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Thread: Oly lifting programming critique and comments

  1. #1
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    Default Oly lifting programming critique and comments

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    Hello all, new guy on the starting strength forums with a question; hoping for some advice and tips from those with more experience in this field than I have...

    Back ground information: 19-year-old 88kg male 5ft 9, training history of starting strength; just entering the second year of university in the UK always wanted to do only lifting only got the opportunity in high school and took up the sport in December 2016 having moved from power lifting to Olympic lifting taking the oly lifting more seriously as I made the transition.

    My current lifts strength wise: Front squat 110kg- back squat- 145kg, Bench- 80kg 1rp, deadlift 1rp 160kg - OHP 55kg (No belt used cause I simply feel better squatting etc, without it)
    Oly lifts- 100kg clean and jerk, 70kg snatch

    Now that long ass post is out the way; There's an Olympic weight lifting team for the university being formed and I want to make it onto the team but with these lifts, I'm not getting anywhere.
    I'd be eating around 3000-4000 calories each day 200g protein you know the rest....

    So my initial plan/Idea.....

    Monday: Back squat 5x5 + Olympic lifting either snatch or C+j and accessories e.g. DB rows

    Tuesday: Front squat 6x6 + Clean or snatch pulls for 3x5 at a challenging and over head press 5x5

    Wednesday: Back squat 5x5 and Olympic lifting e.g. clean and Jerk or snatch, hang cleans/ snatch jerks from the rack etc...

    Thursday: Front squat 6x6 with clean or snatch pulls for 3x5 again at a reasonably challenging weight then over head press or bench.

    Friday: Back squat 5x5 and work up to a heavy set of five on dead lifts then some light Olympic lifting technique work clean and jerk or snatch.

    Weekend off.

    Aiming to increase the weight used in front and back squat by 2.5-5kg each week or per workout and increase OHP by 2.5kg each week.

    Plan B: Squat 4x a week 3x back 1x front 5x5 for back squat 6x6 for front squat each day having some dedication to the Olympic lifts. heavy deadlift at the end of the week.

    I'd like to hear what you have to say about my idea or should I go to a simple programme and get my numbers up and fit in the Olympic lifting at the end haha

    Appreciate it!

  2. #2
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    way too much squatting IMO.

    have you looked at the basic oly programs in the book (Practical Programming)?

    And to be clear: your front squat max is 110 and your C&J max is 100?

  3. #3
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    No, but I will have a look...
    Yes to your last

  4. #4
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    - Squatting the days you can is probably a good idea, though I wouldn't be welded to 5 x 5 or 6 x 6 (especially in the Front Squat) or doing them first...in fact I'd probably do 'em last most days.
    - Without having seen you lift it would be hard to know what you need to work on to get your lifts up - my suggestion would be that you'd be doing the lifts themselves more often than not and you'd only spend the extra on the variations that are applicable at the time.
    - With a 70 / 100 split you'd probably want to put more "focus" into snatching right now...although you'd expect that to come up over time anyways as confidence and form improves.
    - What about Saturday and Sunday? As a Uni Student I'm guessing either recovering from a Hangover or Working??

  5. #5
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    I would squat twice a week... 3sx5r
    Try to add weight every workout.

    Until that stops; then switch to then a heavy 3x5 and a light/med day 3x5 . . .
    try to only add weight on the heavy day.

    Deadlift 1x5 once a week . . maybe on the light squat day when you switch over.

    Press AND bench once per week . . . try to progress on those . . . maybe 5x5 since only doing once/week.

    Mix the quick lifts in some logical fashion, or on the off days

    Completely making this up on the fly:

    MON:
    -Squat 3x5 LP . . this is your heavy day.
    -Light Snatch technique work (or put this before the squats, BUT KEEP IT LIGHT !)
    -Some kind of light jerk technique work.
    -Chins..wahtever (or do these Tues at end, or Wed at end of workout)

    TUES
    -Bench 5x5 LP
    -Snatch - med weight
    -C&J - light-med weight (maybe power clean + 2 jerks . . .try not to burn-out for Thursday)

    WED rest

    THURS
    -Snatch Hvy..work up to a heavy single, then do some backoffs, say 3 doubles
    -C&J Hvy . . . work up to a heavy single, then so some backoffs, say 5 singles
    -Light Squat 3x5

    FRI
    -Press (OHP) 3x5 LP
    -Light SN work - like high hang snatch 4x3 . . working on technique
    -Deadlift 1x5 heavy LP

    SAT & SUN rest

    Or switch it around to where monday is your heavy SN & CJ day, and move HEavy Squat day to Thursday
    if you get what I'm saying (so you're "fresher" after two days rest)

    LP= linear progression . . add 1.25 to 2.5 kg per week if possible.
    after that stops; do a heavy 1x5, and two back off sets 2x5 with 10%-15% back off weights
    (4x5 in the case of bench)

    The light squat day 80% of Monday's squats. . . whatever feel good here, but a little challenging.

    I don't think you need to front squat so much.
    Your clean is close to your front squat max now.
    Heavy cleans COULD drive that part of your machinery . . . for now.

    If your quick lifts stall, but your slow lifts are still moving up . . . switch the quick lifts to the first lifts of the day.
    Be prepared to adjust the slow lifts accordingly. See what happens.

    What I've learned is to prioritize the Snatch and the Jerk.

    I call this program the Tunnel.
    Last edited by MBasic; 08-25-2017 at 12:33 PM.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris McCarthy View Post
    - Squatting the days you can is probably a good idea, though I wouldn't be welded to 5 x 5 or 6 x 6 (especially in the Front Squat) or doing them first...in fact I'd probably do 'em last most days.
    - Without having seen you lift it would be hard to know what you need to work on to get your lifts up - my suggestion would be that you'd be doing the lifts themselves more often than not and you'd only spend the extra on the variations that are applicable at the time.
    - With a 70 / 100 split you'd probably want to put more "focus" into snatching right now...although you'd expect that to come up over time anyways as confidence and form improves.
    - What about Saturday and Sunday? As a Uni Student I'm guessing either recovering from a Hangover or Working??
    Lol believe it or not I'm not a big drinker ha, managed to work a summer job made enough to cover me for a good while...
    So instead of doing variations on do the full lifts themselves maby sticking to sets of 2 or 3?
    Saturday and Sunday I was thinking of keeping them as recovery days

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Markl1998 View Post
    Lol believe it or not I'm not a big drinker ha, managed to work a summer job made enough to cover me for a good while...
    So instead of doing variations on do the full lifts themselves maby sticking to sets of 2 or 3?
    Saturday and Sunday I was thinking of keeping them as recovery days


    In theory - yes, as much work on the fulls as possible - I imagine even if you're not currently in the Team you'll be able to get someone to have a look at you to see if you have any glaring "errors" if you don't already know about them (or post up some vids on here...) so if there are problems you need to work on them specifically but even then I think it's beneficial (especially in the early years) to constantly bring what you've just (hopefully) improved and integrate it into the full movement.

    I prefer singles but if you like double and triples and you can maintain your form through them than have at it.

    As for the rest days having the weekends off is up to you and your scheduling of course but if you have the opportunity to train seven days a week I would keep all of the days open and prefer to manage recovery through other means...and in any way if I was sufficiently knackered by, say, Wednesday to think a day off would be required I'd have it on Thursday.

    What Uni you at by the way?

  8. #8
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    Bangor university sorry it took so long I'm on vacation in the Philippines

  9. #9
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    starting strength coach development program
    A friend of mine went to Bangor (many years ago now)...sounds like a nice place.

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