Bill Starr > 3 dagen

[RDG86]

Dat zou helemaal top zijn, bedankt vast!!

 

[chrisk]

The very first step in getting started on a strength program is to have a well-organized plan. Sit down and take some time to lay out your routine so that you know exactly what you're going to do for the next few weeks. You don't have to plot out the exact weights you'll use, for it may take a few workouts before you know your upper limits, but you should write down the lifts you want to do, along with the sets and reps for each.

Most people like to sets aside a few months during the winter or summer for pure strength work, leaving the spring and fall for more specialized training. By cycling their training in this way, they stay motivated and can move up their top-end weights more effectively. Others, however, enjoy strength training and do it for longer periods, often switching to a different routine for only a few months each year.

In any event, a strength cycle should last at least six weeks. Longer is even better, but any less than six weeks won't be nearly as productive.

Start With The Basics

A strength program should be geared to increasing your strength and also your size. You accomplish this by focusing on the larger muscle groups - the shoulder girdle, back and legs. The smaller muscles, such as the biceps, triceps and calves, will take a backseat to their larger brothers for a time. They'll get some attention but not nearly on the same scale as what the larger groups get. Force the big bodyparts to grow and the smaller ones will follow.

For anyone who's starting out on a strength cycle for the first time - or who's just getting back after an extended layoff - I recommend a three-days-per-week routine. I fully understand that the split routine is very much in vogue, but it's not the best system for building a solid strength base. You can switch over to a split routine after each strength cycle. For now you work all the major muscle groups at each session. Then you can spend some time exercising the smaller muscle groups or some area that needs special attention.

Three days a week works nicely for a great many people simply because it's easier to get to a gym three times a week than it is to make four trips. It also gives you adequate rest between workouts, which is critical to making progress.

Strength training is concentrated training. You attack the larger groups, add some auxiliary work for the smaller muscles, then leave the gym. In too many programs the trainee lingers in the facility doing set after set of a specific exercise - usually one that's rather fun to do like curls or pushdowns. As a result, gains come more slowly because the extra work taps into the energy supply. More is not always better when it comes to strength work, especially in the earlier stages.

For the first couple of weeks the three-days-per-week routine might be rather demanding, since you're working all the major groups each time. The body will adapt quickly, however, and then begin to thrive on the big muscle movements.

Select Exercises That Are Productive

Note that I didn't say select exercises that are fun. That's because there are some exercises you must include in a strength program that really aren't fun at all. In fact, they're downright ugly at times. Squats, deadlifts and good mornings aren't usually placed in the fun category, especially when they involve serious weights. I happen to believe that if you enjoy every exercise there's something missing in your routine. I realize that this is completely against the philosophy of most experts, but hitting a weak spot with a difficult movement isn't going to be enjoyable, at least not at first. If an exercise is productive, though, it suddenly becomes much more palatable.

The emphasis on getting stronger is aimed at making progress, not just having a great time in the gym. The enjoyment factor comes directly from the gains you make, and believe me, that's sufficient. I understand that it would be terrific to be able to build a program around flat-bench presses, inclines, curls and maybe a few token sets of squats and pulls and accomplish significant gains in size and strength, but, unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way

The main reason that so many trainees in those high-priced, machine-loaded la-di-da gyms across the country remain so embarrassingly weak is that they just don't want to do the hard work or the difficult exercises. The problem is, merely showing up in the right outfit and going through a routine a cheerleader could do without breaking a sweat isn't going to bring you the desired results. In order to get stronger, you have to exert yourself and do some exercises that make your eyes cross.
One of the main criteria in the selection of your exercises should be your weak point - or in the case of most trainees your weak points. That's not always an easy thing to do, since no one really likes to do exercises in which he or she is particularly weak. That's especially true when people train with friends. It's a great deal more satisfying to work on those lifts in which you're at least semi-strong. In order to achieve a higher level of strength, you have to suck up your ego and lean on the weaker movements.

The exercises selected must be serious ones, not token movements performed on machines. If, for example, you have trouble picking up a full bag of groceries, you need to start doing deadlifts and good mornings and not be content with merely doing lat pulls by the hour.

If this is your first pure strength cycle or you're about to start back after a layoff, your program should revolve around free weights, not machines. The reasoning is basic. Free weights involve your tendons and ligaments much more than machines. The attachments are the sources of pure strength. You'll use machines in the overall program but strictly for the auxiliary work.

Emphasize the Three Major Muscle Groups

In order to become stronger, you have to do a primary, core exercise for each of the three major muscle groups: the shoulder girdle (or upper body), back, and legs. In the beginning the more basic the core exercise, the better. Full-range movements are also better than partial movements.

As you grow stronger and discover some specific weaker areas in those major groups, you can turn your attention to bringing them up to standard. For example, after doing squats for three weeks and steadily moving up the top-end weight, you notice for the first time that your knees have a tendency to turn inward when you use heavy weights. This is an indication that your adductors are lagging in strength, so you must spend time building up that group. Working on the adductor machine or doing wide-stance squats will remedy the problem. Recognizing and remedying your weaknesses will speed the rate at which you are able to gain strength, as well as saving you from some major injury-based setbacks later on.

There are quite a few productive exercises to choose from, which provides greater variety in any program. Some people even prefer to plan two separate programs, doing one during one week and the other the following week. This is particularly useful after you establish a solid base.

For the shoulder girdle the best core exercises are bench presses, incline presses, dips and overhead presses. Because they require different ranges of motion, you must include them all in your strength program. Of all the areas of the body the shoulders are actually the most vulnerable to injury. Why? Because the joints are relatively smaller than those of the hips and legs and cannot tolerate the amount of work those potentially stronger joints can.

