How to Smash Track PRs with Timed Squats
We adopted the timed squat method from Louie Simmons. Let’s just say we had the most regional qualifiers in school history.
#101 - Speed Training, Training Volume, and the Crack House
You may be wondering how speed training, training volume, and crack houses all come up in one episode. Listen to find out.
General Concepts and Progression of the Omni-Contraction System
After consulting with Ben Prentiss and implementing with my athletes, here’s a BRIEF description of the system. Download the 12-week program!
Going Back to Where We Started
I cherry-picked the best of the best from twenty-plus years of programming. Here’s how our football players trained this summer.
Weightlifting Variations for Strength and Conditioning
Weightlifters are among the strongest and most explosive athletes in the world. So, let’s see how your athletes can benefit from doing them!
Integration of Great Ideas into a Manageable Training Program
Westside Barbell, 5/3/1, 5thSet, and Juggernaut Training Systems all play a role in the creation of this program. Let me know how you advance using it.
Utilization and Progressions of the Hip Thrust in Baseball
Hip thrusts are my go-to exercise for minor league baseball players to improve strength and acceleration. Here’s a typical progression I use for my players. And no, we don’t load this movement at the start.
Extra Workouts for the Off-Season Football Player
Here’s an excellent example of how to place extra workouts in a weekly off-season football training schedule along with what an extra workout accomplishes (or should).
The Stretch Reflex: A Power Generator or Not?
The theory is that when you rapidly descend into the “hole” of the squat, there will be a reflexive contraction of the muscles that primarily extend the knee. This will act as some sort of muscle trampoline and will allow you to reflexively contract your way to a completed rep.
Integration of Strength and Power Programming for the Lower Body in Spor...
Running sports are tangential in nature, so in order to optimize transfer from the weight room to the field, both vertical and horizontal movements need to be considered. To this end, the program I am going to outline will look at elements of training to ensure all bases are covered.
Smarter Programming for the Competitive Box Athlete
Believe it or not, it is possible to train multiple qualities at the same time. Athletes all over the world are training that way and making huge strides.
Combining Dynamic Hip and Stabilization Drills for Runners
Strength training for runners is the chassis that underpins the abilities of speed and endurance to help these withstand practice and compete at a higher level — no meathead approach here! Plus, all you need for this program is a buddy and a band. Easy peasy.
The Running Shoe Caste System
“Buy nice; don’t buy twice.” That saying might apply to elitefts equipment, but it might also apply to running shoes when it comes to doing cardio… Any suggestions for replacing a 27-year-old pair of sneakers?
WATCH: The Definitive Guide to Hill Sprints
Before you go find yourself a hill to sprint up via Google maps (steep hills, such as those in landfills, are ideal), don’t forget to warm up and stay hydrated. It’s a sprint, so go all out!
The Physical Requirements That Make a Rugby Player Great
In January 2017, Marc Keys and I embarked upon a labor of love to develop a questionnaire investigating what the various groups of people who make up the rugby industry think are the key elements of the physical preparation of the rugby player. Here are the results.
How Strength and Speed Training Can Help Build Your Aerobic Capacity
Strength and speed training positively influenced my client’s Ironman competition outcome, an event that is very aerobic- and lactic power-based, but why? Let’s take a closer look at energy systems as a whole to find out.
Physics 101 for Performance Enhancement
If you understand the science of physics and how to apply it, you’ll have a better understanding of sports and performance enhancement. You owe it to your athletes to understand the fundamentals. Let’s get started.
Strength Training: Your Secret Weapon for Sport
Strength is a cheat code when it comes to winning. Here’s my basic outline of how you can best implement that cheat code and improve your gym sessions for sport performance.
Top-3 Cardio Options for the Powerlifter, Strongman, Bodybuilder, and At...
Cardio can help you cut weight, get shredded for the stage, and increase athletes’ performance. But with so much cardio out there, where do you start? Start here with elitefts team members’ top-3 cardio items, based on their sports or areas of expertise.
