I asked Jay if he would mind sitting down with me for a non-scripted chat/interview and we recorded it to share with you.  Below is Jay’s bio that I stole off his website www.CVASPS.com .  I would recommend checking it out, it is full of good training information from a variety of contributing strength coaches and weight training professionals.  I am also going to ask Jay for a guest post that I will share with you when he is able to get us one during his busy schedule.

Jay DeMayo has been the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Men’s and Women’s Basketball at the University of Richmond since October 2005.  Jay is a graduate of the State University of New York College at Cortland where he was a two year starter on the Men’s Soccer team.  Prior to taking over the responsibilities of Men’s and Women’s Basketball at UR Jay worked with every team on campus as the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach working.  During his tenure at Richmond, Coach DeMayo has worked with five All-Americans, and 10 Atlantic 10 championship teams.  Presently Jay is also responsible for the dry land training for NOVA Aquatics LLC, one of the top youth swim clubs on the eastern seaboard where he has coached over twenty athlete’s whom have qualified for Olympic Trials.

Coach DeMayo’s constant effort to better himself as a coach has brought him numerous certifications.  Coach DeMayo has his Level I coaching certification from USA Track and Field, is certified as an American Kettlebell Club Coach, United States Weightlifting Sport Performance Coach and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Coach DeMayo has also been a presenter for four consecutive years at the Pennsylvania State Clinic at Juniata College.  At the PA State Clinic Coach DeMayo has spoken on “Training Soccer Players, Developing a 3 Day Strength Training Program,”  “Max Effort Training for Sports,” and “Lift Preparation, The Next Evolution of the Warm Up,” “Developing a Progression for Auxiliary Lifts” and “Teaching the Squat and Deadlift.”  Coach DeMayo has also presented at the University of Richmond Sports Performance Clinic and with the Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball Academy.  Coach DeMayo has also been involved in developing the Basketball Strength Symposium in Raleigh, NC, and the Central VA Sports Performance Seminar.

I would personally like to thank Coach DeMayo for taking the time to sit down to have this discussion.

Hope this helps!

To your health,

Jerry

When an athlete performs a regular step-up, there will be many muscles of the lower legs that will be stimulated.  When you watch the video of my women’s basketball players doing a power step-up, you will see a jump stretch band attached around their waist.  This will have two main functions.  The first will be forcing them to stimulate the torso musculature.  This is desirable as we will want as many muscle fibers stimulated as possible and any additional core activation is always a good thing.  In the second function, the band is holding the athlete back and the athlete is forced to drive the hip forward and move the leg into a more aggressive triple extension firing pattern.  This triple extension will occur in the hip, knee, and ankle.  It is this powerful motion that accelerates an athlete forward explosively.

When performing a power step-up you will need a light or medium jump stretch band and something sturdy to step-up onto at a height of approximately 18-24″.  Loop the jump stretch band around an immoveable object at waist height.  I use my cable machines because there is no sharp edges to cut into the band.  Position a step-up platform about 2 feet from the end of the band.  In the video, the ladies are stepping onto a Legend foam plyo box.  This will give this exercise an added bonus because the athletes will have to stabilize their ankles and maintain balance.  The athlete will then step into the loop of the band and place the loop around their waist.  Place one foot onto the box so that the entire foot is on the box.  In a running motion, drive the heel of the foot that is on the box down hard into the box and drive the body forward.  Again emphasize a running motion with good arm swing and knee drive.  Keep the foot on the box and step back down with the other foot to the floor.  Repeat this motion for the desired number of reps or time of the exercise.

Typically I will have athletes perform 4 sets of 6-10 reps per leg.  An alternative would be to have the athlete step both feet down back to the floor and alternate the step-ups.  In this fashion, I would normally go for a timed session of 30-60 seconds.

If first step acceleration is something you need to improve on then you will want to give this one a try.  As a strength coach, I always believe this is an area that can be improved on.

Hope this helps.

To your health,

Jerry

How to execute a dead lift power shrug is as easy as combining a dead lift and a power shrug together.  OK right now you might be thinking..”really!”   But seriously, someone who is reading this right now might not know exactly how to dead lift or has done shrugs but is not familiar with the term “power shrug”.  So I think it would be good to give a quick review of each exercise and then talk about how and why we would combine the two.

Look at the picture to the right of Franco Columbu performing a conventional dead lift.  Mr. Columbu was known for bodybuilding but he also did some power lifting on the side.  Did I mention that he is one of my favorite strength athletes of all time!  Well if you didn’t know-you do now.

