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’m really not sure what to title this post…any suggestions?

A few days back I got this question in the ‘Lab Coating’ section:

VV said

Coach, given adequate strength levels, how possible is it to develop RFD and reactive ability while also working on conditioning and performing endurance-oriented activities (cardio, soccer, MMA, etc)?

Is there anything that can be done to keep those fast-twitch fiber from ’suffering’? I understand achieving maximum explosiveness while doing lots of endurance activities are two things at complete opposite sides of the spectrum.

As you are all well aware by now…I hate talking about training theory…I can do it with the best of them…I just find it tedious and incredibly boring. Training practice on the other hand I love talking about and I find those discussions incredibly interesting and exciting. I actually get over excited…to the point where as anyone who has ever spoken to me about training knows…it gets to a stage where my mouth can’t keep up with my brain. I’ve tried and will continue to try to make this blog reflect me and my attitudes. That is to show the stuff that find exciting…the actual training rather than to be like a lot of other blogs on training that seem to be more about showing the reader how well the blog author has mastered PubMed and as a way of showing how many big words they know. I don’t have a problem with that…I read those blogs as well…my point being I think there are plenty of those and too few that actually cover the practical side of strength and conditioning.

SO…let me try and answer the question that was posed not by giving a theoretical answer but by showing you something and giving you something to think about and consider.

This was the session that Barry and Damian did today:

 

Barry and Damians Session Today

Firstly, let me explain. Barry is a fighter and is training for a fight at the end of March. Damian is in the Army and is training to be ready for anything…and yet he isn’t training at Crossfit…go figure. Damian’s main sport of choice was Basketball…unfortunately I’ve turned him into a rower…so much of a rower in fact that for a few weeks he had the best verified legitimate ergo time in the world for 500m. This style of session could be used for just about any sport though. Barry’s session was entirely fight orientated. Damian’s version of the same session was similar but less technically demanding. I think when you see it you’ll get the idea though.

This was the last set in the lads 1st block

I’ll deal with Barry’s session first. As you can see in the program he had an easy warm up. Did some mobility work to loosen up then had 10×150m with 30 seconds recovery to do on the rower. The idea in these intervals today was to go really hard…but leave a little in the tank…that is…don’t blow up. Barry did all of his just under 30 seconds…consistently strong for all 10. His first strength block was 5 sets of the following: 30 seconds of 60kg benching…what I’m looking for here is around 3-6 reps at the end…it is easier enough to start with but believe me…at the end it is plenty.  They get a 10 second transition. Then push ups for 30 seconds…I’m looking for 12-15 reps here…then he gets the gloves on and I’m looking for 30 seconds of high quality punching. They get 30 seconds recovery and then go again. They completed 5 sets of this. I made a mess of the first block because one of the ways that I progress this type of session is to get rid of the recovery between rounds…I did that in this block today because I had another group doing this style of session the other day and forgot to include the recovery for the lads…so in this first block the quality was less than I was looking for. They still did well though. That 30 seconds between rounds makes an enormous difference though obviously. Then back onto the rower for another 10×150m with 30 seconds recovery…again he was around that 30 second mark on each row. The next block was in the same style as the first…only this time he leg pressed 120kg, then body weight squatted then leg kicked…only this time I remembered to give them 30 seconds between rounds. Followed by another row…which he didn’t do…because we spent too much time messing about earlier on. I’ll make sure that we make up for it tomorrow though.

This was during the 2nd block of training…it didn’t take long for the power of the stopwatch to go to Denise’s head…the same thing happened to the Nazi’s

Damian’s session was same same but different. He had the same row as Barry…he just did his faster. Then leg pressed 180kg or something like that, body-weight squatted and box jumped. Then rowed again. On the second block he did the same as Barry but what I’ll do next time is bench, then push ups then a med ball toss…on his back into the air..something explosive…maybe a med ball throw down. The punching wore him out and was probably a bit technical for what I was trying to get out of the session. Then he rowed again…he only did 7 in the last…which I only discovered looking at his heart rate data and enquire as to why 3 readings were missing. Here is his heart rate data for the session.

