This is not very complicated, as most of the time (I say most of the time meaning 9 out of 10) the average athlete will simply get faster and jump higher/further just by getting stronger.

I still don’t understand why more athletes and coaches won’t invest in the general physical preparedness of their athletes, but would rather shell out their hard-earned cash on “sport-specific” gadgets and gizmos that won’t do anything to get them stronger and moving better. I’ll take it a step further and say that the younger the athlete, the further away they should stay away from specialized “sport-specific” training centers and spend more of their time training with a competent strength coach or trainer to help get them stronger, resistant to injury, increase body awareness, etc.

Instead of focusing solely on 1 sport, year-round, I would like to see more young athletes participating in 2-3 sports while being involved in a properly designed strength and conditioning program. It used to be normal and encouraged that athletes participate in different sports each season, especially at a younger age. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see athletes specializing in 1 sport in high school, or even worse, in middle school. Playing multiple sports is a form of “cross-training” and helps to create athleticism, spatial/body awareness, and more importantly, prevent boredom and burnout.

OK, back to the topic at hand. Weight training for speed and power is pretty simple and needs to be focused on large, multi-joint movements first. Think about training movements and movements in multiple angles and planes, not just training muscles. To keep things very simple, you should devote each weight training session to training the entire body. Once you get stronger and more mature, you can start to break up the training into upper and lower body workouts, but for now, most athletes would do just fine performing full-body sessions. You’ll break the sessions down by movements (I got some of these basic principles and guidelines from Jason Ferruggia, owner of Renegade Strength and Conditioning in NJ):

1. Power/Speed Development movement (i.e. medicine ball throw or some sort of jumping exercise; if you’re technique is solid, you can also perform a clean, snatch, or jerk variation. 3-10 sets of 1-5, focusing on speed of the movement, not the load lifted.
   
2. Primary Barbell Lift (squat, deadlift, bench press, or military press) These have many variations, so get creative. 3-5 sets of 1-10 repetitions depending on time of year, athlete, age, etc. This is the time to push yourself and get stronger!
   
3. Upper Body Assistance Work: You can get pretty creative with this, but normally I will pair 1-3 exercises and rotate through each one of them until the desired number of sets and repetitions are achieved. Use your own bodyweight, dumbbells, or bands for this type of work; I like stuff like chin ups, dips, push ups, handstand push ups, dumbbell presses/rows, band pull aparts, etc.. 2-5 sets of 8-15 repetitions is a good range to stay within.
   
4. Lower Body/Trunk Assistance Work: Roughly the same guidelines as above, but this time you’ll want to pick a single leg exercise (optional), an abdominal movement, and a posterior chain movement (one that hits the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings). Again you can pair them to save time and make it more efficient; I like split squats, step ups, lunges, 45-degree hypers, back extension, reverse hyperextensions, planks, sit-ups, hanging leg raise, etc. 1-3 sets of 6-20 repetitions here is a good range (keep the single leg volume low starting out).
   
5. Finish with some sort of conditioning or finisher whether that be sled drags, medicine ball slams, sandbag loading, farmer walk, etc. Don’t go crazy on this though; if you’re after speed and strength, do just enough to maintain and challenge yourself, don’t do so much where it takes away from your goals.
   

Example:

1.) Clean 5 x 3

2.) Squat 5 x 5

3a.) DB Bench Press 3-5 x 10

3b.) DB Rows 3-5 x 10-12

3c.) Band Pull Aparts 3-5 x 15-20

4a.) 45-Degree Back/GHD Sit Up 2-3 x 15-20 each

5.) Battle Rope 3-5 x 30 seconds

Combine this with simple sprint work and you should be on your way to improved athletic performance. Get strong and you will more than likely get faster and jump higher/further.

PS- Don’t forget about your warm-up and mobility! Gotta be able to move, too!

Train hard,

John Cortese

These days it’s very trendy to use bands and chains for building muscle and strength. Several years back, I got caught up using chains and bands with almost everyone in my gym. After a couple years of doing this I realized that nobody was progressing any faster than they were before. It occurred to me that what we were doing was overkill and from then on, I kept the chains and bands reserved for only the strongest members of my gym. Now I don’t use them at all (or at least in that sense).

