PowerBuilding Articles

Some periodization comments on 5x5 by Pendlay

2007-08-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

collected from Lyle McD's site: bodyrecomposition forums

originally posted by BLADE. yes, "THE" Blade.

Thought I'd post a collection of posts by Glenn Pendlay on how he periodizes the 5x5 routine:

there are really so damn many ways to squat, even to squat with 5 sets of 5, or 6 sets of 4, or 4 sets of 6, or any similar thing, that there is not really any one program... im always hesitant to even write it out as a "program" becasue i dont really know what we will be doing in 4 weeks when we start such a thing... it kind of adapts as it goes.

but there seems to be some confusion as to the pyramid version or the non-pyramid version, so ill try to briefly explain the differences.

the EASIEST method we use for squats, and the one which rip used for beginners, is a simple pyramid program, the weights are pyramided BOTH monday and friday... and another leg exercise is used for wednesday, usually front squats for the young and athletically minded, sometimes leg press for the old and feeble.

say a person tests at 200lbs for 5 reps on their initial workout. well then monday they might do the following sets for 5 reps, 95, 125, 155, 185, 205. fairly equal jumps, ending with a 5lb personal record. if the last set is successfull, then on friday they will go for 210 on their last set, with adjustments on the other sets to keep the jumps about even as needed.

the average beginner can stay on this exact simple program for anywhere from 4 weeks to 4 months, as long as they continue to improve at least 5lbs a week, most can do this for quite a while.

when they stop improving, the first thing he does is to drop a couple of the "warmup" sets down to one or two reps, to decrease fatigue and allow a few more personal records on the top set... so that 200lb top set of 5 workout at this point would at this point have the 155lb set at maybe 3 reps, and the 185lb set at one or two reps, then try for 5 at 205.

this change usually lets people get new personal records for another 2-3 weeks, sometimes more.

at some point, of course, this doesnt work anymore. so now we change the monday workout to 5 sets of 5, still with heavy front squats or for some lighter back squats on wednesday, and the same pyramid on friday, trying for one top set of 5. the 5 sets on monday with the same weiight will be some amount less than the current personal record for one set of 5.

usually with this raise in volume, the weights are set somewhat lighter than they were, and people are given a few weeks to work back to their personal records, then try to go past them, invariably they will pass them, and invariably eventually they will stall again...

at this point we usually lower the volume of training, raise the intensity, in some form we will go with lower reps, lower amounts of sets, cut out a day of squatting, something to allow a raising of the numbers... again, the numbers will raise for a while, then stall again.

a this point, another raise in volume is needed, and at this point we will go to the program that most usually associate with the "5 by 5"... squatting 5 sets of 5 with the same weight 3 times a week, lighter on wednesday and heavier on mon and fri. you are all familiar with this i think, we raise the volume for 2-4 weeks, then slowly cut the volume aned intensity of most workouts, going for a big workout every 1-2 weeks, might be a single, a single set of 5, or even one big 5 sets of 5 workout. with people cycling down for a big contest at thsi point we might go for lower reps and try for the big singles.... with someone not at a place where a big peak is needed, its just cycling down to less sets but keeping the reps at 5, and trying to make a pr on a set of 5. this can be repeated several times over and over, but at some point you have to have a period of lower intensity training for a while in between cycles.

i will add that often, for the people with higher goals who want to really train hard, i will start right in with the 15 hard sets a week version, but with weights low enough that they can endure it, and when they get in condition and get used to the volume, will then go back and start at the normal place where rip starts right from the beginning. i find that people who have been athletically active, who have been training on other programs, etc, usually do well with an initial 4-8 weeks of high volume lower intensity training to get them mentally and physically used to this sort of training, get their form changed to a good squat, etc.

this post describes as much as a year of training for most people, with some that adapt well it is stretched to two years.... two years from when they start their initial "pyramid" workouts, or their initial month or so of conditioning with 15 moderate sets a week to when they get through their first real cycle with heavy weights and 15 sets a week cycled down to a peak.

i know this question was aimed at people who have used 5X5 and not me, but id still like to make a couple of comments... there are so many versions of the "5X5" training style, and they are so different. i use this type of training for the people i train all the way from beginners to really good lifters but the program changes over time for each person. generally it starts out in the first week of training with finding your max set of 5 and then very simply working up to one max set two times per week trying to add weight to that one set, with one ther workout in between that is most likely front squats. simple as this might be, it usually works for several months and i am convinced that it is about the fastest way for a total beginner to make progress. at some point this stops working and we go to a slightly different version, probably the one most well known, and also probably the one most usefull to a large number of people. 5 sets of 5 on monday with a set weight, then lighter squats on wednesday or front squats, then on friday working up to a max set of 5. there are some things we do here when it isnt possible to just add weight every week, but for a lot of lifters with minor variation this keeps the squat going up for another year or two. like everything else, it eventually stops working, and we start to add in some more long term variation like loading and unloading. we might do 5 sets of 5, pretty heavy, on all 3 squatting days for 3-4 weeks as a loading period, then back off the volume for 3-4 weeks by squatting for lower reps and only 2 days per week as an uloading period. we might add in speed work or dynamic effort work, using 5 sets of 5 on monday, fronts squats on wednesday, and dynamic effort work on friday. when a lifter is really near the top of their genetic potential, they cant do 5 sets of 5 consistently with heavy weight. for example, i dont think kyle gulledge could do this. hes squatted 700lbs with belt and knee wraps, so i estimate his raw squat as around 625-650lbs, probably pretty close since he did a chain squat raw last week with about 650lbs total weight, with a lot of that weight taking the form of hanging plates attached to the chains that came off the ground all at once right at the sticking point, a very hard way to do it. its normal for a lifter to be able to do 5 sets of 5 with around 82-87% of thier max squat. 85% for kyle would be 550lbs or something like that. i dont think thats something he could benefit from doing week in and week out. hes almost superhuman, but to recover from this weekly and still be able to train other lifts would take a cape and tights, almost superhuman wouldnt cut it. so for a guy like this, we wouldnt use it all the time, we would do 5 sets of 5 with lighter weights for 3-4 weeks, working up to one really heavy workout trying to break our record, then move on to a more westside style of training, with max effort work one day and dynamic effort work another day, much easier to recover from if you are pushing really heavy weight.

If your doing 5 sets on monday, lighter squats on wed, and one set on friday, or something like that, you would be trying to do your one set on friday with more weight than you used on monday.

its important that you approach it in a systematic way, start with weights that are easy to handle. just for example, if you are capable of doing say, 300lbs for a set of 5, you might start with 225lbs for 5 sets of 5 on monday, 200lbs for 3 sets of 5 on wednesday, and then 275 for one set of 5 on friday. you could then try to increase the monday and friday weights by 10lbs 3 weeks, and the wednesday weights by 5 lbs. that would give you a PR of 305 for 5 on week 4, and depending on the person, you might be able to get 310 or 315 for 5 on week 5. if friday of week 4 feels like you just might be able to get a PR the next week, you might try dropping the monday workout back to 225 monday of week 5, and letting yourself recover a little more preparing for week 5 friday.

there are lots of options for the next cycle... for instance, you could choose to push the monday workout hard and not push your single set of 5 quite so hard. a good goal here would be to do 5 sets of 5 on monday with your previous best single set of 5. you would then start your monday workout in week one with a weight that is say 40lbs below your best single set of 5... keep the wednesday workout similar to the first cycle, and on friday simply add 5 or 10lbs to mondays weight, roughly the same weight you will try for 5 sets the next monday. given steady 10lb increases, if you started with 270lbs on monday, you should have a good chance of doing 310 for 5 sets of 5 on monday of week 5.

options for the next cycle would be to change the number of reps... say to the same number of sets but 3 reps... or you could run another 4-5 week cycle similar to the first with lower numbers for the monday workout, say this time starting with 235lbs, but trying for 320-330lbs for a single set of 5 on week 4 or 5, or you could start with lower weight and make bigger jumps if you feel your getting tired around week 3 or 4 on the previous cycles. starting lower and making bigger jumps takes some of the fatigue factor away.

OR... two things we have done that work really well, have been to do a cycle with monday and wednesday the same, but take fridays workout and turn it into either 5 singles, or into a westside style DE day. If the friday workout is 5 singles, then you again have the choice of doing the 5 singles with a weight that is say 20lbs above mondays weight and trying to make a PR 5 sets of 5 mark at the end, or of keeping the 5 sets of 5 at a slightly lower weight than maximal, and pushing the singles up to a PR weight at the end. If you choose the second option, you can also try decreasing the number of singles each week by one, so that at week 5 you are going for a true max single. If you are doing this, increasing mondays workout by 10-15lbs for the first 3 weeks, then decreasing it by 10-15lbs a week for the last 2 weeks is a good option.

If you use the westside DE day as fridays workout, you again have several options. you can use 6 weeks as your cycle length, and do 2 of the 3 week waves that louie likes on friday, incorporating a higher weight single into each workout at the end of fridays DE work, and trying for a new max single on friday, OR you can keep the DE work fairly light, and push mondays training hard and try for a new max 5 sets of 5, or 5 sets of 3, or whatever scheme you are doing on monday.

whatever you choose eventually, you should do it the way i initially described it for the first cycle, and probably should follow with my second recomendation for the second cycle. if you have never done this style of training before, keeping the weight relatively low on monday and concentrating on a higher single set of 5 on week 4 or 5 will help you get used to it without the strain of all out training with 5 sets of 5 when you are not really ready for it. after a 4 or 5 week introduction, you will be ready to really push the harder monday workout, and should be able to really make gains by doing so. going straight back to the first cycle for your third time thru is usually the best option from what i have found. after really pushing the monday 5 sets for a month, you should be ready to make a much bigger single set of 5, and backing off of mondays weights a little and pushing the single set on friday will help you realize your new potential for a big single set. from here its anyones guess, but you should by this time be familiar enough with how your body is responding, how tired you are getting, etc, to know what to go to for your next cycle.

The Ultimate Training Split and Ultimate Split FAQ

2007-08-12T00:49:00.001-07:00

The Ultimate Training Split

by: Kelly Baggett

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is the topic of training splits. When putting together non-personalized routine samples that can be applicable to most people I have some basic beliefs and principles I follow:

1. I believe in the athletic world we're on the verge of something similar to what happened in the bodybuilding world some 15-20 years ago with the popularization of Stuart McRobert and Hardgainer training. If you're not familiar with hardgainer training, it evolved in natural bodybuilding as a philosophy that most people simply did not have the ability to make muscle gains following the popular routines promoted in the muscle magazines due to an inability to recover from such high volumes of work.

2. Even today in the sport of bodybuilding there is an abundance of information that is unsuitable for the majority of natural lifters, but 15 or 20 years ago it was much, MUCH worse. There was no internet and the information given in the popular books and periodicals never stated that the information contained within would only work for those with one in a million genetics using massive amounts of steroids. The majority of the general public is under the assumption that those with the biggest muscles must know the most about how to build an awesome physique. However, the fact is the popular training methods that have created most of the world class physiques don't work for the average trainee.

Today natural bodybuilders are much more educated - we have the internet and acquiring solid information is not a difficult task. Yet back 15 or 20 years ago most bodybuilders didn't have a chance.

3. As an example, like a lot of people when I first got involved with lifting I trained primarily to improve my appearance. At the time all the magazines promoted the theme that if you were serious about bodybuilding you should train each muscle group twice a week for 20 to 25 sets for a total of 6 training days each week with only one day off. This was back in 1991. At the time the one bodypart per day with high volume was just coming into vogue. This is currently similar to what most pro bodybuilders follow, but at the time it was considered a lower volume split ideal for natural trainers and those with less than optimal recovery ability. To give you an idea a typical split might look something like this:

mon: chest - 20 to 30 sets

Tues: hamstrings - 20 sets

Wed: shoulders - 20 sets

Thurs: Quads- 20 sets

Fri: back 20 sets

Sat: arms 20 sets

Sun: off

Now, keep in mind, in 1991 that was considered a LOW VOLUME bodybuilding routine!

Obviously most people won't be able to progress on that set-up. The volume is simply too high.

4. Finally a man by the name of Stuart McRobert started writing about "Hardgainer" training. I first read about Stuart McRobert in IronMan magazine. Stuart wrote routines that catered to natural athletes with less than optimal genetics. The basic maxims of hardgainer training are:

1. Train less frequently and with less volume

A typical hardgainer routine might have 2 to 3 workouts per week for a total of 6 to 8 hard sets per workout.

2. Focus on making strength gains in big compound movements.

The mindset of a hardgainer is to get up to a 300 pound bench press 400 pound squat and 500 pound deadlift.

3. Focus on full recovery between sessions

A hardgainer should not train until they can go in the gym and make progress.

A sample 2 day per week hardgainer routine might look like this:

Day one:

Squat- 2 x 5, 1 x 20

Stiff-legged Deadlift 1 x 15

Pull-up or Pull-down 2 x 6-8

Barbell Curl 2 x 6-8

Day Two: (3-4 days later)

Bench Press or Incline Press- 2 x 6-8

Dip- 1 x 15

Military Press- 2 x 6-8

Abs- 2 x 15

Repeat workout one 3-4 days later.

A 3 day per week hardgainer routine might look like this:

Day One - Mon

Dips or Bench Press 2 x 6-8

Incline Press 2 x 10-12

Military Press 2 x 6-8

Tricep extensions 2 x 10-12

Day Two - Wednesday

Squats 2 x 10

Deadlifts 1 x 10

Leg curl - 2 x 10

Day Three - Friday

Pull-Up 3 sets to failure

Barbell Row 2 x 8

EZ-Bar Curl 1 x 10

Abs 3 x 10

Quite low volume isn't it? However, there are few people who can't make consistent strength gains on that routine.

5. Although some now argue that the hardgainer philosophy went a little extreme with extremely low volume and excessive recovery recommendations (and I agree), most natural bodybuilders to this day will make better gains focusing on strength gains with a more moderate volume setup than any routine that they pull out of a standard bodybuilding magazine.

Let's say you took a natural bodybuilder and built him up to the following lifts:

Incline Bench Press: 400 x 10
Squat: 405 x 20
Stiff Leg dead: 375 x 20
Pullup: BW + 75 x 10 reps
Dips: BW + 100 x 10 reps
Curl: 135 x 20 reps

Do you think the bodybuilder that could achieve those lifts would have built a significant amount of size? Heck yeah! Now what if those were the ONLY lifts that he did and he simply focused on each of them in a progressive fashion? Well, that is what powerlifters do and there are no shortage of muscular powerlifters out there. But the average bodybuilder will get lost in the details (the pump and volume), and shortchange himself in the long run.

The point is, in the bodybuilding world there are those with the genetics to be pro bodybuilders and then there is everybody else. (Hardgainers). Those with less than optimal genetics will not get great gains training on routines that work well for the elite people and do better focusing on basics.

So How Does This Relate To Sports Training?

7. Along the same lines of what I just covered, I believe that in the athletic world there is a wide range of recovery ability between different people and the average trainee does not recover that well using volumes that work just fine for typical high level athletes. Basically, there are Division I and Pro athlete type genetics and then there is everybody else. Those D-1 or pro athletes are essentially the "pro bodybuilders" of the performance world. Based on my experiences and observations over the past several years, I believe many more people screw up by adding things to their program and overcomplicating things than they do by keeping things simple and focusing on a few basic factors. We get so caught up in the "how's" and the millions of various pertubations of putting things together that we forget to focus on the "what's".

An athlete has to worry about conditioning, skill work, mobility, nutrition, strength, reactivity, movement work and a ton of other things. By the time you have all that factored in you have a lot of room for over-complication and little room for recovery. If you don't recover you will not progress. There are some people out there who really love to capitalize on the cutting edge seeking mentality of the public and they can make sitting on the pot as complicated as the Pythagorean Theorem. When in doubt I tell people to go to a powerlifting meet and turn off the computer. The Primal atmosphere will remind you what it takes to make progress.

8. Average athletes that try to emulate what works for genetic wonders or doped up athletes will be met with less than satisfactory results until they've been training a long while and have built up their recovery ability. It's better to undertrain a little than it is to overtrain at all. If you overtrain progress will be ZERO, NADA, ZILCH. If you undertrain your gains may not come at lightning speed but at least they will come consistently.

8a. This is not just true for beginner and intermediate athletes either. To give you an example, over the past couple of years I've had the opportunity to work with or advise quite a few college level track and field athletes. All of them were either from high level university track programs or were advanced in their knowledge and following popular well thought out templates. Even though there were a few individual differences, they all seemed to have the same basic problems. All of them showed me what they were doing and I aproached each in the same general manner - I made a few minor adjustments but for the most part I just cut down on their volume and gave them a few basic goals to shoot for. Not a single one failed to note impressive improvements.

9. Here are a few basic principles I believe most people could benefit from with regard to regulating training volume:

A: I believe 3 hard training days per week is optimal for most people.

B: I believe most people should have a day off after every hard training session.

(Neither of these tenets means that a person should do absolutely nothing on off days, it just means that anymore than 3 tough hard workouts per week is pushing it for a lot of people.)

C: I believe full body workouts will over-tax the recovery ability of most athletes except very raw beginners who aren't yet able to train at a high level of intensiveness.

D: The more recovery days you have between intensive weight training sessions, the more "extraneous" sport-specific and conditioning work you can tolerate. A recipe for disaster for most athletes is to come in the weight room and train lower body hard on mon, wed, and fri and do conditioning or sport specific work on tues, thurs, and saturday.

E: Many athletes get good results training upper body on monday, lower body on wednesday, and upper body on friday. However, the upper body muscles don't really get optimal recovery since they are trained each week on both Monday and Friday. That leaves only 2 days between intensive training sessions.

F: We can spend days talking about absolute strength, reactive strength, explosive strength, rate of force development, agility, flexibility, and ever other advanced scientific performance topic under the sun, but 90% of improvements in all that can be summed up with the following:

1. Lift weights to get stronger
2. Do plyos to jump higher
3. Run sprints to run faster
4. Stretch consistently to get flexible

If your weights are getting heavier, your jumps are getting higher, your sprints are getting faster, and you're moving and feeling well, you're on the right track.

What if we took and athlete and in 3 years we did the following:

Squat: 135 max to 450 pound max

Deadlift: 155 max to 500 pound max

Vertical Jump: 20 inch vert to 35 inch vert

20 yard dash: 3.15 seconds to 2.55 seconds

Box Jump: 2 feet to 5 feet

Bench Press: 95 pounds to 350 pounds

Pull-up: 0 to 20

Would anyone complain about those numbers? Probably not. But what if THOSE WERE THE ONLY LIFTS AND MOVEMENTS WE DID AND WE SIMPLY TOOK THE MINDSET OF BUILDING THEM UP IN A PROGRESSIVE FASHION?? That way each workout we would have a direct gauge as to our ability to lift more weight, jump higher, and run faster. Now, that might get a bit boring, but the point is it would work well for many because they have clear cut objectives each and every workout.

10. The above points led me to the development of what I call my Ultimate Split. The ultimate split is a 3 day per week cyclical scheme that can work great for just about anyone. The reason I call it "The Ultimate Split" is for the following reasons:

A: It allows one to focus on the main objectives

B: It eliminates (in my mind) the main reasons people fail

C: It is very easy to implement

D: It is easy to teach and recall

D: It is easy to adjust

F: It can be easily modified to fit any advanced philosphy (dual factor, concentrated loading, etc.)

If I could sum up the ultimate split in a few points I'd say:

1. Set up 2 upper body workouts and 2 lower body workouts.

2. Train every monday, wednesday and Friday and rotate through the 4 workouts.

3. Take a mindset of making strength gains in something each time you repeat a particular workout. If you are training effectively within your ability to recuperate you should be seeing progress in the form of strength or performance increases from workout to workout or week to week. These don't have to be big increases.

4. Do some movement, plyo, or speed work prior to each workout and choose movmeents that can easily be monitiored for performance increases. Examples include jumps for max height, timed sprints, timed shuttles, box jumps etc.

5. Treat your movement, plyo, and speed work just like you treat your lifting - don't do it just to do it, do it to make progress each time you repeat a workout.

Here is an example of how to organize weight training workouts that most athletes can use to push their strength numbers way up:

Foundational Split

Set up 2 upper body workouts and 2 lower body workouts and alternate between them on an every other day basis with weekends off.

Workout 1: is Chest, Chin-ups, and arms in that order

Workout 2: is Squats, hamstrings, calves and forearms in that order

Workout 3: is Shoulders, Rows, chest, and arms in that order

Workout 4: is Deadlifts, squats, calves, and forearms in that order

Monday (workout 1)

Bench Press or Board press variation 4 x 3-5

Wide Grip chin 4 x 6

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 3 x 8

Barbell or Dumbbell Curl 3 x 8

Skull Crushers 3 x 10

Wednesday (workout 2)

Squat or box squat 4 x 5

Glute/Ham Raises or pullthroughs 3 x 10

Ab work 3 x 10

forearms 2 x 20-30

Friday (workout 3)

Incline bench press or Shoulder Press 4 x 5

Rows 4 x 8

Tricep pushdowns 2 x 10

Preacher curl 2 x 10

Ab work 3 x 10

Monday (workout 4)

Deadlift or rack deadlift 4 x 5

Single leg squat variation 2 x 10

Calf Raises 3 x 15

Forearms 2 x 20

Wednesday (Repeat workout 1)

Friday (Repeat workout 2)

Sets should be terminated at the point right before form starts to break down. Rotate the lifts about every 4-8 weeks or whenever a lift stalls. You can use different exercises if you like.

Here are some examples of exercise choices

Workout #1

Chest: Bench press or dumbell press, incline press, DB incline press, decline DB press

Chinups: Wide, medium, or close grip overhand, neutral (palms facing), or under-hand

Shoulders: Side lateral, front lateral, incline lateral

Biceps: Curl variation

Triceps: Dips, pushdowns, triceps extensions. overhead extensions

Workout #2

Squats: Back squat, box squat, front squat

Single leg deadlifts: Bent leg variation, straight leg variation

Hamstrings: Glute Ham, Reverse hyper, leg curl

Workout #3

Shoulders: Military press, Neutral grip DB press

Rows: T-bar row, cable row, single arm row

Chest: Crossover or flye variation

Arms: Dips, extensions, pushdowns, curl variant

Workout #4

Deadlifts: Deadlifts, Wide-grip deadlifts, Rack pull

Single leg squat: Bulgarian split squat, single leg pistol squat

Hamstrings: Glute ham, leg curl, reverse hyper

Choose one exercise for each body-part or movement. Stick with whatever exercise you choose for at least 3 workouts.

Sets and Reps

There are a multitude of ways to regulate the sets and reps and many that I use. Here is an easy way to do it and what I call the "money-set" method. This is a lot like the max-effort method. The basic tenet of the money set method is each time you repat a particular workout you work up to at least ONE SET where you lift either more weight or do more reps then you did for your best set the last time you did the workout. Generally speaking, you'll do between 2-5 sets per exercise adding weight each set and working up to at least one maximum effort for a given number of reps. For example, say my last workout on incline dumbell press looked like this and my target rep range was 8:

pushups x 15

feet elevated pushups x 10

50 pound dumbells x 8

60 pound dumbells x 8

70 pound dumbells x 9 * money set

70 pound dumbells x 8 (tried to beat 9 but couldn't)

So, you can see I did 4 pretty hard sets but only one was a real money set. Next time i do that exercise I gotta beat 9 reps with 70 lbs.

As soon as you can do 3 more reps than your target rep range increase the load by 2-5%. So, if I did 200 pounds for 6 reps on squat the last workout and 200 pounds for 8 reps this time, the next workout I'd increase the load by 5-10 pounds and once again do as many reps as possible building back up to 8 reps.

Another method I use is the sub-maximal volume method. With this method you do all sets with the same weight starting with a weight that will not be quite an all out effort. Each workout you reduce the reps and increase the weight by about 5%.

So it will look something like this:

workout 1: 4 sets x 6 reps with 100 lbs.

workout 2: 4 sets x 5 reps with 105 lbs.

workout 3: 4 sets x 4 reps with 110 lbs

workout 4: 4 sets x 6 reps with 105 lbs (use at least as much weight as you used during the 2nd workout)

For most people I prefer the working up to a daily max method but either progressive resistance method will work fine. The idea is you're consistently adding weight to the bar.

The repetition range you choose for various exercises is basically up to you but here are some guidelines:

Rep Ranges

1-3 reps deadlifts

4-6 reps bench press variations, squats

6-8 reps single leg squats and deadlifts, glute hams, leg curls

8-12 reps curls and triceps

12-15 reps reverse hypers, laterals, crossovers, flyes

Keep a Log Book

Ultra Important! This is the most important part of the program. Each time you do a workout write how many reps you did the last workout and how many reps you did this workout and try to beat it each time.

What about making the routine into an athetically oriented routine?

Ahhh...now we're talking about getting into the good stuff that really makes the Ultimate Split work so well. To do that all you'd need to do is add some movement and plyo work. Here is how you might do that:

1. Do it either prior to or after your upper body workouts

2. Do it at a separate time of day

3. Do it on days after your upper body workouts

4. Do it prior to your lower body workouts

I generally recommend you do it prior to your workouts. What are some examples of movement and plyometric work? Good question.

Movement efficiency exercises:

1. single leg box jumps (sets of 3-5)

2. single leg lateral hops (sets of 5-10 seconds)

3. low squat hops (sets of 5-10 seconds)

4. Drop jumps (sets of 3-5)

5. Lateral barrier jumps (sets of 5-10 seconds)

Plyometric and speed work:

1. running jumps for height

2. standing jump for height

3. on-box jumps

4. broad jumps

5. sprints (choose distances from 10-40 yards)

6. shuttle drills

7. single leg triple jump

8. resisted sprints

9. Depth jumps for height

Pick one movement efficiency exercise and 1 plyometric and speed exercise each workout and hit the speed/plyo movements hard JUST LIKE YOU DO YOUR WEIGHT ROOM WORK and try to beat your performance each time. Very Important! Treat the speed and plyo work just like you would the weights and try to improve on your performance and make progress each and every workout.

The movement efficiency stuff will be easy and is more of a warm-up but on the plyo and speed work stop the workout as soon as it's obvious you're not going to improve on your best effort of the day. The might take only a few sets or it might take 50. But as long as you're improving keep at it. As for exercise choice, you can either stick with a given movement each workout for a given length of time or you can rotate through them at your convenience. You're generally going to have better results if you stick with a given movement for at least 3-6 consecutive workouts. Use a stopwatch, tape measure, or some other tool and really try to get after it.

Alright, so let's take a complete trial run through the entire program complete with exercises, sets, and reps for all movement, plyo, and weight work. On the weight room work, work up to at least one hard set for the rep range listed.

Workout 1- Monday

dynamic warm-up

Lateral Barrier Jumps - 3 x 10 seconds

20 yard sprints- repeat until times drop-off

Upper body warm-up: Pushups, band external rotation

Dumbell Bench press- sets of 5 (work up to 5 rep max)

Weighted Pullups - sets of 8 (work up to 8 rep max)

Side incline laterals- sets of 15

Preacher curl- sets of 10

Close grip decline bench press - sets of 8

Tuesday: off

Workout 2- Wednesday

dynamic warm-up

single leg lateral hops - 4 x 10 seconds per leg

Plyo/Speed work

Standing broad jumps- stop when distances drop-off

Squats- sets of 6

Single leg bent leg deadlift- As many reps as possible (if more than 10 add weight)

Glute ham raise- sets of 8

wrist curl- sets of 50 reps

Reverse wrist curl - sets of 50 reps

Pulldown Abs- sets of 20 reps

Thursday- off

Workout 3- Friday

Dynamic warm-up

Movement efficiency

low squat hops - 3 x 10 seconds

Plyo/Speed

40 yard sprints- stop when times drop off

Upper body warm-up pushups, band external rotations

Military Press- sets of 6

T-bar row- sets of 8

Flat cable crossover- sets of 15

Incline DB curl- sets of 8

Decline triceps extension- sets of 8

Sat and Sun: off

Mon- Workout 4

Dynamic warm-up

Movement efficiency

single leg box jumps- 3 x 3 front, medial and lateral

Plyo/Speed

single leg triple jump (take 3 consecutive hops on one leg - work towards getting the distance up to 3 x the distance of your regular broad jump)

Deadlift- sets of 3-5 reps

Bulgarian split squat- sets of 8 reps

Reverse hyperextension- sets of 15 reps

Wrist curl- sets of 50 reps

Reverse wrist curl - sets of 50 reps

weighed swiss ball abs- sets of 20 reps

Modifying The Routine Into More of An Explosive Set-up

Now what if we were training an athlete that already had a great base of strengthh in place and only needed to work on getting more explosive?

That would be very simple. You would leave the movement and plyo stuff exactly like it is now. All you'd need to do is, depending on the extent of your deficiencies, either modify one or both of the lower body weight training workouts to more speed oriented movements so they look like this:

Workout 2- Wednesday

dynamic warm-up

single leg lateral hops - 2 x 10 seconds per leg

Plyo/Speed work

Standing broad jumps- stop when distances drop-off

Jump Squats with pause x 30% x 5 reps

Rythmic 1/4 Jump Squats x 15% x 10 reps

Single leg bent leg deadlift- As many reps as possible (if more than 10 add weight)

wrist curl- sets of 50 reps

Reverse wrist curl - sets of 50 reps

Pulldown Abs- sets of 20 reps

Mon- Workout 4

Dynamic warm-up

Movement efficiency

single leg box jumps- 3 x 3 front, medial and lateral

Plyo/Speed

single leg triple jump (take 3 consecutive hops on one leg - work towards getting the distance up to 3 x the distance of your regular broad jump)

Snatch Grip high pull x 3 reps

Jump Squat x 20% x 10 reps (repeat sets until performance starts to drop-off)

Wrist curl- sets of 50 reps

Reverse wrist curl - sets of 50 reps

weighed swiss ball abs- sets of 20 reps

I will be putting up another article with an Ultimate Split FAQ where I'll talk about concentrated loading, back-off weeks and other various troubleshooting questions.

-Kelly

Ultimate Split FAQ

How much weight should I try to increase workout to workout?

One important thing is ensuring that you do not try to add weight to the bar faster than your body is actually building strength. Adding weight to the bar by loosening your form and speeding up your rep speed does nothing but stoke your ego and set you up for injury. Use proper form and remember that small increases are sustainable. That might mean you increase one-half to two pounds on the smaller movements like triceps or curls and one to five pounds for the big movements like squats and deadlifts. Assuming one bench presses one day a week and is able to add but one pound to the bar each workout that still amasses a 50 pound increase in bench press in a year. Having said that, progress will not always be linear and there will probably be times when you have to cut back the poundage to let the body recuperate.

How do I know when it's time to cut back on the intensity and how do I do that?

You will eventually get to a point when repetition or weight increases are no longer possible. When you've gone 2 consecutive workouts without any improvements it's generally a good time to cut back. What I recommend here is you take a few days off then spend a week or 2 using reduced volume, intensity, or frequency. You can still train on the same schedule but lighten up on the weights so they're no heavier than 80% of your maximum effort. You also might experiment with new exercises. These deload weeks (or 2 weeks) should be inserted every 3-8 weeks for most people.

My upper body workouts seem like they are taking too long.

Move your back and bicep exercises to lower body day and consider moving the abs and forearms to upper body day.

So instead of:

Monday (workout 1)

Bench Press or Board press variation 4 x 3-5

Wide Grip chin 4 x 6

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 3 x 8

Barbell or Dumbbell Curl 3 x 8

Skull Crushers 3 x 10

Wednesday (workout 2)

Squat or box squat 4 x 5

Glute/Ham Raises or pullthroughs 3 x 10

Ab work 3 x 10

forearms 2 x 20-30

You would have this:

Wide Grip chin 4 x 6

Barbell or Dumbbell Curl 3 x 8

Squat or box squat 4 x 5

Glute/Ham Raises or pullthroughs 3 x 10

I need to focus a little more on size. How can I do that?

Two options:

A: After your heaviest set for a given exerise do a "back-off" set where you do one more higher rep set of 15-20 reps per bodypart.

B: Insert a rest-pause pump style set. Immediately after your heaviest set for a given exercise set the weight down, rest 20 seconds, and knock out as many reps as possible. Set the weight down again, rest 20 seconds, and again knock out as many reps as possible. Do this for a total of 2 to 4 times. If you can't get at least 5 reps reduce the weight. This works particularly well on stubborn bodyparts if you superset a compound movement with an isolation movement. For example, for chest you might do a compound pressing movement like dumbell presses as your heavy movement. Immediately after your last set perform a flye variation in rest pause style.

Since I have more than a week between lifts I feel stale and the lift feels unfamiliar to me when I do them. What can I do about this?

Some people are motor morons. They need more exposure to a movement or they forget how to do it. If this is the case I would add in a couple of sets of that lift on days where the focus is on other lifts. For example, if you had a squat day and a deadlift day for your 2 lower body workouts and you were struggling on the squat you could then add in a couple of sets of squats on your deadlift day too. If you had a Dumbell bench press on one upper body day and a military press on your 2nd upper body day and you wanted to focus more on your dumbell bench you could add in a couple of sets of that after your military presses on day 2.

Do these extra lifts at about 80-90%% of max effort. So, if you did sets of 200 pounds for 5 reps on your main squat workout, you'd come back and knock out a couple of sets of 5 with 180 pounds in the 2nd workout.

What about conditioning or cardio work - When would I do that?

Do it on days that you're not training or lifting.

Is there a way I can implement concentrated type loading into this template?

Yes, there are several ways:

1. For strength work: If there is a particular lift that you'd like to drive up quickly, you can train it as often as 3 days per week at the beginning of the weights portion of each workout.

For example, if you wanted to focus on bench press here's how a concentrated phase might look:

Mon: Bench press - 4 sets of 3 at 85%

Wed: Bench press - 5 sets of 2 at 90-95%

Fri: Bench press - 5 sts of 2 at 80% (light)

You'd do this at the beginning of each weight training workout and basically keep the rest of the workouts the same with the exception of a slightly reduced volume of pressing movements. After 4-6 weeks on this phase, you'd eliminate the extra pressing and that would provide an automatic intensification phase.

2. For speed and plyo work: On the "performance" movement done at the beginning of each workout, simply stick to the same movement each workout. For example, if you really wanted to focus on sprinting speed you'd do some type of timed sprint at the beginning of each workout. You might do 20's on Monday, 60's on Wednesday, and 40's on Friday. Or if you really wanted to focus on your jumps you might do depth jumps on all 3 days. Follow that for 2-4 weeks than cut back the volume or switch to something else.

3. For general work capacity: Follow the regular template and insert conditioning work on Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. Keep it in for 4-6 weeks then cut it back to one day per week. When you cut it back you should see an increase in performance as your work capacity will be greater and you'll be better recovered without the extra conditioning.

Workout Templates For Various Athletes

2007-08-12T00:48:00.001-07:00

Workout Templates For Various Athletes

by: Kelly Baggett

General Guidelines and Principles:

1. The body does not know whether you're doing a higher-faster-sports, westside, HIT, swiss ball, kettlebell, or any other system. It only knows stimulation and recovery. Most training schemes do provide some stimulation and no routine is perfect.

