Long time between drinks

Opportunities to make time to blog have been few and far between so I figure I better bring everyone up to speed.

Informed Performance – The New Gym
Due to orders from the Business and Operations Manager (from here on in referred to as simply The BOM) of Informed Performance I’ve not been able to talk about the new gym on pain of death…well not real death but I know if I was talking about it he’d bore me to death with his objections…so I’ve not been able to talk about all the great equipment we’ve bought…I mean…we are going to be able to sell tickets…because people are going to travel miles to see this stuff. Honestly…I’m amazed myself…I mean seriously…how many full on Olympic Lifting sets have you seen in real life. I don’t mean just bars and plates…I’m talking bar and plates that are used at THE Olympics…as in…on the stage at the Olympics…well when you come to Informed Performance you’ll see 8 sets…are you following me? 8 complete Olympic lifting sets…stands, platforms…the whole shebang. That is just to give you an idea…believe me…I don’t think anyone is going to believe what they see when they walk through the door. So anyway…I’ve already said too much…suffice to say that just because we’re not talking about it doesn’t mean that nothing is happening…quite the opposite…the fact that I’m not getting time to blog very much should tell you that lots is happening….and it most certainly is. There will be more news to follow in the next couple of weeks and things should move incredibly quickly after that.

Cookies Training Continues
Since I’ve had a few enquiries about his training I thought I might give you some more updates.
Monday is his heavy day….this week he did all the usual…warmed up, did some hip mobility work then squatted heavy after a couple of warm up sets he worked up through 5 heavy triples then did some supplementary hamstring work, some ab work…the some shoulder mobility work, warmed up on the bench and then worked up through 5 heavy triples followed by some supplementary back work then some more ab and lower back work the fired off his gunz.
Tuesday was a conditioning day…we warmed up in the gym then we did 5 conditioning blocks which went like this:
10 KB Squats then a sprint block…this involved linear sprinting, lateral sprinting, hard backward running, a certain amount of ‘hitting the deck’ and sprinting off followed by a walk back to the beginning where he then did 10 Push Ups and then the sprint block. Then 10 Inverted Rows and a sprint block. Then 10 KB Presses and a sprint block. At the end of his last sprint block he got 2 minutes recovery before beginning his next set. He did 5 of these sets in total and it had this effect….

Wednesday was a rest day. Today we did a ‘bodybuilding’ session….Cookies, Sextoy and I did it together and it went like this:
Mixed Cardio Warm Up – 5 mins Rowing, 5 mins Jogging and 5 mins Cycling.
Shoulder Mobility Work
DB (slight) Incline Bench Press – 1×12 @ 20kg, 1×12 @ 25kg, 1×8 @30, 1×8 @35, 3×8 @40kg
Hi-Lo Cable Flies – 5×12 @ 35kg
Hanging Leg Raises – 5×10
Hip Mobility Work
Leg Press – 1×12 @ 100kg, 1×12 @ 140kg, 3×8 @ 180kg
1A Leg Curl – 3×15 @ 50kg
1B Leg Extensions – 3×15 @ 50kg
Ab Roll Outs – 5×10
Shoulder Mobility Work
Lat Pull Downs – 1×12 @ 60kg, 1×12 @70kg, 3×8 @ 80kg
Single Arm Cable Rows – 3×15 @ 35kg
45deg Back Extensions – 5×10
We pushed hard through the entire session…the rest periods were literally as long as it took the other 2 to finish their sets and we went at it from start to finish.

Who Loves Sports Technology?
I sure do…next week on Thursday the 14th of May at 11am my mate Dan Rutger is coming up from the boglands (basically anywhere in Ireland outside of Dublin) to demo some incredibly cool sports technology kit at the gym…St Mary’s College Rugby Club, Templeville Rd. Tempelogue.

Dan runs what is pretty much Irelands most experienced sports technology company Redback Biotek ( www.redbackbiotek.com ) and he’s going to be demonstrating a GPS athlete tracking system called Catapult GPS. This was developed by the Australian Institute of Sport and is now used all around the world by top teams and athletes.

