PERFORMANCE MENU JOURNAL OF HEALTH & ATHLETIC EXCELLENCE
BETTER COACHING 0 1 0 2 R E B M E V O N . 0 7 E U S S
LOWER BODY STABILITY WORLDS TRAINING PROGRAMS STARTING A LIFTING TEAM
Volume 6 . Issue 70 . November 2010
4 Training Weightlifting World Team Members Alex Lee & Sarah Robles Joe Micela
A brief description of training programs for World Team members
8 And Doggone It, People Like Me! Matt Foreman
What an athlete should look for in a coach
11 Reevaluating Lower Body Training Josh Henkin
A look at lower body stability training
14 Starting a Weightlifting Team Greg Everett
A simple guide to starting a weightlifting team
17 Cooking with Scotty Scotty Hagnas
Recipes for health, performance and longevity from certied culinary stud Scotty Hagnas
Info The Performance Menu is published monthly in digital format by Catalyst Athletics, Inc.
On the Cover Jocelyn Forest
Editor in Chief Greg Everett
Managing Editor Yael Grauer
Design Greg Everett
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Back Issues Backissues are available at www.cathletics.com All content copyright Catalyst Athletics, Inc and its respective authors. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited by law.
Contributors Greg Everett is the owner of Catalyst Athletics, publisher of The Performance Menu and author of Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches. Matt Foreman is the football and track & eld coach at Mountain View High School in Phoenix, AZ. A competitive weightliter for twenty years, Foreman is a four-time National Championship bronze medalist, two-time American Open silver medalist, three-time American Open bronze medalist, two-time National Collegiate Champion, 2004 US Olympic Trials competitor, 2000 World University Championship Team USA competitor, and Arizona and Washington state record-holder. He was also First Team All-Region high school football player, lettered in high school wrestling and track, a high school national powerlifting champion, and a Scottish Highland Games competitor. Foreman has coached multiple regional, state, and national champions in track & eld, powerlifting, and weightlifting, and was an assistant coach on 5A Arizona state runner-up football and track teams. Scott Hagnas is owner of CrossFit Portland. He is certied as a CrossFit level 2 trainer and Circular Strength Training (clubbell) instructor. He has been riding BMX atland for 26 years and counting and has lmed/produced/edited several series of BMX videos, plus several training videos. He formerly competed in bicycle trials, placing second in amateur in the World Championships in 1990. Cooking is one of his favorite pastimes. Josh Henkin, CSCS, is the owner of Innovative Fitness Solutions and creator of Sandbag Fitness Systems, the most dynamic new functional training systems available today. Coach Henkin’s Ultimate Sandbag program is utilized by athletes and top tness facilities around the world. Coach Henkin has presented internationally on the topics of innovative functional tness and performance programs. Joe Micela is a Senior International Coach with USA Weightlifting, Head Coach to Team Arizona Weightlifting, and Owner of Performance One Advanced Sports Training in Mesa, AZ. He has coached athletes to state, regional, national, and international medals in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. In 2009 he was the Assistant Coach for both the Men’s & Women’s World Team. In 2010, Coach Micela was the Head US Women’s Coach for the Pan American Team and later that year was a Coach & Team Manager for the 2010 Senior World Team. For information on Olympic Weightlifting you can reach Coach Micela at
[email protected] or 480-813-5477.
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Weightlifting | Joe Micela
Coaching Weightlifting World Team Members Alex Lee and Sarah Robles Olympic weightlifting is not a one-size-ts-all sport, but one which requires modications for individual ath letes. I will give a brief description of the training program leading up to the 2010 World Championships for World Team Members Alex Lee and Sarah Robles; their similarities and differences and how I prepared them for the biggest event of their careers.
69 kilo weight class nationally. Alex is also an Olympic Hopeful for 2012. Alex Lee has been training with me almost six years. From the very rst time I saw him lift, I knew that Alex
Alex Lee Alex Lee was 2008 Junior World Team Member, 2009 Pan American Team Member, 2010 Collegiate National Champion, 2010 World University Champion, Collegiate American Record Holder in the Clean & Jerk and Total, and 2010 World Team Member. At the World Championships he placed 20th in the 62 kilo weight class. Alex was the only American to attempt an American Record at the World Championships. He is currently the number one ranked lifter in the 62 &
Monday -Snatch (Ak) 9:0011:00 am -CJ (Ak) -Front Squat
Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday
Friday
Therapy & Recovery
-Front Squat -Snatch (Bk) from blocks -CJ (Bk) from blocks
-Snatch -CJ
Therapy & Recovery
Saturday
1:00 2:30 pm
-Power Snatch -CJ -Snatch High Pull -Snatch Push Press
2:30 4:00 pm
Therapy & Recovery
5:30 7:30 pm
-Snatch -CJ -Snatch
-Power Snatch -Power CJ -Snatch Pull
-Snatch -CJ -Snatch
-Power Snatch -Power CJ -Clean Pull
-Snatch -CJ -Front Squat
Alex Lee’s Training Schedule
THE PERFORMANCE MENU ISSUE 70 NOVEMBER 2010 4
Snatch
C+J
Total
WO 1
WO 2
WO 3
WO 4
WO 5
WO 6
WO 7
WO 8
WO 9
90%
95%
85%
92%
97%
80%
90%
100%
82%
Week 8
105-107
125-130
230-237
213
225
201
218
230
190
213
237
194
Week 7
110-112
130-135
240-247
222
235
210
227
240
198
222
247
203
Week 6
106-108
120-125
226-238
214
226
202
219
231
190
214
238
195
Week 5
111-113
135-140
246-253
228
240
215
233
245
202
228
253
207
Week 4
114-116
140-145
260
234
247
221
239
252
208
234
260
213
Week 3
105-107
125-130
237
213
225
201
218
230
190
213
237
194
Week 2
110-114
135-140
250
225
238
213
230
243
200
225
250
205
Week 1
100
130
230
207
219
196
212
223
184
207
230
189
Compete on Sept 19th Alex Lee’s Training Schedule
was talented and that he could be my next super athlete. To be successful at the upper level of any sport, you need to posses a genetic gift of natura l talent. Alex has tremendous exibility and natural explosive power. He has great kinetic awareness about his body that can’t be taught. My main goal was to teach him how to study the sport from a mechanical level and to apply his natural ability to sound fundamental skills. What Alex lacks is a strong rst pull. It causes him to shoot his hips and to have too slow of a rst movement. Our goal leading into this World Championships was to address his lower back strength and enhance p osition off the ground. I have a running motto that I use in the gym and with all my teaching courses. Olympic Weightlifting is about establishing strength to hold a position and strength to move through position. If you are not strong enough to hold yourself in certain key positions, you won’t have the strength to move from one position to the next without losing form. This fundamental principle gets overlooked by many athletes and coaches in teaching how to lift. Our competition preparation phase can start anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks out from a major event. Alex had around 8 weeks from the World Univer sity Championships to the Senior World Championships to stay focused and train. In our competition phase our elite athletes train nine times a week. This includes double workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, one workout on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and one mandatory therapy/ recovery session. This is what Alex’s program looked like the last 8 weeks out leading into the World Championships.
