by GRP Strength Coach Will Ruth

This is a condensed version of the strength training workshop I gave to last year’s sculling, running, and skiing camps. My goal was to present the overarching principles of strength training and basic methods that I use with the GRP teams that any athlete of any level could use in their own strength training as well. I’ll be doing a different workshop for this year’s camps. We hope to see you at some point this summer!

Anyone can start wherever you are. Strength training at first is about learning movements and building athletic coordination, not going straight to high levels of strain, fatigue, and stress. Lay a good movement foundation first, and then we can add more strain, tolerate more fatigue and stress, and adjust training to achieve more specific sport goals later.

Fundamental Movement Progression for Full-Body Strength Training

Work with what you have regarding equipment, injuries or limitations, preferences, etc. These progressions are not moral standards, just ways to increase challenge of fundamental movements by increasing load and decreasing stability. The end of the progression is not necessarily the goal or best exercise for the individual. The best version of the exercise is the one you do the best. I demonstrated these movements live in the workshop session.

Squat: Increase leg power

• 2-leg: Bodyweight Squat → Goblet Squat → Front Squat

• 1-leg: Standing Lunge → Reverse Lunge → Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat → Add Load

Hinge: Connect leg power to torso stability

• PVC → DB/KB Romanian Deadlift → BB Romanian Deadlift → Hex Bar Deadlift

Push: Train upper body power with shoulder stability

• Pushup (elevate → floor) + Half-Kneeling Overhead Press → Standing Overhead Press

Pull: Train upper body power with shoulder stability

• Bodyweight Row (high → low) + 1-Arm Row → Band-Assisted Chin-up → Bodyweight Chin-up

Hip/Shoulder/Core: “Filling gaps” missing from sport training, for power transfer and injury prevention

• Lateral/Rotational Hip (whole playlist here)

• Shoulder (pullapart, Y-W-T raise, facepull + kneeling rear shoulder raise)

• Core (favorites: seated rockback for rowers + TRX/ring core)

Strength Train with Good Technique

• Good movement transfers to performance

• Think about how we move or want to move in the sport: use land training to reinforce those movement patterns

Tempo and Rhythm

• 2-to-1 ratio on all exercises by default: control tension on lowering phase with a two-count, accelerate on lifting phase with a one-count

• This may reduce strength training load at first, but at the benefit of more muscular stimulus and better technique through improved control of the lowering phase

Use Full* Range of Motion (ROM)

* As full as you have or can gradually achieve. Don’t force more ROM at the expense of technique or health.

• Good technique and tempo control help improve ROM, more so than going for ROM with poor technique or no tempo control

• Don’t reduce range of motion to add load/reps

How Hard to Train/How Much Weight to Use?

• Load is just a way to increase strain and challenge of the exercise. It’s a deep fourth-most important factor after technique, tempo, and ROM

• Think about technical failure when training more than muscular failure. Technical failure is the point at which no more weight/reps are possible with good technique. Muscular failure is the point at which no more weight/reps are possible by any means necessary. Generally stop 1-2 reps before technical failure while movement quality is still good

My go-to “start starting” system with athletes of all levels new to strength training is 30-30-for-30 circuit training. This is 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, for 30 minutes total, using a rotation of at least 5 different fundamental exercises from the list above. For example, pick one squat, one hinge, one push, one pull, and then one “other” to make a 5-exercise circuit. I like for the rounds to come out cleanly, so I tend to use 6 rounds of 5 exercises, 5 rounds of 6 exercises, or 3 rounds of 10 exercises to make a 30-minute session. Do a brief cardiovascular and movement warmup, the 30-30-for-30, and you’re done in 45 minutes total. Do this 2-4 times per week until you want more or different.

If you want a more conventionally structured strength training plan, here is a basic template that most of my strength training programs resemble. We focus on strength, power, and muscle mass, using a variety of exercises to enhance general athleticism. We use sport training and cross-training for aerobic fitness, endurance, and development of specific technique. Note that this adds plyometric exercises. I don’t include plyos in my “Basics” menu, because athletes need to develop general coordination and strength before adding speed and managing impact from landing. See my prior “Move of the Month” blog for information about jump and throw plyos.