Powerlifting Meet Recap: APF NY State Spring Iron Frenzy

I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. The good news is I won the 181-pound weight class in the open division last Saturday. The bad news is that’s the only good news.

This meet was many things: humbling, frustrating and eye-opening to name a few. What it most certainly was NOT was a success for me because I did not achieve a single one of the lifting goals I set for this meet.

Bottom line – the meet was too long (14+ hours. Not a typo.), I wasn’t mentally prepared, I didn’t bounce back well from the weight cut, and I missed all three of my third attempts to fall 70 pounds short of my total from November and 95 pounds short of my goal total. But I still won the 181′s.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment was that this was the first meet where I did my own programming and training went exceptionally well the last few months. However, I took some big risks with dropping a weight class and choosing aggressive attempts. Live and learn.

Here’s how my lifts went:

• 1st Squat: 465, good
• 2nd Squat: 490, good
• 3rd Squat: 515, miss
• 1st Bench: 305, miss – ass came up
• 2nd Bench: 315, good
• 3rd Bench: 335, miss
• 1st Deadlift: 485, good
• 2nd Deadlift: 500, good
• 3rd Deadlift: 545, miss
• 1,305 total. 1st place, 181 class open division.

.

Here’s how it played out:

• Thursday, 12:30 p.m. – weighed in at 188.9 on lab scale at school.
• Friday, 9 a.m. – weighed in at 181.0 on lab scale at school.
• Friday, 10:30 a.m. – weighed in at 181.5 at official weigh-in – I made it, barely.

Consumed copious food and fluids over the next 12 hours and went to bed very confident.

The venue was great but I could tell immediately that the meet would not go smoothly. Over 25 lifters signed up the day of, pushing the total lifter count over 90. That’s just insane. Rules were supposed to be at 9:30 and lifting was scheduled to start at 10. People were still lining up for squat rack heights at 10:30.

Lifting started at about 11 with four flights of everything. I was in the second flight of squats. Squat judging was different than any other meet I’ve done. I’m not exaggerating when I say that 85% of first-flight squats got at least one red light for depth. My friend Dan, a first-time powerlifter, got two reds on his second squat which would have been a PR and the video showed that he clearly broke depth. It’s a shame and it’s the first time I’ve seen someone really get robbed on a competition squat.

I smoked by squat opener at 465 even with a lousy setup. We used a Mastodon squat bar, which has different markings than a Texas power bar so I struggled with hand placement. 490 went up easily for my second attempt, again with a bad setup. I called for 515 for my third and knew two things for sure: I had to get my hands in as close as possible, and I had to bury it to get three whites. I took care of both those things, but my knees crashed in hard out of the hole and I missed it. It was the first missed competition squat of my powerlifting career. I’d been 11-for-11 til then.

Harold locking out 400 for a 25-pound squat PR

It was then literally six hours until I got to bench. I had to wait for three more flights of squats (including a sick 400-pound squat for a 25-pound PR by my buddy Harold), the bench-only flight (which included a pair of unsuccessful-but-still impressive 1,000-pound bench press attempts by powerlifting phenom Dave Hoff) AND the first full-power bench press flight. Warm-ups were OK, but I had trouble focusing. So much so that my ass blasted about a foot off the bench on my 305 opener. This threw a wrench in my plans because I wanted to go up to 320, but needed to choose a weight I knew I could get with almost no leg drive to make sure I completed at least one successful bench to stay in the meet. I went with 315 because, for those who don’t know, if you don’t complete at least one successful squat, bench and deadlift attempt, you get disqualified.

315 went up without a struggle, so on to 335 for a PR attempt. It went nowhere. Moving on.

A couple hours later, deadlifts started. By now it was going on 10 p.m. and I was exhausted. Went really low volume on my warmups and counted on my easy 485 opener to wake me up. Well, it was slower than I hoped, so I opted for 500 on my second attempt instead of my planned 525. It felt slower than death (even though the video showed it really wasn’t that bad), but since I knew I would fall short of my goal total, there was nothing left to do but go for a PR at 545. It barely left the floor. Day over, finally.

