Great program Big Martin! What type of strength increases(bench, squat,deadlift, power clean, push press) have your athletes obtained while being trained in this manner?
sorry guys i was out tonight at my dads birthday party…
apwsearch- your right and every thing i do is completely depndent on the athlete …before i agree to train a athlete i meet with him and analyze basicall is whole life…sleep patterns, age, party life, girlfreind, diet, sport, what program they have been using, i also like to have them first come to a conditioning gpp-strongman day so can test there basic athletic level and conditioning plus it shows me there naturual strenght levels…for mosy my high school guys we do stick to very basic principile and mostly change just bars, box heights, boards and bench angles…but with the weight and learning i have found that no matter there level if i wave the %'s they pick up the motor patterns very well and of course if i get a really young kid wiht no weight room experence i use 2-4 weeks and do mostly gpp-circuits ot bring there fitness level up to par… some of my older more experenced guys use bands and stuff and i have some very creative tier program i use with wrestlers and fighters and advanced level football players…bm
paul78- thats a great way to warm up…i use a lot of cw’s stuff and think he his great…any kind of active warmup that hits the weak points will work…i am trying to get my hands on martin rooneys new tape to get some more ideas…bm
i figured i would have a lot of ?'s tonight so i wrote down what i did with my athletes today…today i had two athletes i trained this afternoon…one a baseball player that is coming post rehab i have had him 5 weeks and he needed tons of gpp and conditioning as he plays a skill position…he is getting ready to play independent proball hopeful he will be ready by late june of this year…based on his personal schedule today was a conditioning day…the second guy i had is a high school senior local football player who is getting ready for his freshman season at alocal school right near me…he is a very good player but lacks size and power he really has a good shot to start as a freshman fullback at this small school next year…based on his schedule it was a weightroom day for him and it was day 2 of the week he is on the same exact program from above…here is what they did…
idependent pro baseball player age 23…conditioning day…main goals condtioning with added strength in weak areas…this work out took a little over 45 minutes…
gpp active warm-up
a1. ab pull downs 5x25
a2. med ball throwing circuit 5x12throws
b1. russian lactate complex with log 3x25
b2. sled rows v-grip 3x5-minute sets
c1. hill -sprint,jog walks, 4x5minute sets
c2. burpies 4x25
hs senior football player…weight room day, week day 2 of a body part tier…
goals added size and strength, weak area target…work out took right at 1 hour and 15 minutes…he rested from 60 seconds to up to 3 minutes between sets dependednt on intensity of set…
gpp warm up…
a1. ab pull downs 5x15
a2. blue band gm’s 5x15
a3. rope lat pulls to face 5x10
b1. med ball sit up toss 3x20
b2. blue band leg curls 3x33
b3. csr’s with purple band 3x25
weightroom work for day 2
priority - lower body - safety squat bar lunges
major - upper body - close grip decline bench press with doubled mini band…
minor- total body - snatch grip deadlift with fat bar from floor
assitant work
barbell row with fat bar 2x12
standing overhead plate press 2x20
hope this helps…bm
BM - how do you feel about switching over to a traditional westside split (4 days - 2 ME, 2DE) for an athlete who wants to inrease mainly strength when the season stops?
philtwine…sorry didnt see you down there…we get really good strength increases there nearly as good a lot of my junior powerlifters get out of the westside pure powerlifting program…but it seems to add a lot of size fast and if you do the gpp-strongman work on 2 nonlifting days there work capacity really goes trhough the roof…if you do the gpp- strongman conditioning work as hard as you can it will kind of hold back the strength gains from a powerlifting perspective, for example my powerlifters just rest and eat a lot on there off days, but the gpp-strongman work build sport specific conditioning and sport specific on-feild trnslate strength better than can be done in the weight room in my opinion…so both aspects the weightroom power and the gpp-strongman work build a on-feild strength power combo really needed for sports…bm
Big Martin- That helps a lot. Thank you very much for taking the time to help us all out.
Just a quick question though: For the strongman gpp work, you said you would do that on different days than your workouts. Are you saying that would be better than doing a main workout in the morning and then a gpp/strongman workout in the evening. Or should you like be too burnt out as a result of your main workout to be able to do the gpp/strongman work. What do you think about the followin split based on using the tier system you just wrote about? Thanks a million BM.
Monday: Train
Tuesday: Gpp/Strongman work.
Wednesday: Train
Thursday: Gpp/Strongman work
Friday: Train
Saturday: Gpp Strongman work.
I was also wondering about what paul asked. Thanks.
paul- in season i personally think that would be way to much…the in season program i gave you on pm of - day after gam day of medium-high rep circuit work and then one day of regular training in the middle of the week is best…now if you want to do dyanmic speed work on the mid-week training day that can be done…just use a speed tier and a mass-strength tier for assitant work…bm
strack…your set up is perfect thats how i do it…i warn you now even though this program forces you to over reach early on if your just starting out only use 2 gpp-strongman days a week until you feel you can go up to 3 with out it effecting your weight room work…and i never ever do both training and gpp-strongman in the same day i make sure there is a 24 hour window in between…i am not a big beliver in 2 a day training for any sport…bm
Thanks a lot Big Martin for your help.
Another quick queston. For your gpp/strongman work, what are the main exercieses you use for the circuit. Thanks.
Wow. Impressive stuff man. If I am ever in Indy, I’m gonna have swing by and train. We could have some good conversations!
That’s some good stuff.
Big Martin, what events do you use in strongman GPP?
tire flips, russian complexes, med ball circuits and throws, sled work, hill sprints, body weight gpp, log work, hip mobility, whell barrell walks, box jumps, …there is probally a lot more i am forgetting…read coach davies gpp articles for ideas…bm
Gotta get a big 500 pound tire.
Big martin. I didn’t mean doing a westside split in the in season but when the season stops (off-season) for a few months just to do something different and work on strength only.
paul…sure…that would be fine…it would also probally be less volume and allow you to heal up better from the season…bm
As usual, thanks for your help BM. Great stuff.
BM what russian complexes do you use?
are the simialr to what Martin R has described for his MMA guys over at EFS?
BM why not share your experiences in a t-mag article! I think you have enough clout here (top poster of the week right?!! hehe) and respect from us t-maggers that we would welcome reading one of your articles!
regds
Jonathan
davidan…exactly i preety much stole them from martin rooney along with some others i have read along the way and a few i have made up on my own…i like to do them with wooden logs, fat bars, and med balls…
capj- i dont know about all that i am still preety damn young…i think there are a lot more older wiser trainers out there that need to be read before me…i am basically a master theif taking ideas from strength coaches and kind of mixing it all toghther to find what works best for my athletes…you have to be very very open minded to be a trainer in my opinion…there are thousands of training philiosiphys out there and each one has some great points and ideas and others suck…you have to decide what you beleive in…from that point desinging programs becomes easy…bm