Jodie and I shot this video up at my parents cabin to show you that you can get in a good training session (workout) anywhere! We brought up the TRX suspension trainer, hooked it up to a tree as shown above and a few kettlebells.
We even found a wheelbarrow and had some fun with that too!
Now you don’t have any excuse when you are up north or traveling. Make use of whatever you can find, put a few kettlebells in the trunk of your car or toss a TRX gym in a bag in your suitcase!
What do you think about this? The last time I put this up I got some people that were not happy with me at all. They stated that I was promoting unsafe lifting. Untrue. You should work within your limits, but you need to see what is possible!
Off to the ISSN: International Society of Sports Nutrition Meeting in Florida
Just a quick note that I am off in a few hours to the ISSN conference in Clearwater FL. It is a few hours later than I had hoped since Delta just pushed back my flight by 1:40 now. Delta = fail. Well, not quite yet, I just hope I get there tonight.
It should be a blast to learn some new stuff and meet new and old friends, despite the lack of sleep.
I will be wading hip deep through 2 days of scientific talks just to bring you the latest cutting edge information.
Don’t worry, I will be free to call BS when I see it too. A statistical change of .005% may be true, but it is not going to help you.
If you see me there, please come up and say hi and introduce yourself as I would love to meet you.
Minimizing the Performance Decrements During Times of Required Weight Loss
By Kevin Kocos CSCS, USAW
A special article from my buddy Kevin Kocos, so sit back and enjoy! Take it away Kevin!
It is one of the most unpleasant aspects in the preparation for that big meet, competition, show, game, or whatever you’ve been training so hard for. This dreaded thing I’m speaking about is cutting weight. If you’ve ever had to fit into a weight class for a certain sport or your coach is demanding you lose weight you know what I’m talking about. In the article to follow I will detail some nutritional, supplemental and recovery protocols that can help to maximize the chance that you’re efforts in training and weight loss will be rewarded with a personal best and/or a victory in whatever you’re competing in. These strategies can also help minimize the chances you’ll be lashing out like the Incredible Hulk at your colleagues and loved ones while they’re throwing bacon wrapped doughnuts down their gullet during your diet. I will use some of my own experiences of what has helped me while competing at the national level in Olympic Weightlifting while being a full time strength and conditioning coach as well as a full time graduate student.
How Much and How Long in Advance?
Know that experience counts while attempting weight loss and you need to find what is the maximum amount of weight that you can lose without having too much of a decrease in performance. Each individual’s ideal amount of weight for cutting will vary depending on how much bodyfat they carry. The leaner athlete obviously has less weight to lose before they are sacrificing muscle mass and critical fluid stores within the body. The more experienced you are in losing weight, the closer to competition you can accomplish it. I can also accomplish my weight loss fairly easily within three weeks and sometimes even two weeks. For example I compete in the 77 kilogram weight class so I have to be about 169 pounds for competition. I know that my cut off for my “ideal cut” is about 12 pounds. That means if I can stay at around 181 pounds between competitions, my final cut of weight will be a lot easier. Any more than 12 pounds for me becomes very difficult due to the great deal of calorie restriction and dehydration.
Food and Meal Choices
The only way to know which specific nutrient ratios are right for each individual is to have a hair mineral profile or genetic testing done by a professional lab and nutritionist. If you do not have access to these, we all know that one of the most effective strategies for weight loss is carbohydrate restriction. Despite what many dieticians will tell you, your body is able to adapt and utilize other sources for energy while you’re restricting your carbohydrates. By tweaking our diet, you can better utilize body fat stores as fuel as well as the process of gluconeogenesis, which utilizes amino acids and some other substances in order to create enough glucose for the brain and muscles.
Evolution will also tell us that this short-term restriction on carbohydrates can a good thing as well. Human beings only developed agriculture 10,000 years ago. Before we had an easy way of obtaining refined carbohydrates and were hunters and gatherers, humans never had saturated levels of liver glycogen all year round. Humans now have food manufacturing practices, that make refined carbohydrates such as pasta, bread, rice, etc. available to us at all times to constantly elevate our insulin levels. When these food manufacturing processes are paired with outrageous suggestions of the food pyramid we have incidences of diabetes near epidemic proportions. Although healthy active athletes usually don’t have to worry about diabetes, occasional carbohydrate restriction can be done without detriment to health.
I do use carbohydrate and overall portion restriction when I am cutting, however I never count calories and rarely even count grams of carbohydrates. I concentrate on the quality of foods I eat. It’s extremely important if you’re restricting food choices, to choose foods that have a maximum amount of protein, fat, vitamin, enzyme and mineral content per serving. That’s why the biggest source of my calories comes from raw meats, raw eggs, and raw vegetables while I’m cutting weight. This ensures that the food is in it’s most natural state and none of the nutrients will be destroyed from the heating process.
