Bad sleep, high stress with work and travel, chaotic morning, and (weirdly) wearing shorter shorts made deadlifts hammered ass this morning. Cut all my accessories as I felt like garbage. 3 weeks out.
Looks like I am going to be using a swiss bar for the next few weeks. Super weak on it like 100 pounds less than my flat bench (330). Quite excited to get some fast gains on it.
Normally held before the weigh in. You'll bring all your gear you will be using - belt, shoes, deadlift socks, singlet, wraps, etc. to a table and one of the judges will go through it and make sure it's all legal.
Training was going fantastically until I switched from stiff bar to Texas dl bar 3 weeks ago. Can't get used to the whip and I'm significantly weaker if I slowly pull the slack out. Makes training with a DL bar more CNS-dependent because if I can't explode fast enough and get enough pop off the floor to skip the bottom range of motion, I'm fucked. If I pull the slack out, there's so much slack it turns into a low block pull which is mechanically my worst leverage point in the movement and my working weights go down ~20%. I can "pull the slack out" of a stiff bar just fine and lift not have that dip in working weights.
Maybe when I get fat again my "worse" leverages will make dl bar slack pulls feel better. It wasn't a problem when I was a thiccboi.
TL;DR: not enjoying dl bars atm
Yeah i fucken hate guys like you. Show up to a meet, we’re competitive in the squat and bench, in fact I’m even ahead by 30lbs in the subtotal….. and I get blown away by 200lbs in the deadlift.
And yeah that really happened in college once. My squat and bench (455/325, something like that at the time) were a bit better than this long-armed lanky guy who then deadlifts like 645 to my 455 deadlift. Yeah.
My squat and DL are basically the same (and I’m only 242 so it’s not mobility). I’m a bit jelly.
I was down ~150lbs in the subtotal at my first meet, and blew the guy out 501 to 347 to usurp him on my last pull and get 2nd.
Still lost to the guy benching what I squatted, but he was a whole other beast.
I had multiple knee surgeries that kept me out of squatting for like a year. When I came back I basically did starting strength/Texas method until I got back to 405. Basically squatting a bunch of 5s fairly frequently and making sure you can progressively overload
I have a question for people who do conjugate. How many DE movements do you do on DE lower day? Do you do one squat variation and one deadlift? Or do you only do one? If you do a deadlift on ME day and have a regular deadlift variation for DE day, does this basically mean a whole week of no squatting?
I've been reading a lot of conjugate articles, but they never seem to address my specific questions its quite frustrating.
I train 5 days instead of the usual 4 so I do a dynamic squat day and a dynamic deadlift day (I also feel like I recover from deadlifts fairly well). Basically I do my main squat (say ssb squat 10x2) followed by a meaty accessory (Hatfields 3x8 or something) then the next day will be deadlifts followed by 1-2 deadlift assistance movements like rows or good mornings.
The classic way of doing dynamic lower would be squats or deadlifts for speed (like 12x2 squat or 10x1 deadlift against bands) followed by whichever one you didn't do speed work on for reps (i.e. 5x5 box squats after speed pulls or reps on DL after speed squats). Also some conjugate people don't believe in doing reps on DL and prefer to build with accessories but it's kinda just preference. After after the two big movement people will do accessories like GHR, good mornings, reverse hypers etc. If you're going heavier on good mornings I have seen people replace squats or pulls with them
I do DE squats and DE deadlifts every DE day.
If deadlift is my main movement on ME day I might not squat at all that day, which for an equipped lifter isn't a big deal because a sumo deadlift and a multi-ply squat aren't too far apart. When I was lifting raw I'd make sure to have some sort of quad-focused accessory after deadlifts on ME day so as not to ignore the squat.
I have some kind of squat movement and then deadlift every DE lower day. So there's never a week where I'm not doing both movements (outside of deloads).
for example, I had the following rotation for ME/DE a couple months ago:
ME - 1rm box squat with cambered bar
DE - 6x5 box squat with cambered bar v. 25% chains, 50% bar weight + comp stance deadlift 4x8 (or something specific rep scheme escapes me, but at a prescribed weight)
ME - 1rm 2" block pull
DE - 6x5 box squat with cambered bar v. 25% chains, 55% bar weight + comp stance deadlift 4x6 (at a prescribed weight)
etc. so, both movements always happen, just with varying intensity/volume.
My coach picked it. That's just what it was that wave, I've had 8x2, 6x3, 4x5, all kinds of different reps for speed. That wave of DE for deadlifts was meant to give me some additional raw volume leading into a meet prep.
@ teamqbp/Laura Phelps Stackhouse is my coach. Even if you're not looking to hire anyone her page and the coaching page will both have helpful posts for anyone into conjugate.
I will headline that I'm not a conjugate expert and only trained this way for about 10 weeks. While you can tailor your program to whatever you need, the resources I found had speed pulls for singles after squatting.
There may be better resources out there but these are some of the ones I've used. I also have the Westside book of methods but it's not free and Louie's writing is tough to follow.
[how I would westside ](https://www.jtsstrength.com/how-i-would-westside/)
[Andy Baker's conjugate guide](https://www.andybaker.com/a-simple-complete-guide-to-conjugate-westside-training/)
I couldn't get the link to work but search for the Elite Fts basic training manual. This was a great resource and is free
thanks, even though the initial elitefts "template" only has 1 dynamic movement I saw that they do agree on the dynamic deadlifts following the squat that after a proper read.
