Questions. Answers. Partying with BOSS... Dan Green

[Edgar Benegas]

Dan I recently have a lower back pain I wanthink to know what I can do to relieve the pain, stretches, procedures, anything, I'm close to competition and I need to be ready quick as possible to beat 3 American records at 17 age and at the 59 kg

[BOSS]

Dan I recently have a lower back pain I wanthink to know what I can do to relieve the pain, stretches, procedures, anything, I'm close to competition and I need to be ready quick as possible to beat 3 American records at 17 age and at the 59 kg

Well that's kind of a vague question, but you could use a reverse hyper to get blood flow and help take pressure off a disc if that's part of the problem. Otherwise glute and lat stretches can help relieve tightness around the low back.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan ,
Question how do you maintain your strength so well while cutting down on calories very impressive

Gotta make sure the nutrients are good. So starches throughout the day but sugary carbs after training. Very low fat so I can keep the protein high. Also, when you initially lose weight your strength will go down but then will normalize. I also do better with weight loss by training more volume/frequency and the opposite if I'm trying to gain.

[BOSS]

Hi Dan,I read somewhere that you are going to put out an E-book on your method of training,True? if so any idea as when? I rekon it will go like hotcakes

Yea eventually I will just not sure exactly when!

[BOSS]

Hi, Dan!

Big fan of you... Probably asked a question or two in the past on here. But I am curious about how often/much time you spend on recovery in terms of massage or going to ex. the naprapath and so on? I'm not an elite powerlifter or elite athlete in any sport for that matter, though I definitely think I should begin investing in some massage sessions here and there!

For most of the years I've lifted I've done absolutely nothing but keep my technique good and just stretch as needed. As of last year I've been seeing a chiro/art practitioner weekly and that's made a big difference. This year I've also begun a very thorough and regimented stretching protocol for my lower body and that's helped a ton.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, another random ass question here, but have you ever messed with hack squats where you start with the sled at the bottom position? I started doing these a few weeks ago to build strength coming out of the hole, but don't really know of anyone else who has done these this way, or whether they'll have any carry over into an actual squat. Only thing I do know is that they suck so bad I'm about to name them dodger squats.

Well hack squats in general are great! I've never tried to make them complicated just focused on higher reps like 15-25

[JFehily]

do you do much hip mobility to be able to open your legs out more when you pull sumo? I find it difficult to get into that position at the moment so am planning on doing that, also do you implement ice baths/cold showers/contrasts for recovery? Thanks Dan!

[Info Junkie]

Hey Dan,

Short question my plan for today was 3 sets of 10 on 100kg bench, however i slightly over guessed my strength ( even though I have gotten 3 sets of 9 with 100kg before so not a million miles off, however I got the first set pretty easy but it obviously toke a lot from me as Second set I only got 8 and last set 6 so all in 24 reps.

If I am doing 3 sets of 8 on 100kg I get it easier with less fatigue but end up with same number of reps with better quality reps also.

Is this why you pick a rep range to stick to for each set. As in I remember you saying if your reps for day are 8 and if you can't do another set of 8 you either call it a day or drop the weight slightly to get the 8 reps as its counter to productive to start dropping strength on the set?

[JFehily]

A friend of mine gets lower back pain whenever she benches with an arch so does days without it and some days with it to save the pain, which ultimately leads to her dropping weight as she can't get her shoulders pinned back and stay tight. what would you recommend her do? Thanks Dan!

[BOSS]

do you do much hip mobility to be able to open your legs out more when you pull sumo? I find it difficult to get into that position at the moment so am planning on doing that, also do you implement ice baths/cold showers/contrasts for recovery? Thanks Dan!

I used to and have re-begun a pretty heavy stretching protocol. That allows for flexibility, but mobility is really a combination of strength and flexibility. Achieving this requires block pulls to build the strength of the hips. Flexibility isn't enough.
No real ice or contrasts showers for me

[chris818]

Hi Boss,Ive been following your training blog and its great,I know its your peaking one but was just wondering dose your off season training change much to that,like how you do your split etc?

[JacknCoke]

Hello mr Green. There's a popular split going around that i'm trying to run and it looks like this.
Day 1
Touch n Go Bench
Deadlift
Day 2
Front Squat
Overhead Press
Day 4
Paused BP
Deficit Deadlift
Day 6
Touch n Go Bench
Back Squat
Days 3/5/7
Pull Ups for shoulder health and some cardio for conditioning.
How would you go about adding some extra volume for upper body and maybe some isolation work?

[BOSS]

Hey Dan,

Short question my plan for today was 3 sets of 10 on 100kg bench, however i slightly over guessed my strength ( even though I have gotten 3 sets of 9 with 100kg before so not a million miles off, however I got the first set pretty easy but it obviously toke a lot from me as Second set I only got 8 and last set 6 so all in 24 reps.

If I am doing 3 sets of 8 on 100kg I get it easier with less fatigue but end up with same number of reps with better quality reps also.

Is this why you pick a rep range to stick to for each set. As in I remember you saying if your reps for day are 8 and if you can't do another set of 8 you either call it a day or drop the weight slightly to get the 8 reps as its counter to productive to start dropping strength on the set?

Yes adjusting the weight to accommodate a rep goal is one effective form of auto-regulation. Another is picking a weight where the rep goal is less than a maximal effort (doing sets of 8 with a weight you could do 10 with) and then adjusting the number of sets to auto regulate. In other words you could do between 3-5 sets so long as you can continue to confidently hit sets of 8. This is how I approach linear progression for the main lifts

[BOSS]

A friend of mine gets lower back pain whenever she benches with an arch so does days without it and some days with it to save the pain, which ultimately leads to her dropping weight as she can't get her shoulders pinned back and stay tight. what would you recommend her do? Thanks Dan!

I'm not sure what type of back pain she's having so it's kinda an individual thing. Most likely she's either setting up her arch incorrectly or is hurting it on some other exercise and just feeling it on the bench. There's also nothing wrong with training with the feet up for a different training effect that builds strength that will carry over to the arch setup very well. Just treat the two styles as separate lifts with separate sets of records. If the feet up bench increases in strength you'll see her normal bench increase as well so it's not a bad way to deal with the issue

[BOSS]

Hi Boss,Ive been following your training blog and its great,I know its your peaking one but was just wondering dose your off season training change much to that,like how you do your split etc?

Yeah I have a lot of methods that I'll follow. I've laid out a lot of these training ideas in the past, so the individual approaches are in the thread if you look through it. As for generalizations, I just think about matching my specific goals and needs. Needs being things like how many days a week can I train, or an injury to heal up. Goals might be to focus on prioritizing a secondary lift like my conventional deadlift or incline bench or something like that. That way you train hard, but the stimulus is fresh and when you'll go back to your competition prep the main lifts will feel fresh again and you'll have more strength going in.

[BOSS]

Hello mr Green. There's a popular split going around that i'm trying to run and it looks like this.
Day 1
Touch n Go Bench
Deadlift
Day 2
Front Squat
Overhead Press
Day 4
Paused BP
Deficit Deadlift
Day 6
Touch n Go Bench
Back Squat
Days 3/5/7
Pull Ups for shoulder health and some cardio for conditioning.
How would you go about adding some extra volume for upper body and maybe some isolation work?

A simple way that I'd used in the past was to prioritize upper back training, I would do 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps of either pull-ups, chest supported rows, 1-arm DB rows, or bodyweight rows (horizontal pullup). I'd pick one exercise to do at the end of EVERY workout. Then I'd always do either bent laterals (rear delts) or seated DB Cleans (traps/rear delts/rotator cuff) at about 3-4 sets of 12-20 reps. I was doing this an average of 5x per week for almost 2 years, and my back is significantly better developed from it. You could really do that for any lift if you find the right motivation and exercises.

[JacknCoke]

A simple way that I'd used in the past was to prioritize upper back training, I would do 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps of either pull-ups, chest supported rows, 1-arm DB rows, or bodyweight rows (horizontal pullup). I'd pick one exercise to do at the end of EVERY workout. Then I'd always do either bent laterals (rear delts) or seated DB Cleans (traps/rear delts/rotator cuff) at about 3-4 sets of 12-20 reps. I was doing this an average of 5x per week for almost 2 years, and my back is significantly better developed from it. You could really do that for any lift if you find the right motivation and exercises.

Thank you sir, i will practice this fanatically. Crazy to think that being able to just chat with the best in the world and pick his brain is normal. You have my gratitude.

[Info Junkie]

Yes adjusting the weight to accommodate a rep goal is one effective form of auto-regulation. Another is picking a weight where the rep goal is less than a maximal effort (doing sets of 8 with a weight you could do 10 with) and then adjusting the number of sets to auto regulate. In other words you could do between 3-5 sets so long as you can continue to confidently hit sets of 8. This is how I approach linear progression for the main lifts

Great, to repeat what others have said this thread is a gold mine. The information your throwing out here for nothing is unbelievable considering the current "fitness" industry that is out to literally rob everyone. To have a guy like you who actually walks the walk answering these question is very much appreciated.

[C.Coronato]

A simple way that I'd used in the past was to prioritize upper back training, I would do 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps of either pull-ups, chest supported rows, 1-arm DB rows, or bodyweight rows (horizontal pullup). I'd pick one exercise to do at the end of EVERY workout. Then I'd always do either bent laterals (rear delts) or seated DB Cleans (traps/rear delts/rotator cuff) at about 3-4 sets of 12-20 reps. I was doing this an average of 5x per week for almost 2 years, and my back is significantly better developed from it. You could really do that for any lift if you find the right motivation and exercises.

Thats fucking wild, and I will start today! ha

[DGymn]

Yes adjusting the weight to accommodate a rep goal is one effective form of auto-regulation. Another is picking a weight where the rep goal is less than a maximal effort (doing sets of 8 with a weight you could do 10 with) and then adjusting the number of sets to auto regulate. In other words you could do between 3-5 sets so long as you can continue to confidently hit sets of 8. This is how I approach linear progression for the main lifts

BOSS, you've touched on this a couple of times in your thread, as I understand it:
- Method 1: Pick a range for the sets, when the reps feel to heavy, stop.
- Method 2: Do sets with submaximal reps, go all out in the last set.
- Method 3: Do sets with submaximal reps so you can get the amount of sets you've planned.

But when would you pick which method? I always tend to pick the first for hyperthropy work and the second for submaximal and maximal strenght. I've never really used the 3rd method as I don't how to properly plan the amount of sets I can handle.

[micheldied]

Hi Boss,

When you bench, do you try to set your feet as far back under you as possible? I notice that your knees are at just less than a 90 degree angle when you bench.

[Martin Haddock]

Hey Dan.

I attended a seminar of yours in the UK. Phemonal experience, I advice anybody reading this to take the time to go to one. It's ties up alot of loose ends/questions you'll have from reading this awesome thread.

Anyway, I digress.

1) People are very often telling you how much volume you are doing is insane, and they couldn't handle it.
Do you think this is because you have built up to using that amount of volume over years that enables you to handle it? Because I never just buy the kop out of he "is from the moon".
In other words you talk about having ranging sets based on auto-reg'. Because you have done this for a long time is enables the above amount of work?

2)Do you think the volume you build up and the amount of volume you do with submaximal weights, is what makes your version of Linear successful?

3)When staring your next program after a peaking phase, do you always start with an 8 to 10 rm and go from there? Or do you have other protocols.

I've taken my SLDL (never did them before your seminar) up to 180kg for sets of 6 to 8. The deficit version...wow, only just started and it's a poultry 120kg for 8 LOL. But ill just do what you preach, build it up slowly over the years eith volume and linear progression :D

Thanks Dan, sorry for the questions!

[BOSS]

Hey Dan.

I attended a seminar of yours in the UK. Phemonal experience, I advice anybody reading this to take the time to go to one. It's ties up alot of loose ends/questions you'll have from reading this awesome thread.

Anyway, I digress.

1) People are very often telling you how much volume you are doing is insane, and they couldn't handle it.
Do you think this is because you have built up to using that amount of volume over years that enables you to handle it? Because I never just buy the kop out of he "is from the moon".
In other words you talk about having ranging sets based on auto-reg'. Because you have done this for a long time is enables the above amount of work?

2)Do you think the volume you build up and the amount of volume you do with submaximal weights, is what makes your version of Linear successful?

3)When staring your next program after a peaking phase, do you always start with an 8 to 10 rm and go from there? Or do you have other protocols.

I've taken my SLDL (never did them before your seminar) up to 180kg for sets of 6 to 8. The deficit version...wow, only just started and it's a poultry 120kg for 8 LOL. But ill just do what you preach, build it up slowly over the years eith volume and linear progression :D

Thanks Dan, sorry for the questions!

Hey thanks Martin!
Pertaining to your questions:
1. For volume, here's my take. The first thing as a beginner is quality. Technique is the limiting or UNlimiting factor on progress. Volume of quality lifting is productive, but volume of crap lifting is just a lot of crap... it will get you ahead quickly but stall you at your ceiling or get you hurt. Also, the better your technique, the more volume you can handle. You're effectively loading the muscles much more than the joints. The other key then is that while volume gets you stronger and prepares you for future peaking, it's also time spent practicing better technique. So you can see you either snowball ahead by building both better volume and technique as you go or you butt your head against a wall trying to get ahead with bad form. So, yes it takes time. BUT, many of my former lifters were intermediates and beginners and were almost always ready and able to handle the volume. For some, and as part of question 3, if they didn't have the technique in check, the 8-10RM would be based on a strategically lowered 1RM. So this way they can still do the volume asked with good form. Ego check, then massive progress. Trust me many have told me they didn't think they would handle it, but much to their chagrin, they continued to handle it, eat more, shed body fat, get stronger and gain muscle.
2. The volume is a necessity, but also the constant focus on form is huge, so as the weights go up the form improves as well. Also, it's not enough to understand technique "theory", you also need to strengthen the body parts involved. If we say tense the lats, but the lats are lacking, then the lifter won't be strong enough to execute the technique. This dictates that the appropriate secondary lift and foundation of accessories are also progressed in time with the linear progression of the main lift.
3. For starting a new program I usually just take the previous training cycle's start numbers and increase them by a set poundage and start there... I only use the chart in the very beginning with lifters usually

[BOSS]

Hi Boss,

When you bench, do you try to set your feet as far back under you as possible? I notice that your knees are at just less than a 90 degree angle when you bench.

Yeah I try to just have about a 90 degree angle, but it comes out as just a little less. I focus on pushing my heels "away" not downward. Think of it is using your heels to push your body up the bench toward the rack. A horizontal leg drive. If your traps are dug into the bench, then as your legs push your hips horizontally along the bench toward your shoulders, it'll force your rib cage to lift up into thoracic extension. I'm not usually going for a big low back arch, just thoracic extension or an upper back arch. Sternum high and max lat tension in this position. I actually touch my chest with the bar on a floor press with my legs straight out in front of me this way. My wingspan is 72" so I don't have t-rex arms either lol. There's a vid of this on youtube on my channel of me doing 435x5 floor press from a couple years ago. I was doing it then because I couldn't arch my lower back because of an injury. This also illustrates that the legs aren't needed for a strong arch. It's T-spine mobility and strong lats. Again look at the paraplegic bench monsters. Some have a great arch with no legs

[BOSS]

BOSS, you've touched on this a couple of times in your thread, as I understand it:
- Method 1: Pick a range for the sets, when the reps feel to heavy, stop.
- Method 2: Do sets with submaximal reps, go all out in the last set.
- Method 3: Do sets with submaximal reps so you can get the amount of sets you've planned.

But when would you pick which method? I always tend to pick the first for hyperthropy work and the second for submaximal and maximal strenght. I've never really used the 3rd method as I don't how to properly plan the amount of sets I can handle.

These are all a little similar, it's sort of just a matter of how you push it if you feel like pushing, so sometimes just randomly doing one is as much as I think it through... simple!

[micheldied]

Yeah I try to just have about a 90 degree angle, but it comes out as just a little less. I focus on pushing my heels "away" not downward. Think of it is using your heels to push your body up the bench toward the rack. A horizontal leg drive. If your traps are dug into the bench, then as your legs push your hips horizontally along the bench toward your shoulders, it'll force your rib cage to lift up into thoracic extension. I'm not usually going for a big low back arch, just thoracic extension or an upper back arch. Sternum high and max lat tension in this position. I actually touch my chest with the bar on a floor press with my legs straight out in front of me this way. My wingspan is 72" so I don't have t-rex arms either lol. There's a vid of this on youtube on my channel of me doing 435x5 floor press from a couple years ago. I was doing it then because I couldn't arch my lower back because of an injury. This also illustrates that the legs aren't needed for a strong arch. It's T-spine mobility and strong lats. Again look at the paraplegic bench monsters. Some have a great arch with no legs

Thanks for the help, Dan. I'm able to keep my rib cage up and upper back arched to a pretty large degree without the use of my legs. I'm used to having my feet pretty wide out (toes pointing outward) and back almost under my hips. I think I'll keep my knees closer to 90 degrees to get more drive with my legs.

[BOSS]

Thats fucking wild, and I will start today! ha

Yeah it's kind of like the Arnold calves priority story of just training calves every day. I just use these approximate rep ranges because it's heavy enough for hypertrophy and light enough to execute the lifts well without heaving the weights and losing tension. Some of them I can go heavier on, but there is a point where it's not productive just an ego booster

[BOSS]

Great, to repeat what others have said this thread is a gold mine. The information your throwing out here for nothing is unbelievable considering the current "fitness" industry that is out to literally rob everyone. To have a guy like you who actually walks the walk answering these question is very much appreciated.

I appreciate it thanks!

[BOSS]

Thank you sir, i will practice this fanatically. Crazy to think that being able to just chat with the best in the world and pick his brain is normal. You have my gratitude.

No problem man

[JEAH]

Hey Dan, Just moved into a new place and I wanna put some equipment in my basement. I already have plenty of weight, bars, etc. My question is what do u use for a deadlift platform/ flooring for squat rack? Is it layered plywood or what is your exact setup? Thanks for the help

[Nmowery]

Hey Dan...just curious, but when approaching a meet, at what point do you stop doing different varieties of squat/bench/deads and start working more on specificity with the competition lifts? I'm 6 weeks out from my second meet, and have been getting good gains on my deadlift by doing a rotating 3 week cycle with different variations, but feel like I should cut that out here soon.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, Just moved into a new place and I wanna put some equipment in my basement. I already have plenty of weight, bars, etc. My question is what do u use for a deadlift platform/ flooring for squat rack? Is it layered plywood or what is your exact setup? Thanks for the help

Sure no problem. My original setup was an 8' x 8' platform with a 2x2 squat rack from EliteFTS on it (the orange rack in my youtube videos). I built it long before I had a proper rotary hammer to anchor stuff into concrete with, but actually by bolting it to the platform and not the floor it actually works better.

But first, the platform is basically 4 sheets of plywood in 2 layers. I believe mine were just 21/32" thick although 23/32" would've been better. Then the top layer I used 3/4" stall mats from Tractor Supply Co (you can order them online too I've seen them on muscledriverusa.com), but each of the 2 mats is 100 lbs so shipping will be high if you do that. The stall mats are only 4' x 6' so I cut out a 2' x 2' square from each of them which I put in each back corner of the platform. The 4' x 6' pieces with the cutouts then were put up front. This leaves a 4' x 4' square in the back center area of the platform, which I filled with a 4' x 4' square of 3/4" plywood, the expensive stuff.

So in all the platform is 3 layers: two layers of plywood and a top layer of stall mats and center area of plywood for the squat rack. To bolt the squat rack down I just drilled pilot holes and then used 16 lag bolts to bolt it down. This is basically bad carpentry, but it has never budged. The best feature, and the reason why it hasn't budged, is that by facing the front when I squat, when I put the weights back into the rack, the inertia of the bar hitting the rack causes the entire rack and back of the platform to lift up slightly, absorbing the impact. If it were fixed hard to the floor, all those impacts would eventually break the bolts free from the concrete and generally make it harder to rack since the weights would bounce back. An accidental feature for sure!

With this setup you can deadlift inside the squat rack if you want to use reverse bands or in front if you want a wide sumo stance. The rubber stall mats are adequate if you have standard 1-2" thick 45 lb plates. If you switched to competition style plates which are thinner and have basically double the weight per square inch hitting the platform, you might need a second layer of rubber to not dent the plywood. I had to redo all the platforms shortly after we bought all the kg plates.

Anyway, the last feature I added was that I bought truck tie-down hooks to use with bands. I bolted 3 pairs to the rack: 1 pair at the front of the rack, 1 halfway back, and 1 all the way back. For these use strong wood screws with hex heads since your attaching metal plates and drilling into the wood below the rubber. They look flimsy, but each one is plenty strong to support it's share of the tension of a band.

Hope this helps!

[BOSS]

Hey Dan...just curious, but when approaching a meet, at what point do you stop doing different varieties of squat/bench/deads and start working more on specificity with the competition lifts? I'm 6 weeks out from my second meet, and have been getting good gains on my deadlift by doing a rotating 3 week cycle with different variations, but feel like I should cut that out here soon.

That's a pretty individual question, but first, you're getting stronger which is great, so don't underestimate that part!
As far as specificity, I'd recommend getting the standard technique in there at least once or twice during the last month, and just not going crazy on the other ones but you can still do them. Just remember, at about a month out, it's equally important that you balance recovery with your heavy lifting on deadlifts especially. If you go into the meet with your back fatigued you'll most likely not hit a big squat or deadlift, even if you were strong enough to.

You just need to think clearly and trust your intuition. If you feel like pushing then push, but if you're nervous before a big workout because you're about to attempt a max, then that's counterproductive and you should really be saving that weight for the meet. You might just be even stronger by then. Hit weights YOU KNOW you will hit in training, and just use your sense to decide based on how challenging they were how strong you actually are. In other words If you think you can deadlift 500 but you KNOW you can deadlift 485, the 485 deadlift will tell you if you could've hit 500, or less or more, without having to actually find out and also possibly peaking too soon. Go heavy, but do not max. Even if you make it, you still might not make it at the meet and then you'll feel foolish.

[Edgar Benegas]

Wassup brothers!
So today I had a deadlift session and I was deadlifting 405×5, 435×3, 475×3, 500×2, and on my last rep of 500 I let the bar down and I got this pain on my butt next to my rectum I do sumo deadlift I feel the pain when I stretch, can someone give advice I hope it's not an hernia, probably just a cramp due to not right stretching, thanks again and keep making gains!!

Bwt: 132
Age:17
SQ: 415
Bench: 215
Deadlift: 515

[JEAH]

I really appreciate the time you took to respond to my question. You answered it perfectly. Thanks so much. Best of luck at Boss of Bosses 3!




Sure no problem. My original setup was an 8' x 8' platform with a 2x2 squat rack from EliteFTS on it (the orange rack in my youtube videos). I built it long before I had a proper rotary hammer to anchor stuff into concrete with, but actually by bolting it to the platform and not the floor it actually works better.

But first, the platform is basically 4 sheets of plywood in 2 layers. I believe mine were just 21/32" thick although 23/32" would've been better. Then the top layer I used 3/4" stall mats from Tractor Supply Co (you can order them online too I've seen them on muscledriverusa.com), but each of the 2 mats is 100 lbs so shipping will be high if you do that. The stall mats are only 4' x 6' so I cut out a 2' x 2' square from each of them which I put in each back corner of the platform. The 4' x 6' pieces with the cutouts then were put up front. This leaves a 4' x 4' square in the back center area of the platform, which I filled with a 4' x 4' square of 3/4" plywood, the expensive stuff.

So in all the platform is 3 layers: two layers of plywood and a top layer of stall mats and center area of plywood for the squat rack. To bolt the squat rack down I just drilled pilot holes and then used 16 lag bolts to bolt it down. This is basically bad carpentry, but it has never budged. The best feature, and the reason why it hasn't budged, is that by facing the front when I squat, when I put the weights back into the rack, the inertia of the bar hitting the rack causes the entire rack and back of the platform to lift up slightly, absorbing the impact. If it were fixed hard to the floor, all those impacts would eventually break the bolts free from the concrete and generally make it harder to rack since the weights would bounce back. An accidental feature for sure!

