There are three members today doing individual workouts with NFL teams this week. Two of them had good enough pro days to pick up agents and grab the attention of scouts on the spot. One is doing a workout at his home city for the team he has dreamed about since he was a kid. After running a 4.43 (hand time) on field turf he was able to move up his value a bit as a wide receiver by running again on a better surface. He has also been a valuable contributor to the board. Another athlete has come back from a major hamstring pull during a bowl game and is running faster than before. Good luck to all three of them.
Questions and Answers
With all the talk about Ol’s, I have a quick question. The most I power clean was 315 a couple years ago, this yr I added ol’s back into my program and was able to work up 275 in a couple weeks. The place I have been training at since Jan dont have bumper plates and the bars suck $%#, Im wondering would you keep the ol’s in the program? With the setup I have now I cant power clean over 225lb because of the s#$%#$ setup.
If you can’t clean don’t clean. Can you power snatch or hang snatch? The great thing is that with your power clean levels you may be able to power snatch your bodyweight if you have great technique and this acts as great supportive exercise and fits into your needs if the bar doesn’t cause issues with the wrist (lack of bar spin). If you can’t do heavy loads with the olympic lifts you can use them as other ways to scaffold for future use and get warm-up, mobility, and core work done. This way when or if you do have the options you are not rusty. Often times those that remove a tool find themselves needing that very tool as the environment may change to a complete 180 later. If you are using lighter loads start adding more plyos and jump squats with dumbbells if you can. Any change to the program on paper may look good, but tissue healthy below the knee is something nobody thinks about as often sprinters and jumpers have shin splints and other foot overuse injuries from the demands of training. Also, with straps be careful not to get hand cuffed to the weight as not being able to drop the weight requires you use light loads and let the bar drop with control. If you can’t do it with B+ technique don’t do the exercise at all for a training effect but for a skill maintaining effect. Some athletes should not do any olympic lifts, some should do light loads, some should do skill work for later or just as mobility work, and some should do them with a great emphasis.
This question also get’s into the change of success with many exercises done and experimenting what works for you. The more exercises you have the more likely you can choose what works with you and diversify your risks. Often those will place huge weight (pun intended) into one modality but it’s better to have an array of great lifts, jumps, throws, sprinting skill sets to run faster.
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