First of all, we need to agree that if you haven’t seen the movie This is Spinal Tap, you’re just letting the best things in life slip through your fingers.

In the heavy metal spoof, Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel is showing an interviewer the amplifier he uses when he plays his guitar. The most important detail of the amp, as Nigel points out, is that the volume dials all go up to a maximum setting of “11" instead of just the normal 10. Nigel explains that when the band is really rocking hard and they need a massive burst of power, they crank the dial up to 11 for that “extra push over the cliff.” What Nigel and the band was looking for was VOLUME! They needed to smash through the barrier of a normal amp’s volume and really go for heavy metal madness, so their amps needed special dials. If none of this sounds funny or you don’t get the point, my apologies.

However, Nigel and the other members of Spinal Tap were obsessed with volume, and this is where the common ground with weightlifting can be found. Over the years, I’ve come to believe that planning the appropriate amount of training volume for weightlifters and other athletes is probably one of the most difficult and extremely important factors in any sport. Coaches and athletes wrestle throughout the year with the question “How much is too much?” When we talk about volume, obviously, we’re talking about the amount of exercises, sets, and reps that are performed by the athletes during their workouts and how many workouts take place in a week, month, etc.. Everyone has learned that athletes have to work hard and push themselves if they want to be successful, but it is also equally clear to anyone with experience that pushing too hard will lead to burnout and injury. If athletes don’t have enough volume in their training programs, they will never make the progress they’re capable of because they aren’t working hard enough. If athletes have too much volume in their training programs, they will battle injuries constantly because their bodies cannot endure all the punishment.

Therefore, there is a fine line of perfect volume that has to be discovered when a coach/athlete plans out a workout regimen. And that “fine line” is a slippery little sucker because each athlete has different physical qualities and, therefore, different volume capabilities. Human beings vary greatly in areas like testosterone production, bone density, connective tissue durability, emotional toughness, and muscle recovery speed. To put it more simply, the optimal level of volume for each athlete will be individualized, and the coach who writes the training programs for the athletes has to make adjustments in order to avoid injuries.

A good way to analyze this area is to look at two different extremes. One of those extremes will be the training volume of the most powerful weightlifting country in the world right now... China. The other extreme will be the training volume of an aging American lifter who is finding ways to extend his career with little more than muscle memory and a handsome face.

The Red Goliath of the East

Chinese lifters won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Chinese lifters demolish world records. China has become a phenomenal weightlifting powerhouse, and you’re not going to read a detailed analysis of their training system in this article because there is an element of secrecy involved with their success. Chinese communist culture, as with all communist systems, never reveals all the hidden elements of their country to the world. The Chinese don’t operate under a complete black cloak of mystery, but they also make sure the whole world isn’t privy to the nuts and bolts of their operation. Knowing this, what can we say for certain about their program?

A former Chinese coach once told me that there are over a million registered weightlifters in China. With that kind of talent pool, along with their fantastically organized sports academy system (funded by the government) that channels young athletes into full-time training from an early age, they are playing with a different set of rules. So, if this article is focused on training volume, how much volume do their athletes use in their training?

I don’t know for sure, but there is something I know for sure that can give us some solid ideas. At the Beijing Olympics, the women’s 75 kilo class was won by China’s Cao Lei. Cao snatched 128 kilos and clean and jerked 154 kilos, winning the class with a 282 kilo total (16 kilos more than the silver medalist). First of all, you need to get your mind around the idea that a 165 pound woman snatched 282 pounds and C&Jd 339. After you’ve recovered, remember that Cao’s performance was mediocre because the Chinese woman who won the 69 kilo class (one weight class lighter than Cao) totaled 286 kilos.
Please don’t quit, it’s going to be okay...

