THINKING MAN’S APPROACH TO LIFTING

A lot of athletes spend too much time working in rep zones not in accordance with their goals. An old school 12/10/8/6/4/2 without knowledge of what you want to accomplish is a waste. Say you are in a strength phase of your lifting. Let’s say you use the 12 and fail at it. Fail with the last rep of 10. Fail with the last rep of 8. Fail with the last rep of 6. You get to your set of 4 and it feels like it weighs 50 more pounds than usual. Do you think your strength will improve using this system? Absolutely not. Try flipping it around and working from the bottom up 2/4/6/8/10/12. AFTER A SMART WARM UP. Also the heavy sets will have a carry over to the higher rep sets making them feel “lighter” You also trained the zone you were interested in and not the wrong fiber types.

Let’s say you want to get stronger in the Squat and you want to get 300×5. A smart warm up looks like 45×12, 135X8, 185×5, 225X3 275X1-2, 300×5. Don’t waste your gas on 5 rep sets with 225 and 275. 275 is a “neural primer” that makes the bar not feel like a truck on your shoulders when 300 arrives. That is the only purpose. Doubt inhibits contraction and you eliminate the “holy shit this is heavy” when you un rack the 300.

Your body will adapt specifically to the demands you place on it. Train smart.

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My workday via Chat GPT

This is just too funny. I had to ask Chat GPT this question as Bill Walton is on another planet and one of the most entertaining humans to listen to for a variety of reasons.

If Bill Walton and Dave Pasch were commentating on Ed Wietholder’s workday as a business owner and sports performance coach, it might sound something like this:

Dave Pasch: “Welcome back, folks! Today we’re focusing on Ed Wietholder, a business owner and sports performance coach. This guy wears many hats, Bill.”

Bill Walton: “That’s right, Dave. Ed’s juggling a lot of responsibilities, but he’s up to the task. He’s got the heart of a champion.”

Dave Pasch: “We can see that already, Bill. He’s starting his day off with some meetings with his business partners, discussing the growth and development of their company.”

Bill Walton: “It takes a team to succeed in business, Dave. And Ed’s team is looking strong.”

Dave Pasch: “But he’s not just a businessman. He’s also a sports performance coach. And it looks like he’s got some training sessions lined up for his clients today.”

Bill Walton: “Ed’s passion for sports is evident, Dave. He’s dedicated to helping his clients achieve their goals and reach their full potential.”

Dave Pasch: “And it looks like he’s not just coaching individuals, he’s also leading a team training session. This guy never stops!”

Bill Walton: “That’s the mark of a true leader, Dave. Ed’s got the energy and drive to keep pushing forward, no matter what challenges come his way.”

Dave Pasch: “And it looks like his day isn’t even close to being over. He’s got more meetings and appointments scheduled, and he’s still got to work on his own training.”

Bill Walton: “This guy is a machine, Dave. He’s like a well-oiled engine, firing on all cylinders.”

Dave Pasch: “And that’s the end of the day, folks! Ed Wietholder, business owner, and sports performance coach extraordinaire. What a performance, Bill!”

Bill Walton: “Absolutely, Dave. Ed’s work ethic and dedication are truly inspiring. He’s a shining example of what it takes to be successful in both business and sports.”

The Right Amount of Training….How much is too much?

Some overtrained athletes wear it like a badge of honor. “Ya I was in the gym for 4 hours today” as they leave with ice on their knees, shoulder and neck.

They could have accomplished more with a 1 hour session and even better recovered from it. Recovery is the limiting factor. Max out your sleep, diet, water intake, mindset and let nature take it’s course.

The right amount of training is the most you can do in a sensible training cycle that you recover 100% fully from. Otherwise what you have is a terrible waste of time where you regress instead of progress. Almost better off doing NOTHING.

A lot of athletes try to follow the latest and greatest that they see online or on media. Problem is some of these authors are let’s say…. chemically enhanced and can recover with the best of them. Some athletes jump on their routine and make great gains. Others gain for a bit then plateau quickly since they can’t recover. Others get instant tendinitis or other problems because they are doing 5 times as much work as their genetics will tolerate. There really truly is no one right way to train for a specific goal. Some generalities exist with rep ranges and rest periods and such like sets of 15-25 will certainly get you more enduring but nor truly stronger.

Does speed and sprint work factor as one of your “leg days” ? If it doesn’t it should. Watch your gains increase.

