Tadeáš Asks: What would you say is the optimal range (% wise) to practice technique in?
Say you have a lifter with decently developed technical skill (good squat/snatch ratio, etc.) and no specific issues who struggles with consistency at higher percentages. In this case, we are usually told to practice technique more, but how much should the load be lowered for the training to still be productive in this regard? Many thanks.
 
Greg Says: There isn’t a specific absolute intensity that’s best for technique practice—it depends on a number of factors such as the exercise, the problem needing correction, the timing in the workout or training cycle, the athlete’s physical traits, etc. The rule in my opinion is very simple, though: the weight that allows the absolute best technical execution of the given exercise at the time it’s being performed.
 
For the competition lifts generally, you’re usually looking in the 70-80% range, but you have to find the intensity that balances eliciting the problem and allowing correction. For example, if your problem never occurs at under 90%, training at 80% may not be helpful.
 
More volume of optimal execution of a lift will always be helpful because it’s practice, so you do want to make sure that the overwhelming majority of your reps are done technically well. If you warm-up with minimal lifts and spend most of your volume at intensities at which your technique breaks down, you’re practicing and training to lift with those technical problems and consequently reinforcing the problem.
 
For consistency at higher weights, you need to continually increase the technical consistency threshold, i.e. the heaviest weight at which you can maintain your technique. You can do this a number of ways, so you have to do some experimentation and find what works best for you personally.
 
On the minute singles are my favorite way of developing technical consistency at heavier weights. This allows you to get a high volume of sometimes surprisingly heavy lifts in while minimizing interference from your brain and naturally encouraging consistency. I’ve seen lifters do 5 singles on the minute at intensities over 90%. Spend time building up and don’t increase weights unless you were able to complete all of your sets without missing in the last workout.
 
The next best approach in my experience is training right at the threshold where things go sideways. Let’s say your snatch is fine until 110kg and then it abruptly falls apart. Your goal is to get as many good reps as possible as close to 110 as possible. That may mean several sets between 100-105 initially, and eventually working toward 106-109.
 
You say no specific issues with the lift, but I don’t see how that’s possible—something is going wrong. If nothing specific is wrong with the lift, the lift is perfect and there’s no issue with consistency. So determine what exactly the problem is and address it with appropriate technical work. If you swing the bar away in the snatch, training high-pulls, muscle snatches and tall snatches, for example. Then you determine the intensity for each of those exercises according to optimal execution. If your muscle snatches are good to 40% but then fall apart with another 3%, you shouldn’t be doing muscle snatches at 43% until you can build up and improve to execute them at that weight well through training the lower weights.