Classroom Experience

Recently I was invited to speak at an Exercise Physiology class on campus. It was kind of a "career day" talk...the prof was trying to expose his students to new and budding fields related to exercise physiology. I took an informal pole before the class started and ~70% of the students were on a pre-physical therapy path. First, let me say that none of the following comments should reflect poorly on the prof but should reflect poorly on our education system regarding our profession.

I opened the lecture with a series of pictures depicting what strength and conditioning is and what it isn't. For instance this is what S&C isn't:



I told the students that we aren't training for an earthquake...I understand the concept of proprioception and enhanced motor unit recruitment, but this is not the appropriate means for achieving the desired effect. We also discussed "Sports Specific" training. I'm stealing from Chad Dennis on this one, but there is no such thing as sports specific training. If you want to be sports specific...well go play the sport. What we can do as S&C Coaches is train muscle contractions, motor patterns, movement patterns ect. This concept lead into my next point which was why train for strength.

I put up the graph from Dr. Mel Siff's book Super Training. Which by the way, if you haven't read it you are about 10 years behind. Not one of the students understood what the terms absolute strength, accelerating strength/rate of force development, starting strength, or strength endurance meant...regarding training. These are supposed to be students that are learning not only about cardiopulmonary function/aerobic training adaptations, but they are supposed to be learning about muscle physiology and basic adaptations from training. The real problem is that this is not an isolated case. You can graduate with a MS from a MAJOR institution in Exercise Science and you will no absolutely nothing about the science of training.

Oh and then I really offended everyone when I told them that the NSCA was about 25 years behind. We discussed how Western Linear Periodization is the reason for a lot of our training related injuries: CNS fatigue, Adrenal Fatigue, Muscle Strains/Sprains ect. I wasn't rude in my delivery but I wanted these young and impressionable minds to see what is available to them.

So, moral of the story...if you are Ex Phys student out there and you are also lost just reading this blog, start reading now!! And here is a short list to get you going:

Super Training: Dr. Mel Siff
High Powered Plyometrics: Radcliffe
Running Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology in Practice: Bosh
Explosive Power and Jumping Ability for All Sports: Starzynski
Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods: Thibaudeau
Special Strength Training: Yuri Verkhoshansky

The Template

I hope everyone completed their assignment and made a detailed needs analysis...I know I have. So now that I know what qualities I need to improve, how do I assimilate all of my needs into a solid program? Well, you need to design a training template. I've made a list of what a training template is and what a training template isn't, these are some common mistakes that I often see.

Is:
1. An OUTLINE of the training week
2. Lifting categories per training session
3. Structure of the hierarchy of needs

Not:
1. List of exercises
2. Reps and sets
3. Specific speed/agility/mobility/conditioning drills

Example of a 4 Day Training Template

Mon: Linear Acceleration, DE Squat, Post Chain, Upper Back, Arm Flex, Abs Static

Tues: Reactive Strength (OLY),1-Leg Sq asst, ME Press,Horizontal Pull, Tri Asst (vol)
Ab Flexion

Thur: Agility, DE Squat, Post Chain, Upper back, Arm Flexion, Abs Static

Fri: OLY, Work Cap, 1 Leg, DE Press,Vert Pull,Tri Asst


Another way to do this is to create an emphasis for the day.
Example:

Mon: Speed Tue: Power Thur: Strength Fri: Work Capacity

But within each of these days you are training all qualities, but the emphasis shifts.

I hope this helps...so get off your rear now and right a template!!!

Winter Programming: Needs Analysis

It's that time of year again. Football season is coming to an end and turkey day is just around the corner. For me this means its time to start thinking about the football off-season. Before I get into how I approach putting together a template, I must say its very important to work with a staff that is open minded. I absolutely positively have the best boss in the world...Ben Pollard. Ben has given me a great deal of freedom to speak openly about what I think we should do or not do. He doesn't always implement what I say, hey he's the Head Guy, but its just great that my voice is heard.

I think the biggest mistake coaches make in planning an off-season is that they plan out every detail of a 8-10 week cycle. Every foot contact, rep, set, warm-up ect is already in place and they leave themselves no room for change. To me this is a huge mistake...this is what inexperienced coaches do, or coaches that are stuck in the dark ages with Western Periodization. There just isn't enough time in a modern off-season to have "hypertrophy" phases...this is why the conjugate method is perfect for the off season. Let's attack multiple qualities at the same time, but give emphasis to certain ones depending on the time of the year.

The Needs Analysis

By now we've seen our teams enough to know what needs to be attacked during the off-season. For some its a lack of speed, others max strength and others maybe work capacity. Whatever that need is I usually center the initial stages of the off-season around that. Of course, we need to improve our work capacity...but stealing from Chad Dennis on this one, if you increase max strength, reactive strength, starting strength, maximum muscle contraction velocity AND work capacity...won't you have a higher threshold of work capacity.

So here's your assignment. Sit down for a good hour and go position by position and right down IN DETAIL what glaring deficiencies that position has. Put your analysis down and come back to it about a week from now and add/take away. Once you've got that we'll start building a template.

If anyone has any comments on this process, please feel free to post...Train Hard!!! -Erik Korem-