"It is rare that you meet someone that changes your life in more ways than you can ever explain. Tom has been nothing short of blessing and has been the conduit to my dreams. He is insightful, trustworthy, caring, committed and definitely NO NONSENSE. He has totally revamped my diet, training, body, mind and spirit. I am by far in the best shape of my life..." Tyrone Ross Read more success stories here: http://www.fitforlifemarlboro.com/success.html

Tyrone Ross came to me in the late spring as a 29 year old highly accomplished 400 meter sprinter with aspirations of making it into the 2008 Olympics. Pressed for time I put together an exercise program based mostly on his Functional Movement Screen results. I also put together a diet that got his weight down about 10 lbs. without sacrificing his strength (he was still the heaviest guy on the track by a good 2-3 lbs.).  Despite all his hard work it was too little too late and unfortunately Tyrone just barely missed the time he needed in the June trials.  The good news is I now have a full year with him as we work on getting ready for the World Games in Berlin next summer.  The plan from July 2nd – September 23rd (12 weeks which is block #1 of his yearly training regiment) is fairly straight forward and will be the topic of this article; here are the goals:

• Increase Tyrone’s level of general physical preparedness while getting Tyrone as strong as possible.
• Increase calories in order to build muscle and fire up metabolism (goal is to put on about 20 lbs by the end of the 12 weeks). This would be from 188 to 205-208 while maintaining his lean physique.
• Avoid injuries by re-screening Tyrone every 12 weeks (using the FMS).
• Teach Tyrone perfect technique in the various exercises.
• At the end of the 12 weeks hit the 400 meter in under 50 seconds despite the extra body weight.

I only chose one exercise as the bench mark “test” for strength before we started this program. Well known strength coach Joe DeFranco has shown a strong correlation with his athletes doing the 40 meter dash and the number of chin-ups they can perform. It’s a simple test and Joe has shown it to be quite reliable. When we started on July 2nd Tyrone weighed just under 190 lbs. and hit 20 chin-ups. For purposes of the deadline of this article I retested him on August 24th at a body weight of 206 and he ripped 27. That is a 35% increase at a 17% higher body weight in less then 8 weeks of work!

Tyrone’s program is designed around more than a full year of training with each block having very different goals. Block 1 (about 12 weeks) is to increase GPP, size and strength while maintaining his speed; block 1 is mostly strength training and light track work.  Block 2 (about 12 weeks) is designed to bring his weight back down while maintaining his strength; block 2 is moderate strength training and moderate track work. Block 3 is for competition. Tyrone will run several weeks of indoor track while continuing to lose a small amount of body weight each week (until he gets to about 178-180 lbs). The goal is for Tyrone to qualify for World Games in Berlin August of 2009 during the winter track season. Block 3 is light strength training and heavy track work. We are hoping to end the track work around the end of February and move into blocks 4, 5, and 6 which will repeat the process of blocks 1, 2, and 3. Tyrone will not get heavier than 190 after block 4 and will be even lighter in body weight for the World’s in August (about 174-175 lbs.).

Here is the program I designed for Tyrone for his first 12 weeks of training (designed for size and strength while upping his General Physical Preparedness):

The block is broken into 4 three week cycles. Each three week cycle has a light volume week, a moderate volume week, and a heavy volume week. We kept the light week to 3 sets of most exercises. The 3rd set would be a moderately heavy set. The moderate week we would add another set (of that moderately heavy set). Finally, on the heavy week we would add a third set of the moderately heavy set (making 5 sets in all). After each three week cycle we change the exercises slightly by adding in more kettlebell complexes (to up the heart rate) and started over with a light volume week, moderate volume week and heavy volume week. The intensity never got more than moderately heavy; except on sled day where Tyrone would push himself as fast as possible for the prescribed number of sprints. Tyrone would do strength training with me on Wednesday nights (legs), Saturday afternoon (sled work) and Sunday afternoon (upper body) then do light track work on Monday and Thursday nights. Here is an example of one of Tyrone’s 3 week blocks:

* Note: A very important part of Tyrone’s training was using the principles from Fast and Loose in between sets and after his workouts. For example, Tyrone would always do his pre-race warm-up before and after his strength training and in between sets he would always loosen up his muscles my shaking them out. After his cool down Tyrone spent another 10 minutes doing sport specific stretching.

Week 1 (light volume week)
Wednesday night:

• Heavy KB swings: 70 x 12, 88 x 12, 106 x 12
• Single leg KB deadlifts: 53 x 5, 62 x 5, 70 x 5
• Bulgarian split squats holding KB in the rack of non-working leg: 26 x 8 (each side) 35 x 8 (each side) 44 x 8 (each side)
• Weighted step-ups onto a 15 inch box holding a kettle bell in the rack of non-working leg:  35 x 10 (each side) 44 x 10 (each side) 53 x 10 (each side) *this was done as fast as possible while staying tall.

