That is not to say that exhaustion or even the occasional prowler flu is always a bad thing, but my personal opinion for myself, most of my clients, and the majority of the world at large is that exhaustion or puking should not be the goal of a great training session.
Rather, the goal should be to deliver quality work at a high level of performance and, ultimately, to progress. To achieve maximal progress, an individual MUST work extremely hard and push the body to the limit. In such a case, exhaustion, soreness, puking, and fainting are sometimes a simple by-product of hard work. However, they should remain by-products and should not be the goal of an athlete, coach, or trainee who is aiming to make the most progress in the least amount of time.
Any idiot TV personality trainer can exhaust a client. My job and your job for yourself (if you train on your own) is to progress, plain and simple. Progress means making yourself better and stronger, not worse. I tell my clients that as a coach, a perfect week of training is to have a client walk in the gym and be able to outperform anything they have done prior and to have them leave the gym feeling great and without lingering side effects like soreness. That is progress. You have just done more! You are better and stronger than you were before, with no ill effects.
So How Does One Train to Perform and Progress?
One should look to work up to, and just past, their threshold of performance. Aiming to train hard, make progress, and reward oneself for that progress. Think about this: once a horse has fallen down, there is no good to be done by continually kicking it while it is down. Rather, training to perform and progress requires you to push yourself to the point where your performance has consistently dropped and then STOP! You're done and you have no further work needed for that day. You have already created the stimulus for adaptation that you need. It's time to recover and reap the benefits of hard training.
I can do more now! I get to add more weight!
The ability to do more and add more load is a positive, not a negative. You should look at progress and added ability (load) as a badge of honor. You should walk in the gym not to kick your own ass (i.e. puke), but to kick the weights ass, and when you do that you have just earned the glorious right to add more load. More load that you will work to conquer!
OK Phil out with it! Where the hell is the prowler program?!?
Yea, yea, I'm getting to the program. That stuff above wasn't just filler. It is intended to explain my mind set while creating the program so that I wouldn't have to go into details of "why this?" and "why that?" during the program or in emails after. Now I can lay out the program and if you have questions that are not answered above or by common sense, then drop me a line.
The Prowler Performance Protocol Nuts and Bolts.
Goal:
Ten runs of 100-feet or a single run under 6 seconds flat.
(*Note you can adjust the time goals to meet your needs. If your chosen sport leans more toward flat out hard maximal strength endurance and the ability to move near maximal weight, then maybe you up that time to 20 seconds or more and load the prowler with a ton of weight. I have found that for me in my chosen sports (Powerlifting and Highland Games) that this goal compliments my other maximal strength training, and doesn't detract from it. That should be the goal of anything added to your programming.)
Loading:
So now that we have identified the goal, our next assignment is to determine the load needed. Not too tricky. For some on the lower end of strength, the empty prowler may work best. For others, the load will be higher. It doesn't matter where you start, we're simply looking to progress, and so if you're using 5 lbs today, that's OK. In time the load will increase based on your performance.
What you're going to do on your first session is find a load that you can push in an all out sprint somewhere in the high 7-second range. That could likely be the first session in totality if it takes a good amount of runs, but try and reach the goal in the minimal amount attempts possible. It's OK if you're not perfect the first, second or third time. Know that the program will adjust as you get better. If you hit 7:50, fine, or if its 8:10, that's OK. Just try not to get too far over 8 seconds. Even if the progress is small, I'd rather see a lot of positive small progressions.
(For example, one of my client's times from his first session with this protocol was 7:84 seconds.)
Performance, Reward, Punishment System:
Now that we have the goal and the loading set in place, let's get to the system.
You come in to train with the mind set of having ten runs to complete at your highest performance. If you perform well and are able to go above your initial performance, then you get rewarded by not having to do more.
In other words, if you kick ass you're done for that day and are rewarded for your progress. On the other hand, if your performance drops and consistently stays low, then you are punished by again not being able to do more work and trying to get better. You're cooked for that day and it will do us no good to further work you once you've hit the state of fatigue.
