Don’t miss out on Updates : Make sure you follow First Pull on Facebook and Instagram for daily pictures and advice Ever since the Press was taken out of competition in 1972, the Press usefulness for the weightlifter has been a matter of debate. Pre 1972, the Press’ tonnage was… Read More »To Press or not to Press?
For most people reading this, it is the Christmas holidays, but this is valid for any period post competition throughout the year. Here in Quebec, the last provincial competition was held in mid December and the next important one will be in March – leaving… Read More »Holidays recovery : Active rest and contrast week(s)
Don’t miss out on Updates : Make sure you follow First Pull on Facebook and Instagram for daily pictures and advice The road to your best self as an athlete is a long one. Weightlifting is hard, requires a lot of sacrifices (from both the coach and the athlete) and… Read More »The system of training : differences and considerations
Assistance exercises may serve many purposes. For one, they can help a lifter understand movement patterns to fix technical errors. Assistance exercises exist for every part of the lift and should be employed if needs be. Don’t miss out on Updates : Make sure you follow… Read More »Non conventional assistance exercises
Credit All things gym
I get e-mails all the time asking me about how to program, how each movements should be included, and how to get started in weightlifting or progress. I have developed templates that I use and taylor individually for every athlete or online client. I have decided to share some of my templates here. Each can be customized (by yourself) to fit your goals. If you do use these templates – all I ask for is to be credited (if you decide to support First Pull – that is also appreciated) . More importantly, if you do use them, I would love for you to write me and let me know how that goes for you.
Read More »Simple and Basic Programs : 3 days a week and 4 days a week flexible program templates
Credit Hookgrip
I was never a big fan of strict yearly plans – it may be the Canadian in me, but I like the grey area more than the black or white area. I have developed a set of training guidelines that I use in my coaching. Those guidelines are ideas of what we should be doing in training in relation to where we are in the year and how far the next competition is from now. Add to that some recipes of how to fix technical or strength problems and you have got a good idea of what you should be doing in training. That is, my programs are very flexible – especially when it comes to weight selection. In my experience, I have found that this type of flexible programming produce more results than strict programming.
Although weightlifting success is not a 100% dependent on Leg strength, strength of the legs is of great importance for the weightlifter. Every athlete is different – yet we could define them as either Technicians and Strength based athletes. Technicians tend to be rather weak in the strength movements (especially the squats), yet lift heavy because of how efficient they are (They can use a high % of their strength). Strength based athletes tend to get strong super fast in comparison. Their efficiency is, however, on the lower side. They tend to have a large surplus of strength. Both type of athlete can and do step on the international stage. Here are some of my better tricks and ideas to build a bigger squat.
Read More »Leg strength problems : Why your squat won’t improve and some ideas on how to fix it
Credit Hookgrip
Programming is often considered an art and a science at the same time. Different countries have different ways of planning the year of their lifters – in terms of exercise selection, volume/tonnage, intensity/%, frequency of training and focus of training (some are more strength oriented and some are more technique oriented). As anything sports oriented, coaches like to argue over which program is better and/or which country’s influence makes more sense and/or what works/does not work for them in their practice. On the other hand, for better or worse, athletes live and die by that program as if their whole success depends on completing every sets and reps written down.
Read More »Thoughts about programming and developing eliteness
Credit Rob Macklem
Training methodologies have evolved since the sport was developed. We could probably say that without any doub training methodologies were first refined as a result of different decisions made by sport authorities in regard to competition. For instance, weightlifting used to have single arm events and abolishing those events must have had an impact on how people trained after it was removed from competition. Hence, dumbbell and one handed snatches have pretty much disappeared from most programs around the world.
Read More »On the topic of training methodologies and principles
The weightlifting community is rich with different thoughts, methodologies, and training philosophies. Athletes and coaches like a large variety of programs, training cycles and correctional fixes. Some go for the very specific methodology and some go for a very assistance exercise-heavy methodology. Upper body strength and upper body muscle hypertrophy is definitely overlooked and under-rated in North America, probably for the sake of being progressive rather than tradition-oriented.
Read More »On the importance of upper body strength for weightlifting
