Hocevar Performance

What is olympic weigtlifting? It is an expression of strength-speed at it’s finest. Moving heavy weights with high rates of force. Because there is a high load and high speed of movement the power output in weightlifting exercises far exceeds the conventional strength lifts as the bench, deadlift and squat. Using these lifts will cause specific adaptations when training our athletes. Here are some numbers to showcase power outputs with different exercises:

POWER OUTPUTS OF DIFFERENT EXERCISES

Exercise                                      Absolute Power (W) (maximum effort during comp. for 220 lbs man)

Bench Press                               300

Squat                                       1100

Deadlift                                   1100

Snatch Second Pull                    5600

Clean Second Pull                      5500

Jerk                                          5400 

As you can see there is quite a significant difference in power……

As a sidenote: Olympic Weightlifters have some of the highest (if not the highest) average vertical jumps of any athletes recorded and they do not specifically train to improve their jumps. Take it however you want to take it.

We could say he has decent jumping ability, right?

As I mentioned in a previous post that I have started using more olympic lifts in my training (that does not mean the training of all the athletes I train), let me first explain what are the main exercises that fall under this category: the snatch, the clean and jerk. But there are also derivatives of these exercises that I would put under the same category as they also require a great power production and have the extra benefit of being easier to learn for most people (a little about that later on). These exercises consist of the clean pull, snatch pull, jerk (split, regular), push press and others.

One thing I failed to mention is that the main olympic lifts are quite hard to learn as they are quite technical and there is a big learning curve. I think that it would be great if every athlete had the time to learn these lifts but in reality I ussualy only have months in the off season to get the athletes in top physical shape and there is not enough time to teach the lifts. The good thing is that we can use the derivatives of the olympic lifts such as the snatch pull and the clean pull or the jerk, as they are much easier to learn.

So it is obvious that the olympic lifts have benefit…….but with a cost. First of there is a high technical mastery involved with the lifts as we mentioned earlier. There is no need to introduce such lifts in the weight room when the athletes already have sport specific skill work to improve on.The O-lifts also place great stress on the glenohumeral joint (shoulders), which makes them very risky for overhead athletes (baseball, volleyball,…) and also football players as their shoulders take a beating (no need to compound that in the weight room).

Am I confusing you with the for and agaist thoughts? I do have mixed emotions to tell you the truth, but olympic lifts will only stay in my programs and a limited few athletes that had a high level of proficiency before they started training with me (and even that for limited blocks of time). I will be using some of the olympic lift derivatives bit otherwise I can teach athletes simple alternatives such as jumps, medicine ball throws, box squats that produce all of the same measurable results. The goal is to produce the best prepared athletes while utilizing training means that produce the best results at the lowest cost.

Box Squats - they work too!! 

I also have to take into consideration that I train multiple athletes at the same time which makes use of the main olympic lifts even less efficient. I will continue to admire the sport of olympic weightlifting and learn as much as I can from the athletes and coaches but I at this moment in time I will use the main lifts scarcely as I have found a more efficient way to help athletes fulfill their potential.

If I confused you with this post then oh well……take what you can from it. I believe that we should all mold our training style from learning as much as we can from the best in the world. Bruce Lee once said: “Absorb what is usefull, reject what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”

I might come across something that changes my mind though……

General Specific Warm Ups - this will get you ready for the rest of the training session

As many may know that I use the conjugate periodization model a lot, mostly because it has produced superior results to other programs most of the time. The reality is that there is many methods that work if you apply them right. I tend to use different methods and training models when I feel they are going to be the most productive at that point in time. I also believe that the most effective program is the one that you are not on. That is why I love the conuugate model, because you can change the variables and continually progress. 

Well, I decided that I needed a change and put together a 8 week program based on the two steps forward, one step back model. There are two 4 week blocks where the intensities go from moderate in week 1, a 10% increase in week 2, a 5% deload in week 3 and finally another 10% increase in week 4. The second cycle will be started at a 10% higher intensity than the previos one. Eachof the series of four week blocks prepares the trainee for the next. The programs main focus in these 8 weeks is improving strength and power.

Before we start we have a thororugh warm up that includes foam roll (or lacrosse ball), dynamic mobility, activation, general specific exercises (the sandbag tosses in the video…..the sandbag is around 40 lbs and we catch and throw in different positions. The two athletes I’m training are in wrestling and football). We have just finished the second week of the first block and here is the last training session (for power we are using Olympic Liftsa an their variations and I will be discussing them in a later post):

Power Snatch      warm up to   5 sets  x   2 reps          (155 lbs)

Snatch Pull         5 sets   x   5   reps         (235 lbs)

Standing Military Press           5 sets   x  5 reps   (150 lbs)

Barbell Back Box Squat           5  sets  x  5 reps    (295 lbs)

Neutral DB Bench Press (slow eccentric)       3 sets  x  10 reps   (105 lbs)

Pull Ups w/ Weight Vest  (25 lbs)    3  sets x  failure

This training sesssion we finished with 3 rouns of thick rope climbing (10 feet with no legs x 2 without stopping) and single leg RDL holding a kettlebell in one hand (72 lbs x 10 reps/each leg).

So far the training has been going well and it has been a welocme switch from the conjugate training. The Olympic Lifts have the most potential to improve as they are very technical but they have already showed improvements in power production which is what was lacking with some of the guys.

I will keep you posted on the progress………….

X-Band Walks (overhead variation) -part of the warm up

Something that is completely off topic……one of my athletes puts bread into his protein smoothies?! I was wondering if anyone else has tried it? Also, let me know if you need the recipe…..

