5 Big Reasons Why Everyone Should Train Like Athletes

March 10, 2010

Guys, I’ve been saying it for years- you gotta train old school and you gotta train like an athlete, no matter what your goal. Someone who wholeheartedly agrees with me is my buddy and professional strongman competitor Elliot Hulse, who is also the co-creator of the Lean Hybrid Muscle System (which is on sale for 50% off until tomorrow, by the way).

Check out this killer post by Elliot below…

If you’re like me, you probably want nothing more than to feel like a ’super-stud’ every time you take your shirt off in public. You want to have the confidence to say, ‘Boy, this sweaty shirt is chaffin’ me’, then reach over your shoulder and tear your shirt off like Brad Pitt in Fight Club. When you know that your pecs look like two soup bowls inserted beneath your skin, and your abs are as hard the asphalt you stand on, it’s tough to keep your shirt on!

Today you are gonna learn the top 5 training principles that you MUST implement in order to make your physique and performance goals… a reality. But, before I open the info-floodgates, there is something you’ve got to understand. Men… all men, should recognize that we are athletes and our training programs must reflect this.

Even if you’re a ‘pencil pusher’ or a ‘white collar crook’, the essence of your being is athletic. In order to see any type of fitness results it is essential to recognize that Squats, Power Cleans, 40 Yard Dashes and Vertical Jumps are not only for NFL Combine participants… they are for you!

1. You’re An Athlete By Design

The foundation principle of everything that I teach all begins with one extremely powerful phrase: “We are primal beings living in a modern world”

Our physical bodies have been unchanged for thousands of years. In fact, today, our bodies are an exact expression of what our ancestors were over 100,000 years ago. It is believed that it takes about 100,000 years for 0.001percent of a genome to change… so yourself and Primal Man are for all intents and purposes… the same.

What has changed is how WE have chosen to live, if you can even call it that. As we have ‘advanced’ in technology we have regressed in physical strength and stature.

We function at a much lower capacity than were inherently capable of. This is analogous to those people who buy off-road vehicles that will never see anything but concrete! You’ve been given the ultimate athletic tool… use it.

2. Short, Hard and Intense Workouts Yield Lean, Hard and Muscular Bodies

When you spend over an hour in the gym sitting on useless ‘fitness machines’ while you’re waiting to do your ‘next set’…your nervous system’s primal response is to release Cortisol and Glucocorticoids – which are stress hormones, (these make you sick, sad, fat and, stupid) in response to your body thinking… “Holy Cow, we’ve been training for over an hour… perhaps we’re being chased by a tiger and need to preserve body fat”, then it begins sacrificing muscle tissue for energy! This is called The Catabolic Effect. Also, workouts exceeding 1 hour have been shown to be associated with a rapid decrease in androgen levels.

This is why marathon runners look so emaciated… id much rather look like one of those Lock, Stock & Ready Sprinters with muscles rippling across their backs and abs.

3. Aerobics and Cardio Training Is Boring & Ineffective

You’ve seen the chunky aerobics instructors; they do cardio all day long… don’t you think that they would be a bit leaner? Well, there is a scientific reason as to why they are chubby even though they bounce up and down on those colorful blocks all day long. In fact research has shown that aerobic instructors who taught an average of 3 hours a day maintained a body fat of 22-24% – mind you, that Olympic athletes hover around 9%.

Especially with repetitive exercises like aerobics the body adapts quickly to the stimulus and ceases to respond to the stimulus. Also, you begin to become very fuel-efficient… Listen, think of a metabolism that has adapted to long treks of cardio as being a Honda… it burns very little fuel (i.e. fat) but can go miles and miles. Think of a metabolism that is roaring with increased mitochondria activity (as is present in someone who weight trains with circuits) as a Hummer, large fuel combusting metabolism!

Here’s why this is so important! You want a stronger heart, without the fat saving response of long boring cardio treks. That is why I teach my clients how to do work capacity sets. We take 4-6 exercises and complete them back to back with no rest and aim to complete them all with in about 2 minutes… if your heart is not ready to pound out of your chest after that, then maybe you should visit your veterinarian!

Here’s a simple circuit that you can do at home – first 20 squats, then 20 lunges, then ’step ups’ on a bench 10 each leg, finally do 10 squat jumps and get it all done in less than 90 seconds! Kick-ass workout!

We begin every session with Plyometrics and then get right into 3-5 “work capacity” sets for upper and lower body.

4. Get High on Oxygen & Sunshine

Besides the fact that training on treadmills and ’sit down’ exercise equipment is less effective than getting your feet on the ground and learning how to use your own bodyweight, training indoors can be detrimental to your performance and fitness results.

As ‘primal beings’ we are in need of several vital elements and forms of energy. The suns rays are nourishing to your mind as well as body. It is well documented that those who live in the cooler northern climates that enjoy less sunshine through out the year are several times more likely to suffer from depression.

Also, if you’re like most Americans you work and live indoors (maybe). In fact, the average person spends 90% of their time indoors. Several health experts have propounded that our homes and workplace are the most toxic environments in our lives. Many studies have stated that toxic particles and fumes found in your home and workplace include: air fresheners, spray starch, paints, mothballs and even ‘new car’ smell kills more people every year than automobile accidents!

So, what do you do? Train in the great outdoors! When I train my Strength Camp clients at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg Florida, not only do we benefit from the sweet bay breeze but also the scenery is beautiful enough to give a nun spring fever!

5. It’s Gotta Be Fun!

Drop out rates for exercise programs are almost as high as the drop out rate in my old middle school! The bottom line is, if you don’t enjoy it – you wont do it. The most effective way to ensure that you stick with your training program is to change it often. This doesn’t mean hop from one modality to the next before you get any results. It means stick with your weight-training program for a minimum of 90 days but change the exercises you use for each body part every few weeks.

This not only keeps you interested but also, your nervous system will be challenged with the new exercises and be forced to adapt. This yields fast and long-lasting results!

To learn more about Elliot and take advantage of the 50% off sale on Lean Hybrid Muscle before it ends on 3/11/2010, click HERE now.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning | 5 Comments

Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Pull Ups

February 20, 2010

sergio oliva Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Pull Ups The pull up is quite possibly the ultimate measure of strength. It’s also one of the greatest muscle building exercises in existence, which is precisely why it’s been called the upper body squat. Lat pulldowns can’t even come close to comparing. Whenever you move your body through space the level of neuromuscular activation is dramatically higher.

