Behind the Scenes - Harry Paschall (1956)

 Strength & Health March 1956

Weight-lifters have more fun than anybody. Why? Because they have a purpose in life. They know what they want. Most people have no idea whatever why they are alive, what they are working for, which way they are going, or what constitutes a true state of happiness. Weightlifters and real cast-in-the-plate bodybuilders have no doubt about the business of living because they know the two things they want more than anything else… muscles and strength, or strength and muscles.

If a skull doctor was called in to examine a weightlifter’s noggin he would discover some odd lumps. Instead of the ordinary bumps of curiosity, fear, love, hate, courage, avarice, etc., familiar to run-of-mine folk, he would find a sort of relief map of the Rocky Mountain region with prominent protuberances labeled biceps, triceps, lats, deltoids, traps, pull and push. Since these lumps take the place of a lot of troublemakers like Hate, Fear and Avarice, the practicing psychiatrist might be surprised to find that the more lumps a guy has, the happier he seems to be. Perhaps it is better to have muscles in the head than the usual obsessions of fear, hate and envy.

The reason I know weight-lifters have more fun than anybody is because, since moving to Muscletown-on-the-Codorus, I am surrounded by musclemen, and their blithe actions from day-to-day convince me that a direct connection exists between muscular development and an outsize capacity for enjoying life. The only question to be settled is whether they are happier because they are so superbly healthy that all of life’s normal pleasures are intensified, or because their heads have grown so muscular that unhappy extraneous thoughts are unable to penetrate?

Over the doorway of our office you might place a sign…through these portals pass the most muscular and strongest men in the world. We have four or five former Mr. Americas working here, and as many former champion weight-lifters, together with current champions in both categories. These guys take barbell breaks instead of coffee breaks whenever they happen to wander through the big York gym on their way around the building. And a lot of the casual conversation runs something like this:

“Hiya, Steve, how are your big fat arms this morning?”

“I feel like a million, kid. Man, am I gonna take a terrific workout this afternoon!”

Long about four o’clock, all roads lead to the gym, and the casual customers who drop in to watch the great men train are entertained with unusual high jinks and sparkling repartee. These out-of-town guests frequently may be seen with a puzzled look on their pans as they sit on the visitor’s bench near the doorway. They don’t know whether our guys are mad at each other, or not, because the high power kidding that goes on could fool anybody.

Dick Bachtell, for instance, likes to train for conditioning, and he may be doing a few light repetition snatches or pull-up-and-presses on the platform before the mirror when big Jake Hitchens finishes swelling up his biceps on the incline-bench with 90 lb. dumbbells, and wanders across to look in the mirror to see if his 18 7/8 inch arms have shrunk any in the last four minutes. So Dick looks at Jake with a pained look on his face, and Jake looks back at Dick and sneers about the light weights he is using. “Whatcha looking at me fork” he flips, “haven’t you ever seen a really well-built man before?”

Then Jules Bacon starts needling Steve Stanko, who is lying on a bench doing presses by the dozen. “Why don’t you get up offa your lazy back and try to get in some kind of shape?” And Steve, who seems by some curious alchemy of the brain, to be able to think of faster retorts while doing fast presses with 300 lbs., begins to dish out sulphurous insults that would make a thin-skinned stranger reach for his shootin’ iron. The oddest part of the whole business is that these fellows can be doing heavy exercises while talking-fit-to-kill and never miss a beat or a repetition.

I shall never cease to be amazed at how happily the York lifters go about their training, even when, in some cases, this training has been going on for twenty or thirty years! That’s why I am convinced they are lucky, lucky guys to be such happy, happy people.

                    Tom Stock & Dick "Smitty" Smith

Paul Fleschler, Dave Langon, Rich Schutz

Early S & H Letter by Bruce Page (1947), and More on the Rader Pull from '89

 

Bruce Page of Toronto, Canada is an example of the fact that a small-boned individual can acquire an impressive physique through body-building. He is an active member of Bavington's gym in Toronto. 

Dear Bob,

I was one of the many unfortunate fellows to be born with light bones and consequently as a kid I was quite thin. After a very serious illness when only eight years of age, I was left in a sickly thin state and with no knowledge of what to do about it. 

At the age of 13 I began to do a little boxing and until almost 18 that was my main sport. It started me on the muscular road and kept me feeling good and healthy. 

