Colin Asks: Hey Greg, I'm a college student who recently started training with Olympic weightlifting after taking a class on it taught by my university's head strength and conditioning coach.

For me currently, the limiting factor on my lifts is my flexibility: I can't seem to keep my back completely vertical on my back squat, and think I need more hip and ankle mobility in order to overhead squat properly. Do you have any advice, guides or programming I could look at for working on my mobility? Thanks!

Greg Says: First of all, you don’t need to keep your back vertical. We do want it quite upright, particularly when compared to a more posterior-chain dominant style of squatting like in powerlifting, but it will never actually be perfectly vertical. The angle possible will vary among individuals based primarily on their own anatomical characteristics and secondarily on their mobility.

First, working on total body, general flexibility is a good idea. There are a huge number of classic stretches I’m sure you’re familiar with. These are a good starting point for a basic program. In addition to that, you can focus on certain areas. For the hips, I like the spiderman stretch, as it’s a very simple but direct way to work on flexibility specifically for the squat position. Do this stretch with the chest down, chest up, knee neutral and pushing the knee out—each variation will change the stretch a little bit, but all in ways that will help the squat position. The other one is the Russian Baby Maker—but make sure you’re doing it correctly.

For the ankles, the most effective stretch is also the simplest—sit into a squat position, rest your forearms on one knee, and lean all your weight onto it, keeping that foot flat against the ground and trying to close the ankle as much as possible. If you’re not able to sit in this position (i.e. your ankles are so immobile that you find yourself falling backward), just modify it by using a lunge position rather than a squat, working on the ankle of the lead leg.

Work on these stretches throughout each day, and also before you train and between sets of squats.

Dillon Asks: Just want to say thank you for all of the reading material through the emails sent out. I've shifted away from the wide world of fitness sites for answers and stick to your readings.

My question stems from an article you typed up on the benefits and negatives of metcon type workouts in relation to strength and strength endurance. My dilemma is something like this: I am a professional firefighter for a living and continue to play rugby at a "Men's League" level after playing in college (DII). I have found that maintaining as high a level of strength/power possible is most beneficial for my job and hobby, but I can’t afford to lose CV levels and I achieve this through your programming and Strongman training. I am basically looking to have that functional strength mixed with the speed and power that Olympic weightlifting creates.

In your opinion, should power athletes (rugby, football, mma, etc) implement the Strongman/metabolic conditioning on the same days as oly lifting or should the conditioning be spread throughout the training week? I ask this because I have hit a point where I believe I may be headed towards over training and eventual injury, which I cannot have in my career path. Sorry about the long scrambled email, trying to figure out the best way to ask the question. Thanks for all that you do in the weightlifting community.

Greg Says: There has been a decent amount written on this topic, but honestly, I’m still of the opinion that it doesn’t have that much of an effect either way. I think far more important are the cumulative effects over the course of a week or more, rather than any potential gene signaling, etc. that may be occurring with a mix of training modes on a given day.

More importantly, there is a reality to contend with, which is your life and career and the limitations on your training program these impose. It may be ideal, for example, to train twice a day and split strength and conditioning workouts, but the likelihood that you can do that is probably about zero anyway, so there’s really no need to wander down that rabbit hole too far.

In my opinion, there is nothing problematic in performing both strength and conditioning work on the same day and in the same workout. I prefer that strength or weightlifting work be performed first and conditioning work afterward, though. I also like to make sure those two workouts are complementary to some degree rather than disruptive to each other. That is, some of the movements used in the conditioning workout should be similar to those used in the strength workout, or at least somehow related. As an example, if your strength workout had a jerk emphasis, a conditioning workout that followed might involve push-ups or burpees or some other exercise(s) that involve upper body pushing movements. In this way, the second part of the workout contributes to the first part, and it also means that it will interfere less with the previous or following workouts.

Along those same lines, I think this is an easy way to help avoid over training or overuse injuries, as you’re confining similar movements into periodic workouts rather than constantly hammering everything all the time and never giving anything a break.

Another way you can increase the CV effects of your weightlifting itself is to simply keep your rest times a little shorter than you might otherwise and don’t allow yourself to sit down between sets (the latter will actually make the former more natural).

Ultimately, though, overtraining is going to be a product more of your total training volume primarily, the average intensity secondarily; the structure of the workouts in terms of strength and conditioning falls much farther down the list if it makes it on at all. I would be far more concerned with lifestyle factors like sleep quality and quantity, nutrition, and stress levels in general. I was never a firefighter, but I did work 24s on an ambulance for a while years ago, so I know what the schedule and inherent stress of jobs like those is like. Be conscious of that and take steps to reduce as much stress as possible outside training and the unavoidable elements of your work.