c



My philosophy for strength training, and no surprise here, is based on three concepts:

1. Movements, not muscle.

2. ³If it is important, do it every day, if it isn't, don't do it at all.´ This is a quote attributed to
wrestling Olympic Gold Medalist Dan Gable.

3. Repetitions...lots of repetitions.

Let's look at each separately. First, I believe in coaching movements, not muscles. I am
almost to the point as a coach that I am suggesting that we NEVER talk about anatomy in the
weight room and I insist that we run screaming from the pseudoscience that dominates the
industry today. Honestly, I have been told that ³we´ still don't know what causes a muscle to
grow...and it is obvious from the plethora of crap available on weight loss that we know even
less about fat. The moment one of my lifters mentions a muscle group, I know he has been at
the magazine rack at the supermarket reading the muscle mags.

³Blitz the Serraseruaputus into Submission!´ What I have never understood is this: are these
muscles in a war or is this a group of dinosaurs threatening to take over the world? What did
the muscle do to deserve this? Certainly, we should find a peaceful solution to this crisis.

What begins to happen when you coach muscle groups is that you end up with what Pavel
Tsatsouline calls ³Frankenstein Training.´ Rather than being body, soul and spirit...you end
up with biceps, triceps, quads, and pecs. Well, most people don't work their quads...but you
get the point. I argue a different strategy...work movements.

The Big List

1. Horizontal Push (Bench Press, Push Up)

2. Horizontal Pull (Rows and variations)

3. Vertical Push (Military Press and variations)

4. Vertical Pull (Pull up, Pulldown)

5. Explosive Full Body (Total Body lifts: swings/snatches/cleans/jerks)

6. Quad Dominant Lower Body (Squat)

7. Posterior Chain (Deadlift)

8. Anterior Chain (Medicine Ball Ab Throw)

9. Rotational/Torque?

It's funny about number nine. For years, I thought I had figured that these exercises ³just
didn't work´ and I ³didn't use them.´ Then, I had a young intern follow me around for a week
and note that our athletes did ³Half Turkish Get Ups, Windmills (three variations), Suitcase
Carries, tumbling and dozens of variations of medicine ball throws. Hmmm...right. Besides
those 200 reps a day...we don't do any.

This isn't original, by any means. In the 1950's, Percy Cerutty recommended that his runners,
including marathoners, lift! Now, I've been a fan of Percy for years. Cerutty was an Australian
track coach/guru/fitness buff/nutcase who coached some of the best middle distance runners
in the world in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Some consider him a nutcase, but rarely have I found normal people to have all the answers.
Again, if you strive for normal, spend an hour at a Las Vegas casino and take inventory on the
what "normal" is in America today.

Why was he crazy? He told runners to:

‡ Run up hills.

‡ Lift weights.

‡ Eat odd foods like oatmeal, veggies, and fruit.

Arrest him, I say!

Before I was born, he insisted that all athletes do the big five lifts:

1. A deadlift.

2. A form of pressing. Cerutty liked a lift called the "bench press." I'm not sure if it ever
become popular.

3. An explosive full body move. He liked the heavy dumbbell swing.

4. A form of pulling. Cerutty liked pull-ups and cheat curls. Cheat curls are like a power clean
with a curl grip (power curls) or that bouncing heavy bar curl you see every gym-rat in the
world do when he gets tired from strict curls.

5. An ab exercise. If deadlifts make you go one way, the ab exercise should strengthen you in
the other.

After going heavy on these lifts with two to five sets of two to five (save for swings and abs
where the reps go fairly high), you hang from a pull-up bar and stretch for a few minutes.

Recognize it? I think I've recommended this workout for thousands of people, after I, uh,
invented it.

1. Deadlift (2x Bodyweight for marathoners!)

2. Bench Press (1x Bodyweight for marathoners!))

3. Power Curl

4. Swing

5. Sit up

It can be that simple, really. Strive to cover the nine major movements in your training and
you should be fine. More than ³fine,´ really. Now, the big question: how often?