A reporter for World Weightlifting magazine took notes as Cao warmed up for her competition attempts at the Olympics. Here is her warm-up progression for the snatch:

Snatch Weight (in kilos)
1st 15
2nd 15
3rd 35x2
4th 35x2
5th 45x2
6th 45x2
7th 65x1
8th 75x2
9th 75x2
10th 85x2
12th 95x2
13th 95x2
14th 100x2
15th 105x2
16th 110x2
17th 110x2
18th 115x1
19th 115x1
20th 120x1
21st 120x1
22nd 120x1
1st Attempt 120
2nd Attempt 125
3rd Attempt 128

This information was documented by an eyewitness, and you read it correctly. Cao took 22 warm-up sets in the snatch, and she actually snatched her competition opener of 120 kilos three times in the warm-up room before taking the platform and going three-for-three with 120, 125, 128. To conserve space in this article, I won’t go through her warm-up progression for the clean and jerk, but she took eighteen warm-up sets for that lift. She C&Jd 145 two times in the warm-up room before her competition opener of 147 kilos. She made 147, 154, and missed 159 on her third attempt.

**Side note: Cao’s failure at 159 was the only failed attempt by any Chinese woman at the Olympics. All of their other women made six flawless attempts. Interestingly, Cao stated that she had missed 159 due to a “mental lapse.” She attributed the mental lapse to the death of her mother shortly before the Olympics. Chinese lifters live full-time in training camps and they are rarely allowed to see their families, so the Chinese government withheld the news of her mother’s death because they did not want to distract her training. Right before the games, her coach decided to tell Cao of her mother’s demise. Another Chinese Olympic Champion, Liu Chunhong of the 69 kilos class, stated in a post-meet interview that she had only been allowed to see her family for a week after the 2004 Athens Olympics before she went back to training camp. She was grateful for her 2008 gold medal because she was going to be allowed to see her family again after the Games. Think about these little details when you think about how hard the Chinese train.

Back to Cao Lei, taking 22 warm-up attempts in the snatch, including three warm-up attempts at her competition opener, is beyond the realm of normal weightlifting comprehension. This is the most jaw-dropping example of work capacity that I have ever heard of because, as we know, an athlete’s warm-up progression at a major competition will always be designed to conserve some energy and keep the athlete fresh for the competition attempts. In other words, competition warm-ups will usually be easier than a regular training session because the athlete does not want to risk fatigue at a major competition. If Cao took 22 warm-up sets in the snatch and 18 in the C&J, then we are left with one big question; what do Cao’s normal workouts look like when she is not at the Olympics?

The answer is vague because we do not have detailed transcripts of China’s workout programs, but we can be absolutely certain that these lifters train with a volume level that fails to comply with any accepted notions of human endurance. Throughout the years, extensive research has been done on the training programs of powerful weightlifting countries such as Bulgaria and the former Soviet Union. We know for a fact that athletes from these countries routinely trained three or four times a day, six days a week, with high intensity percentages at each workout. It stands to reason that China’s gradual rise to the top of the world over the last fifteen years has likely been based on this classical Eastern European training methodology. But now that China’s success is eclipsing these other traditional power countries, we must acknowledge that they have broken new ground in the training of weightlifters. We can speculate until judgment day about government financial support, drug use, and countless other factors that contribute to their dominance. But the overriding factor of Chinese supremacy is what we can see from Cao Lei’s Olympic warm-up progression. Simply put, they’re just working a thousand times harder than everybody else.

And now, the training of Mang Foremong...

Now, if the training volume of China’s Olympic Champions is one extreme end of the spectrum, the polar opposite end will be an analysis of my own training. Before I go into the details of my training week, it is critical that we admit to some major differences between me and the great lifters of China. For the sake of organization, let’s look at it as follows:

1. Chinese lifters are in the prime years of their physical abilities. I’m 37 years old.
2. Chinese lifters probably train around 30-40 hours a week. I work around 60 hours a week at my job.
3. Chinese lifters have their lives financially subsidized by their government. I have a house payment.
4. Chinese lifters spend their non-training time recovering through the use of massage, ice-baths, medical treatment, etc. I spend my non-training time drinking beer and losing my hair.
5. Chinese lifters are hand-selected, elite physical specimens. I once tore my groin jumping over a fence.
6. Chinese lifters recover from tough workouts quickly because they have more testosterone pumping through their bodies than an 800 lb. Brahma Bull. I’m lifetime drug-free.

