95 Pound Front Squat Test

Pictured above: Richie Aylward in the middle of a complex including squat jumps, clap pushups, and 25 pound plate corkscrews. Rich has been training with me for close to a year now and continues to train with me during the football season. Hard work like this has led to some excellent results for Rich. Keep it up buddy.

=>This week at the gym as a change of pace I have added in a couple of tests in order to bring out a little competition among the guys. The tests have been a 95 pound front squat test to technical failure, max pullup test, and a 95 pound bench press test. Another reason for implementing the test was to train for some mental toughness. A set of front squats where you take it into the high teens, 20s, 30s, and 40s, tells you a lot about yourself. Can you push past discomfort? Can you deal with some adversity?

=>During the 95 pound front squat test we had some great results.

Eddie O'Connor set the bar at 28. Brian Talbot went after Ed and posted a number of 30. Pat Bohan batted third and got 35. Brian Mac went and posted 40. Brian Byrne got 42. Pat Bohan dialed it up for another set and posted the record number at 46. The atmosphere during the testing was electric. Guys cheering each other on to get one more rep secretly hoping that their number would remain atop the leaderboard. I was more than satusfied with the way this test went and will use it in the future to test the guys in addition to the regular 3RM tests we do in various movements.

=>There is definitely something to be said for gym atmosphere. Get a group of like minded guys trying to get stronger together and you get results far greater than what you could accomplish on your own.

Separating the Good from Great

Today's post comes from an email I was forwarded that was written by Jamie Rice, the head coach at Babson College.

"I just returned from the BU/Michigan game, and while the game had plenty in it to think about and discuss from a hockey and tactical standpoint, there was something that struck me as what makes a championship team/creates a winning culture... following the game I went down to the locker rooms to say hello to the BU and Michigan coaches, and within 10 minutes following the game the entire BU team was finishing their shakes, eating some pizza AND immediately heading into the weight room, where the following activities were taking place;

players were stretching out, and using foam rollers, players were riding air-dynes, players were RUNNING on the treadmills, players were lifting weights, players were getting and performing self muscle massage, players were talking about the game. They were doing this willingly and eagerly, with no one trying to duck out...they were enjoying the workout as much as they did winning. Obviously, the scientific physiological reason was to dissipate LACTIC ACID as quickly as possible to help ensure their bodies would be ready to perform when needed next. It would be easy to dismiss this as DI scholarship athlete's "doing their job". However, I spoke with one of their coaches and the strength coach, and they both said two different, but related things"We are sick of being a second tier team, and this is an area where we can beat our opponents, in our training/recovery...of working SMARTLY while others rest.""It is a mindset, and certainly beneficial from a physical standpoint, but our belief is that we will stop at nothing to improve. We can only get better if we work at self-improvement." Think of Mike Venit's season last year...Mike rode the bike following every game, and would then again ride every Saturday morning (when we were home). Mike wasn't satisfied with how his career had gone, so he decided to impart change. What do you want to do...how do you want to play...what outcome do you desire? BU won 7-2, and the outcome was never in question...it also was apparent to me following the game that the seeds for success were planted well before 7pm last night, they were planted while others were taking the easy path, looking for short cuts, or using the time away from their teammates to hide..."

Kind of speaks for itself. Do you want to be good or great?

Nutrition For High School Athletes

About 2 weeks ago after a relay race style workout that I completed with a handful of my high school guys we sat down on the floor and had a talk about diet. Most of them had no clue what they should be putting in their bodies. So based on our talk I left them with a few take away points.

1. A good breakfast is not cereal. Cereal sucks, no matter what kind it if. Yes, Special K Blows too. A good breakfast involves a handful of eggs, some oatmeal or whole grain bread with natural peanut butter, fruit, and as much water as you can stomach. Guys were shocked when I told them this.

2. A lot of the guys said there was no way they could eat that much food. So I told them to eat last nights leftover dinner, a sandwich, pizza, or a protein shake with some fruit. Then they came back with, "I don't have time to eat that much." Simple, get up 20 minutes earlier if you are serious about performance.

