Christian,
In your posts on T-mag and elsewhere you state that you are resuming training in the olympic lifts. I was wondering how you incorporate some of the things you have stated, such as conjugated methodology, into your yearly regimine. For that matter, how do you include so much upper-body work? Are you planning on staying competitive in olympic lifting?
I guess what I’m trying to say is that am just curious about these things because I am getting somewhat burned out on olympic lifting, after just 1 year in. I have made fast progress, but I just get tired of going in 5-6 days a week and performing the same lifts over and over, while completely overlooking other areas of fitness. I am thinking that I would rather sacrifice some of my gains in the lifts for improvements throughout the complete spectrum of athletic abilities. Before going balls to the wall into the world of olympic lifting I was 185, benching 350, sub 10%bf, 6.30 mile run; an overall pretty descent athlete. Now, though my c/j is above 300 and my snatch 225, my upper body strength has diminished, along with some aspects of physique, my bf is up to about 15%, and when I had to jog to class yesterday I soon realized that I have become an out-of-shape (aerobically speaking), fat bastard. Not to mention my forty time is slower, probably due to bf.
To wrap things up, I was thinking that I might start changing things up a bit (hopefully my coach won’t quit training me 
I respect your knowledge, that’s why I’m asking you. So how would you address these other areas? Obviously we can’t be a king of all trades. But I would be very interested to see an outine of your current personal program, or any generic program that addresses all these aspects of athletic ability in a yearly cycle, incorporation some of your ideas/principles. You don’t have to repeat things you’ve stated earlier, you could just point me to where you’ve posted relevant items if you’d like. How do you include your energy system work into the conjugated cycles? Do you diet cyclically as well? I used to have a wheel drawn, very similar to coach Davies’, which showed all aspects of athletic function, and the standards I would have to achieve to move further out along the spokes. All the while, these spokes were all relative to each other, so that I would also try to maintain a balanced wheel. It was a lot of fun working according to the wheel. Is this realistic though? Sorry to hit you with so many things. Please feel free to answer as simple or complex as your time allows. Thanks!
I’m certainly not CT, but have read a fair bit of his stuff and bugged the shit out of the poor fella along the way 
A couple of my favorite total body programs are
Behind the Iron Curtain and HTT .
As for aerobic work read Running Man .
The rest is for CT to answer, hope this helps.
That’s one thing I noticed about most weightlifter’s training, it isn’t very well rounded. Although some of them are.
Scott –
Would you post a copy of your weekly training program for us please?
HTT might be what you are looking for. The original design/concept was by Pierre Roy, the former Canadian weightlifting coach who trained Jacques Demers (147 - 187 at 75kg) 1984 silver medalist), Denis Garon (160 - 222 at 98kg, 1988 Olympics), Mario Parenté (152 - 205 at 97kg … but later did 160 - 215 in a National competition). The only differences with my version of HTT are:
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More frequent training sessions … at the time these international athlete were pharmacologicaly enhanced and trained twice per day every day, so each workout would be done 2-3 times per week. When I trained with him I was originally put on the “original” schedule, I had some rapide improvements but then started overreaching/overtrainng quickly. I kept the same principles but cut down the frequency (down to what my HTT article explains) and my gains resumed quite drastically.
-
The addition of a third phase called “peaking” which called for:
Week 1: 1 x 3, 1 x 2, 1 x 1, 1 x 3. 1 x 2. 1 x 1
Week 2: 1 x 2, 1 x 1, 1 x 2, 1 x 1, 1 x 2, 1 x 1
Week 3: Work up to opener in singles only, cut down assistance exercises
On a side note, Denis Garon could bench press 210kg with relative ease and Demers was built like a bodybuilder (at 45yo he still is and can still snatch 130 and clean & jerk 170 at 75kg).
Oh yeah, one more thing. My HTT article calls for the power variation of the lifts. A competitive olympic lifter would obviously use the competition lifts at least every 2 workouts. And if you are serious about competition here’s what I would od:
In the HTT program there are 4 workouts per week:
a) a snatch-based workout
b) a clean-based workout
c) a jerk-based workout
d) a remedial exercise workout (work on your perceived weaknesses)
A competitive lifter should add a “technique day” in which both competitive lifts are trained for a lot of submaximal singles (8-12 singles with 80-85%, no more).
