GET UP!
Volume 1, Issue 20
Highland Games and Track Season
...are upon us. The NFL draft has passed
us by and summer is starting to stick its head up.
This issue will cover a number of
different ideas considering long-term approaches
to training. Those of you who have competed for
years will understand the problems of trying to
focus on one thing for years at a time.
Im trying to focus on getting this issue
out before June!
Our mission? To teach everyone:
1. The Body is One Piece
2. There are three kinds of strength training:
Putting weight overhead
Picking it off the ground
Carrying it for time or distance
3. All training is complementary.
The Southwood Junior High
Weightlifting Program
Editor in Cheap
Every so often, I will get an email from
a high school coach about teaching a group of
kids to lift weights. The emails often sound like
the taskto get kids to liftis insurmountable.
Some of the coaches sound like they need a
miracle worker to come in and exorcize the
student body before beginning the exercise
program.
I always argue back to these fine men
and women that it can be doneeasily and
inexpensively. I cant claim any credit from the
following paragraphs, but I am indebted to Mr.
Dave Freeman, my ninth grade P.E. coach for
making us do this program!
After eight years at St. Veronicas
School, I transferred to Southwood Junior High
to begin junior high. It was a helluva transition.
From Irish Nuns to public school is transition
enough, but I was also going to play football. At
118 pounds of ahempure muscle, it was
obvious to everyone I needed to lift weights.
It was at this time I was introduced to
Southwoods lifting program. In a portable
building, the school had outlaid about 15 of
those cement filled weightlifting sets that
everyone from my generation remembers as their
first bar.
I May 2003
Mr. Freeman spent little time explaining
the rep-set system of 8-6-4 because of
everybody, except me, knew what to do. That is
part of the brilliance of the programyou
learned it once and then you lifted. Not exactly
rocket sciencebut who needs rocket science on
the football field?
The program was very simple. First,
groups of four boys were given a bar. The bars
were weighted from very lightmaybe 25
poundsup to perhaps close to 100 pounds.
Each cohort of boys would lift one at a time, put
the bar down, then the next boy would lift. The
four would constantly move from lifter to
watcherthe bar never stopped. The three sets
(explained in just a moment) would not take very
longin fact, sometimes it was hard to catch
your breath in time for your next set.
The reps were very simple:
First set: 8 repetitions
Second set: 6 repetitions
Third set: 4 repetitions
The goal was simple: when you got all
16 reps (8+6+4), you added weight. If you
started with a bar that was too light, the next
workout, you would be bumped up to the next
weight and a stronger group. (Of course, actual
variations could include making a whole new
group with more weight, tooor whatever
necessary to make the group work together).
The program
involved four lifts:
Power Clean
Military Press
Front Squat
Bench Press
Each lift was done in the
8-6-4 format. The bar was
cleaned (once) for the set of Military Presses and
the bar was also cleaned (once) for the Front
Squats. For the Bench Presses, the lifter lay on a
board supported by cement blocks (or, later,
actual padded benches without racks) and the
other lifters picked the bar up for him to begin
the presses.
To hurry up the trainingas if it was
necessary, there were times when Mr. Freeman
recommended combining the Power Clean and
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Military Presses one clean and one press,
repeated for a total of eight reps. This was done
with a lighter weight. One could also do the
Front Squats after the clean and presses, too.
This was an amazing cardiovascular workout.
Each day, to warm up, we had to run
two laps and an obstacle course. The two laps
were about 600 meters and the obstacle course
had a wall, various upper body challenges, and
some balance walking. All in all, this was not a
bad program.
We trained this program three days a
week during the summer before football
seasonwhen we could. As I have noted in
other places, I started to focus on the bench in
high school and erred by ignoring the clean,
press and front squat. I was on the right track
here, but, as youth often does, I went the wrong
way.
All in all, a pretty good program!
Power Clean
8-6-4 reps
Military Press
8-6-4 reps
Front Squat
8-6-4 reps
Bench Press
8-6-4 reps
Increase weight when you get all the reps!
The Challenge of Year-round
Planning
Editor in Chafe
Matt Spiller asked a question in our
telephone discussion a few weeks ago. Matt is a
frequent contributor to Get Up! and was
troubled by the seemingly myriad of conflicting
information that he had received from the editor
and this newsletter.
When Wesley Kersey asked this
question in an emailthe need became
obviouswe need to talk about planning!
Oh Wise one,
I have seen your post on Crossfit and
I think I see the benefits of the programs in
terms of strength endurance/CV efficiency
etc but then again it runs across the usual
(10 rep rule) so I am seeking your wisdom
I May 2003
again.. would this fit into your "Four
Seasons" of training?? Let's say winter
months low reps -heavy weight, build up to
max strength, then shift to this type of
training in the spring??? ( Depending on
when meets and games are huh?) How would
YOU work into WL meets, discus and HG ?
