Trapecios = Respeto

Para los atletas de combate desarrollar la fuerza y la musculatura del cuello al máximo nivel posible no es un privilegio es una necesidad. Un cuello poderoso es quizá la seña más distintiva del verdadero guerrero. Hay cientos de altetas con brazos fuertes y pechos poderosos, pero un cuello bien desarrollado es la seña distintiva del atleta de combate más aún si lo acompañan un par de orejas de coliflor...

The Best Trap Exercises

By Jason Ferruggia

The best trap exercises to build muscle are the deadlift, the hang clean and the shrug. If you had to pick only one the deadlift would be the one to pick. The deadlift packs meat on your upper back and traps like no other exercise in existence. It is also the most basic exercise there is and the one that trains more muscle groups than just about any other movement. When you deadlift heavy on a regular basis you are bound to end up with some big traps. It’s almost unavoidable.

As a beginner you should deadlift two to three times per week and keep the reps at an average of five per set until you are confident that your form is picture perfect. Intermediates can deadlift once every five to seven days and advanced lifters are better off pulling once every seven to fourteen days. When you get more advanced you can deadlift for slightly more reps but going above twelve to fifteen usually isn’t recommended. This is because it can be very difficult to maintain perfect form for that many reps and the risk of injury becomes very high. I recommend working up to a couple heavy sets of four to six reps followed by a lighter back off set of ten to twelve reps. This will definitely get your traps to grow, big time.

Next on the list of the best trap exercises is the hang clean. Take one look at the trap development on Olympic lifters and you will instantly see what an effective trap builder the hang clean is. Olympic lifters; even the light ones, always have great trap development due to years of cleans and snatches. Since the clean from the floor is harder to teach and more technical I prefer to stick with the hang clean. Most somewhat coordinated lifters can learn to hang clean with decent form in just a few workouts. And since we are training for trap size and not the Olympics, the form does not have to be text book. It just has to be “good enough” to get the job done. As long as you can pull efficiently and safely you’re good to go.

Hang cleans can be done two to three times per week no matter what level lifter you are. If you are training for speed the recommendation is to keep the reps at six or less, but since we are only using them for increased trap size you can feel free to go as high as twenty reps on these. It really doesn’t matter. Just do them. Some days you can go heavy for five sets of six, other days you can go lighter for one to three sets of ten to twenty reps. Mix it up.

Last on the list of the best trap exercises is the shrug. Since just about anyone can learn how to shrug properly in two seconds I am not going to spend a lot of time on this one. Grab a heavy barbell or a pair of dumbbells and shrug your shoulders straight up as high as you can trying to touch your ears. Do two to five sets of six to twenty reps once or twice per week.

Now go get your yoke on!

Solo entrena!

Occam's Barbell*:
Putting An End To Paralysis
By Analysis

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems
http://www.staleytraining.com

Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. This is often paraphrased as "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood.

What's that? You're confused? Here's a little news-flash: I'm confused too! The only difference between you and I is:

I take action in the face of confusion, and you don't.

In my experience, "paralysis by analysis" is the most common barrier to action, and by extension, successful action. Because after all, analysis is the preface to action- it isn't action itself. Analysis can certainly serve a useful purpose, but for many, it's both a crutch and an excuse for delaying action. Here's a typical brain-twister that novice lifters often find themselves confronted by: Should you do 6 sets of 2, or 4 sets of 3?

My advice? Don't even think about starting a training program until you've resolved this critical conundrum, because after all, both options involve 12 reps with the same weight, so obviously if you go down the wrong path, you'll be screwed, glued, and tattooed. Another critical decision: should you bike or row for cardio on Tuesdays?

God help you if you should happen to choose the wrong exercise or repetition bracket, or if you stupidly decide to train 3 times a week instead of 4. Because now you're stuck for the rest of your training career. Too bad you didn't think that decision through more carefully before you got all irrational and went and wrote yourself a stupid program. OK, on a more serious note…

I really like the old carpenter's adage "Measure twice, cut once." But this philosophy is absurdly over-cautious when applied to training program design. A program isn't a piece of wood- if you make an error, you have my permission to edit it. Honest. And don't even ask me to evaluate your 18-week off-season developmental conditioning cycle, because it'll make my eyes glaze over faster than last night's episode of Oprah where that Dr. Oz guy is telling me to do some kinda meditation stuff for stress-reduction.

Because let's face it- 18 weeks from now, lots of things can happen. You could get sick, or even injured. You might break up with your girlfriend. Or find a girlfriend. Or lose your job. Or join some extremist religion that forbids the use of barbells. Or even more likely than any of the above, you might read some new article or book about some new training program that seems a hell of a lot more interesting than what you're doing now.

So look: let's just focus on the here-and-now, and further, let's focus on the "big rocks:" the stuff that really matters. The rest we can figure out later- maybe next week, maybe next month, but later. Now obviously some of you are now expecting me to tell you what a big rock is before you can ever touch a weight again, so here are a few examples of big rocks (stuff that matters) and small rocks (stuff that doesn't matter):

Big Rocks

• Squat Heavy.
• Eat Protein.
• Set Goals.
• Record Your Training.

