It has been an unusually busy past few weeks for me and because of that I haven’t much chance to actually get to sit down and write… For that I apologize, but next week I’m going to have some more time on my hands, and I have a mirror of article ideas that I need to get down on paper/video (I’ll get a post up soon about my mirror).
One thing I definitely want to start doing is shooting more video of exercises, techniques, and workouts at the facility and get it on here so be looking for that.
So let’s kick it off with…
4 Simple Strength Tips
Tip #1: Overhead Squat
Not Just the Only Way to Get it Overhead… Jeez Those Chinese Weight Lifters are Lazy
If you have never done overhead squat, then you are in for a shock. Welcome to the world where you can find and feel nearly every mobility flaw your body has and every weakness that needs to be worked on.
- Lack of ankle mobility? – Check
- Lack of hip mobility? – Check
- Lack of shoulder mobility? – Check
The list could go on and on, but it’s more of a have to try it out (even with just a barbell) and see.
Incorporating the overhead squat into your training program, not only develops insane mobility, but also builds massive amounts of core strength that allows for the force to pass from all the way from your feet to the bar.
Starting off I like to use it as an assistance exercise to my normal lower body days, but it helps so much with core strength, mobility, and keeping things tight, that your normal back squat blows up.
Here is the great Dan John overhead squatting back in his early 40′s
Tip #2: Change Up Your Thought Process
You don’t always have to continually overload the bar to get stronger. Sometimes forcing the body to adapt to a different type of stimulus is going to help keep things progressing.
So trim down rest periods, switch exercise implements (kettlebells for dumbbells, trapbar for straight bar, etc). add or take away sets or reps, or even workout days.
Changing variables often while still increasing weight on the lifts is going to increase your overall strength no matter what lift you are performing.
Tip #3: 100% Full Body Warm-Up
When you perform an upper body training session, does the lower body stay at home? If you lift correctly then it sure doesn’t.
From driving with your legs in a bench, stabilizing your body during overhead presses, or being mobile enough to allow you to maintain a flat back during rows, your lower body is involved in every lift just as much as your upper body is.
When you perform a lower body training day, does your upper body not do anything? Does it not hold the bar during deadlifts, or support the bar when squatting?
Unless your lower body warm-up consists of nothing but a belt around your waist tied to sled, then your upper body is being used during your lower body days as well.
So warm up that way… Thinking that you are warmed up because you cranked out a lot of upper body or lower body exercises for your training day isn’t 100% accurate.
Instead get a good solid full body warm-up routine that you follow every day you train. Then add in a few extra upper or lower body exercises that help prime whatever it is you are training that day.
Tip #4: Stop Lifting Weights
Crazy I know, but you can’t just go 110% in the gym as hard as possible day in day out for years without hitting plateaus, or even worse, having a plateau hit you by way of injury.
Take a day or more off for recovery sessions, mobility work, or lighten your workout up to just hit one or two problem areas you have or learn on teaching certain muscles to activate and fire better. Doing this your body can stay healthy, recover, and get ready to kill it in the gym again.
I have taken up to 6 weeks “off” before where I did nothing but a full body warm-up, mobility work, and muscle activation exercises, to help my body heal, move better, and rest.
Learning & Practicing Some Basic & Advanced Yoga Poses Can Only Benefit Your Training
I’ve always come back recovered not just physically, but also mentally with a new fire. My lifts might have taken a slight hit starting back, but they always feel a ton better, which has always allowed for me to bust through strength plateaus and really push it in the gym.
Also, saying you are taking a recovery day by throwing in a “recovery” workout on what would normally be your off day, and then training the rest of the time like normal does not count.
So change things up, get your entire body warm, learn to overhead squat and incorporate it into your training, and take some time off and your strength will continue to increase and you will be able to utilize and enjoy it in everything you do.
DC
PS: Because I got so busy this week, I decided to push back the contest on the best comment about setting goals. If you are interested in getting a Genesis t-shirt, then click here read and post your goals.
