In this article Sean Waxman of Waxman’s Pure Strength Gym will be exploring the Jerk. When properly performing the Jerk the body produces nearly 5000 watts of power. Compare that to the 400 watts produced by the bench press and you can see that there is no comparison as to what the king of all upper body exercises really is, no offence Westside. Aside from the power the Jerk produces, there is an incredible demand on the torso throughout the execution of this lift.

At the end of the article I included a video of the exercises I use in the progression

Preparation for the Jerk

In this article when I use the term “Jerk” I am referring to the competition style Jerk, bar starting on the front of the shoulders and feet ending in a split position.
In order to Jerk properly you must first have shoulders that are Jerk ready. The biggest issues I come across with athletes in the Jerk are, tight external rotators, tight chest, weak rotator cuff and poor scapula function. Aside from an injury waiting to happen, these causes poor overhead alignment and stability of the bar assuring an inefficient and ugly jerk. Take the time to correct these issues before attempting to learn the Jerk.

Terminology

I first need to go over some of the terminology I will be using and their abbreviations. If an exercise is done from behind the neck it will be noted in the description.

Press /Behind the Neck (PBN)
Push Press/Behind the Neck (PPBN)
Push Jerk/Behind the Neck (PJBN) There is no split
Jerk/Behind the Neck (JBN)
Push Jerk (PJ)
Overhead Split Squat (OSS) A Clean Grip is used
Jerk Balance (JB)

Difference between Jerk and Jerk from Behind the Neck

The Jerk can be performed from the back (Olympic/Highbar Squat position) as well as from the front (Front Squat position). When the bar is resting on back, this exercise is referred to as Jerk from Behind the Neck (JBN). This is an option for people that have a problem with the rack (Front Squat) position. It can also be used as a remedial tool for improving mistakes made in the Jerk. I will be addressing mistakes and solutions for them in subsequent articles. The learning progression would be similar for both styles. The difference would be the elimination of any exercises/drills that are done from the front for the JBN. As far as power output is concerned I do not believe there is a difference. The big difference lies in the involvement of the torso.

As in the front squat, the Jerk requires more torso involvement then the JBN. This is due to bar placement relative to the center of gravity of the body. When the bar is on your back, as in a back squat or JBN, the bar is in line with your center of gravity. However when the bar is on the front of your shoulders, as in a front squat or Jerk, the bar is in front of your center of gravity forcing the torso to engage significantly more. Try this little experiment. Grab a 45lb plate at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. Hold the plate against your chest. This represents the bar on your back. It doesn’t feel like it weighs that much does it, probably around 45lb. The plate is fairly close to your center of gravity. Now, straighten your arms. This represents the bar on the front of your shoulders. It doesn’t feel like 45lbs anymore. This is what happens when weight gets in front of your center of mass. Hence the difference between the Jerk and the JBN.

Preparation for the Jerk

The Grip

The width of your grip will depend on your individual comfort, style and anthropometrics. The closer the grip the higher you have to drive the bar. A closer grip allows for a more stable overhead position however it requires more shoulder mobility.
A wider grip doesn’t require as high of a bar drive however the overhead position will not be as stable. Play around with different grip widths to find what works best.

Please note: In order to transfer the energy created by your lower body into bar speed, you must relax your grip when you start the Jerk. Relaxing your grip allows the muscles of the arms to contract and relax in a sequence that allows for maximum transfer of energy to the bar. Squeezing the bar is like trying to throw a punch with your all your arm muscles flexed at once.

Elbows

In order to achieve proper overhead position your elbow angle should be as close to 180 degrees as possible in full extension with your elbows rotated out and to the side. Rotating the elbows in this way creates the stability needed to support heavy weight overhead.

Please note: If you have problems straightening your elbows or rotating your Humorus, you will have problems supporting heavy weight above your head.

Scapula

I have read over and over again coaches tell athletes to “reach” when the bar is overhead. This is incorrect. When you “reach” you elevate your scapula, which is the exact opposite scapula action desired. When performing pressing/overhead movements you need to depress your scapula. Instead of “reaching” think about stretching the bar like a big rubber band as you keep your scapulas depressed

Wrist

When the bar is fixed above the head, the heel of your palms should be facing the ceiling.

Bar Alignment

When any overhead movement is complete, your shoulders-elbows-wrist-ear (depending on head position) should be in a line. This alignment will give you maximum overhead stability.

The Progression

In this progression, one exercise is done at a time, until the skill is acquired, then you move on to the next one. Each exercise builds on the previous one.
The first part of this progression deals with the dip and drive of the Jerk. The second part of this progression deals with receiving the bar.

PART 1-DIP AND DRIVE

Press /Behind the Neck

The PBN must be performed with your elbows parallel to your body and perpendicular to the ground. If you cannot do this than you need to go back to the “Preparation for the Jerk” section and address your tight external rotators.

This exercise, aside from strengthening the shoulder, will reinforce the proper overhead position for the bar.

• Start with the bar behind neck resting on the top of the traps
• Get elbows pointing down
• Press (see over head position for details)
• Hold for a two count
• Bring bar back to starting position

Please note: Each rep starts with the bar resting on the traps.

Push Press/Behind Neck

• The PPBN is used to learn proper dip mechanics as well as strengthen the overhead position.
• There are three things that must occur during the dip.

1. First, the bar must stay in contact with your body.
If the bar crashes on you when you dip, it will inhibit your ability to reverse the action of the bar in the dive phase. This will severely decrease the power output of the exercise. When you start your dip make sure your knees are unlocked. The initial movement of quickly unlocking your knees at the start will cause separation of the bar from your body. Dipping too quickly will also cause the bar to separate from your body as well. You must dip under control.

