So I just attended a seminar
Jan 29
And it was by this madman of a coach, which ….well he’s pretty interesting.
I mean first off, he’s a very good looking man. And he has the shoulders, the confidence, the swagger and oh yeah, the knowledge. He has a different definition of training and damn child, when I analyzed everything he said and wrote the maps out, I realized something astounding. He is a proponent of a “Meat & Potato” and then “Biceps and butterflies” kinda guy. He adapted this out of the Westside Barbell system and came up with his own training method.
Now, what is there a powerlifter can teach to a weightlifter? Tons in fact! Now I’m taking anything from this man, but not many of the things he talked about were truly revolutionary. A lot of weightlifting enthusiasts already know this info. However, what he managed to do was to STRING up all this information in a very manageable and understandable fashion. He believes in a foundation structure upon how to train to get strong, and he doesn’t believe in “changing” programs, because if we realize at the end of the day, most of the “GOOD” training programs have the same bloody guidelines.
The ones that don’t follow the same guidelines, they …just aren’t as popular because only a select set of people may benefit from its usage.
Now what truly intrigued me was when he explained his methods, I managed to somehow have this moment of “Eureka!!!”
First I’ll explain HIS system. It’s a ABCDEF kinda system. I’ll explain.
A: Main movement. On heavy lower body, a pull or a squat variation to a 1RM.
B: A supporting movement to address the main movement’s weakness
C: A supporting movement, to address weaknesses in the hams, glutes, erectors
D: Any other muscle that is significantly weak
E: Any other muscle that is significantly weak
F: Any other muscle that is significantly weak
So for example, let’s say you’re a powerlifter or a strength kid and you are doing a lower heavy day. You may do (I’m just throwing numbers in):
A: Deadlifts from 3″ deficit, max 1RM (Analysis: knee hurts pulling from deep position. Too much quad and insufficient back)
B: Safety squat bar good morning, Work up to 5RM
C: Heavy barbell rows
D: Leg extensions
E: Band leg curls
F: -nil-
Then the second day, you’ll do some speed work. And then the next session you’ll do heavy upper body and then speed upper body.
CooL? Cool!
Now let’s look at my post, a sample training.
Now let’s plug Rick’s system and do some modifications with the Chinese system: Once again the link
Wednesday
A: Main movement. On heavy lower body, a pull or a squat variation to a 1RM.
B: A supporting movement to address the main movement’s weakness
C: A supporting movement, to address weaknesses in the hams, glutes, erectors
D: Any other muscle that is significantly weak
E: Any other muscle that is significantly weak
F: Any other muscle that is significantly weak
A:Clean + FS + Jerk 1RM (5-8 x 2)
B: Front Squats (5-8 x 1 -3)
C: Clean Pulls (5-6 x 3)
Holy cow! The Chinese system exists, in THE USA!
No it doesn’t you stupid cow. The Chinese system exists in every, single, coach…that knows how to train. Because, that’s how good coaches train.
The coaches always taught me the fragments to the arrangement. They gave me the whole body, toes feet, fingers, but they forgot to give me the last bit. The head. I would program workouts and know they work, but I wouldn’t have a clue WHY they work. When he finally broke it down into this, I plugged it back into my logs and realized that every one of them, would somehow find this template in it.
With this piece, its given me the liberty and freedom of being able to play around with my training exercises, without fear anymore of losing track! So now, I’ll be able to come up with more creative ways to solve problems. I’m looking forward to that.
The one part that I disagree/agree with him is when he said, you don’t have to do the Oly lifts to be good at the Oly lifts. Obviously, I think any weightlifter would disagree as at the higher levels, you….have to snatch and clean and jerk. To be good at snatch and CNJ.
But the part where I do agree, is singles won’t BUILD strength for a lot of us. It’ll definitely “tweak” the CNS till it fires so perfectly in tune, but singles, isn’t going to BUILD it. It’ll tweak it. The reps are the builders, and if you do 2 or 3 reps, use complexes, you agree. Your exercise selection may be different, but you are doing “reps”. Also if you pull, you agree even more. You’re pulling because you want to build that supportive strength in the first pull.
What he defines as A and B could be slightly different, but if we plug A and B as snatch to 1RM and snatch triples for 5 sets, it sorta begins to look somewhat similar again.
If you’re interested, add me on Skype @ kirksman and I’ll talk to you more about it.
There were so many other awesome things that he had in his seminar such as the types of muscles, the way to look at training, the intensity. Actually, I think if there was one thing I benefited most from this seminar, was the kickassery sorta mentality.
I mean, his athletes kinda speak it
Kinda because some of you are gonna say that’s powerlifting, bench, boo~! Hey…wherever you stand on earth (well most of it at least), 600LBS is still….quite a bit of weight. For the imperially challenged, about 260KG.
Actually the other Eureka moment for me was when he said, if you box squat 800LBS, you’re gonna definitely parallel squat at least 500. And this is actually quite darned true. Yes, low bar back squat has very very minimal transfer if any at all to weightlifting movements especially because weightlifting is about the extension and immediate retraction of the glutes and hamstrings. But having a massive squat, is gonna HAVE to transfer to SOMETHING right? I mean, to have 800LBS on your back and squat to a box at parallel with fucking wide ass stances, is STILL GONNA BE HEAVY.
Ya diggggggggggg? Okay, Chinaman out. Gonna zonk out.
Oh btw ..
If you’re in North America, go
Don’t be an asshole. Go.
You really should write a book. The knowledge scattered about this blog is amazing, you should compile it, refine it and publish it.
Not yet dude. Not yet. There’s a few things I’ve yet to wrap my head around. I need one more trip to China and then Kazakhstan and Russia before I’ll be able to completely figure this out. I want the book to be applicable not just to weightlifters, but also to general athletes and people who want a direction.
Hi kirks. Do you think people still learning and who do not have efficient movements yet are better off doing a program with much more full lifting in to learnthe moves, or a plan like your example/the link with more work on one comp lift a day with a lot of accessory movements for it? I reqlise for building a lift the latter is preferable with the chinese, but is that the best approach for folks needing to learn the basics still?
I’d say use both. Build portions of it, then put it together.
Ok then kirksman. I am taking the dive and committing fully to a chinese style plan. For the next 2 months without change. I eill report back then!
Hey Kirk, Thanks for the info. This guy is only two hours away from here.