The guideline that I try follow is to limit carbohydrates very close to pre and post workouts times while trying to consume them mainly from vegetables and fruit sources that have a low glycemic response, meaning that they will not spike blood sugar levels and can be utilized by the body as fuel for a longer period of time. For example, broccoli, unsweetened berries, honeydew melon and squash are acceptable fruits and vegetables. However pineapples and carrots would be out of my menu due to their high glycemic response.
One rule I always try to follow is to avoid foods with a high glycemic response at all costs. This can be killer for cutting weight as the spike in blood sugar and insulin can cause you to store a greater amount of fat as well as a potentially high inflammatory response on the body. This very rapid rise and fall of blood sugar levels can be the cause of some very powerful cravings soon after you eat.
With that in mind I also know that things come up and there must be room for flexibility. Cheat meals have been important for my overall success. For example, Mauro Di Pisquale’s book, The Anabolic Solution, suggests adding in a higher carbohydrate day in the middle of the week or using the weekends “carbo-load”. This can replenish glycogen stores in the body while cutting weight with a low carbohydrate diet and is especially helpful if you’re going low carb for a significant amount of time.
I found out the hard way for myself how very important it is to intermittently cycle on and off carbohydrates. Before one of my competitions, I had let my weight go to about 20 pounds over my required weight. I then panicked and decided to go on a strict low to no carbohydrate diet for five weeks before competition. My weight loss quickly stalled out and I was lethargic and irritable from the lack of glycogen. With two weeks to go before competition and training not going very poorly, I gave up on getting into my 77 kilogram weight class and decided to lift in a higher weight class in hopes that I could still salvage a decent total.
For three days I ate whatever I wanted whether it was cookies, sandwiches with white bread or fried foods, nothing was off limits. Training then started to progress once again during those days that I was “re-feeding”. After I came back from those three days of what I thought was bad eating, I had actually lost five pounds! (Editor’s note, Metabolic Flexibility anyone?)
I felt so good that I decided to finish my weight cut in the final eleven days, got into the 77 kilogram class for the meet and lifted only two kilograms away from a lifetime best total.
Supplements
By far and away, the supplement that has proved most vital for me while cutting weight is a quality fiber supplement. Fiber will bind to the fat content and actually slow down the glycemic effect of your food and make you feel full for longer and help to fight off cravings. Having sufficient fiber in your diet can help keep you “regular” and ensure that none of your precious bodyweight is wasted on toxic, fecal buildup. I have tried a few different brands and feel that Konsyl is the best fiber supplement as there are no fillers and no carbohydrates, just pure psyllium fiber.
Amino Acids- 2 different sources
Dessicated Liver Tablets is a supplement that was a favorite among the old time body-builders. It’s loaded with Essential Amino Acids (EAA’s) which cannot be manufactured within the body and need to come from dietary sources. It also includes a significant source of branch chain amino acids (BCAA’s) that make up almost a third of muscle tissue. I’ll take four to six of these tablets every two or three hours while I’m cutting weight. The amino acids help to keep metabolism high and if your body is trying to make energy through gluconeogenesis, as I mentioned earlier, it ensures that you keep an adequate supply without having to breakdown skeletal muscle. Universal Nutrition makes their dessicated liver from Argentinian grass fed beef liver. Cattle from Argentina are also free of the use of steroids and other hormones.
Arginine and Ornithine are two amino acids that have been known to help with the release of growth hormone during sleep cycles. Maximizing growth hormone release is essential to the healing and recovery process as well while you’re restricting your food intake. Advocare makes a great product for this purpose called Nighttime Recovery, which also contain other minerals and adaptogens.
Caffeine can be a very effective tool in both helping with the weight loss and aiding workouts, depending on how you metabolize it. Research has shown that moderate doses (3-6 grams), are effective in speeding up metabolism, stimulating the nervous system for high intensity activity and does not adversely affect hydration status. For many people caffeine can also act as a mood enhancer during those tough days of trying to take off weight. You need to adjust your caffeine intake to aid you in weight loss and training limit intake to not interfere with your required sleep. I will ingest steady doses of caffeine throughout the morning while I’m cutting weight to keep metabolism high and get me through intense workouts. Again it depends on how you respond but I know if I need to cut off caffeine intake after about 3 pm or I’ll probably have trouble sleeping at night
What Not to Do
Although creatine supplements work great and are safe for enhancing bouts of intense work, taking a separate creatine supplement while you’re trying to cut weight will be counterproductive. Creatine molecules will help to keep extra water in the muscle cells and can actually help cause weight gain depending on how some athletes respond to them. Save the creatine for the offseason when you’re not concerned about cutting.