1a. Exercises and routines are just "tools" to improve performance. No tool is more important then whether or not the tool gets the job done. If your car breaks down, it doesn't matter if you use a rock, a crescent wrench, bailing wire, or an entire set of snap on tools to fix it, the important thing is that it gets fixed. Raising performance is the same way.

1b. Most people probably tend to use too many "tools" per training session. Improvement in mobility means you move more freely and easily, improvement in speed work means you run faster in a straight line, improvement in agility means you get better at moving while changing direction, improvement in plyo work means you tend to get better at jumping, while improvement in strength means you get better at developinig tension typically demonstrated by an ability to lift heavier loads. It doesn't necessarily take a boatload of tools to improve those qualities. The ability for the human organism to adapt to stimulation existed prior to the invention of all the high-tech training tools we have today. Stimulation for caveman consisted of dealing with everyday life (chasing prey, running away from predators, lifting rocks to build a hut etc.) You could take a knowledgeable athlete today and put him on a deserted island, and, if he knew what he were doing and had enough food, he could stimulate performance improvements without a single tool modern day tool to work with.

1c. The ultimate goal should be to get your knowledge of "stimulation" and "recovery" down so well that you can program your body like a computer and know what happens in advance. (Example: Adjust this, adjust that, insert this, delete that, and here's what's gonna happen.)

1d. Most people do too much overanalyzing of various training minutia and not enough actual training. In in doubt, pick 3 or 4 things and get really good at them.

1e. If combining strength training, speed, agility, plyo, etc. into one workout, always do the faster stuff first. (ex. dynamic mobility followed by speed followed by plyo followed by weights)

1f. If workouts are separated into AM and PM sessions you have some leeway as to what you do first (strength and/or speed)

2. Volume of plyo, speed, and agility work should always be regulated based upon performance. As soon as performance or speed starts to decline on a main movement (assuming you're taking full rest intervals, which you should), stop the workout. (It's as simple as that).

2a. Unless you're a sprinter, you should rarely ever run distances greater than ~ 50+ yards for speed work.

2b. A set of plyo, speed, or agility work should rarely exceed 10 seconds in duration.

2c. The choice of drills chosen for plyo and agility work is not that important in the grand scheme of things. Plyo consists of unilateral and bilateral (1 and 2 leg) hops, jumps and bounds (they all do the same thing). Agility consists of moving forwards, sideways and backward and changing direction. A simple jump for height is one of the best plyo maneuvers there is. Basic change of direction drills will get the job done for agility. If you play any sort've sport as frequently as two times per week, chances are your needs for specific plyo and agility training are ZERO. Save the plyo and agility work for the offseason and preseason.

2d. With that being said, you know that speed work should consist of sprints for 0 to 50 yards, plyo work consists of hops, jumps, and bounds for less then 10 seconds, while agility work consists of moving forward, sideways, and backward with changes of direction for less then 10 seconds per set. You also know that a workout for any of those qualities should be terminated when performance declines due to fatigue. So how difficult is it really to design and implement a plyo, speed, and agility workout? Not very.

3. Monitoring volume strictly by "performance" on strength work is not such an issue, as muscle growth stimulation is often a goal and does require a certain level of fatigue, which means the load that you can lift at the end of a session may not be the same as the load you lift at the beginning of a strength session, (which is not true when targeting speed, agility and plyo improvements). Two to five sets per strength movement is the norm.

3a. An upper body strength workout would generally consist of some type of upper body push (bench press variation), some type of pull (row or pullup), along with perhaps some supplemental shoulder and "beach" (aka arm) work.

3b. A lower body strength workout would generally consist of some type of squat or deadlift (squat, deadlift, lunge, split squat), along with some type of assistance movement for the glutes and hams.

3c. For strength and power, sets of 3-5 reps are optimal. For hypertrophy, sets of 5-12 are typically optimal.

3d. For strength development heavy loads of 85%-100% for sets of 1-5 reps are optimal. For power development lighter loads of 10-60% are optimal.

3e. As a general recommendation, each strength training workout you do may consist of one core strength or power movement for sets of 1-5 reps along with 1 or 2 assistance movements for 5-12 reps, and maybe an ab movement for 2-4 sets of 10-20 reps.

3f. The need for upper body "power" work using loads of 10-60% is virtually nonexistent for any athletes other then powerlifters. With regards to upper body work, an athlete should be lifting heavy focusing on getting stronger and/or bigger.

3g. Until an athlete has a base of lower body strenght in place (1.5 to 2 x bw squat and deadlift), specific lighter lower body "power" work in the weight room using loads of 10-60% is also largely useless. These people should concentrate on core movements with progressively heavier bar weights with an emphasis on getting stronger and/or bigger.

3h. Most people will make excellent gains with two upper body workouts per week and either 1 or 2 lower body workouts per week. Beginners seem to progress fastest with 3 of each per week.

3i. Ab work might consist of weighted crunches, standing pulldown abs, kneeling pulldown abs, decline leg raises, hanging leg raises, cable wood chops, russian twists, dumbell and cable side bends, side bends lying sidways in back extension device.

4. Generally speaking, it's benefical for intermediate and advanced athletes to take a day of rest in between high intensive training elements. High intensive training elements include the aforementioned speed, plyo, agility, and strength work. For younger athletes (<16>

4a. With regard to strength work, it's usually beneficial to take an "unloading" week ever 3 to 6 weeks. There are many ways of implementing this. probably the simplest is to cut your volume in half and decrease the load keeping things very easy. I generally prescribe something like 3 sets of 3 reps at 80% for strength work during an unloading week.

4b. Providing you can benefit from specific "power" work, it can often be advantageous to alternate 2-4 weeks of heavy strength oriented training (heavy squats and deadlifts for 3-5 reps) with 2-4 weeks of explosive oriented training (speed box squats with 50-60%, jump squats etc.)

5. Skill work and conditioning can be done on alternate days.

6. It can often be advantageous to transition from a 4-8 week phase of higher volume and/or greater training frequency into a phase of lower/volume and/or frequency.

7. If you're training consistently yet not making consistent progress or you're regressing, chances are 10 to 1 you're doing too much. If in doubt reduce volume and simplify your programming.

Basic workout templates

Raw Beginner

Work towards basic strength goals such as: pullup, dip, 50 bodyweight squats, one perfect single leg squat, 25 full v-sits, 1 minute isometric front and side bridge hold

Training should consist of:

mobility, movement efficiency, and strength

For strength purposes 3 times per week get in the gym and focus on exercises such as:

bodyweight squats, lunge, single leg squats onto a box, stepups, supine row, partner assisted or gravitron pullups, partner assisted or gravitron dips, wall sits, plank, glute bridges, overhead broomstick squats etc.plus light form work on box squat and deadlift.

Just pick 4-8 bodyweight type movements for 2-4 sets each, use the bodyweight and go after it. It's difficult to overtrain when using bodyweight as resistance.

Hit mobility, speed, agility, etc. prior to lifting or on opposite days.

Mobility might consist of:

deep walking lunge, alternate pull heel to butt walk, leg swings front to back, leg swings side to side, deep sumo squats, cross under lunge, bird dog, arm circles

Plyo/Speed/Agility might consist of

Skips, karioka, lateral hops, agility: (ex: 5 yard backpedal into 5 yard lateral shuffle into 20 yard sprint), and sprints over distances from 10 to 100 yards.

Standard Beginner Template

This template will also work just fine for intermediate or advanced trainees. The format for mobility, speed, and plyo work would be the same as the raw beginner, but now core lifts make up the strength program on what might be a 2 to 3 times per week basis. A sample strength workout is as follows.

Session A:

Clean or Snatch

Deadlift

Bench press

Ab movement

Session B:

Squat

Incline Press

Weighted Chin

Ab movement

*Alternate between session A & B.

Perform 2-5 sets of 2-5 reps, never to failure, using a step-type loading approach. Increase the weight for 3 consecutive workouts then decrease it for one and build back up.

Example:

session 1 100 x 2 x 3 (3 sets of 2 reps) session 2 105 x 2 x 3 session 3 110 x 2 x 2

session 1 105 x 2 x 3 session 2 110 x 2 x 3 session 3 115 x 2 x 2

session 1 110 x 2 x 3 session 2 115 x 2 x 3 session 3 120 x 2 x 2

Another option based on the same basic theme:

3 whole body workouts per week based on 5 sets of 5 reps:

mobility and movement work done prior to lifting.

Mon- Squat 5 x 5, Pullup 5 x 5, Bench 5 x 5, Glute Ham 4 x 6 (sets of 5 are done with a weight you could do 7-8 times)

Wed- Deadlift 5 x 3, Lunge 2 x 8, Row 3 x 6, DB Bench 3 x 5

Fri- Squat 5 x 5, Pullup 5 x 5, Bench 5 x 5, glute ham/leg curl 4 x 6 (sets of 5 done working up to max 5 reps)

After 4-6 weeks this phase would be alternated with phase E or F below.

More Templates

Option A:

Mon and Thurs- mobility, straight ahead speed, upper body strength

Tues and Fri or Tues and Sat- mobility, plyo, agility, lower body strength

Sample week

Mon- mobility warmup, form running (high knees, skips, various quickfeet drills etc.), 10 yard sprints x 10, 20 yard sprints x 6-8,

Weights - heavy push (some type of bench) working upto 3rm, Heavy row or pullup same as bench, shoulder raise of some sort (front or side), beach work, crunching type ab movement (loaded swiss ball or kneeling crunch etc.)

Tues- mobility warmup, forward and lateral single leg on box jumps x 2 sets each leg lateral and forward, lateral barrier jump 4 sets x 8 reps, some type of agility drill requiring lateral movement for somewhere around 4-8 reps.

weights:

Lower body: Some type of squat or deadlift movement typcially alternate 2-4 weeks of a heavy compound movement like squats or deadlifts for 3-5 reps with 2-4 weeks of a lighter speed movement like speed box squats or jump squats for 4-6 sets of 3-8 reps. Follow that up with maybe some type of unilateral movement generally bulgarian split squats during a heavy phase and steups during a lighter phase along with some type of posterior chain assistance such as glute hams, reverse hypers, pull throughs or whatever for 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps, some type of ab movement.

Wednesday- Off

thursday- Repeat the basic scheme from monday's workout but perhaps do 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps on the pressing and row.

Friday or Sat- Repeat the basic theme from Tuesday's workout, but drop the weights in the heavy compound movement or make a unilateral variation (lunge or split squat) the "core" movement. If in a power phase just repeat the entire workout.

Option B:

Just do 2 full body workouts per week with speed/plyo on alternate days. Each workout attempt to drive the weights up.

Example:

Mon:

Speed/Plyo (10's and 20's for 4-8 reps each)

Tues:

Squat 3-5 x 5

Bench 3-5 x 5

Pullup 3-5 x 5

post. chain- 2-3 x 6-10

ab - pulldown abs- 2-3 x 15-20

Try to drive the weight up each workout.

Wed: off/conditioning

Thurs: Speed/Plyo (20's and 40's for 4-6 reps each or stop at first sign of performance dropoff)

Friday: Weights

Sat: Off/conditioning

Sun: Off

Repeat same basic weight training workout. As soon as you can no longer increase the weights take a week and just do 3 x 3 at 80% of your 3 rep max for each workout and come back the next week and hit it hard. An example of a more detailed lifting progression with this format can be found here

Option C:

Mon- UB Pull and LB posterior chain (chinups, deadlifts)

Wed-UB- Bench, Row, Beach

Fri- UB/LB- overhead press, pullup, front squat

Option D:

Heavy/Light

Basically a repeat of option A - keep the exercises the same but make the second workout 10-20% lighter

Option E:

(this is one of my favorites to alternate with a higher frequency scheme)

Mon- mobility, speed, plyo, or agility and heavy upper body workout

Tues- Off (conditioning optional)

Wed- mobility, speed, plyo, or agility and heavy lower body workout

Thurs- off (skill and conditioning optional)

friday or sat - mobility, speed, plyo, or agility and hypertrophy oriented upper body workout (sets of 5-12)

sun- off

mon- start over

Option F-

This is another one of my favorites.

Alternating every other day setup

Mon- mobility/speed/UB (ex: warmup- 20 yard sprints (stop when time declines), Bench press variation 4 x 3, row variation 4 x 3, external rotation movement, optional beach work, ab movement)

Wed- mobility/plyo/agility LB (ex: warmup, depth jumps -(stop when height declines), shuttle drill 3-6 reps not all out, box squat - 4-6 x 3, glute ham - 4 x 5-8, Abs.)

Fri - mobility/speed/UB (ex: warmup, 40 yard sprints (stop when time declines), DB press varation - 3-4 x 8-12 reps, pullup or row variation, 3-4 x 8-12, ext. rotation movement 2 x 12-15, beach work, abs)

Sun- plyo/agility LB (ex: warmup - depth jumps 4 x 3, shuttle drill (stop when time declines), light box or jump squat - 4-6 x 3-5, glute ham, 4 x 5-8, abs)

Tues- Start over with Mon.

Option G

Another variant of option A above, but instead of doing movement work both on upper and lower body days, combine it all together and do it on lower body days, prior to your lower body lifting.

An example of how to use that schedule alternating strength and power work can be found here

Option H

Bulk up and get strong - This is for the intermediate to advanced level guy or gal who needs strength and size pronto. This template plus a no holds barred attitude at the dinner table and the mindset of doing whatever it takes to get that scale weight up will get the job done. Movement work is optional. The template is:

Mon: Lower body (quad dominant)

Tues: Upper Body (chest dominant)

Thurs: Lower body (hip and hamstring dominant)

Fri or Sat: Upper Body (shoulder dominant)

A precise example of this template can be found here: Designer Athletes

Squats and Speed Development?

2007-08-12T00:47:00.002-07:00

Squats and Speed Development?

Q: What's the deal with squats. Lately I've been hearing a lot of people say that squats are bad for speed development yet they have helped me so much.

Alright here's the deal. There's a difference between a beginner and advanced trainee. There's a difference between taking your squat from 150 to 300 lbs and taking your squat from 300 lbs to 600 lbs.

The quickest way for a beginner to intermediate level athlete to improve their overall lower body level explosiveness is to improve their relative strength in the squat and science is clear on this.

How strong is strong enough

The average person simply isn't able to bend their knees and apply much force and if you're weak it doesn't matter how quickly you apply force because what you're trying to do is equivalent to trying to blast a space shuttle into orbit or blast a muscle car down the track with a 5 horsepower motor.

Don't Get Cute Until You Need To

You can use all kinds of fancy gadgets, make all kinds of modifications, and spend lots of money on special fuels and the like, but you ain't gonna win any races if you're trying to race with a lawnmower engine! Therefore, the quickest way for most people to boost up their attributes is, you guessed it, increase their ability to bend their knees and apply force!

Now, once you've got your strength levels up to moderate levels, which means at least a 1.5 times bodyweight squat, you can worry about getting fancy modifying your motor to work more efficiently. But until then it's a waste of time.

Don't Go Overboard

Conversely, the person running drag races with a 500 horsepower motor who thinks he can improve by putting a 600 horsepower motor in his car is woefully misinformed. He'd be better off modifying how his motor functions so that he can get more out of it.

Motorcycle Racing and Sports Training - The Parallels

This whole topic reminds me of when I used to race motocross. There were 6 main competitive classes. These were 50 cc, 60 cc, 80 cc, 125 cc, 250 cc, and 500 cc. The "CC" refers to cubic centimeters, or size of the motor. A 500 cc motor is twice as large as a 250 cc and so forth. Each class only races against other riders in that same class.

Get a Bigger Engine and You Get Faster

Now, in motocross classes, the lap times will improve linearly as one goes from 50 cc all the way to 250. The same is not true, however, when one makes the jump from the 250 class to the 500 class. In fact, the opposite is often true. The 250 class riders often turn in better lap times then the 500s. Well, since the 500 cc motor is twice is big as the 250 cc motor how is this possible? Good question. The 500 does have a bigger motor but it's also heavier and bulkier and more difficult to control. The 250 motor tends to be more efficient and runs at higher RPM so the 250 is where it's at in competitive motocross.

The same is true of strength with respect to speed development. Doubling your squat is like taking the motor on your motorcycle from 125 to 250 CC. You can expect to blow away the weaker 125 cc punks. However, taking your squat from say, 350 lbs, all the way to 600 lbs, is like going from 250 cc to 500 cc. Many of you are gonna develop a bigger motor with those additional squatting poundages but you might not be able to translate it into performance improvements. Once you hit 250 cc your ability to apply force by bending your knees should be sufficient so your time may be better spent getting more out of your motor and focusing on muscle group specific strength and speed development.

Muscle Group Specific Strength

So what do I mean by muscle group specific strength and development? Here's what I mean. The function of the human body will largely follow it's form. Charlie Francis used to describe it with the phrase "what looks right flyes right." In other words, a trained eye can look at the way a person is built and tell with amazing accuracy how they will move before ever seeing them move. Occassionally you find someone like KC Chiefs offensive tackle Willie Roaf who seems to defy all logic, but for the most part, "how" a person moves can be determined by simply looking at the way they're put together and their muscular development.

Extensor Dominant Movement = Blazing Speed

OK, now the expression of speed favors a certain type of movement and that is movement that is dominated by the hip extensors, the glutes and hamstrings. In order for movement to be dominated by the hip extensors those muscle groups should be developed to an optimal form that allows the function to naturally follow. Now, the problem is that as strength is developed muscle mass is also developed and as a person begins to advance they reach a point where they can change function because of changes in their form. How the "form" responds to training depends on the individual build of a person. Some people have a lot of natural muscle cells in the posterior chain and few in the quadriceps. Some are the exact opposite.

The muscular balance and build doesn't make a whole lot of difference with respect to vertical jump development but for speed development it does. A person with overly developed quadriceps and lack of hamstring and glute development will tend to be a heel to toe runner and have trouble gliding, planting, and getting off on the balls of their feet. Top speed will suffer on account of this. Even if the posterior chain is developed, in someone that has massive quadricep development, they will still struggle with ideal movement patterns because their body will try to do things that favor the stronger muscle groups.

Scrawny Butts= No Speed + No Explosiveness

Ok, now initially squats are the ultimate cureall for lower body strength and development regardless of the individual. The biggest weakness among young athletes is lack of glute development.

Squats allow one the biggest bang for the buck when strengthening and adding size to the glutes, quadriceps, and hams all in one shot in that order and that's why they are so effective initially.

Eventually, however, as some people meet and surpasses the general strength standards, they begin to accumulate large amounts of muscle mass on the thighs and, depending on their natural structure, the development of their quadriceps can begin to overshadow the development of the hamstrings which is where the problem with squats comes into play. It is these individuals who will then need to change focus.

World class Belgian sprinter Kim Gavaert demonstrates the lower body development that even a "skinniesh" female sprinter possesses.

Here is a nice example of an athlete with massive, yet quad dominant thighs, working on his lower body balance. The first 2 pics were taken 6 months ago on the same day. The last one was after several months of more speed specific training focus. Notice how the quadriceps dwarf everything else in the first 2 pics and in the final pic everything is more even. Even at 5'10 and 215+ lbs this athlete can fly around with the best of them.

Here are some examples of posterior chain development and balance.

Now, if you're one of the people who has adequate leg development and strength in place yet needs to change your the balance how do you do that? Well, for speed development you get away from focusing on exercises where you "bend your knees" and focus on exercises where you extend your hips. So, get away from squatting and focus on extending, where the focus is high RPM strength, which I truly believe a person can never have enough of. That means everything on the backside of your body becomes more important. Deadlift variations, glute hams, reverse hypers and leg curls become your main strength movements and jumps, bounds, and sprints become more important for your development.

So overall follow the athletic development cycle.

1. Get light on your feet (practice your sport specific skills and footwork)

2. Along with #1 increase your ability to move through a full ROM while being light on your feet. (Improve your ability to bend your knees and apply force - That Means Squats!)

3. Improve the ability to extend your hips so that what happens after you've bent your knees will improve.

That's all there is to it!

-Kelly

How To Benefit From Planned Overtraining

2007-08-12T00:47:00.001-07:00

How To Benefit From Planned Overtraining

By: Kelly Baggett

One of the biggest debates among coaches and trainers that always arises every few years is the topic of recovery. Some say you need to be beating yourself up week in and week out and always increasing your work capacity by simply doing more, more, and more work over time. Others in the HIT (high intensity) camp emphasize recovery with a mantra that says, "less is always more". So who's right? Are you gonna get better results by constantly training yourself into the ground or will that approach leave you chronically overtrained? Is that overtraining maybe a good thing? Or will you get better results by sitting on your butt 5 days out of every 7 and attacking your workouts with ferocity when you do?? Or will that approach leave you undertrained and so inactive that you pile on enough fat to make Warren Sapp look like a GQ model??

Well first lets define some terminology. What most of us call overtraining is really over-reaching. Overtraining is more like a disease then a temporary state. For 95% of us, "over-reaching" is what we're really referring to when we say overtraining.

Over-reaching-is pushing yourself into a mild state of fatigue with your training. Regression in performance sometimes does occur during an over-reaching period, yet performance rebounds back very quickly, usually above and beyond it's previous level, with a short period of rest or lowered volume (within days). It can be good or bad depending on how you use it.

Overtraining- occurs when you chronically over-reach for months or years on end. This leads to performance regression that can take months to recover from and is associated with multiple and sometimes permanent endocrine disruptions. Although there are some athletes who are chronically overtrained and don't realize it (distance runners, bodybuilders, and some basketball players come to mind), most athletes don't ever reach a true overtrained state.

Another important term is Under reaching.

Under-reaching- occurs when you intentionally "take it easy". This is like taking your foot off the gas in your training intentionally. It also can be good or bad depending on how you do it.

Now let's start with a few key claims I'm going to make. First, let me state that from my observations, the reason many people train hard and consistently and don't make the gains they feel they should, is because they spend too much time over-reaching and not enough time under-reaching. Notice I said "consistent hard trainees" there. That statement doesn't apply unless you train both hard and consistent.

Next, let me state that if you have to choose, you're almost always better off under-reaching then over-reaching unless you really know what you're doing. With those comments you would probably think that over-reaching is a bad, bad, BAD thing. Well, in truth it's quite the opposite. Over-reaching by design can be a very good thing. Notice that I said "unless you know what you're doing". That's what I intend to help you do in this article.

Recovery and Supercompensation

Recovery can be defined as - regaining what was lost - however, for the athlete this is not enough as it returns them only to where they started. Adaptation can be defined as the process of long-term adjustment to a specific stimulus. This process of adaptation can include adjustment in a number of factors such as the athlete's physiology, psychology and mechanics. These alterations can ultimately lead to improved performance - which is a more satisfying goal. We train to get fitness. We want to jump higher, run faster, get stronger, run longer etc. In order to get fit we must stimulate some fatigue so that our body adapts. We must push ourselves beyond our limits some of the time - which is fatigue. Let's call a training cycle a 30-60 day "period" of training. All good periodized training answers this question: What is the optimal amount of fatigue to induce over the course of the next training cycle in order to optimize the fitness that results from it?

Example

In other words, if I want to run faster and jump higher 30 days from now, how tired should I make myself this week and next week so that when I test myself in 30 days, I'll run faster and jump higher? All things being equal, if I do no training (assuming I'm not in an over-reached state) then I likely will not improve at all, and in fact may slip back. On the other hand, if I work out daily and intensely and continue adding volume, I'm also likely to slip back.

So there must be an optimal blend of both fatiguing myself or over reaching (in order to improve) and resting myself or under reaching, so that I can see the gains from the over reaching I've done. Under reach too much and you won't get the results you want because you haven't forced your body to adapt; over reach too much and you won't get results because your body is shot.

The rest of this article is about how to solve this puzzle and determine how to intelligently over reach at the beginning of a training cycle, under reach at the end of a cycle, in order to boost the overall results of each training cycle.

Walk or Run But Don't Do Both

The basic point I want to make in this article is that you should either be training a little harder then what feels comfortable or a little less then you think you should. This is an implementation of the 2-factor theory model of stress and adaptation. Let's talk a little bit about the 2-factor theory.

The 2 factors represent the relationship between fatigue and fitness. One factor is fitness the other factor is fatigue.

2-factor theory-A stress adaptation model that bases a training plan around the long term relationships between stress and fatigue.

When you train you accumulate both fatigue and fitness. That observation itself should be worthy of a nobel prize. However, what many people don't realize is that the fatigue that accumulates over the course of a training cyle itself "masks" the fitness gains that you make. However, fitness persists about 3 x longer then fatigue. This means that when all traces of fatigue are gone from a bout of exercise or a cycle of training, the fitness gained will persist for 3 x as long as the fatigue. That's why most people make gains when they take a few days off from time to time. What I want to do is show you how to make this process predictable.

Before we get into how to implement the 2-factor theory you first need to understand the one factor theory.

The one factor theory- Is the basic stress adaptation model that is usually taught in high school, bodybuilding, and is the grand de jour model used to explain high intensity training. With this theory you look at physical ability as one short term factor. You load, recover, load, recover - always recovering fully before loading again.

The problem with this approach is you are left with the problem of timing workouts to correspond to the supercompensation wave. Anything sooner or later will lead to a bad workout. Another problem is there is only so much systemic stress that can be thrown on the body in one workout. If you prolong the length of the stress (loading and fatigue) period in the above chart by days or weeks, instead of a single workout, you increase the overall stress. Therefore, providing you do allow recovery to take place after prolonged loading, you increase the height of the supercompensation curve as well.

More on the 2-Factor Theory

You will often here training according to the 2 factor theory called many different things. You'll hear it called concentrated loading, load/unload, step-type loading or any number of other things. It's nothing fancy and most of you are probably already using it to an extent.

Comparing the One-Factor Approach to the 2-Factor Approach

Let's start off by comparing a "one-factor" training approach to a "2-factor" approach. We have 2 four week training schemes. One we'll call "A" and will be the one factor approach. The other we'll call "B" and is the 2-factor approach. Here's what they look like.

A: Here we train according to the traditional supercompensation curve. We train then fully recover, train then fully recover etc. Let's say we train once every 4-5 days and recover completely between workouts for 4-weeks.

B: Here we train hard for the first 3 weeks three times per week so that we never ever are completely recovered from any workouts. Then, on the 4th week we train only once or twice the entire week at a low intensity and low volume. During the 4th week we're allowing fatigue to dissipate so that we can display the fitness we've gained from the previous 3 week's of training. During this low intensity/low frequency week, the physiological indicators we've stimulate the previous 3 weeks "rebound" back up and above where they were before.

Ok. Now if you were to compare those 2 schemes we would find that version B will actually bring about greater gains particularly for intermediate and advanced athletes - That is providing the athletes are in a well rested state prior to initiating the 4 week block of training. Homeostasis is disrupted and prolonged during the 3 week loading period. Although we won't see a whole lot of progress during this 3 week phase itself, when we pull back on the volume during the reduced loading period the functional indicators will then rebound back above baseline. The ultimate "rebound", or performance increase, in scheme B will be greater then the summation of smaller rebounds from scheme A.

So what we're doing is building up fatigue and fitness by over-reaching slightly and then pulling back on the fatigue by under-reaching. Nothing really complicated about it.

Most Athletes Are Already Implementing the 2-Factor Theory and Could Benefit by "Under-Reaching" For a While

Ok. Now the important thing to note is that most athletes are already over-reaching slightly even though they don't realize it! They never allow recovery to take place and some haven't been fully recovered in years. Basketball players are among the worst here. They are never recovered daily, they never allow recovery to fully take place, and thus they don't make gains due to chronic over-reaching. Therefore, I almost always start athletes off with more recovery so that they can allow all the fatigue they've been acumulating during their previous months or years of training to dissipate.

It's also important to realize that recovery doesn't have to be "complete" between training sessions in order for one to experience gains. People are rarely ever 100% completely recovered but still make gains. Athletes in most sports are always experiencing some level of constant fatigue. What you want to do is maximize those gains which you can do by intentionally manipulating the relationship between fatigue and fitness.

Intentionally Creating a Regression in Performance

The magnitude of the incomplete recovery you create during a loading period will vary. In fact, the practice of "shock" concentrated loading is practiced by many countries for different sports. In a traditional concentrated loading phase, the goal IS simply to beat the body into an over-reaching state where the actual goal of the training is a DECREASE in performance. Loading of any primary emphasis may be used (strength work, speed works, jumps etc.)

The lower that performance falls during the loading period (within acceptable limits of 10-15% or so), the greater that performance rises during the unloading period. I don't recommend intentionally loading to the point that performance falls off noticeably due to injury risk, but you can still incorporate and benefit a less intense version of the same process.

How You Can Apply and Benefit From Planned Over-Reaching

The basic tenet is that instead of always looking at each workout as a seperate "fatiguing" session, followed by a seperate "recovery" session of a day or two of rest, begin thinking in terms of weeks. In other words, you have one, two or three weeks which are "fatiguing." Think of this time period the same way some people think of one workout. you accumulate fatigue the whole time, you never "completely" recover. You might make gains but you're never really completely recovered. Then you have another one or 2 weeks in which you train with reduced frequency, volume, or intensity and allow recovery to take place. I favor keeping intensity fairly high, cutting volume by at least half, and slightly lowering frequency. in any event the overall training stress is lower.

The main benefit of the higher volume phase isn't the gains you make on it, but the gains you make when you switch to a lower volume phase.

Accumulation and Intensification

You can also alternate between cycles of incomplete vs complete recovery which is often called accumulation/intensification. Version A I described above (training with full recovery), will work wonderfully when transitioning from a period of increased loading. In other words, accumulate fatigue and train frequently for a while and then transition into a period of time where you train with full recovery between sessions for a while. Say you train 3 x per week for 3-4 weeks and then once every 4 days for 4 weeks. Your gains will be out of this world during the 2nd phase because you heighten your ability to adapt in the first phase. That works very well.

Examples

There are numerous ways we can incorporate a loading/unloading scheme. At it's most basic level a loading period of 2 or more consecutive workouts will be followed by an unloading period of one or more days. An example of this is a simple "block loading" scheme often practiced by endurance athletes that can also be used successfully by others. In fact this is a scheme used in many university team sports. Here we might train hard with weights, sprints, plyos, etc. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and do conditioning on Tuesday and Thursday. We then rest completely on saturday and sunday. By Friday the athlete will be worn down and performance very well may have regressed over the course of the week. Yet by having 2 consecutive days off (Saturday and Sunday), we allow a lot of that fatigue to dissipate. Thus, the body supercompensates and the athlete goes into Monday with enhanced ability - for a few weeks anyway.

Generally speaking, anymore then 3-4 weeks consecutive loading will fail to bring about gains unless a one week unloading period is inserted. The body will tolerate 3 such 3/1 blocks of loading/unloading before a longer recovery period is necessary. This means that we'd do 3 consecutive 3/1 cycles before taking 2-3 weeks of training at a lower intensity.

Should I Seek Out Performance Regression?

The intensity of the loading period will vary as well. During loading periods it's ok for some regression to take place but no more then 10%. That means if your vertical jump is 30 inches you can train yourself to a 3 inch decrease and when you recover fully it'll rebound back up above 30. The same thing goes for your strength etc. Remember, the greater the decrease in function the greater the rebound above baseline during the unloading period. There is one caveat here however. The more regression that takes place the longer your unloading period will need to be. If you train to the point of big time (10%) regression, you will need a 2 week rather then 1 week unloading period.

Specific examples:

Here's an example of an accumulation/intensification cycle for the squat. This is the old 5 x 5 routine first written by Bill Starr and popularized by Glenn Pendlay. Here we train the squat 3 x per week for 4 weeks then twice a week for 4 weeks.

Volume Phase 4 weeks - Deloading Period 1 week - Intensity Phase 4 weeks. Sets and reps for the intensity phase is in parentheses.

M:
Squat 5x5 (3x3)
Bench 1x5 (1x3)
Row 1x5 (1x3)

W:
Squat 5x5 with 15-20% less than Monday (drop this lift)
Deadlift 5x5 (3x3)
Military 5x5 (3x3)
Pullups 5x5 (3x3)

F:
Squat 1x5 (1x3)
Bench 5x5 (3x3)
Row 5x5 (3x3)

Volume Phase - Weeks 1-4:

Use 5 sets of 5 reps with the same working weight for all sets. Increase the weight week to week and try to set records in weeks 3 and 4. For exercises you do twice a week you have a separate day which you perform a single set of 5 reps with the goal of setting records on the 3rd and 4th week for your best set of 5. Don't start the weights too high. Lower the weight if need be but get the sets and reps in - except where you are setting records.

Deloading Week - Week 5:

On week 4 drop the Wednesday squat workout, begin using the Intensity set/rep scheme (in parentheses), and keep the weight the same as your last week in the Volume Phase.

Intensity Phase - Week 6-9:

Everything is the same principal except that you use 3x3 and 1x3 setting records on week 8 and 9. No Wednesday squatting. The important aspect of this phase is the weight increases. If you are so burned out that you need an extra day here and there that's okay. If you can't do all the work that's okay too. Just keep increasing the weight week to week.

Example of Volume Phase Transitioning Into Intensification Phase for a Football Player

Here is a setup I used recently for an athlete preparing for several football tryouts and combines. His lower body strength levels were more then adequately in place but he was coming off a mass gain phase and needed quite a bit of specific on the field speed work, wanted to drop some fat, and needed to increase his upper body strength.

Phase I- high volume/high frequency

This phase consisted of 2 consecutive 3 weeks load/ 1 week unload schemes. The loading portion looked something like this:

Mon- AM: starts, short sprints, agility drills, position specific drills - ~500 yards total. PM: Weights- 3 x 3 at 80% squat, RDL.

Tues- Conditioning- 100 yds x 15 with 30 second rest intervals

Wed- AM:Plyo- speed drills- 4-6 sets depth jumps/ 1 position specific agility drill/ 4 sets straight leg sprints/ 4 sets 60 yard buildups- PM: Maximum Strength Upper Body Training mainly on the bench press

Thurs- Conditioning- 100 yds x 15 with 30 second rests

Friday- AM: start technique, maximum speed sprints and flying 20's, agility drills, position specific drills- 500 yards total. PM: Strength Training - Clean- 3 x 3 85%/Squat 3 x 3 85%/ Glute Ham- 3 x 3

Saturday- AM- Agility technique, buildups, Upper Body strength enduance focusing on the bench press

Sunday- Off

He'd follow that for 3 weeks and then unload for 1 week. The unloading period consisted of 1/2 the volume of on field work on Monday and Friday and elimination of plyo, speed, agility work on Wednesday.

