8 Weeks Out

Grip strength is a skill that many athletes simply miss the boat on, and yet it does not take a ton of time to develop.  Even though grip strength may not seem obviously applicable to certain sports, it is a surprisingly prevalent physical quality that can makes a huge difference in athletic performance in almost all areas.

In this video, we cover three simple methods for improving grip strength.  We’ll show you how easy it is to target your grip by making small adjustments to the exercises that you’re already doing…

1.) Use grip-force grippers, which can be incorporated into a variety of different exercises, including:

Tip: For an additional challenge, you can use grippers to hold the plates.  You’ll feel your forearms burning in no time!

2.) Use a pinch grip for static plate holds (30-90 sec) and deadlifts

3.) Do dowel exercises with a partner, including:

If you have already developed some grip strength, these exercises can be a great supplement to your warm-up.

If you are relatively new to increasing grip strength, these methods may best be applied at the end of your workout so that you’re grip isn’t fried for the duration of your training time.

These methods are simple, easy, and inexpensive, yet they can make a huge difference in sports performance

Stay tuned for more performance-enhancing tips…

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The Apollon Axle Clean and Press is one of the more common strongman lifts and while similar to the Olympic weightlifting style clean and jerk, the technique is unique. Although it’s conceptually simple, this lift requires great precision. The bar itself can be much more than just a handful! Zack McCarley and Patrick Castelli are here to help.

While the lift closely resembles the clean and jerk, the axle clean and press has a technique of its own.  We’ll start by breaking it down step-by-step:

1. Set up your stance by approaching the bar in a dynamic stance, similar to a traditional clean and jerk stance, or a footing you would use to jump from.

2. The starting position and posture will be very similar to you traditional clean pull position, however, a key difference is in hand placement.

Due to the thickness of the bar, and the fact that it is one solid, non-rotating, piece, you will grip the bar with an over/under grip, also known as a mixed or alternate grip.

3. The initial, or first pull, is the same standard clean pull off the ground, clearing the knees and then pulling your hips through, while making contact with the bar as you pull it up the superior portion of your thigh.

Now this is where it gets tricky…

4. When the bar is clearing the hips, release the bar with the “underhand” in mid air and re-grip it in a standard “double overhand” grip position.

This mid-air transition of your hand is key!

The efficiency of this method is highly dependent on this transition, so practice this motion until you’ve mastered the timing.

5. Following the transition of your hand placement, with a double overhand grip, think of rowing the bar into you and keep it tight to you body. The bar should be pulled tight to the top of your abdominals, just below your sternum.

Common mis-cue: traditional cleans require you sit your hips back to receiver the bar, similar to a front squat.

This is not the case following your mid-air grip transition and catch on your upper abdominals

Instead: a better cue is to keep your hips a bit more forward. Remember, you are trying to create a shelf in which to catch the bar, before getting it to your shoulders.

Specifically for smaller and leaner athletes, this may require you to lean back a bit with your hips out in front.

6. Once you’ve caught the bar here, do not waste time under tension with a loaded bar resting on your diaphram. Quickly give the bar an extra bump, similar to a small jerk to clean the bar the rest of the way up to your shoulders to your “rack position”.

This is where you would sit your hips back, more like a traditional clean catch to receive the bar.

7. From here, press the bar overhead as you see fit.

Remember, in strongman, the rep doesn’t count until your head is through and your feet are parallel.

When cleaning the bar up to your torso, speed is key. Some people will curl, or row the bar up to their first catch position before the transition. This is not only inefficient, but risky.

Tip: The speed of the clean pull and the mid-air transition is key.

Any time you are cleaning the bar, or rowing with a mixed grip, that under leaves you with an exposed bicep. This puts you at risk for a bicep tear, especially on a thick bar.

Pulling the bar slowly isn’t nearly as efficient or safe, but speed will go a long way.

When loading your bar in training or competition, do not clamp the collars on extremely tight.

Instead, leave a tiny bit of room between the plates and the collars, so long as the promoter allows it. This is a non-rotating bar, but if a bit of space is permitted, that might give you just enough rotation to get some extra reps or a new PR.

Next:

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The atlas stone is by far the most iconic and oldest of the strongman lifts and yet so many people get it totally wrong. Although simplistic in idea, this ancient lift is very technical and there’s a lot that needs to be done very precisely for it to be done safely and effectively.

Let’s start by breaking down the technique:

Tip: When loading the stone, make sure that your feet are neither too narrow nor too wide.

A stance that is too wide will not allow you to build up the speed needed to lift the stone high enough to load it on to a platform or over a bar.

A stance that is too narrow will make you unstable.

The perfect stance is generally a little more narrow than your jumping stance.

Next: We’ll be breaking down the proper form and setting straight the misconceptions surrounding the axel clean & press.

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The tire flip is by far one of the most commonly used Strongman lifts and yet so many people get it wrong. Even though the lift may seem simple, there’s a lot that needs to be done precisely in order for it to be done safely and effectively. Discover how to master the tire flip.

This is the beginning of a free, 3-part mini instructional series to provide the best, efficient, and safe techniques for strongman lifts. The use of strongman implements has drastically increased, unfortunately resulting in a lot of improper coaching and instruction being made public….

Most people assume that being one of the strongest men in the world means lifting all the time.  What they don’t know is how much technique is involved.

Today, we talk with National Strongman, Patrick Castelli, and America’s Strongest Man, Zack McCarley, to receive the best technical advice for mastering the tire flip.

There is a particularly large amount of misinformation regarding this Strongman lift.  Countless injuries could have been prevented with just simple adjustments in technique.

Goals:

1.)    Find the stance you feel comfortable in by getting ready to jump

Make sure you have solid contact of your chest and shoulders with the tire to drive it up. 

You should have your hands positioned at the center of the tire to flip it from a sumo stance.

