6 Ways to Increase Performance

by on July 3, 2011

July 2011: 6 Ways to Increase Performance

As strength and conditioning coach I have been blessed to be around many sports; from boxing, rowing, football, ice hockey, and even Greco-roman wrestlers. I have learned a lot over the years and have made a ton of mistakes, but through each mistake yielded another learning experience and a little more insight in to what the finished product should be; a stronger, faster, more efficient athlete. Below is a list of 6 concepts that have completely changed my perspective when designing programs for athletes.

1. Master the Basics Before Implementing Special Exercises:

In the past, I got overzealous when I first learned about Louie Simmons’ Westside Barbell Template. I thought that our athletes needed to come in and hit 5,3, or 1 rep maxes weekly on every derivative of the squat and bench press yet when it came time for testing day we bombed….BIG TIME! Our technique wasn’t stable with the free squat and bench press, most of our kids looked like a total train wreck during squat testing and in no way reflected the strength that they truly possessed. From a bench press standpoint, some kids placing the bar around the clavicles when lowering, others on their stomach, elbow flaring, a total clusterf*ck.

The answer to this problem is to truly stick to the basics. Now we begin every incoming class (including junior college transfers) with the box squat, teaching the athletes how to spread the floor with their feet, pushing the hips back, and adjusting bar position to put that athlete in the most efficient position for his/her body type. With bench pressing we teach our kids how to set their scapulae, placing their weight on the upper traps, tucking the elbows on the decent, and driving through the feet when pressing. After all, bench pressing is a total body exercise! Deadlifting begins with the sumo deadlift, as I believe it is easier to learn than the conventional style. One of the biggest weaknesses I find in incoming freshmen athletes is weak hips; therefore the wider stance is only of a benefit to them. As for the programming, after a few weeks of slow progression, we find a rough max, and then implement Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1 with our first and second year athletes. The benefits of 5-3-1 are too many to list, but the biggest is the ability to teach athletes to strain with submaximal weights, and we are able to really refine technique prior to implementing more advanced training methods.

2. Use Training Maxes Instead of Actual One Rep Maxes

Another problem I have had in the past is when our weights begin to creep about the 90% range we start missing reps. This can be attributed to many things; a decline in performance from over-reaching, stress whether from personal, academic, sport, training or just flat out the technique wasn’t stable enough at higher percentages.

I have remedied this again from the wisdom of Jim Wendler. Jim suggests that when using the 5-3-1 program to immediately take 90% of your one rep max (or repetition max) and use that number as your training max. I have taken this advice and expanded it to all of our athletes.

I have 2 main reasons for using the training max.

  1. When testing there is a certain level of arousal involved. On test day there is incredible competition, often times even the sport coaches are present. That means these kids are amped and want to show not only themselves, but their peers that they have trained harder.
  2. By using training maxes that gives a coach incredible flexibility. Let’s say athlete A is having a really bad day, and it is a 90% training day and we are doing singles, 90% of training max may seem like it is truly 90%. However athlete B, who is doing all the restorative work, and is getting the necessary rest, might crush his 90% weight. That tells me we have another 10-15% to play with and perhaps we may even set a new max that day. Point being, this allows the coach an ability to truly specialize his program to each individual athlete within the principles of that training block.

3. Focus on training all types of strength; eccentric, isometric, and ballistic

This is a concept to me that is fairly new. In the past I have only focused on training concentric movements and sometimes used eccentric-less movements via sled dragging and Olympic lifting. Then after re-reading Supertraining and seeing Cal Dietz’ presentation on tri-phasic periodization, I began playing around with eccentric, isometric, and ballistic training mini-blocks within our maximal strength blocks. The results of this have been nothing short of amazing as I discussed on my last article, “The Implementation of Tri-Phasic Periodization.” Eccentric strength is naturally greater than concentric strength and this is important when looking at deceleration (via weights or your own body weight when cutting and stopping or even sitting down). An increase in eccentric strength will also lead to an increase in concentric strength, but training concentric strength alone without stressing the eccentric will not lead to a rise in eccentric strength. So by stressing this component for short periods of time, you get an incredible bang for your buck. AND, you don’t even have to put the bar on the back or to get benefit from it.

Isometric strength is another component that is extremely important for sprinting, cutting, and stopping. When evaluating a running back in football, when he lowers his hips in to a cut (eccentric action) and stops for that very brief moment he is engaging his isometric strength. If isometric strength is not up to par that cut will take even longer to occur and he may not have the opportunity to break off for a big play. There are many ways to train isometric strength. You can even use isometric holds as part of the warm-up as a way to wake up the central nervous system.