It’s vital to keep outside stresses to a minimum while trying to keep your weight down. High amounts of stress will release greater amounts of stress hormones, such as cortisol, that will increase catabolism (muscle breakdown) and cause more fat storage.
Staying up late and keeping bright lights on will keep insulin levels and disrupt sleep cycles. This also trips a survival mechanism that tells your body that it is daytime and you need to search for food. It’s almost inevitable that you’ll be craving carbohydrates at this point. I realize that those people who live in the real world and have outside stressors such as job, school, family, etc. simply do not have enough hours in the day but to put it plainly, if you do not sleep, you will not lose weight.
Do not think under any circumstances that you can achieve your weight loss and performance goals by starving yourself. Due to the fact our body is wired for survival and not performance (Humans would have never lasted this long if we weren’t), your body does not know you’re simply trying to lose weight temporarily for a competition. When you starve yourself, your body believes that it must prepare itself for famine, and will alter its functions anyway it can to keep critical body mass on and prevent you from starving.
Conclusion
Minimizing the negative effects from cutting weight is crucial for performance at high level in competition and in your personal life. These have been strategies that have helped me compete at my best while still managing other aspects of my life. Each individual must find what works for them and hopefully some of these strategies can be you used in your own training and daily life.
References
Di Pisquale, M. (2002). The Anabolic Solution.
Dietz, C. (2009). Professional Communication.
Goldstein, E., Ziegenfuss, T., Kalman, D., Kreider, R., Campbell, B., Wilborn, C., et al. (2010). International society of sports nutrition position stand: caffeine and performance. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition .
Mercola, J. (n.d.). Mercola Natural Health. Retrieved 2010, from www.mercola.com
Nelson, M. T. (2010). Extreme Human Performance. Retrieved from www.extremehumanperformance.com
Stout, J., & Antonio, J. (2008). Essentials of Creatine in Sport and Health. Totowa, New Jersey: Humana Press.
Wiley, T. (2000). Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival. New York: Pocket Books.
Biography
Kevin Kocos is an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach to Olympic Sports at the University of Minnesota. In his two years with the Gopher’s, Kevin has been part of 6 conference championships and has trained numerous All-Americans. Prior to coming to Minnesota, Kevin worked as an Strength and Conditioning Intern for the Chicago Bulls. He has worked with a wide array of athletes from the NBA, NHL, AHL and USHL as well as high school and collegiate athletes. Kevin also competes as a Senior Athlete in USA Olympic Weightlifting. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist from the NSCA and a certified club coach through USA Olympic Weightlifting.
My Thoughts
First off, a huge thanks to Kevin for writing up this exclusive article for us here at Extreme Human Performance! Sweet!
While I don’t “agree” per say on some of his thoughts for a reason why, the end result is what matters. We can debate the reasons why until the cows come home, but the results are more important than the whys. Kevin has significant experience in the process and through much research and testing, he wa able to find what works FOR HIM. This is a great starting point for you, but you may respond differently. Kudos to Kevin for taking his interpretation of the research and applying it in the real world, under contest conditions.
I do confess to the part about where he ate whatever he wanted and dropped 5 pounds. Awesome! I like that he referenced me too, haha!
The principles can be applied to any event or just those who want to set persona records (PRs) in the fastest time possible.
Approximate reading time is 5-10 minutes.
This is NOT your typical program design featuring lots of complicated terms and a best guess at what works for you. I will share with you some tips and tricks that I wish I knew years ago. I also need to thank Frankie Fairesand Adam T Glass for all their input on this too.
Eustress vs Distress
I like to define things so that we are on the same page. So allow me just 2 new definitions that are important.
I can’t believe I am going to do this, but from Wikipedia (insert groan)…..
“Eustress is a term coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye which is defined in the model of Richard Lazarus (1974) as stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfillment or other positive feelings. Eustress is a process of exploring potential gains.”
The prefix derives from the Greek eu meaning either “well” or “good”. When attached to the word “stress”, it literally means “good stress”.
Eustress is simply “resolved stress”
Distress
“Distress is an aversive state in which an animal is unable to adapt completely to stressors and their resulting stress and shows maladaptive behaviors.’
Thanks to Frankie Faires for the simplfied definitions. Keep these in mind as they will come again soon and then again later on.
Quiz Time!
My students hate those 2 words. This one is easy though,. If you had to pick what type of stress most people training (not anyone here though, you know what is going on) does; Eustress or Disstress?
Have the answer?
Are you sure?
Did you pick one even?
Yep, distress training
Major Distress Training
Jillian Michaels is the King of Distress Training
Distress Training and the Stupid!
