Latest / The Platform: a Michigan High School Powerlifting Association Podcast / Coaches Roundtable: Nick Lundquist & Nick Lusk Programming, Intensity & Safety |The Platform Ep. 21
Transcript
- Chris Whittaker: Welcome to the platform where the stories weigh a ton. This is where some of the MHS PLA's best tell real stories about what it takes to build themselves and their teams under the bar. I'm your co-host of the show, Chris Whitaker, and we're glad you're here. Hey, if you're enjoying the show, please make sure you subscribe, follow, and leave a review on all major podcast hosts, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music, and many more. That support helps us continue to grow the show and bring the conversations that you want to hear right here to the platform. If you'd like to give us a some feedback or suggest a guest or topic for the show, please email info at mhspla.com and we'll get back to you. Today's episode is a coaches roundtable, part one of two, bringing back two returning guests who happen to know each other very well: Coach Nick Lundquist of Lakeville, fresh off of JV Boys State title this past year, and Coach Nick Lusk, recently retired four-time state champion from Troy Athens, alongside myself. And my co-host Chris Gillam. the four of us get into the nuts and bolts of training and programming and how we monitor intensity and protect form in big groups. What maxing out really means and teaching movements from sometimes a PVC pipe, specialty bars, the lighting method, how to program for multi-sport athletes. This is part one here. So step up, lock in. This is part one with Nick Lusk and Nick Unquist. Hit the intro music. Nick Lusk: you Chris Whittaker: Ladies and gentlemen, the bar is loaded yet again for another episode of your Michigan High School Powerlifting Association podcast, the platform. I'm your co-host, as always, Chris Whitaker, Dexter High School Iron Dread Strength and Conditioning, Iron Dread Power Lifting. Dexter High or Dexter High School. I already said that part, Coach Gillum. I am on the Michigan High School Powerlifting Board with the aforementioned Executive Director of the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association. Your co host as always, Coach Chris Gillum. Coach Gillum, good to you again. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, good to see you. Good to see both next here. This should be a really good conversation. Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: Excited. Chris Whittaker: and we got a good one today. We are bringing back two previous guests. These two gentlemen know each other very well. they both have won state championships in powerlifting. one coached the other at one point, way back in the day. we have with us Nick Lundquist and Coach Nick. Lusk. Gentlemen, welcome to the podcast. Nicholas Lundquist: Thanks for having me. Thanks. Nick Lusk: Yeah, thanks. Good to see you guys. Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah, good to see ya. Chris Gilliam: Hey coach Luss, Chris Whittaker: Absolutely. Chris Gilliam: can you turn your phone sideways so we can get a fuller picture of you? Chris Whittaker: Yep, turn sideways so we can see your smiling face. Right. Coach Lundquist Nick Lusk: That better? Chris Whittaker: is as Chris Gilliam: No, you're actually sideways now. Chris Whittaker: He's upside down. Chris Gilliam: Mm. Chris Whittaker: We're not editing this out. This is staying in the the final cut. Chris Gilliam: does say and then hey. Usually it you know, it it changes, but man, you were like We're gonna leave you. Yeah, you still are. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, we'll leave them like that. The people listening Nick Lusk: There? Sideway still? Chris Whittaker: on audio have no idea what we're talking about here. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: yeah, start a podcast, they said you the technology works great. So Coach Lundquist is from Lakeville High School. he won a his team won a JB State title this year for the boys. Coach Lundquist, coach Lusk, I'm sorry, recently retired, was four time champion at Troy Athens High School. we're gonna talk today about training and programming. Right? We're gonna look at intensity, specificity, and how kind of we program and do things and all four of us are gonna kinda go around a round the table and talk a little bit 'cause we all have different experiences to speak from. with our association we we care about the high school kids, the high school power lifters and we wanna build strength and shape character within our association and part of that is doing it the right way when it comes from a programming standpoint, Coach Gill. Chris Gilliam: Definitely looking forward to seeing these guys since they've been state champion coaches. coach lusk multiple times. So it's a time to pick a b their brains, 'cause usually when we see it's at a meet and they're super swamped and it's hard to talk details, you know. And when you first start coaching, you kind of keep things closely vested a little bit, especially when you get the secret sauce going a little bit. You're like, I don't know. K I kinda like being on top a little bit here. But I know these guys will share stuff because they're they're the stand up guys that we've learned to to love and appreciate in their time here in the MHS PLA. Nick Lusk: and. Chris Whittaker: Absolutely. And our first topic well I should have the should have our our little sound effects going. Our first topic. Chris Gilliam: Nice. Chris Whittaker: is group management and safety. now with this right where we're looking at we're we have large groups right 30, 40 kids