The Optimal Approach Vs Optimal For You

This post was prompted by two things: a bunch of comments on some of my squat/accessory videos, and a video from Renaissance Periodization on cardiovascular exercise. So, not directly related, but it got me thinking.

In the video, Mike Israetel goes over the different considerations for choosing various CVE modalities. Namely, the amount of fatigue and related injury risk associated with each one. Essentially, the video boiled down to this: know what your priorities are, and pick the modality that best suits those priorities.

This same principle should be applied to the sport of weightlifting, especially for hobbyist and casual lifters. To be clear, if you’re new to the sport and have no preexisting or chronic injuries that limit your range of motion or cause regular issues, you should probably spend your time following the general advice for improving at weightlifting: squat as low as possible, lift 3–5x/week, and lift as heavy as your technique allows.

But if you’re someone like me, with at least one chronic injury that you have to manage, not fix, in order to keep training, this post is for you. I spend the vast majority of my training reps squatting well shy of ATG.

Why?

I have been dealing with quad tendinopathy for about 15 years. I first got it when I was 19 or 20, and I’m now 34. My first coach, who I still credit with teaching me about 95% of what I know about coaching the lifts, impressed upon me the importance of training how you plan to compete. Because of that, we seldom did hang or power variations. When I was healthy, I trained almost exclusively from the floor or from blocks. I squatted mostly doubles and triples. I squatted 4x/week. I pulled every training day.

And every year since I started training that way, I’ve spent at least three months sidelined with quad tendon issues.

Poor load management is the current prevailing hypothesis for why we get injured, but I can safely say I was the only one of that coach’s athletes who dealt with the issues I did. So I’m not going to simply blame the programming. However, I do think his dogmatic approach to programming and exercise selection contributed to me dealing with issues I did not need to be dealing with.

This is where the point of the post comes in. If you’re somewhat like me and have trouble following standard programs or training consistently because certain exercises or volumes beat you up, my recommendation is to reevaluate your goals and priorities.

Are your goals to have fun, train hard, and keep doing the snatch and clean & jerk? If so, do you really need to follow a Catalyst program, 1Kilo program, or whatever else is popular? Could you have just as much fun doing those lifts if you hit a PR every 4–6 months instead of every 1–2?

How much exposure to the lifts keeps you engaged and enjoying training? How much actually keeps you progressing? And how much pushes you past the point where you can recover?

Chances are, you can still make progress with less volume, at least in the exercises that give you trouble. Hopefully, by doing so, you’ll end up with more energy, less pain, and more consistency. And that means you can train harder in the areas that matter most, instead of constantly trying to force yourself through a program that was never built around your situation.