Simplifying the Heavy-Light-Medium Training System – Part 3: Pulling

As with the squatting and pressing program, Starr’s basic template in The Strongest Shall Survive, called for just one pulling exercise to be done each week – the power clean.  Like the squats and bench presses, power cleans were to be done for 5×5 arranged in a heavy-light-medium sequence throughout the week.  Supposing I was forced to choose just one pulling exercise to do 3 days per week, for a group of athletes, power cleans would probably be my exercise of choice.  Deadlifts are the better strength builder, but doing them three days per week would be difficult for most athletes to recover from.  Snatches are also a good exercise, but cleans can be done heavier, so they would win out in our hypothetical scenario. 

Fortunately we are not in a scenario where we must make this choice.  Similar to the pressing program, most athletes will receive greater benefit from a more diverse pulling program. 

My favorite general pulling program is to deadlift on Heavy day, power snatch on the light day, and power clean on the medium day.  To build a strong pull off the floor, we can’t just do the Olympic lifts.  We need to be pulling heavy and deadlifts allow us to do this.  By default, snatches are lighter than cleans and so the two Olympic variants fall neatly into the organization of this system.  I’m a believer in variety when it isn’t just for variety’s sake.  Having three different types of pulls for the athlete to work on prevents staleness and mental boredom from creeping into the program. 

Example set up of a basic pulling program:

Monday:  Deadlift 1×5

Wednesday:  Snatch 5-8 doubles

Friday:  Power clean 5 triples

 There are however reasons to follow a different set up.  A few options are presented below.

Eliminate one Olympic variant from the program and do the other one twice. 

As an example, many trainees may be cursed with an anthropometry that makes effectively racking a clean difficult.  Many lifters cannot properly receive the barbell on the shoulders, and are forced to catch the barbell with their hands, out in front of the body.  This may be fine with lighter weights, but as the athlete’s strength grows, racking a heavy clean in this manner can lead to serious aggravation in the wrists and elbows.  Or it may simply result in a lot of frustration due to frequently missing reps.  In this scenario, the trainee may simply choose to deadlift once per week, and snatch twice – once heavy, and once light.  

The same scenario could potentially present itself with the snatch.  Older trainees in particular may find that that proper racking of the snatch is difficult due to a lack of range of motion in the shoulders.  Sometimes this can be remedied with stretching and practice, and sometimes it cannot.  An example might be where there is a history of rotator cuff surgeries or arthritis.  In this scenario the trainee may decide that it is more prudent to eliminate the snatch from his/her program and clean twice per week, once heavy, once lighter, and continue to deadlift heavy once per week. 

The benefit to this set up is that the trainee will likely get very good at whatever Olympic variant is getting trained twice per week.  For this reason alone, some trainees who are capable of doing both lifts, may still only choose to concentrate on one or the other as to not spread their focus too thin.  In this instance, it is my recommendation that the trainee select the clean over the snatch simply because you can do more weight, and heavier is generally better. 

On a programming note, the Olympic variants don’t need as much offset to be considered a “light day.”  Taking 20 lbs off of a 400 lb squat doesn’t really make it a “light day”  The lifter is still going to be exerting a tremendous amount of effort to squat 380 lbs.  This isn’t necessarily true with the Olympic variants.  The lifter who can clean 225 for triples will generally find 205 lbs fairly easy.  So when selecting your light day weights, a 5-10% offset should be sufficient.  As always, percentages are just guidelines.  Always use your own experience and common sense to select the appropriate amount of weight. 

Two slow pulls per week, one dynamic pull.

In this instance, the lifter may decide that cleaning and snatching isn’t doing much to drive his deadlifting weights up.  Often times this is the case when a lifter has a very strong deadlift, and simply is not very good at cleaning or snatching.  If technique on the Olympic lifts has the lifter muddled in say, the low 200’s, those lifts probably aren’t going to do much to drive a 600 lb deadlift.  In order to get his deadlift unstuck, the trainee may decide to implement another ‘slow’ pull such as a stiff legged deadlift, Romanian deadlift, or even a goodmorning.  If the lifter decided to use these in his program, they fit neatly into the medium day. 

Example model:

Monday:  Deadlift – work up to a heavy set of 5

Wednesday:  Power Clean – 6 doubles

Friday:  Stiff Leg Deadlift 3×5

Many lifters will find that their low backs simply cannot recover from two “slow” pulling days per week.  Others will do just fine, but may only be able to do so for short periods of time, say 6-12 weeks. 