Distress and Epic FAIL
A for Effort, F for Execution (Effort Does Not Count)
You don’t get bonus points for how hard you make it look.
You do get points for executiion.
If you were to train this way, how much better would you get?
Let’s see
More weight on the bar – check
Form any better –nope
Hmmm, looks the same
Can you improve with distress training?
Yes. Adaptation can NOT be stopped, but as Adam said recently “we can really slow it way the F down”
The question is “Do you want to get better at that horrible looking form?”
My bet is no (plus it would never qualify in a meet, which is my goal)
7 Simple Steps To More Weight on the Bar!
1) Pick a Goal
Notice I said “a” goal, not 15. This does not mean you cannot get better at other things, but trying to simultaneously improve 12 goals at once is a recipe for dissaster.
I recommend 1-2 MAIN goals, tops for a set period of time. I find 4-12 weeks works well.
My main goal was to do the USPAL Raw Meet on May 15. At the meet I want to set PRs in all 3 events (bench, squat, deadlift). This was my stretch goal. It would be a stretch, but can be done.
Primary Goal
Bring up my bench press and destroy my old PR.
HOW much did I want to improve?
I wanted to bench 237 lbs with a goal to bench 240 by the end of the year.
Stretch goal was 242.5 at the meet.
Will be done at a meet, under meet condiitions, so audible commands and a full pause at the chest
Deadlift
Deadlift 437 lbs in competition
3) Where Are You at Currently?
I don’t care about what you did 3 years ago or even last year. What can you CURRENTLY do. You need to define your starting point.
When I set my goals for the Spring meet, I based them off my last meet the previous Fall. If possible, you want your goal to be done in the same manner.
Since my goal was to get PRs in competition, the best starting point would be my current records in competition (Meet PR)
Fall 2009 at USPAL Meet: My starting point
Weight 206.5
Squat 243
Bench 220 lbs (missed 231)
Deadlift 413 (first double BW deadlift)
As coach Dan John says “The goal is to keep the goal, the goal”
4) Be Realistic
We can never reach our goals fast enough. Find me one person who got to their goals fast enough.
You also need to account for outside stress. I knew during this time I would be working part time at a med tech company and on call full time with them, running my own companyExtreme Human Performance, training myself, getting married and planning a wedding (or making more money to help pay for the wedding), spending time with my fiancee (now wonderful wife Jodie), finishing up work on my PhD, and I was also teaching a class for some time on Strength Training at a near by University.
Other than that I sat around all day drinking beer scratching myself—ha!
I am no exception and everyone is busy, so take this into account. We don’t live at the Olympic training center and get to train, sleep, eat, get a nice massage, train again etc every day.
5) Hit Your Openers Under ALL Conditions
This is huge and rarely rarely done.
I did not do this one even close to right until recently and I still can get better.
Remember Eustress and Distress from above? We want most of our training under eustress conditions. For a detailed version of what this involves, pick up a copy of the Grip n Rip DVD for the testing information.
In short, do only lifts that test well (via range of motion/biofeedback testing).
If a lift does not test well, do something to get it to test well.
What If My Lift Does Not Test Well on Competition Day?
Well, you have a judgement call to make. You can decide to not do the lift or do it. Nobody is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to do it.
Most will of course, go with do it.
Since that is the case, you can work on things to get it to test well.
If that still does not work, you will be doing a distress (less than optimal) lift and that is fine. If you are going to do this, you would need to practice for it.
While a whole post on distress training can be done, in short, perform your lift under many different distress circumstances
In training, I did my opening lift under the following conditions
Pauses of various lengths (to learn to listen for the audible commands)
With and without pain (no, I don’t recommend creating pain to mimic that conidition, but it happens)
With huge pauses inbetween, just sitting around (like a real meet with long flights)
Every time I nailed my opener.
I knew, no matter what, I was going to destroy my opener in the meet. In the future I will be amping up the distress training even more in terms of intensity.
Most do the oppsite, all of their training is distress and they move poorly. To start, focus on eustress trainig (stopping at first signs of tension and altered breathing) for many weeks. Once you are about 6 weeks or so out (depends), start working on more distress training, but make sure you have a reason WHY you are doing it!
I will test bench and vary the finger position. For most of my training up to the meet, having my middle finger on the ring marker on the bar tested the best. If not, I would vary it about a finger width, so palce my index on the marker.
If bench would not test well (or once it stopped testing well), we would try some common/accessory work with favorites being neutral bar press, reverse band press or 2b board pressing. The goal is to get them to positively transfer to the full bench press.
How To Use Bofeedback for a Big Bench Press
If no go or once we were done, contra specific work (opposite) such as inverted rows with either a bar or rings/TRX trainer was up next.
