Training for the Average Guy

November 23, 2004

Like a lot of powerlifters who have been training for many years I am always

open to new training methods, apparatus, legal supplements, etc. or any ethical

way of getting better. I have trained under many different philosophies from the

Russian and German volume routines to Westside. I have taken from each

discipline what worked for me and when it quit working I changed it.

In the past few months I have experimented with Metal Militia bench training and

am now looking at Jim Parish's Joe Average Training. I have had some phenomenal

success with Metal Militia training taking my bench press from a personal best

of 370 something at 198 to 360 this spring at 181 and 403 at 198 a week ago. At

age 54 this is quite a gain in strength. Basically, from Metal Militia and Joe

Average training I have finally come to grips with two things I refused to

accept in the past: First if you lift in equipment then you must train in

equipment in order to get the most out of it. Along with this it must be the

tightest you can possibly get on with the help of two or three large people to

squeeze you into. Secondly, I am an average guy and I'm getting old so I can not

train the way someone in their twenties or thirties can who are not drug free.

My body simply won't respond to those routines in any way except overtraining.

Accepting these things I have revamped my training and I have stopped getting

injuries, sore joints and I have made some pretty good gains. I am a poor

squatter but last week got a triple in a loose one ply suit, knee wraps, and

belt with 540. I also pulled a triple off 4 " plate with 600 on deadlift. Now

these aren't super numbers, like I said I'm average and old, but they are

personal bests and isn't that what it's all about-getting better.

In martial arts and many oriental writings I have read or been taught the

virtues of knowing oneself and of knowing one's opponent. Certainly in sport one

must know ones weaknesses as well as strengths and then work on the correction

of weaknesses and overall improvement. Along with this is the acceptance that

some constants have to be accepted in the equation such as aging, being drug

free, any injury or ailment that can't be healed.

I bring these things up to those of you who are just average practitioners who

want to get better. If you are a powerlifter I strongly recommend that you look

at every training idea and do not put yourself necessarily in just one system.

Take from each system what works for you and when it doesn't get something that

does. If you do this you can lift for 35 years like me and still have a great

passion for the sport. Anyone who will be at the AAU meet in Laughlin on the 3rd

of December, come say hi.

Eddie White

Blue Springs, Mo.

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