n This Issue

– Robertson Training Systems Updates
– Testimonials
– Nutrition Tip
– Exclusive Interview:  Brijesh Patel
– Upcoming Interviews
– New Articles and Blog Posts
– Schedule

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Robertson Training Systems Updates

2nd Annual Ultimate Fitness Challenge & 5k Trail Run for Charity

This was passed on to me by strength coach Jeremy Frisch; all the proceeds go to a great cause, so be sure and check it out!

http://www.teamworksacton.com/challenge.html

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Testimonials:  Magnificent Mobility

Last week I bought Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey’s “Magnificent Mobility“ DVD. When I was playing competitive rugby at a fairly high level (a high level for an American that is) Dynamic Flexibility and warm-ups trickled down from the national team, but for the most part they were used incorrectly. As such, when I bought this DVD I was not unfamiliar with the concepts behind dynamic mobility, however, some of the focal points I was taught were well and truly wrong. Magnificent Mobility did a great job of filling in the gaps.

The DVD itself, is pretty well done, the music is horrible, but you can see, hear, and understand all of the information as it’s presented. Mike and Eric do a good job of explaining the reasons, and uses of the movements, and an excellent job of actually teaching the movements themselves.

As an athlete with some fairly significant mobility issues, this DVD addresses my issues: tight hips, hyper-mobile lumbar spine, tight hamstrings. I have used movements from M2 before my last 2 rowing practices, and I have felt longer and more relaxed in the boat. Results in the long term will have to wait for the long term.

The only criticism I have (music aside) is that it would have been helpful to have an insert, or section of common ailments, and progressions to remedy them, but the product itself is not lacking as much as it would be nice to have this added feature.

In summation, any athlete or coach that doesn’t already have a strong working knowledge of dynamic flexibility (and if you have to think about that answer, the answer is “you don’t”) needs this DVD. I know this is a strong statement, but I firmly believe that after 12 years of rugby and 3 years of rowing, mobility (or problems associated with a lack there of) has held me back more than anything else. So far this has been money well spent.

John Brooks

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Nutrition Tip

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Exclusive Interview:  Brijesh Patel

MR:  B, thanks for being with us here today – you did an interview for us quite some time ago but it’s always great to catch up.  For those who might’ve missed the first interview, could you please re-introduce yourself?

BP: I’m the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.  I work along side Jeff Oliver and we are both responsible for all 27 of the varsity sports.  This may sound like a lot (which it is), but we seem to do a very good job taking care of all our athletes and give them a training program that will help their athletic goals.  I’m also a partner and founder of two internet based education companies.  The first is S B Coaches College (www.sbcoachescollege.com) and the second is My Fit Tube (www.myfittube.com – not launched yet).  Both sites are educational resources for trainers, sport coaches, strength coaches, athletic trainers, therapists, athletes and parents in regards to everything about good training.  You’ll find motivational quotes, tips, articles, presentations and video (www.myfittube.com) that are geared towards increasing your knowledge so you can better serve your athletes.

MR:  What originally got you into the field?  Where you an athlete growing up?

BP: This is kind of a long story, but I’ll try to keep it short.  I was always a “bigger” kid growing up, and had trouble participating in many sports because of my disadvantageous size.  I went out for football my freshman year in high school and vowed to lose enough weight so that I would have the opportunity to play more.  At my peak, I weighed 225 lbs (standing in at a whopping 5’4) with probably a body-fat of 30% (and that’s being generous).

I did a complete overhaul on my diet, began to exercise every day, and read anything I could get my hands on regarding training, and nutrition.  I ended up going a little over board and lost 90 lbs in six months.  I was then introduced to the weight-room and fell in love with it.  As a high school senior, I knew I wanted to be involved in athletics in some way and what better way than athletic preparation?

MR: I know you’re a huge student of the game, and always learning new techniques to improve your athletes.  Is there anything new that you’ve been throwing into your programming to make it more effective?

BP:  Honestly, the biggest change that I’ve made in programming over the last year or so has been placing a bigger emphasis on mobility.  You know as well as anybody how a lack of adequate mobility can be to proper health and movement patterns.  I spend more time “warming-up” and have created a number of different warm-up routines to help address commonly “tight” areas, such as the ankles, hips and thoracic spine.  I’ll also include more mobility exercises in between sets of plyometric exercises, to make my athletes’ rest more productive.

