The Training Meta

It has been nearly 10 years since my last post. 10 years of toil, blood, sweat and tears to bring you this news. Many jobs, a wife, a child, a new country and countless squats and deadlifts.

I felt compelled to resurrect this blog to describe a new programme minimum I have developed (or rather stolen, or at least, adapted). A programme minimum being a concept borrowed from Pavel which basically means the minimum amount of structured trainining required to achieve a base level of general physical preparedness (GPP).

First a few things to consider about my own situation, for context over the past 10 years:

• Things were going pretty well athletically up to my late 20s. I was playing rugby, keeping up the lifting, doing lots of kettlebells and had all the speed and endurance I could ask for. I wasmainly running kettlebell programs, interpsersed with squatsm deadlifts and presses with the barbell. Lots of running and cycling for good measure, and of course, rugby training.
• A few years ago I snapped my ACL in a skiing accident. Reconstructive surgery with a donation of tendon from my hamstring left a fairly negative impact on my sporting ability. Speed was immediately reduced and confidence on the knee dropped. My proprioception deteriorated in the leg which had surgery. Although I was back on the squats within a month of the surgery, and suprising the surgeon and physio with the speed of progress with rebuilding muscle and strength, something felt different.
• I got back into rugby, putting on weight and changing into the forwards. Never really having much power or speed - at least not compared to what I used to be. Endurance was good, ran a 40 mile ultramarathon.
  
• Ever since then and despite setting new strength PRs, but I found my speed and power never recovered to their former glory. Until now...

Introducing the new Munro Program Minimum (MPM) which is basically a bunch of borrwed concepts.

The core of the program draw stringly from two sources: Ben Patrick and Pavel Tsatsouline. 

Ben Patrick and Knees Over Toes

A quick overview of Ben Patrick and his "Knees Over Toes" approach, which is a core component. Ben essentially developed a system based on going against the wisdom that getting your knees far over your toes was a bad thing. It's worth checking out some of his youtube videos where he explains his thinking. 

Here is the knees over toes lunge:

He has developed a whole system and written a few books on the subject. His approach is less "whole system", and is a little more isolationary in it's approach to tackling different areas of the body. There are a couple of takeaways from his work: (1) build strength in the full range of motion and (2) build strength in areas of your body you might not otherwise train (e.g. hip flexors, or tibialis anterior) - this is a concept he learned from none other than the great Canadian Strength and Bodybuilding coach Charles Poliquin.

For a long time I never fully regained my full knee flexion after surgery. It was impossible for me to kneel on the ground and put my bottom to my ankles. Clinically this wasn't a problem, as the measurement for "full flexion" is usually defined at 120 degrees, which is slightly less than heel crammed into your butt (which is more like 135 degrees).

Just in the past 3 months since building up this particular exercise have I now regained full flexion.

I found this cracking Youtube video of an orthopedic surgeon reviewing Ben's work, it's worth checking out, it really sold me on the benefits of going through the full range:

 

Pavel, Systems Thinking and Kettlebells

Now, Pavel. His approach with kettlebells tends to take a whole system view. He often simplifies and tries to deliver maximum bang for your buck when it comes to exercise selection. Kettlebell swings are often touted as the do-all exercise, with a term called the "what the hell effect" by the kettbell community, which is when people find that just doing kettlebell swings leads to improvements in other things, such as pullups. It's no suprise, since kettlebells teach you to knit your body together as one, and they work key muscle groups around the hips and lats. 

Pavel developed a program called "Simple and Sinister" which essentially focussed on the swing and the Turkish Getup.

The swing:

 

The Turkish getup:

 

The idea of Simple and Sinister is to practice these movements on a regular (as much as daily) basis, building up strength and a degree of endurance in the process. 

I have been working with kettlebells for over 15 years now. Over time I have gradually come to appreciate just how intense an exercise the two hand swing is. And I don't mean during the exercise itself, I mean the after effects. The two hand swing is quite fatiguing for the hip musculature, and, like back squats, I have found myself just a little more vulnerable to injury or tightness if I do too much of them.

On the other hand, 1-hand swings provide a perfect alternative. Due to the inability to go too intense on them thanks to the marvel of limited grip strength, the 1-handed variety provides a natural self-limiting constraint. One also needs to counter the rotation effects associated with the 1-hand swing.

