Can one increase aerobic fitness and strength at the same time?
Would Powerlifing and running 30 miles per week be compatible?
I know that the aerobic running would change some of the muscles fibers toward aerobic endurance and that would be detrimental to my powerlifting progress. Can I still increase strength?
Thanks
[/quote]
Yes you can develop both, but you will not develop either of the two at the same speed you would if you focused on one or the other. They’re not totally mutually exclusive, but they are pretty close. Better to focus on one quality for a while, then maintain that progress while working to improve the other quality.
You could try and run 30 miles per week while powerlifting, but I wouldn’t do it. I’ve seen people try to do this before, and they are an injury waiting to happen. You had better be pretty dedicated to recovery (nutrition, stretching, massage, etc.) if you want to take this route. It will not be easy though.
Again, you can see progress in both, but the changes won’t be nearly as significant. Set one goal, achieve it, and then move on to another one. Too many goals at one time leads to no progress in the long haul.
Two weeks ago Dr. Mike Hartle and myself put on our sports performance camp here at the Athletic Performance Center. The goal of the camp was to show young athletes and coaches the proper way to train, and then give them a template for the summer so they could go home and improve their athletic development.
On the first day, I labeled one of our kids “The Walking Muscle Imbalance.” This kid was pretty much the prototypical Neanderthal EC and I described in our NNM series. Needless to say, his flexibility and movement were atrocious. Taking him through dynamic flex the first day was painful! He had minimal flexibility, and on top of that he had no coordination! I immediately labeled him my project for the week.
Every single day this kid came in sore. He was weak, out-of-shape, and had no coordination, so pretty much everything we did was a shock to his body. BUT, he kept showing up day after day, and by the end of the week he began to loosen up and look like an athlete. Now I know that he would have to keep this up for the rest of the summer to maintain any improvements, but the fact of the matter is that his PERSISTENCE paid off! He was walking differently and started developing the attitude and confidence of an athlete.
Another buddy of mine, Matt Wenning, at the ripe old age of 24 has squatted 771, bench 520 and deadlifted 700 pounds. If anyone could miss a couple of sessions, it would be him. BUT, this kid never misses workouts…EVER! His persistence is commendable, and in the future he hopes it will take him to a National Championship in the 275# weight class.
Hopefully this blog will get some of you into the gym when you thought it would be ok to skip a session!
Hi Mike,
I would like to help my brother become a more powerful swimmer, his events are the 50 and 100 mts free/fly (around 30 sec and 60 sec respectively) which guidelines regarding split, volume, methods and especially exercise selection would you recommend him, especially shoulder work, is the off season and he will be swimming 3-4 days a week for about and hour, also what do you think of overhead pressing/bench press for swimmers, should they avoid them? It’s really hard to find good info for swimmers since most of the sports are lower body based.
Hey Mike, first off let tell you how great your articles are, great stuff.
My question for you is when your starting out with a trainee who is weak for their respective size (flat out weak) do you start he or her (after evaluations) with 5x5 program or a high rep program? Thank You
[quote]LuigiM wrote:
Hi Mike,
I would like to help my brother become a more powerful swimmer, his events are the 50 and 100 mts free/fly (around 30 sec and 60 sec respectively) which guidelines regarding split, volume, methods and especially exercise selection would you recommend him, especially shoulder work, is the off season and he will be swimming 3-4 days a week for about and hour, also what do you think of overhead pressing/bench press for swimmers, should they avoid them? It?s really hard to find good info for swimmers since most of the sports are lower body based.
Thanks in advance for your time.
[/quote]
Luigi,
First off, those are really good times. Tell him to keep up the good work!
By the nature of the sport, I would use lots of different set/rep schemes with your brother. While these are the “sprint” style swims, you still need a mix of strength/power work and anaerobic work. I wouldn’t focus too much on hypertrophy, unless he really needs it…relative strength will be key.
A 4-day per week off season strength program would be sufficient, with two lower and two upper days. Upper body days should includes LOTS of upper back work (especially rows) and work for the external rotators. Along with this, make sure he is stretching the pecs, lats, and internal rotators to keep himself healthy. Shoulders and chest are typically both overtrained, both in the gym and in the pool. Your in the gym work should revolve around keeping him healthy and injury-free. Therefore, excessive benching and shoulder work could be problematic. Hope this answers your questions!
[quote]roc wrote:
Hey Mike, first off let tell you how great your articles are, great stuff.
My question for you is when your starting out with a trainee who is weak for their respective size (flat out weak) do you start he or her (after evaluations) with 5x5 program or a high rep program? Thank You
[/quote]
Roc,
Thanks for the props!
