GET UP! Volume 1, Issue 1 July 2002 Welcome Aboard! the key to superlative performance in not only the Master Athlete, but everyone else, too. In the past few years, those of us in the Yet, none of this came clear to me until lifting and throwing game have seen a number of after the Northwest Regional Masters Track and newsletters and magazines come and go. Many Field meet when George Mathews mentioned of these were excellent, but the “market” was too that “the problem with being a Master is the loss of muscle mass.” He noted that at a certain age, Subscription Rates: you suddenly become frozen, it seems. Free off the site: Hypertrophy, the building of muscle mass, http://danjohn.org/coach.html seemed to be the answer. The problem? The traditional means of Published by Daniel John periodizing, building up one’s training over a Daniel John, Editor few months was shaped like this: Copyright © Daniel John, 2002 Period One: Hypertrophy (Good old All Rights Reserved Bodybuilding) Any unauthorized reproduction is strictly Period Two: Basic Strength Time (Go Heavy, prohibited. Go Hard, Go Home) Period Three: Basic Power Stage (This is when small to make anything pay off. one starts lifting faster in the weight room, more “Get UP!” is dedicated to all those who emphasis on speed on the track lift and struggle on the field and weightroom. Competition…compete The upside of Get UP! is that it does not expect Period Five: Recovery (an active rest period of a to break even, nor make a profit. It is free. The few weeks where one backs way off and lets the downside is simply that the first few issues will mind and muscles heal. be written…mostly…by the Editor. For the older athlete, this may still Oh, “Ge t UP!” has no true meaning, just work, but John noted that there was a key a phrase you hear a lot in lifting meets and element missing Passion! George also pointed football practice. The focus of the newsletter will out that the loss of hypertrophy (muscle mass) be the same as the websites…real information was the missing. that works for most strength and power athletes. An overview: There will be an emphasis on “complementary Phase One training,” competing in one discipline to help This could last as long as a whole another, like Highland Games to help discus career. Basically, it is the “nerve and muscle” throwing. Throughout the newsletter, I will stage. One learns the techniques of the sport and include short blurbs about nutrition and training. ingrains a simpler and smoother method of performance. Ideally, one would begin with a “Phase Training” for the full blood profile test, I would argue for HDL Master Athlete and Triglycerides to be monitored throughout one’s adult life. John Powell added testosterone About two years ago, John Powell and I and DHEA levels for men, too. had a long conversation about training past the During training, one strives for, first, age of forty. John, for those of you who may not correctly performing all the movements…from know, is the former world record holder in the lifting to jumping to the competitive movement. discus and holds two bronze medals from the Second, John recommends repetitive, but Olympics…as well as a Silver medal from the rhythmic, sets of “big lifts,” i.e. squats, cleans world championships at age forty! and snatches. John broke down “past forty” training John had an illumination in his into two basic “phases:” Phase One, which may throwing career when he talked with World Shot last from 30 days to 30 years, and Phase Two, Put champion Peter Sarul and then members of the British Javelin team…who were very Get Up! The Official Newsletter of the Lifting and Throwing Page GET UP! Volume 1, Issue 1 July 2002 successful at the time. They told him about this Phase Two workout: John had only one word: Passion. From Power Clean: 60K x 10 the Latin, “to suffer,” I can’t think of a better Squat: 70K x 10 word to describe the Love/Hate/Suffer/Fury that Power Snatch: 50K x 10 is required to improve as an athlete. Sadly, many Front Squat: 60K x 10 young athletes have all the physical gifts, yet no Crunches: 25 passion. “The Love of the Game” is a perfect title…for a disappointing movie. You did these in a circuit, one after another, then Passion. Well, how do we get it? Master tracked your heart rate on completion. You did athletes can teach the youth here: this cluster for three sets. As your heart rate 1. Travel to a lot of meets. would go down (over time), obviously your 2. Hang out with your competition for long conditioning was better. periods afterwards. Also, your total circuit 3. Read everything, watch everything you can time should try to go about your sport. down, too. 4. Travel some more. Hang out some more. John discovered Learn more. that these “fast” 5. Spend your money on your sport! workouts focusing on 6. See number four above! speed and condition, led Yet, something is missing. I think him to his lifetime best George hit it on the head when he discussed throws. (On the left, hypertrophy. For Phase One, we can focus on John at his peak.) speed and technique (nerve and muscle), but in Phase Two…as we build passion in our For basic training, John believes that hearts…we need to build muscles in our body. repetition is the mother of instruction in Phase As a matter of interest, short spurts of One. He though any drill that one could do over intense training increases the natural Growth and over…while focusing on making the Hormones of the body…the anti-aging drugs. In technique simpler and simpler…would be the Phase Two, a serious attempt to both raise GH key. For a discus thrower, he recommended and build muscle are a yin-yang relationship! doing the turn forwards and backwards (without The research, although it is tough to throwing) with an overweight implement, then discover, seems to point to several things, if you going through a workout. want to increase GH (and hypertrophy). In every sport, there are drills that 1. Eat some protein before lifting…ten to twenty ingrain technique. Here is a basic “learning to grams. snatch” routine from internet guru MLL: 2. Monitor rest periods between sets (one minute Every workout: rests have shown, in some studies, to spike GH) 1. A set of 20 snatch drops, settling into the low position, 3. Use “full body” lifts, such as my favorites: trying to feel the stretch and attempting to do ‘em with 10 Power Clean and Front Squat under your heels and then 5's and then nothing (if you could Power Curl wear shoes with a heel it would be great). Clean and Press 2. 50 snatches from the high hang. You are training yourself Overhead Squat to explode witrh the bar. Good Morning or variations 3. 20 snatches from the high hang while attempting to jump Clean grip snatch under the bar. You havde to train yourself to jump the bar up Power snatch and then at exactly the right moment jump under the bar 4. Don’t be afraid to “bodybuild.” Get those arm 4. Overhead squats: 2 sets of 5 with bar 2 sets of 5 with 65 curls, triceps extensions, lat pulls, whatever. 2 sets of five with 85 Put your time in during Phase Two 2 sets of five with 95. building your Passion and Body. You should be able to do all this in a half hour. Not a bad idea. But how to move on? Get Up! The Official Newsletter of the Lifting and Throwing Page GET UP! Volume 1, Issue 1 July 2002 “Magnesium is essential, not just for relaxing muscles and thus avoiding muscle cramps and spasms, it is also The Overhead necessary for the maintenance of Squat hormone levels, especial ly “I would only do one exercise, if I testosterone.” could do it all over again,” Chris told Ori Hofmekler me. “Really? Which one?” “Overhead Squats.” I thought he was joking. Sure, I had done a few and I thought they never really amounted to anything. Donate Blood! “This coach in California won’t let his As you guys who have been around guys throw until they can do fifteen know, I give blood as often as I can, four or five reps with bodyweight.” What? Fifteen? “It makes you one piece, an animal.” (From “The Overhead times a year. I usually pass out, but I have been Squat Article”) giving blood since 1978 and I keep coming back. I had a great talk with all the nice gals at the Red Cross, believe it or not, I usually get into What did you have for conversations about health, lifting and theology. Breakfast? Well, the research is getting clearer and clearer (of course, the Red Cross would push this This question: “What did you have for point anyway) that giving blood is one of the Breakfast?” is the answer to all questions and the healthiest things a man can do! It lowers the question to all answers. “I want to gain weight, I blood iron levels, a good thing: you don’t want want to lose weight, I want to lift more” were all “rust,” and it helps the blood flow “easier” answered by Dick with “What did you have for through the system.