, in
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accordance with soreness and minor injur-
ies; more work sets should be added as they
can be successfully handled and until the
need for more sets finally justifies an addi-
tional training day. Exercise selection and
frequency can be varied. As noted in table
7-1, workout frequency will change progress-
ively, but it’s also possible that training fre-
quency will need to be decreased temporarily
as a result of a brush with overtraining. And
the workouts themselves can be manipulated
to produce varying physiologic effects by
controlling the rest time between sets.
There is a tremendous amount of pos-
sible variation in training stress that can be
used to drive adaptation for a long time.
Only the creativity of the coach or trainee
limits the possibilities, as long as the
physiologic requirements of the goal are kept
in mind and trained for.
As training progresses in intensity and
volume, the role of the coach changes from
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that of a teacher of movement patterns to a
consultant in movement, and from that of
the planner to the planning advisor. The
maturing trainee will eventually have enough
experience – from being coached and help-
ing coach others with whom he trains – that
the kind of coaching he needs will change. A
more experienced trainee needs the coach’s
eye to check what he himself cannot see,
since he has been taught the movement cor-
rectly and has months of experience doing it
correctly. Technique needs just checking or
cueing, not ground-up teaching, at this
point. The coach becomes a source of advice
about the application of the program instead
of the controller of all its elements. Coaching
input becomes more subtle, and should be-
come more precise regarding detail as the
trainee acquires finer skill. The coach should
provide input about exercise variation after
all the exercises have been taught correctly,
guidance about load and intensity variation
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after it has been determined how the trainee
responds to it, and constant, absolutely ne-
cessary reminders about technique on all the
lifts, long after technique has been learned.
Variation. The intermediate stage is the
place where most athletes make their biggest
training mistakes. It is very true that many
novices start out on terrible programs, train-
ing with no reason or logic, or adopting pro-
grams that are designed for more advanced
trainees which prevent them from progress-
ing as quickly as they could. But the magical
adaptability of the novice is often strong
enough to overcome even the poorest of de-
cisions. Beginners can seemingly make pro-
gress under even the worst of circumstances.
But for the intermediate trainee, progress is
harder to come by, and the body is much
more particular about what it responds to
when it comes to improving an already-
honed performance. Many intermediate
trainees get caught up in an endless cycle of
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changing routines, constantly messing
around with the weekly schedule of exer-
cises, sets, and reps. In an effort to feel that
progress is being made, they often talk about
changing even their core goals. How many
times does someone in the gym (or, for god-
sakes, on the Internet) who hasn’t really pro-
gressed in years talked about how they are
going to concentrate on “cutting” now in-
stead of “bulking”? Most often, that person
still just wants to get bigger and stronger, but
after a long period of no progress and hence
boredom, frustration sets in and the goal is
changed to something perceived as more at-
tainable. Or someone stuck on the bench
press for months decides to just quit doing it
and instead focus on the IsoLateral Dyn-
oPressMaster. People can ride the merry-go-
round of different exercises, different
routines, and different set and rep systems
for years with no real progress.
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The proper way to include variety in the
program is to use it in ways that reinforce
training goals, so that different types of
training during the week have a functional
purpose. This means that the variety lies in
the way the basic exercises are applied, and
not in a bunch of new exercises. Sets of 5 on
the basic exercises will always be useful as a
part of most every program, and constructive
variations will involve different interpreta-
tions of sets, reps, and movement speed. If
an athlete is training for a sport that requires
speed and power production, including some
additional explosive-type exercises is a good
idea. After the novice stage, some sort of
training that involves moving a moderate
weight quickly is very useful for these train-
ees. For those whose main goal is increased
muscular weight and size, keeping a higher-
volume day in most training cycles is neces-
sary. For those who want increased strength,
and especially an increase in strength-to-
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weight ratio, keeping the higher-volume
workouts out of most training cycles might
be smarter, with the concentration on power
training and lower-volume, higher-intensity
training.
The coach uses the training log kept by every serious
trainee as an important source of data for determina-
tions regarding staleness, overtraining, the effective-
ness of newly added exercises, and the overall effect-
iveness of the training program. Sometimes it may be
necessary to make large-scale changes in the program
due to an unexpected lack of response, the inability to
recover from the program because of individual life-
style factors outside the trainee’s control, or a change
in the athlete’s training goals. The log reveals trends in
both training and schedule compliance that have a
definite bearing on progress. It should also include the
athlete’s impressions of that day’s workout, useful cues
discovered, and any other subjective information that
might serve a purpose later. It might also include
notes about sleep, diet, and other information pertin-
ent to recovery. It is an essential tool for both trainee
and coach, and as such is not optional.
The best way to log workouts is to follow a column
format, top to bottom, using a small enough hand that
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the whole workout fits in one column, and that at least
four or five workouts fit on one page. This way it is pos-
sible to display up to three weeks training data on two
open pages, so that trends over time are visible.
This means that a good quality book will be needed. It
should be a good enough book to last at least a year, so
use a notebook with a decent binding. It need not be ex-
pensive, but it should be better than a spiral. Spiral-
bound books don’t last very long because the pages tear
out easily. The best training logs are ledger books with
relatively plain paper, but simple composition books,
the kind with the mottled covers, work just fine.
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A specific example might be the trainee
who is mostly interested in gaining muscular
weight. He has completed the novice stage,
and has finished a training cycle with 5 sets
of 5 for one workout and dynamic effort sets
for the other. He wants to gain weight, so he
will keep the 5 sets of 5 portion of the
workout and add in a higher-volume
workout for the second session. The choices
might be 5 sets of 10 across, 5 sets of 12, or
even 3 to 4 sets of 15. The first set of the 5
might be a 10RM effort, with the last 4 sets
done to failure and the rest between sets
controlled so that full recovery does not oc-
cur. Or each set might be done for all 10
reps, with enough rest between to ensure
this. Rep schemes for the volume workout
could change for each of the next few cycles,
while the 5 sets of 5 keeps pace with and
drives improvement on the volume training
days.
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Another example might be the trainee
who is mostly interested in speed and power.
As workouts are added or variety is intro-
duced, singles, doubles, and triples will be-
come more important. Dynamic effort sets
are an invaluable component of this type of
training, as are cleans and snatches and their
derivatives. Experimentation in subsequent
training cycles would include multiple sets
across of heavy singles or doubles, and 3 sets
of 3 across or ascending or descending in
weight through the work sets, along with a
continued emphasis on sets of 5. The focus is
always on force production, with high
volume only a secondary consideration.
The problem is that most people, at vari-
ous points in their training careers, lose sight
of the basis for all productive training. They
forget that the goal is always to produce a
stress that induces adaptation through re-
covery and supercompensation and that, as
advancement continues, the increased
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timeframe of this response must be factored
in. Variety for variety’s sake is pointless. All
training must be planned, and success must
be planned for. All the variety in the world is
no substitute for correct planning.
The following are a sample of the many
possible interpretations of basic weekly pro-
gramming. They are meant to be used a
guide to your own discovery of a solution to
the problem – a starting point on the way to
understanding this most important period in
the development of a strong athlete.
The Texas Method
This method uses a sharp contrast in
training variables between the beginning and
end of the week. High volume at moderate
intensity is used at the first of the week, a
light workout is done in the middle for
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maintenance of motor pathways, and then a
high intensity workout at low volume ends
the week. A classic example of this variation
would be a squat program where, after the
warm-ups, Monday’s workout is 5 work sets
of 5 across, Wednesday’s is lighter – perhaps
5’s at 80% of Monday’s load, and Friday’s is
a single heavier set of 5. It looks like this:
Monday
Squat, 5 sets of 5
Wednesday
Squat, 2 light sets of 5
Friday
Squat, 1 heavy set of 5
This simple program is probably the
most productive routine in existence for
trainees at this level. (As with all the follow-
ing example programs, the sets enumerated
are work sets, with adequate warm-up sets of
increasing weight and decreasing reps done
beforehand.) It is usually the first program to
use when simple linear programming doesn’t
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work anymore. The trainee in transition
from novice to intermediate is unable to
make progress with either a (not sufficiently
stressful) workload that he can recover from
enough to do 2 to 3 times per week, or con-
versely, a workload that is stressful enough
to induce the stress/recovery/supercom-
pensation cycle but that he cannot recover
from quickly enough to be able to do 2 to 3
times per week.
In the Texas method, the first workout
of the week is the “stress” workout, the light-
er midweek workout comes during the recov-
ery period, and the last, higher-intensity/
lower-volume workout is done when the
trainee has recovered enough from the first
day to show an increase in performance.
Both the Monday and Friday workouts in-
crease in weight each week by 5 pounds. The
total weekly training volume and training
stress is low enough that as each week begins
the trainee has no accumulated fatigue from
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the previous week, yet the one “stress”
workout on Monday is high enough in
volume to trigger an adaptation, the heavy
single set on Friday provides enough intens-
ity that neuromuscular function is reinforced
without fatally upping the volume, and each
week produces a small net increase in
strength.
This is the simplest level of periodiza-
tion, and this is the first appropriate time to
use it. While the trainee was making pro-
gress with simple linear progression, this
type of variation would have wasted training
time: more progress was being made each
week using the simple incremental increase
every workout than could be made with this
smaller weekly increase punctuated by the
mid-week offloading. But at the intermediate
level, the trainee’s ability to progress that
fast has diminished, and in order for pro-
gress to continue, the midweek offload and
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the Monday/Friday load variation become
necessary.
Most intermediate trainees will be able
to make progress for months on programs
set up like this one. Different set and rep
schemes can be used, as long as the basic
template of a volume workout, a light
workout, and an intensity workout is
followed.
Here is another example of this basic in-
termediate template, this time for pressing
exercises:
Monday
Bench press, 5 sets of 5
Wednesday
Press, 3 sets of 5
Friday
Bench press, 1RM, 2RM, or 3RM
Like the sample squat workout, this bench
press workout uses a high-volume session on
Monday, a related but less-stressful exercise
(because lighter weights are used) on
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Wednesday, and a high-intensity session on
Friday where training volume is low but PRs
are attempted. Once again, the plan is pretty
simple. The Monday workout should be
stressful enough to cause homeostatic dis-
ruption. Any trainee who has gotten to this
point in training should be able to make a
pretty good guess at what is needed, and sets
across is a proven strategy, one that has
worked for many people for decades. The
second training session is a different exercise
that contributes to the development of the
primary muscle groups being trained, work-
ing the muscles and joints involved through
a different range of motion, but at a load that
does not add significantly to the disruption
caused by the first workout. In fact, this light
workout might stimulate recovery by in-
creasing blood flow to sore muscles, in effect
reminding them that they will have a job to
do on Friday. The third day should be an
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attempt at a personal record (whether for 1,
2, or 3 reps) on the first exercise.
Again, this is the key to intermediate
level training: workout-to-workout progress
is no longer possible, since much of the dis-
tance between completely untrained and
total genetic potential has been covered in
the novice months. What is possible is
weekly progress, and Friday’s workout is the
opportunity to demonstrate it. Every effort
should be made to choose weights carefully
so that the PR can actually be done. Much is
riding on the trainee’s ability to stay unstuck
during this phase of training. The reps each
Friday do not have to be the same; it is quite
useful to try for a max single, double, or
triple on Friday, and rotate between all
three. There is enough difference between
singles and triples that the variation helps
with staying unstuck.
When a program like this is started, the
goal is to make progress on both Monday
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and Friday, just as in the novice program.
When all the prescribed sets and reps on
Monday are accomplished, raise the weight
for the next week. If a new 1RM is set Friday,
next week try for a new 2RM. In essence, lin-
ear progress is still being made, but the line
is now being drawn between Monday and
Monday and between Friday and Friday, in-
stead of between Monday and Wednesday.
Very often, after several weeks of pro-
gress with personal records getting more dif-
ficult on Friday, the cycle can be sustained
for a few more weeks with nothing more
than a slight reduction in Monday’s work-
load. Cut back the number of sets, or even
the weight on the bar a little, and progress on
Friday’s workout can usually be maintained.
The object is to make Monday’s workout
stressful enough to spur progress, but not so
stressful that it interferes with Friday’s PR.
It is always possible to exceed recovery,
just as it is always possible to
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understimulate. Balance between the two
must be achieved, or progress does not oc-
cur. The novice has little chance of chronic-
ally exceeding recovery ability unless hein-
ous abuse occurs, in the form of crazy num-
bers of sets and reps due to inexperienced or
absent supervision. And if any increase in
weight at all is occurring each workout, pro-
gress is being made, although slower pro-
gress than might be possible with more ag-
gressive loading. (The novice can exceed his
lifting ability – the limits of strength – in
which case the weights chosen cannot actu-
ally be done for the prescribed reps and sets.
This error will also lead to no progress, but is
so obvious that it can and must be immedi-
ately corrected.) The intermediate phase of
training, then, is the first opportunity for the
serious misapplication of training variables
that would result in an imbalance between
stress and recovery.
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The ability of the body to recover from a
workload increases with training, but even
with the same sets and reps, the workload in-
creases as strength – and the weight on the
bar – goes up. The novice squatting 200
pounds for 3 sets of 5 was challenged by the
task of recovery from that workload. Now,
the intermediate lifter squatting 300 pounds
for 5 sets of 5 several months later is still be-
ing challenged. Of course 200 pounds for 3
sets would be very easy to recover from at
this point, but doing that doesn’t accomplish
anything since it now does not constitute an
adaptive stimulus. Can 300 pounds for 5 sets
be recovered from as easily as 200 pounds
was months ago? Maybe, maybe not. That is
why Monday’s workout has to be adjusted as
necessary, and not always adjusted up in a
simple stepwise manner as with earlier
workouts. Sometimes as strength goes up, a
set must be dropped from the workout, or
the percentage of max slightly lowered to
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keep residual fatigue from creeping in. The
more advanced the trainee, the finer the line
between not enough and too much.
