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Q: Joe, I heard you had back surgery. I was just wondering how everything went? I’m sure you will be back quicker than most and stronger than ever! I think I speak for every reader of your site when I say that we wish you the best and can’t wait for your next website update!
Best,
Bobby
A: Bobby, Thanks for your support. Yes, I did have another back surgery on April 6th. As usual, it SUCKED! I wouldn’t wish the pain that I went through, and I’m still going through, on anyone.
Although the surgery was a “success” and I was fortunate enough to have one of the best neurosurgeons in the world perform my surgery (Dr. Anthony Frempong-Boadu from NYU Medical Center), this is the most painful recovery I’ve ever been through.
When they cut me open they said the damage to my disk had gotten much worse then what my CAT scan and MRI showed (which were both taken 6 months ago). Basically, my disk literally wrapped itself around the L4 nerve root and everything else in the surrounding area. The surgery took twice as long as expected because they had to cut around the entire nerve to get rid of the herniated piece of disk. 30% of my disk was removed and many nerves were manipulated (and irritated) in the process.
I haven't slept for more than 15 minutes at a time for 2 weeks. The back pain is excruciating and the nerve sensations in my lower leg are unbearable. My lower leg feels like a combination of severe frost bite, a 3rd degree burn and paralysis right now. I can't even sit down for another week. (I’m standing at my computer as I write this.) The medication that they have me on is no party either. It causes dizziness, drowsiness, depression, loss of appetite and nausea - and I have all of the above!
Anyway, sorry for the rant but I’m not in the best of moods right now. This is going to be a much longer road to recovery than expected.
Maybe I’ll be shredded for the summer considering these drugs have ruined my appetite.
Joe D.
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Q: Hi Joe, Love the website, many thanks for sharing all the great information with us! Just finished reading Dinosaur Training on your recommendation, what a read - can't wait to try and incorporate some of that info into my training.
Finally round to my question, after seeing pictures of your dad and the amazing shape he is still in even at an age when most are barely able to walk up the stairs; I wondered what sort of training he does and has done, has this changed due to age?
Keep up the great work!
Leigh May, UK
A: Leigh, You are one of MANY people who write in every day inquiring about my dad's program. I guess I kind of take it for granted because he’s my dad and I see him almost every day. But, the dedication and hard work my dad has put in, CONSISTENTLY for over 40 years, is truly amazing. Although my dad has always trained like a madman, his physique really started to change as he paid more attention to nutrition. His diet is now impeccable. For example, I just called him and asked him to tell me exactly what he ate today. Here’s exactly what he ate today which is just a “typical day” for him:
BREAKFAST: 7 scrambled egg whites, 1 bowl unsweetened oatmeal, 1 cup black coffee, 16 oz. of water
SNACK: protein bar, apple, 16 oz. water
LUNCH: 1 can of tuna with 2 tablespoons of canola oil, 1 large salad with tomatoes and olives, 16 oz. of water
SNACK: 1 fat-free yogurt, 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter, 16 oz. water
DINNER: 1 large chicken breast, 1 serving broccoli, 1 cup brown rice, 16 oz. water
SNACK: Sylvester Stallone’s high protein pudding, ½ of a pear, 16 oz. water
My dad's training has changed tremendously over the years due to some devastating injuries. He used to be a competitive powerlifter and world-class arm wrestler. He trained to get big and strong! He has now moved towards more of a bodybuilding-style routine in which he works around his countless injuries. These injuries include:
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Detached biceps from shoulder while barbell curling 225 lbs. in 1986. (Although the biceps completely tore off his shoulder and rolled down his arm like a lamp shade, he tried finishing his workout with triceps pushdowns. He did triceps until he actually went into shock and had to get rushed to the hospital!)
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In 1989 he had shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and clean out multiple bone spurs.
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He now has tears in both rotator cuffs and advanced arthritis in both shoulders. He was told his only hope for his shoulders is to have them both replaced. He is not going to due this so he works around these injuries.
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Chronic tendonitis in both elbows from the arm wrestling and powerlifting. (He has already had 3 cortisone shots in each elbow and can’t have any more.)
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3 bulging disks in his lumbar spine
These injuries obviously limit his exercise selection and training routine. Common exercises which he can’t do anymore include – barbell benching, any form of shoulder presses, deadlifts and dips.