Alex’s extensive experience in my program has allowed him to understand each phase of our training cycles and he can mental prepare himself for the
physical grind of each phase. A program of this caliber is only for the experienced weightlifters and should not be duplicated by novice lifters. My program is based off set goals the athlete must hit for a workout, week, and cycle. We work partly off of set percentages and how the athlete feels. When they feel good, we push it beyond what the program calls for. When they aren’t feeling up to par they still have minimum numbers they need to hit to keep pace for their weekly and cycle goals. We set goals on a variety of lifts to constantly challenge the athlete. When possible we have brought in other top notch lifters for Alex and Sarah to train with. If the situation is available, we encourage our athletes to train abroad to get a higher level of motivation. Alex has trained in Korea and Armenia along with traveling to Colombia, Canada, Taiwan, and Turkey for competitions. Each experience with upper elite lifters and coaches will make you better if and only if you take advantage of the opportunity by asking the right questions and showing them you are serious about the sport.
In our competition phase, Alex hit the full lifts twice a day on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday and power versions of the lifts on Tuesday, Thursday, & Saturday. Each session had a different percentage goal based off of the goal for the week. Several times, Alex exceeded the goal for the day by 3-5 kilos. On some workouts he was required to hit his top weight for one single set, other sessions he would perform multiple sets at the top weight for that exercise, and other sessions he was instructed to keep going up in weight until he missed his top weight more than 3 times. All of this was built into the program. My goal when we train heavy is to train the athlete mentally in going after max & submax weights but also to train his body from a technical aspect not to deviate from the motor pattern. Many lifters try to change things up when the weights get heavier. Our goal with Alex is and always has been to
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keep his butt down on his pull with heavier weights. He has made tremendous strides in this area but it will always be an area that he will have to work on. He is slow off the ground but lightning fast under the bar. This training program has worked well for Alex and has developed him into the number one ranked lifter in the 62 & 69 kilo weight class. His sights now are to move per manently into the 69 kilo win the Nationals, break the American Records in this class, make the Pan American Games Team, and nish 2011 off by making the World Team.
Sarah Robleses Sarah Robles is the number one overall ranked female weightlifter in the US. She started training with me back in January 2008. She originally came to me to improve her strength & conditioning program for throwing while she attended Arizona State University on a track & eld scholarship. Through the course of her training, Sarah gravitated more and more toward Weightlifting and eventually left throwing to pursue lifting full time. In that rst year of training with mem Sarah placed 2 nd at the Junior World Championships. In her second year Sarah won the Senior National Championships, placed 5th at the Pan American Championships, and nished 11th at the Senior World Championships. In 2010, she placed 2nd at the Pan American Championships and 10th. Sarah has lifted the second heaviest total ever by a woman in US history. Sarah hit two personal records in the Snatch (108 & 111 kilos), tied her persona l record in the Clean & Jerk (140 kilos), and hit a new personal record in the Total (251 kilos). She is a two time Pan Am Team & World Team Member. She is a denite Olympic
Monday 9:00-Snatch (Ak) 11:00 am -CJ (Ak) -Back Squat
Hopeful for 2012. I will briey explain her training going into the last 8 weeks leading up to the World Championships in Antalya, Turkey. Unlike Alex, Sarah can handle a tremendous amount of volume when she trains, more so than most heavy weightlifters. This ability has also prevented her from pushing herself to lift maximum. Sarah has only scratched the service of her Weightlifting career. Sarah returned to Arizona after the 2010 Pan American Championships to get back to basics with her training and to get her “butt kicked” by me. She had gotten away from the rigorous program that she had when she trained with me leading up to her 2nd place n-
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Therapy & Recovery
-Front Squat Therapy & Snatch (Bk) from Recovery -Blocks -C+J (Bk) from Blocks
Friday
Saturday
-Snatch -CJ
1:002:30 pm
-Power Snatch -CJ -Snatch High Pull -Snatch Push Press
2:304:00 pm
Therapy & Recovery
5:307:30 pm
-Snatch -CJ -Snatch
-Pwr Snatch -Pwr CJ -Snatch Pulls
-Snatch -CJ -Snatch
-Pwr Snatch -Pwr CJ -Clean Pulls
-Snatch -CJ -Back Squat
Sarah Roble’s Training Schedule
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Snatch
C+J
Total
WO 1
WO 2
WO 3
WO 4
WO 5
WO 6
WO 7
WO 8
WO 9
90%
95%
85%
92%
97%
80%
90%
100%
82%
Week 8
103-105
125-127
228-232
209
220
197
213
225
186
209
232
190
Week 7
95-98
118-120
212-218
196
207
185
201
211
174
196
218
179
Week 6
105-107
130-135
235-242
218
230
206
223
235
194
218
242
198
Week 5
110-115
135-140
245-250
225
238
213
230
243
200
225
250
205
Week 4
100-105
125-130
225-230
207
219
196
212
223
184
207
230
189
Week 3
105-108
130-135
235-240
216
228
204
221
233
192
216
240
197
Week 2
110-114
135-140
240-245
221
233
208