2. Dan Gable: ³If it is important, do it every day...if it isn't, don't do it at all.´

Great, now we know the moves...how do we decide ³when´ to do them? I argue: every damn
day!!! Half the fitness professionals in the world suddenly just had heart attacks! So, how do
we do it? We use the warm ups to attempt to do everyone of the big moves. Currently, I have
my athletes do this:

‡ Crush Press Walk/Horn Walks/Waiter Walks/Suitcase Walks/Crosswalk/Farmer

Walk/SeeSaw Press Walk

‡ Light Goblet Squats 2 sets of 8 Plus Hip Flexor Stretch

‡ Bootstrapper Squats

‡ Alligator Push Ups

‡ RDL Stretch and Deck Squats

‡ Hurdle Stepovers (Right, then Left)

‡ Pullups 3 sets of 8

‡ Ab Ball Throws 1 set of 25

‡ 50 Half Turkish Get ups

‡ ³Rolling´ Abs/Windmills

‡ Goblet Squats...Ten Seconds with -´123´ Bottom Pause

‡ Swings

Don't worry about the specific exercises or names here...the general idea is to do every
move...lightly...in the warm ups. ³Lightly,´ is, of course, a relative term. I have junior football
players using a 110pound kettlebell on the Goblet Squats. Here is the point: I think all nine
movements are important...so, we do them every single day. With most athletes, the
movement needs repeating...far more than most people think. At the elite levels of track and
field and Olympic lifting, the total number of full movements is simply staggering. Many
young people today are out of touch with movements like squatting from using chairs their
entire life and kept from deadlifting and rotating from the Safety Lifting Police.

Now, maybe you don't agree with me on this idea...it really is contrarian. ³Most´ people don't
train this way. I just know this: people on the cutting edge of Fat Loss programs and others at
the top of the food chain in sports performance are doing methods like this every single day.

There is a million ways to do all the movements, but I have found that it works best in the
warm up. In other words, do all the movements ² or most of them ² in the daily movement
warm-up! I've stolen an idea from both Steve Javorek and Alwyn Cosgrove. Do complexes to
warm up. Here's one of mine, only mildly stolen:

‡ Power Snatch for 8 reps

‡ Overhead Squat for 8 reps

‡ Back Squat for 8 reps

‡ Good Morning for 8 reps

‡ Row for 8 reps

‡ Deadlift for 8 reps

Do these all in a row without letting go of the bar. Rest a minute, a minute and a half, or two
minutes, and do it again. Try three to five sets of this little complex. This particular one is
ideal for a day dedicated to vertical or horizontal pushing. If you do five of these complexes,
you've done 240 movements that cover practically all the other moves.

Now, will this get you ³strong´ or ³buff?´ Well, it will rip the fat off of you, but the rest of
the workout is the key to strength, fitness and health goals. So, how do you get strong...the
base of all performance improvement?

Oh, but what about those movements that aren't important? Don't do them at all...

3. The ³Formula´

Max Effort
Speed Work (Dynamic)

Isos (Deadstop)

Repetitions...lots of Repetitions

Getting strong is probably more art than science. Exercise science generally tells us what we
already figured out in the gym a century or more ago. Several things seem to work:

1. Maximum Effort. Pushing the limit on a lift seems to make you better at pushing the limit
on the lift. Simply holding a heavy weight seems to help you lift more. There is no question in
my mind that ³going heavy´ trumps all the other toys we have in the gym for getting stronger.
Of course, if you go heavy all the time, parts of your body begin to break off.

2. Speed Work or the Dynamic Method. Why do guys who snatch a lot seem to be able to
deadlift a lot, too? Speed works in the weight room. Going fast with weights seems to make
you able to handle more weight. Yep, you can take this too far. I don't want to hear about how
doing 500 fast pushups is the same as benching 500.

3. Isometrics...the Deadstop Method. Again, overhyped...but it works. Pushing as hard as you

can without movement seems to make you really strong when you move. I prefer the
³deadstop´ method of putting a bar exactly at a sticking point and lifting from the deadstop. I
even hang off the bar for a second to further limit the stretch-reflex, then try to blast the bar
up.