There are many productive strength exercises for the back, including deadlifts, bent-over rows, stiff legged deadlifts, good mornings, clean high pulls and shrugs. The back is the most neglected bodypart for most trainees. This occurs partially because back exercises are really demanding, but it’s also due to the fact that the back is seldom seen. Out of sight, out of mind, out of strength.

Yet the back is typically the fastest of all bodyparts to respond to strength training. That’s because it’s so potentially powerful that once those large, overlapping muscle groups are sufficiently stimulated, they grow rapidly. In many cases the back muscle have never really been challenged, so they lie dormant, waiting for the right stimulus.

When organizing your program, keep in mind that the back is fashioned in three separate parts: upper, middle and lower. There are, of course, several groups that overlap, such as the traps and lats, but for the sake developing your program, the concept of three separate training areas works nicely. Shrugs and high pulls hit the upper back, pulls hit the upper back, bent-over rows and deadlifts hit the middle, and good mornings and stiff-legged deadlifts hit the lower back.

You only need one core exercise for legs - full squats. I know there are other leg exercises, but none can really match the productivity of full squats. Later on, if you want to add some variety to your leg routine, you can include lunges or even leg presses, but initially you want to stay with full squats - not partial squats. The full movement activates so many more muscle groups - especially in the hips, glutes and legs - that you should do only the full movement from the very beginning.

Auxiliary Exercises

After you complete the three core exercises in a workout, you can spend additional time working the small groups. Again, you should give attention to the weakest groups, not just those that are showiest.


The auxiliary exercises will take a backseat to the primary movements until you establish a solid strength foundation. Then you can include more auxiliary work in the program. It's a mistake, however, to do too much auxiliary work in the early stages. The few extra sets may seem harmless, but they are in fact detrimental to your progress. You should use higher reps and adhere to the 40-rep rule. This translates to two sets of 20, three sets of 15 and so on. Don't do any auxiliary movements for fewer than 12 reps in the beginning. Later on this is permissible.


Sets and Reps for the Core Exercises

The sets and reps formula for increasing strength was established many years ago, and it's still quite valid. Four to six sets of six reps gets the job done nicely. I use the mean and stay with five sets of five. That makes the math so much easier. For a few of the primary exercises, however, especially those targeting the lower back, I find that slightly higher reps are better. Good mornings and stiff-legged deadlifts are more productive when you do them for eight to 10 reps. This gives you a higher workload but without undue stress. The same idea holds true for any exercise in which you're particularly weak.

Form if the cornerstone of any strength program. You should never let yourself get sloppy in any exercise just to elevate more weight. Resorting to rebounding the bar off your chest or excessive bridging while bench-pressing or letting your back round too much in the deadlift will eventually deter progress. The exercises are only effective when done correctly. There are, of course, variations in individual technique, and it's acceptable to alter the form to some degree, but you must take care to learn proper technique from the beginning.


I have listed two basic programs to get you started. You may decide to stay with one of them for a month or so, then switch over to the other, or you might decide to do both, alternating them every other week. It's most important to be consistent and not miss a session, as consistency is really the key to making gains. If you're forced to miss a workout, make it up the next day.

In any event, warm up before training and stretch thoroughly after each session. Do an abdominal exercise like situps or crunches before lifting and end the workout wit another one, like leg raises.


Next time I'll discuss how to develop the program further and explain more strength training principles.

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Sample Beginning Routine A

Monday (heavy day)

Squats (to limit) - 5 x 5
Deadlifts (to limit) - 5 x 5
Bench Presses (to limit) -5 x 5
Incline dumbbell presses - 2 x 20
Calf raises - 3 x 30

Wednesday (light day)

Squats (50 pounds less than Monday) - 5 x 5
Good Mornings - 4 x 8
Incline Presses - 5 x 5
Straight arm pullovers - 2 x 20
Curls - 2 x 20


Friday (medium day)
Bench presses - 4 x 8, 2 x 2
Squats (20 pounds less than Monday) - 5 x 5
Shrugs - 5 x 5
Overhead presses - 5 x 5
Chins - 4 x failure




Sample Beginning Routine B

Monday (heavy day)

Squats (to limit) - 5 x 5
Bent-over rows (to limit) - 5 x 5
Bench presses (to limit) - 5 x 5
Incline dumbbell presses - 2 x 20
Calf raises - 3 x 30


Wednesday (light day)

Squats (50 pounds less than Monday) - 5 x 5
Stiff-legged deadlifts - 4 x 8
Overhead presses - 3 x 5, 2 x 3
Dips - 4 x failure
When you can do 20 reps, start adding weight and
drop the reps back to eight.
Curls - 2 x 15


Friday (medium day)

Squats - 3 x 5, 2 x 3 (10 pounds more than Monday on last set)
Clean-grip high pulls - 5 x 5
Incline presses - 5 x 5, backoff set - 1 x 8
Close-grip bench presses - 3 x 12
Chins - 4 x failure

---------- Post added 5 October 2013 at 15:58 ----------

heavy light medium opties

One of the basic principles of strength training is the heavy, light and medium system. Like all the other concepts used int this physical science, it's not a new development. The old-time strongmen incorporated into their routines the idea of doing a less-than-strenuous workout after a difficult one, but it wasn't actually pout into a definite usable system until the mid 1930's, when Mark Berry wrote about it in his book Physical Training Simplified. From that point on aware strength athletes not only used the heavy, light and medium system, but they also understood why it was so beneficial.

