The Art of Straining

A post taken from elitefts.com I forget who authored it

Jim,
Yesterday morning I stopped and saw Paul(Childress)at his work and we had a conversation that I reflected on later and really made me open my eyes. How hard am I straining on max effort day? Paul really has a handle on training and getting continuously stronger, alot of champs are strong in spite of themselves, but not Paul,the guy knows his shit!
In discussing max effort movements I said for me personally the lifts I strain the hardest and longest (read that as time under tension) are the suspended buffalo bar good morning and rack pulls. Paul stated those are good examples, for me and most people, but everyone would need to find their own. I also talked about manta ray box squats, I said I either smoke the weight or miss it right on the box. Is this still a good exercise for me? Yes, but not something to bank alot of hard training time on. Also Paul pointed to Prilepin's chart, which he has mounted on the wall right next to his desk, and pointed out the importance of volume in a max effort session...we tossed around some examples of making sure you get all you can out of a max effort session.If you go for a p.r. and miss, drop down in the 85-90% range and lift something,a single, triple, whatever, but bust your ass! I relayed that I had gone for 655 in the rack pull on a low pin some weeks ago and missed it almost up, instead of unloading the bar and moving to accessory work, I unloaded the bar to 615 and pulled it. It wasn't a p.r., but I busted ass...glute/hams, reverse hypers, leg raises, etc. all are very, very important to your conditioning and progress, but not nearly as important as busting your ass on a barbell for 4-6 seconds. Paul, as he always has, stressed the need to stick to basic old-school westside training...bust your ass on a barbell in some move, STRAIN, then move to accessories to compliment the main move and hit the weaknesses. I learned something from an old friend just from sitting around shooting the bullshit.