Filed under Best At Sports, Fast, Strong, & Jacked, Get Stronger by on Feb 3rd, 2012. 2 Comments. 
Hy it’s DC here…
I hope you are crushing an awesome week.
Now that my training has been bumped back up to full go, it’s time to talk more about some of the actual training and exercises I use at the facility to help make sure our athletes never plateau and turn into freaks.
I took this ab exercise from Barry Ross, because if it is the only one he uses with his sprinters and athletes, then I think it’s worth using in the facility.
Side Note: If you haven’t purchased his book “Underground Secrets to Faster Running” and you train athletes, then you are doing them a disservice!!
In a few interviews he talks about performing what iso static holds and rotations with your upper body off hanging off a bench and your feet tucked under a squat rack safety. Well after tweaking it a tad to accomodate for comfort and shorter athletes, we moved that exercise straight to our GHR.
Needless to say, this exercise is an absolute killer… Especially when done correctly. Your abs aren’t just getting worked, but it forces your entire core to remain engaged, stiff, strong and powerful.
You have 2 variations, the rotation where you remain out and rotate as SLOWLY and in a big of range of motion as possible, and the hold. With the hold you just lay out and hold for a set period of time.
We typically go 2-3 sets of 30 seconds on the rotations, and then we go 2:00 on the hold.
We have yet to have anyone go 2 straight minutes on the hold, so the goal is 2 minutes total as fast as possible. When you come up to take a break, the clock stops. Start it again when you go back down.
Check Out Cushing’s Face… He Was Only 30 Seconds Into The Hold…
So what are some cues for performing and coaching this exercise?
- Set up the GHR so the base of the butt is still touching the outside of the pad. Any shorter than that you aren’t doing enough work, any more than that the lower back gets overworked.
- Lay back until the upper body is slightly above parallel with the ground.
- When rotating, rotate as slowly as possible and as big as possible making sure your shoulders turn. If we go for 30 seconds, we average 25-30 total rotations.
- When holding, remain in that parallel position until you have to take a break.
This is KEY: Make sure you and/or your athletes hips and legs aren’t flexed. If they lock their legs or do nothing but flex their hips and quads during the movement, the abs and core aren’t getting the full amount of work needed.
Here is a short video shot a few days ago of me and one of my coaches performing the exercise. The exercise is very boring to watch, so I only included 1 set of rotations and 1 60 second hold. It appears that I also included one of my coaches thumbs who can’t operate a camera very well.
Check it out and please let me know what you think.
I’ll talk to you guys on Monday, as I’m flying out early tomorrow morning to Phoenix for some awesome business masterminding and won’t be back until late Sunday night.
Enjoy the weekend and feel free to direct all your cuss words when performing this exercise (especially the holds) at either myself or Barry.
DC
Filed under Best At Sports, Bodyweight, Fast, Strong, & Jacked, Get Stronger by on Jan 26th, 2012. 4 Comments.
DC,
You’ve been one of the people that I’ve looked up to in this industry and so I wanted to ask you! about some things.
I wanted to know how training looks like for your athletes that play during the winter (basketball, hockey, indoor soccer, etc.) ? Do you use 4-day work weeks from the start of the off season up until they leave for practice/camp? Do you decrease lifting days and add running days? How do you implement conditioning with them? Circuits or running?
I read how defranco takes out his dynamic lower body day for more running near the start of camp. I wanted to know how you do things since I learned a lot of what I have my clients do from YOU!! I usually only work with “regular Joes” and I’ve never dealt with basketball and hockey players before so I wanted an expert opinion on how to do it.
Im sorry for having so many questions. Its just that I dont want to screw my first basketball/hockey guys up! Hope you can give me some advice and guidelines. All your help will be gladly appreciated!
Thanks and hope to hear from you soon,
Neal B.
Neal,
Thanks for not just the email, but also reading the site.
