GLENN PENDLAY Q&A

Training Bodybuilding
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[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
I’ll just comment on the clean, since thats what your questions seemed to focus on… you need to get your hips a LOT lower at the start… hard to comment past this cause if you do this it might fix most everything else.[/quote]

Thank you, Glen!
I’ll practice some today. :slight_smile:

Btw; what are your thoughts on Ruth Kasirye? i’m thinking of taking some time to focus on weightlifting early next year (I’m focused mostly on powerlifting right now), and I’m considering training at an elite athlete center 30 minutes from my home, where I know she trains (together with a lot of pro athletes in all kind of sports)…

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she looks very, very strong and athletic. I wouldnt copy her pull, however.

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Okey, thanks again, Glen!

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Anyone wanting to know how to set up a beginners program for Olympic Weightlifting should read this…

http://www.pendlay.com/A-Training-System-for-Beginning-Olympic-Weightlifters_df_47.html

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great articles, thanks.

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[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
she looks very, very strong and athletic. I wouldnt copy her pull, however.[/quote]

What do you see in the pull that should not be copied?

Thanks!
M

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[quote]Mutsanah wrote:

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
she looks very, very strong and athletic. I wouldnt copy her pull, however.[/quote]

What do you see in the pull that should not be copied?

Thanks!
M[/quote]

Looked to me like she jumped forward a little bit on the catch. It was pretty subtle, but it was there. The jerk looked solid.

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Thanks for that article, Glenn!

i’m planning to hav a few months of spesific weightlifting training next year, so it will surely come inn very handy then :slight_smile:

Btw; Ruth Kasirye finished 7th in the Olympic games (63 kg) in '08, and 2th in the European Championship last year.

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[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
Anyone wanting to know how to set up a beginners program for Olympic Weightlifting should read this…

http://www.pendlay.com/A-Training-System-for-Beginning-Olympic-Weightlifters_df_47.html [/quote]

That’s a pretty good template. I don’t know where I fall on the OL experience spectrum - I did the lifts as a self-taught lifter for years but I’ve been working with a coach for the last year, and it’s been a process of undoing bad habits - but I can see making use of this template regardless. I like the idea of the complexes. Got any good ones that you have lifters do? I was thinking of a back strengthening complex involving heavy good mornings followed by kettlebell swings and finishing up with some light reverse hypers.

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[quote]Mutsanah wrote:

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
she looks very, very strong and athletic. I wouldnt copy her pull, however.[/quote]

What do you see in the pull that should not be copied?

Thanks!
M[/quote]

The bar actually moves forward as it comes off the floor, then she has to jump forward to catch it… not ideal, but the girl has miles and miles of pull and when you can pull like that you get away with a lot of stuff that normal humans couldn’t.

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Glenn–I’ve been learning an absolute ton from this thread and I’m loving every minute of it.

Have a question on squatting. My goal for years now has been to get to 600 lb olympic style back squat. It’s been a rough year and my squat strength is down due to a number of injuries (like motorcycle wreck). However this question is on technique–I will try to word concisely but have a tendency to slip into verbiage when trying to be detailed.

I have box squatted and power squatted for years, being one who trains powerlifting primarily. I go back and forth on this with my training partner who is an 800 lb PL squatter–i say there’s something fundamentally different in the squat technique, though I can’t exactly say WHAT, he says I’m crazy. I watch videos of the Chinese lifters and others, and they always seem to initiate the back squat from the knees instead of hips breaking first.

In addition they don’t seem to push the hips back. The low back is arched and tight, but hips don’t really come “back” . They almost seem to push the hips forward under the bar coming out of the hole instead of using the hamstrings in the manner you would see them used in PL. In fact someone (IrishMarc?) mentioned a problem with a young lifter he’d been coaching and “trying to get the hips moving forward” out of the hole. Granted that’s front squats. I know. I couldn’t tell if I was hallucinating watching that or if they really were doing it.

Further I’ve seen lots of high level Oly lifters allow (or push??) the knees to come inwards when recovering from the squat. like this - YouTube

My point is, I suppose, I don’t seem to know what good Olympic squatting technique consists of when compared to PL. I know general strength squatting style, and PL sumo styles pretty well. About all I know is high bar, deep, ATG, knees out, back tight. Of course I’m not sure about the knees after seeing that linked video above along with others. My hypothesis is a limited “knee in” can help recruit more quads? Before the wreck (and other serious illnesses) I hit 500 lbs with a 1 sec pause, but in the past year I have not been able to come close again, “Olympic” style.

