Ed Coan Program

I posted this on the Building a Better Body Forum but nobody replyed so I thought I’d try here. Does anyone have any experience with Ed Coan’s type of workout program. I recently recieved his book as a gift. Interesting book to read. I never see anyone at this site promoting this style of program. Any feedback?
campdirector

I have some experience with it.

However, you pose a relatively difficult question to answer relative to scope.

For example, are you wondering about his approach to the core lifts at the start of the session or the accesory work that follows?

Or, are you just wondering about results obtained?

If this is the case I would state try it and find out. Portability of results can be a tricky thing due to the many variables involved.

I would like to know about results obtained on squats, bench, and deadlifts. I know there are a lot of powerlifters on this site and I have never heard mention of this type of progression here.
cd

From reading several articles on ed through the years…ed used standard progressive over load…he had soem other personal moves he liked…he loved pause squats, barbellrows, and millitary presses and pulls from blocks…his training was almost bodybuilding like…he used a lot of high rep schemes…and soem ultra high volume on assistant moves…but for the most part it was standar progressive overload…rb

Ok i reread your post understand what your asking now…lots of plers have had ultra great sucsess with progressive overload…the only problem is ed’s volumes could be a little high for most dudes…rb

Thanks big martin. I am interested in increasing my strength. I have been at it for almost a year now. I started out with CS’s Beginer Blast Off Program but I feel that has become stagnant for me and I am ready to move on with more of a strength building program. To be perfectly honest, the Westside Program confuses the hell out of me! I train at home with just the basic equipment and no spotter. The Ed Coan program is easy to understand and not hard for a beginer to follow. I was just hoping for some feedback here form some experienced lifters.
campdirector

[quote]campdirector wrote:
I posted this on the Building a Better Body Forum but nobody replyed so I thought I’d try here. Does anyone have any experience with Ed Coan’s type of workout program. I recently recieved his book as a gift. Interesting book to read. I never see anyone at this site promoting this style of program. Any feedback?
campdirector[/quote]

to my knowledge Coen took a standard progressive overload type program and adjusted it to fit his own needs…

I’ve also heard that he constantly tweaks things here and there for variety and to avoid staleness (he also does bodybuilding stuff in his ‘OFF’ season)…

In my opinion and experience progress can be made from almost any program as long as you adjust it to meet your needs and address your individual weaknesses …don’t be afraid to change it up a bit if you feel yourself becoming over-trained or just feeling stale or burned-out…

good luck!

I think that you have to take many of these “elite” powerlifting and olympic lifting programs with a grain of salt. They certainly aren’t for everyone. One needs to consider that restoratives are a part of these sports, so the recovery of these athletes is much higher, so the amount of volume that these athletes train at is much higher than the everyday Joe.

I think I would start with a basic squat, bench, deadlift program or maybe something like defranco’s WS for skinny…

Thanks everyone. WS for Skinny Bastards looks very interesting. For a newbie like myself, all of these choices can be overwhelming. I am going to have to pick a program and not check back in to T-Nation for awhile. Then I won’t be tempted to start a different program.
cd

I’ve found Stefan Korte’s 3x3 program to be very effective for beginners to PL. Lots of technique practice, and you will certainly make big gains. Some people have complained about the bench-press element, but I actually found it improved my bench better than Westside methods (which did wonders for my deadlift).

I think somewhere there is even a modified 3x3 that includes speed work, can’t remeber where I read it though.

snippdawg, CT made a modified version of 3x3 that included dynamic work called Canadian autoregulatory powerlifting. Find it here:

Thanks for the link.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I have decided to stop reading about it and to just start. I have set some goals for myself in a 10 week period. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
cd

Also read this if you haven’t yet. It’s a cool interview with Coan from way back in the T-mag archives.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=462141