The fact is that there is no need to use bands or chains unless you are extremely strong. If your max squat is 225, squatting with bands and chains isn’t going to do much for you in the way of building muscle or gaining strength. In fact, it will be detrimental to your progress. Tons of people have gotten inhumanly strong for decades without ever using bands or chains and plenty of guys continue to do so today.

Unless you are capable of doing a full back squat, all the way to ground with no belt and pristine technique with 500 lbs, you have absolutely no business using bands or chains. These are advanced tools to pull out of the toolbox only at the times when you really need them. During your first several years of training all you need is a hammer and nail. Don’t search deeper in the toolbox for something you don’t need yet. If you get to 545 lbs and plateau there for a while then maybe it’s time to pull out the chains and bands. But not before then. The problem is that when you incorporate advanced methods before you need them you miss out on the potential huge gains that they could provide later on down the road when you really need them.

So layoff the bands and chains until you are really advanced and stick with more tools for building muscle, at least until your strength levels are at the point where the entire gym stops to watch when you squat or deadlift.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com

Hybrid Muscle Training for Sports

By: Mike Westerdal

Regardless of your body type or the type of training that your body responds to best, hybrid muscle training is all around, the most effective way to build muscle and get lean. Often times, guys ask me how hybrid training carries over into sports. Well, regardless of the sport, hybrid muscle training can help you be at the top of your game.

But did you know that there are also sports that by their very nature help you develop hybrid muscle? Actually, any sport that simultaneously incorporates resistance and cardio can be considered a hybrid activity. There are a number of sports that do this-let’s talk about some of them now.

Football: This is a phenomenal sport that incorporates hybrid muscle training. The heavy pads provide resistance and with the all the cardio that is involved in the sport, it helps build type III or hybrid muscle. Other aspects of football that involve hybrid training include blocking and training with sleds during practice. All of these are activities that require endurance (the cardio part) and the muscles to deliver sustained strength (the resistance part).

If you have any doubt that football is an awesome hybrid training technique that can build a powerful, muscular physique just look at guys like Adrian Peterson, Terrell Owens or retired stars like Herschel Walker. All three have amazing physiques-and it all is the result of hybrid muscle training.

Strongman: This is really is all about hybrid muscle training. Unlike say powerlifting where the goal is to achieve your one-rep max, strongman training simultaneously requires both strength and endurance. And as you know, the best way to develop these qualities is through hybrid training. Examples of hybrid training activities that you see in strongman competitions include the tire flip, log carrying, truck pulling and the keg toss, among others.

And if you have any doubt that strongman training won’t build a powerful, muscular physique, just take one look at Mariusz Pudzianowski and believe me, you’ll eat your words.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA): This one also incorporates hybrid muscle training-in fact, it’s essential. Look at the guys fighting in the UFC. Do you think jogging ten miles a day carries over into the octagon and is going to help a guy get in shape for fight? No-two minutes into the match and he’ll be winded. Why? Because the successful fighters have developed hybrid type III muscle that has strength, power and endurance. They need to develop long, sustainable strength. You don’t get that from ordinary training. When these guys train they have to mimic the moves they’ll be doing in the octagon-grappling, pulling and other things that go on in a real fight. Guys like Ken Shamrock, Matt Hughes and Randy Couture all have developed hybrid, type III muscle.

Highland games: Seriously, this is about as hybrid as it gets. Have you ever seen these events? Some of the hybrid training activities you’ll encounter in Highland games include the 56-pound shot put, the hammer throw with a 22-pound round metal ball attached to a handle, or the caber toss. This would have to be the signature event for the Highland games. The caber is a tapered log or pole that varies in height (roughly 19′-22′) and weight (100-130 pounds). They lift it, run with it and then heave it.

Lumberjack games: You’ve probably seen these on TV before. These games require participants to carry out feats of strength and endurance using extremely large and heavy logs. This one is 100% hybrid.

Arm wrestling: Your probably wouldn’t have thought of this one but yes, arm wrestling is most definitely a sport that incorporates hybrid activities. After all, it does require long-or sustained strength-and the only way to get that is through hybrid training.

Track & field: Besides the running, you’ve also got activities like the shot put and the javelin throw. Both of these are activities that require both strength and endurance.

Kettlebell competitions: Kettlebells have been around a long time. Their shape and handles make them ideal for hybrid training. Some of the activities you’ll see here that require long strength include the clean and snatch or the one- or two-armed kettlebell swing, among others.

CrossFit Competitions: These are the kinds of routines that are often touted as the “military” workouts so you’ll often see military and law enforcement guys participating in these events. Nearly all of the activities require strength and endurance.

So there you have my response to the question about how hybrid muscle training carries over into sports. As you can see, not only does hybrid training and the development of type III muscle fibers enhance your athletic performance in many sports some sports are even hybrid in their nature.

About The Author

Get my free report entitled, The Warrior Physique – Building The Super Hybrid Muscle. Click here to learn how you can rapidly build muscle and burn fat at the same time. Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight training magazine.

The 5 x 5 Training Program

By: Mike Westerdal

Owner, CriticalBench.com

Sometimes, we all get in a rut or hit a plateau and are looking for a routine to shake things up and kick-start the gains. And often, when this happens, guys start looking for the newest “hot” routine they see in a magazine. But more often than not, the answer is not found in what’s new and hot, but rather, it’s found in what is tried and true. If this might be you, then you definitely ought to consider the 5×5 workout. It’s a readily adaptable time-tested routine that is ideal for beginners and advanced trainers alike.

The foundation of 5×5 is pretty simple-five reps and five sets of each exercise. You get a 90-second rest between sets and a three minute break between exercises if your goal is strength or a 90-second break between exercises if your objective is gaining size. You can also choose something in the middle-the choice is yours and depends entirely on what you hope to achieve.

Because of its intensity, powerlifters often use the 5×5 program to realize gains in both size and strength. It’s also an ideal training regimen for someone who has been lifting higher reps for a while before starting a serious powerlifting program.

The basic 5×5 program can be done either as a split or full-body routine. You can do a full-body workout 2-3 times a week or, you can alternate upper body one day and lower body the next or any other combination that you’d like. Whatever you decide, you can maximize your results by focusing on compound exercises-which use multiple muscle groups-rather than isolation exercises that only focus in a single muscle.

To make the most of 5×5 you should use the maximum weight you can lift. When you’re able to do 5 sets of 5 with that weight, increase the weight by 5 – 10% until you can again do 5 sets of 5 and so on. You can also increase the intensity by shortening your rest periods between sets and exercises.

Here are some sample routines (note: because the 5×5 program is intense, always be sure to do several warm-up sets before getting started). Remember that the 5×5 routine is highly adaptable so come up with combinations that work for you. In any case though, keep your workout to a maximum of one-hour.

Full-body workout:

This is a great full-body workout you can do three times a week:

Monday: Bench press, bent-over rows, squat and deadlift;

Wednesday: Weighted dips, weighted chin-ups, deadlift and hanging leg raises (just 2 sets of 5 reps for the leg raises);

Friday: incline bench press, front squat, glute/hamstring raise; renegade row (with dumbbells or kettlebells), and saxon sidebends;

Split routines:

Here are a couple of good split 5×5 routines to get you started:

Split one:

Monday/Thursday: Bench press, bent-over row, barbell curl and tricep push-downs;

Wednesday/Friday: Barbell squat, glute/hamstring kickback, seated calf-raise, hanging leg raises;

Split two: This is an advanced 6-day a week routine (alternate A/B):

Monday/Thursday (chest/back): A) Incline bench press, wide grip pull-up (palms facing you), weighted rope crunches; B) Chest dips, one-arm dumbbell rows, weighted lying leg raises;

Tuesday/Friday (shoulders/arms): A) Upright row; close-grip bench press, preacher curls; B) Rear delt rows, triceps pushdowns, incline hammer curls;

Wednesday/Saturday (legs): A) Squats, lying leg curls, calf raises; B) Leg press, stiff-legged deadlifts, calf press;

One of the things I love about 5×5 is that it is highly adaptable to meet your particular lifting goals. Since 5×5 has been around for so long, it’s easy to find plenty of proven routines for just about anyone-beginners, powerlifters, high-intensity trainers and lots more. Because of its intensity, whether you’re doing a full-body workout, a split routine or another modified version of the program, you should do the 5×5 program on a 12-week cycle. Work it hard for 12 weeks and at the end of the cycle take a week or two off from the gym to give your body a chance to recover.