To calculate the performance and reward standard, take your initial time (in one client's case, 7:84 seconds) and subtract 10% from that (in his case that would be 7:84 - 0:78 = 7.06). If he in any of the ten runs hits that time then he is rewarded and able to stop for the day. He has made great progress by pushing himself well beyond his prior limits and can walk home feeling good for that. We then take that new time (7:06) and subtract 10 percent from that for the next goal time to beat starting the next session (so it would now be 7:06 - 0:70 = 6:36 seconds) and so on.
Part two of the performance and reward aspect is, if and when the trainee hits sub 6 seconds flat, they are done for that day and are rewarded for it. They hit the ultimate goal. They are also rewarded on the next session with new load of a 20% increase, and get to start over with a whole new time. So in my client's case he is using 50lbs external load added to the prowler. When he hits 6 flat we will add 10 more lbs to the load and reset his performance time goal.
The same system is used to determine lack of performance and punishment. We would take the initial time and add 10% to it. (So, 7:84 + 0:78 = 8:62). This figure is the fatigue stop point. If a client's time drops to or above this for three runs, they are done for the day. They get no more chances to improve for that day. They are fatigued and done. They go home, rest and come back ready to push the prowler and kick ass the next time.
Again, like I explained above, more work and greater ability should be earned and seen as a positive. Added ability is not as a negative. I try and teach this from day one, and it is why we (my clients and I) get punished by taking away more run attempts and the chances to progress. We do not get punished by requiring more work for doing poorly, which is the preferred punishment method for most so-called trainers.
Progress can also been seen by how long you are able to sustain performance. You can progress and still not do ten sets. Ten sets very likely will be what you work up to. I sent home the same client I mentioned above after 5 sets the other day because he had three strikes. Aside from looking to progress by getting his time 10% under his initial best, we are also aiming to have him progress by being able to sustain a higher performance level at the next session. If he can come in and maintain 90% and above performance and do 6 runs as opposed to 5, then great he progressed and did more work.
(*Note: Again we always instill the mind set of PUSH IT, and look to perform and progress on every set and every rep. This is a very type- A personality trait. Most times I can convert a lazy type-B person to take those traits on and adapt to the system. Sure they will start with lower times and make easy progress but that's gets addicting. They start to like winning, like progress, and soon they are pushing themselves hard.
There are those few though that no matter what you try, they are just lazy as all hell, and you are forced to have them do more work or fire them as a client. They have to do more as they never push hard enough. They are mentally too weak to push themselves to true fatigue and a state that demands adaption without simply being made to do more work. If you have those people, this may not work. Try to get them to adapt first, but if not just run them ragged in a ten sets linear loading progression. )
That's it!
That covers the program. It's simple really once set in motion and if you get it going in a group setting all the better! Push to perform to get better. As the Army says "Be All You Can Be," and have a blast doing it.
In short:
* A load you can run 100 feet in under 8 seconds approx.
* Ultimate goal sub 6 second run
* Daily programming 10 high performance runs
* Reward of no further work for the day if you do 10% better than your initial test time. If you do then you reset the new sub goal to another 10% lower and aim for that next session.
* When you hit 6 seconds or lower you are rewarded with no further runs that day, and you have earned a 20% load increase next time and to set a new initial time
* Punishment of No further runs for the day happens when you get three strike, When you hit your fatigue stop (10% added to the initial time) 3 times
* Progress can also be made by getting more sets in. If last week you hit your three strikes after 5 runs shoot for 6.
* ** As a side note I would also track your best time. Even if it doesn't reach the 10% sub goal barrier or ultimate 6 second or lower barrier, its good and enjoyable to track small progress.
Here is a sample example of one client's numbers in action....
Sample Session With Prowler
Performance Protocol
- Goal ten runs at 90% + OR progress by beating a 7:06 time
Run #1 = 7:84
Run #2 = 7:72
Run #3 = 8:65 (strike 1)
Run #4 = 8:68 (strike 2)
Run #5 = 8:87 (strike 3, you're out)
-Goal next time = One more run at 90% + or progress by beating a 7:06 time
*Note: I would not say the results above are typical. Usually I see clients hitting near or at the ten run mark, but this does happen and it's perfectly OK. This client will progress next time because we didn't over-fatigue him and we created a reason to adapt.
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