Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield

How can one have any sort of idea what would be good for you if they don't know anything about you or what your goals are? Do you even know what your goals are? Are you planning on doing a powerlifting competition?

In general, just about any routine can work if you work hard at it. Linear periodization has been proven to work and so has conjugate. Sure they are all different in some ways. But what they have in common is that you lift heavy weights and get stronger. That's pretty much it.

I'm not real big on fancy periodization models for preparing for contests. If you lift heavy every week and try to improve on your numbers you will in fact peak.

I have however recently become more interested in the idea of having some sort of annual periodized plan set up, or at least doing your training in mesocycles. In Dr. Squat's article "The Simplicity of Periodicity" he gives examples of how a mesocycle would be a period of 4 months with each month being it's own microcycle focusing on different aspects of your training.

The reason why I liked this idea is quite simple. If you train hard all year every year you will eventually overtrain, burn out, and get injuries. It's better off when considering longevity. The other reality is that if you have other goals besides just peaking, you will have time to work on them throughout the year. For example, if you planned on doing 2 contests out of the year you could do two four month mesocycles with each containing a 3 month peaking cycle. And then your other 4 months out of the year you could work on losing extra fat if need be or just work on keeping in shape while you rest up and get freshed and ready to start training hard again later when you get back to your other mesocycles. That's just an example though. There are many ways it could be done and I'm not sure which would be the best way. It's probably an individual thing anyways.

The reason why I liked that idea is because your body will thank you in the long run. I am 100% sure of that. It might even be better, but I'm not so sure about that. I'm pretty sure Dr. Squat would say that you would probably end up having better success in the long run that way. Because you are training hard, but you are also giving your body the proper time to rest.

I guess it kind of goes with the old saying, "sometimes you have to train like a bodybuilder". I would much rather do that part of the year as opposed to beating my body up all year long with extreme heavy weights. Many say you have to work your way up to the heavy weights because it is safer, and some say it is more effective.

I could be wrong about you, but if your recovery capabilities are slow then I would definitely recommend against any of the routines you have listed, at least the standard versions of them. Because it's too much volume for you.

This is just an example, but especially when peaking you could try just doing each lift once per week. Or better yet, you could try a squat/deadlift day and a bench press day. Because it is less workouts, it really gives you plenty of time to rest and keep your back fresh. So you really can get away with more volume per workout if you want to.

A lot of my friends and I have found that bench pressing twice per week can work much better than once per week. But in my experience that's only at the beginning of your peaking cycle. As you eventually get to the point later in the cycle it becomes harder to recover because you are lifting heavier, and so you might be better off with only one bench workout instead. Additionally you can't increase weight as fast later in the cycle anyways. The other reality is that if you are squatting and deadlifting it is real taxing on your back, so if you are training for a full meet it could be better just to stick with benching once per week.

Other than that, there are many training styles to choose from within your cycles. I've personally found that training heavy every workout such as with the Metal Militia style training actually works the best for the bench press.

For squats and deadlifts on the other hand it's a different story. It's always seemed to work the best if I spent time doing rep work on squats first in order to gain some mass. Then it really helps me get stronger in both lifts. For deadlifts, you just have to try really hard with progressively heavier weights. I thought the example in the 80 day peaking cycle worked pretty good for me for deadlifts, when I tried hard, but it didn't work for the other lifts. Perhaps it's because I just tried real hard.

The other thing is that you don't need an extra day for speed or for any other light work. Notice how in Dr. Squats 80 day peaking cycle example there is no day where you lift any less than 80%. You are meant to train heavy on every workout. Because training light is a waist of time. Training light can't help you; it can only serve to cut into your recovery time. As I understand it at this point, the 80% day is meant to be slightly lighter than the other days. You still do it hard, but it is slightly lighter. This gives you the ability to continue to train hard and heavy and have every workout be a productive workout without overdoing it. You can progress better that way because if you try to go all out on every workout it could be too much.

I hope that helps.

And you don't have to have a perfectly structured peaking strategy either. That's the advantage of working in microcycles. You can always make the proper changes within each microcycle as necessary.

The same thing goes for the way you set up your periodization within the macrocycle. Linear periodization was polularized by great lifters decades ago. And it worked. Now days many lifters are just training heavy (sets of 1-3) every week within the macrocycle. Some use conjugate periodization and others do not. Personally I'm not much of a fan of conjugate periodization simply because there are better ways to do it that are more specific towards preparation of skill for contest day. One thing I can say about such heavy lifting within the macrocycle is that even though you aren't following an exact linear plan, your gains generally end up increasing somewhat in a linear fashion anyways, because that's just how increases in strength go in nature. I say generally because it certainly isn't exact, and I think it would be real dorky, unnecessary, and a waist of time to try to explain the nature in further detail. Real gains in the real world happen from hard work in the gym, eating properly, and resting, not worrying about every last detail on paper.

