What is Your Secret?
Many of you may be familiar with Ross, who, I personally believe, is the only human being alive who seems to possess outstanding development of all three of his energy systems. I mean, how many people do you know that can - on any given day of the week, mind you - perform a true 1-arm pullup, deadlift over 550lbs, do 1-arm standing rollouts (with a weight vest), jump rope like he's in fast forward, and slay dragons? Below are two awesome clips that many of you have probably already seen, but I post them for those that haven't (or for those that can't get enough of this stuff):
'Nuff said.
He has accomplished what many people strive for in multiple sectors (strength, endurance, body composition, etc.). And he has done this primarily by training with minimal equipment either in his home garage or outside.
One of the things I like most about Ross is he has a great way of boiling complex topics down and communicating them in a way that makes it easy for his followers to understand. Not too long ago, I was reading some of the forums on his site, and someone asked him,
"Ross, what did you do to accomplish what you did?"
They were, of course, referring to some particular piece of equipment, or maybe a secret training methodology they hadn't heard of/tried before. The point is, they wanted to know what his "secret" was.
Ross responded with a simple yet profound piece of training advice:
Years and years of hard work.
That was it. That was all he said. I chuckled to myself at my desk, as I knew the person asking the question may have been slightly miffed and probably felt like Ross was short-changing him by not giving him a complete answer. The reality was that couldn't have been further from the truth; Ross was giving the young person probably the best thing he/she could have heard.
This got me thinking about how important the virtue of patience really is. There are countless athletes that will never see their full potential come to fruition because of impatience. Or someone whose goals lie strictly in the aesthetic realm may never succeed because it's always an "I want it now" approach.
Leo Tolstoy, the famous author of War and Peace, wrote in that very novel:
"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
So true. And, carrying that quote over to the exercise science realm: a program written by an expert coach who perfectly manipulates intensity, frequency, exercise selection, and volume, will do nothing for someone who lacks patience. Impatience will dissolve any potential positive outcome that could be attained by intelligent program design.
Athletes and non-athletes alike will never get to where they want to be unless they're willing to fight tooth and nail, every single day, for years and years on end. If a client/athlete approaches me and is too impatient to be willing to progress through one step at a time, then I honestly can't really help them. I can't be the coach they need to take them from Point A to Point B unless they can actually understand that there is no magic pill.
I receive countless questions on a monthly basis through email, Facebook, and in-person meetings on "how can I lose this weight" or "how can I increase my vertical ten inches over the next month" or, my favorite, the good ol' "what is the best exercise I can do to make my pecs bigger?"
I've honestly boiled down my answer to:
"Eat whole, unprocessed foods. Pick up heavy things. Repeat this for years on end."
Sometimes this irritates people, but it's the truth. In fact, it makes training all the more enjoyable when you're expectations are realistic.
That's all for now...I don't think I really have a closing point, but I hope Ross's lesson to the young padawan in the beginning hits home for some of you. Years and years of hard work....well, let's all keep goin' then.
Our take on "sport specific"
Quite frequently we're asked, "Is this (insert sport here) specific training?" Here's our take: Understand that all athletes, no matter what sport, need to engage in general movements to enhance their global strength so to speak; these exercise include squats, deadlifts, rows, unilateral movements, horizontal pressing and pulling, vertical pulling etc. These are, and should be, the bread and butter of every good strength training program.
We also blend drills that have a bit more dynamic correspondence, or specificity, to one’s sport. For instance, with our baseball players we incorporate various overhead and rotational drills with light medicine balls to improve velocities on these various planes of motion.
These occur primarily in the offseason as competing for the energy to develop technical abilities is not as significant. When implementing, we're careful to not too closely mimic the intricate movement patterns required by sport, i.e. throwing a baseball, as this can lead to a hindrance in the actual development and create inconsistencies with that particular skill. Read that again; yes, mimicking too closely, or inappropriately weighting a particular movement can actually prohibit technical mastery of specific sport skill. This is why as one gets closer to a competitive season, and certainly as one is engaged in-season, we wean these drills from the student-athletes program as the acquisition and refinement of sport skills are of paramount importance during this time.
From an injury prevention stand point, we are very cognizant of the stressors placed on the body during various sports, and understand that many of these stressors transcend sports. As such we tend to focus most of our efforts on these areas in an attempt to combat the repetitive and asymmetrical nature of sport. Our efforts are also aimed to improve the shortcomings of the individual as each present their own intimate challenges.