I tend to observe athletes a lot nowadays, whether it is on the court or in the weight room. I have noticed that there are more and more weak athletes. When I talk to them, many tell me that they want to get stronger for a certain sport, yet they seem to use methods reserved for bodybuilding and putting on a lot of mass. Now there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with putting on more muscle but we have to make sure that the muscle is going to be functional and carry over to improvement in prerformance. What many athletes fail to realize that the primary goal should be improving relative strength (in quite a few instances putting on mass is a must also……and they do go hand in hand if you train right). Relative strength is the strength to bodyweight ratio. I will give you an example of two athletes as this will explain things easier:

Athlete A:  weight 250 lbs, 500 lb squat

Athlete B:  weight 175 lbs, 437 lb squat

In this case everyone would say that athlete A is stronger, which is true in a way…….he is absolutely stronger, but he is not relatively stronger. Athlete B can squat 2.5x his own bodyweight while athlete A can squat 2x his bodyweight, which shows that the former has better relative strength. I am pretty sure that athlete A has better performance on the field/court! So how come more athletes (and trainees in general) don’t use more relative strength methodologies? Most of it stems from myths and misconceptions that get passed down from coaches, trainers, even the “huge guy” in the gym, that have always done it a certain way so that is the way everyone should do it.

I would say that this is a good example of relative upper body strength. You may bench 400 lbs, but you sure as hell aren’t doing that!

When it comes to these situations I always advise for the athletes to start lifting in the lower rep ranges (heavier weights, 1-5 reps) so that their body can also start making neural adaptations through which they will become stronger and also create more potential for growth (when I mention that I know it should raise the interest for those that were looking at me crooked when I mentioned the lower rep ranges). That does not mean that you will be lifting strictly in the low rep ranges, as it is important to lift through different rep ranges depending on your sport and also the goals you are trying to achieve. That is why I love the conjugate method of periodiazation (Conjugate training means to “couple” - you are combining training methods to develop different abilities simultaneously, for example…..strength, speed, functional hypertrophy).

Another way of improving relative strength is by reducing body fat percentage and putting on some functional muscle which would in essence lead you to around the same bodyweight yet with more horsepower. I was discussing some nutritional strategies for athletes here.

Now I know some of you are thinking why should I put all this focus into improving my relative strength when my sport requires a lot of aerobic or anaerobic endurance, agility and/or power. Where is the catch? The fact is that maximal strength is the foundation for all the other attributes! For this explanation I will use an analogy from Eric Cressey’s (genius) Off Season Training Manual.

Imagine you represent two different athletes with an 8 oz glass (Athlete A) and a 4 oz glass (Athlete B). For the sake of this discussion, the size - capacity - of the glass is our maximal strength. In essence, the more strength we have, the more specific physical attributes (fluid) we can put in our glass. These attributes include power, strength, endurance and agility - all of which can be limited by insufficient strength.

This is a shortened version of the example but I hope that you get the point - improve your maximal/relative strength and stop lifting pink dumbells.

Most people don’t even have a leg training day since upper body is the emphasis the majority of the time. For those of you that fall in that category I will write another post, or actually, maybe you should just think!

I also decided to write this because many of the athletes that I have worked with that had great strength and power in bilateral leg lifts but had continuos problems with on the field performance and a string of injuries that kept them from playing for weeks throughout the season. After looking at their programs and training I realized that there was almost no single leg training. Hmmm, I don’t think that is a coincidence.

For those that know training the lower body is of utmost importance, whether you are an athlete or not, I hope you include single leg training in your sessions. I am pretty sure some of you will hesitate to change your hardcore leg session that includes deadlifts, squats (which they should) but if you bear with me I promise I will convince you to include single leg training in your sessions. So let’s look at some of the benefits of single leg training:

Walking Lunges at Hocevar Performace

-Fixing imbalances andd preventing injury: By this I mean improving the balance in strength on both legs. If you only do bilateral exercises, with time you will develop a imbalance which will cause the strength and size of one leg to be better than the other. Some will say big deal, but not only is this a path to a serious injury but it will also hinder your development as an athlete and looking better naked (if that is your goal). Training each leg independently will assure that you are fixing the weak links in your kinetic chain, which will improve performance and maybe even more importantly prevent injury.

- Improve proprioception and stability: What happens when you decrease the base of support from two legs to one? The body has a lot harder time with balancing which means you will be recruiting a lot more stabilization muscles and working on your stability. Now, stand on one leg and tell me you don’t need any single leg training? Single leg training will also drastically improve proprioception - our ability to know where we are in space.

- Strengthening the knee stabilizers: For those that care what the important knee stabilizers are called, here goes: vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and gluteals (or simply "the butt”). These muscles have a huge role in preventing knee inujuries. With tha being said it is important to let you know that full ROM (range of motion) is needed to get these muscles activated as they get more work the lower that you go. So please get your butt close to the ground and drop the weight if you have to (no ego’s allowed if you want to get better).

- Carry over  to sports and life: Last time I checked we walked on one leg at a time and we run one leg at the time and a most jumping is also of one leg. Logic would say that single leg training could then be helpful but since logic is hard to come by these days I will give you a helping hand and say that you should try including single leg strength movements into your training and see how much improvement you make in your performance, lifts and feeling.

Some single leg movements you should consider: Lunges (dynamic, walking, lateral cross over, reverse, overhead), Bulgarian Squats (regular, short, off a box), Single Leg Romanian Deadlift, Step Up (lateral, regular, step down, with hold), Single Leg Squats (to box, pistols)

Start including these movements in your training program and let me know the improvements that you see in the next 8 weeks.