I'll give you somewhat of an example as to how we used to do things Metal Militia style. The most wonderful thing about this is that there is no exact structure. As long as you can make it to your workout every week and keep yourself challenged it will work. For the bench press we would do sets of 1-3, aiming for a new max single every workout. If you get it, you add weight and try for something even better. This might go on for a few workouts all the way up to several workouts. As long as you were gaining you wouldn't stop. Then once you hit a hard plateau on max singles you would cut back in weight that same workout and start working towards a new max triple or double. This would go on for so many workouts and eventually you would go back to singles again. You could keep a journal, but you don't have to. I used to just remember most of my best weights. My team mates would remember too.

There is no exact number of workouts you would do this sort of thing for. This is the most wonderful thing about it. You always keep yourself challenged and you always have a way to continue to improve once you hit a mini peak. Because the changes come on the fly, the system works with your body. Your body's natural response to the training dictates what changes you will make and when. But don't get me wrong though. You don't listen to your body all the time. You really have to be able to push yourself to the max and beyond what your body is comfortable with. The human body is not meant to handle weights as heavy as we do, but us powerlifters do it anyways. When a world class powerlifter is hitting a world record, don't think it's just because they are good at it. They are trying harder than most people could ever dream of in their lives, because it truly is hard! When I benched 495 lbs it literally felt like it was going to push me through the floor. I really couldn't imagine benching 600 or more like some of my friends have.

We would often finish our workouts with rack lockouts and/or other assistance exercises. During times when I felt real worn out, I'd cut back on the volume and assistance exercises. During such times, especially when getting closer to the meet, I might just do bench presses as heavy as I can and then just finish off the workout with some sort of rows, and that's it. The last workout the week before the meet we would just work up to our opener and that's it. The week of the meet there would be no workouts, just rest.

For squats and deadlifts we would pretty much do the same thing. Squats and deadlifts would be done in the same workout. We would do squats followed by deadlifts, then assistance exercises. Less warm up sets would be done for deadlifts.

The final thing I can say about this training style is specificity is the most important factor that is utilized and payed attention to. You practice each lift exactly as it will be done on contest day every week all the way up until the contest. I can tell you through experience, there certainly is a lot of pressure on contest day. Everything must be done right. You only get 3 attempts to make good lifts. If you mess them up your meet is bombed. So you better know what you are doing when it comes to contest day!

I'll tell you something else about hard work. I can remember training for my first strongman contest there was once a time when I trained so hard that I couldn't change my clothes in the locker room. Then when I went to drive myself home I felt like I couldn't and that I would probably crash, and that I might as well just sit in the car all night until I hopefully felt better. So I ended up going and laying in the grass again for about a half hour, drank some gator aid, and eventually I felt ok to drive. Strongman is very taxing on the cardiovascular system as well, probably much more than other sports. My lungs were so fatigued from working out that for days I had to consciously breath. There has been times in powerlifting where I have done 20 sets on the bench press or squats per workout. Some times I have done a workout and if things weren't right I'd go back to the beginning and do the whole workout again just to get it right. One time I broke one of my fingers in my hand and I kept on working out and benching over 400 every week for a month anyways until it was better, and the day I went in and it was better I hit a new PR. My friends and team mates always told me I never worked hard enough, that I never tried hard enough. I always had the pressure on me. There were no excuses. I guess the point I'm getting at is that real hard work wears you out. If you don't know what real hard work is then you probably don't need a break from real hard training because you probably aren't training hard enough to make a difference. But if you truly are training hard, then yes, the idea I had with the annual periodization might be a good idea.

So that was just an example as to how we were training. It works. I know a lot of people have had success with more linear models as well. But this worked for us. And I do think it can be better for someone who hasn't ever done a contest before because you really have no clue what your maxes are going to be anyways, so you really have nothing to calculate from if you wanted to. So just work on hitting new numbers every week all the way up until the contest. And be smart about choosing your opening weight. The other thing I like about it is that it really gives one the practice they need if they are less experienced. For example, if you always did squats like a bodybuilder, peaking is the time to learn how to do it right for a powerlifting contest.

For someone lifting raw, especially if they aren't competing, things might be done a bit differently. Because brute raw strength from muscle size is more important than actual skill as well as top end strength. So for that I have seen guys train slightly different. The only real differences I have seen is that more time is spent every workout trying to get new maxes on reps such as 6. 1RMs might be done less often. And pin presses and board presses would be done low instead of high.

Sorry if that was long, but I do certainly hope it helps. I know you will do good in powerlifting. As long as you keep yourself challenged you will do just fine. Success in powerlifting is about competing against yourself and doing better than your best. If you continue to do that instead of worrying about the other person, eventually it will lead to big numbers you never believed.
Take care.