I’m wondering if you have any resources you recommend for good olympic squat technique or maybe if you have any general pointers about what is different between Olympic and general/PL style back squatting–besides the much wider stance (and suit of course). How and why it helps your back squat strength to do things differently…like hips forward out of the hole and initiating from the knees instead of hips.

I guess I’m looking for a paradigm shift…this style is completely foreign to me technique wise. Injury free basics yes, good/optimal technique no.

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[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:

[quote]Quadforce wrote:
Glenn, I’ve a quick question.

I’ve a female friend whos knees are caving in when she is deadlifting. Do you have any experience with that? What would be the possible causes be and what can I do to help her a bit? SHe is trying to force knees out, but when the weight gets heavier, she no longer can focus on the knees. The funny thing is that she can be doing 225 for reps, but right now is stuck at 180 because of that.

Thanks![/quote]

9 out of 10 times the cause of this is either weak adductors, or, a person just having no idea how to activate the adductors. And yes, I said adductors, not abductors. I have tried many things, but never found much that worked better than just doing weights that you can do while forcing the knees out,and progressing slowly…[/quote]

I was rereading the thread.

I know this is an old post but on the chance he’s still reading up here I’ve got a trick I use that might help, and I hope Glenn doesn’t mind me. The resistance band idea was already suggested is a good one. Here’s another.

Another trick is to to perform pull-throughs on a cable machine while focusing really forcing the knees out throughout the entire range of motion, angling the toes out helps this. You can feel the movement pretty well. Do it as an immediate “pre-exhaust” type movement, which I’ve done. Poundage may take a slight dip but you can feel better and you can’t activate what you can’t feel. Once you feel it better you can drop the super set. Also can use the band Andy mentioned for a superset of adductor work instead of the cable pull-throughs.

Last thing is maybe just move her stance in. Not really a tip, but it can work lol. This has seemed to work really really well with the people I’ve helped although I’m not really ‘advanced’ per se. There’s just that tweaky in-between width that just is awkward for a lot of people. Take a look at Vince Anello’s DL stance…I’m not suggesting that narrow but it can work very well and eliminates a lot of the potential problem. Might feel more natural to her as well. Within a certain standard deviation of technique or stance I think that what feels most natural sometimes actually is effective too.

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Aragorn, I may be over-simplifying things here but OLers squat in their weightlifting shoes which raise the heel. Having that little bit of a heel lift really changes the squat mechanics, at least I feel like it does for me. My approach to the Olympic squat has been to put the bar on my traps, take a narrower stance (but I don’t go crazy narrow) and just squat. The rest seems to take care of itself. I still try to push the hips back like I did when I did more of a PL squat, but because of the stance, raised heel, and bar placement, you won’t be able to push the hips back the way you could in a PL squat. Your body will automatically need to stay more upright or else you’ll fall forward. Anyway, that’s how I now do my squats. For all I know, it’s wrong.

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Aragorn… that video shoes a heavy max attempt for that lifter, his knees cave in because the weight is heavy. When squatting you wanna keep your knees from caving in and you chest from rounding.

When I max back-squat my knees don’t cave in, but my chest does :frowning:

p.s and yes… ATG backsquat is VERY different from PL box-squat/parallel squat.

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[quote]Neospartan wrote:
Aragorn… that video shoes a heavy max attempt for that lifter, his knees cave in because the weight is heavy. When squatting you wanna keep your knees from caving in and you chest from rounding.

When I max back-squat my knees don’t cave in, but my chest does :frowning:

p.s and yes… ATG backsquat is VERY different from PL box-squat/parallel squat. [/quote]

Yeah, I’m aware you don’t want your knees to cave in :). That’s the way I’ve squatted for years and the way I coach.

However, I have indeed read before that some olympic lifters will intentionally allow their knees inwards a little during recovery from a narrow stance squat. Hence, the slight confusion over whether that is acceptable technique or whether I’m totally insane. I’m sure than Zhang in the video is exaggerating this unintentionally due to the near maximal load, but I remember reading it precisely because it totally confused the shit out of me!! :). I’m searching for the citation…but have to go to work now…

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[quote]Aragorn wrote:

[quote]Neospartan wrote:
Aragorn… that video shoes a heavy max attempt for that lifter, his knees cave in because the weight is heavy. When squatting you wanna keep your knees from caving in and you chest from rounding.

