Train - Part 1
By Will Ellinger

Once it is established that it is time to start weight training, the question “now what?” has to be answered. In this article I will first talk about what happens most often and the problem with this approach. Then I will give you what every athlete should be doing and the reasons for this.

Let’s take a quick look at the whole ” fitness industry.” Here, with Billions of dollars to be made, is the start of the problem. There is so much misinformation, to put it kindly, that it borders on insanity. On occasion I have to get up in the middle of the night to give my son a bottle. I sit on the couch half asleep and search for something entertaining to watch. This never seems to be easy.

All I can find are the seemingly never ending infomercials. I laugh as I say to myself, “man why do we have any problems at all in this country.” I’m telling you there is everything you can think of out there. They can make you rich, famous, better looking. If you watch long enough they will get you girls, cook your meals, and sell you knives that will cut a truck in half and stay sharp. I mean for 3 easy payments of $29.95 you basically can become a rock star over night, not bad.

Leading all of this is the so called fitness industry. There are so many machines for fantastic abs. that I am still wondering why everyone isn’t walking around with 1/2 shirts to show off their six packs. If there claims are true, you can just buy the latest Bow Master 6000 with the optional quick mixer drink fixer. Pop a few pills and war-la, tell Ellinger to take a hike.

In the last muscle mag. that I had the pleasure to look at, I counted over 20 pages before I came to anything to read that wasn’t an advertisement. There are so many mixes and pills; it is impossible to keep track of them all. Every so often a new member of my gym will ask me what I think. It usually goes something like this. Hey coach what do you think of this animal builder with protein. It has 58 Amino Acids, Creatine fusion technology, and now with 25% more nitroglycerin.

At this point all the regulars at the gym quickly gather round. Some to see me pound the kid and get a few laughs, others to make sure I don’t. The nicer kids remind me that he’s new, and tell me what I always say. “Is it any wonder these kids have no clue with all this @#%* filling there heads. I then will almost always tell them, “Believe nothing that you hear and half of what you see.” The moral, If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

So you have a young athlete who wants to train, he’s bombarded with Bull$hit and he has to make some choices. He can head to the gym with whatever info that he has, and try to put some kind of a program together. He might ask his coach, gym teacher or local gym guru. Maybe he hires a personal trainer.

Well going to the gym and trying to “wing it” never seems to be the best idea. From experience I can tell you, only a few will stick it out long enough to learn, and make it work. The others will soon get frustrated or worse hurt, and pack it in.

Hopefully you will have access to a knowledgeable person, and that person will teach you how to lift and put a program together. Unfortunately again from experience, they are far and few between. So what about that personal trainer surely they can help? Not so fast, anyone reading this can get certified as a PT in about an hour if you have a few bucks and can answer some basic questions.

OK, lets cut through the crud and get on with what you need to be doing! Whether you are currently working out or not, this information is vital.

Lets start right off with the KING OF ALL EXERCISES, THE SQUAT. It is said by all who know anything about lifting. ” If you are going to the gym and not Squatting, you’re just pretending.” Sorry if this insults anybody, but that is the truth. All of the misleading garbage about not squatting because it is bad for your knees, back, neck, and slows you down, is all bull my friends!

The Squat hits the entire muscles of the legs, hips and lower back. It also works many other muscles of the body to help stabilize the load.

Nothing makes you grow like Squatting. The reason most “club members” don’t squat. It is HARD! Plus it takes someone with some knowledge to teach you. Now some of you out there will tell me. “Ellinger I am Squatting!” Talking from experience again, I have to say, sorry you are probably not. You’re probably doing some sissy little knee bends with too much weight.

If you want to learn how to Squat, come to my gym and I will teach you. If you want to tell me I’m full of it, and you know how to Squat. Again, come to the gym and show me or send me a video. I hope I am wrong 1000 times. I will state so right here on this site. Joe the Wrestler can Squat. I was wrong!

A very close 2nd to the squat is the TRAP BAR DEADLIFT. How many of you have access to one of these or know what it is for that matter? Now I explain it like this. “The most important thing I will teach you is to Squat, we will get the most mileage out of the Trap Bar.” There is a simple reason for this. Because of the design of the Trap Bar and the mechanics of the deadlift, This is the strongest free weight lift you can do!

Let me explain by giving you a couple of examples. Last year I had two Wrestlers, one who competed at 160 the other at 171. Both where pretty strong Squatting over three hundred(I believe 325) for 10 reps. that is very good, but they both pulled 405 for 10 on the Trap Bar! That is a big difference in total work done on each set. 3250lbs. to 4050lbs. For the wrestler — or anyone else who is willing to do this kind of all-out gut busting work — this is huge for building muscle.

Like the squat, the Trap Bar Deadlift hits the legs, Hips, and Lower Back. It has the added benefit of also working the muscles of the forearm because you must hold the bar. this is great for the grip, which is so important in wrestling. one other thing, the shoulders are forced to work hard in order to hold the weight in both lifts.

A paragraph back I mentioned FREE WEIGHTS. Your work outs better be comprised of mainly FREE WEIGHTS.The reasons are quite simple. 1) stabilizing muscles needed to control the bar or dumbbells. This is very important for all athletes. It builds the muscles around your joints and helps strengthen tendons and ligaments. 2) Machines tend to lock you in a single path. The movement of the machine is controlled by the pivot arm, which may put you in a bad position during the lift. 3) They tend to work with a cam or lever arm which may not be suited to your strengths and weaknesses.

You don’t have to take my word on this one. Just look at all the major professional sports teams and major universities. They are all getting rid of their machines and retooling with free weight stations. My friend who coaches out of state gets offers of machines donated to his weight room at his school all the time. It would probably occur here to but our schools, I bet, would have some rules against taking donations.

Not much need to talk about the BENCH PRESS. The one lift I bet everyone is doing if they are doing anything is the Bench. That should be a good thing. When done correctly it is a major movement for overall upper body strength. I would suggest to make sure you are doing them correctly. Keep your elbows in at @ 45 degrees from the body. Don’t let them flair out, you will eventually hurt your shoulders.

The Bench Press targets the Chest, Triceps, Upper Back and Shoulders as primary and stabilizing muscles.

I will end part 1 here. I hope that this will set the “wheels in motion.” As always if you have any questions or comments I will be glad to answer them. Till next time: Coach Ellinger

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at ironwill@optonline.net. Till next time, GOOD LUCK; Coach Ellinger