The All You Can Eat Buffet of Strength & Conditioning
Coach Dan Huff, CSCS
As the first Strength & Conditioning coach at a NCAA Div. 1 university I have been spending a lot of time observing my newly adopted athletes and their habit in the weight room. All I can say is that it resembles an all-you-can-eat buffet more than a strength & conditioning program.
Looking at my sign in sheet I see "training sessions" lasting from as long as an hour and a half and as short as 18 minutes. What type of workout honestly takes an hour and a half? How much of that time was actually spend socializing and how much was spent on exercise? And then there is the 18 minute workout. I think they did 1 exercise and only 2 sets of it.
While watching these athletes go through their workouts I saw maybe one or two that had some sort of clue about what they were doing, everyone else looked like they were walking down the line at the buffet -- I'll do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. If they really liked an exercise they would do a lot of it, if they didn't like an exercise they would do half of a set and leave the rest on their plate. They asked their friends what weight they should use like I ask my friends if the chicken or steak is better. How should your friend know what weight you should be lifting? For that matter, how do you know how much weight you should be lifting?
I saw guys spending 20 minutes on triceps while only giving their legs 5 minutes. That's like eating the desert first! Spend quality time on the key components of the workout and give the minor muscles whatever time is left.
Guys doing skull crushers to failure… without a spotter!
Another one doing hang snatches with a ton of chalk on his hands… and only 95 pounds on the bar!
One guy setting up an 18" box in the squat rack and then only doing quarter squats, not even coming within a foot of the box.
And just like at an all you can eat buffet, when they were done they left all their garbage for the hired help to clean up!
So what's my point?
First, each and every time you set foot in a weight room you need to have a plan. Not just a plan for that day, but a plan for that day which is part of a plan for your week. And that weekly plan needs to be a part of your monthly plan. And your monthly plan needs to be a part of your yearly plan… and so on.
Know exactly what exercises you need for the day and the order in which those exercises are to be performed. Know the weights, sets, & reps that you will be using. And use only your planned rest periods. Don't pick and choose exercises as you go. And definitely don't use your rest periods as a social break because once you start socializing you will find yourself doubling or even tripling your allotted rest time and destroying the training benefits of the workout.
Second, respect the weight room and those in it. If you don't know an exercise that you are scheduled to perform that day, ask someone. The only thing worse than not doing an exercise is doing it incorrectly! Ask for help, if you are afraid to ask for help get out of the weight room.
Respect for the weight room and the others in it involves cleaning up after yourself. Re-rack your weights, wipe down your equipment, keep your headphone volume low enough that you can hear your coach giving instructions, and follow the instructions that your coach gives you.
And Finally, realize that the weight room is only there to benefit you! If you disrespect the weight room you are only disrespecting the benefits that it can provide. Every time you step into the weight room you need to be in awe of what strength training can accomplish for you.
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