DEXA – Body composition is one area that I personally haven’t had much of an interest in until lately, being more concerned with performance in strongman and powerlifting however in the interests of not being a fat bastard I’ve been on a quest to drop some lard this year and decided to go and get a DEXA scan. For anyone who is wondering DEXA stands for Dual Energy X-Ray Absorption and it’s a 5 minute procedure where you lie down on a bed and a low powered X-ray scans your body in 3D and reports back right down to the gram the amount of bone, muscle and fat in your body. DEXA is the most accurate way to measure this short of cutting up your cadaver and weighing each bit separately (obviously not a repeatable method!).

Critically because of it’s accuracy DEXA allows you to see if your program is adding muscle and losing fat even if your weight is staying relatively constant. The only downside is that due to the X-ray you can only have them every 13 weeks so in between you have to use more common methods to track progress.

My first scan showed that I was definitely carrying a few kilos of non functional mass (ie fat) and that I could probably recomposition my body for better performance by dropping 5kg of fat and adding 5kg of muscle. I’m due for my follow up scan in a couple of weeks and it will be interesting to see what the results are. For DEXA scans in your capital city google “DEXA scan” If you are in Sydney I recommend http://www.bodycomposition.com.au/

Nike Romaleos weightlifting shoes.

In 2005 when I started training and competing in Olympic weightlifting I bought a pair of Adidas Adistar weightlifting shoes. They cost a ridiculous amount of money and turned out to be one of the worst designed shoes I’ve ever owned. 5 of the 6 straps broke in the first year, most of them at the metal buckle. The uppers came away from the soles and needed sticking down 3 times. The current adistars are uglier than my old shoes and once again the straps break at the buckles. This brings me to my new weightlifting shoes.
I first saw the Nike Romaleos when they were released for the 2008 Olympics and instantly knew I had to have a pair. The problem was that Nike in their infinite wisdom never offered them in Australia and their stupid online store won’t ship to overseas addresses. By the time I had organised someone in the US to ship me a pair they had sold out and it wasn’t until 2010 that Nike relented and made a new batch.

So approximately 3 years after I first saw them I finally got my hands on a pair. I’ve been using them for about 6 weeks and these are my impressions so far.

1. They are rock solid and seem very well made. They are a big solid shoe and you feel like you are glued to the ground when you squat in them. On the downside EACH shoe weighs as much as a pair of normal running shoes! Rumour has it that the new Romaleos for 2012 will be lighter.
2. They look pimpin. Until now lifting shoes have had boring wedges of wood in the heel. They have tended to look like bowling shoes for short people. The Romaleos have a cool moulded plastic heel wedge and look more like a Running shoe.
3. They are very comfy. They come with two inner soles, a harder one for comps and a softer one for training. So far i’ve left the comp liner in and haven’t had any discomfort. The upper is well padded without being squishy and the tongue is padded too. The straps hold your foot in well. My only complaint would be that they are a fairly warm shoe. If you train in a shed in the middle of the Aussie summer your feet are going to get their own sauna.
4. Grip is very good, not too sticky, not too slick.
5. Walking around in them is a bit awkward due to the wide heel but this adds to the stability so it’s a compromise for performance and really not a big hassle because the furthest I walk in them is from one side of the gym to the other.

Books

Very quickly a couple of books that I’ve read recently that I was impressed with.
The first is “Anatomy Without a Scalpel” by Lon Kilgore.
This is a great book for anyone interested in strength training anatomy. Unlike a medical anatomy textbook there is no unnecessary material included and the author relates all the explanations of the joints and muscles back to the performance of sports and the basic barbell lifts.

There is also a good primer on describing anatomical features and locating various structures in the body which will make it an invaluable guide for trainers and coaches.

I could blather on about this book for ages but the short version is just go buy it!

The second book I found very useful is Pavel Tsatsoulines “Power to the People Professional”. This book is not as the title suggests an upgrade or sequel to his original PTTP but is instead a very detailed set of training plans from (mostly) Russian powerlifting coaches. Definitely not a book for beginners it is instead a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to squat, bench and deadlift more and who has outgrown basic linear progression.

I bought both books together a few months ago and was as happy as a pig in mud for weeks reading and rereading them!

Ok so lets just say that 2010 was a complete write off in terms of training for me.  After a couple of months of productive training and one Deadlift PR I got nailed with a a killer virus, work issues, moving house and then the arrival of junior.

This is not to say that I didn’t train but basically I didn’t make much progress!

2011 has started off a lot better and even though I’m still mega busy I’ve at least chiseled out time to train 3-4 days a week and am determined to use this year to build my highest levels of strength ever.

So far I’ve hit one all time PR of 137kg in the bench press (definitely my worst lift!) and have come within 8kg of my Squat PR by squatting 200kg and managed it without spotters, meaning that I reckon I’ve got even more in the tank.

I have learned that trying to mix high volume squat programs like Smolov with being a new parent is a no go as you tend to end up burnt out very quickly so my training is getting rejigged at the moment for maximum efficiency and this may lead to some new articles on how to achieve better results with less time in the gym.

Anyway Check out the video of my Bench PR and Squat (and before anyone moans I realise that it wouldn’t pass in a powerlifting meet and I need to learn to keep my butt on the bench).

Hope your training is off to killer start for 2011 too!

Bench Press 137kg Squat 200kg

Octogen Insider Programs

Remember that you can get the other 19 programs simply by purchasing any product in our “Queensland Flood Sale”

Over the last 6 years I’ve written hundreds of programs for clients from a wide variety of backgrounds from office workers training 3 days a week to drop a few kilos and improve their health through to military personnel and police training up to 3 sessions a day to achieve special forces selection.

In this article I want to outline the considerations and basic steps that I go through in putting together any program so that next time you need a program you can have a go at putting together a personalized program that takes into account your current fitness level, goals and available time and resources.

Programming Considerations

Goals

Before you begin to put together a training program it’s important to determine the desired outcome of the plan.  I won’t spend too much time on goal setting as it’s an area that most people are familiar with but one point I do want to stress is that in order for your plan to be successful your goals need to be fairly simple and they need to be achievable in the time frame you’ve set.  Many people I talk to are making the mistake of chasing too many goals at once and end up achieving nothing.  If you want to get good at several things that’s fine, just break your program up into smaller cycles and emphasise one or two goals at a time and put your other goals in a holding pattern.  If you are working hard on one aspect of fitness you won’t lose much ground on another aspect of fitness!

Time and Resources

This is a critical consideration.  If you want to join the SAS but you work 80 hours a week then chances are your available time is insufficient to achieve your goals.  Decide early on how many days a week you can REALISTICALLY devote to training.  You will save yourself a lot of frustration by planning and executing a solid 3 day week program compared to planning on 6 days a week and missing 3 workouts due to other commitments.

I would recommend a minimum of 3 days a week and a maximum of 6 days a week with a maximum of 15 training sessions for very serious athletes.

As with time, make sure you’ve got access to the right equipment before planning your training.  If you want to get strong you’ll need weights of some description, if you want to become the worlds greatest crossfitter then you are going to need a gym full of rings, rowers and all the other toys needed for the workouts.

Current fitness level, diet and supplementation, age and training age

I’ve lumped these together because they are all major factors in your ability to adapt and recover from training sessions.  Many people get frustrated because they set out to do a program only to burn out .  The problem is that unbeknownst to the athlete the program was originally written for a genetically gifted 25 year old professional athlete on a steady diet of food sleep and steroids!

At this stage of planning it’s important to conduct an honest assessment of how well you are going to recover from your training and take that into account when planning overall volume and intensity.

Putting the plan together

So once you’ve written down the main considerations above it’s time to put together a plan.   Here are the steps I go through when putting together a program.  Note that when planning initially I don’t try to put the program into a weekly schedule, I simply collect all the elements together and arrange them later, often shuffling things around a few times to get the best fit.

Match your goals with primary exercises/workouts

This stage is pretty simple.  If you’ve got a specific goal simply match up that goal with a short list of core exercises.  For example if your goal is to improve your powerlifting performance you would choose squat, bench press and deadlift and if your goal was to improve your aerobic fitness you might choose 3-4 variations of aerobic exercise like long distance runs, intervals, rowing and cycling.

Within your workouts these exercises should be “front loaded”, that is they should appear preferably as the first exercises in a session so that if the session gets cut short you’ve got your important stuff out of the way early.  I like to call these your “A” exercises and in a good program they will account for about 70% of your time and will give you about 80- 90% of your total results.  If you are on very limited time they may be the only exercises you do.

Choose supplementary exercises

Once you’ve got your big basics written down you can add a sprinkle of exercises that complement your core exercises.  This can be stuff like ab work, mobility work or strength exercises to balance out areas that need work to support the primary areas of interest in your program.  For a powerlifter this might be things like seated rows to balance out the shoulder or some conditioning work to keep bodyweight down.  For an endurance athlete this could mean strength work, soft tissue work or stretching.

These “B” exercises are still very important but because of their secondary role you can get away with dropping them occasionally (but you shouldn’t make a habit of it)

Sometimes I even go a step further and add some “C” exercises and workouts that are nice to have but not essential.

So for example a sample exercise grouping for a strongman in the early off season might look like this.

Main goal – Improve deadlift and overhead strength.

“A” exercises

Deadlift

Rack pulls

Military press

Push press

“B” exercises

Squats

Planks

Kroc Rows

Pullups

Bench press

Glute Ham Raise

“C” exercises

Kettlebell Swings

Strongman implement work

Conditioning work

Choose set, rep and loading schemes for your primary exercises

Once you’ve got your exercises sorted it’s time to choose your sets, reps and loads for your primary exercises.  This is where the art and science of programming can get a bit tricky as there are a number of effective (and some not so effective) loading patterns you can use.

Initially I suggest using a simple program like 5 sets of 5 with a steady linear progression in weights over 4 – 6 weeks.  You could also adopt a 5-3-1 loading pattern or alternate between sets of 5 and sets of 3.

For endurance programs a simple cycle of long distance, short interval, medium intervals with a linear progression in volume works well.

Conclusion

In part two of this article I’ll outline the final steps in putting together a program and provide some worked examples of programs for different goals.

Pulling 240kg in April 2009

Video of a recent PR attempt after a few weeks of deadlift specific training

In my opinion there are very few feats of strength more impressive than a big deadlift.  The deadlift uses virtually every muscle in the body and will make you a better athlete, no matter which sport you train for.  Training for an impressive pull is also hard work and signifies that the person lifting has got dedication to their training, a tolerance to discomfort and is therefore worthy of some respect!

Unfortunately when you walk into most commercial gyms all you will see is guys doing curls and bench.  On the odd occasion that someone attempts to deadlift it’s more often than not a set of horrid partial range stiff leg deadlifts while the trainee cranes his neck around to check out his own hammies in the mirror!

In this article I want to outline a few key points about deadlifting and offer up a couple of short deadlift training cycles that will push your deadlift numbers up, hopefully to the point that people in your gym stop and stare when you set up to pull.

What is Heavy?

At what point can you call yourself strong?  At what point does your deadlift progress from puny to powerful?  These are difficult questions to answer because you can’t just whack out a table of standards that applies to everyone.  A big weight for one person is another person’s warm up and comparisons across bodyweight suffer because as you get heavier you are physics bound to become a proportionally worse deadlifter even though to an outsider the weights lifted by bigger guys are way more impressive than those lifted by smaller guys.

So what should you be aiming for in your deadlift training?  The following are some very rough quick start guidelines, in reality the only one you ever need to follow is the last one.

First milestone

Women – Bodyweight deadlift for a triple

Men – 1.5 x Bodyweight for a triple

Second milestone

Women – 1.5 x Bodyweight for a single

Men – 2 x Bodyweight for a single

Third milestone

10kg more than you can currently lift.

Repeat until you die with a 500kg deadlift

As you can see the final point is the most important.  I don’t think I’ve ever met a strength athlete who was completely satisfied with their deadlift.  I know for certain that every time I’ve reached a goal that I’ve set for myself I’ve been satisfied with it for about 15 minutes before plotting my assault on the next milestone!  This strategy has seen me add 53kg to my deadlift in 15 months and I don’t have any plans to stop now.

Deadlifting Basics

Ok I don’t want to flog this subject to death because to be honest there has been a bunch of great stuff written on the execution of the deadlift but a few key points bear repeating.

Before embarking on a deadlift training cycle make sure your form is good.  Get someone who knows what they are doing (most likely NOT the 6 foot tall, 60kg trainer from your gym) to check your form on a series of progressively heavier deadlifts.  If all else fails video your deadlifts and get someone knowledgeable to check them out.  Inevitably when you are really maxing out on your deadlifts your form will start to deteriorate slightly but for your training you want to base your lifts on the heaviest weight you can handle with good form, otherwise you are asking for injuries.

Tips for good deadlift form

• Feet should be hip width apart under the bar
• Bar should be close to the shins and should remain close to the body throughout the lift.
• Use chalk to improve your grip, I try to do as much deadlifting as possible with a double overhand hook grip, saving mixed grip for my heaviest attempts.
• Keep the chest up and the abs and lower back tight when you lift, if your arse shoots up and you round your back you are going to get into big trouble.
• Treat each rep as a single.  This means even if you are doing a set of 3 or 5 each rep should be reset at the bottom and not bounced off the floor.

Belts and straps

There is a lot of argument in the fitness industry about whether or not you should use a belt and straps for deadlift training.  Without going into all the arguments for and against here is my opinion (open to change if someone can present me good enough eveidence!)

Belts – A lifting belt allows heavier weights to be lifted and the heavier the weight you lift the stronger you get.  This applies even after you take the belt off.  In the time I improved my belted deadlift from 215 to 263 training WITH a belt for anything over about 80% I improved my beltless deadlift from 190 to 245 even though until I tested it I never maxed out beltless.

Anyone who tells you not to wear a belt is probably a skinny loser, ignore them and then go outlift them.

I normally warm up beltless and then use a belt from about 80% of the days max onward.

Straps – I prefer to do as much lifting as possible without straps however when you start doing higher volume deadlifts you may find that you need to use straps as your grip becomes the limiting factor in doing reps.  If this is the case use straps but make sure you are also doing strapless work and some extra work to improve your grip.

Deadlift Programming

Another contentious issue in the world of fitness is the frequency and type of deadlift workouts you should do to improve your deadlift.  Some guys deadlift once a week, some twice and some only deadlift every 2-3 weeks but do a lot of squats and other assistance work.

I’ve had success with deadlifting between 1-3 times a week and I normally program beginner and intermediates with 2 sessions a week of deadlifts.  Deadlifts can be quite stressful on the body so it is important that if you are deadlifting more frequently than once a week that you vary your intensity to avoid overtraining.

Here is a simple program that you can use to improve your deadlift.

Program  – Simple progression program

This program is best for beginner to intermediate athletes who know their 1 Rep Max for deadlift and who are training 3 – 4 days a week.

The program is pretty simple, you are going to do two deadlift sessions a week and 1 – 2 other sessions a week.  Your focus should be on the deadlift sessions so don’t bust your ass on the other days.  It’s ok to make a bit of progress on your upper body lifts but don’t flog yourself so that you are fatigued for the next deadlift session.

The assistance exercises have been chosen to work on your core stability and also the strength required to lockout the top portion of a heavy deadlift.

If you want to do some conditioning work do it on alternate days and again avoid flogging yourself too hard!

Monday

Deadlift                                  3 sets of 5 @ 75-80% of 1RM

Kettlebell Swings                 3 sets of 10 – 15 as heavy as you can handle

Prone Plank                          3 sets of 45- 60 seconds with max weight

Wednesday

Squat                                     Sets and reps for these exercises are up to you

Bench Press

Military Press

Pullups

Friday

Deadlift                                  3 sets of 3 @ 80-85% of 1RM

Kroc Rows                             3 x 15 – 20 as heavy as possible

Back extension / GHR        3 x 8-12 with added weight if possible

Each week aim to increase the weight used on the deadlifts by 5kg (2.5kg if your deadlift is under 140kg)  and continue with the program for 3-5 weeks or until you stall out and can no longer complete all the sets and reps of deadlift at a given weight. After you finish the program take a few days off all training and retest your max.

The new book has 6 complete programs suitable for everyone from absolute beginners through to elite athletes as well as pre-hab, warmup, stretching and strength routines to take the guess work out of your beep test preparation.

In fact there was so much stuff that came up while I was writing that I’ve set up a completely new website just to handle beep test content.

“Beat the Beep Test” is on sale for a short time at $29 which includes unlimited email support for your first 30 days.

Check out the new website at www.beatthebeeptest.com

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While a lot of your improvements in deadlift strength are going to come from deadlifting (well DUH!) there are a number of accessory exercises that can help attack weaknesses in the deadlift and as part of my current program I’ve been using few different things and thought I’d share them with you.