Dan setting up to pull a PR with the legendary Scott Mendleson side judging

Even with all the disappointments, there were still a lot of positive moments. My friends Dan and Harold had solid days, with Dan hitting a big 405 deadlift PR and Harold going 7-for-9 with PRs across the board. Seeing them succeed and get fired up about their accomplishments was hands down the best part of the day. I got to meet Dave Kirschen, an EliteFTS sponsored lifter, who had tons of great insight and was kind enough to tell me that dropping a weight class on a whim was a stupid idea (he was really nice about it, though.). And I got to see a lot of things that are wrong with powerlifting - poor time management, judging discrepancies, and moments of sheer terror as spotters saved geared lifters from getting their heads cleaved off on botched bench press attempts.  The good news is, I still love powerlifting and I’ll continue to train and compete with passion.

It was foolish of me to think that I could ride out my powerlifting success and consistency without any bumps in the road. This meet put my ego in check and made me re-examine my dedication to the sport from all angles – training, diet, recovery, etc.

I’ll do another meet in November (either in New York or Vermont) and for the next few months focus on building some much-needed new muscle. See you later 181′s, it was (not so) nice knowing you for a few hours.

Training Update: 10 Days Out

Long time, no blog.

I’ve been away from the keyboard for awhile and spending more time reading, lifting and learning. Sounds pretty good, right?

My life for the past few weeks has been consumed by work, midterms and training for the 2013 APF New York State Spring Iron Frenzy. It will be my fourth powerlifting meet (the first outside the comfort of my home state of Vermont) and I’m ready to shatter some PRs.

In the past I’ve trained hard and I’ve trained smart, but rarely at the same time. Two meets ago, I was almost “too smart” and posted a lousy total. Last year, I had my first 9-for-9 meet with four PRs but wound up with a mangled shoulder from training all-brawn, no-brains. But the past 12 weeks of training have been the best of my life because I’m training harder AND smarter than I ever have.

With midterms done, I’ll have a quick breather from academics to focus on crushing weight at the meet. I don’t think the studying made me any stronger, but I now know more about the renal system than I’ll probably ever need to know. Hell, three weeks ago all I knew about kidneys was they looked like beans. Either way, I’m one step closer to becoming a Master of Puppets Exercise Science.

It’s been nearly two months since my last training update, so I won’t bore you with every little detail. Here are some highlights from the past couple months (links to the time in the video provided):

• Feb. 22: Overhead Press – 200×1 (PR) 0:04
• Mar. 3: Squat – 315×20
• Mar. 6: Squat – 375×10 0:12
• Mar. 7: Hang Snatch – 135×6 x2 sets
• Mar. 14: Squat – 405×7 (Rep PR) 1:10, Deficit Deadlifts w/ Pause – 325×2 x4 sets 1:56
• Mar. 15: Overhead Press – 165×5 x2 sets
• Mar. 18: Deadlift – 460×3,3,2 (after missing a single at 475 exactly 1 month earlier)
• Mar. 21: Squat – 435×4 (Rep PR)
• Mar. 23: Overhead Press – 175x3x3
• Mar. 25: Deadlift: 495×1 (2:08), 505×1 (2:16), 485×2
• Mar. 26: Bench Press: 295x2x2, 305×1
• Mar. 28: Squat: 450x2x2 (Rep PRs after missing 2nd rep at 455 four weeks earlier) 2:32
• Apr. 1: Deadlift Opener – 485 (3:16)

.

Noteworthy stuff: I’ve been smashing stuff in the 5-8 rep range and the carryover to doubles and triples has been pretty amazing. I’ve fallen in love with high rep squats. The overhead press has been getting more “heavy” attention than my bench, which I’ve been cautious with and sticking to high reps/volume as opposed to the heavy stuff. Deficit deadlifts with a pause are going to earn me a 600 pound deadlift within a year.

I had the privilege of training at some awesome places with some awesome people, including my buddy’s basement in Ohio, Limitless Strength and Conditioning in Florida with former University of Florida strength coach (and 700-pound deadlifter) Ken Morris, and an impromptu lift with Vermont’s newest fitness celeb Joy Victoria.

Rep PRs galore for the squat, touched 500+ on deadlifts for the first time in a year and hit my opener like cake. It’s almost go time…

25 Random Fitness Thoughts

I want that shirt. Bad.

There’s something really relaxing to me about being at the baseball field. A few years removed from my playing days, I can finally sit and watch a game without the anxiety/butterflies I got as a player.

