If you search through the archives here at T-Nation, you'll find hundreds of programs you can try. In fact, there are probably enough for you to rotate through for the rest of your training career without ever having to complete the same one twice.
However, I'd venture to guess that most of you aren't here just because you want to be told exactly what to do. Rather, in the process, you want to learn why you're doing something, and how to eventually be able to do a better job of programming for yourself.
It's no different than being a guy who's given a sample diet plan — but wants to know what to order off the menu when eating out; a little education on thinking on the fly goes a long way.
So, to that end, I want to use this article as a means of educating you on how to take that next step. The 11 tips that follow should help you progress the strength exercises in your program from one month to the next to make them more challenging.
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The question of what weight to use in a resistance training program comes up very commonly not only among beginners, but also intermediate and experienced lifters. So, when I got this question from a reader recently, it gave me the kick in the pants I needed to cover this in a detailed write-up.
Q: I have a question about how to select weights to use within programs like yours that may fluctuate the sets and reps from week to week. For example, if it’s 4x3 in week 1, 4x2 in week 2, 4x4 in week 3, and 3x3 in week 4, are there are certain percentages that I can use based off my one-rep max? This would make it easier to know exactly what weight to use each week.
A: Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’m going to paraphrase a bit from chapter 2 of the Show and Go main guide. Let me preface this explanation by saying that the goal of all my programs – and indeed any good strength and conditioning program – is to get stronger. And, I fully expect you to do so.
Now, if that’s the case, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to select what weight to use based on percentages of one-rep maxes that were taken before the program even began. By the time you get to phases 2, 3, and 4, you aren’t going to have sufficient overload to make optimal progress.
So, to that end, I rarely assign training percentages. All sets should be to one rep shy of failure; basically, go hard but never attempt a rep that you won't complete on your own. Each session should be somewhat of a test of your new strength as you work up to heavier loads and listen to your body along the way.
As a frame of reference, on your first (main) exercise(s), just work up to your heaviest set of the day (in perfect form, of course), and then find 90% of it. Anything you did above that 90% number "counts" as a set. Anything done before it is a warm-up. So, imagine you had 4 set of 3 reps planned on the bench press, and you worked up to 300 on you heaviest set using the following progression:
Set 1: 45x8
Set 2: 135x5
Set 3: 185x3
Set 4: 225x3
Set 5: 275x3
Set 6: 295x3
Set 7: 300x3
That puts you at three sets (275, 295, and 300) above 90% of your heaviest load for the day (300). So, to get a fourth set in, you just need to get one more set somewhere between 270 (90%) and 300 (100%). By the next week, this 90-100% range may have shifted up by 5-10 pounds, so you have to accommodate it – and prescribing percentages on an old one-rep-max just doesn’t do the job justice.
It really doesn’t matter what rep range is in question – whether you’re doing heavy singles or a 5x5 workout. You can really apply it to just about every set in every training session when you're wondering what weight to use.
I got the following questions from a Show and Go customer this morning and thought I'd turn it into a quick Q&A:
Do high-top basketball shoes provide any significant stability and safety advantages over low-tops that would make me NOT want to buy low-tops? When I played hoops in high school my ankles rolled over at least once every few months, so it feels obvious that there's a lot more to the stability equation than the height of the ankle on the shoe.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I sent him to these two articles:
Nike Shox and High HeelsThe Importance of Ankle Mobility
Then, I gave him the following advice: "I would never put one of my athletes in high-tops. The introduction of the high top and the addition of big heel lifts in sneakers is, in my eyes, the cause of the epidemic of anterior knee pain and the emergence of high ankle sprains. And, you're right that there is more to the stability equation than the height of the shoe: the muscles and tendons of the lower leg (particularly the peroneals) actually have to do some work to prevent ankle sprains. Put yourself in a concrete block of a shoe and tape your ankles and you are just asking all those muscles to shut down."
For more information on truly functional stability training for the lower leg and core, check out my e-book, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training.
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Here are some recommended reads from the archives for today:
An Easy Way to Rotate Strength Exercises - One of the biggest frustrations of training in a commercial or home gym is that there just aren't enough opportunities to create variety and fluctuations to the resistance training stimulus. This post highlights one simple way to double your exercise index.
A Carrot, an Egg, and a Bag of Ground Coffee - This one is more of a "meeting life's challenges" post as it applies to the fitness industry.
Five Resistance Training Myths in the Running World - If this doesn't interest you, I'm sure it'll at least interest a dozen of your friends who are running addicts! Please spread the good word - whether it's via Facebook, Twitter, or carrier pigeon.
