A few lessons on learned in 2012

Here are a few concepts, largely revolving around programming, which I thought I would share with you... Nothing revolutionary, but often we need to be reminded of some of the fundamental principles that training should be based upon.  I will soon be bringing out a more in depth multi-part article on programming in which most of these points will also feature.

The Only Person who can truly know which programme is going to give you the best results is you. How do you find out?  Years of dedicated intelligently planned out training.  However do not be the guy who hops from programme to programme without ever really giving any of them a proper chance to give results.  Also do not tamper with it or alter the programme in any way. Certainly not unless you have equal or greater experience  than the coach who wrote the programme in the first place.  Chances are you have not earned the right to, and if you do not get the results you wanted, certainly don’t review the programme negatively unless you have followed precisely.

Educating yourself as to varying training methods and programmes is fantastic provided you can use your inbuilt filter.  By this I am referring to the fact that for many lifters, the grass will always be greener.  They spend hours online researching different training programmes and methods, and each week they come in and tell you that they are thinking of trying it out for a bit.  The trouble is they rarely stick to anything long enough for it to have an effect and because they are not truly committed to the programme they are doing (due to the fact that everything else looks so much more appealing).  Educating yourself about training is a highly important thing but you should be able to pick and choose what you take from everything you read.  Filter out the things which do not seem appropriate, and note down and take on board the stuff which matters.  Sometimes there might be one sentence in a whole article which is of actual use to you.  Sometimes it might be one specific little details about a programme which you could utlise. However just because you read something, doesn’t mean you necessarily need act on it and change what you are currently doing.

Believe in your system / programme.  This sounds cheesy but my point is that with every creeping doubt that you allow to come into your mind that what you are doing isn’t giving you the results, you will undoubtedly put less and less effort in to what you are doing.  You must stay focussed and determined and trust your gut.  Confidence in a programme can be considered more important in a lot of ways than the actual programme content itself.  This is why some people have made some phenomenal gains from some abysmal poorly structured training programmes.  They have donespan>

Have a system and a method of progression for every element to your programme.
If your not improving, you’re going backwards. Too often I see people only focussed on a small number of elements to their programme and everything else just gets put in the shadows and neglected.  I am talking about things like your assistance exercises which you apparently understand are supposed to aid your main lifts.  These assistance exercises need the same focus and dedication as your main lifts.  Some of these assistance exercises may not have as much importance to spent any of their life actually building up some real life experience.  I’m talking about countless hours, weeks, months, years trying and testing.  Learning, accumulating information, dismissing some of it, storing the rest, and implementing all the time so you understand in practice how it all works. 

Have a system and a method of progression for every element to your programme.
If your not improving, you’re going backwards. Too often I see people only focussed on a small number of elements to their programme and everything else just gets put in the shadows and neglected.  I am talking about things like your assistance exercises which you apparently understand are supposed to aid your main lifts.  These assistance exercises need the same focus and dedication as your main lifts.  Some of these assistance exercises may not have as much importance to you in the great scheme of things but if they didn’t matter at all then they shouldn’t be taking up valuable space in your programme.  For example, often I see people throwing in token gestures towards training muscle groups.  For example, somebody may understand the concept that they need to achieve some sort of muscular balance in regards to their biceps being relatively strong in relation to their triceps.  However too often I see people simply throwing in the same old bicep exercise at the end of their session.  The biggest problem is that they put such little importance and emphasis into this part of their session that they never really look to make any real progress.  I have seen some people perform curls or rows with a certain weight at the beginning of the year and come the end of the year they are still dealing with the same kind of load.  This attitude of ‘its just an assistance exercise, it doesn’t have to be that heavy’ is damaging to progress.  You should be looking to make progress in all areas that your programme is designed to improve.  If you have included straight bar standing bicep curls and you start the programme with 30kg, then you better be damn sure that by the time you have finished that programme you are at least curling 40kg or 50kg or 60kg (depending on ablility and length of the programme).  Remember your main lifts will not get stronger unless you build every other piece of the puzzle as well.

There is no perfect programme. Forget searching for the perfect programme because it doesn’t exist.  There are good programmes and excellent systems, however nothing will work forever. A programme is only effective for as long as it takes you to adapt to it.  This is why I am a big proponent of some Soviet Influenced Methods and Westside Barbell Methodology, because Louie Simmons has developed a system which enables the lifter to rather apply principles and then from there the programme is constantly evolving in the name of progress. 