After about 6 weeks of training, it was obvious to me he had got about all he was gonna get from this scheme. He seemed a little burned out and he complained of sore joints. I knew that this just meant he was slightly over-reached and his perfomance would rebound up big time once we tapered into a lower volume phase. He's always been able to transfer functional ability into technical ability. From experience we knew that as his vertical jump goes so does everything else and as his shoulder press and incline press goes so does his bench press. We ended up dramatically lowering the overall lower body volume. On upper body we got him away from the bench press for a while and worked on his weak points. The routine ended up looking like this:

Phase II - Low Volume Intensification

Session 1- LB
Depth Jump, standing triple, one leg hops unto box, - 4-6 sets each x 3-5 reps

Session 1- UB
incline DB Press, Row, Heavy Tricep, Rear delt - 4-6 sets of 5-8 reps each

Session 2 LB
on the track with 60 yd build ups to 90%, 50 yd bounding, lateral hurdle hops, squat runs x 10 seconds. 4-6 sets each

Session 2 UB
Push Press or Push jerk, Pull-up, Bicep, Tricep- 4-6 sets of 3-8 reps each.

Setup

Session 1 LB

off

Session 1 UB

off

Session 2 LB

off

Session 2 UB

Therefore, he was getting 4 days rest between bodypart workouts and 8 days between like sessions. This allows him near full recovery and he was able to set records nearly every workout for a month long period which coincided perfectly with the timing of his workouts and tryouts. EMS was also used on his legs to maintain his strength. It's important to note that the gains from this phase weren't just made from this phase itself, but they were made and set-up in the previous phase as well.

Conclusion

Those are a couple of examples how to set things up. Hopefully you can begin implementing some of these ideas into your training. Stay tuned for a future article on the same topic in which I'll cover how to stimulate that same adaptation by simply engaging in cyclical eating patterns.

-Kelly

Coax 30 lbs. Out of Your Bench

2007-08-12T00:46:00.002-07:00

Coax 30 lbs. Out of Your Bench

Are you having trouble putting poundage on your bench press? Let me assure you that you’re not alone.

Besides people asking me how they can improve their vertical jump, or get big, or get lean, or get fast, the most common question I get is people asking me what to do about their bench press.

Let me ask you this:

How many consistent squatters do you hear complain about not being able to make gains on their squat?

How many consistent deadlifter’s do you hear complain about not being able to make gains on their deadlift?

If you hear the same things I do your answer is probably gonna be, “Not very many!” I simply don’t see or here from many people who squat and deadlift consistently who are unable to make gains on those lifts.

Now here’s another one for you.

How many consistent benchers do you hear complain about not being able to make consistent gains on their bench?

Now that question yields a different response doesn’t it? More then any other lift the “bench” is the big one that everybody desires. It’s also the one that the average trainee has the most problems with. Now think about this. Why is it that average trainees (I’m not referring to powerlifters here), have so many problems making any sort’ve consistent progress on their bench, yet their squats and deadlifts go up easily? Think about that for a second. Ok. Now a couple of more questions:

Illustration of the Problem

How many people would be capable of training their legs the way the average trainee trains their chest? By this I mean, how many people do you see performing forced reps on each and every set of squats? How many people do you see performing a leg workout consisting of 5 sets of 8 squats, often with forced reps on 2 of those sets, followed by 4 sets of 8 hack squats, followed by 4 sets of 15 leg presses, followed by 3 sets of 20 leg extensions? How many people do you see perform a workout like the one I just described who come in the gym the next day and perform a similar workout using the deadlift and other exercises for the backside of the body? You won’t see that very often, if at all, yet you will see people who come in the gym every Monday and perform exactly what I just described for their upper body musculature. They’ll do 4 sets of 8 benches with forced reps on at least 2 of those sets. They’ll follow this up with 4 sets of 8 incline dumbbell presses, followed by decline presses or dips, followed by a flye movement. You’ll see these same people come in the next day and do basically the same thing for “back” or “shoulders”. Now, you might not be doing that much volume, but chances are what I’m describing right there isn’t all that far off. I’ve even seen plenty of high school and even collegiate coaches recommend a routine very similar to what I just described. You could even cut the volume in half and it would still be about twice as much as the average lifter uses on lower body. Hell, no wonder everybody’s bench is stuck.

The Problem - Defined

The problem is simple and let me sum it up. The reason many people get stuck on their bench is because they kill their upper body pressing muscles with too much volume and fatigue in pursuit of hypertrophy. Now there’s nothing wrong with getting huge. The problem is, everybody wants a huge upper body but there is a difference in training for a “huge” upper body and a “strong” upper body. Strength training is not size training. Yes, strength correlates with size and size correlates with strength but they do not share a completely linear correlation. In other words, the training necessary to stimulate optimum hypertrophy is generally too much volume to stimulate strength gains optimally. Your nerves fire your muscles and the junction that joins your nervous system to the muscle (the neuromuscular junction), can easily become overworked. Muscles themselves can withstand much more high intensity stress then the nervous system that controls those muscles. In order to “tear down” a lot of muscle (necessary for hypertrophy), your nerves and your neuromuscular junctions have to fire first. Since the threshold for their fatigue is generally less then the muscle itself, they get chronically drained. Thus, making consistent strength gains often becomes a difficult process for those who train on a typical American format. Therefore, to maximize strength you need to train for it. Training for it means more of a focus on the load being lifted and minimal muscle fatigue instead of a focus on generating the most muscle fatigue possible.

Upper Body is Easy – Leg Training Hurts

This isn’t much of a problem with leg training because it’s so painful and the volume necessary to generate lots of nervous system fatigue requires more pain and gut busting work then most people are apt to perform. However, upper body training is relatively easy and even the scrawniest outfit will perform an upper body workout with enough volume to leave aspects of his nervous system as beat as a bowl of mashed rice. Think about it. When was the last time you saw a 450 + lb bencher doing forced reps on each and every set with their partner yelling “It’s all you man!” When was the last time you saw the 135 lb benchers doing that? When was the last time you saw a really strong bencher run through the typical bodybuilding “chest” workout every Monday of bench presses, incline DB presses, decline presses and flyes? You’ll rarely, if ever, see that. When the strong guys train they complete their repetitions and, compared to a bodybuilder, they use a low volume of specific work generally training the entire upper body in on session. They’ll use a couple of compound movements and a few isolation exercises.

Do you think maybe the reason people make consistent gains in squat and deadlift is because they’re not pounding the working muscles into total submission? They do enough work to “stimulate”, but not to “annihilate”. Now what if we took that same approach and applied it to our bench press?

Stimulation vs Annihilation

If you want a strong bench you have to “coax” your muscles, not punish them into submission. The acquisition of strength is a skill that requires “practice” lifting heavy loads, which requires a fairly fresh nervous system.

What I have here is just the workout for all those “stuck benches” out there. It’s a 6-week routine that should add a minimum of 20 lbs to your bench. It’s a simple scheme that “coaxes” your muscles and allows you to zero in on your target. I did a routine nearly identical to this one 11 years ago and it worked beautifully. At the time I didn’t know why it worked I just knew it did. Over the years I’ve had many other people use a version of it and it’s never failed to generate impressive bench press increases without a lot of complexity or guesswork.

Before I get into the specifics let me give you a few options for setting up your training split. The split can be quite flexible and chances are you don’t have to get far away from the split you’re currently using. The best thing for all you pump lovers is you can still continue to generate some productive hypertrophy.

Option 1

Train your entire upper body in one workout and have another day for legs. This option would look something like this:

Day 1- Upper Body Day

Bench routine – described below

Horizontal rowing movement- (t-bar row, seated row, single arm dumbbell row)- 4-5 x 6-8

Shoulder lateral movement- (side laterals, front laterals)- 2-3 x 12-15

Assistance bench or chest movement (flat or incline dumbbell press, dumbbell flye)- 4 x 6-8

Triceps movement- (pushdown, decline extension) 3-4 x 8-10

Day 3- Lower Body- Your choice – Feel free to perform vertical jump, speed, or whatever training you need to for your lower body on this day in addition to or in place of weights. Add a biceps movement if you feel the need to.

Train every other day alternating between the 2 workouts so that you hit upper body every 4^th day and lower body every 4^th day.

Option #2

Train pushing muscles one day and pulling muscles with legs on another day. This option might look something like this:

Workout 1- Push

Bench routine- described below

Dumbell press- 4 x 6-8

Semi-supinated dumbbell overhead press – 4 x 6-8

Triceps pushdown- 4 x 8-10

Workout 2- Pull/Legs

Optional plyometric, vertical jump, or speed training

Wide Grip chin- 4 x 6-8

Single arm dumbbell row- 3 x 8-10

Bicep movement – 3-4 x 8-10

Squat – 4 x 5

Romanian Deadlift + shrug – 4 x 8

Perform each workout twice per week at your convenience. What follows is an example:

Mon- workout 1

Tues- workout 2

Wed- off

Thurs- workout 1

Fri- off

Sat- workout 2

Sun- off

Mon- Start over

The Cure

Ok. Now here’s the actual bench workout itself. It will consist of 12 workouts. Each time you train the upper body pushing muscles, you will do one of these workouts on the bench press itself. On these days, the only other exercises that are mandatory are one bench assistance or chest movement for 3-4 sets of 6-12 reps (flat dumbbell presses, flyes etc.) and one triceps movement for 3-4 sets of 6-12 reps. (pushdowns, extensions, etc.) Alternate your assistance or chest exercises. Use an isolation chest exercise such as flyes one workout and then use a compound pressing movement such as dumbbell presses the following workout. Stay a rep or 2 shy of failure on all assistance movements. Rest fully in between sets.

Workout Sets and Reps Percentage

1 8, 6, 5 65,70,75

2 5,3,1 70,80,90

3 8,6,5 65,70,85

4 5,3,1 75,85,90

5 6, 5, max reps* 75, 85, 85

6 3, 2, Iso hold at midpoint** 85, 95, 105

7 5, 5, max reps 75, 90, 90

8 3, 2, Iso hold at midpoint 85, 100, 110

9 5, 5, max reps 80, 90, 90

10 3, 1, Iso hold at midpoint 95, 105, 115

11 5, 5, max reps 85, 95, 95

12 3, 2, 1 95, 105, 110

* - Use the same weight you use in set #2 and perform as many reps as possible. If you do 8 or more, then in your next workout base your percentages off a load 5 lbs heavier then your original. If you do 3 or less base your percentages off a load 5 lbs lighter then your original.

** - Here you’ll perform an isometric hold at the midpoint. Make sure you use a spotter. Unrack the weight, lower to the midpoint of the movement where your arms are roughly parallel to the floor, and attempt to hold the weight at the midpoint for 5 seconds. Try to resist the load as you fatigue. Have a spotter help you re-rerack the weight.

Before you start the workout you will need to determine your 1RM in the bench press. To determine your training weights just take your max and multiply it by the percentages listed in column 3. For example, let’s say your max bench was 200 lbs. That means your first workout would look like this:

Workout 1

130 x 8 (65%)

140 x 6 (70%)

150 x 5 (75%)

In workout 5 you’ll notice an asterisk that says “max reps”. This means you will use the same load as you did in set 2 and try to perform as many reps as possible. If you achieve 8 or more reps assume a 5 lb increase in your max bench and use that weight to figure your percents. Let’s say our 200 lb. Bench presser achieve 8 reps on set 3 in workout 5. In workout 6 he would assume a 205 lb max bench instead of 200. So his training weights in workout 6 would be:

Workout 6-

174.25 x 3 (round-up to 175)

184.50 x 2 (round-up to 185)

215.24 x isometric hold (round down to 215)

Always round to the closest multiple of 5.

If he had achieved 3 reps or less on set 3 of workout 5 he would assume a max of 195.

Make sure you can complete all your sets and keep the bar speed as high as possible on all the sets except for the “max reps” and the “iso-holds”. This means if you can’t complete the required reps for the first 2 sets of any given workout you need to decrease the weight by at least 5 lbs.

At the conclusion of this 6-week specialization scheme you’ll want to spend a couple of weeks solidifying your gains. I recommend you keep the weights below 85% for a couple of weeks, for sets of up to 5 reps, and eliminate any highly intense methods like the iso holds and max reps. After a couple of weeks of maintenance training, a hypertrophy phase would be just the ticket.

Go ahead and have at it and feel free to keep me informed on your progress.

Back To Articles

-Kelly

Becoming a Fast Twitch Machine

2007-08-12T00:46:00.001-07:00

Becoming a Fast Twitch Machine

By: Kelly Baggett

Having warned you ahead of time that muscle typing is often overrated and less important then other factors, I still believe it is of significance for those who have everything dialed in. What I mean is, with all things being equal it is “usually” advantageous to have a greater preponderance of fast twitch muscle fibers, particularly IIB, because they do produce greater peak power and more force at higher velocities. The advantages of a certain fiber composition on performance in various sports is both obvious and well established -- For example, marathon runners have 75% slow twitch fibers while sprinters have 75% fast twitch fiber (both IIA &B combined).

The ratio of your fiber type is a result of:

(1) What you were born with

and

(2) Transformation of slow to fast or fast to slow through training influence.

Transformable Fibers

If you were to look at a muscle biopsy you’d see both red and white along with various shades of each. The white being pure fast twitch and the red being pure slow twitch. Think of eating chicken, the white meat (breast) is fast twitch. The dark meat (legs and thigh) is slow twitch. Chickens don't fly around very often yet when they do those muscles have to fire quicker, thus, their breast meat is fast twitch. Chickens walk around on their feet all day long thus their legs are slow twitch and better suited for endurance.

As mentioned before you can't take a completely red (pure endurance fiber) and turn it into a completely white (fast twitch) fiber but the intermediate fibers (IIA), which would be the various shades you see in a muscle biopsy are plastic and you can transform them into more of a red (slow twitch) version or more of a white (fast twitch) version. You can also take a pure white fiber and make it a little redder, or take a pure red fiber and make it a little whiter.

Canadian scientists, Drs. J. Simoneau and C. Bouchard, have estimated that 40% of the variance of fiber type is due to environmental influences (i.e. exercise) while 45% is associated with genetic factors. So that means you have about 40% control of your muscle fiber type, the other 45% you can do nothing about.

Real World Application

So how can you use this information and apply it in the real world? Well take someone who is say 50/50 fast vs slow-twitch. Over time and with proper training if he trains his nervous system to utilize 90% of all those available FT fibers and also increases the size of them he well then be able to outperform someone who has say an 80:20 fast to slow-twitch ratio.

In training you can accomplish this by focusing your training on strength, power, and speed dominant activities. By doing so you train your nervous system and all your muscle fibers to behave in more of a fast twitch manner. The reverse can also occur. For example, if one is blessed with a high % of FT fibers and starts marathon training the opposite will occur. I haven't talked much about endurance training but let me mention that it causes a rapid fast to slow transformation (IIb to IIa and IIa to I) without any increases in strength or power, and thus should be minimized by those wishing to maximize speed and power.

Now, for those who really want to zero in on ultra fast twitch muscle conversion there is plenty of ammo out there to use.

First a little background.

Proficiency vs Efficiency

There is a big difference between increased proficiency and increased efficiency. As mentioned in the previous article, a IIB to IIA conversion is more efficient when it comes to meeting metabolic demands. So if the body can get the job done with IIA then it will. Therefore, if you want your body to increase IIB content you need to make sure that the adaptive signals you're sending deem it necessary.

As an athlete you stress your fast twitch fibers a lot. Therefore, your body already perceives that it's a funny car and you're trying to run it on the highway. If your body needs more efficiency what do you think it's gonna do? It's gonna try to find away to make the funny car either run at a low RPM or quit burning up so much gas!! It's gonna make your engine more efficient if it can. How does it do that? One way it does that is by making your fast twitch IIB muscle fibers more endurance oriented.

So how do you get around this and what exactly does send a signal for an increase in IIB?? Well, as mentioned in the earlier article, detraining or "sitting on your butt" is one. With detraining the muscular expression reverts back to its default "fight or flight" readiness. Yet another is hyperthyroidism or overeating.

Complete detraining is not much of an option because you lose more neural efficiency and muscle cross sectional size then can be made up for by any enhanced muscular subtype. Partial detraining and tapering may be an option and I'll get into that one in just a minute. But what about training? Well, if one were to analyze the IIB fiber and MHC IIX expression he could easily come to the conclusion that this fiber type is made for dealing with simultaneous high forces and high speeds.

Some studies show IIa fibers to produce equal force at low velocities compared with IIb, so a rep done under typical strength training conditions (loads only as high as the concentric 1 RM and low velocities) can be adequately handled by IIa. Maybe if the velocity component was increased, and force was maintained or increased, and performed at a volume low enough not to signal the need for more efficiency, we'd see an increase in IIB.

From here one could logically conclude that a training program incorporating movements with a premium on creating a lot of force at high velocities would preferentially induce more expression of these fibers. Thus far, there are a few studies that have looked at this and found this hypothesis to be true. Training methods that duplicate a lot of the tasks seen in gymnasts do exactly this.

Exercises That Increase IIB Expression

These include:

plyometrics utilizing loads, plyometrics, "drop and catch movements", jump squats, olympic lifts, drop jumps, depth jumps, speed squats, speed benches, Reactive squats, as well as most ballistic type activities in which either high speeds, and or supramaximal forces are employed.

The force from a "drop and catch" type movement utilizing loads, or a plyometric type movement, exceeds that which is created with weight training. More importantly, the velocity component and the speed that force must be created is much greater. Put into practice one could start from the top and perform a quick "drop and explode" in a chinup, dip, squat, or olympic lifting movement. The force created at the reversal from eccentric to concentric is great and must be applied extremely quickly or progress will not occur.

Another option would be to simply perform the drop and attempt to stabilize the load towards the bottom as quickly as possible. Yet another option would be to simply de-emphasize the lowering phase of a movement by letting the load come down fairly quickly yet still under control. From here you'd then concentrate on an explosive positive phase. Fred Hatfield stated he used to train like this when he set his world record squat of 1014 lbs. and said it made him 15% stronger.

Short duration heavy isometrics (<10>

Here are a couple of studies providing evidence for the potential effectiveness of this training:

Faster adaptions with computer guided eccentric overload

Effect of high velocity eccentrics on type IIB fiber

The percentage of type I slow twitch fibres in the FAST eccentric group decreased from 53.8 to 39.1%, while type IIb fibre percentage increased from 5.8 to 12.9%. Although the increase may seem small what's more important is that you would normally see a ~15% decrease in IIB expression, therefore, the fast eccentric training could be deemed as 20% more effective for inducing fast muscle characteristics.

Sprint training would also seem like a viable option and would be when used at low enough volume as some studies demonstrate.

Type II increase with sprint training

However, the volumes of training used by sprinters are often enough to signal the need for increased efficiency. For instance, sprinters run maximally about 3 days per week, they run endurance runs in between their speed days to stay lean and maintain conditioning, and they also lift weights at least 2 days per week in addition to plyos. Is it any wonder?

Stimulate Don't Annihilate

There is one caveat with this training and that is it must be prescribed in a dose so as to induce better proficiency without inducing efficiency. In other words, you don't want to be sending any signals to the body that would cause it to think it has to create adaptations just to better deal with the "volume" of training you're throwing at it. You also wouldn't want to send a signal that the body is under a lot of stress or food shortage, thus dieting is a no no. The message you're sending needs to be loud and clear but "stimulating" not "annihilating". Whether you're creating the proper adaptations should be manifested in your results.

To illustrate, if you do highly intense plyometrics everyday you'll soon get to the point where you can do them practically all day without getting tired as your legs will "adapt" to handle the volume. You'll probably see an immediate VJ increase as you become accustomed yet over time the magnitude of performance that you can demonstrate, or the maximum height you jump, will either stagnate or be negatively effected as the body adapts to the excessive volume. Therefore, performance should take precedence over junk volume.

To better describe this think of a movement like the jump rope. Say the goal is to perform 6 consecutive 3 minute rounds. Initially there is a learning period as one learns how to swing the rope and how to coordinate the feet and arms etc. After this, the main limiting factor is the ability of the feet and lower legs to tolerate the lactic acid induced from the repetitive jumps. In someone who jump ropes chronically, (eg. 30 minutes 4-5 days per week), all things such as bodyweight and strength being equal, you will tend to see a decrease in maximal vertical jump as this adaptation sets in. The opposite is also true. Lower the volume down to 1 day of jump rope per week and you'll see an improvement in VJ as muscular efficiency lowers.

A Sample Cycle

If one wanted to put together a short mini-cycle strictly to focus on this one could set up something like this.

Guidelines:

fairly low volume - 2x per week per bodypart

progress at every session (If you're not improving then take an extra day of rest)

No lactic acid

No Cardio (dynamic warm-ups, easy gpp, walking, and very easy intervals are ok)

Eat at least enough to maintain bodyweight **(some fat loss will be ok but once you have to substantially restrict food intake as opposed to simply engaging in better eating habits you're gonna reach a point where you start to shoot yourself in the foot)

Get plenty of sleep

Rest Intervals should be fairly long (2-5 minutes)

All movements should be performed at relatively high velocities

**If one wanted to go Balco and gain a lot of muscular bodyweight then "supplementation" and eating would be superior to performing extra bodybuilding training to induce exercise induced muscle damage (seriously). Drug users could also add in 12.5-25 mcg cytomel (thyroid) per day for enhanced effectiveness.

**Note: I am not advocating drug use but I feel it would be foolish not to mention it, especially considering the studies that demonstrate testosterone stimulates exercise independent muscle growth. Users sitting on their butt doing absolutely nothing still gain nearly twice as much muscle as natural trainees who train their butt off. Now you know why there aren't many innocent olympians.

Some of the systematics previously written about by Mel Siff, DB Hammer/Jay Schroeder, Westside barbell, and others are ideal for this task, particularly if implemented along with the other guidelines. If you want you can easily make up your own but here is a sample.

Lower Body I

Box Squat - 50-60% x 3-5 (drop quickly to parallel with your butt off the box, sit back and explode up - use bands for increased effectiveness)

Jump Squat (full) - 30-40% x 3-5 (drop into the bottom and immediately rebound out and jump)

Speed glute ham or Dimel Deadlift x 5-15 (drop into the bottom of a glute ham and rebound up)

Upper Body I

Drop and Catch Dip x 5 (Add enough additional load to make the movement challenging)

Speed Bench - 50-60% x 5

Drop and Catch Row x 5 (70-80%)

Explosive row x 5

Lower Body II

Depth Drop into squat x 3

Depth jump x 3

40 yard dash x 3

Hang snatch (or underhand medicine ball toss) 80-85% x 3-5

Upper Body II

Med ball chest pass x 5

Upper body pushup depth drop x 5

Push Jerk (80-85%) x 3

Explosive pullup x 5

bicep curl barbell throws x 8-10

Volume would be based on feel and performance with generally 4-8 sets per exercise. One could train on a one day on / one day off format cycling through the 4 workouts or train on a mon,tues,thurs, fri format hitting each workout once per week.

The workout would last 4-6 weeks. At the conclusion of the phase most will find they are more explosive, faster, as well as stronger.

Note: Not to be rude but if you can't figure out a simple workout utilizing the above principles you probably aren't advanced enough to be worrying about this stuff anyway.

Clear Message

The above routine sends a clear and consistent message. It says "you need to adapt to creating force quickly both neurally and metabolically". It's also worth noting that high intensity EmS may have a positive effect in this regard but the jury is still out on that one.

One problem with the above plan is it obviously neglects other components of fitness needed for ongoing performance such as general conditioning, work capacity, and size. Therefore, a plan that encompasses development of all the necessary motor qualities over a longer period of time would obviously be superior even if we can't always have everything perfect. In other words, with the long term plan it's necessary to take a step back and build up qualities that will enhance long term results.

The Long Term Plan

Before getting into the long term plan it's first necessary to talk about the muscular changes that occur with detraining. The paradox of IIB expression and training is that the overall volume and type of training needed by an athlete would and do deter it's display, yet paradoxically it's display would seem to be a huge benefit. It turns out that the practice of tapering, unloading, and taking time off, also likely work by increasing IIB expression.

Type IIB Overshoot and detraining

As stated before, with training, IIB fibers convert into the slower contracting IIA. What is really interesting is that with detraining or tapering there is a IIA to IIB overshoot conversion that occurs. That is, IIA fibers "reconvert" into IIB and that reconversion occurs at a greater than expected rate.

For instance, a group of athletes started out with 9.3% FTIIB muscle which decreased to 2.0% during a 3 month resistance training period. During this time there was a corresponding increase in IIA from 42.4% to 49.6%. After a detraining period of 3 months, the amount of IIB reached values of 26%, which was nearly 3 times higher then before training was initiated. After this 3 month break training was reintroduced and there was less of a tendency to sacrifice IIB fibers.

Tapering and Unloading

This seems to explain the numerous performance records that are set when an individual comes back from a layoff. This also seems to suggest that if an athlete wishes to increase the relative amounts of fast muscle fibers a logical method would be to decrease the training load and allow the fastest fibres to express themselves a few weeks later. This finding appears to lend some support to the practice of "tapering" that has been implemented for many years among strength and sprint athletes. Athletes in many sports willl dramatically lower volume 7-14 days prior to a competition and find they get huge performance benefits from this. It is important to note that the above detraining study was carried out on sedentary subjects. An athlete can most likely benefit from a much shorter or less dramatic detraining or tapering period as they already have the ability to adapt to demanding stimuli and for them a reduction in loading would mimick complete unloading in sedentary people. As is, some studies indicate a tendency towards more IIb expression after only 7-10 days of unloading.

On a personal note, in the past 13 years I have always trained a minimum of 5 days per week. I only had one period of time 6 years ago where I was forced to layoff from training for 6 months due to medical reasons. when I came back I had completely obliterated all previous performance bests within 3 months and those bests were maintained. I always thought there was something to that and as long as the deconditioning isn't too extreme (a 50 lb gain in lard) I have observed the same in others providing they were chronically trained to begin with. I've also used the above training methods with regularity on a wide variety of athletes and the consistent results seem to confirm the validity of what I'm talking about here.

If one were to combine the above knowledge it would be fairly easy to design a longer training cycle to take advantage of this phenomenon.

Block 1- 4-6 weeks - GPP - Get In Shape (increase basic fitness, lower bodyfat if necessary)

Block II- 7-12 weeks - Strength - 3 weeks high volume/1 week low - repeat 2-3 times

sample program:Designer Athletes

cut volume in 1/2 every 4th week.

Block III- 2 weeks - GPP - Recovery - Strength maintenance (Train with 1/2 the normal volume and engage in some sports like basketball, tennis, flag football for fun)

*Block IV- 3-4 weeks - Shock loading - force drops - depth drops -strength maintenance - (basically a repeat of the mini-cycle I outlined above)

*Block V - 3-4 weeks - Shock loading - depth jumps - (similar to the mini-cycle above but with more bodyweight movements, sprints and less barbell movements - A general guideline would be 120 ground contacts per week of lower body depth jump variations, 120 reps of upper body plyometric and medicine ball variations and 900 meters of speed work per week)

Block VI - Unload 10 days - (Volume lowered 50%)

*= During blocks IV and V one would still perform enough basic strength training to maintain strength. One day per week per bodypart would suffice.

Recap

1. Anything that improves "neural factors" will also generally improve the characteristics of FT expression, particularly in a beginner. These include any general strength and power/speed training methods.

2. Beginners and intermediates should train generally and avoid overcomplicating things.

3. An upper intermediate or advanced athlete can gain substantial short term results with a program as outlined earlier.

4. You can't have everything all the time. In a long term setup one will have to take steps back in order to build up the necessary levels of conditioning, strength, and size. These attributes will then serve as a foundation when it does come time to really get into the focused speed/power training.

So there you have it. If your progress has stalled consider implementing a few of these ideas to your current plan. Let me know how your results unfold.

-Kelly

References:

Tanner, Hisham. "Muscle fiber type is associated with obesity and weight loss" East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina

Simoneau JA, Bouchard C. "Genetic determinism of fiber type proportion in human skeletal muscle." Physical Activity Sciences Laboratory, Laval University, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada

Jansson E, Esbjornsson M, Holm I, Jacobs I. "Increase in the proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibres by sprint training in males." Acta Physiol Scand. 1990 Nov;140(3):359-63.

Paddon-Jones D, Leveritt M, Lonergan A, Abernethy P "Adaptation to chronic eccentric exercise in humans: the influence of contraction velocity." Eur J Appl Physiol. 2001 Sep;85(5):466-71.

Friedmann B, Kinscherf R, Vorwald S, Muller H, Kucera K, Borisch S, Richter G, Bartsch P, Billeter R. "Muscular adaptations to computer-guided strength training with eccentric overload."Department of Sports Medicine, Medical Clinic and Policlinic, University of Heidelberg,Germany.

Andersen JL, Aagaard P "Myosin heavy chain IIX overshoot in human skeletal muscle." Muscle Nerve 2000 Jul;23(7):1095-104

Widrick JJ, Trappe SW, Costill DL, Fitts RH. "Force-velocity and force-power properties of single muscle fibers from elite master runners and sedentary men." Department of Biology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA.

Bee G, Solomon MB, Czerwinski SM, Long C, Pursel VG Correlation between histochemically assessed fiber type distribution and isomyosin and myosin heavy chain content in porcine skeletal muscles. J Anim Sci 1999 Aug;77(8):2104-11

Stone, Caleb "A Revolutionary Approach to Strength Training". Mind and Muscle Magazine - AvantLabs.com

Tesch PA, Wright JE, Vogel JA, Daniels WL, Sharp DS, Sjodin B The influence of muscle metabolic characteristics on physical performance. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 1985;54(3):237-43

Morner SE, Canepari M, Bottinelli R, Cappelli V, Reggiani C Effects of Amrinone on shortening velocity, force development and ATPase activity of demembranated preparations of rat ventricular myocardium. Acta Physiol Scand 1992 Sep;146(1):21-30

Houmard JA, O'Neill DS, Zheng D, Hickey MS, Dohm GL Impact of hyperinsulinemia on myosin heavy chain gene regulation. J Appl Physiol 1999 Jun;86(6):1828-32

Siff, Mel. "Supertraining" 2003

Hatfield, Fred. "Fitness The Complete Guide". International Sports Sciences Association. 1996

Sharman, Newton,"Changes in MHC composition accompanying high intensity resistance training in 60- 75 year olds." American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meetings, Indianapolis, USA.

Orizio C, Veicsteinas A. "Soundmyogram analysis during sustained maximal voluntary contraction in sprinters and long distance runners." Int J Sports Med. 1992 Nov;13(8):594-9.

Ross A, Leveritt M. "Long-term metabolic and skeletal muscle adaptations to short-sprint training: implications for sprint training and tapering.Sports Med. 2001;31(15):1063-82."

Mero A, Jaakkola L, Komi PV. "Relationships between muscle fibre characteristics and physical performance capacity in trained athletic boys."Mero A, Jaakkola L, Komi PV.

Understanding Muscle Fiber Type

2007-08-12T00:45:00.003-07:00

http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/muscletyping.html

Understanding Muscle Fiber Type

By: Kelly Baggett

With any discussion of athletic performance one topic that arises again and again without fail is the topic of muscle fiber type. So how important is muscle fiber type? If you are slow twitch dominant is it possible to make yourself fast twitch dominant? Or is your muscle type completely reliant on genetics?

I believe that muscle fiber typing is both over-rated and under-rated. People and coaches tend to fall into one of 2 groups. They either say that muscle type determines just about "everything" when it comes to athletic ability, or they say that muscle type makes "no difference" whatsoever. This article will deal mainly with the 2nd argument, how muscle type is over-rated and how it gets more credit then it deserves. A second article will deal with how a small percentage of people may be able to further enhance the results of their training if they pay attention to and "zero in" on fiber type conversions. Let me say ahead of time that the vast majority of people should pay a lot more attention to this article as the 2nd will incorporate a lot of minutia and only apply to advanced athletes or those who really like to dive deeply into training science. That said lets get to it.

An Overview Of Muscle Fibers

There are three primary muscle fiber types in humans -- Type I, Type IIA, and Type IIB. Type I are referred to as "slow twitch oxidative", Type IIA are "fast twitch oxidative" and Type IIB are "fast twitch glycolytic" As their names suggest, each type has very different functional characteristics. Type one fibers are characterized by low force/power/speed production and high endurance, Type IIB by high force/power/speed production and low endurance, while Type IIA fall in between. These characteristics are a result, primarily, of the fiber's Myosin Heavy Chain (MHC) composition, with Mysosin heavy chain isoforms I, IIa and IIx corresponding with muscle fiber types I, IIA, and IIB.

Individual muscles are made up of individual muscle fibers and these fibers are further organized into motor units grouped within each muscle. A motor unit is simply a bundle or grouping of muscle fibers. When you want to move the brain nearly instantaneously sends a signal or impulse through the spinal cord that reaches the motor unit. The impulse then tells that particular motor unit to contract it's fibers. When a motor unit fires all the muscle cells in that particular motor unit then contract with 100% intensity. So, a muscle cell either contracts 100% or not at all. A motor unit is either recruited 100% or not at all. Therefore, there is no such thing as a partially firing motor unit or a partially contracted muscle fiber.

When you engage in very low intensity activities like lifting a spoon to your mouth, your brain recruits motor units that have a smaller number of muscle fibers and the fibers that make up these smaller motor units are slow twitch, meaning they don’t contract as fast or contract with the same level of force as type II fast twitch motor units and fibers. If they did you’d be knocking yourself in the head with a spoon everytime you sat down to eat!!

These smaller motor units are termed low threshold motor units. As the intensity needed to apply force increases, so does the number of motor units involved in the task, particularly the number of fast twitch or high threshold motor units. The main difference between a slow twitch motor unit and a fast twitch motor unit is the fast twitch motor unit controls more muscle fibers or cells and these cells are bigger. In much the same way, the main difference between a slow twitch muscle fiber and a fast twitch muscle fiber is the fast twitch fiber is larger and can thus produce more force. During an activity such as curling a dumbbell, not only does your body recruit the same motor units as it does when you lift a spoon, but, since curling a dumbbell requires more force, it recruits enough additional fast twitch motor units until enough have been recruited to do the job.

The body recruits the lower threshold motor units first (slow-twitch), followed by the higher threshold motor units (fast-twitch) and continues to recruit and fire motor units until you’ve applied enough force to do whatever it is you’re trying to do regarding movement. When you are lifting something extremely heavy or applying a lot of force your body will contract practically all the available motor units for that particular muscle.

When engaging in high intensity or high force activities you get lots of motor unit activation and thus a lot of force. So how does this relate to the fiber in the available motor units? Well type I muscle motor units contract less forcefully and a little slower then type II fast twitch motor units and they reach peak power slower. They are also highly resistant to fatigue so they have good endurance. This is why you can sit and eat all day or play Playstation all day and never get tired!

The type II motor units are divided into type IIA and type IIB. Both of these sub-groups are capable of greater levels of absolute force than type I and also fatigue a lot quicker. Type IIA and IIB are capable of roughly the same amount of peak force, but the IIA fibers take longer to reach their peak power in comparison to type IIB. Type IIA fibers reach peak power in about 50 milliseconds whereas type IIB reaches peak power in about 25 milliseconds. Because of their greater contraction speeds, the total peak power by IIB can be up to 5 times higher then the IIA's.

