Mike Asks: Please consider a Newsletter or other forum for discussing the rationale and recovery implications for training multiple days in a row. I know those in the Oly community take it for granted that a 3 or 4 on, 1 off schedule is standard, but to those of us new to the sport it is less obvious why this is so different from any other form of weight training in terms of ability to do this productively over time. As someone who has trained all his life and has competed in powerlifting, it is not intuitive that training 4 or 5 days in a row is something one can recover from, regardless of age. What is unique about the Olympic lifts that require so much volume; and why can one recover from this more so than any other kind of resistance training? Is it because the eastern Europeans do it? Then again, for those of us living a normal life, not 18 – 22 years old, and drug free, it becomes much harder to adapt to this. I have found the Oly lifts much more taxing than any powerlifting training I ever did, due no doubt to the nervous system load from high power output and concentration on form. No such thing as “walking through” a Greg Everett workout! It would also seem that your workouts run counter to the recommendations of your friend Robb Wolf, who is so acutely concerned about cortisol and overtraining.

As a side note, I get regular blood work from a sports medicine doctor. She recently informed me that my cortisol levels are through the roof, and said it is clearly from overtraining. While I am 52 and know that is a big part of it, I still question whether anyone with a real job/life can handle the rigors of daily high output training. Please comment.

Greg Says: Very interesting topic, and I will try to do it justice. First, I wouldn’t say that weightlifting requires high-volume and frequency training, but certainly it’s a common approach. It’s also important to acknowledge that volume and frequency are relative, and what’s high to one athlete may be moderate or even low for another. Within my own gym I have some lifters who thrive on 400-500 reps per week, while others can handle only 200 or fewer, and this doesn’t always align with age.

The snatch, clean and jerk are more complex than the powerlifting squat, bench and deadlift by orders of magnitude; the degrees of technical skill involved in the two pursuits are not even comparable. I don’t say this to disparage powerlifting or powerlifters in any way, but it’s an unavoidable truth, and it plays a role in training differences. This being the case, it’s obvious that in order to master the competitive lifts, far more time and far more quality reps must be performed by the weightlifter than the powerlifter. Weightlifting is a unique sport in that the lifts inextricably link the motor qualities of precise movement and timing with strength and speed. Powerlifting has a huge strength component, but minimal skill; something like pitching a baseball has a huge skill component, but minimal strength. People are not usually resistant to the idea of a baseball pitcher throwing a lot of balls in a day, week, month or year, because the need to practice the skill is obvious. The skill of weightlifting is not as obvious because most people are viewing it from a perspective largely shaped by history with bodybuilding and powerlifting training.

Next, there is an issue of adaptation. Anything you do that is a sudden and significant increase in volume, intensity or frequency is going to hurt. The key is that elite weightlifters didn’t begin training 6 days a week with 600 reps; the best of the best spend years developing in well-designed programs that allowed them to build the conditioning for this volume of work. Do drugs play a role in many cases? It’s inarguable that drug use will allow you to train heavier with more volume and frequency, but being drug free does not mean you can’t adapt to high volume and frequency (just not as high and not as quickly). You’re able to walk every day without a problem. That’s leg training seven days a week; but you’re adapted to that particular intensity and volume level. The same thing can be accomplished with lifting to a great extent.

The snatch and clean & jerk are less systemically taxing than squats and deadlifts because they’re smaller percentages of a true total body maximal effort, although in many cases, not that much smaller. This alone means they can be done more frequently by anyone. The classic lifts also overwhelmingly train neurological adaptations rather than morphological ones, which also means you’re not waiting around for tissue remodeling between workouts ala the bodybuilder.

Also, complete recovery between training sessions is not something that the weightlifter is necessary striving for; instead, you’re looking at blocks of training sessions to create a cumulative effect.

Training multiple consecutive days also doesn’t mean that every day is maximal intensity and volume. Day to day volume and intensity will fluctuate to allow some degree of restoration. Even Bulgarian-style purists use such modulation—they just allow the body to dictate the timing and degree rather than planning for it ahead of time.

Having spent most of your training life with an infrequent schedule means you’re conditioned, physically and psychologically, to just that. With time and a smart progression, there is no reason you wouldn’t be able to significantly increase your training volume and frequency. Of course, being 52 with real life obligations and the attendant stress will ultimately limit what you can do. But again, it’s all relative. You just need to experiment to find what works best for you, but build up to those experiments wisely.

Regarding cortisol levels, I’m not sure how your doctor can be certain high levels are due to overtraining; stress is stress, whether it comes from training, work, family complications, poor sleep, etc. Any given level of training could be “overtraining” if the rest of the stress in your life exceeds a tolerable threshold. So in such a case, why is it overtraining, and not overworking, under-sleeping, over-having-your-wife-use-your-credit-card?

Derek Asks: I recently injured my back and now that I am starting to lift again I can still feel it when weights start approaching heavy as well as mentally. Today I did a 7x3 of real light 1 1/4 quarter squats with a 1 second pause on initial squat. The whole session felt really great and beneficial for form and strengthening up my weak points. I was wondering if continuing a linear progression of 1 1/4 squats starting real light has any merit while my back heals up and I get more comfortable again. Thanks.

Greg Says: Absolutely. There’s really no way to plan the recovery timeline for an injury—you’ll make quick progress at times and other times you’ll regress somewhat. Whatever you’re doing to come back from that injury will need to be flexible to accommodate this. Starting light and comfortable and building up gradually is a smart way to go, but there may be times when you need to back off a bit.

Squatting at a more controlled speed will help ensure you’re maintaining your positions, limit the chance to re-injure your back, and give the spinal stabilizers more time under tension to develop the isometric strength necessary to maintain posture. Make trunk stability a focus during the squats and take this opportunity to perfect the position and movement so that when you’re healthy, you will have actually improved technically, not just returned to previous function.