Squats, 4 sets of 8

Take a Kettlebell, a medicine ball, and maybe a dumbell, and spend 30 minutes doing a variety of stuff.  Make it as hard on yourself as you can.

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AM

Snatch 10 singles.  pause both off the ground and below the knee.  weight to be determined.

clean and jerk to 80%

back raises, work to max set of 10

PM

snatch to max

clean and jerk to max

Kettlebell work for 2 sets.

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Clean and Jerk exercises with 50kg for 1 minute, make it as hard on yourself as possible and dont put the bar down.

Powersnatch to max, but use a 3 second pause just off the ground.

swings for one minute.

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AM

Snatch 10 singles at about 80%, 3 second pause below knee

Clean and jerk, 6 singles at about 80%, 3 second pause below knee.

Some type of rowing, 3 sets of 10, just work hard.

Back raises, work to a hard set of 10

PM

Snatch to 90%.  Then 5 sets of snatch high pull + hang snatch, done as heavy as possible

clean and jerk to 90%.  Then 5 sets of clean pull, then hang clean/jerk, done as heavy as possible

Kettlebell clean and jerk, one set.

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Snatch exercises with 50kg for 1 minute, make it as hard on yourself as possible, do a variety of different exercises with a snatch grip without letting go of the bar.

Powerclean and jerk up to max, BUT take a 3 second pause with the bar 1 inch from the ground.

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This week will look strange to many followers of this blog.  Keep in mind that the lifters following this program have all just trained very hard and very specifically for a long time for Pan Ams, Junior Worlds, or both.  I have been and continue to be an advocate of pretty specific training, what many term the “Bulgarian” program.  But I also believe that every once in a while the body needs a little change of pace, while still working hard.  We will be adding in a few odd and unusual things to accomplish this for a couple of weeks, then phasing much of it out.  Who knows, something might seem to work and end up sticking.

AM

6-8 doubles on snatch with medium weight, done quickly.  Will attempt to do the second rep from the hang with a pause below the knee.

6-8 doubles on clean and jerk done quickly with medium weight.  medium probably means around 80%, but we will see how they look.

back raises.

PM

Snatch: three waves of 3 lifts, weight based on ability.

clean and jerk: three waves of 3 lifts, weight based on ability.

3 sets of 5 on muscle snatch from the hang.

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My new friend Ruslev Khomenko, a Russian coach of Junior athletes, and I talked a fair amount about the Bulgarian system of training.  When I first brought this up, I expected him to dismiss it as inferior to how he trained athletes.  He did not do this, in fact he said it was a GREAT system, maybe the best.  The qualification was this, it is the best, IF IT WORKS FOR YOU!!!  In his opinion, it only works for some people…  and if you dont belong to this select group, you can still be a great lifter, you just have to try something else.  His best results were 135/160 at 62kg bodyweight, not good in his estimation, and the Bulgrian system hadnt worked for him.  According to him, some people get a real deterioration in technique when they train to max all the time, others, for whatever reason, get more and more effecient.  Some people thrive on frequent squatting, some simply dont.

This strikes me as a common sense attitude.  Do what works.  The Russians believe their “system” works for a wider variety of people, and doesnt produce as many injuries.  But they, or at least Ruslev, agrees that the Bulgarian system is the “ideal” for a person with no weak points.

All of this brings up another interesting observation.  There doesnt seem to be that much discussion among coaches from other countries about whos system is better or worse, who is right or wrong.  Based off of a weeks worth of conversation with coaches from multiple European and Asian countries,  it seems they agree on a few things.  One is that effecient technique needs to be taught.  Another is that a lifestyle has to be provided to the athlete and followed by the athlete that allows them to handle a high training load.  Another is that the athlete has to continue to follow the program, increase the workload and increase the weights.  Concerning training programs, I get the feeling that a lot of Europeans feel about the same way about this as Americans feel about the brand of shoes that a lifter wears.  Yes, everyone has a preference, but does anyone really think that the brand of shoes that one wears will determine whether he or she will become a champion or not?

I got the feeling over and over while talking to coaches who have a history of producing multiple Junior World champions, World Champions, and even Olympic medalists that we here in America are worried about the wrong things.  I got the feeling that we might better worry about sleep habits, eating habits, and various recovery methods than how often we go to maximum.  Of course, all this only after we worry about picking the right people to coach in the first place.  But I prefer to concentrate on what I can control.

