ron@ronjones.org (Send me your questions or testimonials!)

• Program Summary (5-13-04): Wow...what a great spring training we had! You guys have really improved and have a ton of potential for the coming season. I wish you all the very best--but I don't want to say "good luck" because your season will not be up to chance. The success of your season will not be based on luck but your hard work and dedication to making the BC Football team one of the best in the state. The handouts are done for your summer program recommendations--pick them up from the coaches. I'm not posting them on my website because I don't want your competitors have that much specific information about what we do this summer. Don't forget the first rule of war!!! "Don't shoot yourself in the foot!" Keep up with your fitness over the break and summer and maintain the great improvements. If you sit around, you'll lose most of what you worked so hard to gain. If you go back to heavy lifting only, you'll lose optimal function with your movement patters. In closing, let me encourage all of you to take what you learned from me this spring and take it into your families and communities. My message is wellness and health more than sport performance. I was able to hang with you because I'm a wellness guy and take care of myself--year after year and decade after decade.  Look around at other 44 year old men and think about what they can and cannot do then think about how important maintenance is for aging! Wellness works--it's high-performance health that kicks serious ass. I can prove it right now--will you in a few more years? The choice will be yours--take care of yourself Gades. Stay fit and stay strong, and if you're ever in Atlanta, y'all look me up! See ya, Ron

• End of Week #14 (4-30-04): This was the end of our last "regular" week.  Next week I'll start making adjustments in preparation for your testing starting on May 11th.  Monday will be normal but be prepared to go hard and deep on Tuesday and Thursday.  Friday we'll do more on the education side regarding some good stretches, etc.  We'll be doing six minutes of Leg Matrix #1, 60 reps of pointers, 5 minutes of dynamic bridging, and a couple of sets of the Push Up Matrix #1 & #2.  There are "MY" tests for you guys.  They are more than just physical--they are mental.  At this point you should be able to keep moving even if not quite getting the reps as some of the others.  We'll find out next week who is training themselves mentally to finish the play, the 4th quarter, the game, and the season and who is conditioning themselves mentally to quit before they have a physical reason to quit.  Be focused and be aggressive.  I have a motto--finish hard with a kick.  You have been forewarned. That is all.

• Wednesday Workout, 4-28-04: Thanks for coming out to learn and workout.  Here's what we worked on.

  • 1-Arm Plyo DB Snatch (lead with elbow, be explosive, "stick" the top with good shoulder stability, work up to about 45+ pounds--this will give you explosive power in shoulders and legs but really good shoulder stability)

  • 1-Arm Overhead DB Shoulder Stability (go down to ground and stand back up keeping DB right over shoulder, use work up to about 45 pounds)

  • Keg Snatch (keep wrist straight, don't hesitate once you go, can simulate with sand bags, etc., the water sloshing around in the keg makes it unstable and harder to control but challenges stabilizers much more)

  • Reaction Drills with balls, hand slaps, etc.

  • Stability Ball:

    • 1-Arm Switch

    • 2-Arm Shock

    • 2-Arm Shock Lockout

    • Chest Press

    • DB Pullover

  • Running Drills:

    • Newton's Third Law of Motion: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." This applies not only to the amount of force applied but the ANGLE that the force is applied. 

    • 40 Yard Starts: Using Newton's 3rd Law, come out at angle driving legs really hard, first stride is a "leap" or longer but not an over stride, hold breath to 10-15 yards then quickly exhale/inhale and finish 40 hard without breathing to keep hip stabilized for more efficient force transfer to ground.

    • 20-Yard Pro Agility: Using Newton's 3rd Law, hit a "ricochet" type angle and bounce right back across the drill; don't round off your cut--it's very sharp; also decelerate before you get the cut so you don't over shoot the chalk line; hold breath as you make cuts to put more force on ground.