4. But, the key is repetitions. The most obvious and most ignored of the methods is simply
getting the reps in...

And, I get it. Nobody is a beginner anymore. Two weeks at the spa with a personal trainer and
³I'm an advanced guy.´ I recommend three sets of eight for a lifter and the world condemns
me for faulty thinking. But, here is the deal: the fastest road I know to strength and body
composition changes is increasing the reps. My athletes do hundreds...thousands of reps....a
week in the important moves. A typical press workout for the athletes I work with on a typical
day is up to 55 reps using the 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 method. Sure, it's for beginners.
Remember, though, if you don't bench at least bodyweight, I consider you a raw beginner...no
matter how may t-shirts you own that say ³No Pain, No Gain´ or whatever idiotic phrase of
the day dominates the strength industry.

With Maximum Effort, I have a little thing called the ³Rule of Ten.´ I think you have about
ten heavy, quality reps in a workout. It can be 3 x 3, 5 x 2, Six Singles, or 2 x 5, but around
ten reps seems to be the maximum that an athlete can roll out in the ³big´ lifts like the
deadlift, snatch, clean, squat, and bench. Sure, you can do more lighter movements, but in
ME, you only get so much. Speed work, on the other extreme, seems a natural for more
repetitions. Now, I am not arguing for more reps in a set, rather more total repetitions. Instead
of 4 sets of 10, my athletes (for just one example) often use 8 sets of 5. Speed work doesn't
seem to work with singles, doubles or triples for the younger athlete, but one little sign of
growing competence is the ability of my athletes to ³get faster´ on less reps. It is hard to
explain, but ³you know it when you see it.´

For the deadstop or isometric method, the rule is simple: one rep. Now, let me phrase that in
reality...it might take up to five reps to figure out the weight for the one truly heavy isometric.
The weight has to be so heavy that the bar doesn't move! With the deadstop
variety...isometrics crazy cousin...there might be a need for one or two (or more) lighter
attempts just to be sure everything...including the equipment...is ready.

The coach has to embrace something I learned from a fabulous high school football coach
years ago. When I asked him how he got so successful, he told me: ³you can't get bored
watching the basics.´ ³You?´ ³Yeah...the coach all too often has seen the same thing over and
over and wants to move on, but the team and the individuals are just learning it.´ In other
words, if you want to teach someone to squat...you have to watch them squat a lot.

For the individual fitness trainee, it means that you are going to have to learn and do lots and
lots and lots of movements. I can't say it any better than what I learned from a deaf discus
thrower that I worked with a few years ago. He had become very good and I asked him his
secret. He took his right middle finger and twisted it over his right index finger...and then
slapped it into his left palm. In sign language, it means ³repetition.´

Get used to it.

Two Typical Workouts using my system:

Example One

Warm up Complex (Five Total Sets)

‡ Power Snatch for 8 reps

‡ Overhead Squat for 8 reps

‡ Back Squat for 8 reps

‡ Good Morning for 8 reps

‡ Row for 8 reps

‡ Deadlift for 8 reps

Workout:

A1. 10 sets of 2 Bench Press with Chains (Try to increase weight as you go...within reason)

A2. Lawnmowers (8 right/8 left) (One arm kettlbell Rows)

B1. Snatch: 5 Sets of 3 (Technical Work)

C1. Power Curls: 5 Sets of 3 (Increase weight each set)

D1. Hanging Leg Raises.

Example Two:

Warm up

‡ Crush Press Walk/Horn Walks/Waiter Walks/Suitcase Walks/Crosswalk/Farmer

Walk/SeeSaw Press Walk

‡ Light Goblet Squats 2 sets of 8 Plus Hip Flexor Stretch

‡ Bootstrapper Squats

‡ Alligator Push Ups

‡ RDL Stretch and Deck Squats

‡ Hurdle Stepovers (Right, then Left)

‡ Pullups 3 sets of 8

‡ Ab Ball Throws 1 set of 25

‡ 50 Half Turkish Get ups

‡ ³Rolling´ Abs/Windmills

‡ Goblet Squats...Ten Seconds with -´123´ Bottom Pause

‡ Swings

Double Chain Max Bench Press

Single Chain Max Bench Press

Drumline: 5-4-3-2-1 (In the group of exercises, do the first lift for five, the second lift for
five....then, the first lift for four, the second lift for four...adding weight each lift)

