No Rules, No Restrictions, No Limits.

June 10th will 3rd Installment of the Davis Speed Center Summer Strongman contest and this year we are adding a twist.  Buffalo Wild Wings in Crystal Lake, one of our top sponsors, will be hosting the out door event.  This is an individual strongman event with Men and Women’s, high school and open divisions.  Divisions  will be divided up by weight classes.  This year we are adding a team element to the show.  In addition to awards being given to the top three finishers in each weight class and winners of each individual event, we are adding some team awards as well.  Based on your finish in your individual weight class you will earn point to go toward the high school you represent (or Open Team).  In the end the school who accumulates the most points will also be eligible for awards.

Details and Registration are finished and will be up and online as soon as possible.  Events will include:

Deadlift Medley:  Three elements (Frame, Barbell, Axle Bar) will each be deadlifted from the ground 3 times for a total of 9 reps for time.

Circus DB Clean and Press:  a 3inch Circus dumbbell will be two-hand cleaned from the ground and then press with one hand for as many reps as possible for 1 minute.

Medley:  A Tire Will be flipped end over end, followed by a sled dragged in reverse, and finished with a keg carry

Frame Carry:  a Giant Frame will be carried a specified distance for time

Truck/Ambulance Pull:  A Truck will be pulled Arm over a arm a specified distance for time.

There will be a $25 dollar entry fee and complete details will be up soon.  If you wish to compete or have any questions feel free to email me at qzambon@msn.com.  Men’s weight classes like to be:  145, 165, 185, 215, HW.  Women’s weight classes to be determined based on entries.  Weight classes are subject to chance.  We have some awesome awards and sponsors lined up so be sure not to miss this one.  More to come on this event soon.

Also please keep in mind.  To be fair we can only guarantee competition t shirts for those who are registered and paid by June 1st.   So get your entries in or feel free to reserve a spot now and when the entry form is finished I will get you registered and ready to go.  Thank you.

More Athletes making the news in recent weeks:

Several SMA Athletes competing in State Finals this weekend (Sami Staples, Sarah Ryan, Lexi Dahl, Kathy Wollney, etc.)

http://mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/05/19/r_sznbvnfrsrolnqxg2nysmw/index.xml

Was fortunate to work with Maddie over the last two years:

http://mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/05/17/r_5uz58biotym0lbyl3vw5dg/index.xml

Few SMA Athletes getting shout outs in Crystal Lake Souths Baseball Article:

http://mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/05/15/r_mmnqyzbdsy2xppy6s7fvcg/index.xml

Congrats to Kathy Wollney for choosing Miami of Ohio:

http://mchenrycountysports.com/columnists/columns/2012/05/15/r_qvar74drnmhw0hgcms0ta/index.xml

I have touched on the benefits of changing your workout routine and keeping things fresh.  I have answered a unheard of amount of questions pertaining to the equipment new athletes see at our gym and wonder why other gyms don’t have the same kind of stuff.  I want to really touch on the benefits of unconventional training and odd object training in this post. 

This post was fired up when I was showing a couple new athletes the dreaded hanging dumbbell chain bench press.  One of them asked me, “Do you just think of this stuff as you go?”  I started to say no, and then my brain started churning and I said, “well sometimes”.  Not in the case of the exercise we were doing, but there are an infinite number or training tools and there is no way you can fit them all in one gym.  So you need to get creative.  Many of you may have witnessed my night long project of the banded dip resistance, or even last night with my “human Crucifix hold” (Successfull and perfected I must say, video coming soon).  What is the point of all this? and more importantly, what is the benefit of all this?  Well there are quite a few so lets get into them:

1.  Lots of my workouts for athletes involve “odd objects”.  I enjoy odd objects because they are likely not going to have a center of gravity, and force you to use more stabilization and will improve your coordination.

2.  Building off point number 1, this stabilization is going to force you to dig in and stay firm, which will improve your core strength.

3.  Standard weight training usually involves one plane of motion.  Slamming, Throwing, Flipping, pulling, and even grabbing are going to train several plains of motion.

4.  Odd objects get rid of the “how much can you ____” aspect that I can’t stand at the gym.  An athlete who can curl more weight than another means absolutely nothing when it comes to transferring strength and skill to a playing field. 

5.  This again ties into #4.  Lets compare to a squat.  Lets say you can Squat 225 for 10 reps.  How do you make it harder?  Easy, add couple more lbs of plates.  Now lets say you are training with a 115 stone and loading it on to a box.  You can’t just add a few pounds to a stone, so you need to bring other aspects into it.  These can be time, distance, sets, reps, etc.