• End of Week #13 (4-23-04): Our hurry up" warm ups are going pretty well so far but some of you need a little more prep work.  If you have some specific issues that need more preparation I suggest you do some extra movement prep or anything else that gets you ready instead of just sitting around before practice.  Be "proactive" instead of "reactive" by doing something on your own to fix your own problems.  The box plyo jumps were great.  You guys had really good stabilization for the most part coming on and off the boxes. This was good to see.  Our program has worked well to better control your movements.  Some of you would like to come out again for the optional Wednesdays. I'm working on this--hopefully next week we can hit some more stuff on our off day that is productive. I'll keep you posted.  I'd like some testimonials from the guys that feel my program has helped them this spring.  To read some sample testimonials from other athletes I've worked with click here.  Thanks.

• Shoulder Impingement & Pain. (4-20-04): See my Q&A section for specifics. Don't keep working through the pain because it will only get worse. Let's fix it now while we still have time. See above for more info.

• End of Week #12 (4-16-04): We are on a quicker pace now but be careful to not get "sloppy" with the Movement Prep and other exercises.  Quality can and MUST be maintained despite speed. If you can't handle the speed, slow down a bit but do not lose your quality.  Look for more back exercises next week as we back off the "front side" stuff a bit.  Upper backs are much harder to target with the body weight exercises--we'll work on these more though.  Great job on the push up contest.  You guys don't really understand how incredible this was.  We had guys at 350 pounds doing 4-Person Weave push ups!  You guys wouldn't have even left the ground when we started but now our top groups did 30 reps and our big guys were almost at 10 reps--that's amazing!  The ability to do a 4-Person push up comes right out of a strong core--you have to do an incredible amount of stabilization to lift all four people off the ground not only in your cores but also shoulders--again, great job.  We'll also be doing more single leg drills next week.  There are not enough guys taking advantage of the ankle bands before practice.  I'm doing them but few if anyone else is joining me.  The results are significant with not much effort.  Reach a bit--do for the extra and be the best you can be.  A couple of 10 yard sets of those per week will improve you more than sitting over there BSing before practice.  You can also use them with hand walks for shoulder stabilization training.  Additionally, sometimes I'll bring other stuff out just to see who, if any, is interested in learning something new.  I'm not going to beat you over the head but if you're smart you'll come over there and ask me what I'm doing and why I'm doing it then try it yourself whether it be an overhead dumbbell stabilization exercise, stability ball, medicine ball, or balance drills--it's all good.  Don't forget to get to also get quality rest--we have a vicious workout intensity and have for months.  You won't improve at maximum efficiency without proper rest and also proper refueling with good nutrition.  Have a good weekend.

• Week #11/Spring Break Training Suggestions: Sorry it took so long to post these; I've had a lot of corporate Wellness coaching work this last week. These are my suggestions based on what I know and what I feel about not only your physical state of being right now--but also your mental fitness and central nervous system reserve. Some of you are a bit tweaked from two months of intense training. Take advantage of this well deserved rest but don't just sit around and do nothing. Be smart about it. Rest is VERY productive as long as it is done right.

  1. Take the weekend off (or a 3 day in a row block somewhere if you worked through the weekend)

  2. Do NOT do ANY heavy lifting this week! If you want to do some strength work just do some of our body weight exercises. I would strongly recommend hitting the following body weight strength areas 1-2 times over the break: lunges, squats, crunches, bridges, pointers, push ups. You decide which form and how many.  If you want to add more "body weight" exercises OR a light weight/high rep workout at the gym this is up to you but NO heavy lifting!

  3. Don't do any long running. Just shake it up a bit by doing around 4 build up 100s. Hit 3/4 speed at 50 yards and open a bit for about 10-20 then coast out but don't sprint.  Next do some Ins & Outs for "speed" by going easy for 20, max for 15, easy for 20, then finish with another 15 yards of max speed. WALK back to the start--do NOT jog! This drill has absolutely nothing to do with aerobic conditioning! It's about speed mechanics--MAX! If you push the rest/recovery because you ran back to the start then run the sprint half ass you just ruined the objective of the max speed development drill! Do about 2-4 of these. You can also do just one "In" zone of 20 yards in the middle if the other is too much for you.  If you still want some speed (this doesn't have to be on the same day) then set up some cones and do a speed drill. Do one or two we have done or create your own. Keep them SHORT so you can go quick and maintain agility.  Speed cone drills are NOT endurance drills--they only last a few seconds and a few yards then you're done!