Front Squat with Two Chains

Pullups

Power Snatch and Overhead Squat

Thick Bar Deadlifts

± 
 
 


Dan¶s philosophy revolves around simple tenets that have stood the test of time. Whether it is
µmovements not muscles¶ or the infamous µif it¶s important do it every day, if its not
important don¶t do it at all¶, Dan has a set of principles or ideas through which everything else
gets rolled.

Dan talked about the difference between what you à
 be doing versus what you
doing. He offered a useful model for the sports coach of how to discern whether you need to
be coaching greater maxes (does my athlete need a bigger deadlift?) or more qualities (do my
athletes need to be more flexible?).

He also stressed the importance of repetitions as key to sport. As a discus thrower, his aim
was 10,000 throws a year. That¶s 830 throws a month, almost 200 throws a week, 27 throws 
 .

³¶If it¶s important, do it every day. If it¶s not, don¶t do it at all¶. Once you think this through, it
becomes very difficult to fool yourself in your workouts. Also, the 10,000 repetitions (of your
sport movement) in a year is a great way to say the same thing. Just get the important things
done!´
- Ville Silventoinen

As Dan comments, ³It took 42 years to make it this simple.´

One of the a-ha! moments for me was Dan¶s illustration of the life of a trainee ± whether pro
athlete or home trainer. For older people ± those over 30, say ± the answer to the question of
lifelong health and fitness is:


and 

   .

Your life¶s quest should be for these two qualities. Why? Because frankly, if you don¶t focus
on these two qualities they are going to go down the tubes and it will get harder and harder to
make an impact on them. They are the prerequisites for being able to train and stay
functionally fit throughout your life.
c  

Dan took us through the warm up he uses with his students and taught us the Kalos Sthenos
method of the turkish get up.

This method fulfils a number of goals: it warms up the whole body; it is a systematic way of
checking for issues as it is done exactly the same way each time; it contains valuable stretches
that will improve over time; it promotes compression (or isometric) strength in the shoulder
and elbow joints.

And when you perform the sequence ± as we all did ± with a paper cup of water balanced on
the top of your fist, it promotes fierce concentration! I have never focussed so hard on an
exercise as I did on that one and managed not to douse myself in water, which was
unexpected.

This is also Dan¶s handy tip for how to get a class of 15-year-olds to shut up and concentrate.

³The advantage of these exercises ± in fact all exercises particularly for the posterior chain,
not the mirror-dominated side ± is that they keep you young. Overtraining the popular anterior
muscles simply results in the posture of an old person.´
- Daniel Hahn

Dan talked about a concentric circle model where what goes in the inner circle are those
exercises essential for health and fitness which are usually done on a daily basis (the squat,
joint mobility exercises); in the next circle are those activities that support your training, such
as good nutrition, recovery, conditioning. And then the fun stuff around the outside. This
helps you to plan a training programme, especially if you have very little time to workout.
Always do what is core, add other things if and when you have the time and of course the free
will.

³It was great to get live exposure to the various exercises he¶s currently using too. It¶s one
thing to sit at home watching a dvd and say µok, so that¶s how Dan teaches the turkish getup¶,
and quite another to lie on the floor on day 2 with tired abs and shaking shoulders thinking
µf***, so that¶s what this exercise does«¶´
- Will Walshe

For those of us who were there, here is a summary of the full warm up:

Waiter walk
Suitcase walk
Heartbeat walk

Goblet squat (with curl)

Hip flexor stretch
x2

Scap push up
Bootstrapper squat
Tick tock
Maxercist row (single leg)
Maxercist press (single leg)
Maxercist deadlift (single leg)
Wide/narrow push ups

Turkish get up sequence

- cuddle and roll
- ear right and left
- straight leg raise to ceiling
- bent leg raise to kettlebell
- punch µn¶ crunch
- T position
- Hips high

Dan also talked about the importance of stretching and rolling the feet. This is a fairly new
area for him ± a personal aha moment, if you like. He¶s a convert to Vibrams (as you can see
in the above picture) and suggests rolling the feet using a ball every day.

v  


 

Dan John¶s method is one of the fastest and most accessible ways to teach the Olympic lifts.
If you have a class of people, the full range of ability and genetics, and you need to get them
all snatching and cleaning without hurting themselves or overloading them with information,
Dan John has the answer.

