Hello everyone, I just got married yesterday. I will be traveling to Paris for the next two weeks ad will resume blogging when I get back. I will be doing some work with the San Jose Sharks and will share anything I learn and all my experiences with you the week of July 15.
Until then
All the best
Alex
Todays workout will begin with the warm up we did yesterday:
Activation 3×30
Tripod
Prone Glute
Chair
1 arm Plank (30 second Hold)
Mobility 3×10
Thoracic Mobility
Wall Slide
Ankle Mobility
Reverse Lunge
Side Lunge
Cross Over Lunge
Toe Touch Squat
Next we are going to work on the RDL.
ISO RDL 3-5×30-90 seconds
Keep your spine neutral and move through your hips.
Be careful not to round:
Don’t over arch:
Be sure to stay neutral:
Sit or reach your hips back, and keep your spine neutral. You should feel the work in your glutes. If you don’t try decreasing the ROM to reduce the stretch and work in the hamstrings.
Stretch Down 1×30 seconds
Glute
Quadricep
Calf
Hamstring
Groin
Pec Minor
Lats
Today’s workout will be a mobility and core glute strengthening.
Activation 3×30
Tripod
Prone Glute
Chair
1 arm Plank (30 second Hold)
Mobility 3×10
Thoracic Mobility
Wall Slide
Ankle Mobility
Reverse Lunge
Side Lunge
Cross Over Lunge
Toe Touch Squat
Stretch Down 1×30 seconds
Glute
Quadricep
Calf
Hamstring
Groin
Pec Minor
Lats
Go home and feel rejuvenated and good!
Alex
This quote is from Coach X’s GPP manual.
Another related phrase comes from Charlie Francis: The rush to results often leads to uncertainty and stagnation in the future
Too many people spend too much time learning too many exercises. As a result they end up a jack of all trades and a master of none
Here is the deal. Pick from a smaller exercise pool and spend a LOT of time in the beginning mastering the movements.
I’d rather train an athlete that can do perfect squats, lunges, RDL’s, GHR’s, Push ups and Pull ups than one that can half ass all of those and cleans and snatches and turkish get ups, and do spider lunges, and muscle ups, and dot drills, and clubbells, and kettlebells, and tae bo, and psx90, and the new weider confusion principle extreme growth hack squat, and… well you get the picture
start slow, master the movements and you may take 2 steps back (cuz your homies will squat and bench more weight) but you will be preparing yourself for a long injury free lifting career. You will take 2 steps back and then shoot 10 steps forward.
If you can squat properly, then I can get you to land properly, which means you can do depth jumps properly. Thus by mastering the squat your drops and jumps will be better, higher, and more effective.
If you can get the glute in an rdl, you can get it in a swing, prime time, and eventually a sprint!
My core lifts:
Squat
Lunge
GHR
RDL
Push Up
Pull Up
Most every other exercise is a variation of these core lifts. Think about say a kettlebell swing or prime time. They are essentially the same movement pattern as an RDL. So you master proper activation through the RDL, then transfer the skill to more rapid fire movements. The goal of each is the same, get the glute to extend your hip. If you cant do that in a slow movement like an RDL you won’t be able to get the glute to fire during a prime time.
It’s kinda like the WGF Skill, strength, endurance, power progression.
Squats eventually turn into REA squats, ADA squat, RA Squat (depth jump). But you master the movement first. Same with lunges.
So then the progression looks kinda like
iso, iso mio, pim, fda, ada, rea, ra, rfi/rate work
Master movement and train first to be an athlete. Learn to move well and you will be a better athlete. Let the variety come from the means and methods.
Alex
I just had an article published at wannagetfast.com
It details the routine and progression I used with my cross country team when I increased their verts by 2.5″-5″
Enjoy
Alex
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Thank you
Alex
In recent years the posterior chain has become the poster boy for athletic dominance. I know why too. It is the engine that powers your car, be it sprinting speed to jumping. You aren’t going to get very far without a functional, strong posterior chain (Glute, Ham, Gastroc).
Problem is that while putting in a big engine will improve your cars straight line speed, if you plan on turning the beast you better have some snazzy breaks. Your breaks are…
Your quads!
When you are cutting, you first over stride creating a braking force which is absorbed by the quads. If you plan on cutting on a dime you also lower your center of gravity placing you in a position with significant knee bend resembling a squat. If you don’t lower your center of gravity, momentum will carry you outside your frame forcing you to round your turn rather than sharply cutting.
The greatest running back of all time was Barry Sanders. He could do things that no back could ever do. Do me a favor and watch this video TWICE. First in amazement that someone was that good, and the second watch his legs as he breaks down and cuts. Notice the knee bend required to stop, drop the center of gravity, and turn.
