A field test - Prowlers Vs Squats

Evening all,

Im currently a week into a field "test" that I have been wanting to do for a fair while now.

I'll cut to the chase....

The aim is to see if replacing heavy squats with heavy prowlers, makes any difference to your 1RM.

2 weeks ago I tested my squat 1RM.....maxed out a comfortable 170kg. For the past two weeks I have replaced ALL squatting with heavy prowlers. This is how my prowler week looks:

Monday - Heavy 15m Prowler Push - 10/15 sets

Wednesday - Heavy 5m Prowler Push - 10/15 sets

Friday - Heavy 10m Prowler Push- 10/15 sets

And yes my CNS was fried after the first week. However, the next week I came back and pushed a lot more weight than the previous sessions.

This may or may not work, but I thought I'd be the one to find out.

Below is video of my last 10m heavy pushing session. Worked up to a final set of 270kg/600lbs at a bodyweight of 102kg.

Until next time,

Stay Strong

Olympic Lifting - to lift or not to lift?

The Clean & Jerk and the Snatch…. The staple diet of any UKSCA qualified “strength and conditioning” coach, BUT are they the only way to get powerful?

I believe the Olympic lifts have gained popularity through supposed specificity for sports, i.e. how well the exercise can be carried over onto the field. However from where I’m sitting surely you will never/rarely recreate the biomechanical rate of force that occurs within the competitive environment.  In reality there is no exercise/lift that is 100% specific to the sport of your choice (unless your sport is weightlifting), however what can be specific is the way in which you train your athletes energy system. If your sport is aerobic…then cardiac intervals are for you….. if your sports is alactic…then 10/20m speed is the way forward (at a very basic level). Olympic lifts are general movement patterns that conditioners try to pass of as “specific”. Let’s get it straight…. exercises are specific to the exercise being trained.

Having spent the majority of my conditioning time dealing with elite rugby union or league players I base most of my opinions on how those athletes have reacted or adapted to the movements. With that in mind, the  point at which the most gains will be made is during the pre season phase. Players can handle a large amount of stress that is put on their CNS, whilst having an adequate time to recover. If you are having to try and teach two, technically very difficult, movements to players then the true benefits will not be seen for at least 2/3 weeks whilst they figure out the correct movement patterns. Now in my opinion, the amount of time it takes to teach and benefit from a coordinated and complex movement is sometimes not worth the return especially if the players are at the ages at which their hormones are raging and they would benefit a lot more from hypertrophy or strength phases, rather than focusing on mastering a technique in which the elite Olympic Lifters are still trying to master themselves.

Another reason for my own personal neglect of the Olympic lifts is that the force only moves in a vertical plane of motion! During a rugby union or league game there is rarely time in which the production of force is vertical rather than horizontal. If you, as a conditioner, are looking to provide specificity within the production of power, why develop a motion than is travelling in completely the wrong direction?

The last point that I will make about the Olympic lifts, is that they don’t address unilateral strength or have any rotational components. Both aspects are huge within the world of combat or collision sports.

I would imagine that many disagree with my opinions. It doesn’t bother me. In fact I would encourage it. Variety is the spice of life.

Until next time,

Stay Strong!

(A big citing goes to Buddy Morris for this post!)

Finishers!!!

You’ve done your heavy sets….. You’ve done your accessory lifts….. You’ve tickled the abs…. now what?

 

Meet the “finisher”!

 

The majority of trainers or conditioners would think of a finisher as a “five minute blast” of a “met con” but in reality, a finisher is an exercise that compliments your main objective within the workout....for example, if you've benched that day, then you find a finisher that hits the chest and triceps (Ring Push Up Drop Set).

You usually perform the exercises to failure, aiming for one almighty set!  It’s not a CrossFit style haphazard combination of exercises. You need to think about what your goals are for that workout and THEN figure out what your finisher will be.

 

 

Below are a list of variety of different finishers that you could incorporate into your workouts.

