On this episode Bret from Constant Forward Progress and I do some catching up on our training and talk about our new Facebook Group, HomeGrown Strength.
We start the show talking about how I was able to squat everyday for a year and what my thoughts on the experience were. I tell Bret that I think this is a practice (Squatting Every Day) that is absolutely doable but does not suite my current goals. I’m focused on powerlifting goals and need to spend more time deadlifting and doing other leg accessory work. Squatting everyday takes aways from my ability to do that.
I also talk about how much I enjoy following the Conjugate/Westside method. I love the diversity of lifts and being able to max out twice a week. I have recently written a guide to training with the Westside Method called: “Westside Method: The 5 Keys to Success” You can download it for free by going to: http://www.hammershed.com/go/westside/
Bret says his training has focused more on better pull ups so that he can progress to a muscle up. He also shares some exercises he does to increase shoulder mobility. Bret says back bridge variations are a great exercise for increasing mobility.
I then share the details for our new Facebook group, HomeGrown Strength. HomeGrown Strength is about pursuing strength at home, in your garage, backyard, or neighborhood park. You don’t need a 10,000 SQFT globo gym to be strong. HomeGrown Strength is here to support your strength and fitness goals, we are here to share what we have learned from building our own home gym, and most importantly we are here to make you STRONG.
Please share our show with your friends and family, continue to send me your emails, and remember Consistency is KING!
HammerShed Podcast, a show for anyone who is looking for great information on fitness, coaching, and nutrition. I speak with professional athletes, Olympians, world class coaches, and leaders in research and wellness.
I want to make the best podcasts possible and continue bringing you the best content from the smartest people in the industry. The HammerShed Podcast was made for you, no matter your age, skill level, or strength. You will find great information that will help you achieve your goals. To produce and create the best shows, I need your help.
If every listener donated $2/month, we’d have all of the creative freedom to deliver the kinds of shows we’ve always wanted to create, without any limits. Reaching this goal would create a better balance between listener support and sponsorship’s, and create a more sustainable model for The HammerShed Podcast. This means better shows, additional video content and, fewer sponsor breaks.
HammerShed wouldn’t be what it is today without your support, and we truly appreciate your donation, no matter the size. To become a HammerShed Podcast Patron go to: www.patreon.com/hammershed
Today Jeron Kerridge welcomes me back to Savage Strength and Conditioning to record an episode. We talk about training with some of powerliftings best and managing training intensity.
Jeron first shares with us his trip to Boss of Bosses 3, and the Richard Hawthorn seminar that he hosted at Savage Strength and Conditioning.
The days topic was was intensity. Was talked not only about intensity as a measure of how hard we are working in the gym but also intensity as it pertains to arousal level.
I asked Jeron how he approaches intensity both in his programing and in his training environment. Jeron says he thinks getting super psyched up for lifts, yelling, screaming, and all the other things that is stereotypical of some powerlifters can work, but not for everyone, and is very dependent on an individual’s personality.
I also make sure to point out that during our conversation we were talking about two different types of intensity. Arousal level and training difficulty relative to maximum effort. Jeron says he likes to stay in the 70-85% range for most of his work. We agree if you go too light you don’t get the strength adaptation response. On the other hand if you too heavy technique can break down. We do agree that it is important to get some reps over 85% because there are some things to be learn about weaknesses and, it allows our body to get use to handling heavy weight. Finding the balance of proper training intensity for individual athletes is where having a coach can be helpful. Having a coach with an unbiased eye is extremely useful too, even for more experienced athletes. If you are looking for assistance with identifying weaknesses or technique assessment, I invite you to apply to be a part of the HammerShed Team.
Please share our show with your friends and family, continue to send me your emails, and remember Consistency is KING!
HammerShed Podcast, a show for anyone who is looking for great information on fitness, coaching, and nutrition. I speak with professional athletes, Olympians, world class coaches, and leaders in research and wellness.
I want to make the best podcasts possible and continue bringing you the best content from the smartest people in the industry. The HammerShed Podcast was made for you, no matter your age, skill level, or strength. You will find great information that will help you achieve your goals. To produce and create the best shows, I need your help.
If every listener donated $2/month, we’d have all of the creative freedom to deliver the kinds of shows we’ve always wanted to create, without any limits. Reaching this goal would create a better balance between listener support and sponsorship’s, and create a more sustainable model for The HammerShed Podcast. This means better shows, additional video content and, fewer sponsor breaks.
HammerShed wouldn’t be what it is today without your support, and we truly appreciate your donation, no matter the size. To become a HammerShed Podcast Patron go to: www.patreon.com/hammershed
Below is a chart for suggested squat volume based on competition max. These are the volumes that Louie Simmons recommends for athletes using his Westside Method. For every additional 50 pounds, squat volume should increase 600 pounds per workout. Reverse Hyper volume should be four times that of squat volume.
On this episode I speak with pilates expert Tracey Katona. She shares with use the history of pilates, her background as a professional ballerina, and how some of the best athletes in the world like Lebron James and Antonio Brown use pilates to make them better athletes.
Tracey started ballet at the age of 5. She knew that she wanted to be a professional ballerina so she told her mother that she needed lessons at a performing arts school. After a 12 year career as a professional ballerina, Tracey retired and began her career as a pilates instructor at the Nike world headquarters.