The other thing that I’ve recently changed is the way I cue different exercises to make athletes understand their bodies and how the exercises enhance their movement. I don’t know about your readers, but my athletes often have a difficult time understanding the various exercises that we perform and how their bodies work to perform the movements.  I truly believe that we must encourage our athletes to understand their bodies more and how they position themselves to move efficiently.  If they can understand the way their bodies work, I think it’ll give them a much greater awareness to understand if they make a great play or make a bad play and how their movement affected their success or not

This may sound vague, but what I try to do is to communicate how exercises are similar and that the cueing is essentially the same.  For example, I try to get my athletes to understand that whenever we do an upper body push or pull, we must engage the scapulae for optimal movement.  When we perform push-ups, I teach my athletes to engage their scapulae during the eccentric portion and then pull themselves down to the floor, this not only puts their shoulders in a safe position, but also allows their pectorals to receive greater neural stimulation, because they will be maximally put on stretch at the bottom.  When we perform inverted row, we teach the same thing, which is to engage the scapulae first and then pull the chest to the bar.  The emphasis is always on pulling.  I also cue this when we perform dumbbell variations of bench press or an incline press.  We want to make sure that we are moving at the right joints and in the right sequence.  I’ve found my athletes technique to be much better, while minimizing injuries and giving them a greater sense of awareness to their bodies.  We use the same cueing for lower body movements as well.

MR:  I’ve learned a ton of speed and change-of-direction techniques from you.  What are some of the common movement errors you see in the athletes that you work with?

BP: Much like what I said above, I try to get my athletes to understand their bodies so they can better position themselves to make a play during their sport.  I try to teach them about shin angles and how to position their feet, knees and hips to move and stop efficiently.  How you land or stop dictates how you jump or start.  If you can decelerate under control and proper position, then you can re-accelerate yourself that much quicker.  And this is exactly what I try to teach my athletes.  So, the common errors I see are when they stop, or land in a bad position to move.  They aren’t setting themselves up to succeed and I try to relate how their set-up will affect everything.  If you watch the best athletes move, they are the most efficient at putting their bodies in a position to accelerate and decelerate.  They are using whatever strength they possess to the best of their ability…which is the essence of efficiency.  That is why athletes, who do not look very strong or do not have history strength training, move so well and are so explosive.  They have great genetics, but also know how to position their bodies in the most efficient way to move.

MR:  What kind of response do you guys get in the summer programs up at Holy Cross?  Could you discuss what your weight room off-season schedule looks like?

BP: Our situation at Holy Cross is different than most colleges.  Holy Cross does not offer any summer courses at all, so if an athlete wants to stay up to train with us, they have to find their own job, find their own place to live and basically make all of their arrangements on their own.  The dorms are not open during the summer time and scholarships do not cover any of these expenses.  Despite these drawbacks, we have had more and more athletes stay for at least one month during the season to train with us and with their teammates.  This summer we have our entire basketball team, and close to 70 football players staying up to train.  We also have a variety of other athletes staying up with us.

Since basketball is my primary sport, I’ll tell you what our current program looks like.  We are training 5 days a week, Monday-Friday; Strength training is performed on a 4 day lower/upper split.  Mondays and Thursdays are our lower body days, while Tuesdays and Fridays our upper body days.  On Wednesdays we’ll do some on-court movement specific work that helps to facilitate some recovery and acts as a team building session.  Here is an outline of what our program looks like:

This is our model for our off-season warm-up:

	Lower Body – Power		Upper Body – Strength		Lower Body – Strength		Upper Body – Hypertrophy
	Roll/Static Stretch Ankle Mobility Dynamic Warm-Up		Shoulder Mobility Dynamic Warm-Up		Ankle Mobility Dynamic Warm-Up		Shoulder Mobility Dynamic Warm-Up
	Core Stability/Activation		Core Stability/Activation		Core Stability/Activation		Core Stability/Activation
A1	2 Leg Linear Jump		OH Throw		Lateral Bound		OH Throw
A2	Hip Mobility		Thoracic Mobility		Hip Mobility		Thoracic Mobility
B1	1 Leg Linear Hop		Rotational Throw		1 Leg Lateral Hop		Rotational Throw
B2	Glute Medius		T-Spine/Shoulder Mobility		Anterior Tibilas		T-Spine/Shoulder Mobility
C1 C2	Reactive Balance		Chest Throw Scap Activation		Reactive Balance		Explosive Pushup Scap Activation

On upper body days we’ll move onto either linear or lateral speed development and on the lower body days we’ll condition after our strength training session.

Our strength development outline is as follows:

	Lower Body – Power		Upper Body – Strength		Lower Body – Strength		Upper Body – Hypertrophy
A1	Fast/Explosive Lower Body		Heavy Push (Horz or Vert)		Heavy Dynamic Single Leg Supported		Moderate Push (opposite of day 2)
A2	Light External Rotation		Core		Heavy Horizontal Pull		Moderate Pullup/Chinup
B1	Heavy Bend/Hip Extension		Moderate Push (opp of first push)		Moderate Bend/Hip Extension		Light Push (opp of first push)
B2	Heavy Pullup/Chinup		Moderate Horizontal Pull		Moderate Scap		Light Horizontal Pull
C1	Moderate Static Single Leg Supported		Moderate Tricep		Single Leg Unsupported		Moderate Bicep
C2	Light Scap		Moderate Deltoid		Core		Light Pushup Variation
C3	Core		Light Horizontal Pull		Forearm		Light Deltoid

Here is what I consider heavy, moderate and light:

Heavy 1-5 reps (> 85% load)

Moderate 6-10 reps (84%-75% load)

Light >10 reps (<74% load)

Fast 1-5 reps (50-100%) or bodyweight plyos/speed work

MR:  What are some of the major issues you run into with collegiate level athletes?  Is their diet an issue?  Recovery?