Particularly when it comes to bodybuilding, the answers to what we seek are not necessarily found by looking for the latest and greatest but by looking to the past, learning from the wisdom and experience of the greats who came before us. If you’re looking to make gains in both size and strength, and you think you’re up to the challenge, then you might want to give the 5×5 workout a try-you won’t be disappointed.

Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight lifting magazine. It hosts the Internet’s largest FREE exercise database and is the home of many workout routines including the Critical Bench Program to help you increase your bench press. Just click the image below to see what the critical bench program can do for ya!

*Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Westerdal

**Below is a guest post from Mike Westerdal, owner and creator of CriticalBench.com

Enjoy,

-John Cortese

For a lot of bodybuilders, competitive athletes and guys who just like to work out, sore muscles are the marker for a “good” workout. If you’re muscles aren’t sore the next day or the day after that, then you probably didn’t work out hard enough-that’s what a lot of us have been taught to believe, anyway. But is that really true? Is it necessary for us to train hard enough so that every time we work out our muscles are sore? Let’s find out.

For years, fitness and medical experts thought that sore muscles were the result of lactic acid building up after an intense training sessions. Lactic acid is produced when you exercise or lift really intensely-when the muscles are screaming for more oxygen than what the blood can possibly deliver at that moment. Because the body can’t deliver the oxygen the muscles want, it compensates by beginning another process-one that works in the absence of oxygen. Lactic acid is a by-product of this process. And since it is an acid, it causes us to “feel the burn.”

So while on the surface it seems to make sense that lactic acid could be the culprit in causing sore muscles after an intense training session, it’s just not so. In reality, the lactic acid gets washed away from the muscles pretty quickly-it doesn’t hang around for hours or days. But, the muscle soreness we’re talking about here doesn’t show up for anywhere from as little as 8 to up to 36 hours after we train. So if can’t be lactic acid causing the soreness, what is it?

Modern science points to micro-traumas…

..as the real perpetrator that causes the post-training muscle soreness. Micro-traumas are just what they sound like: small abrasions, tears or otherwise localized damage to muscle fibers-specifically, the membranes and contractile elements. Researchers have taken biopsies of muscles suffering from training-induced micro-traumas discovering that the z-bands were bleeding, causing their function to be disrupted.

The z-bands are filaments that hold the muscle fibers together as they slide over one another while contracting. When they’re damaged and bleeding-even though it’s microscopic-the muscle fibers become swollen and of course, sore.

They’ve even found a way to evaluate just how badly the muscles have been damaged by measuring the level of creatine phosphokinase (CPK) in the bloodstream. CPK is normally found inside of the muscle fibers but the when the fibers are damaged the CPK is released into the bloodstream. The higher the level of CPK in the bloodstream, the greater the damage to the muscles, which means more soreness.

Some people say that stretching after you train can alleviate the severity of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)-which is what it’s being called these days. However, knowing what we now know about what causes the soreness, we realize that this just isn’t true. While stretching-before and after a workout-is always a good idea, it won’t do much of anything to reduce or eliminate sore muscles the following day because micro-traumas are the real source of the pain, not lactic acid.

So is muscle soreness necessary? The answer is that to some degree yes, it is needed. It’s the stress or trauma that comes from lifting hard and heavy that causes our muscles to grow and become stronger. If you never train to the point where your muscles are sore the next day then the truth is, you’re not training hard enough-and you’re not seeing the results you’d probably like to see. On the other hand, ignoring the soreness and forging blindly ahead training “through the pain” is not the answer either. If you don’t pay attention to what your body is saying, you’ll pay the price sooner or later and wind up injuring yourself-possibly very seriously.

