Book Review No. II: The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football by Bill Starr

 

"Strength undergirds all other factors when one considers the total functioning of the body movements. Without sufficient strength, factors such as endurance, flexibility, and skill cannot be used effectively."

 

Professor Gene Logan of Southwestern Missouri State, noted author in the field of physiology

 

First printed in 1976, Starr's book remains a timeless classic, a work chalked full of insightful training and nutritional advice.  The nutritional section, alone – which addresses, via individual chapters, a wide range of topics, including macronutrient dieting, vitamins, B vitamins, minerals, and "super foods" – is worth the $30 pricetag.  The first two chapters dealing with the human body, its muscles, and the functions of those muscles is also a worthwhile read for someone with a lagging understanding of anatomy, such as myself.

The training methodology Starr advocates for in this book relies heavily, and in some cases exclusively, on the "Big Three," i.e. the back squat, bench press, and power clean.  In order to further simplify the program, Starr prescribes a formulaic five sets of five repetitions for each exercise, ideally increasing the load with each set.  Thus, an athlete's training log would look something like this:

 

Power Clean: 115x5, 135x5, 145x5, 155x5, 165x5

Bench Press: 135x5, 155x5, 175x5, 190x5, 200x5

Back Squat: 135x5, 165x5, 185x5, 205x5, 225x5

Within each training week, Starr recommends reserving Monday for the heaviest training day, with Wednesday and Friday serving as "light" and "medium" workouts.  Starr states the athlete should work up to 80% and 90%, respectively, of their five-rep maximums in each of the Big Three on these other two weekly workouts.  The ultimate goal of Starr's 5x5 program is for the athlete to increase the load on each successive heavy day, and the author suggests taking bigger jumps (10 pounds on the bench press and power clean, 20 pounds on the back squat) early on in the program, thus capitalizing on "newbie" gains.  However, as the loads become more challenging, Starr recommends dialing back these initial jumps.  "When in doubt as to the proper poundage to jump to after a successful five sets of five on the heavy day, always select the lighter of the two choices.  This will give the trainee a higher chance of success and the more times he is successful, the more enthusiastic he will be," he writes.  The author concludes the same paragraph by noting the self-fulfilling prophesy of hard work, success, and enthusiasm.

 

In a somewhat unique and unexpected twist, Starr states the Big Three should be executed via the circuit method. He explains his rationale, writing "[the circuit method] is a preferred method because it insures all the major muscles [are] obtaining equal attention and an equal workload." Starr goes on to add that circuit method also provides significant cardiovascular benefits, as it can easily keep an athlete's heart rate above 120 for 20 minutes or longer. 

Recognizing that a complete review of Starr's 210-page masterpiece could easily produce another 200-plus-page work, I will only touch on the points and highlights I found most interesting and/or discussion-worthy.

(1).  Attempting Maximums and Holding Informal Contests.  Although Starr strongly cautions Strength Coaches against having their athletes test maximum singles in the Big Three too early in the athlete's development, he nonetheless believes a testing interval of every five to six weeks is appropriate once a sufficient introductory period has elapsed.  He recommends these testing days be scheduled on the weekly "heavy" day and only on the Big Three. I found this subsequent excerpt particularly insightful,

"On one of the scheduled test days, take the fellows out of the weight room [and] into the gym or auditorium. Open it up to the entire student body and let it be an informal contest.  Make sure that the players know this well in advance and inform them that the results will be published in the school paper . . . Have such contests perhaps twice during the year.  Set the date as far in advance as possibly so the players have time to train specifically for the contest.  It adds a bit of incentive to the overall program and will help to stimulate the players to work harder on the regular training days."

(2). Building a Record Board.  Building a record board is one recommendation that I have heard from multiple strength gurus, including Louie Simmons, Joe DiFranco, John Welbourn, etc.  Starr suggests developing one that includes multiple weight classes, and uses chalk to note the various records.  He further recommends recording maximums for both fives and singles, thereby providing an added incentive for every heavy Monday workout.  In a related point, Starr writes, "Make it a rule that records can only be made on testing days so that this simply motivational device does not turn into a monster."  This is an excellent point, one that Starr no doubt learned the hard way earlier in his coaching career.