3. Eat 6 times per day.

4. All of them left with instructions to order a protein supplement. I feel this is crucial. At the very least immediately post workout combined with some simple carbs.

5. Drink a gallon of water per day.

6. At sub shops, stay away from steak and cheese and cold cuts. A better option is steak tips or grilled chicken.

7. Lean guys have a bit more freedom with starch. Heavy guys need to get rid of most of the starch in their diets including things like potato, pasta, bread, corn.

8. In the cafeteria, avoid eating pizza and fries everyday. I thought this was a no brainer but it deserves getting mentioned I guess.

Check the facebook group for some new videos including the Eagle's broad jump.

October 21st, 2008

I spent last Thursday through Sunday playing golf in Myrtle Beach. The trip was very enjoyable with 4 rounds of golf being played at four different courses as well as catching up with three of my buddies from Babson Hockey '06. A couple of quick thoughts about he trip as it relates to this blog:

1. There is something to be said for training for strength and power and the way it transfers to golf. I have never really been a great golfer. I usually score in the high 80s. This weekend was much different however as I had noticeably more pop off the tee. Even when I mishit the ball I had more distance and found my club selection to be about 1 less club than usual.

2. Being strong and mobile in the joints leads to minimal residual soreness after taking roughly 400 swings. Any recovery issues were tied to minimal sleep and too many cocktails. Most issues were from wear and tear on the skin of my hands.

This week in the gym we are doing some heavy loading of the big exercises. I had two guys (Pat and Ed) front squat 230 pounds pretty easily on a heavy single. Probably would have been closer to 250. I also had guys doing 50 pounds of external load on p-grip chinups. I will post more personal bests as the week goes on as well as coming up with a leaderboard for some specific exercises.

The Matadors

Tonight at the gym I had the pleasure of training the "Matadors" flag football club out of Boston College High School. Actually I always train these guys, they are hockey players from BC High. You can see Patty inside the rack providing an excellent spot while wearing his under armour skull cap. Way to go Pat. The Matadors are after the title this year and were able to win a tough battle in overtime today. I don't believe the rest of the league is putting the hours in that these guys are.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of going Tuna fishing aboard "Law and Order", Captain Peter Murphy's 32 foot Cabo out of Green Harbor, Ma. While we didn't put any fish in the boat we were able to enjoy some amazing fall weather and see some crazy wildlife which included seals, sharks, whales, and birds. If you are interested in a great fishing trip I can get you Captain Muprhy's contact info.

I took a day off from training today, but yesterday's training included power snatch, front squats, and pullups. I did a set of 4 pullups with 75 pounds added to my 200 pound carcass.

Everyday is a Friday...Random Training Notes

Everyone loves Fridays. Friday means the weekend is here and you have two days to basically do whatever you want. What if you could live your life with the same "Friday is here" feeling everyday? A lot of it is about mindset but the majority of that feeling comes from doing things you love everyday. What is holding you back?

Yesterday in the gym, Ed O'Connor casually tells me, "I am definitely noticing results. Since July, I started to take your advice about nutrition and really started focusing in the gym. In that time frame I have gained about 26 pounds." I was shocked. I mean Ed looks great but that is some serious weight. Anyone who works out with Ed knows that he has gotten bigger but still absolutely jumps out of the building and his acceleration is second to none.

Brian Byrne and Brian MacDonald have been working together with me since the summer. When I first got to training these two guys, I knew we had a lot of work to do. They had some faulty movement technique, were slow, weak, and couldn't jump. So last night we were training doing some single leg plyo work, some acceleration, and basic athleticism drills and they killed it. They were agile, fast, explosive. When we got to our strength training Mac hang cleaned 145 for 3 reps and Byrnesy did 135 for 2. These are two guys who worked with the bar for about their first 4 weeks. We moved to pullups. Mac was able to do 6, 5, 5 for sets. Byrnesy, who usually sucks at pullups, was able to match Mac's numbers.