 

Upper Body Finishers:

Ring Push Up Drop Set

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AortrrT-4S4&feature=plcp

 

Inverted Row “Burnout” Set

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayI3fwAH9OA&feature=plcp

Inverted Row Drop Set (An absolute killer!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRidTHz5VPw&feature=plcp

Lower Body Finishers:

Goblet Skater Squats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1TuasYdM2M&feature=plcp

 

Chain RDL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnUq_xaMovo&feature=plcp

 

Landmine Reverse Lunges

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-JvMasujrw&feature=plcp

 

Just a word of warning; if your looking for an easy route then your in the wrong place. Finishers are meant to be tough.

 

Don’t bitch and squeal. Embrace and adapt.

Until next time

Stay Strong

Nutritional Timing for Athletes

With the speedy rise in the popularity of protein shakes, post-workout drinks and energy bars, I felt that it would be only right to share with you guys my thoughts on correct timing of nutrition throughout your training periods.

As we all know, during a 24 hour growth cycle, the muscles in our bodies are involved in three different activities; production of energy, recovery, and growth. During these periods it is key for an athlete to understand what food/drinks of consume and when.

Unfortunately the idea that more protein is better can be misleading to athletes. You could eat an entire pig, but if your muscles are not receptive at that particular time then the protein will be wasted.

 

There are three different phases that the muscles travel through during the 24 hour growth/recovery period after a workout:

The Energy Phase:

·         The phase coincides with your workout.

·         The main objective of muscle is to realise the right amount of energy to drive muscle contraction.

·         During this phase it is important to consume the correct amount of carbohydrates to prevent fatigue or the depletion of energy within the muscles.

The Anabolic Phase:

·         This period is active during the 45 minute window following a workout.

·         Initiates the repair of the “damaged” muscles.

·         Replenish glycogen stores.

·         The period at which muscles cells are extremely sensitive to the anabolic effects of insulin.

 

The Growth Phase:

·         Extends from the end of the anabolic phase until the beginning of the next workout.

·         Increases the number of contractile proteins.

·         Helps the muscles fully replenish muscle glycogen.

·         Consumption of protein and carbohydrates is essential.

In part 2 of Nutritional Timing for Athletes I will be providing you with some examples of what supplements/foods to be eating during those periods.

So, until next time

Stay Strong

Muscle Hypertrophy

As you all know I'm lucky enough to be heading up the strength and conditioning for London Broncos Rugby League Academy. The athletes are between the ages of 17-20. The age at which hormones are raging, and muscles are prone to huge growth. 

My personal philosophy on training young rugby league players, or union, is that the year at which they are in the academy are perfect years to make use of the hormones flying round their bodies. Instead on wasting sessions on teaching them more technically challenging lifts such as clean and jerk or the snatch, I keep the movements "simple", with an emphasis on growth.

Recently, myself and the other coaches, have been discussing what type of hypertrophy we are looking to gain; sarcoplasmimc or myofibrillar? 

This got me thinking. How many trainers actually know the difference?

As we all know, or should know, hypertrophy is the process by which muscles growth as a result of physical training. In short, the body responds to minor damage done to the muscles during physical training, and then repairs itself during rest to respond better towards similar stimulus in the future.

The two different types of hypertrophy are completely different to each each on an internal and external level. 

Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy:

During this sort of muscle hypertrophy, you're focused on increasing the size of the muscle. However, most of this growth is based on liquid and not on real muscle tissue growth. With Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy, your muscle cells fill up with a fluid called Sarcoplasm. This expands the size of the cells, which gives you the appearance of bigger muscles. These often look rounded and not toned as the muscles expand similar to a water filled balloon. In addition, since most of the growth is based on liquid, this type of hypertrophy does not bring with it additional strength.

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy:

This type of muscular hypertrophy results in an increase in muscle tissue density. You're adding more muscle fibers, making the tissue denser. As more fibers are created, your strength and physical ability increases, often dramatically. However, this muscle growth is less visible as the muscles do not grow outwardly as much as they do with Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy. However, the muscles may appear firmer and more defined with this type of growth.

