Always Leave Room To Scale

A concept I learnt from business is that you should always leave room for your company to scale. It is much better off the start small, and grow as your client base grows. I think the same can be applied to training.

It is always better to do less. Then, when you run into plateaus or cannot progress, you have available room to add in more work/volume to address issues. For example, when I first teach people the olympic lifts, I usually have them lift 4x a week. Then, when they get better and require more work to progress, I move them to 5x a week, and advanced lifters lift 6x a week. When I program accessories, I get people to do 1 accessory exercise per session. Once they have reaped all the benefit they can from that 1 exercise, we add 2, and slowly we may add 3. This is crucial as work capacity and the body's ability to progress will be significantly hindered if you go in 100% from the start. That's why we have beginner, intermediate and advanced programs in the first place; each program adds the least amount of work to still progress.

TLDR: Less is more. Give yourself room to add more volume into your training in the future as you get more advanced. Your future self will thank you.

~ Prem

My Technical Model For Weightlifting - Kazakhstan

People talk about technical models alot. A technical model is just the technique type that you use. Of course, technique errors are more or less universal, but when it comes to olympic weightlifting, you have some guys who emphasis aggression and a fast turnover, or some who emphasis extension with a more controlled turnover. 

My technical model for olympic weightlifting has always come from the Kazakh team. The Kazakhstani model is generally characterized by dynamics starts, a surplus of leg strength, quick lifts and a hybrid strength/speed dip and drive for the jerk. The quintessential example of this is Ilya Ilyin, the best lifter to ever exist on planet Earth

This model gets a lot of shit from the Team China fanboys. This model is based largely on the Soviet technical model, which is also very good. However, Kazakh lifters do tend to be more aggressive when lifting and less technical. But the reality is that this model is far better than those of the Americans, and especially the Chinese. The Bulgarian, South Korean and German models are honestly not bad, but lack the quicker lifting style of the Kazakhs.

~ Prem

An Intermediate Weightlifting Program Part 1 - Structuring The Session

I made a post with a beginner weightlifting program in the past (link), but this program was certainly not optimal for intermediates. So this in this new series of posts, I will create an intermediate olympic weightlifting program.

Firstly, this program is going to have several differences to the beginner program. Namely, these are:

1. Increase in frequency: In this program, the full lifts (full snatch and full clean and jerk) will each be trained 3x a week, with variations of both lifts done 2x a week each. 
2. Emphasis on strength work: In this program, I will give more attention to proper programming of squats, deadlifts and overhead/push presses.
3. Percentage based programming for the olympic lifts: I used autoregulation for the beginner program since beginners would not know their maxes for the lifts. But intermediates should, so percentages of 1RM can now be used for programming.

In this post, I just want to talk about structuring the workout. Here is how I generally structure weightlifting workouts:

Snatch/Snatch Variation
Clean & Jerk/Clean & Jerk Variation
Strength Exercise 1 (squat/push press/pull)
Strength Exercise 2 (deadlift/strict press/bench press/row)
2 Accessories/Bodybuilding work

So workouts should start with snatches and then go to clean and jerks. Pretty fucking self explanatory, snatches are technically harder than cleans, so they go first. I usually do full cleans 2-3 times a week, and do full snatches 3 times a week. 

Then we move onto strength work. I like to split my workouts into upper body focus or lower body focus in order to manage recovery (ie. a lower body workout would follow an upper body workout). On upper body sessions, I usually do pulls/presses are my first strength exercise. For pulls, I would either do snatch or clean pull at 90-110% of my snatch/clean and jerk max. Althought, for these pulls you could also do snatch grip high pulls, muscle snatches etc. For presses, I would ether do 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps on the push press, or do some heavy strict press (top set + back offs). For lower body sessions, I would do a squat followed by another pull, this time a bit heavier. So I would either front squat/back squat, and then do a clean/snatch/conventional deadlift or maybe a stiff-legged deadlift. 

Then the accessories. On upper body sessions, accessories would be work for the lats (chinups + barbell rows), shoulders (lu raises, rear delt flyes), some chest work (bench press, db bench), triceps and biceps. For lower body accessories, I would usually stick to hamstring, low back and core work since the quads are targeted pretty hard with the Olympic lifts, pulls and squats done prior. So on lower body sessions I would do leg raises, leg curls, back extensions, and some adductor work. 

