A Guide to Weight-training for Tricking

[chicanerous]

For the intermediate lifter. (V.4 -- 12/01/07)

(An intermediate lifter is defined as someone who knows how to properly perform most of the exercises listed below and has made significant progress on the basic compound lifts -- squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows -- from an untrained state. If this does not describe you, consider buying Mark Rippetoe's book Starting Strength which will put you on track with a solid, effective, basic routine that will take you to the level of training experience where you will benefit from this guide and, furthermore, benefit from the specialization it entails. If you're a beginner, you simply do not have the training history to warrant the kind of routine this guide recommends.)

Attributes of a Tricker

There are four major attributes a good conditioning routine must target in order to improve one's ability to trick:

-- leg power
-- rapid and strong hip extension
-- core strength
-- overhead bracing

Leg and hip strength are extremely important in order to maximize a tricker's vertical jump, as the height of a tricker's jump is largely dependent on his power / bodyweight ratio. Core strength is important in maintaining a tight body while twisting and producing good torque to twist faster. The ability to brace the body's weight and get a powerful block from the shoulders is important for performing handsprings and landing on your hands in a dive roll or out of flips.


Why use weights?

You don't ever have to touch a weight to be an excellent tricker. However, you can't be an excellent tricker without being well-conditioned. Weight-training is one of the many tools that can help increase your level of conditioning. It is also, arguably, one of the most effective.

Conditioning cannot help you learn a trick, but it can make you better at performing a trick because it improves your athleticism. If you can jump higher, spin faster, and block harder, your tricks are going to function much better and you're going to have an easier time, from an athletic standpoint, getting those bigger tricks.

Therefore, if you want to be a great tricker, choose to condition, but don't make the mistake of thinking that conditioning is what makes a great tricker. Being great at conditioning only makes you a great conditioner.

Exercise Selection

With the aforementioned attributes in mind, you can categorize a subset of the applicable exercises under these headings:

Leg power: squats (back, front, hack, bulgarian, zercher, box, etc.), deadlifts (conventional, sumo, romanian, bulgarian, zercher, snatch-grip, etc.), step-ups, glute-ham raises, calf raises and presses.
Hip extension: cleans, snatches, pulls, deadlifts, good mornings, pull-throughs.
Core strength: hyperextensions, reverse hyperextensions, hanging raises (knee-ups, leg, pike, wiper), dragon flags, saxon bends, cable twists, side bends, one-armed suitcase style deadlifts, cable crunches.
Overhead bracing: snatches, jerks, push presses, overhead presses and lockouts and supports, overhead squats.

For the sake of even development and balance, weighted chest dips, pull-ups or chin-ups, and rows should be also be performed, but with a much smaller emphasis than the above primary exercises. An observant reader will note that the bench press is not included in this list. This is because, if volume and load is not carefully controlled while specializing on the overhead lifts, it can negatively effect the progress made on them. So, you can bench press, but, if you're attempting to maximize your overhead strength (which you should be), keep it at a minimum.

Direct arm work, on the other hand, primarily serves an aesthetic purpose and should be severely limited in a tricker's exercise program. However, it can also be useful for preventing tendonitis and other injuries that may develop through frequent, heavy lifting. As well, it can serve to strengthen the more important compound exercises if arm strength is a weak-point in a movement. Moreover, as a tricker, it is extremely rare that you'll need to extend or curl your arm in isolation. For these reasons, if arm work is to be performed, it should be limited to a low overall volume at the very end of a weight-training session.

Coupled with the above list of exercises, a tricker may also want to work with plyometric and speed-based exercises in order to maximize the speed component of producing power as well as, in the case of plyometrics, increase his ability to instantaneously activate a larger percentage of muscles fibers to produce a greater force. The following are examples of some of the exercises that are useful for this purpose:

Speed work: box jumps, one-legged box jumps, vertical jumps, clap push-ups, medicine ball tosses

Plyometrics: depth jumps, shock jumps, seated reactive box jumps, clap push-ups, depth push-ups

However, these exercises are not strictly necessary because tricking, by its nature, is a plyometric and speed-based activity. In fact, as far as plyometrics are concerned, in many cases, extra work may result in no additional gains, stall progress, or even negatively effect it. As a result, most trickers should concentrate on strength and power development as their primary means of improvement.