I asked Tracey if she ever had negative pressures during her ballet days to look a certain way or to make unhealthy choices. She said she saw some of it, but also some of that has to do with people who just don’t have the genetic makeup to make a career out of it. She said she loves basketball but no matter how much she wants to be in the NBA she just won’t because she doesn’t have the physical assets that make it possible. Tracey doesn’t deny there are pressures to look a certain way but she feels that is present in many sports. Tracey feels that people with bad eating disorders probably would have had them if they didn’t do ballet and those with a serious eating disorder wouldn’t be able to keep up with the physical demands of the sport either. Tracey says that the ballet industry is much more educated now on the subject of fitness and nutrition and they do a much better job of keeping such issues in check than they have in the past.
I asked Tracey to give us a background of where pilates came from. She tells us Joseph Pilates born in 1883 created his methods to help himself be more fit. He also used his methods to help prisoners of WWI develop their fitness. After the war he came to New York and opened up a studio. He made friends with higher ups of the New York City Ballet and dancers would come to him for rehab.
Pilates is intended to teach you how to acquire complete control of your own body through proper repetitions of the pilates exercises. You progressively acquire natural rhythm and coordination. Pilates supplements your sport by enhancing movement, power and endurance.
As Tracey describes how a typical session with her is set up I note that the similarities of other philosophies. The focus on the feet, addressing asymmetries, importance of the core, and breathing. Tracey focuses on good human movements and teaches her students to be more efficient movers. This work translates into everyday life and most certainly will help improve performance in any sport her students compete in.
On this episode I speak with Brandon Senn, Head Coach of Virtual Coaching at Kabuki Strength. He and I discuss the use of autoregulation in strength training. We explain its benefits, different types, and how to incorporate it into your programing.
Brandon says he wasn’t always a huge fan of the weight room as he found more pleasure in playing sports in high school than preparing for them in the weight room. He notes that he has always had a love for sport and competition. To fill that void after high school he found powerlifting.
Brandon says his coaching started at a commercial gym but found his coaching philosophy and their business model just wasn’t the right fit. He met Chris Duffin at a powerlifting meet hosted at Elite Performance Center. He felt that working there (Elite Performance Center) was a better fit for him and his clients. Currently the athletes he coaches are powerlifters, strongmen, and a couple crossfit athletes. Most of his coaching is done online but does some coaching at the Kabuki Strength Lab too.
I then asked Brandon to explain the origins of Kabuki Movement Systems (KMS). He says that, KMS filled a need for a movement based system for strength sports. There are always a time and a place for mobility work, rolling, etc… KMS though, addresses common movement issues with athletes, not only to reduce injuries but also to increase performance/strength. It’s a system that helps athletes be more efficient movers, which increase force production.
The main topic of the day is auto regulation. For those of you who are not familiar with what that is, auto regulation as a concept, is the ability to manage training load based on a series of defined metrics. In general there are two different types of metrics. Subjective metrics which include rated perceived exertion (RPE), reps in reserve (RIR), or other questions based around describing how difficult a movement felt. Objective metrics are the other type, these include measured bar speed, heart rate, and reps to failure (AMRAP). The benefit with objective metrics when utilizing autoregulation is it keeps you honest and it’s harder to fake. We talk about how there are times when we FEEL good or FEEL bad but the objective metrics show otherwise. In those cases an athlete might make adjustments based on a feeling that would not optimize their training. Brandon does say that there are a time and a place for both methods, and cites work from people like Michael Tuchscherer who uses both methods in tandem.
Brandon talks about how Dr. Brian Mann in working with some of his athletes has found that when they measured athletes bar velocities at certain prescribed percentages they were actually working in ranges undesired for what the programming called for. Cases like this show that not everyone is the same and having some hard data to show us what is really happening can be beneficial.
I then asked Brandon to describe the different types of velocity devices. There are two main types, wearable devices and tethered devices. Brandon tells us that there are also some optical devices but tend to be too inaccurate or cost prohibitive. Brandon thinks that the future will be in wearable tech but right now tethered devices are far more accurate. Currently Brandon’s favorite device is the Squats and Science Open Barbell v2.
I asked Brandon to explain typical usage of a velocity device for auto regulation. He says that any program that uses percentages for training load can use velocity monitoring to make it even better. He uses a technique called velocity profiling. It defines what velocity you should be at for any particular percentage of your one rep max. Not everyone is the same and we all travel at different speeds for different loads. The profiling helps clear up the guesswork so you can select weight to match the prescribed percentage for your training.
Please share our show with your friends and family, continue to send me your emails, and remember Consistency is KING!
HammerShed Podcast, a show for anyone who is looking for great information on fitness, coaching, and nutrition. I speak with professional athletes, Olympians, world class coaches, and leaders in research and wellness.
I want to make the best podcasts possible and continue bringing you the best content from the smartest people in the industry. The HammerShed Podcast was made for you, no matter your age, skill level, or strength. You will find great information that will help you achieve your goals. To produce and create the best shows, I need your help.
If every listener donated $2/month, we’d have all of the creative freedom to deliver the kinds of shows we’ve always wanted to create, without any limits. Reaching this goal would create a better balance between listener support and sponsorship’s, and create a more sustainable model for The HammerShed Podcast. This means better shows, additional video content and, fewer sponsor breaks.
HammerShed wouldn’t be what it is today without your support, and we truly appreciate your donation, no matter the size. To become a HammerShed Podcast Patron go to: www.patreon.com/hammershed