So the weak can become:
Monday: Snatch based workout
Tuesday: Jerk/Bench based workout
Wednesday: Clean based workout
Thursday: OFF
Friday: Remedial exercises workout
Saturday: Techique workout
Sunday : OFF
For the composition of the workouts read my article on the subject.
It is well established that aerobic training inhibits optimum progression in the technical lifts. Not well researched is the effect of anearobic training on the aquisition of strength. Experience suggests that it has a similar, if less profound effect.
I sympathise with your feelings on general health and body image. Certainly, weightlifting causes hypertophy in less obvious and ‘appreciated’ areas (e.g. back, ass etc) and tends not to keep body fat low. I too have become increasingly concerned with the ever increasing layer of adipose around my abs (even to the extent that I considered running again!). My efforts to control this problem through a tightened diet have generally resulted in poor performances in the gym, a ravaged bank account, and a feeling of being ‘small’.
Re: BBing. With a few exceptions, my lifters perform minimal pressing movements. When you are on the limit of a weight catagory you cannot afford to increase size in an area that will not positively impact performance.
Of course it really depends on how serious you are about the sport. If your desire is to perform at your optimum level, you will most probably have to sacrifice other areas of fitness and your ideal body shape. If you participate in the sport purely ‘for fun’ then you can sacrifice a few kilos off your total to become a more ‘well rounded’ athlete. My feelings however have always been that it’s better to be master of one than a jack of all…
I do agree with David 100%. There was a point when I was competing when I became a bit “round” and I first tried to loose the blubber through a very tight diet. It worked, to some extent since I lost approximately 15kg, however my performance on the platform suffered. At the time I had hit lifts of 125kg snatch and 165kg clean & jerk in the gym but I only managed 110kg and 140kg at the competition, blacked out on my last clean & jerk.
What I did was take 4-5 months out of a year (I could afford it because of an injury which kept me away from competition) to work on my physique. When I got back I was able to regain my top form on the competition lifts while keeping the physique by simply avoiding gaining more fat.
That’s what weightlifters of old like Grimek, Stanko and Kono did when they competed in both olympic lifting and bodybuilding.
But now, we live in an era of specialists. The amount of technical work required to reach international level is so high that taking 4-5 months out of the year to work on your appearance is not the best of ideas. You do see several “ripped” olympic lifters (Dimas, Tavakoli, Tanev…) but these guys are built to be lean and are like this by nature.
As David said, Jack of all Trades, Master of none! But if your goal is not to be an international class lifter, it is okay to do some form of bodybuilding-like training.
On a side note, old-time weightlifters had better bodies than modern lifters, IMHO this was due to 3 factors:
-
More presing movements (mostly because the press was a competition lift) from various positions.
-
More eccentric stress (before bumper plates, lifters tried to lower the bar under control as often as possible to avoid wear and tear of the material).
-
More reps per set. Back in the days (!!!) sets of 3-6 reps in the olympic movements was something that was the norm rather than the exception.
I’m not saying that this is better for lifting performance, but it certainly can help building more muscle mass via the olympic lifts.
On a side note, it IS possible to build strength in the competitive lifts by doing sets of 3-6 reps. I have seveal hockey players who can power clean in the 120-150kg range … while this doesn’t sound that impressive, consider that these guys strength train seriously only 3-4 months per year and that they do a helluva lot of energy system work for their sport. And I train them mostly in the 3-6 reps range (going down to 1-3 reps every 4 weeks). Obviously, if they trained in the 1-3 reps range more often they’d probably be stronger, but they don’t relly need to be for their sport. But my point is that if you perform periods of 3-6 reps you can build strength in the lifts while gaining more muscle mass, especially in the “proper” weightlifting muscles. Pierre Roy called this “specific bodybuilding”. It may sounds like blasphemy to modern olympic lifting coaches, but Pierre Roy DID train 6 guys who could clean and jerk over 190kg, two of them at less than 80kg!!! Three of these guys clean & jerked more than 200kg and two more than 215. All at less than 100kg bodyweight. So while it may not be in accordance with “modern” methods, it certainly should not be dismissed too fast.
CT:
For the hockey players - as the reps drop to the 1-3 range every 4 weeks- do you decrease the running intensity also to prevent CNS overload or do you increase it also and use a supercompensation principle after?
