Programming Question for my Fellow Coaches

[Michael Wolf]

There seems to be a lot of variety of supplemental work. Can anyone elaborate on what you found particularly effective?

I'm a pretty bare-bones type guy, so I'd like to hear from the others on this as well.

Personally, I'd pick from the following box-o'-lifts:
Press Supp Work: Partials, DB & KB Presses
Bench Supp Work: Close Grip, DB Bench, Incline Bench (Dips, if my shoulder didn't hate them; but it does, so I abstain)
Squat Supp Work: Paused, Box
Pull Supp Work: Power Cleans, Snatches, & Shrugs, Partials, Deficits

[Matt Reynolds]

I'm also a very picky in my exercise selection, even though I think I've gotten the reputation as a guy who uses all sorts of supplemental exercises. Its true that occasionally I have a lifter with a particular weakness that I feel can be attacked with a specific lift, but for the most part, this is what I stick to:

1) Squat supplemental: Front squat and Regular squats with chains or bands. (Occasionally I use box squats and/or pause squats as well)
2) Bench Supplemental: Floor Press, Close-grip (usually with chains), and Bench with bands (I like dumbell bench too but I hate inclines)
3) Pull Supplemental: On heavy deadlift day I rotate deficit deads (heavy) with regular deadlifts and pick 1 deadlift top end move (deadlift with chains, rev band deadlift, etc)....then for supplemental work I like the olympic lifts, rack pulls, RDLs, and Goodmornings.
4) Press supplemental: Press lockouts, standing dumbell press (one arm and two), and I like just higher volume regular presses here (5-6 rep range with maybe one down set of 8+)

As for accessory lifts I like:
1) GHR
2) Dips
3) Pullups/Chins
4) Weighted pushups
5) Pendlay Rows and Kroc Rows
6) Standing straight bar curls
7) Heavy prowler and sled drags (forward and backward)

That's seriously about it. I think everyone would be good picking 1-2 heavy variations of a movement and 2 supplemental variations of a movement and training their ass off on them before they introduce new movements into their program. So essentially every session looks like this:

1) Heavy movement (high intensity, low volume)
2) Supplemental movement (medium intensity, higher volume)
3) Accessory 1
4) Accessory 2

Done and done. Don't make it complicated. There are are 4 awesome lifts out there plus the two olympic lifts and 5-7 decent accessory movements. Anything else you do should be minor variations on the main movements and bring up a few accessory movements for weak point training or additional hypertrophy. Anything over 4 exercises (5 max) per day and you are just wasting time. Bust ass at a few exercises instead of half-assing 10 of them.

[tzanghi]

Matt, with respect to the supplemental and accessory movements, do you find it better to stick with the same ones week in and week out or do you rotate them so as to hit all of them every few weeks?

Thanks in advance. All the info in this thread has been really beneficial.

[Matt Reynolds]

Matt, with respect to the supplemental and accessory movements, do you find it better to stick with the same ones week in and week out or do you rotate them so as to hit all of them every few weeks?

Thanks in advance. All the info in this thread has been really beneficial.

With supplemental, I usually pick 2 main supplemental movements per 6-8 weeks and alternate them each week. (For example, right now my supplemental bench press movements are floor press and close grip with chains. I'll just alternate those every week for a couple months and then I'll pull them out and pick two different lifts to alternate).

With accessory, I pick 1-2 accessory movements per muscle group (usually just one) and hammer it for several weeks until my strength is really good on it and then switch it up. For example, on back I might hit Pendlay rows for 3-4 weeks straight, bringing up the weight I can handle on it over the course of that month. Then when I'm pounding out 405 for reps on it then I'll switch to heavy dumbell (Kroc) rows for higher reps and work up until I'm hitting 225 per hand or so on those.

[Rob Waskis]

Matt,
Do you see any value in working with strongman implements for supplemental/accessory movements?

[tzanghi]

With supplemental, I usually pick 2 main supplemental movements per 6-8 weeks and alternate them each week. (For example, right now my supplemental bench press movements are floor press and close grip with chains. I'll just alternate those every week for a couple months and then I'll pull them out and pick two different lifts to alternate).

