Topic: David Woodhouse's The System at Weightlifting Epiphanies

[Matt Erdman]

I'm not sure I understand your point. Our training frequency is specifically designed to coincide with the peak in supercompensation. It is specific to 'amateur' lifters of a certain ability (Sinclair less than 320)

I believe in the article you quoted a trainer who advised to do the minimal to get a response. I just disagree with using that phrase in a general manner. Reminds me of Prilepin table. Where he had a minimal, optimal and maximal worked out at a given intensity. I'm sure you have worked out the intensity and volume to try and  maximize a twice per week frequency.

To me it seems like a given that the statement means the minimum amount of training to get a maximum response. Not a minimum of training to get a minimum response. The goal is not to achieve a maximum work load, but to achieve a maximum rate of progress. Your body can adapt to massive workloads, but at some point the adaptation shifts from max strength to max work capacity. So your strength gains get sacrificed for the ability to perform set after set after set, ect.

[Justin Ott]

Well I tried the system for 3 weeks as prescribed by David Woodhouse. I thought the concept was great, making your body adapt to max attempts instead of adapting to 80-90% of max loads everyday. But theory and real life are two different things and for me the system was disastrous and I had to abort the training program. In week 1 I was the strongest at the beginning of the week making 120/145 but failing to make the 126/151, the second workout of that week I could only do 115/135. In week 2 I could only make 110/135, and in week 3 I missed my 110 snatch 3x so I said, enough of this, I cant afford to decline 5 kg's of each lift each workout especially with provincials coming up in a month. So I went back to  my original work out program and at the end of the week I was stronger then at the beginning even considering I was doing heavy squats almost everyday and deadlifts. So Tuesday of this week I went back to my program and it looked like this:
Tues:
snatches up to 110kg(3 misses)
C&J- 50%x1+3, 60x1+3,70x1+1,80x1+1,(86%x1+1)6
squat-60x5,70x4,80x3,(86%x3)5
Wed:
press-50x5,60x5,70x4,80x3x2,87x2x5
snatch pull-50x3,60x3,70x3,80x3,87x3x6
Fsquat-50x5,60x4,70x4,80x3,87x2x6
Thurs:
clean 45x3,55x3,65x3,75x3,85x2x2,88x2x4
clean pull- 88x3x5,88x2x4,88x1x3
clean deads-65x3,75x3,80x3,85x3x2,88x2x5(206kg's)
Fri:
Jerks from rack-50x3,60x3,70x3,80x2,85x2,89x1x5(142.5Kg's)
power clean-50x3,60x3,70x3,80x2,85x2,89x1x5(134Kg's)
squat-55x5,65x5,75x4,85x2,89x2x4(196Kg's)
Sat:
snatch-50x3,60x3,70x3,80x2,85x2,90x1x5(112.5Kg's-I made all 5 of these, funny how I could do that after this big week of training when I could not even snatch 110kg's at the beginning of the week with 2 full days of rest doing "the system".)
snatch pulls-90x3x5
Fsquats-50x5,60x4,70x3,80x2,85x2,90x1x5(165Kg's)

So I find in very interesting that when doing "the system" I had more rest but I could not even snatch 110kg's in week 3, but then after going back to my 20 week cycle program that definitely has more work/volume I was able to snatch 112.5 for 5 singles even with the fatigue from the weeks training. Here are my thoughts of the system of how it related to me:

findings
 #1: My legs felt week (I am guessing this is from the great reduction in squats which I seem to respond very well to. Strange, I thought they would have felt more rested but I have never noticed my legs feeling so week in training before.)
#2: Technical skills diminished( Maybe due to the reduction in lifts, pulls, etc. I definitely noticed I was rustier when performing the lifts during the system)
#3: Overall strength diminished( due to the elimination of back squats, pulls, and deads. I seem to thrive off these lifts and can perform better with them in my program.)
#4: No training effect (I did not feel like I was improving strength or technique during "The System" and actually rapidly lost strength.)

These are just my findings, maybe other people such as beginners would have different findings but I definitely cannot afford to participate in this training program as I rapidly declined in strength and technique in only 3 weeks.