At the beginning, we went through a three week progression of movements that I felt were prerequisites towards acquiring skills for speed training. Some of the things I wanted to accomplish were having a progressive warm up, lifting exercises to revive and strengthen hip mobility and ability, and one of the more important things…reactive strength. The more appropriate way to define this reactive strength, though, is by identifying it as the “stretch-shortening cycle”. The pre-stretch, or ‘countermovement’ action is known as the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) and is comprised of three phases: eccentric, amortization, and concentric (Walker, 2016).

For the next few weeks, I will be showcasing some of the programming I have developed with a client of mine, working on his mechanics of speed and ability throughout a 12-week program. What we will breakdown is the mechanics of sprinting, running, and being able to apply dynamic explosiveness to take down any insubordinate scum that linger the streets at the long hours of night. Its time to take that strength and apply some dynamic explosiveness to chase down your prey and be the alpha dog, brethren! Stay tuned for more literature to come…

I was at the gym the other morning, and a trainer ran a client through a workout. They started with barbell curls, followed by dumbbell curls, followed by machine curls, and ending right at about cable curls. Here’s how it goes: you hit the preworkout, get an immediate jolt of energy and once all the frat boys have congregated we hit the weights and chase the PUMP! That’s what it’s all about to harvest size and strength, right? This is the WRONG way to do it! You can’t expect to grow in size, especially in strength, if you keep up this ordinary lifestyle with a mediocre mindset of training.

Last weekend, I had a few lifters compete at the annual Metroflex “Open Door Ministry-Christmas Classic” push and pull meet. This event is an incredible opportunity for lifters to get together, lift for a cause and take a majority of proceeds to help support those who might not have the funds during the holiday season. During this event, the ORIGINAL Metroflex hosted some of the strongest lifters not just in the area, but the nation…and to make this event even better, it consisted of raw lifter.

When it comes to weight lifting, many people abide to the simple theories that are presented through popular magazines, forums, and word of mouth. “If you want to be stronger, lift with less reps and more weight” is the typical mantra. Programming is not that simple, and should be considered a sophisticated art that not many are well educated about. One of the biggest benefits to programming that could bridge the gap for any lifter would be the psychological factors of weight lifting.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is accountable for different types of responses for the human body. The ANS can affect different factors such as heart rate, digestion, respiration rate and many more. Bolliet, Collet, and Dittmar begin by discussing how variables from the peripheral ANS are thought to reflect two different types of preparation: energetic and directional. Energetic preparation pertains to the level of physiological activation, while directional preparation relates to information processing. These expressions of literature lead these authors to discuss previous research regarding the ANS response between actual and mental preparation for movement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare ANS activity during the preparation period for a complex motor skill (weightlifting) in both real and imagined attempts.

I’ve heard many...but I am sure we can all agree that one of the most dominant lifts amongst society would be the bench press. What better way to exert your alpha dominance amongst your frat brothers than to load 45’s on the bar and press those bodacious pecs towards glory. I mean, you go to the gym and the busiest location is the bench press, am I right? I am sure there are many that would argue this point, but like I said…it’s hard to ignore the impact the bench press has had on the world of strength. But besides the admiration we have towards this movement, we also admire those who have had an impact on the history of bench press by conquering this lift with tremendous gains. We see many 300lbs bench pressers

When I was little, I always wanted to be strong and lift weights. I wanted to have the traps of Rocky Balboa, and the bodacious pecs of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It was my dream! But I knew that if I wanted this, I had to take action. To do this, I would always help my dad move furniture…especially if it was an opportunity to lift something by myself. I even wanted to help my grandpa by pulling out a fence post in the backyard (which felt almost impossible). It just felt good to exert myself into something physical and to feel “empowered” and “valuable”.

One thing that irks me to no end is to watch “others train others”, and as broad of a statement that seems…there is a reason behind it. If you’re a true ambassador of the iron, you will put your client through an appropriate workout that entails correct movements, relevant movements, suitable volume and a calculated load. But to train a client for two hours, aimlessly and having no specific goal or rhythmic choice of exercises being utilized just goes to show how lost we can be on our quest to bang the iron. Three days ago I witnessed some slum in his torn jeans and visor attempt to train another member, and after the hours of yelping and attempts to scream with alpha dominance, I had had enough of it. Lifting only heavy loads won’t stimulate enough muscular growth and development towards a physique chiseled by the old gods and new (rest in peace Ned Stark). This statement leads me into my second part of “lifting heavy vs lifting hard” for massive gains and attaining slabs of beef for improving your frame.

If you’re goal is to gain size for growth and development…a topic we can bring up is “lifting heavy and lifting hard”. We all know what lifting heavy means…but doesn’t lifting hard mean the same thing? Lifting heavy is just as it sounds, placing the most weight on the bar for the prescribed volume. If the set requires you to lift 6 reps, you want to put on the heaviest load you can handle for those 6 reps. That’s what makes the movement heavy, the amount of weight utilized within that given working set. But to add to this type of movement, we can also start prescribing movements to be not only heavy but also hard. To make a movement hard, that means to add a modification that would make the movement more rigorous that wouldn’t require having to put the most weight on the bar possible. Read more to understand the differences which will make your programming EXPLODE HOMIE!