As for your question, it depends on the athlete and what their training goals are. If they are undersized and need strength, I’ll do more high-rep stuff in the beginning to develop muscle mass. If they need more relative strength or a mix of neural/metabolic gains, then the 5x5 program is better suited.
Mike,
My daughter reccently broke her fibula a couple inches above her ankle. She was in a cast or boot for 12 weeks. In the process of trying to play basketball again her ankle has been hurting and is weak. What are the best excercises she can do to get her leg and ankle strengthened back up so she can play basketball again? Thanks!
OK if someone is limited in time and wants to pack mass on …I know compound exercises are the way to go…but what compound movements and how many sets and what rep …do u know maybe I can find an article or u can tell me real fast the set up
Who would be a better all around player… Mike Tyson (before the biting thing) Or George Washington??
I don’t really know what fantasy baseball is and this is the first thing that came to mind.
-Dave[/quote]
Hey ShortDave, Mike et. al.
ShortDave isn’t all that far off. I just got done doing a play called “Bleacher Bums”. It follows the interactions of several fans in the Wrigley right-field bleachers, using an actual game played between the Cubs and the Cards (July 8, 1977).
Anyway, the Cards’ second-baseman that day was a guy named Mike Tyson.
Thank you Mike for your response.
also thank you for your encouraging words for my brother, we are hoping that he will get a scholarship next year.
My biggest concern is with the shoulder and chest , when you say “Your in the gym work should revolve around keeping him healthy and injury-free” will doing a 3x5 for this muscles be enough , doing just one exercise per muscle group/per day (standing DB press/Push Press, narrow BP/Dumbbell Press) so far this is what I got:
2 strength and 2 power workouts
This will be following CT Strength block(Wk1-3x5, Wk2 – 3x5,3x4,wk3 –5/3/2,wk4-deloding)
Lower body
Squat, RD, deadlift, lunges
Power clean from blocks and hang
Upper body
Barbell row/pull-ups/Dumbbell row straight-arm / Rear delt raises (inclined )
standing DB press/Push Press, narrow BP/Dumbbell Press
Stretching after workout, he will be swimming in the morning and in the afternoon weights.
Would you advice on doing anaerobic work outside the pool(HIIT short sprints and 400) it will be ok some mass as long is functional, what do you think about the volume and set/rep schemes?
Thank you once again for helping me and my brother, all the best for you.
Hey Mike,
What is your opinion on strength training for endurance sports such as road cycling? Most cyclists I know who lift weights perform them in the 12-20 rep range for ‘endurance’, but it seems to me that that is not really the same kind of endurance as a ride lasting 1-2 hours. As you can’t perform a set lasting hours, do you think a cyclist should just focus on developing true strength-ie: around 6 reps? Or even leave the legs alone altogether in the gym and train the core and other stabilizer muscles? I would think there would be benefits to strength training, even if it is somewhat at odds with endurance. Thanks very much for your time. Looks like a lot of people are getting some valuable info.
Darren
[quote]LuigiM wrote:
My biggest concern is with the shoulder and chest , when you say ?Your in the gym work should revolve around keeping him healthy and injury-free? will doing a 3x5 for this muscles be enough , doing just one exercise per muscle group/per day (standing DB press/Push Press, narrow BP/Dumbbell Press) so far this is what I got:
2 strength and 2 power workouts
This will be following CT Strength block(Wk1-3x5, Wk2 ? 3x5,3x4,wk3 ?5/3/2,wk4-deloding)
Lower body
Squat, RD, deadlift, lunges
Power clean from blocks and hang
Upper body
Barbell row/pull-ups/Dumbbell row straight-arm / Rear delt raises (inclined )
standing DB press/Push Press, narrow BP/Dumbbell Press[/quote]
Worry less about training muscle groups and more about training movement patterns; your brother isn’t a bodybuilder. In season should be all about maintaining maximal strength while incorporating enough prehabilitation work (e.g. rotator cuff, scapular stabilizers, specific hip mobility training) to keep the swimmer healthy.
I wouldn’t in-season, and I’d only use them in place of swimming training during the off-season to give the athlete some variety. Keep in mind that swimmers are notorious for doing an absolutely crazy amount of volume; you don’t really want to reinforce that too much more.
It’s going to take a ridiculous amount of calories for a swimmer to pack on mass, just so you know. It’s questionable whether or not you have enough volume for actually packing on size with those parameters. Granted, caloric intake is the biggest factor in dictating weight gain, but keeping in mind that you’re striving for predominantly sarcomere hypertrophy and therefore can’t necessarily afford a lot of 8-12 rep sets, you might consider something more along the lines of 8x3 for your off-season training.
