Westside Barbell Thrower’s Guide to Strength Training

"It is my goal to convince both the coach and the athlete that the Westside System can make it possible to combine strength and power training all year long-not just in the offseason-by integrating all training efforts together. This means the athlete must continue to weight train and perform explosive power training during his or her competition period. It is common to train in blocks for hypertrophy, power, and then strength before the competition period, but then drop all of the blocks with the exception of the events. But, would you do this knowing that a top athlete will lose 10 percent of his or her muscle, power, and strength after 14 to 21 days? It can be said that the same holds true as well for technical skills. Unfortunately, many coaches have the thrower weight and power train with no throws, then start a cycle of throws and zero weight training. The feedback I have received from the throwers I work with shows that they realize this does not work optimally. The good news is that all training can coincide to receive the greatest training effects. Many times a weak muscle group can cause a flaw in technical skills-meaning the throw-and-muscle work should not be put aside for long periods of time."Stay Strong,