Radhika was the first swimmer to come to me to train for strength. While on the surface her strength level may not seem impressive, the improvements in her contest results are. She competed in the Delhi State Aquatics championship in 2015 and came 4th in one event and didn't place anywhere in any other event.
After 5 months of strength training twice a week in the winter months and one year later she won 5 golds and 1 silver at the Delhi State Masters Aquatic Championship. Quite an improvement! For this reason I think her routine would be of great interest to athletes as it shows how to train for GPP with minimal time, zero athletic foundation and high life stress.
First of all, as a lawyer, Radhika had very little time to devote to training. So we decided to train in the late evening on Sundays and Wednesdays. During the off season, while the pools were closed she also took up a basic calisthenics routine combined with roadwork at the public park next to her residence, with a training partner. This routine consisted of a large amount of running, jumping, tumbling, crawling and general exercises like planks, push ups and bodyweight squats and was designed to build her athletic foundation and general work capacity. Flexibility was never really focused on as she was quite supple and time was limited.
First we determined that she should do some kind of squat, bench and overhead pressing and various pulls for the upper body. The squat was tricky and she just could not squat with even halfway decent form with any kind of weight. Eventually we settled on a below parallel box squat with the safety squat bar so that she could atleast do the movement. For a long time she was stuck in a rut with this exercise but with a little perseverance she finally broke through and suddenly her squat doubled in a short period.
The bench press was never hit truly hard, but progress was achieved. The real improvements though were in her vertical and horizontal pulling, which significantly impacted her swimming stroke. The basic emphasis was on gaining muscle as that was basically what she was missing. While we had many a battle about "I am getting fat!" the work paid off and her strength was much more consistent after she built the foundation of muscle she needed.
Here then is her basic routine and the results. Her bodyweight was 45kgs at the start of the program and 48kgs by the end though I cannot say all of it was muscle. She is 25 years old.
Wednesday Workout-
Throws + Jumps- 8-10 sets of 2-3 reps each, supersetted
(Typically box jumps and two arm shot throws)
Military press-
4-5 sets of 4-5 reps for warm up
6-10 sets of 2-4 reps (This was changed every week)
Safety Bar Box Squat-
3-5 sets of 4-6 reps for warm up
6-10 sets of 2-4 reps (This was changed every week)
Only in one of the two exercises would we push the volume and weight. This was alternated every week.
DB Clean And Press- 3 sets of 8-12
Lat Pulldowns- 5 sets of 6-10
Cable Crunches/Ab work- 3 sets of 8-15
Sled work- Reverse sled, sprints, forward dragging, monster walk, harness running
8-10 trips of 20m each
Sunday Workout-
Throws + Jumps- 8-10 sets of 2-3 reps each, supersetted
(Typically broad jumps and two arm shot throws)
Bench Press-
4-5 sets of 4-5 reps for warm up
6-10 sets of 2-4 reps (This was changed every week)
Safety Bar Box Squat-
3-5 sets of 4-6 reps for warm up
4-6 sets of 4-6 reps (This was changed every week)
Only in one of the two exercises would we push the volume and weight. This was alternated every week.
DB Bench Press- 3 sets of 6-10
Seated Rows/ Bodyweight Rows- 5 sets of 8-12 reps
RDLs- 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Leg raises/Ab work- 3 sets of 8-15 reps
Upper Body Sled Dragging- Shoulder raises, arm work, rowing
3-5 trips of 20m
Lower Body sled Dragging- Sprints, Reverse, Sideways
6-8 trips of 20m
She made the following improvements-
Deadlift- 35kgs to 65kgs
Squat- 22kgs to 50kgs
Military- 12kgs to 24kgs
Bench Press- 15kgs to 29kgs
Box jump- 10" to 22"
Lat Pulldowns- 10 reps with 35kgs on the machine to 12 reps with 60kgs
Congratulations Radhika and all the best, I am proud of you!
U did a great job on someone who was thirsting to improve!! congratulations to both of u! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Tejas.
ReplyDeleteBeing following you for a while, almosr thought youd stopped posting. But glad youre back now.
First of all, congratulations on your incredible journey. It really is inspirational.
First off, here are my stats:
Age: 20
Height: 6 feet 1.5 inches
Weight: 96 kg
Training experience: 8 months.
Now the problem is my deadlift. Before I cut weight I was 105 kg. At that point I deadlifted 195 kg for a one rep max. Ever since I cut weight I have seen a drastic drop in my deadlift as well. I dropped close to 10 kg and my deadlift seems to have gone down by about 25kg. Today I tested out my one rep max and turns out its down to 170. So I just wanted your opinion regarding my situation since you have experience training athletes on a regular basis. Is such a major drop acceptable and should I work on increasing my strength levels at a lighter bodyweight. Not that I have a choice but a little advice would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot and keep the posts coming man. These are of great value.
Khushmaan.
Thank you so much for your kind words!
DeleteDramatic drops, increases or really changes of any kind in 1 R.M strength in the deadlift is entirely normal with weight loss. This depends on your leverages. Most short guys actually get stronger in the deadlift with weight loss. The first thing I would ask you is, how is your squat and bench press? If that is stable, then dont worry too much about one lift. Instead focus on bring up your base. The deadlift will come up too.
The second thing is, how important is the deadlift to you? If you compete or you think it transfers positively to your sport then yes, you should chase a bigger number. But otherwise don't worry about it too much and increase your overall strength. A 210-230kg deadlift is doable by anyone at pretty much any bodyweight or level of muscle mass, you just need to get used to handling weight. You will see this in all contests- out of 50 guys, 40 will be deadlifting 210, 10 of then will go over 230 and maybe one over 250. So the drop off point is only after around 230.
While this will differ from person to person, I have found that snatch grip deadlifts from just below the knee done for 3-5 sets of 6-8 reps as heavy as possible will really eliminate all weaknesses in the deadlift for those over 6 feet and still in the foundation stage. Do this once a week, no belt, with a double overhand grip or straps. Deadlift normally once a week and just run a simple cycle- Week 1 75%x8x3reps, Week 2 82.5%x8x2reps, Week 3 90%x8x1reps Then repeat the whole thing again with +5kgs. Keep doing this until you are using your old max on the third week. Then take a week off and test. Be very conservative with the starting max.
Finally as a tall guy do Front and high bar squats and lots of them. They may do more for your deadlift than actual deadlifting.
First off thanks a lot for responding.
ReplyDeleteMy bench has gone down by about 10 kilos max it is now 115kg which used to be 125 for a orm.
My squat has not changed by much at all.
I used to push about 140 on a bulk and now I push about 135 for a orm.
I will definitely follow the program you suggested and give you a feedback for sure.
I had made drastic changes to my training style as well before I started a cut.
Earlier on I used to train the typical bodybuilder training. One bodypart per day.
When i began cutting i increased the sets of bodyweight exercises from 3 gradually to 10 so its typically now I do bodyweight work for the first half hour of my training which incorporates roughly 100 pullups (10 sets of 10) and 200 pushups/dips (10 sets of 20 each). So I suppose it takes a bit out of the grip and stamina since I deadlift after this now.
Ill do the deadlift program you suggested the first thing i do and ill keep the rest for after ive done this.
Once again thanks for coming back on this. Ill keep you posted on how I'm doing.
Khushmaan