Author Archive: Coach Glenn Pendlay

Glenn Pendlay served as Head Weightlifting Coach at California Strength, developing numerous national champions, Pan-American medalists, and popularizing the Pendlay Row and the Texas Method for intermediate-to-advanced strength progression.

Key Principles of the Pendlay Programming Methodology

• Bar Speed Above All: Every concentric repetition in the snatch, clean, and squat must be executed with maximal compensatory acceleration.
• Volume-Intensity Wave Cycling: Monday sets the volume stimulus (5x5), Wednesday provides active recovery, and Friday tests a new 1RM–5RM PR.
• Posterior Chain Dominance: Strict bent-over Pendlay rows from a dead stop build upper-back isometric rigidity for heavy clean recoveries.

Read Glenn's featured analysis: A Russian Perspective on the Bulgarian System.