A Legendary Interview with the Legendary Al Vermeil
It’s not every day that you get to listen to an interview with the only strength coach who’s won a championship in both the NFL and NBA. That means today is your day! A few topics we cover are recovery, early morning workouts, trends, intensity, injury, calf exercises, buy-in, and more!
How Strong is Strong Enough?
Generally speaking, if we can get an athlete stronger, that athlete will get faster. But at what point is the athlete strong enough for continued speed improvements? I hope you weren’t looking for a quantifiable answer on this one…
LISTEN: Table Talk Podcast Clip — Jim Wendler's 2-Minute Conjugate ...
Conjugate. You keep using that word. We do not think it means what you think it means. Why is conjugate training so hard to understand? It’s not! In fact, because it’s so easy to understand, Jim Wendler can explain it in two minutes. Two minutes! It’s that simple.
Colleges and Universities on the Prowl for Knowledge
True to elitefts’ mission to live, learn, and pass on, the knowledge and education we provide don’t stop in our London, Ohio, office. Here's how Bowling Green State University, Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Miami in Florida are taking their training to the next level by pushing the Prowler.
The Best Speed Drill for High School Athletes
Sprinting with a weighted sled has become my go-to exercise for improving an athlete’s ability to accelerate because it teaches and trains those mechanics. My athletes have consistently improved thanks to to sled sprints!
Peaking for Sport
If speed is what we’re going after, then why do the weights on both our heavy and light days continue to climb, and bar speed continues to fall? As we get deeper into the competitive season and continue to put more tonnage on the athletes, we are burning the candle at both ends.
Running Cycles at Boxes: Stop Wasting Your Clients' Time
I’m not going to waste your time today, so I’ll get right to the point. Here is my list of reasons why you should avoid linear programming for group box classes at your facility like the plague. Your clients will thank you — maybe not directly, but at least by continuing to show up for class.
Before You Social Media Shame Athletes' Poor Technique
All too often we sit back and make judgments through a keyboard in an instant rather than thinking that this is one moment of a program rather than the whole thing. I know that I have done this, too, earlier in my career (and on the wrong day, recently, too).
Week 11 / day 3 - speed squats & deadlifting
Speed squats w/ Duplex bar vs. heavy band bar x 5 180 x 3 270 x 2 320 (~35%) x 2 x 8 2” deadlifts 320 x 2 410 x 1 500 x 1 560 x 1 610 x 1 655 x 0 Unilateral Reverse Hyper 100 x 15 x 4
Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Program
If we are not seeing progress in the right direction within an expected length of time, we must change things up. If we are not evaluating, then how do we even know if we are making progress at all?
Learn to Train X — Box Squat Technique Fix for Athletes
In this presentation, Harvey goes back to the often-neglected and rarely taught basics. His first “simple technique”, is a detailed breakdown of how to box squat correctly.
WATCH: Eliminating the Numbers Game
Since applying bands and chains in his training, Johnson has not only remained competitive in the sport of powerlifting, he has also seen the gains that he was aiming to achieve.
The Coach's Guide to Programming and Periodization: Basic Principle...
We can’t simply throw random exercises and set and rep schemes on a piece of paper haphazardly and then hope for the best. In this series I will teach you how to write programs, including a coach’s assignment for each article.
Unilateral Training in the High School Weight Room — The Missing Link
It is our job to be more efficient in our programming, and here is why unilateral work plays such a huge roll in that.
Olympic-Style Weightlifting Exercises for Youth Athletes
In this article are evidence-based recommendations for introducing youth athletes to the snatch, the clean and jerk, and their derivatives.
WATCH: The Training and Life of Top-Ranked Powerlifter Rob Hall
In under three years of competing, he already has a 2210-pound raw without wraps total and has even bigger goals for the future.
The Validity of Olympic-Style Weightlifting Exercises for Athletes
Despite the numerous similarities between full lifts, pulls, and extensions, the kinematic profile associated with different variations of Olympic-style weightlifting exercises allows for a more rational, sport-by-sport selection of movements based on specificity.