 

Damian's Heart Rate Data from today's session

So without going into too much detail…what I am looking to do is something hard and heavy…something neurally taxing but not to failure in the first exercise. Then something that taxes the energy systems in the second and the third is something that forces you to have to suck it up and do something technically demanding. The way this will progress for Barry is that eventually the technical elements will become more technical…I’ll put the pads on and stick my mouth guard in and give him a living, moving and punching target in the first block…it won’t be sparring and I won’t be looking to get a shot at him…I just won’t be making it easy.  Same with the second block…I’ll pad up and let kicks fly. I’ll make sure that I put those videos up as well…I might make those pay per view as I’m sure there will be more than a few people out there happy to see me to get the crap punch and kicked out of me.

Seminar Notes

I’m really just putting this up as a bit of a teaser and to give people either an idea of what they missed out on or what they may be able to look forward to in the future. What I’ve decided to do is to basically redo the entire seminar…only this time make it good. What I am going to do is to take all my seminar notes and present and video them all over again. Only this time without all the troublesome attendees and coffee breaks. It will in the end be the condensed version of the seminar and all the practical material covered…all videoed and itemised. The good thing about it is that people that attended the seminar will be able to ask questions and if necessary and when required I can just go back and rerecord the relevant piece or item. I’ve put an example up below. I’m not going to make them all publicly available because I want to make sure that the people that attend these seminars get the value that they deserve for handing over their cash and making the effort to come to the seminars.

This is one of a series of videos on screening that will be in the seminar notes.

Neck Strengthening – Part 1 (Swiss Ball and Band Work)

I thought I better put this here rather than do what I was going to do and stick it back where I initially mentioned neck strengthening. I was just going to leave it there undiscovered by the masses. If you haven’t noticed…and I’m sure you haven’t…all the posts bar 3 have been categorised to make it easier to find everything that you’re not looking for. There were some photos, videos and maybe more than a few posts that went MIA in the move from blogger over to here at wordpress. Next week after the seminar is done and dusted and I’ve put up the notes I’m going to go back to the start of the blog. I’m going to make sure everything that should be there is where it should be and I’m also going to engage in a fair bit of rewriting of history. Making sure that I appear much brighter now than I appeared in reality at the time…which shouldn’t be too difficult. Eventually at some stage months from now I might even make my way all the way back to this post where upon reflection I’ll be able to delete the entire thing and start again. Until then you’ll have to make do with this….

Part 1 – Some Swiss Ball and Band Neck Strengthening

Winter wonderland

It is so strange to see Dublin covered in snow and by strange I mean I hate seeing Dublin covered in snow because it means it is even colder and more miserable. If anyone reading this blog has a gym anywhere sunny and needs a trainer/coach who is willing to work for minimum wage as long as he can do so in the sunshine please drop me an email and I’ll send you my CV…I’m willing to move immediately…or as soon as the snow clears and flights resume.

Some people really don’t want anyone to know that I’m coaching them…to the point that they are happy to assault me to stop the evidence getting out!

Barry and Damian 

This is the lads session from this morning:

Bike – 5mins
Y,T,W – 3×5,5,5
3×4minute row with 1 minute recovery
Work Block 1 – 10 mins
1A Box Jumps – 5 reps
1B Pull Ups – 3 reps
1C Elevated Push Ups – 10 reps
3×4minute row with 1 minute recovery
Work Block 2 – 10 mins
2A Split Jumps – 10 reps
2B Inverted Rows – 5 reps
2C KB Shoulder Press – 5 reps each side
3×4minute row with 1 minute recovery
3A III Way Bridging – 2 sets (30second each bridge variation)
3B Natural Reverse Hypers – 2 sets of 15 reps

Here’s Barry’s Heart Rate Profile

Barry's Heart Rate Profile

 

 

What caused this was as follows:

Row 1 - 4 minute efforts with 1 minute recovery between efforts
1003m
1032m
1065m

Work Block 1 – 7 circuits in 10 minutes

Row 2 - 4 minute efforts with 1 minute recovery between efforts
1017m
1030m
959m

Work Block 2 – 7 circuits in 10 minutes

Row 3 – 4 minute efforts with 1 minute recovery between efforts
1007m
995m
1003m

Run Forrest Run

Two running groups tonight…one group doing primarily fitness and the other doing speed work (which was actually fitness…but don’t tell them that). Here are the two sessions.

3 minutes easy run…the 2 minutes of mobililty and flexibility work

40 seconds hard run 20 seconds recovery run

30 seconds hard run 30 seconds recovery run

20 seconds hard run 40 seconds recovery run

They did 3 of these sets back to back for a complete block then they took a 1 minute water break.

They did 3 of these blocks in total….so that’s 35 minutes in the session in total.