225
238
196
221
245
205
Week 1
90-95
120-125
210-215
194
204
183
198
209
172
194
215
176
Compete on Sept 24th Sarah Roble’s Training Schedule
ish at the 2008 Junior World Championships. When she came back I told her this entire training cycle was developed to make her mentally tough with her training. She needed to push her body to start making bigger strides in improvement if she ever planned on breaking into the upper elite circle at the international level. Sarah put 15 kilos on her total and 15 kilos on her front squat max in this training cycle leading into the Worlds. Unlike Alex’s program of working up to a heavy set and hitting it for multiple sets. Sarah needed to handle and go after the heavier weights. Sarah’s training program consisted more of pushing it to near maximum attempts at least two workout sessions a week. This was more mentally fatiguing for her and proved to be the area she needed the most help with. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication to mentally gear yourself up for this type of training. She trained this way early in her career with me but abandoned it when she went to the Olympic Training Centers. Now she was back and we were pushing her to adapt to a higher level of expectations. Sarah doesn’t recover as fast as a lighter lifter does so her unload weeks which were every third to fourth week saw a more dramatic drop off in intensi-
ty than, say, Alex’s program, which stay relatively high even during his unload week. This allowed Sara h to fully recharge her batteries physically and mentally going into the harder weeks. After the usual adaptation period of 6-8 weeks under this system, Sarah responded quite well and lifted very well at the worlds hitting three personal records and recording the second heaviest total ever by a woman in US History. The keys to my program start with establish a sound technical base with my athletes. We are always striving on enhancing our technical prociency of the move ments in every workout. Second we push it. We are always trying to increase the weight we use for a given exercise. My program gears pushing the athlete to a place he or she has not gone before. I tweak the program based on individual differences of the athlete but for the most part they are challenged by a daily, weekly, and cycle goals to constantly improve. At this level the athletes know what needs to be done; now it’s my job to develop the systematic plan and mental motivation to get them there.
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Coaching |
Matt Foreman
And Doggone It, People Like Me! When I was in college, I took a class called Human Relations Development. The course was required for my education major, and this was the touchy-feely class to end all touchy-feely classes. The professor was a very kind little old man who spoke in a gentle tone and usually patted you on the shoulder at least a few times when you were talking with him. The whole focus of the class was to make future teachers more skilled at communicating with people, listening attentively to their problems, gaining their trust, nding effective ways to assist them with their troubles, etc. You get the idea. It was a class about sensitivity. As a twenty-two year old weightlifting male with a football background and a testosterone level that seemed to grow by the hour, I was way out of my element here. Most of the other students were women, and men with personalities that closely resembled women. One of the rst lessons we completed in the class was an exercise that determined what kind of problem-solvers we were. If I described the whole exercise to you, your boredom would rapidly a pproach the jumping-out-of-a-window-to-end-it-all level. But the end result of the exercise told me that I was rated as a lousy, unproductive, insensitive problem-solver. I couldn’t understand why my rating was so low, either. To my way of thinking, there was a simple way of handling people when they had problems. My basic idea was, “Tell me what the hell is wrong, then I’ll tell you how to x it, then you take your head out of your butthole and do what I say.” I thought this sounded like a pretty solid approach. Anyway, the class dragged on and I managed to get an A despite the fact that I didn’t really change much. I learned how to fake the “nice and caring” thing pretty well, but I was still a calloused meathead when it was all over. Now, fast forward sixteen years, I’m thirty-eight years old and I think my professor would be proud of me. A couple of marriages and fteen
years of coaching have forced me to actually learn how to listen to people and care about their feelings. I’m like the freakin Dr. Phil of weightlifting. Because of my transformation, I’m going to write this month’s article about an idea that was recently suggested to me by a very sharp lady. She thought it would be interesting to write about the topic of coachability from the perspective of the athlete. In other words, we’re talking about “what an athlete should look for in a coach and how to handle different issues that arise” between coaches and athletes (I’m actually quoting her e-mail to me). What should an athlete want from a coach? That’s the question we’re going to answer. And to prove even further what a wonderful human being I am, I’m even going to address the exact categories she suggested. We’ll look at specic traits that are essential in coaching and also a few hazards that athletes should be wary of. If this isn’t caring and considerate, then I don’t know what the hell is. Please keep reading, and feel free to bask in the warmth of my empathy.