It was originally developed for rowing but has now also gained wide aceptance in a multitude of sports. This is some of the stuff it does:
• GPS ; position and speed of movment of all players on a pitch – or anywhere (even when they go to the loo) !
• accelerometers (with collision intensity and event marking) – acceleration of movement or how hard players are being hit. (I so want to strap this to Nasher and Pottsy when they have their ‘Worlds Collide’ showdown)
• gyroscope (inclination – with bend down algorithm). Is the player bending down to pick up a ball or moving the trunck sideways
• magneto (gives orientation – ie is a player running backwards or forwards in direction X)
• heart rate pickup and transmit
The system can also use local trackers(antenna) if GPS is not available.

This is an open invite to anyone…if you want to see some pretty cool stuff come along…check out Dan’s site…it looks like it was designed the day after they opened the internet but he has some great kit….a lot of which we are going to be buying for the new gym.

Southside for Rugby Players

Don’t worry about the title…it’s a joke for my own amusement more than anything else.

The rugby season has come to an end…and the new one already seems to have begun. Some players are resting up, some players are getting ready for sevens, some are getting ready for yet more rugby with internationals up coming. Here is what one of the latter players is doing this week.

Monday
Maximum Strength Session
Warm Up – 30 mins low intensity cardio. This is slow steady state type stuff 110-120bpm. 10 mins on the bike, treadmill and rower.
Hip Mobility Work – You should know what this entails by now.
Trap Bar Deadlift – 2 warm up sets of 8 reps easy, 1 moderate set of 5 reps, then 5 heavy sets of 3 reps
Leg Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
Shoulder Mobility Work – band pull a parts, band dislocates, scap pull ups, scap push ups
Bench Press – 2 warm up sets of 8 reps easy, 1 moderate set of 5 reps, then 5 heavy sets of 3 reps
DB Rows – 5 sets of 8 reps
Cool Down – 30 mins low intensity cardio. This is slow steady state type stuff 110-120bpm. 10 mins on the bike, treadmill and rower.

Tuesday
Conditioning Session
Warmed Up then did some KB Overhead carries.

1st Block – Mixed Conditioning
Sprint – 10m out and back 20m out and back
10 KB Squats
Sprint – 10m out and back 20m out and back
10 Push Ups
Sprint – 10m out and back 20m out and back
10 Inverted Rows
Sprint – 10m out and back 20m out and back
10 Sit Ups
Sprint – 10m out and back 20m out and back
Then he got a 1 minute break…we did 3 sets of these back to back then he got a 2 minute break.

2nd Block – Sprint Conditioning
10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 metres…the jog out was at recovery pace…the player turned and dropped at the line face down on the ground and placed their hands behind their head then broke off the ground and sprinted to the start line. 10m first then 20m and so on. They got a minute after each complete set. We did 3 sets and then he got a 2 minute break.

3rd Block – Mixed Conditioning
Same format as the 1st Block only all the exercises were replace by punching combinations on the pads. So 10 and 20 metre run followed by a jab, punch, upper cut and hook…10 of these the first time, 8 the second, 6 on the third and 4 on the forth. We did 3 sets with a minute between sets and 2 minutes rest at the completion.

4th Block – Sprint Conditioning
This was a repeat of the 2nd Block.

5th Block – Mixed Conditioning
This was a repeat of the 1st Block

Wednesday
Body Building Session
Warm Up – 10km on the bike…easy…25 mins at 110-120bpm.
Hip Mobility Work – Hurdle Steps, Leg Swings and Leg Sweeps
Leg Press – 1 easy set of 12 reps, 1 moderate set of 12 reps then 2 hard sets of 12 reps and 1 mental set to finish. This consisted of 140kg on the 1st set, 180kg on the 2nd set, then 220kg for the rest…squeezing out 30 reps on the last…less than 60 seconds recovery between sets.
1A Leg Curls – 3 sets of 10 reps
1B Leg Extensions – 3 sets of 10 reps
2A Ab Roll Outs – 3 sets of 12 reps
2B 45deg Back Extensions – 3 sets of 12 reps
Shoulder Mobility Work – Horizontal Band Pull-A-Parts and Band Dislocates
Incline Bench Press – 1 easy set of 12 reps, 1 moderate set of 12 reps then 3 hard sets of 12 reps
Lo-Hi Cable Flyes – 3 sets of 10 reps
Band Assisted Pull Ups – 5 sets of 12 reps
Single Arm Cable Rows – 3 sets of 10 reps
3A Hanging Leg Raises – 3 sets of 12 reps
3B Natural Reverse Hypers – 3 sets of 12 reps
DB Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
DB Overhead Tricep Extension – 3 sets of 12 reps