One of my favorite things to do is watch the different players and analyze the ways their bodies move and react to different situations. What’s the pitcher’s arm slot? How long is his stride? How well does the hitter get against his front leg when he swings? How much forward lean does the runner get when he tries to steal second base?

With so much downtime to sit and ponder in Florida last week, here’s a list of 25 fitness/health related thoughts/questions that have popped into my head this week. I may or may not have the answers, but the idea is to get you think critically.

• Why do people in warm climates like Florida and California pay money to run on a treadmill indoors?
• Why are most exercise recommendations based on “evidence-based practice” made with the assumption that people HATE to exercise?
• What’s more effective: an optimal training program that you hate doing? Or a sub-optimal training program that you LOVE doing?
• What’s a better definition of “intensity”: effort or percentage of your 1-rep max?
• Have Tabata or any of the other high-intensity training disciples ever done one of their workouts and then tried to go play a sport the same day (or even the next day)?
• Why do some people wear wrist wraps (not straps) while deadlifting?

Who am I to question, but… why?

• When will manual therapy be talked about in the same breath as rest, ice, compression and elevation?
• Why does so much research damning cholesterol/saturated fat not account for fiber and overall caloric intake?
• Training/eating for health, physique and performance are all very different things.
• Who decided soy milk, whole wheat and egg whites were “healthy” options?
• Speaking of soy, I’m not a fan. But soy itself is probably unfairly vilified rather than all the crappy food it’s in, like cheap salad dressings, greasy Americanized Chinese food and mayo.
• I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve met who train hard enough to worry about overtraining.
• Science may not confirm organic food is “better” than conventionally grown food, but it’s ignorant to hate on someone because of their preference. It’s their choice – leave them alone.
• There’s a big difference between staying positive and giving meaningless, unwarranted praise.
• Who are you more scared of on the field: the guy who can power clean 315 once or the guy who can squat 315 for perfect reps with speed?

Sorry, not scared of you.

• The only thing worse than trusting science only when it’s convenient is trusting science 100 percent of the time.
• If you have a “calves day” or an “abs day”, you’re doing it wrong.
• Writing a kickass lower body workout is not hard: jump or Olympic lift. Squat and deadlift, one heavy and the other for speed or reps. Single leg quads. Hamstrings. Abs. Done.
• Why do people shell out hundreds of bucks a month on supplements but won’t pay for quality food, join a good gym or hire a quality trainer?
• How people work out late at night blows my mind. Anything later than 7 p.m. and I’m useless.
• What’s weirder – the fact that I skip breakfast or the fact that you eat 8 small meals a day to “keep your metabolism up” and you’re still out of shape?

Breakfast doesn’t always suck… but this one does.

• The fewer psyche-up techniques you use in the gym (head-smacking, yelling, ammonia-sniffing, etc.), the better your strength gains will “stick”.
• You know the old cliche, “Everything works… for 4 weeks”? I don’t believe it. Some things really don’t work at all.
• I don’t care if the hamstring never flexes the knee in isolation in real life. If you’re not doing some sort of hamstring curl, you’re missing out on an entire function of a pretty damn important muscle.
• Why do people spend so much time on the internet reading about fitness? Get out of here and go train!

Got any answers to any of these questions? Share below!

Monday Motivation: What I’m Reading This Week

The view from my office this week

Some of you may recall that when I’m not lifting or training people, I’m a sports information assistant at a Division II university on Long Island. It’s kind of a hobby of mine (and by hobby I mean how I pay for grad school).

Sports info definitely has its perks, namely getting to travel to Florida with the baseball team on its annual spring break trip. So as I sit here, perched at my “desk” basking in the sun, watching batting practice and waiting for today’s game to start, I thought I’d update everyone on what I’ve been reading during my downtime in the Sunshine State.

Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica by Mick Wall

I’ve been instructed by many a friend and family member that I need to break out my Type-A literary funk and read some fiction. So I’m weaning myself off of educational/instructional books with a biography of my favorite band of all time, Metallica.

I finished this one on the plane ride and it was easily the best rock biography I’ve ever read. It takes a lot for me to discover something new about the kings of heavy metal, so I was thrilled when a previously-unknown fact appeared on almost every page.

Mick Wall delves far beyond the better-known facts about some of Metallica’s most defining moments, including Dave Mustaine’s firing, Cliff Burton’s tragic death, the endless hazing of Jason Newsted, the pure decadence of the Black Album world tour, the whole Napster debacle, and the train wreck that gave birth to the St. Anger record.

