It is written from the point of view of an enthusiastic practitioner of weight training who wants to share her passion with other women and persuade them of the benefits of weight training.

The author is a powerlifter but doesn’t have any formal qualifications in strength coaching or personal training. This however is not necessarily a bad thing.

She knows how to train and isn’t encumbered by personal training jargon. Her advice is that of a knowledgeable friend in the gym – quite refreshing really. In fact, this is what I was aiming to achieve with gubernatrix.co.uk when I first started blogging around four years ago.

The book covers basic exercises,  training for various goals, including physique, sport and strength, along with tips about diet, injuries and so on. It includes, succintly, everything you need to know to get started with weight training, delivering what the title promises.

I was happy to see some information about strength sports; not everyone wants to compete but it is good to treat this as a normal progression for women, should they want to take things further.

I also like the information on gym etiquette – it is one of those topics that is often neglected in the ‘serious’ training books but is very useful information for people not used to the weight room environment. The author is clearly very aware of the challenges and barriers facing women who want to take up weight training and has addressed these well.

The book is suitable for complete beginners to weight training and those who have done a bit of weight training but want to explore it further.

Where it comes up short for me is the information on programming. Perhaps this is where the author’s inexperience in coaching shows through. The fat loss programme looks too much like a strength programme and the physique programme is somewhat unbalanced (it includes only one chest exercise but five exercises involving shoulders, two of which are isolation).

Fortunately there are plenty of good beginner programmes available on the internet. I recommend the training information on Stumptuous as a great place to start. A link to Starting Strength is included in the book’s appendix and I would also point beginners to this programme if they want to improve strength and technique.

In conclusion, then, this is a broadly successful book covering everything you need to know to get started with weight training, whether at home or at the gym.

If I’m completely honest, there are better tomes out there on weight training in general – but what this book has in its favour is that it is inexpensive and approachable.

This book could be a nice gift for a friend or partner who doesn’t know where to start and would appreciate a small, friendly book to get them going.

Weight Training for Women: A Beginner’s Guide is available from Need2Know Books.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending The Foundry’s inaugural ‘Heavy Weekend’ training camp: two days in the country at a secret Oxfordshire location, chucking heavy things around with a bunch of like-minded people.

I’ve known the guys and girls at The Foundry for a while now. Based in the City of London, they have a bias – of which I wholly approve – towards resistance training for performance, health and body transformations. It is therefore very much in The Foundry’s philosophy to develop a training camp around lifting, throwing, carrying and sprinting.

The Foundry has added some spice to the usual bootcamp format by getting specialist names in to coach the various skills, including Andy Titterell, pro rugby player and British Lion, Sarah Lindsay, 3-time winter Olympian, Evelyn Stevenson, national title winner in both powerlifting and olympic weightlifting and Sian Toal, Fitness England winner.

The programme ran the gamut of strength and conditioning training: on Saturday we had strongman circuits, powerlifting, touch rugby and some team competitions; on Sunday there was olympic weightlifting, speed and agility, and performance nutrition lectures.

If nothing else, there was going to be about a week’s worth of training packed into two days. Would we all survive?

How the weekend unfolded

Unfortunately I was only able to attend the Saturday as I was teaching my Ladies Who Lift class on Sunday. I wish I had been there to see what state everyone was in the next day! I was certainly rather sore when I did my own training on Sunday.

There were about 25 people attending; mostly men with a small number of women – perhaps five apart from me.

However, with more than half the coaching team being female, women were reasonably well represented.

We warmed up with a game of touch rugby out on the sports pitches. This was fast, furious and fun – a great ice breaker to start things off.

We then split into two groups – half of us went off to do strongman-style circuit training with Andy Titterell while the rest went to lift heavy barbells with Eve and Sian- and after lunch we swopped over. Free goody bags containing energy drinks, protein bars and other tasty snacks kept us going. The last event of the day was a team circuit which really got everyone’s competitive hackles up. The final result was very close!

How it felt

The weekend was fun and intense. You needed to be quite ‘up for it’ to cope with the pace and the (at times) competitiveness.

For some this might have been a bit intimidating, but also potentially exhilarating. I saw many participants grow in confidence throughout the day as they realised what they were capable of.

It also helped that we divided into two groups for much of the day: an experienced group who were confident with all the skills (or thought they were!) and a less experienced group who hadn’t been lifting for long and were less confident with all the techniques.

The techniques involved might be anything from being able to execute a deep front squat to knowing how to flip a tyre.