Small Rocks

• How much? How often? How deep? What kind of squat?
• How much? How often? What kind of protein?
• How many? How hard should they be? In writing?
• How? Why? What kind of paper?

Now in most cases, people worry about the small rocks without even getting the big rocks in place- they've got the cart before the horse. So look- just squat. In the beginning, you'll probably do it all wrong, but even that's a lot better than not squatting. Then, little by little, you'll figure out how to do it correctly, and guess what- you're already great progress will get even better! And eat protein. Don't worry about how much- just eat a lot. Don't worry about what kind, we'll get to that later. Get your big rocks in the jar first, then we'll worry about the little rocks, and maybe someday we'll fill the rest of the jar with sand. Maybe.

In Summary:

• Action precedes progress; analysis precedes more analysis. Act first, analyze later
  
• It's easier to go from something to something better, than it is to go from nothing to something
  
• Ever notice how lots of people make great progress doing "stupid" stuff? It's because they're doing while you're not doing. Doing stupid stuff will always beat not doing smart stuff.

That's it - you're done. Go squat and eat some protein.

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About The Author: Charles Staley...world-class strength/performance coach...his colleagues call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious results.

Recompensa vs. castigo, la fórmula para la mejora continua

The Punishment/Reward (PR) Method

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS Director, Staley Training Systems http://www.staleytraining.com

What qualities, attributes, or behaviors should you be focusing on in your training? Are they the attributes that you truly prioritize, or maybe not?

• Do you spent most of your quality training time chasing new 1RM's when you've got chronic orthopedic issues that threaten to sideline you in the very near future?
  
• Do you have impressive "gym numbers" that you've never replicated in competition?
  
• Do you have a terrible time cutting weight for meets, and yet your diet is still a mess?
  
• Do you have circus-level wobble-board skills but an embarrassingly puny deadlift?
  
• Is your paused bench press 90 pounds less than your "touch and go" bench?

If you see yourself in one or more of the above scenarios, my sole consolation for you is that its only human nature- we all tend to savor what we do best, and avoid what we do worst. The opposite of this (which few of us actually do) is what Canadian journalist and pop sociologist Malcolm Gladwell calls "deliberate practice." Gladwell's research indicates that it takes 10,000 hours of this thankless toil to reach a high level of proficiency in your chosen craft. To put that in numbers you can more readily appreciate, if you train 4 times a week at 90 minutes per workout, you'd have to train for over 32 years in order to attain mastery. And that's only if you're employing deliberate practice, which you're probably not: deliberate practice is characterized by 3 tenets:

1. Focus on technique as opposed to outcome.

2. Set specific goals.

3. Obtain immediate quality feedback, and use it.

Even if you've been exposed to this information, it's difficult to continuously perform deliberate practice, because by definition it requires attending to your weak points, while putting your strengths on the back burner. Which isn't all that fun (until much later of course, when you start collecting your medals amidst hushed rumors of your supposed good genetics and steroid use)

This article is about a system I've created to get you to do the right things in training- it's a way to make deliberate practice more palatable. I call it the PR Model, and it's based on a simple behavior modification system that's so effective, it's prominently highlighted in nearly every major religion: punishment and reward.

Your parents no doubt implemented this exact system at mealtime when you were a kid: if you ate your dinner, you got dessert. No dinner, no dessert. Anyway, that's how it worked at my house. The gist of it is simple: if you do the right thing, you get a reward. And of course if you do the wrong thing (or fail to do the right thing), you get punished. Before I explain how the system works in the context of your training, you'll need to determine three things:

1. What is "the right thing" for you right now?

2. What's an appropriate reward?

3. And lastly, what's an effective punishment?

I'll share how I answered these questions for myself recently, which should help you build a similarly-effective system for yourself. I've had a problem with my snatch for a long time now. What happens is that everything goes great until I reach about 85 percent of my max, and then I have a strong tendency to over-extend the finish of the pull, which causes the bar to loop away from me, which then causes me to miss the snatch behind me as I settle into the full squat. It's frustrating, because I've got plenty of horsepower to make these snatches, but I miss them due to this technical error.

In competition, missing my 2nd and/or 3rd snatches puts me in a psychological rut for the clean and jerk. Successful competition for me means a successful snatch. So I needed a way to solve this problem. My solution (which is still a work in progress) is what lead me to the PR Model:

I decided that I would plan to hit 5 singles with a weight that I typically have over-rotation problems with- 70 kilograms (154 pounds). The goal was simple: make 5 out of 5 singles with no misses (and more specifically, no misses behind). If I made all 5, I'd get a reward. If I had any misses, I'd go back to the drawing board next workout, and for as many workouts as necessary, until I hit all 5 snatches.

I'm sure you're wondering what my reward is. It's allowing myself to take one heavier single. To me this is "fun." To you, the reward could be anything from a post-workout ice cream cone to shopping for new workout clothes to skipping your post-workout stretching routine. Ideally the reward shouldn't be anything significantly destructive of course, but it should be gratifying on some level.