Developing Your Own Strongman Program
Designing a program that builds agility, speed, strength, and conditioning, while also training the strongman movements, can seem a daunting task. Here’s how I approach it.
WATCH: Q&A with Coach Kav — The Biggest Mistake Coaches Make Teachin...
Once you’ve started with a baseline position, adjustments should first be made based on limb length and secondly based on strength history.
LISTEN: Developing Athletes Through the APRE Protocol for Strength Training
Dr. Mann joins Dr. Lowery and Dr. Nelson to discuss the APRE and how the implementation of this protocol transitioned to velocity-based training.
Building the Raw Powerlifting Total
Here are several very vital pieces of information that often go overlooked and undervalued when it comes to doing your best on the platform.
How Powerlifting Makes Me A Better Weightlifting Coach
I truly believe that if not for the lessons I learned in powerlifting all those years ago, I would not be as effective a coach as I am today.
The Complete 2016 Off-Season Rugby Training Manual
I’m sharing with you the actual manual that I gave my professional athletes prior to departing for their one-month break. This covers all the athletes’ needs for staying in shape for the rigors of pre-season training.
elitefts Classic: How to Set Up A Program — A New Look at Weak Points
I don’t know how many questions we’ve gotten about how to train certain weak points. Of course, almost every question is in regard to a weak muscle group or a certain portion of a lift.
Progressions and Regressions in Strength and Conditioning
This model allows you to assess and modify the training of your athletes based on their daily performance and movement proficiency.
Your First Summer of Planning — Schedule and Program Setup as a New Coach
Young coaches often find a spot late in the summer leaving little time to prepare for the year ahead. Here are the planning and scheduling factors to consider as you construct your program.
How to Train and Use the Stretch Reflex for Better Performance
The stretch reflex plays a vital role in your body’s ability to promote flexibility, increase strength, and develop power.
Dynamic Effort Day for Athletes
Your athletes are not powerlifters. Programming them as if they are will not lead to stronger, faster competitive performance.
Conditioning for the Gridiron Warrior
What good is that 500-pound squat if you’re taking a knee in the fourth quarter desperately gasping for air?
elitefts Classic: RIP Dynamic Effort Bench?
The role and reputation of the DE bench press has received nothing but a bad rap. I have to admit that I am partly to blame.
Speed and Conditioning for the Youth Athlete
This sample one-week program outlines training tactics for developing basic fundamental movement skills.
Programming for Rugby Inside Backs
These strength and performance methods for positions 9, 10, and 12 maximize individual player abilities on the field and produce more capable athletes.
Assessment Methods to Determine Ideal Speed Development Protocols
These three velocity-based sessions build the trainable aspects of athletic speed development.
Peak Velocity and Olympic Lifts
Determine what factors matter and measure accordingly. For the clean and jerk, and snatch, this may mean a need to reevaluate the implications of average velocity.
Acceleration Triumphs for Baseball and Softball Athletes
This comprehensive guide to sprint training will give you the drills, dynamic movement patterns, and training tools to improve acceleration and athletic power.
WATCH: Basic Linear Speed Acceleration Drills in a Team Setting
Training athletes in a team setting poses problems that are easily overlooked. Here are several coaching strategies and cues to get your athletes moving smarter and faster.
Gain Upper Power Using Pin Presses With Molly Edwards
Training partner bailed again? Molly Edwards shows you why you shouldn’t throw out your bench workout due to no spotter, but instead do pin presses and let the power rack be your spotter.
"Speed Kills" Speed Pulls with Jo Jordan
Want to get back to the basics on your deadlift? Jo Jordan shows you how “speed kills” by incorporating speed pulls into your workouts.
Now Available: Sprinting Problems, Prowler Solutions
Joe DeFranco takes an in-depth look at how to use a variety of tools – including the elitefts Prowler – to help push your athletes’ speed to the next level!
Training Sprint Speed at 90%. Fast Enough?
Make sure your athletes sprint intensity is high enough to develop speed or low enough to elicit recovery.