Informed Performance

This blog hopefully will be about the athletes I coach and how I coach them…that and a place for me to crap on and moan in equal measure.

Archive for the ‘Shannon’ Category

Seamless Transition

Posted by Will Heffernan on January 22, 2009

Things were a bit limited over at blogger functionality wise and I got sick of all the the people I know who use wordpress always making fun of me so I want to give this place a bit of a go as I think it has a lot more possibilities.

So…I won’t crap on about it but I want some feed backon what people think could be improved? Is there anything missing? It will take a while to settle in and I intend on tarting up the place a bit to make it pretty…so let me know what you think?

Busy day today but I thought I would throw up the 2 different program variations that the girls did this evening.

Session 1

Warm Up – 3×500m on the rower with 2 mins stretching between efforts

1A Over’s and Unders – 2×8 each side

1B Reverse Lunge Twist – 2×8 each side

Box Squats – 2×5, 6×3

Hang Cleans – 5×5

Hanging Leg Raises – 3×15

Horizonatal, Vertical Band Pull-A-Parts and Band Dislocates – 3×12 of each

2A DB Band Press – 6×5

2B Pad Work – 6×15 seconds

Band Assisted Pull Ups – 5×12

Standing Ab Pulldowns – 3×15

3A Natural Reverse Hypers – 3×12

3B Back Extensions – 3×12

Session A

Warm Up – 3×1km on the bike with 2 mins stretching between efforts

Horizonatal, Vertical Band Pull-A-Parts and Band Dislocates – 3×12 of each

1A DB Band Press – 6×5

1B Pad Work – 6×15 seconds

Band Assisted Pull Ups – 5×12

Hanging Leg Raises – 3×15

2A Hurdle Steps – 2×8 each side

2B Single Leg Hip Pop Ups – 2×8 each side

Trap Bar Deadlift – 2×5, 6×3

Box Jumps – 5×5

Standing Ab Pulldowns – 3×15

3A Natural Reverse Hypers – 3×12

3B Back Extensions – 3×12

So pretty much identical but with a decent sized group and a gym that really wasn’t big enough from day 1 you need to split groups up.

Testing

Peter and Paul…not the apostles but the Gaelic Footballers…came in to do their testing this evening

I asked them to take a guess at what they would get in their testing before they started. They were both pretty much spot on…they got much closer than I expected. The scores in brackets are their guesses and the score beside it are their actual scores. They also did their rowing test but for some reason both the rowers malfunctioned and didn’t record the details properly…doesn’t matter…we’ll just pretend it was a test run.

 

The lads testing results..their scores and their guesstimates in brackets.

The lads testing results..their scores and their guesstimates in brackets.

 

 

So maybe it wasn’t so seamless a transition!
I just realised that for some reason some videos didn’t make the jump and there seems to be a couple of missing posts as well. As I said it might take a while to get every sorted out but I think it’ll be worth it in the end so bare with me.

Posted in Fitness Testing, GAA, Grace, Louise, Performance Video, Programs, Shannon, Women's Rugby | 15 Comments »

See if I can slip this post through without my laptop realising.

Posted by Will Heffernan on June 17, 2008

Ian was asking about how Patrick was going so I thought I’d post this and Patrick can chime in and tell you how he thinks he’s going.

Patrick Crawford – Phase II
Session 1
250m/30sec recovery 10 sets
Leg Press (2 w/u) 6 8
Natural Reverse Hyper 3 12
250m/30sec recovery 10 sets
1A DB Floor Press 5 8
1B Chest Supported Rows 5 8
250m/30sec recovery 10 sets
Lying Tricep Extensions 3 8
Bicep Curls 3 8

Session 2
1000m, 750m, 500m, 250m with 45sec recovery
Trap Bar Deadlift (2 w/u) 6 8
Seated Leg Curls 3 12
1000m, 750m, 500m, 250m with 45sec recovery
1A Pulldowns 5 8
1B Push Ups 5 10
1000m, 750m, 500m, 250m with 45sec recovery
Cable Bicep Curls 3 8
Cable Tricep Extensions 3 8

Session 3
Exercise Sets Reps Intensity
8 X 500m with 2min easy rowing between intervals
Step Ups 5 5
45 deg Back Extensions 3 12
6 X 500m with 2min easy rowing between intervals
1A Swiss Ball DB Chest Press 8 5
1B DB Rows 8 5
4 X 500m with 2min easy rowing between intervals
Bridging (secs) 3 45

Patrick Crawford – Phase III
Session 1
300m/30sec recovery 10 sets
Reverse Lunges (each leg) 3 8
Push Ups & Row 3 8
300m/45sec recovery 10 sets
1A Alternating DB Press 5 8
1B DB Rows 5 8
300m/60sec recovery 10 sets
DB Overhead Tricep Extensions 3 8
DB Bicep Curls 3 8

Session 2
1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m with 60sec recovery
Squats 3 8
Seated Leg Curls 3 8
1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m with 60sec recovery
1A Pulldowns 5 8
1B Push Ups (elevated) 5 8
1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m with 60sec recovery
Cable Bicep Curls 3 8
Cable Tricep Extensions 3 8

Session 3
10 X 500m with 2min easy rowing between intervals
DB RDL’s 3 8
45 deg Back Extensions 3 12
8 X 500m with 2min easy rowing between intervals
1A Military Press 5 8
1B Barbell Rows 5 8
6 X 500m with 2min easy rowing between intervals
Bridging (secs) 3 60

Sheman…part girl part incredible hulk.
ROK is going great guns…this was her last set of 5 at 90kg’s for 3 reps.