A friend of mine at that time then introduced me to weights a I began my body building career. When I began to train I weighed about 125 and today I weight about 160 pounds. 

I have done a straight-arm pullover with 145 pounds while weighing 140 pounds. Can chin with one hand and have supine pressed 210 pounds. 

CHEST SIZE 

Big Pecs Are Only Half the Story 

by Bruce Page (1989)

 For many years now, bodybuilders have been cheating themselves out of considerable chest growth. The reason for this is the lack of thought given to the entire chest area. 

The pectoral muscles are given almost all of the attention, with little or no thought given to the expansion of the thorax itself. The ribcage of today's bodybuilder remains essentially unchanged in size as pectoral muscles are built up. These slabs of muscle dictate chest size, but there is actually much more to complete chest development. 

Years ago when bodybuilding was just becoming popular, the trainee would perform various breathing exercises to force the rib cage to expand fully. Even with very little emphasis on pectoral development, they eventually obtained great chest size and shape. If today's bodybuilders included this form of chest exercise along with their existing chest routine, they would be pleasantly surprised at the results they could obtain. 

Squats have always been the main movement for increasing the size of the quadriceps, but squats can do much more than build large thighs. This key exercise can be instrumental in enhancing weight gain and, believe it or not, even increase the chest size when performed in the breathing style. [and there are many ways to perform squats in the breathing style]. This has been shown to be true through the years as a number of weight men enlarged their all-around chizette size just by performing this one movement alone. Some made even greater gains when they included bench presses or heavy bent-arm pullovers immediately following each set of squats.  

The breathing squat takes considerable effort and determination to execute and complete sufficient reps to ensure results. It is performed like this: 

First, take a weight that you consider heavy. I might mention here that some may have to start with a more moderate poundage until they become accustomed to this movement, and then they can add weight as they gain confidence. 

Note: One method of breaking into it is to do 2 sets of 15 reps, using at first a weight that doesn't overwhelm the required breathing and your ability to do it appropriately. For reps 1 to 5 take 2 huge breaths; reps 6 to 10 take 3 breaths; reps 10 to 15 take four breaths, totaling 45 breaths. If you're not used to heavy breathing squats and dive straight into the deep end the cycle will not last long before you stale out on it. There's all manner of ways to approach the breathing squat, this article shares [Thank You, John] one of them. It's a fine way to become accustomed to the deal, thing, method at first or when returning to the breathing squat. Also, the possibility of working up first to a heavy 5 or 3, then lessening the weight and doing the breathing squats in order to "perceive" the 20-rep weight as "lighter" is also something worth experimenting with. "I save ALL my energy for the 20-rep set!" Fine and dandy. Don't experiment with this, but please keep your maw sealed shut while others do. In my experience cats enjoy being skinned in many ways. At least I think that's "joy" they're expressing those last few seconds.  

Take the weight on the shoulders in the regular position, take three greater-than-huge breaths and then perform a full squat. When you return to the start position, again take three more-than-enormous breaths before performing the next squat rep. Then, once again, when you come up out of the squat, take another three deep breaths and so on. This should continue for 20 reps.  

This type of breathing will blow out the rib cage, forcing expansion of the ribs and the intercostal muscles between them. The entire thorax area will be greatly expanded. At this point you enter into phase two of the chest expansion movement: The Rader Chest Pull. 

In 1952, I was looking for an exercise that I could apply to increase my overall chest size. Being a small-framed person with a more or less narrow rib cage, I needed something other than bench presses, flyes, etc. At this time Peary Rader published an article he called "The Rader Chest Pull." 

Note: Paul Kelso's article on chest expansion is worth a look: 

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2018/05/rib-cage-expansion-and-overall-growth.html      

I read about his experiences with this movement and felt that I might derive some significant benefit from its use. 

   

Peary Rader

I followed the instructions given in the article and was pleasantly surprised when, in a short time, I had made a considerable increase in my all-around chest size. At that time, I did not use it in conjunction with breathing squats, but I'm certain that had I done so, I would have made even greater gains. 

The Rader Chest Pull is designed to lift and stretch the rib cage, especially the cartilage and muscles in the area of the sternum. But it must be noted at this point that in order to gain good results from this movement, you must work at it as with any worthwhile exercise. Halfhearted attempts will end in failure to produce the desired result. 