Activities like short sprints, starts, tabata intervals, and hurdling can also be employed to both increase your cardiovascular fitness and improve your explosive capabilities. If you are able to superset these activities with heavy weight-training exercises such as squats or snatches (lift then immediately sprint then rest), you can create a very potent combination of strength, speed, and stamina.

[chicanerous]

Elements of a Routine

A 2-4 day per week schedule is likely optimal for most trickers, as it is for most recreational lifters. One standard and versatile schedule is the classic M, W, F where the training days are nonconsecutive. Another schedule is M, T, TH, F. You should schedule your routine so that you do your tricking during your "rest" days. You should keep at least 1 if not 2-3 days free of strenuous physical activity within your schedule to allow for adequate recovery.

There are three main attributes an athlete can focus on in order to improve his level of muscular conditioning -- strength, power, and speed -- and a fourth attribute, hypertrophy, that is useful for accumulating volume, ensuring the preservation of existing muscle mass and promoting new growth as necessary when combined with a proper diet. (Let me emphasize that you will not gain weight unless your diet supports it; to build mass that results in weight gain, you must work out with sufficient volume, progressive overload, and eat a caloric surplus, getting enough of each of the individual macronutrients.) Development of strength and power will be the most beneficial to a tricker looking to increase his level of performance. Speed work should be underemphasized during conditioning because, by its nature, tricking itself best develops this characteristic.

Strength, power, and speed exist on a gradient roughly determined by the difficulty of an exercise and the number of repetitions performed at that difficulty. The easiest way to quantify difficulty is to judge it by the percentage of one's one-repetition maximum. For strength and power, there are a set of guidelines developed by the Russian sports-scientist A.S. Prilepin in the 1970s, based on the training of elite level Olympic weightlifters, which are widely employed and accepted today. These guidelines are based on the premise of maintaining bar speed, while working with sufficient volume to cause a positive training effect. His table is as follows:

Percent.......Reps per Set..........Optimal.........Total Range
60-70 ............3-6 ................24 .................18-30
70-80 ............3-6 ................18 .................12-24
80-89 ............2-4 ................15 .................10-20
90+   ............1-2 .................7 ..................4-10

To interpret this table, choose a load using the "Percent" column in order to determine the number of sets and reps that it is recommended that you perform at a given weight. (Recognize that you will need to know your approximate maximums for your various lifts in order to use this table.) To determine the number of sets and reps, choose a number of "Reps per set" that correspond to your chosen load. Then, divide the "Optimal" number of total reps by the the number of "Reps per set" in order to find the number of sets you should perform at your chosen weight.

As an example, at a weight that is 80% of my maximum, I may choose 3 reps per set. The optimal 15 total reps at that load divided by 3 reps per set yields a recommendation of 5 sets of 3. Note that 4x3 and 6x3 also fall within the recommended volume at that load (judged by comparing with the "Total Range" column).

Thus, working within the Prilepin table, for strength and power, refer to the following:

Strength
Load: 80-100% of 1-RM
Common Patterns: 5x3, 3x3, 4x2, 5x1, 5-4-3-2-1 as well as series of triples or doubles or singles
Cadence: maximally accelerated concentric
Rest periods: 2-5 minutes
Description: Do not try to reach concentric muscular failure on any set unless you are attempting to find your maximum.