Stalled Progress. In chapter 6 we dis-
cussed two possible remedies for stalled pro-
gress in a novice’s linear training cycle.
Those principles can be applied at the inter-
mediate level as well, specifically to the task
of keeping Monday’s training stress from go-
ing too high or too low.
If progress simply stalls, with no reduc-
tion in the ability to complete Monday’s
workouts but an absence of personal records
on Fridays, the stress needed to spur pro-
gress is probably not being applied on
Monday. Often an increase or slight change
in Monday’s workout will restore progress.
Adding a set is a good idea. Or, holding the
total number of reps constant while using
more lower-rep sets with slightly higher
weight also works well. For example,
Monday’s 5 sets of 5 (25 total reps) with 300
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pounds becomes 8 sets of 3 (24 total reps)
with 315 pounds. The addition of one or two
higher-rep sets done after the regular work
sets is another option; these are referred to
as back-off sets. The trainee doing 5 sets of
5 with 300 pounds could follow that with a
set of 10 at 250, or even at 225 if done with a
pause or some other alteration that makes
the reps harder at lighter weight. The possib-
ilities are endless, but they should not all be
explored at the same time; stress should be
added in small increments.
If, however, actual regression occurs,
not only in Friday’s workout but with stale-
ness carrying over into Monday, then usually
the workload on Monday is too high, and re-
sidual unrecovered fatigue is creeping in.
Possible solutions could be to eliminate
excessive warm-up volume, to drop a set or
two from the sets across, reduce the work-set
weight, or reduce the reps in the work sets –
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from 5 sets of 5 with 300 pounds to 5 sets of
4 with 300, for example.
With intelligent, careful use, it is not un-
common for this type of program to yield
many months of continual progress.
Dynamic Effort Sets. A valuable training
tool that fits very well into the Texas method
template is dynamic effort (DE) sets, as pop-
ularized by Louie Simmons in his Westside
method. The authors are grateful to Louie
and his athletes for this extremely important
contribution to the strength training
portfolio.
High-intensity training, that is, using a
very high percentage of your force produc-
tion capacity, is very productive but difficult
to recover from in large doses. Any reps done
where maximal force is applied train the effi-
ciency of motor unit recruitment. The most
common way to generate maximal force is to
use maximal weights – 3, 2, or 1RMs. The
problem with using maximal weights is that
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it is extremely taxing and hard to recover
from. Lifting heavy weights is obviously a
useful thing, but heavy weights must be re-
spected and used properly and sparingly or
chronic injuries can develop. Tendinitis, liga-
ment injuries, bursitis, tendon avulsion in-
juries, cartilage damage, and long-term
changes in bony anatomy can accompany the
misuse of heavy weights at low reps.
Another way to increase the number and
efficiency of motor units recruited to gener-
ate force is to generate that force quickly and
explosively, requiring the coordinated, sim-
ultaneous firing of high numbers of motor
units. DE sets increase neuromuscular effi-
ciency, in effect making it easier for the body
to regularly recruit this larger number of mo-
tor units by teaching the neuromuscular sys-
tem to do it on demand. The most useful way
turn on more available motor units each time
the bar is lifted is to use a lighter weight,
somewhere between 50 and 75% of 1RM, and
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push the bar as fast as possible. This has ad-
vantages over using maximal weights: it al-
lows far more reps to be done, practiced
with, and recovered from, and it can be used
for long periods of time without injury due to
the lighter weights involved and the reduced
stress on joints and connective tissue.
A proven way to use this method is with
timed sets, usually done with about 10 sets of
2 or 3 repetitions with a short, controlled
rest between the sets moving the bar as
quickly as absolutely possible for each rep. It
cannot be stressed enough that even though
this type of training is usually done with
lighter weights, each repetition must be done
with maximum effort. The magnitude of the
force production is determined by the degree
of acceleration of the load, not the amount of
weight on the bar, and acceleration is com-
pletely volitional – the lifter must actively try
to move each rep faster than the previous
one. Herein lies the difficulty: this level of
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focus is hard for many people to maintain,
and it must be maintained for all ten sets or
the benefit is lost. A 65% weight is of no use
moved slowly, but, when moved explosively
for 20 reps in 10 minutes, it becomes a very
powerful tool for the development of
strength and power.
When beginning this type of training, it
is normal to continue to use 5 sets of 5 on
Monday and replace Friday’s workout with
DE sets. A lifter ready try this on the bench
press might have done 250 pounds for 5 sets
of 5, 270 for one set of 5, and might be as-
sumed to have a 1RM of around 300. A good
first week for this type of program might be
240 for 5 sets of 5 on Monday and 185 for 10
explosive triples on Friday, with one minute
between sets. The weight to use for the sets is
the most weight that allows all 30 reps to be
done explosively. If even the last rep of the
last set slows down, the weight is too heavy.
In fact, the first time this workout is used,
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the last set of 3 should be noticeably faster
than the first set.
The object is to maximally accelerate the
bar and complete each set as quickly as pos-
sible. It is normal to take 2 to 3 workouts to
find the correct weight, and then stay at that
weight for several weeks while the weight in-
creases on the sets-across workout. For in-
stance, 185 on the bar for Friday’s DE sets
might work for 4 to 5 weeks, while normal
progression on Monday’s workout carries the
weight incrementally back up to and past the
previous 250 for 5 sets of 5. Remember, the
object on Monday is heavy weight for sets
across that goes up a little each week, and
the object on Friday is moving the same
weight as last Friday faster.
This is probably the best way to utilize
this method the first time. It’s the hardest to
screw up, and the very act of trying to accel-
erate the bar, even without increasing the
weight every week, will improve the ability to
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fire more motor units, which helps drive pro-
gress on the 5 sets of 5.
DE sets can be used with most multi-
joint exercises, although different exercises
customarily use different reps and sets.
Squats use 2 reps, usually for 10 sets, while
bench presses and presses typically use sets
of 3, again for 10 sets; both are done with a
one-minute rest between sets. Deadlifts work
well with 15 singles on a 30-second clock.
Weighted chin-ups have even been done this
way. It works best to take each set out of the
rack on the minute, re-rack it quickly after
the set, and focus on the next set during the
rest.
DE sets work well within the general in-
termediate template, because at first the
ability to do relatively light weights fast will
be underdeveloped, and the speed workout
will not be that stressful. The speed workout
is substituted for the PR workout on Friday,
with the high-volume workout remaining as
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the primary stressor on Monday. The unique
neuromuscular stimulus of this type of train-
ing should allow steady progress on
Monday’s workout for a while without sub-
jecting the body to more stress than it can re-
cover from. But as proficiency at DE sets in-
creases, this workout can become stressful
enough to be used as the main stressor on
Monday, with a lower stress workout, pos-
sibly several heavy singles across, at the end
of the week.
The Split Routine Model
The three-day-a-week, whole-body
workout plan that has been used up to this
point is a very effective way to organize
training. In fact, most people would be well
served by continuing this basic program
design through their whole training career. It
is an efficient use of time, and it provides a
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complete workout. There are, however, reas-
ons to change from this model.
One possible reason is simple boredom.
Training should be fun, and more progress
will be made if it is. Different people have
different psychological needs for variety. For
some, the prospect of continuing on for years
and years training the whole body three
times a week is not welcome. These people
will respond better to a program that varies
more during the week, one that varies every
week, or even every workout, as CrossFit
programming does.
For some, a shift in goals or the need to
combine gym workouts with more specific
training for a competitive sport will prompt a
change. This could be caused by time con-
straints, or by the need to avoid the systemic
fatigue that a whole-body workout causes so
it doesn’t interfere with sport-specific train-
ing. Split routines address this problem by
dividing the workload into more manageable
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segments along the lines of functional differ-
ences in the exercises.
A good example of a weekly schedule
change would be that of a competitive shot-
putter changing from 3 days a week to a
4-day-a-week program, as follows:
Monday
Squats and pressing exercises
Wednesday
Pulling exercises such as cleans and
snatches, and other back work
Thursday
Squats and presses
Saturday
Pulling exercises
This can be appropriate for several reasons.
Trainees involved in sports like the shot put
normally do technique-oriented training sev-
eral days a week, throwing various imple-
ments and using some form of plyometric
training and sprint work. Good quality tech-
nique training is difficult the day after a
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whole-body workout, just as thirty throws
would interfere with squats, pulls, and
presses if done within an hour or two of
practicing the shot put. What many would
consider the most important exercises for
the shot put – dynamic pulling exercises
such as snatch, the clean, and related exer-
cises – are placed by themselves so that the
trainee can devote an appropriate amount of
attention to them.
Many competitive powerlifters use a
training schedule like this one:
Monday
Bench press and related exercises
Tuesday
Squatting and deadlifting exercises
Thursday
Bench press and related exercises
Friday or Saturday
Squatting and deadlifting exercises
For the powerlifter, the split serves a differ-
ent purpose than for the shot-putter. The
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specialized equipment used in the sport
lengthens time it takes to train each lift.
Training all three lifts in one session would
often mean an enormous stress on the body
and a 4-hour session, something neither de-
sirable nor possible for many people. The
bench press is best trained the day before the
squat so that it is not affected by the fatigue
produced by squatting and deadlifting. As re-
lated movements, squatting and pulling ex-
ercises can be combined. With the focus on
very heavy weights and the use of squat suits,
bench press shirts, and wraps in the sport,
these two lifts cannot be trained heavy more
than once per week by most competitive lift-
ers. Since the same basic muscle groups are
used, it is convenient to have a heavy squat/
light deadlift workout, and another that is
heavy deadlift/light squat.
The Starr Model
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A different model of weekly periodiza-
tion described by Mark Berry in 1933 called
for three training days per week and vari-
ation in workload among those days. In this
model, the whole body is worked every day
using many of the same exercises, but the
amount of weight varies each day: a medium
day, a heavy day, a light day. Various per-
mutations of this model have been used for
several decades, one of the most popular be-
ing the version presented by Bill Starr in his
1976 book The Strongest Shall Survive.
Starr’s was a similar three-day-per week
model, with the loads ordered from heavy to
medium to light, a slightly different applica-
tion of the load/rest relationship than in the
Texas method described earlier in this
chapter. Another version was used by Dr.
Mike Stone as early as 1976 and outlined in a
number of his publications from the Nation-
al Strength Research Laboratory at Auburn
University in the early 1980s. Stone’s
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method uses a simple load variation among
four workouts per week (rather than the
three of previous incarnations). Both the
Starr and Stone models call for varying the
exercises between days in addition to varying
the load. Dr. Stone’s model is perhaps the
most completely researched and frequently
cited periodization program in Western
sports science literature. It works very well
in its early three- and four-day stages for
most strength and power athletes. Other
coaches have adapted this program for
Olympic weightlifters, adding a fifth and a
sixth day as the athlete advances and adapts
to an ever-increasing training load (table
7-1). For general strength development and
powerlifting, a 5-to-6 day program is excess-
ive, but due to the nature of weightlifting
training – most importantly the marked re-
duction in the amount of eccentric work
provided by an emphasis on the snatch and
the clean and jerk – the extra days do not
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provide the type of stress that more absolute
strength work would, and thus the longer
schedule can actually be recovered from.
Adding a day for the purpose of increas-
ing training volume is actually different from
doing a 4-day split routine as described
above, where the four days are essentially
two workouts that have been divided into
four. When increasing training volume from
a three-day schedule, another complete day
is added and the entire body is trained, as on
the other 3 days, but at a different intensity.
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Table 7-1. Progression of the variations of training
frequency and intensities. Note that each time a day is
added, it is medium in intensity. Each schedule is
used for a few weeks or months until progress stalls,
before attempting the next, more demanding, level.
Notice that there is only one “light day” included in
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each weekly series and there is at least one complete
day off each week. The 5- and 6-day versions of the
program assume an Olympic weightlifting emphasis.
Assuming 3 months to adapt to each new frequency/
load, this table would represent about two years of
training and progression in both volume and
intensity.
It is extremely important to understand
that the addition of training volume in the
form of extra training days works only as
long as recovery is being carefully managed.
Adding an additional day to a program that
is already producing overtraining would ob-
viously be a bad idea, so the Starr model
must be carefully applied to the right situ-
ation. If it can be determined that overtrain-
ing is not the cause of an athlete’s plateau,
the careful addition of the fourth workout
can prompt progress to resume. If it does
not, a review of the recovery milieu should
reveal the problem, and the program should
be reevaluated accordingly.
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So far, we have used the terms “heavy,”
“medium,” and “light” very loosely, but it is
most useful to consider loads as percentages
of 1RM, since this is a quantifiable value for
each athlete. In general, “light” is any load
less than 70% of 1RM, “medium” is greater
than 70% but less than 85% of 1RM, and
“heavy” is a load greater than 85% of 1RM
(table 7-2), but this depends entirely on the
number of reps done with the weight.
Table 7-2. The difficulty of a repetition scheme is a
function of both the intensity and the volume used.
The numbers in the table represent reps. A set of 3 re-
petitions with 90% 1RM is heavy, as is a set of 15 with
60% 1RM. As such, 60% for 15 reps cannot be con-
sidered a recovery workout any more than 90% for 3
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reps can. Recovery during periodized training re-
quires a reduction in relative intensity. For example, if
sets of 3 are being used to train for strength, 90%
would be a hard workout, and 70% for 3 reps would
be considered an easy workout that will allow for
recovery.
The heavy/medium/light concept seems
simple enough. More complex, though, is its
correct application. Doing one set of 3 with
70% is light work and will facilitate recovery
as “active rest” if used as part of a light-day
workout. But what happens with 5 sets of 10
at 70%? Each trainee at the intermediate
level has a specific training goal: strength,
power, or mass, and each of these goals has a
specific repetition range associated with it.
