ANDY BOLTON’S

SECRETS OF STRENGTH FIVE TIPS FOR GETTING STRONGER THE FIRST MAN IN HISTORY TO DEADLIFT 1,000 LBS TELLS YOU HOW TO BOOST YOUR POWER

T his month I’m going to look at a few methods you can use  to build an all-round greater level of strength. The tips and ideas I’m about to share with you are often overlooked but are essential to your success in the iron game. Let’s get straight into it. 1. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE  IN YOUR TRAINING PROGRAMME I always chuckle to myself when I hear lifters—novices and more advanced strength athletes alike—arguing over which is the best training programme. The truth is that there is no “best programme”. The best training programme is, in fact, the one YOU believe in. Think about it… I could write you a similar training programme to the one that led me to my 1008 lbs deadlift but if you hate every second of it you won’t get good results. The route to success in the strength game is to pick a proven training programme from a world-class strength athlete or coach and then follow it. But make sure you like it. If you don’t, your results will suck. And that’s a fact. 2. DON’T BE A  PROGRAMME HOPPER This ties in with the previous point. When in search of the “perfect” training programme, many lifters jump from one to another every few weeks. But this is a road to nowhere other than inconsistent strength gains and frustration. Here’s the deal: it takes time to get to know a training system and understand how it works. Once you find something you enjoy, stick to it for at least three months, preferably six, and really get to know it. Then you’ll start to make much faster gains as you learn how  to use the system to best effect. Do not fall for every new training programme you come across. Instead, pick one and learn it inside out. 3. GET SERIOUS  ABOUT NUTRITION Whilst competitive bodybuilders are the most dedicated athletes on the planet when it comes to nutrition, competitive strength athletes are  very often the opposite! Go to a powerlifting event and you’ll regularly find lifters fuelling themselves on soft drinks, white bread sandwiches and chocolate bars. Hardly cutting edge sports nutrition and certainly not very healthy. My point is a simple one: if you want to make the fastest strength gains possible (while staying as healthy as possible) you have to fuel your body with the best nutrition you can. This means eating a mostly unprocessed, natural diet. Say yes to high quality protein, healthy fats  (such as avocado, nuts, coconut oil and olive oil), fruit and vegetables and add in carbohydrates like rice and sweet potatoes as you require them. But say no to 90% of the processed junk food that now lines our supermarket shelves, which can sometimes be easier said than done.
It all comes down to how badly you want it. If you want to be as strong— and healthy—as possible, you know it makes sense to eat clean and dial in your nutrition. 4. DON’T ADD UNNECESSARY BODYWEIGHT This tip ties in with number 3. Here’s the cold, hard truth: if you add 50 lbs to your body weight and your squat and bench go up by 30 pounds and your deadlift goes up by 20, that’s not progress. You just got fat. Yet this is the mentality many lifters have. They add body weight at all costs. Yes, their strength goes up, but they end up WEAKER pound-forpound. And that isn’t cool. When I squatted 1214 lbs I was 13% body fat and weighed 165 kg. That’s pretty lean for a big guy. What’s my point? Simply this: the leanest, most muscular guy (or girl) in any given weight class will usually be the strongest. As the old saying goes: “you can’t flex fat”. get a sports massage after most training sessions. And they trained several times a day. You might like to shoot for one sports massage a week. That’d be a good start. Even if you’re not a competitive lifter, my point still stands. Only add body weight if you’re going to get significantly stronger. Don’t be happy to just get fat and barely get any stronger. All that will do is hurt your health. 5. USE EVERY RECOVERY PROTOCOL YOU CAN If many lifters neglect their nutrition, most of them fail to use other recovery protocols. I’m here to tell you that if you want to achieve your strength potential as quickly as possible, not only do you have to train hard and eat well but you really should use some other recovery protocols as well. For instance: Contrast showers Alternate between 1 minute as hot as you can stand with 30 seconds as cold as possible. Repeat 3 to 5 times. Do this after hard training sessions. Sports massage The more massages you can get the better. The famous Olympic weightlifters from Bulgaria who trained under Ivan The Butcher Abadjiev, and were the most successful of all time, used to Swim recovery If you train at a gym with a swimming pool, go for a dip straight after a hard training session. But don’t kill yourself —this is a recovery session, remember. Instead of pretending you’re going to be the next Michael Phelps, do this: Swim a length slowly, and then walk  a length. Repeat for 15-30 minutes. You’ll be amazed at how this helps  you to recover from a hard session under the bar. There you have it—five tips for getting stronger. Use one or all of them and prepare to get A LOT STRONGER.