My dad is a huge advocate of variety in his training. Because he is now limited in his exercise choices, he has come up with countless variations of the exercises that he can do. This is one of the main reasons he is still able to make progress at his age. Here’s how he is currently breaking up his routine (although it changes often):
MONDAY: Chest, triceps, abs
TUESDAY: Cardio – jump rope, interval sprints (20-30 minutes)
WEDNESDAY: Legs, abs
THURSDAY: Cardio – jump rope, intervals on the bike (20-30 minutes)
FRIDAY: Back, bis, shoulders, abs
SATURDAY: Cardio – jump rope, boxing (hits heavy bag for 20-30 minutes)
SUNDAY: Off
58 years young!
The man who started the DeFranco’s Training
madness.
Joe D.
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Q: Joe D – On the charliefrancis.com
forums a couple of guys were blasting your post from
your Ask Joe response on 4-01-05 regarding running
year round. Some of the experts on Charlie’s
forum say you must train for speed all year round.
They also said that you can train lower body strength
2X/week once you start running if you lower the volumes
of the workouts. I have nothing against you; it’s
just that when it comes to speed training I think
the guys on that forum know their stuff.
A: I obviously can’t know anything about speed training. After all, I don’t sell speed ladders or parachutes, I’ve never given a seminar on “functional” training using bozo balls & balance boards and I don’t spend all day sitting on my ass posting on speed training forums. Oh yeah, I actually look like I work out. So there’s NO WAY I can possibly know what I’m doing – especially compared to the “experts” that can be found on the internet. After all, I waste way too much time in the gym and on the track TRAINING ATHLETES. What could I have learned from training athletes for 50-70 hours a week for the past 8 years? What experience could I have possibly gained from training close to 100 college football players for the NFL Combine; or preparing NFL players for the damn Superbowl; or preparing MLB baseball players for spring training; or preparing the state’s best track team for the state meet of champions; the list goes on and on and hopefully you sense my sarcasm. These internet geeks can sit behind the computer all day long and give every scientific reason on why my training methods don’t work. Unless it’s Charlie Francis himself giving the advice, I DON’T GIVE A SHIT!! I know what works because I’ve LIVED it. As I’ve stated before, I’m not a lab rat. But I’d love to meet another guy my age in this field with more experience. If I could get college credits for the time I’ve spent training athletes, I’d have 10 PhD’s right now!
This is the problem with giving advice over the computer; I usually only have time to give EXAMPLES and GENERAL ADVICE. I can’t answer every question with every possible scenario. I have a job and it aint sittin’ behind the computer all day!!! It’s a FREE service that I provide because I genuinely enjoy helping people and I love talking shop. But, there’s always going to be that one person who will over-analyze and nit-pick some statement that I have made.
As far as your idea of performing 2 lower body strength days once you start running; that works too! I never said it didn’t. And you are also correct in that you must lower the training volume of each session if you are lifting legs twice a week. The SAMPLE program that I gave just happened to show how we do it with 1 lower body day. As a side note, you should know that sometimes certain aspects of a program have nothing to do with what’s best from a training standpoint; What I mean by this is we might have to make our decision based on other aspects of life that people have a tendency to forget about – For example: Does the athlete have a job that interferes with training? Can he afford to train with us an extra day? Is he playing another sport? The list goes on and on. You see, these are issues that we deal with in the REAL WORLD. REAL WORLD issues may be the most overlooked component of training in the internet world of perfectly designed programs.
Below is a picture of Bergen Catholic’s All-American, Brian Cushing (#10), making one of his trademark devastating hits.
OUCH!
According to the internet “speed experts”, Brian shouldn’t be able to hit this hard because he doesn’t train for speed all year long. Somehow he became a 1st Team All-American, ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash weighing 230 lbs. in high school and received the Myoplex Ironman Award at the Army All-American game for being the strongest, fastest and most versatile player in the country. How can this be? I’ll tell you how it could be; it’s called REAL WORLD TRAINING – NOT internet fantasy land. There comes a time in training when you have to quit over-analyzing every minor detail, i.e., What’s the friction coefficient of the running surface? Is optimal hip flexion 81 or 82-degrees when sprinting? Were my ankles dorsi-flexed enough when I made my transition from acceleration to top speed? The list goes on and on. Sometimes you just have to get out there and train your ass off. Do you think Brian Cushing was thinking about proper arm mechanics when he was exploding through this tackle? No. For the past 3 years Brian has followed a program very similar to the one that I posted on 4-01-05. We work on getting brutally strong, eating a clean diet, incorporating the proper supplementation, getting flexible and mobile and then a couple weeks before training camp we get him in shape. The running workouts are more conditioning based and running mechanics are not a major focus with our older football players. After all, the majority of a linebackers running is spent shedding blocks, changing direction and exploding through people! Working on linear sprint mechanics has little carry over to the football field for older players. That’s our recipe for success. If you still don’t like it, I don’t care. We have players like Brian Cushing, plus a couple hundred more success stories, to back up our methods.