People all too often ask, “How much can ya bench?” A more appropriate question would be “How many pull ups can you do?” The pull up measures your strength to weight ratio better than almost any other exercise known to man. You are pulling up one hundred percent of your bodyweight, in the exact manner the human body was designed to work. It’s one of the most natural exercises you can do. While not everyone can squat or deadlift due to lower back or knee problems, pretty much everyone can do pull ups. Or should be able to do pull ups…

To this day I am still haunted by the image I witnessed in a local park a few years ago when I was there training. A man my age was there with his wife and his son. He was shooting some hoops, watching his kid play, and basically just enjoying the beautiful July weather. At one point he wandered over to the pull up bar and got on it. He then proceeded to twist and squirm and strain for the next 10-15 seconds as he attempted and failed to do one pull up. ONE PULL UP! Now mind you, this guy was not obese. He had the average adult male physique- 5’9”, 165 pounds with a 38 inch waist, ten inch arms and “a chest like a wet blanket,” as Frank Rizzo of The Jerky Boys would say.

The second hand embarrassment was enough to make me want to dig a hole and jump in it.

“Look at the man you married, honey. I can’t do a single pull up. But don’t worry, I can keep you safe.”

“Hey buddy, watch how strong daddy is. Don’t you want to grow up to be just like me?”

To paraphrase Matt Rhodes, a man who can’t do pull ups is a woman. Or some other form of living being, because the women at my gym can do ten or more. But you can’t call yourself a man if you can’t do pull ups. It’s as simple as that.

Below are the top 10 ways to improve your pull ups.

1) Don’t go to failure- This is the biggest problem I see with pull ups. Everyone goes to failure on every set. That’s because it’s so easy to do. As soon as a single rep does not look exactly like the previous one and you can’t get as high, the set is over. If your speed slows down noticeably the set is over. You would never continue a set of squats if you could no longer lock out the weight. If you got all the way up on rep five but were only able to get up ¾ of the way on rep six you wouldn’t proceed to do four more reps of partials until the set ended with the weight crashing down on you and crippling you. But that’s exactly how people finish their sets of pull ups. The form gets worse and worse and worse, and they keep going and going and going, climbing up the invisible ladder, swinging and kipping. When you do this you get no stronger. And most of the time you get weaker. The negative effect of training to failure is seen more on chin ups than any other exercise. No one knows why this is, but trust me, that’s how it is.

2) Lose excess body fat- If you are carrying excess body fat your ability to do pull ups will be greatly reduced. Extra body fat is good for lifting more weight in certain exercises that require greater leverage like the squat and deadlift. But that’s all it’s good for. Other than that it’s unhealthy and unsightly.

3) Start in the proper position- All too often people start in the dead hang position with their scapula elevated and their shoulders touching their ears. This is dangerous and incorrect. When you do this all of the tension is placed on your tendons and ligaments instead of your muscles. When you get on the bar you want to pull your shoulder blades down and lock your shoulders into their sockets. This is a far safer position and ensures that the stress will be placed directly on the muscles and not the tendons and ligaments.

4) Maintain a slight elbow bend throughout the set- This goes hand in hand with the above tip. Before starting your set you want to bend your elbows ever so slightly. This bend should barely be noticeable, but it will have a huge impact on your elbow health. Do not start with your elbows completely locked. This, again, places all of the stress on the tendons and ligaments instead of on the muscles. On each successive rep you should lower yourself until your arms are nearly straight, stopping just shy of lockout. But don’t use this as an excuse to cheat. Just shy of lockout means that your elbows are “99% locked out;” you just don’t want that complete extension.

5) Initiate with the lats- When you start to pull, be sure that you fire your lats first; not your biceps. If you have trouble feeling your lats, as many newbies do, have someone poke or slap your lats a few times before you start pulling. Even having a partner keep his hands in contact with your lats throughout the set may help. It may also look a little strange to other members of your gym.

6) Drive your elbows down- To get the most out of your lats when you chin you should think about driving your elbows down and back. Don’t simply pull with your biceps.

7) Pull your chin to the bar- I used to be a stickler for having people pull their chest to the bar. I still instruct beginners to do that, knowing full well that they won’t be able to, but that it will at least instill the importance of getting high. You only need your chin to clear the bar. That last few inches does very little for you lats and instead focuses the stress on the smaller, weaker muscles of your upper/middle back. The pull up should be used to target the lats, first and foremost. Don’t waste energy struggling with that last few inches at the top. Get your chin over while keeping your back arched and then lower yourself. Use other rowing exercises to target those smaller upper back muscles and use the pul up to smoke your lats completely.

8] Use a variety of grips- There are countless ways to pull your body up. You can do chin ups with your palms facing you at a number of different grip widths. You can also do chin ups with your palms facing each other, or pull ups with your palms facing away at multiple grip widths. You can pull up on bars, rings, fat bars, ropes, towels, suspension straps, beams, Eagle Loops, and even baseballs or softballs hanging from a chain. The variations are endless. Use as many different chin ups as possible to avoid burnout or overuse injuries.

9) Use a variety of rep ranges- To do a lot of pull ups you need strength and you need endurance. Strength is built with low reps. You can do low reps with a weighted vest or dip belt or you can simply perform more difficult variations of pull ups. Endurance is built with high reps. This is where the use of bands comes in handy. Having a few different levels of band tension will allow you to vary your rep range greatly. This will help you boost your chin up numbers a lot faster. Some days you train in the range of 1-5 reps for maximal strength. Some day you train in the range of 6-12, and others you train in the range of 15-30, with a band, to improve your endurance.

10) Strengthen your grip- The stronger your grip is the easier pull ups will feel. I suggest getting a Captains of Crush Gripper and using it a few times per week. You can also add in some more specific grip work at the gym like fat bar holds, hexagon dumbbell holds, as well as various pinching and crushing exercises.

Start using these top 10 ways to improve your pull ups today and drop me a line to let me know how they’re working out for you.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Simplify Your Program, Amplify Your Results

February 11, 2010

Bill Starr Like Lynyrd Skynyrd advised, I have always tried to be a simple man. Mainly because I have a simple brain and am left with no other choice. But I have always believed that the more you can simplify things, the happier and more productive you will be.

On any given day there’s a good chance that I’ll sell all of my material possessions and move into the wild. Or at least I dream I will. I imagine a life with no TV, no internet and no cell phones, where I am eternally happy and stress free. I know that the internet makes our lives easier and helps many of us, including myself, make money. It’s just that it also complicates things and takes up too much of your time, if you let it. We live in a society where everyone always needs to be plugged in. I, for one, just want to be unplugged more often.

