Success Stories.

Since last summer I have been working with the University of Worcester Men's American Football team, the Worcester Royals, and the University's Men's Rugby team.
The Royals was mostly on a consultation basis - I have been designing programs for players to meet their physical positional requirements. I did attend sessions, and some games, but my appearances were rare due to working a full time job and also working with the Men's Rugby team and individual athletes externally to the University.
The Rugby team was a lot more hands on. I was able to attend Monday morning fitness (every Monday morning at 7am, rain, shine, snow whatever - the boys trained). I also attended other sessions, and was occasionally able to put on different things for them. Such as taking in different training tools to use on a Monday like kettlebells, battle ropes, slam balls etc. We also did sand dune sessions, hill sprint session, circuits around the local area, and sessions in gyms.
The Royals started their season 3-0. This is the best start to a season they have ever had, and they also went on to have their most successful season to date. By no means am I saying this is my doing, but I know that my programming and influence impacted on their performances throughout the season.
The Men's Rugby team also had an incredibly successful season - achieving their two goals they agreed at the start of the season:
1) Promotion to Prem B in the BUCS Leagues.
2) Win Varsity (the biggest game of the year against Gloucester University - played at Kingsholm-the ground of Gloucester RFC Premiership and European rugby team).
I simply cannot be prouder of this group of lads. They worked through a lot of hard times, and thanks to their coaches Jamie Tsang and Ieuan Mustow the old ways were brought back. Cohesion, hard work, and simple game planning led to a hugely successful season and I can't wait to keep hearing success stories from them over the coming years.

Another success story I want to touch on, and honestly the main reason I wrote this blog, was to talk about 3 of the American Football players who asked me to program for them in the lead up to a Powerlifting competition.
The local gym they use, Legends Gym Worcester, decided to run an in-house Powerlifting competition, so the guys, who had been part of the "HPC" group of players who trained with me on a more regular basis at Hill Performance in Hallow, asked if I would be able to design a program to allow development for the three lifts - Squat, Bench Press & Deadlift.
So I sat down and started to write a generic program for the 3 of them, but one that is specific to to their own personal bests of each lift. I took inspiration from several programs such as Jim Wendler's 531, Brandon Lilly's Cube Method, Chad Smith's Juggernaut Method, and more known theories like periodization etc and it worked on a two-weekly location and it included work at the high percentages of their max, as well as volume at lower percentages, and also rep work.
The three athletes - Carlo Richards, Josh Milgate and Andy Thomas all made significant progress throughout the training cycle and came out of the meet with PBs. Some got over 20kg of progress in just 7 weeks of training.
So I was absolutely over the moon as it was something I came up with sat at home, worked out all the lifts for each training session for them and everything. This is probably the first fully in depth training protocol I have come up with, and for it to have been so successful I am chuffed to bits.

Onwards and upwards from here. The internship with Harlequins starts tomorrow morning and it's only positive from there.

UKSCA

I FINALLY NAILED IT!

So after passing 3 of the 4 modules (Case Study, multiple choice exam and PAS {plyometrics, agility and speed}) on the first attempt back in November 2012 - I have now finally put the final nail in the coffin and completed the weightlifting module of the UKSCA Accreditation.
So I am now a fully accredited strength and conditioning coach with the UKSCA.
Pretty damn happy man.
And good timing too - just before I head off to my internship with Quins. So hopefully I can pick up some clients and work 1-on-1 to earn some money, or find a local team who want some assistance. We'll see.
But the good thing is this - my first years CPD is covered by doing Quins. So even if I can't find anything else, then at least that is covered.
Also - by the time I leave Quins, I have my degree, my ASCC status, and also a years experience working with an elite level team. These are regularly the 3 ESSENTIAL criteria that I keep seeing on job applications and things.

So hopefully - one year with Quins and I can get a sweet job elsewhere and start getting paid to do what I love. OR - open a small facility of my own and coach off my own back.

Happy.

Promises, promises

In my last post I spoke about posting more often ... that was months ago! My bad!

I've just started up a fresh blog on here too with big news about my internship with Harlequins. So when I start down there I will be posting weekly with updates on what has been going on, and just showing people the daily life of an intern with a premiership rugby team.