Why this is wrong:  As you stand up, your chest and shoulders are not in contact with the tire.  This causes strain to be placed on your biceps.  It’s no surprise that the most common injury from the tire flip is a distal torn bicep. 

Next:

We are going to be coming out with a very in-depth, detailed instructional course on all the strongman events, and multiple variations of each, taught by the best in the world at each event.

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Ever wonder what some of the strongest men in the world do for their training? In this episode of8WeeksOut TV, we haves special guest Zack McCarley, a six-time national champion in sport of Strong Man and reigning America’s Strongest Man.

What does training look like for America’s Strongest Man?

Surprisingly, Zack McCarley doesn’t just train for Strong Man; he has competed in wrestling at the national collegiate level and in power lifting.

He’s been a relatively top level power lifter, but hasn’t invested a lot of time in that sport, and this year, after his wrestling season he’ll be doing some CrossFit competitions as well to see how he measures up.

Focusing on being an athlete more than just a Strong Man, power lifter, wrestler, Zack enjoys the whole aspect of being athletic and having a healthy lifestyle.

Transitioning between these different focuses of requires some finesse in his programming…

Going from Strong Man to the wrestling mat will clearly place a higher demand on aerobic conditioning with more training being done on the mat then in the gym.

There is some carry-over from sport to sport, with increases in strength and power on one side, and a much larger working capacity on the other.  However, Zack properly trains them both separately in the appropriate time.

Managing those energy systems is key, for example, although he most likely will be the strongest wrestler in his weight class, if not managed well, he could be left exhausted and gasping for air before the match has finished the first period.

Zack is known for being so fast and explosive in the world of strongman, so let’s take a look at what he does to train that skill…

Zack uses box jumps as a staple of his training. Having integrated them in and out of his training over the years, he does however use some less common variations than most people use:

Staying primarily within two variations, Zack demonstrates his version of box jumps from both the seated and standing position. His equipment is basic: for his set-up, Zack uses a bench in front of a relatively low platform which could be another bench or a low box.

The key to Zack’s box jump, whether seated or standing, is to not re-bend the knees and lift his legs toward his torso.

He will instead keep his legs fairly stiff and straight after triple extending for the take-off, and allow just enough flexion at the knee to land comfortably.

The idea is to get good at jumping higher by developing more power in the lower extremities, not to jump onto something higher simply because you become more efficient at tucking your legs up higher toward your chest to get onto a higher surface.

When doing his seated variation, Zack will rock back in his seated position on the bench to lift his feet. With his lower extremities still in a position of flexion, he’ll rock forward to contact the ground with his feet, and begin the jump.

Because Zack’s variation of the box jumps rely on keeping the legs extended and fairly stiff, he recommends using a box that you can clear with two or three inches of clearance.

The biggest reason why Zack uses this style of box jumps is when you start getting good at box jumps you start needing taller boxes… 

You find that you need a platform that’s 36 inches, and then a platform that’s 40 inches, and 45, then maybe 50 inches.

If you travel at all, you don’t always find things that are that tall to jump on (or at least that the gym owner will allow you to jump on). So convenience is an issue.

Another reason is simply safety: watching someone stack hundreds of pounds in bumper plates and then miss a jump is less than comforting. Generally, people don’t want to work out near someone that might knock a stack of plates over and injure themselves and/or others.

Zack will typically stick around sets of three to six reps, which is determined by when you stop generating as much power; you will to stop getting as much height in your jump.

If he finds it harder to get on top of the box, then he’ll just back off and use a lower box, or decrease the sets and reps.

In the Strong Man season,  Zack would use box jumps maybe twice a week, but in the wrestling season he likes to use them closer to four times a week.

Zack doesn’t necessarily hit the box jumps hard every time. Instead he emphasizes the importance of consistency in coming back and doing the same thing, and then eventually working to a higher and higher box, and increasing volume.

If you look back at the 8weeksout videos with Bondarchuck, he talked about the role of consistency in just doing the same exercises over and over again.  The box jump is an exercise you can do a lot more volume than with a  Death Jump or a more intense jumping exercise.

This is especially true if you are careful and step off the box instead of jumping back off, which will make the demands on your body much more taxing.

Zack is still recovering from an injury last March, but as he mentioned before, he is in the middle of his collegiate wrestling season right now, but will return to competing in strongman in mid-March when the season is over.

Zack is a BioForce Athlete, and we’re going to have more information about his programming, show how HRV is working over-time with his training, and make sure to keep you updated on his progress. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube by searching Zack McCarley, or Pro Strongman Zack McCarley.

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In this week’s episode of 8 Weeks Out University, Joel and Patrick cover how to develop national champion-caliber strength with HRV. Using Patrick’s training program that earned him the coveted national title, we’ll answer your questions on HRV training for strength.

On this episode of 8 Weeks Out University, we want to share how to use HRV to develop and improve your strength.

One of the questions we get asked a lot is: how do I use BioForce HRV training to improve my strength?

So we have Patrick Castelli here to talk about how we use BioForce HRV to really manage his program and help him win the National Championships.

We knew the competition was going to be extremely tough. The events were tricky, with two days of competition:

Day 1 events included:

Day 2 events involved:

Patrick had gone to Nationals last year with fairly serious damage to the common fibular nerve. This obviously held him back but in the long run, it seems to have worked out for Patrick.

This year, Patrick went into Nationals under the radar and took everybody by surprise…

Once we knew the events, we put together a program with massive training volume.

The closer we got to the competition, the more specific we wanted to make the training sessions.

Once we knew the events, we had every reason to train the events as specifically as possible.

The keys to what made the program so effective were:

The exercise split was simple, depending if the events were on day one or two.  Then we just had to push Patrick with as much volume as he could handle.

As we got closer to the competition, training mimicked the order of events.

Patrick would train day one events, and the next day he’d do day two events, a day of active recovery, and then day one events, day two events, and then a day of active recovery again going into the Saturday sessions.

