If I were to use two extreme examples I was able to see the training of two Olympic hopefuls. One coach wrote out 12-16 weeks ahead with spreadsheets and charts listing out the intensity and volume distribution from over the succeeding mesocycles. The other wrote out one week at a time and adjusted the program according to the previous week with adjustment made by the athlete they work with. But one thing I did notice is that it was similar between the very different approaches when it came to upper body accessory exercises. There would be a sporadic set of dips or pull ups once every three weeks and they both kept with two standard reps and sets schemes; 5x5 or 3-5x10. It seemed like it was a filler exercise within the session rather than a targeted quality to improve.

From my current experience, sometimes great weightlifting coaches are not necessarily great general strength or performance coaches outside of their sport. Even though a press or a bent-over row shares the same implement (the bar) as a snatch, clean and/or jerk, it does not mean a coach would be able to program effectively when an athlete needs more specialization for the upper body.

On the other hand there are the athletes. I have noticed two general traits with the athlete I have worked with, who need more upper body work. There are the explosive athletes who have stronger lower bodies than upper bodies, but they want to push the weight on an upper body exercise as quickly as they can.

For example, if you needed to build up the shoulder girdle of an athlete with a stronger lower body. You can write up 4 weeks of progress of 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps, but you might see something like this instead:

Week 1: 3x10

Week 2: 8, 5, 4

Week 3: 3x5 reps

Week 4: 1-3RM, because they “wanted to see where they are at.”

With this case, we haven’t taken enough time to build a foundation of exposure, and you lost 3 weeks of coaxing adaptation.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are the athletes who perform sets so far from failure that they do not build any tension within the muscle. These are the athletes who perform 5x5 at a weight they could clearly do sets of 10 reps with. Another example would be that they perform extremely high volume at loads that are too light, but still wonder why they still are not improving. They might do 3x15 of a 1 arm row at a weight they can handle for 3x20.

For each of these athletes I have found two concepts that have worked well for me. 

1. Rep Challenges - typically for larger athletes.

2. Proximity to RM - typically for smaller athletes.

Rep Challenges

This would be for the athlete who desires to lift too heavy too soon. These are often the bigger athletes, who like to move weight around. You take a goal repetition target with a goal amount of sets to accomplish the reps in. It can look something like this 

Press 35 reps within 3 sets @ 70%; within 90 seconds of rest between sets.

It is likely, your “Team Alpha” tries to perform this in one set, in which case, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show. You will see something like 18,7,5,3,2 and they will be trashed for one or two workouts to follow. Once the athlete has ejected one's head out of his/her own ass, you can now make progress as is intended.

Once the athlete has hit the required parameters they can progress through a number of means.

1. keep the intensity and increase the rep challenge

Press 40 reps within 3 sets @ 70%; within 90 seconds of rest between sets.

2. small increase of intensity as you maintain the reps 

Press 35 reps within 3 sets @ 72.5%; within 90 seconds rest between sets 

3. larger increase of intensity as you decrease the reps 

Press 30 reps within 3 sets @ 75%; within 90 seconds rest between sets

4. maintain the variables and decrease the rest 

Press 35 reps within 3 sets @ 70%; within 60 sec (+/- 15 seconds)

5. a combination of the previously stated parameters. 

6. change the exercise with the previous stated progressions.

Proximity to RM

This would be for the smaller athlete, who might be timid on pushing the accessories. This actually starts with a rep max on the first session. You can leave 1-2 reps shy depending on a few factors but in order for the athlete to get the most out of this, it is crucial that they work close to failure.

This is an example of how it works 

Week 1: Chest Supported Row 10RM 

Week 2: Chest Supported Row 3-4x6-8 reps @ 10RM load; rest 2-3 minutes

Week 3: Chest Supported Row 3-4x7-8 reps @ 10RM load; rest 2-3 minutes 

Week 4: Chest Supported Row 4x8 reps @ 10RM load; rest 2-3 minutes 

Week 5: Chest Supported Row 10RM retest

I would keep the rest slightly higher starting off compared to the Rep Challenge Protocol, as these athletes likely haven’t pushed themselves as hard on the upper body accessory movements. You want to ensure that the muscles are only limited due to their own local constraints, not by lack of conditioning. Also, you want to target the tissue that needs to be improved. You would see this on presses where an athlete cuts the rest period short between sets and ends up adding momentum with a pump of the ankles and a subtle knee bent and extension.