2. Second, the dip must be straight down.
During the execution of the Jerk, the bar should travel straight down. If your dip is forward your drive will be forward causing the bar to travel forward causing the Jerk to be too far out in front of you.
To assure a straight dip your torso must remain upright and ridged, no upper back rounding!
The movement of the dip is initiated by pushing the knees forward. Pushing the knees forward allows the torso to remain upright assuring a straight dip.

3. Third, weight must be on your heels during the dip
This action will be a reaction to keeping the torso upright and pushing the knees forward.

• Start in the same position as you did in the PBN
• Dip
• Quickly reverse direction driving the bar off your shoulders using leg and hip drive.
• As the bar passes your head push hard with your arms until your elbows are straight and locked. Do not re-bend the knees while you push on the bar.
• Hold the bar for a count of two
• Lower the bar into the starting position.

Push Jerk/Behind Neck

• Start in the same position as you did in the PPBN
• Dip
• Quickly reverse direction driving the bar off your shoulders using leg and hip drive.
• As soon you finish driving you will quickly push yourself under the bar.

Please note: Unlike the Pressing exercises, there is never a time when you are pressing the bar upward in the Jerk or its variations. You complete the Jerk exercises by pushing yourself under the bar and meeting it just as the bar stops rising.
If you don’t understand how to lower yourself under the bar properly, click here to see to the Footwork Drill

Press

This is the time to determine if you can lift the bar off of your shoulders. Most of your hand should be wrapped around the bar with the bar resting on your shoulders. Although it is ideal to have the elbows pointed down it is not essential. The rest of the movement is the same as the PBN

Please note: Now that the starting position of the bar has shifted to front, it is important that the bar is pressed back to the proper overhead position; shoulders-elbows-wrists-back of ear all in a line.

Push Press

• Start with the bar on the shoulders as you did in the Press
• The action is the same as the PPBN

Push Jerk

• Same as PJBN

PART 2- RECEIVING THE BAR

Overhead Split Squat

This exercise is used to strengthen your receiving position. It is important to perform this exercise with both legs if you are not an Olympic Weightlifter.

• Fix the bar above your head
• Step out into a position where your front shin is perpendicular to the ground, with your toe straight ahead.
• Rear leg is unlocked and the weight is on the ball of your foot. Your toe should be straight or slightly pointed in. This is the starting position.
• Lower yourself straight down by bending the back and front knees until your back knee is about an inch above the ground. The weight should be fairly evenly distributed between both legs. The weight on the front foot should be on the mid foot or behind.
• Return to the starting position

Please note: If your weight dramatically shifts to either leg or you allow your torso to lean forward you will drop the bar. You must keep the bar over your center of gravity

Jerk Balance

This exercise is used to teach the “step thru”, as well as the proper recovery mechanics. The step thru is the act of pushing your body forward, under the bar. As noted earlier, the starting bar position for the Jerk puts it in front of your center. During the Jerk the bar is driven straight up. If you don’t step your body thru, the bar will be in front of you making it impossible to support overhead.
Recovering properly from the Jerk is often overlooked. Just as you take care to keep the bar in line with your center during the Jerk, you must take care to keep the bar in line with your center during the Jerk recovery. If not you will drop the weight.

• Start the bar on your shoulders as you did in the PJ
• Step one foot out half the distance you did in the OSS. This is the starting position.
• From this position dip and drive the bar.
• Once you have finished your drive step out with your lead foot to the position you used in the OSS
• Recover by moving your front foot back to the starting position. Then move your back foot in line with your front foot.
• Lower the bar
• Return to the starting position.

Jerk Footwork Drill

Proper footwork is imperative for a successful Jerk. This drill will allow you to practice proper Jerk footwork. As stated earlier, the bar is driven straight up and to get your body into the correct position you need to move it forward as you push yourself under the bar In order for this to happen your rear foot needs to be in contact with the ground while your front foot is stepping thru. In other words you must slide with your back foot as you step with your front foot.

• Place your hands on your waist
• Rise up onto your toes
• Quickly slide your rear foot back and step your lead foot forward
• The position you end up in should be the same as the ending position in the Jerk Balance.
• Recover with the same sequence as you did in the Jerk Balance (front foot-back foot)

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

The Jerk

Once you are able to perform each part of this progression skillfully, you are ready to Jerk.

• Dip
– Torso straight
– Push the knees forward
– Weight on heels
– Travel straight down

• Drive
– Forcefully extend hips and legs

• Push under
– Push body under the bar
– Rotate elbows out and to the side

• Split
– Slide your rear foot backward
– Step your lead foot forward

• Recover
– Front foot
– Back foot

Here is the video of the exercises described above-Learning The Jerk

Final thoughts

Before using the Olympic Lifts in your program, take the time to make sure your body is prepared to perform them. This means having a torso that can resist spinal flexion/extension and rotation under load. It also means having enough range of motion in the joints to perform a proper Front Squat, Overhead Squat, RDL, and Press. Once you have the requisite strength and range of motion, find a good coach and start your journey.

If you are interested in more information about learning, coaching or being coached in the Olympic Lifts, email me at Sean@purestrength.com or go to PureStrength.com.

If you are in the Los Angeles area, stop by my gym located at 15711 Condon Av. #A3. Lawndale, CA. 90260. (Click here for a map)
I would love to see you.

Fight Until Your Very Last Breath!

