HEAVY DUTY HOMEMADE TRAINING EQUIPMENT: THE WORKOUT By Matthew Ellis Copyright 2013 by Matthew Ellis Ellis Fitness & Coaching, LLC Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com Copyright page COPYRIGHT © Copyright © 2013 Ellis Fitness & Coaching LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this information may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, distributing, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, Matthew Ellis. The author and publisher disclaim any responsibility for any adverse effects or consequences from the misapplication or injudicious use of the information presented in this text. Inquires should be addressed by e-mail to Ellis Fitness & Coaching LLC, [email protected]. For complete information on all Ellis Fitness & Coaching products and more valuable information available to help you get incredible results in your training, visit www.PrimalATC.com. TERMS AND CONDITIONS 1. I am aware that Ellis Fitness & Coaching LLC, and its member Matthew Ellis, is not a medical doctor and does not qualify to determine a participant’s physical capability to engage in strenuous exercise. 2. Medical clearance from my physician may be required prior to participation in any exercise program and/or engaging in any of the exercises contained within this manual. Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com About the Author Matthew Ellis was born in Coventry, Rhode Island. Matt played all of the “typical” youth sports growing up but basketball was his main concentration. It wasn’t until after Matt was cut from the basketball team his freshman year of High School that he discovered the sport that would change his life, Track and Field. When the coach asked him if he wanted to join the track team, Matt explained, “I’m not that fast of a runner.” A shot put was placed in his hand and he never played another game of basketball again. Matt has been involved in the sport of Track and Field for over 20 years. Matt was a competitive high school and collegiate thrower, a track and field equipment salesman, a volunteer throws coach, strength and conditioning coach, a private throws coach, and is the owner of Primal Athlete Training Center in Cranston, RI. As owner of Primal Athlete Training Center, Matt has a unique opportunity to work with high school athletes from a number of different schools and sports. In addition to Track and Field athletes, Matt trains athletes in Football, Hockey, Golf, Basketball, Wrestling, Lacrosse, Baseball, and Volleyball. Because he trains athletes from different sports, of all different ages, with different practice schedules, who play in different seasons, Matt had to develop a fool-proof method of scheduling strength and conditioning programs around team practices, competitions, snow days, and school vacations. This method allows the athlete to train around any issues that might pop up and gain strength during the season and to peak at the right time; the championship games and meets at the end of the season. Matthew is married to the love of his life, his wife Jennifer. Matt and Jen are the parents of two wonderful children. This book is dedicated to Jen and the kids. Their constant love and support motivates Matt everyday and gives him the confidence to produce material like this book to help your athletes. Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com Table of Contents Section I – Introduction Page 6 What is this Guide All About? Page 7 Who is this Guide for? Page 9 Layout of the Training Page 10 Scheduling the Training Page 12 Section II – Homemade Equipment Workouts Page 13 Week 1 – Creating a Foundation Page 14 Week 2 – Start Building Page 15 Week 3 – Increase Even More Page 16 Week 4 – Push Beyond Your Comfort Zone Page 17 Week 5 – Deload Page 18 Week 6 – Blending Strength and Speed Week 1 Page 19 Week 7 – Blending Strength and Speed Week 2 Page 20 Week 8 – Blending Strength and Speed Week 3 Page 21 Week 9 – Deload Page 22 Week 10 – Explosive Movement Training Week 1 Page 23 Week 11 – Explosive Movement Training Week 2 Page 24 Week 12 – Explosive Movement Training Week 3 Page 25 Week 13 – Deload Before the Big Meet Page 26 Conclusion Page 27 Section III – Other Resources for Track and Field Training Page 28 Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAM Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com What is this Program All About? Day in and day out, I receive emails from coaches and athletes around the world detailing their lack of resources and equipment. Underfunded teams, no money to buy equipment, no weight room for the athletes to lift weights, or weight rooms so overcrowded that there is no way the entire track team can get in there and get in a solid training session. If this sounds like a similar situation to what you have to contend with at your school, you’ve come to the right place. This program was created so you can have a bulletproof training system using the equipment you made that will get your athletes stronger, more explosive and powerful, and reaching their peak at the end of the season in time for the championship meets. This guide will explain how to schedule the training working backwards from your big championship goal meet to the beginning of the season. It will be scaled for difficulty so younger athletes can train right alongside your stronger upperclassmen. It will also give ideas where you can use free equipment like heavy rocks, old tires, or rusty old weight plates to add even more variety to the training. This training is meant to be done outside on the track or near the throwing areas. Many schools do not have indoor facilities or weight rooms where they can train. All of the homemade equipment you built from disc 1 can be stored outside along with the other track equipment. Much like medicine ball training and plyometric training, this training should be done in conjunction with your other training scheduled on that particular day. This training is fast and explosive and is meant to build strength and explosive power. It should not take the place of the specific event training or take time away from specific technique work. Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com For a lot of schools and athletes, this is the missing link that will allow proper strength and explosive movement training to translate over to their events. I know how frustrating it can be to have zero resources and zero support. My hope is that this program provides the necessary training an athlete needs to get stronger and peak for the right time of year. Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com Who is this Guide for? This guide has been created specifically for athletes competing during their season. In reality, any athlete from any sport can follow this guide and become stronger, faster, and more powerful. These methods have been used by my athletes for many years and have translated exceptionally well for their sports. With that being said, this guide can be used by the brand new beginner level athlete all the way up to your experienced upperclassmen. Athletes just starting out in the world of strength training and weight lifting need to have a great base, which this program will provide. This program is scalable and will allow the athlete to use heavier objects and more difficult exercises to achieve success. In this program, you will be using very awkward objects, your bodyweight, and some heavy weights. It is imperative that you use proper form demonstrated in disc 2 that came with this training program. Primal Athlete Training Center www.PrimalATC.com Layout of the Training Like all good training plans, there are stages to this program. The first stage of training is an accumulation stage designed to get your body stronger and ready for the explosive work that will be thrown at it. This will be the foundation for the training that is to follow. In Week 1 you will be starting out with some tried and true, compound lifts. Total body “big lifts” as they are sometimes called. In Week 2 the exercises get a little bit more difficult and heavier. In Weeks 3 and 4, you will be pushed to go heavier and harder than ever before. You may not complete all of the prescribed amount of repetitions. That is perfectly ok. Weeks 3 and 4 are weeks where you will be testing your abilities and hopefully surprising yourself and realizing you are stronger than you think. The second stage (Building Strength and Speed) is where the real meat of this program starts to take shape. You will be combining some pure compound strength exercises with more explosive exercises. Blending strength training and explosive movement training together will allow your body to start producing more power and become faster and more explosive. You will notice a big increase in speed while still noticing a slight increase in strength. The third stage (Explosive Movement Training) is where you focus primarily on moving with weight as quickly as possible. This stage will taper down allowing you to achieve a peak for the end of the season. You will notice a few things about these stages. The first thing that you will notice is that you will use your entire body and many different muscle groups all in the same day. These daily exercises will be set up as a circuit where the athlete will move from one exercise to the other in order without a lot of rest.