Category #1: Eye for technique/ability to explain things clearly Needless to say, this quality is absolutely, positively necessary for anyone who wants to coach the Olympic Lifts. The coach has to have a complete understanding of how a snatch or clean and jerk should look and feel. This is usually developed through years of experience in the sport. Most of the best coaches are people with a large range of experience in both lifting and coaching. It takes years to learn exactly how a snatch is supposed to feel and how to make your body execute the correct movements to make it happen. After that, it also takes years to learn exactly what a snatch is supposed to look like and how to make someone else’s body execute the correct movements to make it happen. When I was young and getting started in
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my weightlifting career, I wanted to be coached by someone who had actually been a weightlifter. It was important to me that my coach had walked the walk as an athlete. My faith in the coach would be stronger if I knew he had trained and competed at a high level. This may or may not be important to other athletes. There are certainly some very successful coaches who were not high-level athletes themselves. And clearly, there are also many high-level athletes who couldn’t coach their way out of a wet paper bag with their hands on re. Basically, the athlete’s individual perspective on their coach is what matters in this area.
Regardless of competitive experience on the part of the coach, the one area that is indispensable is the coach’s ability to TEACH. The best coaches are great teachers. A coach can be a former world record holder and it won’t make a lick of difference if he/she doesn’t have the ability to clearly explain to the athletes what they’re supposed to be doing. This is where I believe that most great coaches are very organized in their thinking. When dealing with a lifter who has previously learned the lifts and needs coaching to get better, the coach looks at the athlete and immediately identies which areas need to be corrected and which ones are already solid. One of the phrases I use with athletes is, “Okay, you’re already doing a lot of things right. Now here’s one area I think we need to x.” (HintAlways start with a positive comment and always say “we” when you’re working with an athlete. Athletes like to believe that the two of you are in it together.) Good coaches x one problem at a time. If you give an athlete three or four technical suggestions at the same time, they’ll probably get confused. And please don’t start off with some kind of negative comment like, “Jeez, you’re a total mess.” It doesn’t accomplish anything productive and some people are sensitive. They’ll immediately think they’re a piece of crap when you say things like that. Then you’ve lost them.
Category #2: Being open to suggestions from other areas My perspective on this area might surprise you and many of you denitely might disagree with it. In my experience, most of the best coaches are control freaks who are fairly inexible in their methods. They’re usually not very open to suggestions from other areas. Now, the general mental ow of our society tells us that people have to work together to be successful. Corporate methodology in the workplace is usually based on idea sharing, think tank principles, and bosses who are open to input from employees. That’s the modern way. Dictatorships aren’t popular nowadays.
However, I think coaching is an area where this rule has to get broken. Great coaches usually have a dictator mentality. When coaches spend years building a successful methodology and then use this methodology to consistently produce outstanding results, they usually don’t welcome alternate ideas from outside sources. I coach track and eld for a living and one of the things I say to my athletes every year at our rst-day meeting is, “Make sure you understand something. T his is a my-way-or-the-highway program. I’m the coach and you’re the athletes, and you’re going to do what I tell you to do. This might sound like a dictatorship, and that’s what it is. But you also need to understand that you’ll benet from this, because the way I coach you is going to make you better. If you do what I tell you to do, you’re going to be successful.” Over the course of the season, I blend this approach with a lot of humor. I also let the athletes know in every possible way that I care about them, I respect them, and I’m committed to their success not only in track and eld, but in life. This has worked for me. I’m a control freak, and I make them believe that’s a good thing. But as with anything else, there are special considerations to keep in mind when discussing dictator-type coaching. First of all, most of the best international weightlifting coaches in history have come from communist societies where the people are already adjusted to the idea of submitting to government control. This is America, where you’re going to encounter some very willful personalities. That skews things just a bit. Also, working with adults is different from working with young people. You can’t treat an adult like a sixteen year-old kid and expect them to stick around for long. If you push the totalitarian attitude too hard, you’ll turn people off. My general advice to athletes is that the coach is the boss, and you have to be willing to obey the coach if you want to have a successful relationship. That doesn’t mean that you have to tremble in fear and prostrate yourself when the coach walks in the gym, but it does mean that you have to be a disciplined pupil. If you were coached by a legend like John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, or Ivan Abadjiev, you would have no question about who was running the show when you came to practice every day. This is a good thing.
Category #3: Work ethic This one is easy. As a coach, how can you ask an athlete to work hard if you’re not willing to show up every day and work hard yourself? If you’re lazy, you’re
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going to lose athletes quickly and you have nobody to blame but yourself. Simple enough? Good, then let’s move on.
