GLENN PENDLAY Q&A

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
41

[quote]Calis wrote:

[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]

Cheers Glenn, that’s great. Loving all the video stuff you’re doing just now. [/quote]

i am gonna get a lot more of them up in short order, so keep checking back.

42

Hey Glenn! Would first like to say it is an absolute pleasure to have you available for Q+A I tried the timing drill you put up for snatch (rocking the bar and then the hips) and it has worked a treat for my 2nd pull.

I have a couple of videos of snatching and C+J that if you could offer any critique on I would be more than greatful.

43

[quote]Calis wrote:
Cheers Glenn, that’s great. Loving all the video stuff you’re doing just now. [/quote]

I would also like to second this I have found them very useful.

44

[quote]IrishMarc wrote:
Hey Glenn! Would first like to say it is an absolute pleasure to have you available for Q+A I tried the timing drill you put up for snatch (rocking the bar and then the hips) and it has worked a treat for my 2nd pull.

I have a couple of videos of snatching and C+J that if you could offer any critique on I would be more than greatful.

I really liked your clean, you timed it well and caught it nice and tight. There is one flaw that I think I see but the angle makes it hard to be completely sure. You seem to be starting the second pull too low. Next time you warm up, take note of where the bar is contacting your thigh. It should definately be on the upper half, not in the middle, not on the lower half.

On the jerk, I cant really see the geometry of the split position because of the camera angle, but, the way you were unable to hold the split position without drifting and then recovered forward tells me t hat something is wrong. You either just didnt step the front foot out far enough, or you let the front knee drift over the toe instead of holding the split position with the lower leg vertical.

To fix this you need to adjust to a split position that you can hold perfectly still in for 2-3 seconds after you have caught the bar, then recover by stepping the front foot back to midline, then stepping the back foot forward to the finish position with feet parallel.

When you have found a position with your warmups that lets you do these two things, its likely that you will have fixed your problem. As you move up in weight try to stick with this for a few workouts, then gradually phase out holding the split for 2-3 seconds, but always try to recover as I explained.

On the snatch its very simple, you are moving the bar forward around the knees as it comes off the floor, and this is causing the catch to be forward. Push the knees back harder and concentrate on getting your weight on your heels by the time the bar at your knee.

Hope some of this helps.

45

Thanks for all the good info. Glenn.

I’m currently following a sort of knock off of westside with high volume and intensity on monday shooting for a heavey 3x3 along with several reps at lower weights and a lower day on friday consisting of pause FS for something like 2x5. i’m getting pretty good results with this but i’m feeling it cuts into my core lifts with the amount of time for recovery from mondays workout.

Do you ever recommend single leg squat variations or find they help the core lifts much? where would you recommend putting in heavy abs? Thanks

46

[quote]boldar wrote:
Thanks for all the good info. Glenn.

I’m currently following a sort of knock off of westside with high volume and intensity on monday shooting for a heavey 3x3 along with several reps at lower weights and a lower day on friday consisting of pause FS for something like 2x5. i’m getting pretty good results with this but i’m feeling it cuts into my core lifts with the amount of time for recovery from mondays workout.

Do you ever recommend single leg squat variations or find they help the core lifts much? where would you recommend putting in heavy abs? Thanks[/quote]

Anytime you squat with any sort of volume, it is gonna cut into your ability to do other training for at least 24-36 hours. This is why the kids I have on higher volume workouts for the squat go on Wednesday and Saturday, because thursday is a relatively light day for us, and we have Sunday off.

I am not really big on single leg stuff for OLers, but think its great for a lot of other athletes. For an OLer, using single leg stuff would be a result of recovery problems when doing regular front squats and back squats. We do use a lot of single leg stuff for shot putters, sprinters, hurdlers, and football and basketball players. In fact, right now looking out the window of my office into the training hall, I see a couple of sprinters and hurdlers doing the death march, and swimmer from Zimbabwe who will be on their next summer Olympic team doing split squats.

