Sarah Walls 7/12/12 Sarah Walls 7/12/12

What's Different About Your Training?

Do you remember the good ol’ days when you used to wake up and be excited to train? The times when setting a new PR was as satisfying as waking up on Christmas morning. I certainly do, sadly there will come a time when life gets in the way and your training sessions won’t be as awesome as they once were. Sometime last week after yet another lack luster training session of mine I sat down for about 30 minutes and thought about my training since my last meet. My training frequency has stayed the same (four days a week) yet each session seems progressively lazier, as if my head just isn’t in it. So I’m sitting there thinking what’s different, what is different now compared to a few months ago? So I made a list of the things that are different in my everyday routine that could potentially be causing my sessions to be as awful as watching a Keeping Up with the Kardashian’s marathon.

1. No Training Partner: All 3 of my previous training partners are off doing internships with their respected teams University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, and the New York Jets. My training partners kept me on track and pushed me which made training fun. We were able to give each other feedback and make fun of each other which always led to good sessions. But I haven’t always had training partners and my training was still productive so what was different then? Music
2. Music: It’s clear that if I don’t have a training partner I need to bring back the old days and put the ear-buds in and zone out. I need to be focused on the task at hand and I clearly can’t be trusted to do that when people who are not my training partners are around. They just become an unneeded distraction, not intentionally, just happens. Listening to music on my iPod will block out all the distraction, get me jacked up, and allow me to focus on the task.
3. AM Training: For as long as I can remember I trained in the morning before I did anything else. It wasn’t until recently that I started training in the afternoon. And looking back on the situation I am much better suited to train in the morning. It sets the pace for my day. It clears my head and it allows me to take my time rather than rush to get in a workout. I also work better if I get my training out of the way early, I can just focus on work after instead of worrying about getting my training in.
4. Food: Recently my nutrition has taken a back seat, out of pure laziness than anything else. My mentality used to be eat to train. I would eat 5 meals a day and I would feel awesome during training sessions. Lately I have been skipping breakfast, A- because I have been lazy and B- because of dumb people in the fitness industry, but more on that in my next point. It’s definitely time to get back to my old eating habits. I AM THE PEANUT BUTTER KING!

Fitness Professionals: Even a professional strength coach like me can still fall victim to fitness propaganda. You’re probably asking what do other fitness professionals have to do with your training. That’s a good question, and the answer is a lot more than I should have allowed. There is so much crap written by people just trying to sell you stuff that it’s almost impossible not to succumb to it at least once. And sadly it almost made me doubt my own knowledge base. Then I woke up and realized what a bunch of BS it all is. I know this point kind of got off track but it’s something that I realized I didn’t used to let impact my training/nutrition so it’s important that it not impact it now.*

You may be asking what the point was to writing all of this. The goal of all my posts is to get YOU to train better or to help you reach YOUR goals. The best way to do that is to learn from others mistakes so you can in turn avoid the same pitfalls. Hopefully this post has allowed you to evaluate your own training, figure out what the problem is and helped you to get it back on track. The points I listed above are all excuses to not have a good training session. An excuse is a problem that can be rectified, I chose to do so. Will you?

*People I'm currently reading to block out internet BS Mark Rippetoe, Jim Wendler, Dan John, Dave Tate, and Louie Simmons.

Sarah Walls 6/29/12 Sarah Walls 6/29/12

Quick Tip to Improve Your Bench Press: The other 50%+ of the Equation

Note: I believe this is the first time in history that I've specifically addressed the bench press on SAPTstrength. Grab hold of your bootstraps, boys and girls, it's gonna be a weird, wild, and crazy ride. The other day I had an "ah-ha" moment as I was discussing the bench press with one of our clients. He was saying how one of the reasons it took so long for him to figure out (and apply) correct bench press technique was because he was only thinking about the press portion of the lift. This was not only compromising his form, but ultimately limiting how much weight he was able to handle.

See the video below regarding the most common flaw I see in amateur bench pressers, and pick up a quick tip that you can apply immediately to your benching in order help you receive more from the movement, keep your shoulders healthier, and move that weight around.

Sarah Walls 6/21/12 Sarah Walls 6/21/12

Box Squatting is the Greatest

In efforts to conquer my fear of speaking in front of a camera I decided to make today's entry a video post. We all need to work on our weaknesses and mine happens to be public speaking and speaking on camera; it’s like kryptonite to being able to organize my thoughts. Anyway, practice makes perfect so the following video is talking about why I prefer to use the box squat (as opposed to a squat to box) as my preferred method when teaching proper back squat mechanics. I hope the audio is loud enough; just in case the two main reasons I go into as to why I prefer box squatting is safety and posterior chain strength development. Enjoy…

