Programming for Fat Loss (Free Training Workout Included)

Some people ask me what I do for those that have the goal of fat loss.  Here is something I put together for a new client who is a bit older.  She presented with a limited toe touch (6 inches from toes), poor active straight leg raise (both 1′s), and shoulder mobility.  Typically, I’ll address the weaknesses in the beginning of the training session (correctives) as well as in the warm-up itself.  For phase 1, the goal is to learn the basic movements and then decrease the time between sets as the weeks go along.  The conditioning will be kept light in this phase as she will have some conditioning to do on off-days (more along the lines of 30-40 minutes of general aerobic work) as well.  The pdf is the training session itself (she will also have foam rolling and a specific warm-up as well)

Start here

Here is the idea…

Phase 1 3 day 2-18-13

Best,
Matt

Not Overloading Athletes: Other Factors To Consider in Programming

We are half way through the summer (wow) and that means that a variety of athletes are involved in some kind of captain’s practices or skill sessions (soccer and football comes to mind).  At Endeavor, we try to make sure our athletes inform us when they’ll be headed back to school, or when their sports start.  Sometimes we even have the opportunity to write extra programming plans for the athletes if they only train with us 2x/week (the majority of our clients).  I am specifically talking about “extra” conditioning programs or basic strength templates to follow at home.  I had the opportunity to write a 8-week conditioning protocol for one of our high school soccer athletes prior to her 2-mile testing and preseason.

What to consider before programming extra?

#1 What is the goal of the program that we have created for her (or anyone) when they are at our facility?

One of the more important concepts is understanding first what do we have her doing at our facility.  For the majority of soccer (2x/week), we will have them working on a variety of things such as…

• Acceleration/Deceleration speed and power work
• Rotational MB throws (power)
• Strength movements (making sure we are hitting every movement pattern each day)
• Core Stability
• Specific mobility drills
• Conditioning: Short explosive intervals (ex: heavy sled drags 10s on: 45-60s off)

#2 How many days do they have practice/What are they doing in these sessions?

What the athlete does outside of the training session (not with us) sometimes helps us in determining the program needed for the individual.  With soccer preseason or captains practices, skill work will turn into a lot of moving, sprinting, and changes of direction (from what I was told, and another reason I need to get out to see the practices to know exactly how the intensity is).

#3 Knowing what kind of athlete he/she is

Understanding what type of athlete he/she is which can help with programming.  Is he/she more explosive and strong, more aerobic, have a big list of previous injuries?  These are important qualities to understand and something I want to become better at understanding, especially their aerobic ability, repeat sprint performance, etc.. (if anyone has good ideas for assessment for the private setting please let me know!!)

#4 Age

Listen, if you’re in middle school or high school and train 2x/week plus soccer 2x/week, have a captains practice 1x/week, and want extra conditioning to do, I would probably say go enjoy part of your summer!  Part of summer is enjoying it, spending time with family and friends is a must.  It is important to understand that sports should still be enjoyed at these ages.  Preventing injuries and developing as an athlete requires recovering adequately and not overworking oneself.  Realize that if you are always playing, training, and “working” everyday of the week, that you may (and probably will) run into issues later in your career which will end it before you’d expect.

 

With the athlete that I specifically mentioned, I only gave her 1 conditioning session to do per/week to practice for her 2-mile test and improve her aerobic capacity.  We can see how there are many factors to consider and the reasons how it may affect our programming.  One half of the summer down, the other half we are ready to get going!

 

Cheers,

Matt

Making Your Training Much More Effective

How often have we heard people say how many countless hours they spend at their local gym exercising?  I must see at least 5+ Facebook statuses/week that say something like “Wow, 3 hours in the gym, got some much done today, I feel awesome.”  Three hours?  If you spend three hours supposedly training you are most likely doing too much at too low of an intensity to see any adaptation.  It’s not that doing low-intensity is bad, it has its place as I have learned from Dan John and Joel Jamieson (recovery methods, aerobic systems training). What is the goal? It can be reached within anywhere from 45 minutes to no more than an hour and a half.  However, in that time you have to make training efficient with an organized set approach.  Here are a few simple ideas and tools that just about everyone should have and do.

