Rules

I love reading Zach Even-Esh's stuff (http://www.zacheven-esh.com/) because he constantly reminds us that rules in the strength training world need to be closely evaluated, and many times broken. I have broken so many "rules" this summer that I cannot even begin to count them.

-We have done overspeed training before ME Lower Body days.
-We go to failure (or what our athletes perceive as failure) on virtually EVERY set we do (except neck, core, and certain warmup sets).
-We have trained the same muscle groups on back to back days while performing a Metabolic Training circuit the day after a Repetition Upper Body Lift.
-We have trained Upper and Lower Body ME lifts on consecutive days.
-We have not done one single Hang Clean this summer as a part of our program.

I was told that all of these things were bad ideas, but sometimes the circumstances require you to bend the rules a little. And you know what? Sometimes when you bend the rules, you find that they were kind of silly to begin with. We had a training facility on M-Th this summer, which dictated what we trained, and when we trained it. We got it done, and got A LOT stronger, and significantly faster in the process.

I am so proud of our guys, because they demonstrated the POWER that an insane training environment has on strength and speed development.

Am I saying break all of the rules? Absolutely not, I am simply saying that if you are questioning something try it for yourself.

There is only one rule that I will never waver on, and that is SAFETY. I will never compromise the safety of my athletes during a workout.

Get Jacked!

Matt