It’s Spring break week in Snohomish. Panthers, check in tomorrow night for a home training program to utilize three times this week. You’ll be moving a head of the pack putting in a little extra time, doing something a little different during this week with no high school gym access.
Strongman exercise: Front Squat Lift. Polski: Konkurencja zawodów si?aczy: Przysiad ze sztang? z przodu. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As either a young athlete or a professional occupational athlete it always remains important to our physical progress to attend to all primary periodized goal sets.
For the adult it is far too often that we slow down and jump on a ‘cardio’ machine rather than doing the resistance training at all. But, even those who do the resistance training, far to often they fail to address even briefly the primary goal of POWER TRAINING.
For the young athlete it’s generally not the repulsion of ballistic movements, but the attraction of the flashy magazines and the highlighted programs of bodybuilders that can get in the way. Not that times concentrated on hypertrophy training are not important, but it does not carry over as well to most sport activities like power does and spending to much time targeting only one goal set can be counter productive.
The above video shows Doug Briggs, PhD CSCS-D, demonstrating the CLEAN and the JERK. The low catch followed by a front squat is a little more advanced and make take some time for you to accomplish. Until then begin by breaking this demonstration into pieces and perfect each individually. This a great example from a workshop of Doug’s at the Fit Beach Conference 2011.
NOT a high pull or reverse curl to get the bar to the chest. NOT a push press or military press to get the bar above the head…. It’s ballistic, it’s fast, it’s explosive, it’s POWER TRAINING. I suggest you work with a trained strength coach while learning these moves.
Be sure to spend time concentrating your program on all primary goal sets. A little muscular endurance, a little hypertrophy, a little strength, and don’t live out the often intimidating power training.
Greater gains, reduced incidence of plateau, and better physical functions await you.
Cardiac FunctionalityAn article in issue 20 of the NSCA TSAC Report focuses on firefighters and their susceptibility to exercise-induced cardiac fatigue or a loss in cardiac function. For a heart to function properly during exercise it must pump out sufficient amounts of blood with each beat, known as the heart’s stroke volume (SV). The good news is that aerobic exercise can increase a person’s SV….
The heart has two ventricles, both comprised of muscles responsible for pumping blood out of the heart. The right ventricle only pumps blood to the lungs, whereas the left ventricle pumps blood to the rest of the body. The left ventricle can only pump the blood available after it is filled, known as end-diastolic volume. This volume of blood is heavily dictated by the amount of blood that returns to the heart by way of venous return, and aerobic exercise is directly responsible for strengthening this process. As a result, end-diastolic volume (volume of blood in the left ventricle) increases, causing stretching of the muscle fibers in the heart. These stretched fibers are able to produce a more forceful contraction, thus pumping out more blood volume with each beat. This principle is known as the Frank-Starling mechanism.
Firefighters need to focus on improving their own Frank-Starling mechanisms through aerobic exercise. Although any exercise prescription is dictated by the individual, a common starting ground for aerobic exercise is long-duration low- to medium-intensity activity like jogging, biking, or swimming. As your heart becomes more trained, shorter stints of higher intensity can become a regular part of your exercise program. When faced with the struggle of engaging in cardiovascular training, remember that a strong heart is a vital to maintaining adequate aerobic capacity for fighting fire successfully.
CLICK HERE to read the full text article on firefighter heart health.
Source Article: Hofman, J. Importance of Fitness and Firefighter Heart Health. NSCA TSAC Report 20: 1-2, 2012.
Image via Wikipedia
Week three provides us a visit to a training block that targets Athletic Strength. There are a few new training elements being introduced so be prepared and feel free to ask questions.
Change to a Four day workout week with an optional 5th (I want you to do the 5th day)
Wednesdays circuit is what will move and become your Saturday ‘optional’ training circuit
Friday’s heavy resistance training day will move to Thursday.
We will also be increasing rest periods between exercises, incorporating super-sets in place of the compound-sets we were using, decreasing the number of repetitions per set and yet increasing the intensity of each exercise.
Check it out under “shs sport conditioning”
This last week for the High School athletes and this entire month for the Fire Service athletes we have been/are working with muscular endurance. This week there will be a change for the high school guys as we run a microcycle concentrating on hypertrophy.
Muscles! (Photo credit: Unlisted Sightings)
Rotation of program emphasis is important for many reasons and is often overlooked by poor or lazy coaches or individuals who simply only want to work within the periodization modes that they enjoy most.
For an athlete of any kind this change up is required to continue to see physical improvements and ward off potential injury. Don’t believe me, see what Vern Gambetta suggests for variations to exercise. Continue reading
Healthy Heart — The bad news:
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men—and women—in the United States. Around 70 million Americans will develop heart disease during their lifetime, and one out of every four people will eventually die from heart disease.
The good news:
While there are some risks we can’t control (i.e., age, gender, and heredity) there are many ways we can prevent heart disease. Consider these steps toward maintaining a healthy heart: