Program question. In reference to greg's book (beginner template)

dipankar mohanty · 09-23-2012, 12:42 AM

Hi,

Will give a little backgrounder first. I started learning the olympic lifts from february. Currently my snatch is 63kg (65 kg I did do that but my arms and shoulder nearly buckled) and clean and jerk is 75 kg. I work out in a commercial gym so it has nothing for weightlifting. Just a decent barbell and good plates. After just learning the technique, getting flexibility, with light-medium weights for 3-4 months I started to follow the beginner template on page 286-287 on greg's oly lifting book. I've been doing stage 1 at the moment for 3 weeks now. Well my snatch and C&J have remained the same during the period. So my question is do I need to complete to stage 2 and stage 3 or should I go into for example a classic lift position/technique or a strength and power development phase? my strength sucks!! I'd say my technique is like 90% correct. My seconds pulls are not strong enough sometimes and sometimes I get the timing wrong of the second pull, but when i do get it right everything just flows smoothly. I can go ATG easily now. My front squat is around 90-95kg and back is 110kg or so. conventional deadlift of around 145kg. press is 61-65kg.

Greg Everett · 09-23-2012, 04:49 PM

Move on to the next stage of the program

dipankar mohanty · 09-23-2012, 07:42 PM

Thanks Greg!!

dipankar mohanty · 10-05-2012, 10:42 AM

I'm currently in the 2nd stage of the beginner template. in the 2nd week now (tweaked by back a little so will have to take 4-5 days off!!!) As mentioned I use moderately heavy weights during the first 3 days of the week and try out 15 reps of moving up to a max on the weekend. I feel while doing this my strength has remained the same. I haven't really seen any increase in strength. My maxes have remained the same, maybe increased by 1-2 kgs I guess. So does this template offer no increase in strength but its more to do with technique. Do only strength cycles help in substantially increase strength?

Greg Everett · 10-05-2012, 10:44 AM

Are you trying to increase the weights you use each week during the week? If you push the weights each week, you will get stronger. If you use the same weights and only try to go heavier on the weekends, you're probably not going to see much strength gain.

dipankar mohanty · 10-05-2012, 10:48 AM

I didn't do that. So how much weight should I look forward to increase per session? between 2 - 5kg? so for example in stage 2, I'm doing snatches on day 1, 5x2 at 50kg. So on week 2, day 1, I'm gonna try 5x2 at 52kg? Something like that?

Greg Everett · 10-05-2012, 11:01 AM

The idea is to use the heaviest weights you can for the prescribe sets/reps each day. You won't always be able to do more than you did the previous week, but you should be able to make increases for at least 3 wks at a time.

If you do you snatches at 50kg no problem on wk 1, yes, go up on week 2. do you first set at 50. If that's good, go 52 or 53. If that's tough, you can stay there for the rest of your sets. If you feel good, go 55 or 56 for the rest of the sets, etc.

dipankar mohanty · 10-05-2012, 11:42 AM

Thanks.. will do that.