Again, all this needs to be closely monitored in a sport where relative strength and appropriate buoyancy are so important.
You can’t build strength endurance without building strength. A stronger athlete will always be a better athlete. 'Nuff said.
You ought to be hitting a variety of different rep ranges for best results.
I hate the idea of ignoring the legs altogether. Many competitive cyclists devote 70% of their off-season leg training to hamstring work in order to counteract the tremendously quad dominant nature of the sport. Likewise, you don’t get significant enough knee flexion during the cycling motion to work the VMO, so most cyclists will develop tight ITBs and vastus lateralis muscles. As such, you need to hit some deep knee squatting positions with squats, stepups, and lunges. Leave these two interventions out, and you’re just asking for knee problems.
Also, as cyclists get more experienced, they tend to rely more on the gluteus maximus than the quads. Therefore, you need to take into account training age.
Another question for how much in strength gains do one of your weaker trainees usually make when following a program hardcore for 6 weeks or so? Thank You
Thanks for your 'Improve Your Strength Out of the Hole' tip and advice; great stuff.
Do box squats have the same effect that pause squats and bottoms-up squats do? If they don't, what is the difference?
Thanks a million for your help. I’ve posted some posture pics at http://www.uthant.com/tnation/ so this thread doesn’t get filled up.
Test results:
Yardstick - OK
Doorway - Head first
Supine Leg Lowering - Good
Squat Test - Seems OK
Hip Ext Test - Ok, not sure if glutes fire
Trunk Curl - Can’t get all the way up
As for my current workout routine, I’ve spent most of the past 2 years doing rehab type exercises for my shoulder and my leg, mostly deadlifts, bent over rows, body weight squats, leg ext, some military press, and a lot of rotator cuff/scapular stabilization stuff. Guess it hasn’t worked too well so far.
hey mike,
i’m a college football player and i was wondering what, in your opinion, is the best program for gaining mass and explosion. any help you could give me would be awesome. thanks a lot
CS
Whoa; you got your money’s worth with that scoliosis! That must have been some motorcycle accident!
That right shoulder girdle is definitely lower than it should be, and the right side of the pelvic is appreciably elevated. It’s tough to say whether it’s structural or functional in this case, but you can certainly make some training modifications to address it from a functional correction standpoint.
Our program is focused on the classic sagittal plane problems you see on a daily basis. In your case, you’re going to want to start by stretching the right QL as often as possible. You might even want to get some ART on it. Focus on stretching the TFL/ITB and hip flexors on that side, too. Upper body training is tricky; you really need to make a conscious effort to modify existing motor patterns that probably have you moving inappropriately/excessively at the thoracic spine with upper extremity motion. This can be accomplished easier by fixing doing bilateral work with perfect side to side posture, and unilateral work where one arm is fixed so as to prevent that thoracic “cheating” (e.g. one arm rows and prone trap raises with the non-working arm fixed).
This is a good start, but I definitely think you’d be wise to get to a QUALIFIED professional that will know to look at the entire kinetic chain. In most cases, the spot that hurts is rarely the origin of the problem. NYC has to have some good people on this front, and if it doesn’t, I know of two excellent people here at UCONN that might be able to help you out (actually, three, if you count me).
[quote]Chief wrote:
Mike,
My daughter reccently broke her fibula a couple inches above her ankle. She was in a cast or boot for 12 weeks. In the process of trying to play basketball again her ankle has been hurting and is weak. What are the best excercises she can do to get her leg and ankle strengthened back up so she can play basketball again? Thanks!
Jeff[/quote]
Jeff,
The best thing you can do is tons of single-leg stuff. Without looking at her and being able to evaluate her movement, I can’t give you a ton of information here. You might also need to incorporate some isolation strength exercises for the lower leg (manual resistance in all directions/planes), as well as balance and proprioceptive stuff to make sure it’s on part with the healthy leg.
OK if someone is limited in time and wants to pack mass on …I know compound exercises are the way to go…but what compound movements and how many sets and what rep …do u know maybe I can find an article or u can tell me real fast the set up[/quote]
I’ve always liked a simple 5x5 routine for gaining a mix of functional hypertrophy and strength. If nothing else, I would use this for squats, bench, rows, etc. One major exercise per muscle group is plenty, and no need for the beach muscles. Throw in a little prehab/injury prevention work and you’re ready to rock!