As a final note on the pulling program, let’s address a common issue for some very strong deadlifters.  Assume that our hypothetical lifter is doing my standard program of pulling heavy on Monday, snatching on Wednesday, and cleaning on Friday.  In our hypothetical scenario the lifter is getting mentally and physically fatigued from doing standard conventional deadlifts every single week and progress is beginning to stall.  It may be in this trainee’s best interest to start working in a rotation of other heavy deadlifting variants.  This will keep the heavy day ‘heavy’ but will begin to introduce some fluctuation in loading each week.  This may break the lifter out of his rut.  We see this same method in Mark Rippetoe’s Practical Programming.   In Rippetoe’s text, the lifter alternates week to week between a heavy 5 rep set of rack pulls and an 8 rep set of halting deadlifts.  These are done in place of the regular deadlift workout.  Likewise, one of the corner stones of  Louie Simmon’s Westside Barbell program is the continual rotation of various ‘max effort’ exercises in place of the standard competition lifts.  In this scenario we are blatantly stealing from Louie, and using this concept on our heavy day.  

The lifter does not need 6,784 max effort exercises to choose from.  My advice is to select a maximum of 4, including standard deadlifts.  An example heavy day rotation might be:

Week 1:  Standard Deadlifts

Week 2:  Deficit Deadlifts (standing on a 2-4 inch block)

Week 3:  Rack Pulls

Week 4:  Stiff Leg Deadlifts

In this scenario, the trainee would continue to snatch on his light day, and clean on his medium day. 

 

Programming Review

Sample Heavy-Light-Medium Program (Powerlifting Focus)

Monday /Heavy:

Squat 3-5×5

Bench Press 3-5×5

Deadlift 1×5

Wednesday/Light:

Squat 3×5 (10-20% offload from Monday)

Press 3-5×5

Power Cleans 5×3 or 6×2

Friday/Medium:

Squat 3-5×5 (5-10% offload from Monday)

Close Grip Bench Press 3×5, 2×8-10 (back off set)

Stiff Leg Deadlifts 2-3×8

The trainee might follow this relatively high volume program for 6-12 weeks, until performance can no longer be improved .  The lifter would then transition into a phase of lower volume training (perhaps 4-6 weeks) where PR’s will be set on lower rep sets:

Monday/Heavy:

Squats: 5 heavy singles

Bench Press:  5 paused singles

Deadlifts:  1-3 heavy singles

Wednesday/Light:

Squats 3×5 (same weights as phase one)

Press 3×3

Power Clean:  10 singles (on a 1-2 minute clock)

Friday/Medium:

Squats 3×5 (same weights as phase one)

Close Grip Bench 3×3, 1×6-8 (back off set)

Stiff Leg Deadlift 2×5

After setting some new PR’s, the trainee might take a deloading week of less frequent training, lower volume, and light weights, and then start back over at phase one again. 

Monday:

Squats 3×5

Bench Press3x5

Power cleans 3×3

Thursday:

Squats 3×5

Press 3×5

Stiff Leg Deadlifts3x5

This program is not meant to be a cut and paste prescription for anyone who wants to embark upon a HLM training program.  It’s meant as a reference point as to how one might go about setting up their own training program using these principles.  Exact numbers of sets, reps, and exercise selection are an individual consideration at the intermediate and advanced levels. 

 

Summary

I want to make it very clear to the readers of this article that I am in no way degrading the work or the writing of Bill Starr.  I am not qualified to do so, nor am I arrogant enough to try.  The Strongest Shall Survive belongs on the shelf of any strength coach or personal trainer, and Bill Starr is an icon of the industry.  I have it, and have read it many times.  I am also well aware that the basic program I have referenced throughout this article, is not the only program presented in TSSS.  My attempts in this article series to clarify and simplify, are meant to clear up some of the confusion and misinformation that has arisen and lives on the internet….NOT within the pages of TSSS.  Starr’s program presented in TSSS was his program, for his audience, and for his trainees.  What is regarded on the web as the “Starr 5×5 Program” was an example of a Heavy-Light-Medium program; it is not the Heavy-Light-Medium program.  Much of the confusion and misinformation that lurks in forums and articles on the internet has been propagated by those who have never read Starr’s text, and overall do not understand strength programming. 

I want to thank everyone for indulging me on my initial excursion into the blogosphere.  I hope you have found something useful and practical within this series of articles.  Your comments, feedback, and requests are welcome in the comments section or to my direct email at kingwoodstrength@gmail.com 

If you are interested in additional help with your own programming, check out the Products & Services section of my website.  If you are in the Houston area, feel free to set up an appointment with me at my facility in Kingwood.  If you have questions about these services, send me an email and we can discuss. 

Thanks again,

Andy

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