With this setup you can deadlift inside the squat rack if you want to use reverse bands or in front if you want a wide sumo stance. The rubber stall mats are adequate if you have standard 1-2" thick 45 lb plates. If you switched to competition style plates which are thinner and have basically double the weight per square inch hitting the platform, you might need a second layer of rubber to not dent the plywood. I had to redo all the platforms shortly after we bought all the kg plates.

Anyway, the last feature I added was that I bought truck tie-down hooks to use with bands. I bolted 3 pairs to the rack: 1 pair at the front of the rack, 1 halfway back, and 1 all the way back. For these use strong wood screws with hex heads since your attaching metal plates and drilling into the wood below the rubber. They look flimsy, but each one is plenty strong to support it's share of the tension of a band.

Hope this helps!

[BOSS]

Wassup brothers!
So today I had a deadlift session and I was deadlifting 405×5, 435×3, 475×3, 500×2, and on my last rep of 500 I let the bar down and I got this pain on my butt next to my rectum I do sumo deadlift I feel the pain when I stretch, can someone give advice I hope it's not an hernia, probably just a cramp due to not right stretching, thanks again and keep making gains!!

Bwt: 132
Age:17
SQ: 415
Bench: 215
Deadlift: 515

Hey Edgar, I don't really know what that would be. Certainly a hernia is one possible thing or maybe a muscle strain, but I don't really know! Either wait it out or see a Dr

[Edgar Benegas]

Hey Edgar, I don't really know what that would be. Certainly a hernia is one possible thing or maybe a muscle strain, but I don't really know! Either wait it out or see a Dr

Ok I'll take 2-3 weeks off and see what happens, and what can I do if it's a muscle strain besides rest, thanks alot

[Panther]

Hey Dan,
Quick question. I've gone through this entire forum and haven't seen much talk of good mornings being used in training even though I see videos of you doing them every so often. What day do you recommend doing them on if I am following a split similar to yours and when do you cycle them back into/out of training? Thanks.

[Edgar Benegas]

Wassup Dan
I got a quick and really important question about any supplements to take for strength gaining cause I compete in powerlifting I'm in the 132 lbs class, anyone that knows of supplements close to roids or anything that has little to no side effects plzz help and plzz say how much time in my system it would be there, thanks again everyone

[JEAH]

Squat shoes. Currently squatting in flats (reebok crossfit lite). My issue when squatting is my toes coming off the ground as I go up almost as if I wanna take a step backwards. Would a healed shoe aid with that problem? Or is it altogether something different? Thanks as always

[Nmowery]

Wassup Dan
I got a quick and really important question about any supplements to take for strength gaining cause I compete in powerlifting I'm in the 132 lbs class, anyone that knows of supplements close to roids or anything that has little to no side effects plzz help and plzz say how much time in my system it would be there, thanks again everyone

Eat more!

[DGymn]

These are all a little similar, it's sort of just a matter of how you push it if you feel like pushing, so sometimes just randomly doing one is as much as I think it through... simple!

BOSS,

This has been awesome advice!
I've been using this for different movements..
Can I ask how you regulate overal training volume?

I'm currently in a hypertrophy block. Training is around 15sets, i was wondering if I could push the volume a little more by adding another movement but don't wanna overdo it and screw up recovery like I did the past 2years.. Is your approach to regulate the overal volume different in a hypertrophy then a strenght block?

[micheldied]

Dan, how do you like the SBDs as opposed to the Titan sleeves? My Titans are getting loose now and I'm in the market for a new pair.

[Buckfever]

Squat 551X12, just for friends. Very impressive return to training.

[Info Junkie]

Hey Dan,

First of congrats on the meet , boss of bosses is becoming a pretty recognized meet now also congrats on your placing. The competition for that class is unbelievable high.

I have adopted the high volume approach to training for a while now eg 3 x 5 , 3 x 3 , 6 x 4, 5 x 5 etc etc and i have had really really good success on it, however of late i have been thinking of trying the older methods of 1 top working set and just auto regulate the volume then as in if i feel up to a second/third set then fire away but if recovery or time isn't on my side that day just do the one top set.

My plan was to work up to a top set of 4/5 on all compounds, and then to not increase the weight anymore until after few weeks i can get 10 reps with that weight..then reset by adding 10-20lbs to the lift to bring it back into the 4/5 rep range and repeat the process...I am planning on doing just 1 top set but if i feel good and i have the time ill do more volume but if not just 1 set is the default plan.

Do you reckon that's a reasonable approach for someone who wants to get more mass and strong but not looking to compete in either en-devour just for personnel joy ? i dont mind if i progress slower as i am in this for life but i do want to know i can progress some bit with this approach??

Or is the volume just too low to get anywhere with it ?

[BOSS]

Hey Dan,
Quick question. I've gone through this entire forum and haven't seen much talk of good mornings being used in training even though I see videos of you doing them every so often. What day do you recommend doing them on if I am following a split similar to yours and when do you cycle them back into/out of training? Thanks.

Well as they are a back exercise, they can be used to assist either deadlift or squat strength, but my preference is to do them on squat days. If you do them for squats, I'd keep the back fully extended and do them with a regular bar in a high bar position. I really only do them with the safety squat bar (the yoke) after squatting with it, but I keep my upper spine rounded as that's the position that benefits my deadlift more. It's harder, but feels more productive for building mid-upper back strength as well as lower back strength. When in doubt start with higher reps like 8-10 and build up volume in this rep range before going up in weight to where the reps must come down to 5-6. Also, don't overdo the ROM on these, just keep a smooth tempo, and in proper bodybuilding fashion, FEEL the back muscles working and staying in control.

[BOSS]

BOSS,

This has been awesome advice!
I've been using this for different movements..
Can I ask how you regulate overal training volume?

I'm currently in a hypertrophy block. Training is around 15sets, i was wondering if I could push the volume a little more by adding another movement but don't wanna overdo it and screw up recovery like I did the past 2years.. Is your approach to regulate the overal volume different in a hypertrophy then a strenght block?

Well if I called one phase a hypertrophy phase it would basically be more of a phase where the reps are higher on the main lifts, but I haven't had a specifically hypertrophy phase in years. But basically higher target rep range and number of sets. Make sure that the rep range on the main lifts are first hit successfully for the desired number of sets. Then steadily increase the weight and number of sets. Then, third, start adding more volume via either backdown sets of the same lift or a secondary variation. Then start adding in the same way for assistance lifts. So basically just keep working harder but not going too heavy to where the reps must come down. So the same but more and/or heavier but never less...

If you need to take a deload week after 3-5 hard training weeks, but again don't start doing easier workouts or autoregulating.

NOW, during a strength phase, I DO autoregulate by adjusting the total number of sets based on performance that day. So if I feel good I do the same weight/reps for more sets or if I feel crappy or off then I do it for fewer sets. But generally a strength phase for me is linear so the weights are already set and for the most part the reps are too, just not the volume (total sets)

[BOSS]

Dan, how do you like the SBDs as opposed to the Titan sleeves? My Titans are getting loose now and I'm in the market for a new pair.

they're way better, just a pain to get on. I still like the titan's for benching in if I just want something, but SBD's are night and day better for supporting the knees on squats

[BOSS]

Squat 551X12, just for friends. Very impressive return to training.

Yes starting back is trickier this time because I haven't focused on anything strenuous without wraps for over a year now given the various knee pains and quad issues that built up in 2015. Starting off with some pumping up. I did 506x10 then 551x12 last week then 618x8x2 sets this week with plenty of quad soreness to show for it (mostly in a good way too fortunately). I'll probably get one more higher rep day before I switch to more a strength focus

[BOSS]

Hey Dan,

First of congrats on the meet , boss of bosses is becoming a pretty recognized meet now also congrats on your placing. The competition for that class is unbelievable high.

I have adopted the high volume approach to training for a while now eg 3 x 5 , 3 x 3 , 6 x 4, 5 x 5 etc etc and i have had really really good success on it, however of late i have been thinking of trying the older methods of 1 top working set and just auto regulate the volume then as in if i feel up to a second/third set then fire away but if recovery or time isn't on my side that day just do the one top set.

My plan was to work up to a top set of 4/5 on all compounds, and then to not increase the weight anymore until after few weeks i can get 10 reps with that weight..then reset by adding 10-20lbs to the lift to bring it back into the 4/5 rep range and repeat the process...I am planning on doing just 1 top set but if i feel good and i have the time ill do more volume but if not just 1 set is the default plan.

Do you reckon that's a reasonable approach for someone who wants to get more mass and strong but not looking to compete in either en-devour just for personnel joy ? i dont mind if i progress slower as i am in this for life but i do want to know i can progress some bit with this approach??

Or is the volume just too low to get anywhere with it ?

Yeah this is a viable option for peaking but not for long term training especially just for general mass/size/enjoyment.

It doesn't work where you can just force yourself to endlessly do more reps with a weight you initially can only do 4 or 5 with... sadly
For your goals you need to always do more volume. The amount of volume you build up to being able to handle (recover from) plus your skill at lifting (technique), is what governs your peak strength potential in a peak. This approach doesn't really build either it seems.
If you just want a general approach to training like this that does work, something like 5,3,1 (DUP) but done with a more appropriate set of rep ranges--maybe 12,9,6--would serve you well. Or just train like Dorian and do one all-out set to failure on each exercise!

[Buckfever]

315X4 seated overhead press, looks like real good momentum coming off that last prep.

[BOSS]

315X4 seated overhead press, looks like real good momentum coming off that last prep.

Yeah right now I'm just training shoulders on there as often as possible and maybe it'll help my bench. That workout I hit 315x4,3,3 so 10 total, the next workout work sets were 242x12 and 264x9x2 sets and then yesterday 275x5 then 295x6x3 sets after deadlifts. And in keeping with a focus more on the front delts right now I've been hitting 3-4 sets of seated DB front raises or seated plate raises after. It'll be interesting to see how much I can keep adding on these

[Buckfever]

Legs and shoulders keep climbing, very nice!!!

[Nmowery]

Hey Dan, just curious, but what are your mental cues to yourself while squatting? Is there a mental checklist you go thru before descending on a rep, or something you tell yourself while driving out of the hole...or is the movement just second nature for you at this point?

[John Grey]

Hey Dan, hope all is well...

Question in regards to sets/reps... So I am more efficient with doubles/triples than sets of 6+... that being said if I do 6 sets of 3 is that essentially having the same effect from a volume standpoint as 3 sets of 6. I've heard yes, I've heard no.. wanted to check with someone more experienced in the matter.

[coolcrazyturkey]

Hey Dan

I was wondering if you had any advice as to how I should structure my offseason bench training in particular after my current base training and peaking - basically how to go about the bench training after my competition to build a lot of strength next year.
I will be competing in a bench-only meet at the end of November, which will be 2 weeks after a full power meet. I did a bench only meet (my first meet ever) 1.5 weeks ago where I hit 105kg in the 74kg class (my best bench ever is 125kg touch-and-go weighing 87kg a little more than a year ago before I started training with pauses and losing weight). I am planning to stay at 74kg in the coming meets.
I'm currently working off of a 110kg estimated max (my 3rd attempt in the meet was quite conservative, I hit 107.5kg during my training cycle leading up to it in the gym) and am following a Sheiko bench-specific program where I hit my upper body 5 days a week (4 of which are in conjunction with squats or some variation of a pull), benching between 3-6 times a week (meaning sometimes twice in the same workout). I also do a lot of weighted dips, flies, DB presses and some other upperbody work. I figure that 6 weeks out from my bench meet I will gradually decrease the frequency of benching, but still keep both frequency and volume quite high. I am essentially doing A LOT of volume right now, between 120-240 total reps in the bench per week depending on the intensity and what week it is.

My question is, how would you suggest laying out my bench training after the meet in november? I tend to have a problem with programming after peaking, either de-training very quickly or getting injured if I keep the volume and intensity too high. I read earlier that you suggested to someone to split up their press training into a military-press focused day with a top set followed by lots of volume in the 7-10 rep range, and to have a bench day with 2-4 working sets followed by more explosive touch-and-go bench for a few sets. Would you suggest something like this? Or would it be too little volume comparatively to what I've built up tolerance to at this point? I also figured there might be a difference as to how you would normally suggest someone structure their training as I am a pretty light lifter at the moment.

I'm trying to stay focused on my upcoming two meets, but I just figured I need to do something different this time after peaking to ensure that I don't fuck up, as I am told by the powerlifting coaches at my club that my technique lends itself to a lot of future potential weight-wise (I have a pretty good arch and a pretty big ribcage.. but pretty damn long arms)

Thank you in advance, and sorry for the wall of text!

[taiwizzle]

Hey Dan, I've seen you mentioned Dr. Stuart McGill in this thread before. In one of his books or interviews, he has mentioned the spine being decompressed and "wet"(collects water) in the morning.
which may lead to back injury. What are your thoughts on that? I work long hours and start early morning until 7 or 8 pm. Evening workouts are out of the question because of family.
Morning time before workout is the only time I have to do my powerlifts.

I guess my question for you is that
1) have you had to workout first thing in the morning before? Specifically powerlifts? If so, how did you prepare for the heavy lifts?
2) Any warm up tips? I know you train clients in the morning, so you definitely have more knowledge on this.

As always, appreciate the information you share with us on this forum.

[micheldied]

Hey Dan,

I'm curious as to what you think about the Ed Coan training template for non-elite, younger lifters.
I'm sure you know the template, but in case you don't; 2 sets of squats, 2 sets of deads, 2 sets for each of 3 variations on the bench (comp grip, close grip, incline), and a shoulder/chest/tricep accessory day.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, just curious, but what are your mental cues to yourself while squatting? Is there a mental checklist you go thru before descending on a rep, or something you tell yourself while driving out of the hole...or is the movement just second nature for you at this point?

My advice to anyone is to go over the cues as much as possible during the lighter warmup sets, changing the tempo, pausing on a rep or two to really feel the positioning at the bottom and the balance of legs and back as you drive out of the hole. This is important, because I try to start a warmup set with the goal of first establishing a balanced rep (think point A to point B) then I focus on pushing the weight up (the concentric) harder and harder. This is the only way to get feedback that everything is firing properly. I don't believe in just using the stretch reflex during warmups. That's like the ace in the hole. I save that for the heavy reps when I need every advantage. By the end of a warmup set, the final rep should feel as though you could not possibly have accelerated the weight any better through the whole ROM. This is also where with the lightest weights a quick decent, a very brief pause, and a forceful recovery is best. The pause kills the velocity but still retains a lot of the stored energy. With velocity at zero, you can apply more force to the bar on the concentric because it takes slightly longer to accelerate the bar to full speed. Again, feeling the lift requires maximal force and when velocity is too high you can no longer increase force. (this is from Supertraining the russian sports science) So to end this longwinded explanation, the lightest weights can move to fast and therefore not give you the feedback you need to dial in your technique. If you just use a fast decent and big stretch reflex on your warmups without dialing in perfect positioning you may get to the heavier sets and suddenly get out of position and then slow down. Worst case scenario. Always think faster and faster, but ALWAYS make sure that at the bottom of the lift you are tight, balanced and driving the bar up (and back if you go by how it should feel) with as much force as possible. I intentionally think about pushing the bar back with my back to come out of the hole. Your legs won't forget to push, but your back can lose tightness if it's engaged a moment after the legs push.

So what I think about is driving every rep out of the hole with my back. This allows me to feel my legs working all the way through the ROM of every squat... very important.

When I get to the main lift, I do go through a sort of checklist before the lift. This includes getting my grip, getting under the bar and rotating my elbows down, getting a strong breath of air, setting the bar on my rear delts how I want, unracking assertively (and walking out if need be)

Then, finding my balance between my heels and toes, locking my knees and hips back, taking a full breath of air and flexing my abs against the belt, letting the weight settle and my weight settle back on the heels, spotting the floor about 10 feet in front of me, then aggressively breaking at the knees. That's it. From there I just trust my technique.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, hope all is well...

Question in regards to sets/reps... So I am more efficient with doubles/triples than sets of 6+... that being said if I do 6 sets of 3 is that essentially having the same effect from a volume standpoint as 3 sets of 6. I've heard yes, I've heard no.. wanted to check with someone more experienced in the matter.

I think the high sets, low reps is better for accumulating volume with better quality reps (more forceful), but if the total amount of time to complete the 18 reps is shorter one way or the other, then that would be more stressful in terms of hypertrophy I'd guess. But I don't know. I don't really overthink that sort of thing. But as far as the mechanical stress on the skeleton/muscle, volume is volume. Whether you did the training in 30 minutes or 6 hours.

Strength is a skill, if you have a weight on a bar, then gravity acts on the bar to create force, but how much force you lift the bar with determines your increase in strength. So with that said, and as I referenced in the above answer, there is a weight that's too light, that you can accelerate to full speed too easily and therefore not achieve the time under tension, and there's also a weight that you can lift, but not necessarily with the force you could've lifted a slightly lighter weight with. This is the idea behind speed training.

So in the end if you're a powerlifter ask yourself: am I optimizing the sets/reps so that every rep is on average as productive as possible?

Also, you might mis-groove the first two reps and then nail the technique from the third rep on. So your skill increased on rep 3, making it a stronger lift. But if you only did doubles you would've had poor form. If you do a fourth it might be equally powerful. Maybe the fifth, you start to fatigue enough where the force output slows down significantly. So quitting after 4 reps even though you could do 5 and maybe an ugly 6th means 2/4 reps were maximally forceful instead of 0/2 if you doubled it or only 2/6 if you grinded. Also, going for the 6th probably took more out of you for the next set, so you'll fatigue faster than your skill improves. So if you quit after 4 you hit some good reps and saved yourself for the next set, and have a chance to get stronger as you go by increasing your skill at a faster rate than your fatigue weakens you. So while you may see your body respond after the workout when you sleep and eat and recover, your skill should improve while you train--while you practice, so set your rep scheme up accordingly

[BOSS]

Hey Dan

I was wondering if you had any advice as to how I should structure my offseason bench training in particular after my current base training and peaking - basically how to go about the bench training after my competition to build a lot of strength next year.
I will be competing in a bench-only meet at the end of November, which will be 2 weeks after a full power meet. I did a bench only meet (my first meet ever) 1.5 weeks ago where I hit 105kg in the 74kg class (my best bench ever is 125kg touch-and-go weighing 87kg a little more than a year ago before I started training with pauses and losing weight). I am planning to stay at 74kg in the coming meets.
I'm currently working off of a 110kg estimated max (my 3rd attempt in the meet was quite conservative, I hit 107.5kg during my training cycle leading up to it in the gym) and am following a Sheiko bench-specific program where I hit my upper body 5 days a week (4 of which are in conjunction with squats or some variation of a pull), benching between 3-6 times a week (meaning sometimes twice in the same workout). I also do a lot of weighted dips, flies, DB presses and some other upperbody work. I figure that 6 weeks out from my bench meet I will gradually decrease the frequency of benching, but still keep both frequency and volume quite high. I am essentially doing A LOT of volume right now, between 120-240 total reps in the bench per week depending on the intensity and what week it is.

My question is, how would you suggest laying out my bench training after the meet in november? I tend to have a problem with programming after peaking, either de-training very quickly or getting injured if I keep the volume and intensity too high. I read earlier that you suggested to someone to split up their press training into a military-press focused day with a top set followed by lots of volume in the 7-10 rep range, and to have a bench day with 2-4 working sets followed by more explosive touch-and-go bench for a few sets. Would you suggest something like this? Or would it be too little volume comparatively to what I've built up tolerance to at this point? I also figured there might be a difference as to how you would normally suggest someone structure their training as I am a pretty light lifter at the moment.

I'm trying to stay focused on my upcoming two meets, but I just figured I need to do something different this time after peaking to ensure that I don't fuck up, as I am told by the powerlifting coaches at my club that my technique lends itself to a lot of future potential weight-wise (I have a pretty good arch and a pretty big ribcage.. but pretty damn long arms)

Thank you in advance, and sorry for the wall of text!

Well your situation is kind of complicated. You said you do not wish to go up a weight class, so the need for bodybuilding style hypertrophy training isn't really a productive option. If you're calling it "off-season" training and also not trying to gain weight, and also not wanting to lift heavy for concern with injury, then this narrows your options down: just start gradually re-introducing volume over the course of the first 2-4 weeks and then begin on another sheiko training split with the lighter percents. Without mass as a priority, technique needs to be, so the sheiko style of high volume/high frequency allows for that and really only works for the long haul IF you prioritize that. In fact, I believe that technique will limit you no matter what approach to training you take, so that should be the main focus. The other important focus for you is to build up to an even higher total volume than your last training cycle so you can continue to achieve better peaks. Those are your too biggest tools: continually improving technique and steadily handling more and more volume from one training cycle to the next.

However, if you ever decide to try to gain weight and muscle you'll have a lot higher likelihood of gaining a lot of strength as well. Just don't compromise technique.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, I've seen you mentioned Dr. Stuart McGill in this thread before. In one of his books or interviews, he has mentioned the spine being decompressed and "wet"(collects water) in the morning.
which may lead to back injury. What are your thoughts on that? I work long hours and start early morning until 7 or 8 pm. Evening workouts are out of the question because of family.
Morning time before workout is the only time I have to do my powerlifts.

I guess my question for you is that
1) have you had to workout first thing in the morning before? Specifically powerlifts? If so, how did you prepare for the heavy lifts?
2) Any warm up tips? I know you train clients in the morning, so you definitely have more knowledge on this.

As always, appreciate the information you share with us on this forum.

This is pretty simple, just take more time to warm up, specifically with body weight squats or by repeating the 1-plate set enough times until the squat or dead feels ready to go heavier. I like light squats or deads until I'm warm as the primary warmup. Mobility for me is mostly for the hips

[BOSS]

Hey Dan,

I'm curious as to what you think about the Ed Coan training template for non-elite, younger lifters.
I'm sure you know the template, but in case you don't; 2 sets of squats, 2 sets of deads, 2 sets for each of 3 variations on the bench (comp grip, close grip, incline), and a shoulder/chest/tricep accessory day.

I've seen a few variations of his program. One with a main bench, a shoulder day and a lighter bench/accessory day. I've also seen two different versions of the deadlift day, one in his video with deadlift variations, and the other is the coan/phillipi program with deads then circuit stlye accessory lifts. I've also seen it with squats followed by paused squats as an accessory.

At any rate, I like it a lot. It's good for intermediates and advanced lifters. As I've stressed before, the biggest thing is technique...

To make progress you can't simply go through the motions. You must improve your technique while increasing your strength or it won't work. The basis for linear progression training IS that you can gradually build your technique in preparation for the peaking to come.

Secondly, the basis for ANY non-maximal training is that you can potentially improve your maximum strength without having to lift a maximal weight to do so. There is a hypertrophy component (bodybuilding) that's important, but what you must remember is the goal is sub-max training in order to improve your max is the goal. So if you rep out your weights "economically"--using the minimum amount of force to move the weights--then you aren't preparing to move a bigger max. If your max is 315 and your goal is 330 and the weight you are training with is 275, you must lift 275 in a manner that will allow you to lift 330 in the future. If you accelerate 275 maximally, you can achieve a greater peak force. You are using the force that will be required to move 330. In other words move 275 like it's 330. Then next week move 285 like it's 330...

Lastly, the extra volume from the variations allow for more strength over time and specific targeting of the body's weak points. In the end an intermediate lifter becomes advanced when their technique no longer has limitations due to technique. Practicing perfect technique and targeting weak points is therefore the key for the intermediate.

[BOSS]

Legs and shoulders keep climbing, very nice!!!

