The Game Changers

The Most Impactful Changes You Can Make to Your Training for More Size and/or Strength

     I received a question from a reader yesterday, and, after responding to it, thought it would be good to share here, and, essentially, use my response for this essay.  So, the question from “Alan S.” goes something like this (edited slightly by yours truly): “I was wondering what the biggest ‘game changers’ are that you have used over the years?  By this, I mean what things have you added to your training that made the most improvements to your physique and your strength?  Or what things have you added to the programs of lifters you have trained that made the most difference in their size and strength?”  (Emphasis added is mine.)

     At first, I thought about just rattling off to Alan what I call the “Big 4,” but I figured he had read enough of my programs and/or articles—his question was even more in-depth, but I removed anything regarding his personal history—so I decided giving him that particular answer might be a bit of a cop-out.  Now, don’t get me wrong, ensuring you utilize the Big 4 will be a game changer if you haven’t been doing all 4 of those things before.  Also, you will see some overlap between the Big 4 and this article.

     Looking back over the course of my now 35+ years of lifting, I can safely say that the following things have had the most impact on my personal lifting and all the training programs that I have written and created, both in articles and for specific lifters.

High-Frequency Training (and Full-Body Workouts)

     If I had to pick the number one game changer for me, it would (probably hands down) be high-frequency training (HFT for short).  When I first started lifting and then training others, and even writing for IronMan and MuscleMag International, I never thought of using HFT.  Every single magazine article that I ever read, bodybuilder who I ever personally trained with, or strength coach that I had ever met assured me that one needed to rest enough between workouts to ensure that one was getting the maximal size and strength gains.

     Then, in the mid to late ‘90s, I started reading Bill Starr’s training methods and studying the workout programs of various Russian lifters, both powerlifters and Olympic lifters; and then the training of turn of the 19th century strongmen, all of whom trained on a (more or less) daily basis.  (One word of note: It’s not as if this kind of information wasn’t available to me—or to any of those folks I mentioned that I met or trained with—but this just goes to show you how HFT has never been mainstream.  And, though it’s more mainstream now, I suppose, it’s still the kind of lesser-known of training methods, at least among the general population.  And even among lifters who do know about it, it’s still often dismissed because it’s not how competitive bodybuilders train.  It’s also certainly not how pro bodybuilders—i.e. drug users—train.  But that’s the thing.  It’s dismissed because it’s not attempted by enough drug-free bodybuilders.  Something tells me that if anabolic steroids never existed, it might be the #1 method of lifting among everyone—powerlifters, Olympic lifters, and bodybuilders.  But I digress…)  Soon, I was training my entire body multiple days-per-week.  My strength gains went through the roof.  And, even though I was no longer focusing on hypertrophy, and, in fact, was trying to not gain any weight so that I could stay in my weight class, I found it very hard to not gain muscle mass.

     When I hung up my powerlifting singlet, and no longer worried about staying in any weight class, I found it quite easy, actually, to gain size and mass through HFT.  It was the one thing, above all other things, that I wished I would have known about when I first picked up a weight circa 1987.  For my first decade or so of training, I believe I just didn’t train frequently enough.  “Overtraining” was the one thing we were told, at that time, was the end-all, be-all killer of strength and size gains.  What a load of crap!  Remember: more isn’t always better, but it usually is.

     At the same time that I discovered HFT, I discovered full-body workouts.  Or, at least, rediscovered them, which is the reason I’ve grouped full-body workouts here with HFT.  When I first started lifting, don’t get me wrong, I did use full-body workouts, but they were always done with relatively low frequency and low volume.  When I started to do full-body workouts frequently, however, I got fantastic results.  Part of that, of course, is out of necessity.  When you are training frequently, it’s pretty hard to do a lot of split workouts, unless you’re going to be in the gym at least twice-per-day—which can be done, don’t get me wrong, and I’m not all that opposed to that route.  But most lifters will find that they do best by simply training their whole body at each session and not trying to get to the gym 6-to-12-times-per-week.

