"For the record, I saw huge gains following Steve's crazy ways. Huge." -Jasha Faye, two-time junior national champion, three-time collegiate national champion, two-time American champion, OTC resident and '96 Olympic trials participant.

"Steve" refers to weightlifting coach Steve Gough, and even after six-plus years of training and mentoring underneath him, his "crazy ways" are something I still only vaguely understand. However, there is one thing that is particularly unique about this system, and that is the way we squat: consistently using forced (or assisted) repetitions in the heavy front squats and back squats. Now obviously there are safety reasons for using a spotter in these lifts, but there are many more reasons beyond that.

Let's take a moment and look at what a "forced rep" should look like. This is a video of one of our athletes, Justin Meyer (94kg) front squatting 230kg.

There, you can see Steve spotting Justin with an overhand grip, and doing just barely enough work to keep him moving fluidly through the full range of motion of the squat. This allows Justin to "feel the weight," but also gives him the small boost he needs to get through a little sticking point, or prevent too much collapse at the transition point from the eccentric to concentric phase. The work that Steve does in this situation is minimal, and that should be pretty obvious from watching the video. If you think a 70-year old man can do much to influence the 230kg barbell in that position, you're fooling yourself.

So, other than safety reasons, why squat this way? Bodybuilders have been using forced reps for decades, and in an August 2011 article in the Strength and Conditioning Journal, Brad Schoenfeld writes about new research showing that forced reps can increase motor unit recruitment and lead to a greater growth hormone response. In other words, the central nervous system responds favorably to the heavier loading and will produce greater results.

Even though we're looking at evidence that shows physiological advantages from forced reps, after speaking with some athletes and coaches I believe Steve likes to use them mostly for psychological reasons. In weightlifting, the mind is primary. It's impossible for anyone outside of the sport to understand the focus, determination, and poise required to make a big lift. Any hesitation or doubt left in your mind will only set you up for failure. In weightlifting, you train the mind and the body follows. So, the goal with the forced reps was to build confidence in the lifter, especially with the lighter reps (90-95%) and that would "build you up" for the big one. It also helped get through mental blocks that constantly gave an athlete problems, but more than anything Steve always wanted us to believe we had more left in the tank - which we usually did.

There are some positives to this. I remember struggling with 160kg in the squat for awhile and needing help to get through the sticking point, but in a short amount of time It was 170kg and then 180kg that I would get stuck with… I had been pushed to the point that 160kg was now easy. You see, the idea is simple: Do slightly more each time you squat, and eventually the weights you need "help" with go up and up, and before too long, you've blown past your old bests.

"Having a good spotter can give you the confidence you need to give that rep your all and get just enough help to get a max effort lift in and make sure that you're going to make it,” Jasha says. “And neurologically speaking, I don't believe the body knows the difference. The mind gets in the way."

Now, I'm not telling everyone to go back to the gym and start overzealously forcing every squat they do. What I'm saying is that I've seen it work. But there are some potential downfalls to doing forced reps too often. For example, Jasha and others have told me that sometimes it would get to where they wouldn't do their set unless they could see their coach nearby. This is a specialized way of doing things and the overall effect could be detrimental to whatever your training currently looks like, but Jasha and others seemed to think that it could be beneficial in the right situations. Those situations, in my opinion, are more valuable with athletes with weak legs and struggle in the clean and jerk. This is a great way to get the body to learn how to handle those bigger weights and stay in the right positions.

Steve's system of training weightlifters is quite an anomaly compared to most others around the United States, but he has had success with it. This system is mostly a "strike while the iron is hot" sort of thing, with very little actually being programmed out. The athletes know for example that on Monday they will front squat and snatch in the morning and then power clean and jerk and back squat in the afternoon, but the percentages and number of attempts are almost entirely based upon how that specific session is going. The forced rep squats are many times used early in the session to prime the nervous system (and the mind) for big snatches and cleans. This fits with his coaching style - which is high energy. Lifters feed off of this and then (hopefully) perform better throughout the session and accomplish more in a shorter period of time. Training that lasts too long will only fry the CNS for the next session. The idea is to create the highest quality of adaptation, and the belief is that the best way to do so is to mimic competition conditions. This is not an easy thing to do and many lifters burn out too quickly from it, but those who stay will many times reach high levels in the sport. Steve's son, Tom, a '96 Olympian still holds the 94kg class American record in the snatch.

Since we very rarely have an actual program or cycle to follow, its difficult to show how forced reps in the squat are used throughout training. My suggestion for implementation is to use them earlier in the session to create that effect of priming the body for higher quality training and use them to break through mental blocks. I remember seeing a
nationally competitive female athlete in my gym miss a heavy front squat. Steve, not happy with the result, came over and made her do it again, giving her just the right amount of assistance to make it. Then, before she could rack the bar he yelled, "Do it again!!!" and she subsequently walked away with a double in the weight that she had previously missed. I believe that her body and brain got much more out of that forced double than she did with the missed rep just before it.

Like I said, the heavy squats early in the day will help prime the nervous system. Researchers at the University of New Mexico call this phenomenon post activation potentiation, or PAP. (Read about it here)

PAP is thought to work in a couple of different ways, but they say that "heavy loading induces a high degree of central nervous system stimulation, which results in greater motor unit recruitment and can last from five to 35 minutes." They also found that PAP works best in athletes that have a higher percentage of Type II muscle fibers. I'd say weightlifters fit that description pretty well.

Even with all this research showing possible benefits of this type of training, it is interesting to me that Steve still insists that the bulk of his reasoning is psychological. Either way, I can't argue with him on this one. If there's one thing Steve knows how to do it is to get the most out of his lifters, and he's been coaching about as long as I've been alive so I figure if it didn't work so well, he would have stopped using it long before we ever met. Implementation of this can be hard, and I would suggest starting slow and only using it moderately at first to see how the athlete responds.

Overall, I'd like to think that forcing reps in the squat is beneficial for the athletes. Let's be clear - I mean forcing with a heavier weight for a max effort, not using a lighter weight and forcing more reps. It's important to understand that when we force reps its in order to push through a specific number. It seems to me that the confidence built and the ability to feel the heavier weights brings about progress in a very timely manner. I'm definitely still learning, but I think this is something that could prove to be a good addition to many weightlifters’ programming.