In a great many cases, though, a person who's just starting out on the quest for greater strength learns about this principle from the road of hard knocks. That's exactly how I learned it. When I first started lifting weights, all I really understood was that I enjoyed the results of getting bigger and stronger. I believed that I had to work at 100 percent every time I went to the gym or I wouldn't achieve the desired improvement. Each time I left the gym I was completely spent. Anything less and I figured I'd wasted my time. I was aware enough to recognize that my workouts were becoming more difficult as the week progressed, but I thought that was natural.

My first inkling that I needed a less-than-all-out workout came when I was stationed at West Palm Beach Air Force Base. This was in 1955, and the fitness movement hadn't yet come to South Florida. The gym closed at 4 p.m., so I trained on my lunch hour three days a week. My equipment consisted of some dumbbells, a standard bar and enough 25-pound plates to end up with 175 on the bar.

I did basic exercises, one of which was the clean and jerk. One day I was feeling especially perky and managed to put the 175 over my head. I was elated and left the loaded barbell right on the mat where I had dropped it. It was a monument to my amazing accomplishment. When I showed up for my next workout two days later, the loaded barbell was right where I'd left it. I had to admit, it did look impressive with all those plates. I was doing some situps and noticed a youngster ride into the gym on his bike. The loaded barbell caught his attention, as I hoped it would.

"Who lifted that?" he asked with admiration.
"I did," I informed him proudly.

He studied me for a long moment, obviously not very impressed with what he saw. "Let me see you do it," he challenged.

With complete confidence I walked over to the mat, set myself and pulled on the bar. It felt like a ton. After a dozen attempts I did finally manage to clean the weight to my shoulders, but I was never able to lock it out overhead. Finally, I had to give up, for I was completely worn out.

The brat never said another word. He only chuckled and rode out of the gym.

Totally humiliated and confused, I left the gym as well. This very abbreviated session afforded me the rest I needed so that the next time I came to the gym I could lift the 175 rather easily. Naturally, no one was around to see me. I still didn't understand what had happened, but from then on I started training on a more intuitive level. On Mondays I always felt stronger and had more energy, so I did more exercises and lifted a bit longer than I did on the other days, when I felt more tired. Still, I didn't have any system, which is still true for most beginners.

Sid Henry of Dallas was my first coach, and I've always felt fortunate in that, because he was excellent. He instilled consistency of training and discipline. He was the one who explained exactly why we did certain exercises on specific days of the week. He introduced me to the heavy, light and medium system, and it has proven to be one of the most beneficial ideas I've ever come across in strength training.

By using this principle properly, you can become stronger by slowly increasing your workload and intensity - without becoming chronically overtrained.

The principle is relevant to beginners, intermediates and advanced strength trainers, but each applies it in a slightly different manner.
For beginners the amount of weight used on the various days is based on the top weights lifted on the heavy day. For intermediate and advanced lifters the guidelines depend on total workload, intensity and the severity of the exercises.

Most beginners do as I did, training just as hard as they can at every workout. Progress does come from this charge-ahead tactic, at least for a time, because all the exercises are new and the muscles respond to the stimulation. In most cases beginners are also putting on bodyweight, and that’s the very best way to add some quick strength. In addition, the weight work increases blood testosterone levels, which also promotes muscular growth. Beginners’ enthusiasm is generally enough to carry them along for several months of productive workouts, but eventually their going balls-out at every session becomes a detriment.

In the majority of instances once beginners hit their first plateau, they firmly resolve that they need to do more work – which invariably leads to overtraining. Overtraining, in itself, isn’t as terrible as some would lead you to believe, for everyone must overtrain at some point in order to move to the next strength level. The problems come when people don’t realize that they’re in a state of overtraining and continue to pile on more work.

Progress not only comes to a standstill, it starts going in the other direction. The next step in this downward spiral is some kind of injury, and there’s nothing in strength training that deters progress as much as an injury. Beginners, not knowing how to cope with an injury or how to work around it, often get so discouraged they quit training altogether. By using the heavy, light and medium system, however, they can avoid falling into this trap.

I explained in an earlier article that I believe beginners should limit their routines to core exercises for the three major muscle groups, then add a couple of auxiliary movements for the smaller muscles. A core exercise for the shoulder girdle, back and legs at each session, along with exercises for the triceps, biceps, deltoids, calves and abs is enough.

I start beginners on the big three: bench press, squat and power clean. If someone is unable to perform any of these exercises, I substitute. The incline bench is as good as or better than the flat bench. Power snatches, high pulls or deadlifts will work the back if a person can’t do power cleans. The one exercise that I never use a substitute for unless there’s an injury is the full squat. Squats are the keystone of any strength program.

The value of using the heavy, light and medium system becomes evident when you build a program around the big three. All have a purpose in the grand plan. The heavy day is rather obvious, as it allows you to handle the heavy weights and increase your workload. The medium day is really a setup for the next heavy day, but it also helps add to the weekly workload. Later on it gives you more variety in the program.

Of the three days the light day is the least appreciated, and it’s the one most abused by beginners. They cannot understand the rationale behind handling such light weights. To many who are anxious to get strong fast, it seems a waste of time, but that’s far from the truth. The light day is, in fact, the hub of the heavy, light and medium principle.

For beginners the light day serves two necessary purposes. It gives their bodies the chance to recuperate after the heavy day, and it gives them the opportunity to perfect their technique on the exercises. One of the basic truisms of strength training is that you’ll improve much faster on any exercise once you master it. This is always the case with the core exercises, but it’s also true for the auxiliary movements such as upright rows, straight-arm pullovers and even curls.

On the heavy day, typically Monday, beginners do all the core exercises for five sets of five, using max poundage on the final set. Five sets of five is the basic strength formula for all beginners on all the core exercises. On the light day, which always follows the heavy day, the top-end weights for the primary exercises are 80 percent of what was used on Monday. The medium day, which follows the light day, calls for 90 percent of what was used on the heavy day.