Category #4: Personality Aahhh, the glue that holds it all together. How can I say this clearly? Let’s put it this way: when you enter into a coach-athlete relationship with somebody, you’re making a commitment to spend a large portion of your life with that person. You’re going to be around each other all the time. There’s no way this can work if the athlete doesn’t like the coach. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that there will never be maximum results unless the athlete LOVES the coach. When I say “love,” I’m obviously not talking about romantic feelings and passionate experience (this is unprofessional and it’s usually one great big recipe for disaster, by the way). I’m talking about the type of love family members share with each other. I’ve been lucky in my sports life to have a couple of coaches who I felt this way about, and I’ve been incredibly lucky to coach a lot of athletes in the same way. When you get one of those rare situations where the coach and the athlete truly believe in each other, and both of them would sweat blood for the other one, then you’ve got something special. If you throw some athletic talent and coaching expertise into this mix, then you’re going to be looking at some championships. Coaches have to be driven to make their athletes better, but the best coaches are the ones who impact their athletes’ lives in a much deeper way. Athletes want to know their coaches care about them. If the coach doesn’t care, you can bet your bottom dollar that the athletes will gure it out rapidly. Now, can coaches and athletes have success if they don’t share this type of deep bond? Sure they can. If a coach is talented and the athlete is committed, then the results will be positive even if it’s just a business-type relationship. But if the athlete simply doesn’t like the coach, then it’s a dead duck. The relationship might work for a while if the athlete is a particularly tolerant person, but it will
eventually sour. Also, make sure you remember that there’s a difference between liking/loving somebody and being pissed off at them. You can love somebody and still get angry with them from time to time. If you want to truly learn this, get married. Coaches and athletes will have the same types of experiences. It’s not all going to be baskets full of puppies and pineapple ice cream, believe me. If you’re in a weightlifting coach-athlete relationship with somebody, you’re going to have moments when you want to attack them with an ice pick. But once the anger subsides and everybody cools off, how do you really feel about your coach? If you still have loyalty and respect for your coach/athlete despite the rough moments and you still believe that you’re with the right person, then you’ve got a good thing going. If you take an honest look at the big picture and you decide that you simply don’t like the person, then it’s time to move on. If there are no other coaches in your area to train with, then it gets really tricky. You’ll need to get creative at that point. When we come full circle, it’s clear that a good coach has to have a special combination of qualities. It’s not an easy gig, and it takes a lot of trial and error to perfect it. If you’re an athlete and you want to say something to your coach, go ahead and say it. Make sure you pick the right time, obviously. Any coach worth a plug nickel will do exactly what I was taught to do in my Human Relations Development class...LISTEN. Now, you (the athlete) also need to be prepared if the answer isn’t exactly what you wanted to hear. If you want a coach, but you also want to be the one running the show, then you need to back up and examine your own personality. The coach isn’t the problem at that point. You are. But my guess is that if you and your coach both have sensible, functional personalities, then the two of you will most likely be able to work together. If you have any tough times, try using an exercise where you both sit down and write a poem about each other. That sounds like a special way to share sensitive feelings of happiness. Just don’t start your poem with the line, “There once was a man from Nantucket…”
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Lower Body Stability | Josh Henkin
Reevaluating Lower Body Training Far too often as coaches we read articles that are full of scientic research, but a lot of times bridging that gap to practical application is far more difcult. One of the biggest challenges to coaches is tting in various types of training with their athletes or clients in just a few sessions a week. How do we combine all the necessary components of proper training, maximal strength, speed, agility, deceleration, acceleration, change of direction, isometric strength, endurance, and sport-specic training? The truth is that many techniques we use cover more than one aspect at a time. If not, a coach needs to reevaluate their training philosophy. A component of training that has been receiving a lot of attention is the concept of stability training. Joint stability seems to be a cornerstone of any training program. However, what makes up stability training may not be so clear.
The Stability Component Stability can be as vague of a term as “strength” is. Without overly complicating terms, a denition I like is this: “Joint stability refers to the resistance offered by various musculoskeletal tissues that surround a skeletal joint. Several subsystems ensure the stability of a joint. These are the passive, active and neural subsystems. The opposite of stability is instability.” (1)
For a large majority of coaches, such a denition isn’t overly helpful. A more practical denition may be, “the effective accommodation of the joints to each specic load demand through an adequately tailored joint compression, as a function of gravity, coordinated muscle and ligament forces, to produce effective joint reaction forces under changing conditions. Optimal stability is achieved when the balance between performance (the level of stability) and effort is optimized to economize the use of energy. Non-
optimal joint stability implicates altered laxity/stiffness values leading to increased joint translations resulting in a new joint position and/or exaggerated/reduced compression, with a disturbed performance/effort ratio.” (2) Truthfully, this doesn’t seem to help that much either. For most coaches, stability training and slow isometric movements are typically done on the oor. It is almost seen as a “necessary evil” that takes some time from our normal training; drills that we feel obligated to do and try to get over with as fast as possible. While such drills may be necessary, the progression to more dynamic and real world base drills is far more important in performance related endeavors.
Sport-Specifc Stability The truth hurts, but real sport-specic training is beyond most coaches. REAL sport-specic training requires a highly developed knowledge of biomechanics of sporting actions that occur during the sport. The nice part is most athletes are not prepared to perform true sport-specic training because they are not “t” enough to benet from the training. However, we do need to understand that our training does need to progress to speeds and challenges that are faced in real world and sport. One of the easiest ways to achieve stability in more practical ways is to emphasize the role of single leg training. Of course, most coaches already use single leg training in one form or another, but rarely give it the attention it truly deserves. No, you don’t have to stop your bilateral lifts, but looking at the role they play in your training is important. Some coaches are still believers in the idea that squats, deadlifts, and Olympic lift variations will take
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care of most lower body and stability type of training. Yet, even non-eld sports such as Olympic lifting have even used single leg training as a means to improve these very qualities for their competitive lifts. Research also tends to support that utilizing one-legged drills is important for several reasons...
Maximal Muscle Contractions: A 1978 study demonstrated that unilateral leg extension exercise created higher levels of maximal voluntary muscle contraction than bilateral leg extension training. (3) Yes, I know, LEG EXTENSIONS! This can’t really be indicative of true functional and sports training. Yet, another training study does support this in a more functional environment. Higher Ground Reaction Forces: “Ten well-trained male volleyball players performed one-legged and two-legged vertical countermovement jumps. Ground reaction forces, cinematographic data, and electromyographic data were recorded. Jumping height in one-legged jumps was 58.5% of that reached in two-legged jumps. Mean net torques in hip and ankle joints were higher in one-legged jumps. Net power output in the ankle joint was extremely high in one-legged jumps. This high power output was explained by a higher level of activation in both heads of m. gastrocnemius in the one-legged jump. A higher level of activation was also found in m. vastus medialis. These differences between unilateral and bilateral performance of the complex movement jumping were shown to be in agreement with differences reported in literature based on isometric and isokinetic experiments.” (4) Most sporting actions are determined by ground reaction forces. Typically, greater speed and power is developed by creating higher ground reaction forces. The majority of sports have a transition phase of our base of support being applied only by one leg, whether this is in straight ahead running or change of direction. This may mean that more advanced forms of training is spending more time learning how to develop power and strength on one leg.
relative activity of the internal oblique compared to the external oblique.” (5) Single leg drills tend to work more the adductors, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus than their bilateral counterparts. This is tremendously important, as much of our pelvic stability is reliant upon the strength of these muscles. If our pelvis is more stable, our ability to exhibit force goes up. In fact, weakness in these muscles can show themselves in problems such as Trendelenburg gait where the SI joint and lumbar spine can be at great risk of injury.
