*Tension is paramount if you want a big deadlift. Abs AND upper back in particular. If you are one of those weirdos who like to bend their elbows, sink down and almost try to jump up in order to get a little momentum into your deadlift you will struggle to move serious weight. You need to create tension across your upper back as soon as you set your grip. I tell my clients to pretend I shoved a golf ball, or a tangerine if you want to get fancy, into your armpits and I want you to prevent them from falling out during your set. To keep the golf ball in place, you would have to clamp down around your armpits; this provides the type of tension you need in order to pull a 3-rep max off the floor.

 *How much protein do you really need? Unless you plan on becoming a competitive bodybuilder, it is probably not as much as you would think. If you multiply your bodyweight by 1 or even .8, it gives you a range you can start with. Protein is essential but you could probably get away with less than you think!

 *We use resisted sprinting as a method of improving acceleration. We strap a sled to the athlete and have her/him sprint 10 to 20 yards. Before COVID, I had begun experimenting with the load added to the sled to try to find an ideal resistance for each athlete. I would take the athletes top 10-yard sprint time as a guide and add weight to the sled until we found the resistances that slowed the athletes sprint time by 50-90percent. So if she could sprint 10 yards in 1.75 seconds, we would add weight until her time slowed to roughly 2.6 seconds.

 Some of my athletes have high levels of strength and could use to spend more time improving speed while others just need to get stronger. A stronger athlete might be better off training with a load that only reduces their speed by 30-50 percent whereas a weaker athlete can build some strength and speed by using a load that cuts their time by 60-90 percent.

 *How do we know if an athlete needs to improve strength or speed? For the purposes of running faster, we can look at how skilled the athlete is at applying force in a horizontal direction during the early stages of a sprint.

 (Picture 1- Notice the forward torso angle, the knee and foot ready to drive BACK against the ground, pushing the athlete forward. This is acceleration and horizontal force is what allows this athlete to accelerate)

(Picture 2- Notice the near-vertical torso, the knee and foot will strike directly down into the ground, helping the athlete maintain his speed. This athlete is through their acceleration phase and is producing force vertically)

 Weaker athletes will struggle to produce horizontal force over a longer distance. If we strap a heavier sled to them the weight will force the athlete to lean forward and apply force horizontally, otherwise they wouldn’t go anywhere.  As a side note, I should point out that during a sprint an athlete is always producing vertical and horizontal force at the same time. Ideally, he is producing more horizontal force than vertical in the early stages of a sprint. The fastest athletes will maintain a higher percentage of horizontal to vertical force in the first 10-20 yards of a sprint.

 *What do you want to know more about? What interests you? I thrive on purpose, I need to have a reason for doing something. This is mostly just a collection of my thoughts from the week and I would love to have something specific to write about each week. Feel free to DM, text, email, tweet, hand write me a letter and mail it and I will answer your questions here each week.