6.  Studies have shown that young athletes respond better to odd object training than they do to standard weight training.

In addition to these points most of these tools are free and fun to work with. 

When I am training for a contest, event training begins to take up the majority of my training sessions.  This can not only get boring but these days are usually very heavy days and you can’t lift heavy everyday.  When my workouts need to be toned down a bit, and I need to keep my head right, my non event days are dominated by odd training tools that are challenging and effective but not overly massive loads.  This will allow my body to be able to adapt and recover to the intense training.  I am attaching a video below of some of the things I added in to my training during my prep for the last contest.

The video contains some Stone Presses, Inverted Kettle Bell Presses, Single Arm Keg Presses, Heavy Single Arm Keg Presses (in addition to heavy these are unstable, and almost impossible), Sledge Decelerations, and careful Sledge Levering (Don’t try this one at home).  It is easy to see how much stabilization, grip, and multiple muscles are used in these movements.  These objects provide a challenge, change, and will increase the benefits to your training, so start using them,  and reap the benefits.

Odd and Unconvential Training

I talked to college students interested in getting in the industry of athletics all the time.  Being interested in training athletes, house wives, or becoming College Football Strength Specialists.  Typically they ask me how I got started and how to make your business work or build your clientele.  Not a comfortable question for me to answer because I do have a template nor did I have one to follow when I got started.  I also didn’t take the path that many do, I kind of did things my own way. 

The best advice I can give you is this:  follow what you are passionate about.  If you want to train the obese population and teach them a healthy life style then by all means do it.  If you want to train athletes to get them to the next level, then put your focus there.  While you will learn lots of information from your text books, or certification manuals, your real knowledge will come from what you learn from other top trainers in the industry.  I was lucky enough to hook up with Dave Davis and take from him knowledge every time I watch him train.  I was fortunate enough to meet Joe Hashey at the old gym and befriend him, one of the best strength coaches in the nation.  Everyday I try to learn or read something new, focusing on those who results speak for themselves.  From the Diesel Crew to Elliott Hulse, these are innovative individuals who are the best because they work to be the best.

Do I do the same thing as these individuals?  No.  Am I influenced by them, of course.  I have developed my own strengh and conditioning program, and while ever changing and improving, the results speak for themselves.  The product is not finished and never will be.  The best part of this industry is there is always more to learn, always ways to improve and always ways to come up with your own inventive ways to improve on training.

I am proud of what I have accomplished, and my athletes results speak for themselves.  While it is the athletes who deserve most of the credit, I am happy to be a part of their accomplishments and watching them succeed.  My philosophy goes something like this, “Treat everyone as if they were what they should be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming”.  I put in countless extra hours and go the extra mile every time I can  . I don’t do this for the extra money, because there is no money in going the extra mile, the reward is far greater.  I will give you two recent examples:

This was a string of text messages I recieved from 7th Grade track athlete Mackenzie Thompson:

“Quint! Thanks so much for helping me, it helped so much!  I just finished with my meet and had one earlier this weekend my time is dropping every meet!!!!!  Thanks Again:)”, “By the way I am winning and got moved up to 8th Grade Team ”, “Thanks so Much!! I appreciate it! Wouldn’t be as successful without you.  Thanks for Everything.”

This was a quick conversation with Nick Severino, a senior at south who baseball career has been desimated with injuries, but has bounced back this year and will be attending Benedictine in the fall.

Nick:  “Sorry I haven’t been here in a while, it is tough to get in during the season.”

Me:  “I have seen you in the paper, you starting in the outfield I am guessing.  How you hitting?”

Nick:  “Really good hit two bombs yesterday and had four hits the previous game.”

Me:  “You always had power”

Nick: “Yes but not like this.  Ever since I started with Davis I am dropping bombs.”

That is the real reward of this job.  No matter how much you know or how much you have learned if the end result is not there, then what your doing is wrong.   

I want to make this abundantly clear to all of you.  I welcome when athletes and parents alike question my methods, as if you are not questioning what is being done, then how will you know you are in the right hands?  When you choose to work with a professional make sure what they are telling you is true.  If they advertise certifications, ask to see them.  If they advertise awards and accomplishments, make sure they are true.  If they have developed their own workout programs make sure they are not stolen from others. 

