Jedd: Please tell us a little about yourself – your athletic and training background and how you got involved with training athletes.

Chris: My name is Chris Miller, and I’ve been a certified Personal Trainer, and Strength/Conditioning coach for over 10 years in Columbia, Maryland. My company is called Maximum Fitness; which is located in Columbia, Maryland. My athletic background consists of playing Pop Warner football as a child, High school football, as well as college football. My training background consists of clients that are; little league football players, high school football players, basketball, lacrosse players, college football and soccer players, as well as MMA fighters, and boxers. I also do personal training and boot camps for the novice clientele to experienced clients.

I became involved with training athletes from the passion I had for sports growing up, and as an adult currently. I looked back on how I trained and viewed the workouts I used in order for me to prepare myself for football; and realized it was a totally different way of life training in the 1980’s. After I graduated from college, I started coaching little league football and high school football. I would see how uneducated these athletes were, and how wrong their workouts were in the weight room. This encouraged me to branch out, and develop ways in which I thought would be more effective in training these athletes. The fitness industry is ever changing; so I researched different training methods and products and created my own system in working with athletes; as well as used pieces of other systems I would see during my research.

Jedd: Many members of the Diesel Universe either compete in strongman training or do strongman training on a regular basis. Do you have any experience with Strongman Training?

Chris: Yes, I have trained with various strongman techniques; but have never competed. I’ve always wanted to compete, but never took the plunge to pursue it. Working at a landscaping company throughout college; me and a few other guys use to perform lifts of logs, trees, cement bags, and rocks all the time. We thought we were the famous guys that competed on ESPN. LOL…

Jedd: Have you included Strongman Training or Odd Object Training into your athletic training protocols?

Chris: Yes indeed! Strongman training is a great way to turn any athlete into a powerful force. I’ve used everything from Keg throws and lifts, heavy cement bags and tires, as well as tractor-trailer rims; before all the common day objects became available to purchase.

Jedd: Since incorporating Strongman Training into your routines, what benefits have you seen?

Chris: I’ve noticed an increase in power, strength, range of motion; as well as muscular endurance.

Jedd: Which athletes do you incorporate Strongman Training with? Football Players? Baseball? Etc.

Chris: I incorporate Strongman Training with all of my athletes; from high school age, college as well as my MMA/Boxing clients.

Jedd: What lifts do you find to have the best carry-over to athletic performance?

Chris: Tire flips, Sled pulls, Sled push, heavy med ball throws, sledgehammer slams on tires.

Jedd: How do you include Strongman Lifts into the routines? Primary movements? Explosive Movements?

Chris: With my offensive/defensive line clients, I like to use explosive movements, since the average play in football is 3-4 seconds; I like to work on explosive movements that simulate coming off the ball in a violent, but controlled manner. The MMA fighters I train explosive and some primary movements; due to the nature of simulating the actual combative movements during competition. I’d say I combine the two on occasion, but mostly using the explosive method for stimulating the fast twitch muscles which are used very much in these sports.

Jedd: How do you go about monitoring your athletes’ performance when using Strongman lifts? Do you ever “dial back” the intensity of the strongman lifts?

Chris: I monitor my athletes by measuring his/her threshold and tracking results through reps and time. Measuring how effective their body reacts pre- and post-lift is key for me. I try to “Dial back”, the intensity a few days before games or matches, because I don’t want to over work a particular muscle group; causing fatigue and muscle tear-down before they compete. I try to keep the intensity at 70-80% 2 days before games, and 60-70% a week before my MMA clients compete.

Jedd: What is the number one Strongman Lift you suggest other strength coaches put into their programs, out of all of the possible choices?

Chris: I’m glad you asked this question, because I personally say, don’t prescribe an exercise to a client, that you wouldn’t do yourself. I suggest all strength coaches incorporate the Deadlift into their programs. Every athlete needs a strong back and core in order to compete week in and week out. There are many variations of the Deadlift; therefore you can reap benefits from many variations, as long as safety and form is monitored.