Overall feeling pretty good. My benching is actually at a point where I'm repping PRs consistently as far as all time PRs, my legs are still catching up to when I was at my best, although I did hit some lifetime PRs on the safety squat bar that were big and a small 5RM PR on deads,

So I feel on track for a nice bench PR, hopefully closing on 550, but squats are still hit or miss given all my hip issues

[coolcrazyturkey]

Well your situation is kind of complicated. You said you do not wish to go up a weight class, so the need for bodybuilding style hypertrophy training isn't really a productive option. If you're calling it "off-season" training and also not trying to gain weight, and also not wanting to lift heavy for concern with injury, then this narrows your options down: just start gradually re-introducing volume over the course of the first 2-4 weeks and then begin on another sheiko training split with the lighter percents. Without mass as a priority, technique needs to be, so the sheiko style of high volume/high frequency allows for that and really only works for the long haul IF you prioritize that. In fact, I believe that technique will limit you no matter what approach to training you take, so that should be the main focus. The other important focus for you is to build up to an even higher total volume than your last training cycle so you can continue to achieve better peaks. Those are your too biggest tools: continually improving technique and steadily handling more and more volume from one training cycle to the next.

However, if you ever decide to try to gain weight and muscle you'll have a lot higher likelihood of gaining a lot of strength as well. Just don't compromise technique.

Thanks Dan, I'll definetly heed your advice come after competition - I think Sheiko has a few programs with higher total volume so I'll probably apply those to my squats and bench and just add some more bench volume to what I'm currently doing after a few lighter weeks.
In the long term, if I were to go on a weight-gain to -83kg or more rather than -74, would you suggest using a similar approach or varying the exercise selection more and utilizing more higher reps during such a phase? Or do you think the high-frequency, lower reps but high total volume would suffice? I do plan to compete at nationals next year in the -74s but I'm not a fan of skinniness in the long term lol.

[Buckfever]

Bench coming up real good, very nice!

[Martin Haddock]

Said it before, but Damn. The information you put out for free is a testament to your character and what an asset you are to the weightlifting community (as in picking up heavy shit...powerlifting/bodybuilding/Oly' et all is just weight lifting!).

Whenever you find the time to write your magnum opus on training (the book!) It's going to sell faster than greased lightning!
Might want to hire 3 personal assistants to answer the inevitable questions of " can I change this to this and can I do 15 sets when you said 5 " XD.

Still I hope you find the time, can't wait to read it!

[Stfinn]

Hey Dan like everyone else on here huge fan and I respect the time you spend answering so many questions. I'm relatively new to powerlifting type workouts(alittle over a year) have worked out for sports but I'm 30 now and that's over so been lookin to switch things up. I've read through most of this forum and have a good idea about how to structure a solid program but my question is, do u have a % of a weight that you start off a training block with and then progress linear or just a weight. My squats are my weakest lift and my form breaks down when I get twords 85-95%. Was just lookin for some insight where to start my traing off with with the typical split you recommend my best lifts are 420 sqaut 525 dead and 345 bench just want to get better any advise would be great thanks for all the advise.

[micheldied]

I've seen a few variations of his program. One with a main bench, a shoulder day and a lighter bench/accessory day. I've also seen two different versions of the deadlift day, one in his video with deadlift variations, and the other is the coan/phillipi program with deads then circuit stlye accessory lifts. I've also seen it with squats followed by paused squats as an accessory.

At any rate, I like it a lot. It's good for intermediates and advanced lifters. As I've stressed before, the biggest thing is technique...

To make progress you can't simply go through the motions. You must improve your technique while increasing your strength or it won't work. The basis for linear progression training IS that you can gradually build your technique in preparation for the peaking to come.

Secondly, the basis for ANY non-maximal training is that you can potentially improve your maximum strength without having to lift a maximal weight to do so. There is a hypertrophy component (bodybuilding) that's important, but what you must remember is the goal is sub-max training in order to improve your max is the goal. So if you rep out your weights "economically"--using the minimum amount of force to move the weights--then you aren't preparing to move a bigger max. If your max is 315 and your goal is 330 and the weight you are training with is 275, you must lift 275 in a manner that will allow you to lift 330 in the future. If you accelerate 275 maximally, you can achieve a greater peak force. You are using the force that will be required to move 330. In other words move 275 like it's 330. Then next week move 285 like it's 330...

Lastly, the extra volume from the variations allow for more strength over time and specific targeting of the body's weak points. In the end an intermediate lifter becomes advanced when their technique no longer has limitations due to technique. Practicing perfect technique and targeting weak points is therefore the key for the intermediate.

Thanks Dan. Do you think it is more effective to progress in reps like in the program (10s, 8s, 5s, 3s, 2s) or more progressively (8s, 7s, 6s, 5s, 4s, 3s, 2s, for example)?

[BOSS]

Thanks Dan, I'll definetly heed your advice come after competition - I think Sheiko has a few programs with higher total volume so I'll probably apply those to my squats and bench and just add some more bench volume to what I'm currently doing after a few lighter weeks.
In the long term, if I were to go on a weight-gain to -83kg or more rather than -74, would you suggest using a similar approach or varying the exercise selection more and utilizing more higher reps during such a phase? Or do you think the high-frequency, lower reps but high total volume would suffice? I do plan to compete at nationals next year in the -74s but I'm not a fan of skinniness in the long term lol.

I would definitely recommend utilizing higher rep ranges to facilitate hypertrophy gains. I've always liked high reps for rows and pull up variations (15-20), squats (8-12), hack squats (15-25), overhead pressing (10-15), DB pressing (12-20), close grip bench and dips (12-20), etc.

One way to do this is to have a different rep range (or exercise variant) each time you train a certain motion in a week or set time span. For example I'm doing this with seated presses right now. Once heavy (3 x (2-5 reps)), once medium (3 x (6-8)) and once high reps (3 x (10-15). It can be made to work very well with a little restraint! Focus on progression of all the days, not getting caught pushing any one day too far.

You can also do these with separate exercises like Monday back squats, wednesday fronts and friday hack squats (after deadlifts). Three different exercises done with three different rep ranges

[BOSS]

Bench coming up real good, very nice!

Indeed it is, thanks

[BOSS]

Said it before, but Damn. The information you put out for free is a testament to your character and what an asset you are to the weightlifting community (as in picking up heavy shit...powerlifting/bodybuilding/Oly' et all is just weight lifting!).

Whenever you find the time to write your magnum opus on training (the book!) It's going to sell faster than greased lightning!
Might want to hire 3 personal assistants to answer the inevitable questions of " can I change this to this and can I do 15 sets when you said 5 " XD.

Still I hope you find the time, can't wait to read it!

lol yes the I haven't tried this yet but I think it would be better if...

Thanks Martin

[BOSS]

Hey Dan like everyone else on here huge fan and I respect the time you spend answering so many questions. I'm relatively new to powerlifting type workouts(alittle over a year) have worked out for sports but I'm 30 now and that's over so been lookin to switch things up. I've read through most of this forum and have a good idea about how to structure a solid program but my question is, do u have a % of a weight that you start off a training block with and then progress linear or just a weight. My squats are my weakest lift and my form breaks down when I get twords 85-95%. Was just lookin for some insight where to start my traing off with with the typical split you recommend my best lifts are 420 sqaut 525 dead and 345 bench just want to get better any advise would be great thanks for all the advise.

Thanks for the message. I'm glad the forum has helped you!

I'd recommend starting light (in the 60-70% range) and progressing forward by building volume via multiple sets per lift that do NOT reach failure or max reps. In other words if at 70% you could hit 10 reps, it would be better to do 3 good sets of 7-8 reps. This way your technique doesn't automatically get compromised by fatigue. You MUST always improve your technique and always gradually build up more and more volume. Increase the weights incrementally until you top out around 80-90%, then start over a few pounds heavier than the previous build up. In the beginning, you'll get stronger through reps and technique improvements. If you go too heavy you will sacrifice technique for weight/volume, so it will be less productive, or worse, counterproductive. Advanced lifters, who's technique is good all the way up near or to their max, will benefit from extended training at higher percentages (peaking), but that will only come if you better your technique

[BOSS]

Thanks Dan. Do you think it is more effective to progress in reps like in the program (10s, 8s, 5s, 3s, 2s) or more progressively (8s, 7s, 6s, 5s, 4s, 3s, 2s, for example)?

I prefer the first, as it inherently makes certain workouts effectively less intense (not quite a deload), as in the first week at 5 reps is presumably easier than the second or third week at 5 reps. So even though the weights progress linearly, the RPE, would effectively wave, if that makes sense

[coolcrazyturkey]

I would definitely recommend utilizing higher rep ranges to facilitate hypertrophy gains. I've always liked high reps for rows and pull up variations (15-20), squats (8-12), hack squats (15-25), overhead pressing (10-15), DB pressing (12-20), close grip bench and dips (12-20), etc.

One way to do this is to have a different rep range (or exercise variant) each time you train a certain motion in a week or set time span. For example I'm doing this with seated presses right now. Once heavy (3 x (2-5 reps)), once medium (3 x (6-8)) and once high reps (3 x (10-15). It can be made to work very well with a little restraint! Focus on progression of all the days, not getting caught pushing any one day too far.

You can also do these with separate exercises like Monday back squats, wednesday fronts and friday hack squats (after deadlifts). Three different exercises done with three different rep ranges
Cool, thanks again for the advice! I always like to try new things during hypertrophy-type periods so this will be a nice change of pace when I get there.

[Buckfever]

374? Holy Schit, new levels.

[Altered Beast]

374? Holy Schit, new levels.

He went beltless too, that would just strain the absolute hell out of my abs!

[BOSS]

374? Holy Schit, new levels.

Training them seated has been great. That's 25kg stronger than where I started these at

[BOSS]

He went beltless too, that would just strain the absolute hell out of my abs!

These aren't really very stressful on the back at all. I try to keep the weight in front of me and drive it up as much as possible before it drifts back overhead. Kinda like if you did these on a smith machine. This motion keeps tension on the front delts for longest

[Nmowery]

My advice to anyone is to go over the cues as much as possible during the lighter warmup sets, changing the tempo, pausing on a rep or two to really feel the positioning at the bottom and the balance of legs and back as you drive out of the hole. This is important, because I try to start a warmup set with the goal of first establishing a balanced rep (think point A to point B) then I focus on pushing the weight up (the concentric) harder and harder. This is the only way to get feedback that everything is firing properly. I don't believe in just using the stretch reflex during warmups. That's like the ace in the hole. I save that for the heavy reps when I need every advantage. By the end of a warmup set, the final rep should feel as though you could not possibly have accelerated the weight any better through the whole ROM. This is also where with the lightest weights a quick decent, a very brief pause, and a forceful recovery is best. The pause kills the velocity but still retains a lot of the stored energy. With velocity at zero, you can apply more force to the bar on the concentric because it takes slightly longer to accelerate the bar to full speed. Again, feeling the lift requires maximal force and when velocity is too high you can no longer increase force. (this is from Supertraining the russian sports science) So to end this longwinded explanation, the lightest weights can move to fast and therefore not give you the feedback you need to dial in your technique. If you just use a fast decent and big stretch reflex on your warmups without dialing in perfect positioning you may get to the heavier sets and suddenly get out of position and then slow down. Worst case scenario. Always think faster and faster, but ALWAYS make sure that at the bottom of the lift you are tight, balanced and driving the bar up (and back if you go by how it should feel) with as much force as possible. I intentionally think about pushing the bar back with my back to come out of the hole. Your legs won't forget to push, but your back can lose tightness if it's engaged a moment after the legs push.

So what I think about is driving every rep out of the hole with my back. This allows me to feel my legs working all the way through the ROM of every squat... very important.

When I get to the main lift, I do go through a sort of checklist before the lift. This includes getting my grip, getting under the bar and rotating my elbows down, getting a strong breath of air, setting the bar on my rear delts how I want, unracking assertively (and walking out if need be)

Then, finding my balance between my heels and toes, locking my knees and hips back, taking a full breath of air and flexing my abs against the belt, letting the weight settle and my weight settle back on the heels, spotting the floor about 10 feet in front of me, then aggressively breaking at the knees. That's it. From there I just trust my technique.

Kinda late on this, but thanks for the insight. I was originally drawn to the forvm by finding this thread thru a Google search, and read the entire damn thing. I try to make an effort to ask stuff that I haven't seen people bring up yet, and definitely appreciate the time and thoughtfulness that you put into your replies.

[Stfinn]

Thanks for the message. I'm glad the forum has helped you!

I'd recommend starting light (in the 60-70% range) and progressing forward by building volume via multiple sets per lift that do NOT reach failure or max reps. In other words if at 70% you could hit 10 reps, it would be better to do 3 good sets of 7-8 reps. This way your technique doesn't automatically get compromised by fatigue. You MUST always improve your technique and always gradually build up more and more volume. Increase the weights incrementally until you top out around 80-90%, then start over a few pounds heavier than the previous build up. In the beginning, you'll get stronger through reps and technique improvements. If you go too heavy you will sacrifice technique for weight/volume, so it will be less productive, or worse, counterproductive. Advanced lifters, who's technique is good all the way up near or to their max, will benefit from extended training at higher percentages (peaking), but that will only come if you better your technique


Thanks Dan that makes a lot of sense. So to progress I've heard you use the term auto regulate a lot would that be doing a weight you could get for say 6 reps and doing 4reps and doin 3-4 sets with that weight until it feels like a hard 4? So leave a few reps in the tank to start and stop the sets when it's a grind? Thanks for getting back to me u cleared up a lot stuff for me I appreciate it.

[BOSS]

Thanks Dan that makes a lot of sense. So to progress I've heard you use the term auto regulate a lot would that be doing a weight you could get for say 6 reps and doing 4reps and doin 3-4 sets with that weight until it feels like a hard 4? So leave a few reps in the tank to start and stop the sets when it's a grind? Thanks for getting back to me u cleared up a lot stuff for me I appreciate it.

Yeah auto regulating can be applied multiple ways but is basically, to me, the practice of starting a workout with a plan, and adjusting as needed based on feel.

One way is to do as many reps as you can with a weight and racking before failure then repeating for multiple sets so long as you can keep hitting the same number of reps (and think you can knock out another set too). I like this method a lot.
A way to adjust this is to monitor speed/acceleration of the weight. So for example if you can accelerate 4 reps (good reps) but need to grind beyond that, it might be best to hit only sets of 4 for several sets. One reason is if form breaks down due to weight or fatigue then you are only getting the muscular work via volume. This is good for mass, but not for technique. Second, we want to remember that percent training only works if we accelerate the weight enough that the force we put into the bar is enough to move a future max (Force = Mass (kg) x acceleration). So if you are training to lift 200 kg but only lifting 150 kg with the minimum amount of force, you're getting a "workout" but aren't training to lift 400. This is where the "technical max" comes into play. When the technique starts to falter because the load is hard to stabilize, there's a point when we move heavier weights with less force than we move a light weight. So handling heavy weights is ok, but moving the "right" weight with full force is best.

So to simplify, focus on how well you are moving the weight--the quality--and then just keep working!

The last auto regulation approach I like--that first trains for power and strength but also capitalizes on the bodybuilding effects of training near failure--is to do several sets at a set number of reps to control quality, and then rep out the last set. Something like 6 sets x 4 reps with max reps on set 6

Good luck, this should help!

[BOSS]

Kinda late on this, but thanks for the insight. I was originally drawn to the forvm by finding this thread thru a Google search, and read the entire damn thing. I try to make an effort to ask stuff that I haven't seen people bring up yet, and definitely appreciate the time and thoughtfulness that you put into your replies.

No problem, I definitely like that I can share all the info so long as people are willing to just ask or look. I think there's some pretty insightful stuff. Certainly would've been great for me to learn all this from my (future) self 10 years ago lol.

[Buckfever]

STRONG Bench!

[Shim]

Hey dan, hope all is well w you. As this is long thread I'm not quite sure if this has been asked or Atleast to this specificity, in anycase here goes. In regards to programming I would like to know what you think or beleive is optimal in regards to total body splits vs seperate splits (ie something like sheiko or 5x5 vs bench one day squat one day and pull etc seperately). I've done 531 w some fair progress took a small break to cut some weight (whilist lifting just much lighter w emphasis on conditioning), upon returning to a more strength based routine not following any particular method I trained 3-4 days a week training each lift as well as a variant of each everyday. So each day had a focus on one of the completion style lifts done in it's original fashion as the main lift, all the effort being concentrated on that lift for that day. Afterward a variant of the other lifts at lower intensity w emphasis on either weakness, tempo, speed or maybe hypertrophy.

For example
Mon
-dl as the focus of volume intensity
-tempo front squat
-paused close grip bench

Wed
Paused oly highbar squats
Comp style bench (main movement)
Dimmel deads for reps light weight

Fri
Comp style squat
Overhead press
RDL

Eachday would have core work and maybe one auto regulated assitance movement tris lats or delts
Occasionally adding in a fourth day.

Although I am limited in my knowledge of programming and cycles and etc I would say that compared to cramming in all body parts all in one day I usally felt a lot better both cns and felt more conditioned and physically prepared for each day. I wasn't able to see any increase in strength as I didn't structure it as optimally due to afore mentioned lack of knowledge but I think the intuitive physical response has something to be said for. If you have any general suggestions of templates I could follow or anything In regards to a more structured approach at what I am talking about please let me know, I think my body responded very well just maybe needs a more specific and orofessional approach. Thanks

[BOSS]

Hey dan, hope all is well w you. As this is long thread I'm not quite sure if this has been asked or Atleast to this specificity, in anycase here goes. In regards to programming I would like to know what you think or beleive is optimal in regards to total body splits vs seperate splits (ie something like sheiko or 5x5 vs bench one day squat one day and pull etc seperately). I've done 531 w some fair progress took a small break to cut some weight (whilist lifting just much lighter w emphasis on conditioning), upon returning to a more strength based routine not following any particular method I trained 3-4 days a week training each lift as well as a variant of each everyday. So each day had a focus on one of the completion style lifts done in it's original fashion as the main lift, all the effort being concentrated on that lift for that day. Afterward a variant of the other lifts at lower intensity w emphasis on either weakness, tempo, speed or maybe hypertrophy.

For example
Mon
-dl as the focus of volume intensity
-tempo front squat
-paused close grip bench

Wed
Paused oly highbar squats
Comp style bench (main movement)
Dimmel deads for reps light weight

Fri
Comp style squat
Overhead press
RDL

Eachday would have core work and maybe one auto regulated assitance movement tris lats or delts
Occasionally adding in a fourth day.

Although I am limited in my knowledge of programming and cycles and etc I would say that compared to cramming in all body parts all in one day I usally felt a lot better both cns and felt more conditioned and physically prepared for each day. I wasn't able to see any increase in strength as I didn't structure it as optimally due to afore mentioned lack of knowledge but I think the intuitive physical response has something to be said for. If you have any general suggestions of templates I could follow or anything In regards to a more structured approach at what I am talking about please let me know, I think my body responded very well just maybe needs a more specific and orofessional approach. Thanks

To be fair there are a million ways to program. Full body splits like what you put up above work for many, single body part splits work as well as upper/lower splits. Some people follow max effort/dynamic effort style training, others go linear, others block style, DUP, etc... They all work if they're written with the athletes needs in mind. So to answer this question, I'd basically describe how I like to use each style, but I have done that throughout this thread, if it's just a general discussion. As for the programs like 531 I would just do them how they are written, with the biggest focus on technique. If it's a split like the one above, you'll need to have a different rep scheme for each of the lifts, or at least I would. IE for upper, the comp bench might be 5-6 reps, the close grips might be 8-10 and the military press maybe 12-14. If everything is high intensity all the time it'll likely fall short. And you should also consider how much skill each lift requires and how much skill you have on each when you determine reps. For example don't do 1RM RDLs, that would be risky and not that rewarding as the exercise only requires moderate skill and is for hypertrophy not just strength. But again determining rep ranges for each exercise requires experience. I actually did just discuss that very point within the last few weeks of this thread so you should be able to find that quickly.

[Buckfever]

Lord, still moving up!

[Superman55]

Hey boss, I have a question for you. Everything else you've ever told me to do has worked, so I'm looking forward to your answer to this one. I have two days a week to train for the next couple of months. I am very confident that I can keep progressing. My question is, how would you split up my training for the two days I have? I will probably be training on Sunday and Wednesday. And there is no time limit on those training sessions. Should I do full body both times? Or upper one day and lower another? What I was thinking was doing my main work on Monday for lower body, like squats and front squats and pause squats, followed by upper body assistance work. And then the next day doing main benchwork like pause bench and incline bench, followed by lower body assistance work. But I'm open to suggestions. Thanks again

[BOSS]

Hey boss, I have a question for you. Everything else you've ever told me to do has worked, so I'm looking forward to your answer to this one. I have two days a week to train for the next couple of months. I am very confident that I can keep progressing. My question is, how would you split up my training for the two days I have? I will probably be training on Sunday and Wednesday. And there is no time limit on those training sessions. Should I do full body both times? Or upper one day and lower another? What I was thinking was doing my main work on Monday for lower body, like squats and front squats and pause squats, followed by upper body assistance work. And then the next day doing main benchwork like pause bench and incline bench, followed by lower body assistance work. But I'm open to suggestions. Thanks again

The one time I only was able to train 2x per week for a 3 month stretch I was able to gain a ton of strength, but also ate a lot. I'm saying that first because in my experience increasing calories while reducing volume is a great way to build strength for a while--especially if your current training volume and frequency is much higher. Obviously you are going to be busier, so if you are looking at a reduction in weekly down time and sleep time, you can't go crazy on volume with the accessories or main lifts and expect to respond/recover. So just focus on getting a few good top sets on the main lifts and the essentials as far as accessories.

That being said, do one lower day, one bench day... simple!

The lower day I would recommend rotating these 3 workouts every week:

Week 1: Low bar squats, deficit deads or stiff legs
Week 2: Front Squats, Block Pulls
Week 3: Deadlifts

Everything is for reps, 1-2 top sets of each. First 3 weeks top set of 6-8 reps, then just up the weight the next time around and lower the reps accordingly

The upper body day would be bench for reps followed by a choice or rotation of 2-3 main accessory lifts. I like close grip, or any kind of dumbbell bench/press,
Get some laterals, some triceps, rows/chins and some curls and keep it simple. Main lift just start with a weight you can hit for 8 reps and add 3-5% each week. Again 1-2 top sets. Then hammer the second lift for 3-4 sets. For example:

Week 1: Bench, close grip bench
Week 2: Bench, flat DB bench
Week 3: Bench, military press... these are just suggestions, use the best 2 or 3 for you or use a different one each week every week! Have some fun with it

Remember, make sure you try to get calories and rest before you worry about "doing enough" at the gym. This will be a nice change of pace if you do it right.

[BOSS]

Lord, still moving up!

Yep one more heavy week then tapering

[Superman55]

The one time I only was able to train 2x per week for a 3 month stretch I was able to gain a ton of strength, but also ate a lot. I'm saying that first because in my experience increasing calories while reducing volume is a great way to build strength for a while--especially if your current training volume and frequency is much higher. Obviously you are going to be busier, so if you are looking at a reduction in weekly down time and sleep time, you can't go crazy on volume with the accessories or main lifts and expect to respond/recover. So just focus on getting a few good top sets on the main lifts and the essentials as far as accessories.

That being said, do one lower day, one bench day... simple!

The lower day I would recommend rotating these 3 workouts every week:

Week 1: Low bar squats, deficit deads or stiff legs
Week 2: Front Squats, Block Pulls
Week 3: Deadlifts

Everything is for reps, 1-2 top sets of each. First 3 weeks top set of 6-8 reps, then just up the weight the next time around and lower the reps accordingly

The upper body day would be bench for reps followed by a choice or rotation of 2-3 main accessory lifts. I like close grip, or any kind of dumbbell bench/press,
Get some laterals, some triceps, rows/chins and some curls and keep it simple. Main lift just start with a weight you can hit for 8 reps and add 3-5% each week. Again 1-2 top sets. Then hammer the second lift for 3-4 sets. For example:

Week 1: Bench, close grip bench
Week 2: Bench, flat DB bench
Week 3: Bench, military press... these are just suggestions, use the best 2 or 3 for you or use a different one each week every week! Have some fun with it

Remember, make sure you try to get calories and rest before you worry about "doing enough" at the gym. This will be a nice change of pace if you do it right.

