Getting Stronger In-Season

One of the coolest things for us coaches at SAPT is to see the athletes continue to arrive at our facility to get after it, even when in-season. We have the special privilege of working with a large group of HIGHLY motivated individuals.....those individuals that are willing to drive 30 minutes (and more) to SAPT to train late in the evening immediately after they get out of their sports practice. Sometimes they show up ready to kick down the doors of the gym, and other times they  arrive feeling pretty beat up, but the point is they understand that the season is a great opportunity to get a leg up on the competition. While many of their friends and rivals are going home to lie down on the couch after practice, they drive over to SAPT to get their trainification on (yeah, I suppose I made up that word....).

Similarly, when their practice/game is canceled because of bad weather, they schedule in a last-minute appointment at SAPT to become stronger, more powerful, and undergo recovery modalities while their competition takes the time off to sit on the couch and watch late-afternoon sitcoms.

I think it goes without saying that it's extremely motivating to us coaches to watch them remain consistent throughout the demands of in-season sport, and it certainly makes our long days worth it, to have an opportunity to help further the physical qualities of our athletes.

As an example, catcher Red Dowdell (recently selected to the *All-Met baseball team for 2012, and will be playing DI baseball at VMI next year), has been driving 30+ minutes, 3 days a week, out to SAPT to train late in the evening after practice. Just this week he hit a 405lb deadlift, a 80lb increase compared to what he was pulling before the season!

And who says you can't get stronger in-season? This showed on the field, too, as his poptime decreased from 1.95 to 1.88, the speed of his throws increased from 80mph to 86mph, on top of the fact that his doubles, triples, and RBIs shot up. Not too shabby if you ask me.

He is just one example of MANY of our athletes who has made enormous strength/power gains throughout this past season, and we couldn't be more proud of each and every one of them.

I say all this to drive home the point that it is certainly possible, and should be desired, to get stronger while in-season, be you a high school athlete or even an adult runner/triathlete (where the "season" tends to last 6+ months).

Many people assume that training will only make you sore and tired for your sport-specific practice, but this is only if you don't understand how to design+implement the training plan appropriately, and fail to manage the competing demands and training stressors throughout the week. If you have a qualified coach to walk you through the process (Wink wink, nudge nudge, click HERE), the sky is the limit with what can be accomplished. While your opponents strength gains are diminishing rapidly by the time playoffs arrive (assuming they haven't trained since pre-season), you're only stronger and more ready to go than ever.

*A pretty freaking huge deal, for those of you who live outside the Metro/DC area. SAPT is also extremely proud of our other athletes who made the highly coveted All-Met teams, to be announced next week

A Witness to Female Strength

Today’s post is in honor of “Female Strength”. I had the privilege of seeing two feats of strength this past week. The first was with three of our softball girls who train with us at SAPT. They had their senior night last Friday and it was pretty cool to watch them perform on the field. Not only did I get to see them beat the other team 11-0 but I got to watch Nancy lay out for a line drive up the middle. I’m pretty sure at one point she was parallel to the ground. Did I mention that their team has 3 captains and it just so happens that all 3 girls who train at SAPT fill those slots. Coincidence?

These girls can drive me crazy sometimes but their work ethic and general awesomeness makes me feel privileged that I get to coach them. Great job girls!

The second feat of female greatness comes from one of our adult clients, Lisa. For anyone who reads our blog I’m sure you already know the legend of Lisa. This woman refuses to be weak and proves it just about every 12 weeks. I got to watch Lisa retest her bench press and deadlift from 12 weeks ago this past Saturday. Check out the video below to see her 15lbs bench press PR and her 35lbs deadlift PR!

2012 USAPL Richmond Open: Meet Results

I competed in the 2012 USAPL Richmond Open this past weekend and it was a huge success for me.  I hit a PR in the squat and deadlift as well as my meet total!  I competed at 181 and weighed in Saturday morning at 180.9 after cutting about 10lbs (first time I’ve had to cut weight).  For anyone who read my post last week you know that I was very unsure going into the meet so for me to come out with PRs and meeting my goal of an 1100lbs total (finished with 1136lbs)is a huge deal for me.  So without wasting any more time here is the video compilation of my attempts...

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The only thing that even remotely ruffled my feathers as far as judging went was on my squat.  On my first attempt I got red lighted for my depth even though I felt I was below parallel.  Then on my second I got a white light but the judge still told me I was almost high.  So for good measure on my third attempt I decided to hang out in the bottom so there wouldn’t be any question.

