Bon Voyage Macker

…that would of worked better if Macker was heading off to France…he’s off to the Ospreys in Swansea, Wales and I thought saying ‘Da bo chi’ might go over peoples heads.

The other thing I don’t hate is Leg Pressing

My philosophy is to always use the right tool for the job. The problem I see with a lot of coaches is that they arbitrarily throw away a lot of tools. For example…how idiotic would you have to be to…I don’t know….let me try to think of some examples off the top of my head…imagine a hypothetical coach who doesn’t let his athletes back squat…or maybe Olympic lift…when the only tools you have a hammers every problem they see ends up looking like a nail.

On Saturday I was testing some basketballers…one of the lads had recently had surgery on his patella tendon to alleviate a tendinitis issue. Now as a part of his recovery he was told to squat…and he has been. How squatting is fine…PROVIDING you actually know how to do it.

Here's the player in question in the bottom position of his squat

Now…for this player…with the issue he has had…and with the technique he has…squatting is the LAST thing he should be doing. Now I won’t go into a big diagnostic of squat technique here….that’s not what this blog is about…but what I do want you to look at is the bar. Specifically I want you to look at the bar position in relation to his hips, knees and ankles. I also want you to take a look at the angle at his knee…keep in mind his hips aren’t even close to parallel…at proper depth the acute nature of that knee angle would be even more extreme. Forgetting everything else about his technique….he’s putting an enormous strain on that patella tendon. Also, considering the advice he had to ’squat’ was given to him so that he’d build up his quad mass….squatting for him…the way he has been is all kinds of shit advice.

This was me just showing him the difference in our techniques

So look at the two of us in relatively the same position and look at the bar position in relation to my hips, knees and ankles…then as you did before…look at my knee angle in comparison to his? What do you see?

Now this player doesn’t train with me…him and his team was just in for testing. My advice to him….drop the squats and leg press instead. Leg Pressing will maximise the amount of good ’stress’ that he is placing on his leg muscles….which is after all the reason he was told to squat in the first place. He will put a much less severe load through his damaged patella tendon…leg pressing in this case is the right tool for the job…even if the guy does have a physique like a nail.

Look at the knee angle here relative to when he was squatting

Squatting or Leg Pressing? Which do you think is going to maximise the loading that he can safely use to stimulate his leg development? Which do you think is going to put the most stress through his damage patella tendon?

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.

James holds the most important record in the gym

This is about the same as the single reading for my abdominal skinfold…but I am working on that.

Lunge Variation
I was asked about this the other day as someone saw one of my GAA players doing it in another gym and they asked them what was it for…the player in question told them they assumed it was for a unknown wrong that they had done to me. No wonder so many people in the wider community like me so much when my own athletes have always got such nice things to say about me.

Anyway…here is James doing the same 2 way cable lunge in question.

If you want to know what it does or why I use it try it and let me know and I’ll print it on cards for athletes to hand out.

Something I just saw when I was out and about on the interweb.
This is a good blog…i.e. better than mine and way more interesting.

I think this article is worth a read – Conditioned to lose: Weight-room inconsistencies at fault for injuries

Conditioned to lose: Weight-room inconsistencies at fault for injuries

This article is about NFL but it may as well be about GAA, rugby, basketball and football.