Training smart is extremely important; But please, don’t be an armchair expert. And although I love learning about the science behind training, let’s not forget the importance of good old-fashioned hard work!
And until you have a couple hundred athletes under your belt (of various levels), I don’t think you’re qualified to give advice or criticize. By no means do I consider myself the smartest guy in the world. In fact, I’m not even the smartest guy in the room right now. I HAVE A LOT TO LEARN. But I had to get these things off of my chest.
Sorry for another rant. The medication, coupled with typing while standing up, is really starting to piss me off!
Joe D.
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Q: Coach, First off, your website
is amazing!! The one thing that I noticed is that
all of your athletes seem very lean and in shape –
even the big boys. What I really find impressive are
your high school kids. Professional athletes make
a living from working out, but the physiques that
your HS kids possess are rare – especially in
this generation of computers and video games. My question
is who is pound for pound your strongest high school
athlete? To me there is nothing more impressive than
a strong SOB that has a ripped physique to match.
Can’t wait to see your response!
Shredded Ted
A: With a name like Shredded Ted, I can see why you’re interested in looking the part - not just being a fat slob who can lift heavy weights. Basically, the type of strength you’re describing (relative body strength), is really what our entire program is based on. That is because we don’t train powerlifters; we train athletes that want to get brutally strong, but they need to be able to run too. After all, we all know that SPEED KILLS in all of sports. And one of the greatest indicators of an athletes sprinting speed is his level of relative body strength. That is why we place a huge emphasis on nutrition and supplementation in our program. Everyone now knows that we do not advocate formalized speed training all year long for our athletes. One of the main reasons that we can get away with this is because most of our athletes are extremely disciplined with their diet and supplementation regimen. It pisses me off when people say that our high school athletes are all in great condition because we only train genetically gifted kids. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! The truth of the matter is that we attract DEDICATED athletes who do what we tell them. I’ve been around many other facilities that train high school kids. I am proud to say that the disciple that most of our kids possess regarding their diet and supplementation program is unparalleled amongst other kids throughout the country. But unfortunately, no one wants to hear that we have kids eating canned tuna fish in the hallways while walking to their next class, waking up early to prepare their meals and shakes for the day, traveling to our nutritionist who is an hour away, etc. It’s much easier for people to say that our athletes are strong and shredded because they’re genetically gifted or because we give them steroids. People also don’t like to hear that myself and my partners have meetings on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings and whenever else we get a free moment, to discuss the best food choices, supplements and diets to recommend to our athletes. I know I’m rambling, but I’m just very proud that all of our hard work, as well as our athlete’s hard work, shows through this website. Basically what I’m trying to say is that it is NOT a coincidence that most of our athletes – “even the big guys” – do possess great physiques to match their strength.
Although it’s tough for me to name just one athlete (We have an army of kids who are shredded and strong!), there is one kid who pops into my head – Bergen Catholic junior, Joe Dottino. Joe became kind of an internet celebrity last summer when I posted his picture in the “training pics” section of this site doing farmers walks. I received countless emails from people who couldn’t believe how muscular and ripped he was for a high school sophomore. Well, it’s a year later and he’s bigger and more ripped! This kid is a true meathead in every sense of the word. But he’s not just a weight room guy – he’s a hell of a football player and he runs like the wind.
Anyway, the week before I left for my surgery, we tested Joe in the bench press, box squat and trap bar deadlift. At a bodyweight of only 185 lbs., Joe’s numbers were as follows:
Bench press – 330 lbs.
Trap Bar Deadlift – 515 lbs.
Box Squat – 455 lbs.
Below are pics of him box-squatting 455 lbs. and performing an easy 505 lbs. in the deadlift.
No belt, no knee wraps, no shirt!
Once again, Joe forgot his shirt.
I would also like to mention another great feat of strength that was accomplished before I left work for back surgery. Chris Dellafave, a junior offensive lineman at St. Joe’s H.S., pulled an EASY 640 lbs. in the trap bar deadlift. He isn’t your average sloppy offensive lineman with man boobs either. He weighs in the 220’s and, like all of our athletes, performed the deadlift without any straps.
That’s a lot of weight for a 16-year-old!
Two more “real world” examples of what
can be accomplished with a properly designed strength
training program, disciplined nutrition and an intense
atmosphere of meatheads who live for this shit!!!
These are the things you can’t learn in an internet chat room.
Joe D.
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We will list past questions here so that you can go back if you miss any advice Joe has given