The reason why these factors are important is because most of the people who read this article are probably a lot closer to my end of the spectrum. If you’re getting older, you work for a living, and you still want to train effectively, then you live in the world I live in (aka, “the real world”). Having said that, here is a complete look at my training routine:

Tuesday
- Snatch (light)
- Clean and Jerk (light)
- Back Squats (light)

Saturday
- Snatch (heavy)
- Clean and Jerk (heavy)
- Back Squat (heavy)

That’s it, along with some core work and stretching at the end of each workout. The words “light” and “heavy” are dependent on how close I am to a meet, and I don’t use percentages. My current best lifts (within the last year) are 138 kilo snatch, 165 kilo clean and jerk, and 220 kilo back squat. On a typical Tuesday, I will snatch up to 90 kilos for a few singles and C&J up to 120, followed by five or six triples in the back squat up to 175-190 kilos. On a Saturday, I’ll usually snatch between 120-130 and C&J around 145-160, followed by squat triples or doubles up to 205-220.

Here are some other pieces of information:

1. As I said, I’m 37 years old now. I trained much harder and with much greater volume than this when I was younger. I would not have a 22 year-old lifter use my current workout routine because it’s not enough work for a younger lifter. You can handle much more volume when you’re in your twenties.
2. My selection of exercises (only the snatch, clean and jerk, and back squat) has been determined because of past injuries. Doing pulls and front squats gives me too many problems with my lower back, so I don’t do them anymore. But pulls and front squats were a crucial part of my training when I was younger.
3. I train twice a week because that’s really all I have time for with my job. Also, I tried going back to three workouts a week last year and I got injured pretty quickly. My recovery time is pretty long now.
4. I’m a superheavyweight, usually weighing around 125 kilos (275 lbs.). Heavier lifters have to train with less volume than lighter lifters because their greater mass requires greater recovery time.
5. I started training like this in 2007 after a one-year layoff. My total has increased steadily over the last two years, despite increasing age and job demands, and I’ve had minimal injury trouble.

Okay, so which way do we go?

Now, it’s been a lot of fun looking at the volume opposites of these two scenarios, but you’ve spent this whole article thinking about your own training. You’re not a Chinese weightlifter and you’re not Matt Foreman, so where is your personal answer? How much volume is right for you? What should your own training program, and the programs of the athletes you coach, look like? Should you train three days a week, five, seven? Should you do four exercises in each workout, two, six? Should you add running, aerobics, swimming, or cycling into your workouts and, if you do, how much is too much?

That’s where the art and the science of this business come into play. It is your job, and your challenge, to find the right amount of volume for yourself and the athletes you work with. You will most likely have to consider factors such as job demands, injury history, training experience, motivation level, and a cornucopia of other distractions that will make your job interesting. There will be some trial and error, that’s for sure. My advice for newbies would be to get close to somebody who knows much more about training than you do and let them steer the boat for a while. You’ll have a few indicators that shine in your face like a police flashlight and they’ll tell you if you’re getting it right or not. If your athletes’ workouts take thirty minutes and none of them are sweating or breathing hard at any time during those thirty minutes, you’re probably not planning out enough volume. If your athletes are getting injured regularly and none of them are making any progress in their lifts, you might want to take a look at their workout routine and change something up. If your athletes are making progress and feeling great, then you’re on the right track. You might look at a training routine on paper and say to yourself, “This is just too easy. It won’t work.” But you might be looking at the magic training combination and the only thing that stops you from using it is your desire to be a hard-charging workhorse.

A great track coach once told me, “Motivated athletes will go hard until they’re in the hospital, and then rest until they’re able to walk again. Lazy athletes will go hard until they see the donut shop, and then rest until their coach yells at them to get working.” Since lazy athletes usually just don’t hang around weightlifting very long, the chances are that the people you’re working with are motivated workers who want to go like hell all the time. Knowing this, your challenge will often be to rein them in before they blow apart. Don’t be afraid to pull back when it’s obvious that you need to. The amp doesn’t have to be set at 11 all the time.