Logi's response to his pitch conditioning session

The other session looked like this:

This session took about 30 minutes as well.

This is what I think conditioning work should look like…if I sent these guys out to run for 35minutes they’d be bored to death. The intensity would be rubbish. I’ve also never seen a sport played at a single velocity…these sessions had constant changes in velocity…acceleration, deceleration and changes in direction. I bet if I took a 100 athletes that I’ve coached that have done these conditioning sessions and who’ve just ran laps…I bet every single one of them would actually rather do my sessions any day…I bet if any of you did them as well you’d rather do mine…the other thing I bet is that doing my sessions you’ve no idea how much time has passed and how long you have to go…you are just counting intervals down and doing a 35min run you’d feel every second passing. As I think we’ve established…each to his own. Maybe you’d prefer to just go out and run 35 minutes. I know what I think my lads prefer and what I think provides a better bang for my buck time wise.

The Womens Rugby

500m row/Stretch/500m row/Stretch

1A Chest Supported Scap Rows – 2×8

1B Inverted Shrugs

DB Floor Press – 2 w/u x8, 5×5

Band Assisted Pull Ups – 5×12

Straight Arm DB Sit Ups – 5×8

Elevated Split Squats – 4×8 each side

Leg Curls – 3×8

Rower – 10 sets of 100m effort with 45 second recovery between efforts.

Damian Tested

Weighed in a 110kg and benched the same. The did 10 pull ups, 44 push ups, 31 inverted rows and trap bar deadlifted 170kg.

I don’t even know where to start.

This week has been a nightmare technology wise. I’m sitting here with my laptop…which Damian thankfully tidied up…he thinks that it’s performance may have been hampered by the 3,000+ errors he found on it along with the 7000+ registry errors…I don’t know though…I still say that the problem was voodoo.

Anyway…so while the laptop is back up and running decently I’ll spend a bit of today catching up on the last weeks fun and games.

Fresh Meat
Firstly I want to welcome all the new recruits that started this week…the guys and the gals. I think after Wednesday’s testing and Friday’s training session the new guys may be spending the weekend wondering what they’ve got themselves into…don’t worry guys…it gets much much worse.

A new member of my family

As close as I’m planning on getting to having a baby.

I know you guys don’t care about this…but you just have to sit through it as the price you pay for reading the blog.

Testing
Every week I try to find some way to test/torture the guys for my own amusement…it is power, strength or endurance orientated. I tend to cycle the types of tests…mainly so they keep coming to the gym rather than laying at hope shaking and crying under their bed covers.

This week’s test was on the Concept II rower and has left some players in need of psychological counselling. Everyone who came through the door had to get on the rower and empty themselves…it was 6 efforts of 30 seconds endeavouring to cover maximum distance with each effort with 30 seconds of recovery between efforts….sounds easy enough?

I don’t think this guy thought it was easy?

What I look for here is the first time…I want to see a real expression of power…some have it and some don’t…if you don’t have it…you need to get it. Then I look at the forth time…to see the drop off and the total distance covered. I think a great score is around 200 on the first and over 1000m’s in total.

I won’t post all the times…but I’ll give you some of them.

Fanj and Damian set the standard…now I’ll get the excuses in for the boys before they start bitching and moaning…firstly…Fanj has red hair…enough said…and Damian is old and well past it…need I say more.

Fanj – 204, 181, fell out of the boat…he came off the rower…we considered giving him an adjusted time…I was happy with that…as the time chosen of 170 left him 2 metres short of my total, 166, 160, 163 for a total of 1040 metres.

Damian – 202, 187, 180, 176, 171, 175 for a 1091 metre total.

Just to give you an idea of the different type of athletes and their capabilities.

Power:
Chops – 197, 150, 151, 151, 152, 153 for 955 metre total.

Endurance:
David – 171, 168, 160, 159, 158, 155 for 972 metre total.

I don’t think these guys left much on the rower?

I’ll leave it to the guys and gals that did the testing to tell you what they thought of it. I’ve plenty to say about the testing but I’ll let you guys take a look at the results posted and see what you think yourselves.

Their a Concept II’s everywhere…have a go at it and let us know how you get on?