The simplest most overlooked way to get stronger for most athletes is simple linear periodization. I know many athletes who spend 8 months in the weight room and then tell me they did not get any stronger. Start keeping records now. Work harder, not longer. Try overtraining every 3rd or 4th week of a 4-5 week strength cycle, then backing off the following week. Keep your total work volume low, intensity of effort high, eat well, sleep much and gain. You need to be concerned with when and how much weight you add to the bar, not how long you are in the weight room.

Mental Approach

I want to refer you to an article on a topic that says it all. I used to write for a magazine called Hardgainer that Brooks Kubik was an author for. I have learned much through the years from Mr. Kubik’s knowledge. It is more about how he delivers it.

The World’s A Mighty Big Place by Brooks Kubik

The world’s a mighty big place.

There’s an awful lot of people living in the world.

In a place that big, with that many people, sometimes it seems like it doesn’t matter if you slack off a bit in your training. After all, there’s plenty of other days to train, and it won’t matter if you take it easy for once. Heck, it won’t matter if you even miss a day. You can always come in and do it tomorrow.

When you’re running sprints, you don’t always have to go full bore. You can slow down a step. The coach will never even know. And slowing down just a little tiny bit makes it hurt a whole lot less.

When you’re lifting weights, you don’t always have to go for that extra rep, or try to put more weight on the bar. Just make it look good. Throw in an extra grunt or two, and put on one of those big pain faces like the guys in the muscle mags when they do their photo shoots. The coach will never know.

You really don’t have to get up and go running before the sun is out. It’s okay to sleep in. No one will ever know.

You don’t have to do 200 pushups a day like you decided to do last week. You can do 50. Or you can skip ‘em today. No one will know.

You don’t have to watch your diet the way your Coach wants you to do. Going out with your buds for a double-dish pizza with everything on it is fine. Wash it down with a couple of cokes, and then go grab a burger and fries from Burger Heaven. You can always get back on your diet tomorrow. No one will ever be the wiser.

In fact, if you’ve got talent, skill and a little bit of speed, you can probably sleepwalk your way through 90 percent of the conditioning stuff that the Coach keeps talking about. Maybe it’s all for the second-stringers. The guys who don’t have God-given talent that you have. The guys who need to do grass drills because they have slow feet. The guys who need to do pushups because they aren’t very strong. The guys who need to watch what they eat because they don’t have a good metabolism.

You can think like that, and you can act like that, and no one will ever know. After all, the world’s a mighty big place. The Coach can’t be everywhere.

But if that’s how you approach things, think about this.

Somewhere, at another school, in another town, there’s a kid who’s your age and your size, and he plays the sport you do, and he’s got every bit of God-given talent that you have. In fact, we could put the two of you side by side right now, and you’d match up exactly equal.

But here’s something you need to know.

That very same kid is out there running full-bore sprints every single day. He runs them as hard as he can.

He never misses a weight lifting session, and when he lifts, he always goes for that extra rep. Some times he goes for two or even three extra reps. And he always tries to add weight to the bar.

He gets up every morning, rolls out of bed, throws on his sweats, and goes for a long run. He gets home about the time the sun is starting to climb over the horizon.

The Coach wanted him to do 200 pushups every day. He does 300.

He works as hard on his diet as he does on his training. He never eats anything unless it is going to give him energy to train, protein to grow, or vitamins and minerals to build his body. He doesn’t touch junk food or sweets. He can’t remember the last time he had pizza, French fries, a cookie or a candy bar.

Yes, the world’s a mighty big place.

But it becomes a mighty small place when there are two men running right at each other at top speed on an open field, one running for the winning touchdown and the other man the last defender blocking his path to the goal.

I’m older than you, and I’ve seen it happen over and over, and I know for a fact that this is going to happen.

It’s going to happen to you.

It’s all going to come down to you and him. Just the two of you. Right there in the middle of the field, in front of three thousand screaming fans.

You’re going to hit right there in the middle of the field, full force, one on one, with everything on the line. The whole season. It’s all gonna come down to this split second in time.

And that great big world out there shrinks right down to something small and tiny when two men hit try to occupy the same square foot of turf.

This will happen. I know it, your Coach knows it, and you know it.

So does the kid in the other school in the other town.

You will meet, you will hit, and one of you will knock the other one flat on his back right in front of the entire world.

Right now, I don’t know which of you is gonna end up making the play of the year, and which of you is gonna end up roiling in the dirt with tears in his eyes, crying like a baby because he missed the chance of a lifetime.