Thursday
Sprint Conditioning
I had a change of plan today. Instead of doing shorter higher intensity intervals I had Cookies do longer intervals instead. His session went like this:
Warm Up and Dynamic stretch
Training Block
Sprint 150m walking recovery of 50m by 4
Sprint 300m walking recovery of 100m followed by 2 minutes rest
Sprint 50m walking recovery of 50m by 4
Sprint 300m walking recovery of 100m followed by 2 minutes rest
Cookies did 3 of these blocks back to back. I want to say well done to Barney as well who joined Cookies for this session….well he sort of joined in. Barney did the Warm Up and edged Cookies out on the first 2 efforts…was maybe 20m behind him on the 3rd effort and then gave up…outstanding lack of effort all round.

Friday
Explosive/Bodyweight Session
Warm Up – 5 sets of 500’s on the rower at 1:45-1:50 pace with 60 second recoveries
Stretch
Cascade Box Jumps – 24in, 30in, 36in by 3
Hang Snatch – 40kg 3 sets of 3 reps
Cascade Box Jumps – 24in, 30in, 36in by 3
Hang Snatch – 50kg 3 sets of 3 reps
Cascade Box Jumps – 24in, 30in, 36in by 3
Hang Snatch – 60kg 3 sets of 3 reps
Blast Strap Fallouts – 3 sets of 10 reps
Elevated Blast Strap Push Ups – 3 sets of 10 reps
Elevated Blast Strap Inverted Rows – 3 sets of 10 reps
Turkish Get Ups – 3 sets of 10 reps 20kg
Natural Reverse Hypers – 3 sets of 15 reps

So that was Cookies training week. He has the weekend off and then we get back work next week.

You have to go to the 4 minute mark in this video

I know I have a heap of work to do and I’ve approximately a zillion emails to answer…but I just wanted to put this up first.

It is nice to see someone I coach contributing something worthwhile to society…the Cookie Monster strikes again.

The surprising thing is that Cookies is always so concerned with safety in the gym…I mean this is a guy that uses safety collars on the leg press for God’s sake…he didn’t seem to concerned with safety when he tackled that guy in the video.

Cookies is always worried about the Leg Press tipping over

In other news…Damian’s updated his blog
You can find it here. Yesterday he basically designed his own program. I thought some people might find it interesting and as far as program design goes and might want to talk through the thought process behind it.

Disciplinary Action

I think this was a little harsh…

A concerned citizen left this comment on the blog yesterday:

Anonymous said…
I’ve been doing some research and have found that none of the rugby players that Will works with have aver achieved very much at club level let alone progressed while he has worked with them. In fact he has a history of damaging the careers of players. ask him what happend to Steven Gissing and why he is no longer coaching him? Bad coaching leads to bad injuries. Gissing won’t be the last opne to suffer either.

I think if they had actually done some research they would have found that the lads had done pretty well for themselves…I mean I can claim to have produced at least one international player this year…that’s something at least…well in all honesty I wouldn’t claim it because it is only Cookies…and I don’t think any coach would claim that rich knacker. I do have sympathy for him though as like him…my mother showed her love for me not only in affection but with copious amounts of food.

 

Cookies using his greatest athletic talent...his weight...to drag some poor bastard to the ground before falling on him...while playing for the good ole US of A.

I did get an email from one player who shall remain nameless…lets just call him Chops.

You can just tell that guy that I am your little success story!! I was a professional athlete for a number of years(I want you to use the word athlete it makes it seem like I was doing something better other then going on the piss and eating out of the “snack cabin” in Rotherham!)then after 12 weeks or whatever it was with you I got 8 chins……..video evidence available as well!! also just tell them to go fuck themselves!!!!!!!!!!
I STILL THINK YOU’RE A FAT WASTER THOUGH AND COOKIES IS GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that pretty much sums up what most of the players would think. Below I have posted chops Pull Up progression.

Here is the first one…

Oh yeah…that’s right…he got 0…which was his all time personal best as a professional rugby player…at least he was consistent.

This was his second test

This was his last test

I think that’s a pretty good achievement. Now I know Chuck Poliquinn states that any decent strength coach should be able to get a girl up to 12 pull ups in 12 weeks but Chops isn’t any ordinary girl in fairness. He had also proved in the past that he was immune to all strength and conditioning techniques.