My own training and stuff has been relatively mediocre of late. I spent a good 6-8 weeks focusing on Olympic lifting to pass a module in my UKSCA. I am now back to strongman training and trying the Cube Boss/Kingpin program for the first time. So far so good, I like the rotation of maximum, repetition, and speed work. Keeps me quite fresh which is nice. Give me another 7 weeks and hopefully we will see some PBs.

General life - things are looking up. I will be moving to Guildford in June for this internship. Which will mean I will be closer to my family which is nice. I will still be making regular trips back to Worcester (all going well) to see Naomi (my new girlfriend) and her daughter Lily, and just to make sure I don't lose contact with all my friends up here and with contacts that I would like to potentially go into business with following my internship journey.

So, again I will say that hopefully posts will be coming out more often but we shall see.

Peace.

New Year new me and all that

OK,
So my last post I said I was starting fresh with the blog. That was 6 months ago and I haven't blogged since haha my bad.
So ... I didn't quite meet all my targets. I haven't done any benching in the last 6 months basically so naturally I didn't hit my bench target. Overhead - I got to a 90 or 95 strict. Not quite where I wanted. Deadlift I hit 240 so again not where I wanted but my target of 270 was a bit farfetched. Squat - I hit! Boom!

So then, onto 2014. I have big plans for this year. I'm looking to spend up until may using the new beyond 531 method and building a much larger foundation level of pure strength. 4/5 sessions a week, focusing largely on the 4 big lifts and then a 5th to be a weakness day or an events day for strongman. At the moment I am looking to compete in two comps, both in May of 2014. So my focus is to just get as strong as I can from now til then.
I'm also going to be doing a bit more conditioning. Things like going for walks with a weighted bag on my back a couple times a week. Then also strongman specific conditioning such as keg runs, some on the minute work, yoke, farmers, sprints etc. Things that are a bit more fun so I'll actually do them haha.

Ok so 2014 is gonna be big. I'm looking to secure an internship or job somewhere in s&c. Also looming to go to more seminars and conferences etc. I want to really try push my development this year.

Have a good new  year everyone.

Fresh start

Ok so it has been a real long time since my last post. And in all honesty I haven't even re-read the last post to see what the heck I was talking about. But right now I'm going to be starting fresh with my blogs, and they're going to be more focused about my training, and my S&C side and less about the whole general life thing.
So here goes.
I was recently training real hard for my first ever strongman meet. The events were due to be trap bar deadlift, circus dumbell overhead press, farmers walk, truck pull arm over arm and a medley.
Unfortunately I had to pull out as during the week leading up to it I had a severe case of vomiting and diahrroea. Not pleasant for anyone. I felt weak and horrible for days afterwards so decided not to compete in case of damaging my immune system any further.
Since this my training has been kind of sporadic. I've done some hypertrophy type sessions, one awesome one for legs the other day at the Hill Performance Centre in Worcester, England. I've also been doing a lot more cardio, I have a holiday coming up and want to look good for girlfriend (insert banter here ...) and also still been doing my general strength training.
After I write this I am planning to go to the gym and do an overhead pressing session. Thinking its going to be quite brutal but I need my pressing to improve.
So that's pretty much the update with my personal training. I'm planning on keeping it strength focused but with a little bit more hypertrophy as well I think. Probably do 1-3 heavy exercises each session and top them off with a couple of supersets, or exercises with drop sets to finish. Just to add some mass and make myself look like a baddass mudda. I'm also focusing a little more on my olympic lifting so I can nail my UKSCA. Which leads nicely through to my next topic.

