Ashley Jones Q&A Archives Page 8

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Hello Ash, my name is Giannina I´m 21 and I´ve been training track and field all my life. I´ve been an elite athlete and represented my country(Chile) a bunch of times during youth competitions. I´ve been a fan of your web site for a while and ran into the warrior princess article. I wanted to ask you if this program would be ideal to an off season program, for a track and field athlete. If I could use it, please could you be more specific if the first six weeks of training would be only volume or mixed between intensity and volume??. Other wise could you help me out with an off season program, I am currently with out a strength coach.
A little detail hahaha if I do this program, would I get a little slow and heavy to play a little sevens for fun during the summer?
Congrats´on the web site, it is really helpfull and not everyone is as open as you are to sharing their knowledge. Hopefully you can help me a little.
Best Regards, Giannina Guerra.
Hi Gianni, thanks for your mail, after reviewing the Warrior Princess article I feel that it may have too much non specific muscle training for an athlete since it was more specific for a bodybuilder, as a track and field athlete and at your stage of development I feel it is important to work on strength and power, and specific muscle size increases will follow on from this, to this end I would like to show you a program I wrote fr another athlete recently, she was wanting a program to emphasise power and strength, previously she had been doing long drawn out workouts which took almost 2 hours to complete, also attached is a more Olympic lifting based program which is also very specific to power production which I feel you would benefit, I would alternate them as I have lifted, hope they are of use to you in your sport, also I would say go ahead and play 7’s you will have a good change of pace and it is as much for the head as the body so go for it, cheers, ash

Read more of Ash’s answer to this question including Program prescription in the articles section…..
Hi Ashley..

first of all thanks for all the advice u post been very helpfull!! unfortunate ive recently injured my anterior crutiate ligament and am unable to play so have decided that i will take the opportunity to increase size and strength.. i am currently 6″2 94kgs and usually play on the back row.. because of the injury i am limited as to what exercises i can perform..any advice u can give will be greatly recieved..

cheers

James
Hi James, very sorry to hear of your injury, but I have known many players who have suffered the same injury and have come back better than ever after the appropriate rehab and training, if you are having it
surgically repaired I would say to follow your surgeon’s and physio’s full advice as there guidelines will be imperative to your long term
well being. When you can progress to weight bearing upper body movements then we can chat again but at present I would say to limit your self to all non weight bearing movements and possibly even use
machines to enjoy you are completely stable and can work your upper body effectively without placing any undue stress on your knee. A program of upper body machine exercsies working your entire upper body on 3 non sequential days per week and working in the 4 – 6 sets x 6 – 12 reps per exercise would be an ideal way to increase your upper body mass and help
you psychologically as well whilst you are rehabbing the lower limb, just ensure you are doing some work on your uninjured leg as well if you can as this will hasten your progress when you return to full body training, cheers, ash
Ashley,

After seeing you are an avid advocate of box squatting, I would be keen to hear your views on why you use them and what you think of them in terms of being dangerous. From a personal perspective I have always found Olympic squats best for developing lower body strength/power-Hopefully you will be able to enlighten me as to benefits/reasons for using box squats. Recently I have heard that when box squatting it can cause compression of the lumbar spine when in the ‘sitting’ position on the box. I would be keen to hear what your views are on this topic. Also why do you use box squats and why not Olympic squats? I would also like to congratulate you on the information that you provide via the getstrength website as I find extremely informative and helpful in my job and as a young strength & conditioning coach it is interesting to read about your journey into the world of strength & conditioning. Also sorry to see the All Blacks and Australia go out of the world cup-Go Dad’s Army!

Regards,

Tom.

Tom Mclaughlin
Strength & Conditioning Coach
Bristol Rugby Club
Hi Tom and thanks for your letter, firstly although I am an advocate of box squats it is not the only tool in my arsenal and I use all varieties of squats as well as Olympic squats, Bulgarian single leg squats, front squats in fact here is a listing of the lower body movemwnts we will use in our gym:

Back Squat
– Cambered
– Safety
– Regular Bar
– Box ( high or low)
– Belt Squats
– Assisted
Chains
Weight releasers
Bands

Single Leg
– Bulgarian (Sprinters)
– Cambered
– Safety
– Regular
– Power Sprinter
– Box (high or low)
– Belt Squats
Chains
Weight releasers
Bands

Front Squat
– Regular
– Harness

Step Ups
– Camered
– Safety
– Regular
– DB / KB

Kneeling Squat

Lunge
– Static
– Dynamic
– Reverse
– Walking
– Cambered
– Safety
– Regular
– DB / KB

As for my rational for Box squats I feel it teaches a good tight body position when you are squatting and also breaking at the hips engaging the hips and pushing back ensuring activation of the glutes, also you sit back to the box not down on the box and you stay tight, it is when you relax and sit that the risk of injury is increased, also it provides a reference point so that every squat is to the same depth, thanks again Tom and I wish you and Bristol a good season, cheers, ash

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