Here’s how a weekly program for the squat works out. Let’s say a beginner can squat 225 for five reps on his final set of his heavy day. That would make his top-end set on his light day 180 pounds and his medium day, 203. Sometimes, though, the math gets to be a problem. That’s certainly the case for coaches who are setting up programs for a sports team and may have 50 or 60 kids to consider.

So I use a simplified system. In out example the beginner does sets with 135, 165, 185, 205 and ends with 225 for five on his heavy day. Instead of figuring percentages, I merely have him use the third set of the sequence for the top weight on his light day, and the fourth set for his medium-day top weight, which are 185 and 205, respectively. This trick comes out very close to the actual percentages and can be calculated by the dullest of minds.

After people have been training for a few months, they often find that they can’t move all their lifts up on their heavy day. They get fatigued after the second core exercise, and the third gets the short end of the stick.

An effective way to overcome this problem is to alternate the heavy light and medium exercises for he different bodyparts and work them on different days. That lets trainees work harder on just one core exercise per workout and hit the other two in a light or medium fashion.

Using this idea, our example lifter works the squat heavy on Monday, when he also goes light on his back exercise and medium on his shoulder girdle work. On Wednesday he hits the squats light, works his back medium and his shoulder girdle heavy; and on Friday he squats medium, hits his back heavy works shoulder girdle light.

Most beginners, however, can handle two heavy lifts on Monday and do the others on either Wednesday or Friday, filling in the light and medium sequence accordingly. That’s the next step in the progression – to do at least two heavy movements in one workout. Once our trainee’s strength base gets wide enough, he’ll be able to handle three lifts in one session.

This plan also works well for intermediate and advanced strength athletes and for trainees who are rushed for time. If you concentrate on doing well on two core exercises, it’s permissible to hurry through the third. It doesn’t really matter in what order you do the various core exercises just so long as you follow a heavy day with a light one.

Working only two lifts heavy in a session lets you add to your workload on those lifts. You can also add a back-off set of eight along with three sets of calf raises.

Once people find that they can recover from the above routine, they’re ready for a more advanced level of training. Now the game changes drastically. The heavy, light and medium system is still very valid, but it’s approached in a different manner.

Instead of doing the same exercises three times a week, lifters now do different exercises for the various bodyparts. The exercises themselves determine whether they’re used on the heavy, light or medium days. For exercises that are performed more than once, such as the squat, the variations depend on workload, intensity and severity.

This may seem a bit confusing, so I’ll explain, using back exercises as my example. For the advanced program our lifter chooses to do deadlifts, good mornings and shrugs. His best deadlift is 225 for 5 reps, but he can shrug 405 for five. He’s just started doing good mornings, so he only uses 125 pounds for eight reps. The first step is to figure the workload. The five sets of five in the deadlift – 135, 185, 205, 235 and 255 – result in a total workload of 5,575 pounds. The shrugs, also done for five sets of five – with 135, 225, 315, 365 and 405 – produce a yield of 7,225 pounds.

Since the intensity and workload of the shrug are much higher than those of the deadlift, our lifter is tempted to make shrugs his heavy day exercise, but he quickly realizes that it’s the wrong move. This is a case where the severity of the exercises is the deciding factor. Deadlifts are much more demanding than shrugs, so even though the workload and top-end weights are lower, they belong on the heavy day.

When it comes to intensity, good mornings are very high on the scale, but because the relative weight used is so much lower, they’ll always remain a light-day exercise.

That brings us to the next important point concerning the heavy, light and medium system. For advanced lifters there’s really no such thing as an easy day, as there is in the beginning and intermediate stages. All the exercises in the program are demanding, even though the amount of weight used is often considerably less than what’s used on the heavy day.

On the light day, Wednesday, for example, our lifter substitutes inclines for the flat-bench press. He can bench 245 for five reps but has to struggle with 175 for five on the incline. That makes the incline the perfect light day shoulder girdle exercise. He still has to work at 100 percent to improve his numbers on the incline, so it’s not the least bit easy, but the weights used and total workload are much less than what he handles on the heavy day.

He can substitute lunges or leg presses for squats, but with those movements he must be very careful to work them lightly compared to his heavy day. Doing too many sets and handling too much weight will throw the sequence out of sync.

At some point our advanced strength trainer will have to add a fourth training day so he can increase his weekly workload. Trying to do too much in three days makes the workouts too long, and that’s counterproductive. Tuesday is the best day for the extra day. This is a light day, since it follows Monday, the heavy day. So what should Wednesday be? Another light day? It’s not beneficial for advanced lifters to have too many light days. The sequence for a four-day routine is as follows: heavy, light, medium, medium.

Overhead presses and/or dips fit nicely into this extra day. Our lifter still has to work them hard, but the weights are considerably lighter than what he used on Monday. Power snatches or high pulls satisfy the back, and calf raises add a bit of workload to the legs. None of these movements is demanding, but the numbers start adding up.

Another way for very advanced lifters to use the heavy, light and medium principle is to alternate heavy and medium weeks. I don’t advocate doing a light week unless a person is on the move or has some good reason for not training regularly. On the heavy week our trainee can do more sets and reps and also the more difficult exercises. Then the next week he can pull back slightly on his workload and switch to a few exercises that are not quite as demanding; for example, he can substitute high pulls for deadlifts or dumbbell bench presses for barbell benches. This system helps build more variety into the program, and the change in total workload gives his body a certain degree of rest.

