For the powerlifter, sport practice is the squat (to depth with competition stance and equipment), bench press (with a pause on the chest with competition grip and equipment), and the deadlift (from the floor with competition stance and equipment).

For the weightlifter, sport practice is the snatch (from the floor with your competition grip) and the clean & jerk (from the floor with your competition grip).

Pretty simple, right? Of course it is, but even with that level of simplicity, strength athletes continue to convolute their training program by putting emphasis on the wrong areas on choosing exercises with low carryover.

There are three recent events that helped galvanize in my mind the need to write about this.

1st Watching Andrey Malanichev assault the record books with his 460/260/400kg powerlifting performance at Raw Unity 7.

2nd Listening to Dmitry Klokov and Ilya Ilyin at the Dream Team Coaches Clinic at Waxman’s Gym.

3rd The discussions surrounding Dr. Michael Isratel’s article Raw Powerlifting Without the Fluff on JTSstrength.com (I hear those guys are great) in which he downplayed the value of the lats in regards to development of the bench press.

Malanichev made everyone watching rethink what was possible in terms of maximal strength as he made very casual work of 1014 in the squat (walked out, raw with wraps), 573 in the bench and 882 in deadlift, demonstrating complete mastery of his technique and in the squat and deadlift particularly, seemingly leaving 30-50 pounds in the tank.

Malanichev is quoted as saying (through a translator) that his favorite squat accessory movement is ‘more squats’, favorite bench accessory is ‘more bench’ and favorite deadlift accessory is…you guessed it, good mornings, no, just kidding, it is more deadlifts.

That’s right, he squats, benches and deadlifts and that is it. But, but, but how does he get so strong without a single specialty bar, reverse hyper or band and chain in sight? He practices the competition movements, thus perfecting his technique and building the most specific strength.

Malanichev is THE highest qualified athlete in his field, thus he needs THE most specific training. Improving his lunges will not improve his squat, increasing his military press will not improve his bench and handling more weight in the barbell row, will not enhance his deadlift.

I was fortunate enough to, along with Team Juggernaut weightlifters Colin Burns and Anthony Pomponio, attend the Dream Team Clinic at Waxman’s Gym featuring three days of lecture and demonstration by Dmitry Klokov, Ilya Ilyin, Vasily Polovnikov and Zygmunt Smalcerz. I particularly enjoyed Ilyin (the most accomplished of a very accomplished group) discussing through a translator, how he used to do a much wider variety of exercises but that upon entering his current training camp, a Bulgarian system training group, at about age 18, that he was devoid of any relative weaknesses and could forego all movements besides the snatch, clean & jerk and squats.

While athlete after athlete, almost all relative neophytes in the universal weightlifting sense, asked about how many sets and reps they should do of a certain special exercise, Ilyin’s focused training continues to yield the highest results with the seemingly simplest means.

As with Malanichev, Ilyin is THE highest qualified and requires THE most specific means to yield improvement.

Next, Dr. Michael Israetel, Ph.D .in Sport Physiology from University of Michigan, wrote in his article Raw Powerlifting Without the Fluff that raw lifters were essentially wasting their energy with excessive lat and rear delt training, and then the internet (or at least the extremely niche group of powerlifters et al. that comprise my social media circles) exploded!!

Now, I need to clarify a few things, Dr. Israetel didn’t say the lats aren’t of value, he said that they aren’t the prime movers on the bench press (if you’re arguing the contrary you can stop reading because you’re beyond saving) and that if you’re adding more and more attention to lat training to improve your press, you’re chasing your tail.

I feel the lats are of extreme importance in the bench and in fact, would argue that they are the only muscle that strongly impacts every competitive strength movement (powerlifts, Olympic lifts, Strongman events) but if you told me I could only pick one exercise to improve my bench, it certainly wouldn’t be any rowing movement, it would be the bench.

So what does all of this mean?

Well first off, let’s get one thing straight. Unless Usain Bolt stumbles upon this article, whoever is reading this isn’t Andrey Malanichev or Ilya Ilyin or the equivalent in your sport! You can’t train like them, you shouldn’t train like them, but you can take lessons away from their training and from the ideas brought up by Dr. Israetel.

Specificity matters in training. If you want to improve your squat, you need to do squats. Squatting develops squatting muscles better than any other exercise can; Andrey Malanichev knows this, so should you. Good mornings aren’t squats, so good mornings shouldn’t be a focus of your training if your goal is to squat more.

The training process (a multi-year--potentially decades--process, not weeks or months) should move from general to specific. In the way that Ilyin discussed narrowing his exercise pool from when he was six years old and would “just run around the gym and do all the exercises” to now, when he just does only the competitive movements and squats; so should your training move from a wider variety of exercises to more and more specific exercises. He trained his body from every angle so that he had no relative weaknesses (by relative I mean his back isn’t relatively stronger than his legs, pressing muscles not relatively weaker than pulling, etc.) and could just focus on developing his technique through the most specific means, so should you strive for this symmetry of abilities in respect to your field.

As Dr. Israetel discussed, lifters are making the mistake of putting too much energy towards exercises that don’t matter the most. He was by no means condemning the lats for the bench press, rather just making a valuable and while seemingly simplistic, often missed point, that the primary mover in a lift should receive the most attention in your training for said lift. Can good mornings help you squat more? Sure. Can rows help you bench more? Certainly. Can reverse hypers help you deadlift more? Of course. But allowing these ACCESSORY movements to become too primary in your training and thus taking away from your energy to train and recover from what is most important is a mistake that is too often made. Let the movements that aren’t the competitive exercise serve their intended purpose: to build the competitive exercise and eliminate relative weaknesses from the body.

Specific training is a simple and valuable concept to your training that too many people are either misunderstanding or failing to apply. Do not be confused by coaches misnaming exercises as ‘special exercises’ that are actually just accessory movements. Take lessons from these great strength athletes and exercise physiologists to improve your training and get more from every rep you do by improving specificity and transfer of training.