Random Questions and Comments
Adrienl said…
Hi will
I have been reading this blog for a few weeks now but just finished a review of it so i knew what was posted. Now the questioning will begin (i have quite literally a whole page full of questions, so you may want to set a daily limit or something)
Just so we know i am 18, live in Sydney and want your job, and yes i do train, myself and a cricket team in the summer.
So first question, why no straight bar deadlifts, as of this moment. What advantages does the trap bar dead have over the straight bar variations.

I think Hugh covered this question pretty well in the comments section but if you have any other questions fire away.

gmoney said…
aye bro, what kinda trainin do ya’ll use to get ya push-ups up real good like that? can ya post some video for me? i been tryin real hard to get em up but they’re stuck at 40 in 60 seconds and i just dont kno wat to do.

If you want to do improve your push ups we approach it in different ways…it is really dependent on an individuals strengths and weaknesses. To give you a practical example…ROK when she started only did push ups on her knees and when I got her to do a ‘proper’ push up she couldn’t do a single full chest to ground and a press to elbow lock out. What we did was work on her shoulder stability and control, improve her maximal strength, improve her upper body athletic balance and did a lot of push up variations…just about all of which were done sub maximally…I will email her and get her to tell you how she found her program…she’s 16 and a basketballer so has to overcome the disadvantage she has with regard to push up of her relatively long levers…she tested on Monday and banged out 52…she’s almost doubled her push up totals after each of her training cycles at each of her testing days. I’m not trying to be evasive when I say this but what we did is what coaching is all about…applying the appropriate methods, loads and variations at the right times in the right sequence. There isn’t actually a ‘best’ way to improve your push ups. If I was pressed I’d say improve your maximal strength, do a lot of shoulder stability, mobility and control work, do a heap of sub maximal push up variations to accrue some significant volume.

Session Update
Just a progress update…Damian did his row again today…his last numbers are posted first and then today’s numbers afterwards.

200m – 34.1 > 33.8
400m – 1:15.7 > 1:12.3
600m – 2:01.8 > 1:58.2
800m – 2:47.7> 2:42.1
1000m – 3:36.7 > 3:29.0
200m – 36.2 > 35.1
400m – 1:21.5 > 1:18.5
600m – 2:06.3 > 2:01.5
800m – 2:54.4 > 2:46.7
1000m – 3:44.1 > 3:35.8
800m – 2:52.3 > 2:47.2
600m – 2:07.0 > 2:01.5
400m – 1:18.7 > 1:17.0
200m – 33.0 > 32.9
So 26 minutes 51 seconds which shaves a minute or so of his previous best.

I was never great with maths (or spelling, or reading…or just about anything else even remotely academic come to think of it) but I think all those times were faster again this week…I’m not sure what to make of that…but I’m pretty sure going faster is a good thing.

He was so pleased with his session that he immediately went foetal in celebration. At least I think it was celebration…it may have been some sort of religious event because I’m not sure but from where I was in the gym it sounded like he was mentioning God over and over again.

Darren also did his first rowing session and did really well…he posted the following times.

200m – 38.6
400m – 1:20.7
600m – 2:08.4
800m – 3:02
1000m – 3:49.3
200m – 40.9
400m – 1:27.7
600m – 2:17.3
800m – 3:03.4
1000m – 3:58
800m – 3:05.6
600m – 2:18.5
400m – 1:25.7
200m – 36.6

Total time of 29 minutes 52 seconds…very nice first effort.

Homework Tasks
I also did my homework. Below you’ll find the video regarding the progressions for body weight exercises If people aren’t happy with this video description let me know and I will re do it and make it clearer. I’m happy to keep doing it to get it right so everyone knows exactly what is what. Being unhappy with it does not include commenting on or complaining about the fact that I’m unkempt, unwashed and overweight…it is definitely a take it or leave it situation where those factors are concerned.

Body weight progressions.

Athletes Blog
This is a note to all the athletes that have been mentioned or featured in the blog…or who wish to in the future…go to Johnny’s profile and copy and paste the format into an email or a word document and put your testing results and profile details along with the program you did on your current training cycle and email it to me…I’m not going to type everyone’s out but I can definitely manage to cut and paste what you send me into the athletes blog…I’ll also do this for anyone else who is reading the blog who wants to do the same…fill out your details using Johnny’s template and email it to me and I’ll put it up along with what you did on this training cycle.

Testing Explanation
I also went through the tests that we do and gave a bit of a definition…sorry it is a bit dark in places…I figured not being able to see me was probably a good thing.

I’m always being kept in the dark.

Damian’s Week 3
This weeks training will be brought to you by the number 12.