The punishment in my case is simply the denial of reward- I don't get to take a heavier single. For you it might be something different. In developing the training schedule for master's weightlifter Troy Paradiso, failure to hit the indicated numbers in the snatch or clean and jerk resulted in having to do clean pulls (an exercise he was relatively weak on, and one we theorized would improve his two competitive lifts): If he made all assigned Clean and jerks for example, he didn't have to do any pulls. If he missed one clean & jerk, his punishment was one set of pulls. Two misses- two sets of pulls. And so on.

The applications of this system are virtually limitless. Additionally, the system is flexible enough to change as your needs change.The PR method can be applied to diet as well. For example, if/when you reach a body composition milestone, you get a "cheat meal."

3 Steps to Making The PR Method Work For You

The first step is to make a list of your unproductive habits, behaviors or tendencies. This isn't about "good versus bad," it's just a matter of identifying behaviors that either take you further away from your goals, or that displace more productive behaviors. Your list might include things like staying up too late the night before workouts, eating too much simple carbohydrate, always focusing on maximum singles when your weakness is lack of hypertrophy, spending too much time on "fun" exercises that don't take you closer to your goal, being too reliant on support gear, or neglecting a mobility issue.

The second step is determining the "punishment." I personally like the dessert parallel here- if you do a lot of good things, you get to have a little bit of fun. The fun in question shouldn't be terribly damaging as I noted earlier, but it should be gratifying. The third and final step is developing parameters for your PR system. If you do this (what?) then you get to do this (what?). Make sure you define these parameters carefully, so there's no "wiggle room" for cheating.

Finally, if you have a coach, training partner, or group that you train with, alert them to what you're up to, and ask them to help keep you honest. Social support often makes all the difference when you're pursuing challenging goals.

---

About The Author

Charles Staley...world-class strength/performance coach...his colleagues call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious results.

De Vuelta al Underground.

Sandbag Circuits For Combat Athletes

By Dustin Lebel

MMA is all the rage these days and its no surprise that more and more people want to train like their favorite fighters. The only problem is that most great fighters are great despite their strength and conditioning program…not all, but most. While putting together a great program for a combat athlete can be very complex as you have to take into account their technical practice schedules, past and current list of injuries, nutrition, their various coaches, recovery, and oh yeah – we need to get them stronger, more powerful, and in better condition while they concurrently improve their skills in their respective sport. Phew – training for combat sports is tough!

Well, the problem with most athletes is that they often sway too far towards one end of the spectrum or the other. Rarely ever are fighters just getting just enough strength work or just enough conditioning work (which is really what we’re aiming for – just enough). You either have guys running themselves into the ground with their skill practices and daily conditioning (most of it is bullsh#t), or you have guys who think that they are bodybuilders who also happen to box, wrestle, or what have you. The middle of the road is generally where you want to be, but to try and explain this to your typical “type A” combat athlete is near impossible. It has been instilled in our minds that the guy who simply does the most work, wins. While hard work is certainly the backbone for attaining success in anything, it’s important for combat athletes to understand their number one priority – to get better at their sport and compete at the highest possible level. If you are not getting better, then you are spinning your wheels. We’ve all heard the saying – more is not better, better is better. It sounds cliché but it’s true.


What I’m proposing for more fighters is to have more focused, disciplined sessions – not just their skill sessions, but also their strength and conditioning sessions. If more athletes just took what they are currently doing and cut everything in half and just started being more deliberate in their training, they would see twice the results. The fact is that the guys who say that they train 6-8 hours a day are either a) full of sh#t or b) farting around too much or not focusing on the things that deliver the biggest results. While this is tough to control with technical sessions because each coach has a different agenda and different training philosophy, the least you can do is have full control over your strength and conditioning sessions.

With all that said, lets take a look at how you can start to organize your training sessions and maximize your time in the weight room – leaving you plenty of time and energy to get better at breaking people’s arms or kicking them in the teeth.


I think that most fighters who are training for their sport 5-6 days per week need just two, or three days at the most, of strength work per week. Since you will be getting plenty of conditioning from your regular practices, any more than that is overkill. I know that a lot of guys get sensitive when it comes to their daily roadwork, but again, I urge you to drop it and spend that time getting in some soft tissue and mobility work instead. If you are doing the things that you should be in practice – hard, live drilling, lots of live wrestling/rolling, mitt work, bag work, partner drills, and sparring – then you should have very little energy left over for anything else and that energy should be spent in the most productive way possible.

Most of the time, I prefer to use total body workouts and I find that getting in a session in less than 45 minutes (and often even less) is feasible as long as you bust your ass. The key is to use the best movements to get the biggest bang for your buck – that means plenty of pushes, pulls, squats, single leg and posterior chain work. Don’t get caught up in all the hype over “sport specific” training, but rather spend your time fixing your imbalances and getting stronger and in better “fight shape” through more general training.


