Ascending Sets, Squat Frequency, and Programming For Over Shooters – CLICK HERE

In honor of the upcoming Corrupted Summit, Marcellus Williams, Brad Couillard, and myself decided to team up for an Integrated Craft Systems collab. In my latest YouTube video, Marcellus, Brad, and I cover a wide range of topics from questions you all submitted. We cover the vast topic of how to program ascending sets and in what scenarios we find ourselves utilizing them. We cover what we see as the average competition lift frequency. And in more detail talk about how we think a 3rd squat day is overrated for most, and how to program a 3rd squat day if it is appropriate for an individual lifter. For the chronic over shooters, we detail programming and psychological techniques we use to help confront those issues, keep lifters in the pocket, and individualize training to best suit each lifters “reward system”. And lastly Brad, Marcellus, and I break down some of the more unexpected lessons we have learned in coaching, that as younger coaches we had prior misconceptions about. And if 1 video isn’t enough, Marcellus has the entire other half of the Q&A on his channel, so make sure to check both videos out and sign up for the Corrupted Summit while you can, as registration closes August 27th! Click the link in my bio to view the video and to find the registration link as well!

How To Plan Weekly Top Set Progression – CLICK HERE

Programming For Weighted Dips

If it isn’t blatantly obvious from story posts I’ve made, I really like weighted dips. Official Bro Science University conducted research has shown that there is a direct correlation to being jacked and being able to rep out multiple plates on weighted dips. But in seriousness, we see a lot of the top lifters and strongest benchers hitting some pretty impressive sets on weighted dips. And as I have posted some of my athlete’s weighted dip accomplishments, I have gotten a lot of messages on how I program them, to the point where I felt it must be a larger question people want answered through a more encompassing informative post.

As far as I know, I do program weighted dips in a slightly different way than most. I have found great benefit in having a low rep top set (3-5 reps) to precede rep work (6-12 reps). Unlike with what I see on something like dumbbell bench press or machine chest press, with weight dips (or weighted pull-ups) I find there to be a pretty notable potentiation effect from doing a heavy set prior to rep work. Doing this with other types of pressing accessory work seems to induce too much fatigue to see the potentiation effect. But with weighted dips, I find that people are able to handle higher absolute loads on their rep work if it is preceded by a heavier top set. I also find that people generally underestimate their strength capabilities on weighted dips, and when just prescribing rep work alone, they tend to pick a load they can seemingly manage through multiple sets, rather than prioritizing load progression week to week. And the fact is many powerlifters would be fairly surprised just how much they can rep out on weighted dips once they prioritize load progression. So the model of a heavy low rep top set followed by rep work has produced more consistent results than other strategies I have implemented.

As can be seen in the graphics above (CLICK HERE), it is a fairly simple set up. I program a top set in the 3-5 rep range near failure, followed by 2 to 3 sets in the 6-12 rep range where load can be adjusted each set to stay around 2 reps short of failure. Likely earlier in the block, the lifter will start out more conservative, staying a little further from failure, so that they have room to progress and overload through the block as adaptations occur. The progression block to block follows a very standard periodized model, and once those 3 blocks are complete, either it’s time to cycle out weighted dips and rotate a new accessory in, or I just cycle back to block 1 and reset the progression and aim to beat previous numbers through the same cycle again.

As for when to program weighted dips within a microcycle, the main thing that needs to be understood is that they have a higher fatigue cost than something like a machine press for most lifters. You will need time to recover, so strategically you want to place them where you have ample time to recover from. It is hard to give a full encompassing example of where they should be placed, because it depends on each lifter and how their bench microcycle is set up. But the majority of lifters are going to be best suited to either have weighted dips programmed on their primary or secondary bench days, where stress is already high and likely is set up to have ample recovery afterwards.

Lastly, weighted dips are not for everyone. For some it tends to cause excessive fatigue that leaks into their competition bench. For others I have found weighted dips, likely due to their anthropometry, is just a bit too hard on their shoulders. For others though, I have seen a direct correlation to bench progress when their weighted dip strength is drastically increasing, and it may be the only accessory movement I can say that for in regards to bench press. I want to keep from giving too many broad generalizations on who weighted dips works best for, because honestly they could be a good fit for just about anyone, but if I had to give 3 main characteristics of lifters who respond best it would be…..

-Lifters with a more normalized range of motion on bench press.

-Lifters who have a bench frequency of 4 or less days, in particular those who bench 2-3 days a week.

-Lifters who need to prioritize gaining upper body muscle mass.

Fix Your Conventional Deadlift Form With This Variation

So today is a post for the conventional pullers out there, and maybe there is even some application to sumo as well. But there is a variation I have found myself programming more often lately, and that is a conventional deadlift to a 3 second eccentric RDL/SLDL. I by no means invented this, but it’s not something I see commonly utilized, and I have found really good benefit from it lately in regards to establishing good setup and technique. If you watched my Top 3 Deadlift Variations video on YouTube, you likely remember one of those being a Tempo Eccentric Deadlift. And while I still like that variation, I have started shifting to this new variation for my conventional pullers as it tends to be more replicable in their actual setup, slack pull, and wedge. The conventional deadlift to 3 second eccentric is trying to mimic the “RDL Slack Pull” setup that I cover in my slack pull tutorial on YouTube. You use the eccentric RDL portion of this movement to put you into the optimal position to then wedge from that “RDL Slack Pull” position on reps 2 and on. And the goal from there is to mimic that exact same pattern and feeling on all reps of your regular conventional deadlift. Brayden is shown in this post (CLICK HERE), and he struggled with the hinge and wedge aspect of his conventional deadlift. Typical cueing helped to an extent, but I could tell that the more he “felt” the correct position, the more it clicked. So in applying this variation to him, we’ve seen some notable improvement with his initial starting position. So how do I program this? Almost always as a secondary day deadlift variation where the emphasis is on technical improvement. There is benefit as well in being self limiting, but more so this variation is strategically implemented to help lifters get a better sense of positioning within their slack pull and wedge setup.

Defining What Is Good Technique – CLICK HERE