No one knows.

We don’t know, because we don’t know which of the two of you is gonna train harder.

It might be him. It might be you.

But it’s your decision…

-Brooks Kubik

Interest vs. Dedication

There is a large difference between the notion of interest and dedication. Interest occurs when you look into something and get really excited about it. You might say, “I want to lose fat or gain some muscle.” “I want 20 more pounds on my Squat or Bench Press.” Dedication results when the actions are carried out that are required to achieve these goals no matter what.

I can remember having a workout scheduled with my middle school aged son at the basketball courts and he got an offer from his friends to go the high school football game instead. I asked him if he wanted to be a guy in the stands or a guy on the court or arena? He happily chose work. We could actually hear the game being announced from the courts we were at. Asked him if he ever wanted to hear his name mentioned? Dedication. Nothing happens while you are just watching.

Interest is the feeling you have when you start an exercise program and really believe that it is going to work. You sit down, organize a plan, and decide that you are going to start on Monday. Monday rolls around and you get an offer from friends to go to a movie and you opt for that rather than the training session. Dedication is turning down the offer, getting your butt to the gym or field, and getting your time in. Dedication causes you to take a rain check on the movie.

Interest is learning about how to increase your speed, wanting to increase it, and getting set to do so. Interest is also not doing the session because you are tired from some activity earlier in the day and thinking that this extra activity is enough work for your legs in a day. Dedication is getting your session in no matter what. Dedication has you taking pride in the fact that you are the one getting the extra edge.

Interest has you 4 weeks into a training program, getting frustrated, and quitting. Dedication has you sticking it out until 6-8 weeks when you can expect to see some results.

Interest has you stuffing food into your mouth at 10 P.M. and telling yourself that you can burn it off tomorrow. Dedication has you drinking water at 10 P.M. and burning fat the following day, rather than the snack.

Interest has you going to bed at 2 A.M. rather than 11 P.M. when you know you have a heavy leg workout in the morning. You rationalize coffee will take care of it. Dedication has you hitting the sack at 11 P.M. and having a great workout in the morning, rather than just taking care of it.

Whether you are dedicated or interested lies entirely in your mind. You are in the driver’s seat.

A few Dad stories

My Father was a man of concise statements. He told you like it was and pulled no punches regardless of who it was he was talking to.

Dad Story #1: Many years ago, I failed to make the basketball team. I came home bitching up a storm about coaches favorites and how I was robbed. He basically told me he felt my pain and said to get my ass outside and practice so it does not happen again. Never blamed players, coaches or parents. Take matters into YOUR OWN HANDS. By the time 8th grade rolled around, I was a team captain.

Dad Story #2: Many years later I went on to describe a training routine to my father that consisted of super duper this and that and a special rep scheme that I felt allowed for my amazing progress at the time. I described my eating and rest between sets,etc.

So he said,”You think that you are  recruiting better from your chest and shoulders and this is driving it up better for you?”.

“Absolutely”, I said. 

“Your triceps are no longer your weak link I bet as well”,he said.

“Absolutely!”, I said

“So you are making your best lift because of all these things?”, he asked questioningly.

“No doubt!”‘, I said.

“Wrong. You are making your lift because of this.”, he said as he tapped his head several times.

Well said Dad. Thanks again. Your wisdom lives on.

HONORING ED WIETHOLDER SR. 1944-2006

LIFTING SCHEMES AND GOALS

A lot of athletes spend too much time working in rep zones not in accordance with their goals. An old school 12/10/8/6/4/2 without knowledge of what you want to accomplish is a waste. Say you are in a strength phase of your lifting. Let’s say you use the 12 and fail at it. Fail with the last rep of 10. Fail with the last rep of 8. Fail with the last rep of 6. You get to your set of 4 and it feels like it weighs 50 more pounds than usual. Do you think your strength will improve using this system? Absolutely not. Try flipping it around and working from the bottom up 2/4/6/8/10/12. AFTER A SMART WARM UP. Also the heavy sets will have a carry over to the higher rep sets making them feel “lighter” You also trained the zone you were interested in and not the wrong fiber types.

Let’s say you want to get stronger in the Squat and you want to get 300×5. A smart warm up looks like 45×12, 135X8, 185×5, 225X3 275X1-2, 300×5. Don’t waste your gas on 5 rep sets with 225 and 275. 275 is a “neural primer” that makes the bar not feel like a truck on your shoulders when 300 arrives. That is the only purpose. Doubt inhibits contraction and you eliminate the “holy shit this is heavy” when you un rack the 300.