You have more "going on" than I (i.e. WL
meets, Track meets and HG) so it is hard for
me to visualize how you would integrate. I am
gonna try to make at least 2 HG this year and
at least one track meet so if I can visualize
how you do it with your busy schedule I can
easily work into mine. If you can point me to
an article on your website, feel free to do that
as I know you have a lot going on with all the
jobs you have ( teacher, Husband , father,
Internet strength guru :-) )
Wes
Excellent
questionand it is
the key (in my
most humble
opinion) to longterm success as an
athlete. What is
this key?
Balancing all the wonderful training
regimes and ideas and programs and
protocols and athletic opportunities and
games and sports and recovery and rest
and vacation and life and lawn
mowinginto some kind of coherent
approach to your basic goals!!!
Matt asked a great question, too. He
noted that I considered Highland Games as the
best discus training an athlete could undertake.
How do you HG in the middle of track season?
You dont!!!
Highland Games is the best prep for
discus throwingafter the season. Olympic
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lifting is the ideal way to train for throwing, too,
but dont compete at the Nationals in O lifting
the week before Discus Regionals! Let me
answer Matt and Wes with a long example:
For years, I used a very simple model
for training my high school throwers. It was the
Triple Pyramid.
In the late fall, after football season for
many of my throwers, we jumped into an
exhausting period of heavy lifting. Other athletes
were coming in from volleyball or simple offseason conditioning. The program that we slowly
evolved into for the first month or so was called
the Transformation Program. We had
discovered that the athletes needed to get in
shape, even though they were in shape.
Huh? Well, the ability to spend 48
minutes of banging into another person is one
kind of conditioning, but to throw and lift was
another. The Transformation Program
answered this riddle for usmonitored higher
rep training focusing on throw strength.
Day One: (Perhaps Monday)
Power Clean and Military Press: One
power clean and eight presses.
3 sets of 8 with one minute rest between sets. If
there is a single key to the program, it is the one
minute rest period. By strictly monitoring the
rest period, and obviously keeping track of the
weight, one can track progress.
Power Curl: 3 sets of 8 with one
minute rest between sets. Using a curl grip, slide
the weight to just above the knees and curlclean the bar. Let it come down under control.
Again, get all eight reps in, dont change the
weights, and monitor the rest period.
I May 2003
Some kind of ab work. We used side
bends, but any kind of crunch is fine, too.
Day Two: (a day or so later, perhaps
Wednesday)
Power Clean and Front Squat: One
power clean and eight front squats.
Once again, 3 sets of 8 with one minute rest.
Stay tall in the front squats and keep your
elbows high. We usually use this as more of a
warm up for the next exercise.
Overhead Squats: 3 sets of 8 with one
minute rest. Using the wide snatch grip, lock the
elbows with the weight overhead and squat
down. Athletes who do this exercise well not
only develop flexibility, balance and leg
strength, but an incredibly strong lower back.
Overhead squats make you very strong.
Again, finish with some kind of ab
work.
Day Three ( perhaps Friday or Saturday)
Whip Snatches: 3 sets of 8 with one
minute rest. With a wide snatch grip, stand up
and hold the bar at crotch level. Dip and snatch
the bar over head. Continue for 8 reps. You will
be surprised how quickly this exercise can get
into your blood. If you want big traps and
explosion, this is the king.
Clean grip snatches: 3 sets of 8 with
one minute rest. With a clean grip, stand up and
dip the bar to your knees. Then, explode up
driving the bar, in one basic movement, over
head. It is like a clean and press, well, without
the clean.
Ab work if you wish.
I also had a Throws Manager, often a young
boy or girl who wanted to help a thrower
boyfriend or girlfriendor just someone who
liked the thrower community, keep detailed
charts of the lifts and the reps. By comparing
these week to weekand athlete to athleteI
began to get a feel for numbers.
Some Good Numbersfor a Teenage Boy
Press 105
Power Curl 115
Front Squat 115
Overhead Squat 95
Whip Snatch 95
Clean Grip Snatch 95
Nowwe expect MUCH more for better athletes
and adults. And this is 3 x 8 with a minute rest.
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This Transformation Program did a lot
of good. Most of the athletes felt better, a
little leaner, joints felt good, a nice overall
feeling of wellbeing.
This would not last long.
The season would then begin to shape
up with the period known as Heavy Lifting.
The best overall program we ever used was the
Big 21, but we also used lots of adaptations for
other athletes, like Paul Northway and Taylor
Arrigo-Jones.