Each range also has an intensity (%1RM) as-
sociated with it that is a maximal stress. For
example, a trainee should be able to do three
sets of 10 with about 75% of 1RM. This would
be difficult, so its relative intensity is high
for the repetitions. Knowing this, offload or
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recovery days can be planned for by reducing
the intensity without changing the reps. If 3
sets of 10 reps with 70% constitutes the
heavy day, offload would be 50-60% of 1RM
for three sets of 10. But if 80% for sets of 5 is
the work, 70% for sets of 10 is not offloading,
and it will not facilitate recovery. It is im-
portant to understand the relationship
between repetitions and intensity, how to
manage that relationship correctly, and how
trainees respond to it (refer back to table
7-2).
Notice that we introduced the concept of 1RM testing
and application for the first time in the discussion of
intermediate trainees. As useful as 1RM is for trainees
at this level, it does have its limitations for athletes in
other situations.
Novice trainees cannot use a 1RM to determine any-
thing, because 1) they cannot perform a true one-repe-
tition maximum effort, and 2) if they could perform a
1RM, it would not be valid for exercise programming.
Novices, by definition, lack the motor skill to perform a
valid 1RM on any barbell exercise. They have been per-
forming the movements only a short time and have not
had a chance to develop the motor pathway of the
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movement to the point where the effort can be the fo-
cus instead of the movement pattern. So, by definition,
any heavy one-rep attempt at any barbell exercise by a
novice is submaximal. Such a test proves nothing, tests
nothing, and is dangerous enough for inexperienced
trainees that it is not worth the risk.
One very good reason that the percentages calculated
from such a test are invalid for determining work loads
for the novice is the fact that novice trainees get
stronger every time they are exposed to an effort they
have not previously performed. If the test itself makes
the trainee stronger, then the test has functioned as a
training stimulus and the assumption that the value ob-
tained is actually a 1RM is wrong. If a novice’s ability
improves every time he trains, he is essentially a differ-
ent athlete than the one for whom the test is supposed
to determine workloads.
Older athletes over 40, even at the intermediate level,
need to be cautious when attempting 1RM, especially
for purposes of determining programming percentages.
It is one thing to risk an exposure to a heavy weight in a
contest environment, since that is the purpose for
training for the event. It is quite another for a masters
athlete to test an actual 1RM as a diagnostic for further
programming. If done using correct technique, 1RM
can be tested during a heavy-day workout without a
great deal of risk for an experienced athlete, and the
results of a 1RM are more accurate than a sub-max RM
test. But any 1RM effort is by definition less that perfect
technically – if it were absolutely perfect a little more
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weight could be used. Masters competitors have
enough problems already, among them chronic injuries
being trained around, inelastic ligaments and tendons,
and less efficient recovery abilities. Sometimes it might
be better to rely on the subjective perception of the
older, experienced athlete for information about abso-
lute strength regarding his programming, depending on
the acumen of that particular individual.
If the occasion arises that makes strength testing neces-
sary, which should be done, 1RM or multi-RM? A
multi-RM test done within the parameters of the
workout program, using the same reps that the pro-
gram is using at that time, is useful for determining
program effectiveness. It provides a test result and does
not disrupt the volume/intensity scheme the way a
series of heavy singles would. But in the context of an
effective program, a trainee is never far removed from a
maximum multi-rep effort anyway, so this information
is readily available without the test. The result of a
formal 5RM test will not usually be more than 3 to 4
percent higher than 5 heavy reps done in the course of
training.
All exercise testing carries a small amount of risk, but
which is safer? A 1RM test is no more dangerous than a
multi-RM for an open age-group competitor. A failed
1RM does not occur because it fatigues the muscle; the
muscle simply cannot generate enough force to move
the weight through the complete range of motion of the
lift, and the spotters take it or the weight is dropped. In
the absence of an active injury and assuming good
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technique, a 1RM is not inherently dangerous for an ex-
perienced lifter. Contrast this to a multi-RM test that
uses repetition to muscle fatigue and subsequent fail-
ure. Not only is an additional factor (fatigue) added to
the test (which now tests stamina in addition to
strength), but the trainee is exposed to a larger, longer
testing load. Neuromuscular fatigue and big loads
handled to true 5RM intensity are more potentially
dangerous than simple failure with one rep.
The process of executing a 1RM test is fairly straightfor-
ward. After a warm-up, a series of progressively heavier
attempts is made. Weight increases should be relatively
small, and the test should include about 10 to 12 total
reps. For a multi-RM test, the number of reps should be
consistent with the current training program – it is un-
wise and ineffective to attempt a 5RM when sets of 5
have not been trained for several weeks. Weight should
be added progressively after each successful set, with
judgment exercised so that the last set before the final
5RM does not produce sufficient fatigue to adversely af-
fect the results.
It should be understood that a 5RM test yields a 5RM;
and a 5RM is not terribly useful for predicting a 1RM.
Many factors influence the efficiency with which an in-
dividual converts a 5RM to a 1RM, and it is not an exact
science. There are many formulas that have been de-
veloped, none of which can take into account the
factors peculiar to the individual test situation: the
neuromuscular efficiency, experience, fatigue, mood,
and sex (see chapter 9) of the athlete, not to mention
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the differences with which individual exercises convert
from 5 reps to max single. If a 1RM value is required,
then 1RM must be tested, since there is no other accur-
ate way to produce or calculate one.
Remember, the goal of any model of
weekly periodized training is to produce a
disruption in homeostasis through the cu-
mulative effects of training days, and then al-
low supercompensation to occur with the in-
clusion of the light day and the rest it
provides. The light day is an absolutely es-
sential component of the program; it is a re-
covery day. A light training load should not
be enough to induce an overload and disrupt
homeostasis, and it is not really a part of the
overload event. It should be light enough to
allow for recovery while at the same time
providing enough work through the move-
ment pattern to keep it fresh. Failure to in-
clude the light day indicates a lack of under-
standing of the actual workings of the pro-
gram. A 70% day may seem too easy and
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appear to be wasted time, but the offloading
it provides is necessary for progress. The av-
erage gym member focuses on how he feels
during and after each workout – “I caught a
most excellent pump today, my man!” –
while the athlete trains for long-term im-
provement. Do not yield to the temptation to
push up the percentages on light days. Re-
member this: you don’t get strong by lifting
weights. You get strong by recovering from
lifting weights.
Recovery begins immediately after each
workout, as the body begins to repair the
damage done by the stress so that adaptation
can occur, and all the significant damage is
done during the heavy workouts. Light days
do not add to the damage. They aid recovery
from it by increasing blood flow to the sore
areas, working the joints through the ROM,
and helping with fatigue the way nature has
been dealing with it for millions of years – by
forcing recovery during unavoidable
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continuing activity. The light workout is
therefore embedded in the part of the week
in which recovery takes place. In this model,
it does not matter what day of the week the
light day falls on. A light day on Friday
means that by Monday a trainee should be
recovered and ready for more. If the light
day is on Monday, the trainee should be re-
covered and ready for a larger load on Wed-
nesday or Thursday.
Intensity Variation. It is imperative in the
Starr model to vary training stress during the
week in some form or another. Varying the
intensity – the percentage of 1RM lifted – is
only one way to do so. Doing the same
heavy-day workout in a weekly schedule that
calls for 2 heavy days per week will not work
very long. When a week contains multiple
heavy days, different ways to train heavy
must be used each time or staleness will res-
ult. In the example above, 5 sets of 5 across
on Monday with one heavier set of 5 reps on
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Wednesday is an excellent way to vary the
quality of the heavy day and keep the intens-
ity high. Using different numbers of reps at
the same high relative intensity works well:
for a week with three heavy days, a good or-
ganization would be 5 heavy sets of 5 across
on Monday, one heavy triple on Tuesday,
and 5 heavy singles on Thursday. The critical
factor is the variation among the heavy
workouts, keeping the overall training stress
high while changing up the quality of the
work done.
Rest between sets is a variable that lends
itself to manipulation quite readily. In the
earlier discussion of dynamic effort sets, we
noted that control of the rest time is an im-
portant variable. All training facilities should
have an analog clock with a sweep second
hand for this purpose. Sets that would other-
wise be easy can be made very hard by limit-
ing recovery between sets to a minute or less,
such that only partial recovery is possible
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and each following set is done in a climate of
accumulating fatigue.
As discussed above, speed of movement
is a variable that can be manipulated very ef-
fectively, especially if power production is a
primary training consideration. A high bar
speed with an exercise traditionally done
slowly produces a much higher power out-
put, allowing the squat, press, bench press,
and deadlift to be trained at a high rate of
force production while using a relatively light
weight. This work increases neuromuscular
efficiency because of the amount of force ne-
cessary to accelerate the weight to high velo-
city, but it lacks the heavy skeletal load that
accompanies weights closer to 1RM, thus
stressing the ligaments less than heavier
weights otherwise would and contributing to
better and easier recovery.
Some exercises are by their nature more
demanding than others, in terms of their ef-
fects on recovery. Heavy, limit-level deadlifts
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are very stressful on the entire physiological
system, making sets across at a high percent-
age of 1RM a bad choice for the deadlift be-
cause of their effects on the rest of the train-
ing week. One heavy set of deadlifts usually
produces sufficient stress without the need
for more sets. Conversely, the stress pro-
duced by even very heavy power cleans is of
a different quality, since the factors that limit
the amount of weight in the power clean do
not involve absolute strength and therefore
do not stress the contractile components of
muscle, the ligaments and tendons, and the
nervous system at the level the deadlift does.
Heavy cleans produce their own unique type
of stress, related to the impact involved in
racking the bar, but it is quite different from
that produced by a heavy deadlift. As a gen-
eral rule, exercises strictly dependent on ab-
solute strength for their execution at heavy
weights are harder to recover from than
technique-dependent exercises that are
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limited by skill of execution and power pro-
duction and that are typically done without a
significant eccentric component. This is why
the Olympic lifts can be trained with a higher
frequency than the power lifts, and why
training programs for athletes must take into
consideration the relative intensities of the
primary components of the program.
Whatever the method used, higher in-
tensity work must be varied if it is to be used
for long periods of time in the context of
weekly programming. If variation does not
occur, and good choices are not made about
how to approach training stress variation,
progress will slow prematurely.
Frequency Variation. The obvious way to
increase volume during the training week in
the Starr model is to add workouts. Add
training sessions one at a time and hold the
volume constant for several weeks or
months, until progress slows at that volume,
at which point you can add another day. The
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tremendous number of possible combina-
tions of workouts per week and light-
medium-heavy loading make this model of
training useful for 2 to 3 years, possibly
longer than either of the other two models.
When introducing an additional workout,
initially add it as a medium-intensity day.
Later, as the trainee adapts to the load, the
relative intensity of the additional day can be
increased.
Progression through the number of
workouts per week requires close observa-
tion of how the trainee tolerates each addi-
tion. Some trainees initially appear to handle
a fourth training day with ease, but then
crash two to four weeks later: work tolerance
goes down, performance decreases, nagging
injuries or pain become evident. This point
may be the upper limit of the trainee’s work
capacity, the point beyond which overtrain-
ing will occur. Some offloading must happen
for a short time, either by changing a heavy
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day to a light day or by eliminating a single
workout (not the light one) for two weeks or
until the trainee feels normal again. Failure
to do so could easily result in a first exposure
to overtraining, costing valuable training
time and producing frustration and possible
chronic injuries that could interfere with
long-term progress. The way this first expos-
ure to excessive overload is handled is cru-
cial to later dealings with overtraining issues.
Correct offloading and recovery now teaches
the importance of recovery in the grand
scheme of training and establishes a preced-
ent for an intelligent approach to handling
overtraining.
Most athletes will not need to even at-
tempt training schedules of more than four
days per week. There are few sports that be-
nefit from more than four days of training
outside their specific practice requirements.
Powerlifting, as it has been traditionally
trained, does not typically use more than
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four days per week, although some more
progressive lifters have gotten good results
by doing so and the paradigm is changing.
But field sports, Highland games, strongman
competition, and team sports that use bar-
bell conditioning will not normally need or
desire any more gym time than a four-day
program provides. So anyone interested in
five or six days of training is probably a com-
petitor in one of the barbell sports – weight-
lifting or powerlifting – or is a physique
competitor.
For these athletes, each increase in
training volume must be carefully gauged. As
training progress slows each time volume is
added, the cause of the plateau must be cor-
rectly evaluated to make sure that the slow-
down is not caused by a non-volume-related
training variable. It might be that the intens-
ity is too high on one or more of the heavy
days or too low on more than one of the
heavy days, or that proper recovery is not
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being attended to. If the cause of the plateau
is determined to be other than training
volume, progress should be restored by fix-
ing these problems before volume is in-
creased again.
Very fit trainees who tolerate the five-
and six-days-per-week schedules may fur-
ther benefit from doing two workouts on one
or more days per week. Dr. Keijo Hakkinen
has shown that strength gains may be more
efficiently produced by dividing up a day’s
training volume into two workouts instead of
one. This system is used in many national
team training situations where the athlete’s
schedule is completely free of outside con-
straints on time and recovery. Instead of
spending two to three hours in the gym at
one time, an hour or so two or more times a
day allows the body to experience additional
recuperation between training stresses. In
collegiate programs and in professional
sports situations, it is the strength coach’s
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job to be there to help, and the athletes’ re-
sponsibility to do everything they can to im-
prove. But most athletes will not be able to
conform to a schedule like this due to obvi-
ous conflicts with school, work, and family.
In high school programs, the schedule is de-
termined by the available time, not by what
would be ideal for training.
The intermediate trainee can use this
programming schedule for quite some time.