This allowed the coaching team to tailor the sessions to the experience level of the group and ensured that all participants had enjoyable and productive sessions.

Everyone I spoke to at the end of Saturday was stoked by the day and looking forward to day two.

While I headed back to London, the group was off for a well-deserved gourmet pub dinner and probably a sound night’s sleep before starting all over again the next morning.

So is it for me?

What you get out of the weekend depends on your level of experience and what you are interested in.

It is possible to go in as a complete strength neophyte but I wouldn’t recommend it. You need a bit of a strength base and some familiarity with basic lifting techniques to get the most out of it.

But if you have the basics, it’s a chance to have a go at more complex or unusual events like strongman or olympic weightlifting, where the specific equipment and coaching expertise required mean that opportunities to try these out are limited. You won’t find a yoke in your average gym. Or an internationally-capped rugby player, come to that.

The sessions act like a taster of a particular mode of training; they are a bit short to really master complex skills, but you can pick up some useful tips and try new things.

So if you want a total immersion in all things strength and conditioning and you are looking for a new challenge, this weekend is a great option.

Keep an eye on The Foundry‘s website to hear more about this and similar projects.

In fact, kettlebells are fun, they appeal to the home trainer market and are also popular with women who otherwise mightn’t use resistance training at all.

However, with this popularity has inevitably come a lot of ‘lazy’ training and teaching, and a plethora of instruction of varying levels of quality. I cringe when I see some of the stuff that goes on in gyms across the land, even with movements as simple as a two-handed swing.

So a good, comprehensive, quality DVD is always going to be a much-needed tool and this is what Practical Kettlebell Training represents.

This 2-disc DVD set features the UK’s Stephen Aish, who has been teaching kettlebells and holding masterclasses for many years (and isn’t it great to be promoting a UK trainer for a change?).

The DVD aims to be the complete package, so covers everything from the moment you first see a kettlebell to the key exercises like swing, snatch, squat, jerk, windmill and so on, to advanced training and competition techniques.

Specifically, the 2-disc DVD set covers:

• Warm ups and stretches
• Major kettlebell exercises (shown from side and front)
• Kettlebell workouts
• Kettlebell competition training
• Safety and handling tips
• Examples of advanced kettlebell training for MMA

I received a copy of this DVD after doing a course with Steve and was very impressed by it. The production values are not the flashiest, but the substance is there. Steve’s approach is quite technical and detailed, which I think is great for people who are home trainers or those who plan to teach others.

In fact, the vast majority of people I see in gyms using and teaching kettlebells should have a copy of this DVD! It’s clear that many people only have the vaguest idea of how to teach or execute these movements properly, particularly the clean and the snatch. Practical Kettlebell Training breaks these movements down and provides effective drills so that people can learn the movements without bashing the hell out of their forearms, ripping up their palms or risking injury because they can’t stabilise the kettlebell properly overhead.

A complete beginner with their first kettlebell could pick this DVD  up and begin to train effectively. A person with some experience who needs more detail on technique and advanced pointers would also benefit – especially if they are self taught or if they went on a course a while ago and can’t remember all the teaching points. And anyone who is teaching others will get a lot from the instruction points and advice on how to train groups.

So this DVD is really a great all-rounder and if you don’t have a decent source of kettlebell instruction, I recommend it.

Buy this DVD in the gubernatrix shop

An olympic weightlifting coach for some twenty years, Pendlay has until now stayed largely within the weightlifting and strength sports world, referenced by the likes of Mark Rippetoe, with whom he has worked extensively (you may have noticed Pendlay credited in Rippetoe’s books).

But now with a snazzy, content-rich website at www.californiastrength.com, a new DVD published by On Target (the same folks who brought you Dan John’s Never Let Go DVD series), and even an interview on T-Nation, Glenn Pendlay is set to be everyone’s new favourite weightlifting guru!

I don’t mean to take the mickey, as this guy is the real deal. With the renewed interest in olympic weightlifting (due largely to the growth of Crossfit), it is fantastic to have a serious weightlifting coach putting good quality material out there in an accessible format.

And that is exactly what this two-disc DVD set represents. This is Glenn Pendlay’s method for teaching the snatch and the clean & jerk to complete beginners. You can use this DVD to learn the lifts yourself; you can also use it to teach others.

I have already used Pendlay’s method to teach people – both in a workshop setting and in a one-to-one setting – and I really like it. It is effective, it gets people doing the lifts quickly, and it drills good technique right from the beginning.