The Big 21 DEMANDS a lot of
conservative weight selections the first week or
so and rewards the athlete with new levels of
strength and toughness. The downside? Near
exhaustion for someone not in shape!
I May 2003
how fast this workout goes. Constant plate
moving seems to speed the lifting up.
Reps and Setsfor each of the three
lifts!
Opening Weight x 5
Add five pounds x 5
Add five pounds x 5
Add five pounds x 1
Add five pounds x 1
Add five pounds x 1
Add five pounds x 1
Add five pounds x 1
Add five pounds x 1
Total Repetitions
21
You see: the Big 21!
The Big 21
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Three Lifts only!
Clean and Press
Power Snatch
Power Clean and Jerk
Now, the confusing part!
Each workout, add five pounds to the
Opening Weight. After three weeks,
Opening Weight will be 45 pounds mo re!
Rules:
1. All reps must be successful!
2. Start each rep from the floor with heels
together, feet pointing out to 45 degrees.
(You can choose NOT to do this editor)
3. Do each rep under control-start with hips
down, and fully extend!
Note well: each of the three lifts is to be done
each of the three days a week. In addition, one is
expected to add five pounds to EACH lift all
nine workoutsover the three weeks.
I have laughed many times when people
have adapted this program and told me in an
email that it wasnt very hard. One guy only did
presses on Monday, snatches on Wednesday and
jerks on Fridayand noted the 21 reps were a
breeze.
Sure! That was only 1/3 of the workout
each day. What always amazed the athletes is
Record end weight Clean & Press
Snatch
Jerk
Session One
Session Two
____
____
___
___
__
__
Session Three
Session Four
Session Five
Session Six
Session Seven
Session Eight
Session Nine
___
__
__
____
____
____
____
____
____
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
One hint: you may wish to only do threes on
the Clean and Jerks. At the end of three weeks,
take a week off of heavy lifting, then go to the
Transformation Program for a week or two
before repeating.
If you have timed the Heavy Lifting
correctly, you may be able to sneak a
weightlifting contest just before the Christmas
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Vacation. The athletes can max out on the three
liftsthen enjoy the weeks off.
On the off days, we did what we
could depending on weather. Often, we took
Thursdays off and focused on a little throwing on
Tuesdays.
The lifting is important here, not the
actual throwing, but, there should some daily
work on throwing drills, discussion, video or
whatever.
I May 2003
In season, the Competition phase, was
very easy. If you read the book, free at
[Link] , you will discover
two drills: the Soviet Drill and One Throw
Competitions. This is all you will need plus an
occasional set of overhead squats or snatches or
clean and presses. The hay is in the barn, so
you cant really pound out a great workout or
two and expect success.
I have some advice for high school
football coaches concerning in-season lifting, the
same general advice appeals to all athletes:
1. The "heavy" day should be the day after a
game...actually, right after a game works well,
too, especially for underclassmen who play on
the day before the Varsity, having them train on
the Friday, for example, helps a lot.
Notice how Heavy Lifting doesnt
disappear, but continues well into the season.
For my throwers, we now enter into the
time of year for Heavy Throwing. This
includes, but is not limited to:
Indoor Weight Throwing (the hammer)
Powerballs against the walls
Tire Throwing (see my book)
Lots of Farmer Walks for stability
Highland Game Weights for Distance
Overweight implements
How long does this last? I like to keep
at this until at least the first few meets of the
track season, BUT with less volume as we
approach the meets.
What to do in the weightroom? My
favorite choice was the Transformation
Program. Why? 15 minute workouts!!!
One of the goals of this time of year that
I set as a coach was to only train my athletes one
hour a day. The Transformation Program should
NEVER take longer than 12-15 minutes! This
gives the athletes lots of time, 45 minutes, to
work on the throws. Re member, throwing into a
wall prevents the long hikes in between throws.
In addition, tires and weights dont go very far!
2. The "other" day should be stuff that doesn't
take a lot of nerve. Don't Snatch and Clean and
Jerk, so to speak. Box Squats, Straight Leg
Deadlifts, some dumbbell work and a few
machines would work well, but don't have the
athlete tax his nervous system.
3. Don't be surprised if he gets really stronger,
maintains, or drops way down. Any reaction to
the training program is normal. We used to find a
lot of kids improved their cleans a lot in the
football season. My idea then was that they were
finally cleaning once a week with supervision.
Now, I have another idea: sled work, driving the
legs, sprints and the games were all training the
system to clean better. Benching and squatting
tend to drop, but that seems normal vis --vis the
work load of football.