Lego Leg Press

I just had to post this because I thought it was so funny when I turned around in the gym and saw it.

See how fast you can calculate the weight on here?

The Bet

After me maxing out at 140kg today….expect this to climb significantly.

The lads are betting that I can’t bench press 180kg on the 1st of November 2008. So far they are betting €300 in total that I can’t do it and I’m covering any and all bets…I won’t be updating the blog again till then because I don’t want to waste any physical or mental energy…I think I may need it all.

I just wanted to post this because I thought it was cool…only an American could come up with this.

I also wanted to say well done to Cookies on his (near) International Caps

I neglected amongst others things I neglected to do this week to say congrats to Cookies AKA ‘The Muffin’ AKA ‘Shiner’ who has worked his not insubstantial hole off in the gym before heading to the US to represent the US of A against two top European club sides. When I’m not busy not training athletes and players competing on this side of the Atlantic I have to not be training athletes and players who are competing on the other side of the Atlantic as well…it’s hard not being me.

Use your weight Cookies.

Questions and something hopefully resembling answers

ian said…
Hi Will,
I’ve got a few very dull questions – if only I had your wit and repartee – but since every blog has its studious reader it might as well be me.

Regarding Laura & Lisa:
Did they put themselves up for 4 sessions Monday to Thursday?
We decided this together.

In this day and age where we see trainers/coaches promising more fat loss in less time, your 4 x 1hour+ sessions are quite a commitment.
If you think they are going to get away with an hours training you are having a laugh. I’d say it’ll be closer to 90 minutes.

ian said…
I knew it was going to be 60mins plus – and fair play to the girls for committing to 90mins.
They want to be hotties…and that don’t come easy.

I have never believed in the rigid 1 hour exactly sessions generally used by trainers and gyms – I just think you do what you need to do however long it takes – even if that means a 30 minutes session 1 day and a 75 minute session another.
I think Johnny and Daz have the record…I think they did a 4 and half hour session the other day…that was 5 exercises from memory.

ian said…
I was referring mainly to personal training clients with full time jobs and kids where the norm seems to be to allocate blocks of 60minute sessions – you know the drill – warmup, cardio, machine weight training, stretch and they’re done – I detest this approach and have never understood this dogmaic approach.
I think it is stupid as well…with a lot of my personal training clients I don’t have them warm up at all…I mean seriously why the hell would I waste 10-15 minutes warming up if they are going to be doing bodyweight lunges, push ups and bridging for example. I see trainers warm up their clients all the time then doing bicep curls with them with 5kg dumbbells…give me a break.

How much time do you give to screening your personal training clients and since fat loss is the goal what static/dynamic tests do you think are worth doing?
As much time as I think I need…depends why they are standing in front of me. Every session that every athlete or client does with me they are being assessed. Sometimes I get people training for a while so I can work out ‘what’ exactly I need to assess.

ian said….
I was referring mainly to fat loss clients – other then assessing how fat they are (I like the sight test – I can look at someone and in an instant can assess them as being fat – no calipers, no scales – works a treat) – I was wondering how much attention you would initially pay to their mobility, strength and so on – which isn’t what they came to see you about to start with – but then your last comment about training people for a while made me realise you can assess a lot of stuff once you get them on the program.
Exactly…if I see something wrong or that doesn’t look right then I’ll assess it so I can do something about it and then assess it on an ongoing basis to see if I’m making inroads. I mean I also see some trainers doing full one hour functional movement screening and assessments…they do it because they can…rather than because it’s needed…total waste of time most of the time for the majority of clients…I could give their clients the same feedback without ever seeing them…your hamstrings are too tight, your hip mobility is poor, your trunk strength isn’t what it should be and your shoulders are a total mess…next!

I imagine it is possible to over do the assessments when really the only thing the client is interested in is if their dress fits better
Precisely.

I know there are an infinite number of ways to structure your sessions – and I’m sure you do – but you seem to like the strength stuff interspersed with cardio.
This is just one of a number of formats and it is probably the format that I use the least actually.