Like the 1-hand swing, the turkish getup is also a self-limiting exercise. You just can't get away with using a kettlebell too heavy. The beauty of the getup is that it works your shoulder through an impressive range of motion without beating it up and while sparing your elbow. I have found power and control in my squash game level up after incorporating both of these exercises regularly. The aspect of standing up is a great core test and challenges you to control strength through the single leg. Dan John has a concept of a chain link fence as an analogy to physical performance, which if missing a link the overall structure is significantly weaker. The Turkish Getup is a great exercise for both pointing out and correcting weaknesses missed elsewhere. It also gives you bulletproof shoulders without overly fatiguing them.

Secret Addition (Super Power Movement)

Cossack squats. Do them like Goku does.

These need to be worked up to. You will need to first achieve the ability to do a proper knees over toes lunge first - or at least most of the way there.

No need for a flat foot on the bent knee, you can go on your toes like so. Just be controlled:

These are absolutely fabulous for opening out the adductors, groin and hamstrings in a way that I expect is countering some of the problems introduced by too much outward strength/power training in these areas such as squats and kettbell swings.

Rotating the foot from the straight leg clockwise and anticlockwise provides different stretches in the groin and hamstrings. Getting comportable with this exercise I have noticed having a carry over to sports requring lunging and changing directions.

The Munro Program Minimum

So without further ado, here is the program itself. Do this at least two times per week and more as you require. I tend to do it every other day, so average 3.5 times per week.

The workout:

1. Tibialis anterior raise 25 reps

 

2. Straight knee calf raise 25 reps

3. Knees over toes calf raise 25 reps

4. Nordic curls 1-3 sets of 5

 

5. Hip flexor extreme stretch 45 seconds per side

6. Knees over toes lunge 24 reps (can be done in two sets of 12 or 4 sets of 6) - brilliant explainer in this video with progression steps:

 

7. Cossack squats - a couple of minutes - Ninja time:

 

Now get out your kettlebell:

Do the following superset 5 times, with plenty of rest between each set (I rest about 2 minutes between sets):

A: 5 swings each hand

 

B: 1 turkish getup each side - a few different ways of doing this, I do a "hips high" version of this:

 

Supplement the program with whatever else you please, e.g.:

- Sport specific training

- Cardiovascular training, both zone 2 and intensity/imtervals. Some of my favourites:

Hill sprints, swimming, running, cycling and cross trainer with netflix.

Extra:

Foam roller back roll - whole length, ease out the "clicks".

Notice an absence of heavy lifting. I have not found that I have needed to incorporate compound barbell lifting thus far. I will be experimenting with this though and I will report back.

 

General benefits I have found

- Agility and power - I can charge around the squash court like I could in my early 20s. I keep reaching "impossible shots" which I was never able to get close to before.

- Knees feel fantastic, strong and stable.

- Upper body power on the squast court, I think thanks to the Turkish getups.

- Significantly reduced stiffness.

Things I am still struggling with:

- Running long distance and a persistent tweaking in my calf muscles

- Incorporating heavy lifting without introducing excessive stiffness. I have yet to try incorporating squats and deadlifts since the introduction of the Cossack Squat, which I suspect may be the key to avoiding squat related immobility.

Squatting

I have removed heavy back squats from my routine. "Why?" You might ask. "Isn't this the king of all exercises?" The problem of heavy back squats is that they take away more than they give. Yes they are undoubtedly the best strength building exercise there is out there... if your goal is one rep maximum strength. However for functional strength, which is what is important to the majority of people, the one-rep max back squat strength is largely irrelevant.

Instead - I have found that all the best bits with minimal drawbacks can be achieved with goblet squats and high repetition back squats. If you have to do heavy squats for low reps - do front squats. This exercise engages the anterior core muscles (the muscles on the front of your body) and the posterior muscles in your upper back. The front squat, for heavy lifting, is a far superior exercise if functional strength is your interest.

Goblet squats are really the ultimate beginner exercise for squatting. It is the foundation. It is for this reason that it should continually be revisited throughout your life. Anybody can learn how to goblet squat. Just the other day my friend who has recently started lifting weights is now knocking out perfect goblet squat form on only his third gym session. This is the beauty of the exercise. The goblet squat forces you to use your core to a great degree, a heavy dumbell or kettlebell feels like twice as heavy. Doing goblet squats with 40kg feels as hard as doing back squats with 80kg. I firmly believe that the goblet squat offers the greatest functional benefit of all the squatting variants.

