Okay, many times people do things "just because" and they get upset when asked why they are doing something they get frustrated at their inability to explain or understand why.
What I'm doing now is off season training plus giving my lower back a break after a minor tweak, so not as structured and some stuff is just because I feel like it. Not the adductor stuff, but just decided to do that behind the neck press on the spot. My Saturday session calls for a deadlift movement, a pressing movement, and another deadlift movement.
Belt squat = similar to sumo deadlift without loading the spine
Overhead press = pressing movement
Back extension = another similar deadlift movement without loading the spine
I always do an upper back pull because of the importance of the upper back in all of the big three. The adductor stuff already explained. Other accessories I'll throw in usually include hamstring curls, glute bridges, and core work and that's stuff I believe needs extra work beyond just what the big three provide.
In season training is more structured. Everything definitely has a place and nothing is "just because" because I believe recovery is a finite resource and doing useless stuff would take away from recovering properly for the big three. If you're interested in what that looks like go back to around page 221.
Okay interesting to hear, anecdotal evidence has its place!
I agree. I do like scientific evidence, but the experience of an advanced lifter can be valuable as well.
What's the point of doing variants of the three lifts? For example, do people do incline to help with something particular?
Typically it's to target weak points in the lift. Or could be for hypertrophy as well. Or for a deload or to take it easy for recovery or an injury. Incline could be for hypertrophy if you thought it was a lack of chest muscle holding you back on bench. Or for me I sometimes use an exercise like incline because it naturally limits the weight you can use so it's a way to deload a bit. Another theory would be to rotate different lifts so you can consistently hit PRs for the mental benefits of keeping momentum going.
For the weak points for instance if you're weak in the bottom of the squat you might do some long paused squats. Or bench you might do long pauses on the chest or even pause below a sticking point if you're tend to miss a bench in the middle somewhere. Top end you'd incorporate a Slingshot or add chains perhaps.
Hypertrophy you might program incline bench for chest size or dips for triceps size. If you thought your quads were holding you back maybe front squat or leg press. This would be more off season stuff. In stuff you'd want more comp lift specific. It's my opinion at least for the purposes of powerlifting most of your hypertrophy work should be specific like incline bench, front squats, Romanian deadlift and the like over something like dumbbell flyes or triceps press downs.
For purposes of deload or resting certain muscles I program belt squats in the place of deadlift sometimes because the movement is similar to breaking the floor on a sumo deadlift, but you don't fatigue your lower back. I've found that helps me a lot in training to use some of the muscles involved in a similar fashion while allowing my lower back to rest. I sometimes do front squats over low bar back squat because it's easier on the hips and allows better recovery for sumo deadlift. Or use a Safety Squat Bar to squat to let the elbows and shoulders rest for bench. Just depends on your particular needs.
When you are looking to improve on a lift. What aspects are most important when setting up a personal plan to achieve that goal?
You'd have to really analyze your form and diagnose what it is you need. The last couple years I really focused on improving my sumo deadlift because I really wanted to get to 700lbs. For me that was a lot of hip mobility work to improve my setup position. More open hips and wider stance means more upright back angle, shorter ROM, and more efficent bar path with it being closer to your hips. Also did a lot of glute work, adductor work, core work, and quad work. And technique work by tons of videos of lifts from different angles and lots of analysis and minor tweaks. Doing the belt squats to give my lower back a rest seemed to help a lot as well as I was getting into the heavier weights as well. It was a lot of trial and error. Tried to just make small changes and go with it awhile to see what worked and what didn't.
But anyway, back to improving a lift it would be individual. You'd have to look at where you typically failed a lift and go from there. Might just be a simple cue you need to remember in a lift to get your technique down. For me it's locking my knees in time on heavy sumo pulls that missing a lift a lot. Or if you're getting folded up on heavy squats core work might be in order. Could be a lot of things and most likely will take some trial and error.
I guess bulking your way through plateaus might be an option for some. I'm not a huge eater and prefer to stay in the 220lb class or under anyway. So for me it's getting leaner and more muscular at the same bodyweight and working on technique a lot. For someone else would just depend. If they aren't really advanced yet simple linear progression is probably all they need. I'm of the opinion training should be kept as simple as possible for as long as possible. If you can progress without variations or complex programming you should absolutely do that. I also think there's a point where someone doesn't really have weak points yet, they're just not strong overall yet. Once you've gotten as far as simple programming can get you just doing the main lifts then you can look to improving weak points as needed.
Do you do any video recording of your lifts to see where the weakest link of the chain breaks?
I have close to 1000 training videos on my phone currently and I've erased as many or more over the years. I record quite a bit of my working sets and spend a lot of time watching them over and over trying to figure out exactly what I need to improve. Again with the deadlift example it's locking my knees in time on very heavy pulls. I don't know why exactly except maybe the slower bar speed throws off my timing. Haven't figured it out exactly yet.
Gonna have to cut it off here, girlfriend is waiting for me to watch a movie we rented. Will be happy to elaborate further on anything tomorrow.
