Adam Archuleta

[ToTall]

The guy is a freak in the weight room and on the field.

 

[wlhosch]

Article from ProFootball Weekly:

The Athlete’s Edge
‘Evo’lutionary training: Archuleta explodes past his competition
By Nolan Nawrocki, Contributing writer
June 19, 2001

Working out in front of NFL scouts in Indianapolis this past February, St. Louis Rams first-round draft pick Adam Archuleta posted some of the most impressive results for a safety in the 17-year history of the NFL Draft Combine. The 6-foot, 211-pound Archuleta ran a 4.42 40, had a 39-inch vertical jump and bench-pressed 225 pounds 31 times.

The reason Archuleta was drafted with the 20th pick in the 2001 NFL draft was no accident. Archuleta’s numbers are the result of years of sweat and training in preparation for this opportunity. As a 172-pound high school junior, Archuleta became intrigued by an article written by Jay Schroeder, founder of Evo-Sport, and felt compelled to contact him.

Schroeder developed Evo-Sport based on a principle that is widely regarded in strength and conditioning literature but rarely practiced — plyometrics. Nearly every part of the program involves absorbing and rapidly propelling force.

Rather than perform a standard bench press, Schroeder teaches athletes to explode through the movement, release the bar from their hands at the top of the lift, drop their hands to their chests, catch and explode back into the bar as fast as possible. Schroeder keeps his hands ready at all times, watching athletes to make sure they catch the bar.

What impresses Schroeder about Archuleta’s ability to bench-press 530 pounds is not the sheer mass being moved, but that it is moved in 1.09 seconds. Force on the football field is the product of mass and acceleration. Traditional weightlifting programs concentrate on moving mass regardless of how much an athlete struggles to perform the lift. Schroeder emphasizes performing lifts quickly, which increases the amount of force produced and has turned Archuleta into a havoc-wreaking machine on the football field.

When Archuleta began the Evo-Sport program, he benched 265 pounds in 2.76 seconds in the concentric or ascending phase of the lift. He squatted 273 in 3.47 seconds, ran the 40 in 4.79-4.81 and had a 26-inch vertical jump. Today, his personal best in the bench press is 530 pounds in 1.09 seconds and in the squat, 663 pounds in 1.24 seconds. At an individual workout for NFL scouts, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.37 seconds and jumped 39 inches vertically.

As a walk-on football player at Arizona State, Archuleta quickly earned a scholarship and became Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year last season as a senior. In his five years at ASU, Archuleta trained with Schroeder in addition to completing the workout program the rest of his team performed.

"The will to prepare for success is more important than the will for success," Schroeder said. "If you want to be the best football player or the best safety or the best center or the best bench presser, then be willing to work that hard, not just put in the same work that everyone else is putting in."

Archuleta said he paced himself through ASU’s workouts so he could concentrate on Schroeder’s program.

"You could jump and you could exercise all day long, but that doesn’t mean you are going to get any better," Archuleta said. "Everyone squats and everybody runs and everybody jumps and everybody benches, but it’s the way that you do it. There’s no secret exercise. It’s the way it’s applied. And that’s where Jay’s expertise comes in."

While Archuleta was accustomed to receiving compliments for his football prowess in high school, Schroeder challenged Archuleta. Schroeder evaluated how Archuleta compared with other athletes and gave him a program to complete before he would agree to work with him. After Archuleta showed signs of progress over several months, Schroeder welcomed him into his gym. Not long afterward, he kicked Archuleta out for not working hard enough and told him not to come back. The next day, Archuleta showed up and waited in the doorway of Schroeder’s office while he completed office work. After ignoring him for more than an hour, Schroeder told him, "All right, let’s work out."

"He challenged me to come in here every day, and he really put me through some beat-down workouts," Archuleta said. "He really tested my intestinal fortitude and really taught me what it was like to work hard. He put me through a lot of tests and was constantly trying to teach me and mold me and get me to understand what it took to be a good athlete and what kind of sacrifices it was going to take."

A key component of Schroeder’s program is repetition. Typical football programs train each body part twice a week and allow ample opportunity for rest. In Schroeder’s program, athletes might train the chest 12 times a week. His clients usually exercise twice a day, six days a week. Football players use their muscles constantly during a week in practice and games. Why should their weight-room preparation be any different?

A typical chest workout for Archuleta involves 100-300 repetitions with weight varying between 225 and 275 pounds. Schroeder gives Archuleta a set number to perform, and he must perform the concentric phase of each lift in less than a quarter of a second. If he doesn’t explode fast enough, the repetition does not count toward the prescribed goal for that day. For every 15 reps he completes, he has to do one to three supermaximal reps from 500 to 600 pounds on his own.

Many strength experts would argue that Schroeder’s intense program neglects recovery time, decreases strength and increases injuries, all of which are symptomatic of overtraining. However, Schroeder says his program is specifically designed to overtrain an athlete.