There is a great deal of room for progression,
with variations in both sets/reps and
workout intensities as strength improves and
the number of training sessions increases
systematically. The limit on the number of
workouts per week for this model of period-
ization is highly individual. Personal sched-
ules, family commitments, work, and the
ability to physiologically and psychologically
adapt to high training volumes all play a role.
At some level, the ability to increase training
volume to the maximum tolerable level may
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determine the ultimate success of the athlete.
Five heavy training days and one light day
repeated every week for three months is
something from which very few people can
recover adequately; most will be overtrained
on such a demanding schedule. The vast ma-
jority will not get even this far before over-
training becomes a major problem. Only the
most genetically gifted athletes who are also
able to devote all necessary time to training
and recovery can function at this high level
of loading without gigantic problems. The
ability to do so indicates that the athlete can
function and progress at the extremes of hu-
man ability, the very quality necessary for
elite-level performance.
If it is determined that the trainee has
reached the end of the usefulness of weekly
training organization, advanced program-
ming methods are warranted.
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Chapter 8: The
Advanced Trainee
The advanced trainee is one for whom a
weekly training organization is no longer
working. At this level of advancement, an
overload event and subsequent recovery
from it may take a month or more. Further-
more, each overload event may be designed
to produce a different type of overload, such
that several of these longer periods taken to-
gether produce cumulative effects that they
would not produce separately.
Arguably the most important step in the
stress/adaptation cycle is the recovery –
without it, adaptation does not occur. For the
novice, a simple day off between workouts is
sufficient. For the intermediate, several days
are required, during which a couple of low-
impact workouts are performed to preserve

skill and conditioning and to demonstrate
increased performance. For the advanced
trainee, the rest phase can be one or two
weeks of decreased training load, comprising
several workouts that are low enough in
volume to allow fatigue to dissipate but high
enough in intensity to maintain the skills
needed to demonstrate peak performance.
Because of the interplay between stress and
adaptation of different physical skills at dif-
ferent times, the advanced trainee is almost
always in the process of trying to rest some
particular physical quality while working to
develop a different one. This makes for a
complex training milieu, and care must be
taken when setting the stage.
Periodization is the term most fre-
quently used when referring to the organiza-
tion of weight training programming into
periods of time longer than the interval
between two workouts. Its central organizing
principle is the variation of volume and
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intensity in order to obtain a training object-
ive. One of the most commonly referenced
models of periodization is attributed to
Leonid Matveyev and is so entrenched in the
literature that it is often referred to as “clas-
sical” periodization. Conventional wisdom
holds that Matveyev’s model is the only way
to program resistance training for everyone,
regardless of their level of training
advancement.
The concept of periodic variation in
training volume and intensity has been
around for quite some time. It is quite prob-
able that the training of ancient Greek ath-
letes involved the use of periods of heavier
and lighter training, especially considering
the fact that the scheduling of games was de-
pendent on the cycles of war and agriculture.
At the turn of the last century, the term
“photoperiod” was used to describe the phe-
nomenon observed among athletes perform-
ing better in late summer and early fall. It
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was assumed that the amount of sunlight ex-
posure contributed to the improved perform-
ance, and so the most stressful training was
done in spring and summer.
As early as 1933, Mark Berry was using
weekly variations in programming for his
bodybuilders and weightlifters, and wrote
about it in several publications. In the 1950s,
Lazlo Nadori, a sports scientist and coach in
Hungary, developed a model of periodization
for his athletes. The development of this par-
ticular model was unique to Hungary and
was separate from the evolution of Soviet
block periodization, since no translations of
his work into Russian were done. In the
1960s, Russian weightlifting coach Leonid
Matveyev developed his concepts of periodiz-
ation, and his 1971 book provides several dif-
ferent models for a diversity of sports. The
one of these that is now known as “classical”
periodization was intended for beginners.
Later in 1981, Matveyev’s book,
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“Fundamentals of Sport Training” was
translated into German and English (many
thanks to Dr. Bernard Burton for procuring a
copy of this rare book for the authors). Hav-
ing written the first periodization book avail-
able in the West, he became known as the
father of periodization by default.
Also in the 1960s Matveyev’s hated rival
Yuri Verkhoshansky developed his system of
conjugated loading, openly stating that peri-
odization was crap. But since his conjugated
loading system was also periodized, it must
be assumed that he really just thought
Matveyev’s approach to periodization was
crap. In 1982, East German sports scientist
Dr. Dietrich Harre edited Principles of Sport
Training, which is essentially a fusion of the
works of Nadori and Matveyev. A couple of
years later, Frank Dick, the head of British
track and field, “liberally recreated” Harre’s
book in English. Tudor Bompa, the Romani-
an author of the famous text Periodization,
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was trained in the East German system, and
his first and subsequent texts are essentially
reiterations and adaptations of Harre’s ad-
aptation of Nadori and Matveyev. And here
we are today with no new thoughts, no new
systems, and no real explanations of period-
ization since the last century. What we do
have is a large misunderstanding about what
periodization is and how to use it.
The fact is that, from Mark Berry’s ob-
servations in the 1930s forward, the basic
features of training for advanced athletes
preparing for a competition have always
been these two things:
Thing 1 – The closer an athlete is to in-
dividual genetic potential, the more im-
portant the cumulative effects of a series
of workouts become (fig. 8-1).
Thing 2 – Training for more advanced
athletes must be organized into longer
periods of time, and those periods pro-
gress from higher volume and lower
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intensity toward lower volume and high-
er intensity (fig. 8-2).
Figure 8-1. Thing 1. The advanced trainee responds
to periodized programming over a longer period of
time than either the beginner or intermediate trainee.
Gray bars indicate training days, white bars are days
off.
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Figure 8-2. Thing 2. There is generally an inverse
relationship between volume and intensity during a
single training cycle for the advanced trainee.
relative to time.
As simple linear progression directs the
novice’s workout-to-workout training, and as
simple weekly variation directs the
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intermediate’s training, Thing 1 applies to
athletes whose response to training has ad-
vanced to the point that several weeks at a
time must be considered in their program-
ming. Thing 2 is a function of the fact that
advanced athletes compete, they do so at
specific times, and their training has to allow
all aspects of performance to peak at those
particular times. A novice is not a competit-
ive athlete, at least not in any serious sense.
An intermediate may compete, but perform-
ance at the intermediate level is still pro-
gressing quickly enough that each weekend
represents a peak anyway. Advanced athletes
produce a peak by appointment only, and
that peak must be scheduled in advance and
trained for precisely and accurately.
There are many ways to set up programs
that fit within these parameters. Advanced
programs are by their very nature highly in-
dividual matters, since no two athletes at this
level are the same. They must be carefully
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developed according to the athlete’s training
history, personal tolerances and abilities,
and the schedule of both the athlete and the
sport.
With this in mind, four basic versions
will be presented here. First, a very simple
pyramid model that illustrates the general
principles involved in longer programming
models. Second, one that works well for bar-
bell sports in particular, the Two Steps For-
ward, One Step Back model. Next, the Build-
ing Blocks model, which uses four-week peri-
ods, each devoted to a different aspect of
physical preparedness, to accumulate all of
the necessary elements at meet time. And
last, the Hormonal Fluctuation model, which
uses a 5- to 8-week period of very intense
training to force an adaptation through spe-
cific manipulation of the endocrine system.
The Pyramid Model
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The best way to jump into longer train-
ing cycles is with a very simple model, with a
structure that consists of nothing more than
a pyramid that lasts for a two-month period.
This example uses the squat, and a lifter
whose 1RM is 400 pounds, 5RM is 365, and
5 sets of 5 max is 340.
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These first four weeks make up the “loading”
portion of the cycle. The total weekly training
volume is much higher than the trainee has
previously done, with five sets of five across
for two heavy days per week rather than just
one, and one offloading day. This volume is
such that the trainee should experience some
residual fatigue and may not make a PR for 5
sets of 5 by the end of week four. In fact, by
Friday of week three the trainee might have
trouble completing the prescribed sets and
reps. But if fatigue has not accumulated, if
recovery is occurring well, and all the reps of
the fourth week’s sets are finished, it would
be useful to milk this process for another
week, establishing significant new PRs for 5
× 5, before entering a peaking phase.
The four weeks that follow – the peaking
phase – are dramatically different:
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As in the loading phase, another week can be
added if warranted by recovery and progress
in order to get the most out of the cycle.
Reducing the volume and total training
stress in this second phase allows gradual re-
covery from the previous high-training
volume. During weeks five through eight, the
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trainee is actually “resting” from the
previous high-volume work, and as fatigue
dissipates and adaptation occurs, improved
performance is attained. Weeks one through
four are, in essence, doing the same job as
the Monday high-volume workout in the
Texas Method intermediate program, placing
enough stress on the body to force adapta-
tion, and weeks five through eight function
like the Texas Wednesday and Friday
workouts, allowing for rest and adaptation
and the demonstration of increased perform-
ance. But for the advanced trainee the pro-
cess is stretched out over a much longer
timeframe.
It is possible to successfully repeat a
simple pyramid cycle like this several times,
with virtually no changes other than an in-
creased load. A trainee who completes this
cycle might start the next cycle on week one,
with Monday’s workout weight set at 315 × 5
× 5, and end up with 415 × 3 at the end of
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week eight. This process could carry forward
for many months, possibly longer.
Usually, a week or two of “active rest” or
less-frequent training with moderate weights
is a good idea between cycles to assure that
the trainee is rested and ready to undergo
another period of stressful training. After
finishing the above cycle, squatting twice per
week for two weeks with 2 or 3 sets of 5 at
300 pounds would be appropriate.
The effectiveness of the pyramid cycle is
not limited to sets of 5 and 3. Loading could
be 3 sets of 10. Peaking could be one set of 5.
The important thing is to do sufficient
volume during the loading phase so that fa-
tigue is accumulated, enough to make per-
formance at or near PR levels difficult but
not impossible. A good rule of thumb is that
if levels of 90% or more of 5RM cannot be
performed during week three before any re-
duction in training volume occurs, the work-
load is probably too high. If the trainee is at
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or above PR levels at the end of the loading
period, an increase in loading for the next
cycle will probably work.
This simple example of the basics of
longer programming can obviously be ap-
plied to all the lifts, not just the squat. There
are also more complicated plans, each useful
in its own particular set of circumstances.
The Two Steps Forward, One
Step Back Model
A second model, a variation on one used
by USA Weightlifting’s former national
coach Lyn Jones with some of his athletes,
manipulates the workload in four-week
blocks, with progress made by connecting a
series of these blocks using progressively
higher loads. Each block starts with a week
at a baseline load of moderate intensity. The
second week moves average intensity up
10%. The third week is an offload or recovery
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week where average intensity is reduced 5%.
This lighter week enables a 10% increase in
load in the fourth week. The next four-week
cycle begins at an intensity 10% greater than
the previous cycle’s starting point. Each of
the series of four-week blocks prepares the
trainee for the next, progressively heavier,
block. Although each block may have a
slightly different goal in terms of a particular
narrow range of sets and reps, this model
lacks the large magnitude in goal variation
that is the primary feature of the Building
Blocks model that we will discuss in detail
later in this chapter. Each four-week cycle is
slightly different, but they flow seamlessly
toward the contest date with the object of
improving the specific aspects of perform-
ance required that day.
The TSFOSB model is not expected to
achieve a measurable improvement in 1RM
every four weeks. An advanced trainee will
experience an improvement in performance
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with each four-week cycle, but the slow rate
of improvement in the advanced trainee may
be imperceptible over a period as short as
four weeks (note the shallow slope of the
performance improvement curve in figure
8-3). Each block functions as an overload
event, but the adaptation to the overload
may produce an improvement small enough
that it can be easily measured only in the cu-
mulative. Research suggests that a trainee at
this level may improve only 10 to 20 pounds
on the basic exercises in up to a year’s time –
less than two pounds per month – depend-
ing on the individual and the exercise, a
quantity small enough to be buried in daily
variation.
As a result, 1RM is not tested at the end
of each cycle; the 1RM that the trainee was
capable of in the very first week is used as a
reference point throughout several connec-
ted cycles. And loads beyond 100% are not
included. For example, if the previous cycle
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was programmed for 90%-85%-95%-90%, it
would be tempting to follow the pattern and
assign 100%-95%-105%-100% for the next
four weeks. However, the cycle is too short to
produce a successful 105% effort. This im-
provement in four weeks would be 20
pounds on a 400-pound squat, an unreason-
able expectation. Such progress is possible
for a novice or an intermediate trainee, but
these adaptive capacities have already been
exhausted by this point or advanced pro-
gramming manipulation would not be neces-
sary. What actually should happen is that the
four-week block starting with 100% tapers
for the remainder of the cycle toward final
testing or a competition done at the end of
week four. The new 1RM performed at the
meet or test would serve as the benchmark
for the next series of four-week cycles.
Setting up a four-week block of training
in this format is fairly simple. Four-week
blocks will usually be strung together into a
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longer period during which volume de-
creases and intensity increases, so it is neces-
sary to identify the target date in advance
and count back from there (this is a common
feature of all contest-oriented program-
ming). The number of weeks between the
starting date and the target date determines
the number of four-week segments and gov-
erns the selection of volumes and intensities.
The example below is for 12 weeks using
three four-week blocks. In a perfect world,
four such series with one week’s active rest
after each would fill out a year’s training
schedule. But things usually do not work out
this way, and shorter or longer programs can
be designed using the same principles.
For the following example, the pro-
gram’s overall goal is power and strength.
Each cycle throughout the training year can
and should have a different goal. Simple re-
petition of the same program over and over
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will produce staleness and leave many as-
pects of performance undeveloped.