Hopefully, you can now see that there is a huge difference between the two types.

Lets bring science to the weights room!

Until next time

Stay Strong

Intervals for Aerobic Power

Evening Killers,

Just took a session tonight with the boys at Camberley RFC. They SMASHED it!

Asides from the usual strength/GPP session that we do (I will post it below), I introduced them to some cardiac power intervals.

They are fantastic for increasing your work capacity at all levels. 

The session looks like this:

Choose either a rower, treadmill or bike.... no cross-trainers... as they suck balls!!

Set 1 - 60 seconds of hard work...hard work means 110% effort....DO NOT HOLD BACK ON ANY OF YOUR WORK SETS

Rest 3 mins

Set 2 - 60 seconds of hard work

Rest 3 mins

Set 3 - 70 seconds of hard work (get the point now....DONT HOLD BACK)

Rest 3 mins

Set 4 - 70 seconds

Rest 3 mins

Set 5 - 80 seconds 

Rest 4 mins

Set 6 - 80 seconds

Rest 4 mins

Set 7 - 90 seconds

Rest 4 mins

Set 8 - 90 seconds

8 sets of white knuckle work!

I will post a video of the Camberley boys work sets, later on.

There gym session, for you keen crabs out there,was:

1. Squats - Work up to a 5 rep max

2. Bench Press - 3 sets of 6 reps (4 seconds on the way down, slow eccentric phase) use 80% of your 1 rep max

3A. Military Press - 4 x 10

3B. Chin Ups - 4 x max reps

4. Group Abs

Until next time

Stay Strong

Zones of Intensity for Weightlifting.

Evening killers,

Was going after it in the gym this evening, and had a thought for a quick article.

Ive lost count of the times when ive seen athletes or gym-goers 'just lift'. Lifting without direction. No percentage perception, or rep/set scheme.

Here's a quick helper for you students of strength:
(working off a 1 rep max)
30%-50% - low intensity for speed orientated sports
50%-85% - medium intensity for force orientated sports, such as weightlifting
85%-95% - high intensity for weightlifting and other sports
95% + - maximum intensity, developes absolute strength.

Another consideration is what type of strength you are developing:
Absolute,
Speed,
Explosive,
Strength Endurance (whilst this will increase endurance, it doesnt actually produce any form of strength. if fact is completely eliminates any opportunity to increase strength, due to neglecting the other three elements).

Until Next time

stay Strong

Whats best for fat loss??

Lets be honest..... the debate of what type of training helps lose fat most effectively will never stop. Its life. Trainers like to talk about the latest and most “trendy” way to lose fat. It doesn’t mean its effective. And it sure as hell doesn’t mean that they know what they’re talking about. But it does mean that not one “type” of training will ever stay at the top of the castle which makes it hard for people to really know what is best for them or their clients/athletes.

If however, trainers want to see results, rather than see their clients walk out of the gym and munch their way through a 1000 calorie cake, then all that is needed is some common sense.

The body finds it energy from two different sources: glycogen or fat. Now.... how this energy is sourced comes down to the heart rate. If the heart rate is lower, then the body is more prone to burning fat. Whereas, if the heart rate is high, then the body is more likely to use glycogen as the energy source.

Once you know those facts, then surely losing weight must be easy.

Yes! But still we have these trainers that won’t acknowledge the science. They dont realise that the best way to burn of calories is to push your body as HARD AS YOU CAN, for AS LONG AS YOU CAN. This way you will burn off calories. NOT FAT!

These trainers that tend to stick with the HIIT style workouts, are the trainers that can be seen standing in the corner of the gym standing of a BOSU ball, whilst fashioning their latest Nike Pro Gear. All gag, no vomit!

