Evolutionary Athletics

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This quote is from Coach X’s GPP manual.

Another related phrase comes from Charlie Francis: The rush to results often leads to uncertainty and stagnation in the future

Too many people spend too much time learning too many exercises. As a result they end up a jack of all trades and a master of none

Here is the deal. Pick from a smaller exercise pool and spend a LOT of time in the beginning mastering the movements.

I’d rather train an athlete that can do perfect squats, lunges, RDL’s, GHR’s, Push ups and Pull ups than one that can half ass all of those and cleans and snatches and turkish get ups, and do spider lunges, and muscle ups, and dot drills, and clubbells, and kettlebells, and tae bo, and psx90, and the new weider confusion principle extreme growth hack squat, and… well you get the picture

start slow, master the movements and you may take 2 steps back (cuz your homies will squat and bench more weight) but you will be preparing yourself for a long injury free lifting career. You will take 2 steps back and then shoot 10 steps forward.

If you can squat properly, then I can get you to land properly, which means you can do depth jumps properly. Thus by mastering the squat your drops and jumps will be better, higher, and more effective.

If you can get the glute in an rdl, you can get it in a swing, prime time, and eventually a sprint!

My core lifts:
Squat
Lunge
GHR
RDL
Push Up
Pull Up

Most every other exercise is a variation of these core lifts. Think about say a kettlebell swing or prime time. They are essentially the same movement pattern as an RDL. So you master proper activation through the RDL, then transfer the skill to more rapid fire movements. The goal of each is the same, get the glute to extend your hip. If you cant do that in a slow movement like an RDL you won’t be able to get the glute to fire during a prime time.

It’s kinda like the WGF Skill, strength, endurance, power progression.

Squats eventually turn into REA squats, ADA squat, RA Squat (depth jump). But you master the movement first. Same with lunges.

So then the progression looks kinda like

iso, iso mio, pim, fda, ada, rea, ra, rfi/rate work

Master movement and train first to be an athlete. Learn to move well and you will be a better athlete. Let the variety come from the means and methods.

Alex

If you are a basketball player, or a football player basketball weight training and football weight training should focus on improving your vertical jump. The vertical jump is the only key predictor of performance taken at the respective combines. Much research has been done on vertical jump performance. A number of factors have been identified. The first key factor seems to be relative maximal strength. That is strength/bw. With this in mind the first goal of anyone trying to improve their vert is to get strong.

Think of strength as potential. The stronger you are the greater your potential for a high vert. A friend, Kelly Baggett, posted this calculator, made by Colin, for vert based on weight and squat strength.

It is fairly accurate. 100% no but close

Personally I like Pavel’s guidelines. 2-5 sets x 2-5 reps daily. Never miss a rep. Never do more than 10 total reps in a workout.

What are your favorite methods for increasing strength or vertical jump?
So if you are interested in basketball weight training or football weight training, focus on training to improve your vertical jump.

Please visit my store for a program that has worked successfully time and time again for improving vertical jumps

Ok,

Years ago, many years ago, I was at home on summer break from college.  I enrolled in a summer weight training course at the local Junior College.

I enjoyed lifting weights and had improved my squat to 250lbs at a body weight of 185.  I was proud of this because I happened to squat more than anyone at the commercial gyms I frequented.  Sad huh?

Well I decided to focus on the “king of exercises” over the summer.  The class was about 8 weeks long, I have a tough time remembering as it was 15 years ago.  We met 3x/week.

At the time I had read John McCallum’s “Keys to Progress” book and one of the outines inspired me.  It was about progressive pulls.  In this program you started with an empty bar and added weight in 20-30lb increments. You started with the hang snatch, when you couldnt get 5 reps you switched to a hang clean and kept adding weight.  When you missed the clean you switched to an RDL, and finally you progressed to a max set of 5 on the deadlift.  Progressive pulls.

I decided to try this approach with the squat but not change movements.  So 3 days a week I started with 135 and did sets of 5 adding 20-30lbs on the bar and doing sets of 5 reps.  When I got to a weight that started feeling heavy I dropped the weight increments to 10lb jumps in weight.  When I felt it was a maximal set of 5 I called it a day and noted the weight in the journal.  The next time in the gym I looked at the weight and had to beat my previous best of 5 reps.  This could come in any increment possible.  5lbs, 10lbs, or more.  The size of the jump, obviously, depended on how I felt that day.  The key being that I HAD to beat my previous PR.

I went through this program for 8 weeks.  It was a grueling program with balls to the wall intensity.  At the end of the class I had squatted 405 for 5 reps.  405!  This was a strength increase of over 150lbs in 8 weeks!!

My bodyweight had increased by 10 lbs as well.

The other key to the program was milk.  See the old timers believed in squatting heavy and drinking milk as the keys to getting stronger, and I followed their advice, drinking milk at every meal and a big glass post workout.  You figure that was an extra 70-100g of protein every day.

What does this have to do with performance?

Well we know that relative strength is a key to getting a bigger vertical jump.

Well my relative strength at the start of the summer was : 250/185 = 1.35lb/bw

My relative strength 8 weeks later was: 450 1rm (estimated with 405 being 90%1rm) / 195 = 2.30lbs/bw or 58%

If I were to implement this program with an athlete it would be followed by a power program which included jump squats, bounding, vertical jumps, run up jumps, and perhaps depth jumps (if the squat phase included altitude drops)

This program is simple and effective.  I encourage all fo you to give it a shot.

Here is how it would look

M/W/F

Altitude drops 3-5×5

Squat 135 -> ? x5 increase weight 20-30lbs between every set, as it gets heavy drop increments to 10lbs.  Always beat your PR

Upperbody, what ever you wish pick an upper push, pull and train the guns too.