Exercises for the cycle are chosen based
on the focus of the cycle, and the focus of
each workout. The following three-day-per
week example incorporates power develop-
ment exercises (power snatch, power clean)
and strength exercises (squats, presses,
deadlifts). There are four exercises on two of
the days, and three on the other, allowing for
some daily variation. The whole body should
be trained every workout, since large-scale
stress on the whole system is more effective
at driving adaptation than exercising a small
amount of muscle.
The goal in this cycle is to develop power
and strength for a weightlifter, so a repeti-
tion range from singles to sets of five is ap-
propriate. The exercises used should be ap-
propriate for this rep range. One way to ma-
nipulate the volume is to vary the numbers
of reps and sets. Since the trainee is well
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adapted to volumes of up to 5 sets of 5, we
can use 5 work sets as an initial target, and
then vary the number of sets to produce on-
load/offload. Volume starts high and pro-
gressively goes down through the four-week
blocks. This means that the sets of five will
be done first in the program. The triples,
doubles, and singles will come toward the
end of the cycle.
In this model, loads are determined ac-
cording to specific percentages of the train-
ee’s 1RM. For example:
Using percentages of 1RM for advanced ath-
letes is no problem, since all advanced ath-
letes have sufficient experience with the ex-
ercises to know their current 1RM values
within a few pounds, even if a 1RM has not
been performed recently. The percent of
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1RM used can vary within a workout or
workouts but should average out to the pro-
grammed percentage over the week. And a
more advanced athlete might need to use
more than the 5% offload in week three.
Small alterations are acceptable as long as
they remain within the general guidelines.
When calculating intensity, consider
only the heaviest sets in the workout. Do not
use warm-up sets in programming calcula-
tions, because the sometimes-necessary
extra warm-up will skew the calculation
down and give an inaccurate picture of the
actual intensity of the workout.
Using week three as an example, the
TSFOSB model uses work sets at 75% of 1RM
for sets of 5 across. To calculate the work
sets, we multiply each of our hypothetical
190 lb. athlete’s best lifts by 0.75, as follows:
Power snatch: 198 × 0.75 = 148 lbs.
Power clean: 264 × 0.75 = 198 lbs.
Press: 175 × 0.75 = 131 lbs. (use 130)
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Bench press: 275 × 0.75 = 206 lbs. (use
205)
Back squat: 405 × 0.75 = 303 lbs. (use
305)
Deadlift: 450 × 0.75 = 337 lbs. (use 340)
Now, we make a few changes to tailor the
workout to the lifts and the lifter. Due to the
nature of the quick lifts, power snatches
should be done for doubles and power cleans
for triples, instead of fives. The main pulling
assistance movements, the snatch and clean
high pulls – essentially the same form as the
full movement, especially the shrug, but
without the rack at the top – will use weights
that are 20% heavier than the full version of
the lift. This is because partial movements
can be done heavier, and must be done heav-
ier if the benefit of position-holding strength
off the floor is to be obtained. Straps are nor-
mally used for these movements as well, to
save the hands for the main lifts. Deadlifts
are very hard to recover from if used for sets
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across, so only one work set will be done, at
about 80%, since the volume is reduced. The
work sets for the week will then be as
follows:
To introduce some daily variation within
the week, it is useful to alter the squat loads.
The day 1 back squat weight is increased by
5% and the day 3 load is decreased by 5%.
This does not affect average intensity, and it
produces a more balanced, less monotonous
week. The day 1 back squat will be 320 × 5 ×
4 and the day 3 back squat will be 290 × 5 ×
4. Such minor changes should be made as
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needed, along with any others that seem ne-
cessary to the execution of the program, as
long as they remain within the guidelines
and intent.
There are a few details that remain to be
addressed, two of which are assistance exer-
cises and stretching. Assistance exercises
are not directly related to the movement pat-
terns of sport performance, but support oth-
er exercises that are. Examples of these
would be all types of abdominal work, low-
back exercises such as back extensions, and
chins and pull-ups. These types of exercises
are important, as they contribute to trunk
stability during sports performance and to
the execution of basic barbell exercises.
Strengthening these areas will also reduce
the chance for injury. The programming of
assistance exercises is done separately, and
they are not included in the volume and in-
tensity calculations for the overall workout.
Generally, these exercises involve smaller
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muscle groups, and are done with fewer sets
and higher reps than the core movements.
When done appropriately, they are not
stressful enough systemically that they add
enough work to perturb the rest of the train-
ing program.
By this point in an athlete’s career there
should be no need to do any special flexibil-
ity work prior to training. Issues of correct
exercise performance and range of motion
should be long resolved. But if a need for
flexibility maintenance still exists, stretching
should be done at the end of the workout for
best results and the least interference with
the power movements.
Once all these calculations have been
performed for all the weeks in the program,
the whole cycle is laid out. The final program
with assistance exercises and warm-up sets
included for the 75% week looks like the
following:
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The volume and intensity variation within
the four-week block follows the intracycle re-
lationship that has volume decreasing and
intensity increasing between blocks. The full
twelve-week cycle is detailed below. The final
block of the twelve-week series maintains the
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increased intensity and decreased volume re-
lationship for the first two weeks, and then
both volume and intensity are reduced by 10
to 20% in the final two weeks. This allows for
cumulative recovery and supercompensation
prior to the event or test.
If an athlete stops making progress us-
ing this model after a year or so, there are a
number of possible reasons. The offload
weeks may not be sufficient for recuperation.
Increase the magnitude of offload to 10 or
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15% while maintaining the programmed in-
creases: instead of 70%-80%-75%-85%, for
example, try 65%-80%-60%-85%. Or break
up longer workouts into two workouts separ-
ated by at least four hours. This allows the
body additional recovery during the training
day and, depending on other daily activities,
may be what some athletes need to cope with
an intense training program.
If these simple fixes do not work, the
athlete may be experiencing the con-
sequences of increased performance ability
and work capacity, a need for longer recov-
ery periods following longer periods of more
intense training closer to genetic potential
that other programs can provide.
This type of cycle, where the degree of
variability is low and the main parameter
that is manipulated is intensity, has much in
common with intermediate level program-
ming, in that it is very simple in terms of the
variables manipulated and the degree of
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manipulation. It works well for athletes at a
certain level of advancement in a sport like
weightlifting with very narrow performance
characteristics. More metabolically complic-
ated sports require more elaborate
programming.
The Building Blocks Model
The building blocks model provides that
elaboration. It is common to see references
to “phases” of training, defined as a period of
time spent developing a specific component
of the training necessary for the sport.
Phases might typically be assigned to devel-
op hypertrophy, strength, muscular endur-
ance, power, and technique, with a competi-
tion scheduled at the end of these phases
when all components are brought to bear on
the contest. This particular order is designed
specifically to develop these five important
performance characteristics in the order in
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which they persist most effectively over the
time (fig. 8-4), hypertrophy being most per-
sistent and least relevant to performance
(unless the contest is physique) and tech-
nique being the most relevant and most
sensitive to the temporal proximity of the
contest.
The concept of adaptation persist-
ence plays an important role in contest pre-
paration for some sports. Beyond the well-
recognized fact that strength is more persist-
ent than cardiovascular endurance, few
training references have observed which
parameter is more persistent once de-
veloped. This hierarchy can be logically de-
rived from an analysis of the mechanisms in-
volved in the adaptation, as well as from
coaching observations of athletes over time
(fig. 8-4).
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Figure 8-4. The continuum of adaptation persist-
ence. Cardiovascular endurance is the least persistent,
hypertrophy the most persistent. Significant loss of
VO2max (cardiovascular endurance) can occur in a
matter of days, whereas the significant decay of added
muscle mass (hypertrophy) may take many weeks or
months following cessation of training. Weight train-
ing using any range of reps maintains muscle mass. It
is suggested here that structural changes that contrib-
ute to performance are more persistent than metabol-
ic changes contributing to performance.
That the most persistent parameter
should be included first, farthest away from
the planned event, makes good sense when
laying out the training cycle. And it is logical
that the least persistent parameter should be
included in close proximity to the planned
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event wherever possible. In this way a sum-
mation effect is achieved, with all training
parameters included as phases in a sequence
that leads to the most effective performance
enhancement at the correct time.
The phases may differ according to the
sport the program is designed for. An excep-
tion to the general concept of adaptation per-
sistence might occur if the performance
parameter most pertinent to the contest is
not technique, as might be the case in a
strongman competition. Powerlifting pro-
grams will differ markedly from weightlifting
programs, which will be different from pro-
grams designed for throwers, strongman
competitors, or Highland games athletes.
For example, a sequence of phases may be
designed without a hypertrophy component
if it has little to do with performance or if the
athlete is already carrying enough muscle
mass; this is typically the case with advanced
athletes, having developed most of their
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muscle mass during the novice and interme-
diate phases of training. Depending on the
contested events, a strongman program
might not include a lot of work heavily de-
pendent on technique, since a five-event con-
test does not allow for a tremendous amount
of specialization, and might instead focus on
strength as a common component of several
of the events. And to the extent that muscu-
lar endurance – especially grip strength and
endurance – is developed using exercises
that are typically found as contested events,
sufficient technique training may be accom-
plished at the same time.
Several groups of four-week blocks may
be assembled into a training cycle of many
months’ duration (fig. 8-5). The primary
factor affecting the organization of such a
cycle would be, of course, the competitive
schedule. Remember, any athlete who needs
programming at this degree of complexity is
a competitor in a sport, and the
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requirements of the sport dictate the pro-
gramming. Another important factor is the
athlete’s personal competitive history, which
allows for the analysis of individual strengths
and weaknesses that require focused atten-
tion in the programming. Form and tech-
nique problems are addressed in each
workout, but an inadequate strength base
would be addressed over a period of months,
which requires that multiple training blocks
be devoted to it.
We will use preparation for a strongman
contest as an example for the building blocks
model. Unlike the smooth transitions char-
acteristic of TSFOSB programming, the
building blocks method utilizes phases that
may have relatively little in common, result-
ing in what may seem like abrupt transitions.
The only requirement is that enough time be
allotted in each block to allow for a complete
overload event to occur before moving to the
next block. The blocks are organized in a way
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that takes advantage of adaptation persist-
ence so that each training parameter receives
enough attention at the most useful point in
the cycle, and the suddenness of transitions
is irrelevant. Illustrated below are selected
weeks from each of the blocks.
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Figure 8-5. Three examples of sequencing the com-
ponents of a longer-term training plan. A) A sample
program for a weightlifter. B) A sample program for a
strongman competitor. C) A sample program for a
Highland games athlete. Each individual program
should be arranged with the most persistent compon-
ent block first and the least persistent last, with re-
spect to the limitations and needs of the particular
sport.
As the name suggests, the strength block
is critical to strongman competition.
Strength makes size more useful (there are
lots of big weak men). Strength is the whole
purpose of the sport, since all other aspects
of it derive from strength: heavy implements
must be carried a long way and handled
through turns; heavy odd objects must be lif-
ted; trucks must be pulled; heavy yokes must
be carried. The strength blocks produce, ulti-
mately, the most important training effect of
the whole cycle, the one that directly contrib-
utes the most to success at the contest.
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Because some strongman events require
the execution of multiple repetitions, or the
use of a prolonged muscular effort, local
muscle endurance is nearly as important as
strength and is very dependent on it. Train-
ing for local muscular endurance involves
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higher numbers of reps with lighter weights
and shorter rest intervals. Prolonged isomet-
ric holds and gripping and carrying exercises
are an important component, since many
strongmen events are of precisely this
nature. Glycolytic metabolism dominates
this type of activity, which typically lasts for
60 to 90 seconds of work with heavy weights.
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The final segment of training is a peak-
ing block. Following the general contest pre-
paration model, the peaking block will have
the highest intensity training and the lowest
volume of all four blocks, done with a high
degree of contest specificity. Non-contest-
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specific work is limited to one day per week,
and contest events are trained in a way that
allows for maximum recovery while exposing
the athlete to all the events scheduled for the
show.
The week before the contest completes
the taper period. Light non-specific work is
done twice this week for the express purpose
of preventing staleness before the event. The
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loads should be no heavier than 80% of 1RM,
and for low reps, light enough that recovery
from the previous weeks is not interrupted
but the ranges of motion used in the contest
are fresh and open.
The duration of the blocks used can vary
but, in general, each block for a newly ad-
vanced trainee is four weeks in duration.
Shorter blocks are not used since the ad-
vanced trainee cannot significantly improve
a training parameter in less time. An excep-
tion might be a technique block for an exper-
ienced weightlifter whose form is very solid.
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There is no technique block allocated for a
strongman cycle.
Technique is an interesting component
of training. By this point in an athlete’s ca-
reer, many thousands of repetitions have
been done. This athlete is a virtuoso of
movement, having mastered the techniques
of his sport. The motor pathways of good
technique are firmly entrenched, and this al-
lows short focused periods of neuromuscular
refreshment to refine performance for com-
petition. Riding a bike is analogous. The first
few minutes back on the saddle are a little
wobbly. But in short order all the synapses
that form the cycling motor pathways have
reconnected, and balance, steering, and ped-
aling stroke are back in excellent form after
just a few minutes. Re-educating the body on
a previously mastered technical task does
not require long periods of focused repeti-
tion of the skill. It is regained with short
periods of focused technical work or by
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including technical practice within other
blocks of training.
Yet for sports extremely dependent on
very precise technique, it must be refined
and focused right before the competition.
Technical mastery is more critical for sports
that involve aimed implement throws and
the Olympic lifts, where very small errors are
amplified by the distance thrown or the diffi-
culty of making a correction during a move-
ment that takes less than a second to per-
form. Technical execution at this level decays
rapidly, but for an advanced athlete it is re-
covered just as quickly.