If we were doing day one really heavy, then the following day two we would back off the volume and intensity.

This followed along with the principles of the High/Low Training system we’ve covered before.

The first way we used BioForce HRV was in managing overall volume.

So when we programmed a couple of two-a-days, if Patrick showed up with an amber BioForce HRV score, we cut the training sessions back to just one.

It was key to push the volume to the limits of recovery, and then back off just slightly to avoid overworking.

The simplest way to do this is to cut back the number of training sessions, especially when someone like Patrick has built up to 7-9 training sessions per week.

The first week of the program had about 5 training sessions per week. If Patrick had an amber BioForce reading, we would either taper off the volume, or taper off the volume and the intensity.

It’s simple, small adjustments that make BioForce HRV training so beneficial.

Based off of his HRV feedback, Patrick could move certain days of the week around as we needed to.

Just because you have days where you have a red reading doesn’t always mean that training day should be skipped.

We found ways to move the active recovery days around to best manage and recover from those red readings and still catch up on the work we were going to miss.

Sometimes, no matter how much you manage things, changes in outside circumstances like sleep, travel, or getting sick, cause you to require recover strategies.

We also used HRV to help manage that recovery by picking the most effective strategy for Patrick.

So if he was red or amber, we used different strategies.  We also didn’t want to use the same recovery strategies every time.

We did some work with electro-acupuncture when we wanted to help stimulate the parasympathetic recovery.

More generally, we just managed the use of specific recovery methods so we could get him back to the full training program as quickly as possible.

The results were fantastastic: Patrick came home with the overall win for the 175 pound weight class.

He earned his title as the new North American Strongman National Champion.

The previous year, Patrick placed somewhere between 14th and 18th…huge progress made in his performance.

Last year, Patrick wasn’t training as effectively as he could have been, and part of it happened with an unfortunate injury outside of training, and sometimes you just have to roll with that.

It also helped to be done with all his schooling at Western Washington University, where he was also a national wrestler in the 149 pound weight class.

Working and training here with Joel full time and using the BioForce HRV system were huge strides as well.

Competing against guys that were much bigger and incredibly strong athletes, Patrick scored higher overall by being consistent.

Never placing lower than 7th out of over 30 athletes in any one single event, it was his consistency that won him the National title.

Next up: the World Championships held at the Arnold Classic on February 28 through March 2.

For Patrick, the key will be being training at that threshold of volume. If we didn’t use HRV training, we would have to do a lot of guesswork.

Guesswork in training programs tend to result in either:

These same principles can be applied to any strength training program for any strength athlete, whether you are a strongman, powerlifter, weight lifter, or competing in the highland games.

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Lightweight Pro Strongman Zack McCarley is a six time national champion, three time reigning America’s Strongest Man under 231 pounds, and the newest BioForce Athlete! Find out how he uses BioForce HRV to keep him at the top of his sport.

Lightweight Pro Strongman Zack McCarley is a six time national champion, three time reigning America’s Strongest Man under 231 pounds, and the newest BioForce Athlete!

First becoming interested with lifting weights when he was about 13, due to the fact that it is universally measureable, Zack began a long road to dominance. It’s something that he feels you can see the progression as you get better.

Training for strongman has been his life for the last several years, but it can break you down. Even with all his experience, serious injuries can still occur. In March of 2013, he had suffered an injury to his lower back that almost ended his career. That injury could have been avoided if he had the tools and the knowledge he has today. He attributes this to taking a closer listen to what his body tells him.

Most people don’t realize over-training and under-resting are one in the same. People often become caught up in training hard all the time. When Zack trains five to six days a week, three of those days are light days, active recovery-style days. You have to know your body. You have to recover. You have to become the best you possible if you want to become a champion. And Zack’s done just that!

Excited to work with Bioforce, Zack had done his research on HRV and believes that this is the tool to really maximize your training based on what your body needs most. Even after ten years of training, Zack admits there are still days that he’s not 100 percent sure what his body needs, and Bioforce gives him the insight to what it needs most. As the most dominant Lightweight Pro Strongman, Zack McCarley and BioForce are sure to extend his reign, and excited for the future!

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Howie gets some one-on-one time with world-renowned MMA coach Matt Hume to pick his brain on how UFC Champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson was able to win his last title defense with the latest submission finish in UFC history!

Matt Hume knew that DJ would be able to get the kimura position again and again against his opponent John Moraga.

DJ had tied Georges St. Pierre’s record for the most completed takedowns in a UFC fight.  

However, Matt saw that DJ was committing a small technical error that was preventing him from finishing his fights with the kimura.

So he made an adjustment:

Matt was sure the arm bar submission would be available off the kimura attempt which Moraga had been defending well.

When Demetrious was getting to the kimura position, Moraga was defending by holding his own arm.

Moraga’s arm holding meant he could no longer defend DJ’s leg as the champ transitioned around his head and body for the armbar.

Moraga wouldn’t be able to defend the armbar in this position unless he lifted his own arm over his head, which would leave him open to the kimura again.

Moraga didn’t lift his arm, so Demetrious was able to sit back in a good position and attack with the armbar submission attempt.

With his experience, Moraga was smart to roll up on top of DJ and stack him. This is where most people would fail, as they get crushed underneath and cannot extend their hips to finish the submission, while the top man would pull his arm free.

Demetrious made a crucial adjustment to finish the submission:

That small scoot back kept Moraga’s head down and away so DJ could apply the pressure to the elbow to finish the submission.

DJ wasn’t able to finish the kimura in the earlier rounds because he was extending the arm away from the body while taking it behind Moraga’s back.

He would have been more successful if he had kept the arm close to his body and dropped his own elbow behind Moraga’s hips.

Pressuring Moraga’s the head with his leg and placing his elbow behind Moraga’s  hip would have made the kimura much tighter,  creating the finish DJ was looking for.