Fiber Type--Contraction Speed---Time to Peak Power---Fatigue

I (slow twitch)-------slow------------- 100 milliseconds-------slowly

IIA (fast twitch)-----fast---------------50 milliseconds-------fast

IIB (fast twitch)-----very fast-----------25 milliseconds------fast

Now, when we realize that sports movements usually occur in around 200 milliseconds or less, if you look at the time to peak power of the individual muscle fibers, it should then become obvious that each type (I,IIA,IIB) has enough time to reach peak power production. So, why the superiority in having more fast twitch II B fibers? Well, two things. Since they contract quicker, if you have an advantage for the first tenth (arbitrary) of the movement, it can result in superior performance. Since their total peak power is greater this could also give one an advantage when producing force under high velocity conditions.

This can be documented when you analyze a large group of athletes for vertical jump performance and their style of executing a vertical jump. Athletes with more FT fibers (A&B) change direction a bit quicker during their countermovement (down to up) switch and they tend to use less knee bend. (Bosco) These results can be confirmed by muscle biopsy and even by special force-plate analysis. This doesn’t mean that one with a lower FT fiber% can’t jump even higher, they just tend to do it a little slower and with a deeper knee bend.

Although having a high % of FT fibers may give one an advantage, there is little doubt that the nervous system is actually much more important and should take precedence.

Muscle fibers and nerves

You see, the type of fiber expressed as far as type I vs Type II is controlled by the nervous system. Nerves that control and connect to a group of motor units run from the brain to the motor unit and are hardwired in the brain. Fast twitch motor units are controlled by fast twitch nerves. Slow twitch motor units are controlled by slow twitch nerves.

In the laboratory you can take a nerve from a motor unit that supplies a slow twitch muscle fiber and replace it with one that supplies a fast twitch fiber and the slow twitch fiber will behave just like a fast twitch fiber! The reverse is also true. You can take a slow twitch nerve and connect it to a fast twitch motor unit and the fast twitch will behave like slow twitch. Unforunately, it's impossible to change a slow twitch nerve into a fast twitch nerve and vice versa. However, you can make the Myosin Heavy chain expressed in a fast twitch fiber either more or less fast twitch or a slow twitch fiber more or less slow twitch but more on that later.

Muscle Recruitment

So, aside from muscle fiber involvement why is the nervous system so important? The majority of the time, the real limit to your performance is the number of motor units your nervous system can recruit in the short amount of time you have in a sporting movement and the amount of horsepower (size of the muscle cells) under control of those motor units, not the type of muscle fiber (slow twitch or fast) that comprises those motor units. Remember, the nervous system determines the degree of motor unit involvement.

It should also be noted that with regards to peak "force" production, the only real difference amongst the fibers is their size. Type II's are bigger yet an equal volume of type I's can produce roughly the same peak force. Therefore, for displays of maximum force (strength), fiber type is of little consequence.

Now this next part is important. Recall that the average person can only recruit around 50% of their muscle motor units anyway. It normally takes anywhere from .4-.6 seconds for the nervous system to call on all the available muscle motor units to contract. This is the same length of time it takes to demonstrate max strength or apply maximum force. However, it takes only .2 seconds to perform something like a vertical jump. So the main determining factor is how many of ALL the available muscle motor units one can get turned on in .2 seconds and not necessarily how much fast twitch fiber one has. Therefore, if one lacks fast twitch fiber but also has a very efficient nervous system capable of recruiting nearly all the FT fiber they do have, they will tend to have superior performance in comparison to someone with a less efficient nervous system and lots of fast twitch fiber.

Normally the body inhibits the contraction of all available muscle fibers as a protective mechanism. An example of this phenomenon in reverse can be seen when looking at weight-lifters. Often people can considerably increase their strength without any increase in muscle size. Why is this so? It’s simply because the body becomes more efficient at muscle recruitment and firing synchronisation. By engaging in the correct training programs over a period of time with an emphasis on speed, explosiveness, and power you can better teach your body and nervous system to recruit it's FT fibers.

Slow to Fast conversions

Another reason that fiber typing may be largely disregarded is that studies in both man and animal have consistently shown a fast to slow conversion in response to training of any kind. That is, IIB fibers convert into the slower contracting and less powerful IIA. In fact, guess what group of people has the highest percentage of the fastest contracting IIB fibers?? COUCH POTATOES! With just about any type of training, the higher threshold fibers (IIB) change into slower contracting IIA fibers. When training is ceased these fibers once again revert back to IIB. The likely reason why this occurs is because of metabolic efficiency. The body will deal with stress in the most efficient manner possible and a slow transformation is metabolically more efficient while it still allows the body to adapt to stimuli.

As noted, the main difference between IIA and IIB is their speed of contraction. They contract at about the same force but the IIB/IIx contract quicker and are better at creating force at high speeds. Therefore, with typical training schemes the relationship between IIA and IIB is also inconsequential. In fact the amount of either type II type only becomes even remotely important when a resistance is less than 30% of max.

Running a funny car on the highway

The fast to slow conversion may seem like paradoxical and obviously would be for a speed or power athlete but it makes sense when you consider survival. The body strives to be as efficient as possible in an effort to conserve energy. Fast twitch IIB fibers are fuel hungry machines. They are very strong, fire very quickly, burn a lot of energy per unit of activity, and recover slowly. Therefore they're very inefficient. They're much more like a funny car rather then a Honda Civic. If you tried to take an ultra high RPM funny car out on the highway and run it alongside the economy cars out there what would happen?? It would probably be a lot like taking a powerlifter, shotputter, olympic lifter, or sprinter and putting them out on the highway in a 26 mile marathon race with distance runners! They would cramp up, sputter and run out of gas!! The training that athletes engage in is much like this stress. A slow and economized Honda Civic would have a better chance of survival in the face of large volumes of work therefore this adaptation makes perfect sense even for those who might be engaged in speed training.

Fast twitch fibers don't like high volumes or long durations of work. They don't even like a high frequency of work. If we go back to our ancestral roots, in humans, fast twitch IIB fibers were used only in times of dire circumstances and stress or for "fight or flight" situations. These would include running away from a predator, fighting, chasing food, or other brief explosive muscle action. Therefore, they were only active for a few minutes per day at most. Since they weren't used often the body had no real need to sacrifice them for a more efficient fiber. Sedentary people are the same way and have more fast twitch IIB muscle then athletes as the use of their fibers is limited and there is no need for their bodies to make more efficient adaptations. A faster muscular subtype (funny car) is advantageous for an organism whose main objective is to occassionally battle a predator or protect its children as it might be for a sedentary well fed human.

Hypothyroidism

Fast to slow (IIB to IIA) transformations are also seen in hypothyroidism which is characteristic of the body being in a starved state. When in a food shortage the main thing the body wants is "survival." Thus, the body sacrifices display of FT IIB fibers and adaptations related to the display of fight or flight are done away with because they would use up too much energy. This also partially explains why those who think they can shed a metric crapload of bodyfat in an effort to better display power are often met with less then satisfactory results. They may lose the weight yet, depending on the amount of weight they lose and how lean they get, they will eventually begin to lose speed-strength and strength-speed proficiency.

According to Caleb Stone the reverse is true of hyperthyroidism, hyperinsulinemia, and leptin administration - where slow to fast transformations are seen. What these all have in common is they are characteristic of the body being in an overfed state. Speed, power, and strength thrive off of the fed state! In these cases the need for metabolic efficiency is nonexistent leaving free to display muscular characteristics conducive to fight or flight situations.

Sprinters and fast to slow conversion

The fast to slow conversion has even been documented in elite level sprinters. During intensive training their IIB % actually decreased even though their sprint times improved. If fiber dominance is of such paramount importance how is it possible they still improved their sprint times?? Well you knew you’d hear this again didn’t you!? The nervous system! They became more efficient in the movements. Therefore the main limiting factor is the nervous system as it dictates the speed of motor unit recruitment and the amount of muscle that can be recruited. The next important factor would be how much horsepower is turned on when those motor units are recruited (size of the muscles in relationship to bodyweight), followed by how fast the horses run (muscle fiber type) when they get turned on. Thus in order of importance the main factors would be:

1. Body structure (muscle, tendon, and limb lengths and attachments)

2. Neural factors (muscle recruitment etc.)

3. Relative strength levels (strength per lb. of bodyweight)

4. Muscle fiber type

This is further illustrated if you compare the performance capabilities and physiques of top-level sprinters, powerlifters, bodybuilders, baseball pitchers etc. The research states that the largest, most powerful, and strongest fiber is the fast-twitch fiber. If this were ALL there was to it then an athlete with tremendous muscular size would also be proportionately strong, powerful, and fast. An athlete who could throw fast or run fast would also be big and strong. An athlete who is strong would also be fast and powerful. This is obviously not true.

It should also be noted that having good neural factors correlates with having lots of fast twitch fiber (both type IIA&B). Fast twitch muscle percentage correlates with reaction time. Therefore,when you see studies showing fast twitch fiber to be correlated to displays of sports power what those studies are mainly showing is that good neural factors correlate with displays of sports power.

Conclusion

The point to take home is that if you have less then 3 years of consistent training experience you should be “aware” of muscle fiber type and give it consideration, but don’t obsess about it. Don't put the cart before the horse! Simply learn how to correctly train for performance and your body will take care of the rest as a natural adaptation to your training.

If you've followed solid training systematics and have stagnated and you feel you're ready to obsess about it then read the next installment, "Becoming a Fast Twitch Machine", where I will do a complete 180 and provide you with plenty of information for that purpose.

-Kelly

Quickness and Absolute Speed vs Sports Speed and Explosiveness

2007-08-12T00:45:00.001-07:00

Quickness and Absolute Speed vs Sports Speed and Explosiveness

By: Kelly Baggett

In order to fully understand the relationship between quickness, absolute speed, and their relationship to the demonstrations of speed, leaping ability, and athleticism as we see in sport, it helps to view the body as 2 separate systems. An internal system and an external system. The internal system refers to the nervous system and the external system refers to the muscles, tendons etc.

The Internal System

To keep it simple, all movement first starts with a neural impulse which is triggered by either a voluntary command or a reflexive one. This command is sent down the spinal cord to the appropriate muscle motor units. These neural impulses have 3 distinct characteristics which will vary in relative importance depending on the type of action needed.

The first characteristic is:

A. How fast can the motor impulse travel from the central nervous system to the muscles and from the muscles back up the spinal cord. This is responsible for quickness, very rapid firing muscular contraction, very rapid bouts of muscular relaxation, and the ability to move rapidly in absence of loading.

Examples of this include:

Hand speed

Foot speed while lieing on your back or standing in place

It should be noted that the ability to relax muscle is very important for rapid movements, especially in cyclical actions. To verify this for yourself simply tap a finger on your desk as fast as you can. Most people will tend to cramp up or lose rhythm due to insufficient and incomplete relaxation in between contractions.

One key characteristic of great sprinters isn't necessarily the magnitude of force they are able to produce in a very short time, or the speed at which their limbs move. Instead, it is their ability to relax completely in between strides that is key. It has been found that muscle relaxation time improves markedly as the athlete's skill improves. In some sprinters, improvement in performance is largely a consequence of strength increase while the ability to relax muscle remains much the same, whereas some talented sprinters improve solely because of an increase in their capacity for efficient muscle relaxation.

The primary role of quickness is to produce high speed movement which does not encounter large external resistance or require great strength, power, or energy consumption.

Quickness may be referred to as the ability of the central nervous system to contract, relax or control muscle function without involvement of any preliminary stretch. It is measured as the time interval or reaction time between voluntary stimulation and the initiation of movement. This time should be distinguished from absolute movement speed, which is the interval from the beginning to the end of movement.

The average movement time of a simple task of unloaded movement of an extremity is .3 seconds, which can decrease by more than 50% in the case of highly trained subjects. Movement time is strongly influenced by motor coordination or precision of movement.

Quickness can involve simple or complex tasks, as well as single versus repeated actions. In boxing or martial arts, quickness would involve thrusting out a fist from rest to execute a punch. Examples of quickness in repeated actions are dribbling in soccer, hitting a rapidly returned shuttle in badminton, or a flurry of offensive blows in boxing. In the latter examples, quickness would refer to the frequency of repeated movements.

The 2nd characteristic of the neural impulse is:

B. How long the motor impulses keep the motor units activated. This is responsible for strength, which requires a muscle be activated for a fairly long time.

The 3rd characteristic of the neural impulse is:

C. The level of the neural impulses being sent. The greater the level of impulse, the more motor units get activated. This is improtant for either great displays of strength, power, or sports type athletic displays. It should be noted that very fast sprinters are distinguisehd by a high level of neural discharge from the central nervous system. If your nervous system was a battery the level would refer to the amount of "juice" the nervous system is putting out.

Now, when you put "A" and "C" together you get motor impulses that are being sent very quickly and at a high level. This is characteristic of athletic displays such as acceleration, jumping, sprinting, etc.

The amount of juice the system puts out is related to nervous system excitability and also tends to be well correlated with emotional excitability, temper, etc., - which is probably why there are lots of potentially good athletes in the prison system! The more juice the more muscle recruitment. During competition the ability of the system to put out this type of energy is a huge advantage but during life it can things complicated.

Someone with an excellent "internal" system might have the following characteristics:

1. Excellent ability of the system to get aroused and send clear and efficient signals to the muscles.

2. Excellent hand speed as shown by the ability to tap a finger against a pad 20+ times in 2 seconds, throw a quality 6 punch combination under a second, type 100+ words per minute, throw a baseball faster than what would be indicated by size and limb lengths, etc.

3. Excellent "unloaded" foot speed as demonstrated by the ability to sprint or tap the feet quickly in place or throw a high speed kick.

4. Quick reflexes.

5. Emotional excitability. Succeptible to outbursts as well as apathy. May have the ability to yell very loud. :)

Now let's see how this relates to the "external" system. Remember the internal system is the nervous system and the external is the muscles, tendons, joints. etc.

The External System

The internal system is the message and the job of the external system is to "display" that message. Without the "display" then nothing happens. Remember, only muscle produces movement. You can have the best battery in the world but without a motor to start you're not going anywhere! In much the same way you can have the best nervous system in the world but you will need a muscular system in order to "display" that nervous system or you're not going anywhere either!

Now, the displays I mentioned above regarding quickness don't require very much muscle at all due to the absence of force, and thus are related nearly entirely to the speed and efficiency with which the nervous system can send messages. Quickness is displayed fully only when the external resistance does not exceed 15% or more of max strength. When you add force to the movement you also add the extent that the external or muscular system is involved. It should be noted that bodyweight adds a substantial amount of force to be overcome. If you weigh 100 lbs and squat 200 lbs then it requires approximately 35% of your max strength just to move your own bodyweight.

For example, cycling your legs when you lie on your back is mostly a display of internal nervous system proficiency, quickness, and absolute speed of movement. When you add force to that same movement by standing on the ground and running, then not only must you cycle your legs, but you must cycle your legs while moving your own bodyweight off the ground. This means that you add force. In this situation the limiting factor becomes how efficiently your external system (musculature) can carry out the signals your nervous system is sending while dealing with that force. If that weren't the case then you would be able to sprint down the track just as easily as you sprint when you lie on your back sprinting against the air. Or you would be able to get down in a pushup position and move your hands just as quickly as you do punching against the wind. The more force you add, the more that external muscular factors become limiting.

So not only must you be able to get your muscle turned on but you have to have some horsepower and strength to turn on when you do. You can have the best internal system in the world, but you need the right external system to display it. In other words, you need strong muscles and all that.

There are many women who fit the characteristics of having a proficient nervous system I described above yet would get smoked in a sprint by most men, because they're muscles are weaker.

This just goes to show you that you don't necessarily have to be so called "quick" or "speedy" in order to be explosive and powerful. It also goes to show you that just because someone may have "quick" feet or "quick" hands doesn't necessarily mean that they will be able to run fast, have great agility, or have a spectacular vertical jump.

The Quickness/Strength Deficiency Evaluation

Now, one way to evaluate how to train someone is to evaluate their relationship between quickness and strength. This is one such observation I make when evaluating an athlete. Sometimes you will need to focus on the efficiency of the nervous system to increase the "level" of the impulse being sent and the display of such. This is typically what plyometric and power training methods do. The focus on these methods is on putting out a whole lot of neural energy in a very short period of time.

Sometimes you will need to increase the body's ability to better "express" the messages from the nervous system. This is what strength or hypertrophy training does. Usually it's not too difficult to identify the deficiency in an athlete and train accordingly. I promise to get more specific with the specifics of it in the future but let's run through a couple of scenarios:

Athlete A:

quickness: slow

Strength: strong

Needs: Focus on increasing explosive muscle recruitment (increase level of internal neural impulse) - Power training, plyometrics etc.

Athlete B:

quickness: fast

Strength: Strong

Needs: More raw material in which to express his already good internal and external systems. - Hypertrophy training. More muscle = more raw material.

Athlete C:

quickness: slow

Strength: weak

Needs: Everything. - A general all around program with a focus on low level movement efficiency and general strength.

Athlete D:

quickness: fast

Strength: weak

Needs: Strength and hypertrophy followed by Power - This type of athlete represents the type that can progress overnight and suprise people with startling improvement. Once his strength levels are boosted up, then power work can be used to intensify his ability to quickly recruit motor units, the results often being spectacular. Often this type of athlete will have to work extra hard to maintain muscle size and strength.

Athlete E:

quickness: Decent but not outstanding

Strength: Decent but not outstanding

Needs: This athlete would require further evaluation on the relationship between his power and his max strength. A depth jump test could be used to assess his reactive ability. If he's more explosive from a standstill then power training would predominate. If he jumps a lot higher from a runup or depth jump then strength training followed by power work. If nothing else the progression might go like this:

Block 1- high volume low intensity movement efficiency work + basic strength

Block 2- high volume strength work + low volume movement efficiency

Block 3- high volume power work (jumps squats/acceleration runs) + low volume drop jumps

Block 4- high volume intense plyometric work (depth jumps)

Each block would run 4-7 weeks in duration with a frequency an average of 2-3 times per week for both upper and lower body.

As you can see there it's not too difficult. Most people will have an observable deficiency somewhere. The athletes who are already quick and strong will already be good athletes.

-Kelly

References:

Siff, M. "Supertraining." 2003

Getting Stronger

2007-08-12T00:44:00.001-07:00

source: http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/GettingStronger.html

Getting Stronger

by: Kelly Baggett

I am frequently asked if I have any certain strategies for gaining strength for sport that I find superior. To simplify the entire approach let me state that improving strength is really a matter of increasing 3 basic things. These things are:

1. Increased movement efficiency

2. Increased motor unit recruitment

3. Increased muscle size

Increased movement efficiency

In strength training you do this by practicing the specific lifts. As you become more proficient at a lift your body learns how to accomplish the task easier. Simple enough. For an athlete, this part of improving strength is of little concern unless you are a competitive lifter and your sport involves lifting. If you're an athlete your goal is to make the muscles stronger so that the increased "general" overall muscular strength transfers into your sporting performance. What does it matter if you increase a lift by 100 lbs if all that increase comes through an improvement in technique rather then an increase in the strength of the muscles? Only a stronger muscle will transfer into improved athletic performance.

However, in order to "make your muscles strong" so that you can transfer general strength into specific strength you have to be proficient enough at the lifts you're performing that you "can" stress the muscle optimally, so technique is also necessary. To illustrate, a raw beginner thrown into the weight room won't be proficient enough at performing an exercise like a squat to really stress his muscles. His form will break down long before the muscles are trained optimally.

Other activities or qualities that increase the efficiency of movement include stretching, practice, movement rehearsal, mental rehearsal, eliminating antagonistic inhibition, relative body strength, bodyfat %, soft tissue work etc.

Increasing muscular motor unit recruitment

This involves training your body to use all of the "potential" muscle strength it has in a given task. Muscle fibers are grouped under motor units with each motor unit controlling a number of muscle cells or fibers. When a motor unit receives the signal from your nervous system to fire then all the muscle fibers under control of that motor unit also fire. So a muscle fiber or cell either fires all the way or not at all. Motor units are recruited on an "as needed" basis. When you lift a spoon to your mouth you signal your nervous system to "recruit" only a few motor units. When you curl a heavy weight you use a lot more. The more force required the more motor units you "turn on" and the more muscle cells you fire.

What's interesting is that the average person is only capable of recruiting around 50% of their available motor units or using 50% of their "potential" strength in a given task. With training you can increase this to upwards of 90%. That means when you go in the gym and lift a 1rm load even though you're straining as hard as you can you're most likely not using anywhere near all your potential strength to lift that weight.

Think of motor unit recruitment as being very similar to "relative strength", or strength per pound of bodyweight. Increasing relative strength means getting stronger without adding bulk. When you see someone who is "strong for their size" or a training technique that makes you "strong for your size" then know that that person has good motor unit recruitment abilities.

The Strength Deficit

The difference between one's "potential" strength and "actual" strength is called the strength deficit. If we were to take any individual and ask the question "how strong could this person be with the amount of muscle size he currently has?" and then compare that potential level of strength to his current level of strength and figure the difference, the difference between the 2 is called the strength deficit. The bigger the deficit the more room for increased motor unit recruitment you have. The smaller the deficit the less room for additional motor unit recruitment you have. Obviously, you should strive to have as small of a strength deficit as possible.

A guy weighing 150 lbs who squats 400 lbs, runs a 4.3 40 yard dash and 40 inch vertical jump has a very small strength deficit.

A guy weighing 250 lbs who squats 200 lbs, runs a 5.5 40 yard dash and 20 inch vertical jump has a large strength deficit.

Other things that influence motor unit recruitment include increased arousal, focus, and ergogenic aids.

In a pure speed-strength activity in which the only load to overcome is one's bodyweight, simply gaining strength is not enough. Studies have shown the key to running faster and jumping higher is relative strength and relative power, or force and power per pound of bodyweight. It isn't merely the amount of force applied to the ground that increases speed, quickness or jumping ability; it's the amount of force in relation to bodyweight.

If force alone was the major factor in speed, then a 400-pound man able to squat 700 pounds would win every race -but we know that's not what happens. If we match our 400-pound behemoth against a 170-pound man who can squat 500 lbs, there's no contest.

Big man loses. Why?

Relative force. The 400-pound man is generating a meager 1.75 times his bodyweight against the ground while our thin man is applying a whopping 2.94 times his bodyweight. Even though the big man can generate 40% more force, it pales compared to the thin man's 68% greater relative force.

Increasing muscle size

Once you are able to recruit and use nearly all the muscle you have then the only way to improve is to increase the amount of horsepower that each contracting muscle cell generates. You do this by increasing the amount of protein contained in each muscle cell or, simply, get bigger muscles. When you do this a given motor unit will now put out more force when it fires since the muscle cells under it's control are now bigger.

The 150 lb. guy in the example I used above can increase his performance by getting bigger muscles since he's already most likely able to recruit nearly all his available motor units.

Some strength training techniques are better for increasing motor unit recruitment or relative strength, which again, is strength per lb of bodyweight. Whereas some strength training techniques are better at increasing the horsepower behind a firing motor unit, or giving you bigger muscles.

Strength training techniques that are good for increased motor unit recruitment and relative strength include:

1. low rep "relative" strength training protocols (<5 reps per set)
2. low volume protocols (<10 sets per session)
3. Sets - might range from 3 to 8 for the primary exercise
4. Frequency - at least twice per week

A lot of people like a heavy/light system with a heavy day on one day and a light day on another. Heavy might be 5-6X3 at a 4-5RM intensity, light might be 3-4X5 at a 6-8RM or even lighter (or speed work).

When performing low reps at low volume the muscle cells aren't under enough prolonged tension to cause much muscular damage. The heavier loads involved with the lower reps train the nervous system to recruit more motor units.

For example, a max squat will make you stronger but tends not to do a whole lot for muscle size.

Training techniques that are good for improving the horsepower behind a firing motor unit include:

1. medium rep protocols (5-15 reps per set) 2. medium to high volume protocols (+ 10 sets per session)

When performing higher reps the muscle cells are under enough prolonged tension that you damage them. They respond by increasing their protein content, coming back a little bigger.

The extreme example of this type of training is bodybuilding training.

So, to sum it up we can say that:

muscle strength = ability to recruit motor units x size of the muscle fibers

Obviously, over the course of your training career, in order to get stronger you are going to need both more motor unit recruitment and bigger muscles. Most routines out there combine both as it's about impossible to completely zero in on one or the other. However, in general a set of a strength training exercise either focuses more on making you stronger or it focuses more on making you bigger. From now on before every workout and during the planning of a training cycle ask yourself, "How is this exercise going to improve my performance?"

General Guidelines

- Performing sets of 3 reps in something like a squat exercise will be more effective at improving your relative strength and motor unit recruitment then performing sets of 5 reps will.

- Performing sets of 5 reps will be more effective at making you bigger then performing sets of 3 reps will.

- Performing sets of 10 reps will likely be more effective at making you bigger then sets of 3 or 5 reps will, if the number of sets are the same.

- Performing sets of 5 reps will be more effective at making you bigger then performing sets of 10 reps, if the number of reps in a session are equal (6 sets of 5 vs 3 sets of 10)

- Compound movements are superior to isolation movements for motor unit recruitment and muscle size

- Trying to move a load as quickly as possible through the concentric (positive) portion of a lift works better for both increased motor unit recruitment and muscle size

- Performing the eccentric (negative) phase of a movement slower works better for increasing muscle size

- Performing the eccentric (negative) phase of a movement faster and firing out of the transition works better for increasing motor unit recruitment

If bodyweight is an issue, as it would be if you were a football player and need to get bigger, then your program should include both relative strength training methods and methods designed to increase your muscle size. Often a very thin individual will find the easiest path for them to gain relative strength is by increasing muscle size since the strength gains they make overwhelm their increased bodyweight. An individual in a sport like track and field can train strictly for relative strength most of the time.

Now let's get to some specific examples.

The KISS relative strength training method

Keep it simple stupid!

Until you've developed a foundation there is no need to use advanced training techniques. A greater frequency of training works particularly well for beginners and novice athletes. They need to develop the "skill" of the particular movements they're using and bridge the gap between their "actual" strength and "potential strength". For this type of trainee it can be beneficial to have 3 workouts per week using low reps. Unless you have at least 2 years of prior training experience I would use a split like the following:

Train 2-3 days per week and train the whole body at each session. Keep the total volume low.

Session A:

Deadlift

Bench press

Clean or Snatch

Ab movement

Session B:

Squat

Incline Press

Weighted Chin

Ab movement

*Alternate between session A & B.

Perform 2-3 sets of 2-3 reps, never to failure, using a step-type loading approach. Increase the weight for 3 consecutive workouts then decrease it for one and build back up.

Example:

session 1 100 x 2 x 3 (3 sets of 2 reps)
session 2 105 x 2 x 3
session 3 110 x 2 x 2

session 1 105 x 2 x 3
session 2 110 x 2 x 3
session 3 115 x 2 x 2

session 1 110 x 2 x 3
session 2 115 x 2 x 3
session 3 120 x 2 x 2

To explore things further check out the article "Strength and performance strategies for intermediate and advanced athletes."

-Kelly

Some Strongman Training Article Links

2007-08-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

some good articles:

The Effects of Strongman on a Powerlifter

Strongman Training 101, Part 1

Strongman Training 101, Part 2

A Beginners Guide to Strongman Training

Top 5 Max Effort Lifts for Strongman: Upper Body

Top 5 Max Effort Lifts for Strongman—Lower Body

Blue Collar Strongman Training

Maximum Effort Training for Strongman

Dynamic Effort for Strongman - Speed Kills

Assistance Training for Strongman and “Functional” Strength

Assistance Training for Strongman Part 2: Using the Safety Squat Bar

Strongman for Athletic Strength and Conditioning

Strongman and Westside Training

The Power of Simplicity in Strength Training

Talking Training with Old-Time Strongmen

Strongman Training: Look Outside the Box

The Importance of Breathing Exercise and Chest Development for Strongmen

William Boone's 1937 Training Program

The One Arm Dumbell Press

Srongman Exercises, Strongman Injuries

Strongman Training for Athletes

From Lab Geek to Strongman

Iron John: One Hard Thing

The Evolution of Westside Barbell Training Part 1 and Part 2

2007-08-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

The Evolution of Westside Barbell Training

Mark Reifkind, Senior RKC
Part I

One of the great joys I have is being able to speak and learn from top coaches and training minds such as Louie Simmons and Pavel Tsatsouline. During one of my conversations with Pavel we were talking training, as usual, and Pavel wanted to know what I thought about the current WSB technologies.

Having learned classic WSB techniques from Louie himself and having started with the classic percentage training I had become fairly disinterested with the advanced training and peaking cycles WSB had come up with of late. The Old School percentage programs/conjugate methods worked fine. They had not stopped delivering progress, but my body just could not keep up. So I knew the loads and tension with the new circa max techniques were too much for this old powerlifter.

In my declining physical state I could barely utilize the techniques and principles of the basic template and felt no desire to try to step up to Circa Max techniques. When I told Pavel this he decided that an article about the basic template and how to best utilize it would be in order, so here it is.

Rif’s student and training partner Nick Bruckner. Nick put 133 pounds on his squat last year drug free using the methods from this article. Nick is 30 years old, he took 3rd at the APC Nationals this year in the 90 kg class.

Old School Westside

I studied powerlifting methods, techniques and systems even as a bodybuilder because I was always was looking for techniques and ideas that would make me better. I had a serious interest in powerlifting but never liked the low volume of training the powerlifters of the day used. Two top sets in the main lift and a few assistance exercise and that was it. As an unrepentant over-trainer, I didn’t think powerlifting would provide enough sheer volume to exorcise my demons. Little did I know of the sheer ferocity of truly heavy weight!
But then I read Louie’s articles in Powerlifting USA. The classic, “Training by Percents” wrote about doing 8-12 sets of the main lifts, albeit with low reps, as well as lots of assistant exercises for shoring up weak points and building new muscle mass. This seemed perfect; heavy weights, lots of volume and bodybuilding. Plus an athletic training pace. Here we go.

This was the very beginning of WSB and box squats, chains and bands and Dynamic effort and Max effort day had not yet been written about. What there was, however, was Prilepin’s table of the optimal number of reps to be done at each percentage point of your contest max.

Here it is:

PRILEPIN'S TABLE
Percent	Reps per Set	Optimal Total	Range
70 and below	3-6	24	18-30
70-80	3-6	18	12-24
80-89	2-4	15	10-20
90+	1-2	7	4-10

Louie’s concept was to keep the reps per set low, 3 and under, so that force production didn’t slow down and to do enough sets to hit in the optimal range. Other research by Louie showed that more than 4-6 weeks of heavy training and the lifts went backwards so he set up a very simple linear peaking cycle modified for the powerlifts. It looked like this for the squat and bench:

Week one: 70% 8 sets of 3 one minute rest/sets
Week two: 75% 8 sets of 3 one minute rest/sets
Week four: 80% 6 sets of 2 1.5 minute rest/ sets
Week five: 85% 4 sets of 2 1.5 minutes rest/sets
Week six: 70%x2, 75%x2 80%x2 85%x2, 90% 1-2 sets of 2 - 2 minutes rest/sets

Week seven (contest, new gym max or start over at 70%):
70%x1, 75%x1, 80%x1, 85%x1, 90%x1, 101-105%x1

Since the deadlift is a different animal, with no eccentric contraction before the ascent, Louie ONLY used singles. The cycle looked like this

Deadlift
Week one: 70% 15 sets of 1 one min rest/sets
Week two: 75% 12 sets of 1 one min rest/sets
Week three: 80% 8-10 sets of 1 - 1.5 min rest/sets
Week four: 85% 4-6 sets of 1 1.5 - 2 min rest/sets
Week five: 90% 1-3 singles of 1 - 2 min rest/set
Week six: de load or rest
Week seven: new max at contest or gym or recycle with 70%

Many, many lifters cannot pull well in the gym so the ‘test’ in the gym was not emphasized. As Louie often said, the dl is a very emotional lift and it helps to be a little ‘nuts’ to pull well. For example my best pull off the floor in the gym was about 485 and my PR in a three lift meet was 545 with a close miss at 562. Go figure. DL’s take everything you’ve got and more. You have to need to pull it, not just want to.

This cycle worked very well for myself and my partners and was always based on a CURRENT max, either in the gym or the meet so the numbers you were doing were real numbers not ‘projected’ lifts. Since our PR’s were done in gear we used gear in the workouts putting on tighter gear and putting straps up as the percentages climbed higher. This also made for some very skill specific work and when you got to the meet there was no problem getting your groove down as you had spend the last five weeks working the exact same groove, with the exact same gear as you would need in the meet.

I was so excited about this new powerlifting method I brought Louie out to my gym in California to do a seminar for us and truly get at the ‘guts’ of how do things right. Louie had introduced the box squat into the mix and we wanted to make sure we were on track. We got to spend two full days with the Man and he is truly a powerlifter’s powerlifter. Louie spent all day with us and never tired of answering question after question. The incredible depth of his knowledge about all things strength and speed related was second to none.

Enter the Box Squat

When Louie came out to California he taught us how to box squat correctly. We had been following the advice in his article, using 65-82% of our best squat at the box’s particular height. Louie’s advice was to switch box heights every 3-4 weeks and to base the percentages on an actual box max, NOT the contest max. (An early application of wave loading) Each height of the box would strengthen a different segment of your squat and you would have real numbers to work with. You could discern the carryover from your box maxes to your contest squats after going through the cycle.

We were to do 8-12 sets of two reps with one minute rest between sets. This is the type of volume I could get into! (Very similar to a bodybuilding type of workout) Louie admonished us NOT to psych up for any sets but to do them with a workman like approach. He also taught us that skilled lifters will do best (or fastest rep) on their first rep and unskilled lifters on their second as the first rep will “teach” their nervous systems how to do it. Just as with touch and go deadlifts the first rep is the hardest and they get easier until fatigue sets in.

The box squat was perfect for teaching correct squat technique and using the box height where your form DID NOT break down was crucial. If you could hold form on a 14 inch box but rounded your back on a 13” you stayed at 14” until your back or hammies got strong enough to hold position. It also really emphasized the hips and glutes tremendously as you could sit fully back on the box until your shins were not only perpendicular to the ground but PAST vertical. The stretch on the glutes and hammies this was unreal as was the strengthening of the lower back.

Box squatting also turned out to be the perfect assistance exercise for building the deadlift as the static overcome by dynamic nature of getting off the box really trained starting strength, crucial for a strong dl and lacking in many lifters. And, of course, depth is held consistent and you didn’t find yourself cutting depth on the squat, as the weights got heavier. With a tight suit on at contest time the free squat should be easier, Louie said, as the stretch reflex would be activated and the weights would fly up. This would turn out to be partially true, as we would find out later, but was generally correct.

The box squat was also perfect for discerning weaknesses as the lower you squat on the box the more the classic squatting muscle come into play and the easier it is to figure out what’s weak. Most lose their lumbar arch the deeper they go and fail to continue sitting BACK and squat down instead. For weak hips you used a below parallel box with a wide stance, weak quads- use a parallel box, for lower back power close stance and below parallel, for the typical sticking point a box two inches above parallel.

