One thing at a time!

In an effort to sell you certifications, organizations are now using training methods that are appealing to the "stuck in a rut" lifter... They have magic assistance drills, shorter work sets, more popular and fun training to get you to the gold! I am guilty of biting at this bait myself. I certainly do not love long sets and the daily grind of plain old work... I really would like to do the flashy and exciting stuff... But my experience is that nothing works at improving my competition lifts like doing the competition lifts.

The hardest thing about learning a bunch of new stuff is deciding which things will actually help you lift better. The best way to tell if a new grip technique or a breathing technique works for you if to give it an honest effort. That, to me means I give it a solid 3 weeks to see if it helps my numbers or increases my work capacity at all.

 I strongly recommend only changing one thing at a time... if you change more than that, you will never know what is effective or not effective. I have tried to change a few things at once and it always leads to frustration and confusion. If things improve, you never really know what the critical thing was that helped you. If you change one thing at a time, you will have a very accurate idea of how effective the new piece is...