Session 1
Warm Up + Mobility Work
Long Jumps – 10 sets of 5 reps
Natural Glute Ham Raise – 4 sets of 12 reps
Weighted Bridging – 3 sets of 60 seconds
Bench Press – 2 w/u sets of 12 then 4 sets of 12 reps
Chin Ups – 3 sets to failure
Seated Rows – 3 sets of 12 reps
Tricep Pressdowns – 3 sets of 12 reps
Take a breather and then do 10 rows of 400m with 1 minute recovery between each.

Session 2
3 sets of 10 rows of maximal 250’s with 60 seconds of easy rowing between intervals and 5 minutes total recovery between each of the the 3 sets.

Session 3
Warm Up + Mobility Work
1A Pull Ups – 10 sets of 5 reps
1B Elevated Push Ups- 10 sets of 15 reps
Unsupported DB Rows – 4 sets of 12 reps
Plate Shifting – 5 sets
Elevated Single Leg Split Squats – 5 sets of 12 reps
Seated or Lying Leg Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
45 degree Back Extensions (weighted) – 3 sets of 12 reps
Take a breather and then do 10 rows of 500m with 1 minute recovery between each.

Session 4
Row 150, 300, 500, 200, 400, 600 with 30 seconds recovery between sets take 2 mins rest and complete 3 sets in total.

Session 5
Warm Up + Mobility Work
Box Squats – 8 sets 5 reps
Single Leg Knee Drops – 4 sets of 12 reps
Torgue Press – 4 sets of 12 reps
1A Elevated Push Ups – 6 sets of 12 reps
1B Inverted Rows – 5 sets of 12 reps
Natural Reverse Hypers – 3 sets of 12 reps
DB Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
Take a breather and then do 10 rows of 500m with 1 minute recovery between each.

Session 6
200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200m with 45 seconds recovery between intervals.

My Own Project
What I’ve decided to do is to have a go at Lyle’s Rapid Fat Loss protocol myself. I’m going to read the entire handbook again tomorrow…I figure that this being the third time I might actually understand some of it this time…I plan to take notes…do my calculations and get it started on Monday evening at 5.30pm after I weigh in.

I figured that this is what most people would do…they don’t actually have someone that they can get to do all the work and thinking for them like I can with Lyle…so they have to either work it out for themselves or if they are smart enough they actually get Lyle’s handbook. So I figured rather than Lyle just laying it all out on a plate for me that I’d actually have a go at working it out for myself….after all…I’m supposedly an arrogant know it all…so I figured I surely must be smarter than a stupid American. I was actually discussing this subject with the with the lads and ladettes in the gym the other day…not the fact that I’m smarter than American’s…after all…that’s a given…what we were discussing is that the way I basically approached this sort of the thing in the past was basically to tell athletes to lower their carb intake and be sure of their protein intake (I actually did it in a little more detail than this…but you get the idea) then train the beejesus out of them…this works. Less calories and more training equals fat loss…trust me on that…but the thing is I don’t think this is the ‘best’ way to do it.

What I’m actually going to do is to do ‘my version’ of the Rapid Fat Loss protocol for 2 weeks. I’m going to get Lyle to chime in as I go and tell me what an idiot I am and to point out what I’m doing wrong and then after 2 weeks reassess where I am and either push on with the same protocol or go onto a more modified diet. The thing is I want to be able to train hard while I’m dieting and when I did the Rapid Fat Loss protocol the last time I could barely muster up the energy to continue living let alone training…this I’ll point out was mainly my fault as I don’t think I did it as well as I should have. I basically just ate eggs, tuna, chicken and cheese…and didn’t do much with regard to actually making those ingredients into actual meals…I’m going to do better this time. I want to make sure my diet supports my training while maximising my fat loss.

We are running a pool in the gym regarding how much I’ll lose in my first week with the person who gets closest taking the pot. If you want to take a guess yourself do so in the comments section…you won’t be entitled to any winnings but you can always claim moral victory.

The diet will start at 5.30pm tomorrow when I weigh in and document my fatness by way of video. I’m going to weigh in and video my progress or lack thereof every Monday at 5.30pm so you’ll be able to keep track of how I’m doing and or how much I suck at my job. I’ll keep a food log and training diary in the athlete’s blog so you’ll be able to keep track day to day of how I’m going. As always…I’ve more to say…and plenty more to rant about but I’m going to try and keep the ranting down to once a week and be positive and productive the rest of the time.

If I missed anything let me know?

Testing Today

Good day today…Johnno had his testing and got pretty much exactly what I predicted. I also know that he knows he has more in him. His next training cycle will very much focus on improving his technique as he falls behind his bench line far to easily and often…we’ll fix that. He doubled his pull ups and improved his push ups and inverted rows…he’s also put on some weight and lost some fat.

His fatness is an issue I’m not bothered with or concerned about at all at the moment…it’ll be at least one more training cycle before I will make a concerted push to get him leaner….you can expect to see a big jump in his pull ups, push ups and inverted rows then.

Johnny after testing pulling 280kgs or 617+lbs just for a laugh…EASY.

Damian did his row today and posted the following numbers:
200m – 34.1
400m – 1:15.7
600m – 2:01.8
800m – 2:47.7
1000m – 3:36.7
200m – 36.2
400m – 1:21.5
600m – 2:06.3
800m – 2:54.4
1000m – 3:44.1
800m – 2:52.3
600m – 2:07.0
400m – 1:18.7
200m – 33.0

It’ll take some beating…27mins48ses averaging 1:44/500 for the duration.

I’ve also just had some in person feedback on the blog…apparently I rant too much…I thought I was being pretty good on holding back on the ranting?

So….are you in favour of more or less ranting?

HH has made a mess of his shoulder playing. We were messing around this morning with single arm barbell snatching which I’ve never done before….and when I say messing around I mean HH was ’schooling’ me…I sucked…as you can see below. The video contains language that should not be heard by children…or sensitive and easily offeneded adults…YOU WERE WARNED.

Single Arm Barbell Snatch…which I missed repeatedly…I’m such a baby.

I see in all those crossfit video’s that they like coaching the ’stamp’…when doing oly lifting variations…I just prefer to do it after….consider it complex training….a beyond maximal lift followed immediately by plyometric work….don’t knock it till you try it.

Operation De Blob

DG is going to do a 6 week block of training before he retests. Week 1 and 3 he will be away from home base which means hotel gyms and only God knows what kind of equipment….I’ll cross my fingers and hope for the best for his sake.

Week 1
Session 1
Warm Up + Mobility Work
Box Jumps/Long Jumps – 8 sets of 3 reps
Natural Glute Ham Raise – 3 sets of 8 reps
Weighted Bridging – 3 sets of 60 seconds
DB Floor Press – 2 w/u sets of 8 then 4 sets of 5-8 reps
Pull Ups – 2 sets to failure
DB Rows – 3 sets of 8 reps
Lying Tricep Extensions – 3 sets of 8 reps
Take a breather and then do 10 rows of 300m with 1 minute recovery between each.

Session 2
3 sets of 10 rows of maximal 150’s with 60 seconds of easy rowing between intervals and 5 minutes total recovery between each of the the 3 sets.

Session 3
Warm Up + Mobility Work
1A Chins – 10 sets of 5 reps
1B Elevated Push Ups- 10 sets of 15 reps
Single Arm Cable Row – 3 sets of 15 reps
Plate Shifting – 5 sets
Elevated Single Leg Split Squats – 5 sets of 8 reps
Seated or Lying Leg Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
45 degree Back Extensions – 3 sets of 12 reps
Take a breather and then do 10 rows of 300m with 1 minute recovery between each.

Session 4
Row 150, 300, 500, 200, 400, 600 with 30 seconds recovery between sets take 2 mins rest and complete 3 sets in total.

Session 5
Warm Up + Mobility Work
Box Squats – 8 sets 3 reps
Single Leg Knee Drops – 3 sets of 8 reps
Torgue Press – 4 sets of 8 reps
1A Elevated Push Ups – 5 sets of 15 reps
1B Inverted Rows – 5 sets of 15 reps
Natural Reverse Hypers – 3 sets of 12 reps
Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 8 reps
Take a breather and then do 10 rows of 300m with 1 minute recovery between each.

Session 6
200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200m with 30 seconds recovery between intervals.

So that will be week 1 of DG’s war on fatness. Week 2 he’ll do with me and week 3 he’ll do this same week again and then the last 3 weeks will be with me and we’ll ramp up his training before we unload and re test….we’ll see where we are then.

She was so impressed with DK’s results…she just collapsed.

Sunshine all week….and what do I wake up to?

Rain…naturally.