-Wax-

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I cant tell you how many times I have heard certain coaches rationalize not using particular barbell exercises such as the squat or power clean because the were dangerous. I will say this, judging from some of the videos I have seen of their athletes lifting, there 100% correct. What they had them doing was absolutely dangerous however none of it resembled a squat or power clean.
Program design is the easy part of coaching beginning, intermediate, or untrained athletes. Anybody who passed the CSCS or reads a book on periodization could write a program. However that program will not work if the exercises are not performed with efficient technique. If you could teach an athlete just to squat correctly, they would be better off then implementing some elaborate program with dozens of exercises performed incorrectly.

With any trade there are particular skill sets that are required in order to do the job properly. Just because somebody doesn’t know how to do what’s needed, doesn’t care to do what’s needed, works for a company that doesn’t support what’s needed, or cant figure out how to make money doing what’s needed, doesn’t mean they should do things poorly. Where is the fucking integrity?

This seems to be really prevalent in strength and conditioning. You would never see a doctor who is scheduled to perform a double bypass decide to do a teeth whitening instead because he didn’t feel like going to school the day they were teaching heart surgery. Then, have the balls to tell the patient that teeth whitening is the future of bypass surgery! So why are so called Strength Coaches allowed to do this to their athletes? It’s our responsibility as coaches to know how to do and to teach the exercises that our athletes need. Don’t make the excuse that you are 20 years ahead of the science of training to justify some bullshit training methodology just because you figured out how to make money doing it.

When somebody pays money to a coach, they trust that you are doing everything you can do to help them meet their performance goals. They trust that you are a professional who took the time to hone their craft. Not some snake oil salesman only interested in forwarding their agenda. How would you feel if you spent your hard earned money on a diamond and it turned out to be a petrified piece of shit? Probably the same way you would feel if you hired a strength coach and got a glorified personal trainer with a fear of science, a big mouth, and a bad attitude.

Fight to your very last breath!

-wax-

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In athletes other than Weightlifters, I use both the Olympic and Power Squat. Because of the mechanics of the Power Squat, I like to use it for supplemental posterior chain work, with athletes suffering with knee tendonitis and/or an injury the medial structures of the knee. However, the majority of the Back Squatting volume in my training comes from the Olympic Squat. It is true the Power Squat will allow you to squat more weight however, more is not always better. Is a 700lb Back Squat going to help you more than a 500lb Back Squat? In the sport of Powerlifting it most certainly will, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to improved performance in other sports. Sport is not about maximal force development. It is about maximal rate of force development. Once my athletes reach a particular squat weight (between 2-3 times bodyweight calculated as a function of body weight and the physical demands of the particular sport), I maintain their strength levels while switching the training focus to generating force quickly. I use the Olympic lifts to accomplish this because they do it better than any other exercise. It would seem foolish to spend valuable training time continually getting an athlete stronger if the strength gained cannot be utilized on the field of play. A 700lb squat doesn’t mean shit if you’re a statue!

BETTER!

The Olympic Squat provides many benefits for athletes that the Power Squat does not. Here is my top three:
• The Olympic Squat adheres to the normal anatomical function of the joints.
• The Olympic Squat distributes the load evenly between the knee and hip joints.
• The Olympic Squat promotes flexibility in the ankle and hip joints.

In reality, because of the “functional training” plague that has swept through the Strength and Conditioning world, if a coach has an athlete squatting with a barbell at all regardless of style, it is better than the circus acts the pariahs masquerading as Strength Coaches are pawning off to their athletes as strength development. For those of you that understand the value of the squat and use it as an integral part of strength development, I salute you. If you are a “functional” clown please continue using your revolutionary, 20 years ahead of the science exercises with your athletes. The rest of us enjoy watching our athletes continually help yours off the ground, brushing the dirt off of their backs and sending them on their merry way.

I had a bad training day today. I needed to vent!

Fight to your very last breath!

-sw-

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Keep A Training Log

What the hell does writing stuff down have to do with getting stronger unless of course you are writing it on big stone tablets?

Most things we write down are reminders of what we did in the past so we can figure out what to do or not to do in the future. The beauty of training for a sport like Weightlifting, is we have a general idea how things will turn out. If you start at the right age, show good physical attributes, have a good coach, and don’t beat up five security guards, get your ribs broken by the cops, get locked up for three days, lift with broken ribs until you piss blood and have to take a month off, you will likely be able to at least reach the qualifying totals for Nationals in a predictable time period. The qualifying totals are well known so the planning of training has a definitive end point. A coach can work backwards from that point and based on the athletes’ ability, can determine roughly what and how long it will take to meet the desired goal.

Now I know this is a very simplistic overview of periodization however, this exactly how it works. In between your first day in the gym and the day you actually qualify for what ever it is you are training for (macrocycle), there will be a series of sequential plans (mesocycles). The planning of these mesocycles will be determined by the results of subsequent mesocycles. All the alterations made will be done so with one eye on the desired end result and the other on the past results. In other words if you don’t know what worked or didn’t work to get you to where you are, then how are you going to know what to do or not to do to get you to where you want to be?

Is thirty days of keeping a training log enough information to make you stronger in thirty days, perhaps not however, you have to start somewhere. And eventually those first 30 days turn into 330 days and now you have what to work with.

Some sample training logs:

Next up…Eat More!

Fight until your very last breath!

-sw-

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We live in a world of instant gratification. Where patience and progressive development are thought of as archaic concepts. We want it, and we want it now. The world of sports is not immune to this ugly reality. Coaches are constantly being fired for not producing championships right away. Teams mortgage their future and trade away their prospects for more seasoned players so they can win right now. There is one thing we can learn from the results of this attitude towards development; it doesn’t work. There are no short cuts to sustained success.