"We try to overtrain to a 3 to 7 percent deficit on purpose," Schroeder said. "The longer we can maintain that level, the greater the supercompensatory effect is later on. If we go deeper in the overtraining than that, it sets us way back, but if we go at 3 to 7 percent, we maintain great results."

The game of football is played in 45-second spurts. On an average play, an athlete expends his energy fully for five to 10 seconds, followed by a 35- to 40-second rest. A series usually lasts anywhere from three to 15 consecutive plays. A long series of plays leaves most players gasping for air and eager to hit the sideline for water and rest. Compared to the stress placed on an athlete in Schroeder’s workouts, he believes a 15-play series is relatively easy.

Several NFL players have begun Schroeder’s program, only to leave the gym after 10 minutes and never return. Schroeder assumes they left because it was too difficult.

"It’s not for the faint of heart," Schroeder said. "It’s very difficult training, both the mental and emotional training. We’ll bench sometimes 12 to 15 times a week. People aren’t mentally and emotionally in tune to doing that. So just the sheer repetition of heavy, fast moving of loads is enough to make you tough. Someone like Adam, he can go out and run near his max speed many, many, many times even under duress."

While Archuleta’s strength coaches at ASU did not like him consulting professionals outside of their supervision, Archuleta is a firm believer in Schroeder’s program.

"(ASU coaches) didn’t like what we were doing and tried to make excuses that it wasn’t good for me and blah, blah, blah and whatever," Archuleta said. "The results don’t lie. And the kind of football player that was made doesn’t lie either. So people have egos, and people get jealous, but I mean, the bottom line is what’s happening. Am I getting results? Am I getting better? Am I a better football player? Am I getting less injured? Am I stronger? Am I faster? That’s the bottom line, and that’s all I’m interested in."

Archuleta is not the only athlete seeing results. Schroeder trains Arizona Cardinals WR Rob Moore and QB Chris Greisen, San Francisco 49ers TE Brian Jennings and Kansas City Chiefs TE Troy Drayton, in addition to many champion powerlifters, college softball players and other clients aged 4 to 82.

Upon seeing Archuleta’s successful results from Evo-Sport, his agent, Gary Wichard, began referring other clients to Schroeder. It took one visit to the gym to convince Rob Moore of the value in Schroeder’s program. As an 11-year veteran wide receiver, Moore has gained nearly 100 pounds on his bench press in five months and is now benching 425.

According to Wichard, Schroeder’s training is certainly evolutionary, as the title Evo-Sport infers.

"I’ve never seen anything as football-oriented as this kind of training," Wichard said. "Everything is done with speed. I’m talking about lifting 500 pounds with speed. Don’t give me pretty-boy bench presses that are slow. He doesn’t even count those. You have to explode. If you watch Adam’s game on the field, his game is about explosion and force, and that is what Jay is teaching."

While Schroeder’s program is innovative, the fundamental principle of his teaching will always remain the same. It is best demonstrated by the words of his protégé, Archuleta:

"I just try to go to bed every night with the attitude that nobody put in more time or worked as hard as me that day."

 

[slobberknocker]

Awesome.

Dynamic work.

I wonder what kinds of recovery techniques are used.

 

[wlhosch]

Here is an article on plyometric bench training from PLUSA

http://www.strengthcats.com/plyobenchpress.htm

 

[MT375]

Grandk - sent you PM with Jay's contact info

 

[coolcolj]

From: Charles Staley <staley@m...>
Date: Sat Apr 28, 2001 11:48 pm
Subject: Russian Training Philosophy & Schroeder

Jan Baggerud Larsen wrote:

>Subject: RE: Russian Training Philosophy & Schroeder
>
>Charles Staley wrote:
>
><Now here's a tidbit about Archeletta for everyone to ponder:
>According to Jay, this morning Adam made 36 attempts on a maximum
>bench press (507 pounds) in about 90 minutes, and made 29 of those
>attempts....>
>
>*** This certainly sounds impressive, but I wonder what's the purpose of
>doing 36 maximum attempts in 90 minutes?
>
>Jan
>Oslo, Norway

As Adam will soon be out of Jay's hands so to speak, I believe the
idea is to achieve a long-term stabilization of the target motor
quality (maximal strength in this case). The following day, Adam
performed 470 pounds for 26 singles (missing a 27th single) in 61
minutes. His 1RM is in the 529-531 range I believe.

Some people have asked me about how Jay's approach may differ from
others. Here is what I understand so far:

1) High training frequency. Jay doesn't believe in the common
practice of training on Monday, resting on Tuesday, etc. Training
should be based on getting out of the comfort zone, not staying in
it. 9-15 sessions a week are common.

