It feels good to strip away all of the biased notions inherited from the various personalities I've attempted to learn from over the years since my entry into the world of barbell strength training, and reboot from the ground up. I'm training specifically for a sport it's true, but I've gone to square one and …
Stuck in the Middle with Me
I've been fat, and I've been lean, and I have to tell you, I like being lean a lot better. I haven't gotten a Dexa Scan, but I estimate my current body composition to be around 12% body fat. I'm pleased with that, although one can never be too lean. This is a fairly easy …
Моя новая обувь
I have minimal experience with shoes designed specifically for weight training activities. In 1992, when I was training for triathlon, I took great care to acquire the specific tools required to excel at each of the three sports that make up the tri, but for some reason, when I started getting serious about strength training, …
So you Wanna be a Powerlifter
Actually paying up to join a Federation, signing up (and paying again) for a Meet, arranging travel, room and board and planning a training cycle to peak at the Meet is a pain in the ass. I know this, and I know I'm not strong enough to put up a total I'd be proud to …
How Important is the Deadlift?
It's pretty freaking important. For the average Masters II powerlifter in the USAPL last year, the Deadlift was 42.5% of their total. When you consider that to win a Powerlifting Competition you must put up a total higher than your competitors, a big Deadlift is imperative to putting a W next to your name. It …
UL83 for Powerlifting
Following in Jim Wendler's footsteps, I've taken my immensely popular (in my mind) strength training program, UL83, and updated it specifically for Powerlifting. If you've read the program, you know I stated that "This is not a program designed for a sport of any particular stripe, nor to make you more athletic or more intelligent, …
The 5th Percentile
I awoke at O'Dark:30 today for unknown reasons and bleary-eyed, I prepared my morning pre-workout bevvie and scanned Facebook to be sure the world hadn't ended while I slept. A friend posted an article from Greg Nuckols over at Stronger By Science titled, How to Get Strong, Part 2. Hard to resist such a title, …
The Number of the Counting Shall be 3
As I drove to the gym this morning, angry about the bones I picked before I left, I started thinking about the RPE’s for today’s training. In full rebellion mode now, I decided I would no longer use RTS’ RPE scale, but make my own. After all, why are there 10 numbers in the RPE …
Picking Bones
Jamie Lewis, one-time Powerlifting World Record holder, after preparing for a competition with his chaotic brand of training, including no deadlifts at all, wrote: “What I learned, training-wise...take everything everyone says with a grain of salt. There's very little training advice I've gotten over the years that's worth a shit.” My experience over the last …
Finding the Eight
I'm making a real effort to discipline myself and use the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) properly. Due mostly to being mentally lazy, I tend to take every set to a 9 or maybe even a 9.5 RPE. I don't think I'm being too hard on myself when I say it's laziness because when you're …
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