sometimes more. how do you practically monitor intensity and ensure it doesn't break ensure form doesn't break down on heavy sets. coach Lusk why don't we start with you? Nick Lusk: Okay. Yeah, as far as monitoring intensity and making sure our form stays good. What we try to do is we have three coaches per rack when we have our practices. So that allows us to, you know, to the best of our ability, be able to just watch three lifters at a time. And then from there to make sure we keep that intensity proper. If we start to see the form break down where there's a risk of injury, then we're definitely going to take some weight off the bar. Rack it up reassess from there or vice versa The weight is jumping and they're just flying with the weight We need to load a little more weight on that day and get the most we can out of it Chris Gilliam: Okay. Coach Lunkwiss? Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah, so I'm a one man show at Lakeville. I'm the only coach in the weight room. So the best way that I found to do it is to make my athletes coaches as well. So I have a very knowledgeable team. and they're they're able to monitor their teammates and the other lifters in the weight room and they know what exactly to look for because I taught them how to look for it and what to look for, and hey, if it's if this happens, we gotta take some weight off the bar and fix it. That's my b the best approach I've found so far just with you know, with just me. Chris Gilliam: it's great. I've been able in my my time to do a little bit of what each of you do because when you first start off, you're kinda han solo in there. And so you yeah, you've gotta teach the lifters to correctly spot, to correctly Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: identify. Like that was something that was always a challenge for me. Like so I use a lot of videos to show kids like, yeah, you thought that was easy, but look at here. You got stuck at the midway point. See how you totally slowed down? And then you'd teach the kids like I mean, five more pounds they might not have pushed through that sticking point. You know what I mean? And so even though the Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: the lockout went fast, that midpoint, or maybe they were really slow out of the hole, you know, those types of things. So for me, I w I really taught about looking at the speed of the bar movement a lot. and Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chris Gilliam: when it came with intensity, you know, like, okay, that It's a little harder than it should have been. If that was your last rep, that's fine. But when we're doing a set of five and that was your first rep or two, that's probably not gonna work out for you too well today, kind of thing. But I think Coach Whitaker and I have something in common too. I like to use clocks. Did you guys do you guys use like a timer at all to keep them on track? Nicholas Lundquist: Mm mm. No, mm mm. Chris Gilliam: No, not really. I found that once your team got larger. That was huge for me. Nick Lusk: Nelos. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Have you ever used a clock, Coach Lusk? Nick Lusk: So what I'll do is I'll give them like a time frame like hey we're trying to get through these lifts at this time and then Especially the only time I use a clock is on Wednesdays for the varsity where we're focused more on technique for the bigger lifts But then we do circuits to get through our accessory work that day. That's the only time I'll put a timer on Chris Gilliam: Yeah. I understand. Nick Lusk: But at the same time too, I got a couple other coaches in there with me to help keep kids on track. And kind of like Coach Lunkwis Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Nick Lusk: was saying, you develop that hey, lifters coaching each other, that helps too. Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, I understand. Yeah, good. Coach Whitaker, how about yourself? Chris Whittaker: Yeah, I mean it's gonna say a lot of the same things you guys have already said, right? Much like Lunquist, I'm coaching those kids on how to coach each other, right? 'Cause it's many times it is me by myself in there too. especially before school, after school. Or I might have some of the football guys come and help me out and be extra ice and I'm still teaching them how to really look at a lift and break it down and see where the weak points are and w what cues do we need to provide and what what points. we keep on a clock as far as overall time on main lift, but like Coach Lusk was saying, accessory work is all and our warm ups are all on a timer. we really preach to missed reps don't help us. if you know I'm trying to get it to where a kid gets angry at another kid for missing a rep because they made a dumb weight choice. not not missing it. Like and so they like give that give that feedback. Like look, Nick Lusk: you Chris Whittaker: like that's not how we do this, you know. we've also been playing around with bar velocity a little bit. And of course, you know, if you've had one of these, you're probably much like me sending it back because it's been broken by an idiot pulling on the string. Not broken while being used. but I no no shout outs, free shout outs, I guess, to OVR. They are Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: quite affordable and I that's a whole nother rabbit hole we can go down with velocity training, but that helps I think on the Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: heavy days on the heavy days, almost give permission to add more and help guide attempt selection as far as working up on your max equipment. Chris