Why We Don't Train Like Weightlifters
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September 2, 2025
The reason that we don't use traditional speed in set and rep schemes of squats, bench, kind of the main lifts like that very often is because, when I'm looking at training, I want to prepare or I want to stimulate somebody maximally.
And it doesn't mean that we can't do a one-rep max of a squat or a one-rep max of a bench, but specifically with the people that I work with, that is not their sport, right? That is something that is very specific where that's somebody's sport. If you're a weightlifter, you are attempting to squat as much as you can, bench as much as you can, deadlift as much as you can. That is their actual skill, right?
If I'm preparing someone that's not a weightlifter, where that's not their skill, then we're going to do things a little bit differently. In the sense of, generally, we're going to either move as fast as you can or we're going to move as slow as you can through the movements that we're doing.
The reason for that is because we want to stimulate the system maximally at both of those end ranges because moving very fast and moving very slow is very, very similar. Moving in the middle tends to not have the same adaptation as those two ends of the spectrum do.
And so that's why you'll see a lot of rebound reps; you'll see a lot of impulses; you'll see the slow lowers; you'll see very high rep schemes. All those things are designed to actually stimulate at those ends of the spectrum, which is not in the middle, so that we can create the maximum amount of change that we want to create within the individual.