What does all of this mean? Well, basic programming, hard work, and a good competitive training atmosphere can help young athletes take leaps and bounds in their performance.

Have a great Friday.

Sull

Thursday October 9th, 2008

Today is my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad.

For those who know my dad, they know he has been following my training programming for the past 3-4 years or so. Dad is a workaholic, 13-16 hours days are the norm not the exception. He also is a pretty savage competitor in the gym. Lately he has been working such long hours that he sneaks his training session in at the house sometime around the noon hour. The way I structure his training is to pick two movement patterns (i.e Knee dominant move with a vertical push) and pair that with a core move. His core move is usually a difficult plank maneuver because Dad's lower back/neck can get pretty mangled if he doesn't visit the chiro do his soft tissue and mobility work that I prescribe. He moves through each exercise circuit style with minimum rest for usually about 15 minutes. He is in and out in 25 minutes or under. Well Dad has gone from a high of 200+ pounds to his current fighting weight of 174 which he has maintained for about 12 months within 5 pounds. Congratulations, keep it going Dad.

If you have started to follow the blog, please drop some comments and let me know some things that you would like to see. Thanks.

Sull

Tuesday October 7, 2008

Brian Sullivan pictured above with Matt Brennan...

Today I didn't have a whole lot of time to train as I was catching up on some work. So I decided to head out to the beach behind my parents' house in Quincy. I grabbed a 4 foot piece of telephone pole that was leftover from building the pier out back and dragged it down to the beach. For the next 20 minutes I cleaned and pressed it, tossed it end over end, carried it, and cursed at it. By the end of it I was breathing heavy and had built up a lather.

I wanted to give a shout-out to thefitcast.com. Jimmy Smith and Kevin Larrabee conduct some terrific interviews over there and the archives are posted. They have some of the biggest names in fitness, nutrition and strength. Today I listened to an Eric Cressey interview and a Mike Boyle QandA session. Oh yeah, and it is free.

Right now I am watching one of my favorite shows, The Biggest Loser. I am fascinated by it. I mean these people lose a whole human's worth of weight. I also like to watch the workout segments. I usually have to bite my tongue because some of the exercises look really stupid to have these severely deconditioned folks performing, but then again, in the end they deliver results and from the looks of it, minimal injuries. I also may have a slight crush on Jillian.

Some highlights from the gym today include Eddie O'Connor doing three sets of pullups for 15, 12, 12, bulgarian split squatting 145 for sets of three and the BC High boys putting up some decent bench numbers. On a different note I have been experimenting with Tabata slideboard intervals and they are really hard but they tend to look like dog shit when my athletes attempt them. Thinking of getting rid of these.

Also had a productive session with the Boston Patriots tonight. More on that later.

Monday October 6th

Today I had a pretty laid back training session for myself. Started with a dynamic warmup, did some mobility drills, played around with 4 sets of 1 arm barbell snatch, 2 sets of max reps pullups (17, 11), and some reverse lunges loaded with a barbell (for some reason with my right knee pain I can reverse lunge with minimal pain.)

Right now I am watching Jon Lester do battle with the Angels. Hopefully the Red Sox can close them out tonight. On a side note, I think anyone who has ever had a lower back injury can respect what JD Drew is playing through right now.

Last night I played hockey with some guys in Rockland at the Bavis Rink. Me and Houghs Neck Legend Matt Gibbons laid the wood to some dudes. 2 Goals and 3 assists for me, five point night, no big deal.

A couple of highlights from my athletes today were Richie Aylward overhead squatting 135 for sets of 5, Brian MacDonald doing 4 sets of 5 chinups after being able to do zero about 8 weeks ago, and having Brendan Gallahue back in the gym is always fun. Bryan Talbot joined the squad today too in preparation for BC High's upcoming hockey season.

Training the youngsters...

This past week I became the strength and conditioning coach of the Boston Patriots Select Hockey Organization. They currently have three teams that I work with to provide an off-ice component to their training. When I took on the position I was faced with some difficulties.