Do you like the format because the clients can keep the intensity up on the cardio due to the rest they get while doing strength – or is it a nice structure because the mixing up of strength and cardio keeps boredom away? I’m trying not to look too deep into this – but I know that’s how it comes across
Don’t ever worry about how your questions come across…like I’ve said before the more specific the question the more specific my answer will be…and if you aren’t 100% sure what I’m getting at with my answer…ask more questions…like I also said…one of the reasons I’m doing this is because I am not the best at explaining myself and I know that so asking questions helps me as much as it may help you. I think this works well with fat loss and conditioning for sport. You’ll see most of my cardio is distance based rather than time….if athletes want to go harder and get it finished quicker I’m all the happier. The blocks of strength work are time based because I want the athletes get better at managing their work capacity. I think they find it easier to get their heads around the fact that whatever I’m having them do is only going to last 15 minutes. I let peoples competitive nature take care of the rest.

For nutrition do you just tell the girls to clean up their act for the first month and see how they go?
Yep.

Do you just use the Tanita scales to measure body fat or do you get the calipers out?
Photos I think work better. Scale weight can be deceptive. Calipers are crap for fat people. Electrical impedance devices are extremely unreliable. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Joel Hallström said…
What’s your view on rotation exercises at the lumbar spine like the windscreen whiper? Ive seen a few coaches taking them of the program after reading Shirley Sarhmann’s Treatment of movement Impairment Syndromes Movement in which she states that :”Rotation of the lumbar spine is more dangerous than beneficial and rotation of the pelvis and lower extremities to one side while the trunk remain stable or is rotated to the other side is particularly dangerous”
I’ve read the work…just happen to think a lot of it irrelevant. Let me put it this way…what do you think is more dangerous or potentially harmful…windscreen wipers or getting punched repeatedly in the face? What about woodchoppers or say packing a scrum?

Which do you think might be potentially more dangerous?

You really need to rely on common sense and experience when you read stuff like this…I also know a lot of trainers that have stopped doing sit ups because apparently lumbar flexion is also more dangerous than beneficial…I mean for heavens sake…give me a break. Where do you honestly think sit ups done properly rank with regard to the causes of back injury?

My point being that there are a lot of exercises and activities that can potentially cause injury…should we go out of our way to do exercises that are reckless or dangerous….no….but should we avoid all potentially harmful activity? I don’t think so…what would we have left to do?

Anonymous said…
Exactly what kind of fitness center are you running, sir??
Not sure you could really call it a fitness centre.

Artie said…
It’s probably been discussed, but I’m lazy: if you want to increase for example a 100 kg 1 RM front squat 5-10 kg, what would be your specific scheme to increase the load (from WO to WO)? Or do you just follow the Westside style and “try” to go for a 1-3 rep max each time? Thanks!
Cmon Artie…you can do better than that…this is a crap question. Have a think about it and try again.

I mean how does who increase their 1RM front squat from 100kgs? What have they been doing previously? What is their technique like? Are they really quad dominant? Do they have a really weak back? What’s their trunk strength like?
Do you think both these guys need to do the same thing to improve their 1RM bench for instance?

lylemcd said…
How can you supervise non-existent/fake athletes?
I know I know…especially when I have all my non-existent/fake marketing plans to put into motion and my non-existent/fake books to promote.

You can never be too safe…

…or can you?

Cookies has really taken my ’safety first’ message to heart…I couldn’t count on two hands the number of times I’ve been in the gym and seen the plates come off one side of a leg press and for the whole thing to topple over and crush an athlete using it. I’m actually thinking of getting a seatbelt attached to the leg press just so he doesn’t fall out of it and hurt himself.

I’m think of putting the leg press inside a squat cage just so Cookies can feel extra safe…that way he can use the safety pins.

On the issue of safety…I’m not sure but from the looks of the tread on Choppo’s back he might of been run over by a bus…and if he wasn’t…I bet after this mornings session he feels like he was.

Unlike a lot of coaches I’d never throw my athletes under a bus…even if it looks that way.

Jonathan was asking…well he didn’t exactly ask…he basically said I was either ignorant, stupid or too lazy to answer his question about lower mobility and stability work. He was basically referring to the fact that I was rambling on no doubt about the importance of joint control and stability in the expression of strength and I was obviously giving upper body examples in relation to benching and chinning/pull ups and he wanted to know what I do with regard to the lower body…as in with regard to squatting and deadlifting obviously…well this is one of the things.

Thunderbirds are go…and if I was training them they wouldn’t be getting around like they do in the show.

You know how at school you had ’show and tell’? Well this blog is like that…only I’m only doing the ’show’ bit…if you want the ‘tell’ bit then you need to ask questions like Jonathan, the Ian’s, Mimo, Anonymous and Joel.