The Sept. 28 article "Weighing In: Weightlifters do not lift enough, study says" showed many common mistakes novice lifters and Penn State's own strength program make in weight training. Just as the novice lifters in the study, a lack of increased strength and power also seems to be the mark of the Penn State strength program. The study claims that most lifters fail to max out, something head strength coach Chip Harrison advises against. However, in periodization programs being used all over the country at successful schools, athletes are maxing out during their peaking phase to obtain maximum strength. In a recent study, Penn State researchers demonstrated that periodization is a more effective way to increase maximum strength and power output than the high intensity system, but the strength program at this school continues to base its foundation in the latter (the same program used by the football team). Not only does Penn State's strength program ignore its school's own research, but it also chooses to ignore that successful athletic programs like LSU and Miami, and the Big Ten's own Iowa and Purdue, all make use of the periodization and Olympic lifts the research endorses. Ignorance of the professors who have conducted the research is even more evident as Harrison claims it is your muscles that lead to failure in weightlifting, when Professor Donna Korzick makes it clear that the nervous system's break in communication with muscle is what causes fatigue. Amazingly, however, there are strength programs for sports like wrestling and track that both employ Olympic lifts and the results of studies conducted by Penn State researchers, some of the most renowned in the field of kinesiology. Perhaps it is time for the strength program to re-evaluate its goals and take a look at what is working at its own school in improving strength and power.