There are still way too many football teams that base their entire conditioning program around jogging or jogging-related running.
They are all now in a transition phase until after the first of the year.
This process will change based upon what sport you are involved in because of different types of skill based training.
The workouts are hard, but, they are also smart.
The week leading up to the meet was great. Lots of rest and ice.
Although everyone is a unique snowflake and will adapt slightly differently, there are good ways to train and there are bad ways to train.
I’ll outline a workout that I’ve employed to build physical strength, endurance, and, most importantly, mental toughness.
If you’re serious about taking care of your body and you make time to get to the gym, you need to make sure you bring the proper gear.
This is the exact training cycle I used years ago to squat my first 500 pounds.
I’ve been around the block a few times, and I’ve been busting my butt in the gym since 1983.
Use some of these the next time you’re being filmed while stranded in a remote locale.
Several years ago during one of the more Olympic lifting intensive periods of my lifting career, I hit a long awaited personal record—a 420-lb push press.
In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in how the tactical community – for example SWAT teams, special operations military and others – approaches it’s PT training designed to better prepare them for the job.
As Jim Wendler would say, get “north of vag” and stay there. Seriously, anybody can do this.
For several months, I’ve been doing Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program. In it, Jim talks about doing exercises for assistance that build muscle mass. He advocates doing several reps of dips and pull-ups every week. At one point, I believe he states we should do 50 dips a week weighted or 100 dips a week with just body weight. If memory serves, he advocates doing something similar with chin-ups or pull-ups.
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of my odyssey as a classroom teacher. Upon completion of my first year, the building principal summoned me to his office, and we reflected on what I needed to do to improve and become more effective as an instructor.
Bands were first introduced to Dave Tate close to 10 years ago. After experimenting with accommodating resistance and the use of chains, Dave took his squat from 760 to 855 in 12 months.
The other day in the gym, the topic of ab training for strength came up. I figured there was nobody better to ask than 1100 pound squatter Matt Wenning.
Plyometrics have been a part of most athletic development programs for many years.
This article is the continuation of the Weekender Series that has documented the training of a few of our featured training log lifters, as well as the weekend group training in our weight room:
Every day you can go into a weight room anywhere in the country and two things will be certain
Did Arthur Jones have it right when he essentially devoted his life to convincing people they needed to train to failure?
Let me first tell you briefly about myself for those who do not know me.
I’m still not quit sure how it happened, but over the course of the past twelve months, we have attracted a group of competitive powerlifters into our gym. It was not that long ago that I retired from the sport and spent my weekends training with one or two other guys, and that was it.
This program is based on the concepts outlined in Dr. Vladimir Issurin’s, Block Periodization: A Breakthrough in Sports Training.
As with my last article, my goal is to give you a glimpse into what I did and how I felt while beta testing Dave Tate’s Strong(er) Program.
Here’s the deal. All sound programs work and they work well. The best one is your preference. However, there’s a catch to everything and this has more than one.
One of the first things we learn in the fitness industry—whether you’re a trainer, a gym rat, or that “newbie” who is still wet behind the ears—is that more isn’t always better.
Many bodybuilders and physique specialists have wanted to know more about how to gain muscle mass using basic, body weight exercises.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the monsters at the Westside Barbell Club in Ohio.
As your old high school gym teacher might have led you to believe, stretching before weight training isn’t the best way to warm up. Recent reports show that static stretching before exercise can reduce muscle strength. Stretching relaxes your muscles, so why would you want to relax your muscles when you need to lift explosively during weight training?
Here’s the exemplary monthly plan with two trainings of the beginning lift operators:
The entire routine is structured around the strength curve that you would use while benching in a good shirt. The main exercises are floor presses with chains, 4-boards, 5-boards, and shirted bench work.
I had just a little over a year to get where I wanted to be.
For more examples regarding loading protocols, I highly recommend reading Christian Thibaudeau’s, Black Book of Training Secrets–Enhanced Edition. Most of these graphs are taken from there. Another interesting book to consider is Joe Kenn’s, Coach’s Strength Training Playbook, which is another awesome read.
Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch and a kick just a kick.
Concurrent training in the iron game was made popular by the Westside Barbell Club and Louie Simmons, who erroneously called it “conjugate.”
Deadlifting is one of those lifts that becomes more than a little frustrating, especially when you hit lulls and plateaus in your training.
I started lifting weights in my early teens, using the York concrete-filled plates down in my parent’s basement. This was only the start.
On day one in November of 2005, I completely committed myself to making sure that everything, every day was going to be as productive as possible to enhance my strength.
I’m a huge believer in using the “alternating set” system when training.
As a strength coach, a good athlete—let’s call him Johnny—lands in your lap. Do you wonder what brilliant programs you can create to make Johnny bigger, stronger, and faster?
I know I’m not the only one guilty of this, but far too often, individuals like myself go online and search for workout routines, help, or guidance
The Lexen Xtreme 2008 IPA Columbus Pro-Am was both a positive experience and, most likely, the last time I’ll drop to 148 lbs.
He has elite totals at a body weight of 275 lbs and 308 lbs and totaled 2204 lbs in single ply gear. After that, Hoss tried to make a jump to double ply gear but only added 18 pounds to his total.
This is kind of a queer way to begin an article, but I still remember the first time I met him like it was yesterday. It was the fall of 2002, and we were sitting on opposite ends of the room in our public communication class as freshmen at Ithaca College.
This is a guide for those who are just getting started and need a push in the right direction as far as workout program design.
Dave Tate, Buddy Morris, Thomas Myslinski, and Jim Wendler discuss training concepts.
Aw shit…it’s another “top 20” or “20 things” list about training. Great.
*The number of workouts that this athlete performed each week with me was dependent on the team’s practice schedule, meeting schedule, travel time & injuries that occurred during the season.
Everyone seemed pretty fired up about the modified Westside program. I received an overwhelming response to my recent article, “Westside for Skinny Bastards.”
I’m a big fan of programs that focus on doing a few things very well. Complicated programs are rarely built to last and few trainees benefit from them.
“There are a hundred ways to skin a cat, I am only good at one of them”, is something my grandfather used to say to me all the time.
The number 3 is held in reverence by many people. Of course, the title of this article is in reference to the Roman Empire and where would we be without them?