1. The kids I would be training would be 11, 12, and 13 years old. I haven't had a whole lot of athletes that young to train yet, so I was faced with a little unknown territory there.

2. The groups would be anywhere from 13-16 kids at one time, which is larger than the 6-8 kid groups I usually train and have grown quite comfortable with.

3. I would not be provided with any equipment aside from plenty of open space under the roof of the new rink in Dedham.

4. These kids were very new to the world of training that didn't take place on the ice.

5. I had to figure out a way to provide a 20 week progressive strength training program with no weights available unless I were to bring some over from the gym, which I am toying with.

Here is how I have and plan to handle this. Any feedback is always appreciated.

1. We will begin with 6-8 minutes of dynamic warmup. This will include high knee walk, high knee skip, high knee run, hip walkovers, spiderman, backpedal, side shuffle, carioca, etc. The goal of the continuous warmup is to prepare the body for movement, introduce some semi-athletic drills, and get the kids moving.

2. Next I have decided to break them up into 4 lines of 3-4 kids. I have the first line step up to go through the first exercise (two legged squat jump focusing on landing mechanics). While the first group goes, the rest of the young lads will perform a stickhandling drill (I require them to bring a stick and ball) whether it be narrow dribble, wide dribble, side dribble, etc. This eliminates standing around and effing around. The line system allows me to watch the mechanics and coach 4 guys at a time which is manageable.

3. The exercises I have planned are things like squat jumps, skating bounds, split squats, pushups, planks, back bridge, glute activation, short sprints. I am struggling with the fact that there is not much on an option for any vertical or horizontal pulling.

Thats all for now...any feedback or advice is appreciated.

Things I Find Effective in Training Athletes

Below are some random thoughts that I find effective when training athletes.

1. Right now a lot of guys that I train are playing Fall Select hockey in Massachusetts. I have found it effective to make small deals with them after their last session of the week before their weekend tilts. We set a goal, for example, Ed Nolan of BC High fame and I set a goal for last weekend of 3 points and zero penalties for the 2 games he was going to play in. Score 3 points and I have to do 10 burpees. Get zero penalties and I do an additional 10. However, if he gets 1 penalty, he does 10 burpees and 10 for each additional penalty. He also does 5 burpees for every point under 2 that he gets. I think this teaches a solid lesson about having a goals for games, and I am now trying to have guys set goals for their upcoming seasons.

2. Like Mike Boyle explains in his writing. It is easier to teach guys how to close grip snatch than teaching them to clean. The catch position of the clean requires wrist and forearm flexibility that comes with time but almost anyone without a history of shoulder conditions or being a baseball guy can come in and snatch with decent instruction.

3. It may be better to have one heavier olympic lift during the week and one lighter technique day where we focus on bar speed. Two heavy Oly-Lift days seem to drain quite a bit from guys.

4. I trained 24 athletes this summer for 12 weeks. I have a group of those guys back for the fall. I think only about 5 of them bench pressed all summer. Young guys need to be able to do sets of pushups and even loaded pushups before we start loading up the bench press.

5. Some kids respond best to different coaching styles. If athlete A is setting up for a big lift or chalking up for a set of Cleans, I know that saying "jeez, thats a lot of weight, I don't know if you will get it," he will tell me to cordially go F myself by nailing some pretty aggressive reps. However a different kid will dial it up if I keep it positive and pump up his tires a bit.

6. I have taken some of the cardio-strength training complexes that Coach Dos has in his book, "Power Training" and have started sprinkling them in on Thursdays and challenging guys to see who can complete the most rounds in a given time. This week we did an unloaded 45lb barbell complex. It was 3 high pulls, 3 push presses, 3 reverse lunges each leg (6 total). Set a stopwatch for 10 minutes and see how many times you can get through it. My best was 21 times. My glutes are also toast today. I think it provides a nice conditioning effect and also is a mini deload from lifting heavy.