I am not against higher reps in Olympic lift derivatives, particularly for those athletes using the exercises to improve performance in other sports. I do not however advocate high reps from the floor, rather preferring the high hang position. This makes sets more cyclic and reduces the stress on the lumbar spine (the erectors fatigue faster than the hip and knee extensors).
Greater specific neural adaptations (increased intermuscular coordination, increased UNIlateral deficit and decreased antagonist inhibition) may be possible from low reps sets but such adaptations are specific to the Olympic lifts and would have little cross over to other sports.
Both very good points David, and I agree with you on both accounts.
No.23 … Every fourth weeks is a “high quality week” meaning that the training volume is drastically decreased in every aspect to maximize training quality.
On a lighter note:
I sure do get a kick out of the term “perceived weaknessses” (I wish I thought of it first)
Picture yourself at the kitchen table serioulsy working on your next mesocycle training plan. Your wife (or girlfriend for you younger set) asks “Whatcha doin?” And you answer “I’m just listing my perceived weaknesses” … Guarantees a smart-ass reply everytime!
Ross
Don’t some olylifter do a fair bit of sprint work? I saw a sample Cuban schedule and they do a lot of jumping and sprinting
I’ve been doing some lower intensity running and it has made my lifts go up not down and I’m getting leaner.
Here is the final cycle going into my last competition, which was Oct 18th. Obviously this is the last cycle, so the volume is lower than earlier cycles. At this meet I totaled 95/122.5. I was somewhat disappointed with my cj, since my pr prior to this was 130. However, my snatch was very inconsistent all the way up to the comp, so I was fairly pleased with going 3/3.
<<<CYCLE 3 WEEK 1>>>
Monday 9/15/2003
Drop S 40x2 50x2 60x2
Bottom S 40x3 50x2
SS2 (slow snatch) 50x2 60x2 65x2 70x2.
Tuesday 9/16
SC2 (slow clean double) 50x2 60x2 70x2 80x2
C 90 95 100
F2 60x2 80 90 100.
Wednesday 9/17
SS2 50x2 60x2 65x2
SSP (slow S pull) 70 80 90x2
FJ 60 70 80 90x2 95 100
F2110 115.
Thursday 9/18
CJ 60x2 70 80 90
SCP (slow C pull) 100 110x2.
Friday 9/19
S 50 60 70 75 80
SP 90 100
mirror P3 (press triples in front of mirror for elbow check) 40x3 50x2.
<<<CYCLE 3 WEEK 2>>>
Monday 9/22/03
Drop S 40x2 50 60x2
Bottom S 40x2 50
OHSS (over head Snatch Squat) 60 70 80 85 90
F2J (front squat double and then J) 60 80 90 100 110.
Tuesday 9/23
SS2 50 60 70; S2 75 80x2 85x2 90
SSP2 90 95 100;
SP 92x2;
mirror P2 40x2 50x2.
Wednesday 9/24
2(SCJ) [double slow-clean-&-jerk] 60 80 90x2
CJ 105 110 115x3
SCP 120 125x2 130x2.
Thursday 9/25
OHSS 60x2 80 90 95
F2 60 90 105 110 115
F 120 127 132 137 140 125
Friday 9/26
SS 50x2 60 65
S 70 75;
CJ 60x2 80 90 100.
Sunday 9/28 END of WEEK 2 TOTAL
<<<CYCLE 3 WEEK 3>>>
Monday 9/29
SS2 50x2 60x2
Bottom S 40x3
mirror P2 40x3.
Tuesday 9/30
SC2 60x2, 70, 75x2
SCP 85, 95, 105
FJ 60x2, 90, 100, 102.
Wednesday 10/1
Drop S 50x2 60 70 77
SS 50x2 60 67 72
SSP 75 77 80
mirror P2 40x3.
Thursday 10/2
SC2 60x2 70 75x2
SCP 80 85 90
F3 60 90 105 115.
Friday 10/3
S 50x2 60 70 75x2
CJ 60x2 90x2 105x2.
Sunday 10/5 Snatch heavy
<<<CYCLE 3 WEEK 4>>>
Monday 10/6
S2 50x2 60x2
OHSS 60 80 85 90 95
2CJ 60x2 90 105
CJ 110 115 117 110 115 120
CP 122 127.