In order to perform the exercise, you will require either a pipe or a pole that extends from floor to ceiling or any type of cross bar, such as that which is a part of one of the machines in the gym [power rack works wonderfully]. It must be solid enough for you to pull on without its moving. 

To perform the exercise, stand facing the object you have chosen to use and grasp it with both hands at about the height of your forehead. Stand back until your arms are straight or just ever so slightly bent, and you are standing straight with your feet neither forward or back of your body. 

Now pull down and toward you, and at the same time, breathe in as deeply as you can. You must pull as strongly as possible; that's why the object you are pulling against must be immovable. 

Hold the expanded position for just a couple of seconds, then relax and continue on in this manner. 

Excellent results have been obtained from a 20-rep set each time the exercise is performed. You may find that this number of reps is a bit much in the beginning, so it might be wise to start lower and work the reps up as you gradually increase [see above, or come up with your own break-in layout].  

You will know if the exercise is working if you experience a slight stretching as you breathe in and pull down strongly. 

If you have difficulty in finding an appropriate piece of equipment to perform this exercise on, you can use a slightly wider than shoulder width grip. The difference here is that the lats will become involved to a certain extent and will detract somewhat from the chest training. 

This combination of exercises will help increase the overall size of the chest [and do other schtuff as well . . . boost metabolism, build lung capacity, etc.]. 

The best routine would include 20 breathing squats as heavy as you can handle. While still breathing hard from the squats, immediately begin a set of chest pulls. 

First Two Weeks:

Squats - 20

Chest Pull - 1 set, maximum 20.

If you feel you can do two sets, then give it a try, but that should be the limit. If you feel that you can do more then you are simply not using enough weight in the squat nor are you breathing deeply enough, and you're probably not working hard enough on the chest pull. As you proceed with the routine, workout after workout, you will be able to increase the number of sets performed plus the weight used in the squats. 

As with any other exercise or movement or combination of exercises, you can only expect to get out of them what you put in; so, the results you obtain are up to you. The exercises work; that has been proven time and time again. 

There is more to chest development than big pecs, so why not try this combination . . . you'll be glad you did. 

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

 

Report on Trip to Bulgaria - Philippe Hedrich (1975)

 International Olympic Lifter October 1975

*Full disclosure: I know they kept spelling Ivan Abadjiev's name wrong throughout the entire article - not sure if it was a French to English thing or what, but for historical integrity I left it as printed.

The Quebec Weightlifting Federation, being a little more fortunate than the rest of the provincial associations, were able to send in December of 1974 a group of four lifters and two coaches to Bulgaria to study the training methods and the lifting program of that country. Following is a translation of the report on their experience as given by Philippe Hedrich, a member of the group, and published in the Quebec Newsletter. PARTICIPANTS Athletes: Yves Carignan, 60kg Pierre Charbonneau, 75kg Gabriel Voisard, 82.5kg Claude Hardy, 110kg Coaches: Jules Sylvain Philippe Hedrich Except for a slight delay in leaving Paris for Sofia, the trip Montreal-Paris was made without difficulty. I will not dwell on these unimportant details anymore than on the return trip, since it is my lot to write this report, on the eve of our departure in our “Pliska” hotel room in Sofia. There was six inches of snow and it was still snowing upon our arrival at the Sofia airport at 8:40 pm on Monday, December 16. We were met by Mr. Abadchiev (Edit: Abadjiev is referred in this spelling throughout the piece), the Bulgarian national coach; Mr. Kanelov, his assistant; and Mr. Alexandar Stefanow, the interpreter place at our disposal by the Bulgarian Weightlifting Fed. The latter is a young international commerce student who speaks very good English, a little French, fairly good German and very good Russian. Having arrived at the “Pliska” Hotel which is considered to be a fairly good hotel in Sofia, Mr. Abadchiev immediately concerned himself about our accommodation and having assured us that our supper would be served shortly, informed us that training would start at 10:30 the next day. We had just set foot in the life of the Bulgarian Weightlifting Elite, at least we believe that this was the way the “Elite” does things. I have presented this report under five headings for ease of reference: 1. Organization of the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation 2. Recruitment and Training 3. Competitions 4. Different “Elite” groups and their training 5. Middle and long-range aims

1. Organization

The Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation is subsidized, on the one hand directly by the Government, and on the other hand by the benefits accruing from a government controlled lottery called “TOTO” where bets are placed on the outcome of various sports events. 