One of my favorite ways to train is through strength based circuits using a heavy sandbag. This is a great way to maximize your time and get stronger while also improving your strength endurance specific to combat sports. While maximal strength and explosive strength are certainly desirable attributes, in most cases, fighters need to worry about improving their ability to be strong and explosive over many repeated efforts. Because of the awkward nature of sandbag training, every single movement requires tremendous core, upper back, posterior chain, and grip strength – areas that are usually lacking in most athletes – and causes your heart rate to go through the roof very quickly! Not to mention that most movements in the weight room only address the eccentric and concentric contractions, where as combat sports require a huge amount of isometric strength. Many of the movements performed with sandbags will force maximal isometric contractions, only bringing on fatigue that much faster. Sandbag training is not a fad nor gimmicky in anyway, just hard freakin’ work.


Here are 4 of my favorite circuits using a heavy sandbag for developing insane muscular endurance and that raw, rugged strength that will translate on the mat or in the ring. While most programs leave you bigger and stronger in the weight room, training with sandbags will have instant carry over to your sport.

For these circuits, you will want to make a sandbag roughly 60-70% of your bodyweight going towards the higher end if you’re an advanced trainee and the lower if you’re new to strength training. You can always make adjustments if needed, but you want to make a bag that will challenge you for months ahead. Rather than increasing the weight of the bag, you will make subtle adjustments to your sets, reps, total volume and rest periods over time.


For this program, you will pick one circuit per training day and after a warm up, and you will have several options.

Option 1 is to go through each circuit for 3-5 sets; resting 60-120 seconds between each circuit (and 30 seconds or less between each movement). Your goal here is to slowly increase your volume by adding a rep to each movement here and there and to increase your sets only when all the reps can completed with good form with the minimum requirement for rest periods.

Option 2 is to set a time limit of 15 or 20 minutes and try to blast through as many sets as possible in that time frame. This form of density training will be a good indicator of the progress you’re making – you either get more work done or you don’t.

I recommend the density option every other time you perform a particular circuit. So if weeks 1 and 2 you performed circuits A-D (assuming 2 sessions/week), getting in just the minimum of 3 sets with the prescribed reps, then on weeks 3 and 4 you would set your standard for a 15 or 20 minute density round and continue to repeat this process.

But remember, the goal of extra strength training is to enhance your performance in your chosen sport, not fatigue yourself to the point where you are getting stale, or worse, regressing and getting worse. Slowly make adjustments to total volume over time and don’t set out to crush your records every single time out – know when good enough is good enough.


So here they are, 4 bad ass circuits that will leave you in a pool of sweat and cramping from your fingers down to your calves…

Circuit A:

1. Sandbag Clean and Press x 6
2. Sandbag Shoulder + Squat x 6
3. Sandbag Rotations x 6
4. Sandbag Bent Over Rows x 6

Circuit B:

1. Sandbag Shouldering x 6
2. Sandbag Power Clean + Zercher Squat x 6
3. Sandbag Zercher Goodmornings x 6
4. Sandbag Bent Over Rows x 6

Circuit C:

1. Sandbag Shouldering x 6
2. Sandbag Zercher Reverse Lunges x 6 (3 each side)
3. Sandbag Power Cleans x 6
4. Sandbag Bent Over Rows x 6

Circuit D:

1. Sandbag Clean and Press x 6
2. Sandbag Zercher Squats x 6
3. Sandbag Pull Throughs x 6
4. Sandbag Bent Over Rows x 6

You will notice that included rowing in every single circuit, and that’s for the simple fact that you can never get enough rowing! Besides the benefit of strengthening your lats and upper back, the sandbag bent over row will challenge your grip and posterior chain in much different manner than any barbell or cable row ever could.

If you’re like most fighters and you’re short on time and energy reserves, then these circuits can make up your complete training program. However, there’s nothing wrong with adding in some sled dragging, weighted and un weighted bodyweight calisthenics, sledgehammer swinging, and anything else you had in mind. Work your ass off, but keep your recovery in mind and do what’s best so that you can become a stronger, faster, more conditioned fighter.



Author Bio: I am a personal trainer and sports performance coach At Integrated Athletic Performance in Watertown, CT and an apprentice International Martial Arts & Boxing instructor under Richard Bustillo. Check out my blog at http://www.dustinlebeltraining.blogspot.com

RECUPERACION

Are You Sick of Being Sore?

The 7 Best Ways to Relieve Muscle Soreness

By Sean Barker Author of The Dad Fitness System

I remember it like it was yesterday... Squatting down to pick up my books out of my high school gym locker and screaming in agony because my legs were so damn sore from my very FIRST squat workout! But pain soon turned to laughs as I also heard my best friend and training partner at the time scream out profanities as he tried to bend down at his locker just down the hall.

We have all experienced this one time or another, the painful muscle soreness that follows an intense workout or what the exercise geeks (me included) refer to as DOMS. For the best way to relieve, or better yet, even prevent muscle soreness, read on.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness...This can occur whether you have been working out for years or are just starting to exercise. Despite what most people think the day after is not the worst, as muscle soreness usually peaks around 48 hours after exercise.

