Ten Training Principles From the Art of War

8/12/2019 Ten Training Principles From the Art of War

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Ten Training Principles from the Art of War

Training is a daily battle in which our will and desire are tested. It is more than just working out. It ismore than a hobby. Those who have been successf ul in powerlif ting have all approached the s port

with an amazing will to conquer. This resolve is built through time spent approaching training notust as a lif ter, but as a warrior.

The Art of War is the legendary book of military s trategy thought t o have been written by the Chinesegeneral Sun Tzu in the f ourth or f if th century. It is o ne of the most revered books on st rategic thinking ever written and its principles have been applied to all dif f erent walks o f life.

Whatever your goals, its time to st art t reating training as the batt le that it is. But it takes more than justaggression t o achieve victory in this spo rt. It takes calculated s trat egy. Take these t en principles f rom The

Art of War and move a st ep clos er to victo ry.

On preparat ion

1. Know your goals and train accordingly.

Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.

No matter what your goals are, you need to underst and them and develop your training philos ophy to suitthem. With t he large volume of training inf ormation out t here, its easy to get overwhelmed and over-complicate things. If your primary goal is training for a powerlif ting meet, dont try and combine 5/3/1,Wests ide for Skinny Bastards, a program to improve your 40 t ime, and a bigger guns in f our weeksprogram fro m a bodybuilding magazine. It s ounds ridiculous, but it s easy to f ind yourself trying to tailor your t raining to several very dif f erent goals. Know your goals, pick a proven program that suits them, andst ick with it.

2. Secure your victory in your daily habits.

To not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the

greatest of virtues.

Never underest imate the import ance of daily preparation in your t raining. In powerlift ing, how you performon the platf orm will be a direct r esult of how you spent every day of your training cycle leading up to t hemeet. This doesnt just include your t ime in the gym. This includes all aspects of recoveryyour s leep,nutrition, s tress management, and mental f ocus. If you discipline yourself and devote your t ime topreparing for success , you will succeed on meet day.

On training strategy

3. Train smart .

Thus those skilled in war subdue the enemys army without battlethey conquer by strategy.
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Any proven pro gram is based on strat egy and get ting the mos t out of your t ime in the gym. The co njugatemethod, 5/3/1, the Cubethe list goes on. They are all developed on the basis of training optimally andef f iciently to reach a goal. As a novice lif ter, you may be able to go into the gym week af ter week and justgo crazy f or heavy singles, but before long, youll need to be more calculated. You need to have a methodto your madness in order to last long term in this sport . Just because youre in a sweaty heap on the f loor or puking doesnt necessarily mean that youre getting st ronger.

4. Choose your batt les.

Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to begained; fight not unless the position is critical.

In any goo d program, youll be provided with some f orm of auto -regulation. This may be using a daily max,going f or a subjective rep range, or changing your ass ist ance work. Youll have days when you wont be at100 percent and you must adapt accordingly. You arent always going to be able to go crazy and hit a PR.

Jim Wendler explains this in an excerpt f rom his pro gram 5/3/1: Life is filled with distractions and youre going to get stressed out. Combine that with a bad nights sleep or a lack of food and youre looking at a lot of thingsthat can potentially go wrongWhen this happens, I recommend going into the weight room with one purpose:getting your prescribed weights and leaving. The weights may feel heavy, but every part of this program isdesigned to build on to every other part from one workout to the next and one wave to the next. This week 35 will earn you the right to move on to the next 35 week of the next wave.

5. But be ready to strike when t he iron is hot.

though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated

with long delays.

You can have the best pro gram in the world, but if you dont work hard enough, you will fail. Along with theability to pull back some days, every good pro gram also gives you t he necessary opportunity to pushyourself to your limits. Whether its your max-ef f ort exercise in conjugate t raining or your three or moreset in 5/3/1, there will be times when you need to get in the zo ne and make a PR happen.

6. Dont t rain afraid to f ail.

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.

You dont want to f ail lif ts regularly throughout t raining, but if f ear of a certain weight or lif t s tarts tocontro l you, its time fo r that to change. If you can dest roy a 490-pound deadlif t, but 500 pounds barelymoves o f f the f loor, chances are youre letting that number get in your head and conquer you. Dont let f ear contro l you in a negative way. If youre going fo r a to ugh attempt, dont pace around f or f if teen minutestalking yourself out of lif ting it. Youve been putting in the work. Now go execute and reap the rewards!

On compet ition

7. The batt le is won or lost bef ore you step on the platform.


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Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won.Whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

Dont approach the platf orm on meet day just hoping that youll maybe, somehow be able to pull of f amiracle and get your at tempt. This seems common s ense, but its incredibly easy to defeat o urselvesmentally bef ore we even st ep on the platf orm. As we discussed earlier, prepare mentally and physically sothat on meet day, its just a matt er of gett ing in the zone and making it happen.

8. Technique is everything.

Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering anenemy that is already defeated.

Mental preparedness in approaching the platf orm isnt just a matt er of conf idence. Technique and themental f ocus t o execute it will make or break your performance. Countless lift ers have discussed theimportance of mental execution in training. Developing it st arts right f rom the s econd you walk into the gym.Watch training videos o f so me of the to p prof essional lift ers. They train in such a way as to execute everyrep exactly the same.

Kirk Karwoski, arguably the best s quatter o f all time, discussed the mental execution o f st epping on theplatf orm at a meet: The lift starts as soon as you set your first foot on that platform and youre going in to goto work. Everything needs to be the same every timeIf you can manage to not screw up for 20 seconds, youwill get the lift.

Hone your technique mentally and physically in training, so at the meet, youre just twenty seconds awayf rom a sure victory.

9. When it s go time, pull the t rigger.

Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow, decision to the releasing of a trigger.

All the yelling and ammonia in the world wont get that deadlif t bar o f f the gro und if you dont believe youcan do it. Training yourself t o be conf ident can be one of the to ughest things to do, but its imperative f or your success. Dont let f ear or doubt ruin the months o f hard work that youve put in leading up to a meet.Youve sweat, bled, sacrificed, and devot ed yourself to training for so mething many will never do. Be

conf ident in that and, when your name is called, go up to the platf orm and make the decision to pull thetrigger.

Lastly and most importantly

10. You learn the most f rom years in the tre nches and under the bar.

It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.


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There are countless articles and resources t hat will greatly benef it your training, but no thing will ever replace years spent under the bar. The only way people like Dave Tate and the experts on this site wereable to gain the knowledge that they share on a regular basis is t hrough time spent overcoming adversity.They learned f rom both success and f ailure and devot ed years to t his sport. Read and research, but knowthat at t he end of the day not hing can replace the lesso ns learned under a heavy barbell.

Ames R (1993) Sun-tzu: The art of warf are. (1st ed.). New York, NY: Random House Publishing.

Wendler Jim. 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Ef f ective Training System f or Raw Strength.

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Ten Training Principles From the Art of War