If you’re a music fan and want to know more about Metallica beyond the VH1 specials and Rolling Stone interviews, check out this book.

“To Pull A Lot, You Need To Pull A Lot” by Brandon Lilly

This article by Brandon Lilly, who pulled a 755-pound deadlift without a belt at this year’s Arnold Classic, came at a great time since I’ve been having so much trouble with my own deadlift.

He focused on how to pull frequently without running into overtraining or injuries. The key to this is frequently cycling your deadlift exercises, loading protocols and volume to stay fresh while targeting your weak points. The part about using explosive singles with short rest to build strength off the floor was really eye opening and I look forward to trying it.

Check out the article here: http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2013/03/11/to-pull-a-lot-you-need-to-pull-a-lot/

“A Day (or 2) of Meals on Intermittent Fasting” by Stephanie d’Orsay

Fellow fitness blogger and Boston-based athletic trainer Stephanie d’Orsday has been logging her adventures with intermittent fasting, which you know by now is my preferred dietary approach. This post came at an interesting time because I was talking to our baseball team’s athletic trainer, and she talked about the recent spike in female college athletes becoming vegetarian/vegan in an attempt to lose weight.

Now keep in mind, I am fascinated by vegan lifestyles and truly admire those who do it faithfully. And if you want to be a vegan because you believe it’s morally or ethically wrong to kill animals for food, I totally get that. But if athletic performance is your primary goal, I truly believe that a meat-free diet is going to be suboptimal.

I think the IF approach, focusing on meal timing while eating lots of organic, whole foods (including grass-fed, pasture raised meats and wild-caught fish), is a fantastic way to boost performance and improve body composition. It’s refreshing to see a female attack this approach head-on when many people – male and female alike – try and fail to lose weight with more “traditional” diets.

Read Stephanie’s article here: http://itrainthereforeieat.com/2013/03/11/a-day-or-2-of-meals-on-if/

That’s it! Back to watching baseball and soaking up some vitamin D. Go forth, read and learn.

What I Learned at the Arnold Classic

Last Friday, a group of friends and I piled in the car and drove nearly 600 miles due West to Columbus, Ohio, for the 25th annual Arnold Sports Festival. Founded by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, the event is the world’s biggest fitness expo and is the site of one of the world’s biggest bodybuilding competitions, lovingly called the Arnold Classic.

This was the second year in a row that I’ve attended since my old roommate and lifting partner works at the event. It’s the Superbowl of health and fitness with a little bit of everything for everyone, including powerlifting, strongman, gymnastics, Olympic lifting, bikini – even fencing.

I saw some incredible lifting and met some really cool people. I shared a power handshake with 8-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman. I witnessed several single-ply powerliftings record get broken. I even got to talk deadlifting with the freakishly strong Mike Tuscherer of Reactive Training Systems.

The 10-hour car ride home gave me plenty of time to reflect on the valuable lessons I learned from brushing elbows with some of the strongest athletes in the world.

YOU DON’T TRAIN THAT HARD

You think you know what it means to train hard? I thought I did too. But seeing all these amazing strength and physique athletes made me realize how much harder I could be training.

I’m not just talking about training to failure and beyond until I puke or give myself a hernia. I’m talking about getting the most out of every single set and rep, working to perfect my technique, and building the legendary amount of mind-muscle connection that professional body builders have.

When I got back in the gym, I approached each set with a question: “How would a pro do this set?” Just getting in that frame of mind instantly increased the quality of my training.

YOU’RE NOT THAT DISCIPLINED

As we walked among the crowds of hulking meatheads, my friend Dan and I wondered aloud about what separated us from the best of the best, the biggest of the big. Besides the obvious (and weak) excuse that we don’t use steroids, we concluded that the two biggest factors that separate the elite from the rest of us are time and discipline.

These two factors really meld into one, because the biggest, strongest people in the world are the ones who can sustain tenacious levels of discipline for a very, very long time. They don’t miss training sessions, they don’t cheat on their diets, and they don’t compromise recovery for anything. They live and breathe this stuff, day in and day out for decades.