Here are some of my coaching ques I tell my athletes when they dead lift a bar bell:

• Start with your feet shoulder width apart with your toes forward or slightly turned out
• The bar should be right up close to the shins
• Squat down and position the arms just outside of your knees and grab the bar bell.  You can use a double over hand grip or  have one hand as an overhand grip and the other as an underhand grip.  In the picture Franco’s left hand is in the over hand grip position and his right is in the under grip positions.  This type of grip is usually used when maxing out or just learning how to dead lift as it is easier to keep the bar closer to your legs.  I will talk more about the double over hand grip later
• Grasp the bar tightly and position your back in a neutral position with your head up and shoulders directly over the bar.  You want to try to not round your back at all during the lift
• Keep your weight positioned in your heels of your feet as you start to stand up, take a breath and feel the weight in your hands before you stand up
• Tighten up your entire mid-section and begin extending your legs maintaining form throughout the motion as you stand up
• Do not hyper extend your back to try to lock it out at the top.  This can be very risky to your low back if you are not an experienced power lifter
• Return the weight back to the floor by squatting the weight down in reverse order
• Remember to always keep the weight close to your legs at all times during the dead lift

Then I did it; I asked so what all do you do with this thing and then he was like a little kid left in a toy store over night.  You could see his passion and how he really believed in everything he was showing me.  Now you all know how I love to add variety into training but I don’t get to overly crazy with today’s “functional” frenzy, but as I watched Chris and he was explaining things to me as he saw it; I started to think there might more to this than I gave credit for.  I was really impressed at all the different ways he was showing me how to set up the stretch bands with this piece of equipment.   Unlimited possibilities!  Then it happened, Chris asked me if I wanted to keep it for a month or two to play with it and find out for myself.  I am not one to pass up an opportunity and said yes.  I am glad I did because I have been seeing some benefits from incorporating some of his craziness into my workouts.  I guess the moral of this story is not to be afraid of trying new things out on yourself.

This workout I am sharing with you really does not have anything all that crazy incorporated into it but it will give you some inside looks at this new piece of training equipment that is about to hit the mainstream market.  I just happened to have my video camera there that day and had another request for me to film one of my personal workouts again.  I did not have a lot of time so I just through together a quick 6 exercise circuit and ran through it 5 times for a total of 5 sets per exercise at 10 reps each.

• Staggered Stance Chest Press
• Pull Back Into Isometric Hold With Scapular Retraction
• Forward Pull Good Morning
• Alternating Dumbbell Curl
• Cable/Rope Triceps Push Down
• Finger Tip Hang (Each Set Till Fatigued)

Nothing fancy but quick and effective when not having a lot of time.  If you have any training questions about the ARC or anything just let me know and I will do my best to get you an answer or my opinion.

I would like to thank Chris for trusting and allowing me to borrow the ARC for a few months until he makes a trip back down from Canada.  I will probably put up a few more exercises for everyone before he “tries” to take it back.  He has played and still does play Rugby so if I have to get into a scrum with him I might have my hands full!

To your health,

Jerry

They majority of free weight lower or total body movements will have some activation of the glute muslces.   They are working while doing squats, lunges, dead lifts, and step-ups just to name a few.  Many times a good balanced training program will be adequate enough not to have to target or try and isolate and athlete’s glutes.  But there are times when individuals have a hard time getting the proper activation of these muscles which can be a limiting factor in their progression or a higher risk of lower limb injury.

The following exercise that I am about to explain will provide good activation of the glute muscles.  I honestly do not have a name for this exercise but will prescribe it to athletes from time to time.  It basically is like a modified reverse hyper.  Louie Simmons from West Side Barbell came up with the original Reverse Hyper machine, and it really does a good job.  But not everyone will access to this piece of equipment.  Basically it is like a table top that you lay your upper body and mid-torso across with your legs off the table.  Your feet are strapped to a hanging weight almost like a pendulum and you move this weight back by contracting your posterior muscles which has a big emphasis in the glutes.  It will almost look like you are swinging the weight back and forth.  OK, I know that if you are familiar with the reverse hyper machine then you know what I am talking about and trying to explain.  If you are not familiar with it then that description probably has you all screwed up.  That’s OK if you are; you can look up a video of it later if you wish and it will make more sense.