“A Journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”
Lao-tzu, the first philosopher of Chinese Taoism

The worlds of Strength & Conditioning and Weightlifting have had this instant gratification attitude creep into the depths of its psyche. Strength and Weightlifting Coaches have become fixed on the outcome and have forgotten about the process.
A coach is a teacher. We are not teaching our athletes how to find the coefficient of restitution for balls dropped from a height of 72 inches however, much like the aforementioned biomechanics problem, we are teaching them how to properly and effectively reach the correct solutions for their physical problems. The most effective method for solving any complex problem, is to identify the desired end result, then determine what steps are needed in order to reach said result. This goes for any problem, whether you are trying to figure out how high a ball is going to bounce after you drop it or how to get an athlete stronger and more powerful.
Putting a bar in an athlete’s hand and telling them to lift it with out proper instruction is not teaching; it’s butchery.

Proper athletic development is a process that not only takes time to occur but also takes a skilled coach to implement. The questions then become, what is the correct process and what is a skilled coach.

The Correct Process

Some definitions first:
Process- A series of actions or steps taken to achieve a particular end.
Series- A number of events of a similar kind or related nature
coming one after another.
If we combine these two terms we get: A process is a number of events of a similar kind or related nature coming one after another to achieve a particular end.
This is in essence what the process of proper athletic development should be. An athlete comes to you with a particular goal or “end.” It is then up to you to guide them thru the proper steps so that they achieve the desired goal.
Volumes have been written on the different types of systems that can be used for developing athletes. Unfortunately, this information has gone largely unread or ignored by many coaches involved in Olympic Weightlifting and Strength and Conditioning even at the highest levels. However, the scope of this discussion is not what system works best, but what part of the system is often overlooked.

Development in Olympic Weightlifting

I have been involved in Olympic Weightlifting as an athlete and coach for over seventeen years. I can say unequivocally that the VAST MAJORITY of the athletes I have seen have correctable technical flaws in their lifting technique that go uncorrected. More disturbing, many of these athletes have been taught incorrectly by so called qualified coaches. It doesn’t matter if you have comprised your training program using the NASA supercomputer, or had you’re equipment forged by the same craftsman that made Thor’s Hammer, if your athletes are not efficient with their lifting movements, you are depriving them of the full benefit weight training provides as well as increasing their chances of injury.

JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD

The ultimate goals of a Strength Coach and a Weightlifting Coach are the same, to elicit the best possible performance from their athletes. In Weightlifting it is seemingly easier to determine what a coach is doing is working. If your athlete lifts more than the next guy/gal, what ever you are doing is working. Lets examine this rational. According to this approach, whoever is on the medal stand at the National Championship or qualifies for an international team must have the best coach. This is not necessarily so if you take into consideration the genetic potential of the athlete. I will make the assumption that the genetics of the population of this continent are not dramatically different than those of other continents. Therefore the genetic potential of the US population is at least as great as other populations. However, as a country we do not perform anywhere near the level of other countries, and haven’t for quite some time. Than why is it our best athletes, who possess the same genetic potential as their international cohorts, cant compete at the international level? The first thing people look to is drugs. There is no doubt that drugs play a role in the landscape of Weightlifting. Would a systemized drug program propel us to the top of the Weightlifting world? The answer is absolutely no! Drugs will not solve the three most important and overlooked variables as it relates to Weightlifting success
1. The program design used to develop juniors
2. The loading parameters used on juniors.
3. Technical efficiency of the lifters.
These variables are being missed used due to lack of understanding of the process of proper athletic development. Many coaches in this country lack the physical science background that is required to understand the physiological effects training stress has on the biological and mechanical systems of the body. Couple that with inability to discern between proper and improper technique, and it is no surprise we perform as we do.

Program design and loading parameters
It first takes years of training with progressively higher volumes with sub maximal loads, using not only the classical Olympic lifts but basic weight training movements as well, to effect the necessary changes in the connective/muscle tissue and endocrine system needed to withstand the training loads required to excel at the highest levels of sport. It can take four or more years to elicit the changes needed in order to move on to more specialized training. This crucial phase of development is called the Process of Achieving Sports Mastery or PASM..It is in this phase, the athlete “trains to get into shape to be able to train.” A wide variety of exercises should be implemented at low to moderate intensities. During this time the classical lifts and their variations are taught and perfected as well. The exercise distribution over the PASM period should start with a predominance of strength exercises (roughly 75%) such as squatting variations, pressing variations, pulling/posterior chain variations, as well as specific wrist, elbow, rotator cuff, and ankle exercises. During this time the athlete should be taught how to perform the Olympic lifts. The distribution of Olympic lifts in the beginning of the PASM period should be roughly 25% of the overall volume. This 75%-25% ratio should gradually begin to flip flop thru out the four year PASM period culminating with an athlete that is prepared to handle much a much higher training load (intensity x volume).
Two things should occur during this PASM period if the training is implemented properly. First, as mentioned earlier, the athletes physiology will change. Their muscles will be strong and balanced. Their bones will have thickened. Their actual connective tissue will have strengthened along with where it attaches on the bone. Their work capacity would have improved to the point where they would to be able to handle and recover from more intense training load.

