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Getting Out of the Hole - Part 2 >
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| 11/30/2009
by
Glenn Pendlay
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Most coaches and athletes have some idea of what kind of intensity and volume they want to accomplish within a given workout. Maybe 10 reps of snatch, maybe 5, maybe 20. Maybe averaging 75%, maybe 80%, maybe even 90%. But how do you go from wanting, say, roughly 10 total reps at say, an average of 85%, to an actual plan for the workout?
Jim O’Malley pointed something out to me a number of years ago which maybe should have been self-evident, but I had never thought about before. He told me that every weight required a slightly different body position, and a slightly different coordination of the muscles in order for the bar/body unit to be in the correct balance and for the maximum force in the correct direction to be imparted to the bar. He said that because of this, it took greater skill to lift a series of repetitions or sets where the weight on the bar was different every time than it took to lift the same weight over and over. Of course, this is a skill that is needed for a weightlifting competition, where the weight must change each attempt unless you miss!
Over the years I have seen the truth of this, and have used this idea more and more when I program training. I use it to differentiate the training of the novice, intermediate, and advanced lifters, and I use it within the preparation period for a contest with each level of lifter.
In general, I will have novice lifters do a higher percentage of their workouts with a single weight than I will have more advanced lifters do. A lifter with a maximum of 65 kilos in the snatch might do between 10 and 20 singles with 55 kilos. Usually, as the athlete accustoms themselves to the feel of the weight and the lift, the technique gets better and better throughout the workout. Advanced lifters do this only rarely. One single weight for a series of repetitions makes it very easy to improve form throughout the workout. Novice lifters lack the skill to change the weight on the bar every repetition and have consistent form… they also frequently lack the skill to perform sets of say, 3 repetitions in a row, with the technique on each rep being the same. Approaching the 2nd and 3rd rep of a set in a more and more fatigued state is almost like changing the weight on the bar… it requires more skill, body awareness, and awareness of what the bar is doing in space, something that they usually lack. Long series of single efforts, where they can approach each effort with the same weight on the bar, and roughly the same fatigue level, or at the least a very slowly changing and easy to adapt to fatigue level, makes finding a consistent technique easiest.
For advanced lifters, much more of the training will be with the weight changing between most reps or sets. Ideally, the weight will change between each attempt in a competition, and a lifter must develop the skill to handle this. Also, because advanced lifters are in fact skilled and efficient, they will use a very high percentage of their bodies resources in a high percentage attempt, much more than a novice lifter, and simply cant do attempt after attempt at a high percentage of max. Early in a training cycle, an advanced lifter might do a series of efforts at the same weight, to hone that “perfect groove”… but, some of these series of efforts will be doubles… where the second rep will require more focus, effort, and skill than the first. Later in the training cycle, we will do workouts that are more and more like the “wave” model. We go up to a max, or at least heavy weight, we come down and work back up within 3-4 reps, then we might even do it a third time. In any case, the weight on the bar changes every rep.
In general, if you are a “novice” lifter, or a lifter who does not yet have technique that is deeply ingrained, I would recommend that when far away from a contest you do many, even most, of your workouts with a set weight, and use long series of singles generously. As you approach your upcoming contest, change some, but not all, of your training sessions to an approach more like the contest, working up to a heavy weight, then going down and working up again. Do not change all your training to this style however, it is normal for a novice to have technique deteriorate significantly after using heavy weight and maybe experiencing a series of misses. Alternating workouts between working heavy and changing the weight every set, and workouts of a long series of efforts at the same moderate weight work well.
If you are a more advanced lifter… you might use the method of a string of singles early in your contest prep… but you shouldn’t need to do it often or near a contest. You have to change the weight each effort in the meet, get used to it in training!
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Getting Out of the Hole - Part 2 >
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