His progressions are simple (he focusses just on three key positions), systematic and easy to communicate. He is very clear about what needs to be corrected and how best to do this.

Like the Dan John DVDs, the presentation is a workshop delivered to a real audience. It’s possible to play along at home, and also useful from a coaching  point of view to see Glenn’s methods implemented with a variety of different body types and levels of skill.

‘Ideal’ technique is demonstrated by one of Pendlay’s star weightlifters, Jon North, who is the number one ranked 94kg lifter in the US.

Pendlay has a comfortable presentation style. He’s relaxed and clear; like his method, there is little that is extraneous or by-the-by. Pendlay mentions his credentials at the start of the workshop: he studied with Alexey Medvedev, Soviet national coach, in Moscow and started coaching soon afterwards in the early nineties. He has coached national champions in the US at all ages and currently has a crop of promising young elite weightlifters at his club, California Strength.

This is an excellent DVD for learning and teaching the olympic lifts. Glenn is making a visit to the UK soon and I am looking forward to learning more in person – and will of course share any insights with you.

You can buy the DVD from me here (the best option if you are in the UK) or from the US publisher here (makes more sense if you are in the US).

Dan John’s DVDs on Olympic Lifting for Beginners and Perfecting Your Kettlebell Form are also available in the gubernatrix shop.

More from gubernatrix

• What’s the difference between powerlifting, olympic weightlifting and strongman?
• Basic barbell programmes reviewed
• Coach Dan John answers your questions
• Show up, lift things
• Review of Dan John seminar in Ireland

Brutal Recess is the new DVD from Bodytribe Fitness, makers and purveyors of the excellent Strength Rituals DVD which I reviewed in 2009.

The focus of Brutal Recess is mobility, not as a separate topic or something that is tacked onto the end of training, but mobility as something that can be incorporated into training, with playfulness and intensity.

Like Strength Rituals we see workouts filmed in unusual outdoor locations (burpees in a lake, yoga on a bridge) and in workshops where folks are trying out these movements in real time to Bodytribe founder Chip Conrad’s instruction. This is kinda fun as you can play along too.

There is some really interesting and innovative movement here. I particularly enjoyed Bodytribe trainer Tav Bayerhoff’s burpee variations (watch the clip on youtube!) but there is also yoga-influenced movement, martial arts-inspired rolling, clubs and macebells, tires and bands, stairs, walls and water.

A segment on self myofascial release (using foam roller, medicine ball and lacrosse ball) is also useful stuff.

Interspersed with the workouts are Chip’s explications of his brutal recess concept and general approach to health and strength. What makes Chip’s approach different from your average fitness guru is that he always brings it back to ‘why’. Why do we want to be strong, why do we want to be mobile? How do we benefit, how does the community benefit?

I know all too well from working in a gym that most of the people who walk in the door don’t really know why they are there, and that personal trainers or coaches are reluctant to explore these topics. I think the Bodytribe approach gives trainers a framework for talking about these bigger issues, as well as giving individuals or at-home trainees some great tools and techniques.

Brutal recess (and for those who don’t speak American, it’s ‘recess’ in the ‘playtime’ sense of the word) is about putting us in touch with a simple, primal instinct; something that keeps us in the moment. I hesitate to use tree-hugging language such as ‘getting back in touch with our selves’ but that’s kind of what it is. Involving lots of cool toys and challenging movements, of course.

So Brutal Recess – which like Strength Rituals is a 2-DVD set – is available from the Bodytribe website here.

More from gubernatrix

• Review: Strength Rituals DVD
• Bodyweight or bust!
• Why kettlebells?

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

All photos by Matthew Nourse

On 29-30 May I went to the World’s Strongest Man Experience at the Excel Centre in London. The event comprised a two-hour competition featuring some of the biggest stars in WSM – including current World’s Strongest Man Zydrunas Savickas – preceded by an opportunity to meet the strongmen on the exhibition stand, have your photo taken, get your programme signed and generally marvel at these man mountains.

I thought it was a great idea for strongman fans, allowing you to experience in person what you’ve only seen on the telly at Christmas! The coolest part for me was getting to rub shoulders with the strongmen on the stand (not literally of course, as I’m only 5 ft 5) and interviewing Zydrunas Savickas (see the clip here).