4/28/10 Bench night w Dave
Time in 6:37
Predicated time out 9:01
Actual time out 9:25pm
1 cup coffee at 4:45pm, 2 cups green tea and 3 HGH Up at 6pm
Only water during training, last meal at 5pm
I) Bench (flat)
95 x 10, 95 x8 (different finger position), 135 x 5, 165 x 3, 185 x 4, 205 x 2 warm ups
225 x 1 good speed, tested great
220 x 1 paused rep w audible commands, smoked it
230 x 1, still good speed
235 x 1, good speed
240 x 1, good speed, but felt it would slow down if I went any heavier. This will be my working weight.
All touch and go singles
240 x 1 for 6 singles, all good speed, but the last one was slow at the top
Total time for 6 singles was 35:00
PR for vol work at that intensity (% 1 RM)
II) 4 board touch and go
250 x 1
265 x 1, slow but looked fine, tested ok
III) Reverse Bench (bands around the top of the rack to deload it a bit at the bottom; works lock out)
185 x 6, easy, tested great
225 x 11, beat old PR by 1 rep, tested ok (a bit too far on that one)
Forgot to record time, oops
IV) Neutral Grip Ring Rows (w Feet up on a bench, arms at sides)
BW x 9
BW + 20lb Xvest X 5
BW x 8
BW + 20 lb Xvest x 5
BW x 6 (done)
Total time 17:34
PR for BW + X vest reps
Done
7) It’s Go Time!
Once the meet rolls around, you will be set!
Keep in mind that this template works for anyone that wants to get stronger or meet any of their goals.
The goal is better. I did not give a hairy rat’s butt where I placed overall in the meet. I was not under any delusions that I was going to walk in and mop the floor. Heck, their were women their squatting more than I was!
I did want to get my PRs though. Oddly enough the main one I trained for I did the best on. I knew with the crazy schedule I was doing I needed an end point to focus my energy. Plus, paying money and performing in front of a whole bunch of people is one way to get better. I also wanted more experience of competition to figure this out. Do first, then get better.
Summary
Get a goal with a set time line
Focus on eustress training for 90-90% of your training with proper testing (shown in the Grip n Rip DVDs
Add distress training as needed
Rince and repeat
Comments
Let me know what you think of this. If your training is currently stuck, steal this model and use it and let me know how it goes for you. I can gaurantee you will be pleased with the results.
Thoughts?
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
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The gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery are graced by U.S. flags on Memorial Day weekend
Just a short post today to remember all who have served and are still serving.
I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.
It is only from your hard work, dedication, and effort that you make my life as it is today possible
Many of you I have never met and probably never will
I want you to know that I am forever thankful for all that you do.
Coaches Call-out! Are YOU doing these things to hurt your athletes?
Shawan Myszka
This Top 15 article comes from my good buddy Shawan Myszka who is the Performance Director at Explosive Edge Athletics here in Minnesota.
I first met Shawn back in about 2005 when I first joined the NSCA and we have kept in touch since then. Shawn does a great job coaching is one of the top experts on plyometrics in addition to being very passionate about learning and teaching.
This was something Shawn wrote up for his newsletter and it was so good I wanted to run it here for more people to see. Let me know what you think!
Over the last number of months, I have witnessed (or heard stories) of an alarming number of sport and strength coaches who I feel have no business training their athletes in regards to Strength & Conditoning/Athletic Performance. SO…rather than keep my mouth shut any longer I decided it was time to unleash havoc on the training world! I can just imagine many of you out there already hitting delete on this email, but it’s about time someone put it out there straight! Thus, let’s face the FACTS! There ARE a lot of good coaches out there who make their athletes better every single day. Unfortunately, there is also A LOT of bad coaches out there who are doing a tremendous disservice to their athletes and actually slowing down the progress of their athletes (and in some cases taking steps back in their development!).
WARNING:I wrote these as a No-Holds Barred List…so, if you are scared of the truth, do NOT read any further!! It was also written to shed light on what I see all too often when it comes to the lack of innovation and advancement of coach’s knowledge as it pertains to athletic performance.
So, without further adieu, here is Shawn’s Top 15 List of What Coaches Do Incorrectly That Directly Hurt Their Athletes’ Performance!!!