Your body needs time to recover, that includes not only your aching muscles but also your central nervous system as well. Your CNS is your body's communication path way that allows your brain to tell your muscles what to do during those intense workouts and after 8-10 weeks of heavy and intense training your body will let you know it's slipping into overtraining mode as you begin to lose your motivation to train and your strength gains come to a screeching halt.

Basically DOMS, is the microscopic tearing of your muscle fibers that causes the inflammation and swelling of the muscles putting additional pressure around the surrounding joints.But I bet what you really what to know is how to avoid it or even relieve muscle soreness when you do get it. The first thing you can do is leave your ego at the gym door!

1. Try not to do much too soon and ease into any exercise program whether its lifting weights, running or your favorite recreational sport. Whatever workout routine you are starting, just do half of the exercise volume to introduce your muscles to the exercises and increase your intensity over time.

2. Warm up properly BEFORE you workout and stretch AFTER you workout to remove the lactic acid from your muscles and start the recovery process.

3. To help relieve it when you do over do it from doing too much or doing something new, get some "active rest" by going for a walk with your family or playing with your kids at the playground (lying on the couch watching 24 is not considered active rest!).

4. Also take rest days from your workouts which means don't work those sore muscles with heavy weight training until the soreness subsides.

5. Make sure you are eating high quality protein throughout the day to provide your body with the nutrients and amino acids it needs for muscle repair and stay hydrated by drinking lots of water. Supplements like L-Glutamine and Vitamin C has been shown to aid in muscle recovery as well as hot saunas and deep tissue massage.

6. Getting lots of omega 3 fats in your diet through fish or fish oils, mixed nuts and avocados will also help to scavenge free radicals and reduce inflammation in your muscles and throughout your entire body

These recovery tips all help but...

7. The best way to relieve muscle soreness is to MOVE. Despite the initial discomfort of moving your sore muscles, getting around and increasing your blood flow will help to nourish the damaged muscles with nutrient rich blood to aid in muscle repair.

Light recreational exercise such as power walking, swimming and even body weight exercises are a great way to loosen up those sore muscles and get you moving again. So before you start piling on the plates, remember you can't rush progress. Be smart with your workouts and give your body the time it needs and it will reward you with the results you're looking for....or you can limp around for days like a muscled up mummie...the choice is yours.

TRICEPS: Poder DIESEL y fuerza de empuje

Build Strength, Power and Mass for Triceps

Este artículo es de Diesel, se trata de la importancia de desarrollar poder de empuje basicamente de los musculos triceps. Poder para lanzar golpes que sean como balas de cañon explotando en el oponente o como poderosa prensa que te sacan al rival cuando te tiene en side control. Disfrutenlo!

If you are talking about pressing power, you are talking about the triceps. Building massive triceps, does not necessarily mean you are improving their ability to move weight. And if we are talking about power, we are talking about moving the weight quickly.If you really want more pressing power, you can’t be messing around with skull crushers and tricep kickbacks. You have to perform compound movements. Plain and simple.

Examples include: close grip bench press, log press, floor press, neutral grip db bench, wheel barrow plyo hops, inverted wall bodyweight press ups

And you can’t forget about balancing the joint, anterior and posterior. That improves the integrity of the joint, the strength potential and decreases the chance for injury, chronic or acute. So you have to hit movements that target the muscles involved in stabilizing, antagonistically counteracting and keeping the shoulder joint healthy and strong.

Exercises like: face pulls, posterior flyes, push-ups plus, standing scarecrows, external rotations, reach roll and lift, Y,T,W and L.

Y este ejercicio es del arsena secreto de Staley, no hay excusas a entrenar!

Sobre como aplicar CARGA

Entre mas leo a Staley mas me doy cuenta de que el entrenamiento físico, sobre todo a nivel de alto desempeño, debe considerar importantes variables que van más allá del programa o la rutina, se requiere un enfoque casi científico. Por supuesto, toda la teoría debe ser practicada, es necesario meterse en el rack y levantar peso y levantar pesado.

10 Thoughts On Loading Parameters

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS, Director, Staley Training Systems, http://www.staleytraining.com

Whenever you perform a workout, you're exposing your body to a challenge- a form of stress. In order to describe and quantify the character and extent of that stress, we use the phrase "loading parameters." Generally these parameters refer to the load used, the number of sets and reps performed with that load, as well as the rests between sets and the speed of movement used on each repetition. However, other parameters can be monitored as well, including frequency of workouts, the number of exercises per workout, the order of exercises within a workout, the duration of each workout, and so on and so forth. With that in mind, I'll share a few thought about loading parameters…

"Work" is defined as displacing a load for a specified distance

This is an important distinction, because most people wrongly confuse work with the effort it took and/or how it felt to perform that work. In fact, it's possible to have a high perception of effort during low-output performances. An example of this is using purposely slower-than-necessary repetitions- they hurt more, but accomplish less. Perhaps an even better example is static contractions, which hurt a lot, even through (technically-speaking) you're not performing any work at all. Bottom line: "work" is what you did, what you produced, not the resources you consumed to do it.

"Power" is how quickly a load can be displaced for a specified distance

Accomplishing work in a shorter period of time means you're more powerful than someone else who took longer to perform the same task. This is what almost every competitive sport is all about. A single parameter can only be appreciated against the context of the other parameter. If you perform 2 sets of 8 reps, is that the same as performing 4 sets of 8 reps? Clearly it isn't. Therefore, advising someone to perform "8 reps per set" has no real meaning unless you also specify how many sets should be performed.

Similarly, performing 8 reps in 15 seconds is not the same thing as performing 8 reps in 25 seconds. Performing 8 reps with a 9RM load is clearly different than performing 8 reps with a 12RM load. The point is this: no single parameter has significant meaning unless it is understood against the backdrop of all other parameters. Remember this the next time you hear say "high reps are for tone" or "low reps are for bulk."

Loads should be earned, not assigned.

To say that you "should" perform 6 sets of 2 with 242 pounds during next Wednesday's bench press workout is absurd. It's fine to use those numbers as a goal, but you have no way to predict your functional capacity on a future date. If you've over-estimated your capacity, you risk over-extending your adaptive resources and/or injuring yourself as you stubbornly try to complete your assignment. Conversely, if you under-estimated your capacity, you might lose the chance to hit a new PR, or at the very least, you'll under-train your bench presses for that workout.

On any given workout, a superior performance (at least in the case of trained individuals) indicates a high functional capacity, and it's an indicator that the previous training cycle has produced good results. It's time to "strike while the iron is hot" as the saying goes. Inferior performance, on the other hand, indicates inadequate recuperation from previous workout loads and suggests the need for rest, not work.

Balancing Specificity Against Variation

First, your training must reflect both requirements- it must be specific enough to render a result, but not so specific that you stagnate and/or develop overuse injuries. The best way to walk that fine line is through the use of what I would term "worthwhile" exercise families, as follows:

• Squats
  
• Olympic lifts
  
• Horizontal Presses
  
• Vertical Presses
  
• Vertical Pulls
  
• Unilateral lower Body Drills

The exercises in each category are all cousins of each other: Back squats, front squats, Zercher squats, overhead squats, box squats, and thrusters are all squats, but they're all different types of squats. Squatting is "worthwhile" because there are so many variations of this exercise, you can do them all the time without stagnating. Same with the other categories listed above.

Quality And Quantity Are Inversely Related

You can't run a marathon at 100-meter speed, and you can't perform 10 reps with your 1RM. Volume and intensity must always be balanced. First establish quality (speed, strength, movement quality, asymptomatic joints) and then, if desired, increase quantity.

Strength Is Fundamentally "Motor Intelligence"

Many people under-estimate the neural component of strength training. Although it is true that a thicker muscle fiber can produce more tension than a thinner fiber, the fact remains that muscles are slaves of the nervous system. Most people have enough muscle tissue to accomplish impressive physical tasks. What most people lack is efficient wiring. Only heavy loads, lifted in a relatively fresh state, help to motor cortex improve its force production strategies: inter and intra- muscular coordination, rate coding, and so on. If you value pain over performance, you'll probably rarely train in the necessary manner.

Resources Are Finite

If your adaptive resources were unlimited, you'd be well-advised to train as hard as possible, as often as possible. But unfortunately, you're ability to recover from workouts requires a number of resources, all of which have limits. This being the case, you should always strive for maximum efficiency in each workout. By efficiency I'm referring to the resource/production ratio of your efforts. For every unit of resource, you're looking for produce as many units of work as possible. Smart manipulation of loading parameters is the key.

Always Assume You're Under-Appreciating Specificity

If your training isn't producing the results you want, I'd look at specificity first. When in doubt, be more specific, not less. Even seemingly non-specific tactics are often highly specific when examined carefully. Example: A powerlifter practices pin presses instead of bench presses to improve his bench. This seems less specific than simply benching, but if the pin presses are performed under the premise of weak triceps, it becomes clear that pin presses are more specific to the issue of triceps strength than are bench presses.

The Strength/Technique Relationship

Strength and technique are often assumed to be distinctly separate entities, but I'm losing faith in that distinction. I now think of strength and technique as two sides of the same coin. For example, holding the back in the correct position during a deadlift is thought of as a technical issue, but frequently the inability to achieve this position can be attributed to a lack of strength. And of course, lack of strength in the squat can often be traced to insufficient technique. These two qualities are inexorably linked- neither one can exist without the other.

About The Author

Charles Staley...world-class strength/performance coach...his colleagues call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious results.

Otro de Staley

Que hable el maestro:

Structural Versus Randomized Training Concepts

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems
http://www.staleytraining.com

Recently, through the work of popular fitness movements such as CrossFit and its many imitators, the previously unexplored concept of randomized training has received a significant amount of popularity throughout the fitness community. This popularity is not without reason- randomized workouts have significant benefits, but like all approaches, random training also has its drawbacks. In this article, I'll compare and contrast random versus structured approaches to training, and then I'll summarize by offering a few approaches that (I think) provide the benefits of both while simultaneously minimizing the drawbacks.