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Looking for a masochistic new strength exercise to add to your resistance training program? Try the Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat from Deficit, one of my favorite movements for improving hip mobility while really challenging lower body strength and frontal plane stability. If you need to shake up your workout routine, this is a great place to start - assuming you don't mind being miserably sore!
As I mentioned in a blog earlier this week, my wife and I got a puppy last weekend. "Tank" is absolutely awesome and we (and all the CP clients) love him.
Like any puppy, though, it is going to take some time to housebreak him. While he's going to crap on the floor and pee on the carpet quite a bit over the first few months, we have faith in the fact that if we praise him like crazy and give him treats consistently each time he "goes" outside, he will get the point eventually and make great progress. This "faith" has been present in every single pet owner with whom we've talked over the past month.
Nobody uses electroshock routines to try to "get through" to the puppy faster, and there aren't thousands of supplements out there to expedite outdoor crappy progress. People are patient and trust in the system.
Wouldn't it be nice if those beginning strength training programs were like this???
I am fortunate to know a lot of people who have made ridiculous progress in the weight room and dramatically changed their bodies. And, I can tell you that just about all of them chalk up a big chunk of their success to just consistently busting their humps - both in the weight room and the kitchen - for years. I've never met a world-class bodybuilder, powerlifter, or other athlete that devotes a huge part of their success to a supplement they use, or radical training program they did in their first few years of training. It's funny, though; when I meet an up-and-coming lifter or athlete (and particularly professional baseball players), the first question is "what supplements should I take?" I generally recommend "Shut up and Train" in softgel form.
I've commented before on how I attribute a big chunk of my success to the fact that I didn't miss a single planned resistance training session in roughly eight years - and to end that streak, it took 32 inches of snow in 24 hours (and I made the lift up the next day).
Consistency is the most important thing – especially in beginners. You don’t need reverse undulating cybernetic periodization with quasi-isometric inverted wave loading and contrast training; you need to shut up and pick up some heavy stuff, as anything will work as you begin as long as you are consistent. Heck, I did garbage weight training programs straight out of bodybuilding magazines when I first got started and made great progress because there was no place to go but up. All that mattered was that for two years, I went home after lifting and shoveled down about 1,500 calories of quality food each and every time. My diet and training may not have been perfect (or even close to it), but they were damn consistent.
So, the next time you think that you start thinking that you're super special and physiologically different from everyone else, imagine me standing out in my backyard at 5:30AM freezing my butt off while I wait for my puppy to drop a deuce so that he can take one more step toward awesomeness while you spin your wheels. It might put things in perspective and have you back to the basics before you know it.
To take the guesswork out of your programming, check out Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.
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Because Alex Maroko is a good buddy of mine, I decided to make this webinar available to you at absolutely no cost. If you want to learn about the thought process behind each strength and conditioning program I write - for athletes that range from baseball players, to basketball stars, to professional boxers, to Olympic bobsledders - then look no further.
If You Read Alex's Daily Emails, Use His Special Show and Go Half-Off Discount Link Below Today for Big Savings!
Nick Chertock was one of the "guinea pigs" that we put through my new program, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better. While he's the first to admit that he's still a work in progress, Nick made some excellent improvements - and decided to make a very entertaining video about those improvements and his overall experience on the Show and Go program. Check it out:
Let it be known, too, that the next person to come up with a (entertaining) 6+ minute video montage on their Show and Go experience will receive a Cressey Performance t-shirt on the house.
For more information on this high performance training program, check out www.ShowAndGoTraining.com.
Since we work with quite a few young athletes, it’s the question I get a few times every week:
“Will you be doing speed training with my son/daughter? He/she needs to get faster.”
In my head, I am always thinking, “No, all our programs are geared toward making athletes slower. It’s really what we do best.”
Kidding aside, what comes out of my mouth is markedly different, as I have to explain how our training approach is going to be dictated by where that young athlete is developmentally – and each kid really is unique.
On one hand, you’ll have young athletes who have very poor mobility and stability – which equates to terrible body control. Sadly, this has become the majority of 13-16 year-old athletes in the U.S. today thanks to a tendency toward early sports specialization and excessive computer time.