Gilliam: Nice, that that would be kind of another whole discussion topic on how to use and implement those in training. That's pretty cool. All right, Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: guys, high school athletes often want to max out every week, especially the boys, right? They have the macho thing going, they wanna every week they wanna push it. How do you guys approach teaching the teenagers the difference between training intent and trying You know, just trying to hit a personal record every session. Nick Lusk: Go ahead, Nick, you can take it. Chris Gilliam: We'll start with Long Quest this time. Nicholas Lundquist: Okay. so this is it's kind of difficult from my standpoint. Well, on Mondays and Tuesdays I do max effort days. so our main lift is always working up to a heavy single or double or triple, depending on what we're doing. and if the kids are feeling good, man, I let push it, but if that bar split speed slows way down, they're done. They back out, they're done for the done for the main lift and they'll move on. the My my my motto all the time is five pounds is five pounds. If you hit a five pound PR in the weight room on those max effort days, Mondays and Tuesdays, get out of there, you're done, you're moving on to the next thing because five pounds is huge in the weight room, especially when you start getting up into those big numbers. You can't you know, some people can't push five pounds, it takes them months. You get a five pound PR, you're done. And move on. Get on the get the accessory stuff done because that's just as po as important to me as you hitting a new PR or a max during those days. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, good. Coach Lask? Nick Lusk: Yeah, so for me, it's really the it's the younger kids that you got to teach it to. I've been pretty lucky that once they get to the varsity level, they understand the training and the programming where they're not always trying to max out. So trying to establish at the younger level is where we put that in. like for the varsity kids, we follow a Texas method type layout where Monday we're hitting volume. Wednesday is more of a technique type day. then Friday is when we can get after it. And kind of like Lundquist was saying, it's not always a one rep PR. It could be five, it could be two, three, whatever it might be. But that's the day they can get after it. And they've kind of learned like, hey, we're going to build for that day. So we get a lot of that ego out on Monday and Wednesday. Chris Gilliam: Gotcha. Coach Whitaker, how about yourself? Chris Whittaker: Time to get training, baby. We max out every week. But what does maxing out mean? Right? We're utilized the max effort method. the way we put it with our kids is it's heavy, you're straining and pushing on that bar, but you're holding good form when you do it. Once form breaks, it now becomes too heavy. So really, is it a is it a max out in the sense of by any means necessary? No. Right, it's strain, it's push on the bar, hold good positions. We get slight technique breakdown, that's when we're shutting it off and being like, Yep, look, see you started around your upper back forward, that's showing a weak point there that we need to either cue with technique or strength and we build from there. So we we strain on every week and then change the lift. Well, okay, like Nick's talking about, like Five pounds is five pounds, break a record. Like w we have football players that break all time records in the squat with a bar in season. And Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: they're still high performers on the field on Friday night. You know. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Well the conjugate Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: method, I mean, I I I love it as well. Like you got your, you know, max days, you know, your heavy days, you got your speed days. I think the challenge for me, especially with boys, just my own personal experience, those speed days. They're supposed to be light. All of a sudden there's ten extra pounds or fifteen extra pounds on their work set. Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: And it's like, what are you doing? Like, do you understand chances are next week you're not gonna get your sets now? Because you Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Chris Gilliam: instead of lifting it like, you know, whatever the the percentage range was, Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: sixty-five percent, which is by design, you know, you decide I'm gonna be more like seventy five to eighty percent, you know, for that many sets, you know, and you guys know some of those days are like eight by two. Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: And then they're it they're supposed to be light and easy. Those were the days that I tried to implement so they wouldn't do it. More of a control the weight. So we did like five counts down, pause it, explode up, you know, because it's supposed to be super light. But you know, when Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: they're used to going up and down like they're doing their warm-up sets, all of a sudden, you know, this is too light, coach, you know. So that was always a challenge for me. For them to understand the difference. And you know, this is a day that's supposed to focus on technique, those speed days. Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: So that was just a challenge for me. I don't know. but as they got Chris Whittaker: I think. Chris Gilliam: more veteran, as I think Nick alluded to, you know, less of that. It's more of the younger Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Chris Gilliam: kids, especially I used to include a lot of middle school kids. So that was always a challenge. All right, coach. Nick Lusk: Peace. Chris Whittaker: Dynamic work, increasing rate of force development while maximizing perfect technique under lighter loads. how do you handle exercise specificity when a student lacks the Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Whittaker: basic mobility or trunk stability to safely perform a standard competition squat or deadlift? Chris Gilliam: Lusk, you started. Nick Lusk: Okay. Um, so part of our warmup is I think I put this in two or three years ago. We started doing the McGill big three every day when we come into warm up. And over time, I started noticing that would, uh, that would help with that core stability and that trunk stability. But if we still have kids lacking, uh, I'm not putting a barbell on your back to your ready to go. Uh, and that's a, it's a really prideful thing for some kids sometimes, you know, they see everybody else doing it and. You know, they want to just jump in, but I mean, you can get a lot of strength gains off of a goblet squat or moving to like a front squat or a searchers big right now. Um, just, you know, we start our season with PVC pipe. Doesn't matter if it's varsity or JV and you know, they all roll their eyes like, Oh, I know how to lift. But you know, when you're, when you're in the bottom of a squat with even a PVC pipe on your back and I'm counting, not you, but I'm counting like it could. It could last a while, right? And it could be challenging. mean, Lundquist knows a little bit about that, you know, from how slow I can count at times, but, but no, Nicholas Lundquist: yeah. Nick Lusk: I mean, that's what we do. You know, we start with the basics and we build up and we're not going to put you in a position where you're going to hurt yourself with a bar. Chris Gilliam: All right, good. Lanquist. Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah, very similar. we do a lot of like goblet squats and stuff like that. I d especially onto a box, 'cause kids always want to know how deep do I have to go? How deep to I and I'm never gonna say, you know, all the way down like all the way to the ground, obviously. Like I'm a parallel, just a below parallel guy. And I'll put a box underneath them and they'll goblet squat down to the box as many times and we'll work off that into a front squat or a zerker squat like Lusk was saying. And then eventually when they're ready we'll put a bar on their back. But again, I I'm not gonna risk a kid's safety by just going right in there and putting a bar right on their back and saying, Hey, here you go, good luck. Chris Gilliam: Mm. Coach Whitaker? Chris Whittaker: Change the bar, change the exercise. we we have some fifteen, twenty five pound mini bars that we'll utilize, with a straight bar. When we're into the specialty bar stuff, one of the things I like to do because as Coach Lusk alluded to, the kid doesn't want to look up and down the racks and be like, yeah, I'm over here doing goblet squat while there the kid that's in my grade is over there squatting with that fancy looking bar that we got. So we'll we'll use the lighten method. So taking taking the bands or reverse bands, attaching them to the top of the rack, so now at the bottom of the lift the weight is lighter. We'll do that a lot with the yoke bar and safety squat bar. and it what it does is it allows them to use that bar, but makes that bar light enough so they can. And they still get the benefits of that bar, right? If for the yoke bar, as they're working up with a lighten method and you know wants to start to push you forward, they can still fight that. Camper Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: bar, same thing, right? It just changing the exercise and using things like the lighting method helps that. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I would use goblet squat a lot with the younger kids. But like you talked about specific bars. We didn't get into all the, you know, different type like the yoke bar and stuff, but I would buy training bars that were like fifteen pounds and stuff like that, especially for the younger kids or somebody brand new, like you can just tell, like sometimes they get under the bar but like everybody's first set when they get in was always with the bar. You know? And Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: so you you just gotta watch but yeah, that's the hardest thing, you know, and so sometimes some of they're not even ready for a forty five pound bar 'cause they don't even know how to really like get it on their back correctly. You know, so we would we spend a lot of time on how to grab the bar, you know, and keep a good grip Nick Lusk: Mm-hmm. Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: on it as you're getting under the bar and learn to get under correctly, find that spot, squeezing. the traps, all that type of stuff, getting the elbows forward and then just Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: unracking it. And we'll get into some other stuff later, but we spent a lot of time on how the correct walkout. You know, lusk you've been at Nationals, the top lifters, it's like two steps out, they settle their feet and they're ready to rock. Cause if Nick Lusk: Yep. Chris Gilliam: they got seven hundred pounds for some of these boys, some of these girls got four hundred pounds on their back. You're not gonna take seven steps out and wiggle around a bunch. You know, you'll be sitting there waiting forever for the squat command. You know. So the top level lifters learn Nick Lusk: Thank you. Chris Gilliam: how to get under there, unrack it, and walk out nice and controlled with minimal effort. And you know, and I think when kids learn to do that, they naturally have that posture that they need to hinge correctly. You know, and they most likely have the that mobility too. Many high school lifters play other sports. I'm sure you guys have coached Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: multi sport kids, even though they power lift for ya. How do you guys adjust their intensity during competitive sports season? Like ours is winter sports. So if you got girls that are playing basketball or boys that might be playing basketball or wrestling or whatever, how do you adjust their intensity during their s other sports season compared to if it was just the off season? Lundquist, let's start with you. Nicholas Lundquist: we lift heavy all year round. So like Whitaker was saying earlier, I have we'll have kids ma hit their heavy heaviest max squat on Tuesday and go perform a game on Friday night. Just fine. No problems at all. I I keep the volume fairly low, especially like on certain access accessory stuffs. so like we'll do obviously Monday, Tuesday max effort. Thursday, Friday we do that dynamic effort. Nick Lusk: Thanks. Nicholas Lundquist: But if they're they're feeling sluggish, they're f feeling slow, I'll take some percentage off their dynamic effort work and make it a little bit lighter for so they can move just keep that bar speed up there. And as long as they're moving that bar fast, it should be, you know, if they're still getting some work in. but just keep keeping that volume lower than what I would like during the summer right now when we have, you know, all you have really going on right now is seven on seven football league, stuff like that going on. You don't have to worry about a whole lot. So that's where you can kind of amp that volume up, but Like with Lakeville, it's it's such a small school, so I'm always training in season athletes. You know, Chris Gilliam: Mm-hmm. Nicholas Lundquist: it's it's one of those things and that doesn't bother too much. We're doing doing what we do right now, during season. So and if it does, they'll talk to Chris Gilliam: Yeah, so if they're Nicholas Lundquist: me about it. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, if they're training year round, it shouldn't be a big adjustment for them. I understand that. How about Nicholas Lundquist: Right. No. Yeah. Chris Gilliam: you, Lusk? Any changes? Nick Lusk: Yeah, I know very similar to what Coach Lundquist was saying. It's big drop in volume. So like we use that Texas method, None of my multi-sport athletes that are in season are going to do a five by five. You know, I'm just not going to do that to them. So we'll drop that volume down. And then a lot of times they won't do much accessory work. They'll do a little bit. But especially for the legs, know, like most of our Basketball players that you know, they're they're getting plenty of legwork just being at basketball practice running jumping I mean that's so much plyometrics, know, so I'll reduce pretty much all the lower body volume Accessory work and then as far as upper body just little little pieces here and there making sure they're still keeping that upper back and place some pull-ups, know, not even heavy rows anymore and for them it might just be pull-ups or you know, some little tricep work, but biggest thing is dropping that volume because you need your kids to be able to recover. And that's what I found is the big key piece. Like Coach Lundquist was saying, having that open line of communication is important too, because, you Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Nick Lusk: know, there's ways that I could train and go play where a kid, if they did that, it would either not be enough or it's too much for them. So having that good communication with your athlete of. Hey coach, I was really sore at practice the other day. Okay, cool. Let's back this down a little bit or maybe we only do half of the sets. You know, I wish Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Nick Lusk: I could give you an exact prescription of what I do, but it's a, it's really a day by day kind of going on the fly based on how they're feeling. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, sure. I mean, I would do similar stuff that both of you guys did. I mean my own daughter, both of them would would play basketball during power lift and eventually they gave up basketball because, you know, they got sick of taking like second and third at meats. So and they they weren't that great of a basketball player, so they just kinda chose to dive in. But yeah, instead of five by five, maybe you drop to three by five or two by five or And maybe some weeks because they're they just tell you that they're dog tired because coach ran them into the ground the day before. It's maybe it's one set of five. You know? Get get the one set in and move on. Yeah, I'm with ya on that. And definitely cut out accessories, especially for legs. Because that you're right, if they're in basketball, they're running a lot. So their legs are already getting a lot of accessory Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: work in. So yeah. Do you get a lot of that as well, Coach Whiteger? As much as Dexter? Chris Whittaker: Nope. I d I don't. Our kids, our kids if they come to me and say, coach, you know, I I kinda want to power lift but I also want to play basketball. I tell Okay, go play basketball, I'll see you on our in season protocol. Yeah, that's just I'm I look at it like this. I'm a strength coach first and I started a strength and conditioning program to help build better athletes all around. I'm I've had it where some of them have tried to come in and train on our four day a week cycle. and they they can't handle the the training that is needed to be able to get there, right? 