Technical efficiency of the lifter

Second, the athlete will have created a “habit” According to motor control research; it takes approximately ten thousand repetitions of a movement to create a consistent, unconscious movement pattern. Over the four years the athlete will have completed approximately ten-thousand reps in the Olympic lifts and three or more times that in the strength movements. Their technique in all movements should be biomechanical efficient and consistent. At this point there should be little or no technical deviation on lifts in the upper intensity ranges.
However, if you examine the developmental method used by many Weightlifting coaches, it expresses none of the characteristics of PASM. Instead coaches rush their unprepared, under trained athletes to the competition platform. These athletes are often weak, unbalanced, underweight, and technically inefficient. Because of this poor implementation of PASM, athletes are not developing past their first 4-6 years of training. This is often due to the accumulation of chronic injuries, or they become limited by the biomechanical flaws in their lifting technique.

Next up: Athletic development in Strength and Conditioning… Where we are getting it wrong

-sw-

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I wanted to do my part to help Strength Coaches who prescribe to the “Functional Training” dogma get out of the darkness and step into the light… To drop their balls and pick up a bar… To stop balancing and start squatting (and that doesn’t mean Split Squatting Mr. Boyle.)

I will lead them down a 9 step re-enlightment process. Not unlike the experience Castaneda had with Don Juan. I want to help free them from their ordinary reality which has been pounded into their awareness ever since they purchased their first Bozu ball. I will attempt to open their doors of perception and lead them towards the non-ordinary reality which will indeed be radically different from their ordinary reality they have experienced as part of their unfortunate social conditioning.
Without anymore hesitation, lets begin!

1st step towards re-enlightenment: Physical Therapy protocol provides a training stimulus, which restores normal movement and function, which has been threatened by injury.

2nd step towards re-enlightenment: Strength and Conditioning protocols are designed to enhance normal movement and function in order to improve athletic attributes such as power, and strength.

3rd step towards re-enlightenment: You cannot train a health athlete using Physical Therapy protocol and expect to maximize athletic attributes.

4th step towards re-enlightenment: High repetition, low intensity training is not optimal for developing strength and power.

5th step towards re-enlightenment: The optimal rep range for developing strength and power is between 3-5 reps.

6th step towards re-enlightenment: The body is one unit that is comprised a linked system of interactive muscle groups.

7th step towards re-enlightenment: The most effective exercises to develop strength and power are Squatting, Pulling, and the Olympic lifts!
(I know this is where I am going to loose some of you however, this is not my opinion. This statement has been proven to be true and the results are reproducible using real scientific method, not bullshit psudo-science.)

8th step towards re-enlightenment: Squatting, Pulling, and the Olympic Lifts require the entire body to act as one complete unit.

This concludes the eighth step of the journey. One more to go! It will all be clear in the end.

Until next time!

-sw-

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What is this functional for…Doggie Style

Paraphrasing Dr Mel Siff from Facts and Fallacies Fitness, the term Functional Training came out of the scientific and therapy worlds from the terms “structure” or form referring to the “phenomenon of growth of the substance forming the organism, and function referring to the way in which the organism operated. “
If we apply these definitions to training for sport, structural training would be directed towards “enhancing, maintenance and growth of the various systems of the body, whereas functional training would refers to the way these systems operate and produce motor output.”
Out of this work the principle of form follows function emerged which we find today in many forms of Physical Therapy
So now these so called “Functional Training” experts are confusing training for healthy athletes with “functional training” Just because they are not using machines, balancing on a ball and training in multi-dimensional space does not necessarily make it functional. This is not how the functional process was ever defined and it is not an accurate description of the training processes that are intended to enhance athletic or sport performance.
What is more alarming is that these same Functional freaks have gone ahead and labeled some training functional while saying other training is nonfunctional.
Doesn’t function really come down to the requirements of the activity? If you need to rehab a torn labarum gotten while performing stupid human tricks on a swiss ball, than perhaps jerking from behind the neck would not be an appropriate choice of exercise. But does that make it a non-functional exercise? It makes it the wrong exercise for the job at hand.
That being said, it is a fact that the Olympic Lifts produce the highest power output in the human body. I would say that power is a coveted trait in sports, then why is it not included in the “functional training” arsenal. There are companies dedicated to “functional” training for athletes, yet if you take a look at the information they are producing, you will not find anything on using the Olympic lifts for power development. Are they really helping athletes become more functional?
All training is functional if it is applied correctly. As far as it applies to training athletes, if the conversation includes wobble boards, wrapping yourself in theraband, or any other physical therapy toys, then you are talking about rehab. If that is the case then get the hell out of my weight room, and go to the training room!

-sw-

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Bill Starr’s 5×5

For anybody out there making his or her living training athletes, you owe a huge debt of gratitude to Bill Starr. He was one of the pioneers in Strength and Conditioning and his 1976 book “The Strongest Shall Survive” remains as relevant today as it did 34 years ago. From that book emerged the Bill Starr 5×5 workout.

The “5×5” program is one of the most effective training programs ever created. And you don’t have to know a thing about program design. It is designed around “The Big Three” exercises, which are the Squat, Bench Press & Power Clean. Bill Starr chooses these exercises because they are three of the most effective exercises for building strength. Nearly every muscle in your body will have to work on every rep.

The 5×5 rep and set scheme has been found to elicit extremely effective changes in strength and hypertrophy. Generally speaking a maximum set of 5 reps will be between 80-85% of a one rep maximum. That intensity performed with multiple sets of 5 repetitions will create maximal muscle fiber recruitment and incredible metabolic demand. This combination will give you the strength gains you are looking for.

The only change I would make is substituting the Standing Press for the Bench Press. Lifting a bar overhead will provide complete shoulder development as opposed to the anterior bias of the bench press. Overhead lifting is also a fantastic way to strengthen the torso. If you’re training with a barbell you need to be standing on your feet. You can lie down when you’re about to pass out after your last set of squats!