I have a first hand example of this, and one to get word out and err caution for those in the industry who are not qualified to do what they do.  A former employee of the Davis Speed Center had opened his own gym and was paying to run DSC programs from a satellite location.  After a few months of this individual posting videos of uncappable athletes running drills and strength training incorrectly we had to cut ties with them.  No matter how much free press we may have been getting, doing things right is far more important than getting clients by any means necessary.  This young man has resurfaced again stealing not only exercises learned from my programs but flat out stealing my programs names to piggy back on what I have accomplished and make people think his programs will yield the same result. 

 Using someone else’s exercises and trying to run other people’s training programs without the requisite background, knowledge, and experience in the underlying exercises and programs will likely result in running the program and exercises incorrectly – and it could risk the clients’ health, while wasting the clients’ time, money, and effort.

We are not the best because we watch the best, we are not the best because we steal from the best.  We are the best because we know what to do, when to do it, and care about all of those we train.  You can’t simply see something online, take it as your own, and think the results are going to happen. 

While this immitation may be a form of flattery when things are not being done right (and they are not), the risk is not worth the reward.  Be wary of these individuals as someone in the field who is afraid of thinking of their own and questioning everything others do is likely not going to yield any more results than any other run of the mill athletic trainer.

Ask around and continue to research your own trainer, and find out if what your trainer claims about his experience, his credentials, and his former or current clients is actually true. You could discover that the credentials are not as advertised, and the “former” clients just happened to train with at gym where he was employed, even though he never personally trained those individuals.

More Athletes in the news, yes I know these are a couple weeks old, I just forgot to post them earlier.

 DSC Dominated the Sectional track meet over the weekend. 

Sami Staples and Jess Ayers a few DSC Elite making Headlines

Headed to Missouri to make up for the contest I was supposed to do in Michigan a couple weeks back.  I am glad I made the trip.  I talked to the guy running the show a few times a head of schedule and was told that at 190 lbs I would be “small for the 200′s” (as I don’t cut weight to weight in the day before), but that my weight class was stacked with State Champs, National Qualifiers, and a National Record Holder.  I told him not to worry, not only am I light, I am short, and older than most of them. 

This contest did have more talent than I have ever seen at one show, and throw that into 90 degree heat for 5 hours,it was a grueling day.  The day of the contest I was the lightest in my weight class giving up 20+ pounds to a couple guys but still weighed in at my all time high of 192.6. 

I finished third but stayed within striking distance of the crown all day.  Weights were heavy as we did the same event weights as the 231 lb weight class.  A Quick Recap and video are posted below:

Event 1:  230 lbs per hand farmer walk for 60 ft, then a 600 lb tire for 60 ft.

This was the hardest event of the day.  In fact they changed the time limit that morning from 60 seconds to 90, and it was needed.  I was the first to go for my weight class as they did order by weight (seriously, that was a first).  I finished with a time of 72 seconds, which I was happy with.  I also realized that my conditioning is really bad, and it cost me this event.  I finished third in the event.

Event 2:  600 lb Yolk Walk for 80 ft.

This was the most weight for a yolk I have ever done in a contest, and it was also the longest yolk walk of any weight I have ever done in contest.  My goal was not to have a drop, which I accomplished.  Legs got tired at the end, as for this event the order was done by height (again seriously, I couldn’t catch a break).  Again very happy with my time, but it wasn’t fast enough a second third place in a row.  The size of the yolk was much wider than the one I train on, as you see in the pic above I push out on the yolk to help with stabilization, and it was almost impossible with my short arms.  So this has taught me that I need to learn a new yolk form in case this happens again.

Event 3:  220 Axle Bar Clean and Press

This event saw a lot of O’s.  I had a small advantage having access to an axle bar at the gym.  The plus side was my axle was thicker than the contest axle, the minus side was the axle bar at the contest is made to be as slick as possible, so grip is even harder.  I finished with 5 reps, which I thought would be good enough to win, but ended up tied for 2nd, winner getting 7.

Event 4:  Keg Carry and Sled Draf

I thought this event would be easy, I was wrong.  I was probably the fastest with the kegs, but poor conditioning again hurt me.  The sled drag was much harder than I expected and it killed my time giving me a third place finish.

Event 5:  Truck Pull

I ended the day with a victory in the Truck Pull.  The truck was light and there was no incline so this was less about strength and more about who had the fastest hands.  Being light with short arms finally gave me an advantage as I got one more good pull in the beginning that the rest before the cars momentum took over. 