Of the Brits, Terry Hollands, Mark Felix, Jimmy Marku and Darren Sadler represented in style. Laurence Shahlaei was also on the bill but pulled out in order to compete in a qualifier for the WSM 2010 finals (he successfully qualified!).

It’s worth saying that some of these guys are competing every couple of weeks. Terry Hollands, for example, did a Strongman Champions League event in Finland two weeks before, and another SCL event in Ireland two weeks after. Although these weights seem superhuman, it’s all in a day’s work for the professional strongman.

World Record from Felix

On the Saturday before the main show we were treated to a world record attempt by Mark Felix in the left handed deadlift.

Mark is well known as an absolute deadlift and grip monster, current Rolling Thunder world champion (Rolling Thunder is a notoriously difficult revolving deadlift handle). So I don’t think anyone was in any doubt that he would take the record easily. It stood at 221kg; Mark went for 225kg and got it.

He could probably have smashed the record and lifted more, but he did have a whole two days of strongman competition ahead of him, so perhaps he held back a little.

The events

After Felix’ new world record, the competition itself got underway. The line up included: Zydrunas Savickas (Lithuania), Terry Hollands (UK), Darren Sadler (UK), Stefan Solvi Petursson (Iceland), Thomas Nowotniak (Poland), Jimmy Marku (UK), Kevin Nee (USA) and of course Mark Felix (UK).

That’s a lot of power to fit into a small arena!

The competition was adjudicated by strongman legends Geoff Capes and Svend Karlson, and hosted by Caroline Pearce (aka Ice from Gladiators). She was a good choice of host, I thought. It’s nice to have a woman amidst all the testosterone; moreover one who isn’t a) just the female foil to a male host, and b) not just a pretty face. Pearce, who is an ex-athlete herself, has presented a few strongman events now and is getting to grips with the specifics of the sport. Could she be the Gabby Logan of strongman? I don’t see why not!

Events

The events were:
•    Farmers walk 160kg each hand – 15m
•    Dumbbell clean and press 93kg – reps in 60 seconds
•    ‘Axle’ deadlift 330kg (16 inch deadlift with olympic bar) – reps in 60 seconds
•    Log press 130kg – reps in 60 seconds
•    Atlas stones

A menu of classic strongman events here. Due to space constraints, the events chosen tended towards the static. However, as many events were a particular lift for reps, it was a good opportunity for strength fans to witness the strongmen’s technique, particularly in the overhead events – which for many of us recreational strongmen/women is our nemesis!

I was particularly interested in the dumbbell press, as I have seen many people struggle with this event. The event favours the short-armed guys, so Jimmy Marku and Darren Sadler did well. Savickas, who has excellent overhead strength, won this event.

Clip: Savickas dumbbell clean & press 93kg – 7 reps

Clip: Darren Sadler dumbbell clean & press – 6 reps

As you might expect, Mark Felix destroyed the deadlift event – this after getting a world record in the left-handed deadlift. Straps are allowed in strongman deadlifting, as it is not intended to be a test of grip.

Clip: Mark Felix deadlift 330kg – 14 reps

The 130kg log press was done in a head-to-head style. In the clip below, Jimmy Marku goes up against Mark Felix.

Clip: Jimmy Marku log press 130kg

We finished with the atlas stones, always a crowd pleaser. Professional strongmen these days are very adept at this event, which involves an unusual technique not normally seen in lifting. You pick the stone up off the floor with a rounded back (‘sacrilege!’, a fitness instructor would cry!) and wrap your body around the stone in order to roll it up your chest before pressing it onto the platform.

The stones is usually the last event in a competition and can therefore decide the overall winner if places are close. So it behoves the professional strongman to get very good at this event!

Although height is a factor, as the platforms for the stones can be quite high, a number of the shorter strongmen have proved that you can still be competitive at this event if you work hard. Darren Sadler, the shortest guy in the competition, put in an incredible performance in the stones.
(Watch Darren do a 10-stone lifting demo in 2007 and you’ll see what I mean)

On the Saturday ‘Big Z’ Savickas came out on top, with Terry Hollands second and Darren Sadler, the shortest and lightest guy in the competition an impressive third. I’m told that Savickas and Hollands also came first and second respectively on the Sunday too.

It was a pity Laurence ‘Big Loz’ Shahlaei couldn’t be there as I’d have liked to see how he stacked up against Hollands – both British men are really in form at the moment. They will both be competing in Europe’s Strongest Man in London on 19th June though, so perhaps we’ll see a fine competition there!