So the exercise I am about to explain will work a lot of the posterior chain muscles but my main objective to to get good activation of the glutes.  You may have to get a little creative in setting this up and the easiest way to do this is by looping a jump stretch band around a power rack.  In the video, I start by using band chords which I attached to an ARC Trainer.  Now the Arc Trainer allows me to pretty much set up any configuration of band chords to do just about anything.  It is a very handy piece of equipment that you will learn more about in the future as it becomes popular.   For now, just use what ever you have available to you to use.  I am going to explain it using a jump stretch band.

Attach the band a few feet off the floor, around waist high.  Then lay down on your back and bring a foot up and loop the band securely around the foot.  Keep your back flat on the ground and then drive the leg down towards the floor (try to keep your leg somewhat straight).  Try to initiate the movement from your glute and when the leg gets to the floor squeeze those muscles tightly.  Return back up under control and repeat for reps or fatigue.

You will really feel this working.  Do not get carried away and do a ton of sets the first time you learn this exercise or you might have trouble sitting the next two days.  Usually 3-5 sets of 10-12 reps per leg is adequate.  You can also attach a second band and do both legs together or alternating movements like if you were walking.  I prefer single leg or alternating reps over doing both legs at the same time.  When doing both legs at the same time; I do not like the tilt of the pelvis and I feel there is some not needed stress placed in the low back area.  I never feel this stress of see the tilt when doing single leg or alternating.

If you feel you are not getting the activation of the glutes or it is your weak link in your kinetic chain, then give this a try.  Heck, just give it a try and you will know what I am talking about.

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry

This was a relatively cheap addition but worth it’s weight in gold for the benefits my athletes get from it.  Just trying to climb the rope takes a vast amount of strength.  A typical climbing workout would look like this:  I would have the athlete sit on the platform and grab the rope with a tight grip.  They would then be instructed to try and keep their legs straight and go hand over hand climbing up to the top of the rack and then work back down as many times as they are able.  Many athletes are not able to do this the first time they try and many female athletes might not ever reach this level.  This is where progression comes into play.

One way to make this a little easier is by lessening your body weight.  You can do this easily by keeping your feet in contact with the floor and then work on hand over hand techniques.  I normally have an athlete grab the rope and place their feet against the rack and lean back lowering themselves little by little and then climbing back (as demonstrated in the video).  The lower you go back towards the floor the harder it will be to climb back up to vertical.  You can see how this would be productive and everyone can work within their capabilities.

Another simple progression is to just stabilize your feet and lie back extending the arms and then without changing the grip or hand positions pull yourself back towards the rope like a rowing motion.  You can repeat for reps or until fatigued.  Make sure for variation you change your grip so that you are not always rowing with the right hand higher than the left or vise-versa.

You should always focus on keeping your core tight and you will feel the muscle tension build in the upper body as you squeeze your grip as tight as possible for each climb variation.

There are many ways to utilize ropes into a training program.  Really your imagination is only your limiting factor.  Get creative with ropes and have fun challenging yourself.  I hope this helps give you some ideas and potential variation that you can include into your training program.

To your health,

Jerry

Shouldering is when you pick up a weight and get it up onto your shoulder. By doing this, the weight is not evenly distributed across your body like in a traditional back squat.  All the weight is on one side of the body.   This will force the body to counter balance the weight by forcing the muscles of the mid-section, particularly the opposite side from the weight, to contract tightly so you do not fall over.  This is what contra-lateral type of contractions is all about.

Construction workers, farmers, and house builders typically have very strong mid-sections because they carry and move items all the time on their shoulders.  Have you ever seen a roofer throw a bundle of roofing tiles over his shoulder and then climb a ladder to get them on the roof.  Think about how much muscle activity is going on in his mid-section to allow him to do this and not fall off the ladder.

Strongman competitors have been training with these movements for years.  For them it not only helps them training for the events they compete in but it also helps to prevent potential injuries by preparing and coordination the muscles of the mid-section to handle off-setting loads.

So don’t you think it would be beneficial to train athletes with some shouldering exercises as well?  Sport is full of awkward movements and angles; loads are being distributed through the body all the time.  As their strength coach, my job is to prevent injuries to keep them healthy so they can play.  I do believe in exposing my athletes to these types of stresses.

You can use just about anything when talking about shouldering weight.  Most of the time it is done with odd objects such as sandbags, kegs, stones, or punching bags.  I am fortunate to have D-balls in my facility.  These are heavy duty sand filled medicine balls that can weight up to 200 pounds.  Most of mine weight between 20-100 pounds and for my population of athletes and how I implement them into their programs; those weights are usually sufficient.