The heavy, light and medium principle of strength training is a tried-and-true concept. Incorporate it into your program and it will bring you to a much higher level of strength fitness. Leave it out, and you’re bound to have problems.

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[chrisk]

Variatie

One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is, “How can I fit all the exercises I want to do into my program?” Sometimes their lists take up most of the page. If they did all those movements in a week their workouts would last three hours or more, which is certainly not a wise approach.

I have a couple of suggestions. One way to resolve the problem is to select a reasonable number of exercises from your list, do them diligently for a specific period of time – say, six weeks – and then change your routine and do the other exercises. That works well for many people because they thrive on frequent change.

Another effective method is to organize two separate programs and do them on alternate weeks. I simply call one routine A and the other routine B. I always make one a bit more difficult than the other, which gives me a heavy weekly workload alternated with a medium one. That’s the best arrangement. Otherwise you’re putting two heavy workouts back to back, and you don’t want that. It doesn’t matter which program is which, but it does help you to know the total amount of work you’re doing in each of the programs. So you’ll have to take the time to do some figuring – or you’ll just be guessing. Figuring workload doesn’t take that much time. You can do the math during the commercials while you’re watching TV. See here - http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2008/03/understanding-workload-bill-starr.html

Setting up two different workouts offers many advantages. The most obvious is that it gives you lots of variety. That’s a good thing, as variety increases motivation. Doing many exercises rather than a few also helps you build more balanced strength and lets you spend more time on the weaker and smaller groups. For example, you may want to include good mornings and stiff-legged deadlifts, but it’s difficult to do both during the same week, especially if you’re doing many other movements that involve the lower back. With two programs, however, you can do good mornings one week and stiff-legs the next and get the benefit of both. For some inexplicable reason the body seems to forget how miserable an exercise is after two weeks. So you don’t dread good mornings or those heavy deadlifts if you only do them every other week. In fact, you start looking forward to them.

Those who want to include some Olympic lifting in their routines find that having two different workouts helps a great deal. If lifters work clean and jerks hard along with heavy squats on Monday and come back the following day and do snatches, the snatches won’t be as productive as the clean and jerks. With a two-week plan, however, they can do snatches every other Monday and the two quick lifts will stay in balance. When gains come consistently, motivation soars.

Whenever people ask me to set up a program for their specific needs, the first thing I have them do is list all the exercises they want to do. Often, the number of exercises is extreme, and I eliminate some, but usually I can deal with them. Recently, I received a request that was a bit unusual in the lifter wanted to do Olympic lifts but also many other strength movements, including benches, inclines, deadlifts and a host of auxiliary work.

It was an extensive list, including bench presses, incline presses, overhead presses, push presses, front squats, back squats, good mornings, stiff-legged deadlifts, clean and jerks, power cleans, clean high pulls, hang cleans, power snatches, snatches, snatch high pulls, hang snatches, shrugs, calf raises, pullovers, triceps pushdowns, weighted dips and curls.

The only exercise I nixed was curls. Adding biceps size isn’t a good idea for anyone who wants to do heavy cleans. A large biceps will interfere with racking the weight properly. Besides, with all the pulling exercises in the program, the trainee’s biceps would get plenty of work. I told him that if he absolutely had to include a specific exercise for his biceps, he should substitute chins for curls. Chins also strengthen the back, so they’re useful to any lifter. Note that I put them at the tail end of the routine. I told him that the only way he could get all the exercises in would be to train four days a week. He agreed, since he was, in fact, a rather advanced strength athlete.


Week A

Monday
Clean and jerks
Clean high pulls
Front squats
Weighted dips

Tuesday
Power snatches
Full snatches
Snatch high pulls
Overhead presses
Calf raises

Wednesday
Back squats
Good mornings
Bench presses
Straight-arm pullovers

?
Friday
Back squats
hang clean or hang snatch
shrugs
push press
chins
?

Week B

Monday
Snatches
Snatch high pulls
Back squats
Weighted dips

Tuesday
Power cleans
Cleans
Clean high pulls
Jerks from the rack
Calf raises

Wednesday
Front squats
Stiff-legged deadlifts
Incline presses
Pushdowns

Friday
Back squats
Deadlifts
Bench presses
Chins

It is, indeed, a great deal of work, but I’ve had many athletes who could carry this load and recover. Obviously, some lifts, such as the deadlift, which I have him doing at the end of the week, won’t move up as fast as those performed earlier. In that case, however, he does the deadlift to benefit his clean and snatch. People who are more interested in improving their deadlift will have to move it into a more prominent position in the week.

Since this person’s primary interest is in improving the two Olympic lifts, he must regard the bench press differently from the way he’d look at it if he wanted to make gains on it. The bench press is often troublesome to people who do overhead exercises such as jerks because they tend to tighten the shoulders. There are two ways to keep that from happening. One is to stretch your shoulders after every set of bench presses and do more stretching at the end of the workout. The other is to avoid high reps. You don’t want to stimulate your pecs as much as hit the attachments, so do triples, doubles and even singles.

I recommend that Olympic lifters shun the flat-bench press altogether, but that doesn’t sit well with collegiate athletes because they’re always tested on the bench at the end of their off-season program. Using low reps and doing lots of stretching will prevent problems.

In the program listed here, I kept the auxiliary exercises in the same order in both workouts. That works out fine, since none of them are high-skill movements. Also, as you would use relatively light poundages on them, they don’t require the same mental concentration as the core exercises.

It may appear that there are far too many exercises on some days – Tuesdays, for example – but the power cleans and power snatches are warmups for the full movements. And since you do the power snatches in sets of threes and power cleans in fives, you can do them quickly. The few warmup sets add to the total volume for the day, help warm the body and set the correct line of pull for the more complicated full clean and full snatch.