Louie told us that with consistent box squatting at or below parallel most of these deficiencies would disappear as the box squat transformed them all. He was right. Especially on the unbelievably hard hassock, or soft box squat where you would continue to sink into it after you squatted down. This made it very tough to get started. It also turned us into analytical freaks looking for weak links in the squatting and deadlift chains like crazy. Weaknesses were sought after and immediately addressed with a different height box or another assistance exercise. The goal was perfect squat form for each and every rep. Since you were taking a new max every month or so there was NO hiding from where you failed on your max rep. What was weak became glaringly apparent.

No chains or bands yet, just precise numbers and LOTS of box squats done once a week. We were to JUMP off the box as strongly as possible and our focus was on the hip extensors for squatting, not the quads. We also were introduced to the reverse hyper as THE assistance exercise for squatting and deadlifting. This would build the posterior chain muscles without tearing them down and rehabbing the back in the process. We bought one and it worked great. We only wish we had kettlebells back then, it would have been the other perfect assistance tool.

Conjugate training: The No Deadlift Deadlift

Louie didn’t (doesn’t) believe in training the deadlift heavy. Unless one was built for deadlifting (short back, long legs and arms) training the dl hard and heavy would soon fry the central nervous system and progress would go backward. So how to build the pull? To begin with, box squats alone would push up the deadlifting muscles so that many make dl pr’s while hardly touching the dl bar in the gym. Same for pumping up posterior chain work capacity with the reverse hyper, cable pull-through (an early kb swing variation!) and later, sled dragging. Deads off the floor were done, if they were done at all, with light weights (70%) and for singles only as in a meet you don’t get to lower the weight before you lift it.

This is not to say DL movements weren’t done. Louie taught us the importance of the conjugate method; a training protocol that had one working on all aspects of your training plan simultaneously as opposed to linear periodization where you devoted say eight weeks to mass training, then eight weeks to strength then eight to peaking, a very typical approach at the time. Conjugate training had one working on max strength, speed, weak points and mass at the same time, by separating the workouts and focusing on just one specific goal at a time using special exercises.
Box squat day became dynamic effort day (still using the box) focusing on moving the weights as fast as possible and lowering the work weights so that optimal power (‘fast force’) could be used. Deadlift day became max effort day focusing on training the squat/deadlift muscle groups which are basically the same. The focus here was on working up to 100 % effort (going to failure was fine) with NO psych or raise in adrenaline or blood pressure. Volume was still controlled using Prilepins table but the weights were kept around 50% of your best contest squat.

Chains were added to accommodate resistance so that one could really accelerate the squat and not have the bar jump off your back. This worked great. Speed was emphasized and the rest periods were lowered to just 45 seconds/sets. This increased work capacity as well.

BY using exercises similar to the deadlift and squat on ME day one could train at virtually 100% and not burn out or go backwards in 4-6 weeks. Variations of good morning exercises were the mainstay of this approach with round back good mornings, seated good mornings, good morning/squat combinations, safety bar good mornings off the power rack pins, Zercher squats all being regularly rotated through. Squat variations were in the mix as well and squatting close stance to an 8 inch box, high box squats with a Manta ray device that put the bar up higher on your back and many other variations and special bars and boxes were used to overload the squat/deadlift muscles with maximal weights. Heavy deads could be done but you had to pull off a raised box or in the rack. No heavy pulls off the floor.

Still using Prilepins table as a guide you would work up to 1-3 sets of either triples or singles from 90-100% until you missed. Learning to grind was the key here and keeping max force output as long as possible was emphasized. Deadlifts off the floor could still be done and were sometimes included on speed squat day as another speed workout with 65-70% singles with short (30 sec) rest between sets. This was mainly for form and starting strength work.

This worked great for us and really taught you how to keep pushing until the lift was made and my deadlift jumped from a hard 501 to a strong 545 with a close miss at 562.With no heavy pulls in the gym. Of course we were doing close stance, round back good mornings with 365, seated good mornings with 315, manta ray high box squats with 575, zercher squats for 335 for triples and so on. Being able to max out each week but not burn out was great. We found we needed to rotate the exercises weekly to avoid not getting pr’s and that not all the exercises had good carryovers to our main lifts and we scaled down our list to just the ones that seemed to work. Experimentation was always encouraged as one learned as much from the failures as the successes.

Conjugate training had us really analyzing our weaknesses and devoting lots of time to triceps, lats and back for bench improvement as well. Chain work really taught you how to keep pushing to the lockout or the weight would crush you down, fast. Floor presses, close grip inclines, board presses, decline benches and numerous other special exercises let us handle close to our goal weights week in and week out in the gym without burning out the competition groove. Being brutally strong was the goal and this was accomplished.

Close track was kept of personal records in EVERY special exercise and you were always trying to beat your old pr, even if just by a few pounds. When you missed it was time to switch exercises and go for a new pr on a new movement. Great mental training as well as you learned to EXPECT PR’s every time you touched a bar. This included special assistant exercises as well and pr’s were expected from heavy ab, erector and tricep exercises on a regular basis. This kept muscle mass gains coming too.

Finally we had a method, a template that worked. Analyze your weak links, put them at the front of your training program, train all the aspects of strength individually and work the classic lifts for form and acceleration. Louie had repeatedly said he NEVER did any free squats; he went from the box to the meet with no problem. Of course, Louie was using very stiff double ply gear and squatting just to parallel.

We however were using single ply gear and having to squat well below parallel. This caught up to us and we soon realized we needed to go back to the old percentage cycle
(No box) close to a meet to really hone the squat groove needed for our federation. Squatting off a box is very similar to sitting into a canvas or double ply suit that really stops you. It was not close to a single ply suit that stretched deeply at parallel. In retrospect we probably should have used much deeper boxes closer to the meet as well.

Louie’s methods continued to evolve though as he tried to hone the peaking process to a science and he introduced the Circa Max method and discovered using band attached to the squat and deadlift bar. Things went from relatively straightforward to extremely complicated. At the same time my injuries were catching up with me and just being able to use Louie’s basic WSB template was becoming more and more challenging. I already knew how to keep getting stronger but my body was protesting the loads even with the old methods. The bands required a monolift which we didn’t have as well. I started to feel as if the simplicity of the training was being circumvented by more details than I could absorb and I drifted away from even attempting the circa max methods. My body didn’t need new methods of loading, it needed to be able to deal with the old ones first.

The basic principles of training each aspect of strength year round, analyzing and attacking weak points in the lifts and your body with special exercises, training speed and max effort separately, using box squats and controlling volume and the number of lifts, increasing work capacity and GPP through exercises that work the important muscles but don’t tear down the body and active recovery workouts have proven themselves over time. The earliest WSB template is one that is easily utilized by most powerlifters, even the most basic version that just uses percentages to guide volume and loads in the classic lifts. Bands, chains and circa max peaking programs are great but probably not necessary except for the most advanced lifters. As Louie loves to say, “train what’s weak you and you’ll become strong.”

Max Effort Madness

Yet one of the problems with using the conjugate method of rotating special exercises is that the list got too big! We had so many variations for each exercise that by the time we got around to using them all, even with rotating them on a weekly basis, that any specific carryover was lost.

Some of the exercises worked very well and gave a great carryover to the classic lift. Others just made you stronger in the special exercise itself but provided no carryover. The solution, as it is with everything strength oriented, is to find out what works for you. This is a time intense activity but hey, if you KNEW there was a $1000 bill lying under a rock in your back yard you wouldn’t mind turning over a bunch of them to find the magic rock. Same deal here.

We eventually limited each special exercise rotation to five special movements or less and rotated those. There had to be a definite carryover to keep the movement. And you didn’t want the rotation too long or else it was too difficult to continue to make progress in the special exercise itself.

For example, I knew that whatever I could do in the two board close grip press I could do in a single ply shirt with my comp grip. In the squat, wherever I was in the Manta Ray Hi box squat was very close to my max in the competition power squat with full gear. For the deadlift whenever my close stance bent over good morning was up so was my deadlift; same with the zercher squat.

These exercises corresponded to the weak links in my muscular chain or to handling an absolute amount of weight close to my max lift. Pressing 400 pounds or more each week in a bench press special exercise gave me unparalleled confidence when I put on my shirt to take a 400 pound bench press; after all, I had that much or more weight in my hands EVERY week, in extremely similar movements. Talk about nervous system stimulation.

And by switching out the movements every week or two you never burned out the groove. Not psyching or getting the adrenals involved was extremely important as well. Adrenalin surges can takes 4-6 weeks to restore. Not good to show up at the meet flat as a pancake because you wasted it all in the gym.

To Be Continued...

The Evolution of Westside Barbell Training - Part II

Mark Reifkind, Senior RKC A Sample Routine

Let’s look at the squat/ deadlift and how this might work. Say you are built for the DL with a shorter back and longer legs and arms and can tolerate round back movements but need to work your arching ability to bring up the squat. Let’s also say that your weak point is the lockout as is the case with many built to dl. So you are strong off the floor but a tough lockout. WSB always trains max effort days for the squat/deadlift together as the same musculature is involved. This is for a conventional deadlifter.

It is VERY important to know, and keep track of your CURRENT personal bests for the exercises you use. Beating pr’s on a regular basis, even by just a few pounds is the key. PR’s baby!

Max Effort Day

Week One:
Zercher squats off the rack: pyramid singles up to 95-100% effort (start with bar below knee)
Weighted Back extensions 3-5 sets of 5-8 increase weight each set
One arm db row 3-5x8-5
Two-hand KB swings 3-5 sets of 8-10 done explosively
Weighted decline sit-ups 3-5 x 8-5 (increase weight each set)
Db side bends: 3-5 sets of 8-5 reps

Week Two:
Close stance barbell good mornings: work up to a heavy triple. Bend over until the weight wants to shift you towards your toes. Distance traveled will vary.
Assistance work the same

Week Three:
Deadlift off 3” block: pyramid up to 3-5 singles close to 100% for this exercise
Assistance the same

Week Four:
Good morning squats: work up to a heavy triple. (Use your squat stance and start by doing an arch back good morning. When you get to parallel with the floor, sit back into a squat and stand back up. This is a GREAT special exercise for squats and deads.
Assistance is the same.

Week Five:
Rack Deadlift below knee: work up to a max single
Assistance the same
This is “no man’s land” in the dl, especially for those with a tough lockout. Don’t be surprised if you can pull more off the floor than you can here.

Week Six:
Contest; test your max in the gym or recycle. Remember your special exercise pr’s and attempt to break them the next cycle. Choose the assistance exercise by what muscles are weak. As Louie loves the say “muscles make the groove” and if you have trouble arching in your squat make sure you train the erectors to arch and the glutes to extend! Assistance exercises don’t have to go to failure and are used for hypertrophy as much as anything. You can change them up as you feel the need.

Another Louie quote: “Everything works but nothing works forever.” If you find you’ve run the course of an exercise’s usefulness change it! Find the ones that you KNOW carryover to your main lifts and get them seriously stronger by training for PR’s.

The above exercise selections are just an example. They are very hard movements, especially when done for max efforts. But this teaches you to go into that same zone you have to when the bar is on the floor and its platform time. Talk about specific sports skill training! When you are used to training for maxes each and every week it’s no big deal when you step onto the platform, just business as usual.

A sample bench press routine

The basic percentage template worked very well for the squat and deadlift with only one day of training for each, because they complimented each other. This did not, however, work as well for us in the bench press. We ended up doing db benches, dips and other movements on the second day. Only when we adopted the conjugate method for the bench did it take off for us. Below is an example of how to train both dynamic effort and max effort for the bench press.

Dynamic Effort Bench

Use 45-50% of your current contest max in a shirt, 50-60% if you compete without one.

Remember that bar speed is the KEY here. If the bar slows down, you are using too much weight.

Change your grip EVERY set. The widest grip is pinky on the rings. The closest is index finger on the smooth.

As Louie says, “muscle makes the groove” and for bench press, especially shirted bench, that means triceps, hence all of the close grip work.

You may take 3 singles after your work sets but do not use more than 80% of your max and always take the weight with your weakest grip. Do NOT max out and grind. Even these heavier weights MUST move fast.

Chains draped from the bar, or mini bands attached to it make this work much more productive as you can really work on maximum acceleration without worrying about having to slow down at the lockout. THIS is what this day is for- maximum acceleration.

NO PAUSES, you are trying to develop max speed. Let the stretch reflex help you.

As with speed squats, keep the rest periods low. When you are using lighter weight keeping the rest down allows you to maintain muscle tension, which is key for strength and hypertrophy.

The Template: Speed bench day

8-10 sets of 3 reps with 50% of max.
Change grip on each set
Use PERFECT form. This is a form day.
Accelerate the bar as fast as possible with perfect form
1-3 singles up to 80% after your 30 reps
30-45 seconds rest/sets.
Use chains and bands when you are getting TOO fast at the top- not before.
Don’t press the weight- SHOVE it to lockout in one motion.
All three reps should only take as long as one max effort rep-3-4 seconds total.
Assistance exercises for Dynamic effort bench day

Triceps first:
DB or BB extensions: 7 sets of 8 with 15 second rest/set: again, speed is critical on this day. THROW the weights to lockout (with perfect form of course) and short rest really fries the tri’s! You can do these many ways but it’s important to work the long head of the triceps with extension moves not just the lateral head with pushdowns.

Lats next:
Rows, rows and more rows. Lats are the foundation upon which your bench laid. DB rows, chest supported rows, band rows, cable rows, etc, etc, etc. This is for muscular size; so don’t try to kill yourself with max weights. 4-5 sets of 8-15 work great. Pulldowns help a bit but focus on the rows. Hit the bar for your rows exactly where you put the bar for your bench press. You must ROW the bar down when you bench and this helps solidify the groove.

Rear Delts:
Same as above. Pump’em up.

Rotator work
Classic band and cable work for rotators help keep the external rotators healthy to handle all the load the bench puts on them.

Max Effort day

* 72 hours after bench speed day you should have a max effort day.

* Pick a pressing exercise that is similar to the bench but not the classical bench press. Work up to a 90-100 % effort with your WEAKEST grip, usually the close grip. Follow Prilepin's table and do 1-6 reps in that rep range. I found when I could do 6 reps in that 90-100% zone I was ready for three good bench attempts AFTER contest squats. Max benching after squatting heavy weights is a whole other story. You have to be in shape for it.

Great Max effort movements:

2,3,4 board presses, raw
Floor press
Decline press (with or without boards)
Incline press
Presses off pin (vary height- not too low though this is a lockout move)
Overhead lockouts from a pin in the power rack (vary starting height)

The above should be done for singles only. In the beginning you might stay on a movement 2-4 weeks, gradually working up to a true max. After you adapt to the system you might find you can only do 1-2 workouts in that movement before you adapt and can’t make a new pr. Go with the flow and change movements often. Learn which movements really help your competition bench and cycle those through more often.

Every forth week do a repetition max effort day. This is great for saving the joints, building muscle and mental toughness. Some favorites:

Max effort rep exercises

Flat and incline db bench (shoot for 20-30 reps)
Pushups on a power bar place in the power rack with a weight on your back
Dips (watch the shoulders though)

Usually we would do only 2 top sets as once you go to failure on reps there is little left for subsequent sets. We would drop the weight and go as far as we could.

Training Max efforts Vs. Competition Max efforts

Kelii, one of the women Rif trained from the start to multiple bronze medals in the IPF World Championships. She is also the 2000 IPF Pan AM Gold Medalist and Best Lifter.

A critical thing to understand with this system is that you can NOT get psyched up for ANY of these attempts. NO adrenaline, no increase in blood pressure, no screaming. Going to 90-100% regularly will really teach you how to handle heavy loads but if you treat each Max effort day as a meet you will quickly burn out. A competition max lift is usually from 10-20% more than a training force max. Do not forget this. Learning how to grind is critical for making contest PRs and this is the focus on this day.

Know your PRs on each of the lifts and make sure you attempt to exceed them, if only by a few pounds, every time or at least every second time. PRs are PRs and the more often you make them, the more you expect to do so. This is good. It also teaches you to make big jumps in order to get to your new PR. Taking big jumps and NOT losing form is a skill which must be practiced. Max effort day is where you do that.

Remember also that you should be using your weak grip for these PR’s and that makes a difference as well. You will NOT be burning out your contest groove.

As far as your contest groove, make sure you compete often. There is no substitute for getting on the platform and doing the real thing in the real way. With the new bench shirts more practice is needed so 4 weeks out from the meet make sure you include a few singles with the shirt to know what it takes to touch. This can be done as a separate max effort day OR at the end of the workout instead of the close grip singles.

I do believe that beginning powerlifters should start out VERY simple by focusing on perfecting the main lifts done for medium reps and gradually upping the loads. Power to the People! is a great method for this. WSB has always been an intermediate to advanced training protocol in my opinion. Louie’s constantly evolving methods make it even more complicated. And yet the early Westside programs are extremely user friendly and can be adopted by those truly interested in looking more deeply at their weaknesses and wanting to change them into strengths. Training partners help this process considerably but are not absolutely necessary for success. A deep desire to lift heavier and heavier weights and a willingness to analyze and be brutally honest about your weak points is, however.

This system was designed by Louie to help the average lifter, not just the superstar. Just like Pavel, Louie uses reverse engineering to deconstruct what the Elites do and make it work for the average lifter. The absolute key point is to work what is weak FIRST and foremost and MAKE it stronger. Nothing is more important other than the absolute NEED to squat, bench or deadlift a certain weight.

Goals and Deadlines

Without both of these components being tested regularly nothing good will happen. It is the difference between someone who is really training and someone is just exercising. And remember, gym lifts DO NOT COUNT. Get on a platform. Often.

The Russian Squat Routine for Masters

2007-08-07T12:37:00.002-07:00

The Russian Squat Routine for Masters

Randy Hauer, RKC
The classic six-week Russian Squat Routine is legendary for giving a kick start to the squatter whose progress has stopped. What makes it so effective is the brutal and relentless wave loading of volume for the first three weeks and then an even more brutal wave loading of intensity the final three weeks. Two of the last three workouts are in the 95-105% 1RM range!

The original Russian Squat Routine is really designed for younger athletes: men and women at the peak of their athletic and recuperative powers. I’ve done the routine a few times over the years, but as I’ve hit middle age I’ve either had to dial back the baseline 1RM on which I base the routine or cut the routine short. The last time I did the cycle I hit on a formula that allows me to recuperate adequately between sessions and still finish the program with a new 1RM.

The original Russian program is a six week program and calls for lifting three days a week on non-consecutive days. My Master’s version is an eight week program and calls for lifting 2 days a week: for example Monday and Thursday, Tuesday and Friday, etc. Allow a minimum of 48 hours between sessions and feel free to take 3 days off after the loading day. But don’t slack…getting old isn’t for sissies and even though this program is modified it isn’t for sissies either…make sure to squat at least two days a week.

Here’s how it works.

Take your current 1RM and subtract 20% from it. This will be your 1RM for the program. For example, if your best 1RM squat is 150kg, subtract 30kg and your 1RM for the Master’s Russian Squat Routine is 120kg. If you don’t know your 1RM max, I recommend you guess on the low side. Rest as long as you need to between sets. This program is intended for rock bottom Olympic style back squats. If you are a power squatter, subtract 15% from your 1RM to accommodate the difference in depth between the two styles. Belts and wraps are fine either style (we are Masters after all, use what you need to). Feel free to deviate from the written program and take an extra warm-up single or two as you ramp up to the work weights, especially for the loading days of the last three weeks.

Phase 1 - Volume: 4 weeks, squat twice a week

Workout 1: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 2 x 6 sets
Workout 2: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 3 x 6 sets
Workout 3: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 2 x 6 sets
Workout 4: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 4 x 6 sets
Workout 5: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 2 x 6 sets
Workout 6: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 5 x 6 sets
Workout 7: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 2 x 6 sets
Workout 8: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 6 x 6 sets

Phase 2 - Intensity: 4 weeks, squat twice a week

Workout 9: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 2 x 6 sets
Workout 10: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 85% x 5 x 5 sets
Workout 11: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 2 x 6 sets
Workout 12: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 90% x 4 x 4 sets
Workout 13: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 2 x 6 sets
Workout 14: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 95% x 3 x 3 sets
Workout 15: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 80% x 2 x 6 sets
Workout 16: 60% x 3, 70% x 2, 100% x 1, (105% x 1) (110% x 1)
(Attempts in parenthesis are allowed extra PR attempts if the previous attempts were clearly submaximal.)

Even in this lightened and more extended format, the Russian Squat routine is a killer. Cut back on the balance of your weight training to give your body all the recuperative energy it needs to come back between workouts. Eat plenty of good food. Listen to your body…this routine is not for everyone. If you start to break down then you should stop and reevaluate for a couple of days. If you are still game, back up a couple of weeks and take another running start. Ultimately, all routines are suggested guidelines. You have to adapt the routine to how your body responds and as we get older we need to be even more attentive and responsive to our bodies’ warning signals. An eight week program is a suggestion…if you need 9, 10 or 12 weeks to get through this program to a new max, then that is what it takes.

If you make it through the routine as written with new maxes: congratulations! Not that you will really want to, but just in case you do I strongly urge you in no uncertain terms do not, I repeat, do not attempt to do this routine back to back or more than twice a year. It is a rough program and the risk of tendonitis and other overuse injuries is high if you try to repeat it. So don’t. Maintain your squatting strength but do it by moving on to another routine. You could, however, apply this program to pressing or some other upper body strength movement. This is acceptable. But your legs and lower back will need a break and something different to do. Trust me.

Enjoy the program!

Randy Hauer, RKC is also a USAW Club Coach, Sports Performance Coach and athlete. As a GS athlete he has achieved three CMS rankings in the 24kg Long Cycle Clean and Jerk; one in the +90kg division one in the 90kg division and one in the 80Kg division. His athletic goal next year is to qualify for the World Masters Weightlifting Championships in the 85kg class, 50-54 age group.

Randy is currently in the process of setting up his own strength training company which will provide programs utilizing Kettlebells and the Olympic Lifts. He can be contacted at rchauer@yahoo.com

The Straight Shooting Approach to Powerlifting

2007-08-07T12:37:00.001-07:00

The Straight Shooting Approach to Powerlifting

Harald ‘G. Soldier’ Leymann There are many methods and training systems in PL today. A few of them are very successful, like the WSB, the Smolov, the RSR, the Sheyko, the Korte, the 5x5, and even the old pyramid system. Every system works for a beginner, but once he advances more strength gains are difficult to achieve.

Why? After a lifter has reached the advanced state his body has adapted to his current training, not his genetic limit (I’ve often heard this excuse). Change is in order and just changing the weights is not enough. If you take a closer look at the WSB, the Smolov, and the Sheyko you can see there is more to it than just a weight increase. These programs vary the intensity, the volume, the speed of the reps, and assistance exercises. Not two workouts in a row with the same set/rep scheme. The body always gets a new stimulus. Let us review one way to manipulate these variables.

Week	1	2	3	4
Volume	Med	Max	Low	Med
Intensity	Med	High	Low	Med

But what is “low”, “high”, “med”, and “max”?

Volume. The total number of times the weight has been lifted. Sets multiplied by reps. Expressed as the number of reps.

15 reps or less	Low
20 reps	Med
25 reps	High
30 and more reps	Max

INTENSITY is expressed as a percentage of one’s max.

70%1RM and less	Low
80%	Med
90%	High
90%+	Max

TRAINING LOAD. It is the combination of INTENSITY and VOLUME. The TRAINING LOAD is what determines how much fatigue you will experience after training, and how long it will persist.

In a well-organised training program, sessions with high intensity and high volume will not often occur. Regular training with high loads that induce fatigue for several days may lead to overtraining indicated by soreness, stiffness, reduction in eagerness to train, and injury.

On the other side loads which do not result in any appreciable fatigue do not provide any stimulus to the body to adapt. However light training does have value -recuperation after heavy loading.

By varying the amount of loading in training, the PLer can force adaptation by the body and allow for recuperation.

VARYING OF THE TRAINING LOAD IS AN IMPORTANT CONCEPT IN TRAINING METHODOLOGY.

WEAK POINTS

Much has been written about training the weak points. My experience taught me to concentrate on my weaknesses. I usually start a cycle with 75% strength training dedicated to the weak points and 25% to technical training on the competition lifts. Eventually I work up to 25% strength training and 75% technical training. Strength training loads are 70-90% for 5 sets of 3 reps. The loads for the competition powerlifts are 70-95% for 5 sets of 1 rep.

My weak points are typical: the lower back, hams, and abs for the SQ and the DL; the triceps and front deltoid for the BP. My drills I find helpful in fixing my weaknesses are GMs, stiff-legged DLs, DLs standing on blocks, one-arm DLs, side bends, floor presses and lockouts, MPs, snatches and swings with KB’s.

HOW TO DESIGN A TRAINING CYCLE

Here is an example (modified Sheyko). It is not carved in stone.

Week	Sets/Reps/Intensity
1	5x5x70%
2	5x70%, 5x72,5%, 5x75%, 5x72,5%, 5x70%
3	6x5x70%
4	5x70%, 75%, 80%, 75%, 70%
5	7x5x70%

Week	Sets/Reps/Intensity
6	4x3x75 4x2x85
7	3x4x75 6x4x80
8	4x3x75 3x2x90
9	3x4x75 6x4x80
10	2x3x75 2x2x95
11	Competition/one rep max test

THE TRAINING ZONE

A lot of PLers wonder why they make no progress, no matter how hard they train. The explanation -too much HIT or other bodybuilding nonsense. These methods are a fast way to overtraining, bad form or even injuries.

Most training should be done with 65-85% of your current max. More will affect the nervous system negatively. Test the lifts or enter a meet every 10 to 12 weeks.

In the powerlifts sets with more than five reps are not necessary. Often too many reps only lead to soreness and bad form. SQUEEZING OUT EXTRA REPS HAS NO TRANSFER TO THE MAX SINGLE.

TECHNIQUE TRAINING
There is no excuse for bad technique. The best way is to train technique is first in the training session. Start with light weights to get into the right groove. Then go up but only as long as you can maintain good form. If you have some problems with your form do some extra training with 50-70% weights.

Start with the basics and add stuff further on. Go from simple stuff to more demanding as your technique improves. When strength levels go up, more volume can be added to each workout. If you get bored mentally, bring in new assistance exercises.

Train less per workout but train more often. Many beginners and advanced lifters pick up routines from a world class lifter. Using Anthony Clark´s bench program does not give you an 800 bench. Many times it does not add any pounds to your bench at all.

The squat and deadlift can be trained easily 2-3 times a week. The bench even more, if necessary. The most important thing is: don’t try to do a lot in one training session. A basic 4 times per week plan works nicely. Add some training for technique and weak muscle groups and progress will follows. Powerlifting does not require big sacrifices or a lot of money but patience is a must.

“The Secret Workout”

2007-08-07T12:36:00.001-07:00

“The Secret Workout”

Dan John One of my ‘secrets’ to training athletes is so simple that you may ignore how good it is until you try it. Really, I think improving performance comes down to two things:

1. Make it a habit. How many people have come away enthused from a workshop or clinic, then never make a single change? Why, knowing they have seen a better way, do they continue to live in their, well, bad habits? Make yourself a slave to good habits!

2. You need, as Pavel always says, to train the "same, but different." Great. How do you do it?

Hey, I've been there. If you want to be a great Olympic lifter, you need to Front Squat, Snatch, and Clean and Jerk. You want to be a great discus thrower? Throw the discus a lot. Soon, though, you get bored. Really bored. I found myself not long ago improving at a shocking rate, yet my workouts got a little, you know, just kinda, well, boring!

Well, my workouts needed variety. My mind gets bored doing the same thing, um, twice. (I got bored writing this and forgot what I was doing. Sorry.)

My answer was the ‘WoR 2004’ –the ultimate ‘Workout Randomizer’! Those of you who went to the recent Bootcamp in Las Vegas might recognize my invention as you may have seen it on the craps tables.

To the neophyte with an untrained eye, it looks like ‘a dice’. However, those familiar with the WoR 2004 know that we only use one ‘die’, not both (a radical change). By simply rolling the dice each morning, I can train the "same, but different.”

The Three Rolls (Is this about most guys’ bellies?)

* Roll One: Lift of the Day
* Roll Two: The Program
* Roll Three: The Finisher

The First Roll: the Day's Lifts

Roll a One *Press
Roll a Two *Squat
Roll a Three *Snatch
Roll a Four *Clean (or Power Curl)
Roll a Five *Deadlift (any variation)
Roll a Six *Clean and Jerk

Certainly, you can put in your own options, but this isn't bad! Now, for the confusing part, with the first roll's lift you do the workout that you get with the second, prorgram, roll.

The Second Roll: the Program

Roll a One
Litvinov Workout.
Do eight reps with the lift, then run something. I choose 400's (one lap around the block).

Roll a Two
5-3-2.
My favorite "secret" workout. It only takes a few minutes but you can really shoot up a couple of great lifts.

Roll a Three
3 Sets of 8 with one minute rest.
I usually do two exercises with this roll -overhead squats for three sets, rest, then front squats, that kind of thing.

Roll a Four
3-3-2-1-1-1-1-1
Max out. Not necessarily a ‘max max’, but a really solid top end lift.

Roll a Five
Tabatas!!!
Go light, light, light here! Twenty seconds of lifting is followed by ten seconds of rest for a total of eight circuits.

Roll a Six*
The Big 55
55 reps of the lift any way you want. 55 Singles, 11 sets of five, etc. I like to pick one weight and see how quick I can do all the reps. A set of 55 may or may not be faster than 5 sets of 11!

The Third Roll: Good Old Fashioned ‘Finishers’ ("Gassers for Geezers!")

Roll a One
Sled sprints

Roll a Two
Sleds carrying a rock

Roll a Three
Rock runs

Roll a Four
Sleds with a heavy pack

Roll a Five
Sleds with a heavy pack carrying a rock

Roll a Six
Farmers Bars to death!

Again, make your own variations!

A WoR 2004 Day
Wake up, roll the die three times. For example, you get a three, a two, and a five.

3+2 = Snatches x 5-3-2
5 = Sleds with a heavy pack carrying a rock

The WoR 2004 provides the athlete with 216 possible workouts. Some have noticed that it is possible to have back-to-back squat workouts for example. The answer to these questions would be to do the workout as rolled and hope for the best in the long term. Others have said, "There are no rest days!" Well, every second, third or fourth day, just rest. Or, perhaps, work in your own variations that rolls of five or six are always rest days. As long as you work in some kind of ‘random pattern’ things will be fine.

If you are doing kettlebells only, you could easy have two rolls of the dice, for example:

The First Roll

Roll a One
One armed swings

Roll a Two
Two armed swings

Roll a Three
One armed snatches

Roll a Four
One armed cleans

Roll a Five
Turkish get-ups
Roll a Six
Figure eights

The Second Roll

Roll a One
One-arm military press

Roll a Two
Two-arm military press

Roll a Three
Front squats

Roll a Four
Bent Presses

Roll a Five
Windmills

Roll a Six
Squat Jerks

Now, these are all basic kettlebell exercises, but you could easily substitute them for others. To train, roll the dice and do the workout! Certainly, these lists can go on forever if the athlete wants lots of variety.

But, don't settle for cheap substitutes! Get the original WoR 2004 directly from the editor! Send a check for $480 and get the shipping for free!

Dan John is the Diocesan Director of Religious Education for the Diocese of Salt Lake City and a full-time "on-line" religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri. Originally from South San Francisco, Dan came to Utah to throw the discus for Utah State University and never left. Dan has Masters degrees in history and in religious education, as well as intensive work at the American University in Cairo, University of Haifa, and Cornell. Dan has written articles for "Catechetical Update" and "Utah Historical Quarterly," as well as being a columnist for the Intermountain Catholic. Dan has been teaching for over twenty-five years.

At home, he is humbled by his lovely wife, Tiffini, whose middle name is not "long suffering" no matter how often it is repeated and his two daughters, Kelly and Lindsay. At home, Dan wins arguments with the dog, but not the cat.

Currently, Dan is ranked Number One in the world in the Highland Games, ages 45-49, broke the American Record in the Weight Pentathlon last August, holds numerous National Championships in weightlifting and throwing and maintains a full-time free internet coaching site at DanJohn.org/coach.

Strongman Training: Look Outside the Box

2007-08-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Strongman Training: Look Outside the Box

Joe Secord Since becoming the first NASS (North American Strongman Society) State Chairman for Nebraska and Iowa, I have had many people contact me, asking how to get started in strongman. The first thing that they want to know is how to train for a Strongman contest? Now unlike Powerlifting or Olympic lifting, Strongman does not have set events. The events are up to the individual promoters. Now there are some events you will see often, like the tire flip, truck pull, and atlas stones, but you may find contest with events created by that promoter. So strongman competitors can’t be one-dimensional. You have to train outside the box. Training more than just the traditional barbell movements is vital.

Now I am fairly new to the sport of strongmen, and I do not claim to be an expert, but I have been fortunate enough to draw from the experiences of veteran competitors. What I have concluded after compiling this data is, strongman training is not an exact science. What I have learned is that you cannot have a narrow focus when training. Powerlifting movements (squat, bench, and deadlift), and Olympic lifts (clean & jerks and snatch) are great base exercises, but there is so much more that is needed. Many people don’t realize the cardiovascular conditioning it takes to compete in strongman. I can tell you walking for 10 minutes on the treadmill does not compare to pulling a semi truck 60 feet. I like to refer to cardio training for strongman as ‘power-cardio’! Carrying or loading heavy object, pulling or pushing trucks, will build muscle and build the cardiovascular conditioning needed to compete in strongman.

Another thing to remember when training to become a Strongman, is the importance of functional strength. Many of the events require the lifting or carrying of heavy, odd shaped objects. This requires power, stability, and explosiveness through out the whole body.

This year at the Arnold Classic Expo I was introduced to kettlebell training. I was truly convinced this was something I needed to incorporate into my work out. Kettlebells build functional strength! They allow a variety of movements, as well as many options for isometric training. Unlike many exercise implements, Kettlebells come in a wide range of sizes, including an 88lb Kettlebell. Not only did I find Kettlebells to be a useful training tool for strongman, but also a great training tool for Powerlifting, Armwrestling, and Highland Games.