  4. Do something on at least one day the weekend before we come back. DO NOT sit around all weekend and DO NOT sit around all week. Note First Rule of War: "Do not shoot yourself in the foot!"

• Week #10 (4-2-04): We rocked on Thursday! Sorry about the cancellation on Friday. We did not know we'd lose access to the gym because of the stadium event.

• End of Week #9 (3-25-04): Another fitness jump this week. The 110s are now much "easier." We cut the recovery and you guys were running them just as fast or faster. This means you are getting more fit! Someone told me last week that the push ups were not as hard so he must be doing them wrong. Actually he is in better shape so he doesn't have to work as hard to do what was almost impossible when we started a few weeks ago. Next week I'll throw in some challenges to keep things interesting before the break. We'll put your speed to the test and see if you can beat someone else at the Bridge Sparring and maybe some wheelbarrow hop races. We'll also revisit the "RJ" Push Up Matrix #1 and begin the "RJ" Push Up Matrix #2. I'll also be going over some plans for your spring break. In short, I don't want you guys lifting heavy or doing ANY plyos over spring break. Just some easy stuff to loosen up and aid in recovery. Some of you need the time for healing so will do less. A little speed work would be fine--maybe some cone drills, in and outs, build ups with a kick at the end, some body weight exercises to keep things loosened up but nothing too hard. When we come back my time with you will be cut in half as you start to transition your spring conditioning into actual football drills like sled work. We'll get to see your improved hip flexibility and power put to use. We'll be ripping through the Movement Prep then right into quick CORE/Functional Strength with a few drills at the end for a max of 30 minutes with my program then you're off to the football drills. There will be no more time to learn a lot of new stuff or do partner exercises. We'll be adding speed, intensity, and minor tweaks to what you know and not wasting time reviewing what you should have learned by this point. Get ready to shred after spring break. The pace will be brisk and intense. I'm looking forward to it. For those of you still hiding in the back not doing your reps, you will soon be on the "learning end" one way or the other as the guys that busted butts this spring put on pads and knock you on your ass--explosively I might add. I tried to tell you but oh well...some are just not coachable. So be it. Warning: If you don't get this core and functional fitness stuff under control before August it will be too late--you'll never catch up.

• Core Wednesday #2 (3-24-04): Good work today.  I think I brought a little too much out. If you were overwhelmed it's my fault. Next time we do some circuits we'll do less stations but go through twice. It worked fine though. The 60 seconds work with 60 seconds rest/balance was better for giving you the rest you needed to maintain quality. I would suggest trying some of those stadiums I showed when you're "fresh" so you can do a nice set of them with some snap in your legs. You got the idea today--don't always do them the same old way--use variations. There are more but those three stadiums are basically what I do. A set of 10-15 would be a light day for me and 25 would be a heavy intense day--non stop by the way.  Below was our outline today for those of you that want to do some of it later.

• You guys think about what you want to work on next time. Today's suggestions were: more true "speed work", how to set and brace shoulders right for pop ups and the 1-Inch punch stuff, 1-Arm push up techniques, cone drills, maybe some hills or stadiums while we are fresh. I think next time will be more technique driven than "fitness" driven.  So it will be more on the "personal training" side, but remember, this is highly productive because if you learn the stuff right you can do it on your own and do it better with more optimal results. It's really hard with 60 guys for me to perfectly instruct or correct each person's form. In a small group I have the opportunity to go around like today and actually move your hips into the right position or show you exactly how to position your arms to fully load the core with the med balls, etc.  Think it over and let me know...