Now, you should also notice the incredible hip extension he achieves even with the degree of knee flexion. Why am I pointing this out? Cause the posterior chain is still the engine and, boy does Barry have an engine!
I think that football coaches love squats because they help develop strength needed to breakdown and turn. It improves “quickness” on the field. Unfortunately most people are super quad dominant squatters so this will help with the sharpness of their cuts but does nothing to build their engines. I am suggesting athletes need balanced development. As the engine size gets bigger, the quality of your brakes needs to improve as well otherwise you won’t be able to create separation on your routes or when you are driving to the hole.
Who cares how sharp your cuts are if you run a 6 second 40!
So while you need to bring up your posterior chain, most people are incredibly weak here, you also must focus on your quads as well.
Here are some exercises to help with your change of direction:
ISO Squat
ISO Lunge
ISOMIO Squat
ISOMIO Lunge
ISOMIO Jump Squat
ISOMIO Jump Lunge
ADA Squat
ADA Lunge
REA Squat
REA Lunge
RA Squat
RA Lunge
Abbreviations are in inno-speak so if you have any questions just ask!
Program design:
Day 1
HARTT Progression (Earlier post)
Squat variation from above
Glute Ham Raise
Ankle Pops
Agility Drills
Day 2
HARTT
Lunge Variation from above
RDL
Low Squat Jump
Agility Drills
Do 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps on everything except ankle stuff do 3-5×20-40 sec.
Agility drills do 3-5 repetitions each direction with a 1:3 work to rest ratio
Enjoy
Alex
This is an interview I conducted with Jeremy Layport. He is a friend of mine and one hell of a coach. He is a co-worker at San Jose State University.
EA: First tell everyone a bit about who you are:
JL: Well Alex, as you know I’m an assistant strength and conditioning coach at San Jose State University who primarily works with Baseball, Softball, Water Polo, M. Golf, and Volleyball. I also assist with the football team and whatever other sport needs extra assistance.
EA: Can you outline your training philosophy for the readers?
JL: I can sum up my training philosophy as teaching correct movement patterns, then basically get people as strong as possible, once that’s accomplished start to get them as fast as possible. Rinse and repeat as much as necessary. Progress from a very basic program to slowly adding in more and more complex/ advanced versions of exercises. Try to set up a process somewhat like the Russian PASM model. I’m not into size for the sake of size or anything with out purpose. Simple to complex, strong to fast…
EA: You have talked about the development of a PASM within college strength and conditioning field. Would you mind discussing the concept and provide a general outline of how this would look?
JL: Well Alex, as you and I have discussed on numerous occasions, being at a low level Div I school, we get a lot of upper and lower caliber athletes that seem to have a lot of dis-function when they come in. It seems like programs always want to get rush the teaching aspect and get everyone integraded into the system as soon as possible. Some head coaches are extremely concerned with “building the camaraderie” aspect of the physical training experience and the instruction suffers from this. I whole heartedly agree with statement’s I’ve read from DB (Inno Sport) and Dr. Ivo (WannaGetFast) that I’d rather teach someone for one year correctly and train for three then constantly fixing poor technique for four years and never making good gains in performance. Along with the PASM model I think some sort of movement and posture assessment screening for performance and function should run hand and hand with one another. The PASM model would run general to specific as almost all athletes coming in need to get much better at the basics.
1st year would consist and basically “Core” work, glute activation, mobility work and teach 5-6 fundamental movement patterns. Start with teaching the 5-6 movement using Isometrics to get the athlete to “feel” the correct muscles working with body weight only. Progress to bar work, then start Iso-mio and finish with Plio-Iso-Mio work. Add in some RFI work as in DBs model and maybe light, simple Altitude landing work.
2nd year work ME, DE work teach CAT and chain work. Add some slightly more advanced variations of the basic 5-6 movements. More Altitude landings and some Depth Jumps.
3rd year work ME, DE work add in REA work band work. Add some slightly more advanced variations of the basic 5-6 movements.
4th year add in AMT work.
Keep all freshmen and sophomores in all sports together in there respective blocks, work juniors and seniors together during team times.
EA: Why do you think such a model has not been implemented
JL: This type of model has been implemented or at least variations of PASM at some schools. Elite fitness ran an article that Stanford’s football program was doing a varition of this that was more of a West Side BB templet. If people aren’t doing something like this I assume, because it’s not what they’re accustomed to doing. It might be more work at first, but in the long run I think athletes would build a better foundation to build off of and performance would pyramid up from there, then random “gimmicky” off again on again programs.