One of my favorite shouldering movements is the shouldering squat.  I have the athlete wrestle the D-ball up onto their shoulder.  Stabilize the weight through the mid-section and then squat down trying to maintain a balanced posture throughout the exercise.  You can repeat for reps on that side or alternate sides by moving the weight to the other shoulder.  This can be done by pressing it over head and onto the other shoulder or rolling the ball across the chest to the other shoulder.

I typically will work my athletes in a rep range of 12-20 squatting reps and typically 2-4 sets.  Trust me this is enough to get them fired up!  Athletes also like the variation and challenge of this type of exercise.

If you have never tried shouldering, give it a try.  You do not need D-balls.  We did it for years and still do using homemade sandbags.  The sandbags are great because the sand will shift some adding to the difficulty of this exercise.

Look at the picture in this post.  This is Kukka Laakso shouldering that homemade sandbag.  You can see in the picture how engaged her mid-section muscles are as she is stabilizing the weight of the sandbag.  This is exactly the results we are looking for when shouldering a weight!

Hope this helps!

To your health,

Jerry

Personally, I am more of a free weight guy who relies more on squats, dead lifts, step-ups, RDLs, and lunges.  This list could easily continue.  A leg press is just another tool to use in conjunction with all leg exercises.  I have only one leg press machine in my weight room and it is made by Hammer Strength.  What I like about this particular piece of equipment is that it is uni-lateral.  Each side or foot plate moves independently from the the other.  So you can literally only do one leg at a time or alternate legs in a more walk like fashion.  This can also be beneficial in working on muscle imbalances between each leg because each foot plate will have it’s own weight and it won’t be shared weight between the two foot plates.

A uni-lateral leg press can be used just like a traditional leg press but typically that is not how I use mine with my athletes.  I have developed a leg press circuit which is very challenging with many benefits.  Not only will you get stronger with this circuit but you will become more coordinated (as weird as that sounds) and more stable in the legs.  This is done by really challenging the neuromuscular system.

When we squat or do a traditional leg press both legs are pushing down at the same time.  With the circuit I am about to share with you; your body will be challenged to fight those urges through isometric (static, no movement) muscular contractions taking place in one leg, while the other is performing concentric and eccentric (moving a weight away and back under control) muscular contractions.  This is not typical neuromuscular firing patterns used in most exercises.  I know for some of you this may sound a bit confusing but the best way to experience this and learn how this works is to actually try it.

Uni-Lateral Leg Press Circuit:

• Adjust the seat forward or backward so that when you place your feet on the foot plates the knees are bent to 90 degrees or deeper and your feet positioned high enough so the knees are not bent out past your toes.  You will push into the plates with the whole foot with most of the emphasis coming through your heels.
• Start with 10 regular leg presses.  Press both feet into the foot plates evenly so you are extending the legs at the same time to almost lockout and then returning back under control.
• Without resting, perform 12 alternating presses.  Try to time the alternating presses just like you would if you were walking.  When one leg is pressing forward, the other leg is coming back.  Keep tension in the legs at all times and do not touch the foot plate to the machine.
• Now bring both foot plates down, press just one foot plate forward about two inches out and hold (isometric) it there as still as you can as you press out 10 reps with the other leg.  This will be difficult because the leg you are trying to hold still will automatically want to push at the same time with the pressing leg.
• After 10 reps is completed bring the pressing leg down to within two inches and hold.  Now start pressing the opposite leg which was holding before for 10 reps.  This will even be more challenging because there will be a level of fatigue that will start to set in.
• Finally after this has been done you will end with 5 regular leg presses.  Your goal will be to try and press both foot plates at the same exact time throughout the entire range of motion forward and back.

The first time an athlete tries this circuit with any substantial amount of weight; they can not believe how hard this circuit is to execute properly from start to finish.  Many times they will have to lower the weight.  I came up with this circuit years ago by just screwing around with some strength interns playing around in the weight room.  I knew I was on to something immediately when trying to do it.  I experimented with the rep ranges for a few weeks until I came up with the ranges you see here.

If you have a uni-lateral leg press available to you; I would encourage you to challenge yourself with this workout.  Please let me know what you thought.  It might actually tell you something about the leg strength and coordination that you thought you had.  I tell my athletes and interns all the time.  A good strength coach does not train muscles.  I good strength coach trains the neurological system which controls the muscles.  This is the basis for which I train all my athletes by.

