Strength Training For Ultimate – General Considerations
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Loading ...Been a while; let’s get back to it, with some of my thoughts on strength training for ultimate these days (which are always subject to change and revision as I learn and experience more).
I’m trying to build back up to doing more extensive posts by baby steps, keeping it short here; leave a comment if you’d like me to expand on anything.
General Considerations
- As with all strength training, the three big lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press) are king for developing both size and strength (which, in turn, lay the foundation for developing power and speed). Don’t talk to me about getting faster by doing plyos if you can’t do a full squat with at least bodyweight (and preferably 1.5x if not more), if you don’t know what a deadlift is.
- Technique is of paramount importance. Use a full range of motion, lift under control. For the novice (and often for the not-perfect intermediate – which is to say, essentially all ultimate players), just getting “good” at doing the lift through a full range of motion is enough to still make progress and add useful strength, while cutting injury risk.
- Use loads that you can handle, but know that staying just shy of your limits without going over will enable better recovery and progress than going overboard. That is to say, it’s important to operate in a range of intensity that is challenging but manageable to induce an appropriate training effect.
- PLEASE don’t train to failure – you’ll set yourself back for days, if not longer (failure really stresses out your nervous system). Much better to stop 1 rep short or cut 5 or 10 pounds from the next set than to push it and fail…the nervous system doesn’t recover well from such insults.
- That said, continually pushing your limits is the key to real progress so don’t be gun shy about progressing in your loading. However, it’s deleterious to do so if you can’t keep good form. If you’re stalling in your gains, drop weight a bit and get back to the basics of lifting Perfectly. Expand the range you can do with less weight. Poor form compensates for weak links and holds you back; strive for excellence.
More to come on programming in the next post. Feel free to comment if you have questions, etc.
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3 Responses to “Strength Training For Ultimate – General Considerations”
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I can see how it’s easy to recommend the classic powerlifts: squat, DL, bench, but to drill down a bit more, why not recommend front squat over back squat (as Dan John / Mike Boyle / many strength coaches do)? Whether you buy the more-functional argument, the lift is arguably safer and ties into the eventual progression of Olympic cleans / jerks.
I go back & forth about DL, esp. since most athletes don’t have a trapbar DL. And benching, I think there’s the argument against that Eric Cressey makes, and the Kettlebell crew make, which is to say that bilateral pushing in a supine position is not very functional, and for a throwing athlete possibly dangerous.
I’ve been reading Coach Dos’s power training, I think you’d like it, and I think I’d recommend his lifting programs over classical powerlifts, although they are more technical and not just what you’d get from Mark Rippletoe / the PL crowd.
Leslie,
Those are all valid concerns, but I think in terms of building a strength base those three lifts remain the classics with good reason.
For more advanced lifters who already have a base of competence in those, yeah – I think a shift to more front-squat and looking to incorporate oly lifts, trap bar DL, unilateral bench pressing are all great – you can even work them in as an adjunct to the basics for ambitious novices – but I think the simplest and most effective way to gain strength remains doing these “core” lifts.
For squatting, I think either is fine to start, but I will say that the quad-dominant emphasis of front squatting loses something compared to the more hip and posterior-chain focused back. Sample size of 1 alert here, but for me back squats do more to keep me balanced than front squats – I’ve always been very quad-dominant; that said, I work both.
Proper form is always a must of course – all of these lifts have some technical requirement to learn before building up to heaver loads, but that’s no different than with any alternatives.
I think all of those considerations have merit in the large sample size those coaches have seen – and certainly if we’re taking a cookie-cutter approach to recommendations, it’s good to err on the side of lower risk…HOWEVER, these are I think relative micromanagement of risk compared to the potential gains for starting and doing work (whereas these coaches are preaching more to the “traditional” powerlifting crowd to modify their existing routines, I’m talking about creating one at all for a less powerlift-inclined crowd) – great if people can outlay time and effort to really get into all the technicalities, but for people who are relative lifting novices that won’t be using massive loads I think simplicity is the rule of the day – and the simplicity/result ratio doesn’t get much better than these lifts.
I’ll say this more explicitly in a post to come, but my view is that you use the core lifts as the base of your workout and get creative with unilateral work, etc in your assistance lifts. The metabolic and neurological benefit of the heavy load big lifts isn’t lost, and you still work in various other movements to balance out the and get your functional carryover.
Can you give me a better idea of Coach Dos’ stuff? Linkage to a program template or the like? Coachdos.com shows a fair bit of marketing.
Definitely the classic lifts are a good choice, simpler and easier to convince people to start with these.
There’s the argument that front squats are more functional because they are quad-dominant — if you want to do more posterior chain work, do posterior chain work with bilateral or single-leg deadlifts. That said, it takes longer to learn the front squat or RFESS.
Let’s see, look at Coach Dos’s blog? http://coachdos.blogspot.com/ though he hasn’t updated for a while.
Try looking at his YouTube videos?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnZN-4ConSI