How I Write Programs: Episode 4 - Pairing Main and Supplemental Lifts

In this installment of me spewing my unsolicited opinions about training I'm in the mood to talk about how I like to pair the Main Lift with the Supplemental Lifts. This would be an off-season template because it's a tremendous amount of work. Before I get into some of the specifics I'll note that I have used this type of set-up with any and all off-season type training cycles. I definitely stole this concept from Joe Kenn and the Tier System. I don't think I implement it the same way, but the "spirit" of it is here. As we dive back into my powerlifting days we know that we had 3 lifts we were trying to improve. We all tried to find variations of those Main Lifts to help drive our Main Lift up. Hence, the Supplemental Lift. These variation directly affect our Main Lift in a positive manner. During the powerlifting days I had some specific lifts that I figured out had a direct correlation to Main Lift improvement. With the athletes I'm not concerned with finding the "perfect" Supplemental Lifts for each kid. I'm just concerned with variation of movement. I tend to go with the movements that I thought helped me, the ones Vincent thought helped him and what is feasible/teachable in my weight room. Enough strolling down Amnesia Lane. Let's get into the good stuff. Choose your Main Lifts that you want to improve/test. Make sure you choose lifts that give you a picture of improvement. For athletes, we're trying to improve speed, strength, power, change of direction, mobility and injury resilience. Your Main Lifts should cover some of those, namely strength and power. If you get stronger it's safe to assume you've improved power, speed, change of direction and injury resilience. I tend to lean towards the traditional Hang Clean (power), Squat (lower strength) and Bench (upper strength). How original? I have used the Push Press (power) and Trap Bar (lower strength), as well. Obviously, some type of Jump test would qualify as power (Broad Jump, Vertical Jump). We can dive deeper into all of this, but for purposes of this, I'm sticking with the weight room. So, Main Lifts are:

• Hang Clean
• Squat
• Bench

When choosing Supplemental Lifts they should directly affect the Main Lift - help drive it up. There are a few "rules" I follow, but can be broken.

1. Use a barbell (you could use DB's, but you'll get more bang for your buck with the bar and DB's are used in the circuit)
2. Be on 2 feet (although Single-leg is acceptable - I tend to use Single-leg in my circuits)
3. Variation of the Main Barbell Lift

Hang Clean Supplemental Lifts

• Push Press (not necessarily a direct correlation to Hang Clean, but it's a variation on an Olympic Lift)
• Clean Pull
• Deadlift
• Hang Snatch

There are all kinds of variations and hybrid lifts you can choose. Keep it very simple because teaching this stuff is a bitch. Learning it, for an athlete that isn't here to lift weights, is even harder. Just know you have choices. Pick the ones that YOU think are the most beneficial and teach them well so the kids can become fairly proficient with them. If they're not at least proficient they won't get much benefit from them. Squat Supplemental Lifts

• Dynamic Effort Squat (more like Wendler's FSL)
• Front Squat
• SSB Squat

Obviously, there are others, but these are my go-to's. Bench Supplemental Lifts

• Bench (Close-grip or Regular grip)(BB or FBB)
• Incline (Close-grip or Regular grip - vary angle if possible)(BB or FBB)
• Press (BB or FBB)

Again, there are others, but these are what I stick with. How you choose to write your program is entirely up to you. My Supplemental Lifts are done on different days than the Main Lifts. For example, my program might look like this: Monday

• Main Lift - Hang Clean
• Supplemental Lift (Squat) - Dynamic Effort Squat (FSL)

Wednesday

• Main Lift - Squat
• Supplemental Lift (Bench) - Incline

Friday

• Main Lift - Bench
• Supplemental Lift (Olympic) - Push Press

As I see it, the Supplemental lift is done the workout before the Main Lift. That's a little odd considering we Hang Clean on Monday and Push Press on Friday. But, if you keep going through the cycle you'll see that the Push Press on Friday is the workout before the Hang Clean the following Monday. There are certainly a lot of ways you can choose your Supplemental Lifts. The one big point that I will mention is don't get to creative. Stick with lifts that you can teach well. Stick with lifts that are fairly easy for the athletes to perform. Not the lifts YOU think they can perform, but the lifts they can actually do well. This may take a little experimenting before you figure this out. Drop your ego. It's not about how fancy your program is or how many exercises you know. It's about the progress of the team and the individual. I won't waste time teaching a lift that the group seems to struggle with when I could use an alternative that accomplishes the same goal. It may not be the "best" lift. But, if they can't perform it well it doesn't matter how good the lift is supposed to be - it sucks because they can't do it well. Hopefully, this may give you some ideas as you get ready to write your next round of programs for the winter. The next logical topic is to explain how I choose my Circuits based on what the Main and Supplemental Lift are.