Matt will be back on 8WeeksOut TV demonstrating more fight breakdowns and finishes.

He has never release any instructional series out to the public before, but says that one is now in the works.

Breakdowns of the same techniques, methods, and attention to detail Matt has used to created world champions like Demetrious Johnson, Josh Barnett, Rich Franklin and many others will certainly be invaluable information.

Follow Matt’s special guest appearances on 8WeeksOut TV to hear more about his instructional series and perhaps a breakdown of Demetrious Johnson’s next title defense against Joseph Benavidez in UFC on FOX 9, December 14th, in Sacramento, California.

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Do you really know how to improve your bench press strength and performance in record time? In this video, we’ll demonstrate proper bench pressing technique to improve sport performance and cover how to incorporate it into a simple but effective training program that will deliver results. Improve your bench press strength now with these easy tips.

The bench press is arguably one of the most used exercises out there. Regardless of your goals, whether based more on performance or physique, it’s  likely that you’ve seen or programmed the bench press into your schedule.

Most people fall into two camps: you believe bench press is the greatest exercise in the world or you believe it’s one of the biggest wastes of time.

Personally, I think bench press probably falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

It’s a useful exercise and works a large number of muscles in the upper body. Bench press also has a movement pattern similar to many sports movements.

That being said, it’s not the only exercise with those benefits, and it certainly doesn’t need to be done every single day.

We will cover  proper technique and basic tips on how to bench press for athletic purposes.

If you followed us with Bondarchuck, this exercise would fall under general developmental for most sports. We want to make sure we are doing this exercise effectively and safely.

A proper set-up is hugely important because it puts you in the right position to improve bench press strength.

Powerlifters bench with a large arch to decrease the range of motion and give them the best leverages to press the most weight possible. For other sports we’ll use a fairly moderate arch.

We want to drive our hips and our feet into the ground with solid ground contact so that force is transferred all the way through the body and into the bar.

The bench press, when done correctly, really isn’t just an upper body exercise; it actually becomes more of a total body exercise…

It requires:strong glutes, hamstrings, calves, core, and even support from the back.

If you see someone benching and their legs look soft and their hips are not actively working throughout the movement, they’re doing it wrong. They should be driving their feet into the ground forcefully.

One of the most important elements of proper bench technique shoulder position.

With bodybuilding, the bench press is performed relatively high with elbows out and arms in an abducted position. For athletic purposes, we don’t want the arms and shoulder in that position because of the amount of stress it places on the shoulder.

Few athletic pressing movements are done with the arms abducted at shoulder height; the arms are typically closer to the body, around a 45 degree angle.

This positioning of the arms and shoulders also allows you to press the bar more straight up and down as opposed to back out over your head.

Key points to remember are: upper arm at 45 degrees, legs, hips, and core tight, controlled explosion.

When it comes to programming, I  like to have athletes bench twice a week using the high-low system we talked about in previous articles.

What do I mean by high and low days?

A high day would places higher demands on the central nervous system (CNS) and is done earlier in the week.

The athlete would perform 4-6 sets of 2-5 reps using fairly heavier weights.

A low day would be less taxing on the CNS and would be performed with lighter weights.  The second bench session of the week should be a low day.

The total volume of the low day should be close to 3-4 sets or 6-10 reps.

This training block structure should be used for up to six weeks at a time before transitioning to another block.

I don’t typically use bands with most fighters because of the stress it places on their shoulders, but I will apply chains to some of the more advanced lifters.

If bench press isn’t part of your main sport, like powerlifting, it is still a great tool to use for general CNS function (general preparatory development).

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With the launch of Mike Robertson’s new Bulletproof Athlete I wanted to have Mike tell everyone what it’s all about. Mike is one of a small handful of people online whose products are always high quality and worth the money. Check out the Bulletproof Athlete now…

Joel: This is Joel Jamieson from 8weeksout.com and today I’m joined by Howie Clark as always.

Howie: Hello.

Joel: There goes Howie, and today we have special guest Mike Robertson of Robertson Training Systems. How’s it going Mike?

Mike: Doing well Joel, thanks for having me guys.

Joel: Great to have you. Last time we saw you, you were out here in Seattle. Nice sunny weather, I think it was the time for the Seattle Sounders and I think Howie told you a couple of good jokes while you were out here, right?

Mike: Howie kept me entertained thoroughly the entire time he was around. So I would I’d go as far as to say he was the best part of my vacation.

Howie: It wasn’t jokes.

Joel: You guys did something I don’t know about?

Howie: They were just stories, and unfortunately they involved me, which ended up not turning out well for me. And then, ended up being the butt of the joke. But hey as long as I was there to entertain you Mike, then you know, that makes me feel-

Mike: I’m planning my next trip to Seattle just to hang out with Howie, let’s put it that way.

Howie: Let’s make it happen.

Joel: Now you know why I hired him.

Mike: Yeah.

Joel: If we weren’t on a PG rated podcast right now I’d have him repeat some of the stories but, you’ve got to come out and hear them yourself.

Mike: That’s right.

Joel: So anyway, just wanted to have you on and talk about stuff you’ve got going on. I know you’re launching a new exciting product each day. Could you give us a little run down on what you’ve got going on out there and what you’re releasing today?

Mike: Absolutely. So the new product is called ‘The BulletProof Athlete’. It’s a 16 week training program that literally gives you every rep of every set of every exercise for the next 16 weeks.

So I know people like done-for-you programs and people have asked me to create something like this. So I finally got my act together, put it all together and sat back and looked at it and realized, “Wow this is like really cool for a certain subset of people,” but it wasn’t perfect for a wide swath of people.

So what I did is I basically took the skeleton program and basically created three programs off that. And each program increased in the level of intensity and it also increased in like, the amount of time it would take to go through.