We have one Elite level hurdler who isnt here right now because he is racing in Europe, but one of his core exercises is a one legged jump onto a box executed in the following way: Stand with feet parallel about 6-12 inches in front of the box, step back with your left foot a distance that will give you about the same split as you would use on a jerk, descend till your left knee touches the ground. Now you lean forward to put the majority of your weight on your right foot and explode upwards, jumping off the right foot as you bring your left knee violently up as far as you can… land on the box with your right foot, same foot as you jumped off of. Obviously you do the same then with the other foot leading. Get onto a 40 inch box in that manner like Tim does and your a jumper! We use dumbbells in the hands for this, but a weight vest works best.

The listed exercises should give you an idea of how we use single leg work when we do use it, most often as part of conditioning or part of the dynamic or plyo parts of the training, less often as a pure strength movement.

47

Greetings, I’m a powerlifter and noticed your writings in another forum along with Christian Thibedau. Anyhow, what struck me most was when you recommended that one train but not psych oneself up as it is cns draining. I think i’ve noticed some of this in videos i have seen of pyrros dimas front squatting, In one he did around 375 for a few sets of triples they didn’t look hard whatsoever, I imagine this is what you are getting at, stimulating the muscles just enough to get a response w/o draining the cns, by getting fired up or the adrenaline going.
I guess my question is am I on the right track? I did my power squats tonight including my warmups and i tried to not be as tense, like i didn’t try to get amped up and I actually relaxed my upper back a bit because of this, i hit 345x3x2x2, all moderately fast i felt i could have gone faster but i would have needed to get the anger going. I stopped when i felt the bar speed slow or knew it would be. Keep in mind a few weeks ago i hit 435x2x2x2x2, i obviously got fired up for that, I mention this as i wonder are the weights too light that i’m working with? Have you seen such a decrease before? Will this training style work only if i do it often as in practice all lifts with speed 3x a week. My current program has me squat/bench/deadlift once a week. Anyhow, thanks for the help.

48

[quote]Oreillbc wrote:
Greetings, I’m a powerlifter and noticed your writings in another forum along with Christian Thibedau. Anyhow, what struck me most was when you recommended that one train but not psych oneself up as it is cns draining. I think i’ve noticed some of this in videos i have seen of pyrros dimas front squatting, In one he did around 375 for a few sets of triples they didn’t look hard whatsoever, I imagine this is what you are getting at, stimulating the muscles just enough to get a response w/o draining the cns, by getting fired up or the adrenaline going.
I guess my question is am I on the right track? I did my power squats tonight including my warmups and i tried to not be as tense, like i didn’t try to get amped up and I actually relaxed my upper back a bit because of this, i hit 345x3x2x2, all moderately fast i felt i could have gone faster but i would have needed to get the anger going. I stopped when i felt the bar speed slow or knew it would be. Keep in mind a few weeks ago i hit 435x2x2x2x2, i obviously got fired up for that, I mention this as i wonder are the weights too light that i’m working with? Have you seen such a decrease before? Will this training style work only if i do it often as in practice all lifts with speed 3x a week. My current program has me squat/bench/deadlift once a week. Anyhow, thanks for the help.
[/quote]

The object is to develop the skill of lifting pretty heavy weights without a lot of psyching up, and because of this be able to lift more and lift more often without overtraining. The object is not to lift light.

I would suggest that you get the weight back over 400lbs pretty quickly… maybe 20lb jumps per workout. And you dont have to do the sets with a smile on your face and a lovely ballad in your head. The object is to not have to psych up before the set. Your still allowed to push HARD and use maximal effort during the set.

49

I know I haven’t been as quick with the videos as I had hoped, but the 4 part series on snatches is now up at the california strength website on the videos page. They are labeled part I, part II, part III and final thoughts.

I did them using Donny Shankle, Jon North, and Caleb Ward, all of whom have impressive resumes in OL. I thought it would be interesting to see how they all had slightly different positions based on their body proportions, but all were still within the acceptable guidelines. If anyone has any constructive criticism, be happy to hear it before I do the videos for the cleans.

