Well, you don?t give any speed of execution guidelines. If you?re training an athlete, are you just going to train maximal strength and rep work all the time? Or, are you going to train speed-strength, strength-speed, etc.
You also don?t specify how volume is manipulated from week to week.
You don?t note rep ranges for the prehab work; it?s kind of just thrown in there at the end.
No decent athlete is going to be able to train with a near 3RM load four days per week without burning out quickly.
You?re training vertical pull twice per week; why use ten reps in both instance? This is just one example.
I?d probably thrown in some glute-ham work as well, if the athlete had access.
Again, on the whole, I thought it was pretty good.
[quote]buckeye75 wrote:
EC, thanks for the crituqe.
Could you please describe the problems that you have with the loading prameters/volume? As well as the changes you would make to make it more effective. [/quote]
Any suggestions on a good place to find a coach that would know a half decent amount about stuff (ie somewhat like you). I’ve always ended up with a moron shrugs 3x10 of “everything” or here’s 10 hrs of cycling workouts to do each week, o, you say your only used to 5 right now?..here’s your schedule for 10 hours of cycling workouts to do each week…
It could be a thousand different things. I’d definitely need to see what you’ve been doing with training, diet, and supplementation - not to mention get an idea of what life stresses have been like.
[quote]Jagrazor wrote:
My body is acting funny. I feel like I don’t want to train, and when i do every 2 weeks or so I need a break because i feel like I have reached that point just before you get injured (over-reached?)
Even my school work is taking a hit - except of course my major study, but the general coursework is tough to get through - not in terms of difficulty, but to even open the book.
Lol, is this just my first run in with laziness, or am I possibly missing something? Idk what details to bring in, so let me know if you need more information.
You could either post your location and see if one of us in the know could hook you up with someone, or you could look to online consulting. If you know the “how,” all you really need is the “what.”
[quote]Jagrazor wrote:
Any suggestions on a good place to find a coach that would know a half decent amount about stuff (ie somewhat like you). I’ve always ended up with a moron shrugs 3x10 of “everything” or here’s 10 hrs of cycling workouts to do each week, o, you say your only used to 5 right now?..here’s your schedule for 10 hours of cycling workouts to do each week…
[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
It could be a thousand different things. I’d definitely need to see what you’ve been doing with training, diet, and supplementation - not to mention get an idea of what life stresses have been like.
[/quote]
-Sleep average 7 hours a night (that’s average it varies)
-Protien powder once a day on non training days (20 grams) twice on training days,once prior to workout and once at another time (40 grams total)
-I eat the best I can at the caffeteria, I will try log it for a week and see if i notice anything - and maybe i can post it somewhere on T-Nation for a critique.
-15 credits at school, so it is a little stressing, but this started before school started to get a little tough, so i doubt it is a cause.
-I take ZMA, Fish oils, and glucosamine/chondrotin/msm also.
anything show up there? If i had to guess I would say it’s the sleep. But I think it’s more than that. We’ll see i’ve been getting more( on purpose ) as of two days ago, so if it turns around, then that’s it. sorry kind of talking outloud a little.
Didn’t say much about training. Also, protein powder alone won’t do much to help you out post-training; you need to get some carbs in there (i.e. Surge).
I know you’re an endurance athlete, so you really do need to be that much more careful, as you’re always more likely to overtrain on volume than you are on intensity. It’s really important to understand how to manipulate training stress over time to achieve a desired training effect; most people just throw something together and go on a day-by-day basis.
Shoot me an email and we’ll get you squared away.
[quote]Jagrazor wrote:
Eric Cressey wrote:
It could be a thousand different things. I’d definitely need to see what you’ve been doing with training, diet, and supplementation - not to mention get an idea of what life stresses have been like.
-Sleep average 7 hours a night (that’s average it varies)
-Protien powder once a day on non training days (20 grams) twice on training days,once prior to workout and once at another time (40 grams total)
-I eat the best I can at the caffeteria, I will try log it for a week and see if i notice anything - and maybe i can post it somewhere on T-Nation for a critique.
-15 credits at school, so it is a little stressing, but this started before school started to get a little tough, so i doubt it is a cause.
-I take ZMA, Fish oils, and glucosamine/chondrotin/msm also.
anything show up there? If i had to guess I would say it’s the sleep. But I think it’s more than that. We’ll see i’ve been getting more( on purpose ) as of two days ago, so if it turns around, then that’s it. sorry kind of talking outloud a little.[/quote]
true as I learn more I pick-up things that I coul dnot idtenfiy 3 weeks ago. But I have a trust for knowledge I just want to know more and more EVERY SINGLE DAY. So thats I why I figured if I could find a book that helps me with functional assessment
[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
You need to walk before you can run. In your case, this means that you need to learn functional anatomy first - inside and out. I’ve gotten to where I am from taking six years of coursework, interacting with a ton of highly-respected professors, spending six months of my life with dozens of cadavers for ten hours/week, training with experienced lifters, coaching/observing thousands of athletes and clients, and experimenting in my own training. One book isn’t going to teach you that; be patient and follow the appropriate progressions. I say this not to blow sunshine up my own butt, but to just reiterate how important it is to pay your dues. I’m still paying mine; I learn something new EVERY day.
Start with that Fundamentals of Orthopedics book.
bigpump23 wrote:
EC i’m looking for a specfic book. One that basically shows you what to look for in muscule function assessment and how to pick the issues up then treat. Does any such book exist. I know you have Gray’s total body functioning I remember seeing you say that unless you knew what to look for that it was’t helpful
I picked up a big win already for the week, and I’ve still got Hines Ward going tonight. So, we’re ready to roll for tonight without any fantasy football distractions. Whatcha’ got?