So that's the basic structure of each workout. In the next post, I will go over the microcycle with sets and reps.

~ Prem

Training 2x A Week Is Not Enough

Training twice a week for any sport-related goal simply is not enough work to see any meaningful progress! I often have clients try to create a program where they only train 2x a week, and that puts me in a very tough position. The reality is that for every sport that I have decent knowledge about (think weightlifting, track and field, field sports, climbing, MMA), training 2x a week will BARELY make any progress, and will usually only maintain fitness levels. I always urge clients to try to add in a 3rd session, which makes a huge difference and can actually lead to significant long term progress. Of course, if there is literally nothing you can do, training twice a week is enough. But I would much rather you have shorter sessions more frequently throughout the week.

Edit: Also, for ever sport I can virtually think of, the best training frequency is around 4-6x a week, usually towards the higher end if you actually want to compete at a higher level. 3x a week works if you are juggling multiple sports or if you are a hobbyist. But 2x a week will lead to bare bones progress, and you really should aim to get at least 3x a week in. This also applies for more physically demanding sports, like sprinting or climbing.

~ Prem

Off Your Phone: Stay Locked In

People complain to me that their workouts take too long. I ask them if they scroll on their phone between sets. The answer is almost always yes.

Stay off your phone. Even if it is between sets, your phone will make you rest longer than you need. Just put the phone down and visualize your cues for the next set. I am not saying to workout in complete silence; you can listen to music to stay locked in. But spending too much time scrolling on Instagram, Youtube or Spotify can and will extend your rest periods to the point where your body is slightly colder when you start the next set. 

If you want to learn how to train like this, look at any old Bulgarian weightlifting training video. You will always see lifters either discussing the lifts, sitting patiently, or pacing backwards and forwards in anticipation for the next lift. This is a good way to both reduce total training time and to make training a bit more effective. I only use my phone to check my program and to check the time, and I just play my Spotify playlist in the background.

This same idea applies to life in general as well. You will find yourself saving a lot more time if you just say off your phone.

~ Prem

Mobility Development Tools vs. Mobility Tests

Just some thoughts on improving mobility:

Improving mobility means that you do mobility developmental tools, NOT mobility tests. What is a mobility test? A mobility test is something like a back bridge, a palms-to-floor, or a Apley scratch test. These can also be consider flexibility tools. The difference between mobility tools and flexibility tools is that mobility is the ability to control your joints through end ranges of motion, whereas flexibility is the lengthening of muscles for a stretch. 

Often I see people use flexibility tools like the ones I listed above to increase their mobility. For example, some people will palms to floor for 30 secs to improve hamstring mobility for the deadlift. This is not optimal. To develop mobility that transfers over to training/sport, you need to be doing mostly dynamic mobility developmental tools where your body is moving in and out of positions constantly. For example, some of my favourites are seated pancakes, where you spread your legs as far and possible and continuously reach forward. This is a mobility development tool that can help for both the squat and deadlift.

I have provided a list of good mobility developmental tools in this post.

~ Prem

On Improving Technique

I think technique obsession is generally a good thing. No lift is going to be technically complete (especially the heavy ones), but it is good to try to constantly find faults in technique and work to improve them. Here are some things I use to improve my technique for sports:

Firstly, film yourself. I don't care if it looks awkward or if others stare at you. Just film yourself normally. Watching yourself lift from an outside perspective will help you identify faults much more easily. This work for sports like sprinting and swimming as well.

Secondly, find someone online who has the same leverages as you. Lifting technique is not going to be the same amongst everyone. This is because different people have different body proportions and so lift differently based on the technique that gives them the best leverages. Finding someone online who has similar body proportions to you can give you an idea on how you should lift.

Thirdly, watching top athletes. Although top athletes may lift based on their unique leverages, there are always some things you can learn from watching top athletes' raw training footage.

Fourth, standardizing technique during warmups and throughout the training cycle. Whilst you warmup, you should still lift like you would on a maximal top set. No warmup rep should be wasted; treat every rep as an opportunity to practice technique. The same goes for doing volume work. When doing volume work, you should still focus hard on every rep and aim to do every rep with textbook perfect form. This will drill the motor pattern of the movement, which ensures better technique when maxing out.

Finally, linking to the previous tip, have a set of cues written down. For example, some cues I like for the deadlift are "pack the lats back towards your pockets" and "brace your stomach outwards" and "stick your butt out" (yes that works). I have all of these written down in my training journal so that before I start deadlifting, I run through these cues in my head and during the set. Find cues that work for you and stick to them.

-Prem

Make Do With What You Have

I saw a video of Andrew Tate mentioning the 2 types of fight gyms. On one hand, you have the exclusive, high membership clubs that produce no fighters since they hand out black belts like there candy. And on the other, you have the dingy, shitty gym that produces real fighters but makes no money since people get hurt.

I resonate with this a lot. I currently train at a commercial gym, and I always see lifters with knee sleeves, a belt, and weightlifting shoes who cannot squat 100kgs to full depth! Of course, everyone has the right to do this and I have no problem what you do with your money, but I want to remind you that having cheap gear does not make you a bad lifter. And having expensive gear doesn't make you a good one.

I saw a video of Clarence Kennedy making weightlifting straps by cutting and taping some Everlast boxing wraps. Although this is some cheap and faulty equipment, that guy still snatches more than 99% of olympic lifters at the time. I did the same. I used a knife to cut my old boxing wraps and made olympic lifting straps. There were no straps near me in Australia, and the cheapest Hookgrip ones were 40 fucking dollars. To tape my fingers, I used medical tape I found in an old medical kit. I stole my parents' knee sleeves (lol) that they use for warmth and used them to protect my shins during olympic lifts and deadlifts. And I used to use cheap, 20 dollar flat soled shoes to deadlift in. Point is, you can become a very good lifter using cheap gear. So if you are in a tough financial situation or unemployed like me, do not be discouraged, be resourceful, and push through to become the best you can be!

P.S. Lifting gear really is too expensive these days. 400 dollars for a fucking SBD belt? Fuck off. I would rather be resourceful and have slightly worse equipment then blow all my money on a fucking belt. 

~ Prem

Rotating Exercises Is Overrated

I often hear people claim that rotating weight room exercises or rotating drills on the field or the court is an integral part of every athlete's program. I disagree with this. Rotating exercises/drills should only act as a minor complement to your training. This is because in order to see the true, true benefits of doing a certain drill or a motion, you have to work hard on it for a prolonged period of time! When you try out a new drill or exercise, it takes 3 weeks at a minimum to just get decently skillful at the movement itself, and upwards of 10 weeks for noticeable adaptation (no study to cite, from personal experience). Therefore, exercises should be rotated only after a prolonged period of hard and purposeful training.

The main culprits who advocate rotating exercises/drills constantly are the conjugate fanboys. For those of you unaware, 'conjugate' is a training system first developed by powerlifting coach Louie Simmons and is characterized by frequently rotating main movements in order to prevent adaptation. The reason conjugate doesn't work for most people is that conjugate was made for enhanced lifters (athletes who use PEDs). Natural lifters take longer to adapt to the same stimulus. Plain and simple.

I do not thing rotating exercises is completely worthless. At the end of each 10 week training block, I may switch out 1-3 exercises/drills if I feel they are going stale or if I just don't enjoy them or see their benefit even after 10 whole weeks. However, I will very, very rarely rotate main motions (think squats, flying sprints etc.). Usually, I only rotate accessory exercises. But most of my clients go block after block with the exact same training program and continue to make great gains. But the idea that you need to rotate exercises every 3,4,5 or 6 weeks is completely overplayed and not very valuable.

As a final note, if you do rotate exercises, please do not do it in the middle of a training block. Rotating exercises at that time may create side-effects that will impact the rest of the training of the block, and may impact the PRs you set at the end. So rotate exercises at the start of a new training block!

-Prem

Optimal Training Frequency For Olympic Weightlifting

Here are some tips in programming olympic lifting for various athletes:

1. Olympic Weightlifters:

The optimal frequency for olympic lifting ranges from 4-6x a week for most regional/state/national athletes who are not insane or on drugs. Of course, those who compete at the olympics/internationally and those who are on copious amounts of steroids can and will train more than this.