Apparently 18 is too young for girls to weight train…at least that is what I was told this week…I guess that means ROK will have to stop lifting in 2 years time when she hits 18…that should be OK…because she’ll be easily pulling a double body weight by then.

The biggest problem female athletes need to overcome to be successful is male coaches…and in particular the low expectations that these coaches have for their female athletes.

When I first started training ROK she did her push ups on her knees…as she was instructed by her coaches…that doesn’t cut it in my gym…she does the same testing the guys do…she works as hard as they do…so why shouldn’t she test like they do?

Some ones been watching too much American sport on TV

I also want to say well done to Dondon’s who not only was brave enough to where a long sleeve skin tight white under armour type shirt into the gym…well he wore it into the gym and managed to with stand the ridicule and barrage of abuse for about 5 minutes before he did the right thing and covered himself up but he also managed to add 15kg to his bench press, get 3 extra pull ups, 10 extra push ups and 7 extra inverted rows…he’s nursing a disc lumbar disc injury at the moment so no trap bar deadlift but a great return on his 6 weeks of hard work.

Questions:
Joel Hallström said…
Dunno what you had in mind will. I had a few questions i put in the mail I sent you.
I better go back and I will answer those for you.
But i come up with new ones all the time so…some based on todays Patrick post.
How do you perform the natural reverse hypers?

Why is Patrick doing military presses? I remember reading a blog post a while ago where you said that you havent used specific shoulder work for the last 10 years.
Things like push presses and military pressing I don’t count as direct shoulder work…thing like cable side raises or DB front raises are what I consider direct shoulder work.
How do you keep track of your athletes progressions? Like how do you journal them? Do use a program or just a excel/word document?
They keep training diaries and we review them? Is that what you mean?

Mimo said:

1-You have some athletes( including yourself, if you want to call yourself an athlete) train the same movement patterns( at least similar) on consecutive days. How do you manage this? Do you like your athletes to lift away from failure point, thus not stressing the neuromuscular system as much? Or do you have them go heavy one day and just accumulate volume the other?
Yes…this is quite a good question and takes a little bit of explaining…I’m going to write a bit of a ‘Principles of Training…according to Will’ document as a part of a training seminar that I’m planning. I will actually post it up here when I’m finished but there is method to the madness and I don’t think any of my athlete’s would actually know/realise that it is supposed to be a problem/difficulty if you hadn’t of blown it and let them know.
It makes sense to me, because it the real world/sports, the athletes need to exert force on consecutive days, if they are demanded. There’s no “oooh, i lifted heavy yesterday, so i won’t be able to play/train, using the same muscle groups, until 48hrs have passed”. However, i’ve never seen anyone do this before, unless it’s 1 heavy day and 1 technique day.
I always thought this was hysterical…I learned a long long time ago that there was a huge disconnect between what I read and what I saw…I think anyone that has worked in the area knows there are a lot of things that are different between theory and practice.

I actually think it is actually beneficial to train individual muscle groups on consecutive days…sometimes I even train the same muscle groups in individual sessions and I haven’t had anyone’s arms or legs fall off yet…in some rare cases some of them have even gotten jakt.

2-How do you manipulate the training sessions week to week? I mean, i like to manipulate volume,not intensity, using a “high/medium/very high/ low” scheme. How about you?
Depends whether they are doing 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 sessions a week and what their individual training goals are. Some athletes might just be doing 2 sessions a week and they might both be maximal with additional supplementary work…a heavy deadlift and bench day and a heavy squat and heavy pull up day or it could be a heavy/maximal day and an explosive day…it really just depends. I need to actually start putting up more programs and maybe it’ll be a little clearer.

3- Do you load the knee drops (other than an X-vest)?
Yes, dumbbells by the side or holding a plate out in front.

4- I had more questions but i seem to have forgotten them. Next time.
This is probably a result of brain damage…does that help?

The “focused delivery” point you made today, is very very interesting, and something i have to try myself because if an athlete can’t put his force in the exact movement pattern where he needs to, there will be some kind of energy waste going on. I hope this makes sense.
Exactly, and it is not that ball tossing is sport specific or a performance determining factor…it is just a demonstration of ‘athletic intent’ as far as I’m concerned.

Joel Hallström said…
Sweet, quick answer :) Yea exactly. What i was thinking of where how you keep track of all your athletes progressions, stength statistics and that kind of stuff.
Personally i have like 15-25 clients a week and since i do plenty of physio i have to take alot of notes on each client/patient which is very time-demanding. Usually they workout with me one session per week and then they do the other sessions by themselves and because of that they need to have their “alone sessions” written down with instructions which also takes alot of time. Some give out like pre written training logs for the athletes to fill in. Others do it by mail, some keep track of everything on papper, others use programs. Ive seen people use alot of methods but i havent seen any really good that isnt so time consuming. So after alot of bla bla my question is how do you do it?
Magic.

I’m getting taken to court

I have a 68 year old client who is going to take me to court apparently because he wants me to pay for a new wardrobe for him…he informed me today that he can’t get the top button of any of his shirts done up any more…we’ve built a ‘yoke’ that is too big for his current wardrobe…I’m going to get him into a wifebeater…the solution to all wardrobe issues.

Posted in Opinion, Performance Video, Programs, Rammer, Rehab/Prehab, Shannon | 8 Comments »