Power
Load: 60-80% of 1-RM
Common Patterns: 6x3, 5x4, 4x5, 3x6, 10x2 as well as series of triples or doubles
Cadence: maximally accelerated concentric, quick turn-around between eccentric and concentric (when applicable)
Rest periods: 45-120 seconds

Speed and hypertrophy are not outlined in the Prilepin table. For these exercises, refer to the following:

Speed
Load: bodyweight, near bodyweight, or 10-30% of 1-RM
Cadence: fast eccentric and concentric
Rest periods: 30-90 seconds
Description: Speed work is performed with openly accelerated calisthenic or lightly weighted exercises. Openly accelerated means that the body or weight is not slowed down at the top of the rep. In other words, the body doesn't stay in contact with the ground or the weight does not stay in your hands. Box jumps, split jumps, clap push-ups, and medicine ball tosses are all examples of this type of exercise. (Note that, while the Olympic lifts are also openly accelerated lifts, they are better trained using power or strength parameters.) An important distinction to make is that these exercises are not plyometrics. Therefore, force should be absorbed and dissipated between eccentric and concentric motion. As a result, the sequence of events for a set with one of these exercises should be: 1) jump/lift as fast as possible, 2) land/catch and absorb impact, 3) "pause", 4) repeat.

Hypertrophy
Load: 70-85%
Reps per set: 5-12
Volume: 20-40 total reps per muscle group, with about 24-30 being optimal.
Common Patterns: 5x5, 4x6, 3x8, 3x10, 2x12, 10x3
Rest periods: 1-2 minutes
Description: You should work within a few reps of concentric muscular failure and occasionally reach it. (Again let me emphasize that working with this parameter in mind does not necessarily equate with an increase in bodyweight. To build mass that results in a weight gain, you must work out with sufficient volume, progressive overload, and eat a caloric surplus, getting enough of each of the individual macronutrients.)

Note that, in all four cases, the percentages given above are guidelines to help you choose the initial weight you should use at the start of a training cycle. You should not try to maintain this exact percentage or stick with the same weight (unless you are progressing by volume concurrently) throughout your training cycle. Finally, keep in mind that, because percentages are guidelines, they vary in their accuracy between individuals. Factors such as genetics and, more important, training history can effect how your percentages are distributed in terms of your rep maximums. For the purposes of this guide, 80% of your 1-RM is assumed to be approximately an 8-RM, while 90% is approximately a 4-RM -- use this comparison in order to adjust your use of percents.

If you're going to use plyometrics, refer to the following:

Plyometrics
Load: bodyweight
Reps per set: less then 8 reps per set
Volume: 15-30 total reps per joint grouping
Rest periods: 60-120 seconds
Description: To be a plyometric exercise, there must be some type of forced, instantaneous stretch-shortening cycle on a preflexed joint. Merely jumping or openly accelerating a lift does not make a lift plyometric. In any case, with plyometrics, as soon as you slow down, stop your set and begin your rest. The benefit of plyometrics comes from the speed at which they're executed. If you can't maintain that speed, their benefit is reduced and eventually lost. Plyometrics should never fatigue your body; in fact, you should feel "wired," "explosive, and "turned on" after you're finished due to their effect on your nervous system. With any plyometric exercise, keep contact with the floor minimal, instantly rebounding into the air as required. The trick to doing this, at least in terms of any leg-based plyometric, is to land with your knees preflexed in a position the mimics the depth you would normally descend to while performing a jump and then immediately extend from that joint upon contact with the floor. The trick is similar for upper body based plyometrics. If you are going to perform plyometrics, I would recommend performing them 1-2x per week on non-lifting days and, if you must perform them on a lifting day, do them first in your workout.

With that in mind, in general, the components of a resistance training workout should be structured in the following fashion: plyometrics, then agility work, dynamic or speed work, Olympic lifts, power work, strength work, hypertrophy work, and finally general physical preparedness (GPP) or exercise complexes (energy systems work). It is not necessary or even desirable to perform all of these in a single workout, but if you are wondering about the order that components should go in then this is a good guide. Keep in mind that there are also cases where you may want to change this order, such as supersets of strength work and plyometrics.

[chicanerous]

Progression

In order to help ensure continual progress by preventing plateaus and stagnation as well as curing the boredom that can occur over time, you should vary your exercises or, more often, their parameters frequently (on the order of 2-5 weeks). Exercise good judgment and keep an exercise or parameter longer or change it sooner based on your ability to make progress with it.