A couple years ago I got rid of email on my phone and then downgraded to something more basic without all the bells and whistles. On most days, now, I don’t even turn my cell phone on until somewhere between noon and four in the afternoon. I can’t really explain why, except for the fact that maybe I miss the eighties and early nineties, when people couldn’t get a hold of you at anytime, no matter where you were. That and the fact that it helps me be more productive due to far fewer interruptions.

When it comes to checking regular email these days, forget about it. I can barely bring myself to login to my account, never mind read dozens of emails and respond to them.

And that’s exactly how I feel about complicated training programs. When I let my guard down and check out some other training sites on occasion, my head often starts to spin when I read some of the recommendations that are being made. Bill Starr was the first strength coach to work at both the collegiate and professional level. He was the strength coach for the Baltimore Colts when they won Super Bowl V. No matter what the guru’s may tell you about slide boards, balance training, kettlebell swings, Bosu balls, tempo training, eccentrics and simultaneously working one arm with the opposite leg, the fact of the matter is that not much has changed in the last forty years when it comes to effective strength training. As Bill said himself, “the more simple a program, the more it will achieve the desired results, which is greater functional strength.”

An effective strength training program doesn’t need more than thee to five total exercises per workout. If you write a program with more exercises than that it’s usually for entertainment value, not for results. People should concentrate on quality not quantity and strive to do fewer things better.

If you are an athlete that usually means you will only be training for three to six months out of the year. The rest of your time will be spent playing or practicing. For three to four of those months you should be squatting. Back squats reign supreme, but you could also do front squats for variety and overhead squats to improve your mobility and build functional strength and stability in a completely different manner.

I love deadlifts, but the reality is that most athletes would be better served doing some sort of Olympic pull. A snatch or clean variation, and preferably both, should be part of the program. There’s less risk and more benefit.

If you are also running and jumping, which every athlete should be doing, there is very little need for anything else in the weight room aside for mobility work such as hurdle step overs, duck unders, some joint prep work and some isometric bridging exercises. All of this should be part of the warm up and does not constitute the strength portion of the program.

If an athlete is very inflexible it would probably benefit him to do some split squats or Cossack squats and hold the stretch position at the bottom for a few seconds. Romanian dead lifts or single leg RDL’s could help as well. Loaded stretching that you turn into an exercise seems to be more effective than regular stretching; which bores most athletes to tears. Some extra tight guys will need both. But, there is nothing inherently more “functional” or “sport specific” about single leg exercises, as some coaches suggest. They can be used in certain cases but they aren’t necessary when an athlete only has 12-16 weeks to train. If you have six months to train, I would recommend starting with unilateral work at the beginning, for the first couple of months. For everyone else with limited time, you need to get the most bang for you buck, which means you need to head to the squat rack.

For the upper body athletes need to press vertically and horizontally. Bench presses, inclines and military presses are at the top of the list; especially for football players who will most likely get tested on one or two of these. Personally I prefer to use weighted pushup variations or dumbbells most of the time but when guys are getting tested you are left with no option. These exercises are great assistance movements, however.

Chin ups and rows should also be included to balance out the upper body training and keep the shoulder region healthy. A wide variety of chins should be included to help avoid any possible tendon issues that can arise from using the same grip too often.

If you pick one of each of these exercises and use the proper set and rep scheme you have as effective a strength program as you can find. If, in one workout you were to snatch, squat, press and chin what more would you possibly need? That’s a program that will get you strong. When you start adding in rear delts, concentration curls, Cuban presses, right leg/ left hand step up and military press, fancy tempo schemes and all that nonsense you take away from the effectiveness of the program; not add to it. People need to understand that every single muscle group does not need individual attention and isolation. When you do snatches and overhead presses you eliminate the need for direct external rotation, shrugs, rear delt and rhomboid work. That’s bang for your buck right there…

Athletes play their sport. That is how they get conditioned optimally. They run, jump, cut and do agility drills. That is how they develop the ability to do these things better; not by doing weight vest multi-planar lunges on the slide board. You need to build strength in the weight room and play or practice your sport frequently so that the strength transfers over. Most “sport specific exercises” and all that clown nonsense do very little.

Interestingly enough, the guy who DOES need all that extra stuff in the weight room is the thirty or forty year old guy who’s just training because he loves it, but isn’t competing in a sport. For him, the workout IS his sport. If all he does is powerlifting or Olympic lifting he will most likely be pretty banged up in a few years and getting one step closer to a shoulder or knee surgery on a daily basis. Guys like this, who train year round, should only squat and deadlift for blocks of 12-16 weeks, once or twice a year, if at all. It really depends on their injury history and goals. If all he does is bodybuilding, he might look good but will possess no functional strength or the athleticism to compete in a pick up beach volleyball game. One spike attempt and he may tear an abdominal muscle, lat or rotator cuff. So this guy actually needs so called “sport specific training” more than the athlete does. Weird but true. Plus, anyone who trains year round definitely needs more variety than the athlete who only trains for a few months. But, only after you have been training for a few years and have mastered the basics. This is another article for another day but I will address this in full detail very soon with specific case studies.

An athlete, training for only 12-16 weeks, however, should pick big, basic exercises that get the job done fastest. These are usually simple, old school barbell exercises. Sometimes dumbbells or bodyweight exercises can work just as well, but you have to remember that many athletes will be getting tested on a barbell lift (or three) at camp so they need to train on them during the off season. That and the fact that it is so ingrained in our heads that strength (especially for football) is measured by the numbers you clean, squat and bench press.

The point of all this is that if you want to get better results from your training you need to simplify. Complicated routines lead to lackluster results. Like Bruce Lee said, “simplicity is the key to brilliance.” It also helps you get bigger and stronger a whole lot faster.