1. Lack of Individuality
Let’s face it; we are all different in every way. That’s what makes the world go round. We all have different abilities, bodies, and weaknesses. AND we all respond differently to any given system of training. These differences NEED to be taken into consideration when designing your athlete’s training program. Thus, it should be obvious that the most effective type of training for a given athlete is dependent on the components and characteristics in which the athlete is most deficient in. The easiest means to an end is to target the weakness to make it more of a strength. How do we do this if all of our athlete’s have the exact same training plan? Answer: we CAN’T! Every athlete will respond differently and thus, after this particular solution is determined, we must train each of our athletes as different as humanly possible. Yes, I realize that this becomes time consuming. However, if you want to give your athletes the best possible map for success then
there is no other way. Now I am not dumb to the fact that some coaches have an enormous athlete-to-coach ratio and that definitely creates some issues. However, at the very least, it’s important in these situations that you (at a minimum) split the larger groups into smaller ones that possess similar weaknesses and tailor the program around that characteristic.
2. Don’t train for the speed of game movement
Sport is fast. Sport is ballistic. If you want to perform optimally, and you want to play without getting injured, you better be training the way that the sport is played; ballistically. This means that speed is king at all times with all movements. There is no exception. Some people believe that fast strength training is overly dangerous. However, sport is played in a ballistic manner. And if we don’t train for those demands while we are in a controlled setting (i.e. training!), then sport becomes dangerous. The problem is that coaches often do not prescribe movements and exercises with adequate attention being paid to the entire program of the interaction of specific exercises or execution rather than the mode of training (fast and ballistic) itself.
3. Training with emphasis on max/limit strength
Strength does not result in speed. For most athletes, training for strength alone will inevitably lead to added bodyweight, slower movement speed, inability to achieve positive acceleration curves, and power decrease. Along with this too many coaches athletes simply continue to add more and more load for an athlete to overcome in even slower fashions (moving the athlete’s capabilities further away on the force-velocity curve). Yes, you have to have a quantitative value to assess and measure an athlete’s force output, but it’s time to realize that tests of 1RM strength are of limited practical value because that specific type of strength is employed in only a few athletic endeavors (pretty much only powerlifting). 1RM type of strength is maximized during slow muscle actions and minimized as velocity increases. Again, most sports require the acceleration to produce the necessary force. Yes, you do want to have more force available but whether or not an
athlete’s performance will improve by heavy strength training will depend on how strong an athlete is at the onset of a training program. Explosive movement (such as that witnessed during jumping, running, throwing, etc) will only improve via limit strength training in subjects who have little strength training experience and/or average strength.
4. Lack of patience in regards to skill acquisition
Rome wasn’t built in a day right? So why do so many coaches expect athletes to easily attain certain attributes or skills? Learning is hindered by a culture of criticism in which mistakes are attacked rather than used as guides for improvement (taken directly from the Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance). SO if an athlete has been doing something a certain way for a long period of time, don’t expect it to change overnight. Now, many coaches often give their athletes the impression that they will be patient and don’t expect unrealistic results but then in the next breath yell at the athlete for the lack of immediate improvement. All this does is create an environment of resent and frustration. It’s important to remind yourself what level of athlete you are working with! What they do then is revert back to old and wrong behavior in order to achieve “success” so they don’t get punished. In contrast, to improve performance it is necessary
to seek out practice activities that allow individuals to work on improving specific aspects, with the help of a EDUCATED teacher in a protected environment with opportunities for reflection, exploration of alternatives, and problem solving as well as repetition.
5. Too much negativity
Newton told us long ago; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Well, this applies to actual athletic performance variables as well as for feedback. If all you do is give negative feedback, all you will get back is negative results. In movements that occur quickly (like what happens in sport), it has been proven that what one is feeling will definitely impact the speed of the movement. Thus, if you as a coach usually only provide negative instruction (even if it’s only perceived by the athlete), the athlete will imply that stimulus as an emotion and that very emotion can turn into something bigger that keeps the athlete from performing at their best. I am not saying that as a coach you should only paint the picture that everything is flowers and rainbows. But what I am saying is that you need to choose your communication method, tone and style very carefully because it will impact how the athlete performs the subsequent movements.
6. Paralysis by Analysis
This refers to the well-known phenomenon (at least in other countries where they are actually aware of it!) that may result if the athlete tries to correct or advise himself/herself immediately before or during skilled maneuvers. Often this is due to a coach or colleague shouting instructions to an athlete to correct faulty technique during rapid movements. Word to the wise; this does NOT work. This is actually useless b/c it is not possible to consciously change the course of any movement which lasts less than .4 second (400 milliseconds). This means that the movement that occurs within that time frame (which is most sport movements and tasks) are completely involuntary which means that it comes as a result of the central nervous system. Fortunately for us, Russian physiologist Pavlov proved long ago that we can condition nervous system reflexes. We just have to stimulate it in the right way.
