Ed Coan's Programming for Intermediate/Advanced Lifters

[Tom Narvaez]

Caveat: The remastered video is almost 20 years old and Ed probably learned a lot in 20 years. That said, this is what he was doing during his peak, so it is still interesting and valuable.

I recently got a chance to see the Ed Coan SuperTraining DVD and I thought that his programming might be of serious interest to a lot of you.

For those who don't know, Ed Coan is the greatest powerlifter of all-time (my opinion). To this day, he still holds raw deadlift records in four classes. I believe he still has single ply records in several classes as well. He competed in everything from 165 to 220 and, at one point, was the strongest man in powerlifting despite competing at 220. Pretty fucking awesome.

Anyway here is his programming:
Monday:
Squat Pyramid*
Deep Single-leg Leg Press 3x10-12
Leg Extensions 2x10-12
Single-leg Leg Curls 2x10-12
Seated Calf-Raise 3x10-12
Abs: 3x10-12

*Actual Squat Training Cycle:
Weeks Out:
16: 755x5, No Suit, No Wraps, No Belt
15: 770x3, No Suit, No Wraps, No Belt
14: 785x2, No Suit, No Wraps, No Belt
13: 800x2, No Suit, No Wraps, No Belt
12: 770x5, Wraps, Belt, No Suit
11: 790x5, Wraps, Belt, No Suit
10: 810x5, Wraps, Belt, No Suit
9: 830x5, Wraps, Belt, No Suit
8: 850x5, Wraps, Belt, Suit but straps down
7: 870x5, Wraps, Suit but straps down
6: 890x5, Wraps, Suit but straps down
5: 910x3, Wraps, Suit but straps down
4: 930x3, Wraps, Suit but straps down
3: 950x2, Wraps, Suit but straps down
2: 975x1, Wraps, Suit but straps down
1: 625x5, Wraps, Suit but straps down

Tuesday:
Off

Wednesday:
Bench, No Pause Pyramid*
Paused Close Grip Bench Pyramid*
Paused Incline Bench Pyramid*
Standing Calf-Raise: 3x10-12
Abs: 3x10-12

*Actual Bench Training Cycle:
Bench, Close Grip, Incline
1: 395x2x10, 335x2x10, 285x2x10
2: 410x2x10, 350x2x10, 300x2x10
3: 425x2x8, 365x2x8, 315x2x8
4: 440x2x8, 380x2x8, 330x2x8
5: 455x2x5, 395x2x5, 345x2x5
6: 470x2x5, 410x2x5, 360x2x5
7: 485x2x5, 425x2x5, 375x2x5
8: 500x2x5, 440x2x5, 390x2x5
9: 515x2x3, 445x2x3, 405x2x3
10: 530x2x3, 470x2x3, 420x2x3
11: 545x2x2, 485x2x2, 435x2x2
12: 555x2x2, 500x2x2, 450x2x2
13: 585x1 paused with a bench shirt (1st week with a shirt)

Thursday:
Behind the Neck Press Pyramid*
Dumbbell Lateral Side Raises 2x10-12
Hammer Grip Dumbell Dumbbell Lateral Raises 2x10-12
Bent Over Dumbbell Raises 2x10-12

*Ed doesn't outline his BTN press programming but says it mimmicked his bench. He did the exact same rep/set scheme and went heavy and even tested for a single at the end of the cycle. In his video, he goes to 400x1.

Friday:
Conventional Deadlift Pyramid*
Sumo Deadlift Pyramid*
SLDL full ROM off 4inch block 1x8
Yates Row off 4inch block 2x8-10
Wide Grip Pullups 2x8-10
One Arm Dumbbell Row 1x10-12

Actual Ed Coan Deadlift Cycle:
Weeks from Meet:
15: 710x5x1, Conventional, No Suit, No Belt
14: 725x5x1, Conventional, No Suit, No Belt
13: 740x5x1, Conventional, No Suit, No Belt
12: 755x5x1, Conventional, No Suit, No Belt
11: 770x5x1, Conventional, No Suit, No Belt
10: 795x3x1, Conventional, No Suit, No Belt
9: 805x3x1, Conventional, No Suit, No Belt
8: 780x3, 815x3, Sumo 1st, Conventional 2nd, No-No
7: 800x3, 825x2, Sumo 1st, Conventional 2nd, No-No
6: 820x3, 835x2, Sumo 1st, Conventional 2nd, No-No
5: 840x3, 845x2, Sumo 1st, Conventional 2nd, Belt, No Suit
4: 860x2, 865x1, Sumo 1st, Conventional 2nd, Belt, No Suit
3: 880x2x1, Sumo, Belt, Loose Suit straps down
2: "Off", still did other back assistance, but went light on rows
1: Meet (I believe he pulled over 900 for that meet)

