You will see a lot of coaches performing HIT training with their athletes, others will do functional training, me, I am a little more old school. I like to lift HEAVY things. The reason behind this to recruit all the motor neurons you have and to exhaust your CNS so that you body has no other choice than to adapt and get bigger. Max Effort training is the superior way to increase intra and intermuscular coordination. The stronger you are the higher your rat of force development will. This will increase your 40 yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump, and any other explosive movement you want to accomplish.
To perform a max effort movement one must work up to a weight that is 90% or higher than their training max and lift it 1 to 3 reps. Here is a video of some max effort benching that was performed at the gym today.
To fully reap the benefits of Max Effort training one must incorporate a dynamic effort day which we will discuss at another time.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
225 Bench Test
We had some college kids down training for the holidays and they kept asking me how can I increase my reps on the bench test for the combine. Here are a few of the points I gave them.
1. Get Stronger- If you can increase your 1RM on your bench, than the 225 should feel lighter and lighter every time. You have to increase your back strength as well to help support your bench. A 405 bench presser will get more reps on the test than a guy who can lift 315.
2. Incorporate an Upper Body Rep Day- If you do not put your body through the practice of repping higher numbers than your body will not be used to the lactic acid build up and your reps will always fall short. When doing these higher reps your are building your lactic threshold so you can keep repping it out. When your body accumulates to much lactate your muscles cannot contract as forcefully, because your body can not use the same amount of motor units as it did in the beginning of your exercise.
3. Hold Your Breathe- Depending on your strength this will vary. I have a 425 bench so I hold my breathe for the first 10 reps and than re-breathe for 8 more reps and than 5 reps. Once I hit this mark I will drop down to two reps and than one at a time until I am done. This will help insure that your body stays tight through out the bench.
1. Get Stronger- If you can increase your 1RM on your bench, than the 225 should feel lighter and lighter every time. You have to increase your back strength as well to help support your bench. A 405 bench presser will get more reps on the test than a guy who can lift 315.
2. Incorporate an Upper Body Rep Day- If you do not put your body through the practice of repping higher numbers than your body will not be used to the lactic acid build up and your reps will always fall short. When doing these higher reps your are building your lactic threshold so you can keep repping it out. When your body accumulates to much lactate your muscles cannot contract as forcefully, because your body can not use the same amount of motor units as it did in the beginning of your exercise.
3. Hold Your Breathe- Depending on your strength this will vary. I have a 425 bench so I hold my breathe for the first 10 reps and than re-breathe for 8 more reps and than 5 reps. Once I hit this mark I will drop down to two reps and than one at a time until I am done. This will help insure that your body stays tight through out the bench.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
How to Get Started
Everybody has their way of assessing clients before they put them on a training program. The way I look at a new client is to test them by throwing them in with a group and seeing what they have. Your gym is not going to be for everyone and your new client will find out fast if they belong. You can evaluate their weaknesses by just watching them perform the exercises that you told him to do. After that then you can tweak your program a little to help build those weaknesses up. If your program is designed right than you should not have to make many changes only if they have a glaring weakness that needs special attention. This is what I recommend for people with lifting experience.
Now if they have a very limited experience with weights or no experience at all. We start them off with a base line month long program. This consist of a lot of body weight training, sandbag training, and sled pulling. This will help them develop the muscle and strength they need to progress. We use light weight and a lot of reps. We have certain test that they must pass before even getting under a bar and benching or squatting. If they can perform three sets of twenty push ups than they can advance to dumbbells and than advance to the bar when we feel comfortable.
Make sure you build your clients up. Don't start them off with weights they can not handle. This will wreck their confidence and might make them second guess being there. You want them to always get their prescribed reps and increase a little at a time every week to build them up. You have to know your clients and how to talk and respond to them. This is crucial to the success of your clients and of your business.
Now if they have a very limited experience with weights or no experience at all. We start them off with a base line month long program. This consist of a lot of body weight training, sandbag training, and sled pulling. This will help them develop the muscle and strength they need to progress. We use light weight and a lot of reps. We have certain test that they must pass before even getting under a bar and benching or squatting. If they can perform three sets of twenty push ups than they can advance to dumbbells and than advance to the bar when we feel comfortable.
Make sure you build your clients up. Don't start them off with weights they can not handle. This will wreck their confidence and might make them second guess being there. You want them to always get their prescribed reps and increase a little at a time every week to build them up. You have to know your clients and how to talk and respond to them. This is crucial to the success of your clients and of your business.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
The Weak Get Eaten
Here is a workout we hit the other day. This is guaranteed to make you jacked and strong. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
Day 2: UPPER BODY WORKOUT
1. Chain BP 5x80% 3x87.5% 1x92.5% 1 or morex97.5%
2. Log C&P 2xMax
3. Pull Ups 60x
4. L-Raises 4x10
5. Pistol Pushdowns 3x20
6. Run The Rack Curls 2x
7. Heavy Side Bends 4x10
6. Barbell Complex (deadlifts, bent rows, hang cleans, push press, back squat): 4 sets. Perform 10 reps of each exercise. Rest 60 sec. b/t sets
Have a great Christmas and remember the importance of this great day. It is to celebrate the birth of Christ and to spend time with the ones you love.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Conditioning Part II
There are many aspects to programming the conditioning of athletes. You have to know when the season starts, what type of energy system they use, if they have any conditioning test they have to perform, and how good or bad of shape they are already in. These are crucial in developing a successful program.