Over all this was my favorite event to date and I made no mistakes so I have no excuses.  I was very happy with my performance, probably my last as a 200lb competitor (more on this later in the week).  This was a well run event, and for the first time I can say I have no complaints on the judging.  With the talent that was there, they obviously brought out the best judges.  I hope to return to a contest at this location.  Video is posted below:

St. Peters Strongman 5/5/12

In order to coordinate with Dave’s morning summer hours, I will be running morning classes at 9:00 and 10:00 A.M.  Monday Through Friday, starting June 6th.  Adult Fitness Classes as well as college elite hours will be posted soon.  As I am awaiting feedback to see what everyone wants to do.  Saturday hours will likely remain the same.  I ask that if anyone has any suggestions for times of any or all classes please send me an email.  I plan to have my schedule finalized by the end of the week.  None of this is set in stone yet, but this is looking to be the most likely schedule.

I will remain the same at4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 Monday-Friday for the summer. 

Please see below for a few more DSC Athletes making the news (actually 2 kids we are hearing a lot of lately).  Two of which sharing athlete of the week honors. 

Zack Geib continues to stay hot for CLS hurlers.

http://www.mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/04/25/r_f8vyuja3rps9k4ojb31qwg/index.xml

Sarah Ryan and former SMA Athlete Kathy Wollney share in Athlete of the week honors.

http://www.mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/04/24/r_memrdzgls1ufjc8xr9fw/index.xml

Lets start with the big news.  It doesn’t seem to matter if it is a sprint or a long distance event in the county track meet, the odds are a DSC Athlete is going to come out on top.  Sarah Ryan goes 4 for 4 in her sprints and  relays and Sami Staples wins the 1 and 2 mile runs. 

Past, and I assume returnng, DSC athletes were also quite successful.  Katie Adams finished second to Sami Staples in 1 mile and Kathy Wollney was also part of 4 wins for Cary Grove. 

The Article is listed below:

http://www.mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/04/21/r_awb0goq0rxeu8_4yusoyvg/index.xml

Some non listed accomplishments include Freshman Holly Dowell setting a school record in the triple jump.  Crystal Lake South Senior, Haley Smith, looks to be college and track bound for North Carolina Wilmington.  Cary Grove Senior Sarah Ryan will be running for Wisconsin Whitewater.  Looking forward to other success stories from our 2012 senior class.

So with the weekend freed up at the last minute, I made sure I made most of it.  I finally got kegs loaded and ready to go ranging from 30 to 225 lbs.  Field Stones are moved in and ready to be loaded.  Weights of 100 lbs and up (maybe by tomorrow I will have a few lighter ones).  I didn’t want to just work so I figured I may as well train while I was home.  I was hoping to get some training partners in with me and managed a few good ones.  (interested parties may even see a preview of a new coed fitness event).  Some highlights are posted below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vnyQz54qqY

I want to give a special thank you to Sami Staples and Taylor Wenzel for coming in and helping me with some busy work.

I am looking forward to a great week of training starting tomorrow.

Dunlap Throws no no:

http://www.mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/04/05/r_e0hwvedirdkdedw6biikka/index.xml

Powerbar Team Elite Triathlete Jaime Dix (Pictured Above)  came to me about strength training a few months ago and apparently it has been a good combination.  She won her first race of the year over the weekend making us undefeated as a combo.  Winning the female division of the Fox Island Triathlon in Fort Wayne Indiana.  Jaime was a good friend of mine and fellow IPFW soccer alum going back, well seems like ages now.  It is nice to see someone else from my class is continuing to kick ass on a national level.

Due to an Error (possibly even on my part) Travis Piotrowski National title artice was unopenable to some.  So here is a PDF version telling this impressive showing and National Title for this young man with a very bright future.

I am off to Michigan for my first NAS contest of the year this weekend so remember if you are a Friday morning person Chris is running the show, if you are in on Friday evening than look for Dave Davis.  They will be covering for me.

I want to wish all of DSC athletes who are running, jumping, vaulting, etc.  in the County meet this weekend.  I am sorry I am going to miss it, and although I am sure I am missing a few I want to tell Lexi Dahl, Sarah Ryan, Jessica Ayers, Holly Dowell, Chase Shepley, Nikki Dahl, and Sami Staples to go dominate again for DSC.

