This old chestnut crops up time and again but I was inspired to write about it because it reveals an example of what I think is one of the great pleasures of strength training, one which often gets completely disregarded in high street gyms: working with others.

I don’t mean training buddies, but just being able to work together in an environment, help each other out, feed off each other’s energy – even if you are doing different workouts.

There’s a nice atmosphere of fellow feeling as you help each other change plates, shout out a bit of encouragement, maybe spot them on a heavy attempt. Instead of being in your own little bubble thinking nasty thoughts about everyone else, you start to care about how well someone else is doing. Their success often breeds your success, and vice versa.

I believe that everyone lifts better in that sort of environment.

Play nice with others

This collegial atmosphere is something I instill when I teach weight training courses like Ladies Who Lift. A big part of this course is learning how to work with others in the weight room. To take one example, if one of the group is significantly shorter or taller than the others, we change the rack height for every set, even though it might seem a bit of a faff. It’s fair to everyone and, as it turns out, not so much of a faff when you get used to doing it.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times when, deep down, I’m annoyed if I have to share. Sometimes you are in that ‘lone wolf’ kind of mood, or you have a hard workout to do and just want to get on with it.

But the reality is that there is never enough space when it is busy for everyone to have their own private car parking space, so you are wishing for something that isn’t going to happen. Anyway once you get into the swing of sharing your space and equipment, it ain’t so bad. You might even end up having a better workout!

Peace, man

That all sounds very peace and love but why should you care? Because hating other gym users and dealing with equipment conflicts is stressful and emotional stress is not conducive to good training. In fact, it is the last thing you want to be undergoing.

Let’s face it, just being in a commercial gym at peak time can be stressful, let alone having to navigate these issues of etiquette, all the while wishing your fellow gym users could be blasted into outer space with a massive rocket.

It is in your interests to be calm and friendly, so that all your energy is focussed on your workout and not composing withering forum posts in your head about the imbecility of the unfortunate in the squat rack that is rightfully yours.

Aggression can be helpful in training but psychologists differentiate between ‘channelled’ or ‘instrumental’ aggression, which is directed towards a goal, and hostile aggression. All too often we experience the latter in gyms and not the former. I’ve often seen people with a lot of apparent hostility try to muscle out their own space, only to then do their reps like a complete pussy!

More racks often means more lifters

You might think that more equipment is the answer, but in my experience the more and better equipment a gym has, the more it attracts lifters! My lifting club has around seven racks but at busy times we can still be three to a platform. The difference is that we all know each other and work together.

So what is the answer?

Well, one person can set a tone. You can be the one to start the trend. I know this is possible as I’ve done it myself. I didn’t stand there with a bottle of coke singing while looking at a sunrise, I just behaved in a certain way and people started to adapt to it.

A lot of people don’t share because they don’t know how to; that is, they don’t know what the options might be or how best to organise things. You might not realise how intimidating you look to other people. If you think you are the dog’s bollocks (because you want to squat when they are bicep curling), it’s up to you to take the lead, not up to the newbie who barely knows what they are doing.

So here are a few things you can do to make it better for everyone (including you):

• Invite someone to work in if it’s obvious they are waiting for you; don’t wait for them to ask.
• Be aware that a short ‘how many sets you got left?’ spoken to a stranger can sound aggressive and instantly poison the atmosphere; mind your Ps and Qs and try to smile!
• If there’s an equipment clash, discuss the problem in a friendly way (‘how about if we do this…?’), don’t just storm off giving a dirty look.
• Don’t compromise your workout just because someone bigger and nastier than you wants to dominate; you are both entitled to get your work in.
• If there’s an ongoing equipment clash with a regular, work out some sort of schedule between yourselves or train together.

It’s not always sunshine and light and there will sometimes be difficulties but you will get a much better workout if you can find a way to work with people rather than resent them.

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Why you shouldn’t train in front of a mirror

Too many goals?

Femininity and muscle

Basic barbell programmes reviewed

My friend Dan John suggests in his blog, “get out of the comfy confines of your local spa and go see what the best are doing.”

Hours spent under the bar are necessary, but we occasionally have to put our heads above the parapet and see what else is going on, lest we become complacent or comfortable.

This is especially important if you train in a ‘normal’ commerical gym. You’ll either be thinking you are the bees knees or you will just get sucked into the mediocrity, believing everything you read on the internet about ‘overtraining’, ’5/3/1′ and how you must never squat on consecutive days or you will die!

Getting out of the spa is also a welcome opportunity to meet and chat with like-minded people. You know, people who know what a front squat is.

But how do you go about this? Here are some ideas:

• Visit a specialist gym (e.g. powerlifting gym, weightlifting club)
• Watch a competition
• Compete in a local competition
• Do a course
• Interview someone you admire
• Watch a great athlete train
• Watch great sporting feats and world records on youtube
• Attend a workshop
• Go to a fitness expo

You will come back inspired and motivated!

Some of my inspiring experiences

What I’ve learned from strongman
Dan John seminar in Ireland
Ladies Who Lift
First powerlifting meet
World’s Strongest Man Experience

Some warning signs that you may need to improve your training fitness are:

• Your rest periods between sets are getting longer;
• You get tired quickly during the training session or need extra caffeine/stimulants to get you fired up;
• You have been doing heavy, near-max work for a while.

