Bench pressing a monumental 40lbs at age 10 was my first training memory, down in the basement of our house, lifting with my father.
Many guys whose lives revolve around lifting and the subsequent dissemination of information could probably have whooped my butt in regards to base strength levels, but I fell in love with the method regardless. I became an “iron addict” (in reality, plastic and concrete) early on and pulled my dad’s weight set out of the basement and up to my room when I was 13 and got to work.
Despite training for almost two decades now, I’ve never hit lifts that would classify me as “really strong”. I have actually found that traditional low volume powerlifting programs haven’t worked that great for me in the past; my body likes the flavor of higher frequency, occasionally high density, power infused work to get both strong, and explosive. This has lead me to shy away from the barrage of powerlifting programs on the market in my own training. Low frequency, butt-whoopin leg days haven’t traditionally helped me maintain a balance of strength and athleticism over my training experience, and I also tend to get out of shape quickly doing the ol’ max-effort day, dynamic day formatting without enough work in between.
(Athletes are going to respond differently to different volumes, %’s of 1RM and elastic to static ratios. This is based off of things such as their testosterone response to training weights, as well as their fast twitch to slow twitch ratio, check out the research references at the bottom of this article for some more info.)
Up until 2 years ago, I would have considered myself more of a track coach than a strength coach, aka. A license to be 6’1 and 175lbs without anyone caring in the least. Switching gears from a DIII Track Coach to a DI Strength Coach does have a tendency to change the game on you. When your co-workers can all squat and bench at least 100lbs more than you can, your life might just become a regular “call-out city”.
Overview of The Cube Method
I was drawn to try “the cube” powerlifting program after reading it on my smartphone’s kindle (probably the only productive app on the thing) during a plane flight back to Ohio last December. Although my immediate reaction wasn’t to go full bore powerlifter in my approach, I wanted to at least take the principles of the cube and infuse them into my team training philosophy, as well as my own training, which at the time was based on increasing explosiveness and strength.
For those of you not familiar with the cube method (and without giving the book away), it is based on a rotating emphasis (max effort, repetitive effort, or power) on each of the big three powerlifts (similar to track coach Dan Pfaff’s 3 day rollover, but on a more drawn out and staggered scale). It is somewhat similar to the track coaching technique of shifting training emphasis slightly each week, such as:
- Week 1: Power
- Week 2: Power Endurance
- Week 3: Strength
Something I have found over the years is that the body simply doesn’t respond all that well to flat, linear training emphasis week in and week out. Even if you change the sets and reps a bit each week, such as going 10 reps in week 1, 8 reps in week 2, and 6 in week 3, etc., the body many times responds with a “thanks, but no thanks”, adapting after 2-3 weeks, especially in advanced trainees due to two major concepts:
- Too much high stress work of too similar nature (even if you added or subtracted a few reps), compounding the stress response over time. The difference between 6 and 10 reps performed in the same manner isn’t that big in the grand scheme of things.
- Difficulty of continued gains once one reached the higher levels of their genetic ability
Aside from the set-rep game, some coaches will flip flop exercises fast and furiously to try and ward off the onset of the dreaded plateau. Changing the exercises rapidly to avoid flat-lining progress can be helpful for increasing raw lifting numbers in some training setups, but isn’t necessarily all that great for athleticism; and some would also say, raw, natural powerlifting. I don’t claim to be strong, and I also don’t claim to have a load of powerlifting specific experience, but I can tell you that I know how the majority of explosive, team sport athletes respond to strength stimuli over the short and long term. I also consider myself to be well versed in the process of human adaptation to training, so before judging this article based on my squat or bench press numbers, hear me out.
“The Cube” is a great training setup because it shuffles around the “specific fatigue” from modes of barbell work (speed, power, reps) without changing the exercises from week to week, and it also never leaves a strength athlete far from a solid base of strength endurance and fitness. Athletes have to have a level of consistency and “stick-to-it-iveness” to really gain from anything, and I found the subtle, and highly beneficial, emphasis changes from this method to be great as a way to solve the issue of “too much similar stress”, along with the need for some undulation over time.
Rollover training for track and field and the powerlifting cube method have more in common than most people would think.
Blending the Cube method into Jump Training
Before I decided to go “full powerlifter” in my training, I decided to take the pieces of the cube I liked and infuse them into some training setups I had enjoyed success with in the past. Rather than going with three main variations, I only utilized a “Week A/Week B” switch for squat day. I used this in the form of explosive and strength oriented squatting on Fridays, with another “triphasic” squat day in the mix on Tuesdays. (If you don’t know already, I am a huge fan of Cal Dietz’s triphasic system, as it also allows for consistent training with slight undulations in the form of athletic lifting tempo shifts.)
Anyways, the result of this first amalgamation/complete bastardization of cube methodology was a fantastic increase in both strength and power. I managed a 35” vertical jump off of one step at my highest bodyweight ever (all-time best with this length approach, but didn’t test this much when I was younger either) at age 30, and then a full-catch clean and jerk PR (245lb) and an easy deep squat PR (320lb). Not massive numbers by any means, but when you’ll be happy with a 5-10lb improvement in 6 months, this was very pleasing! This was also a .5” better jump, and a 5lb better squat than I had achieved the previous year at age 29 after an intense 3 month strength and vertical power oriented push with plenty of energetic training partners. This time around I was flying solo with no training partners, and the new training format made all the difference.
Bottom line, first time incorporating some basic “A/B” undulation to big lifts on a weekly basis = great success. Now for the big experiment: the full cube method for lifting numbers, would a lower frequency program work for me given my history and preferences? I was about to find out.