In Bulgaria, it is there possible to bet on weightlifting competition results, amongst others, and athletes’ photos such as Kolev, Bikov, Todorov, Nikolov, Nurikjan, etc. are prominently displayed in cafes for publicity purposes. 

The Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation is divided into 28 regional communities (in a fashion similar to that of the Bulgarian Government itself.)  Heading the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation is a committee of 71 persons comprising:

a. Regional delegates

b. Coaches

c. Referees

d. A representative appointed by the Ministry of Finance

e. A representative appointed by the Ministry of Education

f. A representative appointed by the Ministry of Public Health

g. A representative appointed by the Communist Party

h. Several other representatives from different organizations (depending on the sports involved)

This committee selects amongst its members, the Executive Committee which consists of 11 persons and is in office for four years (after each Olympic cycle.)  The Executive Committee form sub-committees as follows – 

a. Athletes’ sub-committee (President in office, Kolev)

b. Coaches’ sub-committee (9-11 persons)

This sub-committee’s main task is to attend to methods (methodology) and training programs.  It may, if needed, be assisted by specialists in different fields, e.g.: medical, educational, psychological, etc.  Once a year this sub-committee meets with the full time paid Bulgarian Coaches (there are approximately 120) during a Convention of two to thee weeks’ duration, as required, to update the knowledge of the country’s coaches.

c. Referees sub-committee (9-11 persons) chosen from the Federation’s 71 member committee

c. Medical sub-committees

c. Sub-committees assigned for looking after children (the mandate of the last two sub-committees (d) and (e) will be revised January 1975)

All of the sub-committees meet at least once a month.

The “patron” of the Federation, who in Bulgaria is the Secretary-General (Technical Director) is Mr. Stoev.  His is employed by the Federation, although elected for a 4 year period.  Mr. Stoev has been in office since 1964 (after Tokyo.) He has requested to be relieved of his functions this year but his Federation requested that he complete his term, which he accepted. Mr. Stoev is also Secretary of the European Weightlifting Federation. 

2. Recruitment

There are in 1974, sixty weightlifting clubs in Bulgaria.  They are in fact, “all sports” clubs with weightlifting sections.  The Federation numbers 120 full time coaches and 170 so-called volunteers, all of whom are physical instructors specialized in weightlifting and who do the real recruitment in primary schools. In order to emphasize how these clubs operate and the method of recruitment, let me cite the case of the typical town of Asenovgrad which has a population of 50,000 and is situated 115 miles from Sofia.

Name of Club: Asenovez

It is a “sportsplex” entirely built and subsidized by the Bulgarian Government.  This club can cater to most sports, and has three weightlifting rooms, a medical clinic, a sauna, tennis courts, a chess game room, a projection hall and a rest lounge.

The weightlifting staff consists of three professional coaches and three volunteer physical instructors. The responsibility of the three professional coaches is to train young (and not so young) athletes but not weightlifting.

The young athletes, recruited by the physical instructors, start weightlifting training at about 11 to 12 years of age.  For one year at the rate of three times a week, they train under the supervision of the instructors but the first year is devoted entirely to theoretical and technical work, without real weights (wooden discs on the bars), films and explanations of basic movements.  After a year or more, they begin proper training under professional coaches but lift in proportion to their potential only at about the age of 14 or 15. 

The medical sub-committee is at the present time in co-operation with the Coaches sub-committee carrying out experiments with typical groups, 9 to 10 years old. 

In Bulgaria there are weightlifting classes in sports schools, but this will be covered under the heading dealing with the “Elite.”

The training of the lifters in the clubs is more or less based on that followed by the National Team and the “Elite.”

3. Competitions

Here, I will only deal with competitions at the national or international level and not with those at the regional or club level. 

Teams – Bulgaria has two championship leagues at the level:

“A”League: 19 teams

“B”League: 15 teams

These two leagues take part in three competitions a year: February, June and September.  There are nine men to a team, with a maximum of two per class.  Depending on the group (league), these competitions may last two or three days.  Points are awarded by classes, as follows:

1st in each class – 12 points

2nd “ – 10 points

3rd “ – 8 points

4th “ – 7 points

5th “ – 6 points

6th “ – 5 points

7th “ – 4 points

8th “ – 3 points

9th " – 2 points

10th " – 1 point

The Champion club for the year is that which has scored the most points durin the three competitions. 