EA: You use kettlebells in your programming. Would you mind discussing how they are implemented?
JL: The Kettlebell is a great tool we use at San Jose State. We’ve kind of “re-tooled” the traditional swing to be a much higher hip-hinge swing that ends up being like a reactive RDL (Romanian Deadlift). We don’t go very heavy and emphasize speed more then weight. We get strong with other typical pulling movements, but the kettlebells ballistically load our hips and if they’re performed fast enough they have a plyometric effect as the kettlebell eccentrically loads the hips. A part from that the kettlebell has a nasty cardiovascular effect unlike anything I’ve ever experienced that we’ll use for conditioning. Kettlebell snatches are basically backward throws so most of the throwing athletes I work with get a nice dose of them to counter all the forward throwing motions they’re doing. The RKC system has been the biggest benefit from the kettlebells as everything you learn when you become an RKC is related to correct movement. Mike Robinson, who writes for T-Mag some times, has a great article he just wrote about his experience at his RKC weekend that reiterates this point really well. Everything I’ve learned from the kettlebell has leaked into every aspect of my training.
EA: Are there any myths, trends, or mistakes in the field that drive you nuts?
JL: The thing that drives me nuts right now is the big crossfit kick… The lack of technique and train to puke mentality of the group is retarded. The crazy thing is I actually like the concept of cross disciplinary style of training (for general populations). It seems like the problem is there doesn’t seem to be any progressions, it just throwing people into the mix of very complex movements, push through fatigue even if it compromises form or safety. I’ve seen there periodization before, but it seems like no one actually follows it. Its just a bunch of workouts to make you puke. This has no place in the training of athletes in my mind.
EA: When you evaluate an athlete what are the most significant problems they have when coming to you and how do you fix the problem?
JL: It seems to be a myriad of problems like lumbo-pelvic stability, glute dysfunction, quad-dominance and in some cases the upper cross syndrome. I’ve recently been using a movement assessment with the volleyball team. After implementing the wannagetfast core DVD Non-tripod/ Deadbug progression, Prone Glute bridge progression, Chair Progression, along with a planking progression all there scores went up 2-3 points in one month. Also implemented Jay Schroeder’s ISO extreme lunge (5min hold) that seemed to really help as well.
EA: If you had one piece of training advice for athletes what would it be?
JL: Continue to learn about training… Also learn to feel the movement…
EA: What does your current workout look like and why is it set up that way?
JL: I played football in college and since then have been oly lifting for about 6 years.
After meeting you, and introducing me to the Inno-sport system, I’ve dumped the Oly training and focusing more on some performance goals (like get my vert up). All the squatting and cleaning has made me pretty quad dominant my self, so I’ve been working straight glute work. I’ve been doing Chris K’s Power Glute Block for about 4-5 weeks now and loving it. I need a lot of rate work.
EA: You’ve recently stated that you’ve never wanted to be that “core” guy but now you get it. Would you please elaborate on that statement?
JL: I used to think that teaching athletes how to brace and have them squat a deadlift was enough to get the job done. It worked for me, but these kids today have all sorts of issues and a deadbug is an extremely difficult exercise for a lot of athletes to accomplish properly. Most don’t even do a push up properly so taking time to truly teach them how to stabilize their pelvis using there abdominals and performing a rib lock while performing any movement is essential to teaching correct movement patterns. If the abs don’t function neither can the glutes and if the glutes don’t function the works being performed by the lower back and hamstrings. Getting proper functioning abdominals and glutes not only will prevent injury it will increase performance. It’s the foundation which anything else will be built. Athletes these days aren’t developing this qualities while they play video games and watch tv.
EA: You’ve also begun implementing the goblet squat and front squat before introducing the back squat. What is your rationale behind this progression?
JL: The RKC got into implementing the goblet squat through Dan John as a mobility drill to help unlock the hips. As a staff we were doing sumo deads with kbs to unlock there hips prior to squatting and the athletes didn’t pay attention to proper back posture and were rounding often, so by switching to the goblet squat, the athletes are front load a kb which helps engage the abdominals and promotes an open chest and long spine that we want. It unlocks the hips and greases the groove to get them down lower in there squats. I’ve heard Boyle talk about the F.Squat for a while, but I always just thought get it on there back and use bigger weight! When this happens, position, form and depth all suffer! F. Squat promote a longer upright spine position that I want my athletes to use more. If you’ve ever noticed too that people that struggle with depth in a back squat get better with Front Squats so it’s solving a myriad of problems. I get it Mike.
EA: Thank you for doing this and I am sure the readers will find this very informative.
JL: Thank you Alex
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