To further aid progress, you should keep a meticulous training log, maintaining records of the exercises, rest periods, sets, reps, and weights you use as well as your bodyweight at the time and both specific and general notes about your performance. If you want to be really thorough, at varying levels of complexity, you can calculate your exercises' volume and average load per rep for each workout, so that you can maintain another baseline for progression. In any case, make sure to heed the principles of progressive overload in any weight-training endeavor.

As examples of a basic level of complexity for those who fall under the "really thorough" category:

Push Press: 3 x 5 x 200 = 3000 lbs lifted @ 200 lbs / rep
Push Press: 5x200, 5x210, 5x220 = 3150 lbs lifted @ 210 lbs / rep
Push Press: 7x210, 5x220, 3x230 = 3260 lbs lifted @ 217.3 lbs / rep

The average load per rep is total volume divided by the number of sets divided by the average number of reps performed.


Warm-up

Before your weight-training session, it's good practice to do a general warm-up. This should be a vigorous full-body activity that elevates your heart-rate and causes you to break a slight sweat within 6-12 minutes. I recommend that a few rounds of an exercise complex be performed. A complex is a series of exercises performed in quick succession, usually with a very light weight. In this case, I recommend something like: one rep each of power clean + front squat + jerk + back squat + jerk for a few continuous rounds until the heart rate spikes, then resting a bit, and repeating until the body is well-warmed up. Alternatively, traditional cardio activities (treadmill, elliptical machine, rowing, etc.) are a valid option.

In addition, you should perform specific warm-ups and acclimations, especially prior to performing the major compound exercises in each of your weight-training sessions. Generally, a specific warm-up should be a few sets of 5-10 reps with a relatively light weight. From there, you should do a series of triples, doubles, or singles in 5-15% intervals (with about 10% being average) until you come close to your working set weight. Acclimation sets are particularly important because they prime your nervous system for the movement, getting you "into the groove." As you become stronger, you will need to increase the number of acclimation sets you perform. However, in total, between specific warm-up and acclimation, you should be able to reach a working set in about 3-5 sets. More is usually not necessary and less is rarely enough for a decently strong individual. As far as rest periods, you should start very short and gradually lengthen as you come closer to your maximum. Do not fatigue yourself before your workout has even started.

As an example of a specific warm-up and acclimation:

Deadlift: 5x185, 3x225, 3x275, 2x315, 1x365 for a working set of 5x405.


Designing a Routine

Based on what you've read above, you now know enough to create a routine. More specifically, you know the following facts:

-- legs, hips, core, and shoulders are the most important muscle groups for a tricker
-- development of strength and power through these muscle groups should be the emphasis of a routine
-- speed work and plyometrics should be limited if included at all in a routine
-- a training session should be organized, placing plyometrics before speed work before Olympic lifts before power before strength before hypertrophy work

With these four facts in mind, you should choose a schedule, such as the aforementioned M-W-F or M-T-TH-F, and then select your exercises and corresponding set, rep, and loading parameters. Try to divide and order them in a logical manner that allows you to have relatively brief weight-training sessions (30-90 minutes is sufficient) that work both the legs and upper body, though not necessarily the entire body, in each session.

However, before you begin, it's important to know one additional fact: how to balance between muscle groups.

Balancing Muscle Groups

There are three major categories of exercises -- lower body, upper body, and isolation.

Within the lower body, there are quad-dominant and hip-dominant exercises. Quad-dominant exercises are movements that rely heavily on knee extension, though they will also involve hip extension; examples largely include squats and their variations. Hip-dominant exercises, as the name suggests, primarily rely on hip extension and tend to have less emphasis on knee extension; examples include deadlift variations, good mornings, cable pull-throughs, and the Olympic lifts.

Within the upper body, there are horizontal and vertical pushes and pulls. Dividing exercises into these categories is pretty intuitive. Just think about the exercise and in what plane it moves a weight in comparison to the body. For example, a row pulls a weight in a plane perpendicular to the body, so it is a horizontal pull. An overhead press pushes a weight in the same plane as the body, so it is a vertical push. The only exercises that are particularly tricky to categorize are dips and pull-overs. Dips are a horizontal push (because of their emphasis on the chest), while pull-overs can be treated as either a horizontal or vertical pull, though they are exactly neither.