Please buy “The Strongest Shall Survive”. Don’t steal it or borrow it from a friend. This book should be in your Strength and Conditioning library. I do not sell it and I make no money from the sale of it. I think it is our duty to support people that provide us with quality training information. And for $20.00 you will never get a better value.

Click here to buy “The Strongest Shall Survive”

Next up…Keep a Training Log

-sw-

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Squat!

Originally this post was supposed to be ‘Squat More”. However, I realize there are still people out there that believe they don’t have to squat in order to get strong. So to put the squat in the proper light, I thought it would be apropos for you to read what other people have said about the squat before I open my big mouth!

“For an athlete anything less then a Parallel Squat is useless.” – John Gamble, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, University of Virginia and World Champion Power Lifter – training personal best in the Parallel Squat, 5 x 825 pounds.

“The Squat provides not only strength, but speed, explosive power and muscular endurance. In my opinion, it is the most important strength exercise for
athletes.” – Bill Kroll, Strength and Conditioning Coach, University of Illinois.

“….I must reemphasize the fact that deep Squats work more muscles than any form of partial Squats since they involve a full-range of motion. Since the full Squats work more muscles, they enable the trainee to become stronger faster than through partial movements. Research has shown that full Squats
actually helps to stabilize and secure the knee joint.” - Bill Starr, author of the Strongest
Shall Survive – Strength Training for Football.

“In a full Squat, the soft muscles of the legs slow the speed of the bar down, and help the joints recover. In the half Squat (partial) you have to stop for a very short time when the bar is going down – and at the same time, shift the bar in the upward direction. That moment is very sharp stop, it’s like a knife, especially over the knee joints. So the danger of injury during the half Squat is much greater than during the full Squat. – Angel Spassov, world renowned Bulgarian Weightlifting Authority.

“To improve athletic power, one option is to increase the force muscles can generate around the joints. In this respect, the Squat must be the athletes first choice for a full body strength lift. – Pat O’Shea, professor of physical education, Oregon State University.

“For almost every young athlete, the intrinsic value derived from long term squatting is that it stimulates optimal growth and development.” – Pat O’Shea,
professor of physical education, Oregon State University.

“In my experience athletes who are incapable of Squatting don’t make good athletes, from either the injury or performance standpoint.” – Dan Wathen, Head Athletic Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach, Youngtown State University.

“Squatting is never impossible; the athletes ( and any coaches who listen to them) who always complain about Squats, and blame tight backs, etc. on them (squats), simply don’t have the heart to push through the pain barriers and receive the super benefits derived by those with what I call heart to train.” – Bill Dunn, former Head Strength Coach at The University of Virginia, 1983 NSCA Strength Coach of the Year.

I don’t really need add to this, do I? Nuff said!

Next up…Do Bill Starr’s 5×5

-sw-

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I wanted to do my part to help Strength Coaches who prescribe to the “Functional Training” dogma get out of the darkness and step into the light… To drop their balls and pick up a bar… To stop balancing and start squatting (and that doesn’t mean Split Squatting Mr. Boyle.)

I will lead them down a 9 step re-enlightment process. Not unlike the experience Castaneda had with Don Juan. I want to help free them from their ordinary reality which has been pounded into their awareness ever since they purchased their first Bozu ball. I will attempt to open their doors of perception and lead them towards the non-ordinary reality which will indeed be radically different from their ordinary reality they have experienced as part of their unfortunate social conditioning.
Without anymore hesitation, lets begin!

1st step towards re-enlightenment: Physical Therapy protocol provides a training stimulus, which restores normal movement and function, which has been threatened by injury.

2nd step towards re-enlightenment: Strength and Conditioning protocols are designed to enhance normal movement and function in order to improve athletic attributes such as power, and strength.

3rd step towards re-enlightenment: You cannot train a health athlete using Physical Therapy protocol and expect to maximize athletic attributes.

4th step towards re-enlightenment: High repetition, low intensity training is not optimal for developing strength and power.

5th step towards re-enlightenment: The optimal rep range for developing strength and power is between 3-5 reps.

6th step towards re-enlightenment: The body is one unit that is comprised a linked system of interactive muscle groups.

7th step towards re-enlightenment: The most effective exercises to develop strength and power are Squatting, Pulling, and the Olympic lifts!
(I know this is where I am going to loose some of you however, this is not my opinion. This statement has been proven to be true and the results are reproducible using real scientific method, not bullshit psudo-science.)

This concludes the seventh step of the journey. Two more to go! It will all be clear in the end.

Remember… If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else!
Until next time!

-sw-

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Get a good training partner/s

We have all heard these mythical tales about average athletes retreating to a secret training center to train by themselves only to reemerge as some super champion. It makes great fiction however the reality is quite a different story. Behind every great athlete and athletic performance there are a group of great training partners. They have all bled, sweat, and pushed themselves to their limits every day, right along side these great champions. Very often, as it’s been in my experience, the difference between the person on the medal stand and their training partners that are watching them from the audience is not the effort they have put in. The person on the medal stand is simply the better athlete.

I have trained for two things in my life; first football from 13-23, then Olympic Weightlifting from 22-31. Through out that entire time I had great training partners. I remember them all vividly. We pushed each other constantly. Whether it was from verbal jabs or not wanting to be outdone, we were able to achieve more together than we would have ever achieved on our own.

During my time as a competitive Weightlifter, I spent more time with my Weightlifting teammates than I spent with my own family and friends. In fact I don’t have many friends outside the sport of Weightlifting. No one else understood what I was going through. For example, its impossible to explain to one of your best friends, who isn’t an Olympic Weightlifter, you cant go to his wedding because you are getting ready for Nationals and cant miss any training. You don’t have to make those explanations to your training partners, they will understand.

There is a bond that forms when groups of people are fighting for a common goal. Whether you are marching together for freedom from tyranny or training together to win national and International medals. The fact that all of you are in “the shit” or “have the sickness” together, allows for efforts and achievements that could never be achieved by yourself.

If you want to get stronger instantly, find someone as crazy as you. Someone that would rather blow a blood vesicle in there eye than miss a squat. Then I guarantee you will be noticeably stronger in thirty days

Next up…Squat More Often

-sw-

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In the next 30 days I will share with you the 30 things I believe can have a dramatic effect on your level of strength. Please feel free to chime in and share your ideas. We can all stand to learn something new!

#1
Train harder!

I know this seems like a simplistic approach however, getting stronger is not rocket science. When looking at the essence of what it takes to improve strength, it will very often come down to effort. The majority of people stop getting stronger because they reach a threshold in their training that they are unwilling to cross. Gains up to that point have come rapidly, and with minimal effort. Anybody that has picked up a weight knows exactly the threshold I am speaking about. The people that are willing to deal with the pain and fear of pushing themselves thru that threshold on a consistent basis are the people that are getting stronger.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be putting more weight on the bar every time you train. It means pushing yourself to what ever your limit is for that particular training day. And the only person that will truly know if this is occurring is you.

Next Up…Get good training partners

-sw-

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I wanted to do my part to help Strength Coaches who prescribe to the “Functional Training” dogma get out of the darkness and step into the light… To drop their balls and pick up a bar… To stop balancing and start squatting (and that doesn’t mean Split Squatting Mr. Boyle.)

I will lead them down a 9 step re-enlightment process. Not unlike the experience Castaneda had with Don Juan. I want to help free them from their ordinary reality which has been pounded into their awareness ever since they purchased their first Bozu ball. I will attempt to open their doors of perception and lead them towards the non-ordinary reality which will indeed be radically different from their ordinary reality they have experienced as part of their unfortunate social conditioning.
Without anymore hesitation, lets begin!

1st step towards re-enlightenment: Physical Therapy protocol provides a training stimulus, which restores normal movement and function, which has been threatened by injury.

2nd step towards re-enlightenment: Strength and Conditioning protocols are designed to enhance normal movement and function in order to improve athletic attributes such as power, and strength.

3rd step towards re-enlightenment: You cannot train a health athlete using Physical Therapy protocol and expect to maximize athletic attributes.

4th step towards re-enlightenment: High repetition, low intensity training is not optimal for developing strength and power.

5th step towards re-enlightenment: The optimal rep range for developing strength and power is between 3-5 reps.

6th step towards re-enlightenment: body is one unit that is comprised a linked system of interactive muscle groups.

This concludes the sixth step of the journey. Three more to go! It will all be clear in the end.

Remember… Just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should!

Until next time!

-sw-

Tags: Training Articles by Sean
No Comments »

I wanted to do my part to help Strength Coaches who prescribe to the “Functional Training” dogma get out of the darkness and step into the light… To drop their balls and pick up a bar… To stop balancing and start squatting (and that doesn’t mean Split Squatting Mr. Boyle.)

I will lead them down a 9 step re-enlightment process. Not unlike the experience Castaneda had with Don Juan. I want to help free them from their ordinary reality which has been pounded into their awareness ever since they purchased their first Bozu ball. I will attempt to open their doors of perception and lead them towards the non-ordinary reality which will indeed be radically different from their ordinary reality they have experienced as part of their unfortunate social conditioning.
Without anymore hesitation, lets begin!

1st step towards re-enlightenment: Physical Therapy protocol provides a training stimulus, which restores normal movement and function, which has been threatened by injury.

2nd step towards re-enlightenment: Strength and Conditioning protocols are designed to enhance normal movement and function in order to improve athletic attributes such as power, and strength.

3rd step towards re-enlightenment: You cannot train a health athlete using Physical Therapy protocol and expect to maximize athletic attributes.

4th step towards re-enlightenment: High repetition, low intensity training is not optimal for developing strength and power.

5th step towards re-enlightenment: The optimal rep range for developing strength and power is between 3-5 reps.

This concludes the fifth step of the journey. Four more to go! It will all be clear in the end.

Remember… Not everybody has what it takes to be a Strength Coach, and thats fine. The world needs ditch diggers too!

Until next time!

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Most strength coaches didn’t pop out of the womb wanting to become a strength coach. They were involved in competitive sports until they couldn’t do their sport anymore. Then the specter of joining the ranks of the 9-5 death march was too frightening to comprehend, so becoming a strength coach provided a way of being around what you love and earn a living to boot.

When we start out, our knowledge base is narrow to say the least. We train everybody like we trained. If you were a Football player everybody got trained like a Football player. As for me, when I started my career as a strength coach at Los Angeles City College everybody got trained like a Weightlifter because that’s what I was. Because of my enthusiasm, and the fact that the first day I met with the basketball team, at six foot and 250lbs (with a bullet), I grabbed a basketball stood under the basket and dunked the ball with two hands. They instantly bought in to what I was selling. In my second year, we did win the schools first ever State Championship, however, I tortured those poor guys. At that point in my career the only formal coaching I had been exposed to was from my Weightlifting coach Bob Takano. Up until that point I had been a self-taught coach. All I knew was, I was a shit load stronger, faster, and more powerful then I ever was and I wanted my players to experience that as well. However, the training I was being put through by Bob was to prepare me to be able to perform six lifts, six years from then, at the Olympic Trials, for a shot at competing at the Olympic Games in Sydney. That is a far cry from training to be able to play a 30 game season over a few months. One of the worst things that happened, as far as my strength and conditioning career is concerned, was the success I had early on. It validated what I was doing, even though what I was doing was wrong.

