Training Philosophy

Over time and experience, every lifter and athlete will come to certain conclusions about their own training. Over time, they will come back to the same points again and again and again. Ultimately these thing must become part of your training philosophy.

Ultimately every athlete must develop golden rules and a philosophy of training that is unique to them and their experience. I think I read on Magnus ver Magnusson's blog that it takes athletes 3 years of trail and error to find their training system. I know it took me 5.

Just because you have created a training philosophy does not mean you stop learning. All it means is that you now have a foundation on the basis of which you apply what you see and understand how to filter information. Without a training philosophy you will always be confused. Over time even your philosophy will change, but some things always remain constant.

Below I have listed what I consider to be my training philosophy. There is no explanation of these, as they are unique to my experience. Some of them you may find unacceptable, some of it true, some of it might even work for you. If you can take even one point for yourself, that is good. Ultimately the point is that without a training philosophy you will be unable to know how to approach your long term goals. Without it you will not be able to create something that works for you. Over time you must have something that you can call your own, that you can use to make yourself better, something you believe in.

My Training Philosophy For Strength-

Golden Rules of Programming

1. Start too easy, and progress slowly.
2. Always train multiple qualities at a time (conjugate training). You must focus on one, but you must always do multiple things.
3. Back off every 4th week
4. Balance of stressors must be maintained- For every set introduced into your program, a set must be reduced somewhere. If you are increasing the total number of sets, food and sleep must increase to counter it.

Principles of Strength training

1. Always use basic compound movements for strength.

Small isolation movements can always be used for specific purposes, but ultimately strength is built through compound movements.

2. You must stick with the same basic movements for a long long time.

Variety only makes you feel like you are improving. learn to differentiate between when you have truly stalled with a movement and need a change and when you are just over your beginner phase with that movement.

3. You must train heavy (82-85%+) some of the time.

I recommend up to a maximum of 20% of your total volume.

4. You must train fast some of the time.

I recommend a maximum of 20% of total volume.

5. Strength is not built by just heavy and fast lifting however. Strength is built by mastering a certain level of resistance through repetitions, optimizing technique and cultivating good form, and then moving on to higher levels of resistance.

If you do not master the resistance you can currently do, how can you expect to master something you can barely do and then expect to improve from it. You have to rep out with slightly lesser levels of resistance and build proficiency at that level before moving on to the next one. Personally I work best by starting with 6 rep sets and adding reps till I get 12 reps and then add resistance and start over on barbell movements. I like 8-20 on calisthenic movements.

6. Mastery of a weight is built in a single set. Everything else is extra.

Some one who can do 225 for 4 X 5 has not mastered 225 as well as someone who can do 1 X 20 with the same, assuming both use the same form. The point here is that the minimum stimulus required to make progress is only 1 set (work set of course). Not 4 not 3- 1 set only. Now you can (and you should) do more sets depending on your objectives, but if all you want is some progress and all you care about is strength, one set is enough to keep moving- as long as it is truly hard. not to failure, but it should take some of the life out of you and you should have a progression of some sort in place, where you break repetition records and targets.

For the record, I like doing 2-3 light warm up sets, 1 explosive set, 1 heavy-ish set, 1 heavy (82%+ set) for 2 or 3 reps short of getting truly stuck, and 2 work sets of 6-12/9-20 reps, breaking repetition records all the time. A 4 set system, with 2 real work sets.

7. To build muscle you must use volume.

Cut down the reps per set by a couple and do a lot of sets.

8. Never do a certain exercise for more than one workout a week unless there is a real real reason for doing so.

9. You can only bring up one thing at a time- at least radically.

10. You can serve multiple masters at a time, but you can only do justice to one, so you better be clear what you want.

11. Mobility and flexibility work is critical.

These are abilities you lose if you dont use them. The only way to become mobile is to well, move- a lot. Do high reps of easy full ROM movements. Stretch regularly to be flexible. I have a flexibility post on the blog, based on active stretching. however do not underestimate static stretching. It lets you go through the ROM, which is a pleasant side benefit to the real point of passive stretching- you learn how to relax! And its better than nothing. If you enjoy it, do it. Foam rolling is pretty useful too.