Sample Strongman Workout
Day 1
Deadlift from ground: 3 sets of 5 reps.
Deadlift partials (bar set 18” from ground): 2 sets of 5 reps, 2 sets of 2 reps
Stiff legged deadlifts: 3 set of 10 reps.
Leg Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps
Bent over rows: 3 sets of 10 reps. (straight bar for 2 hand) (kettlebells or dumbells for 1 handed)
Shoulder Shrugs: 3 set of 10 reps, 2 sets of 5 reps.
15 minutes of various ab crunches
Stretch

Day 2
Bench Press: 5 sets of 5 reps
Triceps extension: 5 sets of 10 reps (kettlebells can be used for seated of lying extensions)
Biceps curl (straight bar) 4 sets of 10 reps
Dips (weighted if you can) 6 sets of 10 reps
Power Cardio: Suggestions –farmer’s walk with dumbbells, Carry 100lb plates, carry and load sand bags
Stretch

Day 3
Off

Day 4
Squat or Leg Sled: 3 set of 10 reps, 4 sets of 5 reps
Leg Curl: 4 sets of 10 reps
Calf Raises: 5 sets of 20 reps
Power Cardio: Suggestions -carry and load sand bags, push or pull vehicles, stadium stairs carrying weight
Stretch

Day 5
Military Press: 3 set of 10 reps, 2 sets of 5 reps
Kettlebell Isometric Shoulder Exercises: front raise and hold, side raise and hold. These are great for training for the Crucifix Hold in Strongman
Power Cleans: 3 set of 10 reps, 2 sets of 5 reps
Full Pull with Kettlebell or One Armed Snatch with Dumbell: 3 sets of 10
15 minutes of ab work with a medicine ball
Stretch

Day 6
Build Endurance!
Big Power Cardio Day
Work with Strongman Implements you have or just find some heavy items and lay out a carrying medley

Wind Sprints at 80 percent effort
5 – 100 yards 5 – 50 yards (then add as you need)
This is great for building endurance and wind!
Stretch

Day 7
Off
Suggestion: Get a massage on this day

If you would like to get involved in strongman competitions, the NASS (North American Strongman Society) website is www.nastrongman.com. If you have more training questions, a great source is Ask Big Steve at www.strongestman.com. If you would like more information on Kettlebells go to www.dragondoor.com. And finally, if you would like more information on strongman in Nebraska or Iowa, you can contact me at bulldogstrengthsports@yahoo.com.

source: DragonDoor.com

Assistance Training for Strongman and “Functional” Strength Part 1 and 2

2007-08-06T12:18:00.001-07:00

Assistance Training for Strongman and “Functional” Strength

By C.J. Murphy, MFS

For www.EliteFTS.com

A lot of guys who train for Strongman don’t put much thought into assistance work, if at all. Assistance exercises can improve specific attributes and get you through your sticking points in many cases.

For the sake of discussion, we’ll call attributes specific abilities we need to improve on such as starting strength, strength endurance and so on. Sticking points should be fairly obvious – they are points where you get stuck in certain lifts or events such as locking a heavy log overhead.

I’m going to give you a few of our favorite exercises for some events.

Jump Stretch Band Squat Thrusts (Event: Tire Flip)

This is an excellent exercise to improve starting strength in the tire flip and also a great football exercise for linemen. Many athletes have trouble starting a heavy tire off of the ground and this will help you fix that problem.

Though this exercise is well illustrated in Dick Hartzell’s Jump Stretch video, available at EFS, we have modified it a bit to fit our needs. You can see a movie clip of how we use this exercise at our facility by going to our Strength and Conditioning page or click on the link: http://www.totalperformancesports.com/strength_conditioning.htm

To perform this exercise, you need at least 3 Jump Stretch bands. What bands you use is up to you – it depends upon you strength level. We usually start with 3 green bands (average bands).

Attach one band to a fixed object such as a power rack (bolted down) and loop the other two through it. Put one band around each shoulder and get in a 4-point stance.

Your training partner will have a stability ball positioned about 5-10 feet directly in front of you and they will be bracing it for you as well. When you are ready, EXPLODE out of your stance and drive forward as you reach for the ball. Try to achieve a good triple extension of the ankle/knee/hip as you drive your hands into the ball. Return to the start position and repeat.

We like the stability ball because you can apply force all of the way through the exercise and push into the ball without fear of injury. Sets and reps are up to you. Try 3 sets of 6 reps to start. This is also a good substitute for the tire flip if it is raining or icy outside and you can’t get outside.

Plate Hugs (Event: Stones)

The Plate Hug is great to help you in stone lifting. This exercise builds great strength across the chest and will help you move into heavier stones. A T-bar row is best used for this exercise.

Load a T-bar up with some 45’s and straddle the plates as if you were lifting a stone. Hug the plates as hard as you can and stand up as much as you can with them.

Suspended Log Lockouts (Event: Overhead Log Press, Viking Press)

A lot of people take our advice on this one and then forget what we said and miss the boat!

Suspended Log Lockouts are a tool to help you learn to do several things: (1) Lock a weight out overhead by using your triceps, (2) If allowed in your event, drop under the weight as it is locked out (3) build strength and confidence with heavy weights in the finish position.

Suspended Log Lockouts are very similar to Chain Suspended Lockouts in the bench press. Chains can be used but we prefer nylon rigging straps or jump stretch bands. Bands are the number one choice for a few reasons which I’ll explain in a moment. First let’s discuss how people miss the boat.

A lot of guys get hung up on the amount of weight that can be handled (I’ve personally done 420 from chest level and I’m as weak as a kitten). I’ve seen people suspend the log 1-2” from lockout and pile on 500 or more. This is pretty useless as it is too small of a range of motion to derive any benefit. It is best to suspend the log and have it hang (in the rack with pins set under it a few inches in case a band snaps) about chest level.

This is ideal for several reasons. First, it forces you to pull the log into your chest as you dip down to begin the Push-Press or Jerk. By pulling the log into your chest as you do this, it keeps the log in contact with your body and ensures that 100% of the force you generate with your leg/hip drive will transfer into the log. This is important because a common mistake we see is the log drifting upwards off of the chest as an athlete dips down for the Push-Press. When this happens and the log looses contact with the body, its force can be absorbed with your arms and not used for the weight.

The second is that the more the bands stretch, the more energy returns to the press. This helps you get through the sticking point which is usually 1-2” off the chest to about half-way up. Finally, it teaches you to finish with the triceps and then stabilize the weight overhead.

Execution of this exercise is pretty straight forward. Grip the log at chest level and pull it into your chest, dip down and explode back up as hard as you can. Once the weight is overhead, hold it for a second, lower it, and repeat for the desired reps. Keep the reps and volume low as these can be very tough on the elbows. Try to focus on speed as you do these and keep your form strict.

Well, there you go - 3 more specialized exercises for your toolbox. I hope they work for you!

Train Hard and Get Strong!

CJ Murphy

www.totalperformancesports.com

Assistance Training for Strongman Part 2: Using the Safety Squat Bar

By CJ Murphy, MFS

For www.EliteFTS.com

The Safety Squat Bar (SSB) is one of the most versatile tools you have in the gym. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Powerlifter, Athlete, Strongman, or Body Builder (it pains me to write that last word) – EVERY GYM NEEDS A SAFTY SQUAT BAR! (Available at Elitefts.com).

As I troll around on the Internet forums, I see this is a subject of many questions from “How do I use it?” to “Can girls use it?” In this article, I’ll give you some examples of our favorite Strongman assistance exercises. You can invest a few hundred bucks in a SSB, which will last longer than you, and use it for countless exercises, which is great for the budget conscious.

Don’t misread me, I’m not saying the SSB replaces event training, but for those without the cash or the room for a full set of Strongman implements, the SSB can give you a tremendous bang for the buck. Many, if not all of the exercises, will benefit everyone – not just Strongman!

Besides the basics (squats & good mornings) which are listed in Dave Tate’s SSB article, I’m going to present 4 of the best exercises you can do with the SSB and the events they will help you with.

They are: Zercher squat, Zercher walks, walking lunge, and SSB yoke walk.

SSB Zercher Squat

As many of you know, the Zercher squat is one of the gym lifts that has the most overall carryover to Strongman events. It places a greater load on the biceps, torso, and for many, their will to continue. The Zercher squat is absolutely no fun to do heavy.

The SSB makes a great Zercher bar for two reasons: The camber of the bar keeps the weight closer to your centerline, minimizing shearing forces on the lumbar spine but more importantly, it’s padded! The padding on the yoke takes a great deal of the bicep pain away, allowing you to squat more weight for more reps.

To perform a SSB Zercher squat, set the bar in a power rack about even with the upper portion of your abs. Set the pins in the rack about 1 inch below the bottom of your lowest point in the squat. Wrap your arms around the yoke, lift it out if the rack, and begin your squats. Try to keep the bar from sliding down as you squat and keep your upper body straight This means no excessive forward leaning.

I’m not going to discuss specifics of how to squat, as there are many great articles about that on this site, but try different stances from shoulder width to very wide to stress the body differently.

This exercise will not only improve your Strongman training by strengthening your whole body, but it will also help in certain events like the Conan’s Wheel, the Yoke Carry, and any event requiring walking with heavy objects.

SSB Zercher Walks

Zercher walks are done very similarly to the Zercher squat, with the exception of squatting.

Lift the bar as if you were going to do a Zercher squat and walk with it for a predetermined distance. A pair of squat stands are best for this but a power rack can be used. Try to use a weight you can walk with for 50 to 100 feet. You’ll also need a fairly large area for you to do these as turns are usually required, unless you have two squat stands or are doing these on a soft surface.

I would also advise against dropping the bar on the ground when done. Instead, walk, turn, and return it to the racks. Your turns should be slow and precise as this exercise really stresses the torso strength at the height of the turn. It also strengthens the ankles much like in the Farmers Walk.

SSB Walking Lunge

The walking lunge is one of the best overall exercises to strengthen the legs, hips, and torso and doing them with the SSB adds an even greater load to the torso and upper back.

Before starting, make sure your area is clear of obstructions. I would also suggest doing these with the empty bar the first time you try this to get used to the movement. In the beginning, try doing these for distance, 100 feet is a good start. Once you have gotten the hang of it, load the bar up and try for 200’ or more. And one more thing, use collars.

To perform this exercise, step out of the rack with the bar on your shoulders as if doing a squat. Step forward into a lunge, making sure your knee is behind your toe on the lead leg. Explode up from the lunge position and step forward moving into the next lunge. Try to go from one lunge position to the next without stopping for the desired number of reps.

As the lunge is a basic exercise, I won’t bore you with the discussion on technique, but there are two key points worth mentioning. First, take as long of a stride forward as you can and second, step up with your weight on your heel.

Doing these two things along with keeping the knee behind the toes and in-line with the feet will minimize shear forces on your patella tendon.

The SSB walking lunge doesn’t specifically strengthen any one Strongman event in particular like the other exercises I’ve listed so far. It does, however, when done heavy and for high reps and/or distances, kick your ass!

The SSB walking lunge will make you stronger, increase your conditioning, improve dynamic flexibility, your balance, and more. This truly is one of the few “wonder” exercises that will give you unbelievable gains if you are man enough to train at it hard.

SSB Yoke Walk

The SSB yoke walk is a great substitute for those who don’t have a yoke but it does differ from a regular yoke as the weight lever is much higher. You won’t be able to go as heavy on these as you would on a yoke, but it really won’t matter. Remember, this isn’t a replacement for the yoke, it is assistance work, and one of the best substitute exercises if you don’t own your own yoke.

The SSB yoke walk, like all SSB exercises, hits the traps and upper back like a sledge hammer. One thing we have found when training with the yoke is that heavy weights find your weaknesses fast and it’s usually in the torso region. You’ll see people start squirming and wiggling on these pretty quickly when the yoke is loaded up.

The SSB Yoke Walk stresses the torso from a different position and less weight can be used to achieve the same effect. That makes the yoke walk a perfect assistance exercise or a great dynamic exercise if you are following our WSB/Strongman hybrid.

For example, heavy yoke walks 50 to 75 feet on Monday then SSB yoke walks 150 to 200 feet on Friday. If you are doing a 500lb yoke, two plates per side will probably be enough on the SSB yoke walk.

This exercise will greatly improve your Yoke, Conan’s Wheel, Farmer’s Walk, Atlas Stones and more! For some real fun – add chains! I’ll definitely be expecting some hate emails after you try this one!

Train hard and get strong!

CJ Murphy

www.totalperformancesports.com

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Strongman and Westside Training

2007-08-06T12:17:00.001-07:00

Strongman and Westside Training
By C.J. Murphy
For EliteFTS.com

I get calls just about every day asking for help integrating strongman training and Westside style training and I see a lot of confusion with this. Many athletes look at Westside and say it doesn’t work or they think it’s all about putting bands and chains on your bar, and that’s it. This is a very common misconception we hear from people only remotely familiar with it. So, before we get into how we do it at Total Performance Sports, let’s clear up a few misconceptions as to how this works.
Westside’s style of training is for powerlifters looking to bring up the total amount of weight lifted in a contest. It is designed to increase the athlete’s 1 rep max in the squat, bench press, and deadlift. I will acknowledge that the sport of strongman does have events where an athlete lifts a 1 rep max, but most events require multiple reps (some as high as 20) with a very heavy weight. Some events require you to move or carry an extremely heavy weight for a specific or maximum distance. This requires a balanced amount of different types of strength which will need to be developed at the same time. Training to increase 1 rep max on the three lifts is not the best way to go for strongman competition.
So, will it work, and if it’s not just bands and chains, what is it? The simple answer is yes it will work if you apply their concepts and training template, modified in a way to suit your sport. We’ll explain that in a minute.
The answer to the second question, what is it, could take eight hours, so I’ll be brief in my description. Westside is a method of training developed by Louie Simmons that produces many of the most dominant lifters in the world. Even those who don’t train there use some of these techniques. The most basic concepts of Westside are work hard and work your weaknesses. If everyone did just that, they all would be a lot stronger. It’s up to you to know your weakness, to not accept them but to eliminate them!
The Westside System
“The System” is the conjugate method, which is different from traditional western periodization. The conjugate method focuses on developing all aspects of strength at once instead of one type at a time. Training consists of maximum effort work, dynamic work, and repetition work. We’ll briefly explain each type.
Max effort means exactly what it sounds like. Warm up and then go heavy with perfect form! Go as heavy as you can for whatever your goal of the day is. I’m a personal believer in maintaining perfect form on whatever it is you are doing as this will minimize your risk of injury.
Dynamic work is, for simplicity’s sake, speed work. On dynamic day we squat, pull, or press a sub-maximal weight as fast as possible with perfect form. Remember, the goal here is speed!
Repetition work is assistance exercises done for higher reps. This causes growth (hypertrophy) and can also be used to develop local muscular endurance, which is important for strongman. For detailed explanations on this, many articles are archived on this subject on this site (www.elitefts.com).
Integrating Strongman and Westside
There are many ways to incorporate these two styles of training. In this article, we will cover a traditional four day week. Day 1 is max effort lower body (Day 1 – MELB), Day 2 is max effort upper body (Day 2 – MEUB), Day 3 is dynamic lower body (Day 3 – DynLB) and Day 4 is dynamic upper body (Day 4 – DynUB).
When choosing exercises and program design, we’ll assume that you have a contest coming up. By incorporating gym exercises and events into each training session, we have found recovery much easier than doing all events on one day.
In the early part of your training cycle, max effort work is best done with gym lifts, with the second exercise being an event. This allows you to develop a good base of strength with your gym lifts and a familiarity with your events using lighter weights. The lighter weights in the events also allow you to perfect technique which will help you out as you go heavier with them later on.
As the training cycle progresses, you can reverse the order and use an event as your max effort exercise and use a gym lift as your second exercise. This will get you used to handling weights that are what you would see in a contest on your event training, and still maintain and build strength on your gym lifts.
The sport of strongman also requires a tremendous amount of strength in the posterior chain and torso. So, when choosing ‘ab’ work, keep this in mind. A few sets of crunches won’t do it. Get in there and work hard with weighted sit ups, heavy side bends, pulldown abs, twisting medicine ball throws, etc.
Your grip is very important too. Work in a different aspect of grip strength at each workout. Hammer leveraging and thumb work are often forgotten when training grip since many folks focus on just closing grippers. Go to www.dieselcrew.com for some outstanding articles on grip training.
Sample Week
Day 1 - MELB
Maximum effort lower body is Day 1. Choose lifts in a three week wave; week 1 squat, week 2 deadlift, week 3 good morning. You may use whatever order you like, just keep the same order each week.
For example, choose a squat movement, say Safety Bar Squats, and pick a rep range. If you have a squat for reps, such as a car squat coming up in your next contest, you will need to use higher reps for ME work. (This is also assuming you can currently squat the amount of weight needed for the event) Let’s say the car squat apparatus in your event feels like 600 pounds and you can now squat at least 600 pounds for a triple, you might want to choose a safety bar squat for a 5 rep max. The higher reps will help prepare you because you can be sure 1 rep won’t win in the contest. Remember; don’t waste time trying to squat 900 if you can’t now do 500pounds - 5 times without passing out! If you can’t squat the appropriate amount of weight now, stick with bringing your 1RM-3RM up initially.
The second exercise should be an event. It can be something that is in your next contest, like the farmers walk. Let’s say your farmers walk is going to be 300 pounds each hand for 100 feet, no turns, and you are currently able to do about 25 feet with that weight. Chose a weight about 60% of that to start, and hit 100 feet as fast as you can for 3-5 sets.
Your assistance work (repetition) is next. You will need a heavy dose of posterior chain work, as the posterior chain is dominant in strongman events. You could do glute/ham raises with weight for 2-4 sets of 8-12 and then hit the reverse hyper. We have found that doing the reverse hyper looser (fast) is best on ME day to loosen up your back. Do 2-4 sets of higher reps. I would also suggest that the first and second set is strict with the last sets being looser.
Finally, abs and grip. Always do 1 straight torso exercise and 1 rotational exercise. Choose different aspects of grip and work them as well (pinch, supporting, crushing, etc).
Day 2 - MEUB
Day 2 is maximum effort upper body. Day 2 - MEUB will be a little different for strongman than powerlifters. The bench is out! Until they add a flat bench press as an event, skip it. Overhead pressing is what strongman is all about. You most frequently see a log or an axle in strongman. The biggest problem we see with athletes is that they can’t clean the implement to the pressing position. In all of my email and phone consultations with people, I have never heard one person tell me they will work heavy log or axle cleans first in the workout. If you can’t clean it, you can’t press it. If this sounds like you, add some axle or log cleans in for ME day.
A good first exercise is to start with the Log clean, 3RM. Warm up and work up to a 3 rep max on the clean only.
Your second exercise should be some type of pressing, it doesn’t really matter what you choose, axle presses, dumbbell presses, just work hard.
A tire flip would fit well into this day’s workout as a third exercise. Strongman frequently sees a tire flip for a set distance. You will always see a few guys who can’t finish and a few guys who go so fast it’s scary. My suggestion would be to work up to 10-12 flips over a few weeks. Once you can finish the course, work on shaving time off.
If you have some energy left, do some assistance work for your biceps and triceps.
Finish up with abs and grip. Again, choose different exercises than the previous days.
Day 3 - DynLB
Dynamic lower body day is next. We’ll stick with the basic Westside template and do dynamic squats as the first exercise. Using bands, chains, or straight weight will depend on where you are in your training cycle, and your experience level. I won’t discuss the dynamic squat routine here as there are several articles already archived on this site covering the subject.
The second exercise is almost always stones. We have found that, for us at least, stones seem to fly off the ground after priming our nervous systems with the squats. Use various routines here like speed doubles, 3-5 stone series, multiple reps with the same stone, etc. Be creative and work hard!
The third exercise is usually some form of weighted walking exercise, either yoke or farmers walk. When choosing what to use for weights and distances, it is a good idea to do the reverse of what you did with the stones. As this can be a little confusing, I’ll break it down with a short template for 2 weeks of DynLB days:
2 Week Dynamic LB

Week 1
1. Dynamic Squat – Average Band 10 x 2
2. Stones – Work up to a heavy double, 3-6 sets of 2 / Heavy
3. Yoke – medium weight, for speed, if your max is 600 for 25 feet, try 300-450 for 75-100 feet, as fast as you can, 3-5 trips
4. Pullthroughs 3x 8-12
5. R/H 2 x 12-15 loose
6.
Week 2
1. Dynamic Squat Average Band 10 x 2
2. Stones – Light – Med weight, 5 stone series for fastest time, 3-5 sets
3. Yoke – max weight for 25-75 feet, 3-5 trips
4. Glute/Ham – 3 x 8-12
5. R/H 2 x 12-15 loose
As you can see, we alternated the loading pattern for stones and the superyoke. This loading pattern can be used on all of your events. Using the superyoke as an example, if you use a medium weight one week and take a 100 foot trip, you will build stamina and gain confidence in the event. You will also improve your ability to handle heavy weights on the other week by using a max weight for shorter trips. Obviously, you will add weights progressively as you go on.
By varying the loading patterns each week from heavy to dynamic, it is less traumatic to the body than constantly pounding it to death with huge weights plus you add variety while improving your overall conditioning.
Next, assistance exercises. Add in some assistance for the posterior chain. We almost always do reverse hypers as our last exercise and we use the looser dynamic form. It helps out after the stones and weighted walking.
If possible, end with some ab and grip work. However, at this point it is really optional since they have both have been hit pretty hard by the stones and walking.
Day 4 - DynUB
Day 4 is dynamic upper body day. Remember dynamic work is speed work; squatting, pulling, or pressing a sub-maximal weight as fast as possible with perfect form.
When choosing your first exercise, choose something different than what you did on Day 3 - MEUB. For example, if you did heavy cleans with the axle, you could do dynamic presses with the log here. Again, bands, chains, etc depend on your experience, and where you are in your training cycle.
Your second exercise will be an event: sled, Conan’s wheel, sand bag, etc. Choose something and work hard. Once your event is completed, hit the accessory work hard, rows, shrugs, etc. Bring up your weakness. Abs and grip are last.
Conclusion and Training Template
There you have it - Westside’s conjugate method and its impact on strongman training. Work hard, lift heavy and follow my outline for Days 1-4 and you will see results!
As an added extra, to help continue your progress forward in strongman, I have included a great example of one way to incorporate Westside style training into a strongman workout using this approach. Remember, this is a sample template, not the bible.
8 week Template
We are going to assume that this is an 8 week training cycle for a contest consisting of the following events: car squat for max reps, farmers walk, stones – 5, axle clean & press max reps, tire flip 75 feet.
See chart:
Week 1
Day 1 - MELB
Squat – Cambered bar 5RM
Good morning 3 x 8-12
G/H 3 x 8-12
R/H 3 x 8-12
Day 2 - MEUB
Axle Clean 1RM
DB press overhead 2 x 8-12
Tire flip 4 x 3
Rows 3 x 8-12
Superset curls & tricep extension 3 x 10-12
Day 3 - DynLB
Dynamic squat light band 8 x 2
Stones – light stones speed 3 stone series 4 sets
G/H w/weight 3 x 10-12
R/H 2 x 10-12
Day 4 - Dyn UB
Axle push press 10 x 3
Farmers Walk heavy 25-35 feet, 4 trips
Chins or rows 3 x 8-12
Shrugs 2 x 10-12
Curls & extensions 2 x 10-12, different than last day

Week 2
Day 1 - MELB
Buffalo bar Good morning / suspended 5RM
Manta Ray squat 3-4 x 12-15
G/H 3 x 8-12
R/H 3 x 8-10
Day 2 - MEUB
Axle Press from rack 3RM
Incline DB press 3 x 8-12
Tire flip 3 x 4-6
Fat guy pull ups (blast straps) superset w/ fat guy face pulls 3 x max
Superset curls & tricep extension 2 x 10

Day 3 - DynLB
Dynamic squat light band 10 x 2
Stones – heavy doubles 4 sets
G/H 3 x 12-15
R/H 3 x 10-12
Day 4 - Dyn UB
Log Clean & press 8 x 3
Farmers walk light – medium / 100 feet, 4-5 sets
Shrugs & rows 3 x 10 each

Week 3
Day 1 - MELB
Trap bar deadlift 2RM
Safety bar squat 3 x 10-12
Pullthroughs 3 x 10-12
R/H 3 x 8-12
Sled work - optional
Day 2 - MEUB
Axle Clean & press 5RM
Tire flip 3-4 x 5-6
Pull-ups or pulldowns 3 x 10-12
Face pulls 2 x 10-12
Hammer curls & tricep extension 3 x 10-12
Day 3 - DynLB
Dynamic squat average band 8-10 x 2
Stones – 5 stone series, best time, 3 sets
Keystone or Romanian deadlift 3 x 10-12
R/H 3 x 12-15
Day 4 - Dyn UB
Axle push press w/bands 10 x 3
Farmers Walk heavy 25-35 feet, 4-5 trips
Rows & Shrugs 3 x 10-12

Week 4
Day 1 - MELB
Safety bar squat 6RM
Cambered bar good morning 3 x 10-12
G/H 4 x 6-8
R/H 3 x 8-10
Day 2 - MEUB
Reverse Band Axle Press 2RM
Incline DB press 3 x 12-15
Tire flip 3-4 x 6-8
Blast straps Fat guy face pull & pull ups 3 x max
Band pushdowns 50-60 reps
Day 3 - DynLB
Dynamic squat average band 10 x 2
Stones – heavy doubles 5 sets
Pullthroughs 3 x 10-12
R/H 2 x 10-12
Day 4 - Dyn UB
Axle push press 10 x 3
Farmers walk medium weight speed, / 100 feet, 4 sets
Pulldowns 3 x 10-12
Rows 3 x 10-12
Curls & extensions 3 x 10

Week 5
Day 1 - MELB
Switch events to ME work
Squat contest weight max reps in contest time (e.g. 75 seconds)
Cambered bar suspended good morning 3 x 10-12
G/H 3 x 12-15
R/H 2 x 12-15
Day 2 - MEUB
Axle Clean & Press contest weight max reps in contest time
Tire flip best time 75 feet, 2-3 sets
Rows 3 x 10-12
Face pulls 2 x 10-12
Hammer curls 3 x 10-12
Band pushdowns 40-50 reps
Day 3 - DynLB
Dynamic squat strong band 10 x 2
Stones contest series 3 sets
Pullthroughs 3 x 10-12
R/H 3 x 10-12
Day 4 - Dyn UB
Axle Push press 10 x 3
Farmers Walk contest weight & distance, best time

Week 6 – Deload week
Day 1 No ME
Buffalo bar good morning 3 x 10-12
Manta ray squat 3 x 10-12
G/H 3 x 12-15
R/H 2 x 12-15
Day 2 - No ME
DB OH Press 3 x 10-12
DB Rows 3 x 10-12
Shrugs 3 x 10-12
DB Curls 3 x 10-12
Pushdowns 3 x 15-20
Day 3 - DynLB
Dynamic squat 10 x 2
Deadlift 5x5
Pullthroughs 3 x 10-12
R/H 3 x 10-12
Day 4 - Dyn UB
Axle Clean & press 10 x 3
Farmers Walk Medium weight 3 x 100 feet
Blast straps fat guy pull-ups and face pulls 3 x max reps

Week 7 Repeat Week 5

Week 8 Contest Week
Workout Monday only, light training
Squats 3 x 12-15
Rows 3 x 12-15
Incline DB Press 3 x 12-15
45 Back Raise 3 x 12-15

This cycle should have you prepared and in shape for your events assuming you were well prepared going into the cycle. And as always, look for more articles soon with even more training templates.

CJ Murphy, MFS,SSC,YFT, USAW
Total Performance Sports
(617) 387 - 5998

Email questions to training@totalperformancesports.com

© 2005 Total Performance Sports

The Effects of Strongman on a Powerlifter

2007-08-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

The Effects of Strongman on a Powerlifter

By Mike Pelosi

For www.EliteFTS.com

The Beginning

After an article written by C.J. Murphy was published on elitefts.com about how Strongman training has a greater carryover to powerlifting than powerlifting does to Strongman, I was confident that “Murph” presented some valid points. However, I was still far too skeptical to fully believe it. So without anyone who I trained with knowing, I conducted the experiment myself to answer the questions that were giving me the headaches. The following, which lists my assumptions as to what will happen at the end of the eight week cycle, was written approximately one week before I was scheduled to start.

1. Decreased squat, maintained bench, and increased deadlift

2. Loss of body weight that would come in combination from more cardio-based work and less hypertrophy work

3. Increased work load capacity, allowing me to squeeze in more volume with less recovery time

4. Better tolerance to lactic acid build-up

The Plan

My program, generally speaking, stayed consistent—four days of gym lifting and event training with two days of intense cardio. The following is a basic template that I used:

Mondays: A designated lower body day in which either a squat or deadlift was done. Over a period of four weeks, I rotated the ME deadlift, RE squat, RE deadlift, and ME squat. This was always followed with high volume glute ham raises or kettlebell swings, some sort of drag performed for three sets of 50–80 feet (weight varying depending on day), and standing abdominal pull-downs.

Wednesday: A designated upper body day in which either a log clean and press or axle clean and press was done. Over a period of four weeks, I rotated the ME log, RE axle, ME axle, and RE log. This was followed by three sets of tire flips using either a 800 lbs tire for short distances or a 650 lbs tire for 80 feet or more. Then, I would do some close grip bench, 3–5 sets of 5–20 reps, and bent over barbell rows using the same set and rep scheme.

Friday: Another lower body day but event oriented. I would do up to eight sets of stones to a box varying from 48–56” high. I would start off with singles and then move up to a top set of a three stone series as heavy as possible. Next, I did either farmer’s walks or yoke walks for four sets of 50–160 feet. That’s it for this day.

Saturday: A light total body day just to get the blood flowing. I did lots of stretching, abdominals, and talking.

Truthfully, I didn’t do much grip work. On Saturday, I would do 3–5 sets of something like COC grippers, Rolling Thunder, or the inch dumbbell trainer.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would do a 15–30 minute conditioning workout involving multiple sets of sprints, car pushes, and stair sprints. To take full advantage of what I thought would be an excellent way to lose some pounds, I ate a diet of vegetables, chicken, and lean red meat. I only ate brown rice pre-workout. Surprisingly enough, the vegetables gave me tons of energy. I also slept as much as possible because fatigue set in much faster and harder compared to when I was just doing powerlifting training.

The Conclusion

On the week beginning Oct 16, 2006 and ending October 22, 2006, I tested my powerlifting maxes with no deload period or any sort of reduction in training. During this week, I didn’t do anything differently, except eat more food and not do any conditioning work. The results were as follows:

Previous raw squat was 630 lbs. This increased to 650 lbs. At one point in the cycle, I accomplished my goal of 505 lbs X 5.

Previous raw bench was 385 lbs touch and go. This increased to 405 lbs for a double. In this cycle, I did a 300 lbs log clean and press, 300 lbs axle clean and press, and 315 lbs straight bar press from the racks.

Previous raw deadlift was 700 lbs. This decreased to 650 lbs. However, my recovery time between sets in the deadlift increased greatly.

I went up 14 lbs in body weight, but most of it was water and lean mass. I went down a waist size and became significantly more muscular, despite doing less direct hypertrophy work than I had been. Additionally, my cardio levels went through the roof, and I now feel I can run a marathon (just kidding). And, finally, lactic acid what?

While it’s not really powerlifting related, I’d like to note that my event lifts went up tremendously using this program. I believe, especially for a beginner who is still figuring out his or her tolerance for becoming “burnt out,” an event a day is good because it easier to gauge progress, manage the workload, and become familiar with events.

In all, I’m very happy with the results that occurred. I expected my squat to decrease and my deadlift to increase, but the exact opposite happened. The reason for this is that Strongman events are very taxing on the posterior chain, and I especially felt it in the spinal erector area. The foam roller and I became really good friends. What I was most surprised (and excited) about was that I finally hit the 405 lbs bench that I had been chasing for months for a double!

As long as I leaned out, I’ll take the extra body weight, and I will definitely take the heightened level of GPP. When you’re 300 lbs plus, you take it any way you can. Strongman training is grueling, and if you come from a powerlifting training background, it will be even more grueling. However, eventually, you do adapt, just like anything else. Strongman is beneficial to powerlifting, and apparently has a great carryover, but powerlifting builds a tremendous base for Strongman training. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other, but both have a place in a good strength and size gaining program.

While my passion is with the monolift, I will continue to compete in Strongman and continue to find out ways to make both work. The biggest piece of knowledge I want to make known is that if an individual is attempting to combine both things, one is going to suffer. You really must be careful that you don’t overtrain. With how taxing the event work and gym lifts you must perform are, it’s easier to overtrain. I’ve found that it’s very easy to be over ambitious in the gym so don’t make that mistake.

Strongman for Athletic Strength and Conditioning

2007-08-06T12:15:00.002-07:00

Strongman for Athletic Strength and Conditioning

By Bob Jodoin

For www.EliteFTS.com

The study of the science of strength and conditioning for sports is a huge endeavor. There are many differing opinions and many things that work. The key is to find out what works for your athlete based on his or her individual differences, strengths, weaknesses, and of course, sport.

My specialty is in building strong, fast, powerful, and injury resistant athletes. I use many different techniques to do this. My lessons are taken from powerlifting, Olympic lifting, Strongman, old school training, track and field, specialized grip training, kettlebell training, America's best strength coaches, and many Iron Curtain scientists. There is nothing that I won't try if it fits into an athlete's regimen at a given time and if it suits that athlete (and is safe). I've even used bodybuilding, although typically as a cautionary tale.

Strongman training can be applied to improve sports performance. If you have the right equipment, strongman training can even be an excellent tool for fitness as well as athletics. Training with odd implements can add something new and exciting for your athletes, and you can spark up much interest by allowing your young athletes to flip a tire like the giants on ESPN's World Strongest Man show. It has been well established that a sturdy foundation is highly important.

There is a time and place within an athlete’s sports preparation to build up this sort of strength. Core strength, or stability and torsional power in the midsection, is an extremely important aspect of sport and an industry buzzword today. Athletes need a high degree of sport skill training and speed training. The proper timing of these elements should be placed accordingly within their training, and a good coach will know how to do it.

Throughout my study and experience with Strongman training, I've found that the events in Strongman offer many highly adaptable sports, or rather athlete specific, benefits in more than one phase of an athlete’s training schedule when using appropriate loading parameters. Naturally, your athletes won't use the same weights one would use in a Strongman contest.

The competitive sport of Strongman requires limit-strength, speed-strength, anaerobic threshold, core stability, strength-endurance, dynamic flexibility, and grip strength as well as the ability to move quickly while bearing tremendous weights. It doesn't take an in-depth analysis to realize that many of these aspects are highly desired in sports, especially those of a combative nature.

Many actions in sports require that force, originating in the legs, be delivered to an implement or an opponent. This is one of the reasons that squatting is so important. A coordinated effort of the entire body where the action begins at the feet and ends with a concerted production of force requires that athletes learn proper timing, balance, and stability to produce the most efficient speed and power. This is where the training of Olympic type lifts comes into play because it is extremely important that athletes learn to coordinate several parts of the body in order to achieve the lifts that they are attempting. Those lifts, however, are quite deliberate in their form and repeatability. This is why I believe that the inclusion of Strongman training is very important once athletes have learned the foundation with the basic lifts. Loads and patterns occur in a very dynamic fashion. This teaches the athlete to react and adapt and use the entire body to handle a load with maximal efficiency. This is seen when a 600 lbs deadlifter is unable to lift and load a 265 lbs stone or flip a 700 lbs tire. These implements are not practiced in a completely set pattern.

Awkward lifting, once learned, leaves the system better prepared to give and receive the unpredictable and unstable forces involved in combative and dynamic sports. Further proof lies in the fact that the best converts to the sport of Strongman are not always gym rats, powerlifters, or Olympic lifters. Those involved in construction, labor, and farming are often the quickest to adapt to and become proficient in the sport. Full body strength, stability, explosiveness, balance, and power are the main results of hard Strongman training. We are in the wrong business if we think these aren't qualities desirably seen in a combative athlete.