Given the crazy ground reaction forces (roughly 4-6 times body weight on one leg in each stride; or 600-900lbs for a 150lb kid) an athlete experiences during sprinting, you could make the argument that taking these untrained, physically incapable kids and throwing them into aggressive sprinting and change-of-direction drills could actually be considered very dangerous. They simply don’t have the eccentric strength to decelerate this pounding, let alone create optimal subsequent concentric actions. These athletes need time to develop a good foundation of strength and mobility – upon which good landing mechanics can be taught later in shorter, simpler drills. Eventually, once they’ve developed some body control, they can make better use of true sprint training and agility work.
Or can they?
While these young athletes probably aren’t ready for being thrown into the fire in their training (closed-loop, or predictable, drills), what do they do outside of the gym? They participate year-round in sports (open-loop, unpredictable/chaotic).
This is like recognizing that the engine on your 1979 Pinto is a ticking time-bomb and bringing it in to a mechanic for an hour a week for an oil change – only to take it out and drive it in the Daytona 500…every other day. You’re swimming upstream.
So, the question becomes: do today’s “always in-season” high school athletes EVER get to the point that they really need much dedicated agility and sprint work? Based on the preceding few paragraphs, for some athletes, I’d say no; they don’t need much. Some foam rolling, a good dynamic warm-up, followed by some quick and to-the-point movement drills, and then solid resistance training should get the job done as long as they’re out there competing in their sports.
On the other hand, while it is not a common circumstance nowadays, you do actually have advanced athletes (those with a decent foundation of strength) who may have periods of the year when they aren’t actively involved in organized sports. These athletes absolutely do need to train with specific sprinting and change of direction work during these “off” periods of the year. We generally program this work for days completely separate from lifting, although it can also be worked in between the warm-ups and resistance training components. It’s of vital importance to recognize that these athletes can only make the most of these inclusions because they’ve put in the leg work (no pun intended) to make these high-stress reactive drills really beneficial and safe.
You know what’s funny, though?
The athletes who get to this more advanced stage have already gotten faster – because along the way, they’ve learned to put more force into the ground, and have improved their ankle and hip mobility. They’ve become faster without ever spending much, if any, time at all on sprinting and agility drills. And, once they have that foundation of strength, these supplemental movement drills actually work a lot better.
It’s like a big circle. They build a foundation of strength, which helps them develop reactive ability. They train that reactive ability further, and it brings them further to the “absolute speed” end of the continuum. So, they lift heavier weights – which brings them back toward the center of that continuum, and, in turn, allows them to train reactive ability even harder because they’re running faster, jumping higher, and turning on a dime better than ever.
If you don’t understand what I mean, check this old video I did out:
The entry level kids I mentioned earlier aren’t even on a continuum. They are on the “exerciser/non-exerciser” seesaw. Make them regular exercisers and build up some strength, and they wind up starting on the absolute speed end of the continuum because all they’ve ever known is running around. They won’t run faster until you get ‘em strong and shift them over to the absolute strength end of the continuum – and that simply won’t happen if you’re just spending 90 minutes of each session with them running agility ladders and doing skipping drills.
Why then, if the amount of movement training needed is grossly overestimated, do we have so many coaches and facilities in this industry who spend hours per week on movement training? Very simply, money makes the world go round. In other words, you can “safely” train a lot more kids in large groups and make it less coaching-intensive on yourself if you just set up cones, hurdles, and agility ladders and tell them to go to town. Actually getting a kid strong takes more individualized cues and variety in exercise programming. And, because strength exercises are more high-risk/high-reward, they take more one-on-one coaching – which is tough to do when you have twenty 13-year-olds and only one coach. This is one reason why I have always said that I will never let our business model dictate our training model at Cressey Sports Performance.
So, to wrap it all up: some kids need movement training, and some kids aren’t quite ready for it. And, 99% of the time – while it might fly in the face of logic – if the parent comments on how slow a kid is, just having that young athlete go out and run more is the least effective, most dangerous way to address the issue.
For more information on the current state of youth athlete development and how to best set young athletes up for success, I highly recommend you check out Mike Boyle's new resource, Complete Youth Training.It's on sale for $50 off through this Sunday at midnight. You can learn more HERE.
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Today, we've got part 2 of a great guest blog series from Kelly Baggett. You can find Part 1 HERE.
In the first installment, I talked about several of the common problems athletes have that make them perform more like an oversized truck and less like greased lightning. In this installment, I’ll give you some solutions to those problems. Let’s get to it!
Problem #1: Bad Feet
Solution: Spend Some Time Training Barefoot.
One simple thing you can do for bad feet is spend a little bit of time each week training barefoot. Your body won't let you move in a rearfoot dominant posture when you're barefoot because it'll hurt too much.
