The last few months has been a bit difficult on Team Fusion, mainly because life got in the way from work, travel, studying, injury etc… because of this we had to stall some of the heavier lifts due to inconsistent training and the issues aforementioned.

With that said, it’s a new year and we’re hoping to hit a March meet. Looking at everyones calendar, it seems like we can start to ramp up the intensity and start focusing back on PR’s! We still have bumps in the road, as there are family events and traveling leading up to the competition, regardless we should be able to work around it a lot easier than last year.

With all this said, it lead me to think about efficiency and realization of your training goals.

Life is tough, work is tough, and training is harder! Put that all together and you can get crushed, this is why it’s very important to be truthful with yourself and understand that you may not be able to focus on other aspects of your training nearly as much.

Short on Time?

If you’re short on time, you need to figure out what is the core selection of exercises that will help you obtain the most gains. For Weightlifting, it’ll most likely be the Snatch, Clean and Jerk, Squat, Pulls, and Press.

From there you’ll need to figure out the amount of training per week and hours you can devote to training and than start developing your program. This cuts all the fluff out of training and allows you to fully focus on the main exercises. I would recommend this method for beginners too, as many people are focused on specialized movements and fail to realize the benefits of simplicity…very similar to the 5,3,1 program my Jim Wendler.

Here’s a sample “No NONSENSE” Week

Day 1

• Snatch 3×2
• Snatch Pull 3×3
• BSQ 4×5
• OHP 3×8

Day 2

• Clean and Jerk 3×2
• Cl. Pull 3×3
• FSQ 3×3
• Pull Ups 3×10

Day 3

• Snatch 4×1
• Clean and Jerk 4×1
• BSQ 3×3
• Push Press 3×5

Quick and efficient.

Putting on the back burner

Most Weightlifters find the sport at an older age and unfortunately have to juggle life, work, school, and training. This also most likely means that training maybe put in the back burners, of course you’ll be lifting but devoting 2 hours sessions x5-6 a week probably isn’t realistic or healthy as you won’t be able recover nearly as well with all the new stressors.

Changing your mindset and understanding that you may not able to progress as quickly or even lose some size is probably a realization that most will have to endure. The quicker you understand this the better off your mindset toward training will be. Too many people let it get to their heads and it screws up the long term effect of training as a Weightlifter. In short, once you realize that progress will be slow or non-existent, you can start to focus on other aspects of a Weightlifter, such as technique and/or mobility.

To Conclude

The key is to:

• Change your mindset and have a specific focus
• Realize that time efficiency will be key, this means cut out all the other BS exercises
• Prepare! Have a strong plan set up, but be careful not to have “Analysis by Paralysis”

Stay strong,

Team Fusion