7. Lack of proper hydration
Gone are the days when we push our athletes over and over without allowing them to get water breaks. This leads to the idea that you SHOULD be encouraging your athletes to consume water at any opportunity that they get. Water is absolutely the most essential nutrient (even ahead of macros such as protein, fats, and carbs) that can impact one’s performance immediately! Research even proves that a dehydrated muscle is 10-15% weaker! So why would we subject our athletes to that? It’s simple; we wouldn’t. So keep them hydrated. Also remember that thirst is NOT a reliable indicator of hydration. In fact, if you are thirsty you are already dehydrated. As a guideline, shoot for 8oz/15 minutes of training/sport activity.
8. Quality vs. Quantity Training and knowing the difference
Just because it is written down on the training program that someone should do 5 sets of something that doesn’t mean that you have to do that! Every athlete has good days and bad days. As a coach, it is your responsibility to control the amount of training-induced stress around the many aspects of that athlete’s life. If it’s finals week, or if you know that one of your athletes is stressed about something in their personal life, do NOT push them to perform at their normal capacity. This will be contradicting to their performance on that given day and in the whole scheme of the plan, as well. To achieve optimal sport prowess, every rep of every set of every exercise of every day must be of the highest quality possible! That said; if an athlete is not reaching their normal performance parameters, maybe it’s the body’s way of telling the coach that intensity/overload variables need to be backed off on not only on that day but in the program as a whole
before the athlete becomes severely overtrained. On that note, some coaches do not use any feedback mechanism thinking that they can ‘outsmart’ the body. However, this type of guesswork training will only hinder performance and increase the risk of injury.
9. Training for the wrong sport/SAID
This should be the fundamental basis of sport training. However, I am alarmed by the number of coaches (sometimes b/c of lack of knowledge and sometimes out of sheer laziness) who train with incorrect emphasis. The SAID principle is defined as Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. In simple terms this means that again, you must train the way you play cuz you will play the way that you train! So, if you are a volleyball team, and you have a football coach training your athletes, there may be time for a change!
On this same note, this principle also applies to conditioning. Work-to-rest ratios should be incorporated into EVERY thing that you do. This means not only in the weight room but also in the gym, track or field…during practices, warm-ups, EVERY thing!!
10. Incorrect movement mechanics/efficiency
We, as coaches and/or specialists, should not be a prototypical health club personal trainer who sits back with his/her clipboard and just counts reps as the athlete goes along haphazardly on some fixated piece of machinery and offer slight encouragement here and there. We are better and more educated than that. Every movement, especially in regards to the biomechanics needs to constantly be coached and adjusted to ensure that the body is attaining the correct response that we are after. If you allow poor/incorrect/inefficient form in the weight room during movements, it WILL carry out into the athletic arena almost immediately.
11. Lack of proper evidence and/or research
I always love the times when an athlete asks the coach why they are doing something in a certain way and they get a resounding (and oh so reassuring!) “because I told you so!” Often times to me this means that the coach quite simply doesn’t know the answer himself/herself! What’s even better is when I ask a coach why they may be doing something and they aren’t able to provide me with a greater response than “it’s what I used to do as an athlete 30 years ago!” If you can’t prove it, you shouldn’t be doing it! Simple as that!
12. Muscle isolation instead of kinetic chain
Your athletes are not bodybuilders. Or at least I hope they aren’t. Bodybuilders are not fast. In order to gain muscle hypertrophy (and sometimes muscular strength) bodybuilders need to isolate muscle groups to bring up weaknesses so they look better on stage. However, the human body doesn’t work that way during sport movements. The whole thing must move synergistically. Therefore, we must focus on incorporating big movements that emphasize the primary movers of the action we which to enhance (and again at near the same speeds/velocities as the sport event requires).
13. Instable surfaces to train for stability or balance
Who started this insane method?! The last time I checked a volleyball/basketball court or a track…they do not change its compliance haphazardly to react to one’s foot. Stability is not about standing on a “stability ball”! Stability, more accurately, refers to how the foot is in contact and positioned on the ground, the firmness of that stance, the joint tension, and the coordinated control of dynamic movement. So get off the stability balls and do some ground-based movement instead.
14. Olympic Lifts as a do-all and end-all
First, let me start by saying that I am a fan of Olympic lifts…at least when they are used at the right time and with the right athletes. Yes, Olympic lifts produce the highest possible peak power and force production of pretty much any exercise that we can do…if done correctly that is! Thus, OLY lifts are a terrific way to increase concentric power production and increase triple extension phase (at the hip, knee, and ankle) efficiency in many sport applications. However, what I see all too often is coaches (strength and sport coaches) who believe that if they do OLY lifts…then that’s all that they will have to use! The problem is, OLY lifts are highly technical to teach and some athletes may waste more time learning them than actually getting benefit from the exercise. Remember, we are not trying to make an athlete a competitive OLY lifter (at least in most instances)…we are trying to make them more athletic so these lifts, like with any other,
are just another tool in the tool box. Plus, I see coaches all the time who just preach to use greater and greater loads without requiring their athletes to practice flawless form first.