'Cause part of our requirement to be in on the team, you're training four days a week within our program. And it's seventy five minute session. Our classes though are block with every other day. So it builds that rest period in. For that in season athlete where they just come into the class. That's kinda how we've we've always Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: done it. when I get that kid that kinda really is adamant about doing both, I'll do just what you guys are talking about. the usually what I'll do is I'll change the main lift, especially on max effort day. taking a instead of a you know, a full squat to a box, maybe we're gonna if they're getting beat up, we'll do a max effort sled drag that day. or a belt squat. Or it'll just be, all right, hey You're gonna drag that sled for the next twenty minutes walking around that track with the quarter on it and flush your legs out a little bit. And for us, I like to keep cause our accessory volume is basically the same for three weeks. Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Whittaker: Right. Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: Always gonna do three sets because it's that's how the kind of the timing of it all works right now. We got about twenty one minute span to get six different things in to hit all our different weak points. So like I'll have Nicholas Lundquist: There you go. Chris Whittaker: I'll pull the max effort work out and have hit the the heavy accessories, so that they get the weak point work 'cause they can recover from that stuff in twelve hours. Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: You know what mean? Chris Gilliam: Good. Chris Whittaker: They it's the Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: big compound lifts that they struggle to recover from and you really you should give seventy two hours in between if you can. you Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: know, we're we're condensing down into a five day week so that you know, much like Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: Lunquist is saying like you know, we spread out on our four day a week plan, we spread out our max effort days and put at the end of the week. And then they're not too dynamic Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah, yeah. Chris Whittaker: in the middle to kind of space that. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Gotcha. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, I've s I've done both of what you guys have done and and then I've like fiddle farted around and depending there in the powerlifting season, I would probably most likely put my deadlift heavy day towards the end of the week 'cause then if we were going to a meet that week, they didn't their their heavy day training became the meet that Saturday. is how I would use it with deadlift, especially during the season. That's what I would do. But yeah, during the off season, I would probably do a a six to twelve week cycle of my max effort day early in the week. And then I'd flip it, put it later in the week, change it around. So that's good. All right. Whitaker, you're next. Chris Whittaker: So if a sport coach is already running their athletes in hard outside of the weight room, how do you modify your powerlifting program to prevent the systematic fatigue and burnout? I mean I I'll take this one first because Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: just to mix it up. I mean, if we're talking in in season, I think we've already discussed that. if we're talking about out of season, again, if they're on another team we're cutting down the number of sessions a week they're training. that's kinda how we do that. Or if they are adamant they want to keep training on our four day plan, then we've changed movements. That's how that's how we do it. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Good. Last, how about yourself? Nick Lusk: Yeah, so, if you're talking about, so we've kind of talked about like the legs being tired and stuff like that, but we haven't talked much about the nervous system yet. so Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Nick Lusk: with that one, if they're like, coach, I'm just tired all the time. I'm not really sore. I'm just tired and dragon. And maybe we're in a phase where we're doing some heavy lifting. Maybe it's having doubles, triples, singles, whatever it might be. That's where then I'll back off and be like, all right, maybe. Maybe today just do a deload, you know, or, or take the day off and work at a weak point. you guys had mentioned before, cause that, that heavy singles, those heavy doubles, they get exhausting. And if you're already kind of just dragging or finals time, you'll find that a lot during finals time too. I Nicholas Lundquist: Mm-hmm. Nick Lusk: can't remember who I heard say, I think it was Connor over at a Devon party. was like, stress is stress. And it does not matter if it's, you know, from a mental standpoint or physical, if they're just. in a lot of stressful situations, the central nervous system just going to go. So I'll back down on that too. Chris Gilliam: Lunquist? Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah, same thing. Like, so we do the four day at Lakeville and all the athletes are on the four day at Lakeville. And I will just modify what I need to if the kids come up to me and say, Hey, like, I'm just tired. Like they're not even sore. They're just having trouble staying awake or focusing and I'll just t I'll back some intensity off. Like if it's a dynamic effort day, I'm h back some percentages off or Nick Lusk: Check. Nicholas Lundquist: maybe have do half the reps on accessory work or whatever that may be or half the sets or whatever they think they need. And I'll give them their time because like Lesk was saying earlier about communication, I think that's huge when a kid can come up to you and kind of communicate that with you and says, hey, I'm just tired. They know they don't know why they're tired because, you know, s the CNS is a crazy thing, but they can s they know they're tired. Chris Gilliam: Sure. Yeah. I think some of the things I've tried and some of them I think worked with some kids and some didn't necessarily work with every kid, but some some of those days, like on the those heavy days that they told me that, I just said get your warm up sets in for the squat or whatever. Don't worry about your work set. Just get the warm up sets in. And then I said, you know, try and get all your accessory work in. You know, but if they were dragging worse, you know, or let's say it led into the next week again, then you know, so I always tried to trim as little fat as possible initially, and then would trim more if needed if things continued beyond that one week period of time. But you know, that's something I d I don't know, I'm pretty stubborn. I never said, skip squat or skip bunch. You can just skip it today. Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Nick Lusk: . Chris Gilliam: I mean, but I would say Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Chris Gilliam: you can skip your work set and sometimes it was like Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: if it was a heavy day, skip your heavy s your your heavy set, but I still want you to do your drop sets and see how those feel. Nicholas Lundquist: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: You know. And if the drop sets were you know, they were still dragging, then I'd say, Okay, well you did that, so let's Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: take a couple sets off your accessory work. You know, you'll do one set of this instead of three. You know, and hopefully it helps them re recoup and recover. So all right, good. all right, so Whitaker's talked about a little bit, but let's say you got somebody that's coming to you, they only have two or three days a week to dedicate to powerlifting. one, I don't know if like you have a standard like no, you you just won't be participating with us, or if you're still like, yeah, we know that your your other sport is like your primary sport, we're your secondary sport, and you know, you kind of work that out. I've done that in the past. Especially when I was trying to build my numbers. But then when you get numbers, you know, that are high enough, you don't really need to do that. Special favors for people. But like what's what's some of the things that Nick Lusk: Thank Chris Gilliam: you guys have done to try and maintain like, you know, the specificity with those kids, even though they're you know, you're four weeks, Lundquist, or four days a week. They can only come in two days. Is it one heavy day, one l speed day, both of them heavy days? What are what is your emphasis for the with those kids? Nicholas Lundquist: So I don't I don't have to deal with that very often because I have so I do a morning lift, so I'll do a before school lift. I have classes all throughout Nick Lusk: Thank Nicholas Lundquist: the day, and then I have the afternoon lift. So a lot of those kids know, hey, they have how many chances throughout the day to come and get their workout in. So like that after school practice really doesn't become that big of a deal. However, if that w if that was the case, if I had somebody approach me that way, I would do it where I would have There was only two days a week, I'd do a heavy day and a speed day and I would have to just intermix upper and lower on each one of those days. Chris Gilliam: Okay, gotcha. How about you, Losk? Have you had to experience that? Maybe back in your bundle days? Nick Lusk: Yeah. Yeah, no, actually, Bendo is super easy. Those kids were all 100 % powerlifting that they were just digging in on that. Yeah, it was fun coaching. Chris Gilliam: Nice. Nick Lusk: I Lundquist and I we were coaching together there. So we had a lot of good stories from that time. But, no, it was at Athens, kind of like you were talking about to help build the program. I would work with people a lot. And then there became years where I had to do tryouts and I had to cut people. So then it was You need to be at practice every day. Like, how am going to keep you if you're one day a week? But then we got to the point, we got some more racks in there where I didn't have to cut anymore. And I enjoy that. I hated the cutting process. And I like Chris Whittaker: Alright, that wraps up part one of our coaches roundtable with Nick Lundquist and Nick Lusk here on the platform where the stories weigh a ton. In part two, we're going to get into augurate regulating intensity day-to-day, RPE versus percentages, peaking and tapering for the state meet, and budget-friendly variations these coaches use to fix technical flaws. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it when this episode drops on Thursday of this week. If this helped you, if you enjoyed it, leave us a review, send the topic ideas, as always to info at MHSPLA.com. We'll see you back here again on Thursday for part two with Coach Lusk and Coach Lundquist.