Awesome Dan. I appreciate you ALWAYS coming through with knowledge plans and ideas. It truly helps.

[zanderkelley]

Dan

Is volume a trap? Am I correct in my thinking here? Lets say I decide I want to add size to my back and so I pick up a doorway pull up bar, install it and start knocking out sets of 5-10 pull ups several times a day while I am home. Overtime this volume will translate into more mass and better GPP for my back. Eventually I get to the point where I can do sets of 20 and I am able to consistently find time to knock out 5 sets of 20 every single day. My back, in theory, should look noticeably different than it did when I could only do sets of 5. BUT, if I were to simply maintain the ability to do 5 sets of 20 and not increase the reps or sets than, over time, my muscles would become more efficient and the size would start to diminish because of the lack of overload. So volume must increase. Forever. Is it not a trap?

[TheMannarino]

Hey Dan, hope you're well dude. Your bench has been looking even more ridiculous lately! Not sure if they've been PR's or not, but theres definitely a large noticeable bump in strength, what have you done in training that you think contributed most to this? Thanks!

[Nmowery]

Hey dan, real quick one for you pertaining to benching - is there a certain percentage range which you find to be optimal if working specifically on technique? I'm getting to the point where I feel like my technique is the main limiting factor in my bench gains. When I get to 90%+, I can tell everything just goes to hell. I've spent some time trying to do really light reps focusing on squeezing the bar, staying tight, driving legs into the floor, etc...but it seems like the reps are too "easy", and aren't necessarily carrying over into heavier sets.

[Buckfever]

529X2 Dan Green not playing. Good luck man!

[Altered Beast]

529X2 Dan Green not playing. Good luck man!

That was pretty ridiculous! Quite impressive to say the least.

[Universal Rep]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhg8OXiV74k

[BOSS]

Dan

Is volume a trap? Am I correct in my thinking here? Lets say I decide I want to add size to my back and so I pick up a doorway pull up bar, install it and start knocking out sets of 5-10 pull ups several times a day while I am home. Overtime this volume will translate into more mass and better GPP for my back. Eventually I get to the point where I can do sets of 20 and I am able to consistently find time to knock out 5 sets of 20 every single day. My back, in theory, should look noticeably different than it did when I could only do sets of 5. BUT, if I were to simply maintain the ability to do 5 sets of 20 and not increase the reps or sets than, over time, my muscles would become more efficient and the size would start to diminish because of the lack of overload. So volume must increase. Forever. Is it not a trap?

First, Volume is not a trap because it's not the only variable to manipulate. It is one factor that both stimulates the body and demands resources (recovery). So it has a heavy impact on your homeostasis. This is what your body responds to. If you don't upset homeostasis you don't respond or maybe even backslide slightly--which would in turn upset homeostasis.

Second, if you are routinely knocking out 2800 pull-ups, you would have an extremely impressive physique and might be the person on the forum answering questions not me. Don't underestimate the process before you've even begun.

In the end you must add volume, and from time to time back off and then push further, like steps. I believe you are overthinking things. Add volume, see how you are recovering, adjust and then keep adding.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, hope you're well dude. Your bench has been looking even more ridiculous lately! Not sure if they've been PR's or not, but theres definitely a large noticeable bump in strength, what have you done in training that you think contributed most to this? Thanks!

The biggest changes have been using seated pressing and front raises 3x per week with different rep ranges as I outlined recently on this thread

Second has been cleaning up technique both in execution and in limiting how much I "push" because that can lead to compromising form when I focus on doing too much or just going for reps

Third focusing on more benching without leg drive to fill in a weakness and clean up form

Last just managing the potential things that beat me up, like too much heavy dumbbell accessory stuff or too much low bar squatting

[BOSS]

Hey dan, real quick one for you pertaining to benching - is there a certain percentage range which you find to be optimal if working specifically on technique? I'm getting to the point where I feel like my technique is the main limiting factor in my bench gains. When I get to 90%+, I can tell everything just goes to hell. I've spent some time trying to do really light reps focusing on squeezing the bar, staying tight, driving legs into the floor, etc...but it seems like the reps are too "easy", and aren't necessarily carrying over into heavier sets.

Yeah, you should always focus on technique regardless of weight. I like to do some feet up sets on my lightest warmups to groove the bar path, then the other thing would be that I organize my bench in a linear training style, so that your technique has time to adapt to the weights you are lifting. If you are looking for second exercises then things like pauses with slightly wider grips can strengthen the bottom while board presses can help with staying tighter through the top of the lift or allow you to feel heavier weights. Personally I do a lot to emphasize the bottom of the lift.

In the end, just making each rep count is the most important thing

[BOSS]

529X2 Dan Green not playing. Good luck man!

Thanks, I'm feeling pretty good so should be a 551 attempt if all goes to plan. Then bigger next training cycle. Not planning to take time off after russia and there are meets in the spring. Bench is my biggest focus currently

[BOSS]

That was pretty ridiculous! Quite impressive to say the least.

Thanks, feels good with the hard work paying off

[JEAH]

Hey Dan are the periods of time where you just don't feel motivated and are burnt out from life and lifting becomes more of a task or job then it is fun. How do you handle that? IF you even experience it lol

[BOSS]

Hey Dan are the periods of time where you just don't feel motivated and are burnt out from life and lifting becomes more of a task or job then it is fun. How do you handle that? IF you even experience it lol

If I feel burned out from lifting then I just take time off. If life is stressful then that's where being grounded is important. For me, prayer and some solitude can go a long ways. Sometimes we feel burned out because we focus on what we want and what we don't have, not what we DO have and who we have in our lives who we care for. It's not always as easy as this makes it sound, but it's important to have a way of working through stress and burnout not just getting frustrated and going into a tailspin

[marcusmaximus]

Hey man, I read an interview you did about your training and how you taught yourself to be so strong so maybe you can help me figure out why one of my lifts is so far in advance to others

I squat 205kg 1rm and 250kg super grinder deadlift, yet my stiff leg deadlifts seem way out of proportion, I can do 210/215kg for 10 - maybe more, I just cant figure out how I can translate this into my other lifts

I will say I am very tight in my hams so I squat narrow and slowly trying to widen it up, could this be purely hamstring flexibility? Widen my stance, stretch like crazy then try upping my numbers and maybe trying sumo? (my adductors are also tight AF)

or could I be missing something entirely different here?

[BOSS]

Hey man, I read an interview you did about your training and how you taught yourself to be so strong so maybe you can help me figure out why one of my lifts is so far in advance to others

I squat 205kg 1rm and 250kg super grinder deadlift, yet my stiff leg deadlifts seem way out of proportion, I can do 210/215kg for 10 - maybe more, I just cant figure out how I can translate this into my other lifts

I will say I am very tight in my hams so I squat narrow and slowly trying to widen it up, could this be purely hamstring flexibility? Widen my stance, stretch like crazy then try upping my numbers and maybe trying sumo? (my adductors are also tight AF)

or could I be missing something entirely different here?

It seems like from what you've said that your back strength is strong but maybe your leg strength is behind. With that said, working on slowly widening your squat stance should help you squat more in time. For your deadlift first, if you don't already, train every rep from a dead stop--no touch and go reps. This will get your legs into the lift more even though it will be harder at first. Also, do some heavy deadlifts from blocks or a power rack with the weights elevated 4-6". This will also help you to be tight at the start of the lift so your legs can contribute. Lastly, you should add in some hack squats or front squats to try to make your leg strength increase.

At least, this is my best guess based on what you said above. Hope it helps

[marcusmaximus]

It seems like from what you've said that your back strength is strong but maybe your leg strength is behind. With that said, working on slowly widening your squat stance should help you squat more in time. For your deadlift first, if you don't already, train every rep from a dead stop--no touch and go reps. This will get your legs into the lift more even though it will be harder at first. Also, do some heavy deadlifts from blocks or a power rack with the weights elevated 4-6". This will also help you to be tight at the start of the lift so your legs can contribute. Lastly, you should add in some hack squats or front squats to try to make your leg strength increase.

At least, this is my best guess based on what you said above. Hope it helps

Thanks man, gonna do exactly that. Appreciate it :)

[Buckfever]

Hoping the knee is better. You back at it?

[BOSS]

Hoping the knee is better. You back at it?

I'm just benching and doing some back stuff still. I got an MRI which showed some stuff that wasn't intolerable, but the acute problem is what's called a parapatellar plica. Basically there is a sleeve of tissue that surrounds the knee joint and keeps the fluid in place, but it has some seams or folds which, for some people can become inflamed. For me, the inflammation is causing this fold to become pinched inside the knee joint on the inner side (medial) when I squat, even just bodyweight. I'm seeing a specialist tomorrow. It's not a major injury by any means and the paths are to either wait for the inflammation to subside (4-6 weeks), go with stronger anti-inflammatory meds like cortisone, or getting it scoped, where they can just trim it down. It's been just over 4 weeks since I last tried to squat (and it pinched with almost no weight).

SO I'm not in any rush, just want to get it sorted out and fully healed... but for now just benching is perfectly enjoyable

[Sc0rpi0n]

Hey Dan, first of all, same as a lot of people here - huge inspiration and role model. Thank you for replying and sharing knowledge with everyone here, I've spent the last 3-4 days reading the whole thread and I've found a lot of useful info. I had some cartilage problems in my right knee, did orthokin therapy, switched to PL when a friend who competes in it suggested it so I could strengthen everything and honestly I've never felt better. I used some of your tips yesterday, regarding squats, how to move your knees and hips; did low bar, high bar and pause squats (high bar) and haven't felt ANY pain in my knee neither during the workout nor after which hasn't happened in months! In the end, I've decided to make a profile here, so I could thank you first of all and then ask you some questions; hopefully you can help me and sorry for the long post.

1)
I've been following a five day split:
Monday - wide grip bench, close grip bench, incline or flat DB press and some flyes either lying or seated and some biceps work after this
Tuesday - low bar squats, front squats, RDLs and maybe some lying curls
Wednesday - seated barbell press, DB press, lateral raises, rear flyes for shoulders and barbell skullcrushers, DB skullcrushers and cable pushdowns (pressdowns, whatever) for triceps
Thursday - deadlifts (convential), pull-ups or front pulldowns, DB rows or T-bar rows and maybe some seated cable rows
Friday - wide grip bench, close grip bench, floor press, DB press and some flyes again, almost the same as Monday

When it comes to sets and reps, for bench, squats and deads I do 2-6 sets of 2-8 reps, I just pick say 4x6, next week I'll try either 5x5 or 3x5, and the week after that 2x4, 4x4 or 6x4, depending on the lift, how I feel and the weight, same principle goes for everything else (when it comes to sets and reps). Monday is a volume day, reps 4 or above and Friday is reps 4 or below, so more of intensity. I make it to be like linear progression, adding the minimal weight on the last set and trying to do same reps as the previous sets and every week I try to increase, of course if I can. When it comes to DB presses, rows or curls 3-5 sets of 8-10 reps and for the flyes, curls and... whatever's left, 4-6 sets of 10-15 reps.
Now for the first question (finally) - thoughts on this program? I've found that I am getting stronger, week after week, but I'm not sure I'm giving my all.

2)
As I said earlier, for the legs 2d ago, I really liked that session, felt great, but I'm not sure how and when to implement pause squats, front squats, high bar squats and RDLs. I train with a lot of volume as you can see, but I don't think it's smart to do 5 different variations of squats on the same day and do deads 2d after... Same thing goes for back day, I wanted to implement sumo, block pulls and deficit pulls (since I understood why are they so important from the previous 80 pages of the thread), but don't know where, how many reps and sets...

I think that's all for now, I'm looking forward for your reply, thanks in advance and thanks again for sharing the wisdom - strong and humble.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, first of all, same as a lot of people here - huge inspiration and role model. Thank you for replying and sharing knowledge with everyone here, I've spent the last 3-4 days reading the whole thread and I've found a lot of useful info. I had some cartilage problems in my right knee, did orthokin therapy, switched to PL when a friend who competes in it suggested it so I could strengthen everything and honestly I've never felt better. I used some of your tips yesterday, regarding squats, how to move your knees and hips; did low bar, high bar and pause squats (high bar) and haven't felt ANY pain in my knee neither during the workout nor after which hasn't happened in months! In the end, I've decided to make a profile here, so I could thank you first of all and then ask you some questions; hopefully you can help me and sorry for the long post.

1)
I've been following a five day split:
Monday - wide grip bench, close grip bench, incline or flat DB press and some flyes either lying or seated and some biceps work after this
Tuesday - low bar squats, front squats, RDLs and maybe some lying curls
Wednesday - seated barbell press, DB press, lateral raises, rear flyes for shoulders and barbell skullcrushers, DB skullcrushers and cable pushdowns (pressdowns, whatever) for triceps
Thursday - deadlifts (convential), pull-ups or front pulldowns, DB rows or T-bar rows and maybe some seated cable rows
Friday - wide grip bench, close grip bench, floor press, DB press and some flyes again, almost the same as Monday

When it comes to sets and reps, for bench, squats and deads I do 2-6 sets of 2-8 reps, I just pick say 4x6, next week I'll try either 5x5 or 3x5, and the week after that 2x4, 4x4 or 6x4, depending on the lift, how I feel and the weight, same principle goes for everything else (when it comes to sets and reps). Monday is a volume day, reps 4 or above and Friday is reps 4 or below, so more of intensity. I make it to be like linear progression, adding the minimal weight on the last set and trying to do same reps as the previous sets and every week I try to increase, of course if I can. When it comes to DB presses, rows or curls 3-5 sets of 8-10 reps and for the flyes, curls and... whatever's left, 4-6 sets of 10-15 reps.
Now for the first question (finally) - thoughts on this program? I've found that I am getting stronger, week after week, but I'm not sure I'm giving my all.

2)
As I said earlier, for the legs 2d ago, I really liked that session, felt great, but I'm not sure how and when to implement pause squats, front squats, high bar squats and RDLs. I train with a lot of volume as you can see, but I don't think it's smart to do 5 different variations of squats on the same day and do deads 2d after... Same thing goes for back day, I wanted to implement sumo, block pulls and deficit pulls (since I understood why are they so important from the previous 80 pages of the thread), but don't know where, how many reps and sets...

I think that's all for now, I'm looking forward for your reply, thanks in advance and thanks again for sharing the wisdom - strong and humble.

Hey man thanks for the message first off. I definitely appreciate what you said about the inspiration as well as the usefulness of what's in the thread here.

First, for you question on the program. I think it's pretty solid. Two things stand out that are positives. One, you have some rationale for everything in there which sounds obvious, but is still the most important thing. YOU know why you are doing what you are doing because YOU are listening to the feedback you are getting from doing it. Thinking for yourself is perfect. Second, it's a great template, BUT you're describing flexibility in reps/sets. So the program isn't too taxing and rigid where it's going to burn you out. It's right in the middle where you can do more when you feel good and less when you sense that's smarter. So basically, you're planning ahead, paying attention during your training, and adjusting based on the feedback afterward. Clearly you are an intelligent guy, so great start.

Your second question on how to swap variations in and out... The way I think about exercises is: one--how much skill is involved? a low bar squat takes the most IMO because you have to find the perfect balance of optimizing torso lean to utilize more or less back, and stance width to use more or less hip strength. You've got to optimize the balance of legs, back and hips. For high bar and front squats and pauses you aren't trying to take advantage of better leverages, you are trying to stay more upright and NOT utilize the hips and back as much and therefore build simple brute strength. Take it a step further, and hack squats or leg presses have virtually zero skill to perform. The more skill involved, the longer the training cycle can utilize that same lift week in and week out, because your skill improves as you get stronger (unless you're fooling yourself into dismissing the importance of technique!). For the secondary lifts that have less "skill", you must play around with the loading patterns more to keep them stimulating. What this does for us in the practical sense is say we can do shorter 4-6 week cycles where we focus on a secondary variation as the main variation and benefit highly, or we can rotate them each week on an A-B week or A-B-C weeks. One week low bar as the first squat, the next week high bar and so forth. I've utilized this on dead by alternating a deadlift bar one week then a stiff bar the following. You could rotate squats with a belt one week and squats without a belt the next and so forth. This method allows you to make the lift work the body in a slightly different way each week, keeps it "interesting" physically and mentally, AND, a very important aspect, allows the "B" week to be a variation that is just as "intense" but puts less weight on the spine/joints. Going main lift on the A week practices your lift heavy and builds technique to optimize your strengths while the B week deloads just a little because less weight is used, and can focus on a variation that highlights a weakness. The last method that you could use is simply picking a variation like hack squat and basically using that every 3rd or 4th workout to both deload and to go high reps to really pump up the quads. this was a favorite method of Sam Byrd and I also love hack squats for just this reason. 3-4 sets of 20 for a crazy pump in the quads and no real stress on the spine or CNS
In the end, don't discard the main lift to only hammer the weaknesses, train both. Just create a balance between main vs variations. Also, if you train for a comp, then the number of weeks away you are from the comp should determine the balance of main vs variation. Far enough and you are in the "off season" and should heavily focus on variations. Maybe even pick one variation to build up for 4-6 weeks as the main focus. 12-6 weeks to go? You need to at least train the main lift every other week and the variation must be a close variation. The difference in poundage should be within 10%. In other words say you squat 405x5 low bar. If you squat 375x5 high bar thats within 10% so it's a good choice. If you squat 315x5 high bar, with no belt and a close stance, that's too fancy a variation, it's more than 20% weaker.

In the end, you are doing good things so far. You are getting stronger so don't get fancy, just make sure you always make technical mastery the top priority.
For variations, remember the main lift is still king, and after that just try to find 2-5 variations that are good and be loyal to those. Don't be a jack of all trades, just master the main lifts, master the close variations that work for you, and when you hit accessory lifts, don't just rush through--make them count.

[Sc0rpi0n]

Hey man thanks for the message first off. I definitely appreciate what you said about the inspiration as well as the usefulness of what's in the thread here.

First, for you question on the program. I think it's pretty solid. Two things stand out that are positives. One, you have some rationale for everything in there which sounds obvious, but is still the most important thing. YOU know why you are doing what you are doing because YOU are listening to the feedback you are getting from doing it. Thinking for yourself is perfect. Second, it's a great template, BUT you're describing flexibility in reps/sets. So the program isn't too taxing and rigid where it's going to burn you out. It's right in the middle where you can do more when you feel good and less when you sense that's smarter. So basically, you're planning ahead, paying attention during your training, and adjusting based on the feedback afterward. Clearly you are an intelligent guy, so great start.

Your second question on how to swap variations in and out... The way I think about exercises is: one--how much skill is involved? a low bar squat takes the most IMO because you have to find the perfect balance of optimizing torso lean to utilize more or less back, and stance width to use more or less hip strength. You've got to optimize the balance of legs, back and hips. For high bar and front squats and pauses you aren't trying to take advantage of better leverages, you are trying to stay more upright and NOT utilize the hips and back as much and therefore build simple brute strength. Take it a step further, and hack squats or leg presses have virtually zero skill to perform. The more skill involved, the longer the training cycle can utilize that same lift week in and week out, because your skill improves as you get stronger (unless you're fooling yourself into dismissing the importance of technique!). For the secondary lifts that have less "skill", you must play around with the loading patterns more to keep them stimulating. What this does for us in the practical sense is say we can do shorter 4-6 week cycles where we focus on a secondary variation as the main variation and benefit highly, or we can rotate them each week on an A-B week or A-B-C weeks. One week low bar as the first squat, the next week high bar and so forth. I've utilized this on dead by alternating a deadlift bar one week then a stiff bar the following. You could rotate squats with a belt one week and squats without a belt the next and so forth. This method allows you to make the lift work the body in a slightly different way each week, keeps it "interesting" physically and mentally, AND, a very important aspect, allows the "B" week to be a variation that is just as "intense" but puts less weight on the spine/joints. Going main lift on the A week practices your lift heavy and builds technique to optimize your strengths while the B week deloads just a little because less weight is used, and can focus on a variation that highlights a weakness. The last method that you could use is simply picking a variation like hack squat and basically using that every 3rd or 4th workout to both deload and to go high reps to really pump up the quads. this was a favorite method of Sam Byrd and I also love hack squats for just this reason. 3-4 sets of 20 for a crazy pump in the quads and no real stress on the spine or CNS
In the end, don't discard the main lift to only hammer the weaknesses, train both. Just create a balance between main vs variations. Also, if you train for a comp, then the number of weeks away you are from the comp should determine the balance of main vs variation. Far enough and you are in the "off season" and should heavily focus on variations. Maybe even pick one variation to build up for 4-6 weeks as the main focus. 12-6 weeks to go? You need to at least train the main lift every other week and the variation must be a close variation. The difference in poundage should be within 10%. In other words say you squat 405x5 low bar. If you squat 375x5 high bar thats within 10% so it's a good choice. If you squat 315x5 high bar, with no belt and a close stance, that's too fancy a variation, it's more than 20% weaker.

In the end, you are doing good things so far. You are getting stronger so don't get fancy, just make sure you always make technical mastery the top priority.
For variations, remember the main lift is still king, and after that just try to find 2-5 variations that are good and be loyal to those. Don't be a jack of all trades, just master the main lifts, master the close variations that work for you, and when you hit accessory lifts, don't just rush through--make them count.

Thank you so much for your reply and thank you for saying that I'm intelligent about my program/training, means a lot coming from an athlete like you!
When it comes to my second question, thank you so much on such a detailed and in depth answer, it helped a lot to understand how I should organize accessory lifts around the main ones.
And yes, since I started training in general, I always trained "smart" - learning the proper form and technique, as I find that's the most important thing in lifting, the weight(s) will come eventually.

Btw, I remembered one more thing I wanted to ask - I want to make those blocks for block pulls, I saw that you're suggesting the 4'' ones, that's like 10cm - should I make only those and should the "platform" for deficit deads be that high too? Also is there any suggestion when it comes to which wood should I use and which ruber? For the ruber I was thinking about using the ones that is used for the gym floor.
Thanks again for your time and advices!

[BOSS]

Thank you so much for your reply and thank you for saying that I'm intelligent about my program/training, means a lot coming from an athlete like you!
When it comes to my second question, thank you so much on such a detailed and in depth answer, it helped a lot to understand how I should organize accessory lifts around the main ones.
And yes, since I started training in general, I always trained "smart" - learning the proper form and technique, as I find that's the most important thing in lifting, the weight(s) will come eventually.

Btw, I remembered one more thing I wanted to ask - I want to make those blocks for block pulls, I saw that you're suggesting the 4'' ones, that's like 10cm - should I make only those and should the "platform" for deficit deads be that high too? Also is there any suggestion when it comes to which wood should I use and which ruber? For the ruber I was thinking about using the ones that is used for the gym floor.
Thanks again for your time and advices!

Gym floor rubber is fine. The easiest way to make the boxes is to lay 2x4s flat to form the base, with a second layer of 2x4s underneath going across (perpendicular). This is 3" tall so just add 1-2 layers of rubber on top. This is fine for the deficits as well as long as it's big enough to stand on.

[Nmowery]

Hey dan, quick question - how beneficial do you find low rep weighted pullups to be? Like somehere around 3-4 reps per set?

[getapump]

Dan,

When I squat, regardless of the percentage I'm working at I develop severe DOMS in my hamstrings/adductor region. Out of this world, muscle splitting, unbearable DOMS for days. It is nothing like I experience with any other muscle group, it's not a normal "workout" soreness. I become susceptible to injury from the smallest little things and the smallest tweaks make my muscles feel like they're ripping off the bone. I've put up with this for years and I cannot figure out what causes it or what to do about it. I imagine it is technique driven somehow, but I was wondering if you have any experience/thoughts/knowledge you could maybe pass on that could be of some help.

Thank you for taking the time.

[BOSS]

Hey dan, quick question - how beneficial do you find low rep weighted pullups to be? Like somehere around 3-4 reps per set?

Most of my life I've done high reps on pull-ups. But I've done them in 5x5 fashion which I like where 5 was not max reps and that was good. I've also done weighted with over 100lbs for 3-4 sets of 3-4. I don't know that those were terribly productive, but I only did them as part of a progression during a time when I had been really hammering all upper back training. So I'm not sure they made me stronger or I just did them because my back was stronger at the time from other stuff!