15. Do not seek out experts who may know more than they do.
Many athletic performance specialists, such as myself, are often more than willing to share pieces of valuable information to the training of your athletes. Nothing drives me more nuts (ok the other things on this list come close) than a close-minded coach who refuses to come to the conclusion that they cannot wear all hats at once. Listen; I am not a volleyball or football coach (or insert any sport there) and will never pretend to be. So I don’t know the exact tactics and strategies of every single sport. In the same way, you are probably not expected to know everything about the development of athletic performance either. So please, for the sake of your athletes, seek out someone who spends all their time (and probably lots of money on education, etc) being an expert in that respective field.
There you have it!! My Top 15 List of Things That Coaches Do Incorrectly With Their Athletes!! I am sure that I left some hot topics off the list but it should give you a short inventory of rules that you need to avoid in the training of your athletes and also some ways that you can start to point your program in the right direction.
Shawn Myszka
is wealth of experience begins at a personal level as a competitive bodybuilder, winning the NPC Wisconsin State Championship in 1999 and 2001, and eventually competing at the National-level. Shawn took his passion for training athletes to the next level, the professional level, as a strength coach on the Strength & Conditioning Staff with the Chicago Bears in 2003. Shawn has also spent time working with Louie Simmons, regarded by many as the top strength coach in the world, as well as 6-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates. In addition to all of this, he has trained Collegiate National Champion Athletes, Professional Athletes, and has also worked closely with various high schools / sports organizations to implement the best possible athletic performance program available for them!
Now, he brings his knowledge, experience, and intensity to any athlete and/or sports organization looking to take their ability further than they ever imagined. Are YOU ready? http://www.explosiveedgeathletics.com
Thanks again Shawn! Any comments, place them below! Agree? Disagree?
Mike T Nelson
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This is the ORIGINAL video. I edited Tony Robbins video for him. Edited by Eric Horner. Video footage from Snatch. Audio clips from Muhammad Ali’s speech, Rocky, and Coach Carter. Still photography by Gabriel Stiritz and Lauren Herreid. Music from Transformers and Gladiator. Hanz Zimmer.
This is a fan-made video.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure, beyond measure.
Ima show you, how great I am.
Last night I cut the light off in my bedroom, hit the switch, and was in the bed before the room was dark.
Ima show you, how great I am.
Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick, Im so mean I make medicine sick.
Ima show you, how great I am.
This kids gonna be the best kid in the world.
This kids gonna be somebody better than anybody I ever knew.
Ima show you, how great I am.
I have wrastled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale, I done handcuffed lightnin, thrown thunder in jail.
Ima show you, how great I am.
All you chumps are gonna bow when I whoop him, all of you, I know you got him, I know youve got him picked, but the mans in trouble, Ima show you how great I am.
But somewhere along the line you changed, you stopped being you.
You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you youre no good, and when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow.
Let me tell you something you already know, the world aint all sunshine and rainbows, its a very mean and nasty place and I dont care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me, or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as life; but it aint about how hard you hit, its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward.
Thats how winning is done.
Cause if youre willin to go through all the battling you gotta go through to get to where you wanna get, whos got the right to stop you.
I mean maybe some of you guys got something you never finished, something you really want to do, something you never said to somebody, something.
And youre told no even after you pay your dues, whos got the right to tell you that, who? Nobody.
Its your right to listen to your gut, it aint nobodys right to say no, after you earn the right to be where you want to be and do what you want to do.
Now if you know what youre worth, then go out and get what youre worth.
But youve gotta be willing to take the hits.
And not pointing fingers saying you aint where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody.
Cowards do that and that aint you!
Youre better than that!
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
All you chumps are gonna bow when I whoop him, all of you, I know you got him, I know youve got him picked, but the mans in trouble, Ima show you how great I am.
-Eric Horner
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Inside Look at MMA Training: Georges St-Pierre (GSP) vs Hardy
While I am a little behind the times and this fight happened a month ago, the videos below give you a pretty cool look into different training styles.
The days of no training, road works and machine based training for MMA are finally over. It is only a matter of time until this trickles down to the nearest MMA training studio near you (fingers crossed).
Plus, Henry Rollins is doing the narration, so that makes it even cooler! Enjoy!
GSP vs Hardy Part 1
GSP vs Hardy Part 2
GSP vs Hardy Part 3
More insight into their training in the gym
Comments
What did you think? What will you change in your training? Will GSP continue to dominate?
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