The Garage Part II

The Garage Part II

By Alex Vasquez

Ahh… It’s that time. The garage is icy. The weights are so cold it hurts to touch them. The cement floor is frozen. You can see your breath. You just gotta pick out what CD to listen to. Almost anything will work as long as it’s loud. Take a brief moment to focus on the task at hand. Now, its Go Time. After the rope warm up, steam starts to rise off of your head. This is what it is all about. You grab the cold Iron, the knurling cuts into your hand. BAM!!! You explode in a moment of power and grace you snatch the frozen bar overhead in one fluid movement. It never felt like that before, effortless and dynamic. A beautiful feeling. These are the moments to live for.

In my last article I discussed the Spirit that lies within each of us. I also talked about garage training and how working out in the garage may be the perfect environment for a power athlete. This week we’ll be looking at the first two purchases you should make for your garage. They are the previously mentioned Jump Rope and an Olympic Weight Set.

In a short article I cannot possibly do the jump rope justice. I’ll refer you to Coach Davies great article Renegade Rope Training at T-mag. I’ll briefly touch upon a couple of reasons it belongs in the garage.

The number one reason is jump ropes are cheap. Five maybe ten dollars. Buying a cardio machine could very easily break the bank. You do not need a fancy weighted/speed rope. At a seminar I attended with Coach Davies I could swear that he used one that had silver glitter “sparklies” (sorry if I let your secret out Coach). But that’s beside the point.

There are numerous physical qualities that are developed with the rope as well. Such as:

· Hand and Foot Speed

· Cardio

· Concentration

· Motor Skills/Coordination

· Timing

· Work Capacity

· On, and on….

I know I missed some. Basically, rope work may be the perfect cardiovascular exercise for the athlete. Pick a rope that is long enough when looped under the feet the handles reach chest height. Again no need for a fancy one here.

In the beginning just focus on jumping. As you advance pick up the pace and add in footwork like shuffles and crossover of hands. I like to jump at a pace around 90-120 jumps per minute, usually closer to 90. Perform 3 minute rounds with 1 minute of active rest. Active rest can be GPP activities like Jumping Jacks, Burpees, Chinees. See Coaches article for actual routines. I’d recommend starting with three rounds (12 min) and building to six (24 Min). I like to do my rope work before my weight training.

Now that we are all warmed up, lets talk abut weights. An olympic weight set can run anywhere from $60 (used) - $2000. Since we are not competitive weightlifters we do not need a $2000 weight set with precisely calibrated plates. Maybe you have the extra cash but I don’t. For most purposes the 300lb sets you see at your local sporting goods store for $150 will do, or if you check the papers you can usually find them for under $100. As you get stronger you may want a better set, or a stronger bar.

Weight training workouts are usually broken down into focus lifts and supplemental lifts. Focus lifts are usually derived from the Olympic Lifts and the Power lifts. They are obviously the focus of the workout. Supplemental exercises typically involve more isolation. They are used to condition lagging body parts, like a bench presser who would require more rowing to supplement the bench. A good general rule of thumb is to do the same number of sets for the focus exercises as supplemental exercises in a given workout.

I have made a simple chart to help guide you through the maze.

Focus Lift and Variations	Supplemental Lift
Clean Power Clean Hang Clean	Bent Row Towel Chin Clean Pull Front Squat
Snatch Power Snatch Hang Snatch	Overhead Squat Drop Snatch Snatch Pull
Squat Lunge	Glute Ham Raise Good Morning Reverse Hyper
Deadlift Clean Grip Deadlift Snatch Grip Sumo Deadlift	Turkish Get Up Stiff Leg Deadlift
Push Press Jerk	Shoulder Press Side Press Plate Raise Bradford Press
Bench Press Incline Press	Floor Press Bent Row Plate Raise Bradford Press Pushups – crossover, plyometric, offset

So if I wanted to create a lower body pulling workout I could do something like this:

Focus Lifts (13 sets)

Hang Clean 50% 1rm 5x5

Squat 50% 1rm 8x3

Supplemental Lifts (13 Sets)

Glute Ham Raise 4x5-7

Reverse Hyper 3x15-25

Bent Row 3x5-7

Chin From the rafters 3x12-15

Perform with minimal rest (30-60 seconds)

You could then finish off with an exercise for the Biceps and some Ab work and call it a workout.

Obviously, If you just purchased a Rope and Weight set some of the exercises, like bench presses, may not be possible. In this case you could substitute some of the pushup variations or a floor press.

Another issue may arise with squats. You could clean the weight to the shoulders and perform front squats, or you could jerk it overhead and do back squats. In the beginning form on all exercises may be tough so a lightweight will be necessary. The weight, however, will always be a little light until you can acquire a squat rack. This is OK. It is not about how much weight you lift but how you lift the weight. Coming from a powerlifting background it took me a while to accept this. Focus lifts are trained using compensatory acceleration. This means that you focus on accelerating the weight through the range of motion. Using this method it is possible to generate more power, our primary goal, with a lighter weight than is possible using a heavier weight. For more on the percentages see the Micro Muscle Lab series by Coach Korfist. This also explains the low percentages selected for the clean and squat in the previous workout example.

After the weight training section of the workout I would finish with some non weighted GPP like:

Jumping Jack

Shuffle Split

Burpee

Mountain Climber

Start with 2 sets of 30 seconds. Perform in a circuit with NO rest. Train following the 60% rule and build over time to 8 sets of 30 seconds.