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.