what do you guys think of program that is reconmended in the artical money exercises,can you say over training. That artical is crazy I can’t belive they even but it in the mag. There are going to be 18 year old kids out there doing this workout that the most fit athlete in the world should not be doing.
I thought the same thing, damn…
What’s so bad about it?
I, personally and from a athletic standpoint, didn’t see anything “alarming” about this article. As a matter of fact, it does make some sense. And if you read it, you would only perform this specific routine for only four weeks. And the author specified that the routine outlined was the third phase - so the athletes had worked up to this level. I’m interested in seeing the first and second phase…
You also wouldn't be lifting herculean weights, you concentrate on form and explosive power. I tell you what, this routine seemed "fun" to me (yes, I know I'm weird), "fun" as in "challenging". And I want to try it. If I can indeed perform this routine, then I would be a bear in the boxing ring!
also, don’t a lot of these lifts have less emphasis on the eccentric portion? My understanding is that eccentrics can be a little more demanding neurally…
Patricia, speaking of Bears - have you seen the ‘bear’ lift Coach Davies has on his RenegadeTraining page?! I’m tempted to try it - with a broomstick.
franks: Oh my god?! What a coincidence you’re asking me about “The Bear” - Ko and I performed that yesterday! And I must say: it’ll be the ONLY thing you’ll do in the gym. Fantastic exercise!
I say, give it a try! Except we didn't use a broomstick, we had the bumper plates on. Of course, Ko eventually began using the 15kg, and I just the 10kg plates. But we performed 5-sets, and anywhere from 3-5 reps per set. Yup, it's been named correctly - truly a "bear" of a workout! (with MUCH thanks to Coach Davies!)
As I mentionned in the article, this is only part of my athlete’s periodized program. They had 3 months to build up to that training volume. This phase of training looks hard because all the strength lifts are done in the same workout. However keep in mind that there is only 2 main strength workouts during the week, so the body does have time to recover.
This summer, I had over 20 hockey players on the program. All under my direct supervision and all progressed tremendously. Furthermore, the players varied widely in age. I had guys from 15 years of age up to 27 years of age. All elite players at their own level.
On top of the program some even engaged in twice daily boxing training (which was not my idea) and they still progressed a lot.
The average weight gain on for the 4 months training period was 12lbs and all the players lost body fat.
Also understand that it's wrong of you to critique a program based only on one week of training (I mentionned that it was NOT a sample program). If you had the whole program in your hands you would see that:
1. After each training phase (4 weeks) there is a 1 week unloading phase with minimal training. And the fourth week of each training phase is a very easy week.
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During the first two phases of training there is only 3 strength exercises per day, the lower body and upper body being only worked twice per week.
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The weight used for the power clean and power snatch is light. And as it was already mentionned, there is little eccentric stress in those exercises. So it doesn’t cause a lot of muscle damage. So really there is only 2-3 hard lifts in the program.
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You’ll notice that the intensity fluctuate during the week (even more fluctuation if you take several weeks into consideration), this helps prevent overtraining.
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Consider that I mentionned that this program was done by my athletes. Most of them are pro athletes and they can concentrate on training for the whole summer. Evidently, the approach would not be the same for an average individual.
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I actually feel that this is a rather easy program! Each session last 90 minutes at the most, and the Tuesdays and Fridays only last around 40 minutes. I’ve seen much harder program used by football players and olympic athletes (I have myself trained twice a day for two hours at the national training center).
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Understand that the sample program IS NOT a bodybuilding program. If you analyse it with a bodybuilding mine you will obviously find it erroneous as it goes against bodybuilding “popular” methodology. However I’d stack my athlete’s result with anybody in the world.
To Patricia,
While I wont give the whole yearly program in details (we did produce a 52 pages document for the athletes and that's a bit long for the forum!) I can outline each phase of training.