For the strongman competitor, tech-
nique training is a problem because of both
the huge number of possible events that may
be contested (only five of which are usually
included in a given competition), and the
specificity of the competition apparatus to
the event site. For this reason, strongman
training emphasizes physical readiness for
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competition with no specific block of training
geared toward technical refinement beyond
practice on the actual events. Although there
are technical issues to deal with, they are not
of the magnitude experienced in the snatch
or the javelin, and can be addressed during
the strength and muscular endurance blocks
as skills are practiced and equipment
mastered. Strongman competition is de-
signed to test the general capabilities of the
contestant, and is not something for which a
great deal of specific technique preparation
is intended or necessary.
Because of the nature of strongman
competition, some general exercises can be
used very effectively to prepare for the more
specific versions that might be encountered
at the contest. Muscular endurance and gly-
colytic capacity for several events can be de-
veloped by using the farmer’s walk at various
distances and loads in the muscular endur-
ance block. Various forms of sled dragging,
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stone lifting, tire flipping, and grip-depend-
ent exercises such as fat bar deadlifts can be
used to develop strength for many of the dif-
ferent events usually encountered at strong-
man contests. At the same time physical ca-
pacity is being trained, technical abilities
that can be applied to competition events are
being practiced. In this way, every block of
training can be used to develop “technical”
ability in the strongman athlete.
A key element in avoiding overtraining
for advanced athletes in every sport is the re-
covery phase, which allows the body to fully
recuperate, both physically and psychologic-
ally, after a long training cycle. This period
incorporates activities collectively referred to
as active rest. During this phase, both
volume and the intensity levels are greatly
reduced, and activities with an athletic
movement component are pursued. Fairly
strenuous recreational activities that do not
involve the athlete’s primary sports are
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suitable for the active rest phase, provided
that the athlete is capable of participating in
them without a high risk of injury. The pur-
pose of an active rest phase is to allow for
complete recovery and supercompensation,
but in a way that does not cause detraining.
If the athlete is responding well to training,
the duration of this resting phase between
training cycles should be no longer than two
weeks.
Not infrequently, an athlete can perform
a new PR following a week off. This occurs
despite the fact that the meet performance
was also a PR the previous week. If this oc-
curs, the athlete has mistimed or misloaded
training, the taper, or both, since additional
supercompensation took place after it was
anticipated. This indicates that the perform-
ance PR was not what it could have been had
programming been more precise. These mis-
takes will happen to every athlete and coach,
and they are opportunities to learn.
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The Hormonal Fluctuation
Model
The hormonal fluctuation model is an-
other way to organize advanced training. It is
designed specifically to manipulate the ana-
bolic/catabolic hormone axis that controls
much of the stage 2 response to heavy train-
ing, and to do so in a predictable,
schedulable way. It utilizes longer blocks of
training, up to eight weeks, during which in-
tensity, volume, and technique are manipu-
lated to culminate in peak performance on
the date of a scheduled event.
HFM is different from the previously
discussed models, which are derived from
older versions of periodization. Remember
Thing 2: It becomes productive for more ad-
vanced athletes to organize periods of train-
ing into longer segments of time, the
primary feature of which is a progression
from higher volume and lower intensity
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toward lower volume and higher intensity.
However, here is Thing 3: Thing 2 does not
always apply.
The hormone fluctuation model relies
on a response to stress brought on by an in-
crease in both volume and intensity. This
runs contrary to the conventional wisdom
governing advanced programs, but the fact is
that both models work. HFM works as well
as “Thing 2” models and in some cases may
work much better, in that the homeostatic
disruption it is capable of producing is much
greater.
It is normal for coaches to divide train-
ing cycles into multiple shorter blocks con-
taining variations in intensity and volume –
periods of high-intensity or high-volume
training followed by periods of lower-intens-
ity or lower-volume training. The periods of
lower workload are intended for regenera-
tion and recuperation in order to prepare for
the next period of increased workload, or for
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a competition. Several researchers have
demonstrated that the testosterone-to-
cortisol ratio decreases – that is, the level of
testosterone drops relative to the cortisol
level – during very high workloads and then
increases during subsequent reduced work-
loads. In elite rowers, a few weeks of very in-
tense rowing training caused the T/C ratio to
drop significantly. After two weeks of dra-
matically reduced training load, T/C ratios
recovered to normal levels or higher, while
performance levels increased. A study of elite
weightlifters demonstrated similar findings
during a six-week training period immedi-
ately before a major competition. This study
was designed to test the T/C ratio response
to a high workload. T/C ratios dropped dur-
ing weeks one and two, the period of most
intense training. Recovery or supercompens-
ation of T/C ratios occurred over the next
four weeks, which consisted of two weeks of
“normal” training – about 80% of maximal
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work tolerance – followed by two weeks of
significantly reduced training. Again, per-
formance improved and correlated well with
testosterone-to-cortisol ratios. These studies
demonstrate that, when an advanced athlete
works very hard at maximal or near maximal
levels for about two weeks, and then dramat-
ically offloads for two to four weeks, the T/C
ratio depresses with the highly elevated
workload and then recovers to baseline or
beyond upon offloading, and a performance
increase correlates with this recovery. Peak
performance should coincide with peak T/C
ratio, and this performance peak probably
occurs as a result of the recovery of the ratios
to baseline or beyond.
Laboratory measures of the testoster-
one/cortisol ratio have been used to guide
the training of advanced and elite athletes in
the sport of weightlifting. Results from thesis
research by Glenn Pendlay and Michael
Hartman (2000, 2002) have demonstrated
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that adjusting training load to optimize T/C
ratios leads to improved training and per-
formance results. The intense work done in
maximal effort weeks depresses testosterone
levels and elevates cortisol. The ratio of the
two should be depressed between 10% and
30% if the training is to be an effective ad-
aptive stimulus. Depression of less than 10%
does not produce a homeostatic disruption
large enough to drive adaptation, and more
than 30% is excessive for timely recovery
and may well mark the beginning of the des-
cent into overtraining. Maximal loading of
greater than two weeks’ duration generally
produces excessive T/C ratio depression and
is counterproductive. The end result of this
laboratory experimentation is a series of
training models that have consistently pro-
duced strength improvements in a group for
whom gains are hard to produce: advanced
and elite trainees.
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This training organization deviates from
the concept that intensity should increase as
volume decreases. Here, as intensity in-
creases or decreases, so does volume. It is
the parallel manipulation of both volume
and intensity that produces the overload
event, providing both the stress and the op-
portunity for recovery. The model consists of
a period of escalating workload over two
weeks, a period of maximal workload for
either one or two weeks, then a tapering of
workload for two to four weeks. There are
three basic variations, with cycles of different
durations: 1) five weeks, 2) six weeks, and 3)
eight weeks. Each of these cycles is intended
to be used for different purposes or popula-
tions. The five-week cycle is appropriate for
athletes just entering the advanced stage, or
for connecting a series of longer HFM cycles.
The six-week cycle can be used for popula-
tions with a high anabolic capacity (trained
teens and young adults) to lead into a
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competition or as a connected series. The
eight-week cycle is appropriate for very ad-
vanced or elite trainees as a lead-up to a
competition or testing period.
At this point in the athlete’s career, the
selection of exercises has narrowed to those
that are specific to competitive goals, and to
those exercises that specifically address what
should be the well-defined weaknesses of the
athlete.
The example we’ll use for this model is
that of a young advanced male weightlifter
following a 6-week version of the model.
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You can use the repetition continuum il-
lustrated in figure 4-4 to select the appropri-
ate repetition range needed to attain your
program’s specific goal. But as mentioned
above, certain exercises preclude specific re-
petition schemes – competitive weightlifters
do not use skill-dependent explosive exer-
cises like the snatch and the clean and jerk
for high reps; assistance exercises are not
done for singles. Since strength is as import-
ant as appropriate technique for our hypo-
thetical young weightlifter, the example here
uses doubles and singles, with a heavy em-
phasis on the competitive lifts and their
variants.
Since reps are low – singles and doubles
– the volume is defined by the number of
sets. Weeks one and two are low and moder-
ate volume, intended to be build-up that pre-
pares the trainee to tolerate the tremendous
workloads to be encountered in the following
two weeks. These weeks are also used as
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technical refinement periods. During weeks
three and four, the intent is to stress the
trainee maximally to disrupt homeostasis
and drive adaptation. An average of 8 sets
per exercise is used, although 10 to 12 sets
could be used depending on the trainee’s ca-
pacity. Finally, the last two weeks taper to an
average of 4 sets. This limited volume of
training allows recovery and supercompens-
ation to occur by the end of week six, the
scheduled meet or test period.
As volume increases, so does intensity.
As with volume above, weeks one and two
are light and moderate in intensity, and
weeks three and four are very intense, with
the trainee reaching a daily 1RM or 2RM for
every exercise. Basically, the athlete is going
as heavy as possible every session, and is en-
couraged to do so. This is a most critical time
in the cycle, the application of a homeostatic-
ally disruptive stress that will significantly
depress T/C ratio. Research has
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demonstrated that trainees will average
about 94% of their 1RM during these two
weeks. Hitting an absolute all-time best 1RM
is not expected, just the best effort possible
on that day – a “relative maximum” in the
old Soviet parlance. As fatigue accumulates
and bar speed drops due to decreasing neur-
omuscular efficiency, technical movements
like the snatch will suffer more than absolute
strength movements like the squat. Weeks
five and six are taper weeks, with severe re-
ductions in intensity as well as volume, in-
tended to bring about hormonal recovery
and supercompensation (and improved per-
formance) on competition day. Load vari-
ation is especially important in weeks five
and six. These weeks require lower average
intensities, but very limited heavy work is
necessary in order to ensure that the athlete
stays sharp for the planned competition or
testing. So the last day of week five includes
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a very limited amount of 90% work, as does
the first day of week six.
This type of program is very stressful.
Late in week three, during week four, and
well into week five, the athlete will exhibit
mood changes, unusual soreness, lack of
“good sleep,” and will exhibit numerous oth-
er symptoms that are often associated with
overtraining. A certain amount of vicious-
ness and irritability should be expected.
While the athlete’s psychological well-being
is important, it is not the primary concern at
this point in the cycle. For the competitive
athlete, the performance goal must be the
primary focus, not the enjoyment of a warm
and fuzzy training experience. At this point,
testosterone levels should be depressed and
cortisol levels elevated, and the trainee is
now ready to recover and supercompensate.
This recovery of hormone ratios to normal
levels – the increase in testosterone levels re-
lative to cortisol – enables
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supercompensation, and the goal of the cycle
is to set up precisely this situation so that re-
covery can and will proceed.
During week five, even though the work-
load is greatly reduced, the athlete will still
be sore, moody, and “flat” (i.e., exercises will
still seem tough, heavy, and slow). As week
six approaches, things get much better. The
athlete’s perception may even be “I’m not
doing any work” relative to the high work-
load of the previous weeks. Accompanying
this feeling is usually the desire to do more
sets and reps with more weight than pro-
grammed. Yielding to this temptation will
flatten the recovery curve and blunt the now-
climbing supercompensation response, and
it will radically decrease the effects of the
cycle as it comes to an end in week six. There
will be a strong temptation in week six for
the trainee to test the water a few days before
the competition. Patience here will reward
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the hard work of weeks three and four; a lack
of patience will waste it.
Within this training organization there
is tremendous capacity for variability. Any
goal can be achieved – mass, power, or
strength. Rep schemes, exercise choice and
variation, intensities, and even exercise mod-
alities can be varied to provide the appropri-
ate level of stress to reach an athlete’s goals.
As long as the workload follows the same
general pattern (build-up followed by max-
imal work followed by taper) and allows suf-
ficient time for both overload and recovery/
supercompensation, any exercise modality
could be programmed using this model.
Every coach and athlete should experiment.
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Peaking. Regardless of the type of cycle
used to prepare for competition, the final
two to four weeks prior to the event must in-
clude a reduction in both volume and intens-
ity. Intensity is reduced by decreasing the
percent of maximum load used in training. A
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limited number of near maximal attempts
are retained in the program during this peri-
od but are carefully distributed and separ-
ated by one or two workouts (only one to
three heavy lifts once or twice per week in
taper weeks). These heavier attempts main-
tain neuromuscular readiness and prevent
detraining. Volume is reduced by limiting
the number of reps performed, using singles
and doubles only, and by decreasing both the
number of sets and number of exercises in-
cluded in a workout. The intent of these last
weeks of training is to allow the body to re-
cuperate so that it can respond with maxim-
um effort and efficiency when challenged to
do so. While there is no conclusive data re-
garding the timing of the last workout prior
to competition, and different sports have dif-
fering conventional wisdom on such things, a
good rule of thumb is two days between the
last workout and competition, with the last
heavy workout occurring five to seven days
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previous. Individual differences play a huge
part in this decision, and personal experi-
ence will ultimately be the deciding factor for
the advanced athlete.
It is likely that the most advanced ath-
letes in the world will not require program-
ming beyond the complexity presented here.
If they do, their experiences in having
reached that point will have equipped them
for this adventure. Athletics at the elite level
is a highly individual thing, and all who have
the ability to perform at this level have also
acquired the ability to exercise judgment
commensurate with the physical capacities
they possess. Experiment, learn, and, above
all, teach those of us who want to know.
“Today it is almost heresy to suggest that scientific know-
ledge is not the sum of all knowledge. But a little reflection
will show that there is beyond question a body of very im-
portant but unorganized knowledge which cannot possibly
be called scientific in the sense of knowledge of general
rules: the knowledge of the particular circumstances of time
and place.”
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Chapter 9: Special
Populations
We have argued that highly individual-
ized training is necessary to reach close to
full genetic potential, and that the closer the
trainee gets to his or her genetic potential,
the more important this specificity becomes.
