03.24.06

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Click here to Ask Joe about training. If you send a question, it may appear on the website. Please do not submit a question if you do not want the question published. Only your first name will be used for privacy reasons.
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2-Day Seminar Spectacular!

 You don’t want to miss this one!

Dave Tate, Joe DeFranco & staff will show you things that are guaranteed to help you blast through sticking points and take your training to another level! This seminar is expected to SELL OUT within days so act fast!

 Seminar topics include…

DAY 1 – 9:00am – 5:00pm – Dave Tate

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STATE CHAMP!

Congratulations to Bergen Catholic sophomore & DeFranco’s
Training client, Joe Trause!

Joe won the New Jersey State wrestling championship last month in the 119 lb. class as only a sophomore! Joe was back at DeFranco’s a week later preparing to defend his title next year! Great job, Joe!!!

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Q: Hi, Mr. DeFranco, Is it possible to use a dumbell exercise as your max effort upper body exercise, performed first in the workout? I’m asking because it seems as if your first exercise is always a barbell exercise.

Thanx coach and I can’t wait for the mojoe bars!!
Eric

A: Eric,

Most of the time we do start with barbell max-effort exercises instead of dumbell exercises; There are far more barbell options and 1-3 rep maxes are just more practical with barbells. BUT…there is no problem with starting your workout with a dumbell exercise. I recommend 5 rep maxes or higher when choosing a dumbbell max-effort movement.  

Pictured above is Waldwick high school senior, Jeff Vacha, starting his max-effort upper body workout with flat dumbell benches. Jeff worked up to a 5-rep max using 150 lb. dumbells! YES, you read that right, the kid is in high school and he threw around our 150’s!

Jeff holds our gym record in the 225 lb. bench press rep test for high school athletes. He has done 26 reps and he’s looking to bump that number up before he leaves for college.

MOJOE BAR UPDATE: You won’t have to wait much longer for the MoJoe bars. After many months of technical & legal bullshit, we have a delivery date for the bars! The FDA has approved the packaging, all the technicalities are complete and we are scheduled for delivery at the end of April! Get ready for some intense summer workouts once the greatest pre-workout energy bar of all time hits the market!

I’m getting an L-Tyrosine & caffeine buzz just thinkin’ about it!

Joe D.

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Q: Hi Joe, I’m a skinny bastard and I have recently started your workout plan. I
really enjoy it but I’m very confused about the first exercise:

1. MAX-EFFORT LIFT - Work up to a max set of 3-5 reps

Let's say I do bench. How many sets am I doing? I understand every set I
am to add weight, but how low in weight do I start and how many sets
total am I looking to do? For the last week I have been doing 3 sets
and adding weight within those 3 until I can only do 3 but I’m not sure
if I’m doing it right.

Thank you for your time,
Jay

A: Jay,

Between my website, t-nation.com & elitefts.com, I think I’ve answered this question about 9000 times over the past 2 years. And now, for the 9001^st time, here I go again…

When I say “work up” to a max, it means that the sets leading up to your max attempt are UNDETERMINED. It is undetermined for 2 reasons:

1. The stronger you are, the more sets it will take you to reach your max attempt
2. Everyone is different regarding warming up…some people like to take small jumps when working up to their max attempt, while other people respond better to making larger jumps.

Regardless of your strength & warm-up preference, I give the general guideline of 5 sets minimum on max-effort lifts. I think that one of the reasons that skinny, weak bastards don’t get as strong as they should on the “Westside” template is because they don’t do enough sets on max-effort exercises. For example, let’s say a skinny high school kid wanted to attempt a 5-rep max with 135 lbs. on the bench press – It is NOT optimal for him to do 95 lbs. for 5 reps and then attempt 135 lbs. He should get in more volume with his max-effort lift if he wants to get bigger & stronger. I would suggest 3 sets leading up to his max attempt and then maybe 1 or 2 “drop-off” sets after his max attempt with 90% of his max, depending on how he feels.

Hopefully I won’t have to ever answer this question again.

Joe D.

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Q: Just a quick note to let you know how WS4SB is doing for our kids.  We've been using the basic template for the better part of the school year and our guys have made very good progress. We lift for 30 minutes on  Mon, Tues, Thurs and adjust for in-season as necessary. Last weekend several of them competed in the state powerlifting meet for schools our size and all of them placed in the top three for their weight. Our 148 pounder won best light lifter with a 1050 total (410, 215, 425).  Put us down as real believers in the program, and thanks for making it available.