Benefits of Randomized Approaches

"Crossfitters" enjoy random workouts, and I think you will too- here's why:

1) That new car smell:

To borrow a great phrase from my client Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, there's a palpable sense of renewal at the prospect of a new workout program that you plan to start on Monday (by the way, no one ever starts a new program or diet on any other day of the week, unless it happens to be New Year's Day.) In a sense, randomized training gives you that "new car smell" every single workout. If you're suffering from ADD or are otherwise under-motivated, this can be a great boost to your morale and can make you more consistent than you'd otherwise be. And needless to say, if you're consistent, you'll make more progress than your inconsistent peers, even if what they're doing is "better" or "smarter" or "more scientific" than what you're doing.

2) Specificity to random and/or varied professional or athletic needs:

Some professions, avocations, and sport disciplines (an perhaps people seeking "general" fitness, whatever than means) require or desire a generalized, highly varied, almost random set of physical attributes and motor qualities. Firefighters, police, military and para-military job descriptions come to mind, as do many fighting sports, most notably mixed martial arts (MMA).

Drawbacks of Randomized Approaches

Despite the significant benefits I've just described, random training (like any approach) also has its drawbacks. The most significant of these shortcomings are as follows:

1) Constant soreness:

If you squat anywhere between one and thrice a week, the soreness that you initially experience during your first handful of workouts soon becomes all but a distant memory as your body's adaptive systems and resources solve this particular Rubik's Cube. In fact, once the puzzle's been solved, it'll be nearly impossible to invoke soreness, no matter how hard you push yourself. On the other hand, the more random your training is, the more often you'll be sore- the random nature of the physical challenges you experience makes it far more difficult for you to habituate.

If you're an in-season athlete, or belong to a highly physical profession that presents randomized challenges, you don't really want to be sore all the time. This means that although you need enough variety to keep your nervous system somewhat off-guard, you don't want the variety to be so significant that you're basically starting from scratch each and every workout.

2) Poor learning curve:

In order to learn challenging and complex motor tasks (such as the Olympic lifts for example), it'd be to your advantage to do them often. Learning requires frequent repetition, and motor learning is no exception to this rule. If your training is completely random, you'll never have enough repetition to sustain the learning curve.

3) Limited specificity:

This third point somewhat overlaps with the previous two points, but to put a sharper edge on it, powerlifters need to do their 3 competitive lifts, swimmers need to swim, and climbers need to climb. If you want to be great at pull-ups, you need to work them hard- a lot. And obviously, a completely randomized approach doesn't accommodate this need.

Reconciling Structure And Non-Structure

I've often said that there's no such thing as a perfect program, because even if you could find it, you'll quickly habituate to it and progress will slow to a halt. That being said, there are principles that help us to identify "better" approaches, and one of these principles is that specificity ("structure" in the scope of this conversation) and variety ("randomness" for our purposes here) must be balanced and integrated within the overall scope of training. Here then, are a few suggestions for doing just that:

Use A Structured Exercise List With Random Loading Parameters

If you've determined that a particular exercise tends to move you closer toward your goals, you should probably do that exercise on a regular and relatively frequent basis. One possible drawback (as discussed earlier) of regular frequency is neural habituation and slowed progress as your nervous system "figures out" how to deal with that particular form of stress. The solution to this, which was discovered eons ago by athletes in a wide number of sports, is to randomize the character and/or specific attributes of that exercise stress. In our case, that means providing variety through constantly changing loading parameters (E.g., set/rep brackets, intensity, tempo, and rest intervals.

Simply create 6 different loading protocols, such as:

- 5x5 /80%/ 3 minutes rest between sets
- 6x2 /90%/ 5 minutes rest between sets
- 3x10 /70%/ 2 minutes rest between sets
- 10x3 /85% /4 minutes rest between sets
- 2x20 /60% /2.5 minutes rest between sets
- 1x5 /85%

Next, assign a number to each option, and roll a dye. Whatever comes up determines your loading parameters for that exercise.

Use A Semi-Structured Exercise List With Structured Loading Parameters

If Monday is defined as "squat day," you can randomize what type of squat you'll do by selecting from 6 options: back squats, front squats, overhead squats, box squats, Zercher squats, and dumbbell squats. If you'd like to substitute your own favorites for some of mine, go ahead. Once your list of 6 choices is completed, number each choice from 1 to 6. Prior to squat day, roll a dye and whatever number comes up determines what type of squat you'll do that day. From there, you apply whatever loading parameters you've appropriated for the current cycle you're on, and you're ready to go.

Worth noting here is that only the most useful exercises can be plugged into this option, which is one of it's greatest attributes. You're not likely to come up with 6 variations of tricep kickbacks, leg extensions, or pec deck, but you can easily devise a half-dozen options for vertical pressing, horizontal pressing, unilateral leg drills, snatches, cleans, and deadlifts. This is simply an extrapolation of the "same but different" approach that I've written about in previous articles.