12. Eat well and relax.

If you exercise more and want to be great you need to eat. Not supplements not junk- real food! And the more you exercise the more you need to eat, even when losing fat. Learn to relax, stretch and foam roll, calm your mind, get good sleep and dont worry. If you have psychological issues try you best to deal with them. Get therapy if you have to. Try to sleep more, engage in relaxing walks and fun activities. Keep your mind fresh and active.

13. Calisthenics works the extremities, barbell the torso.

The statement is not exactly correct- the more advanced you get the more true this becomes. A one arm push up is all about the triceps, a pushup about the shoulders and chest. A weak bench presser will feel his arms burn, a strong bench presser will feel his shoulders. (of course I am talking raw here). A pistol squat is all quads, a truly heavy barbell squat, hips and abs. Thus unlike what I believed at one time, calisthenics and barbell work are not interchangeable.

For the record my combo of exercises that does it all for me is- Deadlift, barbell squat, bench press, push up, handstand push ups, pull ups, front levers, pistol squats and bridges. Other exercises I like are the military press, dumbell rows, snatch grip deadlift, split snatch, kettlebell snatches, leg curls, bicep curls, back levers, leg raises, sit ups, dips and ham glute raises. I only use 9-12 exercises each week at a time.

About Exercises-

1. Deep Squat= Athleticism on field (think football)
2. Deadlift= Raw Strength and Power (think sprinting and strongman)
3. Bench Press= Upper body Size (Do you know a single guy who can press 300+ pounds and has a small upper body)
4, Military Press and Pull Ups- Upper body strength
5. Abdominal work= Leg Raises, sit ups and side movements. You can twist on a stability ball all you want, but a monstrous midsection needs flexion.

There you have it. I am sure many people will strongly disagree with a lot of my principles. What matters is I have principles. And the point here is to prove how much easier things are when you have one. So what are your principles?

5-3-1 Training

I am sure most serious athletes will have read or are familiar with Jim Wendler's 5-3-1. If you are not, you better, the book is very reasonably priced. Infact someone was telling me that he has made the first edition available for free on his website, though I cannot guarantee it.

In any event, I am not going to disclose the system in its entirety here- out of respect for the time and effort Mr. Wendler has obviously put into the book. The method he proposes is ultimately no different in its heart and soul from any good system ever made, except for the inclusion of rep records.

He emphasizes good training sense, starting light, building slow and getting the most you can from the least training weight. He prioritizes the basic compound lifts and allows for the ebb and flow of life.

In any case, ever since I read the book I have been wanting to adopt the system, but I have been making such good gains on my current training system (which is also based on similar principles) that I thought it would be foolish to abandon it, and I think Mr. Wendler would have agreed with my reasoning.

At the same time however, I was eager to try it out somewhere. So when my father came to me some 5 months ago to train, my eyes lit up with eagerness.

While I could have implemented the system with any one of the several athletes who came to me on a monthly basis, most of these kids don't have the temperament for it and are looking for gains right now. While honestly no system can replace patience and hard work, I have many programs which deliver great improvements in strength for the first 3 months or so, after which I normally put them on something like 5-3-1. While I know I could easily avoid those first 3 months and just start with a good base building program directly, many athletes just need to get into shape first before we can talk about strength. The only thing is I use squats, deadlifts, farmer's walks, overhead and bench presses and pull ups instead of making them sprint all day. What it does is teach them good lifting technique, improve their mobility and coordination and brings them into shape. This improves their strength, even though I never use any real weight.

In fact one of my guys has been deadlifting 135 pounds for a full 3 months straight. He weighs 220lbs. I finally allowed him to work up to a comfortable triple a week ago and vola he managed a 315 easy just by learning good technique and mechanics. Yet he has gone home thinking he has swallowed a magic pill. This practice builds confidence and sets them up for a good 8-10 month run on a good base building program. I have posted many such programs on this blog.

But in my father's case things were different. He is an infantry officer who has come from a very active combat background. And from a different era of fitness in the Indian Army as well. Feats such as 20 pullups with the chest touching the bar while carrying a rifle performed on rafters were routine in his time. Doing this after a 15k run with the same rifle and a hundred pushups was a part of their basic fitness tests. Having gone through extreme training like the commando course he is no stranger to effort or the power of the human mind. And at the age of 53 he was going as strong as ever. He completed all the current BPT tests for officers under the age of 40- in high altitude. Not only that but he won the sprint as well!