So you’ve got everything from like, the person that has two hours, or that has an hour twice a week to get a workout in. That would be the fat loss program all the way up to what I call the monster; which is like five or six days a week training, we incorporate all the cool energy systems protocols that you outline in your book.

So it’s three separate programs that kind of cover all the different bases and it allows you to figure out which program works best for you given your time, your schedule, your training history, all that good stuff. It’s a pretty sweet program and I’m really excited to get it out there.

Joel: Yeah you know, I’m definitely known for done-for-you program type of guy and all my stuff is mostly kind of about the individualization process. And really the story to how I want to get you on the show is that I got the product, I said, “Howie read through this. See what you think,just so I could make him do some work.”

And he said, “This thing’s awesome.” And so of course I took a look and, biggest thing that people, you know obviously just the done-for-you program is great and gets people some months of programming. But aside from that just learning the principles that you used to put the program together I think can get people really programming ideas on how to build from there. So maybe you could talk about some of the principles that you went through, that you applied to the program cause I think you did a great job of tying everything together in a way that makes sense.

Mike: Absolutely. Well, first off I’m glad to hear that Howie got my check. I sent that FedEx so I’m sure, I wanted to make sure he got it. But in all seriousness, what I wanted to do with the program was assume nothing, because if you go to most average gyms and you watch people move, they don’t move well. They’re not in nearly as good a condition as they think they are. Their mobility, stability, movement quality, etc. is horrible.

So what I tried to do is imagine that basic person, right? That thinks they know what they’re doing but at the same time constantly having like little aches and pains, or they’re constantly plateaued. They’re not moving up on their big lifts. I try to envision that guy and what I would do with that person to not only help them move and feel better, but to help them develop a training base, going forward.

So that’s how I started off writing the program. I thought about the average person that comes into or gym, what they need to work on. Those basic movement patterns, like teaching them how to hit pinch, how to sweat effectively, how to do push-ups, how to do inverted rows. And I know some of this sounds mundane, but you would be shocked if you watched most people move, how poorly they execute these moves.

So we started with that, and then what I tried to do over the course of the 16 weeks was build in all kinds of different variables. So for instance, month one we’re starting with like very low level exercises, trying re-groove your technique. And then month two we use more challenging exercises but we put a real premium on stability or control. So you may go through a certain exercise but take a three second e-centric. Or we may throw in a pause at the midpoint movement.

So all along the way we’re trying to rebuild your movement pattern so that at the end you’re back to all the big lifts like squatting, and dead lifting and bench pressing. And what I found is really cool, I actually ran a beta test with a couple hundred people and on the beta test what was really cool is, you’ll go for an extended period of time where you’re not doing the big lifts, right?

Like the first eight weeks you’re not going to like a traditional front squat or a traditional dead lift. But at the end we test you on all those lifts. So you get a little bit of training of those lifts the last eight weeks. And what you’ll find is, you end up with… I had people who were hitting their old PRs for sets of three or sets of five.

And it all comes down to, number one, they’re more efficient, and number two their body just moves in a more fluid and athletic manner. So that’s what I really enjoy hearing. We take some time and we back off some of the big lifts initially with the intention of knowing that at twelve or sixteen weeks you’re going to be hitting your old PRs just because your body is more effective and more efficient.

Joel: Did you, redesigned with it or specifics or just… You think it applies to any athlete, or what was the thought process there?

Mike: Absolutely. First off I think everybody’s an athlete, so I think the name is a little misleading. It sounds funny, but we have like 60 or 70 year old clients that are in our gym and we treat them like athletes. They push the prowler, they drag the sled, they throw med balls. So the name is a little misleading, but in all honesty I think everybody is an athlete.

So what I tried to kind of think about is, if I was starting myself over, if I was starting with a brand new athlete or somebody who wanted to have a solid foundation, moving forward; how would I start them off? And that’s how I kind of developed this program.

So I know that’s, to some people that’s not super exciting. They’re like, well I’m a badass, I can squat X and dead lift Y, but then they’re always injured or they’re always beat up or their squat max has been the same for the last three years. Well, this is the program that they need cause it’s going to help rebuild their foundation so that when they get back into those big lifts they’re stronger and more athletic as a result.

Joel: That’s what I was going to say about the foundation. You know, so many times it’s what people that are trying, or we, I’ll put myself in that group. It’s what I want to do, not necessarily what I need to do. And I think, I don’t think I know after reading it, it definitely addresses that.

If you have the discipline to do the first part, like you said, if lifting heavy is your thing and getting moving properly and reap the rewards at the end. It’s very long term is what I like about it. It’s not static like, do this, as you incorporate. And it’s really cool. When I was reading it I was looking forward to what’s going to be added next. And it’s not overwhelming.

Mike: Right.

Joel: That’s the word I was looking for. It’s very, very attainable, it’s minor adjustments and you can just keep going with it. That’s what I think was really intriguing.

Mike: And that’s kind of one of my foundational beliefs. Look, I want everybody to squat, and bench press and dead lift and so all those cool big bang exercises. But if you don’t have the foundation to do them successfully, one of two things is going to happen. Either you’re going to end up with injured or you’re going to plateau. Both of which suck. And I’ve been there, I’ve had both.

I’ve had the plateaus where you’re just banging your head against the wall. I’ve had little nagging aches and pains that have kept me from training. Part of this program was selfish in nature, this is something that I used on myself initially. We talked about the beta people. I was kind of the alpha because I wanted to figure out, what do I need to do to make myself more efficient.

And when I went back and powerlifted after I ran through this program I hit a personal all-time best dead lift at a lighter weight class. So I think it’s just a really solid program and I think a lot of people would benefit from it.

Joel: It’s a really bulletproof athlete foundations, that’s what you should’ve called it.

Mike: Absolutely. And here’s the other thing though, you can appreciate this, it’s not just the foundation for lifting but I think so many times now people just jump into high intensity energy system training. They think they’re doing abates or they’re just going balls out all the time and they’re wondering why their condition isn’t improving.