As an experiment, try taking your shoes off and lightly jog a few steps down the street. You’ll probably find the ONLY way you can do it is to get up on your forefoot.
Also, pay attention to which muscles you "feel" the movement driven by when you run barefoot. I don’t recommend training on concrete regularly. but if you have access to a fairly soft surface (grass is ideal and most carpet works fine), don't hesitate to scrap the shoes for a while.
Here is a video that clearly shows the difference between running with shoes on and off.
The idea is to do enough barefoot training that your feet strengthen and begin to favor the barefoot posture even when wearing shoes. Even 20 minutes once a week on grass is helpful.
If barefoot training isn't an option you can always train in lighter footwear that helps mimick barefoot running. Shoes like Nike Free 5.0 or 7.0 and Vibram 5 fingers can be an option here.
Problem #2: Lack of Glute Dominance.
Solution: Really Focusing on Strengthening the Glutes!
In short, if you want glute dominance, you need to spend significant time strengthening the glutes. Try this experiment.
Go in the gym, warm-up and knock out a couple of sets of 10 paused manual reverse hyperextensions. If you don't have a dedicated machine, find a bench, hang a dumbell between your shins, and do a couple of sets of 10 reps with a slight pause at the top.
Now that you have a good glute pump, take a casual stroll and see if you notice any differences in how you're walking. You'll likely notice that your strides are longer and you’re better positioned to drive off the balls of your feet when you walk because your hips inherently want to extend more.
That's a good thing from a speed perspective! Strong glutes favor a longer, more efficient, and more powerful stride. They also keep you injury free.
Problem #3: Lack of End-Range Strength in the Psoas.
Solution: Get Strong at 90 Degrees Hip Flexion or Higher.
The key for a strong psoas (and proper knee lift in sports) is strengthening the muscles that lift your knee up to 90 degrees or higher. Here is an example of that and an exercise for that.
Being strong in 90 degrees-plus of hip flexion also helps ensure optimal femur control, or put simply: it ensures the muscles high on your hip are controlling your thigh bone.
Problem #4: Lack of Mobility in Key Muscle Groups.
Solution: Regularly Stretch/Mobilize the Quads, Hip Flexors, and Ankles.
Stretching the quads and rectus femoris turns off what are often tight and overactive muscles controlling the knee - and that promotes better hip dominant movement.
The psoas must be strong, as I talked about earlier, but it also must be mobile enough to not negatively impact posture. An excessively tight psoas will negatively impact gluteal recruitment. If you’ve ever looked closely at a picture of the psoas, you can see the majority of the muscle lies up above your hip joints in more of the deep abdominal region.
I’ve noticed many people are both weak and tight in the psoas. People that are really tight often have adhesions in the upper psoas. The upper psoas is hard to get to and in my experience requires a solid twist of the upper body to reach effectively.
When it’s dealt with effectively, it’s not uncommon to hear an audible “pop” in your lower ab region as the adhesions release, followed by an immediate ease in breathing and increased feeling of looseness in the hips.
Here is a good all-in-one stretch I recommend for the quads, rectus femoris, and the psoas:
And here is one for the ankles:
Most people should stretch daily and the more extensive your impairments the more frequently you should do so. I've had some people stretch for 20 seconds every hour of the day while others can get away with one short session per day. Many people can improve significantly simply by implementing proper mobility work for these muscles.
Problem #5: Lack of Strength and Power in Relevant Muscles
Solution: Give Resistance Training an Honest Effort.
To move like lightning, you have to be able to get lots of force into the ground - and that means you have to have strength in the right places. That means the hip extensors, knee extensors, and plantarflexors must be strong and powerful. How do you get them strong and powerful?
You must do some form of progressive resistance training. That means some type of squatting or lunging for the knee and hip extensors, and some type of toe press or plyometrics for the plantarflexors. You then must take that base of power and apply it into progressive sport-specific movements.
Fortunately, all the specific stuff is taken care of in The Truth About Quickness Insiders System. The important thing from a longer term perspective is that you or your athletes spend time developing a base of strength through common strength exercises like squats, Bulgarian split squats, lunges, and deadlifts.
That about covers it! Hopefully you’ve found this short list of problems and solutions beneficial in your training or coaching. Stay strong and good luck with it!
As you may already know, Kelly and Alex Maroko just released The Truth About Quickness Insiders System, a resource I highly recommend. This outstanding product will be on sale at a great introductory price ($40 off) only through this Thursday at midnight.
