After seeing many lifters, on here and in general, implementing high-rep assistance successfully and really liking it while training in Russia, I decided to include it in my training in the new year. As my coach here put it, I am young and it's okay to want to look like a lifter. I also realized that I need to address getting stronger as much as getting more technically proficient right now. I will probably include two sessions per week that will consist of a little technique work, work on the competition lifts for the f13-comp and then high-rep assistance. The exercise selection is not fully done yet, but it might look like this: Session A SGDL Press/Seated Press/Z-Press 1.25-squat/Split Squat Kroc Rows Curls+Tricep-Pushdowns (working on getting to the really heavy stack) Death March Heavy Ab-Work (with which exercises?!) Grip Session B Push Press Single Leg-Squats/RDL Pendlay Row/Lying Row Bench Press Hypers/GMs Shoulder-Isos (maybe plus a little chest isolation) Farmers Walk More Ab-Work Am I missing out on anything? Keep in mind, I'm training for oly lifting, so many of the classic PL-assistance exercises won't do a lot for me. My other big problem are the rep-ranges. I will of course use some kind of proper programming for SGDL and PP, but for the other exercises I have no idea. 5x5? 3x8-12? Supersets? And I think, I'd also like to try John Kiefer's "Shockwave Method" ( http://www.dangerouslyhardcore.com/542/the-shockwave-protocols-1-0/ ) at some point. His stuff is top notch usually. Thanks! tl;dr: How do I get really, really yoked and jacked and all?
Do your main strength work. Do assistance exercises choosing multijoint exercises that complement the main lifts and target your "weak links" and including some isolation work for "lagging" muscles. Gradually work on increasing your weekly work volume. Eat enough protein. Maintain a caloric surplus. Do your best to recover well. It's not that complicated.
The topic of hypertrophy work came up in the Pub recently. So you can see my response to Belphious regarding getting huge for weightlifting in the following link: http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f49/s...hread-wasteland-stickies-2328875/index20.html
Basically, this. Main strength work--though if you were training purely for size, you'd most likely not be doing quite as much high-intensity work (90%+)--followed by whatever assistance you can do with large compound movements. Any lift can be turned into an 'assistance' movement by manipulating volume and intensity. After that, you do single-joint movements to address particular aspects of your physique. But the ideal intra-session training trajectory for most powerlifting programs is pretty close to that of most bodybuilding programs. Both lifters start with the main movements and do their highest-intensity (read: heaviest) training of the session first, then usually do some larger compound movements, then finish with volume-heavy single-joint exercises. But you exhaust your options within the field of possible compound movements first. This is true both if you're trying to address a strength weakness (powerlifting) or a lagging physique-based weakness (bodybuilding). Physique assessments are important, and they matter, even in strength sport. Look at how the top athletes in your sport are built. For Olympic weightlifting, there is absolutely an 'ideal' body-type, and virtually all the top weightlifters have it. So, it stands to reason that if you want to be great, you need to look like that; and if you want to merely be good, you need to at least TRY to look like that.