At the end of each year the “A” league teams which have placed 9th and 10th transfer to the “B” League and the “B” league teams which have place 1st and 2nd transfer to the “A" league. 

The Juniors also have two leagues of 25 clubs each, the difference being that one league is formed of lifters 18 years of age or less while the other consists of 19 and 20 year old lifters.

An athlete may compete in a higher age group for all of that year, but he may not revert to a lower age class.  These two leagues take part in two competitions, one in April and one in July.  The first ten clubs in each league take part in the “finals” in October or November. 

The winner of the “finals” is determined by adding the points of the members of each club, of the 18 year old group and of the 19 and 20 year old groups, this to prevent the possibility of a club putting its best lifters in the same age group (19 and 20 years old.) 

The winning Junior Club is awarded the “Crystal” Cup. A club that wins the cut three times in five years retains it and an equivalent cup replaces it.  The clubs which place 1st and 2nd in the “A” league and in the Junior Leagues acquire the right to take part in the team competitions abroad. The clubs located near the border may also compete with those of adjoining countries.  The athletes who are members of an “Elite” group or of the National Bulgarian Team, must rejoin their parent clubs for team competitions. 

Individual Championships

The Bulgarian individual Championship, (also regional or club Championships) is divided into 4 age groups:

A. Senior (open)

B. 23 years of age and below (21 to 23)

C. 19 to 20 years of age

D. 18 years of age and younger

An athlete may not take part in two individual championships during the same year. A Junior may take part in a Senior Championship but in that event, he may not compete in the championship for his age group. The participation and qualifying standards for the different classes are as follows:

1. Weight class

2. Master in Sport, Bulgaria

3. Candidate, Master in Sport

4. National Senior Championship

5. Championship, 23 years of age and under

6. Regional Senior Championship

7. Championship, 19 and 20 years of age

8. Championship, 18 years of age and under

To be an Honours, Master-in-sport in Bulgaria one must have placed as follows:

a. First in European Championships

b. In the first three in the World’s Championships

c. In the first four at the Olympic Games

A Bulgarian athlete who qualified as:

a. Master in Sport receives a 15% salary bonus if he works in the sports field

b. Honours, Master in Sport receives a 25% salary bonus under the same circumstances.

An athlete who has qualified as Honours, Master in Sport, may register in any faculty of a Bulgarian university, without having to pass entrance examinations. He may follow the courses at his own speed and write his examinations on request. Athletes under 15 years of age may not compete without the approval of the medical sub-committee. 

The present Bulgarian records are:

4. The “Elite” and Their Training

In Bulgaria, there are 4 weightlifting “Elite” Groups, as follows:

a. Sport schools

b. Juniors

c. 23 years of age and under (national team reserve)

d. National Team

The number of athletes in these groups are, respectively:

a. 8 x 32 athletes

b. 32 athletes

c. 32 to 36 athletes

d. 32 to 36 athletes

At the present time there are in Bulgaria, also about 10 sports who benefit from the advantages offered by the Sports Schools, including weightlifting to be sure, which has 8 classes spread out between the end of primary school courses and the secondary level.  These athletes follow the same programmes as the regular schools, with the exception that half the day is devoted to sports and the academic programme takes into account the requirements for extensive competition training periods. These schools are not under the direct jurisdiction of the Federation but under that of the regions which ensure the attendance of their most promising material. This is a boarding school under state control. The students only return periodically to their families. If a pupil is particularly gifted in sports but has difficulties in his academic studies, he is sent home. 

The directors of the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation believe that the achievement of accomplishments in sports cannot be done without high intellectual qualities (!). More often than not, athletes who arrive at a tender age in their schools learn the basics of their sports before doing any serious training 

The training programme for the older athletes is closely related to that of the “Elite” (see training programme.)

Juniors – 16 to 18 years of age: For this age group, there is a single class of 32 students, engaged in secondary studies and preparation for “phy-ed” professorship. This school is located next to the “Diana” residence which houses the National Teams of most of the sports. The Juniors often train with the National Senior Team. 

23 years of age and under (National Team Reserve): The concept for this group is as for the preceding one, except that more time is available for training since most of the participants are students at university level.  As for the National Team, the three main events of the season are the Danube Cup, The European Championships, and the World Championships. 