Getting strong all day long,
Chris
For Your Reading Enjoyment
Unfortunately I'm quite short on time today, so I'm going to pass on a couple reads I think you'll enjoy. Both two-part series come from Brian St. Pierre, who keeps a fantastic website that primarily centers around nutrition. I check his site a couple times a month, and there were a few I found over the past four weeks or so that really hit home.
1. Why Pointing the Finger at Carbs is Missing the Point: Part 1 and Part 2
Here Brian does a fantastic job directing people away from idiocy and brings us back to seeing things with a clear lens. As Alwyn Cosgrove once exclaimed: "Regardless of pesticides, fructose levels, etc., people who eat the most fruits and vegetables are healthier than those who eat the least. You're going to have a hard time convincing me that the current obesity epidemic is a result of people eating too many apples!"
2. Tips for Time Management: Part 1 and Part 2
Given that I deleted my Facebook account in college to help me manage my time better, on top of the fact that my wife and I don't even pay for basic cable due to TV being an utter time-vacuum, I felt this short series really hit the nail on the head and offered some very practical+effective tools to improve one's sense of well-being.
That will do it for today. Be back soon!
Pomegranate Juice Reduces Muscle Soreness?
The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research published a paper entitled "The effect of pomegranate juice supplementation on strength and soreness after eccentric exercise" in July of 2011. Here is the abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine if pomegranate juice supplementation improved the recovery of skeletal muscle strength after eccentric exercise in subjects who routinely performed resistance training. Resistance trained men (n = 17) were randomized into a crossover design with either pomegranate juice or placebo. To produce delayed onset muscle soreness, the subjects performed 3 sets of 20 unilateral eccentric elbow flexion and 6 sets of 10 unilateral eccentric knee extension exercises. Maximal isometric elbow flexion and knee extension strength and muscle soreness measurements were made at baseline and 2, 24, 48, 72, 96, and 168 hours postexercise. Elbow flexion strength was significantly higher during the 2- to 168-hour period postexercise with pomegranate juice compared with that of placebo (main treatment effect; p = 0.031). Elbow flexor muscle soreness was also significantly reduced with pomegranate juice compared with that of placebo (main treatment effect; p = 0.006) and at 48 and 72 hours postexercise (p = 0.003 and p = 0.038, respectively). Isometric strength and muscle soreness in the knee extensors were not significantly different with pomegranate juice compared with those using placebo. Supplementation with pomegranate juice attenuates weakness and reduces soreness of the elbow flexor but not of knee extensor muscles. These results indicate a mild, acute ergogenic effect of pomegranate juice in the elbow flexor muscles of resistance trained individuals after eccentric exercise.
Sometimes... okay, lots of times... I find strength and conditioning research to be quite limiting and, in the end, not that helpful. It's been well accepted and practiced for years that the best post-training meal to consume is a liquid meal with roughly a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of carbs:protein.
Pomegranate juice really has nothing more substantial in it (for exercise recovery) than any other fruit juice or a sports drink. It's ALL sugar.
Take this study for what it's worth: further proof that something is better that nothing after you train. I'm sure the study participants would have been better served and demonstrated recovery in the "knee extensor muscles" if they'd been given a pomegranate drink that also included the proper ratio of carbs:protein.
Here's a SUPER simple recipe for a recovery drink I make for myself:
3-4 tbsp Nestle Quick powder
1/2 scoop protein powder
Water
Dunzo.
An Alternative to the Olympic Lifts
First things first, let me put it out there that I LOVE the Olympic lifts (from here on out referred to as the O-lifts). I think they're a fantastic tool to develop strength, power, and enhance athletic potential. Not to mention, I can't help but tip my hat to those that have accomplished near-impossible feats of power with them, and there are few things I find more beautiful than a perfectly executed snatch. In fact, while I currently can't back this up with any scientific research, I'm convinced that Maximus utilized the O-lifts as part of his training arsenal to utterly own anyone who stood in his way in his quest to avenge the death of his family.
HOWEVER - and as Sarah recently noted in her Squat vs. Box Squat post - the O-lifts are an extremely complex movement that many ELITE athletes spend their entire lives perfecting. Not to mention, 99 times out of 100, the limiting factor in the athletes we work with at SAPT is simply a lack of strength. They lack the strength (and subsequently, joint integrity...) and neuromuscular control to produce and decelerate movement, and THIS is the primary reason that they can't seem to improve their change-of-direction speed, or throw that ball faster.
In fact, the interesting thing is that even if I wanted to start them off with O-lifting, the majority of them would lack the strength to do that, too! Walking someone, and strengthening them, through the squat and deadlift progressions will actually help them with the O-lifts (cleans, snatches, jerks, etc.), but performing the O-lifts WON'T necessarily have carryover the other way around and help them become better at squatting and deadlifting. It's just not a reciprocal relationship like that.