I'll start with the tire flip, which is a very taxing and athletic movement. The best application of this event to sports is likely football, especially those football players who start down and explode off of the line to slam into an opposing player. First and foremost, the tire flip is started from the ground with the hands all the way to the ground, similar to a four-point stance. It is not a lift, but rather a forward drive that permits an athlete to successfully flip a tire. Relentless forward motion against an unstable object closely resembles a football collision at the line.

Start from the ground, explode forward while coordinating many parts of the body, and continue an all out assault on the tire until it is conquered. In Strongman, the tire is often flipped for a set number of turns, or it’s required that you cover a set distance in a minimum amount of time. This sort of endurance training is great. For football, however, I believe that it should be trained similar to the way in which the game is played. My athletes use short aggressive reps in the 1–3 range followed by a brief rest period. They repeat this for multiple sets. This is reminiscent of coming off the line, making a few hits, and then resetting between downs.

When I train my athletes this way doing what I call Indian Runs, they are made to flip the tire with all out aggressiveness and utmost application of speed. Fierce aggression is also an important part of tire flipping for sports. Ferocity and aggression should be emulated, as it is on the field, and the tire should be attacked with great speed. It should barely have stopped moving when the next flip has begun, and each athlete should attack it in turn without any laziness or delay. Knuckles get scraped and heart rates get high, but this sort of aggressive toughness is not without its place in sports conditioning. The ability to attack and not relent from forward pressure is also a good thing to practice in the off-season, especially when you lack man-to-man high intensity contact. This plays into the psychological aspect of aggressive sports.

During a tire flip, you are ultimately beginning from the ground and finishing with the fingertips. You apply force through the entire body and have to use everything to accomplish the goal. Full body conditioning like this is tough to come by in a sterile gym environment. Any combat athlete will benefit from tire flipping drills. Different weight tires, speeds, and flip counts should be used for different sports, but the above is a good example for football preparation.

Stone (concrete ball, heavy medicine ball, or sand bag) lifting is a similar activity in that you start with your knuckles on the ground and finish at triple extension. However, the loads and leverages are different, and this plays well into the concept of dynamic, real world training. Good stone lifting technique emulates the perfect football tackle. A strong wrap is combined with an explosive pop of the hips in a coordinated effort.

Since football can become quickly and tediously overused in this article, I'll discuss how stone lifting can benefit a wrestler. Many of the same concepts are at work in the lifting of round concrete or granite balls as they are in tire flipping so I will not rehash them too much. Just like the tire flip, stone lifting requires a solid union from the lower body through the core to the upper body. This means that if you don't have superior core strength, you will when you get through learning how to lift stones. A wrestler is often tasked with applying explosive force to an opponent from very awkward positions. Lifting a 300 lbs stone when the center of gravity is far out in front of yours is an awkward undertaking if there ever was one. Heavy stone lifting often appears slow and has its place in training.

For maximum athletic preparation, high speed, high endurance lifting to varying heights with lighter stones is certainly the way to go. The changing of heights and weights keeps the stone lifting from becoming grooved in an exact pattern. Changing things around will help increase strength in a much more dynamic fashion. This way the athlete doesn’t become strong in only one set groove. The anaerobic threshold benefits are second only to…well…probably nothing. Running through a variable height stone series or performing eccentric/concentric reps will leave your lungs burning and you heart rate extremely high.

You will also have plenty of practice giving and receiving off balance forces. Sometimes you will have to fight a stone up onto a platform. This tenacity training is similar to the aggressive attack placed upon the tire. It builds a tendency to refuse to relinquish forward pressure. You have to know when to bail out, however, because a foot is no place to put a stone approaching the earth at 9.8 meters per second. Be aggressive but be smart. Grip as well as the ability to wrap around and hold a very heavy load while applying explosive force to it is also well trained while stone lifting. You just can't get that any other way outside of wrapping up another human and throwing them into the air. Finding volunteers for this might prove difficult.

The load bearing events, although seldom replicated with exactness outside of competitive Strongman events, have tremendous benefits for athletes. Teaching the nervous system and the stabilizing muscles to keep the joints together while bearing great loads is highly applicable to the athlete. Since walking with weight is very rare in gym lifts, I believe that the stability in the ankles, knees, and torso is increased in an unparalleled way. There are infinite benefits to this sort of strength, but when I think of strong ankles, knees, and torsos, I think of hockey.

Realizing that hockey only requires the player to carry a lightweight stick I will concede that there is little value in the ability to walk with 700 lbs on your back. However, the benefits to joint stability will go a long way in aiding athletes in injury prevention. Powerful legs and a strong torso also play large roles in the ability to drive shots and benefit the athlete in the refined and civilized art of body checking. Standing with a heavy load, as in a squat or deadlift lockout, puts great stress on the torso stabilizing muscles. When you step and walk with heavy loads, you are moving out with one leg at a time. This shifts the weight back and forth through both sides of the body. The core stability required to move with extremely heavy weights is above and beyond anything you could possibly encounter doing standard lifts.

Front squats and Zercher lifts are good for building abdominal strength because you have to keep upright with a weight that is out in front of your center of gravity. Imagine walking in a circle with 500–600 lbs cradled in your arms while participating in the Conan's Wheel. Not only do you have to front/Zercher squat the weight up, but you also have to walk and breath with a heavy load held out in front of you. This will harden your midsection to new levels.

The same is true from different directions with the other various walking events. The one-handed farmers’ walk is a favorite tool of mine. Not only do you get a great oblique/quadratus lumborum workout, but you also cause your legs and upper back to work harder in order to walk successfully with an uneven load. Building up a strong gluteus medius/minimus while performing this exercise will help you with knee stability because these outside muscles help support the knee from caving inward (valgus).

Forward harness pulling or hand-over-hand pulling also offer huge benefits. The forward harness pull can be done as a sprint or you can become an ox and pull very heavy weight. Both are important and should be used as needed depending on the athlete. Driving forward while being resisted by a heavy weight will also help to build up knee, hip, and ankle strength and stability. These elements are important in sports like hockey. With heavy pulling, one learns to get low and drive. This sort of strength would be useful for a hockey player's checking as well as low pushing power when fighting for pucks in the corners.

Backwards pulling simply kills the quad muscles. They take a beating as well as many muscles in the hip joint. The core has to remain solid and the hands have to work hard to hang on to whatever you are pulling. Hockey defensemen often move backwards. Although the stepping pattern for pulling is not exact to the “C” cut used in backwards skating, the muscles in the quads and hips are still getting trained while driving the body back against resistance.

Hand-over-hand pulling exhausts the grip and is a huge bicep training tool for any sport that requires pulling. Rope pulling builds great endurance in the hands and has a large anaerobic threshold benefit. All pulling works the heart and lungs to a high degree. Whether it’s the explosive nature of the events or the tremendous demand for grip strength, you don’t need to look too far into Strongman to find something that would benefit athletics.

Combat sports like hockey, football, wrestling, or martial arts will benefit greatly by building up full body power. The majority of the lifts attack the posterior chain. Building a strong posterior chain through movements that require every muscle in the body to work together will certainly help an athlete. You will also be shoring up muscles that have often been ignored in a country where bodybuilding science rules the mainstream.

Strongman training is not the “be-all-end-all.” It is simply a tool that offers the solution to many weaknesses. Destroying weaknesses and preventing injury is, or should be, the primary goal of strength training. Watch your athletes. Go to their practices and games and talk to their coaches. Capitalize on their strengths but seek and destroy their weaknesses. There are many tools available, and not every program is right for every athlete at a given time. I'll keep experimenting and searching, and when all is said and done, we should have some athletes that are stronger, more powerful, faster, and above all, more resistant to injury.

A Beginners Guide to Strongman Training

2007-08-06T12:15:00.001-07:00

A Beginners Guide to Strongman Training

By CJ Murphy, MFS

For www.EliteFTS.com

What do you really need to begin strongman training versus what can you do without? I’m sure this subject has been covered before, but I’m chiming in on this one.

First, I’ll address those who are budget conscious, too cheap, or have no disposable income to buy new gear, and then I’ll address those who can buy training gear but don’t want a gym full of Strongman equipment.

Budget Busters

Let me say that I am absolutely opposed to building your own equipment at home using stuff from the Home Depot hardware aisle. Being around gyms as much as I have, I’ve seen well built commercial equipment break more times than I can count. So without sounding like the Safety Nazi, trust me when I say, “Buy what you can or have it made by a skilled fabricator.”

Now on to what you need to get going.

The first thing is a thick bar. Thick bars are a staple in Strongman and can be used for any barbell exercise. Thick bars strengthen your grip, and we all know how important grip is in Strongman. A good, thick bar isn’t cheap but should outlast you. You’ll most likely hand it down to your kids who will hand it down to theirs.

The next item is usually a freebie! Get yourself a big, heavy tire! Tire flipping is a staple Strongman event. The tire can also be used as a platform to brace your self against in an arm-over-arm pull or for smashing a sledgehammer into.

Next up, tires. Tires can usually be obtained at no cost to you from a tire company or a construction company. Look around—they are everywhere. For tips on selecting the right tire for you, see my article on this site (www.elitefts.com).

Here comes another freebie—big chunks of broken concrete or field stones. Go to a demolition site or a field and pick out a few nice chunks of heavy rock. Don’t worry if the concrete is a little jagged. It can be worked smooth with a hammer or a grinder.

The final piece in our Budget Strongman Kit will cost you under $30 to make yourself (an exception to my rule).

Get an old gym bag or a goalie bag and fill it with sand. Sand can be bought at any home improvement store or shoveled from your local beach. Just don’t get caught stealing sand. Be on the safe side and buy it. Who wants to get locked up for stealing sand?

And what to do with your sandbag? Sandbag training has been written about numerous times on this site so I won’t cover that topic here.

There you have it, the Budget Strongman Kit. No, it won’t duplicate anything you see in a contest, but it will get you better prepared than gym training alone.

Fully Loaded

Now for those who can buy equipment, I’ll assume you already have the items that I just listed.

The first thing I would strongly advise you to get is a set of Atlas stones or stone molds (http://www.totalperformancesports.com/tps_strongman_equipment.htm). I really don’t think an explanation is necessary here.

After that, you’ll need a platform to put them on (http://www.totalperformancesports.com/tps_strongman_equipment.htm). You can buy one or make individual boxes out of wood (another exception to my rule). Or if you don’t have much space, a “power rack platform” can be made out of 4 X 4s and some three quarter inch plywood. Check out our platform at TPS.

Strongman involves much overhead pressing, and it’s often with a steel log (available at www.elitefts.com). Most people can get by with a 10” log, but bigger guys might want a 12” log instead. For tips on log exercises, see my Log Training articles on this site.

Another must have is a sled. Sleds can be used for more than GPP. In Strongman, you might have to do a heavy drag, a truck pull, an arm-over-arm pull, or something else. You can train for all of these using a sled. The Prowler can also be used to train for these events as well.

Farmers’ walk handles are another necessity for Strongman training. Farmers’ handles can be used for multiple types of training besides the farmers’ walk. For example, holds for time, side bends, and suitcase deadlifts are just a few of them.

If you are serious about competition or just want to add something different to your training, these items will get you well on your way.

Blue Collar Strongman Training

2007-08-06T12:14:00.004-07:00

Blue Collar Strongman Training

By Josh Henkin

For www.EliteFTS.com

Slowly but surely, it seems the age of bouncing on big, beach balls and dancing on whoopee cushions is coming to an end. People have found that what has been deemed “functional training” for the past fifteen years does not produce the results it promises. In an industry of fads and gimmicks, we have to ask ourselves, “What’s next?” The future seems to hold many of the same lessons the past has already taught us. To get strong, lean, and, dare I say “functional,” you must squat, deadlift, lunge, press, pull, and carry weight.

This is nothing new. However, more and more people are adding strongman training to their routines. Some may roll their eyes at the idea of another fad coming along. The obvious questions come up: “Why can’t I just use dumbbells/barbells?” and “How does this make me any stronger or bigger?”

I’m not suggesting that you drop barbell and dumbbell work. However, various aspects of strongman training are a perfect compliment to any training routine. What made functional training such a buzz was the idea that it trained stabilizers and used movements that are hard to replicate using just standard methods of training. But performing a military press while balancing on a Swiss ball seems to do very little for both the trunk and shoulder stabilizers unless you are a complete newbie to training where anything will work.

What would be more effective is to change the dynamics of the lift slightly to stimulate new recruitment patterns and increase the use of often neglected muscles. The biggest difference between odd object lifting and functional training is that with odd object lifting you train these muscles in a similar manner as you do in your lifting. Therefore, you can expect a greater carry over to your lifting performance. In the famous book Dinosaur Training, the author, Brooks Kubik states, “You feel as sore as you do because the bags (sandbags) worked your body in ways you could not approach with a barbell alone. You got into the muscle areas you normally don’t work. You worked the “heck” out of the stabilizers” (Kubik, p. 115).

You may be thinking, “Josh, this doesn’t sound all that scientific. Show me the research!” But, there isn’t any research. This is all anecdotal. Nonetheless, coaches in the trenches have long been ahead of performance studies. In fact, research has just been confirming what the great Paul Anderson knew about partial training and other effective means of increasing strength from years ago.

Using odd objects in training isn’t reserved for just the old time strongmen. Allen Hedrick, the head strength coach at the Air Force Academy, has been using this type of training for many years. He has written and lectured on the idea of using odd objects—often in the form of water filled kegs—to increase performance and decrease the risk of athletic injuries.

“But, applying the concept of specificity, it makes sense that training with a fluid resistance is a more sport-specific method of training as compared to lifting exclusively with a static resistance because in most situations, athletes encounter a dynamic resistance (in the form of an opponent) as compared to the static resistance. Further, because the active fluid resistance enhances the need for stability and control, this type of training may reduce the opportunity for injury because of improved joint stability.” (NSCA Journal, Vol.25 Number 4)

This sounds good for an athlete, but how would someone who just wants to become big benefit from using odd object lifting? First we need to define odd objects. Many different types of odd objects can be used such as logs, stones, sandbags, and kegs. For the purposes of this article, we’ll stick with just sandbags and kegs. These two implements are incredibly versatile and very inexpensive. They don’t take up a lot of space so they can be used by those lifters who are restricted to the room they have for training. Water-filled kegs and loosely filled sandbags have a lot of movement about them. When lifting either of them, you must adjust to the constant motion. Sandbags will constantly change shape as you lift them, and kegs will have weight shifts, especially as they gain speed. Both provide a different stimulus and are very effective.

In the classic days of strength athletes, lifters were a collection of strongmen, bodybuilders, and weightlifters. It was unusual to see a lifter classified as only one type of athlete because the various disciplines seem to compliment each other well. We should learn from what these amazing athletes were able to accomplish, and use these methods to the fullest potential. For example, lifting kegs and sandbags is perfect for those lifters who want to increase arm size and poundage. Doing so can improve grip and hand strength and greatly contribute to deadlifting, benching, chinning, and pressing more weight. It can also improve arm and forearm size as the famous George Jowett can show us. Jowett displayed 19-inch arms without doing many bicep curls. His method of training focused on levering and iron bending feats, which he contributed to his great arm development.

Lifters who want strong back and shoulder muscles would find keg and sandbag lifting the perfect remedy. When trying to shoulder, zercher, press, or clean odd objects all the muscles of the upper body are used. Lifting heavy versions of these odd objects is not possible without heavily involving the whole body. As Brooks Kubik commented, “You will feel muscles you didn’t even know existed!” With heavier loads, you don’t just “lift” the weight. You must wrestle and fight the weight till you conquer it. Then, you will find curls almost unnecessary.

The infamous core also receives some of the most effective stimulus with strongman training. Many people have told me that they have a strong core, but when asked to demonstrate their strength, they fail miserably. Sucking in your abs while balancing on a Swiss-ball or lying on the floor does not get the job done. However, sandbag and keg lifting are brutally effective because as you try to lift the odd object, you must try to maintain proper posture.

To train the components of trunk strength, heavy, slow, and explosive movements can be used. Sandbags have long been a favorite training tool of wrestlers and combative athletes. In John Jesse’s famous book, Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia, he states,

“The use of heavy sandbags and their large circumference forces the lifter to do his lifting with a round back instead of the traditional straight back lifting with a barbell. It is this type of lifting that truly develops a strong back. It develops the back and side muscles in movements that are identical to the lifting and pulling movements of wrestling.”

Sold? Good! Let’s learn how to implement odd objects into your training, specifically sandbags and kegs. You could use sandbags and kegs exclusively for one or two workouts a week, and utilize them in classic exercises like shouldering, clean and press, and Zercher squatting,

Even though using odd objects exclusively is an option, I prefer to integrate them into barbell and dumbbell lifting programs so that I can take advantage of the benefits of both lifting styles and achieve a more complete training program.

Here is a three-day program demonstrating how easy it is too combine odd object lifting with barbell/dumbbell work. Enjoy!

Day 1:

Barbell back squat, 5 sets of 5 repetitions, rest 90 seconds
Keg clean and press, 5 sets of 5 repetitions, rest 90 seconds
Good mornings, 4 sets of 10 repetitions, rest 60 seconds
Chin-ups, 4 sets of 10 repetitions, rest 60 seconds
Keg bear hug carry, 2 minutes for 2 sets, rest 120 seconds

Day 2:

Bench press, 6, 6, 4, 4, 2, rest 90 seconds
Sandbag snatch, 15 repetitions, rest 60 seconds
Step-ups, 3 sets of 12 each leg, rest 60 seconds
Zercher squats, 4 sets of 6 repetitions, rest 90 seconds
Farmer’s walk, 2 sets of 90 seconds, rest 120 seconds

Day 3:

Deadlift, 3 sets of 6 repetitions, rest 90 seconds
Keg shouldering, 3 sets of 5 repetitions each side, rest 90 seconds
Towel/rope chin-ups, 4 sets of 6 repetitions, rest 90 seconds
Sandbag shoulder get-ups, 3 sets of 6 each side, rest 90 seconds
Carrying medley, 1 set: sandbag Zercher, carry 50 yards; keg shoulder, 50 yards; barbell overhead walk, 50 yards

Oh, did I forget to mention that this style of training is amazing for losing body fat in no time!

References:

Kubik, Brooks (1996) Dinosaur training: Lost secrets of strength and development.
Jesse, John (1974) Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia, Athletic Press.

Dynamic Effort for Strongman - Speed Kills

2007-08-06T12:14:00.003-07:00

Dynamic Effort for Strongman - Speed Kills

By Chad Coy

For www.EliteFTS.com

Dynamic Effort

What does this mean exactly? Now you could go and read Dave Tate or Louie Simmons and they can explain it much better than I can, but I will give you the Cliff Notes version. Dynamic effort (DE) in my context means nothing more than speed. According to Dave Tate, “Dynamic effort is defined as lifting a non-maximal load with the greatest speed possible.” If you want to move big weights you must be fast. We use the DE day to teach the nervous system to fire quickly. Think of a lift you have missed. Generally the bar just slows down and the weight stops moving and you miss the lift. You could need more max effort, but you may need more speed.

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My basic dynamic effort workout is this:

Squat - 6-9sets of 2 reps
Dead lift - 6-10 singles
Overhead press - 4-7sets of 3 reps

These are the base 3 exercises, but they all have many variations. Depending on where your weakness is you can vary the placing of each movement in the session. For the last year I have really focused on my press, followed by the dead and finishing with the squat. I have changed it all around for the next 12 weeks and am starting with squats and then going to deadlifts and ending with the press. One more note before I dive into the squat. We use no equipment during this session….no belt, wraps, straps. I will use Rehband sleeves that can be found at www.jackalsgym.com. It is a high quality neoprene material that adds support and keeps you warm. By not using any belt I believe the dynamic effort enhances the core strength and in strongman if you have a weak core you will go nowhere!

Squat

The squat will be done to varying height boxes (12,14,or 16 inches depending on the trainee’s height and whether you are hitting parallel or just below) or to a parallel rack height. The key on the squat is to keep everything tight during the decent. Once you reach the bottom relax only the hips for a split second and then ram the squat up as violently as possible. Do the second rep the same way and then set it back into the rack. You should only rest 45-60seonds between sets, so once the squatting begins you should be finished in around 10 minutes give or take a minute.

The weight used should vary but should never be more than 75% of ones max. We will wave our squat weights from 50-75%. I am around an 800lb squatter so I use between 400-600lbs for speed if I am using only weight. When doing the lift, you should apply compensatory acceleration which means pushing against the weight with all the force you can muster on the 2 reps. I want to apply 800 pounds worth of squat to the bar even when I am only squatting 400lb. Trust me when the bar gets moving fast the plates will be singing to you!

Once you have established the type of squat and the weight, you must then add accommodating resistance. We do this by adding chains or bands. If you need bands, chains or about anything else that has to do with getting strong go to www.elitefts.com. They will make sure you get the equipment and help that you need. You can add chains to the bar, bands, or both. Again variations are the key so mix it up and have fun. I currently use bands for 2 weeks, weight only for 1 week, and then chain for 2 weeks.

I have been training with these for about 4 years now and I will do some crazy stuff to myself, but for the rest of you I will give you a few guidelines. First off if you are just using straight weight then just figure the percent you are using by your current max (a 500lb squatter would use between 250 and 375). When adding chains do not include the chain weight in the percent that was set above. The chain will de-load at the bottom of the squat, but is felt at the top end. Squatting with chain is more taxing than just weight at the top, but less in the hole! Dave Tate and Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell wrote the book on band training so if this peaks your interest check these guys out on the web! When I use bands, I lower my actual bar weight to no higher than 40% and then make the difference up in bands. I wave my bands from 25-50% of my max. The bands come in 50, 75, and 100 pound tension levels (depending on how you set it up). When I squat I use between 200 and 400 pounds worth of bands and add that to a loaded bar of 320. The key on any of these squats is speed. We time the sets to make sure we are not getting slow on each set. Remember I stated we use between 6-9 sets of 2 reps. Once we slow down 2 sets in a row we stop. On those days you feel great maybe you do a bit more and on the days you feel like chewed up bubble gum cut back. The key is speed!

Deadlift

When we dead lift we will pull conventional straight bar deadlifts, rack deadlifts, Trap Bar deadlifts, from the tops of our shoe strings or car dead lifts. Just like the squat we will use either straight weight or the bands and chains. As you can see we love variation!

When we start to pull it does not take long. We only do between 6-10 singles with 30-45 sec rest between reps. As long as you are not changing huge amounts of weight deadlifts will be done in around 8 minutes. The key is still speed! We use the stop watch again to make sure we stay fast.

Selecting a weight that is right can be tricky. I have spoken with many different people on this topic and the weights vary here from 50-75%. The guys that use closer to 50% pull up to 20 singles…..the 75% guys pull 3-5singles. We use 70% for all our dead lifts whether they are from the floor or rack.

When we pull conventional we will either use straight weight, chains draped over the top or we will put the bar on top of our Jump Stretch Sumo Platform and attach bands to the bar along with the desired weight. The Jump Stretch Sumo Platform can be found at www.elitefts.com.

When I train, I use 70%, of my current max of 775lb, which is 542lbs. If I were to use straight weight it would be easy. With chains and bands I will use less plate weight and more accommodating resistance. When I use bands I will use 300lbs in band tension and then 235 in weight and with chains I will use 120lbs in chain and 405 on the bar. Speed, speed, speed is our only focus here. Once we pull the weight we are done. The eccentric portion of this lift is a guided drop. Eccentrics tend to wear you out and beat you up pretty good. We will vary this each week and it could look something like this:

Week 1- Straight weight, conventional
Week 2 -Rack deadlifts with bands
Week 3- Shoe string deadlifts with bands
Week 4 - Trap bar deadlifts

The key is keep good records and make sure you are fast!

The Press

When most people think of the press they think the bench press, but I am speaking of the overhead press. In Strongman, like Olympic lifting, the overhead press is king. Bench press and its cousins are nothing more than accessory work for what we are looking at doing. Variation is our mainstay from getting burned out and bored. Our DE overhead pressing options are Log press (8in/10in/13in/14.6in diameter logs), Axle press (2” or 2 3/8”), or Viking press. This last year I did not use the 8” log at all since It was not in any of my shows and I only used the big one three times. Most of our pressing will be built around the 10 and 13 inch log, the two types of axles and the Viking press.

Our pressing workout is pretty simple. We do 4-7 sets of 3 reps and then take a 30-60 second break. Dynamic effort is meant to be done quickly and our pressing is done in 7 minutes or less.

The weight used is between 60-75% of your 1 rep max. My best log press is 360 so I use between 220-270lbs. The axle weight is between 230-285lbs and the Viking press is 240-305. This can be split between weight and accommodating resistance.

When we press, the weight must generally be cleaned into position so it is impossible to use chains for the overhead press. We can take the mini bands, stand on them and then do the clean followed by all 3 reps in the press. If we are not using bands, we are using straight weight. One variation that we have tossed in recently is the clean and press on every rep. If you know your contest weight we will use 70% of that for the clean and press, but when doing this you will need about 2x the recovery time until you get into shape!

As you can see, this does not take a lot of time. Granted we warm up thoroughly before we start and then dive right in! Once you get your dynamic session done it is time to move onto your accessory lifts and they will consist of a vertical pull (chins would be an example here), horizontal press (bench), and a horizontal pull (rows). The accessory work is done with 3-4 sets per exercise and using reps that range from 5-20. The key here is to hit the stuff that is your weak point. At this point, it is time for some post session nutrition and a shower!

Train Hard and God Bless!

Maximum Effort Training for Strongman

2007-08-06T12:14:00.001-07:00

Maximum Effort Training for Strongman

By Chad Coy

For www.EliteFTS.com

As covered in my last article, the dynamic effort (DE) session is dedicated to speed. Max effort (ME) is dedicated to huge weights and re-writing the record books every session you train. My approach is a bit different from the traditional Westside approach. Powerlifters must train for a 1 rep max, but strongman may require a 1 rep max, a heavy weight done for numerous reps, or a relatively lighter weight done for time.

Before every session, make sure you do plenty of warming up. My warm up starts on the way to the hall as I crank the heat up in my car. By the time I get out of my car, I am already hot. I then stow my stuff and start walking for about 5 minutes. I then do a series of dynamic stretches (moving while stretching) for both the lower and upper body. We will then do some type of core work along with balance and reactive warm ups.

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My basic max effort workout will generally have a squat, dead, and an overhead press. The order depends on what needs the most work and whether I have a show coming up. For the last year, I have started with my press then hit the dead and finished with the squat. We modified the original ME to one that works for strongman. Keeping this in mind we may do a max single, a 5RM, a time limit set (60-90 seconds of work). Whatever we choose we always try for a new PR. Sometimes we may drop a lift (never longer than 1 session) depending on recovery. Since strongman requires more pulling prowess if anything is dropped it is the squat.

Pressing

Variation and rotation is the key to pressing on ME day. I usually won’t do the same movement two weeks in a row, and I vary the intensities; max single, reps, or reps for time could be used. Here is the 5-week rotation I am using now:

Week 1 - Log press with 13-inch log- work up to new PR for a triple. It would look something like this 210x6,260x3,310x3,340x3...I will wait between 3-5 minutes between the heavier sets…the warm ups are done I go you go style. The log must be cleaned to the chest only on the first rep and then pressed.

Week 2- Viking press- Pick a contest weight and go balls out for a set period of time (60-90 seconds)-Perform only 1 set after you are warmed up.

Week 3 - Axle (2 3/8 inch) Clean one time (to shoulder) then press: 3 sets of 6-10 reps. Be sure to rest 2-3 min between sets.

Week 4 - Band suspended 8-inch log. For this lift, we will take a medium or a light band and put it looped at the top of the power rack and then attach it to a log. The log weighs 180lbs and the medium tension bands are about 150 so the net weight of the log is now only 30lbs. When you press the bands de-load and the lifter must take the full weight at the top end. This allows us to use huge weights and get used to locking them out. I will work up to a max singles and then go back down for a back off set of 6-10 reps.

Week 5 - Seated machine press - 4 sets of 6-10 reps. This is followed by one all out set of log clean and press with a lighter weight like 240-270. I do this so my delts are smoking and I must concentrate on my technique more.

There are no rules here except you must set a new PR every session. If you are feeling great and you are down for a rep set you can change it to a max. If you don’t feel great and you don’t feel like you can reach a new one rep PR, do some reps. The combinations here are endless. Since I have totally committed to this type of training I have seen PR’s fall every week for the last 18 months, with a great side effect of bigger shoulders.

Deadlift

For decades I loved the squat but I have come to love the pull from the floor or anywhere else for that matter. In strongman, you must be able to pick up very heavy things (cars, big stones and the like) and the key to success is a strong back and a huge deadlift. In strongman, if a straight bar is used you must go conventional (feet inside hands) and you may or may not be able to use straps. Deadlift variations are as endless as the press. The deadlift rotation is set around 8 weeks with one week being off from the deadlift every 4^th week. My current rotation looks like this:

Week 1 - 11-inch rack pulls with added band tension. I will do warm up sets and then progress to a new PR.

Week 2- Trap bar- deadlift standing on 3 inch box (this gives a much longer pull) work up to a new 3RM.

Week 3- Car deadlifts for reps for set time (60-90 seconds). After an adequate warm-up, do one all out set.

Week 4- No deadlift

Week 5-Conventional deadlift - work up to new 1RM and then drop weight 20% and hit one all out set .

Week 6 -18 inch deadlift – work up to new 3RM.

Week 7- Bavarian style dead (from shoestrings) here we could use our apparatus or a straight bar. If we use a straight bar we will use a lot of band tension. I try and use higher reps from like 10-15.

Week 8 - No deadlift.

As you can see, you have total control over the variation. My next 8 weeks will look nothing like the above 8 weeks except for the fact that I will pull from the floor at least one time. If you do have a show coming up you can keep the session the same for no more than 3 weeks, but make sure your last session is 2 weeks before the contest.

I take time off every 4 weeks to allow my back to recover. If you recover quickly or are using some type of performance enhancing aid, you may be able to get a way with pulling every week.

Good Mornings are one of the best ways to bring up your deadlift. The Westside guys use them to bring up both the dead and the squat. Unfortunately, for me I have an injury that is aggravated by any type of good mornings so I do not use them in my training (with the exception of bands in my auxiliary sessions). Any type of good morning can be substituted for the deadlift. Generally speaking when our guys use the good morning it will be after they squat and will be rotated every 2 weeks with the deadlift.

Squat

I was a squat man for 20 years. I loved to squat and it was the mainstay of my lower body training. Now It has become the movement that is put aside (unless there is a squat event in an upcoming strongman contest ).Our squats on ME day are split between the rack bottom pause squat, regular squat, and the Viking squat. The Viking is an apparatus, but the other two require a bar and we use the Buffalo Bar from IronMind or the Safety Squat bar. These two types of bars go a long way to saving your shoulders and help with maintaining proper posture during the squat. For you bodybuilder types you will love the Safety Squat bar for its ability to thrash your quads, but be prepared as it will drastically reduce the weight you will be using.

Since we squat after we pull, we tend to do rep training and not as much heavy weight/ low rep work. We generally do 5-12 reps, with the big weights coming on the weeks where we drop the dead. On the weeks we squat first, it will always be to a max triple or maybe even a single. My current rotation looks like this:

Week 1 - Rack bottom squat (1 second pause in the bottom of the rack) and these will be done for 3 sets of 6-10 reps. This will give me a bit of volume and the pause not only is assistance work for the dead, but has a great crossover for helping events such as the tire flip and stones. We use the buffalo bar for these.

Week 2 - Viking squat – 3 sets of 8-12. We may pause between reps or just pump the reps out.

Week 3 - Safety Squats - 3 sets of 5-8. These keep you upright and tight.

Week 4 - Max squat- we work up to a max triple or single. Here we will wear all our gear- squat suit/wraps/belt. By using the equipment every 4 weeks I feel like you are able to keep the equipment groove.

The next week we would just do a different variation and keep moving forward.

In general, we do not use any equipment like squat suits or wraps when we train. We only use it for max squats and when getting ready for a show. Too many people use their gear too much and do not build enough strength in the stabilizer muscle groups. We do our weight training so that it enhances our strongman. Strongman requires movement and equipment, for the most part, is only good for static events.

Until next time,

Train Hard and God Bless!

Top 5 Max Effort Lifts for Strongman: Upper Body and Lower Body

2007-08-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

Top 5 Max Effort Lifts for Strongman: Upper Body

By CJ Murphy, MFS

For www.EliteFTS.com

This is the second installment in the Top 5 series and discusses upper body max effort exercises. As with the lower body lifts, you need to decide whether you do high, low, or timed reps.

Here they are in no particular order:

Axle, fat bar, or log clean and press

Lifting a weight from the ground and up over your head is a staple in Strongman contests. It is also a true strength builder. It doesn’t really matter if you use a log or a bar. Just clean it and throw it overhead.

Banded log press

The banded log press is one of our favorite dynamic exercises for Strongman. It builds and teaches speed in the overhead press and helps teach you to “get under the weight.” Getting under the weight is what allows you to press much more than you could do normally. Olympic lifters call it a “double knee bend.” You can call it a tuna sandwich—just learn to do it.

Power clean/power snatch

This might sound like a repeat of the axle, fat bar, or log clean and press, but it is not. Power clean/power snatches are a little different in that they are a more “fluid” athletic movement. This is because you will use a bar that has revolving sleeves (an Olympic bar). Cleaning a non-revolving bar, such as an axle or log, is more of a brute strength type of movement. Using an Olympic bar allows you to do it in a much more dynamic way. Do yourself a favor and get a good Olympic lifting bar for these. Get strong on gym lifts, as they will help your Strongman events.

Incline bench press (no picture available)

The incline press is a great choice for athletes because it is much less technical than a powerlifting style flat bench. We feel that it builds strength and has a better carryover to Strongman events.

Bosu ball one-arm lateral raise

Just kidding on this one. I only wanted to see if you were paying attention. What I really meant was….

Dumbbell overhead presses

You can do these standing or seated. We prefer to do them standing because Strongman events are not done seated. But mix it up. Do some standing and some seated. Just go heavy. Try mixing in alternating presses too.

There you have it—our top five max effort lifts for upper body movements. I’m sure that you have your own favorites so just find what works for you and get strong. I’d like to hear what some of you readers use and have success with so click the “Article Discussion” button or shoot me an email.

Don’t curl in the power rack or I’ll kill you,

CJ Murphy, MFS

www.totalperformancesports.com

Top 5 Max Effort Lifts for Strongman—Lower Body

By CJ Murphy, MFS

For www.EliteFTS.com

This is the first in a two-part series on our favorite max effort exercises for strongman. This article will focus on those lifts for the lower body while the second one will focus on the upper body.

One thing to keep in mind is that strongman requires different types of strength so vary your reps. Sometimes you will keep them low, 1–3, and sometimes they will be higher, 3–5. You might also want to pick a weight and do a maximum amount of reps for a predetermined amount of time (60–75 seconds). These choices will be made by you and based on your weaknesses and any upcoming contests. For example, if you have a contest coming up with a Viking Squat for max reps, doing box squats for a 1 RM might not be the most beneficial exercise to choose.