Ballistic training is the third component of our tri-phasic blocks. During this period of time, we will implement different forms of depth jumping, and anything that can cause the stretch reflex to kick so we can maximize the training effects of this block. Keep in mind you can do extended blocks for this type of training, in fact we do that for some of our more advanced athletes that have the maximal strength present, but have a speed deficit (strength level present, but speed and power numbers aren’t). During these ballistic blocks you can program this as straight sets of 8 reps, or via timed sets (all sets UNDER 10 seconds) for 3-5 sets. NOTE: if your athletes cannot control themselves through highly ballistic training (evaluate body position/posture) then there is still an eccentric or isometric deficiency and those attributes need to be trained longer.

Below are some examples of exercises I use to improve eccentric and isometric strength, and some of the ballistic training methods we utilize. Throw these in your program over the next few months and see what happens, odds are you are increasing a form of strength you have lost over time.

4. Concentrated Loading

Up until the 2009 school year, I have used either your typical linear periodization scheme or the Westside Barbell Template when programming the strength portion of my programs. The conditioning aspect was an afterthought and often a hodgepodge of different training that I had seen implemented when working under other coaches. Then for the football off-season of 2010, I sat down with my former assistant, Joe Grachen, and we mapped out our entire year in a block training format. Block training has been used by European Countries as well as the former Soviet Union since the mid-70s and is an entire article in itself. The overarching theme is that rather than training several qualities at one time, you pick 2-3 compatible qualities and train those at a very high level before moving on to the next. These qualities merge and the athlete’s preparedness for their sport seems to maintain for a longer period of time. No longer are you sort of good at everything, you are very good at the things that your sport demands. For football, we spend very little time during the training year in a heavily glycolytic environment; rather we stress the alactic system (3-14 seconds in duration) and the aerobic system. The end result of this training was that we didn’t condition in-season until week ten, and our athletes still were able to maintain their conditioning level up until that point.

Below is a breakdown of the basic training block types I use for my sport teams (keep in mind; all of the teams I currently work with are speed/power sports).

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[column size=”1/3″]

GPP

Weights between 40-70%
Volume – moderate to high in Prelipin chart
3 Training Days/Weeks
Total Body – Total Body – Total Body
Block Duration – 4-6 weeks

Emphasis:

  1. Aerobic Development
  2. Restoration
  3. Muscular Hypertrophy

Means:

  1. Tempo Runs (75% intensity of 60-100 yards – up to 2000 yards per day); Goal being to keep in 120-140 zone for 30-45 minutes
    Cardiac output – Heart rate 120-140 for 30-60 minutes
    Circuit Training with Weights
    Aerobic Lunges/Aerobic Step-ups/Heavy Resistance Bike Rides
  2. Foam Rolling/Stretching/ Added Mobility Training/Nutrition
  3. Weights, Body weight training
    Sets of 8-12 reps for 2-4 sets

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[column size=”1/3″]

Alactic Power

Weights between 80-100%
Volume – moderate-low by Prelipin
5 Training Days/Week
Lower-Upper-Lower-Upper-Total Body
Block Duration –4- 6 weeks

Emphasis:

  1. Aerobic Capacity
  2. Maximal Strength/Speed Training
  3. Restoration

Means:

  1. Intensive Tempo Runs (85-90%)
    Hill Sprints at 6 seconds and under with incomplete rest (HR under Anaerobic Threshold)
    Up to 1000 yards in addition to 1000 yards of extensive tempo (75%) keeping Heart Rate between 120-150 BPM
    Aerobic Plyos
  2. Weights above 80%
    Up to 300 yards/day of speed/agility training – full recovery between reps
  3. Foam Rolling/Stretching/Contrast Showers

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[column size=”1/3″]

Alactic Capacity

Weights between 50-80%
Volume – moderate to low Prelipin
5 Training Days/Week
Lower-Upper-Lower-Upper-Total Body
Block Duration – 4 weeks

Emphasis:

  1. Conditioning
  2. Speed (Weights)
  3. Aerobic Maintenance

Means:

