[quote]Galvatron wrote:
So what’s your excuse for not taking your own brilliant and never-been-observed-before-by-anyone-in-the-history-of-the-world pearls of wisdom and actually doing a snatch or…gasp… a clean&jerk? You plan on doing snatch-grip deads and front squats right up to the Olympic gold medal platform? That would be quite a neat trick. Your clearly not afraid of doing them, and you obviously know everything there is to know about technique and training so please enlighten us as to why we never see the classic lifts come up in your training, much less with high frequency.[/quote]
This is another major problem as to why alot of trainees suck. They pay waaay too much attention to specificity. Some people think that you can raise your deadlift by X pounds, and your squat won’t go up unless you train it… BULLSHIT!!! Sure, it may not instantly raise your squat poundage, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t have an indirect effect… Take for example, the barbell row. A stronger upper back usually leads to a more stable squat. It won’t magically add X pounds on your squat, but it does have an indirect effect that can make things easier for you…
Have you ever heard of the 600 pound clean and jerk? No? Me neither because there is no such thing. The world have yet to see a 600 pound clean and jerk in an olympic weightlifting competition. Do you think it would be possible for someone to be able to clean and jerk 600 pounds without being able to front squat ATLEAST!!! atleast… 774 pounds! NO!! By raising your front squat and deadlift, you increase your potential for a massive clean and jerk. Of course, it may not add up instantly to the poundage of the classical lifts, and who knows? Maybe you may actually develop wrong motor habits that can potentially ruin your C&J technique, but who cares? Atleast you know that your body is capable of clean and jerking X pounds cause you front squat Y pounds… That is why I never do the olympic lifts…
And another thing, there is a theory that the more exercises you do, the slower your progress is gonna be with those exercises. There have been experts who have been practicing this theory… They may not know what it is, but they practice it. Smolov has you squatting without some form of lower body assistance exercise. Abhadjiev have made his athletes snatch, clean and jerk, and front squat throughout their entire careers. Stephan Korte believes that in order to develop the muscles for powerlifting, you have to do the powerlifts and nothing else. Tudor Bompa wrote in one of his books that when training with heavy loads, you should never, EVER do more than 5 exercises a session. Glenn Pendlay once stated that IF YOU WERE TO ACTUALLY DROP THE SNATCH AND THE CLEAN AND JERK (and/or other hang/power variations) IN A WEIGHTLIFTER’S ROUTINE, HIS SQUAT WOULD SHOOT THROUGH THE ROOF… It just so happens that he does not train someone to become a better squatter, but rather, a better weightlifter… Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength routine has you doing the squat, bench press, power clean, AND NOTHING ELSE!!!..
Heck, even Louie Simmons, who is known for having his lifters train with TONS of assistance exercises only has you lifting max weights with 2 exercises a week.
A cold hard fact that is sadly unknown to many iron game enthusiasts is that even though powerlifting is the one and only sport that tests your limit strength, olympic weightlifters have a higher level of limit strength than powerlifters… And those guys don’t even focus on the powerlifts. HOW SAD IS THAT!!!
It’s time the world of ironlifting starts listening to me no matter how arrogant I am. I am probably the only person who has seen these things, because I believe that if ANY OF YOU T-Nation members have realized these things early on, you’re love for strength sports will urge you to do the same thing that I have been trying to do in here since the moment I logged in at T-Nation…
OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES PEOPLE!!! The only person who’s making sense right now is ME, and I’m not even an advanced lifter…
Please… forgive me arrogance. If you wanna follow my journey, then you are more than welcome to…