As the years passed, I attended Grad school where I studied and learned Biomechanics and Exercise Phys. I already had a strong science background from my undergraduate studies. I became exposed to different coaches and their methodologies, continued to train full time as an Olympic Weightlifter, and read everything about athletic development I could get my hands on. Because there is no formal coaching developmental program in this country, I had to create my own. I followed the model that the former Soviet Union used. Their training and preparation of coaches set them apart from the rest of the world. Coaches in the Soviet Union were looked upon in the highest esteem; much like a doctor or a professional athlete is in this country. This was the only system at the time, created to develop professional coaches. And that’s what I wanted to be more than anything else.

Along this journey I learned some valuable lessons, which I share with all the young strength Coaches that contact me for advice or who spend time mentoring with me. Now, I will share them with you.

• Find a good Olympic Weightlifting coach and train as a Weightlifter.
There is nothing more important in sports than the ability to get to the point of attack before your opponent. This is the ability to produce force quickly, better known as being powerful. Regardless of what personal trainers like Juan Carlos Banana, and coaches like Louie Simmons say, there are no better tools for developing power and athleticism in athletes. I respect the heck out of Louie Simmons. I have read as many of his writings as I could get my hands on. He is a very well educated coach and there is nobody better in the world at getting people strong however, developing athletes is more than being brutally strong. I am not bashing Louie or his methods, all I saying is the science does not support his methods as a better means of developing athleticism. Please, do not believe what I say, find out for yourselves. As far as Banana goes, I have nothing constructive to say, so Ill move on.

If you are going to be a strength coach you must have more than a rudimentary knowledge of the Olympic Lifts. You must train as a Weightlifter does and become proficient with the lifts. Not necessarily for the purpose of becoming a competitive Weightlifter, but to immerse yourself into this world in order to truly understand how to perform not only the snatch and clean and jerk but all the other exercises that go along with the developmental process of becoming a Weightlifter. The exercises you will master will make up the vast majority of the exercises you will need in order to develop athletes properly. By mastering these exercises in this environment, you will have developed a skill set that will set you apart from the rest of the pack. You will have developed a “coaching eye”. This is the art of coaching, and the part you can’t learn from a book. It’s the ability to truly see what is going on during a lift and be able to give proper feed back to the athlete. It allows you to not only use what you see, but what you hear as well. You will know by the way a lift sounds if it was performed properly. Because of this total immersion, you develop an innate sense of what efficient movement and energy flow is supposed to look and feel like. It becomes visceral and burns permanently into your minds eye. When something you experience in the weightroom is incongruent to what you innately know to be correct, you are instantly able to make the proper adjustments with your athletes. There is a direct correlation that exists between the coach’s ability to affectively teach these movements, the efficiency an athlete shows with these movements and improved athleticism. This is an ability that can only be developed by watching, performing, and paying attention to thousands of lifts.

• Go to school
Learn biology, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology, exercise physiology, biomechanics and sports psychology, at the very least. If you are training humans then you should know how they work from the cellular level on out. Its not enough to understand what you can see happening, you have to understand what you cant see happening. The training stress we put on our athletes have very specific effects, which cause very specific changes to the body. These changes begin at the cellular level and work outward to what we can see. If you don’t understand the effects training stress can have on an athlete, beginning at the cellular level, how can you effectively create training programs that elicit the changes you are seeking?

• Seek out other coaches and learn as much as you can from them, even if they are terrible.
Learning what not to do is as valuable as learning what to do. Don’t make the mistake of spending your entire career learning from one coach. The learning process should NEVER stop.

• Coach lots of bad athletes
In the beginning of your career, try to coach as many bad athletes or athletes with physical limitations as you can. This forces you to become an effective problem solver. It is also easier to see problems with poor athletes. Superior athletes, by nature, are very effective at masking their physical shortcomings. This makes it more difficult to diagnose what is limiting their performance.

• Round out your knowledge base
If you have gone through the above steps you will have covered the vast majority of the required pieces in the strength coaching developmental pie. To finish things off, have a basic knowledge of nutrition, recovery methods, and physical therapy. Why only a basic knowledge? These are very involved disciplines, just as strength coaching is. You need just enough knowledge in these areas in order to understand:
1. How they fit into the development pie
2. How they fit into the design of the training programs
3. How to ask intelligent and pertinent questions to the experts of these disciplines in order to get the information you need.
If you’re a professional strength coach, you will not be a professional PT, massage therapist, or nutritionist. There aren’t enough hours in your life to make that happen. Don’t try to be good or mediocre in multiple disciplines, strive to be great in one!

• Develop a professional network
Find a good network of professionals you can work and share information with. Locate massage therapists, chiropractors, orthopedists, nutritionists and sports psychologists that you feel comfortable with and are willing to collaborate with you and each other. You can’t do this by yourself! It takes an entire village to raise an athlete.

There is no one secret training program, seminar or DVD that will give you the key to unlocking the mysteries of athletic development. The only secret is… there is no secret! Coaching is about understanding how and why the body reacts to stress, understanding how your athlete responds and changes while being stressed, and being able to properly manipulate training variables in order to manage the stress and elicit the desired training response.

Its part science, part art and its all magnificent!
Good luck on your voyage!

To enquire about mentor opportunities please contact me at Sean@purestrength.com

-sw-

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