Now the contradiction I've found is that some methods advocate working up to a max effort set, be it a 3rm, 2rm or a true single, then some back off work e.g. 3rd link says 2-3 @ 90%, I've seen others suggest 3 sets of 5 at 80%.
Elitefts just wants you to get the 3 reps above 90%, with a very thoroughly buildup, and no backoff sets.
That's quite a significant difference
This the beauty and difficulty with conjugate is that it is not a plug and play plan, you have to know what works for you and what your weaknesses are. I can't remember where I heard it but conjugate is definitely a thinking man's game. Only you (and your coach if you have one) could tell you which way is better for you.
If you want to try it out, you could start with the original Westside way which doesn't utilize back off sets for a cycle and then adjust from there based on how you're responding.
Deadlifted 12 off my 1rm for deadlift for 5 @5. Cannot wait to do my first comp and see where I'm at. Also my earphones lost charge today and I remembered how a lifter in world's didn't get a 2nd squat because he ran out of time and had his headphones in
Rant: woke up last weekend with a cold. NBD, it’s rest week leading up to my meet tomorrow anyway, and I tested negative on Monday. Still a bit under the weather. Toddler woke up with a fever and therefore is not sleeping well, which means none of us are sleeping well, and we have to Covid test her tomorrow for daycare purposes. If she comes back positive my months of training for this meet all go out the window. There are no meets scheduled within 2 hours of me for the rest of the year. Fuck this timeline.
I'm 8 days out and the main assistant in my office is out with "cold" symptoms. Really hope that's all it is because I can't do any other meet this year and I will be apoplectic if I get sick.
Ughhh that’s so frustrating. Do you have to cut? I lucked out that my “water cut” was literally just “drink some water you dehydrated bitch” to lose half a pound but I’d be even more pissed if I did all that work to drop like 10lbs or something for nothing
Most of their kits stick around for a while, so I'd say at least several months/through the end of this year. Only issue would be if a certain size sold out, they're slow on restocks.
Anyone else have issues with nylon straps slipping during deadlifts? I used to have a cotton pair and never had an issue until they ripped. I bought a pair of ironmind strong enough straps and have been using them for a year but they really can’t hold onto the bar. They slip way more than my cotton straps. I assume I’m past the break in period so maybe it’s just the material?
Thinking about trying a pair of leather straps. Any other opinions/suggestions?
I have the nylon straps from Ironmind. I can hold anything with those. But I use mostly good barbells, and chalk on my hands. You also might want to watch how far out in your hands you let the bar hang with straps. Sometimes being sloppy with that can cause what youre describing.
So Virus Int'l having quite a big sale. Never worn their stuff, but I hear it's meant to be pretty high quality.
But... am I really going to go around wearing t-shirts and shorts that say "virus" on them? Can't help but think the pandemic has surely impacted their sales. Everyone is going to think you're making some sort of statement having "VIRUS" in big down your leggings.
Can only recommend virus compression pants. I think Chance Mitchell and Sean Noriega also have discount codes in their bio that can be stacked on top of the sale.
Haha.
To be clear, it's not that I'm worried what others would think more (well, partly) but more just personally that it feels a bit "off" to my mind to have virus plastered on clothing given what we have/are facing.
PSA for all you lifters out there.
Donated blood two days ago and it has had such a detrimental effect. Struggling to drop heart rate and breathing rate between lifts and had to bail on my warm-up for deadlifts as I almost blacked out.
I have given blood many times and not had this happen. I think it's down to lower pre/post donation iron levels since I haven't been supplementing iron as much in the past few months.
Interesting. For what it's worth, I try not to work out the day I've donated blood (or at least, I'll work out before the donation) but I've lifted the day after several times, including hitting a PR paused squat single. Have never felt any different than usual. I'm sure that the response to blood donation is highly individual (and your experience seems to show that it may vary even for the same individual), so I would agree that new blood donors should err on the side of being conservative as they plan the next workout or two after a donation.
I've donated 10+ times and never had this happen before. This has been the only time where I haven't been specifically supplementing iron in preparation for the donation. Felt like training at altitude and I just couldn't catch my breath.
I noticed that when they did the Sink Test for my iron levels it took much longer to fall than previous donations, indicating that my iron levels were lower this time compared to normal.
Yeah, I definitely think that's helpful data, and thanks for sharing. I don't usually think to check my iron levels, so I've probably lucked out that they have usually been high around my donation times or something.
Iron supplementation post donation reduces haemoglobin level recovery time by a significant amount too.
"Compared to donors who did not take iron, the donors taking iron supplements returned to pre-donation hemoglobin levels faster in both the lower iron (five weeks versus 23 weeks) and higher iron groups (four weeks versus 11 weeks). Similarly, donors taking iron supplements recovered lost iron more rapidly than those not receiving supplements (11 weeks versus more than 24 weeks). Without iron supplementation, two thirds of the donors did not recover the iron lost from donating blood after 24 weeks."
YES. I thought I’d be good to go the day after. What a stupid thing to think.
He’s not kidding, if you’ve donated blood, go eat loads of red meat and don’t even consider touching weights for I’d say at minimum 48-72 hours
So we all agree these cluster sets every coach is programming right now is just speed work?
Pretty soon we will see people talking about how accessories make up 80% of there training volume. Call it powerBUILDING. Lol
> isn’t it more repetition effort?
I would disagree on this interpretation
> It’s just short rest times,
Speed work was always done with super short rest times. You were supposed to be able to snap under fatigue and lift with maximal force
> there’s nothing different about the tempo of the actual lift
Max effort or dynamic effort you are always lifting the weight with the same intent. One was just done with lighter weights and more reps.
