How do you determine the right amount of volume for a particular day/week/cycle of programming? E.g., what’s the reasoning behind your programming schemes for your Oly classes? In general, I would imagine the aim with most programming is to find the “minimum effective dose” to elicit adaptation while maximizing recovery?
I will pass the question about general programming over to Ben Foster and discuss the OlyWOD and Black Box Barbell program as I have complete authority on programming for those tracks.
For the OlyWOD programming, my goal is skill acquisition and to emphasize certain technical aspects of the lifts each workout. This is usually why we will begin each workout with a variation or complex to focus on specific phases of the lift. In a snatch workout we may use a variety of different start positions. We may begin from tall snatch โ high hang snatch โ above knee hang snatch โ below knee hang snatch โ snatch from floor. The workout begins with a challenging variation with the emphasis on the turnover/pull under phase; ideally priming one for getting under the barbell quickly and confidently. As the workout progresses, we gradually change the start position until we arrive at the floor to continue focusing on our ability to get under the barbell with intent while increasing the length of the lift.
In motor learning, this is considered โvariable or varied practiceโ where the subject or learner is exposed to a number of problems (snatch with different start positions) with the same solution (getting under the barbell). By exposing you to this variety, you will learn and retain this practice at a much faster rate than simply hammering away snatches and yelling at you to get under the barbell faster. Practice is less boring and more engaging with variations as well.
I generally find ~5 sets of each variation enough before needing to switch tasks. If you start hammering away at the same thing for too many sets (>8) or for too long you may become frustrated, bored and distracted, and intraworkout performance declines; you hit the point of diminishing returns. If I program for a 24 minute EMOM of snatches, I will bake in the variable practice as part of our warmups. The varied practice here comes in the gradual changes in weight over the course of 24 minutes.
Programming for our Barbell team is a little different since it is a comprehensive program aimed at members who wish to train near exclusively in Olympic weightlifting 3-4 days per week (people do throw in the occasional WOD 1-2x/wk). Every workout contains a classic lift (snatch/C+J variation), strength exercises (squat, deadlift/pull, press, row, etc), and accessory exercises (bodybuilding/conditioning/core). When planning volume I am more focused on how many โhardโ or work sets we are doing in the workout than the total number of repetitions. Generally, in a 60-75min block of time I can expect lifters to perform ~20-25 hard/work sets split amongst all three exercise categories. Within those categories, there is an average of 3-5 work sets per exercise per workout. In my experience that is the sweet spot for the number of effective sets to make progress. Too many sets beyond that, and the juice ainโt worth the squeeze; you end up accumulating more fatigue than gains.
The design of each workout is dictated by the short term goal of a training period. Many of our members compete locally and nationally throughout the year, so I have to take into consideration preparatory (strength/conditioning/hypertrophy) periods and competition (peaking) periods when writing out the training plan. I simply slide the scales up and down to bias the volume towards the classic lifts, strength work, or accessory work depending on how far out from a competition we are.
This is a broad generalization of how I distribute training volume depending on proximity to a competition. Nothing here is exact or written in stone. The exercise categories may include more than one exercise (12 sets of Accessory exercises may be 3 sets each of situps, good mornings, curls, and triceps extensions).
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*If you have any questions related to our Olympic Weightlifting programs, reach out to Coach Brian directly at [email protected]*