Central to this is his µbow and arrow¶ concept. The torso is the arrow, extending from chin to
butt as far as possible. Butt BACK, chin FORWARD until you can¶t stretch any further (you
should be feeling it in the hamstrings like a Romanian deadlift). Then the arrow is released as
you extend and jump.

³The Bow and Arrow exercise is what stuck in my head the most.´
- Sean Behan

³The workshop is going to do a lot to change the way I train myself, and the poor bastards
under my care in CF Ireland. I thought his ³JUST MAKE THE DAMN LIFT´ method of
coaching you on the snatch was particularly inspired´ ± Will Walshe

I thought so too, Will. That was all I needed to hear, and probably all the information I could
cope with!

Groove in makes, not misses. If you miss at 40kg, go back and groove in makes at 25kg,
30kg, 35kg.





 


Cues for Olympic lifts:

- Weight on heels
- Big chest

Things to practice every day with Olympic lifts:

- Bow and arrow position
- Romanian deadlift position
- Goblet squat
- Overhead squat position
- Foam rolling
- Feet rolling

Things to do every workout with Olympic lifts:

- Squat Snatch
- Jerk
- Technique days and power days.

µThe Exercise¶:
- Power Snatch + Overhead Squat (= 1 rep)
- Power Clean + Front Squat (= 1 rep)

µThe Drill¶:
- Power Snatch + Overhead Squat, Hang Squat Snatch, Squat Snatch from floor (= 1 rep)
- Power Clean + Front Squat, Hang Squat Clean, Squat Clean from floor (= 1 rep)

h 

 



This part of the seminar is typical of the Dan John style. It wasn¶t on the agenda but someone
asked about the Velocity Diet and we were off and away on a fascinating riff on diet,
supplements and recovery. Anyone familiar with Dan¶s writings will know how enthusiastic
he is about fish oil and magnesium. Expect to hear a lot more about L-leucine as well.





This struck a chord with many people. Dan suggests that for each aspect of recovery you rate
it either 0, 1, 2, or 3 every day, and note it in your journal. The aspects he suggests are:

VÊ Sleep
VÊ Meals
VÊ Supplements
VÊ Life issues (i.e. things that get in the way of training and recovery)
VÊ Relationships

So if you had an excellent day and rated all of the above at 3, your recovery index for that day
would be 15.

You should also rate your workout, using say A, B, C, D and F (for failure!). So this excellent
day you are having might be rated overall 15A.

The advantage of doing this daily assessment is that you can relate the quality of your
recovery to the quality of your workouts. If you have a bad workout, you might be able to
look back and see that your recovery index was low. On the other hand, if your recovery is in
place but the workout still wasn¶t great, then perhaps the training was the problem.

It is common for people to blame their training when progress isn¶t being made ± but what
happens outside the gym is just as important. As an athlete, if you can¶t get to sleep and you
have trouble waking up you are likely to be overtraining.
³my favourite part was his idea of a systematic, quantitative method of tracking recovery with
a training journal. Being a gigantic wimp, I burn out very easily, so some kind of early
warning system like that is just what I need!´
- Will Walshe

³Recovery Index was something I haven¶t done before. I know, I know, I MUST do it!
Good way to spot overtraining.´
- Ville Silventoinen

° 


For me, this is where Dan John really excels. He takes both his own experience and models
from other areas of life and applies them to strength training in a way that makes you see your
entire training life in a single view. Goals crystalise, the unimportant or the lame crumbles
away and you are left with what is really important.

It¶s hard to do justice to the power of this process, but here are some things to ponder.

Move your goals from should or could to MUST.