Any good exercises to increase ankle strength? I have never even been able to do any type of skating (ice/roller blades) because my ankles just buckle over! Also it makes it very difficult to stabilize myself when doing unilateral leg work.
I was thinking just more unilateral leg work and maybe farmers walks?
Any good exercises to increase ankle strength? I have never even been able to do any type of skating (ice/roller blades) because my ankles just buckle over! Also it makes it very difficult to stabilize myself when doing unilateral leg work.
I was thinking just more unilateral leg work and maybe farmers walks?[/quote]
It depends; do you have a history of ankle injury?
Without knowing more, about all I can recommend is a lot more single-leg movements as well plenty of dorsiflexion exercises. These are generally the two most commonly missing pieces from the puzzle.
Injured individuals are a different story, though.
I’m about 180lbs and not a fan of continually gaining weight to make strength gains(I’ve been as high as 195 but 180 is a good athletic weight for me). My goal is to increase strength on my major lifts and I’m just starting Waterbury’s first ABBH program. My question is, if my focus is 100% on increasing relative strength, should I be altering this program in any obvious way? Or is there a certain program that is better suited for my goals?
I’m a little confused reading some of these programs because I get the sense that the focus is on size gains and thats not exactly what I’m after.
ABBH is definitely a size program; after all, the word “hypertrophy” is in the name!
Basically, whenever you do several sets on your heaviest days, you’re trading volume for intensity. Think of it this way…
Let’s say that your 1RM on a movement is 100 pounds (just for ease of calculations). In Chad’s program, you’re doing 10 sets of 3 at 80% on Day 1. While 80% is good for getting in volume and promoting sarcomeric hypertrophy, it’s really just the beginning of the “true strength training zone” for advanced lifters. In a more relative strength oriented program, you’re getting more lifts in at 90% and above. You can’t do as many sets and you won’t grow as much as a result, but neural adaptations are definitely superior.
Take a look at the Westside template and you’ll see that their bread and butter for each session will in most cases essentially be a near 3RM lift as well as few singles above 90%. It’s one of the reasons that powerlifters looking for more size might add in some 3-5RM days and even take some backoff sets; us relative strength guys just need to keep the volume a bit lower and watch our caloric intake.
[quote]luddini wrote:
Eric, a question regarding relative strength.
I’m about 180lbs and not a fan of continually gaining weight to make strength gains(I’ve been as high as 195 but 180 is a good athletic weight for me). My goal is to increase strength on my major lifts and I’m just starting Waterbury’s first ABBH program. My question is, if my focus is 100% on increasing relative strength, should I be altering this program in any obvious way? Or is there a certain program that is better suited for my goals?
I’m a little confused reading some of these programs because I get the sense that the focus is on size gains and thats not exactly what I’m after.[/quote]
Point taken. I’ve looked through your past T-Nation articles, and am wondering if there is a specific program(s) for relative strength you would recommend? Not that I’m asking you to make me one on the spot, just that maybe there is another T-Nation one that is better suited.
[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
ABBH is definitely a size program; after all, the word “hypertrophy” is in the name!
Basically, whenever you do several sets on your heaviest days, you’re trading volume for intensity. Think of it this way…
Let’s say that your 1RM on a movement is 100 pounds (just for ease of calculations). In Chad’s program, you’re doing 10 sets of 3 at 80% on Day 1. While 80% is good for getting in volume and promoting sarcomeric hypertrophy, it’s really just the beginning of the “true strength training zone” for advanced lifters. In a more relative strength oriented program, you’re getting more lifts in at 90% and above. You can’t do as many sets and you won’t grow as much as a result, but neural adaptations are definitely superior.
Take a look at the Westside template and you’ll see that their bread and butter for each session will in most cases essentially be a near 3RM lift as well as few singles above 90%. It’s one of the reasons that powerlifters looking for more size might add in some 3-5RM days and even take some backoff sets; us relative strength guys just need to keep the volume a bit lower and watch our caloric intake.
Subsequently, I recommend loads of glute activation and a lot of stretching for the psoas complex, ITB/TFL, piriformis, and QL on that side. Foam rolling won’t hurt, either.
[quote]Mark Young wrote:
Eric,
What kind of therapy have you observed being consistently successful for your soccer players who have hip bursitis?
Come to think of it, nope (unfortunately). I rarely write programs for the masses simply because I’m such a huge advocate of individualization of a variety of parameters. You might get it right for 90% of the population, and the other 10% feel over or undertrained. I’m a firm believer in giving readers the tools they need to effectively create/manipulate programs.
If you need some help in program design, shoot me an email and we’ll see what we can pull together.
[quote]luddini wrote:
Point taken. I’ve looked through your past t-nation articles, and am wondering if there is a specific program(s) for relative strength you would recommend?
[/quote]
3x8 BB bench press @ 60kg (my 10RM) s/set with with 3x8 DB Bench side row @ 32.5kg.
(My Vert/Push and Vert/Pull volume is small compare to the above)
You see, at 1) my Horz/push is higher than Horz/pull in terms of total weight moved, and 2) is … well, I don’t really know how to balance the volume in this case.
As a WSSB follower, my upper body workout is always similar to (1) and (2) (as upper body ME day and reps day repsectively). Am I setting up a potential shoulder injury?