Do you use push ups and its many variations with your clients?

If you do, here is a great push up - upper back combination:

This excercise combination ensures muscle balance around the scapula, involving protraction as well as retraction.

Here are a couple of examples:

1. Max rep in 4 minutes (the ISS block of the flexible periodization method)

2. Multiple sets of 12, using ligth dumbbells (The SIS block)

3. Multiple sets of 5, using uneven or single arm push ups (The SSP block)

4. Push ups with clap, perform the upper back portion seperately (the SPP block)

In the Flexible Periodization Method the training method as well as the exercise variation are periodized for maximum results in minimum time for your clients.

Could the complete Push Up help any of your clients towards their goals?
To your success,
Karsten Jensen

PS: The Flexible Periodization Method - How to Create long term training plans will soon be available. It will be the best science based, practical manual yet, describing how to create long term training plan.

How do you sequence plyometric exercises over the course of a macrocycle (16-20 weeks of training)?

It’s well accepted that a client/athlete adapts to an exercise in 4-6 weeks (or less). So, if we are training a client  for 16-20 weeks, we need a well designed sequence of exercises leading towards the stated goal (for example, improving a vertical jump).

I know this may sound heretic, but in the first steps of this sequence the purpose of your plyometrics is not to improve the jump. It is to prepare your passive structures (bones, tendons, connective tissues) for the REAL jump training in the later steps.

Below is an excellent exercise for the first steps of a macrocycle aiming to improve a vertical jump:

• Perform a single leg hop for distance, “stick” the landing.
• Then squat down until the free knee touches the ground.
• Come back up and perform another single leg hop.
• Perform up to 10 jumps per set.
• Attempt to progress the total distance covered per set.
• Perform 3 or more sets, twice a week.
• For added challenge, drag a sled behind you (loaded, of course).

Give this exercise a try for 4-6 weeks and let me know what you think.

To your success,
Karsten Jensen

PS: In The Flexible Periodization Method, I outline the characteristics your chosen plyometric exercises must have in each of the seven one week block templates that covers all training phases from restoration to peaking.

PPS: Think about how the exercise above can easily be adapted to challenge the upper body as well as multi-directional movement.

PPPS: Combination exercises, like the one above, play a key role in The Flexible Periodization Method. If you want to be the trainer/coach who can strengthen athletes from all angles and give clients a full body workout in 15 minutes or less, “Combination Exercises” may be what you are looking for.

In Monday’s (April 13, 2009) newsletter we discussed true mastery vs. shortcuts to “mastery”.

A characteristic of the true mastery path is that you have studied resources with opposing views and are able to make sense of them.

Powerliftiing guru Louie Simmons has stated the following:

When lifters repeatedly use the same simple method of training to raise their strength level, they will eventually stall. Like the scholar who must utilize many sources of information to achieve a higher level of knowledge, the lifter must incorporate new and more difficult exercises to raise their standards. Many have the theory that to squat, bench, or deadlift more, you simply have to do the three lifts. If it were that simple no one would need special exercises, machines, or systems of training. But we know this is not true.

Conversely, the following statement can be found in Tsatsouline’s book “Power to The People”:

In spite of your apparent “imbalances” chances are that you do not need a specialization program. Build up to respectable poundages in your basic lifts and the lazy muscles will be forced to do their part.

So what is it? If you want to improve your squat, bench or deadlift, do you need “special” exercises or can you just stick to the basic lifts?

To your success,
Karsten Jensen

PS: In the Flexible Periodization Method you can find my answer to the above question, INCLUDING how this issue transfers specifically into your training programs.

PPS: If you are not already on our list, you can sign up and receive notification when The Flexible Periodization Method is released.