My Trip to Strength and Performance Headquarters!

Monday Motivation: The TRAINER becomes the TRAINEE

My Trip to Strength and Performance Headquarters

By John Gaglione

About a week ago I took a trip to upstate New York to visit a strength coach named Joe Hashey. I have followed his work for awhile now and he has loads of effective and innovative training techniques for strength and conditioning. We did some basic lifts like deadlifts, picking up stones, and farmers walks and some crazy conditioning with sleds and ropes!

One of the best things about Joe is that he LEADS BY EXAMPLE and pushes himself to the limit. I noticed that Joe’s attitude “trickles” down to all of his athletes and they all train with INTENSITY. Joe also makes sure, if an athlete is lifting with improper form, to point out the mistake and they will work on it.

The workout looked like this

A) Deadlifts

We Worked up to a max single.  A classic exercise for the entire posterior chain(lats, low back, glutes, hamstrings), which is typically weak in most people. This was the strength builder for the workout.

B1) Stone Lifting

We lifted an atlas stone from the floor to chest height and dropped it onto a tire. This exercise really works the entire body and forces you to be explosive. The athlete must have tension throughout their entire body and then extend their hips, knees, low back, and ankles in order to lift the stone.

B2) Farmers Walks

A great exercise for conditioning and grip. Walking is about as simple as an exercise can get, but add a few hundred pounds and you have a brutal performance enhancing lift! Joe has strongman style homemade handles, which worked great.

C) Prowler Push + PUPP(Push Up Position Plank) Rows

This one was a killer. We split up into teams for this one. Our partner had to hold themselves up in a push up position while rowing Prowler(sled) to them.  This works on shoulder and core stability. Then the other partner would push it back. Once your partner was done he would switch exercises with you. This taxes the grip, the legs. Bring your “third lung” for this INSANE circuit.

All conditioning sets were ON THE CLOCK and everyone always tries to beat their time. The athletes and coaches constantly try to beat their own and each others personal records. This creates friendly competition and helps everyone maintain progress.

D) Prowler Suicides

Push the Sled on the high handle setting to certain distance and then push it back with the low handles. We did this “suicide style” for 4 trips getting progressively bigger each time. Another KILLER CONDITIONING exercise. We did a few sets of this exercise. The prowler does a nice job of mimicking the acceleration position in sprinting. It is also a great exercise for any football player as it mimics the blocking position as well.

This workout was very humbling for myself because it involved many of my weak points. My deadlift needs work and so does my conditioning and my grip. Sometimes the best exercises are the one you are not doing! People tend to do what they are good at as opposed to working on their weak points. It is important to keep working on what you are strong at, but NEVER neglect your weaknesses. I know my grip holds me back on some of my lifts and this was a very good reminder that I need to work on it.

The best part of the workout was the ENVIRONMENT. Everyone cheered each other on during the entire workout. Training in an INTENSE and POSITIVE atmosphere is crucial to success. The coaches, athletes and interns all did the conditioning together and everyone pushed 100%. EFFORT is the MOST IMPORTANT thing in the workout above everything else.

This type of training not only builds up the body, but the it works the MIND as well. The MENTAL side of training is HUGE. After going through this type of training the practices and game seem easy and the athletes performs better as a result. This type of training builds CONFIDENCE and an IRON WILL to succeed in training and in life.

A couple of take home points from the trip. You can have the most well thought out, scientific program in the world and still get poor results.

Whatever program you are on you need to PUT IN THE TIME AND EFFORT.

Find a coach that FIRES YOU UP.

Find a coach that PRACTICES WHAT HE PREACHES.

Find a training ENVIRONMENT that INSPIRES you to WORK HARD.

Find a group that makes YOU EXCEL and BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE.

I hope everyone KILLS IT in their workouts this week! Keep training hard!