We couldn’t help but notice that the majority of the 200,000-plus people at the Arnold flocked to the pizza and burger stands for lunch and sucked down vanilla lattes, carelessly abandoning their concern for health and fitness when it was inconvenient to be disciplined. The biggest, strongest, most-ripped people, however, could be consistently found chowing down on chicken and broccoli in Tupperware tubs, refusing to give in to the greasy temptations of convenience.

So while popular nutrition movements like the Paleo diet or Carb Backloading are giving people excuses to subsist on nothing but bacon and apple turnovers, the truth is that the people in the 99th percentile don’t look for dietary loopholes or justify taking shortcuts. They plan ahead, stay the course and prevail. No excuses.

BE REALISTIC

This plays off the first two points. It’s easy to get a big ego when you’re always the top dog at your gym, but it’s also easy to get discouraged when you’re dwarfed by everyone around you. The Arnold brings together thousands of the meatiest of meatheads, so even if you’re the biggest fish in your small pond back home, you’re probably a lowly guppy at the Arnold.

But keep in mind that many of these people, especially our bodybuilding heroes, are:

• Genetically gifted
• On steroids
• Surrounded by a support staff of trainers, dietitians and doctors

This doesn’t negate the fact that they also:

• Work their asses off for years – not weeks or months
• Dedicate their lives to their sport.

Don’t expect to match the fitness levels of elite lifters and bodybuilders without steroids, amazing genetics or quitting your job so you can do nothing but train, eat and sleep. But don’t expect to be better than the average bench-and-curl-bro without dedicating a large portion of your life to health and fitness.

SUPPLEMENT COMPANIES LIE

The Arnold reaffirms that supplement companies run the fitness world, period. The sheer number of booths pimping the latest, greatest magic pills and powders was staggering. People lined up by the thousands to grab free samples of protein, creatine, fat burners, test boosters and all other kinds of questionable products.

The truth is that most people have no idea what’s in these supplements or how they work. Supplement companies prey upon the ignorance of consumers and in turn get away with making ridiculous claims about their products.

I literally laughed out loud when I read the names of some of the proprietary blends (a secret weapon used to disguise useless and/or under-dosed ingredients) and hysterical claims espoused on the packaging in huge fonts. One of my favorites was a pre-workout drink that “PROMOTES ALL-NATURAL, NUTRIENT BASED RESYNTHESIS OF ATP!” In orther words, it has fucking sugar in it.

Do yourself a favor and learn how to read research. I’m usually the last person to say “but it’s not proven by science,” but in the case of bogus supplements, knowledge is power.  Pick up a scientific journal and actually read studies about supplements and their ingredients. Flip through a middle-school biology or chemistry textbook and you’ll automatically be more informed than 99 percent of all people who spend $50 on a tub NOXplode but “can’t afford” organic groceries.

“YOKED” IS THE NEW “JACKED”

Stan Efferding needs a monstrous Yoke to squat 850 pounds raw.

Everyone who was anyone at the Arnold – be they body builder, powerlifter or strongman – shared a common trait: they have absolutely massive upper backs.

Regardless of your goal, the centerpiece of an impressive physique will always be the Yoke, which is the combination of huge traps, rhomboids, rear delts and lats.

A big Yoke makes your waist look tiny, which is great for a bodybuilder. It helps pull big deadlifts, yank snatches and catch cleans – all great for powerlifters and Olympic lifters. It’ll even help you knock out more kipping pull-ups if you’re into the Crossfit thing.

It’s really hard to appreciate the shear Yoke girth of someone like Stan Efferding, Dan Green or Johnnie Jackson until you see them in person. It’s no coincidence that they all boast insane strength to go with their mountainous upper backs.

.

The bottom line is if your Yoke isn’t up to par, you need to do something about it. Deadlifts, rows and pull-ups with various grips, snatches, cleans, shrugs, face pulls, rear delt flyes, band pull-aparts, farmer’s walks – use them all.

TRAINING ENVIRONMENT IS SEVERELY UNDERRATED

We always focus on the “what” and “how” of training. But we often forget about the “who” and “where”. I’ve said it before, but training environment can make you or break you. I’d rather use a mediocre program and train in an awesome environment with amazing lifters than use the perfect program in a terrible environment like an LA Fitness or Equinox.