BP: The biggest issues that I run into are that you really have to trust collegiate athletes to do what you tell them to do.  You have to teach them how to eat in the cafeteria, how to recover, how to manage their time, how to minimize stress, how to take control of their life and how all of it affects their performance.  I actually enjoy this process as I love to educate my athletes about training and how everything is inter-related.  But the problem is that you have to trust them to do it on their own.  I tell them that I can’t hold your hand and help you do things.  I can give you all the advice and information in the world but it’s up to you to make it happen.  Sometimes this doesn’t click until they are sophomores, juniors, seniors and or even until they graduate.  You have to keep up on them and can not give up, because they’ll realize one day that they are the only ones that can make the changes in their lives.

MR:  Brijesh, this next question if from one of our readers:

“What are your favorite outside of the weight room exercises for your athletes to use in their off-season training?  Any tire flipping, sled pulling, med ball work, etc.?”

BP: I actually love sled dragging, sled pushing, medicine ball work and old fashioned bodyweight work.  I use these three modalities as forms of non-impact conditioning.  I like to start my off-season conditioning with different medicine ball and bodyweight circuits to form a general conditioning base before I start to introduce running into our program.  I’ve found that by performing different low to non-impact conditioning we can still spend time getting stronger and developing some conditioning without inducing so much fatigue that will inhibit their strength gains.  I’m a believer that you must condition year round but you don’t have to run year round to stay in shape.  My athletes love and hate sled training.  They all remark on how much better their conditioning levels are when we perform it continuously.

MR:  All right B, we’re close to the finish but I have to wrap up with my ever-famous “Final Question.”

What is one mistake that you’ve made in your coaching career?  And what have you done to correct it later on?

BP: One mistake that I’ve definitely made early in my career is being close-minded and not seeking enough knowledge.  I thought I knew enough and didn’t believe in what other coaches did.  Because it didn’t make sense to me, I closed them out and thought they were bad coaches.  I didn’t seek to understand their perspectives or what they were looking to accomplish.  I also stopped seeking out new information for a while and became content and comfortable.  I soon realized that this was not a quick ticket to become a better coach or a better person.  I know now that to become better, I have to try and learn from everybody that I meet.  The only way to do that is to ask questions and seek to understand their perspective.  The following 5 things have really helped me to become better and are things that I try to convey to my interns who want to be strength and conditioning coaches.

1. Seek Knowledge – To become the best athlete/coach/trainer/person you have to go out and seek to learn from the best.  This knowledge can come from self-help books, business books, college classes, seminars, videos, the internet, you name it.  Just go out and learn.

2. Listen to People – This is a huge problem for all people.  We all judge people and shut them and their ideas out based on what we think we know about them.  When we actually take the time to listen to what somebody has to say, then and only then should we really judge.  If it works for somebody else and not for you find out why it works for them…don’t be quick to judge.

3. Train – There is nothing more frustrating to see than coaches who don’t do the programs that they write.  How do you know if it works?  How do you know what it feels like?  How do you know if it’s too heavy, too light, too much or not enough?

The only way to find out is to do it.  The program may look great on paper, but if it’s too much and you can’t recover from it, what’s the point?

4. Balance – Balance is a general word that refers to how we should do everything in life.  If we do too much of any one thing, something else is going to suffer.  For example, if we spend too much time at work our family and social life are going to suffer.  If we train our internal rotators too much with excessive volume our external rotators are going to suffer and leave us more susceptible to shoulder injuries.  If we eat too many carbohydrates, our insulin sensitivity is going to decrease and increase our chances of having type 2 diabetes.  We need to have balance in everything we do in our lives: work, family, social life, training, and nutrition.

5. Coach People, not Athletes – The more experienced I get in this field, the more I realize that I not only coach athletes, but coach people.  As coaches and trainers, we can have a profound influence on the people with whom we work.  We need to realize that we are not only helping an athlete achieve their goals, but also helping them to become better people.  We are teaching them what they can do mentally and physically, how to focus their mind, how to stay positive, how to make changes in their lifestyle, how to reduce stress, and how to lead a healthier lifestyle.  We run a summer program for high school kids and the biggest changes we see in them are their confidence levels.  Parents always remark on how our coaches have been a positive influence on their children.

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

MR:  Thanks a ton for being here with us today Brijesh.  Where can my readers find out more about you?

BP: As I mentioned earlier, you can find more info by visiting www.sbcoachescollege.com and sign up for our newsletter for updates and information about when www.myfittube.com will be launching.  We anticipate myfittube to be the premier video based educational resource for everything fitness related.  We’ve got some really great people involved who are willing to teach their concept and move the field forward.  You can also stop by Holy Cross to visit, watch our athletes train and talk some shop with Jeff Oliver and myself.  Feel free to email me at [email protected] to let me know when you’re going to stop by.