50

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
…
Few things that I would change. One is your start, there is way too much moving around and rolling the bar back and forth for you to have a consistent start, IMO at least. And if the start isnt consistent, the rest of the lift will be also.

Walk up to the bar, and put your feet under it, make it so the bar is right at the base of your big toe. Now, without moving the bar, grip it, drop the hips, and lift. Don’t roll the bar around.

Next, there is way too much looking up at the ceiling during your lifts at the Keystone games. Find a spot on the wall in front of you, about head height. Try to keep your eyes on it during the lift.

Last thing is that yes, your top pull is slower and longer than is ideal. I would suggest both drills that I linked the videos to earlier in the thread. Both of those drills done with moderate weights tend to shorten and speed up a top pull. If you are interested, I would love to see a couple of videos of you doing those drills with 50kg or so.

Hope that helps.

glenn [/quote]

Thank you Glenn and I have the new vids for you with 50kg power snatch and 50kg squat snatch.

a quick note:
->while taping the videos I forgot what you said about keeping the focus at about eye level :frowning:
->as for the start… I used to start similar to the way you mentioned. But I changed it to rolling bar (along with toes straight, and feet wider than shoulders for snatch) a few months ago. It seems to work. HOWEVER if you see issues on the videos I will change it back.

(power snatch)

(squat snatch)

After these I went all the way up to 75kg where I could not be consistent 0,1,0, I am sure the issues will show up a lot “better” here:

btw… i just saw your new 3part snatch series. I feel like I need to play a lot with 40kg and 50kg now.

51

[quote]Neospartan wrote:

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
…
Few things that I would change. One is your start, there is way too much moving around and rolling the bar back and forth for you to have a consistent start, IMO at least. And if the start isnt consistent, the rest of the lift will be also.

Walk up to the bar, and put your feet under it, make it so the bar is right at the base of your big toe. Now, without moving the bar, grip it, drop the hips, and lift. Don’t roll the bar around.

Next, there is way too much looking up at the ceiling during your lifts at the Keystone games. Find a spot on the wall in front of you, about head height. Try to keep your eyes on it during the lift.

Last thing is that yes, your top pull is slower and longer than is ideal. I would suggest both drills that I linked the videos to earlier in the thread. Both of those drills done with moderate weights tend to shorten and speed up a top pull. If you are interested, I would love to see a couple of videos of you doing those drills with 50kg or so.

Hope that helps.

glenn [/quote]

Thank you Glenn and I have the new vids for you with 50kg power snatch and 50kg squat snatch.

a quick note:
->while taping the videos I forgot what you said about keeping the focus at about eye level :frowning:
->as for the start… I used to start similar to the way you mentioned. But I changed it to rolling bar (along with toes straight, and feet wider than shoulders for snatch) a few months ago. It seems to work. HOWEVER if you see issues on the videos I will change it back.

(power snatch)

(squat snatch)

After these I went all the way up to 75kg where I could not be consistent 0,1,0, I am sure the issues will show up a lot “better” here:

btw… i just saw your new 3part snatch series. I feel like I need to play a lot with 40kg and 50kg now.

[/quote]

Yeah, look forward. That’s important while your learning. Other than that, you might be getting off your heals a bit too soon. Get some vids where you are are looking straight ahead, and staying on your heals, I’d love to see them.

52

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
I know I haven’t been as quick with the videos as I had hoped, but the 4 part series on snatches is now up at the california strength website on the videos page. They are labeled part I, part II, part III and final thoughts.

I did them using Donny Shankle, Jon North, and Caleb Ward, all of whom have impressive resumes in OL. I thought it would be interesting to see how they all had slightly different positions based on their body proportions, but all were still within the acceptable guidelines. If anyone has any constructive criticism, be happy to hear it before I do the videos for the cleans.[/quote]

The snatch videos were great, thanks for posting them. Having three different lifters perform the drills was a great idea. Will you still be posting up your flexibility drills?

53

[quote]Dave284 wrote:

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
I know I haven’t been as quick with the videos as I had hoped, but the 4 part series on snatches is now up at the california strength website on the videos page. They are labeled part I, part II, part III and final thoughts.

I did them using Donny Shankle, Jon North, and Caleb Ward, all of whom have impressive resumes in OL. I thought it would be interesting to see how they all had slightly different positions based on their body proportions, but all were still within the acceptable guidelines. If anyone has any constructive criticism, be happy to hear it before I do the videos for the cleans.[/quote]

Yes, getting them shot as quickly as possible…

The snatch videos were great, thanks for posting them. Having three different lifters perform the drills was a great idea. Will you still be posting up your flexibility drills?[/quote]

54

Hey Glenn… hope you can help me out here.

I’ve been Olympic lifting for awhile now, using Greg’s WOD, and doing pretty good (114 snatch, 132 for c&j). However I’m also applying to some federal agencies and need to practice for their fitness tests, so I have to add in more sprinting/sled work, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. This means that I am going to need to cut down on the Olympic lift volume for awhile. My question is, what is the best way to still progress on the Olympic lifts while having all this other physical activity (still lifting 5x a week)? Just focus on the two lifts and their power variations? I was thinking of something similar to my sample day below…

Power Clean + Jerk
Back or Front Squat
Pull-ups (abs in-between sets)
400m sprints

Basic and simple, but IMO still allows me to progress and feel recovered. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

55

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
Hey Glenn… hope you can help me out here.

I’ve been Olympic lifting for awhile now, using Greg’s WOD, and doing pretty good (114 snatch, 132 for c&j). However I’m also applying to some federal agencies and need to practice for their fitness tests, so I have to add in more sprinting/sled work, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. This means that I am going to need to cut down on the Olympic lift volume for awhile. My question is, what is the best way to still progress on the Olympic lifts while having all this other physical activity (still lifting 5x a week)? Just focus on the two lifts and their power variations? I was thinking of something similar to my sample day below…

Power Clean + Jerk
Back or Front Squat
Pull-ups (abs in-between sets)
400m sprints

Basic and simple, but IMO still allows me to progress and feel recovered. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
[/quote]

One thing I think you should consider is doing the Olympic lifts in a way that increases your conditioning. I think most people know that I think doing timed sets or sets “on the minute” is a great workout. Its also a hell of a conditioning tool. Pick a weight, get a clock in front of you, and hit a snatch or clean and jerk each time the second hand hits the 12… go for 20 minutes. 80% is a good weight to start with, but adjust to as heavy as you can be successful with.

If your having to run, and practice for a test which involves running and bodyweight stuff, I would back off on your squats more than anything else. You should be able to do all that stuff, and improve at it, while still working pretty hard on your Olympic lifts, but doing significant amounts of squatting will kill your ability to recover.

So i guess that would be my take, back off the squats and use the Olympic lifts as a part of your conditioning. Sounds like you can probably figure out how much and when on the running and bodyweight stuff as well as I can.

good luck!!

56

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
…
…
…
Yeah, look forward. That’s important while your learning. Other than that, you might be getting off your heals a bit too soon. Get some vids where you are are looking straight ahead, and staying on your heals, I’d love to see them. [/quote]

will do… btw, my traps are burning! and i was not thinking about “shrugging”

57

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:
One thing I think you should consider is doing the Olympic lifts in a way that increases your conditioning. I think most people know that I think doing timed sets or sets “on the minute” is a great workout. Its also a hell of a conditioning tool. Pick a weight, get a clock in front of you, and hit a snatch or clean and jerk each time the second hand hits the 12… go for 20 minutes. 80% is a good weight to start with, but adjust to as heavy as you can be successful with.

If your having to run, and practice for a test which involves running and bodyweight stuff, I would back off on your squats more than anything else. You should be able to do all that stuff, and improve at it, while still working pretty hard on your Olympic lifts, but doing significant amounts of squatting will kill your ability to recover.

So i guess that would be my take, back off the squats and use the Olympic lifts as a part of your conditioning. Sounds like you can probably figure out how much and when on the running and bodyweight stuff as well as I can.

good luck!!
[/quote]

Man, I remember when our coach had us do that drill :slight_smile: “Good” times!

58

Glenn,

As a sort of “active recovery”, would it be ok to work on technique in between the main sets? I.E. do the lift, put the weight down, grab an empty bar and do one of your Snatch Progression exercises until it’s time for the next lift.

Or do you prefer your athletes to do technique work as a seperate sesssion?

Cheers
Clutch

[/quote]

One thing I think you should consider is doing the Olympic lifts in a way that increases your conditioning. I think most people know that I think doing timed sets or sets “on the minute” is a great workout. Its also a hell of a conditioning tool. Pick a weight, get a clock in front of you, and hit a snatch or clean and jerk each time the second hand hits the 12… go for 20 minutes. 80% is a good weight to start with, but adjust to as heavy as you can be successful with.

59

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
Hey Glenn… hope you can help me out here.

I’ve been Olympic lifting for awhile now, using Greg’s WOD, and doing pretty good (114 snatch, 132 for c&j). However I’m also applying to some federal agencies and need to practice for their fitness tests, so I have to add in more sprinting/sled work, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. This means that I am going to need to cut down on the Olympic lift volume for awhile. My question is, what is the best way to still progress on the Olympic lifts while having all this other physical activity (still lifting 5x a week)? Just focus on the two lifts and their power variations? I was thinking of something similar to my sample day below…

Power Clean + Jerk
Back or Front Squat
Pull-ups (abs in-between sets)
400m sprints

Basic and simple, but IMO still allows me to progress and feel recovered. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
[/quote]

One thing I think you should consider is doing the Olympic lifts in a way that increases your conditioning. I think most people know that I think doing timed sets or sets “on the minute” is a great workout. Its also a hell of a conditioning tool. Pick a weight, get a clock in front of you, and hit a snatch or clean and jerk each time the second hand hits the 12… go for 20 minutes. 80% is a good weight to start with, but adjust to as heavy as you can be successful with.

If your having to run, and practice for a test which involves running and bodyweight stuff, I would back off on your squats more than anything else. You should be able to do all that stuff, and improve at it, while still working pretty hard on your Olympic lifts, but doing significant amounts of squatting will kill your ability to recover.

So i guess that would be my take, back off the squats and use the Olympic lifts as a part of your conditioning. Sounds like you can probably figure out how much and when on the running and bodyweight stuff as well as I can.

good luck!!
[/quote]
Thanks Glenn, that is very helpful. So if I was doing one sprint session (100-400m sprints or hill sprints), one drag sled session a week, and one 2-3 mile run a week, what would be a good amount of squatting if I was lifting 5x a week? I was thinking 2x a week, one back squat and one front squat session, since I am already snatching/cleaning relatively heavy weights 20 times (anywhere from 80-85% I’m assuming).

Also, should the 20 minutes of the snatch or c&j be done every day? And where do the power variations of the lift come into play, if at all?

60

[quote]Clutch wrote:
Glenn,

As a sort of “active recovery”, would it be ok to work on technique in between the main sets? I.E. do the lift, put the weight down, grab an empty bar and do one of your Snatch Progression exercises until it’s time for the next lift.

Or do you prefer your athletes to do technique work as a seperate sesssion?

Cheers
Clutch

[/quote]

One thing I think you should consider is doing the Olympic lifts in a way that increases your conditioning. I think most people know that I think doing timed sets or sets “on the minute” is a great workout. Its also a hell of a conditioning tool. Pick a weight, get a clock in front of you, and hit a snatch or clean and jerk each time the second hand hits the 12… go for 20 minutes. 80% is a good weight to start with, but adjust to as heavy as you can be successful with.

[/quote]

If you do the timed sets right, the LAST thing you will want to do is practice technique between lifts.!