I still think that heavy 1 arm DB rows are the best lat exercise for strength and mass but there are a million different technique variations so you just need to do them in a good form and consistently. Not so strict that you can't move any weight, but not so heavy that you can't get a good feel for the lats and traps either. I usually start strict and finish with a little momentum... the best of both worlds

[BOSS]

Dan,

When I squat, regardless of the percentage I'm working at I develop severe DOMS in my hamstrings/adductor region. Out of this world, muscle splitting, unbearable DOMS for days. It is nothing like I experience with any other muscle group, it's not a normal "workout" soreness. I become susceptible to injury from the smallest little things and the smallest tweaks make my muscles feel like they're ripping off the bone. I've put up with this for years and I cannot figure out what causes it or what to do about it. I imagine it is technique driven somehow, but I was wondering if you have any experience/thoughts/knowledge you could maybe pass on that could be of some help.

Thank you for taking the time.

If you post a link to a video I can tell you if it's technique... Other things could be that you are extremely tight, or if it's as extreme as you are describing, it could actually be that there's an injury you aren't aware of already.

[Buckfever]

The stiffed legged deficit deadlifts look great.

[micheldied]

Dan,

When I squat, regardless of the percentage I'm working at I develop severe DOMS in my hamstrings/adductor region. Out of this world, muscle splitting, unbearable DOMS for days. It is nothing like I experience with any other muscle group, it's not a normal "workout" soreness. I become susceptible to injury from the smallest little things and the smallest tweaks make my muscles feel like they're ripping off the bone. I've put up with this for years and I cannot figure out what causes it or what to do about it. I imagine it is technique driven somehow, but I was wondering if you have any experience/thoughts/knowledge you could maybe pass on that could be of some help.

Thank you for taking the time.

I actually have this same problem. I get it after squatting and I can't do anything for nearly a week, and even getting out of bed can cause a strain. I don't get this problem pulling sumo with a wide stance.

[JEAH]

Hey Dan just wanting to thank you for all that you do and wish you and the family a happy and healthy new year !

[BOSS]

The stiffed legged deficit deadlifts look great.

Those have to be my favorite assistance lift for the back... I've been doing them for about 7-8 years and before that Romanian Deadlifts (same ROM) for 10 years before that as the best hamstring building lift there is

[BOSS]

I actually have this same problem. I get it after squatting and I can't do anything for nearly a week, and even getting out of bed can cause a strain. I don't get this problem pulling sumo with a wide stance.

My guess would be that the eccentric loading in a squat is simply stretching those muscles further than they are capable of stretching without a load on your back. This is definitely a recipe for some good DOMS, but seeing the lift would also be more telling. I say this because when I started doing RDLs, I kept my knees locked and could only lower the bar past my knees with an extended spine as that was the limitation of my hamstring flexibility then. But over the course of the first 3-4 workouts, I was able to increase that to full ROM--touching the tops of my feet. The DOMS I got that first month from this hamstring stretch was as you described: where I was sore for nearly a week and in tremendous discomfort. Similarly the calves if I hammered them once in a while with a long layoff... Heavy eccentric loading through a "foreign" ROM is my first guess without video to look at. Trying to more frequently achieve this ROM would be key via both more frequent squatting--while still sore--and stretching.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan just wanting to thank you for all that you do and wish you and the family a happy and healthy new year !

Thanks buddy. Happy New Year to you too!

[basti]

Hi, couple of questions, not sure if asked before. Sorry if double.


Are you going to visit germany (or europe) one day (seminar, workshop)?

How does your warm-up looks like? Just warm-up sets or some specific stretching/mobility?

Do you even do any kind of stretches/mobility work? (mirin your hip movement, lol)

Greets from germany

[BOSS]

Hi, couple of questions, not sure if asked before. Sorry if double.


Are you going to visit germany (or europe) one day (seminar, workshop)?

How does your warm-up looks like? Just warm-up sets or some specific stretching/mobility?

Do you even do any kind of stretches/mobility work? (mirin your hip movement, lol)

Greets from germany

Hi,

I've made two trips to Europe for seminars in England and Northern Ireland, but I don't have anymore planned for Europe... maybe next year
As for warmups, when I squat and deadlift I do a bit of stretching for the groin, hips and ankles and that seems to help quite a bit. I don't stretch before benching but if I did it would just be to stretch the upper spine where the arch is, but I don't need much here.

[micheldied]

Hi Dan,

Hope you've had some good down time!

How do you recommend training in knee wraps to someone who is new to them, and how do you go about using them through a training cycle? I have the Titan Max RPMs as well as the (much) stiffer THPs. Should I start with the RPMs early on in the cycle, and then transition to the tougher wraps, or get even softer wraps to start with, saving the RPMs for later?

[Shadowmoses1986]

Not everyone has necessarily seen my bio, but I am a powerlifter. At a bodyweight of 220 and have squatted 760, benched 485 and deadlifted 821 in competition with a best total of 2030 without squatting in knee wraps. Despite these achievements, I am possibly most proud of the fact that I've been accused of looking like "the guy in The Program." Yes, that was an exciting compliment.

Aside from lifting for strength, I also am firmly opposed to skinniness and ILS.

Ask me anything--powerlifting technique, olympic lifting, eating, hair-growing or whatever.


I haven't used this forum in almost ten years, and I'm pretty sure it was under a different name then too. I'm not even sure if this is the correct protocol so apologies in advance.

Here's my situation - I'm 305lbs, 30 years old, about a 53" waist, and I haven't consistently exercised in almost a decade. I've had carpal tunnel surgery, been driving a desk for 3 years and gained 80lbs over a year period. I'm so out of shape now I honestly don't even know where to start. I've had a full workup, no diabetes or heart issues, but I did pull an over nighter in the hospital for heart attack symptoms, which I'm pretty sure was stress related from working as an escalated tech support agent, i.e, sorry you were just transferred 6 times, but we won't fix your wifi. Have a nice day! -_- On top of that, I have four small children under 7 up at 7am daily without fail, and I don't get to crash until 2am on a good day.

Oh and sleep apnea. Good 'ol sleep apnea and my nightly battle with teh CPAP machine.

Point is, I AM making changes, in terms of eating clean again and working out, but the fatigue is killing me, and I'm afraid that may be literal between the sleep deprivation and stress with 8 hours of inactivity (unfortunately, the way my desks are built, standing is not an option). Should I even bother lifting? Do I need to do cardio only? Boss man, what's a good starting point for me here and how do I find the energy to keep going? God bless.

[Altered Beast]

I haven't used this forum in almost ten years, and I'm pretty sure it was under a different name then too. I'm not even sure if this is the correct protocol so apologies in advance.

Here's my situation - I'm 305lbs, 30 years old, about a 53" waist, and I haven't consistently exercised in almost a decade. I've had carpal tunnel surgery, been driving a desk for 3 years and gained 80lbs over a year period. I'm so out of shape now I honestly don't even know where to start. I've had a full workup, no diabetes or heart issues, but I did pull an over nighter in the hospital for heart attack symptoms, which I'm pretty sure was stress related from working as an escalated tech support agent, i.e, sorry you were just transferred 6 times, but we won't fix your wifi. Have a nice day! -_- On top of that, I have four small children under 7 up at 7am daily without fail, and I don't get to crash until 2am on a good day.

Oh and sleep apnea. Good 'ol sleep apnea and my nightly battle with teh CPAP machine.

Point is, I AM making changes, in terms of eating clean again and working out, but the fatigue is killing me, and I'm afraid that may be literal between the sleep deprivation and stress with 8 hours of inactivity (unfortunately, the way my desks are built, standing is not an option). Should I even bother lifting? Do I need to do cardio only? Boss man, what's a good starting point for me here and how do I find the energy to keep going? God bless.

www.MyPillow.com

It will forever change your life in the greatest of ways. I too have apnea but use a medical mouthpiece which works great; therefore, do not require a CPAP. The pillow will keep your head up and supported so your airways stay 100% open while you sleep. It can also help alleviate neck pain and other position issues most have with regular feather pillows.

You're very welcome =)

*Not meaning to hijack Dan's thread. Just wanting to help.

[Shadowmoses1986]

Hey, I'll take any help I can get at this point. Thank you much.

[BOSS]

Hi Dan,

Hope you've had some good down time!

How do you recommend training in knee wraps to someone who is new to them, and how do you go about using them through a training cycle? I have the Titan Max RPMs as well as the (much) stiffer THPs. Should I start with the RPMs early on in the cycle, and then transition to the tougher wraps, or get even softer wraps to start with, saving the RPMs for later?

I generally just used my strong wraps only and I would start about 6 weeks out. But what I did initially and what I did my final training cycle would be to start in the lighter wraps and use those for most of the training or the moderate weight sets and just use the stronger sets as needed initially and for most of the work sets down the stretch for the last 4-6 weeks before the meet but still use the others for the warm up sets

[BOSS]

I haven't used this forum in almost ten years, and I'm pretty sure it was under a different name then too. I'm not even sure if this is the correct protocol so apologies in advance.

Here's my situation - I'm 305lbs, 30 years old, about a 53" waist, and I haven't consistently exercised in almost a decade. I've had carpal tunnel surgery, been driving a desk for 3 years and gained 80lbs over a year period. I'm so out of shape now I honestly don't even know where to start. I've had a full workup, no diabetes or heart issues, but I did pull an over nighter in the hospital for heart attack symptoms, which I'm pretty sure was stress related from working as an escalated tech support agent, i.e, sorry you were just transferred 6 times, but we won't fix your wifi. Have a nice day! -_- On top of that, I have four small children under 7 up at 7am daily without fail, and I don't get to crash until 2am on a good day.

Oh and sleep apnea. Good 'ol sleep apnea and my nightly battle with teh CPAP machine.

Point is, I AM making changes, in terms of eating clean again and working out, but the fatigue is killing me, and I'm afraid that may be literal between the sleep deprivation and stress with 8 hours of inactivity (unfortunately, the way my desks are built, standing is not an option). Should I even bother lifting? Do I need to do cardio only? Boss man, what's a good starting point for me here and how do I find the energy to keep going? God bless.

First I would see if getting extra sleep by having your wife keep the kids out of your room and you sleeping with earplugs/eyes covered is possible to grab any extra sleep--I assume she'd be the first sympathetic person if you're (literally) out killing yourself to make ends meet. If that's not why your doing this then it might not be worth it to kill yourself over this job and get a different job.

As for stress at work, what's the stress from? Somebody yelling at you? If you get paid to fix situations that you are not the cause of, just do what you are paid to do. Stress comes from expectations that are out of line with reality--two mutually exclusive results at the same time essentially. You don't get paid to make miracles, just to work on problems. Work at your speed and remember: do what you can and do not stress out of that which is out of your control--it doesn't help anything anyway. You can't work faster than the fastest speed you can work at just because someone else is having an emergency, nor is it your fault.

As for exercise, you just need to do something. The weight gain is coming from your diet--there are lots of skinny people who don't exercise at all. Fix your diet first. Lower your calories by lowering your portions and eating a balanced diet. Eat non-processed foods including a lot of vegetables as these will maximize your uptake of nutrients and allow you to feel satiated with less calories.

It sounds like the only free time you even have is first thing in the morning?? Are you working two jobs? when would you exercise anyway? Something as simple as a walk is fine--calisthenics work great for weight loss because when you are overweight then bodyweight exercise is effectively weight lifting. Again, anything will help with your heart and lungs, but first fix your diet to lose weight.

Maybe with more details I can help more. Hope this helps

[Nmowery]

Most of my life I've done high reps on pull-ups. But I've done them in 5x5 fashion which I like where 5 was not max reps and that was good. I've also done weighted with over 100lbs for 3-4 sets of 3-4. I don't know that those were terribly productive, but I only did them as part of a progression during a time when I had been really hammering all upper back training. So I'm not sure they made me stronger or I just did them because my back was stronger at the time from other stuff!

I still think that heavy 1 arm DB rows are the best lat exercise for strength and mass but there are a million different technique variations so you just need to do them in a good form and consistently. Not so strict that you can't move any weight, but not so heavy that you can't get a good feel for the lats and traps either. I usually start strict and finish with a little momentum... the best of both worlds

Fwiw, I was just gonna follow this up by saying that I've been doing a lot of drop sets lately for pull-ups, and its been really helpful. I couldn't deadlift for a while due to injury and was losing a lot of strength in my lats. Lately I'll start with 50 lbs added, then drop it to 25...sometimes I'll drop the 25 also and finish off with body weight reps. Feels like the best of both worlds getting the strength stimulus along with a massive pump!

[micheldied]

I generally just used my strong wraps only and I would start about 6 weeks out. But what I did initially and what I did my final training cycle would be to start in the lighter wraps and use those for most of the training or the moderate weight sets and just use the stronger sets as needed initially and for most of the work sets down the stretch for the last 4-6 weeks before the meet but still use the others for the warm up sets

Thanks, Boss. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

[BOSS]

Fwiw, I was just gonna follow this up by saying that I've been doing a lot of drop sets lately for pull-ups, and its been really helpful. I couldn't deadlift for a while due to injury and was losing a lot of strength in my lats. Lately I'll start with 50 lbs added, then drop it to 25...sometimes I'll drop the 25 also and finish off with body weight reps. Feels like the best of both worlds getting the strength stimulus along with a massive pump!

Yeah this is actually a pretty good method too

[Altered Beast]

Dan,

What are your favorite exercises for building the erectors besides movements such as Deadlift variations or Good Mornings.

You always say how important the erectors are, just curious what you personally do to strengthen them and maintain them.

[BOSS]

Dan,

What are your favorite exercises for building the erectors besides movements such as Deadlift variations or Good Mornings.

You always say how important the erectors are, just curious what you personally do to strengthen them and maintain them.

I don't do anything besides deads/squats/GMs. I guess you could count rows kinda, but really that's it. The russians love hyperextensions and Pete loves the deadlift hyperextensions on the 45 degree, but I haven't even touched my GHR in like 5 years.

Stiff Leg Deads are my favorite for the low back, Deficits Conv for the low and mid back erectors

Im just basic

[RupertThePigeon]

Hi, what may be the cause of "good morning" squats ? I try to stay as upright as possible but it seems impossible at heavier loads, does it mean that my quads are weak or some technique errors?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D00Rf61pGFg here is my squat, maybe i need more mobility work in ankle area so i can push knees more??

[bishlawy]

Hey Boss! wish u fast recovery.

I got a Q: I know most of the time u have someone helping you in the Bench press liftoff, however i want to know if you will be all alone, what difference in your positioning , like: eyes in relation to the bar and other cues.

Thanks!!

[Rick87]

Boss, maybe a rookie question...but..stiff leg deads for lower back? Yay or nay?

[Altered Beast]

I don't do anything besides deads/squats/GMs. I guess you could count rows kinda, but really that's it. The russians love hyperextensions and Pete loves the deadlift hyperextensions on the 45 degree, but I haven't even touched my GHR in like 5 years.

Stiff Leg Deads are my favorite for the low back, Deficits Conv for the low and mid back erectors

Im just basic

Perfect! Just the answer I was looking for basic and to the point, thanks!

I feel ya on the GHR. Mine doesn't get much love since I hit Comp Deadlift, Rack Pulls and Belt Squats on Deadlift training days.

I train Reverse Hypers regularly on Squat days, but I could add in some 45 degree hyper work if time permits on certain days.

[micheldied]

I generally just used my strong wraps only and I would start about 6 weeks out. But what I did initially and what I did my final training cycle would be to start in the lighter wraps and use those for most of the training or the moderate weight sets and just use the stronger sets as needed initially and for most of the work sets down the stretch for the last 4-6 weeks before the meet but still use the others for the warm up sets

Thanks Dan! What wraps would you recommend for use as lighter wraps?

[Shafer13]

Hoping you could help me out with this Dan. I use to powerlift all through out high school then quit add havent lifted but on and off for the past 4 years. Been back in the gym now for a few months. The question is do you suggest running more of a bb program to try and build back a base or just run a pl program like i have in the past? Thanks for your time!

[SebRoch]

Hey, didn't get the answers but maybe you guys can help me with this one. How long should I stick to my accessory exercises? I usually switch the main exercise after 6 weeks. Should I do the same for acc?

thx alot ..new here by the way ;)

[BOSS]

Hi, what may be the cause of "good morning" squats ? I try to stay as upright as possible but it seems impossible at heavier loads, does it mean that my quads are weak or some technique errors?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D00Rf61pGFg here is my squat, maybe i need more mobility work in ankle area so i can push knees more??

The first thing that you do when you descend is move your hips back extremely far a la starting strength, but you do this too much. Your knees should bend simultaneously. If the hips move back this far then you overload the back and rely on the back more throughout the whole lift. Squat down and back not just back. Overall the squat doesn't turn into a good morning too badly as your knees stay under you, but you will only use your quads more effectively if you load them up more. A simple way to do this is to simply descend slower and pause at the bottom on some of your warm up reps to practice feeling the quads during the lift.

[BOSS]

Hey Boss! wish u fast recovery.

I got a Q: I know most of the time u have someone helping you in the Bench press liftoff, however i want to know if you will be all alone, what difference in your positioning , like: eyes in relation to the bar and other cues.

Thanks!!

If you do it on your own you can either move under the bench slightly more than before, or you can lift your hips off the bench by pressing with the legs while unpacking in order to retain more lat tightness. Once it's out, stay tight and reposition the butt back on the bench

[BOSS]

Boss, maybe a rookie question...but..stiff leg deads for lower back? Yay or nay?

Yes you should be using these. Romanian deadlifts and traditional SLDLs, from a deficit or from the floor. I talk about them a lot in this thread if you look through, but definitely hammer away at these

[BOSS]

Perfect! Just the answer I was looking for basic and to the point, thanks!

I feel ya on the GHR. Mine doesn't get much love since I hit Comp Deadlift, Rack Pulls and Belt Squats on Deadlift training days.

I train Reverse Hypers regularly on Squat days, but I could add in some 45 degree hyper work if time permits on certain days.

Just gotta pick a couple and hammer away at them. I'm having the lifters at Boss do both reverse hypers and 45 degree deadlift hypers in the hypertrophy phase we're running right now. As well as RDLs and GMs. A lot of low back assistance between DL day and squat day

[BOSS]

Thanks Dan! What wraps would you recommend for use as lighter wraps?

I like the Titan Titaniums (black with silver and blue stripes) and also some all black wraps from APT that I've had a while. I'm not sure the model

[BOSS]

Hoping you could help me out with this Dan. I use to powerlift all through out high school then quit add havent lifted but on and off for the past 4 years. Been back in the gym now for a few months. The question is do you suggest running more of a bb program to try and build back a base or just run a pl program like i have in the past? Thanks for your time!

The key to getting in shape or to getting mass is volume, so whatever you want to call it, I'd recommend focusing on a few basic barbell lifts and basic accessories and focus on lots of volume. For example:
Bench: 3x10
Incline: 3x10
Decline: 3x10
DB Bench: 2x12

Is that bodybuilding or Powerlifting? who cares, it's a good starting point to gain mass and to transition to heavier PL training. You can do the same for squats and DL

[Rick87]

Yes you should be using these. Romanian deadlifts and traditional SLDLs, from a deficit or from the floor. I talk about them a lot in this thread if you look through, but definitely hammer away at these

Yeah ive read it before somewhere in this thread, but you being an experienced lifter and all.i just wanted to know if it was something for a rookie like me to incorporate
Thanks for answering !

[BOSS]

Hey, didn't get the answers but maybe you guys can help me with this one. How long should I stick to my accessory exercises? I usually switch the main exercise after 6 weeks. Should I do the same for acc?

thx alot ..new here by the way ;)

This just depends. Generally, the more complex/skillful the exercise, the longer it should last. The more isolated/simple an exercise, the more variations you should cycle between. If we're talking tricep accessories, you could cycle between several: v-bar press downs, cable skull crushers, ez bar french press, JM press, DB tricep extensions, etc. For upper back I used to basically cycle each workout between t-bar chest supported rows, DB 1-arm rows, pull-ups of varying grips and weights, and bodyweight rows. Variation is key for the accessory lifts in certain cases. If it's low back, I usually would keep the same lift or two the whole training cycle because the spine is very complex (each adjacent pair of vertebrae is is a separate joint). For Delts, doing all variations of laterals is great--switch between variations every workout if you like

[Buckfever]

Nice work on the Bench!

[The Untamed]

Crazy progress on bench !! How did you progress this much suddenly without leg drive, did you change something in your training or is it just because no squat/dl ?

[The Monster]

Hey Dan, I just joined and am probably doing this wrong. I'm sure somewhere this has probably been discussed but here goes.

I've attended a couple of your seminars recently and took away a lot of great info. I couldn't recall though, are deficits used to strengthen your lock-out or is it for strengthening speed from the floor. Next, are block pulls used for strengthening lock-out or are they for strengthening speed from the floor?

[BOSS]

Nice work on the Bench!

Thanks man

[BOSS]

Crazy progress on bench !! How did you progress this much suddenly without leg drive, did you change something in your training or is it just because no squat/dl ?

I had made some good progress benching before i went to Moscow, but still didn't progress enough for that meet. I've been heavily focused on touching the bar to exactly the right spot on my chest every rep and that's been the big key. Before, I was touching the bar too low and overloading the delts, as well as allowing the bar to fall too quickly and rely on leg drive to move the weight. Basically, what once was a great advantage--the leg drive--was something that I was relying on too much. What's important to realize is that while strength off the chest is hugely important, the sticking point in the bench is always a few inches above the chest, so what limits bench output is WHERE over the chest the bar is when it's at the sticking point. If you touch low and press up over the lower chest or sternum, then your delts do too much in the sticking point and the pecs too little. That's very weak. Ideally, You'd touch low on the chest, but press the bar up and slightly back toward the rack, so that in the sticking point the bar is over the mid or upper chest. This, plus flaring of the elbows, allows the chest and front delts to be in the strongest position in the sticking point--so the same muscles can move more weight. All I focused on this time around was simply forcing the bar to touch slightly higher--where it should--and to keep tension throughout every rep (no bouncing). I did a lot of incline benching, where touching high is especially important for loading the pecs and getting maximum carryover to the flat bench. Basically I just stuck to a 2x per week plan and was very strict on the techniques. One day to build the chest, one day for tris and delts.

Anyway, in the end it's a little PR but really finally a good change in my technique that'll help improve much more in the future

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, I just joined and am probably doing this wrong. I'm sure somewhere this has probably been discussed but here goes.

I've attended a couple of your seminars recently and took away a lot of great info. I couldn't recall though, are deficits used to strengthen your lock-out or is it for strengthening speed from the floor. Next, are block pulls used for strengthening lock-out or are they for strengthening speed from the floor?

Yeah these are definitely important questions. What I generally use them for is deficits to build pulling power or lockout strength as they put you in a slightly rounded position and force you to finish from there. Being able to overcome spinal flexion is key to locking out. Block pulls require more isometric strength in the back in order to take advantage of the higher starting point. They are easier to lockout if you stay tight off the blocks and use the legs. This is especially true for sumo block pulls.

In any individual though you just need to determine where they are weak in the lift, and when they initiate the pull do they tend to be too rigid off the floor or are they too loose.

[Nmowery]

Hey Dan, if you don't mind me asking, what kind of rehab exercises are you being given for your quad tendon rehab? I ask because I suffered a patellar dislocation a while back, and both the patellar and quad tendon have been in rough shape since. I saw an ortho who did x-rays and recommended PT 2x/week for 8 weeks, but my insurance wouldn't cover the rehab sessions so I only got to go one time for an evaluation. I was told that there's no signs of ligament damage, and was told I was good to do basically whatever didn't hurt too much, but its been months since the injury occurred and I'm trying to figure out what I can do to accelerate the process...I've been doing a lot of narrow stance hack squats and walking lunges to build up VMO strength, but they didn't give me much to go on beyond that.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, if you don't mind me asking, what kind of rehab exercises are you being given for your quad tendon rehab? I ask because I suffered a patellar dislocation a while back, and both the patellar and quad tendon have been in rough shape since. I saw an ortho who did x-rays and recommended PT 2x/week for 8 weeks, but my insurance wouldn't cover the rehab sessions so I only got to go one time for an evaluation. I was told that there's no signs of ligament damage, and was told I was good to do basically whatever didn't hurt too much, but its been months since the injury occurred and I'm trying to figure out what I can do to accelerate the process...I've been doing a lot of narrow stance hack squats and walking lunges to build up VMO strength, but they didn't give me much to go on beyond that.