I also spoke to Jimmy Marku about his training but he wasn’t giving anything away! As reigning UK’s Strongest Man, he’s clearly got game. And with Mark Felix getting yet another record under his capacious belt, things are looking good for British strength at the moment.

I also liked newcomer (to me, anyway) Stefan Solvi Petursson, an Icelandic strongman with a big personality who clearly has fun and communicates well with the crowd. He was one of the tallest strongmen and won the stones event with a lightening fast time.

All in all, this was a great event for strongman fans, getting up close and personal with the athletes, watching them compete at close quarters and seeing what quality we have in the British camp.

The sport of Strongman

One of the most interesting and exciting things about strongman for me, both in terms of competing and spectating, is the range of techniques and facets of strength and fitness that are employed. To be a winning strongman, there’s a lot you need to be good at. If you’ve got a monster deadlift but are weak overhead, you will suffer in the events. So it a real spur to work on your weaknesses.

When I spoke to Geoff Capes he commented that, “strength is only measured with the disciplines you give them to do and the guys are actually competing in the event. Change the event, change the disciplines, you’ll get a different result.”

Naturally, strongman is a punishing game. You’ve got to train the lifts in the gym and focus on getting stronger, but you’ve also got to practice your event technique. Although the equipment is more sophisticated these days (we don’t just hike into the forest and chop down a tree for the log press any more), it is still easy to bruise, bash, scrape and generally injure yourself as you train.

American strongman Kevin Nee, who had to pull out of the WSM Experience competition after a couple of events through injury, and has endured two bicep tears and a pec tear in his career so far, talked about the dangers of doing too much too soon:

“Some advice for those who are starting out in the sport, just don’t rush it too much, take your time, stick with it, stay dedicated and you will get stronger”.

There seems to be good camaraderie between the strongmen, who see each other regularly on the circuit. I saw a lot of big physiques and big lifts but didn’t see any big egos. Even Savickas, whom I assumed would be rather intimidating, was great fun to talk to and modest about his achievements.

Perhaps it is too easy to be humbled in this game. Of course you must have self belief and you must be dedicated to the goal. But it is a sensible strongman who refuses to entertain the hubris of an enormous ego.

More on this topic

WSM athlete profiles
Another review of the event by The 5th Stone blog

More from gubernatrix

Strength revelations: what I’ve learned from strongman
Lifting and carrying: are you getting enough?
Five secrets of more effective training

So, an Irishman, an Australian and an American walk into a bar….and among other things they decided to open a gym, Informed Performance in Dublin, and invite coach, athlete, philosopher and all-round good guy Dan John to come and deliver a two-day seminar, download 42 years of strength training wisdom and share a few beers in the process.

As soon as I heard this was happening, I knew that I must go – if I had to sell my grandmother, swim the Irish Sea and sleep in the carcass of a dead sheep to do it.

Dan John has garnered many fans over the years through his straight-talking, insightful articles, recently collected into the book Never Let Go. Every article is an ‘a-ha!’ moment that suddenly makes one’s goals seem clearer and closer. It’s a rare gift and one that Dan has always been keen to share with as many people as possible.

From far and wide we came, from Finland and Germany, from Aberdeen and London and from all over Ireland. We were a mixed bunch, from powerlifters to rugby players, personal trainers to enthusiastic amateurs.

But what we all shared – Dan John down to every last participant – was a passion for training, a desire to plumb the depths not just of particular movements but strength training philosophy, programming rationale, maximising nutrition, supplementation and recovery, the emotional landscape – in short, everything that makes the difference between success and failure.

Read on for the full story >>

Dan John is a wonderful public speaker, a very knowledgeable strength coach and a warm, generous person. I can’t think of a better combination for a training seminar.

Although he loves to experiment and to learn himself, Dan John is in fact the opposite of faddy. He has this uncanny ability to pick out the eternal, simple truths from whatever system or method he is discussing.

I don’t think there’s much point my going into the details of what he talks about (but see end of this post anyway!). This sounds odd but it’s not really relevant. Saying Dan John covers ‘goal management’ and ‘phasic and tonic muscles’ in his lecture is like saying that Shakespeare covers ‘bereavement’ and ‘fencing’ in Hamlet. Technically this is true, but that doesn’t explain what the lecture is about or what you will get out of it.

It is worth saying however that, although much of Dan John’s experience is in coaching athletes, he does have a lot to say to people who are simply training for muscle building and/or fat loss and their long term physical health. His advice isn’t sports specific, it is general and applicable to a number of different scenarios (including one that seems to have been inspired by Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. I’m not asking any questions…).