Nevertheless, this post isn't about sparking a "Should I O-lift or Not O-lift a New Trainee" debate. If you are a coach that has found this to work for you, then great. I respect that. We have just found that, especially with consideration to the fact that we often don't work with a given athlete for more than six months at a time, we can accomplish more in less time by working with other tools in the "strength coach toolbox."
And, while I may personally feel that the majority of athletes spend too much time on the speed-strength end of the spectrum and really don't need a whole lot of "speed and power" work (at least, initially) to enhance their athletic potential, I still feel it's important to incorporate explosive movements in training to teach someone how to control their body in space. Not to mention, these movements will often serve as a CNS primer for the squat and deadlift portion of the session, just like the O-lifts are often performed prior to strength work.
What do we use to accomplish this? Jumping!
Yes, jumping. Anyone from a beginner to an advanced athlete can utilize this powerful tool that is much more "dummy-proof" than the O-lifts. While I'm not going to list the specific progressions we'll use with someone, I just wanted to make a quick point.
Take, for example, two jumping variations we use; the box jump and the hot ground to tuck jump (the latter shown the video):
In both variations, if doing them correctly, you'll still be producing force through the "triple extension" motion that the O-lifts are frequently praised for working. This being, simultaneous extension of the ankles, knees, and hips. Essentially all this means is that the toes are pointing down, and the knees and hips are straightening out.
Note the similarity of the body position (specifically at the joint angles of the ankles, knees, and hips) during the picture of O-lift in the very beginning of this post, and my body positions during a box jump, and a freeze-frame of the same hot ground jump performed in the video above:
Box Jump:
Hot Ground to Tuck Jump:
Crazy, huh? As an added bonus, one of the most difficult portions of the O-lifts is ACTUALLY achieving triple extension. If you youtube nearly any run-of-the-mill person doing an O-lift, and carefully watch their ankles/knees/hips, you'll quickly see that they're not even doing the very thing that makes the O-lifts so beneficial!
Also, with some of the jumping variations, you also receiving a bit of often-neglected hip flexor work at greater than 90 degrees of flexion, such as in the top of the hot ground jump:
Now, these jumps must be progressed appropriately, just as a skilled coach of the O-lifts would do with a trainee. And, the volume must be monitored, as mindlessly having an athlete jump around until their knees explode isn't going to help their vertical. Usually fifteen TOTAL reps will be more than enough to receive the intended benefit.
Again, what I am NOT saying is to avoid the O-lifts like the plague. Again, they are phenomenal tools, and there's no chance that jumping variations could take the place of O-lifting in the appropriate scenario.
But, like anything, one should be sure they understand where he or she (or someone they're coaching) is honestly at when taking into consideration what will be the most bang-for-your-buck training approach, given the time and resources you may have at your disposal.
Inspiration from Matthias Steiner
So, yesterday I began to type up a post related to Olympic lifting, when I was reminded of a video Chris and I had watched together over a year ago that had literally blown our socks off. We were in the middle of a lift and it swiftly gave us a roundhouse kick to the face and re-centered our perspective on things. Not only did it remind me that there are people out there cleaning, and then pressing overhead, more weight than I can deadlift, but it showed me yet another example of what can be accomplished when your mind is unshakably fixated upon something.
Maybe most of you have already seen this; if not, then I encourage you to watch it below. This is taken from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and features Matthias Steiner, who, at age 25, is competing for the Gold medal. The most moving part about this was not only did he clean and jerk 258 kilograms (that's 568 pounds for us Americans....yep, I'll wait for you to regain consciousness....), but his young wife of only two years had died in a fatal car accident the year before.
While Matthias knelt by her deathbed, he made a promise to her that he would become an Olympic champion.
He was the underdog in the tournament, and cleaned+jerked over 20 pounds more than he had ever lifted before. (For those of you who understand elite-level lifters, you know how incredible this was considering Matthias's training age). I think my favorite part about this is watching his face as he stepped onto the platform and grabbed the bar. Despite the fact that there were millions of people watching him, there was NOTHING on his mind except the fact that he WAS going to rip that bar off the floor and throw it overhead.
Matthias took his body and mind to a level that most of us will never even dream of. He defied logic, and slapped the face of the limits that are often imposed on us by others. He took something tragic that happened to him and made it into something good. Instead of sulking in a corner for the years following his wife's tragic death, he allowed the loss of her to push him and strengthen him to the point of accomplishing a near-impossible promise. The last promise he ever made to her.
An indelible lesson for all of us.