Recently however he started suffering from an irritating knee pain which was diagnosed as osteoarthritis. Ultimately after some 6 months of struggling with the (new) feeling of aging, he came to me and said-" Tejas I want my knee to feel better. I don't want to be one of those middle aged men who plays golf on the weekend because that is the age appropriate thing to do. I am going to come once a week to your gym and lift weights. And I want my knee to improve as much as possible."

I was more than happy and I decided to utilize the 5-3-1 system on him. I modified it to fit one workout a week. I told him to do chin ups and pull ups whenever he had the chance as often as he could at his place. In the gym, we spent about 20 mins warming up, doing tissue work, mobilizing the joints and doing high rep movements to introduce blood flow to the joints. Then we did all the three powerlifts in one single session. Yes I know its a lot, but as it turns out, its not- not for a guy of his conditioning level anyway.

3 sets of 5/3/1 (last set you go for a rep record, the first 2 sets are progressively heavier work sets) of bench presses, followed by 3 sets of 5/3/1 Box Squats, and finally 2 sets of 5/3/1 (I eliminated one work set to make the session manageable) deadlifts. That was it. No assistance, nothing. He just does a lot of chin ups and sit ups whenever he could at home. Also he cycles about 13k to my place and back the day he trains. I was initially worried about this effecting his recovery but as it turns out I was under estimating him.

He hit PRs in all three lifts for 3 cycles straight. After that I introduced farmer's walks after the main lifts as a loaded carry. He continued hitting PRs for another cycle. We did no back offs as we figured once a week was less enough. We then added 1 set of 20-25 Military presses and weighted bench sit ups as more assistance. Sets of 3-4 pull ups and chin ups between sets as filler. I have no intentions of adding anything for a while, or changing anything for a while. He has completed 2 more cycles since and is still hitting rep records. And he is showing no signs of slowing down. Knee pain has reduced and his strength is way up.

When we started, we did 56lbs for 5 in the bench press, 95lbs for 5 in the squat, 105lbs for 5 in the deadlift. Was it too light? Maybe, but see what happened then! His current PRs are- 135lbs for 9 in the bench press, 195 for 7 in the squat and 200 for 9 in the deadlift. Pretty crazy improvement for 18 weeks! He has also increase his chest and shoulder measurements by 3 inches.

So do I think 5-3-1 is the best system ever? Hell no! But that is because no system can be that, because you know what, it DEPENDS. Bu if you did not know that already you need to read the book. Ultimately the book is a testament to the power of following solid principles-

1. Start Light
2. Progress slow
3. Build Momentum
4. Be patient
5. Focus on the basics
6. Do the best you can given your circumstances. Always do your best. Just don't be stupid.

I have been aware of these principles for sometimes and have used them in my own programs for a long time. 5-3-1 gives an excellent way to follow them. Ultimately I believe everyone should learn how to program their own training and figure out a system that is unique to them and ever flowing. That being said its a great place to begin learning the art of program design.

And as I conclude this rather lengthy post, it occurs to me to mention that I do not get a single paise for what I am saying here. This is just my honest opinion based on my experience.

To Squat or not to Squat (Deep)

Not to take anything away from Ricky Dale Crain!

Earlier I used to coach very small groups of athletes who mostly came from the same background as I did- middle class Indians from an active athletic background. For most of us, we could not go to the bathroom without spending about a half hour in a rock bottom bodyweight squat. So while I understood that there might be people who could not squat deep, I rarely encountered them.

In general I always advocated squatting rock bottom (not relaxing at the bottom, the ligaments should never take the strain) because well, my guys and I could. Basically my logic always was the greater the range of motion, the better the muscle recruitment and the more the athletic return. Between a guy who could full squat 225lbs and a guy who could half squat 315lbs I always choose the guy who did 225 with a full range of motion.

Also deep squats have great glute and lumbar recruitment, in my experience more than deadlifts. Plus I always felt that deep squatting ability improved running and jumping ability a lot more than shallow or even parallel squats.