Fun post today.  I get a lot of questions about why I only include core in my lower body workouts.  Well a few reasons I guess:  1.  Most of my core workouts involve the lower body as well (renegade get ups, turkish get ups, Windmills, etc), 2.  They simply fit better with lower body workouts, 3.  Many lower body movements are very core oriented even though you may not think of them that way (deadlifts, suitcase carries, suitcase deadlifts, etc.) so I don’t like to fatigue the core on the day before a lower body workout  4.  Because that is the way my program is designed and it has been that way for a long, long time.

This is not to say there are not plenty of core movements that involve the upper body (plank push ups, Halo side bends, Barbell Bench Sit Ups, etc.) and train the upper body and core simultaneously.  So I wanted to include a couple of advanced and difficult movements for you to try (or even for your viewing pleasure).  You don’t see these often in class because our track space is often limited but next time you come in on Saturday or Sunday, or when there may be some downtime on the track make sure you request these two:

1 Arm Rope Battle

Single Arm Plank Sled Rows

Travis has been with me on and off for the last few years and few have shown his heart and relentless attention to detail.  I can only assume that has helped him on the mat as well.  I am sure Prairie Ridge can’t wait to have him on the mat for them next year.  Congratulations on his first national championship (yes I used the word first on purpose):

http://www.nwherald.com/2012/04/08/piotrowski-pins-down-national-title/ag6l3kp/

Most of my classes are 1 hour long, this has always been the case.  Unless I specifically tell a client we are going be here for a prolonged period of time, or we are doing some intense conditioning then I am 100% confident that I did not and will not forget how long my classes are going to run.  I am running to into a problem with certain clients and it is something I want to clear up   (once again).  This is not limited to my newer clients, which would be the assumption, but even some of my veterans are falling back into bad habits. Not to stereotype but 90% of these issues are with male clients.  Sometimes for the reason pictured above (too much rest), but more often than not it is not enough rest that is killing your workouts. When you come to the gym and your workout may only show, what you feel, is not a sufficient amount of exercises. 99 times out of 100 this is not a mistake.  If you want to verify this with me, I often hear “This is all I have?”, I am fine with that. However, as I stated above I know exactly how much time I have you for, and believe me when I say I am going to utilize every second of that time to maximize output.

What I want to talk about here are these things called “rest periods” that I tiscuss  to each of you about almost daily.  While I stress the importance of rest, apparently I am not being serious enough.  When you see a workout with only a few things on it, there is a good chance we are we going heavy or what I call a “max effort day”.  This means we are pushing or pulling serious weight at low repetitions and we need to take a whole bunch of rest.  While this is a topic I have covered before (Quality vs. Quantity), I need to brush up on this.

I have your goals and best interests in mind.  Put your trust in me, and I will make you stronger.  This way next time I ask you how you did 8 sets working up to your three rep max in 11 minutes, (which is impossible) with 3 minutes of rest in between each set, I won’t have to answer you when you ask me why your workout only lasted 34 minutes.  So instead of getting into quality vs. quantity I am just going to cover recommended rest periods for each day’s goal:

Max Effort Lifts:  These are lifts that put a huge strain on your body as you are trying to push or pull as much weight as possible.  Recommended rest:  3-4 Minutes.  (Note: Recent studies show that resting 5 minutes may be too much, as test subjects resting 5 minutes are not making gains as fast as test subjects resting 3-4 minutes).

Repetition Effort:  These lifts use below maximum weight and are done nearly to failure.  While these are included in every strength program, these lifts are used primarily for muscle growth.  Recommended Rest:  45 to 90 seconds.

What about explosive movements like hang cleans, Snatches, Etc.?:  I have to cover this topic.  Use your head and the guidelines above for these movements as well.  If you are doing heavy hang cleans and working to a 1-3 Rep Max then your recommended rest 3-4 minutes.  If you are doing sets of 5 at sub maximal level than  a recommended rest of 1-2 minutes is sufficient.

What about hang cleans, other dynamic, explosive, and/or olympic movements for high repetitions of 8 to 20+?  In this case you should walk into your basement, find a tack hammer and hit yourself in the head with it.  Explosive movements like hang cleans at high repetitions make less sense to me than putting an elevator in an outhouse.  This is a topic for another article, however If you are doing these movements at high repetitions then you are either in a crossfit class, have a trainer who is not worth anything, or in the hospital because you just hurt yourself doing these movements at high repetitions.  The third outcome above is inevitably the result that will happen and even if it doesn’t you want to add power and explosion with these movements and as much as said power as possible.  This doesn’t occur with high repetitions, but again more on this at a future date.