Bench press went alright.  I was hoping to get around 325 but after my second attempt I only took a little jump.  After all the trouble I’d been having with my shirt I was just glad to get on the board.  After watching the videos I noticed a bunch of problems.  My arch wasn’t as big as it could have been, I tucked my elbows too much then I didn’t flare them on the way up (this causes a loss in leverage), and for the position I started in I hit to low on my chest which threw off my whole stroke.

My deadlift went a lot better than expected.  I actually feel like I could have gone much heavier on my last one but whatever I got the weight and the total. I still need to sit back into my heels more and pull back more as opposed to standing straight up which is very evident on my last attempt.

Right now my upcoming goals are to get stronger and continue to refine my technique on my lifts.  I don’t like saying that I have to work on my weak points because as far as I’m concerned everything is weak and it all needs to be worked on.  Is this the wrong attitude to have? Absolutely not, as I’ve stated before I don’t like feeling content.  The moment I feel content and that I’m strong is the moment that I stop working hard and I don’t ever want to stop working hard.

I want to congratulate Carson on his first meet, he did a great job and we are all very proud of him.  I also want to thank everyone who came out to support me and who helped me out with my training and everything else.  Thanks to Gabe Naspinski who did my programming and also congratulations to him as well for totaling 2100 pounds at his meet in Tampa! Sean was a great training partner and it was a shame he couldn’t attend but he had some very important things to do in New York but thanks again man!  My friend and current SAPT intern Tadashi was my handler for the whole thing and did an awesome job taking the stress off me, wrapping my knees, picking weights, etc. so thanks a lot man I couldn’t have done it without you.  Steve was there to handle Carson but helped me out as well, he is a great friend and I’m glad he came down.

Tim Henriques was in attendance with his powerlifting team as well.  Tim is someone that I look up to in this industry and for him to help out and lend his support like he did was a huge deal for me so thanks Tim!

SAPT’s longtime client and friend Ron came down, which was awesome that he would take a whole Saturday to support Carson and I, thanks Ron!  Two of my buddies who I’ve been friends with for as long as I can remember came out as well which was cool for me to share this experience with them, thanks guys.  Part of my family made the trek to Richmond too.  This meant the world to me so thanks to my sisters, Sissy and Stephanie and to my nephew Trevor who is one of my best friends so that was doubly awesome that he came out.

Last but certainly not least I really want to thank my girlfriend Shannon for everything she did, has done, and will do.  She learned very quickly how important competing in powerlifting is for me and she jumped right on board. Without any hint of boredom or annoyance she listens to me day in and day out talk about my training successes and struggles which very few people can pull off.  She watches my videos and reads my articles and doesn’t think twice about it.  She made the trip with me to Philadelphia to spend two days watching a powerlifting meet that I wasn’t even in!  She even drove Tadashi and me to this meet and spent 7 hours waiting to film me and support me for only the 3 total minutes that I was on the platform.  I am truly lucky to have her in my life so thank you Shannon, I love you very much!

Congrats to Carson Eschmann at the USAPL Richmond Open!

This past Saturday I, along with some of the SAPT crew, traveled down to Richmond for the USAPL Richmond Open powerlifting meet. The entire event was a blast, the energy in the room was infectious, and it was a great opportunity to support fellow competitors and network with some strength coaches in the Northern Va area. I had the privilege of coaching one of our high school athletes, Carson, through his first powerlifting meet down in Richmond. And he rocked it!!

(SAPT intern Tadashi is on the far left, and Carson is in the right-middle. Ignore the other two clowns)

Even though Carson only trained 3x/week with us leading up to the meet (and sometimes less, due to college visits and illness), he set PRs on all of his lifts, and went 9 for 9 on his attempts; something that I think can only be appreciated by those who have competed themselves and have faced the rigors of competition judging. I might also add that he shined above all of his peers with regards to exercise technique, and placed first in his age group/weight class.

Here is a brief video showcasing his 3rd attempt for each lift:

I was going to list a few of the reasons why what Carson set out to do/accomplish is so remarkable, especially considering he is still in freaking high school!  Mike Robertson already wrote an EXCELLENT article over at t-nation.com on the topic, however, so I'll direct you there:

7 Reasons Everyone Should do a Powerlifting Meet

(^^^Click Me^^^)

Read the above article, and then give Carson a high five when you're done.