But this raises a question: Do the training
models presented here, when applied at the
appropriate level – novice, intermediate, and
advanced – work for all populations? Do
they work for women, children, older people,
and injured people? And the answer is: Yes,
they pretty much do.
Women

It is very important to understand the
following true thing: women are not a special
population. They are half (more, actually) of
the population. With very, very few excep-
tions, they are trained in exactly the same
way as men of the same age and level. By vir-
tue of a different hormonal profile, the rate
and the magnitude of change in strength and
mass will differ, but the biological processes
that bring about those changes are otherwise
the same as those in men. Since the pro-
cesses are the same, the methods used to af-
fect progress are also the same. And the re-
sponse to the method depends on the effect-
iveness of the method, not the sex of the in-
dividual using it. Many excuses have been
made over the centuries that exercise has
been practiced, sometimes by women, but
usually for them. The bottom line is that
everyone, regardless of sex, gets out of a cor-
rectly designed training program exactly
what they put into it. Ineffective “firming
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and toning” routines have no basis in
physiology, and the results obtained from
them demonstrate this rather conclusively.
That said, there are several important
differences between the performances of
men and women, both in the weight room
and on the field. As a general rule, women do
not have the same level of neuromuscular ef-
ficiency as men. This is probably due to the
differences in hormonal profile and the
much lower levels of testosterone, and it is
evident across the spectrum of performance.
Women can use a higher percentage of their
1RM for more reps than men can, probably
because their 1RM performance is not as effi-
cient in demonstrating their true absolute
strength. Their performances at max vertical
jumps, throws, snatches, cleans, jerks, and
other explosive movements that involve high
levels of motor unit recruitment are per-
formed at lower levels than those by men of
the same size and level. And, while levels of
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absolute strength relative to muscle mass are
essentially the same in the two sexes, wo-
men’s upper-body movements suffer from
the large relative difference in local muscle
mass distribution.
As a practical matter, if daily, weekly, or
monthly programming models are used to
increase strength or power, some modifica-
tions are required for women since the in-
tensities used are based on the individual
1RM, and women can work with a higher
percentage of this 1RM for reps. For ex-
ample, table 7-2 indicates that 70% for 10
reps would constitute a heavy set with a high
adaptive stimulus, when, for women, this is
only a medium set with a moderate adaptive
stimulus. By the same token, if increased
mass is the goal, a relatively larger amount of
high-volume work over a longer time at a
slightly higher intensity would be needed.
Table 9-1 adapts the data in table 7-2 for fe-
male populations.
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Table 9-1. The women’s version of Table 7-2, illus-
trating the difficulty of a rep scheme as it varies with
volume and intensity. The numbers in the table rep-
resent reps.
But if the hormonal fluctuation model
(HFM; see chapter 8) is used, no modifica-
tions are absolutely required. Even though
female testosterone levels are lower, a de-
pression of the ratio of testosterone to
cortisol is the important factor, and the hor-
monal fluctuation model has been effective
in accomplishing this in both sexes. The
menstrual cycle, however, may introduce an-
other scheduling factor: there is a testoster-
one peak at 12 days before ovulation that
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may affect the way the HFM works for wo-
men. Scheduling maximal workloads to
nearly coincide with this peak could possibly
accelerate recovery and supercompensation.
However, no data has yet to demonstrate
that such timing would significantly improve
performance. The variability of discomfort
and associated effects of menses requires
close cooperation between trainee and coach.
For simplicity and comfort, for some women
it may be appropriate to program an offload
week during menses.
One other consideration: the average
American female is both iron and calcium
deficient. Both of these deficiencies may af-
fect health and performance. Low iron stores
can affect metabolism and oxygen transport,
leading to a perception of chronic low energy
or fatigue. Altering the diet to include more
iron-rich foods, cooking with cast iron cook-
ware, and considering iron supplementation
is a good idea. Low calcium intakes
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predispose every age group to lower bone
density and degeneration (osteopenia). Vir-
tually every study examining weight training
with osteoporotic women shows dramatic
improvement in bone density. Calcium sup-
plementation improves on that effect.
So, there are differences in the physical
characteristics of the two sexes, but they still
are trained the same way. The mechanisms
of progress and development, while con-
strained at different levels by the hormonal
milieu, operate the same way. Mammalian
physiology is much older than the human
species; with very few exceptions, the rules
are the same for all of us. Tissues adapt to
stress by getting stronger, and the response
to the stress is a function of the stress, not
the sex of the organism to which the tissue
belongs.
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Figure 9-1. Women are more likely to believe that
weight training is unimportant to health and sports
performance than men. There is also a social and
media-driven misconception that all weight training
produces big, masculine, muscle-bound physiques.
This generally does not occur in women without ana-
bolic steroids. The strongest women in the United
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States perform at their best and look healthy and ath-
letic through the use of correctly designed weight
training programs.
Youth
The long history of the human race
demonstrates conclusively that the children
and youth of our species are quite capable of
handling loads while remaining uninjured,
and indeed reach their physical potential
despite (or perhaps because of) work that is
often regarded as heavy by modern society.
Every big, strong, healthy farm kid who grew
up hauling hay attests to this obvious fact.
The population-wide paucity of adults stun-
ted or otherwise irreparably damaged by the
handling of heavy loads – barbell or other-
wise – attests to the ability of humans of all
ages to successfully adapt to the stresses of
work and growing up with vigorous physical
interaction with their environments.
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Although the most recent revision of the
ACSM’s standards of care and resource
manual now considers youth weight training
to be safe and healthy, there remains in the
medical community a strong bias against us-
ing physically taxing methods of strength
training on teenage and younger popula-
tions. One professional association of pediat-
ricians recommends that only moderate
weights with moderate repetitions be used.
They strongly discourage high-volume work
(enough sets and reps to increase muscle
mass) and high-intensity work, the kind ne-
cessary to develop strength and power. They
provide a variety of reasons for training
youth using only machines with predeter-
mined movement pathways, thus limiting
the development of balance and coordina-
tion. This group of medical professionals ac-
tually recommends that all high-intensity
and high-volume training be postponed until
full sexual maturity. This would effectively
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remove the vast majority of high school ath-
letes from weight rooms and compromise an
athlete’s safety and performance during full-
contact sporting events (which, interestingly
enough, are not discouraged).
When the scientific and medical literat-
ure is evaluated objectively, a different pic-
ture emerges. Training loads (relative to
1RM), frequencies, and durations similar to
those commonly used in the training of com-
petitive weightlifters are effective in increas-
ing strength in children, and a significant
body of scientific evidence and practical ex-
perience supports this fact. Strength in-
creases in youth are closely related to the in-
tensity of training; higher-intensity pro-
grams can and do increase strength in pread-
olescents in six weeks or less. This is because
the mechanisms of adaptation are function-
ing the same way they do in adults, albeit
without the benefit of the adult hormonal
milieu.
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The safety of this type of training for
kids is well documented. Programs super-
vised by qualified coaches, and in which
training loads are prescribed and monitored
by professionals, have proven to be safer
than typical physical education classes.
Several studies since the 1970s have reported
extremely low to zero rates of injury during
training programs of from several weeks to a
year in duration and have suggested that
weight training prevents injury rather than
causes it. Even the handling of maximal
weights by children has been scrutinized for
safety. Dr. Avery Faigenbaum showed that
properly supervised maximal lifting in 6- to
12-year-olds resulted in no injuries, provid-
ing further evidence that even high-intensity
training, properly supervised, can be a safe
and healthy undertaking for children.
Properly conducted weight training pro-
grams are safe for children for the same reas-
on they are safe for everyone else: they are
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normal human movements that are scalable.
The loads used can be precisely adjusted to
the ability of the child to use them with cor-
rect technique. Correct technical execution
prevents injury, since by definition “correct”
means controlled, even for explosive move-
ments. The load on a 5-kg bar can be in-
creased one kilogram at a time, allowing very
fine control over the stress that a child ex-
periences in the weight room. Contrast this
with team sports that involve ballistic skills,
a speeding ball, and other kids moving rap-
idly under varying degrees of control. Un-
controlled impact and rapid deceleration are
inherent in such sports and the forces they
apply to a child’s body are unpredictable,
completely unscalable, and therefore unsafe,
as injury rates conclusively demonstrate. If
you add pads to this scenario, which blunt
the perception of the effects of impact
between the players, you are bound to get the
leverage-type injuries that occur when kids
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run into each other knowing it won’t hurt
very badly.
If a young athlete has a well established
history of weight training and has access to a
coach, simple progression, weekly program-
ming, and even advanced periodization can
be extremely effective training models. The
hormonal fluctuation model would be most
appropriate and effective for advanced, older
youth athletes who have previously pro-
gressed through weekly or monthly periodiz-
ation, due to its difficult nature and the lack
of mature “hardness” in most younger
athletes.
Recommendations. Based on the avail-
able medical and scientific data and the dec-
ades of experience of the authors, we
strongly recommend the following guidelines
for youth weight training:
1. Weight training programs for youth
should be conducted by well-trained
adults. In the current absence of
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educational opportunities at the col-
legiate level, adults become well-
trained through personal experience,
coaching experience, study, and asso-
ciation with other competent profes-
sionals. It is incumbent upon parents
to evaluate the qualifications of those
potentially charged with coaching
their children.
2. To effectively and safely coach youth
weight training in a group setting, a
coach/trainee ratio of 1:12 or better is
recommended. Every weight room is
a teaching environment, not just a
fitness facility where kids exercise.
Any facility – private, commercial, or
educational – that allows children
and adolescents to train without in-
struction and active supervision at an
adequate coach/kid ratio is inviting
problems.
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3. Weight training should take place in
facilities properly equipped to sup-
port safe training practices.
4. Properly supervised skill-based
weightlifting programs (and gym-
nastics, dance, soccer, martial arts,
and all other physical programs) are
appropriate for children and can
commence as early as 6 years of age.
5. Total exercise training time from all
sources should be counted when con-
sidering the cumulative effect of all of
the child’s physical activities.
6. The use of maximal training loads
has been proposed to place the young
athlete at risk of injury. No data cur-
rently exists that substantiates this
claim. The use of maximal and near-
maximal loads is encouraged, under
the proper supervision using proper
warm-up and proper technique.
These loads should be used
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cautiously and applied only as part of
a regimented training program for
technically proficient trainees.
7. Training should be fun. Kids are mo-
tivated by fun. When training is no
longer fun, kids will no longer train.
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Figure 9-2. A huge amount of data shows that
weight training does not diminish growth in children.
In contrast, there is no data to show that it does. Mil-
lions of people who grew up hauling hay on farms dis-
prove this preposterous nonsense. Carla and her
daughter Samantha Nichols are pictured here, with
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Samantha at 13, 14, and 17 years old, 5' 5.5", 5' 8", and
5' 9" respectively. Samantha was a national junior
champion weightlifter at age 9 and has been compet-
itive in the sport since then. Weight training has ap-
parently failed to stunt her growth.
Masters
Masters athletes, usually defined as in-
dividuals 35-40 years of age and over, de-
pending on the sport, are a growing popula-
tion. As the U.S. population ages, masters
competitions are increasing in popularity
across the spectrum of sports. Depending on
the sport, it is not uncommon to see younger
masters-age-group athletes do quite well in
national and international events competing
against much younger athletes. Powerlifting
has a long tradition of masters athletes win-
ning in open competition. Absolutely noth-
ing prevents a middle-aged trainee from
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getting stronger, bigger, and more powerful
but his own attitude about training and age.
As humans advance beyond middle-age,
some significant changes generally occur.
Sarcopenia (loss of muscle cells), increased
body fat, performance loss, and reduced flex-
ibility are common effects of aging. This is
largely because the average adult has a
greatly reduced activity level and becomes
increasingly sedentary, which leads to a loss
in muscle mass (atrophy); in the totally in-
active older adult, this loss is compounded
by sarcopenia. The loss of functional muscle
causes a loss of performance. It has been
demonstrated that about 15% of perform-
ance capacity can be lost per decade with in-
activity, and even when activity is main-
tained at a relatively high level the loss of
performance proceeds with age. The logical
extension of this accumulating loss in per-
formance is ultimately the loss of functional
mobility.
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The loss of muscle also means the loss of
metabolic machinery; muscles account for
most of the calories a healthy person burns
daily, and smaller muscles burn fewer calor-
ies. Most people don’t reduce the amount of
food they consume as activity diminishes,
and the result is an average increase in body
fat of 2.5 to 3% per decade.
The loss of muscle mass has another in-
sidious effect that becomes more perceptible
at an advanced age: a loss of proprioception
and balance. The ability to process informa-
tion the body receives about its position in
space is important to performance for an
athlete, and in an older adult it is crucial for
safety. It is developed and maintained with
exercise that requires balance and coordina-
tion, and barbell training fits this description
perfectly.
In fact, barbell training is the best pre-
scription for the prevention of all of these
age-related problems. Staying in (or getting
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into) the gym slows the decay in muscle
mass and pushes the onset of atrophy back
for decades. Even in the 60- to 90-year-old
range, training reduces the loss of muscle
mass to less than 5% per decade. Several
studies have shown that 80-year-olds who
were inactive but began training with
weights actually gained muscle mass and im-
proved their strength, proprioception, and
balance. This effect was directly related to
the amount of leg work included in the pro-
gram and the resulting improvements in leg
strength. Leg strength was also responsible
for improving the ability to walk faster in
older people. In one study, twelve weeks of
strength training was shown to increase
walking endurance by 38%, something walk-
ing by itself fails to do.
Less obvious to those unfamiliar with
weight training is the fact that lifting weights
alone will improve flexibility. Moving
through a complete range of motion serves
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as a very effective dynamic stretch while at
the same time serving as a strength stimulus.