Ask yourself ± what is the    of reaching my goal? (e.g. I am happy, proud,

empowered, a winner) What is the pleasure of 
 reaching my goal? (e.g I can eat all the
cookies I want and indulge in self pity)

Ask yourself ± what is the 
of reaching my goal? (hard work, not going out, sticking to
my diet) What is the pain of 
reaching my goal? (all that hard work for nothing)

If you understand why you want to achieve your stated goal and you are motivated enough,
you¶ll be able to overcome any pain or discomfort involved in achieving it. Likewise if your
goal is half-hearted or ill-defined, it will be all too easy to revert to the µpleasure¶ of not
achieving it.

³The goal setting chart with do¶s and dont¶s and pleasures and pains is something I¶ve never
done before, but I will now do. It made me wonder how serious I really am about my sport (I
guess it¶s more like a hobby to me, sad but true). I also really liked Dan¶s comment that some
people¶s training suffers when they are in a relationship, which I think is true. It makes you
really think hard what you MUST do to achieve your goals and understand the sacrifices that
the top athletes make. How badly do you want it?´
- Ville Silventoinen

Remember, the goal is to keep the goal the goal.




We had a practical session on the hardstyle kettlebell swing.

Most kettlebell swings are an almost languid movement where the trainee drops into a half
squat, swings the bell far out in front of them and lets it drift up overhead.
The hardstyle swing is an aggressive hip snap where the kettlebell is actively pulled down
from a position parallel to the ground, fast towards the groin. Yes, much hilarity as Dan
proceeded to try to hit several participants in the balls with a heavy kettlebell!

K   




The what??«.okay, so it¶s a continuum relating to how the hip moves. At one end is the
squat, at the other end is the properly-performed swing with an aggressive hip snap.

SQUAT ²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²- SWING

Dan¶s point is that most people perform the swing with a sort of squat, whereas they should
perform it with a hip snap. They are at the wrong end of the continuum.

It is similar to the way Dan teaches the Olympic lifts ± remember the µbow and arrow¶ and the
µbutt BACK¶ rule? The kettlebell swing is akin to the explosive hip snap required in the
Olympic lifts. The standing long jump (we had a practical session on this too) and the vertical
jump are also on the swing side of the continuum. Whereas the back squat, zercher squat, the
front squat all live on the other side.

Dan also teaches a movement he calls the    , which is right in the middle of
the hip displacement continuum. Start in the goblet squat position (holding a kettlebell) and
then extend your legs and swing the kettlebell back through them, extending your arms. So
you end up in a Romanian deadlift position. Watch seminar participant Daniel Hahn
demonstrate in this video (taken by Dominic) and listen to Dan explain further the difference
between the squat movement and the swing movement:

So, it¶s all in the hips ± but all hip movements are not the same.

  
     

Another of Dan¶s simple yet practical formulas that answers questions most people haven¶t
even asked yet. It is a rule of thumb for determining how many reps to aim for in a workout,
but the bigger idea is to formulate repeatable workouts that train you efficiently without
overstressing the system. They will keep you strong and keep your joints mobile.

Rule of ten
Ten honest, working reps ± hard, heavy ± is sufficient for one workout if you are an
experienced lifter (a beginner can do more reps at a higher percentage of their max, since it
isn¶t a true max). This might include 5 x 2, 10 singles, one set of 10, 5-3-2 and so on. Best
done using the following lifts:

VÊ Deadlift
VÊ Back squat
VÊ Front squat
VÊ Snatch
VÊ Clean and jerk

Rule of 15-25
Rep schemes such as 5×5 fit into this category. Best done with the major half body moves:
 VÊ Bench press
VÊ Military press
VÊ Double kettlebell press

Rule of 50+
Useful for total body, explosive but light movements, such as:

VÊ Kettlebell swings
VÊ Kettlebell snatch

Dan John also likes the following rep scheme:

2 ± 3 ± 5 ± 10 x 5 = 100 reps

 !
  

