Research and Development, Part 3

Mark Brown

August 16, 2022

Supplemental lifts are what is the bulk of any training session that takes place are made up of. I do spend a lot quite a bit of time on the main lift because of the raw volume that is involved, but it is far from the majority of the time in a given session. The rotation of main lifts in 3 week waves carries with it the effect of rotating supplemental lifts as well, unless there’s one or 2 that are always done because they are that useful. My upper body training is a bit more varied in the garage than lower body training. The gym has a lot of isolation machines that make all of those movements like leg curls and leg extensions easier to get into the program. The amount of research and development a lifter does will show in this phase of the program more than in either the main lift or accessory work. Experimenting with equipment and lifts and becoming proficient at them will (repeat: WILL) be how a lifter gets stronger in both body and the main lift the supplemental lift is being used to help. Having a go to list of lifts to do for supplemental lifting is good and necessary, but that list needs to keep expanding so the right ones can be called upon to get the job done. I am all for doing the ones that work best but working these lifts in rotation has a rising tide effect.

The other thing to remember about supplemental lifts that forces them into being rotated is that they are done to directly support the main lift. That means technical proficiency has to be a major reason why any supplemental lift is done. Strength development could be the main reason for a specific lift being done in the cases of a muscle group being the weak link in the chain on a lift. Even the lifts that are done for bettering technical proficiency will provide a strength development component. Serious strength training is highly challenging because progress in it demands maximum mental focus. It’s not enough to lift hard and heavy. Putting effort into understanding how the lift is effecting the body allows a lifter to figure out which supplemental lifts will be best for particular variant main lifts. Even if the change in a lift is as small as a grip change on a bench press, it will determine the direction of the rest of the lifting session. For example, a narrow to mid-width dumbbell press will benefit a narrow grip bench press more than a wide grip bench press. The latter would be much better served by a wide lat pull. When specialty bars get added into the mix, the process of figuring out what supplemental lifts should be done becomes even more necessary. It’s yet another reason why a lifter should start simple at first. There’s too much to see the big picture right off the bat.

Specialty bars are very good ways of varying lifts that could get repetitive over the weeks to both mind and body. At the start, it’s a good idea to get the basics of the technique down before throwing variations at an inexperienced human body. Once the technique has been learned, development of weaknesses within the lift can begin. That’s when the variations I talked about in Part 2 will begin to come into the plan/program. This concept is applicable to every sport and skill out there. A specialty bar presents the lifter with the ability to hone in on specific weak parts of the competition lift or equivalent. In this way, the specialty bar variations that serves as a session main lift acts as a supplemental lift in the bigger picture. The full effect of what can come from specialized bars variations doesn’t begin to help until the technical parts of it have been learned. A lifter cannot place that specialized bar into the rotation in exchange for a lift that does what the new bar is supposed to do until proficiency has been achieved. Learning curves are pretty different from bar to bar, cable accessory to cable accessory. The lifter implementing these additions to the program needs to understand that extra time will be required to get through the initial learning stage. It’s really no different than trying to learn a secondary skill or sport. The extra time is necessary to learn the skill at first then more can be learned on the fly as elements within the skill set cement.

I can give some specific examples from the specialized equipment I own. The American Cambered Bar is a great piece of pressing equipment. I have read accounts of it becoming the main press bar for people whose shoulders are wrecked close to or beyond repair. However, it is not a replacement for bench pressing. That’s why I don’t refer to it as such in my weekly training log. Nor it is a replacement for dumbbell pressing. It fits somewhere in between. It is a massive ego killer for both bench press and dumbbell pressing. I highly recommend it strength and muscular development, especially if one isn’t going to bench press. However, it is bar much better served for people who do bench/chest press training twice a week. Let me repeat: It is not a replacement for a bench press. It currently fits into my program as the main lift on my mid-week press day and sees a lot of action on that day.

The Rogue Cambered Bar serves 2 purposes in my program. First, as a squat bar and, second, as a bench press bar. The 14 inch camber on the bar causes a distinct effect for the lifter to overcome. It is the swaying of the weight that requires the lifter to use more muscles and more effort within them to stabilize the body. For the squat, that is the lower back and abdominals. For the bench press, that is pecs, triceps, deltoids and lats. This is not a bar meant for new lifters. It is for experienced lifters who already have technique learned and want to strengthen the stabilizer muscles in addition to the main ones involved in the lifts it does. What I find interesting about the cambered bar as a bench press bar is that it comes with its own supplemental lifts then influences the accessories for the session. In that sense, it’s no different from a straight bar but it really tells the lifter what they need to do get the most out of it. It really places emphasis on the lats when doing the bench press movement. As a result, the lead supplemental I do for it is essentially a front hold. The difference is that since I am laying flat on the bench it is above me. When my arms are fully extended it forces me to focus my energy on flexing and activating my lats to merely hold the bar at that position for a set amount of time, which is 1:30 for me currently. Absolutely killer lift. It acts like a negative rep on the back side of the body. The bar produces a very lat heavy training session. I rotate it every 3 weeks or so with the American Cambered Bar during my mid-week pressing sessions. As a squatting bar, it acts like a straight bar except for the swaying weight at the hips. The weight being lower on the body has effect of the weight behind more in front of the body so it produces a forward leaning squat. Other than that, it doesn’t change the lifting session that much.