Where to Start? It may not be that hard to convince people that they should utilize single leg exercises. However, many do not have a denitive system in which they implement these movements. Just as with any training, we need to lay down progressions for proper usage. If we are not aware of the impact of jumping into advanced versions of single leg training, we can easily set-up our athlete or client for injury as forces applied to the body in single leg training aren’t just double that of bilateral, but can be exponentially higher. 1. Stable before unstable: A good rule of thumb for
just about any form of training, this is especially true in single leg training. Most coaches rush into single leg plyos or stepping versions of lunges without observing if their client can demonstrate control and prociency in safer environments. A base level exercise for dynamic lunging would be a static position. Watching for proper stride length, knee valgus, and lower leg control is key in being able to provide appropriate more advanced forms of single leg training. In drills such as step-ups, working from a low step in a slow controlled manner is the correct starting point where many coaches work from higher steps that often cause compensation. Beginner Series: Stationary Single Leg Squat Stationary Single Leg Squat Lateral Stepping Lunge Forwards •
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However, how does this all transition back to the idea of providing body stability? Reducing our body support has a profound impact on how our body recruits different muscles.
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Intermediate Series: Stepping Lunge Reverse Stepping Lunge Lateral Elevated Rear Leg Single Leg Squat •
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Studies have shown in just bridging exercises the body recruits more muscles in a less stable position than more stable. “In general, the ratio of the internal/external abdominal oblique activity was about 1. However, during the unilateral bridging exercise, the ipsilateral internal/external abdominal oblique activity ratio was 2.79 as a consequence of the signicant higher
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Advanced Series: Rear Crossover Lunge Mixed Patterns Suspended •
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2. Work on Different Loading Patterns: The placement
of load is commonly a neglected aspect of programming. Beginning with the load down by the hips either holding a dumbbell or kettlebell places the load through the body without much of a change in center of gravity. We can go through a progression of placing weight on the upper back, front of the body, and overhead. These variations all change the center of gravity and perceived load. More advanced loading patterns can be sandbag shoulder, one-arm weight overhead, mixed loading patterns (one arm up, one arm down), etc.
raising intensity of any drill and decreasing the ROM is can serve as an important means for progressing individuals that show signicant signs of instability. Progressional Series: Front Foot Elevated Flat on Ground Rear Foot Elevated Suspended •
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4. Complexity: An often-overlooked variable is exercise
complexity. This can be much hard to quantify, but can be powerful in accomplishing goals of improving stability and performance. Increasing complexity by changing stepping patterns, mixing loading patterns (cross patterns for example), and increasing speed can t into this category, as the body now relies on different neural loops to guide the performance.
Beginner Series: Down By Side Goblet •
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Intermediate Series Front Rack Overhead •
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Advanced Series: X Series 1: One down by side, other in front rack X Series 2: One in front rack, other overhead •
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Examples of Complexity: Rotational Lunge Split Snatch Lateral Step Swings Suspended Squat Thrusts Staggered Cleans •
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3. Range of Motion (ROM): A simple principle of loading
and progression is to alter the range of motion. Whether it is due to mobility and exibility issues, or condence and strength, ROM is a vital component of any drill. The eventual goal of any lift should be to obtain optimal ROM. This can vary depending upon one’s structure, but identifying what is optimal for that individual should be identied in early stages of training. Increasing ROM can be a means of
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Having a series of specic progressional series for lunging, single leg squatting, single leg deadlifts, step-ups, and single leg explosive lifts is critical. While most coaches are quick to implement single leg bounding and plyometric drills, these preparatory series can do a lot for performance, by allowing coaches to properly utilize more advanced training techniques when necessary.
1.Panjabi MM. (1992). “The stabilizing system of the spine. Part II. Neutral zone and instability hypothesis.”]. J Spinal Disord 5 (4): 390–7. 2. Vleeming A, Albert HB, van der Helm FCT, Lee D, Ostgaard HC, Stuge B, Sturesson B. 3. ‘Contralateral Inuence on Recruitment of Curarized Muscle Fibers during Maximal Voluntary Extension of the Legs,’ Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, vol. 103, pp. 456-462, 1978). 4. A Comparison of One-Legged and Two-Legged Countermovement Jumps,’ Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, vol. 17(6), pp. 635-639, 1985 5. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2006 Sep 20;7:75.Trunk muscle activity in healthy subjects during bridging stabilization exercises.Stevens VK, Bouche KG, Mahieu NN, Coorevits PL, Vanderstraeten GG, Danneels LA.Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium.
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Weightlifting
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Greg Everett
Starting a Weightlifting Team This month, I decided to provide a simple guide to starting a weightlifting team. More and more interest is developing in weightlifting competition, and the process can seem mysterious to those who have not yet been exposed to it. This article should help get you started.
Administrative Considerations The process may vary a bit depending on where you live, but it will likely be similar to how it works in the US. USA Weightlifting governs the sport in the US under IWF rules and oversees and sanctions all competition and clubs. There are regional organizations called LWCs that are directly responsible for the administration of clubs in the region, and this is who will approve applications for a new club. You can download an application and get all the info on starting a club on the USAW website. All of your lifters will need to be current USAW members to compete in sanctioned meets. They can apply on the USAW website—make sure to give them your club number so they can join as a member of your team. How you administer your team beyond this is entirely up to you. For example, you can charge fees for your lifters to train with you, or you can allow them to train for free. Do what works for your situation.