The National Team – World Champion: The reason for our trip.  We were slightly late on Tuesday morning for the first training session (bus problems.) Around 11, everyone had completed his warm-up and the large machine was already on its way. The Bulgarian National Team normally consists of 36 athletes (4 by weight class). While not luxurious, the training room has 11 platforms (really only two, the remainder being rubber strips to muffle noise caused by the dropping of weights, but the athlete lifts directly from the wooden floor), three fixed squat racks, 7 or 8 pairs of mobile racks, abdominal board, suspension wall ladder, etc.  The room has also at least 25 Olympic bars of which 16 or 18 are “Eleiko” bars, the rest being German “Schnell-Hantle” bars and Polish bars, plus two machines made in Bulgaria and which are still in the prototype stage.  These machines deserve a special paragraph.  

The Bulgarian National Team training schedule is as follows:

The exercises are not necessarily done in the listed order and I only saw two or three athletes doing bench presses during the week that we were there. As you may have already realized the Bulgarian National Weightlifting Team members are full time lifters.  They do no other work except the odd few who devote a few hours a week to studies. They all live in the “Diana” residence and train together. Each day in the training room, there are two coaches, a physiotherapist, and a doctor in attendance. The training pace is fast and with each movement the athletes try to reach their maximum. 

Contrary to our practices, the Bulgarians warm up a lot, then with three or four bars, they immediately try their maximum (sometimes 10 to 15 attempts with maximum load and gradually decrease the load while increasing repetitions.) We were able during our stay, to witness several training attempts at breaking world records (barely missed.) 

Mr. Stoev told me that Nikolov before leaving for the World Champs in September had snatched 180 kg three times during one training session and had jerked 212.5 kg. The world record at that time totalled 385 kg for the 90 kg class.  It is true that a certain Rigert has since surpassed this. 

The current Bulgarian National Team lifters, most of whom were there are: (the performances or titles are official for the 74 season, Olympic champions excluded.)

The three main annual competitions for the Bulgarian National Team are:

1. Danube Cup (April – 10 to 15 days of special preparation)

2. European Championships (June) – 25 days of special preparation

3. World Championship (September) – 25 days of special preparation

During these preparations the athletes train particularly on the control of the Olympic lifts for the first 10 days then attempt anticipated maximum loads. The rest of the time is spent with 90% of maximum loads. 

Mr. Abadchiev explained to us that the main success principles followed by his Federation and the athletes to succeed are:

1. Adaptation of the human being to his environment

2. Provision of a make-shift environment for each sports person, according to their needs

3. Exploration of the potential of the human being with reference to the sport involved

(Edit: I feel like a fourth, highly anabolic principle may be missing from this list)

The Bulgarian athletes have a maximum limit of 6 to 7 competitions per year. 

5. The Machines

The Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation is at present developing electronic equipment especially for weightlifting.  In fact, we were able to try two machines which permit the measurements of

a. The vertical trajectory of the bar to the nearest millimeter

b. The height to which the bar is raised

c. The speed in 1/10 of a second at any moment of the rise of the bar

The engineer who is working on this project has promised to send me details and prospectus to our Federation as soon as the equipment has been fully tested and patented. This same engineer is also working on another project. This is an electronic eye device one of which will be placed in front of each training platform (at least for the “Elite”). After each movement, each athlete can at a glance, read the height and speed at which his lift was done. 

6.  Middle and Long Term Forecast

1975 – 1) open 10 new clubs

             2) 1st sports schools championships

1979 – World Championships – Projection for this event: Competition Centre with 2500 seats (In Sofia) and 4 training rooms for the “Elite” capable of handling 36 athletes each

1990 – Have 50 weightlifting classes in sports schools with 1500 pupils

2000 – Have 120 clubs and 350 full time coaches

Taken from Official Newsletter/Bulletin Officiel-Federation Halterophile Canadienne (Canadian Weightlifting Federation) Volume 5, Number 2

Five, Four, Three, Two, One - Done! - Jim Schmitz (2000)

 MILO March 2000

As I stated in my previous MILO article, “Power Training for the +35-year-old Strength Athlete,” most of us can’t train like Bulgarians or even young weightlifters in their prime. I once coached and trained America’ strongest weightlifters: Patera, Wilhelm, Martinez and Clark, to name a few. Now I’m coaching more lifters past their prime than looking forward to their prime. These strength athletes want and can still lift some really heavy weights, but they must train quite differently. I am going to present here some training principles and programs for the strength athlete who might be past his or her prime or might not have the time, energy, desire, or ability to train long, hard hours, but would still like to be strong, healthy, and lift some pretty heavy weights, just for the fun of it.