  1. Short Shuttle Runs with incomplete rest
    Competitive Drills (cones/reaction)
    Sets lasting 10-15 seconds
    Rest Periods 20-60 seconds
  2. 50-80% weights (intensity) for speed. Increased use of plyometrics, weighted sled drags, and ballistic training
  3. Tempo Runs (75% intensity of 60-100 yards – up to 2000 yards per day); Goal being to keep in 120-140 zone for 30-45 minutes for recovery from lower body training
    Cardiac Efficiency – walking or low intensity biking – HR 100-120 BPM to increase elasticity of left ventricle

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I have also placed a table by Siluyanov that give some guidelines for energy system development. These are very close to the guidelines that I follow with our sport teams.
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[column size=”1/5″]

Type of Training

[/column]
[column size=”1/5″]

Training Intensity

[/column]
[column size=”1/5″]

Time of Session

[/column]
[column size=”1/5″]

Rest Between Sets

[/column]
[column size=”1/5″]

Number of Sets

[/column]
[/columns]
[columns ]
[column size=”1/5″]Alactic/Anaerobic – Power [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]Maximum [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]7 to 10 seconds [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]2 to 5 minutes [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]5 to 6 [/column]
[/columns]
[columns ]
[column size=”1/5″]Alactic/Anaerobic – Capacity [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]Maximum [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]7 to 10 seconds [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]30 seconds to 1½ min. [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]10 to 12 [/column]
[/columns]
[columns ]
[column size=”1/5″]Lactic/Anaerobic – Power [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]High [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]20 to 30 seconds [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]6 to 10 minutes [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]3 to 4 [/column]
[/columns]
[columns ]
[column size=”1/5″]Lactic/Anaerobic – Capacity [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]High [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]40 to 90 seconds [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]5 to 6 minutes[/column]
[column size=”1/5″]10 to 15 [/column]
[/columns]
[columns ]
[column size=”1/5″]Aerobic – Power [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]Max VO2 [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]30 seconds to 2 ½ min. [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]30 seconds to 3 minutes [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]10 to 15 [/column]
[/columns]
[columns ]
[column size=”1/5″]Aerobic Capacity [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]Max VO2 [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]1 to 6 minutes [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]1 to 6 minutes [/column]
[column size=”1/5″]More than [/column]
[columns ]

5. Be Flexible

In the past, I have been willing to radically change off-season programs with little concern to what had happened in previous years because I wanted to try the next best thing. I was in the line of thinking that the best program out there is the one that you aren’t currently doing. Now, I am a little older and wiser, so I try to make sure that my methods fit the proper training blocks.
At Southeast we use all avenues of training: Olympic lifting, Powerlifting, High Intensity Training, Submaximal weights, Maximal Weights, bands, chains, fat grips, or even change the angle of the exercise. The key is to make sure that the methods fit the goal of the training block. Personally, I do not use Olympic lifting unless we are midst of speed/power block or coming in to one (to fix technique issues). As for maximal weights, we aren’t using them unless we are in a maximal strength block, and during those blocks I will use bands and chains in order to increase the intensity of the exercise further. I have gone further into the implementation of timed sets during our speed and power blocks in order to spur competition and increase our relaxation/contraction rate. All in all, there is a time and place for everything, just not everything at the same time.
Here is an exercise we began using with some of our more advanced trainees. Band assisted jumps, and
the purpose of them is creating an enormous shock on the central nervous system, much like depth jumps.
As you can see from the video, these jumps can be incredibly competitive and is a great example of staying
within your principles (speed block for the case of these athletes), yet thinking outside the box:

6. Account for Stressors When Programming

With regard to stressors, everything should be accounted for. The body only knows stress and it can occur from class, training, practice, games, lack of rest, and personal life. I think that we have all been through periods of time that our training has suffered due to a death in the family or from problems with your significant other. It is those times that you should take a step back and realize you are not at your best, do what you can but come back to fight another day.

When counting stresses, evaluate the game and let that guide you. Let’s say that your defense averages 90 plays during the duration of a game. That is 90 separate stresses that occur, so your training should reflect 90 stresses during the duration of a workout. That means that every rep of speed work is a stress, every rep of your aerobic work, every set (including warm-ups) of your weight training program is a stress. That in my mind is the essence of sport-specific training; your training should match the demands of the sport from a stress, joint angle, and specificity side (sled pushes for linemen, weighted speed sled drags for running backs, etc..).

If you have any questions about the article or would like to discuss more of this in depth, please feel free to email Jeff at [email protected].

Jeff Lee
Head Strength and Conditioning Coach
Southeast Missouri State University