Phase I Introductory phase
Monday:
- Back squat
- Bench press
- Chins
- Rotator cuffs drills
Tuesday:
- Power snatch from hang
- Power clean from hang
- Push press
Wednesday:
5 x 800m
Thursday:
- Back squat
- Bench press
- Chins
- Rotator cuffs drills
Friday:
- Power snatch from hang
- Power clean from hang
- Push press
The periodization scheme is:
Week 1: Monday and Thursday = 3 x 10, Tuesday and Friday = 3 x 5
Week 3: Monday and Thursday = 4 x 6, Tuesday and Friday = 4 x 3
Week 4: Monday and Thursday = 2 x 8, Tuesday and Friday = 2 x 5
Phase II Development phase
Monday:
- Back squat
- Power snatch from hang
- Power clean
- Jump squat
Tuesday:
- Bench press
- Push press
- Chins
- Rotator cuff work
Wednesday:
6 x 400m
Thursday:
- Front squat
- Power snatch from blocks
- Power clean from hang
- Jump squat
Friday:
- Incline bench press
- Push jerk
- Chins
- Rotator cuff work
Periodization scheme:
Week 1: 3 x 5
Week 2: 4 x 5
Week 3: 4 x 3
Week 4: 2 x 5
Phase 3 is detailed in the program.
Phew, that didn’t came out too good! Email me at thibaudeau@ironmag.com and I’ll send you a better formatted version of the program.
Chris did you have your hockey players run or sprint the 15 sets of 400 meters?If you had them sprint 15 400 meters,wouldn’t that be overtraining?
The 400m were tempo runs, not sprinting. The goal was just to get them to do 2 minutes or so of relatively high intensity work to develop their anaerobic alactic energy system, which is the key energy system in a game of hockey.
They did not start at 15 x 400m … they went from 5 x 400m, to 8 x 400m to 12 x 400m to 15 x 400m. Keep in mind that hockey players are true energy system “machines”!
Overtraining is an overused term. Most peoples confuse "training too much" and overtraining. Overtraining is a physiological state characterized by lowered physical capacities and a decrease in performance that lasts for relatively long period and that is brought on by chronic periods of overstress.
Training too much simply means doing too much work for a short period of time. It can lead to lowered capacities for a short period of time, but it can actually be a great performance stimulus if it is used only for a brief period of time and if it’s followed by an unloading period. This is the logic behind the soviet method of “shock microcycles”.
thanks for clearing that up:)
Guess you figured how why it is called “the bear” - drop me an email and tell me how it goes. In faith, Coach Davies
Christian: thanks for the outline of the phases here - I will email you! I thank you also, in advance, for the program info.
Coach Davies: hey, yeah, be happy to provide you some sort of update as to our progress with The Bear. Since I begin boxing tomorrow night (Monday), I think this exercise will be perfect to continue as part of our regular training routine. I also definitely want to perform all or some of the "Money Exercises", too. THESE are the stuff that keeps me going to the gym!
Chris T- If i emailed you could you also send me the info you were sending Patricia.
Pat/Coach Davis/Anyone- where do i find this bear lift??? COuldnt see it on the renegade website.
It’s on the first page, under “Live the Code” just scroll down.
I highly reccomend this one to everyone. If you are short on time, but need to get in a workout, this is the exercise.
Sure thing. Two things to keep in mind though …
1) Keep an open mind. This is not a bodybuilding or powerlifting program. It is an athletic development program.
2) The targeted athletes for this program are hockey players. It is not the same program I would use with football players or other athletes.
However if anybody needs help designing athletic training programs for others sports, I'll be glad to help!
I’m glad to see Chris T. distinguish between overtraining and training too much. Its an important distinction and one that is not elaborated upon enough. Hey Cris, you could probably do a whole article for T-Mag on just that subject; how to recognize symptons and how to alleviate it. Also, the outlined program in the article is not a stretch for the average 18 yo who smewhat conditioned as was implied elsewhere on this thread. It probably is a stretch for old geezers like me though that were around when we switched to AD from BC.