Your body will adapt specifically to the demands you place on it. Train smart.

ODD OBJECT LIFTING in 2000

This is reprinted from the SFAS Newsletter March 2000. There is nothing like “strongman” lifting to cap power leaks. I’ve seen amazing lifters struggle to pick up furniture, move linemen in football, take hits in soccer, etc. Having your body work as a unit typically starting at the core builds what some call “farm strength” or old man strength. Did this lifting at Texas grove very early Sunday mornings in South Park. I still incorporate this lifting now. Here it is:

There is something about training in the great outdoors that sets it apart from training in a gym. Maybe it is the air or the sights of the fog slowly lifting off of the ground in the early morning. Or maybe it is the sun blasting through the trees. Or just maybe it is the exhilaration that one experiences from odd object lifting in the middle of nowhere. Something just plain primal about it.

First up is the sandbag carry. The sandbag is bear hugged and carried for 120 yards. Warm ups should start out with a very light bag, followed by progressively heavier weights. The work set should barely be able to be completed. Progression should be cut to a brick or 5 pounds of sand per week or so when it gets really tough. Next is the log on the shoulder walk. Spikes should be driven into this log in the future for the purpose of adding weight to it.

 The farmer’s walk with Olympic barbells is next with no collars. This is one of  best grip and wrist strength builders that exists. I have worked some turns into my course which calls for some coordination as well.

The stone flip is up next. My stone is actually a four foot cube of irregularly shaped concrete foundation which is flipped end over end until exhaustion sets in. Outstanding form must be maintained in this movement to avoid injury. The day is finished off with pushing a Jeep Cherokee up a slight grade. The quadricep and calf involvement is intense. The hormonal and metabolic stimulation from this type of training is phenomenal. All criteria for eliciting maximum GH and testosterone release are present. I believe this augments standard strength and conditioning type moves both in recovery and stimulation.

This type of training program represents a radical departure for most athletes in type of training as well as a reduction in volume. One thing that will be accomplished, however is the addition of new muscle, extreme core strengthening, and metabolic conditioning. An interesting thing to note about this type of training is that a feeling of euphoria is experienced at the end of a session, rather than fatigue. One is energized for the rest of the day and sleep is very good at night. Although I have seen it get a bad rap lately, if this type of training is done sensibly and with good form and slow progression, the results are outstanding. In addition to the dense, new muscle tissue, one feels a difference the next time they go to move an awkward item like a file cabinet or a couch or a nose tackle. The awkwardness does not hamper one’s lifting of these objects when this type of training is done. This is because the trunk and supportive muscles discussed earlier are much stronger than when just hit with free weights. If you are an athlete or a bodybuilder/weightlifter who hasn’t seen gains in a while or are looking for a change, give it a shot, you may like the results.

Remember to proceed with caution using this type of extreme training. Good Luck.

PAUSE THE REPS TO BECOME A BETTER ATHLETE

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’ve seen it before and I’ll see it again. I saw it when my sons played many years ago. Playing for 3 teams or going to endless open gyms will not make you a better athlete. Your skills will improve to a point but the bottom line will be how strong, powerful, quick and explosive you are. Best players will play. Period. Whether they attended 100% of open gyms or put in time with 4 travel teams best players will play. Period. Are you getting as strong, fast and powerful as you need to be? Or is endless mindless repetition getting in the way?

24th YEAR CELEBRATION/OPEN HOUSE AT STRENGTH, FITNESS AND SPEED, INC.

On Saturday, October 22nd from 1PM until 4PM there will be a chance for those not yet part of the SFAS family to check out the facility, observe some training, speak to our staff and get an opportunity to sign up for discounted functional assessments. All current and past SFAS family members are also welcome to attend!

• Meet Coach Ed and staff to get a perspective on 40 plus years of trends and what is effective in training. What looks “cool” may not do much for the athlete at all.
• Meet Physical Therapist Dr. Jake Wietholder and get his take on corrective exercise
• Meet the excellent staff and observe some client training and some interesting demos(schedule will post before the event)
• 1PM until 2PM SFAS Athlete training session
• 2PM until 3PM Coach Demonstrations including a pretty cool heavy 1 arm Barbell Snatch, Core work, Pegboard work, and a variety of other movements.
• There will be an opportunity to schedule a discounted functional assessment for attending
• Of course some snacks(healthy!) and….some not so much