All the workouts take an hour and a half or less. On week A you have the choice of doing either hang cleans or hang snatches. Which of the two quick lifts you choose will depend on which needs more work. If they’re balanced, alternate them each time they come up.

I didn’t list the sets and reps because they’ll change every time on most of the exercises, like the clean and jerks, snatches, high pulls, front squats, push presses and jerks from the rack. You’ll do 3 cleans and 2 jerks and do all the rest for 3 reps – although you can do warmup sets of 5. You can also vary the sets and reps on the good mornings and stiff-legged deadlifts, but the change will be slight: 4 sets of 10 to 5 sets of 8. It’s not much of a difference, but it does stimulate the lumbars in a different way.

For the power cleans, inclines, overhead presses, push presses and deadlifts I recommend alternating the sets and reps on a three-week cycle:

1) 5 sets of 5
2) 3 sets of 5 plus 3 sets of 3
3) 3 sets of 5 followed by 3 singles

It’s not a good idea to end up doing singles on all of those exercises in the same week, unless it happens to be a test week, so juggle the cycles around.

I’ve already addressed how trainees wanting to do the Olympic lifts should deal with the bench press, but if you aren’t interested in overhead lifting, use this three week cycle for your bench. If you bench twice a week, do the cycle on your heavy day and perform 2 sets of 8 and 2 heavy doubles on your other bench day.

I use this for the back squats: 5 sets of 5 followed by a back-off set of 8. If you handle 350 for 5, at the next workout you use 360 for your final set – and so on.

Another subtle change that helps overall progress is to alter the order of the exercises. I generally encourage people who are trying to get stronger to go to the squat rack first, but if I see one of their other primary exercises falling behind, I have them do the weaker lifts first. So if your squats have moved way ahead of your pulls, do power cleans or deadlifts first for a while.

The two exceptions to that idea are good mornings and stiff-legged deadlifts. If you work your lumbars first, you can kiss your squat goodbye for that day. Lower-back exercises fit best right after squats. If you feel you need more upper-body strength, though, you can do inclines, squats and good mornings.

It’s also important to remember not to tax the smaller muscles before moving on to the larger ones. That would seem to be common sense, but many people don’t comprehend it. On numerous occasions I’ve noticed athletes doing their calf raises before squatting. When I asked them why, they said they wanted to get their calves out of the way. That’s understandable, but if your calves are fatigued, the core lift will suffer. I’ve also stopped others who were doing lots of triceps work before going to the incline or bench. Big muscle, then small muscle – a basic rule when you’re creating a routine.

Speaking of small muscles, you can vary the sets and reps on the auxiliary movements as well. As a general rule I stay with high reps on calf raises – 30s for 3 sets – but it’s beneficial to change that every so often. Do 5 sets of 15, for example, and there’s really no reason why you can’t do low reps once in a blue moon, providing you warm up properly before the work sets. See if doing 10 sets of 5 makes you sore.

Weighted dips are excellent for enhancing the upper-body power, and they thrive on change. I like this schedule for dips:

1) 4 sets of 8
2) 5 sets of 5
3) 2 sets of 5, and then
4) Max out with a single about once a month

Although I adhere to the 40-rep rule on most auxiliary movements, that’s a guideline and not carved in stone. So for curls, pullovers, pushdowns, incline dumbell presses and seated dumbell presses, periodically change the sets and reps. Instead of 2 sets of 20, do 3 sets of 15 or 4 sets of 12. The slight variation is enough to stimulate growth and enthusiasm.


Another option is to revamp your current routine completely, changing from a pure strength program to one that emphasizes higher reps. That’s certainly not a new idea. It was a common practice among the top bodybuilders when I first started lifting weights. They’d spend several months packing on weight and doing a pure strength routine. Some even entered weightlifting competitions. Then they’d switch their routines and start doing higher reps as they dropped the extra bodyweight. The strength they gained enabled them to run the reps way up and also work longer and faster.


You might try doing basic exercises like squats, deadlifts and bench presses in sets of 20 and see what happens. Be creative. If the new routine doesn’t bring the results you desire, you can always go back to the old one. But you’ll never know unless you try something different. You may just stumble on a program that works wonderfully for you.

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---------- Post added 5 October 2013 at 16:26 ----------

Workload

Understanding and using the concept of workload is very valuable to anyone who’s seriously interested in getting stronger. It provides you with useful information on just how much work you’re really doing. This, in turn, helps you analyze your current program and plan your future workouts. If you don’t know exactly how much total work you’re doing, this planning process is usually hit-or-miss.

Workload refers to the total amount of weight moved in a given day, week or month,. it is simple to calculate: Multiply the amount of weight on the bar by the number of reps performed, then the figures for all the sets together. While this process is quite basic, it’s often misunderstood. This is partly because there are two aspects of workload: the total amount of weight lifted, which is the volume, and the intensity of an exercise or workout. These two factors are closely related, but they’re not the same.

Here’s the difference. Monday, a heavy day, finds you using the following weights on the squat for five reps each: 135, 225, 295, 345 and 375. Throw in one back-off set of 295 for eight, and you have a workload for this exercise of 9,215 pounds, which you accomplish in 33 reps. The number of reps is important, for it has a bearing on the intensity, and I’ll explain that in a moment.

Friday is your medium day. You take the same warmups – 135, 225 and 295 for five reps – but then you do triples with 355 and 390, along with a back-off set of eight with 295. Your total workload is 7,870 pounds, which you do in 29 reps.

Wait a minute, you say. Since you actually handled a heavier weight than you did on Monday, isn’t this also a heavy day? No, because not only is your total weight lifted less than Monday’s total, but your intensity is less as well.