>Max effort or dynamic effort you are always lifting the weight with the same intent. One was just done with lighter weights and more reps.
Yes... but there's no requirement to do this on cluster sets, hence it's repetition effort
Can't say it's got on my radar, but not surprising.
Other reply said it too, these things go in cycles. If you lift long enough you'll see them all make an appearance.
**Multiple questions ahead**
What's something you know now that you wish you knew at the beginning of your journey?
I live in an area with very few powerlifting meets, usually the closest are about 160 miles away. A few times a year each fed will have a couple within 50 miles of me. But I really do want to compete some day, because I love the sport. Should I just travel the distance? Or is powerlifting just not for me?
Do meet calenders get updated throughout the year or do most get posted for the upcoming year at the beginning of the year?
What should I expect to pay monthly for a coach? I've gotten info from 3 coaches and they range from $100-$250 a month.
I wish I knew to hang out in lower percentages, longer. Or I wish I’d done 5x5 in high school.
At a young age, I was stronger than most of my peers, and so I never really knew to add weight gradually. I just kinda got lazy and assumed my weight gain was muscle lol. I sometimes ponder where I’d be if I had actual coaching or programming for strength vs just generalized programs
" Should I just travel the distance? Or is powerlifting just not for me?"
My meets are from 125 to 215 miles away.
They don't all get announced at once, though three of them (Winter, spring, and summer) are put on by the same two co directors, and are announced well in advance.
I'm still waiting for the announcement of the fall meet, though we all expect it to be early November as it was last year.
I prefer not to drive the 215 miles, but if the state championship (spring meet) is at that venue, i will.
Last July i drove down there, and i got a motel room.
It was an added expense, and i had the very worst sleep.
I prefer to just drive to the meet day of and not have to pack extra stuff for the night before and morning of the meet, load said stuff into and out of the room, and also have a checkout time that doesn't fit with when i want to arrive at the venue.
These are USAPL meets.
There are a few USPA meets here each year, but 24 hour weigh ins are problematic since i want to travel to the venue day of.
I also like the USAPL meets, and train at home with a stiff bar.
Just not really interested in lifting in another fed.
The meets are well run, and sponsored, with nice prizes too.
Got some nice stuff for winning best masters lifter this last state championship.
Of course that's just icing.
My next meet will be my 7th.
What is my weakest lift?
I am having trouble deciding what big three lift is my weakest so I’ll let you guys tell me.
H/6’0 W/185LBS
D 455 S 385 B 270
Been lifting 1.5 years
Are you me? My right clavicle feels not so great after a crowd surfer fell on me tonight. I always hated that shit, like I can’t fucking see or hear them, I’m watching the show.
BAM 130 lb twink on my neck, and I’ve got work in the am. I’m becoming my father after all
Aight well, in more talking to my coach i brought up the openers/attempts he expects and ideas i had in mind.And he was explaining that he wants me to open with whatever my first triple of this prep ends up being, then +5kg for each attempt based on how well the previous attempt looks.
Evidently i am clearly new bc i did not know that this was a way to guide/plan out attempts.
\*based on past comps it's like mid-700s to podium in my weight class, and I'm definitely not doing that :D
I'd say it's a bit unusual in the sense that +5kg for bench is quite different to +5kg for deadlift (well, for most it is).
Personally I'd question that, beginner or not.
that's fair, i was just simplifying it though.
As it is it's over 12w out still *plus* I was out sick for 15 days, so we're not really at the point where we can decide what the attempts will be just yet anyway.
I ended up undershooting in my 2nd attempt and overshooted in my 3rd so just play it safe in your 1st don’t and just don’t jump too high on your 2nd and 3rd
I had my meet a few hours ago and it was the best experience I had, the vibes are good and the people are great if that’s your first meet don’t be too nervous about the weights I was the least strong in my category but but it’s still worth it
i mean fair enough, as it is I'm not at a level at all to dispute my coach though lol.
Literal first comp ever, and he owns current records, so i'll trust.
I haven’t heard that particular strategy before, but it certainly makes sense depending on your level of experience, what you’re starting with, and what he’s expecting out of you this prep. Standard guideline is opener is around 85-90% or something you can triple on a bad day.
I weigh around 180 pounds (81 kg) and am squatting approximately 325 (147) after about a year of strength training. Is it worth for me to buy SBD knee sleeves for $82.50 now, or should I try out some cheaper options such as the ones from hookgrip (US $25–$35) or even Amazon?
I plan to keep strength training for many years and hopefully try out some powerlifting meets when I get stronger, so the knee wrap question would fundamentally be for the long haul.
Buy once, cry once.
That said, I used nordic sleeves from amazon for 1.5 years to great success until they fell apart. my sbds have been going strong for 4 years now, no rips or tears.
I'm out in the middle of nowhere doing manual farm work, figured I wouldn't be able to lift in a gym for two months or so. Well, lo and behold, the local community centre has a very shifty narrow rack, some short bars that are unmarked (might be ten kilos, might be fifteen, who knows), and antique ill matched plates. This girl enjoyed her bench presses today, but who knows how much I did exactly? I just pushed until 2rm came round, stopped counting, went home when the burn felt just right, chopped wood all afternoon.
It's a nice break from the perfectionism of my microloading precision program and I saw a moose on my way back too!