Use A Semi-Structured Exercise List With Random Loading Parameters

This is an amalgam of the previous two suggestions. Both exercises and loading parameters are "semi-structured." On Monday, you know you're doing some type of squat, but you don't know which one until you roll the dye. Then, a second roll gives you your loading parameters. Obviously, this is the most random of the three approaches, but it still provides structure.

What About Periodization?

To further maximize the benefit/drawback profile when attempting to reconcile structure with non-structure, you can employ a cycling concept where you (for example) employ the first option for 4 weeks, followed by the second option for a month, and finally, the last option for the remainder of a 12-week cycle. If your needs require a variation on this theme, go ahead and apply your creative elbow grease to the situation.

Now Go And Make It Yours!

The suggestions I've presented here are for the purposes of illustration and to inspire your own creative thinking. If, during this article, you're struck by alternative applications of my ideas, then I've been successful.

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About The Author

Charles Staley...world-class strength/performance coach...his colleagues call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious results.

Para mis perros que levantan ACERO

Excelente artículo que recibí de DIESEL:

8 ways to Supercharge Your Training
by Joe Hashey, CSCS – www.synergy-athletics.com
Everyone that reads the Diesel Crew site is already passionate about strength training; there is no doubt about that! This article contains methods I have used in my own training and with my athletes to add a “little something extra” to the programs. Let’s cut the small talk and get to the meat, here’s the list:

1. Real Primary Exercises. Choose a primary exercise that is a compound lift and is proven to help you reach your goals. If you are an Olympic lifter, then choose those. If you are a powerlifter, then get to benching, squatting, and dead lifting. If you are a recreational lifter (here’s where we get in trouble), choose something off the list above. Smith machine curls don’t fit. Activate the most muscles you can right off the bat.


2. Warm Up HARD. Warm ups should not be all slow and steady stretching. Time it, and get it done. Here’s the timing I use with my athletes – 3 minutes active recovery or mobility, 4 minutes dynamic stretching, then 3-5 minutes specific warm up (lighter sets and reps of their exercise, this includes rest periods for a group of 3). Everything is up on a board for them to read and their first working start needs to start within 12 minutes of them walking in the door.

3. Use the Training Economy. Supercharge your training session with choosing exercises that give you the biggest bang for your buck. Instead of listing them all, here are some guidelines. These are the lifts that use multiple muscle groups and rarely involve machines. More muscles used = more adaptation.

4. Finish Strong. Many of my athletes have benefited from incorporating a “finisher” exerciser. On certain moderate volume or intensity days I will allow them to choose a finisher. These exercises range from Jail Yard pushups to hand walking competitions and everything in between. The competitive nature of people that work out should be utilized! The guys enjoy some healthy competition; it gets their adrenaline pumping, and leads to a positive training effect.


5. Realize You’re Weak (nesses). If you keep training the same lifts and program non stop, you may develop some weaknesses. Make sure you identify the areas of concern and catch them up! Keep in mind that “weaknesses” are all relative. A powerlifter may find that their triceps are their weak point; however those “weak triceps” may still be very strong compared to anyone else!

6. Play within Yourself. The worst thing you can do is find the strongest guy in the gym and compare yourself to them, however, its one of the hardest things NOT to do. Hell, I’m saying it, and I still make that mistake (and probably will again). They may have been training for 15 years and if you have only 2 years under your belt, then they should be that much stronger! It is good to take notice of the characteristics of strength, but don’t get down if you can’t deadlift 500 lbs after a year.

7. Don’t be a sissy. I’m being serious here, and I’ll admit I’ve been guilty of this before as well. Who here hasn’t talked themselves out of a big lift? I certainly have, and I’m still bitter that I went sissy for that moment. Get a pattern of thinking down before you perform a big lift. It can be you against the weight, it can be you and the weight working together, it could be you picturing a hot girl in the room that you have to impress…Whatever it is, just do it and stick to what works!


I’ll let you in my mind here for a second. My go to thought is my younger brother performing the lift easily and smirking at me. After I get that ingrained my mind, there is no choice but to get the lift.

8. Don’t drown in information while searching for knowledge. The internet has created put an amazing amount of information out to people. Answers to nearly every question are just a button click away. However, what is hard to find is true knowledge.

There are thousands of strength training sites with information out there, some right, some wrong. The problem is who is right? There is so much information, but a real lack of knowledge. Stick to the basics, learn from people that have experience (ie not off a 12 year old on a forum), and get that knowledge!


I’ll end with a challenge. Anyone can read this information, say “yeah that’s good,” then go on making the same mistakes as before. I challenge you to internalize at least ONE of these 8 tips and make it happen!

There it is, 8 simple things you can do to bump your workouts up to the next level. I know, as readers of the Diesel Crew site, that many of you already have some sick super charged workouts. Keep up the good work, and thanks for reading.


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About the Author: Joe is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach and owner of Synergy Athletics. He specializes in getting the most out athletes, and has some impressive training videos. Go visit Joe’s site – www.synergy-athletics.com – and sign up for the FREE newsletter. All subscribers get a free bonus training video of Joe training at his place and with the Diesel Crew. It is really a must watch!