Samson Strength Training

Here is a video of the last couple months of training leading up to my next strongman show on November 7th. Enjoy!!

Breaking Plateaus

There will come a time in your training when you feel weak and no matter what you can't get stronger. This happens to everybody and it happens all the time. The answer to this is to add some variety to your workout. Change your main lifts whether it is the bars, rep scheme or the whole exercise all together. We rotate squats and deadlifts every two weeks and we change from cambered bars to SSB bars and back regular bars. We have found that instead of lifting for your basic 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps on accessory work to start incorporating in timed lifts or a set number of reps. We have our athletes throw in 30sec shrugs for 3 sets from time to time. As far as reps go have you athletes perform 100 dips throughout the workout in between sets or go 10 sets of 10 or 5 sets of 20. You get the idea switch things up make up some type of competition and keep their body guessing. WARNING do not get to fancy with things though keep it within your program and exercises that are tried and tested.

Develop your Weaknesses

About a few years back when I was playing football I always had a problem with hamstring pulls. No matter what I was doing my hamstring was bound to pull. First it was the left, after it healed then it was the right. I knew something was wrong and it was time to reevaluate my training. So instead of doing Olympic squats I started doing box squats. I pulled the sled in an upright position and drilled my heels into the ground. The most effective thing I did was buy a Glute Ham Raise from Elite and used it religiously. Now it is a major part of our program. We use it with just bodyweight or we add weight to either the front of our chest or the back of our neck. The movement I really love to do on it is to add some bands to the bottom loops and knock out 4 sets of 10-15 reps. Since using this piece of equipment my squat and deadlift have increased dramatically and I have not had any hamstring problems in years. Here is a quick video to show you how to perform this exercise. Notice how the chin stays tucked the whole time. This is very important to making sure that this stays a glute ham raise and not a back extension into a glute ham raise.

Free Workouts

Its time to get in the best shape of your life. One free week of training at our new facility. This is a can't miss oppurtunity and it will only last until the end of October. We will help you reach any and all your goals. Fat loss, getting back in shape, and getting strong in a awesome atmosphere. Give us a call at 7729409990 to set up an appointment.

Time to get Creative

I know in this economy we can't afford the nice things in life. Like all those fancy machines you see at the big commercial gyms. Here is a quick video demonstrating two exercise you can do with minimal equipment and very minimal cost, but is extremely effective. The first exercise is band rows. We just girth hitched a band to something sturdy and the other band through that. Perform a high number of reps on this somewhere between 20-30. Next are triceps extensions with blast straps, which you can get from Elitefts. We perform 10-15 reps of these and we superset them with band rows. Give them a try next time you go to the gym and be prepared to be hurting the next day.

Dips 2.0

Dips are a cornerstone in our upper body days. We cycle weighted dips and BW dips weekly. Here we are working up to a heavy 6 reps and then a drop set to BW. We ended up with eight chains for a total of 160lbs. This will add some solid muscle to your frame and will jack up your bench by 20 to 50lbs if done right. Check out the video and leave some comments to let me know what you think.

Strongman=Explosive Power

A lot of coaches like to have there guys do olympic lifts to build explosive power, such as the snatch and power clean. Now I am not saying that these are useless in a program, but I am saying it is not the most pratical lift to have your athletes do to develop explosive power. As a strength coach you always have to weigh the pros and cons of the lift and being that these lifts are an olympic sport in themselves and you have twenty to thirty guys training at once, so you really can not check everyone's form. The risk of injury do to incorrect form is great in this instance. All these movements are, is triple extension movements. Now if you could substitute those movements for a safer and more efficient one than why would you not. For explosive movemnt we have our athletes perform triple extension movements such as plyometrics, tire flips, and atlas stones. Here is one of our athletes performing box jumps followed up by some atlas stone lifts. Take a look at his box jumps and tell me that he is not explosive and he has not performed an olympic lift since he has been here.



Post comments and let me know what you think.

Why we Deload

I think a good deload week is needed in your training program if you are lifting heavy day in and day out. I like to deload based on feel, but that is because I know my body very well and know when to shut it off. For beginners though I would recommend planning it out in your training roughly every fourth or fifth week. It will help out tremendously with your lifting. It gives you a week long mental and physical break. I also like to deload the week before a contest too. It really sets you up to peak at the show. Here is a sample of one of our deload weeks we like to perform here at Samson S&C.

10/04-10/10 Deload Week
Felt pretty beat, so I decided to deload and really work on form and speed

10/04 Upper Acc.
Push ups-5x15
Pull ups- 3x10
DB Military Press- 3x10 55lbs
Band Pullaparts 100reps
Band Pushdowns 100reps

10/06 Lower Acc.
SSB- 240x5, 260x5, 300x5, 330x3, 350x3
BW Lunges- 10each leg
Kettlebell Swings- 3x10 50lbs
Sprinter situps- 2x10

10/08 Upper Acc.
Log C&P- 140lbsx5x5 Worked on form
Incline DB Press- 65x10, 75x10, 85x10
DB Rows- 60x10, 70x10, 80x10
Abs

10/10 Sled Work
Just going to pull the sled around for about 30 minutes.

Added ROM

There are hundreds of ways to tweak an exercise to hit different muscles and to recruit more motor units. Here at Samson we like to add a little more range of motion to our exercises. You can do this with a lot of your exercises. We like to elevate the lead foot when doing reverse lunges or bulgarian split squats. We do stiff leg deadlifts off of a 12" box and deficit deadlifts off of a 2", 4", or 6" mats. This added range of motion may make the exercise a little harder but that allows you to recruit more motor units, which is what you want when it comes to lifting. Here is a video of some deficit deadlifts. The reason for these is to hit the hamstrings and glutes a little harder. This added range of motion will let you work on your weaknesses, such as lagging hamstrings and glutes. Enjoy the video and leave some comments below.

Worlds Strongest Man

As some of you may know the Worlds Strongest Man took place this last week. The results are in and here is how the top three turned out.

Savickas wins WSM 2009

1. Zydrunas Savickas
2. Mariusz Pudzianowski
3. Brian Shaw

This is not official and regardless everyone should watch the show on ESPN anyways. It was an epic battle and it came down to the end for 1st and for 3rd.

Grip it and Rip it!!!

Just wanted to make a quick post about an innovative way to do develop a super strong back and grip. I saw these being used by diesel crew and had to try them out. They really work your grip, back, biceps, and core. Awesome movement and if you get a chance check out http://www.dieselcrew.com for some amazing videos.