What's Your Minimum?

Shankle

I wasn’t ready.  I knew it before my shoes even touched the warped wood that ran the length of the gym.  Weights that usually flew off the ground felt heavy.  My body was tired, my mind unfocused.  I wasn’t sore, but my muscles ached, and a general lethargy had overtaken my body.  I told myself to focus.  I willed myself to focus.  Yet, my mind wandered. 

Outside, the air was heavy with moisture, another hot and humid summer day in Jersey.  The light that leaked into the gym through the opening usually covered by a large aluminum garage door was silver, the sunlight muted by the clouds that had overtaken the sky. 

I had seen it coming, and had tried to ward off the freight train of exhaustion with three cups of black coffee, but it had done very little.  The week prior to this session had involved a great deal of volume at high percentages of my max lifts.  Though I had felt great throughout the week, the heavy training load had finally caught up to me.

In front of me, about 10 yards away, sat my enemy.  The lone bar on the platform that morning, loaded with two thick blue plates on each side.  100 kilos was a weight that just months before would have been a max effort lift, yet now, it sat in front of me as a weight that I had expected to snatch easily before moving on to break a personal record.  My hopes for the day looked bleak in that moment, as I questioned if I’d even be able to snatch 100 kg with how beat down my body and mind felt. 

I began my walk to the bar.  With each labored step my legs begged me to turn around.  My heart was racing as I set me grip, I needed to make this lift.  I had to make this lift.  The bar felt heavy as I pulled it off the ground, but I kept pulling.  I didn’t hit the ideal spot, but I kept pulling.  As I pulled under the bar expecting the weight to come crashing down on me like a wrecking ball, putting the final touch on the snatch session from hell, I moved my feet and locked my upper body into place…

I made that 100 kg snatch, and went on to make a PR at 110 kg that day.  This was significant because it meant that in the past week, I’d attempted to snatch 100 kg from the floor four times, and all four times I’d made the weight easily.  The knowledge that I could make 100 kg four out of four times on four different days in four very different conditions gave me confidence.  

No matter what your goals, if you lift weights someone has undoubtedly asked you what your max is.  How much can you bench, (hate that one)?  How much can you squat?  What’s your best clean & jerk?  Or my personal favorite, how much can you lift? 

Anytime someone discusses how much weight they can move on a particular exercise, they refer to their maximum or personal best lift.  But here’s a question I’d like you to consider.  What’s your minimum?  What weight can you handle on any given day, regardless of how tired or sore you are?  What weight can you handle when you’re having a bad day, or when you’re struggling with stressors outside the gym?

About a month ago I was listening to Jon North’s podcast known as “Weightlifting Talk.”  At the time the show was recorded, Donny Shankle, another legend of the sport of weightlifting, was Jon’s co-host.  He brought up the topic of minimums.  The concept is, what is the heaviest weight you can handle any day no matter how unfavorable the circumstances may be.  Donny made the point that your minimum is more important than you’re max, because if you can increase your minimum then on any given day you can count on that weight being there.

In the case of inexperienced lifters, establishing and increasing your minimum is of the utmost importance.  Your minimum is one measure of consistency.  If you can train your body and mind in a way that makes heavy weight automatic, then you can concentrate on pushing your mind and body to the limits with max weights.  Just as you must establish your own style of lifting as well as proper positions and technique, you must establish consistency with heavy weight. 

The higher the percentage of your PR your perceived minimum (obviously your minimum is not an absolute) is, the higher you will be able to push your max lifts, and the more successful you will be as a lifter.

Establishing consistency is simple:  practice the lifts.  People forget that strength is a skill, and the more frequently you are able to do a particular lift, the more you will improve at it.  One style of training that I learned through listening to Jon North and Donny Shankle that can help improve a lifter’s consistency is called “Every Minute On the Minute” training. 

To perform an E.M.O.M workout, begin with 60-70% of your max on a particular lift, depending on your experience level, and perform one rep each minute, on the minute for a period of time.  This type of training is best used on lifts that require a great deal of technique, such as the snatch, clean, jerk, or clean & jerk.  The goal is to be consistent with your technique when you are tired, and unable to fully recover between sets.  You should gradually increase the weight between reps, but never increase the weight before making a weight at least twice in a row.

For example, begin with 70% of your clean and jerk max.  Every minute on the minute for 15 minutes, perform a clean and jerk.  Every time you make two c  According to Jon and Donny, if you are missing in the first third of the workout, you started too heavy.  If you don’t miss at all, you didn’t go heavy enough. 

lean and jerks in a row, increase the weight.

If you want to be successful, be consistent.  Ask yourself, on my worst day, what can I lift?  What’s my minimum?