(3).  Continuing Strength Work "In Season."  The concept of lifting mid-season is one subject where I devoted sufficient thought of late, partly because a competitive swim season, for example, can last upwards of five months (a typical collegiate season might run from mid-October to mid-March).  Starr's approach strikes me as a workable solution for the latter part of such a long season (December through February).  He recommends training only one of the Big Three lifts each day in the middle of the week (Tuesday through Thursday), with no prescription for order between power cleans, bench presses, and back squats.  However, Starr does recommend performing preventive exercises like leg hyperextensions and leg biceps curls every workout, not just once a week.  The author has a strange fascination with these two machine-based exercises, in particular.  If time is especially short in the off-season, or if the athletes are particularly tired, Starr suggests they perform only three sets.  In the event athletes are lifting immediately after practice, Starr says allowing them to begin their three sets with heavier weights is also fine, as their bodies are already warm and their muscles are already loose.

(4).  Modifying the 5x5 for the Advanced Trainee.  One of the more interesting tweaks Starr lays out for modifying the 5x5 is the 5,5,5,3,3,3,6-10.  In all my years of lifting, I have never encountered someone using this particular rep scheme, but Starr's explanation provides great insight into its derivation.  "The first three sets serve as warm-up sets and by dropping two reps on the next three sets allows the trainee to use more weight in the lift.  The final back-off set insures the trainee of sufficient work as he will be doing a minimum of 25 reps per exercise.  Any less is not going to be enough total work, regardless of the top weight handled," he writes.  When selecting the load for the back-off set, Starr states the proper loud will generally fall "somewhere between the third and fourth sets, depending on how tired [the athlete is] after the first five sets and how strong [they] happen to be in that specific movement."

Another unique rep scheme is the Dough Hepburn routine, which calls for three sets of five, five heavy singles across, and five sets of five as back-off sets (5x3, 1x5, 5x5).  This particular routine struck as extremely difficult, and Starr agrees, noting that this routine should only be done once a week and that only 5-pound jumps between workouts should be utilized.

(5).  Timed Squats.  The final training point I wanted to mention was Starr’s experimentation with “timed squats.”  During the summer of 1967, Starr and his training partner, Tommy Suggs, decided to experiment on themselves by devising a squat program “designed to increase cardiovascular, respiratory fitness.”  Upon reading this sentence, I immediately thought, “This sounds like one of those horrible ideas your training partner comes up with after browsing the Internet late at night.”  Starr and Suggs embarked on this adventure for the purposes of showing “researchers” that lifting heavy weights could indeed improve endurance, a concept at that time authorities were rejecting.  The two men would perform five sets of ten repetitions, increasing the weight each time, but the major difference between this routine and any other squatting program is that they would time their squatting sessions.  “Our goal was to do the five sets in 12 minutes or less the first day,” writes the author.  In their first session, the two athletes did 135x10, 175x10, 205x10, 255x10, and 275x10 in a total of ten minutes, calculated from the time the first lifter did his first rep until his final rep on the last set.  (At the time, Starr notes both he and Suggs were capable of squatting 500 for a single and handling 425x5 in training).  Starr noted his pulse after these five sets exceeded 180 beats per minutes.  Starr concludes this section on timed squats by writing the two men stayed with the program for a total of four weeks, and they increased the top weight by ten pounds each work.  At the conclusion of these eight workouts, evidently the two men performed this same workout twice per week, Starr and Suggs successfully worked up to 355x10 as their top weight and did all five sets in seven minutes.



"Use a napkin, bro."

Prior to the Christmas holiday, I was slated to visit my grandparents for four days in Columbus, OH, and the original plan called for me to train at a nearby Crossfit gym. Bumpers.  An Olympic lifting friendly environment.  Yeah buddy.

Fast forward to 6 a.m. on the morning of December 23, and I cannot figure out how to enter the parking garage of the rental condo.  None of the keys worked, and it was cold as balls at that hour of the day.  In a last ditch effort, I decided to walk around the corner and try to enter the garage via the electronic gizmo.  Then, it appeared before me.  A squat rack.

 

Yeah buddy.

 

As I stood there with my nose pressed up against the large glass window, several perfectly workable squat racks came into focus, all of which were complete with real barbells and plenty of steel.  This was my Red Rider bee be gun.  I walked through the front door, prepared to fork over $20 for the drop-in fee, but much to my amazement, the charge was only $5.  No frills.  No "you must do our program or suffer a painful purification via Crossfit mainsite."  Just slap down a Mr. Lincoln, commandeer a squat rack, and get to work.  I was as happy as a pig in the mud.

The lone downside of this training wet dream was the defunct barbell collars, as none were capable of holding the heavier weight plates in place.  Once I had worked up to 225#, I started becoming concerned about the plates' walking, i.e. their sliding down the bar.  After trying about six different sets with no success, I walked over to the neighboring squat rack where a massive dude was half squatting what looked to be 245# or so.  After explaining my problem with the collars, he replied, "Use a napkin, bro," meaning tear off a paper towel and wrap it around the bar to eliminate the gap between the bar and collar.  Admittedly, I had my doubts about this approach, but it worked beautifully.  I successfully worked up to five sets of five across in the back squat, and I had no further troubles.

