Equipment, Program, or Coaching

What is it that really makes an athlete stronger and faster? State of the art equipment? Expert program design? Effective coaching? If you have the budget of a division 1 university, then obviously you want it all. But, what if you are a high school basketball coach on a tight budget?

Let's address equipment first. Yes, you must have some equipment to produce speed and strength gains. Power racks, plyo boxes, sled, DBs and cable machines are all pieces that you will see at SOAR. However, if you walked in my gym for the first time, I guarantee you that the first words out of your mouth will not be "Wow, look at this beautiful facility!" In fact, its probably more like a dungeon then a palace. (For the record, it is clean and sanitary, just not pretty.)

Ask any long term client of mine how they feel about my facility and they will tell you that it doesn't matter. They are paying for my expertise and my coaching. There is no single piece of equipment that is going to make or break you as an athlete or general fitness client. In fact, I would run away from any trainer that lives and dies with one piece of equipment. Bottom line - If you are on a tight budget it would be much wiser to spend your money on good coaching instead of the newest piece of performance equipment.

Now onto program design. I spend hours per week designing programs for all my clients. As they become more advanced, that job becomes even more important. However, the best strength and power program in the world is worthless if you can't coach. You could copy all the programs in my data base, but if you don't understand human movement, it won't be the same. I see many high school programs using advanced power lifting programs to train their players. The program looks great on paper. But, if the kids are performing the lifts with poor technique and too heavy weight, the program might as well be a referral to a physical therapist.

So if I had to choose one - I would pick coaching. At SOAR, we coach.....all day long. We coach the warm-up, we coach how to jump, how to sprint, how to decelerate, how to squat, ect. Its the main reason our program is so successful for beginners and elite athletes. All clients receive a program and coaching that is tailored to their individual needs - expert coaching combined with expert program design.

In this day of age with all sorts of Internet programs, dvd's and elaborate equipment promising insane results in less then 6 weeks, the consumer needs to be wise. Will a DVD done at home really take you to the next level of athleticism if nobody is monitoring you? Can 1 piece of equipment really increase your vertical by 8 inches in 8 weeks if the seller has never seen you train before? Are you paying for a state of the art facility or the coaching that goes on inside of it?

Soar Warm Up Part 1

My client, George Bush from Strike Force MMA, performs the first part of our Warm Up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rQDeTQ5dvU

Static Stretching at Soar

Pre - warm up stretching done at Soar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3FpTw0D_fs

Foam Rolling

Every client at SOAR starts their warm - up with a series of foam rolling exercises. Click the link below to see how it is done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r9jc5pdxrU

Single Leg Strength

Check out this video describing single leg lifts done at SOAR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vKY1pLjETE

Get Jacked Up!

One of the most popular phone calls I get from new clients go something like this "My son is a good athlete, pretty fast, he just needs to get bigger. He lifts 5 days a week at Fufu Fitness Center and hes just not gaining any weight." This is a good call to get because I know that I can help the client immediately, if they show up consistently.

This is how the progression goes:

1. We first establish the client's training age and ability. Training age is simply how many years the client has been lifting......correctly. For my kids who are under 15, their training age is automatically zero unless they prove otherwise. Kids like this are going to gain muscle simply by performing total body lifts with correct techniques. We add load as strength improves. We change programs every month and sets and reps usually range from 6 to 10. NEVER are we doing a chest day, a leg day or the worthless arm day.

2. For my clients who are in the 16 - college age and have training experience, this is when we really step it up. Depending on how many days per week the client is training, we use a combination of heavy upper body lifts, heavy lower body lifts, explosive lifts, high rep lifts and some body building exercises. This is when my job of program design really comes into play. I know when to pile it on and when to take a step back. One week we might Squat heavy, the next week we might Dead Lift heavy. Its pretty simple - Get really strong in the right exercises and eat a lot of good food. Sets and reps can vary dramatically from week to week and even day to day. This is one of the main differences between training under professional supervision and going to the gym and doing your own thing.

Here is where the average skinny person goes wrong:

1. Diet. They either don't eat enough good calories or just don't eat enough period. You must take in 500 cals more per day then you are expending to gain 1 lb. of muscle per week. For some really active 16 year olds, that could be well over 3000 cals per day. Your protein shake must have calories from carbs and fat in it. Just a protein shake will not get it done. If the protein shake you are drinking says 200 calories or less, give it to your grandma because its not going to put mass on you. The shake we use at SOAR has over 600 calories per serving - we taper the servings for smaller kids.

2. They go to the gym and do 3 sets of 10 reps on every machine for 1 body part. They do chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, shoulders on Wednesday, arms on Thursday and then probably chest again on Friday. Maybe they squeeze some leg extensions in there somewhere. This is the number one way to not get strong in the weight room. Get off the machines and pick up some free weights. Change your sets and reps by the week. Do total body lifts or a reasonable split if you are training 4x per week. There is no need to lift 5 days per week under any circumstance. Also, there is no reason to lift for more than 60 minutes. If you are spending 2 hours in the gym, you are either wasting your time or wasting someone else's time by talking too much.

3. Lack of rest. If you do not rest, your muscles will not grow. Sleep at least 7 hours per night. Take at least 1 day, preferably 2 days off from strenuous activity per week.

Speed and Agility Videos

I have had some time to shoot some video footage of our speed and agility instruction.

The first one is a multi- directional drill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-3OTCZBBCU

This next video is a linear speed drill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPF6GP3kbzs