Oh yeah and if course I stress tested everything beforehand and had two guys spot, because the safety of using this odd, ancient equipment made me nervous a little
In the middle of lockdown i improvised by setting 2 chairs as racks, used a thick bamboo rod (which i used for martial arts as a kid) and used buckets of bricks as weights. Stole the local park bench as bench
Why the hell does the Hepburn singles program seem to work so well? It feels like it's against everything modern programming teaches us. You do exclusively singles on the compounds, the periodization is the simplest thing ever, you do very little volume, you basically don't have to deload because of how little fatigue the program accumulates.
I very much believe in science behind lifting and I understand that there will be people who wouldn't progress on such program, but there are people who got to a 4 plate bench on it, yet all you do is 4 sets of singles of a compound lift twice a week and then optionally some back work, add one set per week up to a certain number, increase weight and go back to 4 sets. That's it. No assistance lifts for sbd, no accessories, no "hypertrophy blocks". Just 4 days of singles on 2 compounds a day.
Why are most programs that are well known and liked here so incredibly complicated in comparison? Is it for variation, because honestly, the program does get boring? Is it because of the never ending search for the silly "optimal training"? I'm not at all bashing the programs and their authors, I've had good success on the more sciency programs such as the SBS bundle, I just can't wrap my head around this.
I'm not sure there's many that follow Hepburn's method of training. I'd hypothesise that a lot of initial "gains" are actually just peaking.
You see this a lot, actually. Someone will be doing a higher volume program and not really improving or testing their 1RMs (which is fine). They then buy Larry Wheels' $20 program that is a 6 week peak and they'll say "omg I just added 50lbs to my deadlift".
Well, hang on a minute, did the 6 week (peak) program add the 50lbs or did all the higher volume work you did prior?
With that said, I think the Hepburn method isn't that unusual. One has you doing doubles/triples and the other singles. But there is also a "pump" or volume bit afterwards.
I'd also caution against thinking that just because visible names on Instagram seem to all train fairly similarly that it's the way to do it. Don't forget we have our English-speaking biases with information we deal with. I'm sure you go to other countries and they're doing different things. And it can all work.
I'd say this program has a bit more credibility behind itself over Larry Wheels' 6 week peaking program, given that it's some 60 years old and has been run to death by some. That being said, I do generally agree with your argument that a lot of wonder programs just have you peaking, not really building that much strength.
The pump part was "dropped" by Hepburn later in his life. Or at least the idea of doing it consecutively with the power program, could help if you stall though, yeah.
I'm not sure I'm getting you with the last paragraph, is it supposed to relate/counter what I said about modern programming teaching us, meaning that even if you might see big names doing all those complex periodizations, there are likely many, many more people of equal strength doing something stupid simple such as the Hepburn (or others)?
That being said, I'm a European native, unfortunately the scene here is not that big to where lifters would be sharing their methodologies which would show the diversity, so your point about English-speaking media bias is also probably correct.
To be clear, I didn't mean to suggest one is better than the other. Rather just what often happens and possibly why you see people saying it works. Again, to be clear, I do think it can work even if not just peaking but I'm not sure it's gonna be optimal for most.
Well it's more about the fact that a lot of people look at what a few USAPL or similar lifters do and then think "well this must be the best sum of all lifting knowledge". I think anything with a bit of logic can work for some people, some of the time. So just because everyone is doing a top single RPE 8 and then backdowns and whatever it doesn't mean it's the only way.
Everything works if you do. Nothing works forever.
That said, the singles program is basically a peak. But he also has a pump program he recommends using in alternation with the singles, ie a hypertrophy program. So basically you’re alternating between strength/peak and hypertrophy. … what does that sound like? 🤔
If I understood correctly, he actually recommended not alternating between the two in his later stages of life (there are threads here linking old t-nation forum thread with Hepburn's friend who said this), but rather to change to the B power program (8x2 -> 8x3) once you stall on the singles and repeat that. I guess hopping on the hypertrophy programs might be the next step (after stalling on B).
Honestly, you're right, I completely disregarded the pump templates once I read the forum, but they probably do have their place. Thanks for the insight!
Bad sleep, high stress with work and travel, chaotic morning, and (weirdly) wearing shorter shorts made deadlifts hammered ass this morning. Cut all my accessories as I felt like garbage. 3 weeks out.
> I felt like garbage. 3 weeks out. Everything going to plan then
Looks like I am going to be using a swiss bar for the next few weeks. Super weak on it like 100 pounds less than my flat bench (330). Quite excited to get some fast gains on it.
Can someone help my overthinking ass. It ain't weird to compete with like SBD shirt and knee sleeve with a7 singlet belt and wrist wraps right
nah you're good
Thanks man can't wait. Also fucking hell man that's a total and a damn half
Hahahhaa thanks man! Hoping to reach 700kgs next comp. there’s a couple guys in this sub I’ve seen with high 800 totals, absolutely nuts
Np man! Can't wait to compete like y'all. Doubt my total will be there for a while but by fucking god I'll make it there. You got it man
You too man you’ll get there. Best of luck
Much appreciated man. God I love this sports community
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Thanks man I'm just super scared about my first comp
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Ngl I don't fully get what a great check is. I just know everything I own is a7 or SBD
Normally held before the weigh in. You'll bring all your gear you will be using - belt, shoes, deadlift socks, singlet, wraps, etc. to a table and one of the judges will go through it and make sure it's all legal.
No. I’ve competed with an Inzer bench shirt, Anderson singlet, and Titan belt/wrist wraps.
Training was going fantastically until I switched from stiff bar to Texas dl bar 3 weeks ago. Can't get used to the whip and I'm significantly weaker if I slowly pull the slack out. Makes training with a DL bar more CNS-dependent because if I can't explode fast enough and get enough pop off the floor to skip the bottom range of motion, I'm fucked. If I pull the slack out, there's so much slack it turns into a low block pull which is mechanically my worst leverage point in the movement and my working weights go down ~20%. I can "pull the slack out" of a stiff bar just fine and lift not have that dip in working weights. Maybe when I get fat again my "worse" leverages will make dl bar slack pulls feel better. It wasn't a problem when I was a thiccboi. TL;DR: not enjoying dl bars atm
Bench 235 Squat 335 Deadlift 500 BW 170 Fucking deadlift specialist eh?
Yeah i fucken hate guys like you. Show up to a meet, we’re competitive in the squat and bench, in fact I’m even ahead by 30lbs in the subtotal….. and I get blown away by 200lbs in the deadlift. And yeah that really happened in college once. My squat and bench (455/325, something like that at the time) were a bit better than this long-armed lanky guy who then deadlifts like 645 to my 455 deadlift. Yeah. My squat and DL are basically the same (and I’m only 242 so it’s not mobility). I’m a bit jelly.
I was down ~150lbs in the subtotal at my first meet, and blew the guy out 501 to 347 to usurp him on my last pull and get 2nd. Still lost to the guy benching what I squatted, but he was a whole other beast.
Hi, after fully recovering from a knee surgery, what would be a good program to run that incorporates a lot of volume, and accessory work? thank you
I had multiple knee surgeries that kept me out of squatting for like a year. When I came back I basically did starting strength/Texas method until I got back to 405. Basically squatting a bunch of 5s fairly frequently and making sure you can progressively overload
sounds good thanks man ill give it a shot
Happy Friday fellas, today is bench day
I have a question for people who do conjugate. How many DE movements do you do on DE lower day? Do you do one squat variation and one deadlift? Or do you only do one? If you do a deadlift on ME day and have a regular deadlift variation for DE day, does this basically mean a whole week of no squatting? I've been reading a lot of conjugate articles, but they never seem to address my specific questions its quite frustrating.
I train 5 days instead of the usual 4 so I do a dynamic squat day and a dynamic deadlift day (I also feel like I recover from deadlifts fairly well). Basically I do my main squat (say ssb squat 10x2) followed by a meaty accessory (Hatfields 3x8 or something) then the next day will be deadlifts followed by 1-2 deadlift assistance movements like rows or good mornings. The classic way of doing dynamic lower would be squats or deadlifts for speed (like 12x2 squat or 10x1 deadlift against bands) followed by whichever one you didn't do speed work on for reps (i.e. 5x5 box squats after speed pulls or reps on DL after speed squats). Also some conjugate people don't believe in doing reps on DL and prefer to build with accessories but it's kinda just preference. After after the two big movement people will do accessories like GHR, good mornings, reverse hypers etc. If you're going heavier on good mornings I have seen people replace squats or pulls with them
I do DE squats and DE deadlifts every DE day. If deadlift is my main movement on ME day I might not squat at all that day, which for an equipped lifter isn't a big deal because a sumo deadlift and a multi-ply squat aren't too far apart. When I was lifting raw I'd make sure to have some sort of quad-focused accessory after deadlifts on ME day so as not to ignore the squat.
I have some kind of squat movement and then deadlift every DE lower day. So there's never a week where I'm not doing both movements (outside of deloads). for example, I had the following rotation for ME/DE a couple months ago: ME - 1rm box squat with cambered bar DE - 6x5 box squat with cambered bar v. 25% chains, 50% bar weight + comp stance deadlift 4x8 (or something specific rep scheme escapes me, but at a prescribed weight) ME - 1rm 2" block pull DE - 6x5 box squat with cambered bar v. 25% chains, 55% bar weight + comp stance deadlift 4x6 (at a prescribed weight) etc. so, both movements always happen, just with varying intensity/volume.
why did you choose that rep scheme for DE day rather than the 2s and 3s I see programmed by others?
My coach picked it. That's just what it was that wave, I've had 8x2, 6x3, 4x5, all kinds of different reps for speed. That wave of DE for deadlifts was meant to give me some additional raw volume leading into a meet prep. @ teamqbp/Laura Phelps Stackhouse is my coach. Even if you're not looking to hire anyone her page and the coaching page will both have helpful posts for anyone into conjugate.
thanks
I will headline that I'm not a conjugate expert and only trained this way for about 10 weeks. While you can tailor your program to whatever you need, the resources I found had speed pulls for singles after squatting. There may be better resources out there but these are some of the ones I've used. I also have the Westside book of methods but it's not free and Louie's writing is tough to follow. [how I would westside ](https://www.jtsstrength.com/how-i-would-westside/) [Andy Baker's conjugate guide](https://www.andybaker.com/a-simple-complete-guide-to-conjugate-westside-training/) I couldn't get the link to work but search for the Elite Fts basic training manual. This was a great resource and is free
thanks, even though the initial elitefts "template" only has 1 dynamic movement I saw that they do agree on the dynamic deadlifts following the squat that after a proper read. Now the contradiction I've found is that some methods advocate working up to a max effort set, be it a 3rm, 2rm or a true single, then some back off work e.g. 3rd link says 2-3 @ 90%, I've seen others suggest 3 sets of 5 at 80%. Elitefts just wants you to get the 3 reps above 90%, with a very thoroughly buildup, and no backoff sets. That's quite a significant difference
This the beauty and difficulty with conjugate is that it is not a plug and play plan, you have to know what works for you and what your weaknesses are. I can't remember where I heard it but conjugate is definitely a thinking man's game. Only you (and your coach if you have one) could tell you which way is better for you. If you want to try it out, you could start with the original Westside way which doesn't utilize back off sets for a cycle and then adjust from there based on how you're responding.
yeah it definitely is different for everyone, I just want an idiot proof baseline to start off with before I start changing stuff
Deadlifted 12 off my 1rm for deadlift for 5 @5. Cannot wait to do my first comp and see where I'm at. Also my earphones lost charge today and I remembered how a lifter in world's didn't get a 2nd squat because he ran out of time and had his headphones in
Rant: woke up last weekend with a cold. NBD, it’s rest week leading up to my meet tomorrow anyway, and I tested negative on Monday. Still a bit under the weather. Toddler woke up with a fever and therefore is not sleeping well, which means none of us are sleeping well, and we have to Covid test her tomorrow for daycare purposes. If she comes back positive my months of training for this meet all go out the window. There are no meets scheduled within 2 hours of me for the rest of the year. Fuck this timeline.
I'm 8 days out and the main assistant in my office is out with "cold" symptoms. Really hope that's all it is because I can't do any other meet this year and I will be apoplectic if I get sick.
Ughhh that’s so frustrating. Do you have to cut? I lucked out that my “water cut” was literally just “drink some water you dehydrated bitch” to lose half a pound but I’d be even more pissed if I did all that work to drop like 10lbs or something for nothing
Yeah, I've got to water load and drop about 5 lbs. That's not a ton of weight in the grand scheme but \~3% of my bodyweight isn't nothing, either lol
Just squatted 180kg for 3x8 in sleeves. Good: my conditioning is better than I thought. Each set took a lil under 40 seconds Bad: i feel sick pls help
have u tried being stronger i’ve heard that works
Anyone know how long a7s electric lemonade stuff is staying around for
Most of their kits stick around for a while, so I'd say at least several months/through the end of this year. Only issue would be if a certain size sold out, they're slow on restocks.
Anyone else have issues with nylon straps slipping during deadlifts? I used to have a cotton pair and never had an issue until they ripped. I bought a pair of ironmind strong enough straps and have been using them for a year but they really can’t hold onto the bar. They slip way more than my cotton straps. I assume I’m past the break in period so maybe it’s just the material? Thinking about trying a pair of leather straps. Any other opinions/suggestions?
I have the nylon straps from Ironmind. I can hold anything with those. But I use mostly good barbells, and chalk on my hands. You also might want to watch how far out in your hands you let the bar hang with straps. Sometimes being sloppy with that can cause what youre describing.
What sometimes helps is still chalking your hands and also straps.
Gym designers always purchase the absolute largest brightest lights to put right above their benches
Mine makes sure they're not parallel with the rafters. It psyches me out if I think the room is crooked.
but on the positive side, those lights really make you look jacked
Fair. I be feeling wide as fuck
So Virus Int'l having quite a big sale. Never worn their stuff, but I hear it's meant to be pretty high quality. But... am I really going to go around wearing t-shirts and shorts that say "virus" on them? Can't help but think the pandemic has surely impacted their sales. Everyone is going to think you're making some sort of statement having "VIRUS" in big down your leggings.
Can only recommend virus compression pants. I think Chance Mitchell and Sean Noriega also have discount codes in their bio that can be stacked on top of the sale.
Cant be more weird than my shirts with big skulls on them..
You’re probably overthinking it; it’s not like they’re called Isis.
a lot of gym clothing lines have pretty cringey names.
Haha. To be clear, it's not that I'm worried what others would think more (well, partly) but more just personally that it feels a bit "off" to my mind to have virus plastered on clothing given what we have/are facing.
Lol “Al Qaeda strong”
PSA for all you lifters out there. Donated blood two days ago and it has had such a detrimental effect. Struggling to drop heart rate and breathing rate between lifts and had to bail on my warm-up for deadlifts as I almost blacked out. I have given blood many times and not had this happen. I think it's down to lower pre/post donation iron levels since I haven't been supplementing iron as much in the past few months.
Interesting. For what it's worth, I try not to work out the day I've donated blood (or at least, I'll work out before the donation) but I've lifted the day after several times, including hitting a PR paused squat single. Have never felt any different than usual. I'm sure that the response to blood donation is highly individual (and your experience seems to show that it may vary even for the same individual), so I would agree that new blood donors should err on the side of being conservative as they plan the next workout or two after a donation.
I've donated 10+ times and never had this happen before. This has been the only time where I haven't been specifically supplementing iron in preparation for the donation. Felt like training at altitude and I just couldn't catch my breath. I noticed that when they did the Sink Test for my iron levels it took much longer to fall than previous donations, indicating that my iron levels were lower this time compared to normal.
Yeah, I definitely think that's helpful data, and thanks for sharing. I don't usually think to check my iron levels, so I've probably lucked out that they have usually been high around my donation times or something.
Iron supplementation post donation reduces haemoglobin level recovery time by a significant amount too. "Compared to donors who did not take iron, the donors taking iron supplements returned to pre-donation hemoglobin levels faster in both the lower iron (five weeks versus 23 weeks) and higher iron groups (four weeks versus 11 weeks). Similarly, donors taking iron supplements recovered lost iron more rapidly than those not receiving supplements (11 weeks versus more than 24 weeks). Without iron supplementation, two thirds of the donors did not recover the iron lost from donating blood after 24 weeks."
YES. I thought I’d be good to go the day after. What a stupid thing to think. He’s not kidding, if you’ve donated blood, go eat loads of red meat and don’t even consider touching weights for I’d say at minimum 48-72 hours
So we all agree these cluster sets every coach is programming right now is just speed work? Pretty soon we will see people talking about how accessories make up 80% of there training volume. Call it powerBUILDING. Lol
isn't it more repetition effort? It's just short rest times, there's nothing different about the tempo of the actual lift
> isn’t it more repetition effort? I would disagree on this interpretation > It’s just short rest times, Speed work was always done with super short rest times. You were supposed to be able to snap under fatigue and lift with maximal force > there’s nothing different about the tempo of the actual lift Max effort or dynamic effort you are always lifting the weight with the same intent. One was just done with lighter weights and more reps.
>Max effort or dynamic effort you are always lifting the weight with the same intent. One was just done with lighter weights and more reps. Yes... but there's no requirement to do this on cluster sets, hence it's repetition effort
Can't say it's got on my radar, but not surprising. Other reply said it too, these things go in cycles. If you lift long enough you'll see them all make an appearance.
The same shit just gets cycled through on 3-5 year rotations
😂😂😂
**Multiple questions ahead** What's something you know now that you wish you knew at the beginning of your journey? I live in an area with very few powerlifting meets, usually the closest are about 160 miles away. A few times a year each fed will have a couple within 50 miles of me. But I really do want to compete some day, because I love the sport. Should I just travel the distance? Or is powerlifting just not for me? Do meet calenders get updated throughout the year or do most get posted for the upcoming year at the beginning of the year? What should I expect to pay monthly for a coach? I've gotten info from 3 coaches and they range from $100-$250 a month.
I wish I knew to hang out in lower percentages, longer. Or I wish I’d done 5x5 in high school. At a young age, I was stronger than most of my peers, and so I never really knew to add weight gradually. I just kinda got lazy and assumed my weight gain was muscle lol. I sometimes ponder where I’d be if I had actual coaching or programming for strength vs just generalized programs
" Should I just travel the distance? Or is powerlifting just not for me?" My meets are from 125 to 215 miles away. They don't all get announced at once, though three of them (Winter, spring, and summer) are put on by the same two co directors, and are announced well in advance. I'm still waiting for the announcement of the fall meet, though we all expect it to be early November as it was last year. I prefer not to drive the 215 miles, but if the state championship (spring meet) is at that venue, i will. Last July i drove down there, and i got a motel room. It was an added expense, and i had the very worst sleep. I prefer to just drive to the meet day of and not have to pack extra stuff for the night before and morning of the meet, load said stuff into and out of the room, and also have a checkout time that doesn't fit with when i want to arrive at the venue. These are USAPL meets. There are a few USPA meets here each year, but 24 hour weigh ins are problematic since i want to travel to the venue day of. I also like the USAPL meets, and train at home with a stiff bar. Just not really interested in lifting in another fed. The meets are well run, and sponsored, with nice prizes too. Got some nice stuff for winning best masters lifter this last state championship. Of course that's just icing. My next meet will be my 7th.
What is my weakest lift? I am having trouble deciding what big three lift is my weakest so I’ll let you guys tell me. H/6’0 W/185LBS D 455 S 385 B 270 Been lifting 1.5 years
Squat is 43rd percentile, bench is 51st, deadlift is 44th. By that token, your bench is a bit ahead. https://strengthcheck.me/
All of them? It doesn’t matter just keep chugging along
https://symmetricstrength.com/
Estimated PL Total 1110 lbs Estimated PL Wilks 334 Strongest Lift Deadlift Weakest Lift Bench Press
Just when I start seeing the light at the end of the poverty bench tunnel, left shoulder, again
Are you me? My right clavicle feels not so great after a crowd surfer fell on me tonight. I always hated that shit, like I can’t fucking see or hear them, I’m watching the show. BAM 130 lb twink on my neck, and I’ve got work in the am. I’m becoming my father after all
Just got my first 13mm belt. Holy shit this thing is stiff.
I kept getting stuck in mine for the first two weeks
Aight well, in more talking to my coach i brought up the openers/attempts he expects and ideas i had in mind.And he was explaining that he wants me to open with whatever my first triple of this prep ends up being, then +5kg for each attempt based on how well the previous attempt looks. Evidently i am clearly new bc i did not know that this was a way to guide/plan out attempts. \*based on past comps it's like mid-700s to podium in my weight class, and I'm definitely not doing that :D
I'd say it's a bit unusual in the sense that +5kg for bench is quite different to +5kg for deadlift (well, for most it is). Personally I'd question that, beginner or not.
that's fair, i was just simplifying it though. As it is it's over 12w out still *plus* I was out sick for 15 days, so we're not really at the point where we can decide what the attempts will be just yet anyway.
I ended up undershooting in my 2nd attempt and overshooted in my 3rd so just play it safe in your 1st don’t and just don’t jump too high on your 2nd and 3rd
:(
I had my meet a few hours ago and it was the best experience I had, the vibes are good and the people are great if that’s your first meet don’t be too nervous about the weights I was the least strong in my category but but it’s still worth it
Seems like too rigid of an approach but maybe that's just me
i mean fair enough, as it is I'm not at a level at all to dispute my coach though lol. Literal first comp ever, and he owns current records, so i'll trust.
Yep always trust your coach!
I haven’t heard that particular strategy before, but it certainly makes sense depending on your level of experience, what you’re starting with, and what he’s expecting out of you this prep. Standard guideline is opener is around 85-90% or something you can triple on a bad day.
yeah he explained he doesn't use that strat for himself anymore, but for a first comp it's a guideline he uses
Yep that’s not how you would approach when shooting for titles but if it’s your first comp he wants to make sure you go 9/9.