Within isolation exercises, there is knee flexion/extension, elbow flexion/extension, and ankle flexion/extension. Knee flexion and extension are basically leg curls and leg extensions, respectively. Elbow flexion and extension are arm curls and extension, respectively. Ankle flexion and extension are reverse calf raises and calf raises, respectively.

To balance between muscle groups, you should try to match volume between opposing movement patterns. These oppositions are as follows: quad-dominance/hip-dominance, horizontal push/pull, vertical push/pull, knee flexion/extension, elbow flexion/extension, ankle flexion/extension.

If you deem that one of your muscle groups is weak in comparison to the other, you should overbalance your volume in favor of that weak muscle group by slightly lowering your volume for the strong group and raising it for the weak. Keep in mind that judging a strength imbalance is a tough issue because it depends on ratios, rather than equalities. Use your best judgment and try not to let one group lag too far behind its opposition.

Now that you understand how to balance between muscle groups, you are finally ready to create a routine. Look toward the sample routine for an idea of how one might look. Good luck!


Sample Weights Routine

In the following routine,

Power: power cleans, jump squats
Strength: back squats, push presses, snatch-grip deadlifts, overhead supports

Everything else is hypertrophy-orientated -- though front squats, military presses, and romanian deadlifts use a parameter that can overlap with strength quite well.

Monday

Power Cleans: 5 x 3 @ 70% to start

Back Squats: 4 x 2 @ 90% to start
Front Squats: 5 x 5

Weighted Pull-ups: 3 x 10-12

Wednesday

Push Presses: 4 x 2 @ 90% to start

Weighted Dips: 3 x 8-10
Standing Military Presses: 5 x 5

Standing Overhead Supports: 3 x 20 seconds @ max military press to start

Friday

Jump Squats: 8 x 3 @ 60% to start

Snatch-Grip Deadlifts: 4 x 2 @ 90% to start
Romanian Deadlifts: 5 x 5

Unilateral DB Rows: 3 x 10-12


Glossary

calisthenic: bodyweight exercise.
concentric: portion of a movement where target muscle contracts under tension.
concentric muscular failure: an inability to perform a complete repetition in decent form on the concentric portion of a lift.
eccentric: portion of movement where target muscle lengthens under tension.
extension: movement that increases the angle of a joint
flexion: movement that decreases the angle of a joint
progressive overload: increasing weight, reps, sets, force of muscular contraction; decreasing rest periods; increasing the amount of work done in a given time period (e.g. deadlifting 10x3x315 in 10 minutes vs. 10x6x315 in 10 minutes).
rep maximum: the maximum number of reps you can do at a given weight.
training history: all the weight-training you do over an arbitrary time period, such as the past few months, the last year, since your last significant break, or your life.
triple, double, or single: 3, 2, or 1 rep in a set
volume: either (sets)x(reps) or (sets)x(reps)x(weight), depending on usage.

[chicanerous]

Meh, I don't know how useful this is anymore, as anfeyd has some pretty progressive and up-to-date ideas on how to train. I think it's still a good general primer, but take it with a grain of salt.

[musasabi]

stuck, because it was the most informative thing i read in all of 2007.

[Spinxy]

Damn you write a thorough article. Thanks for taking the time

[bergz]

thank u 4 taking the time for this its good as=]

[Fahey]

I remember seeing this on TT. i started at a routine but i always forgot about it :(

[Eatmoveimprove]

someone mayby have second routine which was on TT?

[tyciol]

About the 'rapid and strong hip extension', should there be a note about stiff-kneed? Like I don't know the subtle mechanics of many moves (maybe this occurs during a front flip?) but I don't know where much hip extension with a flexed knee occurs (like how we train in glute bridges and stuff) so should the more extendedness of the knee be mentioned? Obviously it's not straight brecause some knee flexion occurs to absorb impact and probably the hamstring is stronger that way when launching the ground and so forth but clearly it seems closer to fully extended than fully flexed most of the time.