Training Philosophies: Training Hard or Training Smart

by Todd E Hamer
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Joe DeFranco in New Jersey. I woke up at 5:00 A.M. and drove from Virginia to New Jersey to watch him train athletes. During my visit, I watched a short speed training session with Carolina Panthers linebacker, Brandon Short, as well as a strongman training session with some college athletes. I then had the opportunity to go to lunch and talk training with Joe. We discussed how, when, why and where we train our athletes; all the good questions I ask myself all the time. All these questions have led me to more questions.

Training Smart?

I started my strength and conditioning career interning for Buddy Morris at the University of Pittsburgh. At the time, I was 150 lbs. soaking wet and had no clue what true strength training was all about. Buddy began teaching me about the Westside Barbell Club, as well as the attitude that one must have as a strength coach. I began training much smarter, and I also began getting stronger and gaining weight. I was introduced to bands, chains, reverse-hypers, and all of the other toys utilized by Westside.

During my time at Pitt, I did not question much. Everything I was learning was new to me and made me stronger. I could not figure out how anyone could question or change this approach to training. I fell into the trap many people do who use the Westside approach. I only did what I saw on the Westside tapes. I did tricep extensions during every bench workout. I always did a speed day and took a down week from max effort work every three to four weeks. I also trained athletes that I worked with exactly the same way. I began shutting out anything that I didn’t hear from Westside.

Training myself and my athletes in this manner did yield results; but we eventually reached plateaus. I began asking questions: How do I use max effort lifts in-season? How do I train athletes that have never used a conjugate system of training? Many coaches out there work with high school athletes or young, under-trained athletes. With these questions we must still train smart, but that does not mean we have to follow a Westside template to a “T”. I began asking more questions, reading, and TRAINING more. Yes, training more. A good coach must train hard. I realized that Westside is an evolving program. What works today might not work tomorrow. Reading the workout logs at Elitefts.com really opened my eyes. Jim Wendler is very strong, yet his training log is quite different then Mike Ruggeria’s training log, who also happens to be very strong. This led me to my next question.

Training Hard?

After my internship at Pitt, I spent a few months observing a HIT strength coach. His philosophy was that his team would out-work everyone else and this would make his team stronger. While I do not agree with his thoughts when it comes to training, I loved the mentality these guys brought to training. The players busted their asses and never gave up. This brings me back to last Saturday as I watched Joe train his athletes. Did Joe put his athletes through a HIT workout? I am sure that none of us want to hear that. But, in all honesty, what Joe’s athletes did was train hard; and Joe kept the duration of their workouts short. So although science is a good tool that we can utilize, hard work is as well. Is training hard as important as training smart? I have always told my athletes to train smart. I have also told them to train hard. Well, what is more important?

Training Smart is Training Hard!

I suggest to anyone that I meet to read Tom Myslinski’s thesis on Elitefts.com. He wrote about training the young athlete and the variations that the young athlete needs in order to progress. Think about this variation as the key to training. If you were training to improve your squat, would you only squat? Of course not. You must do accessory work to build the squat. I can think of hundreds of accessory lifts that build the squat. Now, imagine a football lineman. They must block, run, fall down, get back up and block again. That is all in one play. Now, how many exercises can you think of that will help with any or all of those skills? I can think of thousands. Everything from box squats to tire flipping to reverse hypers. All of these exercises can be used in a Westside approach to training. Jim Roney once said to me that Westside is an attitude. I agree with this statement; but what helps set it apart is the attitude of doing whatever it takes to get better and stronger.

Variations to Training Smart

The Westside template is a great place to begin when training your athletes or yourself. I have been utilizing this template for over five years and have continued to get stronger and so have my athletes. Here are some variations that I feel are helping my athlete’s and myself progress with the Westside Barbell template.

Max effort lifts can be anything. Joe DeFranco sometimes uses pull-ups and other pulling variations; Buddy Morris sometimes uses Med Ball throws. I have used farmer’s walks, tire flips or even regular, old-fashioned squats. Do not be afraid to vary your max effort work especially with athletes.

Dynamic-effort day can be manipulated as well. I learned a lot from Joe DeFranco’s article, “Westside for Skinny Bastards”, regarding varying the dynamic day for certain athletes. I also got another great idea today from Tim Kontos (VCU); have your athletes perform as many reps as they can in a certain time period. How many reps can you get in 8 seconds, for example? (Watch the athletes form doesn’t break down using this approach.)

Accessory work must still be specific to the goal of the training. Don’t just do an accessory lift because everyone else does it. For athletes, do some unilateral training as accessory work. Do some work that the athletes enjoy and kick their ass. Strongman training is perfect for this. A great idea I saw Fred Cantor doing was single arm work with the bar. One arm barbell deads, one arm barbell shoulder press, one arm barbell curls. (O.K., no curls but you get the idea).

Remember when utilizing this system do not be afraid to think for yourself. Do not be afraid to bend a little. Train with anyone that will make you or your athletes better and train smart. As Dave Tate once said, “Get stronger and everything else will take care of itself.”

Todd E Hamer
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it