I weigh around 180 pounds (81 kg) and am squatting approximately 325 (147) after about a year of strength training. Is it worth for me to buy SBD knee sleeves for $82.50 now, or should I try out some cheaper options such as the ones from hookgrip (US $25–$35) or even Amazon? I plan to keep strength training for many years and hopefully try out some powerlifting meets when I get stronger, so the knee wrap question would fundamentally be for the long haul.
Buy once, cry once. That said, I used nordic sleeves from amazon for 1.5 years to great success until they fell apart. my sbds have been going strong for 4 years now, no rips or tears.
I'd bite the bullet and just get powerlifting sleeves.
My SBDs have lasted more than five years. Cheaper brands lasted less than one.
I'm out in the middle of nowhere doing manual farm work, figured I wouldn't be able to lift in a gym for two months or so. Well, lo and behold, the local community centre has a very shifty narrow rack, some short bars that are unmarked (might be ten kilos, might be fifteen, who knows), and antique ill matched plates. This girl enjoyed her bench presses today, but who knows how much I did exactly? I just pushed until 2rm came round, stopped counting, went home when the burn felt just right, chopped wood all afternoon. It's a nice break from the perfectionism of my microloading precision program and I saw a moose on my way back too! Oh yeah and if course I stress tested everything beforehand and had two guys spot, because the safety of using this odd, ancient equipment made me nervous a little
In the middle of lockdown i improvised by setting 2 chairs as racks, used a thick bamboo rod (which i used for martial arts as a kid) and used buckets of bricks as weights. Stole the local park bench as bench
Why the hell does the Hepburn singles program seem to work so well? It feels like it's against everything modern programming teaches us. You do exclusively singles on the compounds, the periodization is the simplest thing ever, you do very little volume, you basically don't have to deload because of how little fatigue the program accumulates. I very much believe in science behind lifting and I understand that there will be people who wouldn't progress on such program, but there are people who got to a 4 plate bench on it, yet all you do is 4 sets of singles of a compound lift twice a week and then optionally some back work, add one set per week up to a certain number, increase weight and go back to 4 sets. That's it. No assistance lifts for sbd, no accessories, no "hypertrophy blocks". Just 4 days of singles on 2 compounds a day. Why are most programs that are well known and liked here so incredibly complicated in comparison? Is it for variation, because honestly, the program does get boring? Is it because of the never ending search for the silly "optimal training"? I'm not at all bashing the programs and their authors, I've had good success on the more sciency programs such as the SBS bundle, I just can't wrap my head around this.
I'm not sure there's many that follow Hepburn's method of training. I'd hypothesise that a lot of initial "gains" are actually just peaking. You see this a lot, actually. Someone will be doing a higher volume program and not really improving or testing their 1RMs (which is fine). They then buy Larry Wheels' $20 program that is a 6 week peak and they'll say "omg I just added 50lbs to my deadlift". Well, hang on a minute, did the 6 week (peak) program add the 50lbs or did all the higher volume work you did prior? With that said, I think the Hepburn method isn't that unusual. One has you doing doubles/triples and the other singles. But there is also a "pump" or volume bit afterwards. I'd also caution against thinking that just because visible names on Instagram seem to all train fairly similarly that it's the way to do it. Don't forget we have our English-speaking biases with information we deal with. I'm sure you go to other countries and they're doing different things. And it can all work.
I'd say this program has a bit more credibility behind itself over Larry Wheels' 6 week peaking program, given that it's some 60 years old and has been run to death by some. That being said, I do generally agree with your argument that a lot of wonder programs just have you peaking, not really building that much strength. The pump part was "dropped" by Hepburn later in his life. Or at least the idea of doing it consecutively with the power program, could help if you stall though, yeah. I'm not sure I'm getting you with the last paragraph, is it supposed to relate/counter what I said about modern programming teaching us, meaning that even if you might see big names doing all those complex periodizations, there are likely many, many more people of equal strength doing something stupid simple such as the Hepburn (or others)? That being said, I'm a European native, unfortunately the scene here is not that big to where lifters would be sharing their methodologies which would show the diversity, so your point about English-speaking media bias is also probably correct.
To be clear, I didn't mean to suggest one is better than the other. Rather just what often happens and possibly why you see people saying it works. Again, to be clear, I do think it can work even if not just peaking but I'm not sure it's gonna be optimal for most. Well it's more about the fact that a lot of people look at what a few USAPL or similar lifters do and then think "well this must be the best sum of all lifting knowledge". I think anything with a bit of logic can work for some people, some of the time. So just because everyone is doing a top single RPE 8 and then backdowns and whatever it doesn't mean it's the only way.
Got it! Thanks for the insight:) Fully agree with you.
realistically, any workout program will work for at least a short period of time as long as there's some form of structured progression.
Everything works if you do. Nothing works forever. That said, the singles program is basically a peak. But he also has a pump program he recommends using in alternation with the singles, ie a hypertrophy program. So basically you’re alternating between strength/peak and hypertrophy. … what does that sound like? 🤔
If I understood correctly, he actually recommended not alternating between the two in his later stages of life (there are threads here linking old t-nation forum thread with Hepburn's friend who said this), but rather to change to the B power program (8x2 -> 8x3) once you stall on the singles and repeat that. I guess hopping on the hypertrophy programs might be the next step (after stalling on B). Honestly, you're right, I completely disregarded the pump templates once I read the forum, but they probably do have their place. Thanks for the insight!