SAPT coach Ryan Wood also competed, and did awesome, but I'm pretty sure he's going to discuss his meet for his blog post on Thursday so I'm not going to steal his thunder now (even though I totally could.....muahahah).

On another note, I place 100% blame on Carson for causing me to split the entire backside of my favorite pair of cargo shorts. Not because his deadlift is so awesome (even though his deadlift certainly does cause many an unsuspecting victim to destroy his or her back of the pants), but because, while in the warm-up room, I was helping Carson get ready for his opening deadlift attempt, and, while leaning over like so, felt+heard a very distinct:

riiiiiiipppppp

moving from top to bottom down my shorts:

Yep. I had to then spend the entire rest of the powerlifting meet (and the remainder of my weekend in Richmond) walking around with a gaping hole in the backside of my shorts. Curse you, Carson!!!

2012 USAPL Richmond Open: Opening Attempts

The 2012 USAPL Richmond Open is a couple days away and I’ve officially switched into competition mode.  This has been a very up and down training cycle.  I’m attributing this to trying to get used to my gear and my own impatience.  This is my first geared competition (single-ply) and I spent FAR too much time trying to get a lot of weight out of my gear.  I rushed into trying to get a lot of support out of my gear which in hindsight was the worst thing I could have done, why?  People spend years trying to figure out and use their equipment correctly; I tried to figure it all out in about 11 weeks.  This took all of my energy and focus off the NUMBER ONE thing…. Getting stronger!  Instead of spending those 11 weeks trying to get the most weight out of my equipment I should have just been trying to get stronger.  After all this time I’ve gotten VERY little help out of my equipment and didn’t get much stronger at all.  It was extremely impatient and immature of me to do that and trust me when I say I have learned from my mistakes.  I know now that learning the gear will come I just need to focus on getting strong.  With all that said I’ve sat down and examined everything that has gone on and what I hope to accomplish out of the meet and it’s quite simple…. Perform to the best of my abilities and get at least an 1100 pound total. I put all of this behind me a couple days ago and am now completely focused on the positive.  I can tell everyone one thing, no one will compete as hard as me and no one will leave it all on the platform like I will.

Opening Attempts...

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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.  

-Theodore Roosevelt

3 Tips to Improve Your Bench Press

I'll get straight to the point with this one.  Everyone loves to bench press including myself but very few do it right.  Why do something unless you're going to do it correctly?  Try these simple tips to improve your bench. 1.  If you don’t set up correctly your bench will suffer…

I’ll walk you through my set up; keep in mind you don’t have to do it exactly like this but I have had success with it and I feel I get tighter on the bench than most people.   Start with your chest under the bar and set your feet, this becomes your first base of support (I choose to leave my heels on the ground).  Leave your feet in that position as you slide your body through; while sliding through start to arch your thoracic spine and pull your shoulder blades back and down (retract and depress).  Once you are in this position push your upper back and head into the bench while keeping your butt on the bench; these become your other base of support.  Congratulations you now have a good set up and if you are doing it correctly you should feel extremely uncomfortable; almost cramping in your upper back it’s so tight.  Do this even in your warm-ups, I don’t care if its 115lbs or 315lbs each set up should be the same.

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2.  Always have the intent to move the bar FAST!

I feel like this is a no brainer but I guess not.  You need to go fast and if you’re not fast then at least try and go fast (that would be me).  Having this intent to move fast during the CONCENTRIC portion (upward portion) is going to recruit higher threshold motor units allowing you to accelerate with more force thus getting you stronger. So your press should be nice and controlled on the way down, quick pause on the chest and BOOM!  Lastly, if you are grinding out reps then you aren’t moving fast so you should oh I don’t know, DROP THE WEIGHT! I just wanna go fast!

 3.  Do upper back work….. All the time

I don’t care if it’s an upper body day or a lower body day, you should be doing some kind of upper back work every day.  A strong back will help your bench press.  It’s going to allow you to get tighter on the bench, control the eccentric better, and utilize your lats more.  Right now my upper body days consist of two horizontal pulls (any type of row variation) ranging from 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps and my lower body days consist of a vertical pull (lat pull down, pull-ups, neutral grip pull-ups) and scapular retraction work (banded W’s or band pull-a-parts) usually in the 30-50 rep range and I break it up however I want depending on how I’m feeling that day.