Dan offered a practical example of these rep rules using one of his classic T-Nation successes:
the 40 day program (quick summary: pick five exercises and for the next 40 workouts, do the
exact same training program every day)

Choose five exercises ± selecting a range of movements (push, pull, posterior, anterior,
explosive and so on). Let¶s say we choose bench press, snatch grip deadlift, kettlebell swing,
pull up and ab roll. Here¶s how you could apply the rep rules:

Deadlift ± rule of ten

Bench press ± rule of ten
Kettlebell swing ± rule of 50
Pull up ± ladder of 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 (Dan¶s current favourite pull up protocol)

The point is to be able to do this workout without emotion, without psyche-up, without
missing the lifts. You are greasing the groove. It is a kind of neurological training. In terms of
weight, you gradually nudge your numbers up. You stay at 80% but that 80% slowly gets
higher.

± 
"

This looks alarmingly technical at first glance, but stick with it and it will make sense. Phasic
muscles tend to be fast twitch and tend to  
over time. Tonic muscles tend to be slow
twitch and tend to 
over time. Some muscles are a bit of both.

± # 
$ " 
#
$

Glutes Quads Pecs
Deltoids Calves Biceps
Triceps Traps Parts of traps
Rhomboids Lats Psoas (hip flexor)
Abs

So the muscles that weaken over time need to be strengthened, and the muscles that stiffen
over time need to be stretched. It¶s a wonderfully simple way to prioritise different aspects of
your training. ³Stretch what is tight. Strengthen what is weak.´
³This was a definite ³a-ha!´ moment for me, although I remember reading about this in Dan¶s
book. It¶s great to hear stuff like this. It¶s not too much ³mobility voodoo´, just enough to
understand what to lookout for.´
- Ville Silventoinen

v 


Dan showed us one of his favourite exercises for the rhomboids ± neglected and therefore
weak in many people. This is the batwing. Lie face down on a bench, grab a kettlebell in each
hand and draw it up in a row-like movement until your thumbs are in your armpits. Hold the
weight there.

It¶s a simple exercise but many people won¶t be able to get the weight high enough and hold it
there at first because their rhomboids are too weak. Dan suggests 10-15 reps of 5-15 seconds
each (i.e. hold at the top for 5-15 seconds).

%

& 

Dan introduced us to a long time favourite conditioning sequence: Litvinov sprints, named
after a Soviet hammer thrower. Litvinov used to do 8 reps of heavy front squats followed by a
400m run. Dan has adapted this to be any big lift (although front squats still work best)
followed by a sprint; it doesn¶t have to be 400m, it can be much shorter. The training is in the
transition from the big lift to the sprint.

I was the guinea pig for this little adventure so I cleaned and then front squatted 40kg (I know
± massive!) eight times and then dropped the bar and sprinted as hard as I could across the
gym. For the first few paces you hardly know where your legs are. We also tried this with
overhead squats, still with 40kg on the bar (much more of a challenge for me ± in fact it was
an overhead squat PR).

Naturally this routine works best if you can take your weights outside and drop them freely.

Dan also showed us &  with a kettlebell. You do 8 reps of front squats, then a farmers
walk out with a kettlebell; 8 reps of front squats at the other end, then a farmers walk back
with a kettlebell. You do this four times. You make the weights heavy enough, this is an
exhausting workout.

'  

(

³I got a hell of a lot out of the two days, it¶s gonna take a long time to digest all of it. I¶ve
literally got 14 pages of notes from day 2 alone!
- Will Walshe

The end of the two-day extravaganza came far too quickly. There¶s still plenty that was
covered that I haven¶t included in the summary above ± you¶ll just have to come to a seminar
yourself if you want the full SP!

And not only did we have two days of Dan¶s wit and wisdom in the gym, we also got to spend
nights out in Dublin with him and his family, sharing beers and chatting.
Although we had a good-sized, enthusiastic group, I was surprised that more people didn¶t
make the seminar. It¶s not often that you can be part of something that could influence the
way you train for years. Watching Dan teach is also a lesson in itself. Powerlifter Kieran
Doyle made the interesting observation that:

³the most frightening thing about the seminar is the amount of people that attended the
seminar that don¶t work in the fitness industry, very passionate people that could give a lot to
the industry.´