Training Philosophy/Program Design
December 8, 2011 | 
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***This is the first part of a three-part article series: “Dan Blewett is a Pansy,” Andrew Sacks Is a Bigger Pansy,” and “Train For Sport, For Health, or For Humiliation” are parts I, II, and III, respectively. Enjoy.****
I have known Dan Blewett for longer than I care to remember, and I absolutely cannot believe that people actually listen to that hypocrite when he preaches to them about how to condition themselves to become finely tuned athletes. As I see it, Dan is the last person from whom to seek advice when trying to learn how to become a better athlete. Being a good athlete typically requires one to possess speed, strength, agility, power, and/or endurance. These are considered the four basic criteria of athleticism, and Dan possesses exactly zero of them. Simply put, he’s the most unathletic professional “athlete” I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’m counting golfers, NASCAR drivers, croquet players, and competitive eaters among those ranks.
John Daly runs a faster 40 than Dan Blewett. Backwards. And he’s more attractive to women. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Know Who Andrew Sacks Is?
There’s a reason for this – he’s a nobody.
Sure, he is my best friend. Sure, he is a good strength trainer. Sure, he is likely a good brother, son, and future father to a gay son. But, he’s the store-brand version of Dan Blewett, and we all know how shitty generic macaroni and cheese tastes. You want me, Dan Blewett, in your life just like you want Kraft Scooby Doo Macaroni and cheese. Accept no Andrew Sackses.
To prove to you that I’m the better athlete, I need only one argument – what I call…
The Gravy Defense… Read the rest of this entry »
Having nothing to train for makes for difficulty in getting motivated. I’ve set goals for myself in some big lifts this offseason, and I decided to rub these goals in my friend, and trainer, Andrew’s face. We compete in tests of ability and strength when we are together, and I texted him last week to ensure he knew how much better I am soon going to be. Here’s how the conversation went:
Dan: Just a warning – I’m gonna be squatting 450, deadlifting 500 and jumping 33 inches by Christmas. Be prepared to be physically dominated via YouTube.
Andrew: By Christmas? That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard you say
Well, the competition is on, though with a catch – we will be competing only in the vertical and broad jump. The reason I am posting this is because both of us are going to provide you with our methods of reaching these goals and thusly humiliating the other. Both trainers, we are going to employ all of our tricks to get the big weight moving. I’ve squatted 390 (ass-to-grass, of course) as a 1RM in college, deadlifted 425 two years ago, and jumped 28 inches at my best in college. Never have I trained specifically to increase those numbers, but that’s just where my personal records stand. Andrew is, as we always have been, basically the same. He has historically jumped one inch higher, squatted about the same and deadlifted a little less than I. He’s a hair better in jumping, I’m a hair better deadlifting, and we’re about even in the squat. We’re a good matchup to see who can gain the most advantage on the other by way of a specific training plan, of which you’re going to get a peek… Read the rest of this entry »
It’s that time of year when many of my trainees and I are settling in to a season without competition. Competitive season puts such a strain on the body that it’s difficult to work out as regularly, and it can be hard to keep a strict, healthy diet. When I come home from my 100 game pro season, I’m as weak as I am all year, and usually about 5 lbs fatter to boot. My goal for myself and my athletes in our first month back in the gym is to shed the newly gained fat, regain muscle size that we’ve lost, and regain a high capacity for work. This method is also great for anyone trying to put on muscle as fast as possible.
Easing into things is overrated – I prefer a 1 to 2 day max break-in period, after which we are hitting it 100% in an effort to regain general strength as quickly as possible. The way we do this is by challenging ourselves in a mix of exercises that I categorize as:
- Low-external weight, high-rep
- Conditioning circuits and complexes
- High-Intensity, high-yield Read the rest of this entry »
Chances are, you’re wasting your time with bench press and it’s variations. In my gym, we use push up variations for upwards of 90% of our “pushing” exercises.Why? Because I’m not going to bother using external weight with a trainee who hasn’t yet mastered his own bodyweight. Thing is, push ups are so versatile and effective at building upper body strength that I find little reason to ever go away from them – and I nary find anybody who has mastered all that the push up has to offer.
I’m going to break this article into two sections – the “progression” section and the “cool versions of the push up” section. Read on!
I have recently put a tab at the top of my site called “Exercise Database.” This tab is for reference, so that I can better serve my online training clients by providing them with videos showing proper form. Videos will either feature me or a client demonstrating what I have put in his or her program. They aren’t alphabetized, at least not yet, so bear with me. There’s some good stuff on there now, and a lot of cool new exercises to come in the future. I’ll be updating it pretty regularly with all the variations that we come up with, as well as profiles on exercises I think everyone needs to know about!