12 Weeks on the Cube
I’ve always been apprehensive to doing powerlift specialization programs, as I knew from experience that my speed-strength abilities tend to fall off a cliff when focusing too hard on this type of work. On the other hand, since my full time job is a strength coach, getting as strong as humanly possible seems like a nice outcome goal, no? After training centered around speed and vertical for over a decade, I decided to switch gears, get out my lifting belt and Chuck Taylors (figuratively speaking), and kiss the vertec goodbye for a few months. Something that helped was keeping in mind things every man should give a good solid go at least once in their lives, such as learning to gut a fish, yelling “this round is on me!” to a whole bar, learning to box, and making a good hard attempt to get brutally strong.
I did the workouts with my boss, and I was happy to have a training partner for the venture. The Cube workouts were, at first, some of the most vicious I had ever been through (repetition squat and deadlift day were close to “German volume” prescription in terms of total reps!). My boss and I picked front squat as our secondary squat motion, which by weeks 7-8, we started calling IHOP squats (pancake), as they were just so damn heavy; squeaking out one good rep and at least yelling before trying the second one was a smashing success! For the power days, we used a tendo unit to measure bar speed and got some good competitive juices flowing, seeing who could best the other on velocity.
Around the 8-9 week point, I was starting to lose some of my willpower against the iron via the routine stapling I was receiving from front squats, and even my back squats weren’t feeling too hot. I was starting to question the central drive and fatigue theory, amongst other things. Despite all this, I trusted in the program that I would rebound with a little deload, and it’s a good thing I did! After all, it isn’t until a man is pushed to the edge of destruction that he finds his true limits.
My bench was feeling OK, we used close grip as our top secondary, and I improved by leaps and bounds in that motion. The pause bench was also great for working on my alignment and stability in the bottom of the lift. The deadlift was the only movement that I truly felt good on during the course of the training, which got me particularly excited about our max-out week at the end, after a week of deloading/tapering. Power deadlift day with the tendo unit was absolutely my favorite day of all 9 variations, as I found huge improvements from week to week.
After the cycle, we performed a 1 week deload, and subsequent max session.
Overall, I came away 3/3 on PR’s after the powerlifting cube: 335 on ATG backsquat, 240 on bench, and a 405 deadlift (a lift I had been wanting for a long time), at 195lb bodyweight, which yielded 15lb, 5lb and 25lb all time PR’s respectively. We did pullups 4x a week, loosely based on our lift day emphasis through the course of the program, and I came away with a pullup with 105lbs around my waist for a 15lb PR there. These numbers aren’t going to drop any jaws (and probably turn some who boast big lifting numbers away from this article), but I’ll tell you that as a guy who has been in the strength game for a while, I was smiling on the way home from work that day, especially with the 4 wheel pull.
My boss’s gains were good too, putting 10lbs on his squat, 15 on his bench, and 25 on his deadlift with room to spare. Based on his training (powerlifting programming) over the course of the last year, I can say that his progress was definitely ahead of mine, as I had been doing explosive work for most of my training year, where he had already been through the gamut of various powerlifting styles.
Undulation is the key
So what is at the bottom of all this? Well, first I’ll say that I really like the Cube method programming from a perspective of rotating elements of fatigue. The nice thing about powerlifting is how simple it is, and how easy it is to see exactly what is helping and what isn’t. Are you getting more powerful out of the bottom? Are you improving your position and stability? Where are your sticking points, and your associated weak muscle groups? What % of your 1RM do you generally seem to respond well to? These questions aren’t too hard to answer, and solving them help anyone to get stronger! Working on something new is a good way to bring perspective to the rest of your training and the way you train others.
After being a strength coach for some time, I’ll be the first to tell you that athletes need some small undulations in their programming from week to week to keep gains coming in, all while zeroed in the primary training goal. With any type of program, the simpler, the better; undulations are easy to complicate the crap out of. I have come up with some pretty wild schemes to keep variety in programs while still attempting to keep elements of symmetry and trackability, but the more variables in the program, the harder it is to determine what is helping, as well as taking away from the final product. More elements can also steal adaptation reserves away from something an athlete may be trying to get very good at, particularly in sports such as powerlifting, track and field or swimming.
The ease of rotating three variations of a main movement seems to be a winner in many strength, and even power scenarios. The track and field “3 day rollover” and the Cube are actually very closely related, although those on either side probably don’t realize it, as there aren’t many sprint/jump coaches who are powerlifting fanatics and vice versa.
With that said, the “speed/power/specific endurance” model can be applied to nearly any form of training within the context of the total result. For a sprinter, this can mean training top end speed one day, power via plyometrics the next day, and speed endurance in the form of high quality overdistance work (or perhaps tempo work) on the third day, and then rotating this according to the athlete’s recovery abilities. This of course, being just one way to train things, but a solid knowledge of this concept should be a requirement in the coaches toolbox, even if they don’t actually end up using it.
A few references regarding individual training response
Beaven, Cook and Gill. “Significant Strength Gains Observed in Rugby Players After Specific Resistance Exercise Protocols Based on Individual Salivary Testosterone Responses.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2008).
Ureczky, Dóra, Gabriella Vácz, Andreas Costa, Bence Kopper, Zsombor Lacza, Tibor Hortobágyi, and József Tihanyi. “The Effects Of Short-Term Exercise Training On Peak-Torque Are Time- And Fiber-Type Dependent.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2014): 1.
“Human alpha-actinin-3 genotype association with exercise induced muscle damage and the repeated-bout effect” Venckunas, Skurvydas, Brazaitis, Kamandulis, Snieckus and Moran
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