When I max back-squat my knees don’t cave in, but my chest does :frowning:

p.s and yes… ATG backsquat is VERY different from PL box-squat/parallel squat. [/quote]

Yeah, I’m aware you don’t want your knees to cave in :). That’s the way I’ve squatted for years and the way I coach.

However, I have indeed read before that some olympic lifters will intentionally allow their knees inwards a little during recovery from a narrow stance squat. Hence, the slight confusion over whether that is acceptable technique or whether I’m totally insane. I’m sure than Zhang in the video is exaggerating this unintentionally due to the near maximal load, but I remember reading it precisely because it totally confused the shit out of me!! :). I’m searching for the citation…but have to go to work now…[/quote]

It is acceptable during maximal attempts when it is needed, it is not acceptable to do on all or even the majority of your lifts. Do 80-90% of your lifts with perfect form, accept that when you are doing maximal lifts, things get a bit loose here and there.

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Thanks glenn.

2 other very quick questions. I’ve read you recommend squatting 3x or more a week to develop leg strength, varying the stresses on the body each session…

  1. What general guidelines do you give for someone looking to specialize in the squat to bring it up faster? If you’re squatting 3x a week or more, then how do you prefer to distribute intensity and volume?

  2. Deadlifting–when you’re squatting often, how often do you have your weightlifters deadlift heavy? AND do they do it in the same session as the squat or another session of the day/week?

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Robert Blackwell

I would like to write a little bit about a lifter I coach named Robert Blackwell. Rob is not, at this time, the best lifter I have ever coached, nor is he in the top 10, or, even in the top 20 or top 50. But he will be. Rob will end up being one of the best lifters I have ever coached.

He wonâ??t be one of the best because he is uniquely talented. Sure, he is athletic, but not in a way that would make a guy jump up and down or anything.

What Robert is, is tough. Or maybe just quiet. A couple of months ago I noticed he was shaking, literally shaking after a set of clean and jerks. He wasnâ??t talking, he wasnâ??t complainingâ?¦ but he had his arms wrapped around himself sort of hugging himself, and he was shaking. When I asked him what was wrong, he said his shoulders were hurting. He did not ask to quit the workout or anything like that. He didnâ??t complain. But his shoulders hurt bad enough to make him literally hug himself and tremble. In spite of this, he did not complain and was willing to continue the workout.

Rob does the workouts that I tell him to do. When his legs hurt so bad he can barely walk, he doesnâ??t tell me about it, I have to ask. If I see him literally limping, I ask him how he feels. Cause if I didnâ??t ask, he wouldnâ??t complain, he would just train as best he could.

Robert currently has best lifts of 122kg snatch and 145kg clean and jerk in the 85kg weight class. Good but not great. But based on his work ethic and toughness, I am willing to predict that he will total over 300 kilos within a year of this date, which is 11/18/2010.

Rob Blackwell will be a great weightlifter because he is a tough, tough dude. As a coach, I am LUCKY to be able to coach guys like Rob. LUCKY. It is guys like Rob that make me look like a good coach.

Glenn

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[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
This seems to hold true for the deadlift. Those that are not naturally good at it can often also not stand up to doing much of it, and need to pursue progress through assistance lifts. On the other hand with a lift that is more dependent on skill, like a snatch or something, not being naturally “good” at it means that you have to do it over and over and over, while a guy who is good can get away with doing it less and spending more time on building strength…

I do have a recomendation for lower body flexibility, but rather than try to explain it, let me just shoot you a quick video after practice, I will stick it up on the video page that I have mentioned before. Probably get it dont later this afternoon.

[quote]Calis wrote:
Hey Glenn, great to have you answering questions here. I’ve got a couple for you if you don’t mind,

  1. Do you have any recommendations for how to gain the flexibility necessary for the olympic lifts? Particularly around the hips and ankles.

  2. What do you think of the idea that when a lifter isn’t particularly anthropometrically suited to a particular lift then more variety/assistance work is useful to them. Whereas those that are well suited to it do best just focusing on the lift itself with minimal assistance. A couple of examples I’ve heard proposed are that lifters with long legs may benefit from the addition of more single leg work, or that bodybuilders with long limbs will benefit from extra isolation work.

Thanks
Calis[/quote]
[/quote]

Can someone please direct/link me to said video?

Thanks,

-CTF

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[quote]Chi-Towns-Finest wrote:

Can someone please direct/link me to said video?

Thanks,

-CTF[/quote]

http://www.californiastrength.com/olwete.html

There’s a flexibility tab on the far right