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.