Conditioned to lose: Weight-room inconsistencies at fault for injuries

Most NFL offseason conditioning programs started in earnest this week, not that Jay Cutler plans on attending Denver’s. Don’t think the offseason program means anything? Think again. A lot of the injuries that happen between August and January are attributed, rightly or wrongly, to the work, or lack thereof, being put in right now.
The funny thing is, not every strength coach seems to realize his primary job is injury prevention. The lack of research or science behind some of the conditioning programs in the NFL is startling. You would think if an owner is going to spend up to $127 million on his players, he would want to make sure his investment was being protected and not further beat down, as is still the case in some places.
I have seen the impact some NFL strength coaches have had. The results have been staggering, both positively and negatively. I was on a team whose strength coach was intent on the players doing power cleans, a lift in which the player propels the weight to his shoulders in an explosive manner from the floor. Of the six or seven linemen who worked out all offseason with him, three had back surgeries within four months of each other. Maybe it was simply a coincidence. I doubt it.
There is another well-known strength coach whose program is the same for every position on the team. Now the actual weights the players lift may be different, but the specific exercises that every player is asked to complete are identical, which makes absolutely no sense to me. How can he possibly think offensive linemen and cornerbacks are the same type of athletes and need the same workouts? That’s like training a bear and a cheetah to hunt the same way. They’re different animals.
Interior linemen and perimeter skill guys are barely even playing the same sport if you ask me. Offensive linemen need to focus on power, short-area quickness and lateral movement. Cover corners need to concentrate on speed, flexibility and fluidity in and out of their breaks.
The NFL is not like high school or even college, where the main focus is on the players making gains in both strength and speed as their younger bodies continue to mature and develop. Though that is certainly still a goal among some NFL players, it is not the primary one. NFL players already possess a certain level of strength and speed; otherwise they never would have made it onto a roster.
Instead, the most important thing an NFL strength and conditioning program can do is help the players make strides towards promoting their joint health, not breaking it down further. If players had the chance to choose between being a little bit stronger, a little bit faster or feeling a little bit healthier physically for a game, trust me, healthy would win every time. It is never a good feeling walking onto an NFL playing field when something is really bothering you physically. I can’t tell you how many times before a game I thought, If only this wasn’t bothering me so much …
I have always felt the best idea is to make the offseason program as player-friendly and adaptable as possible. That doesn’t mean coddle the players. It means work them hard but smart, and be willing to alter the program according to a specific player’s likes and dislikes. After all, they are paid professionals and they should know their body better than anyone. A player who is pleased with the program is more likely to not only attend the sessions himself but also tell all of the other players that they should fall in line. And the more guys there, the better, working together for team chemistry purposes.
What amazes me is that after all the research that has been done, there still seems to be little to no consensus as to the best way to train professional football players. Seemingly every strength coach has his own beliefs. Some coaches are huge proponents of the explosion garnered from the Olympic lifts, like cleans, jerks and snatches. Others continue to believe the crux of the program should revolve around the power lifts, like bench press, squat and dead lift. Still others adhere strictly to the high intensity mindset and have their players mainly work out using joint-friendly Hammer Strength machines.
The same holds true for the running component of offseason conditioning as well. Some focus mainly on speed work, while others place the major emphasis on conditioning. There are a few coaches who prefer working on agility exercises, while others believe mainly in position-specific drills. Still others prefer to mix and match all of the lifting and running philosophies, a hodge-podge of sorts.
Their work and results don’t go unnoticed. Just last offseason, Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio fired his strength and conditioning coaches, Mark Asanovich and Les Ebert. He did so after a string of injuries, especially a heavy toll along the offensive line, helped doom the Jaguars ‘08 season.
Key injuries can be devastating, especially in a salary cap era in which the depth on a team is usually comprised of young, inexpensive and inexperienced players who may not be ready to succeed week in and week out on Sundays.
Del Rio was unwavering when asked immediately after the season if decreasing injuries was the primary focus of the offseason program, saying, “That’s the goal,” he said. “Everybody that wants to be a Jaguar [in 2009] will be here. Anybody who wants to be a Jaguar will be working out with the team.” Not exactly a subtle hint about his feelings concerning participation in the voluntary offseason program, huh?
I realize that some might consider it unfair to pin certain circumstantial injuries on strength coaches, but that can be a reality in the cutthroat NFL. Though I agree it can be difficult to correlate a specific injury on a unique individual to a certain workout program, a trend of similar injuries or a boatload of injuries in general is problematic. That is why NFL strength and conditioning coaches would be wise to do whatever it takes to try to ensure their players are physically healthy and prepared for the rigors of the season ahead. If not, they might be the next to get fired.

Liars and cheaters

I have them all…I suppose it’s only right since I pretty much made them that way and athletes end up being a reflection of their coaches.