     If you haven’t tried full-body workouts done with high-frequency, then your best bet is to utilize either an “easy strength” program (Dan John’s 40-day workout or my 30-Rep Program) or a Bill Starr-style heavy-light-medium program.  The full-body workouts and the high-frequency of training seem to work incredibly—oh, for lack of a better word—anabolically on your entire system.  Full-body workouts done frequently might be the best stimulus for muscle growth that you will ever discover.  I’ll just leave it at that.

More Sets, Less Reps

     Around the time that I discovered HFT, and rediscovered full-body workouts, I also discovered that it’s almost universally better to do more sets than reps.  This is another thing that went against everything I understood up to that point.  Once again, almost every single time that I read any training article or training program when I first started lifting, they always contained, hands down, workouts where you were instructed to do more reps than sets.  3 sets of 10 was probably the most common, but so were 4 sets of 12, 3 sets of 6-8, even 2 sets of 16-20, or, heck, just 1 set of 10-12 reps.  Occasionally you would read about a program where the sets and reps were the same, such as 8x8, 10x10, or 5x5 programs.  But when I started training using Starr’s methods—and then the methods of East Europeans—I discovered that 5 reps was a relatively high rep range.  With Russian training, you almost always did more and more sets as the reps got lower and lower.

     Gone were all those programs calling for 3 or 4 sets of 6, 8, 12, or even 20 reps.  Instead, I replaced them with set/rep combinations that I knew were better.  5 sets of 5 reps, 5 sets of 3 reps, 10 sets of 2, 15 sets of singles—all of those are superior set/rep combinations.

     Go into almost any gym anywhere in America, and ask the question: What is the better set/rep range?  3 sets of 10 reps?  Or 10 sets of 3 reps?  I can bet that close to 100% of the people asked will answer “3 sets of 10,” but anyone who has worked with me knows my answer.  10 sets of 3 reps is, hands-down and without-a-friggin’-doubt, the better of the two choices.  If you’re reading this right now, however, and you have some doubts about the accuracy of my choice, give this program, the 3x10x3 method, a try.  Trust me, 6 weeks on that program and you’ll be a believer.

Quick Lifts

     It’s an interesting thing, I suppose, or at least it is for me, but when I think about it, I realize that I discovered almost all of these “game changers” around the same time.  Maybe not all at once, but when I started reading Starr, for instance, I was immediately exposed to the quick lifts.  Then I implemented said quick lifts when I started using full-body workouts, started doing more sets of less reps, and started training really frequently.  Quick lifts are made for all three of those things.  They go great with full-body workouts.  They are always better when done with multiple sets of low reps.  And they can be trained with a really high degree of frequency.  After all, it wasn’t uncommon at all for Bulgarian Olympic lifters to max out on one or more quick lifts each and every training day.  You just can’t do that with other lifts, outside of squats and overhead presses.

     I never thought about using quick lifts during the first decade of my training—from around age 15 to mid 20s—because, well, to be honest, I never read about (much less actually saw) any bodybuilders at the gym using them.  I knew they existed, but I just thought they were something Olympic lifters used since it was necessary for them to do so in competition.  I should have known better.  After all, the great John Grimek occasionally recommended them in the pages of MuscleMag International, but I just thought that was because of a sort of prejudice Grimek had since, at one time, they were quite popular among trainees of the “silver” age of bodybuilding.  But this was a glaring mistake on my part.  To be honest, this wasn’t really my fault, or the fault of any of the bodybuilders and fellow gym-goers that I trained with.  It was more the mistake of ‘80s and ‘90s bodybuilders in general, and of the various bodybuilding magazines in particular.  If no one ever tells you to try something, and if you trust those voices, then, well, you probably won’t ever try that thing, whatever-the-heck it might be.  And no one ever told us to try the quick lifts.  But you should try quick lifts.

     Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to do the full snatch or the full clean and jerk.  Those lifts are too technical for most, anyway, and you can get the same benefit—for just general strength and muscle mass—from power cleans, power snatches, and high pulls.  You can also do dumbbell or kettlebell versions of those lifts.  With the dumbbells and kettlebells, you have double the options because you can do them either one-handed or two-handed, and both have their benefits.

     If you have never done any of them before then start with high pulls.  High pulls are the least technical of all the lifts.  Power cleans should be implemented after you are accustomed to the high pulls.  Power snatches can be added in after that.

     As mentioned, all of the quick lifts are best done with more sets and less reps.  I wouldn’t, on average, go any higher than 5 reps in your workouts, and 2 or 3 reps per set are probably even better.  When you start to get around 85% of your max or higher, then just do singles.  In fact, the quick lifts are some of the best movements for multiple sets of singles.

Loaded Carries and Other “Odd” Lifts

     When lifters come to me for advice about gaining weight, I tell them that there’s no way to get truly jacked—at least, if they’re drug free—unless they are utilizing the Big 4.  When pressed on their training, I often find that they aren’t doing any of those 4 things.  Occasionally, I find lifters are doing 2, maybe even 3, of them.  Never have I had a lifter tell me he does all 4.  But even when a lifter tells me he does 3 of the 4, the one neglected is almost always the loaded carries.

     If you are not dragging or carrying heavy objects or implements, you are holding back your gains.  Even if you do get good gains without using them, your gains will be even better with their addition.  In fact, they should be used by everyone, whether it’s the guy that wants to get as gargantuan as Mr. Olympia, or the housewife who just wants to look good naked.

     The most popular loaded carry is probably farmer walks.  This is likely because it’s the most accessible.  All you need is a pair of heavy dumbbells and you’re good to go.  But there are other good choices, as well.  Sandbag carries, sled drags, keg carries, tire flips, and stone carries are all great.  You can carry them in an assortment of ways or even combine one with another.  For example, dragging a sled behind you that’s tied to your waist while walking with a pair of heavy dumbbells or a sandbag to your chest is one of the most demanding things you can do.

     You can also do various forms of one-handed carries.  The “waiter carry” works wonders for your shoulders.  Pick up a kettlebell or a dumbbell, press it overhead, and walk around the gym—or your front yard like me—as if you’re a waiter in one of those fancy European cafes.  Suitcase carries are another great one, and fantastic for your “core,” maybe better than almost any other movement.  The obliques opposite the side of your carry will be worked harder than you realize, and you’ll feel it the day after a tough workout.

     One of the best purchases you can make is to buy a duffle bag and a few bags of sand; rocks can work even better.  Fill up the duffle bag, and use it for all manner of carries and more “traditional” movements, such as deadlifts, curls, and overhead presses.  In fact, if you can buy two or three duffle bags, even better.  That way you can have a heavy, medium, and (maybe a) light bag.  This will allow you to do both low-rep and high-rep deadlifts and squats (you can bear hug the bag for squats), as well as overhead presses, cleans, and curls without having to add or remove sand at various intervals.  Do too many of these sandbag workouts and you may stop going to the gym altogether.  Of course, you’ll probably be bigger and stronger than all the guys you used to train with at the gym, and you’ll save a lot of money from not having to buy a gym membership, but, hey, maybe you prefer to be small and have less money.  I only kid slightly.

Final Thoughts

     I suppose I could have listed a few other things, such as intermittent fasting, for instance, but anything I added to the above would probably be on my “second tier” of game changers.  If you haven’t tried any of the above things, then you’re truly holding back your progress.  In fact, without implementing at least a couple of these, you may never see much results at all.  If you don’t know exactly where to start, then do so by working out with full-body workouts 3-times-weekly, and finishing off each session with some sort of loaded carry.  Once you’re accustomed to that, start adding in some quick lifts and start doing more and more exercises for multiple sets of low reps.

     Implement these into your programs, and discover just what makes them game changers!