With accessory, I pick 1-2 accessory movements per muscle group (usually just one) and hammer it for several weeks until my strength is really good on it and then switch it up. For example, on back I might hit Pendlay rows for 3-4 weeks straight, bringing up the weight I can handle on it over the course of that month. Then when I'm pounding out 405 for reps on it then I'll switch to heavy dumbell (Kroc) rows for higher reps and work up until I'm hitting 225 per hand or so on those.

Thanks, Matt. It's much appreciated.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

My personal fave's for strength:

Bench Assistance:
Heavy inclines have always helped me
Dead stop rack bench press (starting from the bottom), singles only
Any grip done narrower than your competition grip

Squat Assistance:
Squats
Sleds/Prowler always make rep work easier

Press:
Press
Keeping benches strong always helps press
Heavy tricep extensions

Deadlifts:
Heavy deficit deads
Heavy stiff legs
Paused goodmornings


For purely hypertrophy/bodybuilding:

All of the Big 4 (plus their variants) for reps of 8-12 (or higher even) are still primary drivers of size, but also.........:

Chest - combination of incline and decline work. Thank you Dorian for that advice. DB or BB Incline Presses. BB Decline Presses SUCK due to partial ROM but a DB Bench Press done at a slight decline angle or weighted dips pair up well with the incline work.

Back - Barbell Rows, DB Rows, various types of machine rows, pull ups, chins, pulldowns with various grips, and rack pulls done for reps

Shoulders - DB or KB Presses for reps. There are also a few brands of machines that I used to like for seated presses. I think the Icarian Seated Press was my favorite. Lateral Raises are kinda useless, but they will develop your delts in a way that just pressing cant do. Gotta learn how to do them heavy and right.

Many of those exercises are not useful for strength development, but can be fun to play around with.

[Sqwt]

The information in this thread will come in quite handy when transitioning from SS to TM. Bookmarked.

As per Andy's last couple of sentences, do you guys know any good resources for learning proper technique for assistance exercises, other than the platform videos on this site? I tend to look at the exercise videos at T-Nation, but once I saw the difference in how they teach the barbell shrug compared to Rip's video I'm a bit unsure on the quality of instructions.

[Tom Campitelli]

The platform videos on this site along with the assistance exercises explained in the back of Starting Strength are good places to start and will probably stand you in good stead for a while. Any variants you want to fill in can be pieced together from other sources while applying a little bit of critical thinking to matters of form and anatomy.

[tzanghi]

My personal fave's for strength:

Bench Assistance:
Heavy inclines have always helped me
Dead stop rack bench press (starting from the bottom), singles only
Any grip done narrower than your competition grip

Squat Assistance:
Squats
Sleds/Prowler always make rep work easier

Press:
Press
Keeping benches strong always helps press
Heavy tricep extensions

Deadlifts:
Heavy deficit deads
Heavy stiff legs
Paused goodmornings


For purely hypertrophy/bodybuilding:

All of the Big 4 (plus their variants) for reps of 8-12 (or higher even) are still primary drivers of size, but also.........:

Chest - combination of incline and decline work. Thank you Dorian for that advice. DB or BB Incline Presses. BB Decline Presses SUCK due to partial ROM but a DB Bench Press done at a slight decline angle or weighted dips pair up well with the incline work.

Back - Barbell Rows, DB Rows, various types of machine rows, pull ups, chins, pulldowns with various grips, and rack pulls done for reps

Shoulders - DB or KB Presses for reps. There are also a few brands of machines that I used to like for seated presses. I think the Icarian Seated Press was my favorite. Lateral Raises are kinda useless, but they will develop your delts in a way that just pressing cant do. Gotta learn how to do them heavy and right.

Many of those exercises are not useful for strength development, but can be fun to play around with.

Thanks for posting, Andy, great stuff! Also wanted to say that I took a look at your first Vlog, and it was awesome; really needed to hear that info.