High repetition back squats are different to heavy back squats. By high rep I mean anything over 10 reps. Usually this is in the region of 20-30 but can be up to 50 reps. The weight used is comparatively lighter and as a result it is easier to maintain good form. I have found that this is an excellent exercise to do at the end of a session. The time under load is the secret benefit of the high rep back squat. It simply builds muscle. It is cardio intensive and a single set can take minutes. It's not uncommon to struggle to walk immediately after a set of high rep back squats. If you want to develop grit, throw in a set or two of high rep back squats at the end of your session. 

The goblet squat fits well into the warmup. A complex which I have used extensively and benefited from goes as follows:

8x swings

8x presses

8x goblet squats

6x swings

6x presses

6x goblet squats

4x swings

4x presses

4x goblet squats

This can be just a warmup, or it can be a workout. For a warmup I use a single 16kg kettlebell. This means that I do 8 swings on my left hand and then 8 on my right, and so on with the presses. The same complex can be done with two kettlebells. I have worked up to doing this with two 24kg kettlebells and it is a fantastic workout. Deadlifts done after this complex compliment it well.

Putting it all together a brutal workout for all around functional strength might look something like this:

The complex workout with a single 24kg kettlebell

Deadlift - building up to a couple of heavy sets of 5. I might do 130kg and then 140kg for 5 reps each.

High rep back squats, one set of 30 with 60kg.

Stretch.

Go home.

Where did they go?

I work for a company called Delphi Diesel Systems, you might know them by their former name: Lucas. All the way back in 1996 Lucas Industries merged with a company called the Varity Corporation (Americans). The new business was called LucasVarity.

In true American fashion the company tried to relocate the HQ to the states, to the uproar of the 46,000 british employees and the relentless media. Ultimately the shareholders voted against the move - perhaps directors can learn from this, that underlying all companies are people not automatons.

In 1999 the company was sold to TRW, another American company, who started splitting up LucasVarity's different divisions and selling them off.

So, where did the famous Lucas companies end up, then?

Division	Current Owner	Year Sold
Lucas Aerospace	Goodrich Corporation	2002
Light Vehicle Braking System	TRW Automotive	2002
Heavy Vehicle Braking System	ArvinMeritor	1999
Lucas Diesel Systems	Delphi	2000
VarityPerkins (Diesel Engines)	Perkins Engines Company Limited(subsidiary to Caterpillar, Inc.)	1998
Electronic & Electrical Systems	TRW Automotive & others	2002 & Various
Lucas Aftermarket Operations	TRW, Delphi, Elta Lighting & ArvinMeritor	1996 to 2006

BOSS

Barbell Off-Season Strength for Rugby

1^st Edition

Harry Munro

Specification:

Must Improve strength, power and muscle Mass. Benefits include increased acceleration, physicality, confidence and the ability to boss.

Must maintain or improve running fitness.

Analysis:

Training to increase strength, power and muscle mass is most easily accomplished using barbell lifts.

Training load must not be too high on the weights. Rugby players aren’t strength athletes, like weightlifters, and must be trained accordingly. Rugby players need to be able to move well, which leads to simultaneous lower risk of injury, and increased chance of winning. Moving well and strength training do not easily go hand in hand. Proprioception practice (controlling the movement of the body in space) should be conducted before and after training sessions, or ideally every day. The proprioception exercises serve a dual function of improving movement patterns and additionally providing core work for the trainee. Core work should not be performed in isolation, and should always include a degree of self limitation to it.

Weight training should not be based on bodybuilding. Gun polishing should be kept to a minimum or substituted appropriately. For example if one feels compelled to do bicep curls, take a logical intervention and do chin-ups instead. This will mould the beast just as well as curls and also provide additional upper back work. Think compound.

The program:

Barbell lifts: Squats, front squats, standing overhead press, power cleans, deadlift, pull-ups/chin-ups

Week 1

Monday

Squats 5x5

Overhead Press 5x5

Power clean 5x5

Deadlift 1x5

Tuesday

Hill Sprints

Wednesday

Squats or front squats 5x10

Chin-ups/pull-ups 5x10 or 5xreps

Power clean 5x5

Thursday

Longer slow run or cross training

Friday

Squats 5x1/2/3

Overhead press 5x1/2/3

Power clean 5x1

Saturday

Hill Sprints - 50% volume

Sunday

Day of rest

Week 2

Monday

Squats 5x5

Chin-ups/Pull-ups 5x5

Power clean 5x5

Deadlift 1x5

Tuesday

Cross training or longer run

Wednesday

Squats or front squats 5x10

Overhead press 5x10

Power Clean 5x5

Thursday

Hill Sprints

Friday

Squats 5x1/2/3

Chin-ups/Pull-ups 5x1/2/3

Power clean 5x5

Saturday

Cross-training or longer run - 50% effort

Sunday

Day of rest

Notes:

Pull-ups > chin-ups for general strength. Chin-ups > pull-ups for guns. Parallel grip = good compromise.