Saturday afternoon:

• 100 meter sled sprinting with 90 lbs on sled x 3
• Backward sled dragging (walking) 50 meters with 225 lbs x 3

Sunday afternoon:

• Chin-up ladders 10,9,8,7,6 (bodyweight only)
• Double KB clean and press 44 lbs x 3 sets x 8 reps
• KB snatches 35 lbs. 10 R / 10 L each minute for 5 minutes
• KB windmills (kept this light weight for 3 sets of 5 each side)

Week 2 (moderate volume week)
Wednesday night:

• Heavy KB swings: 70 x 12, 88 x 12, 106 x 12, 106 x 12
• Single leg KB deadlifts: 53 x 5, 62 x 5, 70 x 5, 70 x 5
• Bulgarian split squats holding KB in the rack of non-working leg:  26 x 8 (each side) 35 x 8 (each side) 44 x 8 (each side) 44 x 8 (each side)
• Weighted step-ups onto a 15 inch box holding a kettle bell in the rack on the non-working leg:  35 x 10 (each side) 44 x 10 (each side) 53 x 10 (each side) 53 x 10 (each side) *this was done as fast as possible while staying tall.

Saturday afternoon:

• 100 meter sled sprinting with 90 lbs on sled x 4
• Backward sled dragging 50 meters  with 225 lbs x 4

Sunday afternoon:

• Chin-up ladders 10, 9,8,7,6 (add 15 lbs.)
• Double KB clean and press 44 lbs x 4 sets x 8 reps
• KB snatches 44 lbs. 10 R / 10 L each minute for 4 minutes
• KB windmills  (kept this light weight for 3 sets of 5 each side)

Week 3 (heavy volume week)
Wednesday night:

• Heavy KB swings: 70 x 12, 88 x 12, 106 x 12, 106 x 12, 106 x 12
• Single leg KB deadlifts: 53 x 5, 62 x 5, 70 x 5, 70 x 5, 70 x 5
• Bulgarian split squats holding KB in the rack of non-working leg: 26 x 8 (each side) 35 x 8 (each side) 44 x 8 (each side) 44 x 8 (each side) 44 x 8 (each side)
• Weighted step-ups onto 15 inch box holding a kettle bell in the rack on the non-working leg:  35 x 10 (each side) 44 x 10 (each side) 53 x 10 (each side) 53 x 10 (each side) 52 x 10 (each side) *this was done as fast as possible while staying tall.

Saturday afternoon:

• 100 meter sled sprinting with 90 lbs on sled x 5
• Backward sled dragging 50 meters  with 225 lbs x 5

Sunday afternoon:

• Chin-up ladders 10, 9,8,7,6 (add 26 lbs.)
• Double KB clean and press 44 lbs x 5 sets x 8 reps
• KB snatches 44 lbs. 10 R / 10 L each minute for 5 minutes
• KB windmills (kept this light weight for 3 sets of 5 each side)

After this 3 week cycle I would change the exercises slightly by changing the bar Tyrone was using for chin-ups, change the sled Tyrone was using for sprinting (e.g. using the Prowler poles instead of the chest harness) and I added more KB complexes to the movements he was already doing (example: single arm swing into a single arm clean, then drop into a squat).  All the other principles remained the same.  Light, moderate and heavy volume weeks followed by another 3 week cycle that changed the exercises again (still adding even more sophisticated KB complexes including what Tyrone affectionately named “the spirit breaker.”)  Spirit breaker:  Renegade row with 2x53 lb. bells into a double KB clean into a step–up (while the bells remain in the rack position) onto a 15 inch box with the left leg, then step off and do another step up with the right leg, then set the bells back down and repeat the process for 8 reps.  This does not sound as hard as it is… give it a try; I dare you!

On Labor Day weekend we retested Tyrone’s 400 meter time and he nailed it in a blistering 48.5 seconds at 206 body weight. Combine this success with the results from his chin-up test and we see that Tyrone has had a very successful training block. He looks and feels incredible and we are both very excited to see what happens as the winter approaches as we start to take the pounds off.  The goal is to have Tyrone at 45.5 or less by mid February at a body weight of about 180 lbs.   His current best is 45.9 and we are more than confident he will beat that within his first couple of races in the winter season.  Follow Tyrone’s progress and some of his workouts along with pictures and summaries at: www.ThomasPhillipsFitness.com