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When most people think of what a well-rounded, bullet proof program encompasses, many will undoubtedly think of optimal set/rep schemes, rest intervals, what exercises to include (and in what order), and, of course, how many days per week they should train given their goals.
Admittedly, all of the above components are important things to consider, and rightfully deserve their time under the program design microscope. It’s interesting, though, that the last – and arguably the most important – thing to enter the discussion, is the first thing that most trainees tend to dismiss altogether: the warm-up.
Yeah yeah yeah – I get it. You’re busy, and warming is up is about as exciting as watching NASCAR. Truth be told, we all know we should warm-up, but for most of us (namely, you), the warm-up is usually nothing more than an afterthought; or, something we half heartedly do because our 8th grade gym teacher told us we had to.
Even if you are one of the rare few who actually performs a warm-up, chances are it entails a few arm circles here, a couple of hamstring stretches there, a couple of minutes on the treadmill, maybe a fist pump, and you’re off to the bench press. Sound familiar?
Yeah I Thought So
Much like you wouldn’t walk out to your car in the middle of winter and take it from 0-60 MPH on the highway and expect it to run optimally, the same can be said about your body.
Moreover, when’s the last time you actually felt good? I mean reeeeally good? Can you remember the last time your lower back didn’t feel stiff, or your knees didn’t ache every time you attempted a squat?
Better yet, when was the last time you consistently made appreciable progress in the gym?
The question, then, is what should a warm-up do, and more importantly, what should it look like?
While not an exhaustive list, a good warm-up will (or should) provide the following:
- Increased body temperature.
- Improve joint lubrication.
- Engage the nervous system to a greater degree.
- Improve extensibility/flexibility of muscles.
- Groove movement patterns.
- And, better prepare you for a back alley fight against a pack of ninjas. You know, just in case.
More specifically, given that many of us spend an inordinate amount of time hunched over in front of a computer on a daily basis, the warm-up should target the areas of the body which tend to be most problematic: namely, the glutes, hips, thoracic spine, shoulders, and core, to name a few.
Standing in one place, holding a stretch for 30 seconds does nothing in terms of preparing you for the more dynamic nature of what you’ll be doing in the weight room.
We need to take the warm up more seriously and view it not as a necessary evil, but something that will undoubtedly help you not only feel better, but lead to unparalleled performance in the gym.
Carry Your Ass Off
Giving full disclosure, I didn’t come up with this idea on my own. Dan John was the first to really bring carry variations into the limelight, and more to the point, utilizing them as part of an extended warm-up.
As far as bang-for-your-training-buck exercises are concerned, you’d be hard pressed to trump carries.
For those looking for proof, it’s in the pudding:
When performed unilaterally, they’re a fantastic way to train core stability – specifically anti-lateral flexion. But even when performed bilaterally, they’re still an awesome “core” exercise.
They obviously help improve grip strength. Taking it a step further, however, they do an amazing job of “activating” the rotator cuff through a process called irradiation. In non-geek speak, all this means is that when you squeeze something with a death grip, the RC turns on, and as a result the shoulder “packs” itself. In a sense, carry variations are a great exercise for those with chronic shoulder issues.
Farmer carries do an amazing job at challenging hip stability – especially when performed unilaterally (one arm at a time).
They condition the shit out of you. The next time someone asks you whether or not weight training has any cardiovascular benefit, have him or her do a few rounds of carries for 50-75 yds.
Without question, carries are also a great way to get a “yolked up” back. For those dudes looking to build some traps, farmer carries can help.
And lets just state the obvious: they do a superb job of increasing one’s overall sense of badassessey.
To that end, here’s the actual warm-up I’ve been following for the past few weeks. After a thorough foam rolling session, I’ll head over to the turf and alternate between a carry variation paired with a specific dynamic drill.
A few things to note:
1. When performing ANY carry variation, it’s important to think to yourself, “spine tall, shoulders back.” In addition, there should be as little deviation as possible in terms of leaning to one side or the other. The objective is to stay in as much of a straight line as possible – if you compensate in any way, you’re using too heavy of a load. Also, since this is part of a WARM-UP, you shouldn’t be too aggressive with the loading anyways. Just focus on perfect technique.
2. In case you’re wondering, yes, I’m wearing a t-shirt of a lumberjack punching a grizzly bear in the face in all of the carry videos. I’m not going to go so far as to say that it’s the most awesome t-shirt in the history of the world. But, it pretty much is.
A1. Suitcase Carry (35-40 yds/per arm)
A2. Wall Hip Flexor Mobilization (x8/leg)
B1. Racked Carry (35-40 yds/per arm)
B2. Half Kneeling Adductor Dips (x8/leg)
C1. Waiter Carry (35-40 yds/per arm)
Note: be sure to maintain a neutral wrist position on this one, and to “set” the scapulae (you shouldn’t be shrugging the weight).
C2. Rocking SUMO Squat Mobilization (x10)
D1. Crossbody Carry (35-40 yds/per side)
Note: Hold the heavier KB (or DB) like a suitcase, and the lighter weight above your head. Like the waiter walk above, be sure to maintain a neutral wrist position.
D2. Scapular Wall Slides (x10)
E1. Goblet Carry (35-40 yds)
Note: having the load anterior to the body really helps to activate the anterior core musculature which has both an anti-flexion, and anti-extension component.
Anti-extension in the sense that it’s really hard to OVER arch the lumbar spine with the anterior load.
E2. Supine Bridge with Reach (x8/side)
Note: be sure to maintain hip extension throughout, and yes, that’s Eric Cressey riding a foam roll horse across the screen. HEE-HAW.