One thing that I do differently than Joe, is we have the majority of our athletes only come in to train at the most 3 x week, no matter what sport they play.
We do this for a few reasons, with the main one being that they are still doing stuff at school daily, and we don’t want to over work them.
You can get a lot accomplished in just 3 days and by doing so, it allows them more time to recover, grow, and get stronger, as well as a few down days to just enjoy being a kid/teenager.
We go 3-4 days for our pro and college athletes, and 5-6 days with our combine group, but that is because they aren’t doing anything else outside of training with us.
I typically stick with lifting the guys (and gals) 3 x week no matter how close they are to their season. The program changes, and we will work in more conditioning, but that typically occurs at the end of 1 or 2 of our workouts.
Plus most coaches are so scared that their team is going to be out of shape, that they spend more time focusing on that during practice and in their athletic period, so I try to make sure they continue to get stronger, faster, and more explosive instead of condition them in ground.
As guys start preparing for those seasons and the actual games/matches, they should be getting plenty of conditioning, just practicing their sport day in and day out.
Hope that helps and please comment below if you have any questions or need anything else.
DC
Filed under Best At Sports, Fast, Strong, & Jacked, Get Bigger, Get Stronger, QnA by on Dec 20th, 2011. Comment.
DC,
For a skinnier guy that’s been getting into barbell strength training to put on a bit of muscle, and look good nekkid, is there anything you could recommend if I had to go without access to gym equipment for an extended period of time, of say 3-6 months?
I’ve taken a look at a book on bodyweight strength training, and the guy that wrote it seems to spend most of the time talking out his arse about how his bodyweight training is superior to free-weights in every conceivable way, and the rest of fitness world is just brainwashed.
His credibility aside, I’d be interested to know if it’s feasible to be make any sort of respectable gains, or at least avoid losing the muscle I’ve put on, if I just did not have access to a gym for an extended period.
James
James,
Thanks for the question and you bet you can pack on some respectable gains using just bodyweight only exercises.
Just take a look at male gymnasts. They are jacked beyond belief and never lift weights.
DB Laterals Raises & Curls Done? ZERO
The mistake people make when thinking about bodyweight exercises though is they assume everything is high rep, and never really think “outside the box” on ways to add resistance or make exercises more challenging.
They are stuck with doing dips, pull-ups, push-ups, squats, and some sit-ups.
The same science and theories that work for building strength and size with barbells, kettlebells, dumbbells, sandbags, etc. also work for bodyweight training.
The key is just finding the correct exercises.
If you can do find those exercises that you can only really do for 3-4 sets of 5-10 reps at a time, then you are training the body the same way you would with weights, but even more efficiently since your entire body has to stay tight and ends up getting worked out with these more advanced movements.
I recommend checking out Convict Conditioning as a great resource for bodyweight progressions to keep you gaining.
I turn to it all the time when figuring out bodyweight training for myself and my athletes.
DC
It appears that Convict Conditioning 2 has come out. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, but with how good the first one was, I am willing to bet it won’t disappoint.
If anyone has read it, I would love to hear what you think and if it is worth picking up.
Filed under Bodyweight, Fast, Strong, & Jacked, Get Bigger, Get Stronger, QnA by on Dec 19th, 2011. 2 Comments.
If you missed the first 10 of my biggest moments and events, then click *HERE*
11) When I first started building Genesis, I thought for sure people would beating down my door to train there because of how different and well the program works.
3 months later when I had 1 athlete in, I realized I was in for a way bigger struggle than I expected.
12) Since meeting my wife (8 years ago), I really had one definition of being successful.
I wanted my wife to be able to stay home when we had kids so she could raise them.
We were able to make this happen this past September and everyday I realize just how big of a blessing it is.
It feels like even more of an accomplishment since it happened by opening and running my own business instead of being a salaried employee at a 9-5 job.
13) I remember one day when I was in the facility getting equipment set up and moved around before the doors even opened, a guy came in and started talking to me.