To determine the intensity, divide the number of reps into the total amount of weight lifted. On the heavy day you moved 9,215 in 33 reps, which gives you an average lift of 279 pounds. That’s your intensity for the squat on that day. On your medium day you moved 7,870 pounds in 290 reps, an intensity of 271 pounds.

Which means your light day needs to fall sufficiently below that. I believe that workload is the most valuable factor in determining poundages for your light day. In far too many instances ambitious lifters will do too much work on their light day and end up overtraining. As a general rule I have my lifters use 50 pounds less on their light squat day than they used for their top set of fives on their heavy day. So, if you did 3785 for five on Monday, you only use 325 for five on the top set of your light day.

Until you establish a solid foundation, you should only do one set at this weight, but after that I suggest building up to three work sets with the same weight. In the above example you’d do 135, 225, 325, 325 and 325 for five reps each with no back-off. This adds up to 6,675 pounds, performed in 25 reps, so the intensity is 267 pounds. That keeps you within the parameters of the heavy, light and medium system.

Quite often strength athletes feel they’re not doing enough work on their light day and start to add extra sets or more reps. One of my athletes at Hopkins was stuck at the same top-end weight for his fives and triples for more than a month. since this is rather unusual for anyone who adheres to the outlined program, I asked if he was following the routine on the board exactly. Sheepishly, he confessed that he believed the light day was much too easy, so he’d been doing 10 reps with his work weight rather than just five. “But fives were too easy,” he staunchly declared.

Even so, by doing 10 reps with those weights, he’d moved his workload to 17,850 pounds, almost double what he did on his heavy day. Without the benefit of a light day he became chronically overtrained, and all progress halted. Once he adjusted his routine and started doing fives on Wednesday, he began making progress right away.

I had another athlete who broke the light day rule, but he did it in such a subtle manner that I had difficulty spotting it. He was using the correct weight on his light day but was slipping in one extra work set. When I finally saw what he was doing and confronted him, he stated that he thought he could use the extra work, and since the poundage wasn’t really taxing, he didn’t believe it could hurt. That one extra set of 325 for five moved his total workload up another 1,675 pounds, pushing it above the medium day. Once again, the little bit of additional work on his light day was hurting his medium day, which in turn adversely affected his next heavy day.

There’s a very fine line between doing enough work and overtraining. Calculating workload is one way to know exactly what you’ve done in a session, as well as for the week and month. The figures don’t lie, and you can use them for your benefit.

Workload is extremely useful for telling you when to add more work exercises, sets and/or reps to your weekly schedule. The key to progress is to move the workload up in a steady, consistent manner. Beginners can usually add to their workloads rather quickly once they’ve spent the time to build a solid base. Beginners have lots of enthusiasm and energy, and their workloads aren’t yet so demanding that they can’t recover properly. Once the weekly workload approaches 75,000 pounds, however, you have to slow your progress.

There are several effective ways to increase your workload slowly and avoid overtraining. You can do it by adding a few extra sets on the way to your top-end weights, performing them either as warmups or intermediate sets. Another method is to do them as back-off sets after you handle your heaviest weight. They can also be done at the top end, but this technique is only for advanced strength trainers.

The best method for beginners and intermediates is to add extra back-off sets. Two sets done with a weight some 50 pounds less than max for eight to ten reps adds considerably to the workload without being overly fatiguing. Once again, caution should be the order of the day. Many, in their zeal to make rapid gains, do too much too soon and end up going nowhere. If they continue to overtrain, they become stale or even get injured. This is most prevalent on the bench press because everyone is so anxious to move that poundage up and up. So, instead of doing one or two extra sets, the ambitious beginner does six or seven, which results in too much work.

You have to increase in workload slowly. That gives your body time to adjust to the new stress and be prepared for yet more work. Push the numbers up too fast, and your progress will come to a grinding halt at any level. The rule of thumb I’ve found to be effective is 10 percent a week for beginners and intermediates and, when you reach the advanced level, 10 percent a month. It may not seem like much, but adding 7,000 pounds to a monthly workload is considerable.

The question invariably comes up, “How do I know when I should add more work.” The best method is to judge by your recovery. Early on you may get quite sore from the tamest workouts, but after a few weeks the same program becomes rather easy and you’re not at all sore the next day. That’s the signal to move your workload up a notch.

Adding a couple of sets and one auxiliary exercise is the next step. On the bench press, for example, doing two extra back-off sets with a moderate weight and two sets of straight-arm pullovers for high reps is plenty. The extra work will get you a bit sore, which is good and indicates that you have worked the muscles sufficiently. If you stay sore for three or four days, though, you did too much. Knowing the difference is certainly one of the keys to success in strength training.

At some point, however, it actually becomes detrimental to add more exercises, sets or reps because it makes the workout too long. This brings up the question, “How long can a workout be and still be productive?” Many authorities currently contend that anything over an hour is too much, explaining that after an hour the testosterone supply is depleted and you cannot get stronger. I don’t agree.

I do believe that testosterone plays an important role in strength development – but not the only role. If a person has built a solid base of training, he or she can benefit from longer workouts. I’ve had a great number of athletes who were able to train hard and heavy for two continuous hours and still make personal records on their final exercise. It’s largely a matter of conditioning.

Two-hour sessions should not be the norm, however. I reserve these longer workouts for the heavy day. The other workouts should not last more than an hour and a half. That being the case, how is it possible to move the workload up even more? Add another light day. Schedule this additional session right after your heavy day, on Tuesday. This workout should be quite short, especially at first. It’s a perfect day to do those extra exercises that don’t seem to fit into the other workouts, and it’s also a good time to work weak areas or slip in some additional beach work.