Saturday:
Wide Grip Paused Bench Press Pyramid*
Tricep Pushdown: 3x8-10
Weighted Dips: 1x15
Tricep Extensions: 2x8-10
Preacher Curls: 2x8-10
Hack Squat Calf Raises: 2x20-25
Abs: 2x20-25

*Ed doesn't outline his wide grip scheme, but it is meant to be a recovery lift. When he benched 555x2x2, Ed used 335x2x2 on wide grips. This is approximately 60%.

Overall:
Ed had a very evident bodybuilder/physical therapist flair to his training. He constantly emphasized form and used his assistance exercises primarily for hypertrophy and balance to prevent injury. He echoed the usual bodybuilder broscience when it came to the assistance exercises. He talked about tempo, controlling the weight, and trying to feel the muscle you were using. He even went as far as to pause his dips and triceps pushdowns to give you an idea.

He treats all of his warm-ups like work sets. He has literally the exact same preparation for every set. His philosophy was to "make the warmups easy"; he claimed that if he did this, the work set was already done. In a roundabout way, he was getting speed work done during his warmups.

Ed did offer a few 3 month cycles for intermediate lifters. He recommends the SAME assistance. The programming basically looks exactly like his, but if you were interested in trying this stuff out, take a look:

Squat:
Max: 300
Goal: 330

Weeks from Meet/Peak:
10: 205x2x8 (~67%x2x8)
9: 215x2x8 (~72%x2x8)
8: 230x2x5 (~76%x2x5)
7: 240x2x5 (~80%x2x5)
6: 250x2x5 (~83%x2x5)
5: 260x2x5 (~86%x2x5)
4: 275x2x3 (~92%x2x3)
3: 285x2x3 (~95%x2x3)
2: 295x2x3 (~98%x2x2)
1: 305x2x3 (~102%x2x2)
Meet: 330x1x1 (110%x1x1)

Bench*:
Max: 275
Goal: 300
*He would use the exact same programming to increase his CBP and Inclines. TnG bench, but paused CBP and Incline.

Week outs:
10: 180x2x10 (~65%x2x10)
9: 190x2x10 (~69%x2x10)
8: 200x2x8 (~73%x2x10)
7: 210x2x8 (~76%x2x10)
6: 230x2x5 (~84%x2x5)
5: 240x2x5 (~87%x2x5)
4: 250x2x3 (~91%x2x5)
3: 260x2x3 (~95%x2x3)
2: 270x2x2 (~98%x2x2)
1: 280x2x2 (~102%x2x2)
Peak: 300x1x1 (109%x1x1)

Deadlift:
Max: 475
Goal: 500

Weeks Out:
10: 350x10x1 (~74%x10x1)
9: 365x8x1 (~77%x8x1)
8: 380x8x1 (~80%x8x1)
7: 395x5x1 (~83%x8x1)
6: 405x5x1 (~85%x5x1)
5: 420x5x1 (~88%x5x1)
4: 435x3x1 (~92%x3x1)
3: 450x3x1 (~95%x3x1)
2: 465x2x1 (~99%x2x1)
1: 480x2x1 (~101%x2x1)
Peak: 500x1x1 (105%x2x1)

Really cool stuff. Ed claims not to be a big fan of percentages, but you can see that his programs definitely incorporated intelligent programming of intensity even if "percentages" weren't used.

[Les Hahn]

Thanks for sharing Tom. I remember seeing this back in the 90's, but as you said, it is an old school routine. A lot of lifters did more powerbuilding back then, and it seemed to work real well for them. Some still did the heavy/light (upper/lower) type splits, squatting 2x per week, but they often did more assistance exercises than what you see in a typical TM routine.

Ed also competed as a lighter 242 as well, so he has definately been on the top of a lot of weight classes. He started bodybuilding before doing PLing, but he said he didn't do too well as a BB'er.

For those that are interested in doing something like this, remember his equipment didn't give much carryover at all. The old Z-suits and Blast Shirts would give like 20lbs tops. You could probably run it raw with wraps. The wraps now are probably better than the old school wraps + PL gear.

[Tom Narvaez]

The most interesting thing about his programming is the pressing stuff. He has three pressing days in there and the way he sets up his benching is very, very interesting. He programs PRs for regular bench, close grip, AND incline. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but it seems fairly novel in the powerlifting world (despite being 20yrs old, lol). I find it particularly interesting because, like me, he was always a good squatter and eventually became the best deadlifter ever (at the time), but his bench was his weak link and, late into his career, he added 100lbs+ by greatly switching things up.

I always see people talking about how their upperbody just seemed to respond to higher frequency and more volume.

I really think I may give this routine a shot when I make into intermediate land.

[jimmyc]

I think that Ed's program is pretty awesome, but realize that you are following the program of a genetic freak. He could do, and had done, things that even top PL's of his days couldn't attempt.

BTW, Mike Bridges gets my vote as the best powerlifter of all time. Pound for pound the best, and most consistent lifter of all time with over a 100 wr's and 14 world championships . But you say Coan, I say Bridges, and others will say Kazmeier so I'm probably splitting hairs.

Thanks for posting the routine as it's very interesting.

[Tom Narvaez]

I think that Ed's program is pretty awesome, but realize that you are following the program of a genetic freak. He could do, and had done, things that even top PL's of his days couldn't attempt.

Which makes this even more interesting to me.

When I usually see the training of genetic freaks, it is either completely ridiculous in terms of volume or they make weight jumps (in terms of relative intensity) that defy everything I've learned about programming. Ed's program really doesn't fall into this category. Honestly, the set up is kind of 5/3/1ish, but he uses the pyramid model over a longer training cycle. What seems so unique to me is that "light day" and the concept of trying to get good at so many different kinds of bench presses.

Like you, I'm just interested in how he set it up because I really haven't seen it before.

[Rezart Erindi]

Tom, some very interesting things in there. But it seems to me that the programming is more suited to advanced than intermediate lifters.

[simonsky]

hey bud! i posted a similar thread a while back from the same DVD

http://startingstrength.com/resource...t=26548&page=1

[Rusi]

It would be cool if people used the training programs example as inspiration instead of blindly following. For example this shit won't work for me and I know why;

-bad hip,
-shoulder easy to overtrain; This shit has so much front delt work it's insane - all kinds of benches, front raises and on top that the stupid behind the neck press, dips and what not. IThis program was only meant to work for him and only him.

and I won't do it or at least will change it in a way to suit me more. That's the purpose of the program - help you achieve your goals giving your present state.

[Les Hahn]

Rusi, I wouldn't just follow the routine as written, but you can get some good training ideas from it. You are right, he developed the ability to adapt to a lot of volume over time. A new lifter wouldn't need as much, but I do think that some people will benefit from more upper body volume. Others can just 3x5 their way up pretty high, but for those that are getting stuck with low volume, why not switch to a higher volume approach? I went to a higher volume upper body approach, and it really has helped me out. I tried higher volume squats, and it didn't work as well.

If I were to do something like this, I would just pick 2 assistance exercises for the big muscle groups and 1 for the smaller ones. Over time that might go up, but I would just be safe to start. So for Monday, I would do Squat, Leg Press, Leg Curls, Calf Raises, and Abs. The shoulder day is interesting, and I would proabably just train that as is. I might do light squats on the DL day, since I am more of a novice. He probably only needed to train squats 1x per week, since he was more advanced.

That kind of leads to a side discussion about programming. I've noticed that a lot of successful powerlifters only squat 1x per week. Some only go heavy every other week (Week 1: Light Squat, heavy DL... Week 2: Heavy Squat, Light DL). This is for guys that do squat and dl on the same day. Ed splits it up, and you see a lot of guys do that too. Anyways, if you look at PPST2, Rip has advanced guys squatting more often, not less. I know olympic guys squat often, but it seems that the less is more strategy can work too. And for those that have a busy schedule, it would be nice to be at the gym less often.

[Tom Narvaez]

hey bud! i posted a similar thread a while back from the same DVD

http://startingstrength.com/resource...t=26548&page=1

So you did!

And a new version of toy story posted in this one too. Lots of similarities already.

I wouldn't necessarily run this as is, but I wouldn't change much either. As for the front delt work being too much, that really doesn't make sense to me given other templates that I've seen. Even 5/3/1 BBB has more front delt work than this. Look at the total volume. Front raises aren't exactly that taxing any way.

The one area that Ed really goes insane with is the tricep stuff, but I think his high frequency, semi-high volume approach to pressing is the part that is actually interesting. The rest of his program is really just standard. You gotta keep in mind that Saturday is more or less meant to be a recovery day, but it does make this a more advanced template.