The Animal Cage was a prime example of this. In the midst of all the fake tans, fake breasts and fake supplements, the Cage stood out like an oasis for those of us who were thirsty for rust, iron and blood. Universal Nutrition brought together some of the strongest people on the planet and threw them into a WWE-style cage decked out with squat racks, a monolift and thousands of pounds of weight.

We got to witness unreal feats of strength like Eric Lilliebridge squat 906 raw, Chad Wesley Smith squat 700 for 10(!!!) reps, Scott Cartwright squat 1,250 pounds in multiply for a double, and Jesse Norris deadlift 775 raw at a body weight of 198 pounds. If you ever need motivation to train like a beast, take a trip to Ohio and head to the Cage.

So that night, we headed to my old training partner‘s house and proceeded to deadlift like, well… animals. He converted his basement into a weight room, decked out with old, rusty plates and PA speakers blasting Every Time I Die at ear-shattering volumes.

.

I pulled 465 for an easy double followed by 405×5 for multiple sets, and wrapped it up by squatting 315 for a set of 20, which was easily a rep PR and I’m not so sure I could have pushed through the last few reps had I not been in such a crazy environment  My buddy, seven months removed from serious surgery and a 50 pound weight loss, pulled 500 pounds again. Pretty inspiring. As impressive as the dudes in the Cage were, it’s hard to top a comeback like that.

I’LL BE BACK

I left Ohio with a rejuvenated desire to train as hard as possible. The past week of lifting ranks among the best I’ve ever done thanks to all the inspiring athletes at the Arnold. I highly recommend that anyone who’s serious about health and fitness go to next year’s event. I know I’ll be there.

4 Rules for Lifting to Failure

The past week of lifting was extremely challenging for me, both physically and mentally. For the first time since November, I trained above 90 percent of my all-time best 1-rep maxes. And I pretty much fell flat on my face.

I laid out a minimum amount of volume I needed to accumulate with such (relatively) heavy weights. I ended up falling well short and even missed reps for the first time since… well, since way before I can remember. I went 9-for-9 at my last powerlifting meet, so it’s been awhile since I attempted a lift that I couldn’t complete. I missed two deadlift attempts and a squat attempt, and I am not proud.

But it got me thinking about a touchy subject: should you lift weights until failure? This question sparks a lot of emotional responses from lifters, trainers and coaches. It’s as polarizing a topic as there is. Some people say you always have to make the target muscle fail if you want it to grow bigger and stronger. Other people say training to failure will fry your nervous system, stunt your gains and turn you into a stumbling zombie.

As with anything, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I tend to side with the never-train-to-failure camp, but there is a time and a place for it. Here are a few simple rules to help you pick your battles and train to failure only when the benefits outweigh the risks.

1. DON’T TRAIN HIGHLY TECHNICAL LIFTS TO FAILURE

Highly technical lifts like the powerlifts (squat, bench press, deadlift), Olympic lifts (snatch, clean and jerk) and their variations require a tremendous amount of coordination and skill to perform safely and effectively. Because of this, there’s a greater risk of injury while performing these lifts. This risk gets exponentially greater the closer you take these lifts to failure.

Why are powerlifters, Olympic lifters and gymnasts jacked out of their minds despite never training to failure? Because they treat strength as a skill. Countless submaximal (challenging, but not impossible) reps with picture perfect technique. You don’t have to run yourself into the ground with hernia-inducing sets to build ridiculous strength or muscle mass. Why do you think most average Joe bench press clowns do forced reps, drop-sets, super-sets and dozens of other silly “intensity” techniques - yet they never get better at benching? Because you can’t constantly fail and expect to get better at something. 

Take it slow, leave room for consistent improvement and be patient.

2. DON’T MISS REPS ON BIG HEAVY LIFTS MORE THAN 4 TIMES A YEAR

There’s a reason you can’t compete in a powerlifting meet every weekend. Lifting extremely heavy loads is incredibly taxing on your muscles and nervous system. The only thing more taxing is attempting to lift extremely heavy weights and failing.

The heavier the load, the further you should stay away from failure. Honestly, the training stimulus from doing an all-out heavy set of 3 reps isn’t that different from doing 3 reps with a weight you could do 5 times. The former is much more dangerous but isn’t that much more beneficial than the latter.

Four isn’t a magical number proven by science to be the max number of times you can miss lifts without negative effects. But if you’re following a smart training planning and testing your lifts only once every 12-13 weeks (i.e. four times a year), you should theoretically only miss lifts when you’re testing your 1RM. Ideally, you’d never miss lifts because you’d pick your 1RM attempts perfectly and always get stronger, but we know this doesn’t happen in real life. Our egos get the best of us from time to time, but do the best to miss heavy lifts very, very infrequently. Approach heavy weights with confidence, knowing you’ve trained hard and earned new levels of strength.

3. IT’S SAFER TO TRAIN TO FAILURE WITH HIGHER REPS, LIGHTER WEIGHT AND SMALLER MUSCLE GROUPS

There is a humongous, astronomical difference between failing on a set of heavy squats and failing on the 12th rep of a set of biceps curls. The smaller the muscle group, the lighter the weight and the higher the reps, the safer it is to go to failure.

This goes back to point number one. Heavy, full body lifts shouldn’t be taken to failure. Advanced lifters might be able to do sets of 10-20 reps on big barbell lifts, but they have the foundation of strength and technique to do so safely. A newbie lifter who can hardly tie his shoes has no business doing death sets of 20-rep breathing squats. 

On the other hand, most small muscle groups aren’t effectively trained using heavy weights and low reps. I talked about this extensively in my rant about biceps training, and the same goes for most isolation exercises. Crush the big muscle groups with heavy, full-body lifts, then smoke the small muscle groups with less complicated exercises, lighter weights and higher reps. Failing on a set of rear delt flyes won’t set you back like convulsing through a set of barbell rows to failure. Completely exhausting small muscle groups that are constantly active during posture or everyday activities (e.g. calves, lower traps, forearms, etc.) might actually be necessary to make them grow.

We still don’t know the exact physiology behind strength/muscle gains. I like to think hard work is the main ingredient but people like to argue about hormones, mechanical stress, metabolic by-products and stuff. People will try to tell you that training to failure is the only way to ensure 100 percent intensity because it guarantees maximal recruitment of all types of muscle fibers (slow, intermediate and fast twitch), which creates the right hormonal and metabolic environment for growth. This may be true if you’re using a day-spa-friendly 3-1-3 tempo (e.g. “slow and controlled”), but if you want to really build strength and muscle, you need to crush each rep as explosively as you can with perfect form. Lower the weight under control, but always lift each rep with maximal effort like you’re trying to blast it through the roof. This will ensure recruitment of all fiber types, especially fast-twitch Type IIx fibers which have the most potential for hypertrophy.

What the super-slow-training-to-failure crowd is also forgetting is the neurological bitch-slap that comes with training to failure. Constantly bombarding your body with sets to failure (and beyond in the case of forced reps) may spark some quick growth but it’s just not sustainable. Eventually, resting testosterone levels will fall, cortisol will rise and your desire to train will plummet. A lack of desire to work out doesn’t sound like a long term plan for success, does it?

Fatigue the body into adaptation through frequency and volume, not intensity. Training more frequently (4-5 days per week vs. 2-3) with more volume (12-20 sets per body part vs. 1-3) and less intensity (sets of 5-10 reps stopping shy of failure vs. 8-15 reps to failure or stupidly heavy sets to failure and beyond) is more sustainable. You’ll feel less run down and be more motivated to train because you’re not constantly banging your head against training ruts, injuries and plateaus.

4. STOP AT TECHNICAL FAILURE, NOT ABSOLUTE FAILURE

Sometimes people get confused about the true meaning of failure. It’s easy to get confused when you’ve just done 50 kipping pull-ups followed by a dozen burpees in a pile of your own puke.

Jason Ferruggia and Eric Cressey both advocate stopping almost every set one rep shy of failure. But when they say failure, that doesn’t mean one rep shy of beheading yourself with a bench press guillotine or inches away from crapping your spleen during a scared-cat deadlift.

.

The above video shows two kinds of failure: absolute and technical. Absolute failure is when the muscles literally cannot generate enough force to complete the rep. That’s what you see on rep #2 in the video. What Ferruggia and Cressey are talking about is technical failure, which means textbook form can no longer be maintained but you could still crank out slow, ugly grinding reps such as rep #1 in the video.

The key to maximizing the hormonal benefits of training close to absolute failure without the injury risk is to get really good at lifting heavy weight with perfect form. This goes back to points #1 and #3. If you can lift heavy and close to failure without your form breaking down, you’ve narrowed the gap between absolute failure and technical failure. Once you’ve reached this point, chances are you’re pretty damn big and strong.

Practice the lifts without failing and earn the right to do the risky, high rep stuff.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Training to failure won’t benefit the majority of people trying to get bigger and stronger. And the injury risks certainly don’t warrant the benefits when we’re talking about the big lifts.

In order to get the most out of your training, perform the big, heavy lifts (squats, deadlifts, presses, rows) well shy of failure and take your smaller accessory lifts (curls, flyes, push-ups, ab work, etc.) closer to failure. Learn to struggle under weight with perfect form and then you can throw in some crazy, balls-to-the-walls dance-with-death stuff every once in a while.

Remember: stimulate, recover, repeat. It’s simple. Don’t screw it up.

Training Log Update – February 6-11

My strength is steadily returning as my shoulder improves and my weight slowly climbs. I’ve got just over eight training weeks left til the APF Spring Iron Frenzy and I like the way things are going.

I’ve hit some good indicator sets on squat and bench. I’m feeling surprisingly awesome considering I’m doing my own programming, which usually runs me into the ground after about two weeks. As you’ll see below, I’m shooting for a certain range of volume on the main lifts based on how heavy the sets are. It’s a nice change of pace from the “you must do this many sets of this much weight” approach you see with Sheiko or 5/3/1.

My deadlift is still fussy as always. When I trained for my last powerlifting meet, my deadlift sucked all the way up until the meet. And then I pulled a big PR. So I’m not letting it bother me. I will continue to hammer the hams and glutes, and work on consistency with my hip placement so I can break the bar off the floor more effectively.

.

The highlighted sets/exercises are listed in the YouTube details. Here are the full workouts, which you can also see on my Fitocracy page.

WEDNESDAY – FEB. 6 – MAX EFFORT SQUATS

1A. Weighted Box Jumps (holding 25 pound dumbbells)

18″ x 3

24″ x 2 x 5 sets

2A. Squats

45×8

135×5

225×5

315×3

375×3

405×5

405×5

405×3

395×3 (no belt)

19 reps between 75-80% of 1RM 

3A. Snatch grip RDLs

225×8 x 3 sets

4A. Barbell Lunges

145×10 per leg x 3 sets

5A. Double Stop Ab Rollouts

10, 10, 6

.

FRIDAY – FEB. 8 – REP EFFORT UPPER

1A. Hang Snatch

75×3

95×3

115×3

135×3 x 3 sets

2A. Overhead Press

115×5

135×2

145×5

155×5

155×6

155×3

19 reps between 75-80% of 1RM

3A. Close Grip Lat Pulldowns

10, 10, 10, 10, 12

3B. Close Grip 2-Board Press

275×8

275×10

4A. DB Hammer Curls

3 sets x 12 reps

4B. Band Triceps Pushdowns

3 sets x 20 reps

4C. DB External Rotation on Knee

3 sets x 15 reps

.

SUNDAY – FEB. 10 – DEADLIFTS

1A. Box Squat into Box Jump

24″ x 3

30″ x 1

32″ x 1 x 4 sets

2A. Deadlifts

135×5

225×3

315×2

335×1

365×1

385×1

405×1

430×2

430×3

445×2

445×2

430×2

11 reps between 80-89% of 1RM

3A. Paused Squats (3 sec, 3×3 at 70% of 1RM)

300 x 3 x 3 sets

4A. Band Good Mornings

3 sets x 25 reps

4B. Seated Band Hip Abduction

3 sets x 30 reps

4C. Natural GHRs

3 sets x 10 reps

5A. Reverse Crunches

3 sets x 10 reps

.

MONDAY – FEB. 11 – MAX EFFORT BENCH

1A. Plyo Pushups

18″ boxes x 2 reps x 5 sets

2A. Bench Press

45×10 x 2 sets

135×5

185×5

225×3

245×1 x 2 sets

265×3

285×3

285×2

270×3

270×2

13 reps between 80-89% of 1RM

3A. Smitty Rows

70×10

80×10 x 3 sets

80×12

3B. Incline DB Bench Press

70×8

85×10

85×12 x 2 sets

4A. Half Kneeling Face Pulls

3 sets x 20 reps

4B. DB Lateral Raises

3 sets x 15 reps

.