The majority of you readers may think my comments go against the grain, and you’re most likely thinking “why should I listen to this dude?”. That’s fine. But.... I have trained athletes from a variety of sports that require fat percentages to be low: MMA, rugby league, rugby union, cycling, and judo to nam a few. The method I use has worked for me, very effectively.

I tend to have my athletes/clients perform aerobic work at a LOW INTENSITY, whilst performing intervals at the same time. There are three reasons for using this method:

1.       The body utilises fat as an energy source.

2.       The interval method at low intensity allows the athlete/client to go for much longer.

3.       The periods when the athlete/client is “resting” is still an extended period of time that the heart rate is elevated.

All in all, this method provides a positive reaction. The body becomes more efficient at recovering, whilst using fat as an energy source.

Until next time

Stay Strong

Get off the high intensity bandwagon!

I’m sick and tired of listening to strength coaches jump on the “high intensity” bandwagon. This god awful bandwagon contains misguided quotes such as “you’ll lose strength if you run for over 20 minutes”… or…. “your biceps will shrink”….or even worse…”you’ll lose power”

SERIOUSLY?

The majority of trainers/strength coaches have this idea in their heads, that if you are working aerobically then you may as well be wearing Lycra and dancing to music. After all, why run for 4 miles when you all you really need to do is perform 8 sets of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. Right?

Wrong, again!

Much like all fads in the world today, I am 100% certain that this HIIT fad will die down soon, but for the time being let me at least try my best to make you consider missing the bus that leads to nowhere.

Intensity is a tool. Use it wisely! The higher the intensity, the bigger the disruption of homeostasis, the bigger the improvement OVER A VERY SHORT PERIOD!! If you look at all the research done on a high intensity program versus a low intensity program they were performed over a 4 to 6 week period. So of course you will see a bigger improvement within the high intensity group. Its not rocket science. BUT. And it’s a freakin’ huge BUT… you also a see that the high intensity groups see NO FURTHER IMPROVEMENT after the first initial 3 weeks. Lets take the research done on “tabata”. Tabata seems to be the mother of all intensity programs. The research done on tabata showed that there were no increases in aerobic fitness after the first 3 weeks. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. The way I look at it, you’ve trained hard for 3 weeks for nothing. The ONLY way they could have continued to see improvements was to raise the intensity, and continue to raise the load on the athlete which will soon reach its peak. Lets not forget about the lyrca wearing low intensity group. They continued to see improvements throughout the course of the study.

End result = higher intensities produce bigger increases, but are much shorter lived. You have to keep increasing the intensity, to keep going.

So what happens if you throw massive amounts of intensity at your athletes, unnecessarily, you’ve just increased the intensity threshold tenfold and fairly quickly they will plateau as you can’t increase the intensity any more. That’s the main reason why we see high intensity do-gooders plateau after about 3 to 4 months. They’ve thrown everything, include the barbell, at their programming, and now have nowhere to go.

Conclusion: If your looking to make money from your fat mums, who come to the gym to “work hard”, but still want to have their double cream shake, then by all means jump on the bandwagon and ride the hell out of her. But if you want to see continual improvements from your athletes, take things a little slower. Athletes don’t need to be doing the most ‘advanced’ methods possible. Increase the intensity over a longer period of time. That’s how you’ll see continual improvements over time.

What ever I say, there will still be those proud few who disagree. It doesn’t bother me. In fact I encourage you to keep going. Soon enough your athletes or clients will jump ship. Then all you’ll be left with is a misused barbell and a broken treadmill.

Until next time

Stay Strong

Sadiv Sets

Afternoon killers,

I bet that non of you have heard of Richard Sadiv?? correct? thought so. Well his nickname is "The Human Crane", pretty badass from my point of view. He's over 40 years old and still out deadlifts most powerlifters.

Anyways, keep it short and sharp, he designed a method of training your deadlift called "Sadiv Set's". Its a pretty simple concept - Take 70% of your 1RM. Set running clock for 10/12 minutes. Perform as many SINGLES as possible.

