Bigger, Faster and Stronger

[Blown_SC]

Bigger, Faster and Stronger
By Aaron DiPrima
For EliteFTS.com

This article will focus on some alternative ideas for speed work, but
first we will indulge in a simple thought experiment.

In a conversation with Jim Wendler of Elite Fitness Systems the topic of speed work came up. Mr. Wendler asked a simple enough question regarding bar speed. What is the best way to get faster? Had I been asked a few years earlier I would have drummed out some nonsense about percentages, time under tension, compensatory acceleration, bands, chains, etc. But being a little more prepared nowadays, and sensing where he was going with this, I stated the obvious, which most of us have probably overlooked or forgotten. The best way to get faster is by getting stronger.

Who is going to be able to Squat 300lbs with more velocity? An
athlete with a 320lb squat or the athlete with the 850lb squat? The
answer is obvious if you make the discrepancy severe. So before you lie down on the bench again and, like monotonous factory work, bench-press your eight sets of three with whatever percentage you use, it may be wise to ask the following questions of yourself.

1) Am I already fast? Have I always been fast?
2) Is this workload on a two day a week basis beating me up?
3) Am I really getting any faster?
4) What is the purpose of me doing my 8x3, and why do I do it all the
time?
5) Am I getting stronger?

After honestly answering these questions you may or may not find
that it is time to try some other things to get your bench-press moving
again. One thing to consider is that the WBC has slowly lowered their
percentages on speed day over the years, starting at about 75% I believe, and now there are athletes there that claim to use less than 30%. Instead of the lower percentage actually making them stronger, several of these athletes may find speed training to be unnecessary and possibly even detrimental if he/she is advanced or already as fast as they are going to get.

Now being in the same position as many of you probably are, it is
difficult for me to abandon my speed work as I am in the habit of doing it 52 weeks a year, and it has benefited me greatly over the years,
especially initially. Also as I feel as I am not an advanced bench presser at this point it is probably not a good idea to stop dynamic work altogether. Because of this I have come up with some alternative ideas to stay healthy while incorporating the Dynamic work.

1) Dynamic training every other week, with just conditioning work on
the weeks in between. Or heck, maybe just take a day off.

2) Pressing off a one board or the floor on dynamic day to take the
jarring off the shoulders and pecs. For more detail on the floor press see FLOOR PRESS AND ITS APPLICATIONS at elitefts.com.

3) Getting away from the bands for a while. This is obvious but I
still run into athletes who use bands all the time, despite feeling beat up.

4) Instead of doing a max effort and a speed day, just train once a
week and hybrid the two. Here would be s sample session
8x3 50% 1rm
4 board press
1x3 going for PR
2x5 with a lower weight
Chest supported row
3x12
rear delts
3xof whatever
And now you have a full seven days to recover

5) Here are a couple sample workout Ideas that I have not applied yet,
but look good in theory. The numbers are based on a 500lb max.
Dynamic scenario 1
185 3x3 off chest
205 3x3 off one board
225 3x3 off two board
Dynamic scenario 2
155 4x3 with mini band off chest
155 4x3 with two mini band off three boards.

Those are just two ideas and the possibilities are unlimited. The
benefit to this type of session would be reduced wear and tear on the
shoulders and pecs, and more overload at the top which would benefit someone with lockout problems. Honestly though, with bench shirts now, almost all of us have lockout problems.

[Machdiesel]

BFS my old high school always had these books lying around in the weight room, they also ran some good plyometric courses, BFS has alot of good ****

[HollywoodM3]

if you are to look more closely in depth at the BFS program, you will see it has many faults. I am strength and conditioning coach, and had a football team come to me to help set up and implement the BFS program. It has some good points but has a lot of bad one. I wont go into detail b/c i would by typing here for days...lol.. I found my self-making the BFS program a hybrid program with some of my own stuff.

[QuieTSToRM33]

hollywood .... what kind of hybrid program ??

shoot me a pm when u get the chance