The secret to managing the soreness is two-fold:

1) increase your workload gradually. Don’t try and show off by making huge leaps in the amount of weight you’re lifting-give your muscles time to adapt.

2) Allow your body plenty of time to rest and recover between training sessions. Remember, the rest and recovery part of bodybuilding is equally as important as the lifting weights part. It’s during this process that you’re muscles are actually growing-not when you’re working out.

So while it shouldn’t really be your goal to completely eliminate training-induced muscle soreness it is important to know that you can manage it and minimize its impact on your body and your training routine.

This will be a series of posts about strength and conditioning for youth athletes; read Part I below.

This is a topic that I’m very passionate about and I have some strong views on, so bare with me here while I shed some light on why I feel even youth athletes need to be involved in some form of basic strength training. Hear me out…

For some reason, we’ve been brainwashed and told that you have to be a certain age to participate in a structured strength training program. This is due to the fact that most people associate strength training with bodybuilders they see on TV or in the latest magazine. This is the exact opposite of what we want to associate to our youth athletes.

Now, when I use the term “youths” I’m speaking of athletes ranging from 8-17 years old. Every age group have different needs and the type of training they would participate in. The goal of a strength training program for a child at the age of 8 would differ GREATLY than one for 17 year old Johnny who is a 200 lb runningback. Make sense so far?

It makes me cringe when I see a high school aged kid who is so out of shape, weak, immobile, and tight that I want to scream. Yet, they are playing a sport often year-round; club team, travel squad, all-stars, regular season, etc. This is just an overuse injury waiting to happen. Whatever happened to playing multiple sports? If you are going to subject a 10 year old to full contact football but hesitate allowing this young athlete to learn how to move his body, decrease risk of injury, improve relative body strength and fitness, and just feel better overall with a basic strength training program, then we as a culture have sorely missed the boat.

I have spoken about this before, but we need to quit looking for quick fixes for NOW (i.e. wanting little 10 year-old Billy to decrease his 40 yard dash time because he HAS to be the best in youth football; this is a great recipe for burn out and quitting the sport because it’s no longer FUN) and start looking at LONG TERM ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT. I firmly believe in this. You must always look long-term in order to keep training fun, keep the kids coming back for more because they WANT to and ENJOY it! Yes, strength training CAN be fun; what a concept!

This post sounds a bit like a tangent and ramble, but enough is enough. Strength training, while properly supervised by a competent and experienced coach, is one of the safest activities you can take part in. The younger the athlete, the simpler the program should be. For example, if I had a group of 10-year old football players, they may see me twice  a week for 30 minutes at a time. Our focus would simply be improving body awareness, coordination, relative body strength (i.e. getting really good at moving their own bodies with movements such as push-ups, squats, walking lunges, leap frog jumps, light medicine ball throws, jump rope, hand walking, gymnastics, etc), and getting some good mobility training in while incorporating this type of stuff into a game-like atmosphere. You can just see how fun and rewarding this type of basic training can be; especially since nowadays most kids see P.E. in school as a chore and the lack of physical fitness and strength in the average teen is pretty sad. Maybe if we shut off the TV and X-Box we would have less injuries in sports and more kids actually enjoying being active. Just a thought.

So, what’s the real truth about strength and conditioning for youth athletes? It CAN be done, if it’s done RIGHT and it’s FUN. Here are a couple guidelines I like to follow for youth strength training programs:

• Keep it SIMPLE. The younger the athlete, the less complex their training needs to be. No need for fancy workouts or exercises.
  
• Monitor frequency and duration. A younger athlete’s training frequency (i.e. how often per week or month they trained) and duration (length of a session) would be less than an 18 year old’s.
  
• Master bodyweight exercises first before looking for additional resistance.
  
• Use games and team-building style sessions whenever possible. If you can incorporate strength training into a game or competition, they will forget they are even “working out” anyways. Keep it fun!
  