Simplify your program to amplify your results.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning | 15 Comments

Kickboxing

January 8, 2010

Question: Jason,
I bought Muscle Gaining Secrets a couple of weeks ago and so far I am incredibly happy with the results, however there is one thing that I haven’t been able to figure out. I am following the Maximum Mass in Minimum Time workout plan. What is the best timing for hour long Kickboxing sessions? I typically do Kickboxing on Tuesday evenings, Thursday evenings, and Saturday afternoons. Should I be lifting weights on the same days as Kickboxing (before or after?) or should I be lifting weights on Monday/Wednesday/Friday?
Thanks for your help!
John

Answer: John, this depends on your age, recovery ability, schedule and what you are prioritizing. I will assume that getting big and strong is of primary importance to you right now. Typically, I like guys to be doing some kind of physical activity six days per week. So lifting three times and kickboxing three times would be perfect. However, if you find that you are having a hard time recovering and aren’t making strength or size gains then we would have to explore another option. In this case I would recommend that you lift on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and then do kickboxing in the evening. You could do your other lifting session on Sunday since you do kickboxing in the afternoon on Saturdays. Now, if you don’t have the luxury of training in the morning and then again at night, doing your weight training right before kickboxing would be the only other option. I would just be sure that you drink some kind of recovery drink during and after both sessions. I know a few combat athletes who lift immediately before rolling and they say that they feel better and safer when the do this. It’s personal preference, I guess. Hopefully this somewhat vague answer helps you out.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Strength & Conditioning | 5 Comments

You Already Knew That

December 28, 2009

KB girl You Already Knew That It just wouldn’t be Christmas if I didn’t get at least a dozen random fitness related questions per week from strangers, family members or long lost pals at holiday parties. Kinda like the exchange I had with my old friend Kevin last week…

“Hey Jay, good to see you, buddy. Glad you’re here, I have a couple questions for you.”

“I probably don’t have the answers, but fire away.”

“My shoulder’s been killing recently right here, when I bench press. Here, feel this clicking thing it’s doing,” he says as he places my hand on his shoulder.

Another holiday party; another guy placing my hands on his body. For once I’d like to meet a lingerie model with a supraspinatus tear. Or a pulled pec.

“Feel that? What do you think I should do?”

“How bad does it hurt?”

“Pretty bad.”

“I’m gonna go with stop bench pressing, then.”

“Oh man… I was hoping for another answer. I love benching.”

“But obviously it’s screwing up your shoulder. You can probably go back to it eventually but for now you have to eliminate whatever is causing you pain. That would be the first logical step. See how it feels when you drop the bench and we’ll take it from there.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Kevin already knew the answer but he needed to hear it from me.

At another recent holiday soiree I was approached by a young guy named Rick who I hadn’t seen in a year. At the 2008 version of this bash he asked me how he could get bigger. He said he’d been training for the last six months but with little to no progress. I inquired about his current training program and he said he had been following some of my stuff online and in the magazines.

“Well, that’s a start. What exactly are you doing?”

“I do bench, curls and pushdowns three days per week. For legs I run on the treadmill when I’m done.”

I sat with a puzzled look on my face, trying to recall when exactly I had written such an inefficient training program. Finally, I concluded that I hadn’t and it was he who was mistaken… at least I hoped.

I told him to drop the pushdowns and add in chins, dips, military presses and cleans or rows for upper body work. I allowed him to keep the curls because I’m nice like that. He was done with the treadmill and was going to learn how to squat and deadlift, I insisted.

“Train three days per week with an upper body pull, an upper body push and squat or deadlift variation. Finish up each workout with a few sets of curls or shrugs and you’re done. Eat an ample amount of healthy food three to five times per day and report back to me in a year.”

Had he done what I said he would have gained an absolute bare minimum of twenty pounds. Yet, here he was standing before me, the exact same size as last year.

“So what’s been going on with the training?” I asked.

“Uh… it’s good.”

“Have you been doing squats and deads?” I obviously knew the answer.

“Well, I tried them, like you said. But they were just so hard, ya know? I like to look forward to going to the gym and getting a good pump. I wasn’t really getting a great pump from them. And I felt them in my back a lot. So, ya know, I didn’t want to get hurt.”

“Yup… I know.”

“I mean, I trust you and all, and I’m sure I would have gotten much better results if I did what you said, but… ya know.”

“I do… I do.”

Later that night a guy named Chris approached me and asked me how he could get ripped for a trip he had planned to Hawaii in March. His training was pretty good. He was actually running sprints instead of jogging. The only problem, I concluded, was his diet. When probed, he admitted that there were tons of starchy carbs being stuffed down his pie hole on a daily basis. I very simply told him to cut those out and he’d lose the fat.

“So you really think it’s the diet, huh?”

“Yes, it is. You can’t out train a bad diet. And you’re proving it to yourself right now. Change the diet and your body will transform.”

“Yeah, you’re right; I know that.”

You see, most people know more than they think. They have at least half of the answers. They just need me to confirm it for them.
Don’t believe me?

Try this 10 question pop quiz and prove it to yourself…

What’s the best thing to drink all day?
A) Water
B) Soda
C) Coffee
D) Irish car bombs

Which foods help you get leaner?
A) Green vegetables
B) White rice
C) Bread
D) Chocolate mousse

What’s the best exercise for your triceps?
A) Dips
B) Pushdowns
C) Extensions
D) Kickbacks with soup cans

Which exercise helps you get leaner, faster?
A) Sprinting
B) Jogging
C) Walking
D) Knitting

Which exercise helps you build muscle faster?
A) Deadlifts
B) Concentration curls
C) Leg extensions
D) Ankle inversion/eversion with stretch bands

What’s the optimal amount of sleep you should get each night?
A) 8-9 hours
B) 5-6 hours
C) 3-4 hours
D) Who needs sleep

Which exercise will help you get faster most efficiently?
A) Sprints
B) Speed ladder drills
C) Over speed training
D) Watching Carl Lewis sing the national anthem on YouTube

Which exercise will have the greatest transference to the playing field?
A) Power cleans
B) Smith machine presses
C) Donkey calf raises
D) Double biceps curl thingy while standing in the middle of the power rack and holding a cable in each hand and holding each rep for a three second peak contraction

Which food helps you build muscle fastest?
A) Eggs
B) Oreo’s
C) Twizzlers
D) Butter

What would help you make faster progress in the weight room?
A) Adding more weight to the bar
B) Going from training four days per week to seven
C) Doing tri sets and giant sets
D) Doing drop sets and running the rack all the way down to the 5’s on every exercise you do

If you answered A on the majority of questions you are on your way. You know what you need to do and what it takes to get great results.

Deadlifts

Squats

Sprints

Chin ups

Water

Lean protein

Vegetables

Sleep

Lots of the above will lead to tons of muscle and strength being built and fat being lost.

But you don’t need me to tell you.

Because you already knew that.

Now you just have to do it.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Fat Loss, Motivation, Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning | 22 Comments

5 Killer Conditioning Drills

December 8, 2009

fat kids Riding a stationary bike sucks. Sure, it’s convenient and often the only option for a lot of people, but let’s be honest; enduring 30 minutes of water boarding would probably be more fun. If you can ride a stationary bike, you can ride a real bike; and that would be a much better choice. Sprinting would be far superior to either of those. Doing so on a hill or with a sled or Prowler is often even better. Below are some of my favorite conditioning drills that I do myself and with all of my clients.