Jedd: Have you had athletes push back on you when you introduced Strongman Training?

Chris: I train a college Division I Lacrosse player and Division III football player currently; and I’ve been training these kids since I coached them in high school. When I introduced the heavy chains and sled pulls 3 years ago; they looked at me and thought I was crazy. They refused at first, because their college strength coaches were stuck on the basic barbells and dumbbells exercises. After a few days of training, and 3 years later; they can’t get enough of the Strongman exercises.

Jedd: What is one piece of advice you would give to other Strength Coaches about instituting Strongman Training into their routines?

Chris: Great question! I first would advise the coaches to research the routines and experiment amongst the staff, then introduce the routine to their athletes. I would also remind them of the safety issues concerning these routines.

Jedd: Thanks so much for your interview. Please feel free to tell us where we can learn more about your training.

Chris: Thank you sir; it was a pleasure having the privilege to participate in this awesome interview! The Diesel Crew is doing big things, and I appreciate the education, and information that is being delivered daily by you all!

My company is called Maximum Fitness, and we are located in Columbia, Maryland. Website and contact information is below.

Maximum Fitness
Email: maxxfit@comcast.net

Chris thanks so much for the interview. DIESELS, Strongman Training is an excellent way to take your athletic training to the next level of Strength and Power. If you want to include this type of training in your programs in order to start reaping the benefits that Chris Miller is seeing with his athletes, pick up our Intro to Strongman DVD, so you can see how to perform the lifts properly and keep your athletes injury free while also becoming brutally strong!

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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Powerful Lower Body Domination for Explosive Athletes

by Jim Smith, CSCS

As we transition from the foundation (strength / hypertrophy) block of their strength training, the MMA fighters move into their explosive phase.  In the previous video we were allowing them to get acclimated to absorbing the impact from jump training, drilling proper landing mechanics and preparing them for the full execution of more complex plyometric exercises.

As proficiency their increased, you will now see much more complex exercises.  And the end of the phase, even depth jumps are performed after a strength movement, i.e. complex training promoting post-activation potentiation.

* SPECIAL NOTE – explosive training should be done early in the workout and after a very thorough and complete warm-up.

Complex Jump Training (end of block)

Athlete 1:

Exercise 1:  Sandbag Zercher Squats

Loading anterior (with additional chains) to promote proper squat mechanics, overload the spinal erectors and force powerful torso bracing

Exercise 2:  Depth Jump into Deep Squat Landing

Promotes explosive lower body power, reactiveness, deceleration and proper landing mechanics.

Exercise 3:  Band Sprints

Promotes stride frequency, arm swing and leg drive

Athlete 2:

Exercise 1:  Sandbag Zercher Squats

Loading anterior (with additional chains) to promote proper squat mechanics, overload the spinal erectors and force powerful torso bracing

Exercise 2:  Depth Jump into Split Squat Landing

Promotes explosive lower body power, reactiveness, deceleration, balance, kinesthetic awareness and ankle/knee/hip stability and proper landing mechanics.

Exercise 3:  Band Sprints

Promotes stride frequency, arm swing and leg drive

UFC, MMA LOWER BODY STRENGTH TRAINING

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Fast Conditioning with Kettlebells and Chains

You want to make ANY exercise harder?  There’s a simple solution.

Add chains…

When you add chains to an exercise, it gets real.

If you remember our first chain training video (it had a huge amount of positive feedback), it really opened peoples eyes to not only making training fun again, but many different practical uses for chains besides accommodating resistance.

CHECK OUT THE REST OF THIS KILLER POST AFTER THE JUMP

Here is a variety of conditioning circuits I ran at the end of a recent workout.

It is important to keep it fresh and there is nothing wrong with running a circuit and then switching to another different circuit on the next run.

Here are the exercises I did.