Improve training ‘fitness’ by spending a couple of weeks doing higher reps at 70 per cent of max. So for weightlifters that would be sets of 3-5, and for powerlifters sets of 5-8.

The best time to do this is just before you start a new strength cycle, on return from holiday or if you have been stagnating for a while.

Active rest is also under-utilised by strength athletes. Personally I use walking, circuit training or kettlebells. It makes you a fitter and more mobile human being, and this can help you tolerate more training and therefore get stronger. 10-15 minutes of high intensity circuit training will improve fitness and make you feel energised.

One of my favourites has always been Ross Enamait’s Magic 50. It has some of my favourite exercises in it and it kicks my butt! The Magic 50 is:

5 dumbbell snatches each hand
5 dumbbell swings each hand
10 burpees (with press up of course)
5 rounds for time

I also find that cleaning up my diet helps me to feel fitter and more dynamic. Often when you are going through a heavy phase of training it can be tempting to eat whatever is around; getting the calories in is important to support the training. However, in a ‘fitness’ phase you should be less hungry and tired and therefore this is the ideal time to sharpen up the eating strategy.

So how do you get fit to train?

More from gubernatrix

• Improve weaknesses with unilateral exercises
• How to: one arm dumbbell snatch
• Does lifting more always mean you get stronger?
• Five secrets of more effective training

A callus is an area on your skin where the skin has got thicker and harder due to pressure or friction. In lifters, the friction comes from the bar or handle of the weight. For example, deadlifting causes calluses close to the base of the fingers as this is where the barbell is held in the hand. Kettlebell enthusiasts get calluses from the kettlebell handle.

It’s good to develop calluses because they toughen up the skin and protect it from blisters and tears. Those who wear gloves while lifting never develop this natural safety feature.

This is all very hardcore and cool until the bastard things rip off! Then it’s blood and pain and interrupted training until you can get the thing sorted out.

Now, you should be using lifting chalk (or climbing chalk, same thing) on your skin to soak up sweat and greasiness, reducing the chance of developing blisters from the bar slipping around in your grip.

And to minimise the chances of your calluses ripping off at inopportune moments (say, in a deadlift competition, as I have seen happen many times), you need to take care of them.

My calluses need some care!

Calluses need to be filed down regularly. If they are not filed down, they get bigger and more raised up from your palm and are thereby more likely to rip off if caught. If you keep them filed down so they are more or less level with the rest of the palm, there’s less chance they will be caught.

You can see in the picture above that those calluses at the base of my fingers are starting to get a bit prominent, and the callus on the palm has some flaps of skin that are just asking to be torn away mid-snatch.

Use a pumice stone, or a synthetic equivalent. I have a cheap one from Boots The Chemist which isn’t a real pumice stone but works like one. Just rub the stone over the callus and the hard skin will gradually shave off, like filing a nail.

My pumice block

You can do this after a shower or after soaking your hands in some water to soften them, although I don’t always find this necessary.

After shaving the callus down to size, moisturise your hands. (Borrow your girlfriend’s hand cream if you don’t want to buy some yourself!)

If you do have a ripped callus, there’s not much you can do until it heals. It’s best to cut off any flaps of skin using nail clippers, your teeth, or file them away with a pumice stone, as they are only likely to rip themselves.

This is what a ripped callus looks like

If you can, put plaster or tape over the area to protect it. However there are many places on the palm where this isn’t possible because the plaster or tape just won’t stay on.

So why not wear gloves and prevent all this madness and pain?

Well, apart from the macho answer (lifting weights is madness and pain) there is a good reason. Gloves actually interfere with your grip; they make whatever you are holding thicker and therefore harder to grip, and they remove your contact with the bar, meaning that you can’t feel when the bar starts to move in your hand (early sign of impending grip failure).

I am not a Glove Hater. If normal gym goers want to protect their baby soft hands and don’t care for developing unattractive calluses, that’s fine. You just need to be aware of what you are giving up.

If you are involved in strength sports, however, don’t go there. When you are going to failure or going for a heavy single, you need the best grip possible. Gloves are no substitute for human skin and a bit of chalk.

So look after your calluses – and they will look after you!

More from gubernatrix

• How low should I squat?
• Basic barbell programmes reviewed
• Why you shouldn’t train in front of a mirror
• Life’s too short
• Five secrets of more effective training

Crossfit London has no mirrors...not even in the bathroom!

Avoid training in front of mirrors, even if your gym is surrounded by them. Mirrors will seriously affect your lifting, especially if you do the power lifts, the olympic lifts or any variations thereof. There are two important reasons why.

Be present in the lift

First, if you watch yourself in a mirror while you train you have a physical separation between what you feel and what you see. It is like watching another person lift.

This is distracting. Your brain tries to equate what it sees with what the body is doing, rather than just focus on the movement.

Your brain may even make adjustments mid-lift based on what the eyes are seeing, rather than what the body feels.

This is the wrong way round. When lifting it is vitally important to feel the movement. This applies whether you are learning a movement or are an old hand. If you can’t feel what is going on, you won’t know how to move differently to improve it and you won’t know what it feels like when you get it right!

You need to be present in the lift. I don’t believe you can truly be present if you are focussing on a representation of yourself in a mirror.

The mirror lies

Second, the view in the mirror is quite likely not a good view of the lift at all. In the big, important exercises like the squat, deadlift, snatch, clean and jerk, the front view is not the optimal angle to see what is going on in the lift. The side and the back view are much more relevant.

So watching yourself from the front could result in you not seeing any issues in the lift, or fixating on something that is very minor while missing the larger problem.

Filming yourself and watching it back, or having a coach or friend to watch your lifts are good ways to monitor form and technique, but your ultimate aim should be to know by feel what is going on in the lift.

This process takes a while to learn, especially if you don’t have good body awareness (I don’t!). But I don’t believe that looking in a mirror will help with this process.

Training in the hall of mirrors

What if you train in a gym surrounded by mirrors? A simple solution is to turn around and face into the centre of the room. It might feel weird at first, and you might get some odd looks, but it is a much better position to lift in.

Sometimes the mirror is simply unavoidable – for example if the squat rack is right in front of a mirror as in the photo below and you cannot squat facing the other way.

Mirrors everywhere! A common but unfortunate scenario

In cases like this, the best thing you can do is try not to look at yourself. Focus on a spot on the wall in the background and tune out the image of yourself in the foreground. With enough concentration it is possible not to notice yourself!

Alternatively, suggest to the gym manager that they could move the squat rack to a bit of blank wall. Or change your gym. There are a growing number of gyms which have few or no mirrors at all.

Bodytribe. No mirrors - only iron. And art.

This is a guest post by strength & conditioning coach Phil Nourse. Phil is a certified weightlifting coach by both BWLA and USAW. This post follows on neatly from my last post on basic barbell programmes as it introduces a different approach (from Steve Justa) and discusses the use of intensity in the training cycle. Over to Phil…

Renowned American powerlifter Arthur ‘Superman’ Jones once said, “There is a difference between lifting more and actually getting stronger.”

The point Jones was making was that lifting heavy weights in training does not actually mean that our pure strength will increase. Of course in weightlifting and powerlifting our strength is benchmarked by our performance in competition. Russian strength guru Pavel Tstatsouline says of this approach, “train light, compete heavy.”

In my experience of competitive weightlifting in the UK and USA this approach is often overlooked or rejected in favour of an irrational obsession with intensity. Why is this the case?

Perhaps it is a fascination with certain aspects of eastern bloc philosophy including the so-called Bulgarian approach.

It may also be the culture of ‘hard work’ which permeates this sport as well as many other aspects of strength training and sports in general. Right from the teenage wannabe bodybuilder through to competitive track and field athletes one very frequently comes across the attitude that if hard and frequent is good, harder and more frequent will be better. Commendable but, I would argue, possibly naïve.

Lastly, and this will be controversial, I feel that the sport of weightlifting often places itself upon a pedestal and is incredibly introspective, whereas if it were to take a more extrospective view it may learn something from other strength sports, particular the experiences of elite powerlifters. One only has to read works on powerlifting to realise that their sport is very outward looking and open minded to learning from other strength sports; most often, weightlifting.

Examples in powerlifting of success achieved through the “train light, compete heavy” approach are numerous. Andy Bolton (pictured, above) pulled a world record 455kg deadlift having taken no more than 340kg for a triple in the preceeding 8-week training cycle. (Both lifts were suited but suits add little to a deadlift unlike the squat and bench press.)

Another example is the bench press programme of Vladimir Volkov, the European bench press champion and masters world champion in the 220lb class. In the 10-week cycle leading up to the Russian bench press championship of 2005 he trained the bench press an average of 3 1/3 times per week (that is, relatively frequently), never took loads above 88 per cent of his competition maximum and only attempted loads between 81 and 88 per cent in 15 per cent of his workouts and usually only for a single or, infrequently, a double. All other workouts used loads between 59 and 79 per cent. He would take that championship with a bench press of 270kg.

It is this relatively frequent practice with light to moderate loads which Tsatsouline terms “greasing the groove.” He attributes the success of the approach to the improvements in intramuscular coordination which he contends it delivers. Russian powerlifter, Sergey Pavlov adds, “when you are just thinking WHETHER you will lift the bar, you are not thinking about HOW to lift it.” As we said earlier, lifting heavy weights and getting stronger are not the same thing.

Tsatsouline believes that the optimal load for gaining strength is in the 70-80 per cent (of 1 rep max) range which is, he suggests “heavy enough to notice, yet light enough to pay attention to the technique and not need to psyche up.”

It is interesting that the Russian guru proposes this range as it is also recommended by an American natural strongman, Steve Justa. Justa is precisely the type of athlete the weightlifting world would generally, I believe, pay little attention to, yet his works are intelligent and thought provoking.

In his book, Rock, Iron, Steel he details a program which he suggests is “very efficient and will build tremendous strength.” Justa even goes as far as to contend it to be excellent for developing “one lift you would like to practice and excel in and maybe set a world record in.”

In brief the routine involves practicing the chosen lift every day, utilising only singles and always using loads between 70 and 80 per cent of maximum. It is this percentage range which he calls “the target zone” and proposes that “this is the zone you must stay in when training to get stronger the fastest.”

On the first Monday you would perform three singles with 70 per cent, Tuesday would be five singles, Wednesday seven and so on up to fifteen on the Sunday. The following week the load increases to around 73.3 per cent, the next to 76.6 per cent and in the fourth the loads are at 80 per cent. One rep max is then tested and the process repeated.

When I ran this by friends and acquaintances in the weightlifting world their response was practically unanimous: “I don’t think there’s enough intensity”, or words to that effect. The quote from American coach, John Coffee was “I’d be scared to experiment with it out of fear that it wouldn’t work.”

Throughout my two-month experiment on the programme my knees and quads felt fantastic, no aches or pains, I actually looked forward to my squat sessions rather than dreading them, my olympic lifting sessions were better and, much to my delight, my incredibly stubborn squat max improved for the first time in a long time. A scientific experiment? Not at all. Did I care? Definitely not; it worked for me.

In his book Steve Justa relays a hypothetical to explain his thought process. This rings very true with me and also will with many of you:

“Let’s say your max is 500lbs in the deadlift, and you’ve worked up to the point where you’re pulling 450 for reps, say three reps, and you want to do four sets of three reps for your workout. Well this is fine for one workout. Even if you’re tough mentally, as you start lifting and gut your way through the workout, because you’re lifting so close to your max, every rep is hard and every set is hard. If you make it through this workout, when you finally make it, you say to yourself ‘I’m on the verge of lifting too heavy, but I made it and I feel happy, but it will feel lighter next workout – it has to because I don’t know how many more workouts like that last one I can endure.’

It’s at this point your mind’s already giving out on you because you’re questioning yourself if you could work that hard again if you had to. Then, until your next workout, this feeling of dread sticks with you, and if you’re going to use the same weight this time as last, you know you’re in for trouble. You know you’re out of your target zone but you want to push ahead rather than have to take weight off and start all over again.

For some reason, to the ambitious strength athlete, the thought of having to take weight off a lift you’ve already done is a fate worse than death itself. And this is a mentality you must not carry. Never be ashamed or embarrassed or feel let down because you have to take a little weight off a lift to keep training. If it feels too heavy, it probably IS too heavy for you to be training with.

But getting back to the story, you approach your next workout with dread because you know it’s going to be a killer mentally and physically, but you’re expecting it to be a little lighter than last time since you’ve already had one workout with this weight. So you hit the workout and for some reason it feels even heavier to you this time than it did last time. Well, now you’ve really got trouble mentally when this happens, and you really feel frustrated. But no, you think, I’m tough, I can handle it. So you gut your way through another backbreaking workout, carrying a sense of dread and destruction with you the whole time.”

Of course weightlifting and powerlifting are different sports and the style of lifting is also very different. My gut feeling is that the way we get stronger in the explosive lifts may be very physiologically and neurologically different that in the slow, strength lifts.

That said I also believe there is much that the sport of weightlifting can learn from these coaches and athletes who are succeeding in related sports. At the very least we may wish to experiment with such methodologies in our squats, presses and so forth.

More than this, though, any experienced coach can surely see how this discussion relates to that lifter with a preoccupation with intensity, i.e. he/she who continually misses far, far more lifts in training than they catch due to regular use of loads which are too heavy and the associated breakdown in form.

Why would anyone want to practice failure? Why would anyone want to think constantly about whether they will lift the bar and not how to lift it? Both will lead to deterioration and confusion of skill specific intramuscular coordination, mislearning, which in competition – under pressure and with heavy loads – will result in technical breakdown at the very moment it needs to be perfect.

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Define your training
On not making progress

Yes, even Paula Radcliffe squats – quite heavy as well! A barbell programme is the best way to get strong legs, a strong back, strong upper body and a strong core. The stronger you are, the easier it is to do athletic things.

‘Basic’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘beginner’ or ‘newbie’ either. It means simple and effective. A basic barbell programme could be ideal for, say, a powerlifter who wants to get back to basics for a while, as well as an athlete needing to build strength for their sport in the off season.

Prerequisites

Before I get into the detail of the programmes, it’s important that you have the prerequisites of a basic barbell programme in place, and these are:

Power cage

• Access to a barbell (preferably an Olympic bar)
• Access to weight plates (preferably down to 1.25kg)
• Access to a squat rack or power cage

These are basic requirements but sadly many so-called gyms can’t fulfil them. If you have access to a decent strength and conditioning facility at a sports club or university you will probably be fine, but if you just go to your local high street chain gym, you may struggle.

If your gym doesn’t have barbells and racks, my advice is: leave and never look back. If you are serious about your training, find a gym that takes your training seriously and can provide you with the basic equipment that folks have used for hundreds of years to get strong. Or invest in your own kit for home. It’s that simple.

Introduction to the programmes

The programmes discussed below are:

Starting Strength – beginner
Stronglifts – beginner
Wendler’s 5/3/1 – intermediate or advanced
Madcow intermediate 5×5 – intermediate (there is also an advanced version)
Texas Method – intermediate

As a rule of thumb, beginner means someone who is in their first year of barbell strength training; intermediate is someone with a year or two of barbell training under their belt; advanced is someone who has been training for years.

The main difference between beginner programmes and intermediate or advanced programmes is that beginner programmes assume progression (increase in weight or reps) from session to session. At some stage progression every session will no longer be possible (as you get closer to your strength potential) and you then need a programme that includes progression from week to week, or from cycle to cycle.

If you only train with barbells once a week, or you’ve never done a strength-focussed programme before (as opposed to a bodybuilding programme), then you might be a beginner in strength terms even if you have been training for a couple of years or more.

You’ll notice that all of these programmes feature sets of between 1 and 5 reps. This is the ideal rep range for strength building. 5 rep sets are long enough to get good technique nailed and for strength adaptations to occur. You can also build mass with 5 rep sets. If you’ve not done 1-5 rep sets before, you’ve probably not done a strength programme before.