Ideally you would want to do conditioning separate from the actual workout so that they can maximize growth from their workout with proper recovery and nutrition. After a workout their glycogen stores are depleted and they need to start generating the anabolic process by getting in the proper nutrition to start protein synthesis so their body can repair and regenerate. That is the purpose of the training to get bigger, stronger, and faster so why waste a second with conditioning when they should be focused on recovering.
That is the ideal situation, but if you are training athletes in your gym that will most likely never be the case. They want to get in and get out with out having to come another day or session to get conditioning in. If that is the case then you have to maximize their time with weight lifting and then conditioning to follow. We have our guys do conditioning that will complement their training. So if it is leg day we will have them either push the prowler or pull the sled.
If there season is 4 months away than do not even worry about conditioning, just focus on getting stronger and bigger. Once it hits two months before season then we start to incorporate conditioning unless they are extremely out of shape then we would start 3 or maybe even 4 months out. This just depends on the person and their situation.
Every sport requires certain energy systems. You have slow oxidative, fast glycolitic, and ATP-PC. Most of your athletes play in an ATP-PC and fast glycolitic sport, so you have to prepare them for that. The key to achieving this is to have as much capacity in both systems and to reduce the factors causing fatigue.
If the sport requires these two systems to be used during the game, than you must train your athletes to reach the highest levels possible in order to master their sport. You have to have the exercise mimic the actual sport in duration and intensity. The high intensity conditioning will increase the glycolitic enzymes in all fiber-types which will increase the amount of ATP that can be generated. It will also increase the speed at which PC can be degraded, so that faster ATP turnover is possible. If they play football have them do a conditioning exercise for 5-7 seconds and than rest. At the beginning of the conditioning program make sure you give them a good amount of rest and than the preceding weeks either lower the rest, increase the reps, or increase the weight. This will allow them to strive for something new every week when it comes to conditioning. It is just like ME days when you are trying to break records.
Ideally you would want to do conditioning separate from the actual workout so that they can maximize growth from their workout with proper recovery and nutrition. After a workout their glycogen stores are depleted and they need to start generating the anabolic process by getting in the proper nutrition to start protein synthesis so their body can repair and regenerate. That is the purpose of the training to get bigger, stronger, and faster so why waste a second with conditioning when they should be focused on recovering.
That is the ideal situation, but if you are training athletes in your gym that will most likely never be the case. They want to get in and get out with out having to come another day or session to get conditioning in. If that is the case then you have to maximize their time with weight lifting and then conditioning to follow. We have our guys do conditioning that will complement their training. So if it is leg day we will have them either push the prowler or pull the sled.
If there season is 4 months away than do not even worry about conditioning, just focus on getting stronger and bigger. Once it hits two months before season then we start to incorporate conditioning unless they are extremely out of shape then we would start 3 or maybe even 4 months out. This just depends on the person and their situation.
Every sport requires certain energy systems. You have slow oxidative, fast glycolitic, and ATP-PC. Most of your athletes play in an ATP-PC and fast glycolitic sport, so you have to prepare them for that. The key to achieving this is to have as much capacity in both systems and to reduce the factors causing fatigue.
If the sport requires these two systems to be used during the game, than you must train your athletes to reach the highest levels possible in order to master their sport. You have to have the exercise mimic the actual sport in duration and intensity. The high intensity conditioning will increase the glycolitic enzymes in all fiber-types which will increase the amount of ATP that can be generated. It will also increase the speed at which PC can be degraded, so that faster ATP turnover is possible. If they play football have them do a conditioning exercise for 5-7 seconds and than rest. At the beginning of the conditioning program make sure you give them a good amount of rest and than the preceding weeks either lower the rest, increase the reps, or increase the weight. This will allow them to strive for something new every week when it comes to conditioning. It is just like ME days when you are trying to break records.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Conditioning--When and How?
Now that football season is coming to an end, many kids are looking to get stronger and faster for next season. There are a lot of things that going into preparing kids for the next season and conditioning is one of those things that is usually not done right. I am sure a lot of you have seen on youtube people pushing the prowler until they puke or have heard of some of the ridiculous conditioning test that some athletes have to perform. Every team has their own way to do things, I just don't agree with most of them. Here is a few key points that you must know to maximize the athletes training.
1. Don't start conditioning to EARLY in the offseason. This is a crucial mistake that I see a lot of coaches make. Give the kids time to heal up after season and give them time to get strong and fast. I will wait until 6 weeks out from their season. This is all you need to get into shape. More than that you are over doing it.
2. Don't make their speed work turn into conditioning. Many coaches fall for this one, they think by running them into the ground until they can't move anymore will make them faster. You have to treat speed drills like max effort work in the gym. You need to make sure they get full RECOVERY before starting the next rep. Speed is speed and conditioning is a whole other beast. Treat it that way and you will see incredible gains.
3. You have to PROGRAM their conditioning like you do their weight lifting. There has to be a rhyme and reason to what you are doing. Start off light and with long rest and than gradually increase weight or reps and decrease rest as their conditioning progresses. Have a goal that you want them to make and that should be accomplished at the end of their conditioning cycle.
4. BUILD their conditioning from the end to the beginning. This kind of goes with number three but when designing their programs start with the last day and have that be their test day and build the program all the way back to the first day.
5. Make the conditioning SPECIFIC to their sport. This means that football players should not be running miles for conditioning. The max football play last around six seconds and have a rest in between plays of 25 to 30 seconds. This should be the basis of their conditioning.
There is a lot more that goes into conditioning but if you follow these five steps in programing offseason conditioning and your athletes will excel at their sports because they will be able to outlast the opponent, because that is where the game is won in the fourth quarter or the last inning or the last mile.
1. Don't start conditioning to EARLY in the offseason. This is a crucial mistake that I see a lot of coaches make. Give the kids time to heal up after season and give them time to get strong and fast. I will wait until 6 weeks out from their season. This is all you need to get into shape. More than that you are over doing it.
2. Don't make their speed work turn into conditioning. Many coaches fall for this one, they think by running them into the ground until they can't move anymore will make them faster. You have to treat speed drills like max effort work in the gym. You need to make sure they get full RECOVERY before starting the next rep. Speed is speed and conditioning is a whole other beast. Treat it that way and you will see incredible gains.
3. You have to PROGRAM their conditioning like you do their weight lifting. There has to be a rhyme and reason to what you are doing. Start off light and with long rest and than gradually increase weight or reps and decrease rest as their conditioning progresses. Have a goal that you want them to make and that should be accomplished at the end of their conditioning cycle.
4. BUILD their conditioning from the end to the beginning. This kind of goes with number three but when designing their programs start with the last day and have that be their test day and build the program all the way back to the first day.
5. Make the conditioning SPECIFIC to their sport. This means that football players should not be running miles for conditioning. The max football play last around six seconds and have a rest in between plays of 25 to 30 seconds. This should be the basis of their conditioning.
There is a lot more that goes into conditioning but if you follow these five steps in programing offseason conditioning and your athletes will excel at their sports because they will be able to outlast the opponent, because that is where the game is won in the fourth quarter or the last inning or the last mile.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Guest Post
It has been some time since my last post, I have been busy with football season ending and finals for myself. I am back to posting regularly and I have a bunch of good stuff coming up in the near future. Here is a guest post from Mike Montgomery. He is an endurance athlete who competes in 5ks, road races, triathlons, and just completed a 1/2 Ironman.
Can’t never Could
As endurance sport athletes, for most of us, our goal is to just finish. The events that we choose to do are usually just as mentally tough as they are physically and finishing is just as important as winning is to a normal athlete. I use the term “normal athlete” because there is nothing normal about us!
The one thing that I always hear when talking to people about endurance sports is negativity. “You can’t do that”, or “you can’t finish”, or my all time favorite, “you can’t win”. Most of the time those comments are coming from people that also “CAN’T.” They can’t get off their butts. They can’t handle failure. They can’t attempt the seemingly impossible. They can’t do what I can do. And most importantly they can’t believe!
If there’s something in life you want to do, you can do it. Don’t let anybody tell you any different. The only thing stopping you is you. Pick something that you don’t think you can finish and go for it! If you’ve never ran, run a 5k. Scared to swim? Do a triathlon. If that sounds easy do something bigger. But whatever you do, do it to finish and the feeling you get when you cross that finish line will be like nothing you’ve ever felt before. I promise you!
I recently completed a half-ironman triathlon and when it was over and everyone asked how i did i simply told them, “I finished.” In endurance sports finishing is winning and if you don’t believe it, try it!
Can’t never Could
As endurance sport athletes, for most of us, our goal is to just finish. The events that we choose to do are usually just as mentally tough as they are physically and finishing is just as important as winning is to a normal athlete. I use the term “normal athlete” because there is nothing normal about us!
The one thing that I always hear when talking to people about endurance sports is negativity. “You can’t do that”, or “you can’t finish”, or my all time favorite, “you can’t win”. Most of the time those comments are coming from people that also “CAN’T.” They can’t get off their butts. They can’t handle failure. They can’t attempt the seemingly impossible. They can’t do what I can do. And most importantly they can’t believe!
If there’s something in life you want to do, you can do it. Don’t let anybody tell you any different. The only thing stopping you is you. Pick something that you don’t think you can finish and go for it! If you’ve never ran, run a 5k. Scared to swim? Do a triathlon. If that sounds easy do something bigger. But whatever you do, do it to finish and the feeling you get when you cross that finish line will be like nothing you’ve ever felt before. I promise you!
I recently completed a half-ironman triathlon and when it was over and everyone asked how i did i simply told them, “I finished.” In endurance sports finishing is winning and if you don’t believe it, try it!
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