Kettlebell / Chain Conditioning Routines

• Kettlebell Clean / Squat / Press
• Kettlebell Chain Push-ups
• Kettlebell Chain Renegade Rows
• Kettlebell Chain Push-up / Clean / Squat / Press
• Chain Plate Push / Kettlebell Swings

What Do the Chains Do?

Throws you off balance and forces you to stabilize harder throughout the execution of the lift.  This, along with the kettlebells, really increases the intensity.

What Volume (sets x reps) Should I Do?

Depending upon the weight you use, you could do any where from 6-12 reps per movement and perform 4-5 different combinations for each workout.

Did you know AMD has FAT LOSS ROUTINES built right into the system?  You don’t have to guess when or what to do to reach your fat loss OR muscle building goals anymore!  Check out AMD!

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I don’t usually comment on videos for many reasons (everyone thinks their opinion is so important for others to hear haha).   When in fact, no one cares.

But sometimes I can’t help myself.  Because sometimes videos move me.  They validate many of my own opinions and I truly appreciate originality.  Something that has been lost in the fitness industry.

I mean tons of people have stolen my stuff.  Should I be flattered or enraged?  Or should I put my head down and continue to put out solid content focusing on trying to help as many people as I can?

I chose the latter.

So what is in this video?

As you watch it, you will see many important training as it applies to athletics.

Let’s review.

Top 6 Key Athletic Strength Training Tips

As seen in the San Diego State Football Training Video

Tip 1

Be Chaotic – in the video you see the training where the players were pulling against each other with a tire in between them. Watch that part again. Do you see the articulations of every joint? Ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, etc… Do you get that same absorption, the same stresses, the same power output with patterned agility drills? How about with a speed ladder? I don’t think so. Sport is chaotic, and a chaotic environment can be created safety in training to bridge the gap between GPP and SPP – Check out this article I wrote years ago.

Tip 2

The Switch - In my Chaos Manual I talk at length about the Switch.  The Switch is where an athlete engages in sports that continue to develop similar physiological and metabolic adaptations for their primary sport by engaging in different sports.   In the video the football players are on a wrestling mat performing dragging drills and wrestling drills.  This is so important when trying to develop a more comprehensive, broader athletic foundation.  Coaches, look toward other sports to better assist your athletes.  Here’s another from the Chaos Manual, have your football kickers perform martial arts in the off season  to improve their flexibility and kicking power!

Tip 3

Unilateral Training – Most athletic strength programs incorporate bilateral squatting movements.  But very few incorporate overloaded unilateral lower body movements (in the video you’ll see unilateral glute bridging and barbell step-ups).  Life and sport happen unilaterally.  Remember that.  Also, you will improve overall movement and the strength and stability of the ankles, knees and hips with unilateral training.  And don’t forget the implications to the athlete’s ability to stabilize their torso, ie. core strength.  Stabilizing in the sagittal plane is completely different than stabilizing in the frontal plane.

Tip 4

Sandbag Training – This is group under odd object training. Why?  Because the implement and its subsequent center of mass (COM) is not fixed.  The athlete must make real-time adjustments while lifting the weight.  This has a very important carryover to the athlete’s ability to stabilize, especially under fatigue.  Check out more odd object training here.

Tip 5

Intensity – You either have it or you don’t.  If you don’t have it you will get eaten.  You better bring it everytime you step in the weightroom and everytime you step on the field.  Because everyone can be ordinary.  Everyone can be average.  Everyone can be forgotten.  Make your mark, be the leader, get shit done.

Tip 6

Posterior Work for the Shoulders – The body must be balanced.  The force couples must be balanced.  The posterior musculature of the shoulder and upper back must be a priority in your training.  It has to be.  Never forget its importance.  Because when you do, it will get you.  Exercises like push-up pluses, band pull-aparts, retractions, diesel face pulls and all the stuff in the best shoulder rehab video on the net – should be done frequently.

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