So this DVD is for anyone who has been strength training for a while and who wants to carry on training for the rest of their life. In other words, for people who take their training seriously, even if it’s just a hobby. I think it is particularly useful for people who coach themselves as it will equip you with methods and concepts that can be drawn on throughout your training life.

Dan John makes me want to dedicate myself to training for life, or reinforces that desire. I am sure he could also instill that desire in some people, but this is not the DVD where he does that. I think you have to have the desire already, but even if it is dormant or intermittent, this DVD will bring it out and rejuvenate it.

The premise of this movie is ‘point camera at Dan John and let him talk for over two hours’. I could have listened to two hours more – heck, two days more. The good news for me, and all of you, is that there is more! This is only part one of a four part series filmed over two days. My cup is gonna runneth over, I can tell you.

This DVD is now on sale in the shop. Get it here. Sign up to my newsletter to hear about more new products as they come in stock.

Watch clips from the DVD:

• Dan on goal setting
• Dan on the role of the strength coach

What’s on the DVD:

Erm, having said there’s no point telling you exactly what’s on the DVD, here is a list of topics covered in case you really want to know.

• The role of the strength coach
• Levels of strength coaching
• How a home trainer becomes his own coach
• The influence of strength coaching on performance
• Strength and athletic performance
• How to narrow your training focus
• Systematic learning
• Setting a non-competitive training goal
• Phasic vs tonic muscles
• How to stay youthful while aging
• Movements not muscles
• Dan’s hip displacement continuum

More Dan John

• Dan John’s earlier DVD Everything’s Over My Head
• The wisdom of Dan John

For me this is like watching old Bones Brigade movies. You can giggle at the low budget, dated production values for about two seconds before the content takes over and you are mesmerised.

Carried Away is the first film on the DVD and it is mainly about walking with weights. It doesn’t get simpler and it doesn’t get harder than this. I just wrote a lengthy and detailed post about assistance exercises; I’m thinking about deleting it and writing “do everything in Carried Away”.

If you work out at home and you love the low tech, you will be particularly inspired by this short film. I was also gobsmacked by the mountains in the background (we don’t have anything like that in the UK).

The next film is From The Ground Up. Some people will recognise the title as also being that of Dan John’s free ebook on olympic weightlifting. Personally I think the third film follows on more naturally from Carried Away but there you go. From The Ground Up is a family affair in the backyard. Mom and Dad do Olympic lifting in the garden while teenage daughters look on indulgently.

Coach Dan John, back in the day

If you coach athletes (and that includes you – if you train yourself at home you are Head Coach of Team You) this film will be useful, giving very sensible drills, progressions and coaching cues. I don’t know enough about Olympic weightlifting to know whether it is ‘good’ but it all makes sense to me.

There are exercises in here that I have seen popping up in various other contexts, including Crossfit workouts, so I’m not the only one who thinks, “darn that looks useful”. If you’ve done little or no Olympic lifting before, this film will get you putting stuff over your head with confidence.

The third film is Everything’s Over My Head, which continues the milieu of the first movie – outdoor training at home, very low tech, but focussing on overhead, Olympic lifting-inspired training.

Throughout the films, Dan John’s delivery – mostly in voiceover, sometimes to camera – is perfect: funny, clear, authoritative, warm-hearted. Anyone who has read his articles or his book will know what to expect. Simple, sensible, inspirational advice. Stuff that you know isn’t going to go out of fashion.

Carried Away might well be genius. It’s so simple, you almost wonder why Dan John even made a DVD of it, because most people wouldn’t even recognise it as ‘training’. But once you see people actually doing it, it makes sense and that is possibly the genius part.

Recently a lot of people have been catching onto this idea. Olympic lifting and sprints? Dan John has been talking about it for years – go straight to the source.

More Dan John

I am happy to say that I now have the Everything’s Over My Head DVD for sale in my shop. Get your copy here.

Unfortunately I don’t have a clip from Everything’s Over my Head to show you but if you are unfamiliar with Dan John’s teaching style or you just want to watch something cool, take a look at this clip of Dan teaching the turkish get up from one of the new DVDs (which I will be getting in stock soon!).

Review of A Philosophy of Strength Training DVD from Dan John

My post on The wisdom of Dan John

What’s on the DVD

Here’s an overview of what you’ll learn from Everything’s Over My Head DVD: