Glenn, your training philosophy

[Chae Cramb]

Glenn, I was just wondering about your training philosophy. I was just looking through the Cal Strength blog and it seems to be very Bulgarian in style, lots of maxes and just a limited amount of assistance work.

Is this what your lifters do the majority of the time, or is it just the phase you are currently in?

Also is the blog just an example of what your advanced guys and girls are doing? Or would you use this style of training with newer lifters too (once they had decent technique obviously).

Cheers

Chae

[glennpendlay]

Chae,

I guess my philosophy is basically, practice the lifts a ton, and get as strong as possible. Its not really bulgarian, cause we do things like 5 sets of 5 in the back squat, among other things that the bulgarians dont do... but its also not what I was taught in Russia either, because we really, really concentrate on snatch and clean and jerk from the floor, both the squat and power versions, instead of doing a whole bunch of supportive exercises.

I also do try new things... currently we are trying clean grip overhead squatting... if we try something for 6 or 8 weeks, and it seems to help, we keep doing it... if it doesnt seem to help, we stop.

Also, we do a lot of back and hip extension stuff that I dont write down on the blog... the guys do around 6 sets a day on heavy days, 2-3 sets on the lighter days.

Concentrating on snatch, clean and jerk, and squatting is what we do year round, and with athletes of all levels. Different phases of training or athletes on different levels will mean different squatting routines, different amounts of lifts, different intensity levels on the lifts, etc. But in all cases, snatch, clean and jerk, back squat and front squat make up the majority of the training.

glenn

[Chae Cramb]

Thanks for that Glenn, good stuff. I'll be interested in seeing how the clean grip ohs works out.

Have you ever tried using daily maxes on squats as well? If so what did you think of it?

Chae

[glennpendlay]

About half the time we do daily squatting, to max... we use that more when peaking for a meet. Other times we do more conventional 3 day a week squatting with more reps, usually further from a meet.

Daily max type squatting works pretty well, but you cant really do it year round, or at least most people cant, or, rather, they can, but they hit a sticking point and stop making progress at some point.

glenn

[James Bailey]

Glenn, just curious as I regularly do them too, what is the reason you are doing clean grip ohs rather than snatch grip?

I do both, I tend to find that I can handle more weight with snatch grip it also offers more of a chest stretch. Clean grip are harder only on the shoulder mobility. For example I can clean grip ohs 70x3 but have done 80x5 with a snatch grip, I got to parallel with 80kg in a clean grip but couldn't go lower with that amount of weight. I don't really know which has more of a transfer to anything else, I mainly do them to keep the mobility up and strengthen overhead positions.

[glennpendlay]

James,

Its something new we are trying... and we are doing it more for jerking than anything else, hence the jerk grip. It takes a tremendous amount of tension in the upper back to hold the weight in position, I am hoping this translates into more confidence holding heavy jerks that you have to dip a little lower than is comfortable to catch.

Glenn

[Greg Everett]

The clean grip OHS is also about the best thing you can do for upper back strength that will transfer to front squat/clean posture - nothing gets a more forceful extension of the entire back. And that degree of flexibility certainly won't hurt anyone.

[James Bailey]

I would agree that is is a tough exercise on the upper back and requires a lot of flexibility to even do one with the bar. I can also see how it could transfer to a more solid jerk. I think I will continue using them and alternate them with snatch grip ohs.

I wasn't questioning the value of the exercise, more just curious as to exactly what you are hoping to accomplish by using it. Thanks Glenn and Greg.