A Grizzly Aussie and a Pencil Pusher

I spent yesterday afternoon with Aussie Strength Coach Will Heffernan 'chewing the fat' over training, testing protocols and life in general. We held hands, took a stroll along the river bank...you can imagine.

If you haven't checked out his blog then do so. It is worth a look at simply because it is one case study after another interspersed with humour and insightful comments. There really isn't much in the terms of theory just lots of A-B without worrying about veering off the beat and track.

I loved the simplicity of the system he uses. Avoiding getting bogged down in details. Test. A few reps, some reps and lots of reps, rep bracket.

I had just come from a formal meeting so he was greeted with what looked a pencil pusher!



Some take home points:

- Uses the trap bar deadlift, max bench press, max reps pull ups, max reps in 1 minute for press ups and inverted rows as his standard measurements. Simple. Effective. He tests every 4 weeks.

- Not TOO much of an emphasis on unilateral rehab movements - good for the head after being carved up.

- Lots of mobility work for the hip and the shoulder - Mid back in particular. I really agree on this particularly with the movement patterns I am faced with daily. It looks as if some peoples idea of movement is elongate their fingers towards the remote. Why is my back hurting they cry? Perhaps because you haven't moved your ass further than the oven in a few days??

- An emphasis on sub-maximal loads for gains. Form and technique are key in big lifts. He remarked rather tongue in cheek that his big lift is all technique compared to other mutants who can throw weight around with poor technique. Only on testing weeks or 1 week out 4 would a max lift rear its ugly head on the whoteboard.

Will - cheers mate - look forward to seeing you next week!

Training this week...

Well done to Jim Jam who cranked out a 170 box squat!

This was him straining all 5ft 1 of him for a 140kg. Just a few technical adjustments (not many though) and he worked his way up. This is great for him. If there was an award for consistency then this little hooker wins them all. He works hard. Really hard.

May has been a write off for me in terms of sustained focus. June will be the month of easy back in and preparing for a new season. I will post my training schedule up shortly.

I also had a great session with another client there yesterday morning. We focused on upper body strength and worked up to a 3RM in the Bench.

A) Bench Press 8 sets up to 3RM

some assistance work with a weighted press up for 4 sets of 8 reps and a single arm row for the same. As with all training sessions you can see how complicated it is :). No there are no trap 3 raises or incline DB presses at 30 degrees washed down with some 'erb. These guys just want to get strong and have lives.

Shoulder Problems -How to Fix 'Em

Just to prove it isn't that simple some of the time I would like to demo (me as the subject) that injury prevention is much better than trying to pull splinters out of your backside and after last season I can firmly say - it isn't fun.

So as you can see from this video my lower traps actually need a good bit of work.

The scapular stabilises ok around the middle of the back, but the lower traps prevent the scapular from winging up.

This is not suprising as I often get a stinger a match and have had a history of neck problems. As you can imagine neuroligically things 'aint firing right' - technically speaking.

So I recommend this exercise - a scapula press-up. No equipment, a good variation on a press-up, can be performed as part of the warm up for your team and in the gym.

That and some Y-T-Ws and we should be better all round!



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JL

What the F**K?

It really is a simple game but why, oh why do so many 'gurus' like to complicate the issue with so much emphasis on assistance work and the small matter.

It goes back to the 80-20 rule. Simply put 80 per cent of you results will come from 20 per cent of your efforts.

So if you dont include some form of Squat, Deadlift, Bench or Chin then can you truly expect to get the most from your training?

So if your training diary for the day looks like a telephone book of exercises then ask yourself - what is the purpose of this?

Do you really need to hit the bicep from every angle or incline the bench to 30 degrees because 'this has been shown to activate the pec minor more so than 42.5 degrees'. I mean come on! who gives a shit?

Maybe there is a time and a place (rehab, post-op). But by and large some gurus like to complicate the issue here.

I have worked under many coaches who feel that by highlighting the details down to crossing the 't' and dotting the 'i' will help them sound more 'guru' like and important.

WHo sounds more intelligent? The guy who instructs you to point your toes out 15 degrees and take a 2 second count on the ascent to squat or the coach who screams at you in the ascent of a squat to get it up almost willing you with pure emotion, grit and determination to 'get it up'.

Who DO YOU THINK will get you the results?

Just get under the bar and give it all you have.

It know is sounds simple but it is.

Today's Training

I love rolling up the sleeves and getting training people. When you run a business you forget that the trenches is where it all began.

So personally AM performed some sprint intervals on the treadmill and I think that this really teed me up for a decent box squat session in the pm involving 10 sets building up to a 3RM.

Once I hit my PB that was it. Post workout shake and then home. I am a big believer in training to gain rather than going through the motions.

Client highlights today:

1) Great session to day by CLient X who cranked out the following:

a1) bench press 5 x 5 - 40x0 - 90s
a2) chins 5 x 5 - 30x0 - 90s

Rest for 10 minutes

b1) weighted press ups 4 x 8-10 - 60s
b2) single arm rows 4 x 8 - 60s

Metabolic circuit to finish - although he pulled a greener after being away for 2 weeks.....field session for him on Friday...

2) Bear crawls with Eoghan and Conall (v.promising footballer). Eoghan is making a good comeback from injury in a car crash, he is one of my staff and strong as hell for his 67kg frame (the whippet)

we loaded up the sled with 115kg and bear craweld it the length of the car-park after some deadlift instructions.

The last two were done holding DBs. That is tough and a mentally draining exercise too.

3) Albert CANED a 160kg Deadlift (BW 82). So he is getting leaner whilst getting stronger. I will post what he is doing with his nutrition soon. He will hit the big 200 soon after a rake of lower back and hamstring work.

A great day. I love getting the hands dirty!

J

The King of the Exercises

I asked one of my staff to do a squat demo and I thought that they did a good job with this.

It really is a great exercise for rugby players. There is no hiding with it! Just get under the bar!

Technically the guy here knows his limits of 'how deep to go' (just about) by keeping a slight curvature in the lower back. Rounding of the back with that much weight on your back will cause problems. These include overstretching of the posterior ligaments of the back and excessive shear force through the discs.

If you have trouble going down as deep then:

a) Build yourself up to this depth by using boxes set at a height just above 'breaking point' in the lower back. Gradually lower the depth with another box as you get accustomed to this depth. Hold the curve and push those hips right back
b) Aggresively stretch and foam roll your hips and IT Band, Hip Flexors and Lower Leg. EVERY DAY!
c) Get ART (Active Release Technique)

This should help you get deeper and allow you to recruit your hamstrings more. When you do this....watch out!