That said, the athletes that seem to improve from this generally are the athletes that can handle higher volumes at a given intensity than the average trainee. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were able to cut the rest down to 60-90 seconds when they adapt to the method.

You want to keep the athlete close to their RM weight. The term Reps In Reserve is used quite a bit lately, so I suggest keeping the reps within 3-4 in the following weeks as you work to 1-2 reps in reserve.

There are a number of ways of progressing this, so here are the means I humbly deem advantageous. 

1. Reestablish a repeat RM (restart at a 10RM) 

2. Add 1-2 reps at the same weight for a new RM (If week 1 is 100kg for 10 reps, aim for 100kg for 12 reps on week 5) 

3. Drop 1-2 reps for a new cycle (cycle 1: 3-5x6-8 @ 10RM load/cycle 2: 3-5x5-7 @ 9RM load) 

4. Adjust the rest between sets. 

Add 15-30 sec if the athlete needs the break to push the load or drop 15-30 seconds if the athlete needs to push capacity. 

5. A combination of the previous stated progressions 

6. changing the exercise with or without the previously stated exercises.

Exercise Selection

Pressing Movements - I like capturing the majority of angles that the sagittal plane multi joint patterns move through. This would be Dips, Bench Press, Incline Press and Presses within the variations that can be used (dumbbells, kettlebells, barbell, different angled handles and so on). I also like keeping the variation in angles within the exercises used at roughly 90 degrees within a 3-6 week period. 

So, Pressing and Bench Pressing would be incorporated within a mesocycle before or after a mesocycle alternating with Dips and Incline Presses.

Pull Ups - For most intermediate to higher level athletes, I prefer to see pull ups within a program twice a week. Pull ups are helpful for building the upper back as a foundation for snatches, jerks as well as clean and front squat, but they tend to need more exposure than once a week. There are some athletes that can only push chinning exercises once a week, but they often have a gymnastics background.

I like alternating between pull ups and chin ups and will adjust the exercise if an athlete needs to improve a specific quality. Maybe their grip is weak, then we can involve towel pull ups or fat grips to address their limitation as we layer it on an already beneficial exercise. Another option would be a Subscapularis Pull Ups to emphasize on musculature around the shoulder blade. There are so many options here; they just need to fit the needs of the individual.

Rowing - If you are performing enough Pull Ups, then it’s probably that if Rows are selected they can be plotted in once a week. Use common sense here. 

Direct Shoulder Work/Upper Back - These are the “insurance exercises”, for the most part, athletes find them lackluster and annoying to perform, but they most often complain of shoulder pain when they skip out of these exercises. I like alternating between Dumbbell External Rotation, a Powell Raise, Trap 3 Raise, Lateral Raise and a Dumbbell Cuban Press, for the most part of the more isolated exercises. Obviously, they need to be applied appropriately for the individual, they happen to be staples that work for the majority of athletes.

Organization of training

If we are going to focus on the upper body as a priority, I like the upper body focus starting within a general prep cycle or starting soon after. Upper body specialization can take too much out of the classic lifts and negative impact training in a competition cycle. I like these cycles to last at least 6 weeks and start outside of 12 weeks to the next major competition. If organized appropriately for the athlete, you can build a solid enough foundation that can be put on maintenance when you push the exercises that the upper body supports.

The sweet spot seems to be two times a week, any less you will not see much growth outside of a novice and pushing past three workouts a week more often to negatively affect the stability of snatches and jerk and the support of the upper back for cleans, front squats as well as your pulling posture. 

You can certainly program the same exercise twice a week and make improvements. I’ve found that alternating between two accessory workouts tend to build longer lasting improvement over the length of the program. Here is a model that I’ve found helpful.
 

I like to organize the upper body exercises within your overhead movement workouts with enough time in between that you recover well enough. If you train five times a week, here are three ways I like plotting in the accessory workouts.

5 on/2off 
 

4 on/1off/1 on/1 off
 

3 on/1 off/2 on/1 off 
 

Closing thoughts 

The general premise of this article is to give coaches another option to use when its concepts are appropriate for the athlete. It can be a skeleton to use when applying for your own athletes and evolve into methods more beneficial for your own team or yourself. I can think of five shoot-offs of this type of training and they all work well more often than not when the athlete is working hard and is diligent enough. In closing, if these ideas fit the parameters and needs of your athletes, I hope you find this useful and if these don’t apply at this time for you and your athletes, save it for a time when you deem it applicable.