Homework
Zaf said…
How will you progress ROK in the band assisted movements?

What we are going to do this cycle is to increase her volume on her band assisted movements and go heavier on all her supplementary back work.

Currently she is trying to do 5×8 with say band 3.

What I’ll look to do is to progress her from doing it in blocks to doing a solid 5 sets of 8 reps at the end of the cycle…I’ll start taking notes of what to video so you can see the progressions…I’ll put this on the list.

Do you stay with that band for the whole cycle or go down to band 2 which provides less assistance.
Unlike the bar or dumbells where you can add 1-2 kgs to progress then bands provide very big jumps in load. How do you decide on set x rep schemes when you don’t have as much control over the load?

We’ll stay with the same band for the entirity of the training block and look to improve the reps quality.

Ben said…

thanks for those rower times will!

My bit was easy…thank the lads for doing it.

i’ll have a go at them in the next few weeks myself, our concept II is rooted atm though so i have to use some other piece of garbage, or ill make someone else do it instead which is probably my preferance anyway coz they dont look like much fun

That is always my preference as well.

now you may have answered this before and I missed it but do you have a ‘fitness’ test that you use? like a time for a certain distance or something like the rest of the tests (pushups/inv rows in 60sec, squats with bw etc etc) i stole from you?

Mate I think I’ve had one original idea in my whole coaching career…and I have a feeling that isn’t actually true and that my one idea wasn’t original it is just that I forgot who I stole it from…so steal away.

This is a Yes and No answer…like a lot of mine….next week there will be a massive whiteboard going up in the back of our gym and on it I will have our records…people will set lots of different records…I think for example on the rower we might set a 500m and a 2000m record and they’ll be there for whoever thinks they have the ticker to beat. I have a feeling that this record board could be the cause of some serious injuries….we’ll see how it goes.

What I usually do is to use something in the program as a test…for example GL and FoS will both have those intervals in their program during their respective training cycles and they will try to beat that each week…because that’s how they are….and we’ll see how they are going at the end of the cycle….we’ll find some other way to ‘test’ them in there next cycle and probably 3 months from now we’ll come back and do this current interval session again in an unloading week.

Ben said…

also was going to ask if someone was fresh to this how would you break them in. Last time you were talking about someone who you thought was capable of it – had a big engine or whatever, but what if they were a nubee?

http://willheffernan.blogspot.com/2008/05/conditioning-work.html

from that post im guessing you would go something like 200, 400, 600 then back down again with decent rest periods then over time increase the number sets and distances in each set and decrease rest times? is that close or am i overthinking it?

I usually start beginners out with 150’s which they’d do in around 30 or so seconds give or take a few either side and give them say 30 then 45 then 60 seconds rest. I’d make that a set and then work out how many sets I thought they could handle. After 2 weeks I would either increase the number of sets or reduce the recovery periods depending on what I see…as in I want to see people pulling a strong 150 consitently….if they are recovering fast then I’ll drop the recovery periods but if they are pulling strong but look like they need every second of recovery to do so then I’ll start tacking some extra sets on the end. Once they have built up a reasonable work capacity then I will start increasing the distances covered. I’m really not into pure endurance work…just bores me to tears…so what I tend to do is to push the intensity…and look to do that for longer…so if they are pulling sub 1.35/500m pace for their 150’s…let’s do that for 200 or 250 and keep the recovery the same.

I hope that helps? I will keep posting athletes actual sessions so you get a proper feel for how I progress them.

DG is starting a new program having just finished a 4 week transition program and he is going to have a HEAP of intervals as we are going to go to war on his fatness.

He tested today and the results were as follows:
Height: 196cm
Weight: 108.5kg
Bodyfat: 20.5.9%
1RM Bench: 105kg
Pull Ups: 7 reps
Push Ups(60sec): 41 reps
Inverted Rows(60sec): 23 reps
Squat: 10 reps

What we are going to do is to get his fat down and bring his bench and squat up because he really should be punching out better numbers on those.

So we’ll do 3 weights sessions a week and 3 conditioning sessions.

Session 1 will be some dynamic leg work and max effort bench variation work in the 3-5 reps range and some supplementary back work.
Session 2 will be max effort back work and unilateral leg work for reps.
Session 3 will be his heavy leg session with all his prehab work and tidying up day for his prehab and mobility work.
He’ll have some short high intensity intervals, some short intervals with limited recovery and a long interval session. I’ll fill in the details later.