Conditioning – Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays

Hill sprints:

Find a steep hill or section of hill that takes anywhere from 8 to 15 seconds to sprint up. Sprint up it. Walk back down the hill without rest and sprint again. Perform five times to begin with and add a rep each session, don’t go overboard. You have been warned.

Cross training and Running

A longer run could be a mile, but keep the maximum to an hour or six miles. You aren’t training for a marathon here; too long runs will eat into your strength. As a rugby player you must find a balance and capping the runs at roughly 6 miles is a good place to start. Cross training could include anything that gets the heart rate up and keeps it there. A personal favourite is cycling or mountain biking. When riding the bike for a while ensure that the session is followed by hip flexor s

The cross training day is an opportunity to have fun and in the process get some conditioning in. It is a time to be creative. There are plenty of resources on the internet for rugby specific conditioning drills if that takes your fancy.

Tuesday and Thursdays: Hit them hard

Lazy Saturdays: Go 50%. Hill sprints half the number of sprints. Cross training and running either half the duration or drop the intensity (which shouldn’t be too high anyway). This is to help recovery over the weekend.

Nutrition

You will be hungry. Eat like a king. Lots of milk if it doesn’t make you shit like a baby. Brown rice, eggs, chicken, Burgen bread, peanut butter and jam sandwiches (get real peanut butter and 100% fruit jam with no sugar). Scrambled eggs on Burgen toast. Slather on the butter or even extra virgin olive oil if you are a person of expensive taste. Drink 100% whey protein shakes if you feel lazy or poor. Don’t forget lots of vegetables. Don’t eat sugar or white carbs like pasta, white bread or white rice. They are sugar in disguise. If you have takeaway pizza, go thin crust and have extra toppings.

For cooked meals try meat, legumes and veg. 1/3 of the plate for each.

Eat cholesterol, it’s been linked to testosterone production, you need testosterone. Butter is in, Benecol is out.

Technique: there are a lot of internet resources for technique. Crossfit.com contains a lot of instructional videos. Youtube is a good source of information. For literature start with “The Strongest Shall Survive” by Bill Starr. You will progress from there.

Rep Schemes

Mondays: Heavy and Hard. You will do five sets of five reps of each exercise with up to five minutes and at least two minutes rest between each set. The weight is to be ramped each set (that is, increased) so that the last set is very hard but can be completed with good form. The weight will have to be guess work at first. So if you are not sure, always be conservative and choose less than you think you can do. The upshot of a lighter than optimal weight is the bar will move faster so high power is still being developed. The downside of a weight too heavy is form breaks down which renders the exercise both ineffective with low power production and dangerous.

Why 5x5 with ramped weights rather than sets across with a constant weight? Sets across (using the same heavy weight for each set) are a fantastic method for rapidly increasing strength. However it comes at a cost of sapping all the energy from a trainee and leaving nothing in the tank. A proper 5x5 set of squats could take a week to recover from fully and the soreness experienced is like nothing else. This is contrary to the goals of a rugby player. Ramped weight is used to develop strength while leaving gas in the tank for other forms of training, and that shall be done.

For example on first day of training on Monday, squats could look like this for winger:

Warm-up empty bar (20kg) 2 sets of 5.

40kg x 5

45kg x 5

50kg x 5

55kg x 5

60kg x 5

The following Monday the squats would look like this:

Warm-up empty bar (20kg) 2 sets of 5.

40kg x 5

50kg x 5

55kg x 5

60kg x 5

65kg x 5

Write down on a piece of paper before getting to the gym exactly what weights you will hit and exactly for what reps. Next Monday add 2.5kg – 5kg to your final set. Progress.

For chin-ups and pull-ups you will first aim to complete five sets of five reps. If you can only do one pull-up than you will start with five sets of 1 rep. The reps will come. Once you have achieved five sets of five reps then add 5kg of weight to the next session either with a belt or by holding a dumbbell between your knees. Work it out. If you can’t do a pull-up then jump upwards and perform negative reps by lowering slowly.

