Back to Basics
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Posted under General Informaiton , Strength Training , Bob Strauss , Training Techniques

With today’s new routines designed for today’s equipment, today’s lifter is putting a whole new array of stresses on the human body and creating new dynamics and new injuries. Many lifters are wholly using routines like “Westside” or “Metal Militia” most of the time they train. What we are seeing is progress in the sport but at the cost of injuries, and lifters wearing out before their time. The biggest example is in the bench press where routines commonly require a lifter to use weights way above and beyond what the raw bench press would be. These extra stresses put the lifter in danger of more joint problems and soft tissue damage. More over some lifters are using these routines year long to increase their lifts. I feel that using these routines too often can cause injury and overtraining. These overload routines are very good to prepare a lifter for the contest. They are not ;however, good for prolonged use to raise the lifters’ general level of performance. Over a prolonged period of time they can lead to joint damage, muscle tears , and other soft tissue damage due to over stressing.

As was mentioned before the bench press is often trained using these methods. Lifters use floor presses, board presses, bench presses with bands , chains , or bungees to simulate the bench press as is done with a bench shirt. This kind of routine is needed for todays’ equipped bench pressing. Again the mistake here is the prolonged use of too heavy of weights with low reps. I will use here as an example a lifter who bench presses 350 without equipment and 400 with. The lifter must do some kind of overloads to 405 during the process. The key amount of poundage to consider the raw maximum and how many workouts in which the weight at lockout approximates the raw bench or the weight on the bar. Young or beginning lifters whose joints are not yet used to overloads and master lifters who have years of toil should spend less time in this phase than lifters who are in their prime. The lifter who is in their prime should only take 3-4 weeks maximum in the 350-400 range of resistance and 1-2 above 400 while the young or master lifter may only take 2-3 in the 350-400 range and 0-1 above 400. The squat and deadlift are similar here in concept , just differing in exercises and amounts of weights.

What is needed and works for all lifters is a return back to the basics of lifting. Powerlifting was derived from a combination of bodybuilding and olympic lifting movements. The lifter needs to spend much or more time during the year doing more basic exercises with weights that are lower than 55%-70% of the raw maximum ( or estimated raw maximum ) The lifter starts out with a conditioning program that includes higher reps ( up to 15 for bench , 20 for squat , and 10 for deadlift . The forms of the lifts can vary as well . At this phase, many bodybuilding movements are added to work the secondary muscles. With the bench press multiple sets of reps are used and then followed by inclines, delt work , lat work, and arm work on the heavy day. On the light day closegrips , dumbell chest work, front and rear delt work and lat work is preformed. For the squat, the main day includes high reps and fast sets, while the second day features a specialty squat with reps in the 10’s. With the deadlift, one practices the actual lift with light weights and follows with a form of the lift such as stiffleg, romanian, block work, but here again the weights used are light. Much time is spent working the actual lift of a full range form of it with weights that are light and the key here is to build muscle. training endurance and use this time to raise one’s base level of strength and conditioning. The exercises chosen are to help the lifter with past injuries, overcome sticking points or weak muscle groups. This basic phase of training looks like bodybuilding, and perhaps it is , but more lifters need to pay attention to building their base level of strength.

Building a solid base is very important to all lifters, no matter what they wear when they compete, or what time in their career they are in. Lifters who have hit sticking points, had injuries, and especially lifters who have had under five years experience need to spend more time with this basic conditioning phase. Getting back to basics , the power three and its forms will never fail to produce results at any stage in ones career. After the base is re-established for each meet, then the lifter can enter a powerbuilding phase using overloads or the appropriate workout program.