Question For Jimbo...

govertical, I am in the process of building a website..should be ready in about a month. This is from my "philosophies" page.

What characteristics make a good powerlifter?

1) They need to be strong in the glutes/hams/low back in order to squat and deadlift. This region is known as the posterior chain.
2) They need superior trunk strength (lower back and abdominals). Try squatting 800+ lbs. with a weak trunk!
3) They need strong upper back/shoulder muscles for the pulling on the deadlift.
4) They need strength in the triceps and lats for benching.
5) They need confidence and attitude!!!!

Ok, so what? That is what a POWERLIFTER needs right? Well, let's now take a look at what qualities make a well-developed athlete:

1) Strong posterior chain. This is where speed, jumping ability and agility are increased. This area is the athlete's "motor".
2) Strong trunk muscles. Think of swinging power in baseball, tennis or golf. Think of body leverage in wrestling and football.
3) Strong upper back/shoulder muscles. Sports are brutal...football, baseball/softball, golf, tennis, etc. all require strength in this area to keep you injury free.
4) Strong lats and triceps. This will be your "pushing" strength which is important in athletics, particularly football (blocking).
5) Confidence/Attitude! How can you be successful without confidence? You have to KNOW that you can win!

Jimbo

blaster,

just a little cheap private site. nothing major to it at all.

jimbo

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Originally posted by: Jimbo Hale
just a little cheap private site. nothing major to it at all.

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Coach Hale -

If your website is only HALF as informative as your posts here, it will be a tremendous resource for coaches like me. I can't wait to see it.

Keep us posted!

Thanks again,
Chris

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Originally posted by: CUI
Comet, I'm not Jimbo, and he will certainly be able to give a better answer, but from all the reading I've done it seems you should shoot for 6 to 8 sets to work up to your max on ME day. That seems like a lot to me (especially for a kids that's already warmed up well, but the first sets go fast so I think it's ok so far.
I am not sure about the intensities for working up, but we have been trying increments of about 15 lbs for someone who is going to top out at 175 or more. If their top weight is less, they go in smaller increments, and if it's more they might use larger increments. I like to start with the bar first, then 95, then go in 15 lb increments.
I'm looking forward to hearing what Jimbo and others have to say.

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CUI -

We just started WS4SB last week. One of the the problems I have noticed is that the kids started too heavy on their initial warm-up sets and tried to make too big of jumps between sets. Most of them were pretty wiped out by the second set of 3 reps. Next week, the goal is to start light and then work up to 3 good, solid sets of max lifts.

Have all of you that use WS4SB gotten a formal program from somewhere, or just modified you own system off of information from Jimbo and others. If you have gotten a program, let me know from where.

Comet,
I read as much as I could about WS4SB and then modified it for us. We use a 3 day split.
I was also worried about only doing 1 day of legs. I don't think 1 day is enough if all you're going to do is the 3 workouts. Most of our athletes are competing year round. When I actually thought about how my legs feel after a very good leg workout, it kind of made sense to only do one IF YOU ARE ALSO RUNNING. I'm hoping it will keep us from overtraining and still give the gains we want. I am not an expert, but I've tried to reseach this as much as possible, and it seems like a very safe, quality workout program. If I discover differently, we'll continue to modify / change.

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Originally posted by: comet
Jimbo,

On your max effort lifts, how many sets do you want to do to work up to your 3-5 rep max? Also what is the weight increments for each set? Do you work off of percentages or some other pre-determined steps? How often do you work particular muscle groups with ME lifts?

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Comet, there is a thread by "Ebbster", Coach Mike Ebbs, in which we practically put together a program. I think it is entitled "question for Jimbo". You may have to search for it and I'll see if I can find it and put a link up for it.

It tells you the idea behind the max effort work and how to set up a max effort workout.

As for the increments, yes I do base the progression on percentages, but ONLY as guidelines. It usually goes something like this for a max effort day in which we go for 6 x 5:

work up set 1: bar x 7
work up set 2: bar x 7
work up set 3: 95 lbs x 5
Set 1: 57% x 5
Set 2: 63% x 5
Set 3: 70% x 5
Set 4: 77% x 5
Set 5: 84% x 5
Set 6: 90% x 5
If athlete gets 5 reps on set 6, let him go for another until he misses 5.

As for the muscle groups, you will have 1 max effort upper body day, and 1 max effort lower body day per microcycle. For football players, upper body ME day consists of a bench variation and ME lower day consists of a squat, deadlift or good morning variation.

I'll try to find that link later tonite...hope this helps a little.

Jimbo

Jimbo,

You say if your not running its okay to have an extra leg day. Do you mean another ME leg day, or would you just keep all ME lifts to only one a week? If you added another leg day, what would you recommend to do? Would you stay on the 3-day split with an extra leg day, with one day upper, one day lower, and one day total body? I would like to stay on the three-day split if possible, but we don't do much running until the summer, so I would like to get all the benefit out of the weight room as we possibly can until then.

Thanks for all the help.

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Originally posted by: comet
Jimbo,

You say if your not running its okay to have an extra leg day. Do you mean another ME leg day, or would you just keep all ME lifts to only one a week? If you added another leg day, what would you recommend to do? Would you stay on the 3-day split with an extra leg day, with one day upper, one day lower, and one day total body? I would like to stay on the three-day split if possible, but we don't do much running until the summer, so I would like to get all the benefit out of the weight room as we possibly can until then.

Thanks for all the help.

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Comet,

I rotate days like this:

Day 1 (mon) ME Lower

Day 2 (wed) ME Upper

Day 3 (friday) DE or RE Lower

Day 4 (mon) DE or RE Upper

Day 5 (wed) start over at Day 1

This way, one week you get 2 leg days, and the next you get one leg day. For the other leg day, if the athlete is ready for Dynamic Effort work, we will do this...if not, we will go for repetition work using the same format as the ME leg day, except that the 1st lift is done for higher reps (e.g. 4 x 12 on a squat or GM variation or 4 x 6-8 on a deadlift variation). We also hit unilateral leg work hard on this day as well.

Hope this helps...

Jimbo