I thought I would post another different type of session for you….most of you won’t get to try it as it requires three people and I know if you are reading this you are most likely a friendless loser who spends more time reading about training than actually doing it but I’ll post it anyway.

Team Conditioning Session
This is a high intensity sort duration muscular endurance session…very much power orientated and done in groups of three.

Warm Ups – 10 mins of cardio along with some hip and shoulder mobility work…you know the deal by now.

Work Block 1
100 KB (20kg) Squats
100 Push Ups
50 Pull Ups

Work Block 2
100 Step Ups (30 inch box each leg)
50 Inverted Rows
50 DB Presses (18kg each arm)

Work Block 3
50 Trap Bar Deadlifts (100kg)
100 Bench Press (60kg)
50 DB Rows (30kg each arm)

Work Block 4
100 Box Jumps (30 inch box)
100 Floor Presses (25kg each arm)
100 Sit Ups

Work Block 5
50 Elevated Split Squats (each leg)
50 Push Press (60kg)
50 Barbell Rows (60kg)

Work Block 6
100 Natural Reverse Hypers
100 Back Extensions
100 Hanging Leg Raises

So…the way it worked is the lads break into groups of three. All the groups had different strategies…I don’t care how people do these sessions because they always end the same way…bloody hard…the groups are timed on each block and the times go up on the board and the cumulative time is calculated at the end.

To give you some idea of the way it is supposed to work…I put these blocks together to last 5 minutes each if they are done well and done flat out…so the total work time is 30 minutes for the blocks. All the groups start at once and there is a minute recovery between blocks timed from when the last group finishes the particular block they are on.

Now to the reason for the liars and cheaters remark in the title. I came in this morning and looked at some of the times on the board…one thing in particular struck me…many of the lads are liars and cheats…I looked at the times for Work Block 1….earlier yesterday Nasher, Pottsy and myself did this entire session before all the other lads did it in the afternoon and evening…it took us 6 minute to do Work Block 1…now keep in mind that Pottsy and myself are exceptional athletes of the highest calibre and even though we had to basically carry Nasher through the entire session as he was constantly out of breath from crying and moaning about his sore toe.

So anyway…one of the groups had a time of 1 minute 38 seconds on the board and another had 1 minute 50 seconds. Just think about that for a second….100 KB squats, 100 push ups and 50 pull ups…in 1 minute and 38 seconds? Give me a fucking break! As I am sure you realise…1 minute and 40 seconds is 100 seconds…so even if they were just doing the KB squats they’d have had to do them faster than 1 rep a second….ignoring the fact that they had to also slip in 100 push ups and 50 pull ups in their downtime between the 1 rep a second they were doing on the KB Squats. Thankfully about 10 minutes after I walked in this morning 3 of these liars and cheats walked in…these 3 were 2 members of the 1 minute 38 second group and 1 member of the 1 minute 50 second. After telling them that they were totally full of shit I got €100 out of my wallet and offered it to them if they could do it in under 2 minutes.

They didn’t even get close…I didn’t count all the push ups or pull ups (and I’m positive they cheated anyway) but they took more than 2 minutes to get the 100 KB Squats done…so they didn’t get rich this morning.

More brilliant emails

I got an email today asking about whether the fact that I wasn’t blogging so often was because I’d lost my job…which I though was funny since I am self employed and that would basically involve firing myself. Now don’t think I haven’t come close a few times…I do make myself mad sometimes but no the reason that I’ve been blogging a little less is not because I have been sacked its because I’ve been busier than normal…not much busier…just a bit busier.

Real live athletes training in a real live gym

I thought I better put up a bit of training stuff as well…this is what they got up to tonight.

So in case that is all as clear as mud…they did two blocks of cardio with a short sharp strength block in between and did three of these in total.

Denise is trying to get back in my good books
This looks like an apology to me?

Seminar matters
I sent out all the PDF’s of Lyle’s seminar this morning so if you didn’t get them and you were at the seminar you better email me and let me know. I am going to write a full seminar review as soon as I get time…it might have to wait for the weekend though. We’ll see how we go.