No added volume for the legs as this is a very intense program and recovery is improtant.  Also, don’t play ball or any thing else that may interfere with progress.

This could be called a concentrated strength block or just plain ol’ gettin’ after it in the weight room.  Remember you are trading 1 step backward for 5 steps forward so you vert may suffer but will increase a ton following the power block.

Enjoy

Alex

We all know that there are significant benefits of performing plyometric exercises.  Increases in speed strength, explosive strength, reactive ability, muslce stiffness, on the field performance to name a few.  In the past it has been said that one must improve their squat numbers to 1.5x body weight before engaging in plyometric exercises.

More recently strength coach Jay Schroeder has flipped this equation upside down by insisting that you must be able to absorb force before you can create force.  Coach Schroeder uses a variety of plyometric exercises to teach the body how to absorb force.  Thusly it appears that he thinks that one should engage in plyometric exercise before moving into force production (DE and ME weifhtlifting)

Now to hop around.  Don’t worry I will circle back by the end of the post so that this makes sense.

Recently I was reading an issue of Men’s Health (I know, everyones resource for cutting edge information).  Well what struck me about this issue and prompted me to plop down my $5 for a copy was an article titled something like “Everything you know about your muscles is wrong”.  Surely I am not wrong.  Am I?

Well the premise of the article is simple.  Your muscles are inclosed in sheaths of connective tissue (myofascia).  It was previously thought that these sheaths just connected the muscles together.  Research in the past few years has lead to a discovery that these sheaths contain neural organs and nerves.  This has lead to the concept that maybe the stretching and releasing of elastic tension in the sheaths is a major controller in how we move.  Perhaps these sheaths act not just as passive movers but primary movers.  The authors also note that when the myofasica tightens up that knots can form and proper movement patterns are impaired.  These movement impairments can be eliminates with finding the source of the impairment (it’s not always where the pain is) and then breaking it up through massage or various movement patterns.  In the article they mantion a simple leg circle drill that increases range of motion in the hamstring.  This kind of reminded me of Z-Health drills (not enough time to talk about this)

Anyone who knows about the works of Wannagetfast and inno-sport, and even Schroeder, knows that they place a heavy emphasis on movement efficiency.  For example in running, movement efficiency is associated with running economy where the runners learn to rely more heavily on the elastic contributions of connective tissue.  If trained properly this tissue can absorb and release a tone of energy which translated to a faster, more explosive athlete.  So how do we develop this ability, or even improve on our own natural myofascia?

Perhaps the answer lies in LDISOS or Extreme Isometrics.  Here is my thinking…

The holds are done in the stretch position.  This stretch should break up any myfascial knots allowing for free, unrestricted active ranges of motion.  Holding the stretch not onnly breaks up the knots BUT also serves as a teaching mechanism.  Since the stretch position is held vor a pretty long time (5 minutes is far longer than most static stretches are held for) and the myofascia has neural receptors it can communicate to the CNS that this myofascial neural length is OK, thus preventing the buildup of knots and scar tissue.  In addition since the  holds are active, there is constant communication with the CNS.

In addition to alleviating compensation patterns there is another potential benefit.  That being the build up of MORE myofascia.  Research has shown that connective tissue synthesis occurs when lactic acid levels are the highest.  Well in a LDISO blood flow is restricted for a very extended period of time.  Without oxygen the muscles rely on anaerobic metabolism with which lactic acid build up is a by product.  There is far more LA build up during LDISOS that what is attained normally thoguh weight training because blood flow is restricted.  This sends a powerful signal to the body to build more connective tissue.  And since the tissue is being stretched the odds are the new tissue will be void of knots, scar tissue, and any other imparments.

All of this extra myofascia is akin to placing a giant spring inside of your muscles.  Unfortunately this tissue, when built, tends to be quite non-elastic.  So how can we take this new development and make it more elastic?  How can we teach it to efficiently absorb and release energy?

Plyometrics!

See, in Schroeders system athletes begin with LDISOS before they move into plyos.  They must hold for 5 minutes for 40 consecutive sessions.  This may be the ammount of tome Jay has deemed necessary to rid the body of compensation patterns and stimulate the development of enough myofascia to commence training.  Of course inelastic tissue is more prone to inury so You would prime the tissue with reactive work to teach the tissue to become more elastic.  Once this is done (fixed compensation, development of adequate connective tissue, trained the tissue to absorb and release energy) the athlete begins weight training to put some horsepower in their muscles so that they can use the new springs even more effectively.

Now that I have circled back, the article in the magazine went into this old kettlebell stuff and some of Pavel’s teachings which, while interesting, are far from cutting edge now days.

Hopefully I have stimulated some braincells in you.  If yu are interested in football weight training, basketball weight training, or plyometric workouts, the addition of LDISOS may be benefit your program.

Until next time,

Alex

Evolutionary Athletics is THE leader in sports performance training.  Whether you are looking for information on football weight training, basketball weight training, plymoetrics workouts, speed workouts, or are just interested in getting stronger, faster, and jumping higher we are the resource for you!

Evolutionary Athletics is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Our vision is clear:

Take sports performance to a higher level.

To do this we have a simple, results based, philosophy:

1. Teach the body how to move properly
2. Improve the body’s ability to maintain proper athletic position
3. Improve the bodies ability to produce force
4. Teach the body how to produce force rapidly
5. Improve specific work capacity

As the industry leader in cutting edge information about football weight training, basketball weight training, plymoetrics workouts, speed workouts, getting stronger, faster, and jumping higher we are the resource for you!