Utilising the Slingshot for the Bench

For those who have not yet heard of, or used one yet, the Slingshot is a supportive device used for the bench press.  Do NOT however let anyone tell you it is anything like a bench shirt, IT IS NOT!!  The slingshot is made out of stretchy material, bench shirts are not. They are a world apart and anyone who tells you they are similar has clearly never used a bench shirt.  They do however enable an overload to be utilised (the original slingshot usually allows for 10-15% more load to be used).  This excellent training tool was designed by Mark Bell, owner and founder of SuperTraining Gym in Sacramento, California.  Credit has to go to Mark for such a useful and simple device. This training tool has enabled me to handle greater loads for higher reps and with a greatly reduced risk of injury.

Some of the best ways to utilise the slingshot if you are a RAW powerlifter.

1. To enable an overload, handle more weight than you could raw, so get your body accustomed to a heavier load.  So you could max out raw, and then add the slingshot to enable you to perform a few heavier sets, or perhaps handle the same weight but for more reps.

2. To reduce the risk of overuse injury, especially when performing a high volume of work.

3. For higher rep work (works also very well on high rep press up sets)

4. To learn how to use your upper-back more effectively and also to enable a better tuck of the elbows.

I would suggest that performing singles with the slingshot will be of little use to the raw lifter (although no doubt some people will disagree and have success with this method).  I prefer to perform sets of 3-6 reps with the slingshot and have found this excellent for building strength and size in the triceps.

If you are an equipped lifter the slingshot can be utilised....

1. To enable speed work to be done at a higher percentage as an overload.

2. To reduce risk of injury in general.

3. To enable more weight to be handled on days you are not using your bench shirt.

4. To make warming up less taxing, when the main focus is on the work that is to be done in the shirt.

5. To bridge the gap between your raw weights handled during a warm up, and your first working set in the bench shirt.

All in all, the slingshot in my opinion is a priceless piece of equipment that everyone who wants a big bench should be carrying around in their gym bag. They are relatively inexpensive and a tool which not only can help you lift more but I believe actually makes you lift better and more safely.  The one pitfall to watch out for is that you don't get carried away and forget about your raw benching altogether.  You must still build strength raw whether you lift raw or equipped.  It is easy for some people to get carried away and keep putting the slingshot on when they get to a certain weight and not actually try and increase their raw strength, only focussing on their slingshot maxes.  Keep sight of your raw, slingshot and bench shirt maxes and keep trying to improve them all and you will find this training tool invaluable.

Test blog

Test blog

A WARM UP FOR A DEADLIFT SESSION

SMR rumble roller - calves, tib, hamstrings, IT band, Quads, Glutes, Adductors, Lumbar Spine, Lats, Spinal Erectors

SMR Lacrosse Ball - Piriformis, Glutes, Traps, Front Delts, Pecs

Mobilisation - Knee Bends 1 x 20

  - Split Squats 1 x 6-8 reps per side

  - Cossack Squats 1 x 10 reps

  - Supermans 1 x 15 reps per side

  - Hip Circles 1 x 10forward + 10 backward

  - Mountain Climbers 1 x 20

  - Downward dog > Cobra 1 x 15

Activation   - Poliquin Step Ups 1 x 15 per side

  - Med Ball Hip Raises 1 x 20

  - Banded Good Mornings 1 X 25

Potentiation - Broad Jumps 10 reps

  - Kneeling Jump > Box Jump 5-6 reps

Following this remember to use compensatory acceleration on all of your lifts.  In other words, right from the get go and the warm up weights lift explosively and as fast and with as much force as possible.

Training in a Group Vs Training Solo

At Bridge Road Barbell, we have recognised the benefits of group training over training solo.  Far be it for me to promote Crossfit as a serious form of training, the problems with Crossfit are too big to mention here so we'll leave that for another article.  However in spite of all its flaws, one thing that Crossfit does very well is encouraging people to train as part of a group.  Now if we ignore the fact that Crossfit often does not involve much , if any, real ongoing coaching, the simple fact that the participants are training as part of a group is largely what draws people to this form of exercise.
At Bridge Road Barbell, the group strongman and conditioning classes often are the times I see the highest levels of competition breeding with the members, and despite the fact that everyone has varying goals and requirements, often grouping people together on similar templates (with individual specifications depending on participants individual weak points and focus areas) can be more effective than a ton of people all training solo. We have a lot of members now, whose main goals are to improve upper/lower body strength and also gain some muscle in the process.  Athletes want to improve power and speed as well.  Having been a keen proponent of the Westside Barbell methodology and the conjugate system, and aware of the huge success that Westside Barbell, Super Training, Joe DeFranco's, Underground Strength Gym, Joe Pulcinella's Iron Sport Gym and many others have utilising training as a pack/team/group, I have been pushing my members to form groups for a while.
It has finally become a reality, but took quite a while to happen.  At first I could not make out what was preventing people from pairing up / forming groups but gradually it became clearer.