The primary fear, from a knee damage point of view, of squatting deep is that at the rock bottom position the ligaments will have to take the strain, damaging the knee capsule. Honestly that will only happen if you let the knees travel significantly ahead of the toes, let the knees collapse inwards, and relax in the bottom position. The simple solution is to keep "the chest out, knees out, glutes tight and abs braced".  If you do this, all problems go away. The secondary problem is keeping the lumbar spine arched. Many people have an annoying tendency for their butts/tailbone to tuck under. This however can be easily rectified by keeping the abs tight. In my experience it has more to do with abdominal weakness than with mobility issues. Goblet and front squats are also terrific to solve this.

However, recently I have started working with, let us say more affluent athletes who come from more sedentary backgrounds. I recently was coaching a group of 15 athletes, only to my dismay to find 13 of them could not perform a proper bodyweight squat and 11 of them could not touch their toes and 12 of them could not even sit cross legged. I had never faced a group of "athletes" who were this immobile.

For such athletes the answer to the question how deep to squat is-

How deep can you squat with good technique?

What ever it is, you should squat as deep as you can. With a few basic cues- cramp your hip flexors, brace the abs, push the knees out, weight on the heels, look up, chest out, brake at the hips- even the most immobile athletes can be made to squat at least halfway. Box squats and power rack squats can be used to regulate the range of motion.

I have come to understand that there are 3 basic reasons people cannot squat fully-

1. Tight Ankles- If a person cannot perform a bodyweight squat in good form with the heels flat but can do so with an inch of heel elevation, the problem has nothing to do with the hip- the ankles are tight. Stretch the calves as much as you can and strengthen the doriflexors and your guy will be full squatting in no time. In the interval have him squat using a low box- do not elevate the heels.

2. The knee hurts- This happens purely due to the tendency to let the ligaments take the load. The only solution is to teach the athlete how to puff out his abs and create intra abdominal pressure. With good and puffed out abs and tight glutes, there is no way the knees will hurt. Tight glutes will additionally prevent the knees from collapsing inwards and travelling too far forward.

Sometimes the glutes are weak and need activation. If your athlete tends to twist around or let the knees come inwards, this is your problem. Dont cut ROM instead perform a lot of loaded and unloaded hip thrusts.

Sometimes the real culprit is a lack of internal and external femoral flexibility. Do twist holds from the flexibility post on this blog to solve that issue.

In any of the above cases, while solving the issue at hand, utilize low box squats or chambered bar squats to parallel for training.

In certain cases, like elderly trainees or people with real knee issues, you do have to cut the depth. For such people box squats to an appropriate height are generally best.

3. Lumbar spine rounds or the tailbone tucks under-

90% of the time, this is due to a weak anterior core and can easily be resolved by hammering the abs from a variety of movements and performing goblet, zercher or front squats in the interval.

In any other situation, arising from a lack of hip mobility, maybe tight hip flexors or inflexible hamstrings or poor hip rotation and groin flexibility, do hip belt squats while working on the issue. Hip belt squats are a great way to train the squat without putting pressure on the lower back. I have no idea why this movement is not more popular.

Bottom line is, I still maintain that one must squat as deep as possible but it comes with a condition- as possible. Any ROM that is hurting you is probably bad for you. Try a different variation and spend the interval working out your issues. Over time work towards improving ROM. In a worst case scenario if that is not happening, you can always use high and low box squats and standard squats done at least till parallel.

Honestly parallel squats are an achieve able goal for anyone (in the long run) and should be the minimum standard to shoot for. But if in the long run you are unable to clean up your issues then you have to do the best you can.

If you cant even do half squats in the long run, my honest advice to you is to just drop squats and focus on deadlifts instead. At-least the temptation to use crazy weights that you should not be handling in the first place will not be there. And the shear force on the knee is lesser. I forget the study it was but even common sense should tell you that the lever arm is the longest when the knee is 90% and since you can half squat a hell of a lot more than you can parallel squat the stress on the knee is actually a lot more in half squats than parallel squats. And at this point half squats will just damage the knee further, so it is best to find other ways to work your knee, like duck stance deadlifts.

If it is a back problem and no variation is working out for you, you can always go for hip belt squats.

If you have a knee and back problem go for hip belt squats done to parallel while you work out your issues. If you cant even do that, I can only offer my apologies and feel bad for you.