I just watched a video series from a strength coach in a MLB organization who was selling his programs. He claimed, on his website, that his program was made for and tested on Major Leaguers, and because of that, everyone should be doing it. Major Leaguers are on top, so all of the best training should just trickle down, right? WRONG. Read the rest of this entry »
The best workout program will yield you nothing if you don’t train at a high intensity. I remember my college nutrition professor erroneously telling the class that weight lifting does nothing to burn fat, and that sustained cardio was the only way to slim down. He was dead wrong, but for his and most of the world’s lifting methodology, he was right. Weight lifting the way YOU are used to won’t burn fat, build muscle, or do much of anything…
I was in the gym just moments ago when I started thinking: What if we performed weekly shoulder care repetitions not in the hundreds, but in the thousands? Hear me out…
Freaks, or Heavily Invested?
Gymnasts are probably the strongest pound for pound people on earth. They can do pull ups all day long, and perform feats of abdominal and whole body strength that 99% of the world can’t even dream of. There’s a reason they can do these things; they do them all day, every day in training.
Gymnasts don’t just bang out 3 sets of 12 pull ups every other day like most (some)of us gymgoers do. Rather, they are in the gym, honing their craft for countless hours every single day. Their muscles become incredibly strong because they are forced to adapt as a result of physical stress day in and day out.
Chances are, you or I will NEVER be strong enough to do this.
It’s cold and dreary here in Baltimore, but spring is on the way and just around the corner. What does one usually do around April or May? Spring cleaning, of course! I’m messy, and disinterested in actually cleaning anything, but at this time, with the season on the horizon, it’s time to throw out the old and stale and bring in the new training exercises, methods and programming. If you don’t re-examine what you’ve been doing every so often, you’ll never be up to speed with your body’s continually changing needs.
Step 1: Identify The Clutter Read the rest of this entry »
The human body adapts to common stimuli over time. In psychology, we call this habituation. In training, we combat this with periodization. What is periodization? It’s breaking a long period of training into different phases so that one’s muscles don’t habituate, which would stall progress.
The Phases
As an athlete, the period after completing a competitive season is known as the active recovery period. This is the time when one doesn’t perform specified training, but rather keeps his or her body in motion by recreational activities, done at a low intensity. Playing pick up basketball twice a week would be an appropriate activity for this phase.
Once active recovery is complete (generally just a couple of weeks, depending on season length), one moves into the hypertrophy phase. In this phase the goal to replace the muscle size that was lost during the season. The athlete needs to restore his body mass by resistance training at a high volume.
One ideal body mass is achieved, the strength phase is next. This is typified by lower volume but higher intensity resistance training, designed to develop increased muscle strength, but not to pack on any more size. Lifting for size and lifting for strength differ in the rep schemes and loads used. Naturally, the strength phase will use lower rep sets with near-maximal loads.
Get As Big As You Need To BE
The final phase of the off-season is the competition phase, which takes all the size and strength the athlete has built and peaks it for maximum performance right as the season starts. In powerlifting, this would mean training at 95-100% of one’s max lifting ability, yet for other sports this would vary. The competition phase for high-velocity, low-load sports like tennis, baseball, softball, lacrosse, etc. would consist of high-velocity, low-load activities like plyometrics and other dynamic, ballistic exercises.
Then Make all that muscle DO things
Once your body peaks and the season starts, you enter a maintenance phase, in which you lift only to keep your off-season gains, which means not trying to build more strength. Attempting to make gains in the weight room during the season would detract from in-game performance. Game performance is the ultimate goal, after all, so nothing should be done during the season to negatively impact it.
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This model discussed above is the linear model of periodization, meaning that phase progression follows uniformly. There are other methods as well, such as the undulating model, in which one might perform one day of each phase each week. The type of periodization used is subject to the athlete’s physical makeup, time constraints, abilities, etc.
The simplest way of thinking about periodization is this: Rest after your season, then get back to work. Build muscle, make that muscle strong, then make that muscle move fast. Once the season starts, maintain what you worked hard for, then repeat. Sensible, right?
The chin up v. pull up debate has been mulled over by the baseball community for quite some time now. We all know that performing either or both of these exercises is the key to developing strong, wide back. Yet, some say pull-ups are harmful for throwing athletes, and it’s hard to know what to believe.
First off, the difference: a chin-up is done with a supinated (palms facing) grip, as opposed to the pronated (palms away) pull-up grip.
The baseball fitness community seems to be accepting of chin-ups just fine; the issue is with pull-ups, which are supposedly the cause of too much rotator cuff stress, hypertrophy, and tightness.
Why are pull-ups associated with such negatives for throwing athletes, whereas chin-ups are not?
The noteworthy difference between the two, as far as rotator cuff stress is concerned, is in the arm placement. On pull-ups, especially with wide grips, the arms are externally rotated, which causes more recruitment (and stress) of the rotator cuff. I agree with avoiding wide pull ups because of the high amount of rotator cuff strain.
A wide pull up - note the externally rotated arms
Chin up; note the arms are tucked close to the body, keeping the focus on the back
Because of the supinated grip on chin-ups, the arms track closer to the body, resulting in far less rotator cuff recruitment. The arms simply cannot flare outward as easily on chin-ups, until the grip gets extremely wide. Yet, the arms can stay tucked on close-grip and neutral grip pull-ups as well… Read the rest of this entry »