Quote Originally Posted by jbackos View Post
Coan also mentioned that earlier in his career he used higher volume, but claims that he no longer needed it. As for the test issue who knows. He squatted high 400's and deadlifted 500 at 148 in high school so I think its safe to say he is a freak.

I trained that way for quite a while and found it to work but also found a drop off in strength after the first week of threes which would indicate a lack of volume. The program also requires a huge commitment and lifestyle manipulation to be able to make weights week after week. Lets not forget that Coan lived in his parents basement and had his entire life structured around his lifting - no day job to get in the way. Not to take anything away from him but most of us don't have that lifestyle.
Coan was definitely a genetic freak. The guy had 9 inch wrists and some of the biggest hands you'll ever see. I don't know whether or not he's a freak in terms of testosterone levels, but he is in terms of strength capacity. Greg Nuckols, whom I suspect is drug-free, pulled 200 lbs the first time he DLed. John Kuc reportedly did 500. I don't think it's testosterone levels; I think it's expressing previously developed strength. Nuckols, for example, had a childhood that involved picking a lot of logs up.

Thanks for your commentary about how western periodization is problematic. That's not an uncommon remark, that the last bit (the 3s wave) is brutal, because you're doing a triple with what used to be a 1RM or a 2 RM. As I said, Ken Leistner argued that trainees spend most of the cycle undertraining, and then they're not ready to go when it comes time to use heavy weights.