All of these can be done at the end of your strength workouts as a finisher for 10-15 minutes. Most of them can also be done on off days; either alone or in a circuit with one or several of the other conditioning drills. If you choose that option you would train for 15-30 minutes and be sure to choose exercises that won’t interfere with your next day’s workout. Therefore you probably wouldn’t want to do band sprints the night before a heavy squat day, for example.

Battling Ropes- There are several different ways to do the battling ropes- alternate, double arm snaps, side to side, windmill style, with a squat or reverse lunge between reps, etc. Whatever ways haven’t been done yet will be invented, tested and tried at Renegade Gym sometime in the near future; you can be sure of that. The benefit of this exercise is that it causes zero joint stress or soreness. This is huge! Because of this it can be done frequently and on days between heavy training sessions without fear of it interfering with your size or strength gains. This is also great for anyone with any kind of knee or other lower body injury.

Prowler Sprints- I say Prowler sprints and not “pushes” because when we load the Prowler up heavy I consider that strength work or strength endurance. For conditioning I like to keep it a little lighter and do a large volume of work with minimal rest periods, or until the Prowler flu strikes and vomit appears.

Sled Sprints- These can be done forward or backward and with a belt attached to your waist or by grabbing the handles. Again, if you do these heavy, I consider it strength or strength endurance. For more of a grueling conditioning workout I keep the sled light and recommend doing 40-100 yard sprints. If you have limited distance, as we do at the gym, just do more sets with less rest.

Band Resisted Sprints- This one is awesome if you have limited space. The lactic acid build up in the legs is enough to drop anyone to their knees after thirty seconds if it’s their first time doing this. Use two to three bands (average or strong, depending on the weight and strength of the athlete) and keep constant tension while using short, choppy steps. Be sure to use spotters in front in case someone slips or you have any mishaps with the bands. Always resist on the eccentric portion and then fire out as quickly as possible when you return to the start position. A spotter in the back is a good idea as well, just in case some takes a wrong step or misjudges something and gets slingshotted through the wall like Elmer Fudd. If you are not used to these, start with 15 seconds per set and work your way up to 30 or even 60 seconds. Rest only long enough for the lactic acid to clear and for you be able to perform the next set with good form.

Farmers Walks- This is one of those conditioning drills that can also be a great strength exercise as well. Load it up heavy and it will increase your grip strength and build and iron core and stability in your lower body like nothing else. In the process it will also improve your conditioning. That’s one way to do it- heavy for short distances. Or you can go lighter on it and walk longer and further. You could bring a pair of 72-97 pound kettlebells out the field with you and walk 100 yards down and back with them. In between you could run sprints or push the Prowler and then grab the bells and go for another walk. You could also do two arm/two kettlebell swings and immediately at the end of the high rep set, walk as far as you can without dropping them. The options are limitless.

With all of these methods weather is never an excuse. If it’s 95 degrees in July or 5 degrees in January, any of these can be done by anyone who actually has some balls and is willing to work.

Get after it.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Fat Loss, Strength & Conditioning | 14 Comments

How to Improve Your Chin Ups

December 1, 2009

Franco+Columbo How to Improve Your Chin Ups The last post I wrote about how to improve your chin ups detailed how to get from zero to one. Once you get to one you will, in time, work your way up to sets of five or even ten reps. But again, you will hit a wall at some point and be unable to make any more improvements. So today I am going to offer a very easy, completely unscientific method that will help you add more reps to your chins.

One of the major problems is that for most average guys a set of chins is a five rep max. Therefore it is true CNS draining Max Effort work. And they repeatedly do this time after time, workout after workout. There is no other exercise that you would continually max out on and take to near death failure like you do with chin ups. You would know better than to do that with squats and deads. But everyone is fine with doing it on chins. And I truly believe that to be one of the major reasons why more people don’t improve on their chins with any regularity.

The other problem is that there isn’t enough variety in the rep ranges and when you continually do those five rep max sets you are never doing anything to improve your endurance in that movement pattern. To get better on the 225 pound bench test you would do things like strap pushups, ascending board presses or pushups, high rep dumbbell presses, etc. on one day to build your endurance and some heavy pressing on another day to build your strength. But most people don’t take this approach with their chins; they only work on the lower end of the rep scale trying to improve strength, but do nothing to improve endurance. And obviously this doesn’t always work too well.

So the simple solution is to throw in more high rep work; which would again involve the use of the bands. The bands got you from zero chins to one and now they can help get you from your current plateau up to a new PR.

Exactly how, you ask…

Any way you want. Simply using more variety will be enough to do the trick and help you break out of a rut. Some workouts you can use the light band, some workouts you can use the mini bands, some you can use the average bands, some you can do with bodyweight, and some you can do weighted. Just mix it up each program and keep getting stronger on each variety of chins you do.

But remember not to go to failure and let your form break down. Again, most people are smart enough not to let their squat turn into a good morning, but everyone is ok with climbing up the invisible ladder, swinging, rest-pausing, severely protracting their shoulders and doing whatever else they can to make their final reps on chin ups look as ugly as possible. Don’t do this if you want to get stronger.

Below is a video from this past summer that we shot at Renegade Gym of Jen doing chin ups. She bangs out 13 picture perfect reps with no band. That’s something that most guys can’t do. In the video in the previous post about how to improve your chin ups she did 15 WITH the band. That was less than eight months earlier. The way she made such dramatic improvements was through variety and building up her endurance in that movement pattern with higher reps sets. She always did a variety of different grips and we varied her reps from 3-20. Some months she did chins twice per week (one day heavy, one day light), others only once. This is another way to boost your chins. Hit them 2-5 times per week for a month and then cut back to only once per week for the next month. The supercompensation effect from the reduced loading will often lead to improved performance in the second month.

Waving the reps up and down is more effective than just trying to make linear improvements; which only beginners can do. While a linear approach of starting with strong or average bands and working down to no bands worked well in the past, it won’t work so well now that you can do eight reps or so. You need to use a form of undulating or alternating periodization to get the best results.

But again, remember that you need to improve your strength endurance in that movement pattern. Having the arms extended overhead (as in a military press) makes it more difficult to breath. You need to get used to that. So even throwing in an exercise like the monkey bar climb, seen below, can be helpful as well.