The deadlift on Mondays: After your last set of power cleans add a 20kg plate to each end of the bar and perform just ONE set of five. You will feel like you can do more, the important thing is you don’t.

Wednesday

This is rep day. To flush the muscles with blood, promote growth and size, increase confidence under load and practice good form over and over.

Just like Mondays the loading will be ramped, but 5x10 will be used instead. That’s five sets of ten reps. The exception to this is the power clean, keep it to 5x5. For the cleans use your best weight from Monday and subtract 10kg. Subtract 20kg if you are gorilla strong and cleaning over 100kg.

For chin-ups and pull-ups, don’t use any additional weight and go for five sets of higher reps, aiming for 5x10 reps. When you hit 5x10 reps then great, keep it that way.

Friday

This is a low volume day but a great day to hit some new personal bests in the weight room.

You will ramp up to a personal best in the squat, overhead press and power clean. With squats and overhead presses this personal best can be a single, a double or a triple. With the power clean I want you to aim for a personal best single. Sets will still be around the five mark. Keep the reps to three or under.

If your last set of squats on Monday was five reps of 80kg then your training on Friday might look like this:

Empty bar 20kg 2 sets of 5 (warm-up sets)

40kg x 3

60kg x 3

80kg x 3

85kg x 3

90kg x 2

Write down what you do and aim to better it next Friday.

Warming up and cooling down

Warming up and cooling down will be the same. None of this gradually raising the heart rate bollocks, which will happen regardless. The goal of warming up and cooling down is to prepare the body, the spine in particular, to be loaded. Cross crawls serve to improve the movement and motor patterns of the body, while warming up the core musculature. The pump stretch serves to decompress the spine and mobilise the thoracic spine, hips and shoulders.

Cross-crawls 20 reps

These are simple. Stand and touch your elbow to your opposing knee without hunching or falling over. Keep tall. This is more difficult than it first appears. The slower you do this exercise the more benefit it gives. After a few weeks then this can be made more difficult by being performed in the press up position. This drill is used to strengthen the core and teach the body how to use the core properly as a stabilizer for moving limbs rather than a prime mover like sit-ups, crunches and leg raises teach.

Pump stretch 10 reps

My description for this exercise is awful so type “pump stretch” into Youtube.com and see for your-self.

Endurance

Have you ever noticed that children find the way that some people run funny?

I enjoy thinking. I’m quite a philosophical person, I think. I am at least more thoughtful than I was a few years ago. Most of the time my brilliance remains within my skull, attempts at sharing my thoughts and ideas with others usually results in bloodshed. Endurance exercise allows a unique opportunity to just think. Without distractions, which somebody with ADD can testify to is sometimes a niggle. On a side note I believe 100% that ADD (which I have been told I have) is the effect of a cause, not a disease. Mine was the result of computer games. Sidetracking, bloody distractions. You might call this thinking time meditation, or prayer, I just call it thinking. But, it is a different kind of thought, very insightful.

I find it funny when I see speed limp champion Bob. Does it ever enter this determined humans mind that something is wrong? Sadly I think the problem is many become acceptant there is no solution to their problem, which is usually a movement deficiency. I admire those who work on their problems, more so than those that complete marathons with ignorance to them. Note to endurance athletes: eat more protein. It is important and doesn’t make you big, just better.

Endurance comes in many forms. Be it 400m brutal lactic acid burning sprints, lung breaking quad suffering 50 mile time trials, or a power walk. It is endurance if you are enduring – and hopefully coming out the other side unscathed. In fact this is exactly what has been increasingly attracting me to endurance: enduring pain without pain (massive paradox). I derive an incredible amount of satisfaction by walking the ever growing lands of suffering while remaining pain free. It’s my way of poking the devil with a stick.

Pain free exercise and proper movement are the same thing. I could quite happily run 5k with an unnatural heel-strike and be pain free, however what other problems will be associated with this and why am I running on my heels in the first place?

“Some might think that by climbing a mountain, that we have conquered it. But, we are only visitors here” – David Attenborough

Mountain literature has been the cornerstone of my recent reading frenzy. I highly recommend reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer to kick start the habit. Quite simply I have developed more admiration for these athletes than any other. Not only do these athletes have to be technically brilliant, they have to be daring, brave and extremely fit in every fashion. Enduring in high altitude conditions is like being a hundred years old and walking with a zimmer frame, apparently. I shall simply leave a little fact. For every four people that attempt K2, one dies trying.