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"Behind the Scenes" - Lower Body Strength/Power Workout

Sinisi_Safety_bar_squat

One of the things I'm going to start incorporating into my blog posts are random, "Behind the Scenes" videos of entire workouts at my facility. As my business continues to grow and my plate continues to get fuller and fuller, I haven't had the time to update my blog as often as I would like. (Unfortunately, I need to give top priority to the aspects of my business that actually pay the bills :) But, I've always loved answering questions on my website and providing great content for my website readers. My "ASK JOE" column is something that I plan on keeping around for a long, long time. So I've been thinking of more efficient ways for me to provide content to my site more frequently. Since I still spend the majority of my days in the gym, training athletes, I will periodically film entire workouts and then just post them. I obviously won't show every single set, rep, rest period, etc. What I WILL do is write out the entire program, along with the rationale behind it, and provide a video to tie it all together. This will give everyone a cool look "inside" the gym and see some of the different programming we use with our athletes.

So without further ado, here's a "Behind the Scenes" look at a Lower Body Strength/Power session performed by my 12:00 crew this past Tuesday!

THE WORKOUT

1. TKE's w/ Average Band - 3 x 15

2A. Safety Bar Squats off pins - 5 x 2
2B. Box Jumps - 5 x 3

3. Sled Accelerations - 4 x 15 yards

4. "Big Dog" Swings ( 124lb. KB) - 3 x 12

5. Band-Resisted sit-ups - 4 x 25


The method behind the madness:

**TKE's: I've spoken about the benefits of this exercise on countless occasions. Almost every single athlete with patella tendonitis or general "knee pain" can't believe how much better their knees feel after just 2-3 sets of this exercise. You'd be crazy not to do them! Always conclude your warm-up with TKE's when squatting, jumping or deadlifting. Period.

**For athletes that are only performing 1 lower body 'strength' session per week, starting their workout with a heavy squat or deadlift variation followed by a jump, gives them a great "bang for their buck". In the above workout, I chose Safety bar squats off pins as my "heavy" movement. Notice I said "heavy", not "max". Lifting "heavy" weights excite the CNS and recruit your fast-twitch fibers, without burning you out (like "max" singles often do). This increases neural firing when you perform your jumps. Athletes will notice that they are able to jump higher, with less "effort", during their squat/jump pairing with this workout. (The "technical" term for this type of training is called 'post-activation potentiation'.) Perform at least 5 "supersets" to get the most out of this part of the workout.

**After the squat/jump pairing, you want to try and transfer the high-threshold motor units into a synchronized activity (like acceleration sled sprints). Simply put, while your CNS is in a heightened state, I like to have my athletes perform an "athletic" movement that is more "specific" to their sport. Since the 4 athletes that performed this workout were all football players, I chose a weighted, short sprint. When training for power, I've always felt like this helped "bridge the gap" from the weightroom to the athletic field. I'll give another example to help clarify my point: If you were going to have a boxer or MMA athlete perform this type of workout for the upper body; you may have them start with bench presses and medicine ball throws. Then, your next exercise can be hitting the heavy bag for 4 sets of 10-15 seconds to help transfer/synchronize the motor units that were previously recruited.

**Heavy Kettlebell Swings: I wanted to finish this lower body workout with a hip extension exercise that also had a little bit of a "conditioning" component (since mini camp may be right around the corner for a few of these guys); what better way to hit the posterior chain and finish everyone off than a 124-pound kettlebell?!

**Band-resisted sit-ups: I have to give credit to Brian Cushing for this unique sit-up variation. When he was home last month, he came up with this...we tried it...I loved it...most of the athletes HATED it...so I kept it in the program!!!

Finally, I gotta give props to William Paterson University wide receiver, Joel Rivera. This was his very first workout with us! I threw him to the wolves with some of our longtime 'disciples' to "test" him...and he passed the test!! He definitely earned his DeFranco "wings" after that workout!!

What did you guys think of the workout? Drop us a comment below and let us know your thoughts!

-Joe D.


 

 

21 Comments

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  1. Sean T makes this comment

    Tuesday, 12 July 2011

    Hey Coach, Great vid! I was just curious, for someone training mma and using your WS4SB template but only using one lower day (to keep from overtraining due to 5 skill session/week) would it be follow the workout as written on the old article as is, but add in a dynamic movement after the max/heavy lift like you did in this video? So MAX-EFFORT LIFT/DYNAMIC MOVEMENT (SS) UNILATERAL MOVEMENT HAMSTRING / POSTERIOR CHAIN MOVEMENT HEAVY ABS Thanks in advance coach!