Hopefully that gives you some good ideas about how to improve your chin ups and you’ll be setting some new PR’s real soon.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning, Videos | 23 Comments

Reps: How to do Them Properly

November 19, 2009

FrancoColumbu incline press Now I know what you’re thinking; “What a boring ass blog post topic.” But it’s a topic I feel needs to be addressed because some people just don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing. Or maybe I just feel that way because I’m so OCD and incredibly analytic that I see and think about things that most people never do. But I promise I will do my best to make this worth your time.

Go to a public gym and watch ten different people perform a set of ten reps. You may see speed reps, grinder reps, death reps, pump reps and everything in between. But what style provides the best results?

Like everything else, it depends on a number of factors. Grinders reps are those reps that the HIT crowd is a big fan of. Every rep goes up slowly and painfully and is a fight to the death. There is nothing fast or smooth about it. Grinders reps are also characterized by a lot of locking out, rest-pausing and just overall grinding. It can be argued that locking out your reps is good for your joints. Over time, however, locking out may just grind your joints to powder for a variety of reasons I will get to. Locking out your squats is definitely better for VMO development. Locking out on each rep and pausing ever so briefly also allows you to use more weight. This may be a good thing for many of you. Or it may be a bad thing. It really depends on your goals, what you are training for and how you want to feel 25 years from today.

When I talk about pump reps I am referring to what you see most successful, intelligent bodybuilders do. If you watch Ronnie Coleman do a set of incline dumbbell presses on YouTube you will see what I’m talking about. The sets all look safe, clean and smooth. There is no rest-pausing or locking out; the reps continue in a piston like fashion until the set ends. He goes heavy as shit, but there is none of that silly screaming and shaking that the HIT’ers love, nor is there any dangerous break down of form that the dweebs love (elbows flaring, hips lifting or rotating, etc.) Pump reps are fast yet controlled, heavy yet non-joint-destructive, and the range of motion is always slightly limited. This is a good thing. Despite what your favorite personal trainer told you, it’s not healthy for your shoulders to bring the dumbbells down below the bench when doing flat or incline dumbbell presses. Full range of motion for the pecs would include bringing your arms all the way together behind your back and then crossing them over each other in front of your body. Obviously that would be impossible with any exercise. Like the Red Sox winning another World Series (sorry to my readers from Boston, I joke, I joke). Not happening. So forget about this mythical concept and stay safe.

Failure on a set of grinders reps is a whole lot different than a set of pump reps. Like I said, you will have used more weight and you will have paused and locked out each rep. Failure comes when you are very close to getting injured or your CNS is completely fried. This is great for your ego. It may be great for short term strength gains as well. But this is the worst style of reps you can do if you still want to be able to train 25 years from now. And, in the long term this style of training will lead to burn out and less impressive strength gains.

When you hit failure on pump reps it’s more due to the feeling of rigor mortis setting in, the accumulative fatigue, lactic acid build up, oxygen deficit, etc. This is far, far safer in the long term. You won’t lift as much weight on your sets today but you will probably be stronger in 5-10 years from now because you won’t have experienced so many injuries or burnout. It could even be argued that this style of training is more sport specific because it will help improve your lactic acid tolerance. That’s debatable but I’m throwing it out there, kinda in the same fashion as Baba Booey’s (of Fla Fla Flow-hi to hardcore Stern fans) first pitch at the Mets game. On your really hard sets, at most you might want to lock out one or two reps at the very end to catch your breath and get another one. I don’t think it’s necessary but sometimes it’s fun to do in the heat of battle. Just don’t make a habit of doing it if you want be in the game for the long haul.

Now, before I go any further I need to point out that I’m talking about assistance work here. If you’re working up to a 3-5 rep max on some kind of press, squat or deadlift then by all means, lock out each rep if you want to. On heavy squats, that would actually be safer. It will allow you to reset the proper position at the top of each rep and quickly go through your mental checklist of what you need to do before descending into the next rep. That is a must for safety. But for mindless exercises like one arm rows and dumbbell presses, pump reps will always be safer.

Finally, we have speed reps. It’s been stated by a few intelligent strength coaches that if you are an athlete training for speed and explosiveness, you should stop all of your sets when the rep speed slows down. This is a very valid argument. If you asked me to I could tell you why this is 100% correct and you should do it 100% of the time. But it’s also hard to qualify unless you have a skilled coach watching each of your sets. It’s even harder to do in a group setting when you are training 10-20 athletes. And most importantly, it’s just not as much fun. Athletes love to compete. It’s, umm, why they’re athletes. That means they will compete in everything they do ala Michael Jordan. The weight room will be no different. So if Johnny does a set of eight with the 120’s I can guarantee you that when his training partner and teammate grabs those bells he has a goal of nine reps set in his mind before he even begins the set. And as a coach or trainer you can’t tell him to drop the weights or end his set because the weight is moving too slowly. That creates a shitty atmosphere.

That’s not to say you can’t compete with speed reps, but you have to get creative. Maybe instead of reps you do timed sets of 20 seconds. The reps are all done as fast as possible with perfect form. The goal is to get more reps in twenty seconds. Guys can try to beat each other and beat their PR’s from week to week. Now, that’s a great way to make speed reps effective and fun. I highly recommend you give it a try.

Final Recommendations

So how should you do your reps? I advise that you always use Compensatory Acceleration and try to explode the concentric or lifting portion of the exercise as fast as humanly possible. Imagine that there is a piece of wood at your sticking point that you must drive the weight through like Bruce Lee punching through a brick. If you hit the wood slowly it will never break and you’ll be stuck. You have to explode through it. Never, ever lower the weights slowly for some kind of timed count. That’s nonsense and reserved for internet strength coaches who have never trained anyone. Lower it under control but consciously use the stretch reflex instead of trying to negate it. That’s more natural and will make you more explosive and athletic.

For the most part I recommend more of a pump style on most assistance exercises. This will keep you a lot safer and in the game a lot longer. The last rep should look exactly like the first rep of a set albeit slightly slower. But the form can never be allowed to deteriorate. Never fail mid rep, but stop one or two shy of failure. Beginners, weak maggots and pussies should all train to failure. That’s because you have to learn what hard work is and know what failure actually is before you can stop a rep or two shy of it. These guys should also lock out each rep at the top very briefly just so that they know what “text book form” is before they start modifying it.