Here are just a few of the benefits that I see to training as part of a team / group.

1. You will always have someone to spot you, ensuring safer training.
2. It breeds competition. No matter how much you pretend you aren't being competitive, the fact is you will rank yourself against the others in the group and will always be jostling for position.
3. No matter how motivated you are, everyone has bad days when they are not quite so focussed.  Training in a group means you have no choice but to suck it up and work harder.  Because you aren't going to let one of the other group members push ahead of you, if you have been fairly level pegged thus far.
4. It makes you accountable for turning up and training hard.  When training solo, if you don't turn up, you are only letting yourself down.  Noone else cares.  When you train as part of a team, people notice that you aren't there and this should encourage you to feel a responsibility to yourself and to the team as a whole.
5. It means that during a session you are never just sat there in-between sets, you will be either helping someone prepare for a lift, spotting, or preparing for a lift yourself.  This keeps your mind focussed on the job in hand.  You will also be called out if you are sat on your mobile phone texting your girlfriend when you are supposed to be lifting.
6. You have the advantage of being able to watch other people make mistakes, and you can apply everything you learn to your own training.
7. You will have multiple sets of eyes watching you lift and assessing you.  Therefore if you are falling forward on your squat, or your lower back is rounding too much when you deadlift you have people to tell you and cue you to improve it next time you lift.
8. It makes you think carefully about your own training and what is working and what isn't, and will stop you from simply going through the motions.
9. It will prevent you from 'taking it easy' too often, or 'having a light week'. No matter what you think, if you bottle out of working hard too often people will judge you.  Nobody wants to be known as someone with poor work ethic, so you will be encouraged to keep the intensity up and push yourself harder and harder each week.
10. A group warm up is much more effective, normally because once again it stops people just going through the motions.  Sometimes one person will bring a warm up drill to the table which you had not thought of using and it will be the cure to that niggling pain you've been complaining about every week.
11. As much as anything else, it makes training more enjoyable.  If you are the kind of person who is going to be successful with your training then you will get a buzz out of seeing other people work their asses off.  You will gain from this and it will drive you to work harder.  You will see others making progress and be pleased for them, rather than feeling jealousy and resentment.  You will all encourage each other and get behind someone when they are going for a PR, and you will receive the same treatment in return.

As you can see there are so many reasons to train as a team.  So why did it take so long for people to come round to the idea you may ask.  You would assume that once people were presented with the facts, and how much more effective it is to ally yourself with other strong-minded individuals, they would instantly seek to form pairs, then add more and more people to form small groups.  However this did not happen straight away and I now realise why.

Bottom line....    It takes guts.  It takes someone who can put their ego aside.  It takes someone who respects those around them enough to want them to succeed as much as they want to succeed themselves. It takes someone who can be reliable, dependable, and who will not let people down.  It takes someone who is prepared to put all excuses aside and accept that they and only they are responsible for their actions.

I realised that what was holding people back were the same reasons which I have listed as benefits to training in a group.  Its very intimidating, training with other people, but if you are going to commit to a group, you are going to have to come to terms with a few things.  

• You will have to accept that you have weaknesses and those will be shown up.  You can't train around them anymore.  
• You will have to turn up on time as no one will care about your latest excuse as to why your late.
• You will have to come to terms with the fact that others may be stronger than you and you will have to train with them anyway.
• You will probably be pushed out of your comfort zone frequently and this is tough.
• No longer can you day-dream in-between sets, and go home when you've had enough because 'hey, doing something is better than nothing right?'.

Being pegged against other people who you may be friends with is quite daunting, it can be a hard pill to swallow.  However if you are going to be able to train as part of a group you must put your ego to bed and shatter your false illusion of yourself.  Training in a team, or part of a group, you will be exposed for who you really are.  If you are a hard working, reliable, strong-minded, dedicated individual who is an invaluable member of the team, then you will be seen as just that. However if you are a 'quit at the first hurdle', turn up late, skip the warm up, never offers encouragement to others and brag to your friends about how hard you 'smashed it in the gym' anyway, kind of guy, then this will become apparent to everyone.

So you can see why this would be a challenge for people to do, and why people might hesitate. However the ones who do choose to will always be more successful than those who choose to let their ego limit their progress.

I will be looking to form more groups for afternoon/evening sessions so anyone who has been contemplating joining up at Bridge Road Barbell but hasn't taken the plunge, now would be a good time to do so.

Yours. In Strength

Phil Horwood