#1 Some type of soft tissue tool: 

• A foam roller, lacrosse ball, or tennis ball:  If you do not do some type of soft tissue work pre or post workout, you are doing yourself a disservice and are behind the curve with training.  Because of our horrendous sitting habits, overuse issues, and lack of movement we need something to break up dense nasty muscle tissue so that it allows our muscles to move easier, restore blood flow to restricted areas, and simply feel awesome.  Only stretching doesn’t count.  Roll then stretch.  At PerformBetter.com they sell the foot-long roller for 8$ so you cannot make an excuse to not buy one.  Also, Lowe’s or Home Depot has PVC pipes for 5$ if you are feeling a bit edgy

#2 Have a dynamic warm-up

• Jogging 10 minutes on the treadmill may increase blood flow or “break a sweat” but it does not prime your CNS for the lifting nor does it address the mobility restrictions at the ankles, t-spine, and hips (all common problem areas).  Pick around 8-10 movements.  Mobilize the commonly restricted area and then reinforce that new mobility with a full body movement.

One example would be performing a Wall Hip Flexor Mobilization –> body weight reverse lunges.

#3 Movement Selection Guide

• We only really have a few basic movements : upper body pushing (horizontal/vertical), upper body pulling(horizontal/vertical), core movements (anti-extension, anti-lateral flexion, anti-rotation, anti-flexion), hip dominant lifts (deadlift patterns), and knee dominant lifts (squat patterns).  Choose an upper body, core, and lower body movement and  pair them together.  Pairing exercises together saves you time between sets and can keep away the chatty-kathies that come to talk to you between exercises.

Ex.   A1) Push-ups 3 x 8

A2) 1-Arm DB Hold  3 x 20s

A3) Cable Pullthroughs 3 x 10

#4 Conditioning Mode

• Choose some type of conditioning whether it be treadmill, bike, or a slideboard (if you have access to one…we do) and do rounds of intervals instead of 30+ minutes of jogging.  Sprint/Pedal all out for 20-30s then rest/jog for a minute (or easy pedal on bike).  Save the long steady state aerobic work like brisk walking or jogging for off days as a recovery method.  It saves you time because you cannot do as much and better way to get conditioning done if time is limited.  You can obviously vary the work:rest ratio and do times like…

20s on/40s off

30s on/60s off

15s on/45s off

#5 Nutrition Always #1

• Whether or not you believe it, your results are going to depend on how well you eat.  Spending 3 hours at the gym is useless when you go to McDonald’s afterwords for a post-meal snack.
• Eat something that can be hunted (protein) and grown (vegetables/fruit –wait…eat lots of vegetables..) at every meal
• Drink water at every meal…a good rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight (in oz.) and any more is even better
• Get plenty of sleep 6-8 hours
• Try shooting for 4-6 meals/day for now
• Take a good post-workout supplement (Metabolic Drive is amazing)
• Take fish-oil (Carlson Labs is king..2-3 g of EPA/DHA/day)

Not Being Fooled by “Sport Specific Training Programs”

It may be a good way of marketing and appealing to certain sports populations but in reality programs that say they are specifically geared towards their sport may not be what good programming is about.  Certainly, there are some things in a program that may be appropriate than others but there are a few principles that apply to all sports and even the general clientele (weight loss, strength, etc..)  These principles should be the same throughout.  What are these principles?

• Move Better
• Move Stronger
• Move Faster
• Move Longer

**Big props go to Charlie Weingroff for these terms (not sure but it is where I heard it from first)

We mostly work in the GPP and more advanced would be SPP, but the higher up you go, the more it is the sport preparing you for that type of preparedness

Move Better: this is your assessment.  Knowing where to hit first is important and using a tool such as the FMS can help a coach see what needs to improve in order to remove any barriers that will limit the other principles.  You cannot just put the pedal to the metal from the get go without knowing where that person is.  This is one, in my opinion, why things like P90x or Crossfit style programs can be extremely dangerous (besides other parts of their programs) to 99% of the people using them.

The other principles are pretty self-explanatory with move longer being the conditioning part of the program.  The main goal is to understand that this is one main way at which we look at athletes with program design and helping them reach their goals so that they can reach their full-potential without any barriers that they may have

Cheers,

Matt

Sources:  SCWebinars.com presenter Charlie Weingroff: Program Thinking: The Design Behind the Program