This is most useful for older trainees with
marked loss of range of motion. Osteoarth-
ritis is a clinical condition caused by degen-
erative changes in joints and a loss of joint
function. Patients with arthritis typically re-
duce their activity level to eliminate discom-
fort, which actually exacerbates the condi-
tion. Several studies have shown that in-
creasing the strength of the musculature
around an affected joint decreases pain and
improves function significantly. A number of
these studies used squats to reduce knee
pain.
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Figure 9-3. Older adults are not necessarily weak
adults. Regular training can lead to a lifetime of
strength. This 402-pound deadlift by 72-year-old Dar-
rell Gallenberger is the result of perseverance and
good training habits.
A significant consideration for the mas-
ters athlete is the reduction in recovery
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capacity over the years. For serious masters
competitors, periodization of training is par-
ticularly important, and periods of offloading
should be longer and more pronounced than
for younger athletes. When using monthly
programming models, the week of recovery
should have a larger percentage of intensity
reduction than for younger age groups—as
much as 10 to 15% rather than the 5% fre-
quently used in TSFOSB (two steps forward,
one step back) models. If using the hormonal
fluctuation model with the older athlete, it
should follow the 8-week cycle, with a smal-
ler volume of training during the two weeks
of maximal work. A volume reduction of 5%
per decade past 30 years of age is
recommended.
When novice masters trainees are star-
ted on a program, the process is the same for
that of a younger novice; all the same rules
apply, within the framework of reduced re-
covery ability and the initial physical
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condition of the trainee. Masters athletes
may find that intermediate-level program-
ming such as the Texas method works better
when adopted sooner than a younger novice
would need to; for a person with age-com-
promised recovery ability, a weekly increase
in load is easier to adapt to than the
workout-to workout progress required by
linear progression and will provide for longer
continued improvement. The principles of
stress and adaptation still apply, and they al-
ways will as long as basic health remains
intact.
The bottom line is that unless a person
has significant pathology (is terribly sick) or
is post-geriatric (no longer living), that per-
son can benefit from a weight training pro-
gram similar to those used with younger
populations at the same level of training
advancement.
Post-Rehabilitation Trainees
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All athletes who train hard enough to
compete will get injured. This is the sorry
truth of the matter, and anyone dissuaded
from competition by this fact would not have
made a good competitor anyway. Progress
involves hard training, and hard training
eventually involves pushing past previous
barriers to new levels of performance. To the
extent that this can cause injury, successful
competitive athletics is dangerous. It is a
danger that can and must be managed, but it
is important to recognize the fact that ath-
letes get hurt. If they want to continue to be
athletes afterwards, it is equally important to
understand how to manage and rehabilitate
injuries successfully so that they don’t end a
career. Also, accidents happen, both related
and unrelated to training.
Severely damaged tissue cannot be re-
paired through rehabilitation. Rather, the
surrounding healthy tissue is strengthened
in order to take over the load once carried by
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the now non-functional tissue. If someone
has a survivable heart attack, such as a
myocardial infarction, part of the heart
muscle dies (fig. 9-4). The dead tissue no
longer contributes to the contraction of the
heart, but the heart continues to beat and de-
liver blood. Immediately after the infarction,
the efficiency with which the heart delivers
blood is low, but without missing a beat, the
remaining healthy, functional heart muscle
begins to adapt because it continues to be
loaded while you do not die. In order to ad-
apt to the missing force generation capacity
of the damaged tissue, the remaining muscle
contracts more forcefully and rapidly in-
creases in mass. The end result is the recov-
ery of the heart’s ability to generate contract-
ile force even having lost some of its original
muscle irrecoverably. The change in con-
tractile geometry of the ventricle will not ac-
tually allow the return to 100% of normal
function; instead of the geometry of a normal
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heart, the post-infarction heart is shaped like
a Chinese teacup on its side, with the necrot-
ic tissue forming a lid. This altered geometry,
even with thicker walls after hypertrophy, is
inherently less efficient than the original
ventricle, but it functions well enough that
normal activities can eventually be resumed.
Figure 9-4. If a coronary artery is blocked through
atherosclerosis or, as in the case above, experiment-
ally blocked by tying off the left main coronary artery
in the rat (left panel), the muscle tissue that loses its
circulatory supply (right panel, 1) will be irreversibly
damaged. The tissue immediately surrounding the in-
jured tissue (right panel, 2) and any other undamaged
tissue will immediately become overloaded and
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assume the pressure generation load once uniformly
distributed over the entire ventricular mass (Selye’s
stage 1). Although the heart’s function is reduced and
a period of recovery is needed, the surviving healthy
tissues continue to carry an overload during convales-
cence that results in an increase in the strength and
mass of the surviving muscle (Selye’s stage 2). LV =
Left ventricle.
Severe muscle damage in other parts of
the body constitutes a similar but less dire
situation. If a muscle is severely damaged to
the point of necrosis, not only will the re-
maining tissue adapt to the loss of function
of the damaged tissue by increasing its func-
tional capacity, but the surrounding muscles
that normally aid the damaged muscle in its
biomechanical role will assume part of the
workload. This is classically illustrated in the
scientific and medical literature in “ablation”
experiments, where the gastrocnemius
muscle (major calf muscle) is removed and
the underlying soleus and plantaris muscles
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rapidly adapt and assume the load once car-
ried by the gastrocnemius (fig. 9-5). It is well
documented that these newly stressed
muscles change dramatically, both chemic-
ally and structurally, after ablation in order
to return the whole mechanical system to
“normal” function. The recovered structures
are not as good as the original equipment,
but they function at a high percentage of the
original capacity.
Figure 9-5. In ablation experiments, a muscle is sur-
gically removed (A, B, and C). In most hypertrophy
experiments, the ablated muscle of choice is the gast-
rocnemius (C, both heads), leaving the underlying
plantaris and soleus to carry the walking load once
carried by the gastrocnemius. In this case, the surgical
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removal of the gastrocnemius places the rat, and spe-
cifically the rat’s leg, in Selye’s stage 1. Rats undergo-
ing this procedure begin walking on the operated leg
within 24 hours, and within one to two weeks their
activity level and gait are the same as those of normal
rats. The overloaded soleus and plantaris have adap-
ted (Selye’s stage 2). It is normal to see about a 75%
increase in soleus and plantaris mass with this type of
overload.
In both the previous scenarios, recovery
of function occurred after only a short period
of reduced loading, essentially the duration
of time needed for the resolution of inflam-
mation and any other blatant pathology. A
rapid return to an increasing functional load
is required to induce adaptation and recov-
ery. Even in the infarcted heart, a return to
normal load represents a functional overload
of the remaining tissue: the same amount of
force must initially be generated by a smaller
muscle mass, so it is a higher relative load.
The adaptation that facilitates the return to
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normal function is a response to the stress to
the system produced by the injured area’s
decrease in function. The injury that neces-
sitates the compensation is the source of the
stress to the surrounding tissues, and they
respond by adapting to the new demands
placed on them. Without the injury, the ad-
aptation would not occur, just as no adapta-
tion ever occurs in the absence of stress.
While caution is necessary to avoid further
injury, the belief that rehabilitation can oc-
cur in the absence of overload represents a
failure to comprehend the basic tenets of the
physiology and mechanics of the living hu-
man body.
Most injuries experienced in the weight
room, on the field, and in daily life do not
rise to the severity of necrosis of any tissue.
They are inconvenient, painful, aggravating,
and potentially expensive to deal with, but
they do not alter the quality of life for a signi-
ficant period of time. But the same principles
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apply to healing them that apply to more
severe injuries, because the mechanisms that
cause them to heal are the same. The concept
of “letting” an injury heal beyond an initial
few days reflects a lack of understanding of
the actual processes that cause the return to
function. A less severe injury that does not
involve tissue necrosis nonetheless involves
an overload of the immediate ability of the
compromised tissue, thus stimulating the
processes that cause repair. In this particular
instance, care must be taken to ensure that
the structure that is healing receives its nor-
mal proportion of the load, because the ob-
ject is to return this particular structure to
full function, not to allow the adjacent struc-
tures to assume the load and thus preventing
the injury from healing fully. This is accom-
plished by the enforcement of very strict
technique during exercise of the injured
area. It hurts more this way, but the long-
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term return to full function depends on the
correct amount of stress to the injured area.
During supervised rehabilitation, the
workloads used should be light enough to al-
low recovery of function locally, within the
injured tissue, but this load will not be
stressful enough systemically to maintain ad-
vanced fitness levels. When the athlete is re-
leased to unrestricted activity, enough de-
training has occurred that a change in pro-
gramming will be required. Six to eight
weeks in rehabilitation can result in the loss
of enough overall performance to warrant re-
turn to a program of simple progression,
even for an elite athlete. Once pre-injury or
pre-disease performance levels have been re-
gained, a return to normal training at that
level can follow. As discussed earlier,
strength is a resilient quality, and strength
lost through detraining can be recovered
much more rapidly than it was initially
gained.
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“It has become almost a cliché to remark that nobody boasts
of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to
boast ignorance of science.”
—Richard Dawkins
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“We are the recipients of scientific method. We can each be
a creative and active part of it if we so desire.”
—Kary Mullis

“And above all things, never think that you’re not good
enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is
that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.”
—Isaac Asimov
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Credits
We would like to acknowledge the following
individuals for their contribution of images
to this book:
• Photograph of Bud Charniga by Jim
Kilgore
• Photographs of Carrie Klumpar by
Torin Halsey
• Micrography courtesy of Dr. David
Saunders, Northern Iowa University
• EMG and force tracing courtesy of
Dr. Alexander Ng and Jacqueline
Limberg, Marquette University
• Photograph of Darrell Gallenberger
courtesy of Darrell Gallenberger
• All other graphics revised from the
print version or created by Stef
Bradford

We would like to acknowledge the contribu-
tions of the following individuals for their in-
put to various sections of this text:
• Dr. Michael Stone for providing some
of the elusive details on the history of
periodization.
• Dr. Michael Hartman for his thesis
perspective on Hormonal
Fluctuation.
• Dr. Becky Kudrna for her section
comments on exercise variation, hor-
monal responses to exercise, and wo-
men’s training.
• Glenn Pendlay for our many discus-
sions regarding Two-Factor Models,
Hormonal Fluctuation, and practical
applications.
• Dr. Chad Touchberry for his reading
and commentary on Classical
Periodization.
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• Dr. Scott Mazzetti for his sharing of
data regarding energy costs of slow
vs. fast repetition speeds.
• Tom Mitchell, NASA Florida State
Chairman for his perspectives on
Strongman training.
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability
to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable
for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
—Douglas Adams
“ Hard, intense work of the body … is the most conclusive
evidence of our own being that we could possibly have.”
—James Dickey
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Author Information
Mark Rippetoe is the author of Start-
ing Strength: Basic Barbell Training,
Strong Enough?, numerous magazine and
journal articles, and the co-author of
Practical Programming for Strength Train-
ing. He has worked in the fitness industry
since 1978, and has owned the Wichita Falls
Athletic Club since 1984. He graduated from
Midwestern State University in 1983 with a
Bachelor of Science in geology and a minor
in anthropology. He was in the first group
certified by the National Strength and Condi-
tioning Association as CSCS in 1985, and is a
USA Weightlifting Senior Coach, CrossFit
Coach, and USA Track and Field Level I
Coach. He was a competitive powerlifter for
ten years, and has coached many lifters and
athletes, and thousands of people interested

in improving their strength and
performance.
Lon Kilgore is a professor at Midwest-
ern State University where he teaches ap-
plied physiology and anatomy. He has also
held faculty appointments at Kansas State
University and Warnborough University
(IE). He graduated from Lincoln University
with a Bachelor of Science in biology and
earned a Ph.D. in anatomy and physiology
from Kansas State University. He has com-
peted in weightlifting to the national level
since 1972 and coached his first athletes to
national championship event medals in 1974.
He has worked in the trenches, as a coach or
scientific consultant, with athletes from rank
novices to professionals and the Olympic
elite, and as a collegiate strength coach. He
has been a certifying instructor for USA
Weightlifting for more than a decade and a
frequent lecturer at events at the US Olympic
Training Center. His illustration and
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authorship efforts include books, magazine
columns, and research journal publications.
Stef Bradford, Ph.D. is the operations
manager of The Aasgaard Company. She re-
ceived her doctorate in pharmacology from
Duke University in 2004. She has been
strength training for most of her life and a
competitive Olympic weightlifter for several
years. She teaches barbell training in sem-
inars throughout the country.
545/550

Read more articles,
watch interviews and
demonstrations, and
interact with the
authors directly on
their website
www.startingstrength.co
“It matters if you just don't give up.”
—Stephen Hawking

The Physiology of Adaptation
• Muscular Contraction: The Foundation of
Movement
• Energy Metabolism: Powering the Muscle
• Training-Induced Muscle Adaptations
• Neural Integration: Stimulating the Muscle to
Move
• Hormones: Mediators of Physiologic Adaptation
• Cardiovascular Considerations
• Genetic Potential
• Going Backward: Detraining
Training Program Basics
• Repetitions
• Sets
• Rest Between Sets
• Workout Frequency
• Exercise Selection
• Exercise Variation
• Exercise Order
• Speed of Movement
• Warm-up
The Novice
• The Basics of Novice Programming
• Basic Program Variables
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• The Starting Strength Model
The Intermediate
• General Considerations
• The Texas Method
• The Split Routine Model
• The Starr Model
The Advanced Trainee
• The Pyramid Model
• The Two Steps Forward, One Step Back Model
• The Building Blocks Model
• The Hormonal Fluctuation Model
Special Populations
• Women
• Youth
• Masters
• Post-Rehabilitation Trainees
Example Program: Novice
Example Programs: Intermediate
Credits
Authors
549/550

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