F1. Heartbeat Carry (35-40 yds)
F2. Yoga Push-Up Complex (x5/side)
And there you have it. Is it really the perfect warm-up*? Tough to say, but it’s a far step above what most people are doing. As I mentioned above, this is pretty much the exact warm-up I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks and I’m loving it. Try it out yourself and let me know your thoughts!
* = yes**

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Speed Development
What is speed and how can we develop it? Mel Siff (1) once said, “Speed is a function of leg turnover and stride length; stride length is a function of leg length (anatomical length) and power.”
Power is the amount of force that can be applied to the ground. Enhancing power increases both torque, or shortest time to peak velocity, and top end speed. So our objective is to increase linear speed through increased peak power. An athlete with more power has greater torque, leading to a quicker athlete with more top end speed. What are the current methods used to attain this goal?
Hill running
Over-speed training on treadmills
Balance training
Accommodating resistance
Plyometrics
1) Hill running: Jerry Rice was famous for running hills during the off-season to prepare for the season. Appalachian State used to make their players run the mountain behind the stadium. Hill running has been used to improve running, but does it work? And can it fit into a strength and conditioning program?
Downhill running only (using the over-speed principle) “increased [an] athlete’s maximal speed by 6.5% when performed at a slope of 5.8° compared with flatland running.” The research also covered other angles of slope ranging from two to seven degrees (2). Using both uphill and downhill running resulted in “an increase of maximal running speed by 3.4% accompanied by an increase of step rate by 3.4%, although the step length did not change”(3). This means that the decrease in time was related to increasing stride turnover, not stride length. Stride length is influenced by power. So it does work for the overall goal, which is to decrease sprint time, but it fails at increasing stride length. It’s place is for conditioning only. It helps for increasing stride turnover and is excellent for developing a cardiovascular base but not anything else. Therefore, it should be placed on conditioning days.
2) Treadmill over-speed training: This has been an expensive method utilized by some strength and conditioning professionals to decrease sprint time (4). Studies found that using a treadmill to improve sprint time were successful. However, the manner in which the improvements were made were the same as before. Stride frequency increased, and as a result, the sprint time decreased. However, stride length didn’t increase. It should be excluded as a method to train athletes for three main reasons—it doesn’t work, it’s expensive to buy specialized treadmills, and you can’t train athletes in bulk.
3) Band resisted running: In the same study, band-resisted running was found to decrease sprint time by increasing stride length and decreasing pelvic vertical displacement. Increased stride length is the goal and decreased vertical pelvic displacement is excellent. This means that more power and energy are expended on horizontal motions than vertical motions, leading to less energy being wasted vertically and more being exerted horizontally. Increased flight time is good as long as it’s transferred horizontally.
4) Balance training: Balance training allows the athletes to focus on neural control and forces them to recruit more motor units to stabilize their center of gravity as compared to body weight squats (5). The increased recruitment simulates heavier weight neurologically, but it isn’t as taxing as a one or three rep max lift. Balance training forces the body to use other muscular groups to help stabilize joints on an unstable surface. This greatly aids the athlete because running is never done on both legs. In addition, while changing direction, the joint isn’t stable. Balance training is an excellent tool to use on a deload week or with an upper body injury that prevents spinal loading.
5) Accommodating resistance: Another study found that peak power was enhanced with elastic band training and suggested that the more tension utilized, the greater peak power athletes attain (6). Rhea, Kenn, and Dermody (7) showed that accommodating resistance provided through band training increases the rate of force development and can train the athlete in the concentric phase when the athlete is near the optimal length-tension relationship. What does it all mean? The rate of force development increases or makes the athlete fire his muscles faster. It also means that more power is produced when using band-resisted squats, leading to greater power in the lower body, which ultimately leads to increased stride length. A heavy amount of both band tension and straight weight can be used to accomplish this goal.
6) Plyometrics: It has been shown that horizontal plyometrics aid in sprint-specific performance and that plyometrics with weight doesn’t benefit the athlete anymore than unweighted plyometrics. “Greater improvement in sprint performance included training volume for <10 weeks for a minimum of 15 sessions and high-intensity programs with >80 combined jumps per session” (8). For the strength coach, this means that you don’t need to have your athletes wearing weighted vests to perform plyometrics. This will save their neurological systems for other useful exercises. It also gives you a rough outline for the amount of training for athletes.
The current plan for developing speed is:
Focus on the rate of force development using bands or chains.
Use horizontal plyometrics for less than ten weeks and a high intensity program with more than 80 jumps per session.
Perform balance training for a deload week or for the injured athlete who can’t squat.
Use band resisted running as an excellent change during a plyometric cycle.
Use hill running as cardio; it’s cheaper and you can do it in bulk.
References
Siff M, Verkhoshansky Y (2009) Supertraining. 6th Edition. ISBN: 8890403802.
Ebben W (2008) The Optimal Downhill Slope for Acute Overspeed Running. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 3:88–93.
Paradisis G, Cooke C (2006) The Effect of Sprint Running Training on Sloping Surfaces. Journal of Strength and Condition Research 20(4):767–77.
Myer G, Ford K, Brent J, Divine J, Hewett T (2007) Predictors of Sprint Start Speed: The Effect of Resistive Ground-Based vs. Inclined Treadmill Training Journal of Strength and Condition Research 21(3):831–36.
Orstaglio R (2010) Personal Communications. July 2010.
Anderson C, Sforzo G, Sigg J (2008) The Effect of Combined Elastic and Free Weight Resistance on Strength and Power in Athletes Journal of Strength and Condition Research 22(2):567–74.
Rhea M, Kenn J, Dermody B (2009) Alterations in Speed of Squat Movement and the Use of Accommodating Resistance Among College Athletes Training for Power Journal of Strength and Condition Research 23(9):2645–50.

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