4x a week should be reserved for older (above ~35 yrs of age) masters lifters or the recreational hobbyist who still wants a decent total. However, it probably won't be enough for anyone who wants to compete seriously. For more serious, younger, and natural lifters, 5-6x will probably be better. I prefer 5x a week, and I just make each of these workouts harder be increasing volume on main lifts and accessories. You could also train 6x a week, but then each individual session would need to be shorter and with less volume (~ 1.5hrs if you are snatching and cleaning every session).

2. Non-weightlifting athletes:

Team sport athletes and non-weightlifting athletes should do an easier version of the olympic lifts 2-3x a week. This easier variation will usually be a power clean due to it being very easy to learn and overload as soon as possible. Doing the lifts any less than 2x a week will reduce technical proficiency, and going any higher than 3x a week will take away valuable time that this athlete could be using to play their actual sport.

~ Prem

Clarification: Training 2x a day should be a last case scenario

I made a post in the past regarding training twice a day (link here). In that post, I argued most average people and athletes can train 2x a day given they don't train like idiots. And I stand by this. If you are pursing an athletic endeavor at a high level, you probably will need to train twice a day, at least on a few days of the week. 

However, this DOES NOT MEAN that you train 2x a day because high level athletes are. Training 2x a day should only be done if you CANNOT FIT your training into 1 session per day. In this sense, it is a last case scenario. I find that for most younger athletes and amateur athletes, training 2x a day is not needed for them to beat their competition. Training 2x a day only become a consideration when you get to those higher levels of athletic competition.

So for all amateurs, I would say stick to training once a day. The reality is that 2x a day training really takes away from recovery and performance, and should be reserved to those who are athletes as their full time job. You are much better off training once a day, and dedicating all your energy into that one session and making it as hard and productive as possible. Basically, train smarter, not harder. More is not always better.

Here are some sample 1x a day splits for athletes in various sports:

eg. Cricket player:

Day 1: Cricket Practice

Day 2: Weights + Conditioning

Day 3:Cricket Practice

Day 4: Weights + Conditioning

Day 5: Cricket Game

Day 6: Cricket Practice

Day 7: Weights + Conditioning

eg. Combat athlete:

Day 1: Combat drills

Day 2: Weights

Day 3: Sparring

Day 4: Weights

Day 5: Combat Drills

Day 6: Weights

Day 7: Sparring

eg. Olympic Weightlifter:

Day 1: Weightlifting

Day 2: Weightlifting

Day 3: Weightlifting

Day 4: Track session w/ sprint, plyos and throws

Day 5: Weightlifting

Day 6: Weightlifting

Day 7: Track session w/ sprint, plyos and throws

~ Prem

Daily Mobility Routine (PLEASE DO NOT COPY)

This is a post regarding my mobility routine that I perform daily. I think doing mobility is a must (yes, a must, not negotiable) for every athlete.

Before I give you my routine and some general tips, I really want to emphasize that you SHOULD NOT copy this routine. Why? Because this routine was made specifically for ME. I have tight wrists, a history of lower back pain, and very immobile adductors. However, someone else may have light lats and a tight T spine, so their mobility routine will look different from mine. So I beg that you read this entire post in order to gain mobility specific to you.

Here's my routine and an explanation on why I do what I do:

1. Band Over and Outs: I do these for shoulder mobility for the squat. That's basically it. I think this is one movement basically everyone can benefit from.
2. Planks: I do 2-3 minutes of front planks daily. This is just because anecdotally I find that doing planks every day helps with lower back pain and bracing better during training. Alec Enkiri made a video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ysagAtrjb8
3. Quadruped Elbow to Ceiling: Good for rotational T spine mobility. I do it to help my bench press arch.
4. Dynamic V Sit: One of the best mobility exercises in existence. Great for hamstring and lower back mobility.
5. Shinbox to Pigeon Stretch: The shinbox is good for hip mobility, and the pigeon stretch gives a good stretch on those glutes. I do not have a problem with glute mobility, but I may as well get in that extra stretch if I am already doing shinboxes.
6. Wrist Wall Stretch: I put my wrist on the wall and lean onto them, getting a good stretch. I only do these for front rack mobility, which I tend to struggle with.
7. Cossack Squats: Great developmental tool for adductor mobility. If you can do these well, then progress to the side splits.
8. Deep 3rd World Squat: A classic. Sitting in the bottom of a squat for 5 minutes daily does wonders as far as squat, hip, knee and ankle mobility is concerned.

So that's the entire routine. It takes maybe 10 minutes total. I prefer shorter routines that you will do daily rather than complex and longer routines that you do once or twice a week. Doing these very consistently is very important for progress.

To end this post off, here are my favorite mobility exercises per body part:

• Lats: Dead hangs, thoracic extensions
• Shoulders: Band over and outs
• Wrist: Wall/ground wrist stretch
• Triceps/elbows: High rep triceps pushdowns and banded overhead triceps stretch
• Hip Flexors: Couch stretch, first baseman stretch
• Knees: Deep 3rd World Squat
• Ankles: Standing calf raise, seated calf raise, tibialis raise
• Glutes: Pigeon stretch
• Hamstrings: Dynamic V Sit, back extensions
• Lower Back: Foam Rolling, Dynamic V Sit
• Adductors: Side splits, Cossack squat
• Pecs: Pec dec, pec flies
• T Spine: Foam rolling, quadruped elbow to ceiling, cat-camels

Choose the movements that you need and work hard on them consistently and you will see improvements in your sport performance!

~ Prem 

How To Prepare For Early Morning Training

I am an advocate for training 2x a day for some athletes. This means that sometimes, we will have to train early in the morning (before 10am). I myself train in the morning almost every day. However, it is well accepted in the athletic community that training in the evening is superior for performance than training early in the morning. So here are some tips to prepare well for a morning workout:

1. Cortisol - Get in morning sunlight

When you wake up, your cortisol spikes and then decreases throughout the day. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that can lead to muscle fatigue. So in order to counteract this spike in cortisol, go outside and get some morning sunlight into your face. Even if you don't have much of a sun where you live, just getting in that morning air will help. This also helps regulate your circadian rhythm.

2. Eat more carbs (reduced plasma glucose levels, cortisol) in your pre-workout meal

Another way to decrease cortisol and bring it to baseline levels is to eat carbs, so include some carbohydrates in your pre-workout meal. Eating carbs also reduced plasma glucose levels, which essentially means a lower blood sugar level.

3. Melatonin spike - Coffee/Caffeine Pills

When you wake up, your melatonin levels also spike. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleep, and it's why you feel groggy and sleepy even after you wake up. The best way to counteract this is with caffeine. This can either come from caffeine pills or from black coffee, but I prefer pills for the convenience. I specify black coffee sine it is the only real way of drinking coffee (there should not be so many fucking coffee types anyways). However, make sure your periodically cycle on and off of caffeine so that you do not get caffeine tolerance.

4. Warm-up

Like, physically warm up. Before you start training, you should be sweating! I like warming a hoodie during warm-ups. Warm-up by doing some light aerobic exercise and then some dynamic stretching for a total of 10, maybe 15, minutes. I have posted a good general warm-up here.

5. Hydration

Just drink multiple cups of water before you train. When you wake up, you've just spent 8 hrs of sleeping without any water, so you will have to offset that by drinking a considerable amount of water in the morning. Salting your pre-workout meal and your intra-workout drink can help with electrolyte consumption as well.

~ Prem

Functionality vs. Aesthestics

There has been a debate around lifting technique recently. Should lifters lift with aesthetic technique that reduces weight, or with a not-so aesthetic technique but with heavier weights. I think it is far better for a lifter who is aiming to maximize strength to lift with heavier weights and with somewhat shittier technique.

This draws on to a wider debate: is aesthetic or functionality lift more important when it comes to sport technique. This is a post made by Squat University:

This is a fucking trash take. A 150lb difference in weight is completely negated due to the slightest breakdown in technique. And this isn't even a training lift, this is a max lift. People like Squat University will sacrifice their strength in the name of 'aesthetics', but for anyone who's goal is to actually get stronger, they will  have to understand that no max out attempt will be textbook perfect. Heck, even training lifts won't look perfect. Of course, lifters should aim to be technically proficient as much as possible, but this obsession with aesthetic technique is simply sacrificing strength.

So stop trying to make your technique good and focus on getting the fucking job done. Functionality wins.

~ Prem