Here are our top five in no particular order:

Safety bar box squats

As a reader of this site, the benefits of this exercise should be well known. Safety squat bar box squats are a top choice for all athletes.

Zercher squats

The Zercher squat has a tremendous carryover to many strongman events, especially things like the Conan’s Wheel and Husafeld Stones.

One-arm farmer’s walk deadlift (suitcase deadlift)

This exercise not only works grip and the posterior chain but also your torso like almost nothing else. For a real treat, try a 2-inch farmer’s walk handle.

Rack pull

Many strongman events incorporate some sort of pull from the ground so the rack pull (pin pull) fits the bill. Vary the height that you will pull from as you will pull from different heights at contests. You might see an 18” deadlift or an axle deadlift with big tires on the axle. Try to mimic your events in training.

Suspended good mornings

Bill Starr once said, “Nothing makes you strong like good mornings.” Or something to that effect and I agree. The suspended good mornings build raw strength from a dead stop. The fact that you are starting at the bottom of the lift makes it much harder than a traditional good morning. Hang those chains from your power rack and get strong!

There are many other max effort exercises to choose from, but we feel these are the best. Find out what works for you.

Train hard, lift heavy stuff, and get strong!

CJ Murphy

www.totalperformancesports.com

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Strongman Training 101, Part 1 and Part 2

2007-08-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

Strongman Training 101, Part 1

By Brian King

For www.EliteFTS.com

This article is for the strongman competitor who is just starting to compete and really has no clue about how to train. However, there may be some things that the advanced athlete can use to improve his or her game as well. There are three different approaches to training for strongman. Most articles are written about one person’s training philosophy, but here you will get three views from three, very qualified strongmen—Eric Hammer, Bryan Dermody, and myself.

Hammer is an assistant director of Olympic sports performance at the University of Louisville. He earned his pro status at the Central USA in July. Bryan Dermody is the assistant football strength and conditioning coach at the University of Louisville. He is one of the top ranked amateur heavyweights in the country and writes columns for Iron Mind. I am the manager of a fitness center. I have worked at the collegiate level as an assistant football and assistant strength and conditioning coach and consider myself to be one of the top ranked heavyweight amateurs in the country.

Since there are six questions, I will break this down into two parts because the first two questions are long.

Quest 1. During the off-season when you aren’t competing, what type of training template do you follow in the weight room? What, if any, type of event training do you do?

Hammer: My off-season template looks something like this:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday or Sunday
ME cleans DE squats	ME deadlifts ME overhead	ME snatch	ME squat DE overhead	DE deadlifts	Events
Accessory	Accessory	Accessory	Accessory	Accessory	Accessory
Plyo's Dumbbell/kettlebell swings GPP session	Romanian deadlift Front squat Strict overhead Incline bench	Plyo's One-arm dumbbell snatch GPP session	Good mornings Lunges Split jerks		GPP session

I event train once a week, and I usually alternate three to four events each week, working on form and technique. I am a big believer in the Olympic lifts and what they can do for you. So I tend to train them at least twice per week throughout the off-season. I also utilize favorites such as front squats, good mornings, jerks, any type of deadlifts, and plyometrics.

I like to use a conjugated periodization approach to ensure that I hit all areas of training. This includes max effort, speed, and repetition work to build up my weaknesses, add to my strengths, and generate some general physical preparedness. I don't use percentages on my max effort work because I want to get stronger. But I will use them on my accessory movements. Each phase of training lasts about 3–4 weeks, following a base, load, load, deload weekly progression in volume and intensity.

Dermody: My off-season template:

1) ME lower	2) Work cap/ grip	3) ME upper	4) DE lower	5) Lower asst	6) Events	7) Events
Snatch, 3X5, heavy	Some type of work capacity (i.e. sled drag, DB complex, light tire flips, etc.)	Some type of jerk or push press. Best set of 1, 2, or 3 reps.	Cleans, 3X5, typically heavy	Front squat, reverse hypers, or glute ham raise with moderate intensity	Pick the six most common events and train three per week	I may do events; if not I will do moderate front squats, moderate snatch, and heavy rows
Squat, deadlift, or good mornings Best set of 1, 2 or, 3 reps	Static grip work Biceps	Five sets of either heavy close grip or steep incline bench	Speed squats w/band tension, 5–8X2	Static grip work	I try to set a PR on one event each week, do 4–6 heavy sets on one, and 4–6 light sets on one
Medium to heavy Romanian deadlift, squat, or front squat		Five heavy sets of some type of overhead press	Speed deadlift, 10–16X1 w/band tension or straight bar weight

King: I have come up with a modified version of training that includes Westside concepts, Olympic lifting, and circuit training. By combining all three, I can work on strength,
explosion/speed, and conditioning. I believe in the use of many movements, not in a training day but rather to have at your expense. This will allow you to find any weaknesses that you may have. As a general rule, I will switch up my ME movement about every three weeks and my Olympic movements every two to three weeks.

I will train the events on Saturdays. Events change weekly and so do the intensity levels. I try to train every event so that I can get accustomed to the movement. Plus, it breaks the monotony of training the same movements every week. The only two events that won't change are the 12-inch log and the Atlas stones. If I go for a max on the log then I will train the stones light and vice versa. I like to put the emphasis on these two movements because you will see them at every show you compete in. Below is a sample training week:

Monday, ME lower	Tuesday, extra	Wednesday, ME upper	Thursday, DE lower/speed	Friday	Saturday, events
Box squat w/T-bar rows, 4X10	Light Dumbell work and low back and abs	Push jerks	Cleans, 3X3	I do very little. This is a day to relax and get ready for Saturday	12" log for max Farmers for distance Conans wheel heavy
Hack squat, 3X10 w/shrugs, 3X15		8" log incline, 3X5 w/CS rows, 3X15	Box squat w/bands, 5X2 (50–60%, 1 RM) w/dumbbell high pulls, 3X10		Tire flips for reps Stones to staggered platforms up to 340lb
Romanian deadlift, 3X8 w/dec abs, 3X40 w/neck, 3X20		Dumbbell bench, 3X8 w/biceps, 3X10	Deadlifts, 5X2 (50–60%)		Accessory work Abs, neck, light cardio
45 degree back raise, 3X10 w/biceps, 3X10		Tricep extension, 3X8 w/abs, 3X20 w/neck, 3X10	Plyo jumps, 3X5
Sled drags for cardio		Some type of cardio	Leg curls, 3X10 w/abs, 3X30

Quest 2. When you are actively competing, how does gym and event training differ from what you do in the off-season?

Hammer: My off-season template looks something like this:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday and Sunday
Off	Snatch ME deadlift /squat ME overhead	Plyos, core GPP session	Cleans DE squat/deadlifts DE overhead	Off	Events GPP on Sundays
	Accessory		Accessory
	Front squats Zercher squats		Shoulder pre-hab

My approach to in-season training is quality over quantity. I drop my workouts from six days to three to four days per week. My focus is on strength and staying healthy, and my gym work depends on the upcoming contest. For example, if there are several medley events then my max effort training becomes a ball busting repetition effort training session where I will try and hit a few good sets of 10–15 reps at as much weight as I can push.

I still clean and snatch during the week, but it may or may not be for max effort, depending on how my wrists, elbows, and shoulders feel. All my events are determined by the contest. I will start planning for a meet about four to six weeks out and devise a plan of progression for each event allowing for an easier week of the show. On Saturdays and Sundays, I will split up the events, focusing on form and moving heavy weight.

The week of the meet looks like this:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Meet day
DE squat, 8X2 Squats, 3X1 at 90%	DE deadlifts, 8X2 Conv deadlifts, 3X1 at 90%	DE overhead 8X2 Push jerk 3X1 at 90%	Dynamic warm-up 20 minutes Dumbbell complex, 3–4 moves, 2–3X3	Dynamic warm-up, 20 minutes
Cleans 4–6X1 at 80–95%		Snatch, 4–6X1, 80–90%

The week after entails dynamic warm-ups, dumbbell complexes, and rehab work. The next training cycle will start the following Saturday.

Dermody: My changes for in-season strongman training include one day of max effort gym work (upper and lower in the same session) and event training tailored to the specific events in the upcoming contest. I may do one or two event days, but if I can fit the events into my normal gym training (i.e. log or deadlift), I will typically only have one event day. If I am competing in shows really close to one another (1–3 weeks apart) then I will do only max effort squat and speed deadlifts or reverse the two. I may also do only speed deadlifts and speed squats, but I’ll do a heavy single afterwards with the use of chains or band tension.

My last event will typically be five to seven days from the contest. The week of the contest I will
do Olympic lifts, speed squats/deadlifts, and some overhead presses. Three days out, I will perform only work capacity stuff and dynamic flexibility work. The week after the show, I will take about two days off, and I may throw out my max effort overhead day from the next week’s training.

King: My in-season training is based on how my body feels and what events will be held at the show. I throw out all Olympic movements because they are hard on my joints and rely on speed squats and deadlifts to maintain my explosion. I will have a max effort lower body day on Monday or Tuesday, which usually consists of some form of deadlift movement. This saves my knees and shoulders from getting beat up more then they already are. I also throw in more pre-hab work, and I frequent a chiropractor or massage therapist.

Event training is usually broken into two days for more consistency and to focus more on the movement. About six weeks out, I start to focus on the events of the contest. Usually, the volume of training starts out high and gradually decreases as the show nears. The last two weeks of training are all about quality. I eliminate many warm-up sets and focus on staying healthy and working form and technique.

The week of the show I will train at the gym twice. On Monday, I will do some low rep, low weight squats or deadlifts and some accessory work. On Wednesday, I will do the same for my
upper body. For Tuesday and Thursday, I will do some light ab and low back work and stretch.
My training the week after the show all depends on how heavy the show was. I base this week on instinct. If I feel good then I will train relatively hard, but if I feel beat down, I will do more rehab and machine work.

Here is a sample training program for in-season:

Monday	Tuesday, ME lower	Wednesday, ME upper	Thursday, speed lower	Friday	Sat/Sunday, events
Dynamic warm-up Barbell movements (3–4 moves), 3X10	18" dead Leg press, 3X10, w/CS row, 4X12	8" log incline w/band tension, best set of 5	Box squat, 5X2 (50–60% w/bands) w/pull-downs, 4X10	Stretch and maybe a dumbbell or barbell complex	On Sundays we finish with a cardio session
Dumbbell moves (3–4), moves, 3X5 Light low back/abs	Band pull-thru, 3X10 w/Shrug, 3X10 45-degree back raise, 3X10, w/Abs, 3X40 w/Biceps	Dumbbell incline, 3X10 w/DB high pull, 3X10 DB Tri extension, 3X8 w/rear delts, 3X15	Speed deads 5x2 Leg curl 3x12 Abs, low back	Rehab/pre-hab
Rehab/pre-hab	Sled drags (cardio)	Low back and abs and neck	Some type of cardio

Eric Hammer is currently the assistant director of Olympic sports performance at the University of Louisville, and he works with the strength and power sports. Before coming to Louisville, Hammer was the assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, where he worked with football. He holds a master's degree in exercise science as well as CSCS and USAW Level 1 certifications. Hammer has competed in strongman for three years and recently turned pro in July.

Bryan Dermody is currently football assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Louisville. Before coming to Louisville, Dermody held the same position at the University of Iowa. He holds a master's of science degree and is CSCS certified. He also competes in strongman.

Brian King is the founder of www.kentuckystrongman.com and is the Kentucky state chairperson for NAS, Inc. King has been an assistant football and strength and conditioning coach at the collegiate and high school levels. He holds a bachelor's degree in physical education, is CSCS certified, and currently competes in both powerlifitng and strongman.

Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.

Strongman Training 101, Part 2

By Brian King

For www.EliteFTS.com

In part one of Strongman Training 101, we covered in-season and off-season training. Part two will focus on cardio, core/flexibility work, and diet as well as the most important Strongman implements that a beginning Strongman athlete should have.

Question: Do you think cardio is very important and how much, if any, do you perform?

Hammer: I believe cardio is important for the Strongman competitor. A good aerobic base allows the body to recover faster in between sets or events. Because aerobic training can be detrimental to strength gains, however, longer, less intensive cardio should be performed in the early off-season phase while short, intensive interval training should be used during the competition phase. The types of cardio that I use are sled dragging, dumbbell or barbell circuits, judo, kickboxing, and other MMA activities.

Dermody: I honestly don’t do any cardio for Strongman. Obviously, some medleys require cardio, but I just train the specific contest medley to get in shape for it. These are done during event training.

King: I think cardio is very beneficial to Strongman. Running out of breath is the rate limiting factor in most Strongman events. I train cardio in a sport specific manner because I don’t feel that long duration cardio will provide much benefit to the Strongman. My cardio sessions are performed in an interval type fashion after my workout. For example, I may do sled backpedals for 50 feet and rest ten seconds. I’ll do this for ten sets. Some other cardio exercises that I do are lightened yoke carries for 300 feet, quarry rock carries for long distances, and bleacher runs. I’ll get on the elliptical machine for 15–20 minutes after event training because I’ve found that it speeds up my recovery.

Question: What are your thoughts on core, balance, and flexibility work, and what types of exercises do you use?

Hammer: Core stability should be placed high in a Strongman’s training regime. Performing squats, deadlifts, and overhead lifts without the use of a belt are the best core exercises an individual can do. I believe that the Strongman events provide a great combination of core and balance work. Static flexibility work is great after a heavy workout session and will help limit soreness, but other than that I don’t believe in it. I utilize dynamic flexibility prior to workouts where I will go a distance of 10–15 yards. I’ll perform exercises like straight leg kicks, walking lunges with twists, skipping, jogging, and other low impact plyometrics to help warm my muscles up and get ready for the workout to come.

My core work is primarily done on main lifts like a max effort on squats without a belt or a max effort push press without a belt stabilizing the bar overhead for 10–20 seconds. I use other exercises like reverse hypers, back extensions, or weighted decline sit-ups but not too much during the competitive season.

Dermody: I think core work is extremely important for Strongman. I train core work four times per week. I will perform traditional work such as heavy, weighted sit-ups for sets of eight or less twice a week and medicine ball work twice a week. The medicine ball movements are side throws, side chops, forward chops, overhead throws, backward overhead throws, single and double arm chest passes, and forward and backward rotational throws. I don’t perform any specific balance work for Strongman. I do dynamic flexibility at the start of every training session and static work at the end. Dynamic stretching is important in maintaining athletic ability and preventing injury by warming up thoroughly. Static stretching is important for injury prevention and decreasing recovery time.

King: All three are very important in Strongman. I feel that belt-less squats, deadlifts, and other events are good for core and balance, but I believe you must work the two specifically. Performing specific balance and core work will help in injury prevention and will help improve any muscle imbalances you have. The types of balance and core work I do include one arm dumbbell overhead presses while standing on one leg, bridge work off a stability ball, and two point bridges (bird dogs), where I get in a push-up position with dumbbells and take one hand off and one leg off the ground and hold for a count. I also do other types of movements involving a stability ball. This type of work hits the smaller muscle groups, increases concentration, and teaches your muscles how to stay contracted for long periods of time. I don’t perform many weighted sit-ups just because my abs are trained hard during event days.

I think flexibility is very important, and you should stretch every day. Before training, I do a specific warm up that includes dynamic stretching with very little static stretching. For example, if I train legs, I will do leg kicks, form running, and static stretch my adductors and hip flexors for about a ten second count. I won’t static stretch a trained muscle until the next day because the muscle is fried and there won’t be much benefit. Both types of stretching are great for improving athletic ability and preventing injury. I have to do more stretching now that I am 35 years old. I static stretch my hips, calves, and hip flexors every day, holding the stretch for up to 30 seconds. Stretching these muscle groups daily helps my mobility and keeps me from walking like Frankenstein.

Question: What approach do you take when choosing what to eat, and what type of supplements do you take if any?

Hammer: My approach to eating is simple. I start eating early, and I stop eating late. I eat a fairly clean diet and don’t find myself at fast food shops too often, although I do eat Subway a lot. I take my meals to work so that I always have something to snack on throughout the long work day. Here’s a sample of my eating during the school year:

Meal 1 (5:30 am)
oatmeal (two cups) with raisins and honey
skim milk (8 oz)

Meal 2 (8:00 am)
bowl of Grapenuts cereal using a Met-Rx RTD shake as milk
yogurt (8 oz)

Meal 3 (11:00 am)
two turkey sandwiches with lettuce and tomato
orange or apple

Meal 4 (2:00 pm)
one Met-Rx RTD shake
one peanut butter and honey sandwich

Meal 5 (5:00 pm)
two Met-Rx RTD shakes

orange or apple

Meal 6 (8:00 pm)
one quart of low fat chocolate milk
Cliff Builder bar

Meal 7 (11:00 pm)
peanut butter and jelly sandwich
skim milk (8 oz)

I don’t have an approach to supplements. I take a creatine product, extra protein, BCAAs, and glutamine for recovery and restoration.

Dermody: I go by the motto, “Never get hungry and never get thirsty.” I try to get a constant flow of good calories into my body throughout the day. I probably take in 5,000–6,000 calories per day. Some of the foods I eat are chicken breasts, skim milk, peanut butter, ground turkey, lots of fruit and vegetables, tuna, and salmon. As far as supplements go, I will ingest protein shakes or bars throughout the day when I don’t have access or time to eat real food.

King: Basically, I eat three times a day and throw in some type of snack. The majority of my meals consist of potatoes, rice, red meat, chicken breast, dairy, fruits, and vegetables. I don’t get caught up in how much protein I’m getting, and I don’t really care. I think that if you eat a diverse range of foods and consume enough calories to stay in an anabolic state, you’ll be fine. For instance, if I consume 5,000 calories, I’ll go out on a limb and say that 1,000–1,500 calories will come from protein. If I don’t have time to cook my meals, I don’t hesitate to go to McDonalds. I’m trying to get strong and maintain my weight, not work on my six pack abs. My post workout meal is a quart of 2 percent milk and a king size Snickers. My breakfast usually consists of six to eight scrambled eggs with one cup of oatmeal. A typical lunch is two cups of brown rice, a 16-ounce sirloin, and one cup of shredded cheese all mixed together and thrown into a couple of soft shell tortillas. Dinner may be a box of whole wheat Stove Top stuffing with two chicken breasts. These are just a few of the things that I consume throughout the day.

As far as supplements go, I don’t take too many things. I think that about 90 percent of the stuff out there is s**t. I just stick with a weight gainer protein powder, some creatine, and some NO2. Although not a supplement, I try and ingest at least 25–30 grams of fiber per day. If you’re consuming a large amount of food, especially meat, you absolutely need fiber. I usually take about two tablespoons of psyllium husk per day and wait for the magic to happen. There’s nothing better then dropping a two-foot fudge stick when you get up in the morning.

Question: If you were just starting out and/or had a limited budget, what two Strongman implements would be the most important to have and why?

Hammer: On a limited budget, I would suggest getting a 12-inch log to clean and press and a yoke. The log itself is very different than a bar. If an athlete goes into his first contest without having used logs, he will be at a disadvantage. The yoke is another piece of equipment that is a staple of the Strongman and will be at most contests. You can do so many different variations with the yoke, which is what makes it an important piece of equipment to have in your arsenal. Other items you can pick up on a limited budget are tires (free) and kegs (free).

Dermody: I would say Atlas stones because they’re very hard to replicate in the weight room. My second choice would be a good yoke because you can use it for so many things. I use my yoke for sled drags, Conan’s wheel, seated arm over arm, car squats, and truck pulls. Most of the other events you can simulate in the gym.

King: I would have to say Atlas stones because there is no way to mimic this event in the gym. Plus you will see this at any show that you compete in, and many times this event is the deciding factor in who takes first place and who takes second. The second piece of equipment would have to be a set of Farmer’s walks. I don’t think there is any one event that shocks the body more than the Farmer’s walk. The Farmer’s walks build the grip and pretty much tax the entire body. All of the other events can be trained in the gym.

Eric Hammer is currently the assistant director of Olympic sports performance at the University of Louisville, and he works with the strength and power sports. Before coming to Louisville, Hammer was the assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, where he worked with football. He holds a master’s degree in exercise science as well as CSCS and USAW Level 1 certifications. Hammer has competed in Strongman for three years and recently turned professional in July.

Bryan Dermody is currently the football assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Louisville. Before coming to Louisville, Dermody held the same position at the University of Iowa. He holds a master’s of science degree and is CSCS certified. He also competes in Strongman.

Brian King is the founder of www.kentuckystrongman.com and is the Kentucky state chairperson for NAS, Inc. King has been an assistant football and strength and conditioning coach at the collegiate and high school levels. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education and is CSCS certified. He currently competes in both powerlifting and Strongman.

Assistance Training for Strongman and “Functional” Strength

2007-08-06T12:11:00.001-07:00

Assistance Training for Strongman and “Functional” Strength

By C.J. Murphy, MFS

For www.EliteFTS.com

I’m going to give you a few of our favorite exercises for some events.

Jump Stretch Band Squat Thrusts (Event: Tire Flip)

To perform this exercise, you need at least 3 Jump Stretch bands. What bands you use is up to you – it depends upon you strength level. We usually start with 3 green bands (average bands).

Attach one band to a fixed object such as a power rack (bolted down) and loop the other two through it. Put one band around each shoulder and get in a 4-point stance.

Plate Hugs (Event: Stones)

The Plate Hug is great to help you in stone lifting. This exercise builds great strength across the chest and will help you move into heavier stones. A T-bar row is best used for this exercise.

Load a T-bar up with some 45’s and straddle the plates as if you were lifting a stone. Hug the plates as hard as you can and stand up as much as you can with them.

Suspended Log Lockouts (Event: Overhead Log Press, Viking Press)

A lot of people take our advice on this one and then forget what we said and miss the boat!

Well, there you go - 3 more specialized exercises for your toolbox. I hope they work for you!

Train Hard and Get Strong!

CJ Murphy

Deep Squatter dot com

2007-08-06T10:59:00.001-07:00

a great site!

DEEP SQUATTER dot com

Bench Press Article - Material LIFTED from Starting Strength

2007-08-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Bench Press Article - Material LIFTED from Starting Strength

hi everyone

incase u dont follow my journal, one of my lifts which sucks and which i am trying VERY hard to improve in is the bench press. this is supposedly the most technical lift of all times.

so, ive been reading a lot of bench press technique articles on
www.t-nation.com
www.elitefts.com
www.forum.bodybuilding.com
www.bodybuilding.net

and after doing all that research ive read Starting Strength and what i am about to write is directly from that. this is not my stuff and i may have changed a few words here and there but this stuff is essentially written by Mark Rippetoe. it helped me and i hope it helps others. i am merely listing important points. if u want to know the reasonng behind them, please read the book. in either case i advise everyone to read Starting Strength and Practical Programming.

THE BENCH PRESS

Teaching The Bench Press

1.) Starting the Lift
Always start the lift with an empty bar.

2.) Immediate Position
When you lie down, make sure lie on the bench with your eyes looking straight up. When you look up stragiht, your eyes must be on the thumb side of the bar.

3.) Foot Spacing
Your feet should be flat on the grount at a comfortable spacing comparable to to the squat stance, with shins approximately vertical.

4.) Back Position
Your upper back sould be flat against the bench, with the lower back in an anatomically normal arched position.

5.) Grip
You must have an overhand grip on the bar.

6.) Bar Positioning on the Hand
The bar should rest on the heel of the palm, directly over the bones of the forearm, and not in the palm near the fingers, so that power being transmitted to the bar up the arms foes directly to the bar without being channeled through the wrist. The fingers should wrap around the bar AFTER the bar has been set correctly on the heel of the hand. This grip is best accomplished by turning the hands and elbows out, with a slight internal rotation of the arm.

7.) Trick
Stare at the place on the ceiling where the bar is to go. DO NOT look at the bar as it moves. This little trick works 90% of the time, the first time it is used.

Hands and Grip

1.) The Dumb Mistake
Maybe the biggest, dumbest, most common problem involving the hands is the use of the thumbless grip.

2.) Threat
The same position can be obtained with the thumb hooked around the bar with little change in the elbow position, and the risk of having an unsecured bar over the face and throat is just too great to tolerate in a public facility.

3.) Squeezing
Squeezing involves closing the bar until effective pressure can be applied with the forearm muscles in isometric contraction, increasing the tightness of the muscles on the distal side of the elbow, making rebound out of the bottom more efficeint, and increasing motor unit recruitment throughout the arms and upper body.

4.) The Main Point
The point is that since the standard grip is safer and more effective, it should be used by everybody that has thumbs. The most efficeint transmissiob of power to the bar would be directly from the heel of the palm to the bar.

5.) Placement
The grip should be positioned with this in mind, with the bar placed directly over the palm heel and then the hand rotated out so that the thumb can hook around the bar. Once the hand is in positon, the palm of the hand should be tightened so that the bar is well supported and does not move during the rep. Tell the trainee to "squeeze your hand like you are trying to squeeze the bones of your forearm together" (message to coach). The thumb does not interfere with this position at all. Once the thumb is secured the fingers should wrap arounf the bar. Finger position is less important, as the bar is secured too far back in the hand if the fingers are thought to be the thing that grips and controls the bar.

Elbows

1.) Forearm
The forearm will ALWAYS be vertical i.e. perpendicular to the floor.

2.) Elbow
The elbow will ALWAYS be directly under the bar.

3.) Why Shoulder Problem Occur
shoulder problems are commonly associated with the bench press, because of the this elbow involvement. The tendons of the biceps, as they arise from and cross the abrasion they are subjected to when the elbows flail around during an uncontrolled trip to the chest and back. Bicep tendon injuries are probably the most commonly encountered shoulder injury in the weight room; they are hard to treat and hard to heal up. Be careful about this.

4.) Elbow Positioning
Coaches should watch elbow position with these factors in mind. Elbow position will vary among trainees, and as long as the humeral angle is in the ballpark and the angle does not change during the rep, or change much during the set, it will not need to be corrected.

Chest

1.) High Chest Position
The higher the chest position above the arms, the better the pull the pec/delts has on the arms. The attainment and maintainence of this position is a function of the muscles of the upper back, and will be discussed below.

2.) Range of Motion
The use of full range of motion is thereofre important for two veru good reasons.
Firstly, it allows us to quantify work: if we hold the range of motion of an exercise constant, we are holding constant the distance variable in our work equation. Then, if the force we exert on the load increases (if we lift more weight) we know that our work has increased for a given number of reps. We know we're moving the weight the same distance, and the weight is heavier, so we know we're stronger. It allows us to compare performances both betweem lifters and between our own performances over time. If everybody touches his chest with the bar evertime he benhces, progress - or lack thereof - can be assessed. This obviosuly applies to every exercise with a prescribed range of motion.
Secondly, full range of motion exercise ensures that strength is developed in every psotion that the joint can work.

3.) Rebound
It takes practise and good timing to tighten up the bottom of the movement enough that a correct rebound can be done every rep.

Shoulders and Upper Back

1.) Basic Position
First, the shoulders need to be planted firmly against the bench, and taken together with the muscles of the upper back (the ones between the shoulders), used as a platform to drive against while pushing the bar.

2.) Mechanical Efficiency
The upper back and shoulders push the bench and they need to be right while doing so, just as the hands are tight against the bar. The shoulders in their adducted position and the upper back muscles, as they contract and rotate or "tolt" the upper back into a chest-up position, push the ribcage up and hold the chest higher above the bench. This incrases the mechanical efficency of the pec/delt contraction by steepening the angle of attack on the humerus, as discussed earlier.

3.) Back Tight?
Keeping the back tight is a difficult thing for some novice trainees to do. For them they should be told to "drive against the bench" with his chest up. As a coach, make him sit at the edge of the bench and toch him with your right hand right between the scapulae and say "pinch my hand betwee your shoulder blades". this is the posiiton he should take while benching.

4.) Shoulder Movement
During the lift, minimal shoulder movement should occur. The thing that moves is the elbow. If the shoulder moves much, something in the upper back has loosened and the chest has lost some of its "up" position.

Neck

1.) Function of Neck Muscles
The function of the neck muscles is to maintain head position, and to protect the cervical spine during the loading of the chest and upper back as the bar comes down on the chest.

2.) Using your Head to Push
You do not use your head to bench press. DO NOT PUSH THE HEAD INTO THE BENCH. This is an excellent way to injure the neck.

3.) A Practical Matter
As a practical matter, this involves holding the head about a half-inch off the bench during the rep.

Lower Back, Hips and Legs

1.) Leg Drive. How to Achieve it. A note to the coach.
Have your trainee lie down in position on the bench. After a warm-up set, lean over the bar above his chest and place a hand on each shoulder, with thumb and forefinger around his deltoid. Make sure his feet are planted correctly. Push his shoulders down into the bench and say "This is the weight of the bar holding your shoulders down. Now, psuh back towards me with your legs, but keep your butt down while you do." You should observe his ribcage come up as his back arches. Look at his hips - they should not elevate musch more than can be accounted for by tghtening the glutes, but they should slide up the bench towards the shoulders a little. Now take your hands away, have him take the bar out and reset the back and do a set of five.. Watch to make sure he maintains the chest and back position for all 5 reps.

Feet

1.) General
The feet must be in the correct position ON the floor, and they must be positioned AGAINST the floor correctly.

2.) Foot Placement
The feet need to be wide enough apart to provide lateral stability for the hips and - though the tighness in the trunk muscles - the torso as it is planted on the bench.

3.) Proper Foot Position
Proper foot position should be flat against the floor so that heels can be used as the base of the drive up the legs. As with most other things in the weight room, heels need to be down.

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as i mentioned above, this is just a few points here and there. i have not taken each and every word but merely a few interesting points. i have left out:
1.) Racking / Unracking Errors
2.) Breathing
3.) Spotters
in this part. however in Part 2 i will mention all of this.

ok so as promised here is Part 2

THE BENCH PRESS

Racking / Un-Racking Errors

1.) Face and Throat Safety
At all times, when the bar is moving over the face and throat coming out of or going back into the rack, the elbows must be locked out straight. When unracking the bar, the elbows must lockout while the bar is still over the hooks of the rack. This means that the elbows drive the bar up along the uprights until they lock out, and only then does the bar move down over the nipples to the start position. The triceps should lock out the elbows over the rack hooks so that the bones of the arm are in a straight line and the weight is being supported by the skeletal components instead of the muscles when the bar moves over the head and neck.

2.) Starting Movement
The bar should move all the way out over the chest to the start position, without stopping above the chin or throat. It is common to see novices stop the bar short of the starting position, lower the first rep to the chest, and finally end up in the correct position just in time to start the second rep. When the bar gets all the way there and the eyes have found their place against the ceiling, the bar should start down , but not until then. If he stops short repeatedly point out that the bar is over his throat and that the throat is a bad place to lower the bar.

3.) "J" Movement is BAD
Some pople get in the habit of taking it down to the chest right out of the rack. It should never start down before it is in place - there will be the bar path problems if it does, due to the lack of an initial ceiling reference for position, and the fact that the bar is going back to a different place than it started from. It makes the first rep different from the next ones. It prevents the lifter from getting a good, right start on the reps, since shoulders and upper back cannot be correctly set until the bar is in position over the chest. And it indicated a lack of patience, an unwillingness to take the few extra seconds to prepare properly.

4.) Racking it correctly after the set has fatigued the muscles
If the trainee misses the rack hooks because a tired elbow is not locked out, and the spotter is not paying attention (believe it or not, this actually happens!), atleast one side of the bar is going to come down. The bench press MUST end in elbow lockout, directly above the chest, everytime, or the rep should not be counted. When racking the bar, make sure that your trainees are taught to find the uprights with the bar and not to try to set the bar down on the hooks. If the uprights are tocuhed first, it will always be above the hooks; if straightening out the elbows got it clear of the hooks when taking it out, then locked elbows will ensure that it is high enough to get back over the hooks when putting it up.

Breathing

1.) Basic Tranfer of Power
In the bench press, breathing provides support for the chest. This takes the form of increased throughout the thoracic cavity due to the increase in pressure provided by the big, held breath. A tight ribcage allows for a more efficeint transfer of power to the bar by the muscles attached to it when they contract.

2.) Abs
In the extended spinal position that the arch requires on the bench, the abs cannot tighten. They cannot therefore increase intra-abdominal pressure, and cannot contribute to the needed increase in intra-thoracic pressure, thus making the big breath the sole source of support for the chest.

3.) Pattern of Breathing
The pattern of breathing during the bench is dependent on the length of the set and the abilities of the lifter. Novices should be instructed to take a breath before each rep, hold it during the rep, and exhale at lockout, using the very brief break between the reps to make sure everything is set correctly. More experienced lifters may prefer to use one breath for the entire set - any exhalation involves a certain amount of loosening of the chest to exhale and re-inhale, and some may elect to stay tight for all the reps if the set is important. Most people can only manage five reps this way before the discomfort from the hypoxia becomes too distracting. For a longer set, other arrangements will need to be made.

4.) Breath Timing
The breath is to be taken BEFORE the rep. If the breath is taken during the rep, the lungs will incompletely fill due to the loading of the ribcage by the now-contracted pecs. If the breath is taken at the top with locked elbows, the pecs are not pulling on the ribcage and a more complete inhalation can take place. Moreover, when the rep starts everything should be right, from the floor to the fingernails, and this rightness will prevent a really big breath. If you can breathe during a rep, you're not tight enough.

5.) Tidal Volume
No breath taken during a set will involve a complete exhale/inhale of full tidal volume. This takes too long, requires too much relaxation, and is unnecessary. Breathing during the set consists only of topping off the huge breath taken before the first rep, after a quick exhalation the might consists of only 10% of tidal volume. The short transfer of air accomplishes just enough to allow the set to be finished. The fact that it amounts to so little air is the reason many lifters decide to forego it in favour of maintaining tightness. Most of the time, if a lifter stops in the middle of a set to take two or more relative full breaths, he is about to miss the next rep.

Spotters

1.) Predominant Need for Spotters
Spotters should be there for safety, when there is a question of safety - spotters should NOt be there to help with a set.

2.) New Rule
No rep counts that is TOUCHED by anybody other than the lifter. Nobody touches the bar that is still moving up.

3.) Honesty and Effectiveness of a Program
If the numbers being reported out of the program are not honest, you have absolutely no way to evaluate the program. This obviously applies to all lifts that customarily require spotters.

4.) When to Use Spotters
The first warm-up sets are not a safety concern and do not require spotters, unless they are providing a coaching function. As the weight gets heavier, more trainees will need a spot, some needing one on the last warm-up, until the work sets, where everybody should be spotted because the weight is supposed to be heavy. Excessive caution, and the insistence that every set be spotted, is inefficient, unnecessary, and hard to enforce. It is much more productive to yell about spotters grabbing the last rep of a work set than to bother everybody about getting a spot for the first warm-up set.

5.) The Handoff
One of the actual functions of the spotter is the handoff. A good handoff is one of those rare commodities - there are more bad ones than good. A bad handoff interferes with the lifters timing, balance, view of the ceiling, and concetration, if he is one of those people that thinks his participation in the rep is essential. A good handoff spotter is experienced and appropriate with the timing and force of his bar contact, respectful of the mental requirements of the lifter, and above all, conservative about when and how much to help.

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