• Have a plan and make sure whatever these kids are doing that a purpose is behind it.
  

If a child can be subject to a full-contact sport, then they should be involved in some sort of program that lets them learn how to move their bodies safely and properly, strengthen muscles to decrease risk of injury, and build confidence and self-esteem that will carry over into a positive experience in sports.

Stay tuned for Part II, if you have any questions feel free to leave them below.. What are your thoughts on youth athletes and strength training?

See ya!

John Cortese

How To Gain Muscle

By Jason Ferruggia

When it comes to the question of how to gain muscle, there are many things you must know and do. But, often times what is more important than what you should do is what you shouldn’t do. With that in mind here are five muscle gaining mistakes you should avoid at all costs.

1. Training Too Often- In order to grow you must provide your body with the optimal stimulus and then back off and allow it time to rest and recover. Without ample rest time you will never grow to your maximal potential. For this reason I recommend that you don’t train with weights more than 3-4 days per week.

2. Training Strictly For the Pump- Far too often I see skinny guys in the gym pumping away 10-15 rep sets with weights lighter than my grandmother would use. Yes, high volume training leads to a great pump but a great pump does not always lead to muscle growth. You can get a pump by treading water for a few minutes but everyone knows that won’t turn you into a mass monster any time soon. Chasing the pump should only be a small concern in your workout; after you have gotten your more productive work out of the way.

3. Not Cycling Your Training Intensity- Overzealous skinny guys love to work themselves into the ground. They figure the harder they work the quicker the gains will come. The problem is that when you constantly train to failure you will eventually burn out your central nervous system and this will greatly slow down your recovery and thus the rate at which you build muscle. If you want to make long lasting gains you have to back off once in a while and give your body a break. After a period of reduced intensity you can ramp back up again and repeat the cycle.

4. Using the Wrong Exercise Order- One thing that is often overlooked by those interested in how to gain muscle is exercise order. Always start your workouts with the most demanding exercise. So if you are doing a clean or any other form of explosive lift or jump this exercise would usually come before squats or chin ups. If you are not doing explosive lifts or speed work, the biggest compound exercise should almost always come first. Therefore a deadlift would usually come before a chin up. Also, the heaviest, lowest rep sets should be done early in the workout and the higher rep work should be done at the end. There are exceptions to this rule and times when breaking it could actually be quite beneficial but for the most part his is how you should plan your training.

5. Not Using a Training Journal- If you want to get bigger and stronger you absolutely must record each and every workout you do in some type of notebook or training journal. This way you can know what is working and what isn’t and you can also measure your progress over time. The most important element of the training journal is that it gives you a quantifiable goal to beat every time you enter the gym. There is no way anyone (unless you have a photographic memory) can remember all of the details of every workout they do. So without a record of it you are just guessing and never know if you are doing more or less than the previous workout. And if you want to get bigger and stronger you had better be doing more; be it weight, sets or reps

Now you know how to gain muscle fast by avoiding those five deadly mistakes. Train hard and stay dedicated; you will be outgrowing your wardrobe before you know it.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to teach people how to gain muscle fast. He is the head training advisor for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/

Supercompensation occurs after a recovery period from consecutive weeks of hard training. Do it right and you'll find new personal records!

What is a Deload week?

A deload week simply is when you significantly reduce overall training volume, intensity, frequency, or a combination of different factors. I have used all 3 before in my own training and all hold merit. I personally favor reducing overall training volume but keeping the intensity on the higher end (75-90% range). This still allows you to maintain strength from the loading or overreaching period from the previous phases while allowing your body to recover and express your true levels of strength, speed, and fitness. Honestly though, even if you were to slightly decrease training intensity (percentage of your 1 rep maximum lifted) you aren’t going to lose much strength if any at all.

How to Deload

Luckily this isn’t very hard. You simply have to make minor adjustments to your overall training plan. (You do have a plan, right?) Let’s say for example you’ve been training on a 4-day upper/lower split. A sample lower body day might look something like this:

Week 7

Monday- Lower

1A.) Back Squat 6 x 4 (worked up to 345 x 4)

2A.) Bulgarian Split Squat 3 x 10

2B.) GHR 3 x 8-12

3A.) Ab wheel/Back Extension Superset 2-3 x 12-15

Backward Sled Drag x Max distance in 5 minutes

During your deload week, you simply would reduce training volume by 50% and reduce training intensity to around 70-75%.