If you follow the monster protocol, or if you follow the weekend warrior protocol there’s a ton of energy system development built into that. So what I try to do there is give you that aerobic energy system base that you can utilize so that you can have a lower resting heart rate, so that you can improve your HRV scores.

Because I feel like the better your aerobic foundation is, the bigger your foundation is, as we all know when you do start to really get intense with your training you’re going to get a better result. There’s a foundational energy component system in there as well, it’s not just the lifting side.

Joel: That’s awesome. You’re one of the movement guys out there. I guess, I like to call them movement guys, but you are known for the corrective exercises, movements, blah blah blah. And really what you and I think Charlie Weingroff and others that are in that field are talking about is, the goal is to get strong, the goal is to build.

These other things are tools to get there, they’re not the end all means. It’s the foundation that needs to be built to do those things and I think that looking at programs like you’ve put together and talking to guys like Charlie, I think that’s been lost in a lot of areas. Where you want to be able to lift heavy, you want to be able to be explosive, but you just have to spend the time building the foundation and then the end goal isn’t just to do these exercises forever, it’s to progress. I think that’s about lost.

Mike: Absolutely. Honestly if you listen to a Gray Cook right? Who’s kind of like the godfather of corrective exercises now, if you look at this speech if you look at this talks the foundation that he talks about is movement. And I think almost everybody that has half a brain can agree that movement is important. If you move horribly you’re going to get injured, that’s kind of common sense.

But what enough people aren’t talking about, once you move past that, that next pillar in his pyramid is performance. It’s all the stuff that we talk about that we know helps build a badass athlete. It’s speed, it’s power, it’s strength, it’s energy system development. I guess I’ve had to refocus my message a little bit because people want to lump me into just this corrective exercise, and that’s all we do. And that’s not all we do.

That’s our foundation and I believe that should be everybody’s foundation but once you have that foundation now it’s time to perform monster athlete. And that’s what I’m most focused on now.

Howie: You know it’s funny, I can see parallels. I see a lot of the questions Joel gets and he’s known as a conditioning guy you know?

Mike: Yep.

Howie: And they want to know how they fit their strength with their conditioning and all of this stuff and back to the bullet proof athlete I think it’s a great job of, once people see it and you see someone wants to do stuff for being explosive. Like they want to know how much, how often, when, can I do it on this day?

Logistically putting everything together can be overwhelming for someone’s who’s not in the field. And it’s a nice job and a nice order, you know what I mean? The volume’s right. It’s very doable. Like you said you’re going to be feeling good and that’s the whole point, to get you feeling good, moving well, build up your foundation. The movement as well as your conditioning, your energy system, and then just keep that progression. I think people are definitely going to dig it.

Mike: And here’s the thing Howie, like you said, if you think it’s hard for an average person to do this I can’t help but say it’s really hard to do this for me too. Because the more you look at this stuff, right, like let’s say energy system training is your thing. And I’ve learned a ton from Joel and then you look at Joel’s stuff and you read the references he reads.

Energy system is such a massive topic. So once you really start digging in you realize man, there’s a ton to this. And that’s just energy systems. That’s not strength training, that’s not power training, or speed and agility. So I think that’s the hardest part, and what I keep coming back to is my goal as a coach is to develop a well-rounded athlete.

And if I want to do that I need to know a lot about a lot of different disciplines. So that’s what I try to do in the program is say, look, this is kind of where I’m at now. This is reflective of how I would design a program you know, things have already changed. That’s the thing about writing a program, you can write the best program ever and two days later you read that thing and you’re like, oh I’d change that. I would change that, I can make it better.

But that’s a good thing at the same time. It’s a complete athletic development program and it’s going to give you a foundation not only for movement but for strength training and for energy systems as well. That was the goal. So I’ll take the compliment Howie, I appreciate it, but it’s just incredibly hard to balance all the different physical characteristics that go into athletic development.

Howie: There’s no doubt about it, yeah. I couldn’t do it, that’s for sure.

Joel: I mean just out of curiosity, just to give people an idea. I think people don’t often understand how many hours and how much work actually goes into creating some of the products that certainly I’ve put out, and that you’ve put out there. Do you have any idea of a rough hour, of how many hours you logistically spent developing, and writing and everything else, be cause it’s massive.

Mike: I would say at least hundreds if not thousands. And that’s not even an exaggeration because you think about the program has basically been through three different levels. I wrote the original for myself, I wrote the beta for the couple hundred people that bought that version and then I cleaned it up again for the actual release. Then you figure in writing up all the scripts, because there’s a hundred and sixty some videos that you get with this.

Joel: Yeah.

Mike: So there’s scripts for all the exercises that you’re going to use, so like a front and side camera view. So me coaching how to squat, how to bench, how to dead lift how to push up. Every exercise that’s in the program is coached on camera from two different angles.

There’s all the nutritional goals, so sixteen weeks of nutrition stuff I want you to work on. Sixteen weeks of recovery stuff I want you to work on. I mean, when you think about just all the time. And that’s not even factoring all the time it takes you to shoot all those videos and edit them.

There’s literally, no doubt about it hundreds of hours in this project if not closing in on the thousands. I mean it’s a massive project, it’s taken me like a year and a half but I think the end result is going to be well worth it.

Joel: Yeah I mean, just the fact that, I just appreciate the fact you took the time to beta test it and get some real world results rather than just slapping things together. Unfortunately a lot of the internet markers, that will remain nameless do. The fact that you took the time to test it, get feedback, make changes I mean I think that speaks a lot about the hours and the word that you put into creating a quality product.

Mike: Absolutely. And part of it is just logistics right? Because one of the things that I did when I did the beta version, I had my forum up and running and I had a specific forum just for the program. I did my best to interact with all the people on there. So they could constantly give me feedback, I like this or I don’t like that. Or this is tough given the gym that I’m at, they don’t have that piece of equipment. So that allowed me to sort of refine and tweak the program so that just about anybody can use it, anybody can follow it.