This is not to say that how you train doesnt matter.  It shouldnt be hard for anyone to think of several training programs that would not work at all with little problem.  But the parameters that a successful program must exist within are well established,  and it is also well established that many different programs exist within these parameters.

What are these parameters?  Based on conversations with 8 of the male medalists and 3 of the female medalists at the 2010 Junior Worlds, as well as conversations with the Japanese, Korean, Russian,  and Turkish coaches, here is how the best are currently training.  The minimum training sessions per week that I encountered was 5, maximum 12.  Minimum hours spent training per week was about 8, maximum about 18.  I did not talk to the Chinese, who I dont doubt top this number.  Everyone snatches.  Everyone clean and jerks.  Everyone squats and front squats.  Everyone does power snatches and power cleans.  Most do pulls.  Many do some sort of pressing or push pressing.  This group of exercises makes up most of the work done.  Many have some sort of exercise which they do which isnt as widespread, some do jumping exercises, some bench press.  A few do some sort of good morning exercise or stiff legged deadlift variation.  Some do some variation of back raise, back extension, or Glute Ham raise.  In no instance which I encountered did these “extra” exercises make up any sigificant part of the training load.  No one does only singles.  No one does sets of 10.  Most use a variety of reps between 1 and 5.  Most do snatches and/or clean and jerks, or some close variation, every workout or almost every workout with significant weights.  The most interesting thing I encountered was a Russian coach from Chechnya who advocated lots of Kettlebell work for beginning lifters, including the throwing of the KB behind ones head.  He only advocated it as a warmup for lifters who are not beginners.

If the preceeding has closed one mystery, it has certainly opened another.  If the sets and reps, and time per week we go to maximum arent what is holding us back, then what is?  If we dont do enough pulls, or do too many…  if this is not the problem, then what is?  Well, I do not know if I know the answer or not.  But if the answer to that question is the same answer as to the question “what are the differences that I saw between us and the medalists?” then I have a few observations.

And that will be another post…

glenn

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Based on our performance at the last few competitions,  training is going to change slightly.  What we as a team lack the most is consistency, and we are going to do a few things differently to address this.  The basic plan will stay as it was, but morning workouts will focus a little more on medium weights, with the emphasis being on consistent technique and no misses.  To make up for the decrease in intensity in morning workouts, we will add a little volume and even some assistance work, and we will try out some variety on how the competition lifts are performed on the morning workouts.

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California Strength Elite Team Member Jon North snatches 151 kg in training Wednesday

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Pan-Ams and Junior Worlds have now come and gone, and a new training cycle is beginning.  Donny will be training for worlds, Jon and Caleb for the American Open.    We all need to get better at what we do.  I feel like I learned a thing or two  at both meets.  Much of it was either common sense stuff or just reminded and reinforced things I had already been exposed to, some of it was new info.  I bought a nice new leather bound journal which fit nicely in the pocket of my cargo shorts in preparation for the competitions, filled it completely with my difficult to decipher scribbling during my 23 days abroad over the two trips.  12 in Guatemala and 11 in Bulgaria.  At both competitions, I made every effort to talk to coaches of countries that seem to be doing better than us.  I was particularly successful in Bulgaria, spending literally a total of 6-8 hours with a very nice Russian coach named Ruslev Khomenko.  I feel like I formed a friendship with this nice young man, and we made plans to keep in touch.  I am hoping that I can convince him to participate on this blog in the future.  We worked up training plans, I was able to get his, he critiqued mine, we watched youtube videos together, dicussed technique, etc.  He is defending his dissertation this summer to complete his PhD, his dissertation concerns the effectiveness of individualizing the general national team training plan to deal with individual weaknesses.  His data says that individualization is not always successful, but thats another post.  I also spent quality time with the Japanese coaching squad, the head coach of the Korean team, the Turkish coach, one of the Polish coaches, as well as others.  I also got the training plans from a variety of athletes, all of whom were very candid with me on every subject I asked about.  I will be posting some of the specifics at a later date.

For now, I will stick to what is in the future for the athletes at California Strength.  I decided this before I got home from Pan-Ams, fortunately everything was simply reinforced at Junior Worlds.  We will increase the volume, warm up more completely, and pay more attention to diet.  We will also be messing around with some different strategies with squats.  In general, we cannot compete with professionals if we do not act like professionals.  There are a number of ways that we need to change to do this.  I am determined to do anything necessary and everything possible to compete with the best in the world.  I believe I am better prepared to advise and coach athletes to accomplish this now than I was a month ago.

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