All posts tagged Gray Cook

This is a fun time for a strength and conditioning coach because we get to have full attention of our athletes during the summer time.  Of course we have our baseball guys who are playing summer ball and we have our basketball ladies who are playing frequent games of pick-up in preparation for the European trip to Italy.  Let us not forget that we have our great lady golfers and tennis athletes playing frequent tournaments to sharpen their skills for the individual season starting up in August.

Nonetheless, as a strength and conditioning coach in the summer time (at a school without football) I get to focus all my attention on the many athletes who stick around town during the summer knowing that extra time in the weight room will help them achieve their athletic goals during their competitive season.

I wanted to discuss what I do during our workouts and give you a run down of what a typical summer strength and conditioning session would entail for our Shocker athletes.  The X’s and O’s of different exercises typically change and depend entirely on how the athlete is progressing, their experience, past injuries and history, their functional movement screen results, and an onslaught of other behavior, physical, and team-need factors.  However, the run-through or script of our strength and conditioning programming remains fairly consistent throughout.

5 Minutes Before The Lift

Our athletes usually arrive 5-10 minutes before their sessions and immediately grab a foam roller and start working on addressing soft tissue issues.   Our athletes prefer to roll out before all their sessions and I completely embrace the idea and promote it.  If you are unfamiliar with foam rolling, then go ahead and head over to Mike Boyle’s site and read this article.

0-10 Minute In Mark

We begin by either going through a ten minute flexibility circuit or a five minute mobility circuit to address tissue length or joint range of motion/mobility.   At this point, you’re probably cursing at me and citing research regarding static stretching.  I am a big believe of Alwyn Cosgrove’s saying “we over-react in the short term and under-react in the long term.”   I typically like stretching while the athlete is cold simply because I feel like we’re actually having athletes undergo some plastic deformation and increase in tissue length.

10-12 Minute In Mark

I’d be a fool if I didn’t say I was influenced by Mark Verstegen and Athlete’s Performance.  There is a reason they both are so successful and that is likely due to their understanding and attention to the athlete.  What Mark may be famously known for inventing or influencing the spread of; is “Movement Prep”.  What I’m looking for out of these first 2-3 bodyweight exercises is to activate non-functioning synergists in our athletes. I’m trying to integrate proper recruitment patterns established with activation patterns into full ranges of motion.  Essentially, I’m trying to “awaken” or “prepare” lesser used muscles for the demands of the workout.

12-15 Minute In Mark

Our athletes then go through several minutes of a up-tempo dynamic warm-up to get their heart rates elevated and body temperature increased.  During these dynamic warm-ups, we address flexibility movement patterns, mobility patterning, SAQ drills, linear & lateral footwork drills and proprioceptive jumping/landing mechanics.

15-20 Minute In Mark

Our athletes are primed and ready for the workout.  They have addressed tissue density issues, flexibility/mobility issues based off of their FMS screen.  They have all gone through a movement prep/activation section of their workout to cue under-activated muscles of their body’s to function properly.  They have also gone through a dynamic warm-up to physically prepare them for the next 40 minutes of their workout.

At this time, we begin to address power development through box jumps and medicine ball throwing patterns.  The reason for both is to simply address lower-body power output and upper-body power development.  We use a combination of different jumping methods (two legs, one leg, linear jumps, lateral jumps, double-bounce jumps, etc) and we also have our athletes do a mix of different throws (overhead, pivot throws, rotational throws, shot-put throws, chest passes, etc).  We vary these movement patterns based on a progression of development that is different for each athlete.  Our new incoming recruits may be doing an “easier” movement pattern than those juniors and seniors who’ve had longer time to develop their skills.

20-55 Minute In Mark

This is where the bulk of the workout happens.  That is not to say that the first 20 minutes are not important.  I honestly think the workout starts from the moment the athletes sit down to eat breakfast.  The workout begins when they are tying their shoes and heading to our weight room.  However, during these 35 minutes, our athletes are doing some mixture of knee or hip dominant movements (single leg or double leg, bent or straight leg), lunging,  pressing, pulling, core development and corrective exercises.

Our athletes keep track of everything, and record every single pound and repetition that they successfully complete with good form.  I’m a stickler about recording every little detail of the lift.  After each session is complete, I look over every single card and make progression recommendations for every athlete under my direction.   This allows for them to successfully progress and have an adaption effect from the progressive overload that occurs from lift to lift.

55-60 Minute Mark

Just when our athletes thought they couldn’t push any farther from the taxing and demanding training for the day, we finish with a bout of metabolic conditioning.  What is metabolic conditioning?

The Tabata study showed some remarkable and extreme benefits of using interval-training methods in relationship to increasing in VO2 Max at a fraction of the time.  Tabata compared moderate intensity endurance training at about 70 percent of VO2 max to high intensity intervals done at 170 percent of VO2 max.  The work to rest ratio for these “sprints” were 20 seconds of work time to 10 seconds of rest; done in seven to eight bouts.  The results from this study were amazing. The “Tabata” protocol improved the VO2 max of the participants and the anaerobic markers more than a “steady state” protocol.

Why is this important to our Wichita State athletes?  Because VO2 Max is thought as “the highest rate of oxygen consumption attainable during maximal or exhaustive exercise”.  Essentially, the greater VO2 Max an athlete has the greater duration that athlete can sustain a “high level of output”.  Think of a great basketball player having the ability to dominate the entire basketball court with their presence and high tempo without ever becoming fatigued.

What we end up doing to finish out our training sessions is a Tabata 20/10 interval of different modalities including; slideboarding, Airdyne biking, spin-biking, treadmill running, sled-pulling or Prowler pushing in a 20 second on and 10 second resting fashion.  Our athletes may not particular enjoy the last 5 minutes of our workouts but they have an euphoric feeling afterwards and will have a greater chance of having the enjoyment of thrusting a championship trophy into their air at the end of their season.

Conclusion

The summer time is a great time to be a strength coach (when is there ever a bad time?) as I get to have the most exposure to our athletes per the regulations of NCAA.  Our athletes work with us a lot, and I believe that says a lot about our strength and conditioning program.  They are training because they love the environment we establish in the weight room and they understand that championships are paths that are paved with hard work and dedication in the summer time.  I want to make sure that I am doing every single thing I can to help our great Wichita State athletes succeed in their competitive arena.