Obviously it’s never going to be perfect right? Because you’ve got guys that have been coming to your gym or my gym, and they’ve got access to everything and then you’ve got the guy who goes to LA Fitness and you’re lucky if they have one squat rack and a good set of dumbbells. So I think I worked out a lot of the kinks early on, and I think the people that look at the program now are going to see a much more cohesive and uniform program.

Joel: That’s awesome. And I know you mentioned HRV a little bit in there, and to me giving kind of a set program utilizing HRV within that program to manage it is kind of the ideal way to go about things. So if you could just talk about, you know maybe how to use the HRV in there. I know you’ve been playing around with bio force more lately and you’ve got a couple of athletes you’ve been working with. You’ve really started to dial things in, so maybe you can just talk about that a little bit for us.

Mike: Absolutely. And I’m not even saying this just because it’s your podcast, but I’m a huge believer in HRV. And I really think that’s the next level. We talk a lot about training on the interwebs and everybody is an internet expert on training and now we’ve got a bevy of internet nutrition gurus.

Joel: Yeah.

Mike: But very few people talk about recovery. And I think it’s just such an untapped group. And I think it really hit home for me sitting in at the Seattle Sounders conference the day Kenny put on. When we were talking about the fact that good monitoring of your athletes almost removes the need to periodize the program, right? Because you have constant feedback as to the preparedness or the readiness of your athletes.

So this is what I’ve been trying to do with all of my athletes at my gym. Is every day we can kind of scale up the workout, we can scale it down, we can keep it the same. All based on what we know their HRV score to be. So it’s been a huge game changer for me personally, but I think once you get into the program, I believe it’s week five the recovery goal for the week is to either start tracking your resting heart rate or start tracking your HRV score. Whatever you have access to.

But the whole goal is to get the person that’s following the program to get in tune with their body. So hey you have a great training session but the next day you’re amber, you’re red. That tells you something about how your recovery is. I think the most illuminating thing for me and a lot of my athletes that I work with is, they’ll start taking their HRV scores with is they’re taking their HRV score right?

And they’re doing great, it’s green, green, green, they’re killing it in training, they feel awesome. And then they have a great training session but then that night maybe they go out, or they stay out late, and they only get four or five hours of sleep. And then they see that huge red score and they see their HRV drop ten or fifteen points or whatever it is.

That’s like a huge awakening I think for a lot of the athletes and clients that I work with. Because they start to realize just how important recovery is, just how important sleep is, and it’s not just about going into the gym and killing it every day. It’s what you do outside of the gym to kind of set the table for your next training session that’s important as well.

Joel: Yeah, absolutely. I think as crazy as it sounds to me, at the time, a lot of the people in the team realm said hey can we do a system where it doesn’t show the athlete the score. We don’t want them worrying about it. And I kind of get what they’re saying but I think that at the same time, to show the athletes the impact of sleep, and diet and stress and drinking and all of these other things.

To show them that it’s as valuable as anything else. And if you take that away from it you kind of devalue what the HRV is giving you. So I think just like you said, showing people just how much those none-training related stressors affect their ability to train. And in fact, what they should be doing for training. I think that’s a huge, huge value and it can add a lot to a program like yours where you’re giving people loads. There’s no way to necessarily know how those factors are affecting them unless you measure it.

Mike: Right, and we’ve all been… obviously I’m a bit older, being almost 35 ;now but when you get into this it’s like you have those days when you feel awesome and you think, I’m probably ready to go, but then your HRV tells you something. And you have your days when you’re off or maybe you don’t feel as good and hey maybe your HRV isn’t as bad. So I think it just helps you sync kind of how your body feels with how prepared you are to train. It just gives you access to feedback that you wouldn’t have access to, or that we didn’t have five or ten years ago.

Joel: Yeah, absolutely. We were talking about it before the show, I think there’s more devices, more cool stuff on the way. I think over the next two, three, four, five years you’re going to see some rally cool devices. You’re going to see a lot of crap on the market too. Don’t get me wrong.

Mike: Yeah.

Joel: Don’t get me wrong. And you already have, there’s already a lot of crap out there. But I think we’re going to see more of this really cool stuff coming out, there’s some exciting stuff that companies at least that I’ve been talking to and I’ll have more information, but I think the more data we start to get the more we’re really going to start to make use of it and get people practical ways to utilize data instead rather than just numbers and colors.

I think we can give people actual recommendations of what they should and shouldn’t do. And that’s where we’re going to start to see really what, I would call training 2.0, or whatever you want to call it, we’re going to start to see some really cool stuff. Possible in the next few years.

Mike: I think it’s going to come down to what we could call mass individualization.

Joel: Right.

Mike: Like you said, I get where a coach is coming from if they don’t want them to see the score. But from my perspective as a coach I would want my athlete to see that score because that gives them feedback on how their body is, how its recovered and I think it’s just going to allow us to individualize the program for these individual athletes that much better because if you’ve got twenty, twenty five, thirty kids on a team every one of those kids is a little bit different. How they respond to the training session, their nutrition, their recovery. So it’s just going to allow you to customize the program as a coach that much better.

Joel: Absolutely.

Howie: We were talking about that before the call. About whether they would want to know their score or not and I think back to the glory days of when I was playing baseball. And it’s like, I would want to know, you know what I mean?

A good friend of ours, Eric Cressey he wrote my end season stuff and I tried to stick with it the best I could. And some days you were just exhausted, but you were like, today is my day to train. Or you feel like you can’t give up that day, you feel like missing one session is going to set you back.

I wish I had HRV, or of it was on the market then just because if those days where, it would either confirm that yeah you do need a day, or those days where you felt a little foggy or whatever you would just do a little extra warm up and get through it. It holds the athlete or the client accountable because you know, right, Joel or Mike you guys can see what you put your clients through in the training session.