Kroc rows are a great exercise for strengthening your upper back to improve the deadlift lockout, they are also good for balancing out heavy bench pressing and for adding mass and explosive power to your back.  They are named after top powerlifter Matt Kroczaleski and are basically a one arm dumbell row performed with a heavy weight for as many reps as you can with fairly loose form.

For a complete demo here is Matt doing a set of 25 each side with just over 100kg.

Now I’m nowhere near Matt’s size or strength but I’ve worked up to sets of 25 with the heaviest Dumbells at the gym (50kg) and so to progress this movement I decided to get some custom dumbell handles made up.

I called up Mark Roskell from Toronto Barbell and in a couple of weeks he had made me these bad boys which I have christened “Kroc Bells”

With a loading capacity of over 100kg each hand they should keep me busy until I have reached Kroc like levels of strength!

Stay tuned for video in part 2!

The reality is that most people don’t train hard enough to justify the supplements they are on but they can be very useful.

Before taking any supplements you need to understand which level of training you are at and then get the appropriate stuff. You also need to make sure your basics are squared away. If your diet is crap, you don’t get enough sleep or your training program is rubbish no amount of expensive powders will make you big and strong.

So here is a guide for three basic levels of training, keep in mind that these are cumulative which means that people at the advanced/competitive level need to take everything from the levels below as well.

Before you think about supplementation check the following

1. Are you eating 3 solid meals a day + 2 – 3 snacks each containing some protein, carbs and good fats

2. Are you training at least 4 days a week with a focus on the big basics like deadlifts, squats, bench press, chinups and military press.

3. Are you getting 7- 9 hours of sleep a night.

If the answer to any of these is a no then spending big bucks on supplements is going to be a waste of time.

Level 1 – Beginners

During the first 6 months to 1 year of serious training it’s unlikely that you’ll need much more than lots of food and some hard training to make gains.

Supplements at this level are restricted to stuff that’s cheap and highly effective.

Multivitamin – Train hard and chances are that you’ll be working your bodies vitamin and mineral stores a bit harder than the average couch potato. While you may be getting enough from your diet a multivitamin is good insurance and costs bugger all.

Protein – Plain Whey Protein Concentrate mixed with whole milk 2-3 times a day. No need for fancy pants stuff that’s been bioengineered to death.

Fish oil – 3 – 6 caps a day for general heart, brain and joint health. Start now and never stop taking it.

Sports drinks – Gatorade or similar during hard training to replace electrolytes and provide energy. Avoid if your goal is fat loss.

Level 2 – Intermediate

If you have been training for at least 6 months and you are now using more advanced training methods because beginner programs stopped working then you are probably ready for some level 2 supplements.

This stuff is more expensive than the level 2 stuff and the performance gain is not generally as big you get from the basics.

Creatine – 5g a day with your recovery shake. Creatine improves performance in repeated bouts of near maximal exercise. This allows you to train harder and allows you to stress the body more for continued gains in strength. Good for strength and power programs, not so good for distance runners because you do tend to gain some fluid weight which makes you slower.

Minerals – Zinc, Magnesium etc can help you recover. I quite like “Endura” sports drink at the moment but you can also use a supplement like ZMA that may boost testosterone production.

Glutamine – The most abundant free amino acid in muscle. 3-5g once a day after workouts may speed recovery.

Level 3 – Advanced / competitive athlete

If you are 2+ years into serious training and you compete then you’ll be looking for anything that gives you the edge.

At this level it’s worth experimenting with different products and combinations as some things appear to work for one person but not another.

Some stuff to try

BCAA – Branch chain amino acids may help recovery

Vitamin D – 5000IU a day, this may turn out to be like fish oil in that it’s long term health benefits are becoming compelling but for sports performance at the moment it may help or it may not.

ZMA or GABA – Worth trying for improved sleep and growth hormone secretion but not cheap.

Anything else that takes your fancy, antioxidants, weird plant extracts, Nitric oxide supps, caffeine in high doses (be careful with this one). At this level you might get 1 or 2% from trying something new or you might get nothing but the proverbial “expensive urine” however as a competitive athlete sometimes that 1% is the difference between first place and fourth, and no one EVER remembers the guy who came fourth.

Want Supplements?

I get all my supplements from  The Edge Sports Nutrition

I’ve known the guys at The Edge since I first started training back in 1997, they’ll be able to give you advice on exactly what stuff you need.