Designer Athletes
by Mike Robertson
08/17/04

An excellent article, do you believe in alternating movements reguarly or do some exercises (eg squat, deadlift, bench) stay in the program for longer than others?

Mike,
You mentioned the importance of flexible hips for optimal performance of the athlete. Besides the hip flexibility gained or maintained by performing the leg/hip exercises mentioned in the article do you have your athletes perform any specific stretches for the hips?

Great article, will sure try it!
/Tears.

Great article Mike!

It gave me several ideas to try with my athletes. One question: Several of my athletes, due to academic requirements as well as other non-sporting needs, can only hit the gym three days per week. How would you modify your basic remplate to accomodate only 3 days per week?

Nathan

Mike,
I know you threw in the O-lifts there at the end of the article but I was wondering about some other types of "speed" training. Things like speed squats/deads or speed bench. Are these not in there due to the fact that this is maily an off season routine? Believe me, I am not baggin' on the program. I like it. I just wonder how a guy could mix in some speed work. Thanks

Hey Guys,

Just a quick FYI: Mike is on his honeymoon until (I believe) Thursday. I'm sure he'll get to all your questions as soon as possible.

EC

good shit bro

I've been tossing around an idea of a training protocol similar to this in my head for a while now. Thank you for making me feel like a genius haha.

As soon as I just started to wonder where to place O-lifts (which is the issue I was stumbling over) you addressed that issue.

Thank you again, wonderful article!

-Xen

Fantastic article Mike! Keep up the excellent work.

A little too similar to WS4SB, but it obviously works and there is no point in writing programs that don't. Good stuff.

nice article

Pat Butler wrote:
An excellent article, do you believe in alternating movements reguarly or do some exercises (eg squat, deadlift, bench) stay in the program for longer than others?

Pat,

Whichever you choose! I like to switch things up with the athletes to keep training fun and motivating, but it's totally up to you. If you do swap out exercises, just don't swap out a squat for a leg extension or something like that...an eye for an eye is called for!

Stay strong
Mike

TopCivilian wrote:
Mike,
You mentioned the importance of flexible hips for optimal performance of the athlete. Besides the hip flexibility gained or maintained by performing the leg/hip exercises mentioned in the article do you have your athletes perform any specific stretches for the hips?

A lot of the stretches used in the NNM program I use with athletes. In particular, I like to stretch the hip flexors, hams, hip external rotators, and adductors in general. However, it's always specific to an individual athletes needs and goals, but these are typically "problem areas."

Stay strong
Mike

vitruvian wrote:
Great article Mike!

It gave me several ideas to try with my athletes. One question: Several of my athletes, due to academic requirements as well as other non-sporting needs, can only hit the gym three days per week. How would you modify your basic remplate to accomodate only 3 days per week?

Nathan


Lower1 - No change
Upper1 - No change
Mix Day - Heavy upper and lower pull, accessory pressing, upper back, and then whatever the individual athlete needs to work on

This is just a modified version of the traditional program, but you can swap exercises in and out to make sure that it stays balanced. Another option would be to follow the program as follows, except break it up over 2 weeks. For example:

Monday - Lower 1
Wednesday - Upper 1
Friday - Lower 2
Monday - Upper 2
Wednesday - Lower 1, etc.

Hope this helps!

Stay strong
Mike

Scottish 190 wrote:
Mike,
I know you threw in the O-lifts there at the end of the article but I was wondering about some other types of "speed" training. Things like speed squats/deads or speed bench. Are these not in there due to the fact that this is maily an off season routine? Believe me, I am not baggin' on the program. I like it. I just wonder how a guy could mix in some speed work. Thanks


Scottish,

You can throw them in if you'd like, but the reason I do this is to give the athletes a base on which to develop further training. It doesn't make any sense to try and be fast/explosive/powerful if you aren't strong to begin with. It's totally dependent upon the athlete and his current needs/goals.

Stay strong
Mike

I just thought I'd tell you Coach robertson, this is honestly one of the best looking programs I've seen on T-mag in at 2 years. Anybody I know who ask me for a routine, I'm refering them to this. Great job, and I think I'll do it this off-season, one question though.