Many people use the holidays as a deload week or as a time to take a complete rest -- and this is probably a wise strategy for most -- but, personally, I enjoy the adventure of training somewhere new and interacting with different people.  This freshness breathes new life into my training, and often times I pick some morsel of useful information.

I will conclude on this final point.  I know a lot of guys who train at commercial gyms when on break, and behave like total douchebags.  They snatch or clean with metal plates, and drop loaded barbells with reckless abandon.  Let me make my position totally clear -- don't be an asshole.  The weightlifting gods are fickle creatures, and they neither protect nor reward douchebags.  Show some respect for someone else's property, and honor the weightlifting gods with additional back squats, presses, and pullups.  In case you were wondering, the weightlifting gods also detest kipping pullups.

Huge Mistakes I Made Prior to the Year 2014 – Part II

Picking up where I left off in my last point, please find below some additional huge mistakes I made prior to the Year 2014.

5. Inappropriate Program Selection and “Program Jumping.”   I think just about anyone who “self-programs” their own training has probably been guilty of this at one time or another, and truth be told, there is a good chance they are probably still jumping from one program to the next without any underlying theory.  Regardless, in my opinion, the best, i.e. the most efficient and sustainable, way to get any young athlete or novice lifter strong is through linear progression.  The reason being that without a true one-rep max, a percentage-based approach is superfluous, and the individual would be better served using small, intra-workout jumps.  On the other end of the spectrum, the so-called “Bulgarian Method” is receiving a lot of hype these days, as is the “squat every day” style of training advocated for by John Broz and a few other weightlifting coaches.  I used the latter approach in my own training this past year (for full disclaimer: I added 40 kilos to my back squat in ten months using Nick Horton’s “Squat Nemesis” program), but I am young and have tremendous recovery capacities.  Having experimented with a few different approaches, I have come to believe that there are more efficient ways to skin the proverbial cat, ones that require far less time in the gym, than the squat every day program.

I would also like to point out that there is a key difference between “program jumping” and “program progressing.”  The former comes about after too many visits to online forums, while the latter presents itself only after an athlete has exhausted a particular approach.  Think linear progression to Texas Squat Method, or possibly linear progression to a percentage-based program.  Again, any such progression should only take place once an athlete has exhausted linear progression, as evidenced by repeated stall outs around the same point.  The time it takes for a particular individual to exhaust linear progression depends on a wide range of factors, and it would be inappropriate for me to pose an average due to this high degree of specificity.   

6.  Neglecting Assistance Exercises.  Okay, you got me, the Bulgarian national team under Ivan Abadjiev only performed five lifts – the snatch, clean and jerk, power snatch, power clean, and front squat – during most of their training cycles, but let me tell you this, my man, you are most definitely not Naim Suleymanoglu.  Assistance lifts like push presses, RDLs, glute-ham raises, and Pendlay rows are excellent tools to keep in your toolbox, especially with more underdeveloped athletes.  RDLs and glute-ham raises are also great exercises for stretching and strengthening the hamstrings, something that all “desk jocks” need in spades.  In my experience, push presses carry over very well to the jerk, and Pendlay rows are a great total back exercise (erectors, lats, etc.).

In the past, I, too, have been guilty of neglecting these exercises, a laziness that manifested itself in a lower level of general physical preparedness and often times lower numbers in the competition lifts.  Don’t be lazy.  There are always RDLs.

7.  Living in Fear of Carbs.  Quite recently I heard the expression, “glucose is king,” but unfortunately I cannot give proper credit to its author, because my memory is failing me.  Nonetheless, the underlying idea is simple – eat carbs.  My “go to” choices are sweet potatoes, yams, and yucca, but I will also eat a bowl of oatmeal with sliced apples and a tablespoon-ish amount of raw honey before a morning lift, especially if I plan to squat heavy that day.  Carrots and Yukon gold potatoes also come into play from time to time.  I know a lot of people respond well to waxy maize pre- or post-workout, but I prefer nutrient-dense solid food.

During my excessive metcon days several years back, I ate “squirrel food,” i.e. nuts and berries, for most of my carbohydrate intake, but this strategy was the wrong one because berries produce very little glucose.  I think the low-carb approaches advocated by some Zone and Paleo followers have their place, especially for those individuals who are first learning about better food choices and more appropriate serving sizes, but for a hard charging athlete you need to feed the beast.  Eat some carbs in your pre- and post-workout meals and your performance will most likely improve, thus resulting in positive body composition changes.