Tuesday 10/7
SS 50x2 60x2; S 60x2
F2 60x2 90x2 100.
Wednesday 10/8
SS2 50 60
S 70 75 80 82 85 90 92 85 90 95 90
SP 95 100 95.
Thursday 10/9
C2 60x2 90 105
F2 60 90 110 120
F 127 135 140 130 137 145 125.
Friday 10/10
SS2 50 60
S 60 70
2(SCJ) 60x2 90.
Sunday 10/12 Max CJ
<<<CYCLE 3 WEEK X before meet>>>
Monday 10/13
SS 50x3 60x2 70x2
SP 80x3
FJ 60x2 90 105 110x2.
Tuesday 10/14
SC 60x2 80x2 90
CP 105 110.
Wednesday 10/15
Drop S 50x2 60 70 77
F2&J 60x2 90x2 105x2.
Thursday 10/16
S 50 60 70 75 77
C 60x2 90x2 100x2.
Friday 10/17
SS 50x2 60x2 70x2
SC 60x2 80x2 90x2.
- Some other notes: This is a specialized program. I was having problems with locking the elbows out on both jerk and snatch. That’s why my coach gave me the mirror press stuff. Also, I was having some foot balance issues (remember, I’m just 10 months in). Therefore, I was given a ton of slow snatch and slow cleans, where I take twice as long to get the bar to the knees, and then accelerate at normal speed. Finally, there is a lot more snatch than clean. Obviously my snatch is very inefficient compared to my strength, and it was very inconsistent as well.
Thanks guys for taking time to help me out. I have had similar issues with the fat problem that you both have had. On one or two occassions I have tried to tighten up my diet, only to feel terrible during my workouts. On the other hand, I haven’t tried eating big and clean at the same time. Sadly, if I’m not dieting, I’ll usually eat almost whatever I want. Maybe I can tinker some more.
Currently, I’m thinking of doing the following:
- Dropping one day of olympic lifting workouts.
- Bumping my workouts to MWFS.
- Adding OVT in on T/Th
- Adding IBUR on 2 week nights to serv as GPP, with hopefully some fat loss.
- Begin a more carb-restrictive diet
Then eventually, say 2 months later, once I am more satisfied with my physique I can:
- Go back to my normal weightlifting routine
- Change my upperbody work to strength based HTT or something similar, on two nights a week. Or simply add some upperbody work (pressing/pulling) on the end of my workouts.
- Swith to a more moderate diet, like Don’t Diet plan, or something.
- Doing normal GPP workouts throughout the week, to try to maintain endurance/ leanness.
What do you think? I believe my O lifts may take a little hit, probably due to diet. However, I should easily be able to drop a weight class, as I currently weigh 89kg. Also, we don’t have another meet in site until next April, when we will go to the collegiate/U23 championship. This should give me plenty of time to maximize my potential. I really want to take this thing (OLing) in perspective. If I reach a point where I know that if I just put more into it I would be a great lifter, then I would do it. However, I’m not sure its worth it for me personally to keep up what I’ve been doing year after year, only to break the occaisional pr and get medals at local meets. Its a tough issue for me.
Scotty,
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say I think you would be better not doing OVT first up :eek:
I know CT had very good success with it when dieting but I think he was the exception not the norm. It is a bodybuilding program and the feedback I have had from friends who have done it pretty intense and best suited for a mass phase.
Here are some suggestions - (but see what others think also…)
- Move to MWFS for Oly Workouts
- Use T & T for IBUR or HIIT and maybe a light gym session for additional Weak areas at first to see how much energy you can afford (do running after weights once the running speed isn’t too fast).
- Stick to the low reps - OVT with higher reps might be too draining on a lower Carb diet.
- Try the Low Carb diet idea and see how it goes - but move into it, by say- Week 1 stopping Carbs after 1800, then the following week stopping Carbs after 1200 and then in Week 3 try keeping Carbs to just post workout and weekends.
- This should prevent a sudden loss in energy and motivation.
- You should abviously try and increase proper energy and fat intake from fish and flax while maintaining the meat fats etc.
… just a few ideas.
Surely a form of HIIT based on sprinting would be both beneficial to lifters and help majorly with any fat issues?