Tweaking the Beginner Program

[Spenco]

Hi folks. Happy new year.

I'm following Glenn's beginner program and I've had a good return for the first six-eight months of lifting. I've recently finished studying and I've got a lot more time on my hands and I want to bear down on my training this year, so I can up my frequency to six or seven sessions per week. I don't think the format of the beginner program has ran it's course; I've plateaued a couple times during the course, deloaded and continued increasing.

So the question is how would I manipulate the beginner program to fit say a seven day a week split with maybe two double sessions?

Thanks,
Spenco.

[glennpendlay]

First thing i would do is just add in a couple of powersnatch/powerclean days... dont go crazy with it at first. See how your body reacts to it, then start really pushing to max on those days.

[Spenco]

Ok thanks Glenn. I suppose this would also serve as a 'light' day initially whilst I get used to the volume increase.

Should I pull these from the floor?

[glennpendlay]

Yes, and, probably yes.

[shin]

Hi Glenn,

First off, thanks for the beginner program. I started weightlifting in September after committing to a competition three months later, and followed it exclusively during that time. I went from 40/80 to 75/95 in training, and 70/90 in competition at 90kg.

I would like to incorporate some 100%+ pulls into the program, and was wondering if you could give me a tip on how best to do so. My rationale is that my hip extension feels good and quick when the weight is rather light, but once I start perceiving it as heavy, I am impatient to get under and don't trust in the power of the hip. I feel like just focusing on just the hip with heavier weights would help.

Thanks a lot for your input!

[JCedolia]

Sorry Glen if Ive overlooked it or been lazy but were can I find the beginner program?

[shin]

Sorry Glen if Ive overlooked it or been lazy but were can I find the beginner program?

The first article with the program I used is A Training System for Beginning Olympic Weightlifters (http://www.pendlay.com/A-Training-System-for-Beginning-Olympic-Weightlifters_df_90.html), and there are two followups on individualizing the beginner program (http://www.pendlay.com/Individualizing-the-beginners-program_df_79.html) and tapering for competition (http://www.pendlay.com/Tapering-for-the-Beginner_df_78.html). All under "Articles" in the bar on top of this site.

[oldgit]

your beginner program seems excellent-glen as a 45yr old superheavy with 2 knee ops and 1 shoulder op-i do the following-mon-just snatch and rom dlifts, wed-c&j and alternate front and back squats each week, fri-hang snatch and some fast military presses-deload every 3rd week. do mainly cluster sets for the comp lifts,1+1+1 or 1+1,5-7 work sets and do 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets for assistance,70-80% of max in wk1, 80-90% of max in wk2 and 50-60% of max in deload week-then repeat and try to add kg to bar. any good or rubbish routine? thanks for any help

[glennpendlay]

your beginner program seems excellent-glen as a 45yr old superheavy with 2 knee ops and 1 shoulder op-i do the following-mon-just snatch and rom dlifts, wed-c&j and alternate front and back squats each week, fri-hang snatch and some fast military presses-deload every 3rd week. do mainly cluster sets for the comp lifts,1+1+1 or 1+1,5-7 work sets and do 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets for assistance,70-80% of max in wk1, 80-90% of max in wk2 and 50-60% of max in deload week-then repeat and try to add kg to bar. any good or rubbish routine? thanks for any help

Well, certainly not rubbish... with issues like that it is impossible for me to really comment too specdifically, because you are just going to have to figure out on your own what your body can handle and what it cant. But what you are doing sounds reasonable.

[glennpendlay]

Hi Glenn,

First off, thanks for the beginner program. I started weightlifting in September after committing to a competition three months later, and followed it exclusively during that time. I went from 40/80 to 75/95 in training, and 70/90 in competition at 90kg.

I would like to incorporate some 100%+ pulls into the program, and was wondering if you could give me a tip on how best to do so. My rationale is that my hip extension feels good and quick when the weight is rather light, but once I start perceiving it as heavy, I am impatient to get under and don't trust in the power of the hip. I feel like just focusing on just the hip with heavier weights would help.

Thanks a lot for your input!

I'd try just adding them in, maybe clean pulls once a week for a couple of doubles, snatch pulls a different day once a week also... see how it affects you, if its a possitive, then you might want to so more. But always best to start slow if you are adding something.

[shin]

I'd try just adding them in, maybe clean pulls once a week for a couple of doubles, snatch pulls a different day once a week also... see how it affects you, if its a possitive, then you might want to so more. But always best to start slow if you are adding something.

Thanks for your response. I have been doing the exact program outlined in A Training System for Beginning Weightlifters (http://www.pendlay.com/A-Training-System-for-Beginning-Olympic-Weightlifters_df_90.html), where the first two sessions of the first week have 2 Pulls + 1 Hang Snatch/Clean, and have subbed out one of those pulls for heavy snatch pulls respectively clean pulls. My only concern was adding too much additional work to a program that's working well already, but I'll see how I respond, and go slow with any changes/additions.

(An aside, to anyone else doing this program three days a week: about five weeks before my first competition, making great progress on all fronts doing things as written three days a week, I decided I needed to train an additional day (Tuesday, in addition to MWF). Lo and behold, I soon started missing considerably more in training, my training weights went down, and a week before my competition I was feeling awful and insecure with the lightest of weights. This was after consistently training the lifts for two months, with some minor experience (about two months' worth) two years prior. There seems to be a good reason to wait with the 4 day/week program. Also, it was only after poring over my training log long after the competition that I noticed the trend with the misses - something I would have done well to have spotted earlier.)

[joann.jimi]

What you should change will depend on what your photo is like to start with and how you would like it to be different.