Those 2 bars have made it into the position they have in my program because I have become proficient enough at them that I can use them in place of what I had done before as main lifts on a non-bench press day. Dumbbell press has one of my lead supplemental lifts since I started lifting. Bench pressing is a skill lift that can be depressingly hard to make gains on at the beginning for new lifters. Dumbbell press gets around the problems of needing spotters for 85% and above 1RM work for almost every lift done with them. The American Cambered Bar has allowed me to feel more of an effect from dumbbell pressing on chest/shoulder days. It also has allowed me to do more reps at higher weights during those sessions. It did that by putting them as true supplemental lift on session days. Up until 2020, my bench press and dumbbell press severely limited what could be done depending on which of the 2 I did first. That’s no longer an issue. That is ideally what supplemental lifts do over time. The cambered effect is invaluable to me because it really helps me feel the weight better when I am much more connected to it. All that work on stabilizer muscles adds up over time and is the difference between making gains above 75% 1RM.

Time is the great adversary for anyone serious about getting better at anything. Mostly that’s because there are other things that need to be done that creates a time crunch. It becomes a major factor in what lifts become parts of rotations in certain lifting sessions in certain weeks. Some of the best examples of the lifts that time can get in the way of are main lift assistance lifts. These are the exercises that a lifter does to get better at specific parts of a lift. They are important to do for both lifters bound for competition and competency. It kinda depends on who a lifter is working with. I value pin press immensely but Pete and his son don’t do it quite yet so I let it pass to keep the session going. I have my list of lifts to do as assistance supplemental lifts. They are equipment specific as well: Straight bar bench press: pin press; deadlift: barbell rows; Yoke Bar Squat: Hatfield Squat; Cambered Bar press; Cambered Bar holds: Cambered Bar Squat: Cambered Bar good mornings. The best part of these lifts are that they are literally already set up with perhaps some removing of a few plates. They really shouldn’t take that much time to march through. They are also unlikely to be done at max bench press/deadlift/squat weight. That adds to the speed. If a lifter is taking the main lifts and movements seriously the lifts I mentioned really do need to in the program somewhere. If pin presses can’t be done because a lifter doesn’t have a full rack or spotter arms, a floor press is a good alternative. They are quite different in terms of how the lift effects the body, but doing floor press is better than not doing either one.

Another element of time that lifters must be aware of is how much stress the lifts are putting on the body. What I am referring to is a kind of biological clock. The human body only has so many reps in it in a certain amount of time. Bodybuilders get the physiques they acquire by working well past failure in reps, sets and sessions. Tolerance is built up over time to make the failure point harder to hit. Almost every skill that can be learned operates in this fashion. A golfer only has a set amount of full golf shots in them on a given day. Well trained golfers know this, so they get in better condition to be able hit more shots or exert more energy on the shots already needing to be hit. A golfer’s condition changes mostly because of weather and atmospheric conditions. Lifters, like me, who lift in a garage can be susceptible to the same issues. I love lifting in the heat, but there is a price paid for it. Sometimes the body gives out before some lifts are done. The main reason for bringing this up in this section of the essay is to really emphasize that going balls through the wall is only helpful if a lifter can recover from said session in time for the next scheduled session. Missing sessions is never helpful. Lifters must pay attention to the biological clock to ensure they get lifts done that were part of that session’s original intent. Sometimes that will change in the middle, it often doesn’t. Making adjustments during a session based on lift availability and body condition is a necessary skill to learn. That’s why I said the lifter’s diligence in doing the research and development in this phase will stand out. Supplemental lifts are the ones that will make the parent lifts better and stronger.

Shoulder press is an interesting subject for lifters. Strongman competitors and Weightlifters are judged by their ability to press and/or jerk overhead. Powerlifters aren’t so it often comes into programs as a supplemental. I used to do a lot more overhead pressing than I do now. I limit it a few heavy sets a week and some dumbbell work that more qualifies as accessory work than supplemental. I have found over the last 6-8 weeks that my overhead press has gotten easier and the lifts smoother with less overhead and more triceps work. Shoulders are very vulnerable to injury and extreme wear and tear over time. Lifts that have even the slightest bit of focus on the deltoids need to be taken very seriously. Most lifters get enough deltoid work done by bench or incline pressing. I still value overhead pressing as a measure of strength. I imagine that is because I haven’t suffered a shoulder injury. I’m including overhead pressing in this section to warn lifters from going too heavy on these movements and to make them as safe as possible when performing them.