First the focus was just on achieving ROM. This meant massaging, rolling, graston, cupping, ultrasound plus stretching. Pretty straightforward here. There was also a focus on moving the kneecap around manually to try to loosen up the patellar tendon as that was also very tight.
Now for strengthening I use a supine leg press focusing on the eccentric. There are a lot of balancing exercises and focus on my foot strength and hip strength. For the hip basically resisted 4 way motions so adduction/abduction/flexion/extension as well as clam shells for external rotation. First these were done lying down, then standing with a theraband resisting the motions while standing on the other foot. I do this on both legs. For the feet just sort of scrunching up the toes to tighten up my very flat arches. Finally there are eccentric hamstring curls, terminal leg extensions and last but not least one leg squats--standing on a small step and lowering my other foot to touch the floor with the heel.

Basically you're on the right track but need to focus on the range of motion the knee is actually going through. You may be only getting about a 90 degree bend (flexion) in the exercises you mentioned, where the right leg press or setup could get more like a full 130 or more degrees (130 is my good knee's ROM)

For now my ROM is pretty much fully back, but the swelling is still there and that's more limiting than the muscle for now.

[Altered Beast]

Dan,

My adductors have become weak and they're causing inner knee pain during and after Squatting. Was curious if you knew of any exercises besides the adductor machine (I do not have one in The Dungeon) that could truly strengthen them?

[BOSS]

Dan,

My adductors have become weak and they're causing inner knee pain during and after Squatting. Was curious if you knew of any exercises besides the adductor machine (I do not have one in The Dungeon) that could truly strengthen them?

First back off and deload a little to let them recover a bit. I'd simply build up volume squatting starting back at a moderate weight and maybe add in a lighter, higher rep backdown set after the main sets. The other thing that you really should do is simply stretch them while you're warming up. Just do a bodyweight squat and use your forearms to push the knees out while keeping your back straight (not rounded). also make sure to stretch your ankles out prior to squatting so the ankles don't cause you to pronate and collapse the knees either.

[Altered Beast]

First back off and deload a little to let them recover a bit. I'd simply build up volume squatting starting back at a moderate weight and maybe add in a lighter, higher rep backdown set after the main sets. The other thing that you really should do is simply stretch them while you're warming up. Just do a bodyweight squat and use your forearms to push the knees out while keeping your back straight (not rounded). also make sure to stretch your ankles out prior to squatting so the ankles don't cause you to pronate and collapse the knees either.

Okay, thanks!

[Pete Rubish]

Hope your quad rehab is going well! Any plans to compete later on this year in a full power meet or you haven't decided on anything yet?

[Nmowery]

First the focus was just on achieving ROM. This meant massaging, rolling, graston, cupping, ultrasound plus stretching. Pretty straightforward here. There was also a focus on moving the kneecap around manually to try to loosen up the patellar tendon as that was also very tight.
Now for strengthening I use a supine leg press focusing on the eccentric. There are a lot of balancing exercises and focus on my foot strength and hip strength. For the hip basically resisted 4 way motions so adduction/abduction/flexion/extension as well as clam shells for external rotation. First these were done lying down, then standing with a theraband resisting the motions while standing on the other foot. I do this on both legs. For the feet just sort of scrunching up the toes to tighten up my very flat arches. Finally there are eccentric hamstring curls, terminal leg extensions and last but not least one leg squats--standing on a small step and lowering my other foot to touch the floor with the heel.

Basically you're on the right track but need to focus on the range of motion the knee is actually going through. You may be only getting about a 90 degree bend (flexion) in the exercises you mentioned, where the right leg press or setup could get more like a full 130 or more degrees (130 is my good knee's ROM)

For now my ROM is pretty much fully back, but the swelling is still there and that's more limiting than the muscle for now.

I have been doing a lot more full ROM stuff lately - when I saw the PT, there was quite a bit of discomfort when putting any weight on it past 90 degrees, so they started me out doing wall squats everyday to parallel. I hadn't done any leg exercises for 10 weeks prior to that, so after I started getting stronger on those I started doing hack squats to 90, and am now doing full range hack squats, front squats, and box squats to parallel. The biggest issues I'm facing now is lingering pain in both the patellar and quad tendons, along with patellar instability. I haven't gotten an MRI yet, but I suspect that my mpfl is toast. It just sucks being in a position where the ortho didn't really seem to care to do much but prescribe PT, but then my insurance refused cover it so I'm stuck trying to figure it out on my own.

[JEAH]

Going off Pete's question a bit with this. After rehab, how will you integrate squatting and deadlifting back into training? For example do you start high bar with squats to try and get some hypertrophy back or do you jump straight into low bar with light weight and hammer technique? Thanks as always

[BOSS]

Hope your quad rehab is going well! Any plans to compete later on this year in a full power meet or you haven't decided on anything yet?

I'm almost done with the projected 12 weeks of recovery. It's been 10.5 weeks so far. I can basically do bodyweight squats and lunges with good ROM but it's still a little stiff/swollen so it's going smooth anyway. I'm likely going to be going back to Russia to bench only this summer! That's kinda my big thing right now is getting my bench to improve significantly this year. As far as later this year I doubt it. I don't want to rush back and put pressure on myself.

[BOSS]

Going off Pete's question a bit with this. After rehab, how will you integrate squatting and deadlifting back into training? For example do you start high bar with squats to try and get some hypertrophy back or do you jump straight into low bar with light weight and hammer technique? Thanks as always

I was actually working high bar last year before the injury worsened and it was feeling very strong then. More than likely I'd continue with that and build it up for hypertrophy and because it's easier on the shoulders while I'm focusing on my bench more. Deads I'll probably start with a lot of stiff legs and upper back then add conventional in later when I'm feeling comfortable.

[BOSS]

I have been doing a lot more full ROM stuff lately - when I saw the PT, there was quite a bit of discomfort when putting any weight on it past 90 degrees, so they started me out doing wall squats everyday to parallel. I hadn't done any leg exercises for 10 weeks prior to that, so after I started getting stronger on those I started doing hack squats to 90, and am now doing full range hack squats, front squats, and box squats to parallel. The biggest issues I'm facing now is lingering pain in both the patellar and quad tendons, along with patellar instability. I haven't gotten an MRI yet, but I suspect that my mpfl is toast. It just sucks being in a position where the ortho didn't really seem to care to do much but prescribe PT, but then my insurance refused cover it so I'm stuck trying to figure it out on my own.

IF you felt like the PT might be helpful still it could still be worth it to just pay out of pocket. I don't know how much you normally pay on your premium vs how much this would be, but regardless, spending a few more sessions with someone who could help is money well spent even if it's a few hundred dollars. You're obviously someone who takes their physical health seriously so this is something to consider. Don't put a low price on your health just because you wanted a better price.

[bgalatemo]

I got some non-painful elbow clicking on the outside of my right elbow. I take animal flex and try to drink a gallon of water a day. It clicks when I'm not working out mostly like when I fix my collar or bring my arm up and extend, sometimes sounds like celery breaking and other times just a little click hard to pin point exactly. I ran 531 for a year and all my lifts went up alot, when I stepped out for a few weeks and did some hi-rep bodybuilding workouts right where as right after I did an arm workout with my buddy and the clicking starting about three months ago. It doesn't hurt but bothers me. I done some research saying it could be air gas bubbles, tendon sliding around, or arthritis. Every source says don't worry unless pain is present. I always use elbow sleeves now when benching or overhead pressing.

I wanted to see if you had any previous history or know any fixes? I took two weeks off weights to find no relief.

[JacknCoke]

Dan do you know which song is playing at 5:28 on this video featuring you?
https://youtu.be/rsoyYwGiqCk

[Altered Beast]

I got some non-painful elbow clicking on the outside of my right elbow. I take animal flex and try to drink a gallon of water a day. It clicks when I'm not working out mostly like when I fix my collar or bring my arm up and extend, sometimes sounds like celery breaking and other times just a little click hard to pin point exactly. I ran 531 for a year and all my lifts went up alot, when I stepped out for a few weeks and did some hi-rep bodybuilding workouts right where as right after I did an arm workout with my buddy and the clicking starting about three months ago. It doesn't hurt but bothers me. I done some research saying it could be air gas bubbles, tendon sliding around, or arthritis. Every source says don't worry unless pain is present. I always use elbow sleeves now when benching or overhead pressing.

I wanted to see if you had any previous history or know any fixes? I took two weeks off weights to find no relief.

Don't mean to hijack Dan's thread, but look into NOW Foods Hyaluronic Acid. I take a shit load of it throughout the day as well as FLEX at night.

[BOSS]

I got some non-painful elbow clicking on the outside of my right elbow. I take animal flex and try to drink a gallon of water a day. It clicks when I'm not working out mostly like when I fix my collar or bring my arm up and extend, sometimes sounds like celery breaking and other times just a little click hard to pin point exactly. I ran 531 for a year and all my lifts went up alot, when I stepped out for a few weeks and did some hi-rep bodybuilding workouts right where as right after I did an arm workout with my buddy and the clicking starting about three months ago. It doesn't hurt but bothers me. I done some research saying it could be air gas bubbles, tendon sliding around, or arthritis. Every source says don't worry unless pain is present. I always use elbow sleeves now when benching or overhead pressing.

I wanted to see if you had any previous history or know any fixes? I took two weeks off weights to find no relief.

If you haven't tried it then doing some sort of lacrosse ball work on the triceps tendon area might help. A lot of elbow issues are really the triceps being strained or torn. You can do this yourself or see someone who does Graston which is scraping to break down collagen that has formed in the wrong pattern--basically a knot.

[BOSS]

Don't mean to hijack Dan's thread, but look into NOW Foods Hyaluronic Acid. I take a shit load of it throughout the day as well as FLEX at night.

No idea...
sorry

[BOSS]

No idea...
sorry

oops wrong person

[BOSS]

Dan do you know which song is playing at 5:28 on this video featuring you?
https://youtu.be/rsoyYwGiqCk

I have no idea

[Nmowery]

IF you felt like the PT might be helpful still it could still be worth it to just pay out of pocket. I don't know how much you normally pay on your premium vs how much this would be, but regardless, spending a few more sessions with someone who could help is money well spent even if it's a few hundred dollars. You're obviously someone who takes their physical health seriously so this is something to consider. Don't put a low price on your health just because you wanted a better price.

Maaaaaaan not to go on a diatribe about the state of health care in America, but right now my premiums are my second largest monthly expense, just less than my mortgage. And a few hundo was the bill I got for a single 1-Hr session - not trying to pay for 16 of those out of pocket!

At this point, my plan is to continue to train around the injury as much as possible...strengthen VMO, pay attention to how my knee is tracking, etc. I guess MPFL surgery requires around a 6-9 month recovery, which I'd really prefer to avoid. With the amount of instability, I honestly give it a 50-50 chance of dislocating again eventually, at which point surgery would be a requirement - I just hope that any re-occurrence wouldn't happen during some heavy squats!

[Buckfever]

So 485X6 SLD is your idea of starting back up light? It's something about that measured resolve that is so inspiring to me. It's good to see you coming back.

[BOSS]

Maaaaaaan not to go on a diatribe about the state of health care in America, but right now my premiums are my second largest monthly expense, just less than my mortgage. And a few hundo was the bill I got for a single 1-Hr session - not trying to pay for 16 of those out of pocket!

At this point, my plan is to continue to train around the injury as much as possible...strengthen VMO, pay attention to how my knee is tracking, etc. I guess MPFL surgery requires around a 6-9 month recovery, which I'd really prefer to avoid. With the amount of instability, I honestly give it a 50-50 chance of dislocating again eventually, at which point surgery would be a requirement - I just hope that any re-occurrence wouldn't happen during some heavy squats!

Yeah man as a small business owner I pay a huge monthly premium for my family... it is my second biggest expense too.

One thing to think about if you haven't yet is making sure your arches are strong, your calves, peroneals and ITB are all stretched out or rolled out. This will be important to having the knees be in the right position while squatting as well as the patella tracking optimally. For me right now my feet are finally getting stronger from flexing my arches as part of my PT and rehab, but my fibula is kinda locked in place and that is what I feel most when I squat deep... It's complicated sometimes.

[BOSS]

So 485X6 SLD is your idea of starting back up light? It's something about that measured resolve that is so inspiring to me. It's good to see you coming back.

Thanks man. And yes that is pretty routine for me lol. To be fair it's 130 lbs off my best set of 6 which was with a 3.5" deficit too... Those'll definitely be a big part of my rebuilding though... they don't affect my knee much at all

[Edgar Benegas]

Wassup Dan, hope for your quad yo recover quick to see you back competing.

The questoy I have is I need any type of training tip to increase the big 3, I'm 18 years a powerlifter that competes in high school, I'm 5'7 @133 lbs, my current best numbers are 475 squat, 230 bench, and 540 deadlift, I have a whole year to get the 1600 total, Im going to try to put 10-13 lbs of solid muscle for the 148's, any tips, training, supplementation, anything will help, and do you think it's possible to increase my total by 300 lbs by increasing 16 lbs in a year, because I did it last year but idk if it's repeatable.

[Altered Beast]

Dan,

Thought I'd share an update.

My training partners discovered my right hip is tight because it's not opening up like my left one is when I get in the hole. It's causing my left hip and left adductor to take the majority of the load. One of my training partners shot a top down video so I could show my chiro. Will DEFINITELY be working on opening up my hips!

Thanks again for your advice.

[BOSS]

Dan,

Thought I'd share an update.

My training partners discovered my right hip is tight because it's not opening up like my left one is when I get in the hole. It's causing my left hip and left adductor to take the majority of the load. One of my training partners shot a top down video so I could show my chiro. Will DEFINITELY be working on opening up my hips!

Thanks again for your advice.

Aside from stretching, lunges and step-ups are a great way to address imbalances and strengthen the glutes

Good luck man you'll get that resolved

[BOSS]

Wassup Dan, hope for your quad yo recover quick to see you back competing.

The questoy I have is I need any type of training tip to increase the big 3, I'm 18 years a powerlifter that competes in high school, I'm 5'7 @133 lbs, my current best numbers are 475 squat, 230 bench, and 540 deadlift, I have a whole year to get the 1600 total, Im going to try to put 10-13 lbs of solid muscle for the 148's, any tips, training, supplementation, anything will help, and do you think it's possible to increase my total by 300 lbs by increasing 16 lbs in a year, because I did it last year but idk if it's repeatable.

Edgar, your goals are definitely possible. Gaining the 10+ lbs is the most important thing at your age. No real tricks there just a lot of protein and creatine should help as a supplement.
I would tend to follow bodybuilding type protocols or at least train the lifts in the 8-12 rep range for hypertrophy gains. For bench I like bench, incline, Flyes and dips as a classic chest day. Deads, pull-ups and lots of rows for back. Squats, front squats, hack squats for legs...

If you look through here I've put together a lot of training splits that will work well for size with the 8-12 rep range

[MRmichael.hooker]

Hey Dan, have you ever looked at the Sheiko approach to power lifting? Was wondering if you had, what your thoughts were. Thanks and best of continued rehabilitation with the quad.

[Altered Beast]

Aside from stretching, lunges and step-ups are a great way to address imbalances and strengthen the glutes

Good luck man you'll get that resolved

Thanks again!

I've been performing lighter weight Belt Squats as a Secondary Movement per your original instructions. What I do now is get a bit wider then my Comp Stance Squat and focus on pushing my right knee out HARD! It's absolute torture, LOL! I'm hoping it will correct the imbalances and allow me to open up my hips faster by getting wider.

BBBC should look into Elite's Belt Squat Machine. It will change your lower body strength game, I guarantee it!

[pfabrizi1]

Hey Dan, first off I want to say thanks for being an inspiration for myself and I'm sure many others in the powerlifting world, I'm a big fan...

I just recently moved to North Carolina and there really aren't any gyms nearby suited for powerlifting, except for one which has all the specialty bars, racks, chains etc. and an actual place to comfortably deadlift without disturbing people. Now the only thing is they are charging $119 for me to use their facility being that they are more of a strength and conditioning gym geared towards groups and training/programming athletes. I just need the gym for myself without the training. Being a gym owner yourself, do you think that is a fair price to have access to all that equipment? I am a 198lb lifter closing in on an 1800lb total, so I do feel like training at a little commercial gym without much equipment and/or comfortable space to powerlift really would hinder my goals. Any suggestions or do you think the price is worth it to have everything I need comfortably.

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, have you ever looked at the Sheiko approach to power lifting? Was wondering if you had, what your thoughts were. Thanks and best of continued rehabilitation with the quad.

I've tried, but I don't know where would be a good place to actually get good info on it where there is an explanation of rationale and not just some random lifter's program. I'd love to know more about it if you know where to read up on it.

As for his technique teaching I think it's great. Much better than most.

[BOSS]

Thanks again!

I've been performing lighter weight Belt Squats as a Secondary Movement per your original instructions. What I do now is get a bit wider then my Comp Stance Squat and focus on pushing my right knee out HARD! It's absolute torture, LOL! I'm hoping it will correct the imbalances and allow me to open up my hips faster by getting wider.

BBBC should look into Elite's Belt Squat Machine. It will change your lower body strength game, I guarantee it!

Sounds good man, hope that helps. Let me know if you try out some of the lunges or step-ups also. Those can get pretty grueling too

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, first off I want to say thanks for being an inspiration for myself and I'm sure many others in the powerlifting world, I'm a big fan...

I just recently moved to North Carolina and there really aren't any gyms nearby suited for powerlifting, except for one which has all the specialty bars, racks, chains etc. and an actual place to comfortably deadlift without disturbing people. Now the only thing is they are charging $119 for me to use their facility being that they are more of a strength and conditioning gym geared towards groups and training/programming athletes. I just need the gym for myself without the training. Being a gym owner yourself, do you think that is a fair price to have access to all that equipment? I am a 198lb lifter closing in on an 1800lb total, so I do feel like training at a little commercial gym without much equipment and/or comfortable space to powerlift really would hinder my goals. Any suggestions or do you think the price is worth it to have everything I need comfortably.

Totally worth it. Good equipment is invaluable. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that bad equipment builds "character" or anything like that. Bad bars will build bad technique and plateaus that are avoidable. Plates aren't such a big deal usually, but without a good bar you are badly limited. You don't necessarily need all the fancy bars, but if you can't at least perform squats, benches and deads on a good bar, that alone is worth the cost. Commercial gyms have a lot of other equipment which can be nice, but the other thing that's sometimes the kiss of death is the environment...

I used to train at gold's and I'd bring my own Texas power bar in there. Their bars sucked.

That's it really, good bar, decent environment is key, then you can measure out all the other details after

Thanks for the message!

[Nmowery]

Hey Dan, first off I want to say thanks for being an inspiration for myself and I'm sure many others in the powerlifting world, I'm a big fan...

I just recently moved to North Carolina and there really aren't any gyms nearby suited for powerlifting, except for one which has all the specialty bars, racks, chains etc. and an actual place to comfortably deadlift without disturbing people. Now the only thing is they are charging $119 for me to use their facility being that they are more of a strength and conditioning gym geared towards groups and training/programming athletes. I just need the gym for myself without the training. Being a gym owner yourself, do you think that is a fair price to have access to all that equipment? I am a 198lb lifter closing in on an 1800lb total, so I do feel like training at a little commercial gym without much equipment and/or comfortable space to powerlift really would hinder my goals. Any suggestions or do you think the price is worth it to have everything I need comfortably.

Duuuuuuude that's a steep membership fee! You could put together a home gym for a few months worth of their fees, assuming you have the space.

[MRmichael.hooker]

I've tried, but I don't know where would be a good place to actually get good info on it where there is an explanation of rationale and not just some random lifter's program. I'd love to know more about it if you know where to read up on it.

As for his technique teaching I think it's great. Much better than most.

I've found a few different articles, but they are all just lifters posting their own thoughts on it. I did come across a really good spreadsheet that calculates the weeks based on your maxes. It includes all 9 different programs and weights/reps/sets/volume% for each week. It caught my eye for the higher volume approach. A lot higher than a lot of other power lifting programs

[BOSS]

I've found a few different articles, but they are all just lifters posting their own thoughts on it. I did come across a really good spreadsheet that calculates the weeks based on your maxes. It includes all 9 different programs and weights/reps/sets/volume% for each week. It caught my eye for the higher volume approach. A lot higher than a lot of other power lifting programs

That sounds about like what I've seen. Not very comprehensive nor explained. It's important to see the context because every workout was written specifically for an actual lifter

[MRmichael.hooker]

That sounds about like what I've seen. Not very comprehensive nor explained. It's important to see the context because every workout was written specifically for an actual lifter

Yup, I agree. For example there's hardly any accessory work at all. But there's no real explanation as to why. I assume it's from all the volume each week on the 3 lifts, but still. It's just an assumption.

[pfabrizi1]

Totally worth it. Good equipment is invaluable. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that bad equipment builds "character" or anything like that. Bad bars will build bad technique and plateaus that are avoidable. Plates aren't such a big deal usually, but without a good bar you are badly limited. You don't necessarily need all the fancy bars, but if you can't at least perform squats, benches and deads on a good bar, that alone is worth the cost. Commercial gyms have a lot of other equipment which can be nice, but the other thing that's sometimes the kiss of death is the environment...

I used to train at gold's and I'd bring my own Texas power bar in there. Their bars sucked.

That's it really, good bar, decent environment is key, then you can measure out all the other details after

Thanks for the message!

Thank you so much for the response, I appreciate it. I'm going to pull there tomorrow and then make my final decision but based on the quality of training that I've been having there the past few days and your response and others' input I believe I'm gonna bite the bullet and sign up. Again, thanks for the quick response!

[BOSS]

Yup, I agree. For example there's hardly any accessory work at all. But there's no real explanation as to why. I assume it's from all the volume each week on the 3 lifts, but still. It's just an assumption.

But again... I would love to know because he's had so many awesome lifters

[MRmichael.hooker]

But again... I would love to know because he's had so many awesome lifters

Me too. Weird there's just, nothing.

[BOSS]

Me too. Weird there's just, nothing.

I did look through some of his stuff. He actually does have a book, but it isn't translated from Russian so no use. There's also an app to run his workouts, but I'm not sure how useful it is

[MRmichael.hooker]

I did look through some of his stuff. He actually does have a book, but it isn't translated from Russian so no use. There's also an app to run his workouts, but I'm not sure how useful it is

The app is decent actually. I put it on my iphone to see how it compares to the programs, and the weights match up perfectly. But, you can't do it with the free version because it only gives you weeks 1 & 2. If you want weeks 3 & 4 of the cycle you have to buy the full version.
I have some friends in Moldova (which is a heavily Russian speaking country). Maybe I can get one of them to translate it for us lol

[Altered Beast]

I have some friends in Moldova (which is a heavily Russian speaking country). Maybe I can get one of them to translate it for us lol

I think we would all appreciate and enjoy that! Odds are we all would pick one or two things up to add to our training. Sheiko and many other Russian coaches DO NOT like to share the Russian strength secrets. This may be the only way!

[MRmichael.hooker]

I think we would all appreciate and enjoy that! Odds are we all would pick one or two things up to add to our training. Sheiko and many other Russian coaches DO NOT like to share the Russian strength secrets. This may be the only way!

I'm sure it'd depend how big the book is, haha

[cmariotti]

Hey BOSS. I recently attended your seminar at Virginia Tech. Thanks for all of the great info. Also thank you for the squat critique you gave me at the seminar. I'm going to try and implement some of your programming principles in the future. Learned a lot!