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

Sarah is coming tomorrow…I’m so excited I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep…

…that’s OK though. I’ll do what I always do…crack open Lyle’s book on Bromocriptine and I’ll be out like a light before I get to end of the first page.

Lyle’s Seminar
I am really looking forward to this weekend. Lyle and Sarah are coming to Dublin tomorrow. I’m going to be the ‘hostess with the mostest’ and whip out to the airport to pick them up during my lunch break….don’t worry though I’ll be able to fit some time in for some food. Then I am going to take them out to the gym so they can get their ‘pump on’ while I watch, talk, eat muffins and drink coffee…you know…the usual. I know Lyle will want to get a workout in before the seminar on Sunday so his ‘gunz’ will be at there awesome best.

The seminar will kick off on Sunday at 10am at St Mary’s College Rugby Club on Tempelville Rd, Tempelogue. If you are looking for directions I will save you the trouble…we’ll be here.

Lyle sent me the seminar today and it looks great…I am going to study it and look up all the big words so on Sunday I can look like I understand everything he’s talking about. This is basically what he’s going to cover:

Module 1: Overview of Basic Nutrition
Just a quick look at the basic components of human nutrition. Just to make sure everyone is on the same basic ‘background’ page.

Module 2: Overall Daily Nutrient Requirements
An examination of day-in, day-out nutrient reuquirements (energy, protein, carbs, fat) for different types of athletes.

Module 3: Around Workout Nutrition
Optimizing intake before, during and after training to enhance performance, decrease fatigue and improve overall adaptation to training.

Module 4: Modifications for Different Goals
A look at how to modify all of the information that has come before for goals such as mass gains, fat loss, maintenance of bodyweight (with improved performance over time), and recomposition.

Module 5: The Wrap Up
This goes over supplements and all the other odds and ends.

The presentation runs about 83 slides long…I was going to send out handouts by email but what I am going to do instead is just put handouts together and give them out on the day as I don’t want attendees getting over excited and passing out…I don’t want to be responsible for that.

If you need any more information just let me know otherwise I’ll see you guys on Sunday morning.

If anyone wants to get a workout in bring your gear…I’ll watch, eat muffins and drink coffee.

In other news
Paul had a light day today training wise. He’s a senior footballer. His training schedule goes as follows:
Monday: This is his heaviest day weights wise…it’s his strength day and we’ll do some easy conditioning as well.
Tuesday: An easy prehab day…tidying up work basically and a lot of trunk work. This is because on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s he has club training in the evening.
Wednesday: This is the most intense day…this is the day we do all our dynamic/power work.
Thursday: The same type of training as Tuesday’s just a different focus.
Friday: What we do on Friday’s depends on whether he has a Saturday or Sunday game. If it’s a Saturday game then it’s a rest day or light conditioning and some mobility and flexibility work. If it’s a Sunday game then we’ll do some high intensity conditioning work and some circuits.
Saturday and Sunday: Are either match days or rest days…I’m sure you get the idea.

So any way…today being Thursday was a relatively easy day. It went something like this:
Warm Up on the bike for 10 mins to get his sweat on.
Vertical Band Pull-A-Parts, Chest Supported Scap Shrug and Inverted DB Shrugs for 3 sets of 8 reps
1A Pull Ups – 10 sets of 3 reps
1B Elevated Push Ups – 10 sets of 10 reps
2A Ab Roll Outs – 5 sets of 12 reps
2B Natural Reverse Hypers – 5 sets of 12 reps
Single Leg Knee Drops – 5 sets of 5 reps on each side
Swiss Ball Hamstring Curls – 5 sets of 12 reps
High-Low Woodchopers – 3 sets of 8 reps on each side
Standing Ab Pulldowns – 3 sets of 15 reps

I am sure you’ve noticed by now that I video a lot of stuff in the gym…I don’t do this for this blog…I do it because I use it as a coaching tool. A tiny fraction of what gets videoed goes up on the blog in fact. One of the ways that I use video is to go back and look at athletes doing really simple tasks as you saw recently with Barry’s Band Pull-A-Parts. The single leg knee drops are another that I look at. You can take a look at this and maybe tell me what you see?