Same But Different

 

Read On and Learn One of THE Keys for Becoming Strong and Powerful

     In multiple articles, essays, and training programs that I’ve created, I’ve repeatedly mentioned the concept “same but different.”  It’s one of the most important concepts if you plan on getting brutally strong on a lift, any lift.  It’s so simple that—like a lot of simple things—its power is often overlooked.  But if you want to achieve your physique goals—not just strength and power but hypertrophy, as well—you need to put the principle into practice.

     A couple things are key for continually increasing your strength.  First, you need variety.  As I’m fond of saying, or writing about in this case, everything works… for about 8 weeks.  Somewhere around that 8 week mark, most lifters need to make some changes.  If you’ve been at this training thing for awhile, then you probably should make changes long before even 8 weeks.  But you don’t need too much variety.  You shouldn’t just try completely different workouts every month unless you really know your body and you know the purpose for the dramatic change.  That’s because the 2nd thing needed is specificity.  As the Russian maxim goes, if you want to squat more than you have to squat more.  The same applies for other lifts, too.  If you want to get strong on a lift then you need to do more of that lift.  More days training it.  More sets.  More overall work.

     Let’s look at a few ways that you can apply the same but different principle.

Same But Different Movements

     Along with speed work, this is the principle that drives the training of Westside Barbell.  Louie Simmons, the mastermind behind the Westside template, called it the conjugate method.  He noticed that the standard “peaking method” behind Western powerlifting programs simply didn’t work for a lot of lifters.  Traditionally, in the “American system” of powerlifting training, you start a couple of months out from a meet doing sets of, say, 8 reps.  You then go to 7 reps after a week.  Then 6 reps after another week.  And so on and so forth until you hit, hopefully, a new max single at the meet.  But the problem, as Simmons noted, is that you aren’t spending enough time with really heavy weights.  Pure strength and power are built with reps at 3 reps or lower.  The issue, however, is that you can’t continue to progress on an exercise week after week when training with such low reps.

     Enter Westside’s conjugate system.  With it, you train to a max every single week, but you always rotate in new exercises.  (In order to not get slow, you also include the speed day.)  How often you rotate to new exercises will depend upon your “level.”  Beginners can stick with a movement for a few workouts before rotating to something new.  Highly advanced lifters need to rotate workout-to-workout.

     This method can be applied to other training systems—just about any, in fact.

     When I write about same but different, I’m usually referring to this technique of rotating in different movements.  You don’t need too many movements, by the way.  I think the movement you’re trying to get strong on and a couple more are probably all that’s needed for the majority of lifters.  As you advance, you do need more, don’t get me wrong, but, even then, a handful of different ones should suffice.

     Let’s look at different lifts and the same but different movements that can replace them.

     For squats, the front squat and bottom-position squat are my personal favorites.  You can also simply change foot placement and bar placement.  For the bench press, incline bench presses, bottom-position bench presses, and board presses are ideal.  Dumbbell bench presses and weighted dips are also good, though they don’t have as large of a carry-over.  For the deadlift, rotate between conventional and sumo stances and deficit pulls from different heights.  (Rack pulls just don’t carry over to the deadlift all that well.)  For the barbell overhead press (military press), one-arm and two-arm dumbbell overhead presses are best.  Behind-the-neck presses, assuming you have the shoulder mobility, work well, too.  If you’re an Olympic lifter, then rotate between different styles of cleans, snatches, and high pulls.

     Some lifts are good for improving your strength on multiple movements.  The sumo deficit deadlift won’t just help your deadlift but will also greatly aid your squat, especially if you squat with a wide stance in competition (or when simply going for a max lift).  The good morning squat helps both your squat and your deadlift, though it probably helps your deadlift the most.  When you incorporate it, it’s best to try to mirror your deadlift movement, in fact, as far as technique goes.

     How often you change movements doesn’t just depend upon your “level,” beginner to advanced and everything in between.  It also depends upon the program that you’re running.  An advanced lifter who is using Bill Starr’s heavy-light-medium program often lets the movement itself determine whether a day is heavy, light, or medium.  Using the squat as an example, the heavy day might be back squats, the light day reverse lunges, and the medium day front squats.