Hopefully you already know how to do the Olympic lifts and have some experience and understanding of training and your ability. If you are a beginner, this really isn’t the program for you, but of course, if you want to try it, go ahead. If you are a beginner or making a comeback after a long layoff, then do the basic five exercises, but do them light and for three sets of five reps for one to two weeks.

The program consists of the five best and basic exercises for developing strength and power: snatch (S), clean and jerk (C&J), deadlift (CDL), squat [back squat (BS), front squat (FS)], and bench press (BP). However, included in these exercises are variations, such as high pulls [snatch (SHP), clean (CHP)], power snatches (PS), power cleans (PC), push jerks (PJ), and overhead squats (OHS). You could also do dumbbell bench press (DBP) instead of barbell. There is a lot of room for options, provided you do squats, pulls, and pushes. It’s very important not to do too many exercises or sets and reps. This is quality training at its optimum.

So, here we go: our example weightlifter is 40-years-old, weighs 90 kilos and does 90 snatch, 110 C&J, 140 back squat, 130 front squat, 140 deadlift, and 125 bench press. Let’s also say as a young lifter her did 110 S, 140 C&J, 180 BS, 160 FS, 180 DL, and 150 BP. Now I will outline a four week cycle, light (70%), medium (80%), heavy (90%), and maximum (100%), with three workouts per week. Also, remember I write weight x reps for only one set with that weight, or weight x sets x reps if more than one set with that weight.

*To try and make things easier here’s a key for the exercises abbreviated above:

S – Snatch          C&J – Clean & Jerk         CDL – Deadlift     BS – Back Squat          FS – Front Squat

BP – Bench Press           SHP – Snatch High Pull               CHP – Clean High Pull      

PS – Power Snatch    PC – Power Clean           PJ – Push Jerk      OHS – Overhead Squat            PC&PJ – Power Clean & Power Jerk    P&SS – Power Snatch followed by Squat Snatch on Final Rep 

P&SC – Power Clean followed by Squat Clean on Final Rep

There might be a tendency to want to lift more and do more sets and reps. Resist the temptation to do more; your knees, back and shoulders will appreciate it, big time. If the jumps between weights are too big, then take smaller, more comfortable jumps and add a set or weight at the end, but only do one rep. However, with practice and training you should be able to take the bigger jumps. When you finish the four-week cycle, start over again and adjust your weights where you can. If you are going to compete in a competition, then train light the week before. If you prefer to or you can only do this power strength program twice a week, then do programs A and C, eliminate B, but put B’s bench press workout in program C.

You can vary your exercises depending on how you like to do them, that is, all power snatches, or from the hang or off the blocks or combinations. But stick to the basic five, snatch, clean and jerk, deadlift (high pulls are in the deadlift category), squats, and bench presses (inclines are included here.) I’ve included some combinations such as PC&PJ, which is power clean followed by push jerk, that is one power clean and one push jerk for each rep, or five PC’s and one PJ after the last PC. P&SS and P&SC mean you power the first reps and squat the last rep; a set of five reps is four power followed by one squat.

Also, thoroughly warm up with at least 15 minutes of stretching all your joints and do lots of warm-up lifts with an empty 20-kilo bar. And do plenty of stomach exercises, sit-ups, let raises, crunches, etc.., and do them at the beginning of your workout, right after your stretches. I recommend two sets of 25 sit-ups, followed by side bends and trunk twisting, and then two sets of 25 leg raises.

Cardiovascular exercise, jogging, bicycling, swimming, cardio machines, or whatever should be done on alternate days, not your weightlifting days. Twenty minutes of cardio won’t take away from your strength; more than that might.

If you want to add some weight training (body-building) exercises, do so after you have done the above basic five. Also, follow the same principles as your power training, not too many exercises and sets and reps: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 will work very well. However, for weight training exercises I recommend 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 for sets and reps.

Be very patient, persistent, and conservative in your training and weight selection, and respectable weights and gains will happen. And most important of all your muscles and joints will feel great.

*Photo credit to Bruce Klemens