4. Don't be afraid to cut the volume, but strive to
keep the intensity up. 5 x 5 just isn't going to
work, but 2 x 5 would be fine. Pyramids would
be 2-2-1, that kind of thing.
5. Watch the acne. If he starts breaking out,
getting colds, that kind of thing...he is really
overtraining. HS kids can handle a ton of
volume, then they seem to crash.
Seriously, watch the acne and the mood swings.
Very often, that was the first sign something was
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going on with the athlete. Usually, it wasnt the
training, but late nights, a new girlfriend, dance
classes in the morning (seriouslydont get me
started) or some other idiocy.
When the month of May rolls around, I
start getting telephone calls on Saturday
mornings. I broke my PR by 16 feet! Im the
state champ you were right!
Now what? What do we do in this long
off-seasonnow, we can talk to Matt and Wess
concerns.
Off Season
First, addresshonestly addressyour
weaknesses. I will put my Confessions from
the past few years:
Im a fat pig.
I have no hamstring strength/flexibility
I have flat feet
I have no arms really, I have no
biceps and triceps
I am all over the place
technically what works for me?
I have to learn to relax
Where has the fun gone?
I need to get my bench up
By honestly addressing these issues,
first in my journal, next with a piece of paper and
some freewriting ideas, finally with a trusted
friend (usually John PriceMike Rosenberg is a
good one, tooTiffini is very good, but a little
too honest), I can come up with a few focused
fixes.
One thing that I know is truethe
mission of this newsletter. Especially,
3. All training is complementary.
If I am peaking towards a local
weightlifting meet, I know I am in shape to
compete in a Highland Games. I know that
playing flag football will help my legs for O
lifting. So, unless something BIG is coming up, I
let my training be 1. Complementary, and 2.
Focused on my weaknesses.
This year, I discovered that my Stone
Putespecially in the Open Stonewas
pathetic. I have dropped a few feet a year for the
past few years. At the Shamrock Games in
Illinois, it was the worst.
I May 2003
So, I went to a local Sporting Goods
store and paid $20 for a high school shot. In just
three training sessions, I added back five feet to
my open stone put.
This little oh, how wonderful I am
story has a good moral: I recognized a problem,
spent money, trained on it and fixed it. That is a
good four step process for the off-season.
So, how do you do it all? First, toss out
this mental image that you must have absolute
specificity for everything you do! Olympic
lifting competition will help you in the caber as
much as training on the big sticks seven days a
week. Specificity works but at a price of
injuries, boredom and the loss of opportunities to
compete, see the world and have some fun!
So, to answer you, Wes and Matt:
If you had everything where would you put it?
as Steven Wright, the comedian, put it. If you
had to do everything everyday, when would you
have time to do it? I ask.
Use the whole yearor decadeto plot
and plan your training.
Thanks for the questions, guys.
Two Advanced Hammer
Training Ideas
Todd Taylor
Todd is a senior citizen hammer thrower who does some
coaching and helps anybody who is interested in improving.
As a masters competitor, he has won USA Track & Field
Masters National Championships. He states: By nature I
am an analytical type and I have also had the benefit of
some of the best coaching available. My purpose is simply
sharing what I have learned, what I think makes sense in
terms of ease of comprehension, and what verbal and
imagery cues work for me
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Core Blaster/Geseck Swings
I May 2003
Turn Machine
This device has a 180 degree yoke which you
grab crossarm inside. Excellent at generating
ground-up forces....foot, ankle, knee, leg, hip,
obliques...then turn. Two pulleys on angle iron
from the wall pull up weight plates from the
floor. I start facing the wall to simulate the
"catch" of the hammer when the right foot
touches down from single support. You can see
the weight stack about waist high on the finish
position.
In the sequence, notice the weight on the heels at
the start and the hip thrust that generates the
power/exp losion to move the weight stack to
shoulder height.
More next issue, but Todd also sent in this
excellent overview of the hammerScottish and
Olympic:
Feel the rhythm of the weight of the
implement during the winds as it hits the top
(behind your head toward 180) and bottom (0
between your legs in front of you) of the orbit.
You also want to feel that gravity drop
of the ball from the top of the orbit to the bottom.
In turns with a hammer, that rhythmical drop
from the top to the bottom (aided by your right
side drive and setting the hips behind the heels in
a counter) and then back out to the top....also
becomes a timing issue and enables the speed
progression through the turns.
Excellent as always, Todd. More next issue!
The Device
Published by Daniel John
Daniel John, Editor
Copyright Daniel John, 2003
All Rights Reserved
Note from Dan: This is exactly how I
am trying to teach people how to clean and
snatch nowweight on heels. Could this be
used for O lifters?
Any unauthorized reproduction is strictly
prohibited.
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