I'm 16 years old, 180 lbs and my training goals are for strength (increase squat, bench, and deadlift) and size, in addition to being in shape to play football. My estimated 1RMs are: 285 bench press, 395 squat, and 450 deadlift. I am not competing in a powerlifting meet anytime soon, but after high school I plan to begin competitive powerlifting. Could you give any comments or suggestions on my current training? I am in a strength training/conditioning class at school (which I have to be in as a football player). That being said my training isn't up to me (for the most part). But any suggestions would help.

Monday
•Squat
- 80% X 4 X 5 (low-bar)
- *We are supposed to do 70% X 5, 75% X 5, 80% X 5, 85% X 3, and 90% X 2, but I do 4X5 at 80% instead. I think that the 90% X 2 is too much for every week, but sometimes I still have to do it.*
•Push-press
- 70% ish X 2 X 5
- 80% ish X 3 X 5
- We are not given percentages, but I like to pick an estimated max and work off of a percentage.
•Power high pull
- 5X5
•Close grip bench press
- 6X5
- I do my first 3 sets lighter with paused reps and last 3 sets heavy

Tuesday
•Hang clean
- We usually either work up to a heavy double at 90% or do some rep work at 70-80%
•Jump squat
- 5X5
•Deadlift (sumo)
- 70%X2X5
- 80%X3X5
- I use my own percentages here

Wednesday - agility day

Thursday
•Front squat
- 70% X 3 X 5
- 80% X 3 X 5
- We are not given percentages, but I like to pick an estimated max and work off of a percentage.
•Deadlift (conventional)
- 65% X 5 X 5
- I try to treat this like a speed deadlift/technique work. We aren't given a percentage so I just use 65%.
•Bench press
- 80% X 4 X 5
- *We are supposed to work up to 100%, with 4 working sets before (similar to the way squat is) (and the same workout is written up every week). I am not going to max every week (haha), but I occasionally hit a heavy single. I use the same rep scheme as I do for squat (80% X 4 X 5).*

Friday- agility
- Agility stuff at school
- I am lucky enough to have a power rack/weights in my basement and adjustable dumbbells that I can use. I do a little bit at home because we don't do any direct back/shoulder work at school.
- Bent-over row: 4X5
- Weighted pull-up: 3X6
- Military press: 3X 10/8/6 (Cycle reps every week)
- Should I keep military press in for my bench or take it out because we already push press in school? I just recently started doing military press again and really like it.

I train some hypertrophy on the weekend at home also.

Saturday: Arms
•Barbell curl: 4X10
•Hammer curl: 3X12
•Incline curl: 3X10
•Close-grip bench press: 4X8
•Skull crusher: 3X12
•Overhead dumbbell extension (finisher): 1X15

Sunday: Chest and Back
•Speed bench (warm-up at about 50%): 6X3
•Bench press: 4X 10/8/6 (cycle reps every week)
•Incline bench press: 3 X 6/8/10 (cycle reps every week)
•Incline flye: 3X12
•Bent-over row: 4X8
•Weighted pull-up: 3X10
•One-arm row: 3X12
•Incline dumbbell row: 3X10
•Shrugs: 3X10
•Face pull with band: 3X20

In addition to what I listed I also have curls/abs/calves sprinkled in throughout the week, but I don't think that is really important to note. Also, the 10/8/6 I had for a few lifts is just something I like to do to add some variety every week by changing the number of reps. What changes should I make to my training? Thanks Dan, you are really an inspiration for me!

[BOSS]

The app is decent actually. I put it on my iphone to see how it compares to the programs, and the weights match up perfectly. But, you can't do it with the free version because it only gives you weeks 1 & 2. If you want weeks 3 & 4 of the cycle you have to buy the full version.
I have some friends in Moldova (which is a heavily Russian speaking country). Maybe I can get one of them to translate it for us lol

I downloaded it too. It seems ok. There's another site that's just a blog that's got some pretty decent insights into russian style training that I like called easternbloclifting.blogspot.com which I've read through and recommend

[BOSS]

I think we would all appreciate and enjoy that! Odds are we all would pick one or two things up to add to our training. Sheiko and many other Russian coaches DO NOT like to share the Russian strength secrets. This may be the only way!

There could definitely be some money in that translation for sure

[BOSS]

Hey BOSS. I recently attended your seminar at Virginia Tech. Thanks for all of the great info. Also thank you for the squat critique you gave me at the seminar. I'm going to try and implement some of your programming principles in the future. Learned a lot!

I'm 16 years old, 180 lbs and my training goals are for strength (increase squat, bench, and deadlift) and size, in addition to being in shape to play football. My estimated 1RMs are: 285 bench press, 395 squat, and 450 deadlift. I am not competing in a powerlifting meet anytime soon, but after high school I plan to begin competitive powerlifting. Could you give any comments or suggestions on my current training? I am in a strength training/conditioning class at school (which I have to be in as a football player). That being said my training isn't up to me (for the most part). But any suggestions would help.

Monday
•Squat
- 80% X 4 X 5 (low-bar)
- *We are supposed to do 70% X 5, 75% X 5, 80% X 5, 85% X 3, and 90% X 2, but I do 4X5 at 80% instead. I think that the 90% X 2 is too much for every week, but sometimes I still have to do it.*
•Push-press
- 70% ish X 2 X 5
- 80% ish X 3 X 5
- We are not given percentages, but I like to pick an estimated max and work off of a percentage.
•Power high pull
- 5X5
•Close grip bench press
- 6X5
- I do my first 3 sets lighter with paused reps and last 3 sets heavy

Tuesday
•Hang clean
- We usually either work up to a heavy double at 90% or do some rep work at 70-80%
•Jump squat
- 5X5
•Deadlift (sumo)
- 70%X2X5
- 80%X3X5
- I use my own percentages here

Wednesday - agility day

Thursday
•Front squat
- 70% X 3 X 5
- 80% X 3 X 5
- We are not given percentages, but I like to pick an estimated max and work off of a percentage.
•Deadlift (conventional)
- 65% X 5 X 5
- I try to treat this like a speed deadlift/technique work. We aren't given a percentage so I just use 65%.
•Bench press
- 80% X 4 X 5
- *We are supposed to work up to 100%, with 4 working sets before (similar to the way squat is) (and the same workout is written up every week). I am not going to max every week (haha), but I occasionally hit a heavy single. I use the same rep scheme as I do for squat (80% X 4 X 5).*

Friday- agility
- Agility stuff at school
- I am lucky enough to have a power rack/weights in my basement and adjustable dumbbells that I can use. I do a little bit at home because we don't do any direct back/shoulder work at school.
- Bent-over row: 4X5
- Weighted pull-up: 3X6
- Military press: 3X 10/8/6 (Cycle reps every week)
- Should I keep military press in for my bench or take it out because we already push press in school? I just recently started doing military press again and really like it.

I train some hypertrophy on the weekend at home also.

Saturday: Arms
•Barbell curl: 4X10
•Hammer curl: 3X12
•Incline curl: 3X10
•Close-grip bench press: 4X8
•Skull crusher: 3X12
•Overhead dumbbell extension (finisher): 1X15

Sunday: Chest and Back
•Speed bench (warm-up at about 50%): 6X3
•Bench press: 4X 10/8/6 (cycle reps every week)
•Incline bench press: 3 X 6/8/10 (cycle reps every week)
•Incline flye: 3X12
•Bent-over row: 4X8
•Weighted pull-up: 3X10
•One-arm row: 3X12
•Incline dumbbell row: 3X10
•Shrugs: 3X10
•Face pull with band: 3X20

In addition to what I listed I also have curls/abs/calves sprinkled in throughout the week, but I don't think that is really important to note. Also, the 10/8/6 I had for a few lifts is just something I like to do to add some variety every week by changing the number of reps. What changes should I make to my training? Thanks Dan, you are really an inspiration for me!

Overall there's just a lot of stuff to do in your training. I'd recommend focusing on gaining mass, which comes through a strong workload of medium to heavy lifts. Power cleans were my favorite mass gaining exercise which I did for 4x8s or 5x5s. It seems like you're just doing everything, but the problem is if you don't eat a ton of food and sleep a lot you won't gain from this. You'll recover but not gain mass. That's my main advice. Off season gain muscle and rest more. In season less volume but keep it heavier. You'll gain strength better if you gain muscle mass first.

[cmariotti]

Overall there's just a lot of stuff to do in your training. I'd recommend focusing on gaining mass, which comes through a strong workload of medium to heavy lifts. Power cleans were my favorite mass gaining exercise which I did for 4x8s or 5x5s. It seems like you're just doing everything, but the problem is if you don't eat a ton of food and sleep a lot you won't gain from this. You'll recover but not gain mass. That's my main advice. Off season gain muscle and rest more. In season less volume but keep it heavier. You'll gain strength better if you gain muscle mass first.

Thanks Dan. I've been eating a lot and this has been working well. Been putting on good strength and size so I'll see where I end up! Thank you!

[Altered Beast]

There could definitely be some money in that translation for sure

"A fisherman always spots another fisherman from a far!" Us entrepreneurs are ALWAYS business minded, LOL! Glad to see you understood what I was getting at.

[Sc0rpi0n]

Hey Dan, I hope everything's going good as it looks on the videos you post. I posted some questions on Pete's thread, but since he's not replying and I'm kinda in a hurry to get some opinions, I'm gonna copy them here.

So the first question I have is for the bench; it started to go up, real fast, 130kg for 1 rep one friday, next friday I did it for double and on monday I did it for 1 one rep, but paused, two sets. So my left elbow is starting to hurt, like when I bend my arm it feels tight like it's not supposed to bend like that, plus I can't do skulls (I mean I can, but it's painful), barbell or dumbbells, because it hurts, actually above the elbow, where it connects with the upper arm, on the inside (kinda like where triceps attaches to the elbow). Sometimes when I'm starting to bench, on first rep as I go down, my elbow just clicks, but not the joint, it feels like my... don't know the word in english, but like vein or something, moves a little bit suddenly, not sure how to describe it, hope you get what I'm saying, and as I go up it's all good, but it feels like it's going to swollen up, even though it doesn't look like it, it just feels like my tendon or something is... I don't know, inflamed?
I guess that it's because of high intensity, plus volume (as I said I bench twice a week, volume on monday and intensity on friday) and because I'm always around my max in the past few weeks, but my question is what should I do for the elbow? Maybe ice it? And what to do for triceps since it hurts to do skulls? Or just wait for the meet to pass and then take some light weight or even rest?

And the other question is for the squats, but it's a short one - when I get to heavy weight for me and I struggle with it, my left arm and sometimes leg, start to... um... shake? It's feels like my arm is gonna pass out lol don't know how to describe it, it's really odd, it starts shaking and it feels like it's boneless, I just sit down and the feeling goes away after say 5sec, but what may cause it? I use wrist wraps when I squat, is it because of that? Also my leg usually starts to do the same thing when I use knee wraps, but it happened couple of times when I wasn't using them. Lack of oxygen maybe? That's my best guess, I have no idea what may cause it.

Now these 2 were from about a month or so ago, maybe less and the thing that kinda changed is that now I "know" that the pain around the elbow is where the triceps is attached to the bone, then the part of the forearm that would be facing the ground when you would do a hammer dumbbell curl (don't know how to explain it better) and kinda where the bicep is attached to. I've been preparing for one meet, then it got canceled, then I had a possible meet a week later, but I didn't go, and now there's a meet I'm going to in 3 weeks. So basically I'm preparing for "a meet" for about 3 months and the intensity for pressing (bench press, board press, OHP and etc) is high. I already asked the questions in the first explanation, the only thing I'll add is that I'll probably lower the intensity to say 50-60% after the meet for about a month. But anyway, I'd like to hear your opinion on these things.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post...

[BOSS]

Hey Dan, I hope everything's going good as it looks on the videos you post. I posted some questions on Pete's thread, but since he's not replying and I'm kinda in a hurry to get some opinions, I'm gonna copy them here.

So the first question I have is for the bench; it started to go up, real fast, 130kg for 1 rep one friday, next friday I did it for double and on monday I did it for 1 one rep, but paused, two sets. So my left elbow is starting to hurt, like when I bend my arm it feels tight like it's not supposed to bend like that, plus I can't do skulls (I mean I can, but it's painful), barbell or dumbbells, because it hurts, actually above the elbow, where it connects with the upper arm, on the inside (kinda like where triceps attaches to the elbow). Sometimes when I'm starting to bench, on first rep as I go down, my elbow just clicks, but not the joint, it feels like my... don't know the word in english, but like vein or something, moves a little bit suddenly, not sure how to describe it, hope you get what I'm saying, and as I go up it's all good, but it feels like it's going to swollen up, even though it doesn't look like it, it just feels like my tendon or something is... I don't know, inflamed?
I guess that it's because of high intensity, plus volume (as I said I bench twice a week, volume on monday and intensity on friday) and because I'm always around my max in the past few weeks, but my question is what should I do for the elbow? Maybe ice it? And what to do for triceps since it hurts to do skulls? Or just wait for the meet to pass and then take some light weight or even rest?

And the other question is for the squats, but it's a short one - when I get to heavy weight for me and I struggle with it, my left arm and sometimes leg, start to... um... shake? It's feels like my arm is gonna pass out lol don't know how to describe it, it's really odd, it starts shaking and it feels like it's boneless, I just sit down and the feeling goes away after say 5sec, but what may cause it? I use wrist wraps when I squat, is it because of that? Also my leg usually starts to do the same thing when I use knee wraps, but it happened couple of times when I wasn't using them. Lack of oxygen maybe? That's my best guess, I have no idea what may cause it.

Now these 2 were from about a month or so ago, maybe less and the thing that kinda changed is that now I "know" that the pain around the elbow is where the triceps is attached to the bone, then the part of the forearm that would be facing the ground when you would do a hammer dumbbell curl (don't know how to explain it better) and kinda where the bicep is attached to. I've been preparing for one meet, then it got canceled, then I had a possible meet a week later, but I didn't go, and now there's a meet I'm going to in 3 weeks. So basically I'm preparing for "a meet" for about 3 months and the intensity for pressing (bench press, board press, OHP and etc) is high. I already asked the questions in the first explanation, the only thing I'll add is that I'll probably lower the intensity to say 50-60% after the meet for about a month. But anyway, I'd like to hear your opinion on these things.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post...

There's a good chance you've strained or slightly torn the tricep muscle, but without an MRI you can't know for sure. It'd be worth your while to get some kind of treatment for it, but I don't know what's best. If it's the tendon, it won't heal until it gets enough rest. Elbow sleeves can definitely help if you continue to train, but if you can't compete with them then I'm not sure if that's really that helpful.

As for the sleepy arm and leg while squatting, I think I'd have to see your squat to have a guess what's going on. Maybe your putting too much pressure on the arm or maybe you're pinching a nerve... Too hard to guess from your description

[cmariotti]

Hey Boss. Is there a mobility or stretching routine that you reccomend? I want to gain more flexibility, but I don't know where to start.

[Chivalry]

Yo Boss, a quick question for you about deadlifts. I'm a conventional puller, but everytime that I start working towards higher percentages or try to set new pr, I find that the bar ends up catching on the bottom of my knee cap and completely halts all momentum. Anything you may recommend to help fix that?

Appreciate it.

[Altered Beast]

Yo Boss, a quick question for you about deadlifts. I'm a conventional puller, but everytime that I start working towards higher percentages or try to set new pr, I find that the bar ends up catching on the bottom of my knee cap and completely halts all momentum. Anything you may recommend to help fix that?

Appreciate it.

I'm having the same damn issue!

[taiwizzle]

Hey Dan,

What's the deadlift platform setup you have here in your 400kg deadlift video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQhAqqy8lYo)? I'm trying to build one for my garage. I don't like the platforms with mats on two sides and wood in between them. I pull sumo and my feet slip on the wooden part. I like your set up here with just the mats. Do you just have horse stall mats?

Thanks boss

[BOSS]

Hey Boss. Is there a mobility or stretching routine that you reccomend? I want to gain more flexibility, but I don't know where to start.

I'd guess there are probably a lot of reasonable ones out there. But I basically just do a mix of what I've learned over the years as a gymnast, trainer and from stuff I've seen. Basically, I think about a couple things:

I try to stretch the calves/hams pretty heavily without simultaneously stretching the low back, which I generally avoid stretching. I stretch the ankles (achilles/soleus) before lower body training as well as the hips, adductor and groin.

My upper body I primarily focus on maintaining maximal thoracic spine extension, so variations of downward dog stretches like kneeling in front of a bench with the wrists on top of the bench and pushing the chest down, etc.

I also do a lot of forearm and bicep stretches as I can hold a lot of tension there.

[BOSS]

Yo Boss, a quick question for you about deadlifts. I'm a conventional puller, but everytime that I start working towards higher percentages or try to set new pr, I find that the bar ends up catching on the bottom of my knee cap and completely halts all momentum. Anything you may recommend to help fix that?

Appreciate it.

That's a very uncommon issue... but my guess is that you are dragging the bar up the shin which is unnecessary. If you look from the side your armpit should be directly over the bar. If you are further back than this then you are essentially trying to "squat" the weight up and not pull it.

If you are "over" the bar you don't need to drag it up your legs. Superheavy weights constantly make the mistake of pulling back too much and halting progress by dragging the bar against the extra thigh fat/mass instead of staying over the bar to keep it far enough forward before lockout.

Lastly when I say you don't need to drag it up, it should be close or barely touching but if you are pulling back that's where you should be standing up instead.

Lastly RDL's are a good exercise to practice being "over" the bar and to practice going past the knee caps with the bar

[BOSS]

I'm having the same damn issue!

Check the reply above man

[BOSS]

Hey Dan,

What's the deadlift platform setup you have here in your 400kg deadlift video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQhAqqy8lYo)? I'm trying to build one for my garage. I don't like the platforms with mats on two sides and wood in between them. I pull sumo and my feet slip on the wooden part. I like your set up here with just the mats. Do you just have horse stall mats?

Thanks boss

Those platforms are 6' x 8'

Lowest 2 layers are 15/32" plywood 1-4'x8' panel and one 2'x8' panel each layer
3rd layer is made of 3/4" plywood and has 2 small horse stalls under the "sweet spot" where the weights land (this is only necessary with KG plates as they touch the ground with about 1/2 the surface area of regular 1-1/8" thick 45's) and provides a second layer of cushioning. The center 40" is all plywood so it isn't squishy.
4th (top) layer is just two 4' x 6' horse stalls.

Basically two layers of plywood and one of horse stalls is enough unless you need the extra cushioning

[pfabrizi1]

Hey Boss got a quick question...

Right now I cut back my lifting to 4x per week and I train around 6am before work. I hate having to rush through or cut out hypertrophy work so I figured I could add a fifth day on Wednesday of light, high rep hypertrophy work without impacting my recovery doing little things with cables, machines, light dumbbells etc.. to free up some time during my training sessions. Just looking for your opinion, I'll post up my basic routine if it helps... Thanks so much for your time!

Monday

Bench @80% of 1rm: 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Close Grip- 3x5
Lateral raise 2x10
Seated DB Press 2x12

Tuesday

Squat @80% of 1rm: 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Front Squat 3x5
Chin up 3x6

Thursday

Close Grip Bench @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Wide Grip Bench 3x15
Standing Press @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Lateral Raise 2x15


Friday

Sumo DL @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Conventional DL 2x8
Barbell Shrugs 2x15
Behind the Neck Press 3x15

[BOSS]

Hey Boss got a quick question...

Right now I cut back my lifting to 4x per week and I train around 6am before work. I hate having to rush through or cut out hypertrophy work so I figured I could add a fifth day on Wednesday of light, high rep hypertrophy work without impacting my recovery doing little things with cables, machines, light dumbbells etc.. to free up some time during my training sessions. Just looking for your opinion, I'll post up my basic routine if it helps... Thanks so much for your time!

Monday

Bench @80% of 1rm: 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Close Grip- 3x5
Lateral raise 2x10
Seated DB Press 2x12

Tuesday

Squat @80% of 1rm: 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Front Squat 3x5
Chin up 3x6

Thursday

Close Grip Bench @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Wide Grip Bench 3x15
Standing Press @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Lateral Raise 2x15


Friday

Sumo DL @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Conventional DL 2x8
Barbell Shrugs 2x15
Behind the Neck Press 3x15

I'm assuming you'd add new exercises if you added a 5th day, not take the ones on these 4 days and move them, correct?

Anyway, here are my general thoughts:
This is basically Swede's 5th Set, or an alteration of it, correct? so you could always go to him to ask what is a way to make the program more suitable to your needs or read some of his writings to find the answer.
Second, if you always do 80% then is this really a "program"? That wouldn't account for any progressive overload, which is a critical component of a strength training program
Third, is your goal to peak or to get bigger? It's hard to say if just adding a day for reps is enough for getting bigger. This program seems like it has a fair bit of training in the rep ranges that would classify as hypertrophy training. But there are a lot of great and simple hypertrophy training protocols as well. My only thought on that is to ask: is it smarter to do a hypertrophy phase to focus on gaining size and then a program that's focus is strength or peaking? or a program that has some of each in it?

I'd also want to know more about you like how long you've trained and how long you've used this protocol and how much progress you've made with it and how you measure it

[BOSS]

Hey Boss got a quick question...

Right now I cut back my lifting to 4x per week and I train around 6am before work. I hate having to rush through or cut out hypertrophy work so I figured I could add a fifth day on Wednesday of light, high rep hypertrophy work without impacting my recovery doing little things with cables, machines, light dumbbells etc.. to free up some time during my training sessions. Just looking for your opinion, I'll post up my basic routine if it helps... Thanks so much for your time!

Monday

Bench @80% of 1rm: 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Close Grip- 3x5
Lateral raise 2x10
Seated DB Press 2x12

Tuesday

Squat @80% of 1rm: 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Front Squat 3x5
Chin up 3x6

Thursday

Close Grip Bench @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Wide Grip Bench 3x15
Standing Press @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Lateral Raise 2x15


Friday

Sumo DL @80% 4x2, 1xAMRAP
Conventional DL 2x8
Barbell Shrugs 2x15
Behind the Neck Press 3x15

Also, why did you cut back training to 4 days just to increase it to 5 days? I don't understand since you say it's to reduce the length of the workouts. How will adding a 5th day do this if you're adding stuff like cables which do not already appear in the first 4 days? Also, why would adding a 5th day not impact your recovery?

I'm not trying to be rude or play devil's advocate here, I just don't understand how you're not doing exactly the opposite of what you say you're trying to do?

[pfabrizi1]

I'm assuming you'd add new exercises if you added a 5th day, not take the ones on these 4 days and move them, correct?

Anyway, here are my general thoughts:
This is basically Swede's 5th Set, or an alteration of it, correct? so you could always go to him to ask what is a way to make the program more suitable to your needs or read some of his writings to find the answer.
Second, if you always do 80% then is this really a "program"? That wouldn't account for any progressive overload, which is a critical component of a strength training program
Third, is your goal to peak or to get bigger? It's hard to say if just adding a day for reps is enough for getting bigger. This program seems like it has a fair bit of training in the rep ranges that would classify as hypertrophy training. But there are a lot of great and simple hypertrophy training protocols as well. My only thought on that is to ask: is it smarter to do a hypertrophy phase to focus on gaining size and then a program that's focus is strength or peaking? or a program that has some of each in it?

I'd also want to know more about you like how long you've trained and how long you've used this protocol and how much progress you've made with it and how you measure it

First off thanks for the lengthy response I really appreciate that. I basically took the "5th Set" idea from Swedes book and applied it to my main lifts. 80% is the starting point and I'd increase by 2-3kg per week depending on the lift. I'm trying to build strength and size with a little more emphasis on hypertrophy, Im not planning on competing until November.
I'm 26 and i've been lifting seriously for 6 years, I'm 5'7 and weigh about 200lbs so I want to really maximize my size at the 198lb weight class. My most recent maxes are 545 squat 425 bench and 645 pull. I really just started the program last week to see if I liked the set/rep scheme... to be honest i've been dying to follow your training method if and when you publish it lol..