Where would you put in speed work, I.E. lateral, forward-back, etc?

Big Mike,
I am officially on here now, so get ready for some good discussion. this is a nice article brother. talk to you soon.

In my experience, grip (both pinch and crushing) is best trained in separate sessions altogether. Doing grip work at the end of a session is a sure-fire way to get subpar results, and since it's not particularly demanding in most cases, it can constitute a session of its own without compromising results. 4-6 hours after an upper body or lower body pulling session is ideal.

Eric Cressey wrote:

In my experience, grip (both pinch and crushing) is best trained in separate sessions altogether. Doing grip work at the end of a session is a sure-fire way to get subpar results, and since it's not particularly demanding in most cases, it can constitute a session of its own without compromising results. 4-6 hours after an upper body or lower body pulling session is ideal.

Exactly. I typically use my COC grippers or squeeze a tennis ball throughout the day; you can also do pronation/supination exercises with a hammer or wrench.

I'm not saying that forearm and grip strength aren't important or I wouldn't have included it; I just think you can make better use of your time in the gym than doing a 30 minute session on forearms. Most of the big, compound exercises put a premium on forearm strength anyway.

Sports like MMA, wrestling, grappling, etc. can use more direct forearm/grip work, but no need to go overboard with it.

Stay strong
Mike

While I have the UPMOST respect for Ed and his lifting (as every powerlifter & strength athlete should), he also still trains using a progressive overload method yet squats over 1000 and has pulled over 900. The point I'm getting at is that Ed would be a strong SOB whether he trained his grip or not. Just because it works for a freak of nature doesn't mean it works (or in this case needed) by the majority.

Stay strong
Mike

It's very rare where I find grip or finger strength to be a limiting factor in sports performance. When it comes down to it, I would rather focus on basic strength, flexibility, movement skills, power, etc. than on finger strength any day of the week. However, if you use it with yourself or your athletes and are seeing great results, by all means keep doing it!

Every coach has a little bit different take on the best way to train athletes; what's written above is simply a template that I've used with great success with tons of athletes. The beauty of the template (vs. an itemized program) is that you can mix and match to produce something that works best for you. If you feel as though you need more finger strength, then by all means include it in the program.

Stay strong
Mike

Mike Robertson wrote:
Pat Butler wrote:
An excellent article, do you believe in alternating movements reguarly or do some exercises (eg squat, deadlift, bench) stay in the program for longer than others?

Pat,

Whichever you choose! I like to switch things up with the athletes to keep training fun and motivating, but it's totally up to you. If you do swap out exercises, just don't swap out a squat for a leg extension or something like that...an eye for an eye is called for!

Stay strong
Mike



I was thinking the same thing about alternating exercises (conjugate method)> I work out every third day so my split is
Workout A
Upper Body
1.Incline Bench Press
Row(unilateral)
Bulgarian Squats
Abs

Workout B
Lower Body
1.Concentric Good Mornings
Rows(bilateral)
D.bell Shoulder Press
Abs

With workout A1 I am sticking with it for two weeks working up to a 3RM for the first week and a 1RM the next week before changing exercises(decline,flat barbell bench press,dips) and the same thing with workout B1 ( concentric good mornings, regular goodmornings, squats, zerchers, deads while standing on mats.
I am trying do increase my bench and dead without always doing the standard exercises and I will be trying for 1 and 3RM on a regular basis. Once I get through my order of lifts I will start over again but rows will be hit first in the workouts. Do you see any problems with this approach.

Matt,

Looks pretty good. Make sure to listen to your body re: the heavy loading you're doing. You might want to consider doing 3 week cycles where one week out of the 3 is a repetition style day. Other than that, make sure to keep bumping the weights up and switching the exercises. Good luck and keep us posted!

Stay strong
MR

In the article you suggest the reader to check the Neanderthal No More article for the supine bridges, but I found them in Get Your Butt Into Gear article.

oboffill wrote:
In the article you suggest the reader to check the Neanderthal No More article for the supine bridges, but I found them in Get Your Butt Into Gear article.

We use it in both; it's a great movement.