Facility & Equipment There are a few requirements in terms of your facility and equipment for running a weightlifting team: You must have at least one barbell, one set of bumpers and change, and once space in which to lift them. Of
course, this minimal setup will not work well if you have more than one lifter. What gear and space you have should be dependent on the size of your team (or the size you wish it to be), how competitive the team is (or you plan to make it), and your budget. More than likely, you’ll be running your lifting team out of a facility that provides space for things other than weightlifting. You may have to share space and equipment, and this may impact what you use. If you’re fortunate enough to run an exclusive lifting facility, you’ll obviously have more options.
Lifters can share platforms and share bars. It’s reasonable to have three lifters on a single 8’x8’ platform with 2-3 bars as long as there is space for the resting lifters to get out of the way. Of course, you can make more lifters work, but there will be a lot of weight-changing to be done. As long as all your lifters are good about helping each other out with such things, this shouldn’t be a problem. The nature of weightlifting is that there are typically signicant rest periods between sets, which allows other lifters to work in without disrupting other lifters’ training. If you have female lifters, you need to invest in women’s barbells. There is no way around it. Any competition they enter will use a women’s bar, and they need to be prepared for it. Like with barbells in general, you don’t necessarily need to have as many women’s bars as you have women, but you do need at least one. How much money you spend on your equipment will depend on how much you have to spend, how serious your athletes are, and how long term you want your investment to be. If you have a team comprised exclusively of local-level competitors and recreational lifters, there’s really no need for top of the line gear
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(although there’s nothing wrong with having it either). If you have a team with nationally competitive lifters, it’s important for them to be training on better bars. Although bars from Eleiko, Werksan, Uesaka and the like are quite expensive ($700-900), they will quite literally last a lifetime, and will out perform any other bar for this entire time. You can save money up front by purchasing less expensive bars, but they absolutely will not spin and whip as well even when new, they will likely bend permanently over time, and their spin will deteriorate as they age. If used long enough, these bars will need to be replaced eventually. Replace a $400 barbell once, and you’ve already spent what you would have on a top-level bar that would have been working better for you the whole time.
Of course, you don’t need to outt your entire gym with the same gear. You may decide to set it up with more economical bars and buy one top end bar for your most competitive lifter(s) to use. If you’re going to spend the money on nicer bars, you’ll also want to get bumpers of similar quality. Cheaper bumpers will t too loosely on the bar and be both a pain to deal with during training and also hard on the bar. Of course, cheaper bumpers will be ne with cheaper bars.
Metal change plates are not exactly high-tech pieces of equipment, and this is an easy place to save some money. The only difference between more and less expensive plates will be how accurate the weights are, and any deviations in cheaper plates won’t be anything noticeable. Your weights and bars should be in kilograms, not pounds. All lifting competition in the world uses kilos— constantly converting pounds to kilos and back is unnecessarily aggravating. Of course, if you’re already outtted with pound gear, weight is weight and you can still get just as strong with it. But do yourself a favor and don’t mix pound and kilo gear—you may think you’re smart enough to do the calculations now, but take my word for it that you’ll think differently in the middle of your workout. After your barbell setups, you need places to lift them. Ideal are wooden platforms with rubber landing surfaces for the bumpers. The typical training platform is 8’x8’ and is extremely easy to build relatively inexpensively. Lifting can be done on just rubber gym matting, but many athletes will nd the difference in feel signicant enough to be disruptive when suddenly lifting on wood in a meet.
Next you’ll need at least one squat rack. Coaches and athletes may disagree on accessory exercises for weightlifters, but no one argues about the necessity of squatting regularly. There are many types of racks—as long as they will hold as much weight as your strongest lifter will be using, choose whatever rack you like and ts your budget. Lighter weight, portable racks are a good choice so they can be moved out of the way when not being used. Finally, make sure you have good chalk and lots of it. Talcum powder is not chalk, and it does not work like chalk. Don’t try to fool anyone with it. You can buy bulk broken chalk blocks from gymnastics suppliers that will last you a very long time and cost less than you can imagine.
Lifter Recruitment & Retention Finding weightlifters is the toughest part of running a team. Parents are not signing their kids up for weightlifting like soccer, football, baseball, basketball and gymnastics. Schools don’t expose kids to the lifts, let alone the sport. Many people are convinced lifting weights is dangerous (yet send their little tikes onto a football eld with little or no reservation). This is where creativity and ambition play a huge role. Find ways to get in touch with the type of athletes you’re interested in recruiting. If you want a team of adult professionals, you’ll end up approaching it in essentially the same way you’d promote tness training and similar business endeavors. If you’re looking for youth lifters, you’ll need to go after both them and their parents, and possibly their coaches from other sports they’re involved in. The kids need to be interested; the parents need to be willing; and the coaches need to be cooperative. This can be quite a challenge.
You can nd some specic suggestions on recruitment on the USAW website.
Programming Programming for your team can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it, although at some point, some degree of complexity will become unavoidable. With a small group of recreational or local-level competitive lifters, you can get away with a single program for the team. This is a smart approa ch because it will save you a lot of time and stress, and it’s easy to make quick modications to address
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specic problems each lifter has when necessary. It’s completely justiable to not completely individualize programming for athletes at this level.
the same day as the meet, or possibly the day before or after. The recreational lifters’ program can be made to align with this schedule as well.
As individual lifters progress, it will become increasingly necessary to program specically. In part this is due to competition scheduling, and in greater part to the need to work on both technical and physical weaknesses. All of our lifters who have reached national level competition are on their own programs.