I hope this helps,

To your health,

Jerry

I want to explain how to set yourself up to do incline and decline push-ups on a stability ball properly and then some solid reasons why you would want to supplement them into your training program every few phases.

Stability Ball Decline Push-up:

• Position yourself behind the ball so you are on your knees
• Place your chest on the ball and straighten out your legs
• Your feet can be placed close together or spread apart.  The closer together they are the more stabilization will be needed
• Place your hands on the ball just below your chest to make a 45 degree angle in your armpit
• Push into the ball evenly with both hands as you push your body away from the ball.  Really focus on stabilizing as much as possible to limit any shaking you might experience
• Hold for a full second or two and then lower back down to the ball under control
• Again stabilize and repeat for the desired number of reps or until fatigue or improper technique sets in

If you find this is to advanced for you, start by placing the ball up against a wall or bench.  This will keep the ball from rolling around but you will still feel the need to stabilize throughout your body as you execute the movement.  When I talk about stabilizing, I am talking about in the shoulders and core.  Really there will be many muscles working throughout the body to do this.  This has MANY injury prevention benefits as your neurological system tries to coordinate and stabilize your body during the exercise.

Stability Ball Incline Push-up:

• Position yourself behind the ball so you are on your knees
• Place your chest on the ball and roll out onto the ball with your hands on the ground.  Walk out with your hands and keep your legs straight
• Roll out until the ball is under your shins.  For the advanced position, continue to roll out until your toes are on the ball (much harder to stabilize)
• Hold in this position and place your hands so they are outside of the chest and below your shoulders with the arms straight and on the ground
• Perform the push-up by lowering your upper torso towards the ground by tucking the elbows back, again looking for a 45-55 degree angle in the armpit
• Bring your nose to the ground making sure your mid-section stays tight and does not sag
• Stabilize and return back up until the arms are straight
• Repeat for the desired number of reps or until fatigue or improper technique occurs

Stabilization exercises call in and get the smaller intrinsic muscles of the body working to help support the major muscle groups trying to perform the exercise.  Not only is this desirable for athletic movements and preventing injuries; but this will also aid in being able to do more weight on emphasis lifts.  These stability ball push-ups for example, would aid with the bench press.

So do not ignore certain training tools that might be available to you.  The benefits just might be worth your time exploring and adding a bit of variety into your training program.

Hope that helps,

To your health,

Jerry

Think about this for a moment; a wrestler has to shoot in for that take down or a water polo player needs to elevate themselves high out of the water for a shot.  These are both extremely explosive movements that we want to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible to get a maximal result.  Sprinting, especially the first couple of steps, is all out power and explosion which propels the weight of the body forward.  I think it is easy to see a correlation and benefit as to why these athletes should supplement sprinting types of workouts.

This is the last installment of a three part series that was filmed at 6am with a variety of Bucknell athletes, including wrestlers and water polo players, who all participated in the same workout.  Per NCAA rules, all summer workouts are voluntary.  This shows great dedication that these athletes have given up some of their summer, not only to stay and train for their upcoming seasons; but to do it at 6am 5 days a week!

The sprinting sequence for this day was a 1:3 work to rest ratio.  Basically that means what ever the average time was for the group, for the distance they sprinted; they would get three times that time for their rest period before they would sprint again.   For example, if they sprinted 10 yards in 2 seconds, they would get 6 seconds rest before the next sprint.

I ran this days sprint workout on the football field and used the yard lines as markers.  They started on the goal line and was instructed to sprint out 10 yards, through the line and then walk back to the 10 yards line and be ready to sprint back 10 yards to the goal line.  They then would get there, rest and I moved to the 20 yard line.  I ran this sequence in 10 yard increments back and forth until I reached the full 100 yards.  The rest times got longer each time as the distance increased.

As you can see, there is nothing fancy or overly complex about this workout.  Good attitudes and a will to improve with a high work ethic, made this workout successful.  Exactly what every athlete should strive for no matter what the workout or challenge is for each training session.

We then did a cool-down with a light jog and walk followed by a old school static stretching session.  Some days we will use jump stretch bands to stretch with as well.

I always pull the athletes in before they leave and tell them my thoughts of that workout and give them information of what the next days workout will consist of.  I want them to be mentally prepared in advance so they can perform to the best of their abilities.  Just like they should mentally prepare for a game or match.

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry