Category: Training

Since I am flummoxed (yes, flummoxed) at what to write about this week, I’m going to address something in brief (for me) that came up on my Facebook group which has to do with the role of soreness, or more accurately delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and growth.

This has been one of those ideas floating around for years and I still see posts about people feeling as if they didn’t have a good workout if they don’t get DOMS or actually chasing DOMS.  That is, based on the belief that DOMS equals growth, DOMS becomes the end-goal.  When growth and progress should be the end goal.

This led me years ago to develop what I call the Blunt Force Trauma Theory of Hypertrophy.  Since you want to be sore, I will beat you with a hammer all over your body.  Growth should ensue.

What is DOMS

As the name suggests, DOMS refers to or at least is thought to represent the delayed muscle soreness that occurs after training. … Keep Reading

Ever since Bulgarian Olympic lifting coach Ivan Abadjaev (you will see this spelled about 12 different ways) reinvented training for Olympic lifting in the 70’s or thereabouts, it’s common for his ideas to propagate through other non Olympic lifting sports. And every 5 years or so someone will come along and try to reinvent Bulgarian powerlifting.  Recently an ebook to that effect was written.

When I originally wrote this article I did not name it but then the author, Greg Knuckols and Omar Isuf got butthurt by this article so I’m happy to provide the cover now since he outed himself.

So I want to look at what the Bulgarian approach actually is, then look at how it’s usually attempted to be applied to PL’ing.  And then I’ll tell you why it never actually works and why you should forget about Bulgarian training.

Pre-Abadjaev OL Training

Prior to Abadjaev’s rewriting the rules, most Olympic lifting training of the day followed a more or less Soviet and classical periodization model. … Keep Reading

To strap or not to strap? That is the question.  Whether tis nobler to have your grip fail in the middle of a set or to maintain your macho hardheadeness in the face of complete wrongness….&c  I guess I’m feeling a bit literary this morning.  Anyhow, I want to talk about lifting straps but not about how to use them.  Rather I want to address the question many trainee ask which is “Should I wear lifting straps?”

Why Wear Lifting Straps?

Before getting into the actual question, I guess I should address why someone would want to wear straps in the first place.  Well, quite simply, they are grip aids, helping to ensure that you don’t lose your grip.  In that sense, straps are almost universally used for pulling movements (though I recall an article years ago by a guy who wore them on squats so he wouldn’t quite on the set).… Keep Reading

This will be one of those weird self-indulgent personal prattling pieces.  It represents the 6 weeks of my life before moving to Salt Lake City to pursue speed skating. This is the most absurd training I have ever done.

Let’s Talk About Overtraining

I suppose the point of this piece is probably a bit of a reaction to when people make claim about trainability/overtraining/the ability to adapt to “anything” or whatever and are basing this on their own short-term training experiences.

Because the fact of the matter is that you can get by on youth and stupidity for quite some time, and a truly insane amount of training can be handled for short periods.  It’s when folks try to stretch out those insane amounts of training in the long-term that they tend to break.  Sometimes they even learn from those experiences although that usually takes a few years.

This fact, the ability for the body to handle stupid levels of training for short periods, has actually been a frequent problem when researchers have tried to examine short-term overtraining. … Keep Reading