Bodyweight Training for Athletes

Yesterday I exchanged an e mail with Jason Ferruggia, author of Renegade Muscle Building & Minimalist Training.

If you don’t have his training courses, I’m highly recommending you do so, they are LEGIT and I have been using lots of his workouts from his Minimalist Program.

Anyway…. Jay was talking about how he can relate to everything I went through as we’ve been both training hard and heavy for over 2 decades.

The nagging injuries, the strange pains in our feet, injuries from simple daily tasks like tying our shoe laces.

Today, we laugh at these injuries because back in the day we would NEVER have guessed that being so strong could contribute to such strange injuries.

Of course, we’d both rather tell people that we got hurt deadlifting a car trying to save someone’s life but that just isn’t the case.

We’ve learned our lessons the HARD way, so you don’t have to experience the pain and suffering, trust us, you wouldn’t want to, it just ain’t cool

The mistakes we’ve made have made Jay & I better Strength Coaches…. SMARTER Strength Coaches……

I don’t want there to be confusion here, that bodyweight training is reserved for washed up meatheads and ex athletes.

Here’s the TRUTH: ALL athletes should be using bodyweight exercises, ranging from the most basic of bodyweight movements to the advanced training methods that you can see below with some of our athletes in the videos.

After you watch these videos, I’m gonna explain to you Why and How we use bodyweight training for our athletes and why I recommend bodyweight workouts for other athletes as well.

Check these vids out….

Years ago I began training more athletes aside form wrestlers. The majority of new athletes were Football players. They showed up BIG AND STRONG.

What were their “normal strength levels”?

The norm was a 315 lb bench press for 3 – 5 reps, a box squat of 315 – 405 for 3 – 5 reps and a trap bar deadlift of 405 – 495 for 5 reps.

But….. these athletes couldn’t perform bodyweight lunges or push ups unless their hands were elevated. Forget about doing a pull up. They couldn’t even hold onto the pull up bar for more than 2 seconds. I was FIRED up.

What happened to the days of Football BEASTS like Herschel Walker I thought to myself, guys who attacked calisthenics and sprints like it was their passion and their JOB.

If these kids weren’t gonna do it on their own, I was gonna lay the law down on them, plain and simple…. well, simple, but NOT easy.

These kids were WEAK.

Maybe according to their Coaches and the program they followed in their high school weight room they were strong, but… they were missing the boat, BIG time. Athletes MUST be able to maneuver their own body with control and ease.

Stronger does NOT mean faster. Faster means Faster.

I decided that I was gonna make the first 4 weeks or these BIG athletes training regime focused around bodyweight training, sled work, some simple kettlebell drills (farmer walks, clean & press, swings) and aggressive conditioning using met-cons with sledge hammers, bodyweight exercises, jumping rope, sprints, sled work, etc.

I didn’t give two shits how much they could squat, bench or deadlift. They couldn’t get through our warm up without being exhausted and useless. I was DONE with strong and useless athletes.

I wanted to build athletes who were agile, mobile and hostile. Welcome to my world, Bitches!!

When an athletes asks me if Bodyweight Bodybuilding will be suitable for his sport I tell em’ immediately, “Hells Yea, SON!”

These Bodyweight Bodybuilding workouts center around everything an athlete needs:

- Strength & Power Endurance

- Adding Functional Muscle – NOT the strong & useless muscle I see countless athletes walking around with

- flexibility & mobility (staying healthy)

- Conditioning / Stamina / Mental Toughness

I remember thinking about the way the guys at Westside Barbell train, the strongest gym in the world. Each workout has a focus on either strength or speed, after the strength or speed component is finished, the lifter performs muscle building work. So I said to myself, ‘Why can’t this be done with bodyweight exercises?”

Now, I eliminate the excuses of “I’m too heavy” or “I’m too big” to be good at bodyweight exercises.

F**k that. You become good at what is important, plain and simple. We now build ALL our athletes up to climbing rope, walking on their hands, performing jumps, sprints, handstand push ups, plyo push ups, glute ham raises, etc. We don’t tolerate excuse or allow self limiting beliefs.

Big or small, tall or short, heavy or light. When you begin dominating the bodyweight exercises and manipulate their use for the various performance traits such as strength, speed / explosive power, stamina, etc you will become a BEAST on the competitive field.

In a nut shell, my advice to athletes: Dominate the Bodyweight. Period

Peace

–Z–

PS: For more info on the ‘Bodyweight Bodybuilding’ training system, click HERE, whether you’re a competitive athlete or not, you will dig this if you want to become a BEAST…. Agile, Mobile & Hostile. Make it Happen

Check it out HERE

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1. Training Athletes
2. Another One Bites the Dust….from Bodyweight Training!
3. The Truth About Bodyweight Workouts
4. Bodyweight Workout & Animal Training
5. Episode # 130: Training with Sandbags, Powerlifting and Bodyweight