So S&C wise things are looking up. I was very excited to see an email from the UKSCA come through about a taking a reserve place as someone dropped out, but unfortunately it fell whilst I am on holiday so I couldn't accept. Hopefully one will pop up soon and I will get my ass together and get accredited.
On top of this, I am now the head S&C Coach for the University of Worcester Royals, American football team. I am designing gym programmes, giving feedback on nutritional information, and also helping each player to become a better athlete. From this I have also now had a couple of links to an external team too, getting contacted by their players for programme advice and other advice. Helping me to profile myself a bit better which is great.
The other major news with regards S&C is that I have been in talks with the S&C Department Head at the University of Worcester, and he wants to get me involved to act as a mentor for current students. They have recently run a WABBA course out of the uni, and some of the students who took part are going to be acting as mentors for TASS athletes and other Uni sports teams, as well as mentors for members of staff on their new "Healthy Living Scheme". It's aim is to help raise awareness of exercise and nutrition to help improve lifestyle. The idea is that I am a middle ground mentor between the students and the head of department. So I can help the students with programming, nutritional advice, and any other issues they may have, making life easier the top dog.
The progression from this would be fantastic also as if they decide to expand the S&C department, I would already be in a good position to plead my case as to why I should get a job as the Head's Assistant.
So fingers crossed things are looking up.

For now, my training goals are as follows;
Deadlift - 270kg by New Year
Squat - 220kg by New Year
Bench - 170kg by New Year
Strict Overhead - 100kg by New Year
Olympic lifts - competent and regularly train them.

My S&C Goals, to have a successful season with the Royals and any TASS athletes or teams I get involved with at the university.
And to finally get my accreditation.

Til next time

15.01.13

Ok, so its been a while since I last posted ... Again. But in all honesty I haven't really been doing a huge amount.

I've been making good progress and gains by utlising 5/3/1 training. Today I got 6 reps on 180kg deadlift, which was meant to be my 1 rep day. so pretty happy with that. yesterday I hit 7 reps on my overhead press 1 rep day. my best result so far came last week, I was squatting in my 3s week and I hit 10 reps with 145kg. I know it doesn't sounds a lot but one year on from putting my back out in such a way that I could squat for 4 months (and couldnt walk for a week), it felt pretty damn good to squat like that. and my form was good, nice and low and strong throughout.

So like I said, I've been very happy with the strength gains that I'm seeing through 5/3/1. I'm also enjoying my new diet of increased protein and fat, with lower carbs. I feel healthier, and when I do eat more carbs now I really feel it.

I also re-took my UKSCA accreditation on Sunday, I only had to re do my lifting. I felt that it went really well, I felt strong through my squat and through the Snatch as well. I also felt like I answered all the questions more confidently this time than last so hopefully I'll come out with a positive results and be accredited (HOORAY!)

til next time ...

New Year.

As if I've left it til the 8th of January to do my first blog of the New Year. My bad. Just been being lazy and forgetful I guess.

Anyhow, lets get crackalackin!

So I've begun my 5/3/1 training programme, and so far I love it. Obviously its all submaximal so its very safe, and its progressive so over the next few months my strong will grow continuously.
I'm in my second week of the programme now and like I said its great. I've decided for the first 4 weeks of the cycle my assistance is the "build a bigger yolk" that Wendler posted on T-Nation. Its basically to build a larger upper back and neck. So i'm doing a lot of shrugging, pulling movements, and neck work. That is to supplement the heavy sets.
for my second cycle i'm going to go back to a slightly more overall body focus for hypertrophy. dont want my body to get stuck in a rut so i'll do this for 4 weeks then go back to the yolk. Should be fun.
I took a couple of pre-photos so hopefully i'll notice some difference after the programme.

I've also been on a high fat, high protein, low carb diet. Been eating a lot of fish, lots of eggs too. Trying to see what effect this has on my body. Only problem so far is that I'm craving everything underneath the sun, and I'm also struggling to find interesting meals to have without carbs. kinda sucks. Buuuuut if it works down the line then who gives a sh*t right?

In other news, I failed one module of my UKSCA, my weightlifting of all things!!! so i've re-booked to do my test again, been knuckling down with my mate Michael Hill (aka cheese) and we've been filming my technique and making sure I hit all the checkpoints properly when demonstrating it this time around. Can't afford to fail twice - literally! Money wise and sanity wise!

I've been applying for lots of jobs too as the doors always slow down in January so fingers crossed i'll pick something up so I can earn myself some dollar bills. Would be nice wouldn't it to not have to worry about single penny I'm spending.

One day I'll be comfortable I swear down

Til next time