I’ll come back to this beginner-intermediate distinction at the end, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at the programmes.

Starting Strength – great for beginners and intermediates

Book: Starting Strength 2nd edition by Mark Rippetoe & Lon Kilgore available from startingstrength.com or Amazon
Online resources: Starting Strength forum and Starting Strength Wiki

Starting Strength is an excellent beginner programme – although Stronglifts (discussed below) might suit you better. Starting Strength can also be good for intermediates who are still making progress on a linear programme.

It is good partly because of the structure of the programme and partly because of the wealth of guidance and technical knowledge contained in the book. It allows you to teach yourself good technique and safe, effective training practice.

Likewise, anyone who has been away from training for a while, or has only ever had informal tuition in the barbell lifts learning from people around them, will probably benefit hugely from the technical guidance in Starting Strength. I’ve been training for years and I still refer to it.

What is the programme?
It is a 3 day a week programme featuring the squat, deadlift, bench, military press and power clean. You squat every session and alternate the other lifts.

Sets are 5 reps, but this is not a 5×5 (5 sets of 5 reps) programme; the number of sets changes depending on the lift you are doing. For example, Rippetoe believes that the squat benefits more from ‘sets across’ (several sets at the same weight) than the deadlift, which is better done as one heavy set.

Basic programme:
(note: this and all other programmes quoted below are just the bare bones of the programme to give you an idea of what it looks like; invariably there is much more detail in the books themselves)

Alternating these sessions three days a week means that one week you do Workout A twice and the next week you do Workout B twice.

Why is Starting Strength good?
It does what it says on the tin. It is simple to follow and comes with excellent technique advice in the book. It will potentially last you a long time; you can continue to build strength and/or mass for months or years with this kind of programme.

There is also an active forum (and many other popular forums have Starting Strength threads) so support and motivation is only a click away.

Any downsides?
You might get bored if you are used to doing lots of different exercises and ‘mixing up’ your programme every six weeks as many PTs like you to do. But if that is the case, you need to change your mindset because getting stronger is all about plugging away at a few key movements. Use the numbers as your motivation and enjoy mastering these big movements.

The power clean is harder to master than the other movements, being a more technical lift. It’s a great lift to learn but if you are not keen to take it on, Stronglifts (below) is a good alternative. Some people also substitute the barbell row for the power clean on Starting Strength.

Getting started
You’ll need the book (a good investment if you are serious about your training), and perhaps the Wiki. The book contains all the technical guidance and the concepts behind the programme but it doesn’t contain an actual template programme. There’s enough information in the book for you to create your own programme if you want, but if you would rather not, you can refer to the Wiki for programmes that Rippetoe and others have written using the Starting Strength concepts.

Stronglifts – accessible beginner programme

Book: Free ebook from Stronglifts.com
Online resources: blog at Stronglifts.com and members-only forum

Stronglifts is very similar to Starting Strength in structure, but packaged differently and aimed at a more looks-conscious crowd. The tagline is ‘build muscle and lose fat’, rather than ‘get strong’, although Stronglifts will get you strong as well, if you’ve not really trained strength before. You might be more motivated by ‘look good naked’ rhetoric than ‘get awesomely strong’ rhetoric. There is also more information on the Stronglifts website about nutrition and losing fat than there is in Starting Strength.

Most of the ebook is written in an FAQ style which is easy to read and gets the information over effectively. The ebook itself doesn’t contain any ‘how to’ information on technique but all of this is available on the website. It’s not as technically comprehensive as Starting Strength – but then, few books are.

What is the programme?
Like Starting Strength it is a 3 day a week programme featuring the squat, deadlift, bench, and various assistance exercises. You squat every session and alternate the other lifts.

Unlike Starting Strength, Stronglifts does not include the power clean as a key lift. The power clean is rather more technical than squat or deadlift and will take longer to master. Stronglifts includes the technically easier movements of inverted row and pull up/chin up.

The set and rep scheme is slightly different from Starting Strength. More of the exercises are 5×5 rather than 3×5, so overall the volume is higher.

Basic programme:

Like Starting Strength, you alternate these workouts over a three day week.

Why is Stronglifts good?
It is written in an accessible way and is easy to follow.

There are more exercises included in the basic programme than Starting Strength, so if Starting Strength looks a bit boring you might fare better on Stronglifts.

Any downsides?
Many people have said that adding weight every workout gets quite difficult within a few weeks or months. Some people also get a bit tired and/or demotivated on the programme because the volume is quite high. Doing 5×5 squats is much more demanding than doing 3×10 bicep curls!

Although there is an online community around the programme, it is now members-only. As far as I know, it is still free, but only opens to new members periodically, so it may be a while before you can join.

Getting started
It is quick to get started as everything is online. Download the free ebook from Stronglifts.com and read the blog posts for technique info.

Wendler’s 5/3/1 – great intermediate or advanced programme

Book: purchase ebook online from EliteFTS.com
Online resources: 5/3/1 FAQ and the original T-Nation article

Jim Wendler is a powerlifter from the infamous Westside Barbell powerlifting gym who underwent a renaissance when he realised that although he had become enormously strong in the competitive power lifts, he was also extremely fat, out of shape and burnt out from lifting.

The eventual result of this change in philosophy was a programme which combines strength with some conditioning, can be done around a normal lifestyle and provides simple progression and regular personal bests.

What is the programme?
You train 3-4 days a week (there are other options too) on a 4-week cycle. One day is devoted to squat, one to deadlift, one to military press and one to bench press. The rep schemes for these lifts are as follows:

The weight you use on the main exercise each week is worked out as a percentage of your max. The programme starts light so that continuous progress can be made.

As well as the main exercises, you add in whatever assistance exercises you want (dips, chins, rows, shrugs, good mornings etc). You also add in conditioning such as hill sprints or prowler pushes.

Why is it good?
It is a classic powerlifting rep scheme, from 5 reps to 3 to 1, but the difference is that you don’t reach your absolute max – instead you try to get more reps at a slightly sub-maximal weight. This means that you get more volume than a traditional powerlifting programme but you still have to work hard at heavy weights, and so you get stronger.

There is also the interesting mental challenge of not knowing how many reps you might get on that last set of 1+. Your personal bests become not your one rep max but a rep PB on a particular weight. This also takes the pressure off going to max too often. In fact you might only go to max on the platform.

Any downsides?
I’ve seen people do this programme and get very high reps on their 1+ day. This is because they haven’t reached anywhere near their strength potential. I’m not convinced that 5/3/1 is the best programme in this situation; although it won’t exactly do you harm either. But Starting Strength or some other linear 3×5 or 5×5 programme is better to build strength first. I would include Crossfitters in this group as many do not do enough strength training in their day to day Crossfitting to be ready for 5/3/1, unless they are coming from a lifting background.

For powerlifters this programme might contain more volume than they are used to; but for beginners the volume on 5/3/1 is less than on the other beginner programmes discussed here.

5/3/1 seems ideal for people who have been plugging away with powerlifting or heavy bodybuilding workouts for years and have just stalled. It could also suit someone who is transitioning from ‘normal’ barbell training into powerlifting training, perhaps working up to their first meet.

Getting started
The book does not contain detailed instruction in the lifts but includes good performance tips if you can already perform a squat, deadlift, bench and military press and are familiar with the assistance exercises.

If you are happy performing the movements, the book is all you need: it even provides Excel templates and worksheets for you to put your programme together. There are formulas for obtaining your one rep max but you might also want to test your one rep max first.

If you’ve done little barbell work before and you are not confident in the main exercises, begin with Starting Strength and save 5/3/1 for when you are at a more advanced level.

Madcow intermediate 5×5 – intermediate

Online resources: Madcow intermediate 5×5

There are many variations of the basic 5×5 programme out there, so I’m not going to go through all of them. This particular programme is useful because it is clearly set out by Madcow, based on an original programme by legendary American strength coach Bill Starr.

The original programme was designed for off season football players, i.e. athletes who need strength and explosive power, and so power cleans and high pulls were included. Madcow presents a version with deadlift instead of high pull and barbell row instead of power clean – more geared to lifters simply focussing on strength and/or mass.

(Note: there is an advanced version which you can also access on Madcow. The main difference is that it is periodised over a four-week cycle)

What is the programme?
5×5 intermediate is a 3 day a week programme based on squat, bench, press, row, deadlift and assistance exercises. You squat every day.

You perform ramping (i.e. increasing) sets of 5×5 on a Monday, 4×5 on a Wednesday and by Friday you are doing a heavy triple, followed by a back off set of 8. That triple becomes your heaviest set of 5 on a Monday.

Basic programme:

Why is it good?
Like the other programmes, it is simple and easy to follow. It contains the big exercises that will cause the greatest strength adaptation and it has you squatting every session.

There is a lot of volume but most of it isn’t heavy because sets are ramping. This gives the body lots of time to get fit and strong, and for those with less experience at the lifts, more opportunity to practise technique. If you keep rest periods down, the cardio effect of doing 5×5 is significant.

Any downsides?
Many people will find it hard to keep adding weight every week, but if that is the case, simply repeat the session until you make all your reps at the new weight.

If you have no experience with the barbell lifts, this is not the ideal programme. But if you have basic technique in the lifts, this is a good beginner-to-intermediate programme for lifters and athletes.

Getting started
The details of the programme are found online at Madcow intermediate 5×5. For technique on the lifts, pick up a copy of Starting Strength.

Texas Method – intermediate

Book: Practical Programming for Strength Training by Rippetoe & Kilgore from startingstrength.com or Amazon
Online resources: startingstrength.com

The Texas Method is described by Mark Rippetoe in the book Practical Programming for Strength Training and is one of the intermediate programmes following the basic Starting Strength.

What is the programme?
There isn’t a programme so much as a programming method. Monday is the ‘stress’ day of the week, where adaptation takes place. Wednesday is a lighter day as the lifter is still recovering from Monday. Friday is a high intensity-low volume day where personal bests can be attempted.

Using squat as an example:

The exact exercises, sets and reps you choose depend on your goals. For the Friday, for example, you may want to do 1 x 5 one week, 1 x 3 the next week and 1 rep max the week after.

You don’t have to do every exercise every day. In fact, according to Glenn Pendlay, Wednesday is not for ‘light’ weights in the main lifts so much as exercises that are easier to recover from or exercises that the lifter is naturally less good at. For example, a powerlifter could do front squat on the Wednesday, since her front squat is likely to be significantly lighter than her back squat. Likewise overhead press can be used instead of bench press or power clean instead of deadlift.

Some intermediate lifters may fare better doing only one set of 5 on the deadlift on a Monday, rather than 5×5, especially when squatting the same day. The deadlift being such a taxing lift, it tends not to require as much volume as the other lifts.

Why is it good?
It is one of the progressions from Starting Strength, utilising principles similar to other 5×5 variations. The format of heavy/medium/light is a type of periodisation, easier to perform and recover from than a programme that demands progress every session. The method is flexible and easy to customise for your particular needs.

Any downsides?
It’s quite hard to work out exactly what a full Texas Method programme would look like, as Practical Programming only gives examples for one lift at a time. You are expected to interpret the method for yourself, which some people may not be comfortable with. (Note: I have since been told that the latest edition of Practical Programming does offer some example programmes of the Texas Method.)

Practical Programming is an excellent book if you are interested in the general topic of programming, but if all you want is a new programme to start, then getting a book like this is probably not necessary. You might be better off buying Wendler’s 5/3/1 or giving Madcow intermediate a go.

This programme is probably best for people who have done Starting Strength and like the Rippetoe approach, but have stopped making progress and need to alter their programming.

Getting started
You will need the book Practical Programming for Strength Training by Rippetoe & Kilgore. You may also want to check out what other people have done on the Starting Strength forum.

Conclusion

Unless you are a complete beginner, you probably need to decide whether you need a beginner programme or an intermediate programme. This shouldn’t be a decision based on ego. In fact, you want to stay at ‘beginner’ level for as long as possible, since once your progress stalls you have to try all sorts of programming voo-doo to get it going again. The longer you are on a beginner programme making progress, the more likely you are to end up being a beast!

Making a choice between the programmes available will largely come down to packaging and appeal. For example, you might like the Stronglifts approach better than the Starting Strength approach, but both programmes will do what you want them to do.

The purpose of this review was to give you an idea of what the programmes are like and a few of the pros and cons, not to rate them or attempt to say which is best.

The good news is that you won’t go far wrong choosing any of these programmes. Those who learn good technique, train consistently and work hard invariably go on to achieve great things. The most important thing is to find a programme you like the look of and can stick to.

Have you done any of these programmes? Do you have any experiences to share?

More from gubernatrix

Five secrets of more effective training
How to deadlift
How to bench press
Why you should full squat
Assistance exercises

You can convert pounds to kilos in your head

Your warm up is everyone else’s max

You love the sound of barbells and weight plates crashing to the floor

You are always covered in chalk dust

People move out of the squat rack when you walk into the gym

You don’t go out on a Friday night because you have to train Saturday morning

You grunt loudly on your last rep

You have massive glutes

Your friends call you ‘beast’

You are unbelievably bored on rest days

You never do more than five reps of anything

Unless it’s twenty-rep squats

You automatically stop what you are doing and shout encouragement when anyone in the gym is going for a big lift

You enjoy showing off your callouses

When you walk past a mirror you drop into a squat, just to check

You get nervous on heavy days

You have constant scrapes on your shins

Other people tell you their max lifts and watch for your reaction

You think football players are skinny, rugby forwards are normal size and strongmen are ‘big’

Other people think you are ‘big’

You care more about your max squat than your max bench

Your starter is everyone else’s main course

You have torn at least one item of clothing while training

Jackets that are allegedly in your size don’t fit you

You see a tyre and want to flip it

‘Sumo’ is a type of deadlift not a Japanese wrestling sport

You are more impressed by a big back than by a big chest

You always want to put more weight on the bar!

Photo credit: Matthew Nourse

Opportunities for play are never more present than in these long, hot days of summer – of which we in the UK have been enjoying many recently and I hope you are too, wherever you are.

This weekend I went to a garden party featuring a ‘summer olympics’ of mad games including such classics as welly wanging and tug of war, as well as more unusual challenges involving the carrying of objects in weird ways (have you ever tried to run holding a potato between your legs?), lots of wet sponges, cartwheel races and general larking about.

What I noticed (aside from the fact that I am useless at welly wanging and I ached in unusual places the next day) was the way everyone behaved, both adults and children. The kids threw themselves into everything and were full of beans all day. Their energy is astonishing, as anyone who has kids will tell you. It’s inspiring as well.

The adults were torn between being competitive and just having a laugh. As the day went on, the cheating got more outrageous. It became clear, however, that the best time is when people are being competitive in the context of the game without actually minding who wins. In other words, getting involved in the process without worrying about the outcome. That is essential for true play.

The day was a great reminder of two important things: first, to put a bit of play back into training, even if its just getting a few people together and seeing who can throw a kettlebell the furthest (as we did recently at Crossfit Reading‘s open day). The great thing about ‘silly’ games is that you can persuade people to participate who otherwise would be afraid to do something more ‘serious’. But if you are prepared to wang a welly, why not a tire or a kettlebell?

The second is to focus on the process rather than the outcome. At Wimbledon, the most successful tennis players are those who focus not on the outcome (‘I must win’) but on the process, playing each point as it comes. One point at a time, one throw at a time, one lift at a time. Try to make each lift the best lift of the day.

By the way, Bodytribe has a new DVD coming out this summer based on the notion of putting play back into training. Watch a preview here.

All the fabulous photos by Helen Armstrong

Earlier this year I was approached by a young woman called Chantelle who had been lifting weights for a few years, loved it and now wanted to share her passion for lifting heavy things with other women.

Chantelle wanted to set up a series of weight training workshops for women only – and this is why:

“Like many of the women reading this, I train alone and have made very few friends in my weights room in all this time…I could say that my girl friends think I’m insane for lifting weights, or think that it’s not for them; that the guys in my gym think I’m a freak for lifting so don’t talk to me, or stare because I have bad form.  What’s missing from the analysis is what I’m doing and who I’m being….

I learnt almost everything I know from fantastic internet bloggers like Gubernatrix and Stumptuous, but have never passed any of this on, or given anything back.  I think I just worried about ridicule or rejection. Realising this made me decide to turn my passion for weights into action.”

You can read the full story in an article Chantelle wrote for the recent Women’s Strength Symposium called Turning passion into action. As you’ll see from the comments, this idea generated a lot of interest.

In the meantime, Chantelle got right on with organising two workshops and enlisted myself and personal trainer Ade Abudu to develop and teach the sessions.

The workshops are described below and I have also included some of the feedback we received. This is not to make us sound awesome (no, really) but to show that the concept and format really works.

I can safely say that a few of those brave souls who turned up were a bit sceptical, suspicious and otherwise unsure whether this was really what they wanted to be doing on a Sunday morning. But by the end, everyone was smiling!

Philosophy

Right from the start we knew we wanted to hold the workshop in the weights room itself. The idea was to help to demystify this space, break down the barriers (psychological, emotional, physical) preventing women from entering it and train on proper equipment.

Hiding away in a studio lifting plastic bars was not the plan!

We also wanted to hold the workshop in a normal, commercial gym – rather than a weightlifting club or Crossfit box – because we wanted people to be using the kind of equipment that they will find in their own gyms. Our workshops took place in LA Fitness.

We decided to teach the big, compound free weight exercises such as squat, deadlift, bench press and so on. We didn’t want to do ‘girly’ versions or avoid the ‘heavy’ equipment.

“I would never have been brave enough to try barbell lifts without this opportunity, and after this I was emboldened to go down to my local council leisure centre and ask if they have a squat rack.”

We wanted the atmosphere to be positive and enabling. We wanted participants to have fun but also to be pushed further than they would push themselves on their own. What better opportunity to challenge yourself when you have a supportive group of like-minded women around you?

“it was very non-confrontational and I didn’t feel that I was being tested or looked down on which made me more willing to really try things out”

We held two workshops, two weeks apart, and we encouraged people to come to both. In the end, for the second workshop we had a mix of those who had been to the first workshop and some who were newcomers.

Workshop content

In both workshops, we started the session in a studio so that we could all get to know each other and do a warm up together.

We also looked at squat technique to make sure that everyone was comfortable with the movement and had no major issues before we headed to the weights room.

I find that women generally have good movement, balance and better flexibility than a lot of men to start off with, so it is delightfully easy to teach movements like the squat! None of the participants failed to perform a decent bodyweight squat within twenty minutes, which was very impressive.

We then moved into the free weights area where we split up into smaller groups and worked on back and front squats, deadlift, bench and overhead press and inverted rows.

The weights area was being used by normal gym punters as well; we didn’t have the room to ourselves. This was both good and bad – the atmosphere was that of a normal gym day, but we did somewhat hog the equipment! Still, kinda funny when a bunch of women chuck the hapless bicep-curling bloke off the squat rack…

I’ve found in the past that the gym instructors I’ve worked with have been very reluctant to put weight on the bar (or even give me a barbell), even when I’ve clearly been perfectly capable of lifting more. In our workshop, despite the fact that most participants had never squatted with a barbell before, everyone worked up to lifting with a good deal more than just the bar.

At the end of the second workshop, we finished off with a group bench press session where everyone went for a personal best! This was great fun and ideal to try for a best when you have a group cheering you on.

“I really liked the bench press and being encouraged to try heavier weights. That Ade thought I could do more gave me the confidence to push myself harder.”

What particularly pleased me was the fact that people were willing to attempt a lift and fail! I have heard from many women that one of the things they are most nervous about is failing a lift in front of other people – and this used to be a big issue for me as well. In the workshop we made a point of getting people deliberately to ‘fail’ a squat just to feel what it is like (and to see the safety bars on the squat rack in action!). When it came to the bench press, people were so confident and ‘up for it’ that they really didn’t mind going for a heavy weight and not getting it. Knowing that they had pushed themselves to the limit was more rewarding.

It was fun, as you can see from the pictures. We didn’t force people to smile while heaving weights over their head!

Chantelle wanted to give people something to take away both as a reminder of the workshop and also as a spur to further action. So every participant got a free workout journal with a workout programme developed by Ade which covered all the exercises we had learned in the workshop. Chantelle also printed out an exercise technique handout so that participants had something to refer to when trying the movements on their own.

“Great instructors, good content, and great vibe from all participants”

I don’t know how many people went away from the workshop and started lifting immediately. I have been in touch with one or two whom I know are getting into their lifting with enthusiasm, which is fantastic. For others, the experience may work its magic in the background and may have a less tangible but still postive effect.

The aim was not to turn out an army of female powerlifters but to give women a positive experience of proper lifting and introduce an alternative to the ‘cardio bunny’ model that we are used to seeing in the gym.

“It was a really positive experience and I don’t honestly think I know of any way it could be improved, sorry!”

I personally was monumentally stoked to be part of this project. I came away from each workshop absolutely buzzing. It didn’t feel like teaching, it felt like training with a group of friends.

I plan to put on more of these in the near future so watch this space!