Everyone else should pump ‘em out, hard and fast.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning | 9 Comments

The Main Ingredient

November 16, 2009

cheick kongo The Main Ingredient “Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price.”
– Sun Tzu

Did you know that you can get down to single digit bodyfat and look like an elite level pro athlete in just three easy, twenty minute workouts per week? And you can do it while eating whatever you want? It’s true…cuz I heard it on the radio… and read it on the internet.

Eight minute abs. That’s right folks, in just eight minutes a day you can get the abs of Cheik Congo (pictured). All it takes is a quick crunch workout. No need to worry about your diet or doing any exercises that actually jack up your metabolism and burn fat.

Six minute muscle. Jay Cutler look out. Because some lazy schmuck is gonna embarrass you right off the stage next year by training no more than 18 minutes per week.

Four minutes to super strength. Wait til Chuck Vogelpohl and Louie Simmons find out that they wasted all those years and could have gotten so much stronger with significantly less time and effort.

Two minute conditioning. Poor Tito Ortiz. All those wasted trips to Big Bear in the high altitude. If only he had known that hard work was out of style and that he could have been in even better shape if he cut his training time down to two minutes per day.

That’s what people want. Because not only do they not have the time to train, but they just don’t wanna work that hard. I mean who wants to push the Prowler 25 times straight? Who wants to do high rep squats? Or heavy deadlifts? In the same workout? That sounds really hard…

A marketing guy once sent me an unsolicited email offering me his services. He told me that if I wanted to double my business I had to stop being honest. I had to make it seem like my workouts were easy, that getting in shape didn’t require much work and that the whole process would be painless and effortless.

To his point I put very little time and effort into my reply…

Fuck.

Off.

Getting in shape is brutally hard work. I don’t give a shit what all the scam artists and marketing scumbags tell you. If you can’t handle the truth then you’re destined to be soft and weak forever.

If you’re twenty percent body fat right now and desperately want a six pack you had better be prepared to diet your face off and work harder than you ever have in your entire life. When everyone is drinking beer at the football tailgate party on Sunday you’re drinking a gallon of water. And when the hot dogs go on the grill, you’re gonna have to pull out a steamed chicken breast and broccoli, which you prepared that morning, just like you do with all your meals for the day, every morning of every day. And you’re going to do that EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR SIXTEEN WEEKS STRAIGHT.

Don’t have time to do hill sprints after work? Then you gotta set your alarm clock a half hour earlier and get up while it’s still dark out. And when your strength training workout ends at night, the fun is just beginning for you. Because now you have to do a conditioning circuit of kettlebell swings, jump rope, mountain climbers, squat thrusts and sled dragging.

And let me tell you something else… NOBODY gets ripped in three workouts per week. If you want to see really significant fat loss you need to be putting in a minimum of five sessions per week . For some of you 8-10 would be even better. That could be three weight training workouts, three brutal conditioning sessions and two or three easier cardio/conditioning workouts.

Sucks, I know. But you said you wanted to get ripped. Be careful what you wish for. Because now you gotta earn it, or be looked at as a failure in the eyes of everyone you told.

I’ve seen fat fucks get on a bodybuilding stage in 20 weeks. But they didn’t say they “wanted” to do it. They said they were “going” to do it. And they did all that was necessary to achieve that goal. Which means, in the eyes of most people, their lives were pretty miserable for five months. It means no unplanned cheat meals and undying, round the clock dedication. But these people had the drive that most people don’t and were actually willing to work for something.

Wanting and doing are two completely different things. We all want a lot of things. But how many of us actually achieve our goals? How many are willing to put in the hard work necessary to reach the top?

“Twenty weeks?! That’s a lot of dieting and hard work. I can commit to twelve weeks but not twenty.”

Then go fucking play PlayStation and watch another episode of CSI. What do I give a fuck?

No matter what anyone tells you there is no replacement for hard work. No training system, no diet, no machine, no gimmick and no supplement.

But most people fear hard work more than they fear death. They simply don’t have it in them.

How many times have you gone to a public gym and seen someone squat or deadlift? About as often as you see hot chicks during day light hours I bet.

Better yet, when was the last time you saw someone do a good morning? Now that’s a hard, uncomfortable exercise. Who wants to subject themselves to that? Bent over rows? They hurt your back. Standing military presses?! Who wants to stand? You need to be comfortably seated with lumbar support while “working out.”

Plus, all these exercises take too long to perfect and the learning process can be very frustrating. Much easier to just jump on a machine, right? I mean, you’re at the gym to burn some calories, not learn a new skill, after all. Power cleans? Only a genius with the mental acuity of Albert Einstein could possibly learn to do those properly. Who has the time for that?

What “hardgainers” are actually willing to turn off The Real World and go to sleep an hour earlier to accelerate the muscle building process? Or have what it takes to force feed themselves at the most inconvenient times of day and sneak protein shakes in between classes?

Very few.

Unlike getting shredded, building muscle doesn’t require 6-10 workouts per week. Most hardgainers can get great results in three workouts and everyone else will do great with four sessions per week. But it’s still a 24 hour a day job that requires a monumental effort.

We are all brainwashed to believe that you can get bigger and stronger and leaner in a very short time, with very little effort and even less dedication.

But nothing could be further from the truth, my friends.

The only way to achieve physical greatness is through brutally hard fucking work.

End of story.

No go earn it.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Fat Loss, Motivation, Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning | 72 Comments

The Unmaking of an Athlete: Part 2

November 15, 2009

derek jeter The Unmaking of an Athlete: Part 2 Originally written For Elite Fitness Systems in 2004

When Part One of this article was written a few years ago the focus was on college strength coaches. Unfortunately the unmaking of an athlete begins long before college. It starts at a very young age with uninformed but well intentioned parents. By doing what they think is best for their kids; many parents actually end up destroying their children’s athletic futures. For this story to be complete we have to go back to the beginning.

The father of three high school aged boys I used to coach is one such example of the type of parent I am referring to. Paul is a father who lives vicariously through his kids and demands that they excel in whatever sport they play. He picked wrestling and baseball as their chosen sports to specialize in from a young age. The reasoning for this, he told me, was that “White kids have a much better chance of achieving greatness in those sports than they do in football or basketball.” Fun was not an issue; the improved chance of long term success was all that mattered. Whether or not they liked football or basketball was of no concern to him, he picked their sports and that is what they would play.

They were in several baseball leagues and a number of wrestling schools, often rushing from one to the other, inhaling a fast food burger for dinner in the car between practices. On many nights after they went through their training sessions with me they would go home and be forced to do several hundred more pushups and sit ups. This was because Paul didn’t like my approach of keeping their training sessions under an hour. He thought the volume was too low and they needed to do more. Other nights they would have to run a few miles or take a couple hundred swings in the batting cage.