He told me how he was successful opening his own business and just recently sold it to go back to work.
He looked me straight in the face and told me I was too young to run my own brick & mortar business and he didn’t see anyone trusting a 27 year old kid to train their son/daughter.
I wonder where he is today, or if he drives by the new facility and sees all his son’s competition training there…
I sure hope so.
14) When I first had an idea to open my own training facility, I tried to call everyone I thought of who trained athletes/ran their own place for advice.
No one really gave me the time of day except for one world famous coach, who has written books, articles, done seminars and more.
The only person I was able to talk to was none other than Mark Rippetoe himself.
The Man... The Myth... The Douchebag...
He lives in Texas as well so I thought he would be able to give me some great advice about training athletes and running a successful gym.
His exact words were “It can’t be done in Texas… You won’t ever get any football athletes in because of their high school football coaches”.
That pissed me off and I think I owe him a phone call now that we have 50+ high school football athletes who train with us in their off-season.
15) I have a very addictive personality… When I was at Baylor my roommate got me hooked on something horrible. A computer game called Counter-Strike.
I ended up saying up all night every night to play, missed classes, and eventually flunked out of Baylor.
I dropped 20lbs and didn’t workout for 2 years straight because of that game.
But everything happens for a reason, because I was a business major at Baylor who was burned out on football and track and who knows what I would be doing right now if it wasn’t for that computer game.
16) The first time I ever trained around actual competitive bodybuilders, was at Powerhouse Gym in Houston my senior year in high school.
I remember asking them a ton of questions about gaining muscle, supplements, exercises and training programs and they always came back preaching about nutrition.
I thought they just didn’t want to give me their secrets and used steroids since OBVIOUSLY they didn’t know much about training or else they would have been able to answer my questions.
I never knew why they cared so much about nutrition to get results until much later in life.
17) At Texas Tech I spent 4 years getting bigger and stronger.
I didn’t care about anything else and at one point I got up to 245lbs… I went up to Lubbock at a solid 175 and did that in under 4 years.
It all happened because one day while I was buying worthless supplements at the local supplement store, the guy checking me out gave me legit protein powder, and weight gainer and told me how to take it different from what the label said.
He then pointed me to a website www.AnabolicMinds.com which opened up my mind to a whole different world of strength training, bodybuilding, and nutrition.
I spent more time on that site the next 2 years that I did studying for or actually in all of my classes combined.
18) Back in 3rd grade I was at the park with my mom and there was the little foo-foo dog chasing me around.
It was fun until I was running full speed, looked up, and clipped a metal slide with a corner for my forehead.
I split my skull open and had to be rushed to the emergency room to get 6-7 stitches.
The worst part about it was there was a nurse at the park who used her daughter’s doll’s diaper as my bandage.
So I roll into the hospital with a diaper strapped to my head.
19) I remember testing in high school football off-season on the squat.
We used a rep max method and I had 315 on the bar.
I also had the best spotter in the weight room… a big linebacker who basically Zercher squatted myself, and the 315lb bar for 10 reps.
I bragged that I squatted 405 at 165lbs for years after that.
20) In high school I had no idea how to put on size or anyone to teach me the correct way to eat and train in order to do so.
So I would get home from whatever sport I was playing, and go read Flex magazine while eating an entire can of peanuts before taking a shower every day.
Then before bed I would have 1 pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, a can of tuna, and as much peanut butter I could stand.
Unfortunately it didn’t do anything for me.
I wonder how fat I would be if I did that today.
Hope you enjoyed Pt 2 and I’m busy cranking away on the last 10 bigger moments of my life.
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and please comment below if you can think of anyone you know of in your life who basically told you cant and said screw you, did it anyways, and it became a big success.
DC
Filed under Best At Sports, Fast, Strong, & Jacked, Get Bigger, Get Stronger, Motivation, Nutrition, Powerful Mind by on Dec 16th, 2011. Comment.