The final method of adding workload, two-workouts-a-day training, is only for the very advanced. This concept has to be brought into the total workout picture very gradually. It’s easy to get so excited about doing the extra sessions that you become overtrained in the first week. You don’t really feel the fatigue until the end of the week, and in many cases it’s too late by then. Sickness and injury often occur, so whenever an athlete embarks on two-a-days, I restrict him to one double session a week for at least a month. Sometimes it’s even wiser to limit the double session for two or three months.

Several of the top Olympic lifters at the York Barbell Club used double sessions, and they helped tremendously, but we had a rather ideal lifting situation back then. We had a gym on the premises, ample time to train, plenty of vitamins and minerals at our disposal and jobs that weren’t that strenuous. Even with all those advantages, no one did more than two double sessions per week, and most did only one.

When I first used the workload factor, I was confused about how I should figure the auxiliary exercises for the smaller muscle groups. For example, calf raises done with 250 pounds for three sets of 30 seemed to be throwing the entire concept completely off, for the amount used on that one exercise exceeded my squat work for the entire week. I came up with an idea that works nicely. In my notes for each session I enter the auxiliary exercises in brackets next to the other work done for that bodypart, so I can look at my weekly chart and see that the huge total for my legs was largely due to my adding some extra calf raises, rather than from an increase in my squat load.

The same rule applies to curls, triceps work and shoulder exercises. Two sets of 20 reps with 100 pounds on pullovers will add 4,000 pounds to the total workload, but since they’re not as strenuous as bench presses, inclines or overhead presses, unless they’re bracketed, the figures could be misleading.

Then there’s the problem of the exercises you perform without any resistance, like chins and dips. Some people prefer not to include those movements in their total workload until they’re able to use some resistance. Others count their bodyweight as the resistance. It really doesn’t matter what approach you take as long as you’re consistent. Workload is a tool to help you, and it’s not a true comparison of anyone else’s program – unless, of course, that person is using the same criteria. You bracket these exercises so you can easily tell if you’re making progress. They should not alter the total workload appreciably, since you’re basically using the same weight throughout.

It’s valuable to use workload to analyze the amount of work you’re doing for the major muscle groups. Break down the into segments for the shoulder girdle, back and legs. You can quickly determine which area is getting the most attention. Most people are really not aware that they’re giving so much priority to one area until they take the time to calculate their workload. Almost always they discover that they’re doing a great deal more for their shoulder girdles than they are for their back and legs – while it should be the other way around. Balancing the workload properly is most important for consistent, steady strength gains. Strength originates in the center of the body, so it only follows that this area should get priority in any successful strength program. Trying to build a body disproportionately not only creates an unsymmetrical physique, but it eventually leads to problems in the form of injuries.

Workload is most revealing to the strength athlete who’s planning on entering a contest. Cycling is currently in vogue among powerlifters, but few take the time to calculate their workloads and so they miss an important aspect of preparation. The typical cycle begins with lifters handling relatively light weights for fairly high reps, eights or 10’s. They then graduate to the intermediate stage, where they lift moderate poundages for five or six reps. Finally, they move to the last stage where they do top-end weights for very low reps, twos or threes.

The flaw in this plan is that the athletes actually lower their workloads and even their intensity as they approach a contest. The European Olympic lifters did just the opposite, and I find their system much more logical and productive. I have my athletes move their workloads up and up, only backing off one or two weeks before a contest. They then lower the workloads drastically but continue to keep their intensity level high. They enter the contest with a huge backlog of work and go through the competition with a sense of ease, for they have a reserve of strength.

I’ve had powerlifters move their weekly workloads up to 180.000 pounds and Olympic lifters to 200,000 pounds. Needless to say, with that kind of training background a meet is a walk in the park.

There are other uses of workload. For example, it’s very useful for someone who’s starting back after a layoff. Doing too much too fast is an easy trap to fall into, especially if you were at a high level before you stopped. If you try to move back to your previous workload too rapidly, however, you invite problems. Figure out what you were doing before the layoff, then start conservatively and move back to that number gradually.

One winter I stayed with friends in Carmel Valley. We were quite isolated, and there were no gyms available, but I did have a 100-pound set at my disposal. I decided to try and match my regular workload with that small amount of weight. At the time I was handling close to 18,000 pounds on my heavy squat day, and I determined that if I did two sets of 80 reps with the 110, I’d match my workload for the lift.

I understood that the intensity factor would be down, but since I had no alternative, I went ahead. To say that the 80 reps were grueling would be a gross understatement – I don’t think any strength athlete really enjoys doing high reps. I used the same plan for my deadlift and bench press, ultra-high reps, until I matched my previous workload for that lift.

I did this twice a week for six weeks, and when I finally did get to a gym, I found to my pleasure that I was only down 15 pounds on my top-end sets of five for the squat, deadlift and bench. I gained the 15 pounds back quickly, for I had developed a solid endurance base with the high reps.

I have one final point. Since I believe in constantly altering the set and rep sequence and always include in my program some sessions with low reps, I’m not really concerned with the intensity factor. With variety built into the program, the intensity takes care of itself.

Establishing a solid foundation of consistent, hard training and slowly expanding it is the only way to achieve a higher level of strength. It’s much like building the base of a pyramid. Once that base is sufficiently wide, you can elevate the top.

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---------- Post added 5 October 2013 at 16:30 ----------

Dat zijn de meest relevante denk ik, als je de rest ook wilt moet je maar even je email PMen

 

[RDG86]

Wow, goed veel teksten! Ga het allemaal eens rustig doorlezen. thnx!!