I explained how the long distance runs were detrimental to size and strength gains and actually had no benefit to either wrestling or baseball because they train the wrong energy system. He refused to listen. When I told him I would have to stop training his kids if they continued to do this, he told me it would stop but snuck it in behind my back. These kids were not allowed a normal social life, because athletic excellence was the number one priority in their lives. The father was banned from Little League baseball and several other town organizations. He was an embarrassment to his children and himself but he didn’t care.

On his final trip to my gym, Paul pushed me too far and I had to escort him out of the building and ban him permanently from the premises. He took his kids with him and I haven’t seen them since. I hear they are working out in their basement and doing more running in a day than Forrest Gump. The sad part is that these are two great kids who have had their lives and athletic careers destroyed by an overzealous parent.

Last week I received a phone call from the mother of a baseball player. She told me her son was a standout shortstop with a great arm who never misses a ball. The only problem, she said, was that he really needed to improve his first step out of the batters box and get just a little more power behind his swing. She said that he needed intensive sport specific training for baseball on a one on one basis.

She was convinced that I was the man that could help him and that with his added speed and power he would be the next Derek Jeter in no time.

Squeezing in the time to train with me would be tough, she informed me, because he is currently playing in three leagues and takes hitting lessons four nights a week in the batting cage they just installed in their backyard. He also goes for two linear speed workouts and two lateral speed workouts a week. Even with all that, he will make the time, she assured me, no matter what it takes. When she finally took a breath and allowed me to speak, the first question I asked was how old her son was. Without hesitating she told me that he was NINE!

This is a trend that we see happening way too often these days. It seems that early specialization is the latest craze sweeping the country. According to a recent news report, the training of young children is now a four billion dollar industry which is growing rapidly. Gyms are popping up with kids weight training programs and speed and agility camps every where you look. It’s on television and talked about on the radio. Unfortunately most of the coaches associated with these programs are just trying to cash in on the latest fad and haven’t a clue as to how to properly prepare an eight year old for his or her athletic future. Parents have been persuaded to believe that they have to get every kind of coach, trainer, and instructor they can find to help give their kids an edge over the competition. They put them in six different leagues at once all in the hopes of creating the next Michael Jordan. Start them early and they will be destined for greatness. After all, it worked for Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters so it will work for your kid too.

Right?

Wrong.

Early specialization in any one particular sport is, in fact, the worst thing for a young child. It actually does more harm than good to their athletic skills. Playing baseball during the spring, football in the fall and basketball throughout the winter will do more to create the next Ken Griffey Jr than only swinging a bat and fielding fly balls all year will. The athletic carryover a young athlete can get from playing a wide variety of sports is huge. Playing as many sports as possible allows kids to develop an enormous capacity of motor skills.

Each sport has different athletic demands and requirements and forces the athlete to call upon different types of strengths, energy systems and neural capacities. NBA superstar Allen Iverson has said he was a better quarterback than he is a point guard. NFL quarterback Michael Vick was a multi sport star throughout his childhood and never specialized in anything. By developing the skills necessary to be an all around good athlete, a child can be better prepared to specialize later in his or her teenage years when it becomes necessary. As my friend and youth training expert, Brian Grasso says, “You have to become an athlete first, before you can become a champion.”

Another thing that needs to be addressed is the concept of “sport specific” training for young athletes. The bottom line is this… there is no such thing as sport specific training! I repeat…there is no such thing as sport specific training! Especially when we are dealing with young kids.

All athletes have similar needs which include improving strength, speed, and flexibility as well as preventing injury. When you think about it, most sports have the same requirements. Some of the common needs of most athletes are the capacity to stabilize the core properly and protect the body from injury, the ability to quickly decelerate and change direction, and the potential to rapidly produce and absorb force. Train hard, train smart, and get stronger. That’s all there is too it. There is no need for anything “sport specific” at an early training age.

Of course, as an athlete gets into his later teenage years he may need to start to implement certain things in his training that may be individual to his sport but this is often the exception and not the rule. The case of pitchers avoiding certain pressing movements is one such example. Hockey players needing to correct the imbalance between the vastus medialis and vastus lateralus that occurs from doing a lot of skating, is another. When over use injuries or imbalances occur from a specific sport they need to be addressed. But for the most part, if kids would focus less on the exact “sport specific” exercises they need to do to improve their jump shots or swings and instead focused solely on getting bigger, stronger, and faster, they would be much better athletes.

In countries such as Russia and Bulgaria, early specialization is looked down upon and avoided at all costs. These countries laugh at the notion that the United States has the best ten year old soccer player or best eight year old tennis star in the world. They know that it doesn’t matter what a kid can do at a very young age because that rarely correlates to long term success or Olympic gold. These countries have learned that early specialization is a recipe for disaster. The Process of Achieving Sports Mastery (PASM) is a system that is used in Russia to create super athletes. The odd thing about it, to most Americans, would be the fact that it forces kids to play as many sports as possible and does not allow for early specialization. Athletes usually begin training programs at age six with a focus on a wide array of running, jumping and tumbling type drills. An athlete can not begin to specialize in a particular sport until at least fifteen or sixteen and in most cases, eighteen.

Through years of research, the Soviets have learned that early specialization results in a much higher incidence of over-use injuries and mental burnout as well as a great deal of inconsistency in an athlete’s performance. They prefer a “multilateral” approach, forcing kids to play as many sports as they can. The children are watched closely and assessed as they mature. Finally, when specialization becomes a necessity in the later teenage years, the athletes will have developed a wide variety of athletic skills and will not have suffered the mental burnout that comes with trying to master one sport from a very young age.

The take home message to parents is to let your kids have fun. They are kids after all. There is no need to try and make them the next Wayne Gretzky just yet. Let them play several sports and learn to enjoy them. If parents put too much pressure on their children, the sport is no longer fun. It is supposed to be a game, not a life or death situation. Kids only learn what we teach them. If children are taught that the pee wee football game on Saturday afternoon is supposed to be a blast, then they will have a blast. But if they are taught that it is a high pressure, can’t lose situation, it will no longer be fun. And when it’s not fun, the chances of them wanting to play long into the future are slim.

Everyone understands the desire to want what’s best for their kids. It’s only natural do all you can to help your children succeed. Sometimes, however, it might be what you don’t do that can actually make all the difference in the world.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Strength & Conditioning | 5 Comments

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