Week 8 (Deload)

Monday-Lower

1A.) Back Squat 4 x 3 x 70-75% estimated 1RM

2A.) Bulgarian Split Squat 2 x 8

2B.) GHR 2 x 8

3A.) Ab Wheel/Back Extension Superset 2 x 10-12

Conditioning Optional*

It doesn’t look like much, but that’s the idea for a deload week. You should be able to get in and out of the weight room in less than 45 minutes tops. And that’s assuming your warm-up is around 10-12 minutes. Every session should leave you feeling refreshed. You should also pay special attention to warm up and regeneration techniques during this time. This is a week devoted to recovery and allowing the body to rebound from an intense loading phase.

When to Deload and Planning Ahead

Typically, the deload or unloading week would occur every 4 or 5 weeks in a perfect world. But everyone responds differently to training and loading. I’ve gone 8-9 weeks with training very hard without ever stopping to deload, but looking back it was pretty foolish. So how can this be implemented? In my opinion you should allow yourself 1 week on every 4^th or 5^th week during a training cycle to deload; not only is this important physically, it is very important mentally and emotionally as well. So assuming you plan ahead at least 12 weeks, on every 4^th week you would take a week to reduce training volume and intensity.

After a period of progressively overloading the athlete with volume and training that they aren’t typically used to, a period of regeneration and recovery time must be used in order for supercompensation to occur (refer to above graph to see an illustration of what I mean) and the athletes true state of fitness to shine through. “Fatigue masks fitness”; in other words, you will not allow yourself to truly express personal best levels of performance if you are constantly in a state of overreaching and fatigue.

Plan accordingly for this to occur to help prevent injuries, keep the athletes fresh, and constantly look for new personal bests in strength and speed.

What to Expect

If you’re doing it correctly, you’ll feel very refreshed and ask “that’s it”? Again, don’t over think this and second guess yourself. Like Jim Wendler has stated on deload weeks “You won’t get weaker during this period. If you do, it’s all in your mind”. Training is a long-term progression and should be planned with periodic recovery/light/back-off (whatever you want to call it) weeks that help prevent injury and constant overreaching or chronic fatigue.

Do this right and you’ll be on your way to feeling great, breaking records, and asking yourself “why the hell have I not been doing this before?”

‘Til Next time…

John Cortese

PS- Questions or comments? Feel free to leave me some love below!!

Hope you’re doing well.

I often get asked frequently about getting RESULTS and the best way to get there. After all, that’s what every person is after right? Results-oriented training programs should be the backbone of any person’s overall program that is offering training services to athletes and/or clients.

Don't turn this into some mind-maze!

With this being in mind, there is NO perfect program. Every training program has it’s minor (or major) flaws, but if you follow some simple and basic principles, you will still reap the benefits you seek. No matter you’re looking to get stronger, get faster, lose some body fat, or simply get in better shape and feel better, you MUST adhere to these steps to ensure the work you’re putting in will pay off in the end!

#1 Record EVERYTHING: Everything you do inside and outside of the gym will affect the results you are after. Obviously, right? Yet people still do not understand why sleeping only 4 hours the night before a training session left them feeling like crap, or having a couple beers per night over the course of a week or 2 still had them only losing 1-2 pounds instead of what they really should have been. I don’t mean you have to write down everything you do in a given day with extreme detail, but if you’re serious enough about reaching your goals (and I know you are if you’re reading this) then at least write down your workout you did for the day (with weight used, duration, etc) , how you felt, how much you slept the night before, approximate food intake for the day. Doing this will take some practice but over time it will develop into a necessary habit. If you can record it, you can improve it.

As simple as a pen and paper!