National level lifters will likely be on a totally different schedule based around the American Open and National Championships, and possibly around other events to be used as qualiers for certain teams, rather than the local meet schedule. Again, it’s helpful to time cycles for these lifters together even if the programs themselves are different. This isn’t always possible, but it’s worth making the effort.
Multiple programs can be simplied by converging schedules as much as possible. Writing multiple programs is not terribly difcult, but it can become overwhelming when you have 10 different cycles starting and ending at different times. Obviously your recreational lifters can be kept on the same schedule by being kept on the same program. You local-level competitors can be kept on the same schedule even if you decide to individualize programming to some extent. This can work even if not all of your athletes will lift at a given meet. If your facility is staffed adequately or you can change the training schedule by a day, the non-competing lifters can nish their cycles either on
Experiment and Improve There will always be an element of experimentation involved in coaching. Embrace it and take advantage of it. Don’t ignore the results of your coaching and programming—use them to shape your future coaching and programming in a way that helps your lifters improve and keeps you sane and functioning.
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Cooking with Scotty | Scotty Hagnas
This month, we’ll check out some different root vegetables. This is a sort of a quasi-Paleo area. Purists will tend to avoid many root vegetables such as yams, as they are a newer addition to the human food supply. However, on the other side of the coin, numerous hunter-gatherer cultures who consume large quantities of tubers without any signicant obesity or disease have been observed. I’ll just present some recipes here, and leave it up to you to decide whether or not to include them in your diet. Personally, I use meals like this post workout, or on carb re-feed days.
Easy Chicken Chili
Roasted Root Vegetables
I used frozen taro root in this recipe to keep it simple. Taro root tastes the closest to beans of any root veggie that I have used. Look for frozen taro at Middle Eastern markets. Alternatively, you can simply use yams or sweet potatoes if you like.
Active time: 5 minutes Cook time: 1 hour
Time: 20 minutes
• 2 tsp bacon grease, coconut oil, or lard • 1/2 cup chopped onion • 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper • 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped • 1 lb chicken breast, chopped into cubes • 1 can diced tomatoes (14oz) • 1 1/2 cup frozen, diced taro root • 2 tsp ancho chili powder • 1 clove garlic, crushed • sea salt and pepper • 1/2 cup chicken broth Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno. Saute for a few minutes, then add the chicken. Saute until browned. Stir in the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil, bacon grease, or lard • 1 lb parsnips, chopped • 1 lb turnips, chopped • 1/2 lb carrots, chopped • 8-10 cloves of garlic, peeled • dried basil and dried minced onion to taste • sea salt Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the oil or fat on a baking pan. Chop the parsnips, turnips, and carrots and toss them in the pan. Place in the oven and roast for 1 hr. Toss every 15 minutes. Add the garlic and seasonings at the half hour mark, toss well. Nutritional info: 3 servings at 32g carb, ~9g fat
Nutritional info: 3 servings at 27g carb, 37g prot, 7g fat
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Sour Sweet Potatoes If you are becoming bored of sweet potatoes or yams, here is a recipe that is very different. In addition to providing some variety, the fermentation will provide you with some healthy bacteria! The addition of fenugreek, besides adding some avor, speeds the fermentation process. You’ll want to be sure to use non-iodized salt, as iodine will disrupt the fermentation process.
When the yucca has been boiling for around 15 minutes, begin to prepare the dressing. Heat the coconut oil (or fat) in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, saute until soft. Add the sea salt and lemon juice, continue to saute for 1 minute. Remove from the heat until ready to serve. Once the yucca is done, drain the water, then plate the individual servings. Top with the sauteed mix, then drizzle with olive oil.
Nutritional info: 6 servings at 43g carb, 6g fat
Prep time: 15 minutes Total time: 2 days
• 1 lb sweet potatoes (yellow) • 1 tsp fenugreek • 1 tsp sea salt (non-iodized) • fermentation starter (for ker or similar) Peel and chop the sweet potatoes. Place in a pressure cooker with 1/2 cup water, bring to pressure for around 6 minutes. De-pressurize and allow to cool. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, boil the potatoes in a pot of water for around 25 minutes or until soft. Drain. Once the potatoes have cooled, mash them and add the remaining ingredients. Place into a bowl and lightly cover with plastic wrap. Allow to sit at room temperature for 48 hours to allow them to ferment. After this, you can transfer them to the refrigerator until you are ready to serve. Nutritional info: 4 servings at 28g carb
Cuban Yucca
Fried Cucumbers
Yucca is a staple carbohydrate in some parts of the world. It is more appropriately known as cassava. It must be boiled, cooked, or fermented before eating, as it contains cyanogenic glucosides which are toxic. (Yes, cyanide.) Traditional peoples always employed some form of cooking or fermentation to detoxify the root.
Never tried cooked cucumbers? Surprisingly, they are delicious! Here are two options: one using butter for those who aren’t 100% strict paleo, and another using bacon. Time: 7 minutes
Time: 30 minutes
• 1 yucca (about 1 1/2lbs) • 2 tsp coconut oil, bacon grease, or lard • 1/4 cup chopped onions • 1-2 cloves garlic, minced • juice of 1/4 lemon • sea salt • 2 Tbsp olive oil Peel the yucca with a paring knife. Chop into pieces about 3/4 inch thick. Place into a pot of salted, boiling water. Boil for 25 minutes.
• 1 cucumber, halved and sliced crosswise • 1 Tbsp organic goat butter, or 2 oz chopped bacon Chop the cucumber, saute in the butter until crisptender. If you go the bacon route, chop it rst, then cook until it’s beginning to brown before adding the cucumber. Nutritional info: 2 servings at 4.5g carb, 5.5g fat (butter) or 4.5g carb, 10g prot, 12g fat (bacon)
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