     I—of course, you know this if you’ve read even an inkling of my writings—am a huge proponent of high-frequency training (HFT).  One method that I like to use with HFT for powerlifters is to train on a 2-on, 1-off system or even a 3-on, 1-off (or 2-off) system, where each day is a full-body workout.  If you’re training 2-on, 1-off, the first day is heavy and the second day is either light or medium.  If it’s a 3-on, 1-off, it goes heavy, medium, then light.  The 1st day might be back squats, bench presses, and deadlifts.  The 2nd day would be something such as front squats, overhead presses, and power cleans.  If a 3rd day is added, it would then be something like double kettlebell front squats, one-arm dumbbell overhead presses, and power snatches.  Each subsequent day, because of the exercises being used, you’re decreasing workload.

Same But Different Sets & Reps

     Some lifters do better sticking with (pretty much) the same exercises throughout a training cycle but making frequent changes to what sets/reps are used on the movements.  This may sound as if it’s similar to the “pyramid progression” of the old American powerlifting systems mentioned earlier.  But, look closer, and you’ll understand that it’s not.  The pyramid method of starting with high reps and working down to lower reps by the end of a training cycle is not same but different—it’s just, well, different.

     When strength is the goal, you want heavy loads continuously—with some occasional forays into higher reps, if nothing but to keep you sane.  Your reps, for the most part, should only oscillate between singles and 5s.  Doubles and triples are probably where you should “live” the majority of the training time.

     In my recent article “Skill Training as Size Building,” I mentioned the 90% rule.  When strength is your primary goal, your sets/reps should revolve around 90% of your 5, 3, or 1-rep maximum.  One of the classic ways to utilize 90% of your 5-rep max is through 5 sets of 5 reps.  But if that’s the only thing you do, you’ll stagnate.  So, you use 5x5ish.  5x5 is 25 reps.  Use other set/rep combos that equal 25 reps.  You might do 3 cluster sets of 2-3-5, 2-3-5, and then 2-3.  Or 5-3-2, 5-3-2, 3-2.  Or 5-2-3, 5-2-3, 5.  Also, 8 sets of 3 would work.  Yes, I’m aware that’s 24 reps.  It should be close to 25 reps.  You don’t have to be exact.

     If you’re training frequently, say, 3 days a week, 25 reps per lift might be too high.  For many, 15 reps is perfect.  So, we have 3x5, 5x3, 5x5,4,3,2,1, 5x1,2,3,4,5, 7x2, 4x4, and so on and so forth.  That’s the premise behind my article “Full-Body Big & Strong.”

     If you like to train less frequently—many lifters do well training 2x per week on a lift—then do multiple sets of low reps with 90% of your 5-rep max, but push your total reps up to between 30 and 50.  You can do 10 sets of 5, 4, or 3 reps.  I’ve noticed that 8 sets of 5 is the sweet spot for a lot of lifters training twice weekly.  If you train with 90% of your 2-rep or 1-rep max, then do less total reps.  10 singles or 8 sets of doubles work well in that case.  By the way, another training area that you shouldn’t “live in” is total reps per lift.  Although I think high-set singles or doubles might be the quickest way to get really strong, if you do it for too long, your work capacity and ability to handle high workloads will begin to suffer.  You should rotate between multiple sets of 5s and multiple sets of lower reps on a regular basis.

     Once you get really advanced—which should be determined by how strong you are, not how many years you’ve been training—then you’ll need to combine same but different movements with same but different sets and reps.  Change both of them around at least every couple weeks.  A good example of a program that combines both using “east strength” methodology is my “30-Rep Program.”

Same But Different Programs

     If your goal is strength, or strength with a hypertrophy side-effect, then you need to stick with similar programs throughout the training year with occasional forays into some radically different stuff.  If you were to run programs in 2 or 3-month increments, then 8 to 9 months of the year should be strength-focused.  Every once in a while you can run something with really high reps for a couple months just to give your body a break.

     If you train full-body, for example, you could rotate between easy strength programs and heavy-light-medium programs for a couple of training cycles.  At that point, you might be ready for something different, so switch over to a Westside template for 8 to 12 weeks.

     A training plan for a strength athlete might look something like this:

Months 1-3: Bill Starr-style heavy-light-medium program

Months 4-6: easy strength program, such as my aforementioned 30-Rep Program

Months 7-8: high-volume, high-rep bodyweight-centric program

Months 9-10: My Speed-Power-Strength program (It’s a “modified” Westside system)

Months: 11-12: A “hybrid” system such as my “Power Volume Training” (combines, essentially, Westside with H-L-M programming)

     If strength is your goal, or just good results in general, then take advantage of the ideas outlined in this essay.  You need specificity balanced with variety.  When designing a program, always keep same but different in your mind.  Use it wisely and the strength-sky is the only limit.