11.10.06
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Q: Hey Coach Defranco! Awesome program you have
posted on your site. I have 2 questions regarding your
program:
#1. Endurance is a big thing for me. I'm going to possibly get on your
program in January, training for football camp in June. And we run. We run
like hell. So I've got to get my endurance really high. I would probably make
Friday a running day in your program for that reason. But how many sprints
should I do on Friday? And also, should I lower the rest between sets of sprints/drills
to better my endurance?
#2. You seem to be big into bench pressing in this program. I am one
who thinks that overhead pressing is the absolute upper body strength exercise.
I mean in football, I'm gonna be getting low every time I hit someone. That's
shoulders. I personally don't think you incorporate enough shoulder work in
the program for a football player like me. What do you think? I was thinking
of making my main movement on Max-Effort Upper day an overhead press and on
Rep-Upper day a bench press variation. Therefore, theoretically, making my
shoulders a lot stronger, which is what's going to be needed, and give my chest
perhaps more mass.
By the way, I'm 14, weigh 155, and am looking to get all my stats and
weight up before June when I'll be a sophomore. And I'll probably play linebacker,
running back/fullback, or tight end.
Thanks a million!!!
A: With regards to your first question,
it’s important for you to know that “endurance” training & “speed” training
are 2 completely different things. If I prescribed longer
rest intervals in one of my running workouts, that’s
probably because it was a “speed” workout.
When you’re training for speed, you want to perform
sprints & drills in a fully recovered state so you
can perfect technique and perform the drills/sprints at
the highest possible speeds.
If it’s endurance that you’re after, than you’re
rest intervals should be much shorter than when you’re
trying to improve your speed. Without knowing anything
about you, I can’t prescribe an exact amount of sprints,
exact rest intervals, etc. What I can tell you is that
when you’re trying to improve your football endurance,
I would recommend that most of your rest intervals fall
between 20-45 seconds in between sprints/drills. As far
as how many sprints you should be doing in a workout; that
depends on what time of the year it is. Obviously, you
should ease into your sprint workouts, just like you would
ease into your weight room workouts after a layoff. As
your preparedness increases, so should the number of drills/sprints
that you perform in a workout.
With regards to your views on overhead pressing,
I think you are a little misinformed. Check out the 3 pictures
that I have provided below. You will find 3 different levels
of football players making contact on the field. Notice
the similarities of their upper arm positioning while making
contact…
…Does their upper arm positioning mimic an overhead
pressing pattern or a bench press pattern? Unless you’re
a midget playing in the NFL, blocking & tackling takes
place in a horizontal plane on the football field. That’s
why we choose bench press variations as one of our main
lifts.
With all of the above being said, it’s a free country
and if you really want to use overhead pressing variations
on your Max-Effort Day, go for it. We just choose bench-press
variations most of the time when choosing a Max-Effort
pressing movement for our football players.
Joe D.
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Q: Hey Joe,
I want to start by thanking you for the hard
work and dedication that you
put in as a trainer. You and your
athletes have provided me with the motivation I need
to reach my athletic goals. Every time I enter
the gym I blow through new PR's. My question
is how do you shake off all the haters? I
have read posts in the Ask Joe section where people criticize you
and your training techniques. How do you avoid
letting these ignorant people bother you?
Thank you for your time.
Garrett R.
A: Garrett,
That’s a tough question…hmm, how do I shake
off the criticism? I guess my answer would be… “I
just don’t give a shit what people think of me!”
Seriously, the only opinions that matter to me are those
of my family, close friends & the athlete’s that
train with us. Those are the people who really know me
and those are the people I respect. When I first got started
in this business, I wanted to please everyone and I was
a lot more sensitive than I am now (believe it or not).
If I saw someone bad-mouthing me on an internet forum,
I would spend all night defending myself on the forum and
trying to “save my name.” Now, I really just
don’t care. Why should I care? All I care about is
getting athletes better. If we are getting results with
our athlete’s, what does it matter what other people
say? If I get an athlete to run a faster 40 time and he
gets drafted to the NFL, should I really give a shit that
some geek behind a computer criticized my training method?
If an athlete trains with us and he/she gets bigger and
stronger, should I give a shit that people accuse us of
giving kids steroids (which is absolutely absurd)? Should
it bother me that EVERY athlete that has tried my DeFranco
Energy Bar has told me that it’s the
best protein bar they have ever eaten, yet some skinny
nerds on an internet forum bad-mouth the product because
it has a little corn syrup in it?
The bottom line is that IT’S LONELY AT THE TOP! The
more successful we become and the better our athletes perform,
the more criticism we will receive. That’s life.
All that matters to us is that the athlete’s that
we train respect how hard we have worked to become one
of the best training facilities in the world.
Another thing that helps me shrug off the criticism is
that I realize that I am blessed to be able to make a living
doing what I love. There are many more stressful jobs in
the world that I can be stuck doing. This isn’t brain
surgery and I think people in this field must take the
time to put things into perspective.
Some people just take themselves way too seriously…
…Thankfully, some people don’t!
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