Mark
Nebraska

A: Mark,

Thanks for the positive feedback! It gets me pumped up to hear that our program is having a positive impact on athletes & coaches throughout the country! Hopefully you will produce a couple of future Cornhuskers from your group!

Keep us updated on the progress.

Joe D.

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Q: I am very confused about sports specific training and if it is bull or not. I mean I see a lot of performance coaches using the swiss ball and all kinds of other stuff and they do really small movements to establish core performance or whatever they call it. Am I wrong in thinking that athletes need to get stronger in deads, squats, chins, dips, bench and the other big lifts? Do athletes really need special training for their sport instead of getting stronger on the big main lifts?

Philip

A: Philip,

I am a little confused with your question…if you are referring to “sport-specific” training in the WEIGHT ROOM than I think it’s a gimmick and its bullshit! What I mean by this is that some trainers try to “separate” themselves from other trainers by saying that they have their athletes do “sport-specific” training in the weight room. These trainers are usually the ones that over-use stability balls & wobble boards and they bad-mouth exercises like bench-presses and squats because they are not “sport-specific”.  Yet, do they think that balancing on a wobble board with your eyes closed and having a pass with a basketball IS sport specific? Or performing your rotator cuff exercises with a weighted baseball will somehow magically make your rotator cuff strength more sport-specific, compared to strength that is gained using dumbells or barbells!? What’s next; should wrestlers wear their head gear during their strength workouts? Should football players wear their helmets, shoulder pads & mouth pieces when lifting? Will that make their strength more “sport-specific”? Don’t get me started! This topic drives me crazy!

The bottom line is that weight training is General Physical Preparation! Read that last statement again…you can NOT duplicate the physical demands of the athletic field in the weight room! What you SHOULD do in the weight room is choose the exercises that strengthen the muscles that are involved in your sport, as well as the exercises that will help to prevent injury. You don’t have to try and duplicate the specific sport in the weight room; just get the muscles strong and then the act of “playing your sport” will make the strength that you gain in the weight room “sport-specific”. For example, let’s say a baseball player and a wrestler are training together in the same group. Wrestling & baseball are 2 extremely different sports, yet these athletes perform the same workout. Let’s use their forearm strength as an example. Part of their workout involves performing various exercises to strengthen their grip & forearms. Even though they are performing the same forearm exercises, the baseball players’ forearm strength will become “baseball-specific” because he PLAYS baseball in his spare time. So his forearm strength can help improve his bat speed, throwing power, etc. The wrestlers’ forearm strength will become “wrestling-specific” because he WRESTLES in his spare time. His new-found forearm strength will help him grab and control his opponent, etc. So in a nutshell, that is my take on “sport-specific” training in the weight room.

The Cliff Notes version of my little rant is this…”Sport-specific training in the weight room is bullshit! Get strong in the weight room using the most economical exercises and then make that strength “sport-specific” by practicing the technical aspects of your sport separately!” Simple enough?

Now, at the end of your question, you asked me if “athletes really need special training for their sport instead of getting stronger…” My answer to this question is, “Hell yeah, athletes need to perform specific training for their sport!” If strength was the only component of athletics, powerlifters would be the best football players, baseball players, basketball players, figure skaters, etc. Although I always thought this was common sense, you wouldn’t believe how many emails I get each week that overlook this component of athletics. Here’s an excerpt of an email that I received from an athlete last week:

“Coach Defranco, I need your advice. I’m 23 years old and I’m going to try out for a semi-pro football team next year. I haven’t played football since high school but I miss it so I’m going to give it another shot. I know I have what it takes to compete with the best. Just last week I was working out with my buddy who played D1 football and I out-benched him by 30 lbs. and I was also able to hang with him on all the other exercises. Below you will find my stats. Please tell me where I need to be to make the team. Thanx!”

• Bench – 340 lbs.
• Squat – 415 lbs.
• 40 yard dash – 4.75
• vertical – 27 inches
• short shuttle  - 4.51

My response to the above email was, “In order to make the team, you need to be able to play football.” This may sound rude, but I know a lot of big & strong kids that suck at sports. I am a huge proponent of strength training for ALL athletes, but the most important aspect of any sport is the ability to PLAY THE SPORT! Some athletes may need more sport-specific training than others, depending on their God-given talent, but everyone needs to practice the technical aspect of their sport!

I can’t make it any clearer.

Joe D.

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