Sarah Walls 5/31/12 Sarah Walls 5/31/12

The Do's and Don'ts of Being an Intern

Internships are the bridges that lead into a career in strength and conditioning whether it’s at the collegiate level or the private sector. If you want to pursue a career in this industry at some point you need to do an internship. If you don’t then you won’t gain hands on knowledge and you won’t be able to learn from people more experienced and smarter than you. Internships are almost a rite of passage. They mean you paid your dues. If you successfully completed an internship it means you worked hard every day, you cleaned equipment, you organized storage closets, you woke up at 4:00AM to be in the weight room for a 5:00AM team and then worked till 4:00PM, you read endlessly, you watched some of the most knowledgeable people you’ll ever meet coach, you got to ask those coaches questions, you got to listen to those coaches answer your questions, and if you were lucky those coaches threw you to the wolves and told you one morning “hey, I’m going to let you run women’s soccer today to see how you do” then they watched you fail miserably which gave you the opportunity to find out what your made of, then they showed you how to learn from your mistakes and how to do it better the next time! And you did it all for no money, just for the experience, the knowledge, the pride and to see if you had what it takes. It was all for the opportunity to gain the ability to help people and athletes become better versions of themselves. Or at least this is what it should be about; sadly a lot of people just want to get by. You’d be amazed by the amount of people who want to say they put in the work rather than just putting in the work. People who do the internship because they need the credit to graduate so they try to put in as little effort as possible instead of taking advantage of a great situation in which they can learn.

With all that said here are some do’s and don’ts to follow in order to get the best possible experience out of your internship…

1) Be Quiet

You are there to learn, not socialize. The coaches don’t care about how “crazy” your weekend was. Unless your asking questions there is no need for you to talk, until the coach states otherwise.

2) Understand That You Know Nothing/Be Open Minded

It’s important to grasp the concept that unless you have coaching experience your opinion doesn't hold much value. There’s nothing worse than someone who spouts off exercise science trivia but can’t goblet squat to save their life or teach it for that matter. It doesn’t matter what your training methodology is because it’s over for the time being. Take this time to step out of your comfort zone and learn something new. Is your internship somewhere that is Olympic based? Well if it is guess what? You are going to train the Olympic lifts for the next semester or year. If you go into the whole thing thinking you know it all then then you’ve demonstrated that you truly know nothing.

3) Do as Your Asked and Do it with a Smile on Your Face

Your job is whatever the strength coach you’re working under deems it to be. If they want you to go reorganize the whole storage closet then do it and whistle while you work, trust me it helps. If they want you to observe a training session then you need watch intently and have questions ready to ask them when the session is done. It’s a privilege that these coaches have taken you under their wing so show gratitude by performing each task no matter how minute it is to the best of your ability

4) Show Initiative

Sadly, this was my biggest problem during my internships. If someone told me to do something I definitely did it to the best of my ability. That was the problem though, most of the time I had to be told when to do something. If you see plates unorganized then go organize them before someone tells you. Is everything organized in the storage closet by the end of the day? If not, take it upon yourself to organize it. If the strength coach is running behind schedule and has a collegiate baseball team getting out of line then put your big boy/girl pants on and go lay down the law. One of your jobs is to assist the strength coach so they can focus on their job. If they have to stop what they’re doing in order to tell you what to do all the time then you’re just making things worse. Taking initiative shows leadership qualities and that you can handle yourself in all different situations.

5) Have Fun

I know that sounds a little hard after all the things I just mentioned BUT I promise you that if you observe the other rules listed number 5 will come naturally. If you can successfully observe the previous rules then the strength coach you work under will probably make your job a lot more enjoyable. If you don’t heed the other rules you’re going to have a really angry strength coach as a boss. Working under Sarah I learned this quick, that’s not a person you want angry at you; I have nightmares to this day…. joking…. But seriously. In all seriousness though, depending on where you end up for your internship you have been given a great opportunity to change yourself for the better. It’s important to do everything in your power to seize the opportunity.

Sarah Walls 5/24/12 Sarah Walls 5/24/12

Don't Leave Your Assistance Work Out in the Cold!

A house won’t be much of a house without nails, screws, and cement. I would say the same goes for your training as well. Consider your main movement of the day (squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, pull-ups) the building blocks of your house. With that first lift you have the makings of a giant mansion; now how will you hold it all together? This is where your “assistance” work or “supplemental” work comes in. The assistance work of your program act as the nails, screws, and cement that solidify the work you’ve put in with your main movement. They will provide your house the ability to stay strong and not crumble.

Before I go any further let me explain what qualifies as assistance work. If your main lift of the day is a squat then your assistance would be a variation thereof. This can be another bilateral movement or a unilateral movement; but almost always compound in nature and will mimic the movement pattern of your main lift. Examples of assistance work for a squat would be a box squat, front squat, split squat, BSS, etc. (these lifts can be used as a main movement but in this instance they would be considered assistance work). Your assistance work can be used for different reasons be it to reinforce the movement pattern of your main lift, bringing up weak points and imbalances, to make the main musculature stronger and bigger, etc. Regardless of the reason the main point becomes that assistance work will get you stronger and better at the main lifts which in the end will make you stronger overall. Plus it gives you yet another way to get your Hulk on and smash weight.

I’m not saying go out and work up to a heavy double on safety squat bar good mornings for an assistance lift, that would just be overkill. I believe you should still be moving some appreciable weight but the volume should be greater than your first lift (as long as your volume for your first lift wasn’t absurdly high). In order to work on your weaknesses or to get better at the movement pattern you need to practice. This would be the reason why it’s important to keep the volume higher; it provides a lot of practice.