Being the student of strength that I am, I set a clock and went for it. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YulEu8KGats&feature=plcp

Until next time

Stay Strong

What is Conditioning??

The word “conditioning” is thrown around a lot. Coaches use it when they make their athletes run. PT’s use it when they want to sell a different package. Internet gurus want to use it when they need to sound intelligent. But, do they really understand what the word means?

Far too frequently strength coaches or PT’s use the word “conditioning” without really having a solid understanding of what they are talking about. Conditioning is:

A measure of how well an athlete is able to meet the energy production demands of his/hers sport

A rugby player, who is able to generate power for a scrum, is as well conditioned as a hockey player who can cover 12km per game. Conditioning is more than just about “cardio”, which is very much misunderstood within the strength and conditioning world.

What ever the sport, the demands are different. Some sports require a combination of power and endurance. Some sports need a great deal of power but less endurance, and other sports are the complete opposite.

Therefore, conditioning is the result of how well the systems of your body are able to create the energy your muscles need to perform the skills of your sport. You can now hopefully see that conditioning is wrongly mistaken for just “cardio”. Joel Jamieson’s (top MMA Strength coach) research showed us that there are six components that determine your conditioning level, and how well your body can produce AND utilise the energy necessary for your chosen sport:

 

Understanding the important principles of conditioning, will hopefully allow you to fully understand what it truly meant by the term conditioning.

Until next time

Stay Strong

Why do we fatigue?

When you're expending energy at a very high rate, non of the energy systems (Alactic, Lactic or Aerobic) can keep up with the demands you are putting on your body. The body is designed to fatigue long before the muscles or heart rate runs out of ATP (ATP is the bodies petrol). Even at the highest levels of intensity, the bodies ATP levels don’t drop below 60%. Dropping below 60% would be very damaging to the muscles. In order to stop that, the body has a few defence mechanisms in place to allow the body to maintain homeostasis (normal living state).

Central and Peripheral Fatigue:

Central

• ·      Brain turns “off” muscles, which decreases power output, and slows down your rate of energy expenditure.
• ·      Fewer motor units are recruited > less muscles fibres firing > less energy used > less decrease in ATP percentage.

Peripheral

• ·      Decrease in contractile properties – i.e. the muscles cant produce as much force.
• ·      Likely to come about due to environmental changes within the cells.

In reality, no one knows exactly why the body fatigues. I don’t care what they say, there is yet to a be a study that has shown 100% certainty as to why we fatigue. If anyone tells you that “lactic acid” is the reason why, they’re a jackass. If anyone says that it is due to a build up of phosphate, they’re an even bigger jackass. 

Some studies have shown that a build up of hydrogen ions COULD be the reason, but again, it’s the best explanation for a topic we do not fully understand. What we can be certain of, is that the body fatigues on purpose. It needs to fatigue to survive. Once we understand the central and peripheral fatiguing systems, then we may be closer to finding the actual reason! I guess the title was misleading and you may feel that you are no closer to realising the truth than you were when you hadn't read this. I can only apologise, but I feel there will be more apologise to come, from a variety of coaches and scientists, as we endeavour to find the reason.

Until next time

Stay Strong

Energy Systems uncovered. Part 1

Here’s a story to set the scene. During my first few years as a strength coach I had a guy come up to me and ask if I could train him for a judo fight that he had coming up in a couple of months. Having only trained elite rugby players, my knowledge of judo or MMA was small. Especially when it came to the conditioning aspect. 

So, in one long afternoon I decided to watch videos, read articles and listen to interviews, to get a better idea of what had to be done. After 4 long hours I thought I had it down to a T. The next morning when the fighter came in… I tested him. Tested him squat. Tested his bench press. Tested his Pull Ups. He was weak as piss! Could barely bench the bar, and only performed 2 pull ups. Being the wannbe meat head that I was, I thought I’d found the answer… “this guy is weak, so make him strong”. 