#2 Be Consistent! Don’t expect full results if you’re giving half-ass effort to a training program. If you skip a workout here and there, they will lead to two missed workouts in a week, then three.. It’s a big snowball effect and I’ve seen it happen time and time again. Stick to the plan, be consistent and you won’t be disappointed. I’ve found the best strategy for this is finding a small group of people to train with. This instills motivation, accountability, and a constant environment that breeds success. If you train alone, it makes it much harder to tell yourself “I’ll go tomorrow” when in reality you probably won’t. This is why I’m such a big proponent of group training.

Training in groups truly brings out the best in you!

#3 Every Rep Counts! This almost falls in line with the above, but if you’re half-assing the entire workout from start to finish, you may as well just pack up and go home. Every single rep, including warm ups should be 100% laser focused. Sloppy repetitions in the warm up instills bad motor patterns and technique that carry over to any activity you perform in the actual workout itself. Again, once you set foot in the gym or wherever you train, you should be there for business. It should NOT be a social hour to discuss the latest trends and news. It should be a time to let go of whatever is bothering you and ATTACK that workout like it’s your last. Seriously.. I want you to be honest with this one. You either have gotten better, or you’ve taken a step backwards. Do not waste ONE SINGLE effort! How many of us can say they left it all out every single time you trained? If more people could say YES to that answer, they would be much happier with their results.

Every.. Rep.. Counts!

#4 You Can’t Out-Train a Shitty Diet! I got this tip from one of the top strength coaches in the world,  Jason Ferruggia of Renegade Training Systems. It makes total sense, doesn’t it? Why put in all the hard work that comes with training, to squash that by eating like complete shit? You are what you eat (Seriously! But go ahead and insert some dirty joke here if you feel the need!) Do you want to be fueled by pizza, beer, chips, and candy? Or do you want to be fueled by foods that will help you build muscle, lose fat, and feel better? Keeping it very simple, but stick to natural-based foods i.e. something that can be killed or grown (meats, nuts, vegetables, fruits, some grains, some dairy, etc) Don’t over-think it. If you have more questions specifically on nutrition, I will address that in a future post.I understand we’re all HUMAN, but there has to come a time when you stop making excuses and justifying your actions that led to YOU not losing the weight or getting stronger, faster, etc..

Probably not the best way to build muscle or lose body fat.. But it's fun right?!

#5 Pick a program and STICK TO IT! It’s the funniest thing. There’s so much information out there now available to the public that it can get extremely confusing. One week someone will find some great, “innovative” training program and give it a whirl, then they’ll talk to a friend and hear about some other program and try that, etc and continue this trend for weeks and wonder WHY they are making ZERO progress. Your body needs time to ADAPT to a given stimulus; if you keep throwing in new variables and keep changing you’ll just be spinning your wheels. Find a trainer, coach, or decent program that suits YOU and stick to it for at least 12 weeks. Yes, 12 weeks. You need to give it some time to work it’s course! None of this short term 4 week stuff. If we were more concerned with the long-term success rather than short, quick fixes, we’d all be better off.

After all, you want this to be a lifestyle right?

Keep up the great work and remember that if you stick to these 5 basic principles, you WILL get results regardless of how “good” or “bad” a given training program is (to some extent, but we’ll discuss this later!)

See ya!

John Cortese

PS- Leave me a comment below! Questions? Leave ‘em there too! If you liked this post, feel free to spread the word!

We talked for about an hour on the methods of where to begin in order to create a great training program. Included in the interview are some great points. You can expect to hear:

-Purpose of Training (the goal)

-What factors need to be addressed in order to achieve the goal?

-Our TOP 3-5 Easy, basic principles that every person should follow in order to reap the maximum benefits.

-Are all athlete’s programs exactly the same? Do you train youth athletes the same as high school, college, or pro?

Just click the link below to listen in! You can right-click and save if you’d like.

Enjoy!

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Program_Design_101 < ==== Click the link to listen to the interview!

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-John Cortese

PS- If we get 15 comments or questions on this audio, we’ll set up a call where we outline an entire 4-8 week strength and conditioning program step-by-step, as well as post it up for you to see and use for yourselves! If enough interest is out there, I’ll make it happen!