As for the last part I should rephrase that I cut back from my 5th day which was always Saturday DL day to spend more time at home on the weekends, and rather than cut back to 4 days and cram in all the lifting I'd really want to stick with 5 day Mon-Friday without making it too much to recover from. I'd likely take accessory lifts from the other days to add into the 5th day so that more time and energy can be spent on the main lifts alone on my main 4 days.

Thanks again, to be able to gain some knowledge from you really is a blessing!

[BOSS]

First off thanks for the lengthy response I really appreciate that. I basically took the "5th Set" idea from Swedes book and applied it to my main lifts. 80% is the starting point and I'd increase by 2-3kg per week depending on the lift. I'm trying to build strength and size with a little more emphasis on hypertrophy, Im not planning on competing until November.
I'm 26 and i've been lifting seriously for 6 years, I'm 5'7 and weigh about 200lbs so I want to really maximize my size at the 198lb weight class. My most recent maxes are 545 squat 425 bench and 645 pull. I really just started the program last week to see if I liked the set/rep scheme... to be honest i've been dying to follow your training method if and when you publish it lol..

As for the last part I should rephrase that I cut back from my 5th day which was always Saturday DL day to spend more time at home on the weekends, and rather than cut back to 4 days and cram in all the lifting I'd really want to stick with 5 day Mon-Friday without making it too much to recover from. I'd likely take accessory lifts from the other days to add into the 5th day so that more time and energy can be spent on the main lifts alone on my main 4 days.

Thanks again, to be able to gain some knowledge from you really is a blessing!

Thanks man, and this definitely clears up a lot. With those numbers I can see you're doing a lot of things really well and likely have gained a lot of insight into what works well for you and what you might be able to expect as well. I guess I'm not really a fan of doing light days, but I do like to train for hypertrophy on certain body parts, and to optimize this effect I like the Arnold priority principle of taking something that's important to prioritize and putting it first in the workout. For example if front squats are critical to hypertrophy for the quads, instead of doing them after back squats, when you can't ensure your energy levels or stamina, I prefer to put them first in a workout, on their own day. It could be the same for delts, say, or chest or tris--you can pick one exercise to do first on an additional day so that you can really benefit from it. You definitely need to account for it's effect on your recovery, but a hypertrophy phase or strength phase doesn't require that you feel fully recovered every time you train. It's basically just a matter of how much total workload you subject yourself too and how much food, rest and recovery you throw at it. The weights might be slightly decreased, but the quality of motion can still be a priority so that you're becoming a better lifter with more of a ceiling for peak strength when you do decide to peak for it.

Conversely, if the accessory lifts aren't critical then don't worry about how much you dedicate time to them at the end of the workout. That makes sense. But it also makes sense that if they are important for hypertrophy and that's your bigger focus now... then maybe they should come first. Just for you to figure out if you say you're focusing on both strength and size but put size as more important, but does your training actually say otherwise?

[Buckfever]

Jesus your incline is closing in on where your flat bench was.

[pfabrizi1]

Thanks man, and this definitely clears up a lot. With those numbers I can see you're doing a lot of things really well and likely have gained a lot of insight into what works well for you and what you might be able to expect as well. I guess I'm not really a fan of doing light days, but I do like to train for hypertrophy on certain body parts, and to optimize this effect I like the Arnold priority principle of taking something that's important to prioritize and putting it first in the workout. For example if front squats are critical to hypertrophy for the quads, instead of doing them after back squats, when you can't ensure your energy levels or stamina, I prefer to put them first in a workout, on their own day. It could be the same for delts, say, or chest or tris--you can pick one exercise to do first on an additional day so that you can really benefit from it. You definitely need to account for it's effect on your recovery, but a hypertrophy phase or strength phase doesn't require that you feel fully recovered every time you train. It's basically just a matter of how much total workload you subject yourself too and how much food, rest and recovery you throw at it. The weights might be slightly decreased, but the quality of motion can still be a priority so that you're becoming a better lifter with more of a ceiling for peak strength when you do decide to peak for it.

Conversely, if the accessory lifts aren't critical then don't worry about how much you dedicate time to them at the end of the workout. That makes sense. But it also makes sense that if they are important for hypertrophy and that's your bigger focus now... then maybe they should come first. Just for you to figure out if you say you're focusing on both strength and size but put size as more important, but does your training actually say otherwise?

I see. Putting a little less emphasis on the intensity of the main lifts in favor of more work towards the accessory lifts which work better for hypertrophy purposes. I guess I've always been a little hesitant to switch off Bench Squat and DL as my first and main lift for any given day for heavy doubles/triples, but it makes total sense. So in a nutshell, building up the accessories will really be building the bulk of strength/potential for strength, and then translate into bigger numbers come peaking time for the comp. lifts... I'm gonna go and re work the priority of the lifts in my routine and add on weds as a front squat/sldl day.

I can't thank you enough! I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future lol but I'll let you know how these changes work out!

[Pt_carlzon]

Hi Dan! You are a true inspiration for me and was the reason why I started powerlifting.
I have read alot on this forum what you have wrote and that has given me alot of knowledge

I have a some questions

1. My split right now is

Squat 1-4RM
Squat 5x3-5 for volume with good speed
Leg Press

Bench 1-4RM
Close Grip 5-8RM
Incline Db Press 5 x 3 (paused)
Pull-ups
Triceps press 10-20 x 2

Front Squat 5-8 x 3, and 1 top set

Bench for volume
Close grip 3 sets
Wide Grip w/ feet up 2 sets
Triceps

Sumo Deadlift 2-5 x 1-3 sets
Deficit
RDL
Pull-ups
1 arm row

How does this sounds?
I feel like in jumping on different methods all the time
What would you change and how would you progress?


2. Whats your streching routine?
3. Pre workout? Intra workout? Food or Supps?
4. Best tip for optimal t-spine exension during bench?

Thank you for bringing new life in my training
I miss your training logs

[BOSS]

Jesus your incline is closing in on where your flat bench was.

Not quite lol but definitely getting a 500 incline is a goal for this year

[BOSS]

I see. Putting a little less emphasis on the intensity of the main lifts in favor of more work towards the accessory lifts which work better for hypertrophy purposes. I guess I've always been a little hesitant to switch off Bench Squat and DL as my first and main lift for any given day for heavy doubles/triples, but it makes total sense. So in a nutshell, building up the accessories will really be building the bulk of strength/potential for strength, and then translate into bigger numbers come peaking time for the comp. lifts... I'm gonna go and re work the priority of the lifts in my routine and add on weds as a front squat/sldl day.

I can't thank you enough! I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future lol but I'll let you know how these changes work out!

Hopefully this helps you for a while. Nothing works for ever so it's through experience that you'll map out subsequent training phases after the current strategy runs it's course

[BOSS]

Hi Dan! You are a true inspiration for me and was the reason why I started powerlifting.
I have read alot on this forum what you have wrote and that has given me alot of knowledge

I have a some questions

1. My split right now is

Squat 1-4RM
Squat 5x3-5 for volume with good speed
Leg Press

Bench 1-4RM
Close Grip 5-8RM
Incline Db Press 5 x 3 (paused)
Pull-ups
Triceps press 10-20 x 2

Front Squat 5-8 x 3, and 1 top set

Bench for volume
Close grip 3 sets
Wide Grip w/ feet up 2 sets
Triceps

Sumo Deadlift 2-5 x 1-3 sets
Deficit
RDL
Pull-ups
1 arm row

How does this sounds?
I feel like in jumping on different methods all the time
What would you change and how would you progress?


2. Whats your streching routine?
3. Pre workout? Intra workout? Food or Supps?
4. Best tip for optimal t-spine exension during bench?

Thank you for bringing new life in my training
I miss your training logs

Your program seems solid. At some point you'll need to switch some of the exercises or some of the rep ranges, but not right away. You can also add 1-2 high rep sets to some of the lifts as burnout sets following the main sets.
That's good for growth

Stretching I stretch the chest, lats biceps and thoracic spine for upper body,
Calves soleus and gastroc, groin, glutes and IT band for lower body

Usually fury for preworkout then 2 scoops animal whey, 1 scoop Gatorade as an intra or post
Food is critical after as you need steady nutrients where whey can process too quickly by itself

T-spine stretch by kneeling in front of a bench, palms on bench and dipping the chest down toward the floor. Like a downward dog but kneeling, hips up and hands on the bench not the floor

[JacknCoke]

Hi Dan,

I want to incorporate a deadlift variation that hits the lower back hard. The lower back pumps i've had from high rep sets on low bar are nothing like what i feel from after a hard set of 12 on the deadlift.
On normal deadlifts for me it's grip, quads and hamstrings in that order.
Deficit deadlifts it's quads, grip, hamstrings.
Deficit stiff legged, hamstrings mostly.
I've read that deadlifts hit the traps and lats but never felt anything is that a myth or am i doing something wrong?
I've also read an article where you stated that round back vs arched back deficit stiff legged deads for lower back vs hamstrings.
Could you describe how the round back deadlift is performed?
Do you end up with a straight posture at the end of the movement ("unrounding" your back on the concentric) or do you keep a round upper back the whole time?

Best Regards
JacknCoke

[BOSS]

Hi Dan,

I want to incorporate a deadlift variation that hits the lower back hard. The lower back pumps i've had from high rep sets on low bar are nothing like what i feel from after a hard set of 12 on the deadlift.
On normal deadlifts for me it's grip, quads and hamstrings in that order.
Deficit deadlifts it's quads, grip, hamstrings.
Deficit stiff legged, hamstrings mostly.
I've read that deadlifts hit the traps and lats but never felt anything is that a myth or am i doing something wrong?
I've also read an article where you stated that round back vs arched back deficit stiff legged deads for lower back vs hamstrings.
Could you describe how the round back deadlift is performed?
Do you end up with a straight posture at the end of the movement ("unrounding" your back on the concentric) or do you keep a round upper back the whole time?

Best Regards
JacknCoke

Yeah that's really all it is is just having some rounding in the back. There's nothing more too it. Try taking a narrower grip and using straps. Grip with your index fingers on the smooth part of the bar. This narrow grip will help you to stretch more through the upper back. It sounds like you tightly arch your back and therefore only feel lower body unless the reps are high. Use a deficit, look at the floor right in front of you (3-5 ft), brace the abs and lift deliberately. Keep pressure on your toes and you will feel the lower back. Do sets of 10 initially with a 3-4" deficit starting around 40% of your 1RM Deadlift and build from there. Lower each rep under control, over the toes and don't bounce the weight.

[Pt_carlzon]

Hi Boss!
Congrats to the your new meet PR in bench It looked very smooth

I have some bench questions

1. find it hard to keep my shoulders down/depressed and hit below the chest, i feel like i have to take a max width grip to even touch the upper abs and you wrote somewhere that this overload front delt in stead of chest

If i touch higher it feel like my wrist have to bend backwards and my shoulders arent totally down

2. Why dont you grip max width? Is it because armlength?

3. I have problem keeping my t-spine erected and feel my back in the bench
Any good excercises for that?

4. How do you devides your blocks from 2 bench/1 shoulder day and 2 bench days. should you aim for prs on your volume day?

[BOSS]

Hi Boss!
Congrats to the your new meet PR in bench It looked very smooth

I have some bench questions

1. find it hard to keep my shoulders down/depressed and hit below the chest, i feel like i have to take a max width grip to even touch the upper abs and you wrote somewhere that this overload front delt in stead of chest

If i touch higher it feel like my wrist have to bend backwards and my shoulders arent totally down

2. Why dont you grip max width? Is it because armlength?

3. I have problem keeping my t-spine erected and feel my back in the bench
Any good excercises for that?

4. How do you devides your blocks from 2 bench/1 shoulder day and 2 bench days. should you aim for prs on your volume day?

Ok there are a lot of questions here.
1. Just aim for the sternum or just at the nipples. Don't lower to the abs... again this is too much delts. It's ok for the wrists to bend back. This is a normal form for a lot of people. It allows you to engage the shoulders a little more easily.
2. I feel a better balance with a moderate grip. I feel very weak at the bottom with a wide grip because my chest is not as strong as my tris/delts
3. Kneel in front of a bench, far enough away so that you can put your palms on the bench, stick your butt back and then lower the chest toward the floor. This is like a "downward dog" stretch but kneeling. It's very good for upper back mobility
4. One exercise first each day then one for the second. I just try to cover all the exercises I feel are needed that way: Bench with various overloads, incline bench, DB flat bench, Seated Presses. I use various rep ranges according to the exercises. Generally bench is heavier, DB bench is lighter and incline in between. Shoulders more volume is key over the heaviest sets

[Sc0rpi0n]

There's a good chance you've strained or slightly torn the tricep muscle, but without an MRI you can't know for sure. It'd be worth your while to get some kind of treatment for it, but I don't know what's best. If it's the tendon, it won't heal until it gets enough rest. Elbow sleeves can definitely help if you continue to train, but if you can't compete with them then I'm not sure if that's really that helpful.

As for the sleepy arm and leg while squatting, I think I'd have to see your squat to have a guess what's going on. Maybe your putting too much pressure on the arm or maybe you're pinching a nerve... Too hard to guess from your description

I read your reply when you answered, but forgot to message back about it lol

Competition went relatively good, I placed 4th, which is ok, since it was my first time, plus some other things didn't add up, but never mind that. Anyway, for the elbow, I took a pause from heavy presses for like 2-3 weeks after the meet and now it's great, I no longer have that pain while benching. As for the sleepy arm and leg, I tweaked my squat a little bit, wider stance, wider grip on the bar and I haven't had that problem since I messaged you previously. It turned out that I was pinching some nerve where the bar would be placed on my rear shoulder...
So yea, everything's good now, I'm back on track, now it's just the matter of getting stronger.

Thanks for the reply, as always.

[BOSS]

I read your reply when you answered, but forgot to message back about it lol

Competition went relatively good, I placed 4th, which is ok, since it was my first time, plus some other things didn't add up, but never mind that. Anyway, for the elbow, I took a pause from heavy presses for like 2-3 weeks after the meet and now it's great, I no longer have that pain while benching. As for the sleepy arm and leg, I tweaked my squat a little bit, wider stance, wider grip on the bar and I haven't had that problem since I messaged you previously. It turned out that I was pinching some nerve where the bar would be placed on my rear shoulder...
So yea, everything's good now, I'm back on track, now it's just the matter of getting stronger.

Thanks for the reply, as always.

Good shit!
Now like you said time to get stronger!

[Altered Beast]

Dan,

I've been hitting Pause Squats after the Primary Movement (which is Comp Squats) at 10% or so less then the programmed percentage for the Primary. I'll than hit Belt Squats as a third movement.

What are your recommendations for power out of the hole on the Squat?

[BOSS]

Dan,

I've been hitting Pause Squats after the Primary Movement (which is Comp Squats) at 10% or so less then the programmed percentage for the Primary. I'll than hit Belt Squats as a third movement.

What are your recommendations for power out of the hole on the Squat?

I'd reccomend the paused squats but done with a slightly narrower stance and HIGH BAR not low bar. I'd go about 20% lighter than the main sets. This way it's all about pure up and down power not leverage from sitting back, using the back or pushing wide and using the hips. Just legs and glutes and tightness. These are the best. Front squats and hack squats also are best for just building the quads at the knees and overall

[Altered Beast]

I'd reccomend the paused squats but done with a slightly narrower stance and HIGH BAR not low bar. I'd go about 20% lighter than the main sets. This way it's all about pure up and down power not leverage from sitting back, using the back or pushing wide and using the hips. Just legs and glutes and tightness. These are the best. Front squats and hack squats also are best for just building the quads at the knees and overall

Much appreciated!

I do miss Hack Squats. If I had room, I'd have to look into Elite's Monster Mondo Hack Squat. Looks insane!

[BOSS]

Much appreciated!

I do miss Hack Squats. If I had room, I'd have to look into Elite's Monster Mondo Hack Squat. Looks insane!

Yeah theirs looks awesome. Mine was just a a cheap one, but it's great and gets the job done. It's extra steep so no need for stacking 100's on it, plus the foot plate is on the small side so you really have to work to move the weight

[Altered Beast]

Yeah theirs looks awesome. Mine was just a a cheap one, but it's great and gets the job done. It's extra steep so no need for stacking 100's on it, plus the foot plate is on the small side so you really have to work to move the weight

That's fun! You never seem to do anything the easy way =)

*Also, I'm not familiar with High Bar Squatting. How should I set up?

[BOSS]

That's fun! You never seem to do anything the easy way =)

*Also, I'm not familiar with High Bar Squatting. How should I set up?

High bar squatting setup is as simple as putting the bar on TOP of the traps, just below the neck. You should position your hands as though you are going to press the weight up from behind your head. The squatting motion is similar in that your hips should sit down and back, your knees should open slightly on the way down and your chest should stay upright. Squat as low as you can maintaining balance heel-to-toe and with a neutral spine, and you will heavily load the quads and glutes and back and become huge!

[herku]

Hi Dan

I have some questions to You

1.Eccentric phase in deficit conventional and sumo for strengh-Worth doing?

2.What is better: Deadlift sumo heavy with one set per 5 reps and after do deficit conventional with more sets per 6, or on sumo do more sets per 5 reps and after do deficit conventional with less sets? Same situation on squats and benching.

3.Do less sets with competition lifts and more sets with accesory lifts like front squats or some close grip benchin?

[Altered Beast]

you will heavily load the quads and glutes and back and become huge!

Huge? Sounds awesome. I will be HOOGE!!!! Thanks again.

[BOSS]

Hi Dan

I have some questions to You

1.Eccentric phase in deficit conventional and sumo for strengh-Worth doing?

2.What is better: Deadlift sumo heavy with one set per 5 reps and after do deficit conventional with more sets per 6, or on sumo do more sets per 5 reps and after do deficit conventional with less sets? Same situation on squats and benching.

3.Do less sets with competition lifts and more sets with accesory lifts like front squats or some close grip benchin?

Hey man,

1. This is what the Romanian deadlift is for. The problem with slow eccentric deads is that if you turn them into a squat it's stressful on the low back in a bad way, so keep the hips back and keep the knees back out of the way of the bar. This way the back loads correctly and the hamstrings load heavily. For an RDL (romanian), deadlift the first rep to the top or take it out of a rack and step back. Then lower by moving the hips all the way back so the loading is on the back and hamstrings. Lower close to the floor, pause momentarily and then pull back up by lifting the chest first and extending the hips. You can stand on a step to do these with a deficit for a greater hamstring stretch. These are generally done with the legs straight but not locked at the knees. One of the best exercises there are

2. Farther from a competition, focus on whichever one seems like it needs more work, or vary the balance. Both are good so don't feel limited to just one!

3. Again, farther from a comp, work your weakness harder, whichever it may be. Closer to a comp, focus on the comp lift more.

[Pt_carlzon]

Hi Dan. Really nice to see you back with the squats and deads again!

I start to reach my previous maxes in squat and i feel after a squat session that i am really slow
Like if i squat the it feels like im moving slowly even with warmup weights

Is this common? How do you keep your good speed in both squat and deadlift?

[BOSS]

Hi Dan. Really nice to see you back with the squats and deads again!

I start to reach my previous maxes in squat and i feel after a squat session that i am really slow
Like if i squat the it feels like im moving slowly even with warmup weights

Is this common? How do you keep your good speed in both squat and deadlift?

This really just comes down to proper form. If you rely on your back strength a lot when you squat, you simply won't pull as much when you train. It's most important that you create tightness in the right places and stay balanced. Moving efficiently, in other words.

With that being said, it is hard to assume the reason for you feeling slower without seeing you lift, so that's kinda tough.

A lot of good programs have squats and deads in the same day and a lot do not.

How hard it feels in training vs how well you do when you are fresh and peaked for a meet are also two different things. Training while fatigued is still effective for building strength, but not necessarily for expressing it. Hence the need for a peaking phase or taper.

[Pt_carlzon]

This really just comes down to proper form. If you rely on your back strength a lot when you squat, you simply won't pull as much when you train. It's most important that you create tightness in the right places and stay balanced. Moving efficiently, in other words.

With that being said, it is hard to assume the reason for you feeling slower without seeing you lift, so that's kinda tough.

A lot of good programs have squats and deads in the same day and a lot do not.

How hard it feels in training vs how well you do when you are fresh and peaked for a meet are also two different things. Training while fatigued is still effective for building strength, but not necessarily for expressing it. Hence the need for a peaking phase or taper.

https://instagram.com/p/BWXhW90g620/
75% of my approx. Max

Any feedback?

Thank you

[BOSS]

https://instagram.com/p/BWXhW90g620/
75% of my approx. Max

Any feedback?

Thank you

Sure, what I'd say is as far as form goes, you just need to consistently take a full breath, brace, set your balance in the back half of your feet, then lock the upper back tightness as you begin each rep. You only really lack in consistency as some of the reps you do these things better, others you rush the breathing, start with the chest down/elbows up, and/or start with your weight slightly further forward. When you do reps, focus on these things and let the actual squats just happen. Control what happens between reps and as you initiate the reps. Let your body just take care of the motion after that.

As far as fatigue for deads after squats, I think you are just experiencing a bit of fatigue! I tend to use variations after squats that primarily focus on the back, like RDLs, SLDLs, rack pulls with or without bands, and full ROM or deficits on a separate day when I deadlift first.

But it's ok to vary your training, just need to keep expectations in check by understanding what effect each exercise has

[pfabrizi1]

Hey Boss, trainings going great for me thanks to a lot of your advice so thanks! What's your plan nowadays as far as your own training, are you prepping to compete at BOB4? I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to seeing that, and I personally plan to be in the mix at BOB next year for sure!

[BOSS]

Hey Boss, trainings going great for me thanks to a lot of your advice so thanks! What's your plan nowadays as far as your own training, are you prepping to compete at BOB4? I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to seeing that, and I personally plan to be in the mix at BOB next year for sure!

Right now my goals are to increase my conventional deadlift over 800 and keep increasing my bench toward the end of the year. As for squats I'm still getting back with those, my quad is healed but not strengthened enough. I've improved my foot and hip strength but still my fibularis (due to fallen arch) is bound up and messing with my lower leg when I squat more than the quad tendon is limiting things, so that's still one more hurdle to work past before I can really feel ready to push the squats. And until I can push the squats, it makes more sense to focus on conventional pulls as I can't build up my quads yet.

I plan to compete again next year, but for now just trying to build up my weak points--conventional deads and bench. My squats and sumos felt great before my injury worsened, so I'll just wait till it's time then push them up again.

[FarmBoyStrong]

Hi Dan. First I want to congratulate you on all your success and wish you a speedy recovery. Your training videos and the intensity with which you lift really motivate me to push myself as hard as possible.
I attended your "Train like a Boss" seminar last May in Miami. I learned a lot from it and was wondering if you had any plans to hold another one in south/central Florida?
My main question is concerning my squat. My bench and deadlift have been progressing nicely and my technique for both has come a long way. With my squat however, it has been a frustrating year and a half. I feel I can move the most weight squatting lowbar so that is how I squat in competition. I have been able to hit rep PR's on squat but have been unable to progress my one rep max. I tried maxing 6 months apart and missed both attempts. The problem seems to be my hips shooting back when I'm fatigued or under maximum load and causing a goodmorning like effect. I know you and others have said this is probably due to a lack of quad strength. Since attending your seminar last May I have been low bar squatting on Monday followed by paused high bar squats. On Wednesday I have been front squatting. I have made huge progress on both of these lifts and I know I have gained some quad strength, however it hasn't carried over to my low bar one rep max. I'm not sure if its a technique issue or just an overall strength issue. I know without seeing my squat it may be hard to evaluate, but any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if I should change anything or just keep pushing hard as like I said I am hitting new rep pr's and maybe its just a mental issue as to why it hasn't translated into a one rep max pr. Thanks Dan

[JEAH]

Hey Dan, do you think its plausible to safety bar squat for a whole meet prep and then hit the straight bar at the meet with no issues? Also, have u ever worked with anyone who has digestive issues and can't eat enough calories to maintain or even grow. Any suggestions related to that?

Thanks as always !