John Berardi is one of the smartest nutrition people I know (he’s worked with athletes in every major professional sport: NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL).  I got an email from him the other day with a link to this article.  If you’re a young athlete who is looking to gain weight, this is a great read.  All too often we make it complex; if you want to keep it simple and effective, read this now: www.precisionnutrition.com/6-scrawny-mistakes.

Enjoy the read!

If you’re a high school coach you should read my new article up on the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group website.  In the article I talk about how simply it can be to organize a training program for high school athletes.  Here is a brief piece of the article:

“The one thing that is consistent with high school athletes is inconsistency.”

 I can’t tell you the number of times that my perfectly constructed training programs have been derailed by kids missing workouts.  Here is a short list of some of the reasons my athletes have missed sessions last minute or had to adjust an entire session: broken tibia at football practice; keys locked in car; stayed late for a test; mom had to drop off brother; practice went over; recruiting visit; I have to pick out my Halloween costume because there’s a dance tomorrow.  Yes, a Halloween costume…I’m not kidding, needless to say I was less than impressed.  There are literally thousands of reasons an athlete may not be able to complete your training program as prescribed. ” 

continue reading the article: http://www.bsmpg.com/articles—resources-0/bid/56021/Periodization-For-The-Next-Generation-by-Shelby-Turcotte

Enjoy.

It’s time to periodize for the next generation of athletes

So a few weeks ago I posted a comment about one of my athletes doing 365 x 25.  Well a week later I saw more greatness as he pulled off 405 for I think 15, and then a week after that pulled off 455 x 10.  Hypothetically speaking, he should have only been able to pull 455 3 times based on his 1 rep max, but this just goes to show what mental focus and hard work can do.  I should also mention that a year ago this athlete did 300 for a double on front squat ( to a 14″ depth, he is now able to go 12″) after I told him that I didn’t think he could pull it off.  I ate my words.

This video is not about the weight, but more about the effort.  If everyone worked this hard in the weight room, we’d see athletes abilties skyrocket.

As a coach you understand that there are good days and bad days; some days athletes seem to work hard, some days they seem to perform well, and sometimes all of the stars align and they both perform well and work hard to create the ultimate performance.  The weight room is no different from a coaching standpoint.  There are days kids go absolutely all out when they feel great, and days that they don’t feel so amazing and things are at a much lower level.

Yesterday was an interesting day.  One of the harder workouts that I have kids on is one which calls for sets of 8,6,5, and then a final set to failure with the same weight which was just done for 5.  Now, we don’t push the absolute max for the 5 reps (projected 84% of 1 rep max), we probably lean more towards a weight about (80% of 1RM) and work on acceleration.  Either way, the final set to failure is always an interesting blend of work ethic, mental focus, and sheer endurance to see who can buck up and work through their last set.  It always brings a kids new found strength into true perspective from what they “thought” they could do before the set.  Often times I have a kid who thinks that they may get 8 or 9 reps on the set to failure only to be pushed to 12,15, or even 20 reps! 

Yesterday was crazy though.  One of my athletes came in, performed the above workout with the trapbar deadlift, and performed an astonishing 25 reps with 365lbs!  For a high school athlete (non-football I might add) that’s pretty impressive.  I actually was disappointed that the athlete didn’t tell me he was going for his set right then or I would have gotten it on camera to see what he would have gotten. 

If you’re a coach and are looking for a great way to challenge your kids, I highly recommend occasionally pushing a set to failure on certain lifts.  Obviously, make sure that the athlete has the capability to do the lift correctly first, and that they are properly spotted for safety purposes.