How much volume are we talking here? You want to give yourself a rep range that is going to work on your specific goals. Is maximal strength your goal? Then I would probably keep the volume low (18-30 reps). Is hypertrophy your goal? Then I would probably keep the volume on the higher end (30-50 reps). Keep in mind I am speaking generally, there are many exceptions to what I just said based on a person’s strength level. One exception would be if you have a relatively young training age then I would stay at the low end and be focused on quality not quantity. What I like to do is pick a number of reps and flat load it over a few weeks. For example, if I picked 24 reps for my total volume then my sets/reps would go something like, week 1: 6x4, week 2: 5x5, and week 3: 4x6. This way I can stay at the same volume while hitting it in different ways each week. Mark Bell has talked about this before and I think it’s a great way to go about programming your assistance lifts.

The tricky part in all this is to keep from going overboard. As I stated before I feel you should be using heavy weight but that heavy weight should be appropriate for the volume you are working at. If your max deadlift is 315 then it’s probably not a good idea to try and do 300lbs RDL’s for 5X6. You would look awful doing it, if you could even do it at all. Good luck trying to groove a movement pattern using 95% of your deadlift max (yeah I did the math, what of it!). Have you ever read or heard a fitness professional say “just focus on your main movement; don’t worry so much about your assistance work?” The reason they say that is because if they told you to treat it with the same intensity as your main lift then you would probably load the bar as heavy as possible and the lift would look as ugly as this dog.

The problem with fitness professionals coaching that or writing that is now people seem to just go through the motions when it comes to assistance work; they feel it’s not important. Well I’m telling you now that it is. Just work hard and make the reps look smooth!

I know it can be challenging for people to get in their training session with their hectic schedule. Your main movement is primary and crucial but your assistance work is a close second. If you need to cut out anything then cut out your accessory work (accessory work would be something like tricep pushdowns, delt raises, facepulls; most of the time they are single joint movements done at a high volume, 30+ reps near the end of a training session). You really shouldn’t lose focus on anything while training. All your movements should be intense and deliberate. If you can’t devote the effort needed to an exercise then you shouldn’t do it at all. With that said, it’s time to show your assistance work some love, it has feelings too!

Sarah Walls 5/15/12 Sarah Walls 5/15/12

Basic Speed Development Program

The overwhelming request we get almost daily: Do you guys do speed training?

My answer: Hellz YES!

In an effort to compliment my running related warnings over at StrongGirlsWin.com from earlier today, I wanted to take this post to another level and get all geeked-out over some real-deal sprint training.You gotta present both sides of the coin, ya know?

While I've termed this post as "basic speed development," please DO NOT confuse that for BEGINNER speed development. There's a big difference. This sample program is for someone who has at least a year of regimented general training under their belt that is heavy on both sprint and weight training fundamentals.

Without further delay...

Basic Speed Development Program

Day 1 - Starts, Speed, & Total Body Lift with Lower Body Emphasis
Day 2 - Tempo Run
Day 3 - Special endurance & Total Body Lift with Upper Body Emphasis
Day 4 - Tempo Run
Day 5 - Starts, Speed Endurance, Long jump/triple jump Technique (at high intensity and include as overall daily volume), & Total Body Lift (even split)
Day 6 - Tempo Run
Day 7 - Rest

Notes:

Keep your intensity above 90% or below 65%! The in-between work is trash for developing true speed and will only increase the likelihood for injury, while decreasing the chance for improvements.
Avoid the pitfalls of starting with high volume and low intensity. Rather begin with HIGH INTENSITY and LOW VOLUME. Then gradually increase volume while keeping the intensity high.

Sample Program Details:Monday - Speed Work: 2 x 3 x 20-30m accelerations (rest at least 4-minutes between reps); Med Ball Throws @ 6-10lbs: Squat to Overhead Push Throw x 6-8 + Keg Toss x 6-8 (at least 1-minute rest between each throw, we're after MAX EFFORT with every single toss/throw); Weights: Total body lift with lower body emphasis; Core: 100 reps (choose whatever floats your boat) Tuesday - Tempo Run: 8-12 x 100m (easy, basically a fast jog) + complete 10-20 V-Ups (or whatever core work you prefer) between each run - use the runs as the recovery between the V-ups Wednesday - Special Endurance: 2 x 150-300m with 20-25 min recovery; during the recovery (every 7-8 mins) do some light tempo runs, body weight calestenics, core, etc. the goal here is to simply stay warm during the break; Weights: Total body with upper body emphasis; Core: 200 reps (choose whatever floats your boat) Thursday - Tempo Run: Similar to Tuesday Friday - Speed Work: 2 x 3 x 20-30m accelerations (rest at least 4-minutes between reps); Med Ball Throws @ 6-10lbs: Squat to Slam x 6-8 + Falling Forward Chest Throw to Sprint x 6-8 (at least 1-minute rest between each throw, we're after MAX EFFORT with every single toss/throw); Weights: Total body lift (even split); Core: 100 reps (choose whatever floats your boat) ***After several weeks, longer sprints (50-60m) can be added to the speed workouts on Mondays and Fridays.