But what are they doing the other twenty three hours. Was it on me or is it on you? So you can see what kind of load you’re giving them. Personally, long story short, I would want to know.

Mike: And it’s great feedback too. For the athletes that I work it gives me feedback as a coach. Is this program that I’m giving this client or this athlete working. And just, for my own personal edification over here, I had a girl almost break your system dude. I was so excited about that.

Because she was like, not even going to go there, she was not in great shape to start. And we’ve got her in rocking now, so it’s just good feedback for me as a coach. Because I have an idea of is this program working, did the gain stop, do we need to change gear, do we need to change our emphasis a little bit. So as a coach it’s just a huge resource and just something that’s incredibly beneficial to me.

Joel: Awesome. Appreciate you guys using it and taking advantage of some of the new stuff I’ve been putting together . And obviously we’ve got a lot of new things coming. So along those lines, just kind of closing out, what can we expect from you moving forward? You’ve got new, secret stuff you’re working on, any exciting anything you’re going to talk about and reveal on the show?

Mike: Well, some pretty sweet athletes that I’m working with right now. Can’t name names, but I will mention those very shortly. I’ve got some cool people that are in the gym right now working with me. I’m excited, I think they’re going to have really big seasons coming up.

So that will be mentioned very shortly. And I’m also working on this really cool project with bodybuilding.com where they do some very cool like feature videos. And the entire premise of our video series is how you can take functional anatomy to improve your actual training, right.

So everybody thinks they know anatomy until they dive in and they start realizing, hey, there’s more to body building that just pumping and curling and whatever time under tension and fourth reps. So I’m really excited about that. They do really high level stuff. I’m going to fly out there in September and shoot all that video. That’s going to be very exciting and again, lots going on but I’m excited. It’s good to be busy.

Howie: Real quick here, you’ve got to admit curling is pretty sweet though.

Mike: Curling…Okay, so I’m just going to put this out there. Every one of my athletes, well except for my one female soccer player, all of my athletes curl. Just, I’m throwing that out there because people think it’s just corrective, whatever, you got to curl. I get it. I mean, hell, I had one of my kids, he’s fifteen, he curled because he was going to the pool after he left the gym. We blasted the guns, sent him on his way, he was happy as could be.

Joel: Okay, Howie and I did have a protocol that we’re going to reveal for the first time on this show.

Joel: Okay. It’s, how many sets are we doing Howie? One or two sets, Howie?

Howie: It’s one set, every hour on the hour.

Joel: I wanted to do two sets. Howie said scale it back to one set. Every hour on the hour you do one set of ten to four pull-ups and ten to twelve curls. Every hour on the hour.

Howie: And push-ups, You forgot the push-ups.

Joel: Push-ups, yeah.

Howie: Max push-ups.

Mike: Is that why you guys always look jacked? You guys always look jacked.

Joel: I’m not going to lie.

Howie: Wear smaller shirts. That’s the-

Mike: The smedium?

Harry: Yeah, you know.

Joel: We may or we may not have stolen this workout from CT Fletcher If you don’t know who CT Fletcher is you may want to look him up. Because he may or may have not originated the all arms, all day training session.

Howie: It’s a must look up exercise for everybody.

Joel: Look up CT Fletcher, arms or –

Howie: Biceps.-

Joel: Biceps. You’re going to get the training advice of your life if you want to get some big guns.

Mike: I’m going to call that up as soon as we get off here so.

Joel: Yeah. Trust me, it’s worth looking up. Anyway, just to wrap things up here Mike where can we people find this new product exactly?

Mike: Yep. Best place to go is bulletproofathlete.com I try to keep it as simple as possible so bulletproofathlete.com

Joel: And I just wanted to throw out there for anybody who does order the system within, oh let’s say the first five days, I’m going to give them a 20 percent off coupon to order HRV cause I do think it’ll compliment what you guys are doing and what the bullet proof athlete offers them so.

If they can just, I think if you send them out something that confirms the order you can get them a code to use to get a discount in the HRV system cause I think that’ll be a good combination for people that do order the order from you.

Mike: I love it man, we’ll definitely get that hooked up.

Joel: Yeah, so thanks again for meeting us on the show. I haven’t done a podcast in a couple of years but I thought it would be a nice change of pace from the videos. Our video guys is coming out here this weekend so we’ll have some more videos coming but it’s nice to just chat and shoot the shit for a while too.

Mike: Absolutely. I’ll be on for the bi-annual version of the eight weeks out podcast hopefully.

Joel: Yes, exactly.

Joel: Next when are we coming in 2014, maybe 2015..

Mike: Perfect. You don’t want to give them too much of the good stuff, right?

Joel: No, exactly so. Anyway, you can stay tuned for that next podcast coming next year to 8weeksout.com. In the meantime, I know, Robertson you’ve got- Is your friends list on Facebook full now, are you completely filled up?

Mike: Well I got rid of all the friend that didn’t have like a Facebook profile picture.

Joel: Nice.

Mike: So I think I’ve got like ten openings. But I reserve those for people I actually know in real life.

Joel: So if Howie ever gets a Facebook profile he’ll get a friend invite and you will actually accept it right?

Mike: I will absolutely. I’m still waiting on my Howie Clark official autographed bat. So once I get that, then the Facebook profile, then maybe we can talk.

Howie: The bat will happen, the Facebook will not happen. Ever. So, yeah.

Joel: Sooner or later I will convince him to do it but until that happens there is no Facebook for Howie, so. Anyway, thanks again for coming on and of course everyone knows they can find more of your stuff at just robertsontrainingsystems.com right?

Mike: Yep. Thanks for having me guys, I appreciate it.

Joel: No problem. Great talking to you and best of luck with Bulletproof Athlete, everything else and in next year too on the next podcast.

Mike: Sounds good, thanks guys. See ya.

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