  2. strength makes this comment

    Sunday, 09 January 2011

    Please post some new "Behind the scenes" footage :) Keep up the great work

  3. Graham makes this comment

    Sunday, 19 September 2010

    In an attempt to answer a few questions 1. Lou - it doesn't matter what bar you use as long as you use something!!!!! 2. Bartek - You can't get crushed with the pins there for starters. Other than that it's just another squat variation. He probably used the squat from the pins just to change things up for the athletes (like the Westside philosophy of changing exercises every 2-3 weeks to avoid burnout) 3. Sean - yes I thought of that straight away as well! Obviously he felt this was the 'right time' to use it then! 4. Danny - see #2! Hope my answers clear a few things up! (though obviously I'm not Joe so don't take them as the gospel)

  4. Matthew makes this comment

    Saturday, 22 May 2010

    @ Jeremy: Joe mentioned in the article that the superset is designed for athletes who only have one day of lower body strength training.

  5. danny makes this comment

    Thursday, 22 April 2010

    hey joe love the site. why use pins for the squats? is it to focus on the concentric part of the squat which is more valuable(?) than the eccentric part?

  6. Ryan makes this comment

    Wednesday, 21 April 2010

    Joe, Great lift, you always find a way to piece simple effective things together and make them really difficult. A great quality workout!

  7. Gary makes this comment

    Wednesday, 21 April 2010

    For the sled accelerations is down and back one rep or two?

  8. Michael G makes this comment

    Sunday, 18 April 2010

    Every Ask Joe posting I learn something new!! Thanks a ton for all that you share Joe!! Much appreciated!

  9. Coach Babcock makes this comment

    Saturday, 17 April 2010

    Great Workout Joe... How do you program the progression on the squat from the pin? Do you use box squat 1 RM to calculate this or do this test out on the squats from the pin? Thanks again... my kids are loving the trap bar jumps, and band situps both great ideas!

  10. Eric makes this comment

    Saturday, 17 April 2010

    I was watching your videos and wondering why you use so much weight on the sled drags? Many places I read say not to use more than 20% of the body weight but it looks like you use much more and I was wondering why?

  11. Sean makes this comment

    Saturday, 17 April 2010

    Is this the same as complex training which I know you have spoke about before on the site?

  12. alex makes this comment

    Saturday, 17 April 2010

    although i have already read about this kind of training u show that it works. awesome what happened to your defranco bars though? are they still on sale? -alex-

  13. Meat makes this comment

    Friday, 16 April 2010

    Joe, I was perusing the youtube account yesterday and cried with joy when I saw a new 9 minute video. I was excited enough, and then I just found out today that you've got an article explaining the whole thing. This is awesome, I can't get enough of it. As a guy with a nagging bit of patellar tendinitis, I'm real excited for the TKE's... I've been looking for ways to get it warmed up in an efficient way, and this looks like it may be it. Please keep feeding us a steady stream of these whenever you can!

  14. AB makes this comment

    Friday, 16 April 2010

    Coach Joe, Great job on the workout. I enjoy checking the sight daily for some new ideas. I'm a beggining strength coach down in Louisiana, and I've been a desciple of your strength and conditioning dicipline for 5 years. Keep up the great work. By the way I finished the Built like a Badass program. Much props on that one coach. Thanks again

  15. K. Kim makes this comment

    Thursday, 15 April 2010

    Amazing post Joe. I can't believe you reveal so much awesome information for free!

  16. chris makes this comment

    Thursday, 15 April 2010

    awesome vid! there should be a movie out with only workouts in it.. who is that super quick jumper (2nd box jumper i think)

  17. Jeremy makes this comment

    Thursday, 15 April 2010

    Seems great but i was wondering do you the Heavy/Jump superset if you still have a dynamic lower body day? If not than what do you do?

  18. Bartek makes this comment

    Thursday, 15 April 2010

    Coach, What is the difference between Squats off pins and Box Squats? Do Squats off pins have the same benefits like Box Squats? Keep up good job!

  19. Lou makes this comment

    Thursday, 15 April 2010

    Joe, love seein the workout in action, shit was awesome. Just wondering about using a regular bar instead of the safety bar for those squats, since of course my gym does not have one of those badass bars. i have a B.S in ex. sci and we use to have to squat then vertical jump for one of my classes. you can jump much higher definitly, its good seeing this technique utilized in a training session! you da man joe

  20. Matt makes this comment

    Wednesday, 14 April 2010

    Joe, what you speak of these TKE's, I'm guessing it may be a good idea to add to the Badass lower body days? I can also see the band resisted sit-ups being utilised in my workouts when variation is needed....

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