For the next few sessions I made him bench, squat and press! A week or so in to our training he invited me to come and have a go at a grappling session. I happily went along. Being 25kg heavier than him I was looking forward to teaching him a few things about rugby players. That was all well and good for about 30 seconds. After the initial 30 seconds I was lying in position that could only be described as awkward, wanting the whole experience to end. It didn’t. He beat me up for about 30 minutes. It clicked…… just because you’re strong in the gym, doesn’t mean you’re going to be strong athletically!

That experience opened my eyes to the energy systems. As athletes we need to embrace our bodies! Realise that we need to be all rounded. Not all rounded in a CrossFit sense, but all rounded in an energy system sense. All the energy systems over lap. If you improve an athletes strength, speed strength or strength speed in the gym, but didnt train them so that they can utilise it in a sporting environment then you’ve done nothing for them! You need to be able to increase the bodies ability to support the extra force they have gained.

In a fairly brief-ish overview (which will spread out over 3 parts), I will try to explain to you how each system works, so hopefully you can see for yourself how they relate to each other, and more importantly, how they relate to performance.

Right, you can only really produce energy in one of two ways; aerobically (with oxygen) and anaerobically (without oxygen). But in order to utilise the expenditure/rejuvenation of ATP efficiently the body  has three energy systems that it uses; Alactic (10-12 sec), Lactic (30-60 sec), Aerobic (hours). All sports lie somewhere within the three energy systems. Over the 2 parts to this article, I will explain how each of the three systems work, and how they relate to your performance.

So…… until next time

Stay Strong (for once I will allow you to JUST be strong)

The Lactic Acid Myth

For years now, you could walk into a gym and hear an idiot PT/Strength Coach shouting “feel the burn”, and then proceeding to tell their clients/athletes that the reason why their muscles hurt during and after a workout, is because of lactic acid. Now, the majority of those trainers have yet to read a single study on the reasons for muscle soreness and the onset of fatigue during a workout, which unfortunately for them, means they are automatically put into large group of ignorant trainers who think they can get by in the fitness industry by not thinking for themselves, or progressing.

Its not all bad news for the idiots though. In past research, it has been stated that during higher intensities and higher workloads there is more lactate that builds up in the blood.  Simply put; the harder and longer you workout for (at high intensity) the more lactate will build up.

Eventually, and recently, research has allowed us to realise that this is definitely not true, and lactic acid does not even exist in body in any useful amounts. To most definitely stamp out the idiot trainers comments, scientists have found that the lactate that is produced during a workout is gone within an hour; so stating that lactic acid is the reason for DOMS is ignorant.

I can hear a faint whisper…… the whisper of uneducated trainers…… “If its not lactic acid, what is it?”

Well, brace yourself, I’m going to get all sciencey on your ass!! During the bodies breakdown of glucose into lactate there is a production of hydrogen ions (H+). It is this production of H+ that lowers the pH of the cell, and hinders muscular contraction. Its has nothing to do with lactate or lactic acid, but rather the production of hydrogen ions which follows the same chemical pathway as lactate.  I would forgive those trainers for believing the lactic acid myth, due to the fact that the hydrogen ions follow the same pathway as lactate, hence the correlation between lactate accumulation and fatigue.

On the complete flip side to this myth, scientists have found that the production of lactate (NOT lactic acid) may actually prevent the onset of fatigue. Some research has shown that lactate (NOT lactic acid… I will keep saying this until you get the point) is the energy bridge between an athletes anaerobic and aerobic systems.

Hopefully by now, you may be starting to realise that you shouldn’t believe everything you read or hear. Don’t believe me if you don’t want to, but at least read some research and create your own ideas. The way I’m thinking, we need to move on from thoughts born in the 80’s and 90’s. The affects of lactate and H+ is a topic which few trainers know much about!

So please, if your one of these trainers… stop wielding the lactic acid myth around as loosely as an aging working woman.

Until next time

Stay Strong