Many people would question the logic of this many sessions for
"average" lifters, but consider this: if you have an "average"
nervous system, then in a sense, your "maximal" efforts aren't so
maximal, compared to a talented lifter. In other words, it's like
you're a beginner- you can train more frequently because you aren't
accessing a high percentage of your true capacity.

You can extend this logic to inter-set rest intervals as well: you
can never achieve complete rest between sets, because if you wait for
fatigue to reach baseline, then neural activation will also have also
declined to the point where you can't use it to help you during the
next set. SO, many of us may take longer than optimal rests between
sets, thinking we need to recuperate from the extreme effort,
however, maybe a) your effort wasn't as extreme as you think and b)
you'd be better off taking advantage of the neural excitation from
the last set, than waiting for fatigue to diminish.

2) High training quality. "Anything below 90% is worthless." This
doesn't apply necessarily to percentages of 1RM, but to anything-
percentage of maximal movement speed for any given resistance for
example.

3) Heavy use of active recovery, actually written into the program.
Vibromassage, ice massage, various nutritional and "nutraceutical"
agents, and pedagogical methods. Most people wouldn't tolerate some
of these methods, especially ice massage between sets and after
workouts. Requires multiple changes of clothes, etc!

4) This is my own interpretation, but I suspect Jay would tell you
that plyos are more effective than standard resistance training
(although he uses both). If you can find a way to increase forces,
use it.

5) Again putting words in Jay's mouth, but I believe he would tell
you that someone of average (read: almost all of us) fiber type
distribution wishing to get strong and/or fast needs to do everything
possible to avoid "downward" conversion of Type IIA fibers. A
noticeable feature of Jay's programs is that everything is either
very heavy or very fast- nothing in-between. There really is no
repeated effort method at all, although perhaps he would use this for
an athlete needing to get bigger.

6) Lots of static and static-dynamic work. I've been spending lots of
time in the bottom of the squat lately. Interestingly, here's where
"time under tension" may take on some functional meaning: even if
you're a squat fanatic, how much time do you spend in the bottom
(read: weakest, most vulnerable) position?

7) Jay uses electronic and hand-held timers to time the duration of
concentric repetitions.

8) Active use of electro-stim, although I'm not sure in what way it's used.

9) Use of functional isometrics during the warm-up.

Much of the above is common knowledge of course, but how many people
do it? On the other hand, I have learned a few techniques from Jay
that I've NEVER seen or heard of anywhere. If Jay gives permission,
I'll share these with the group.

Hope this helps to answer some questions. As a parting thought, let
me just say that there may be more power in actually USING what's
already out there than always trying to find "new" or "secret"
knowledge!



I got curious about that whole Jay Schroeder thing a few months ago
so I did some searching and talked to Jay himself. (Seems like a
good guy).

He put alot of emphasis on the concentric speed. He told me how Adam
Archuleta benches 530#s in 1.09 seconds. One thing that really got
me thinking was his practice of having trainees hold the eccenrtic
portion. For example on the bench one would lower the wt over a 10
count then pause it on the chest for between 3 seconds and 3 minutes
before rapidly performing the concentric movement.

This may seem like a silly question but what does this long period
accomplish?

He sent me some stuff to look at too.

Also all auxilliary movement are heavy, and pretty much the "usual"
glute ham raise, russian twists, etc.

He also has something called the "rebound" method listed in the
program he emailed me. I am wondering if anyone can comment on it,
b/c I really don't know what it is.

Chuck Hartman
Hutchinson, USA

 

[coolcolj]

When you walk into the Evo Sports gym, you know immediately that it's no
place for bodybuilders.

There are two rooms with weights, a water cooler, and a few machines that
look like scrap-metal abstract art.

And, aside from a desk, some cabinets and two chairs in a small office in
the front, there's no furniture.

If you need to sit, you could grab a milk crate, but be advised: It's
sometimes used in an exercise.

Everything here is utilitarian, nothing wasted, nothing for show. It is not
a place where bodies are chiseled for others to ogle at but, rather, one
where people go to become game breakers, champions.

That's why Adam Archuleta is here. This place, like its proprietor, Jay
Schroeder, is all about peak performance.

Archuleta, Schroeder's prize project, was drafted in the first round of
last month's NFL draft, 20th overall, by the St. Louis Rams. Aside from his
hard work, he says, it's all owed to Schroeder.

"I thought he was crazy," said Archuleta, who led the Pacific Ten in
tackling in 1999 and 2000 as an Arizona State outside linebacker. "The first
day I came in, I stood in this doorway for about 30 minutes before he said
anything to me. Then he proceeded to berate me for about two hours. He
basically cut me down. I told him I wanted to be in the NFL. He tore me
down."

Archuleta was 17, a safety and running back looking forward to his junior
year at Chandler High School in Arizona, a youngster who had read and been
inspired by an article that Schroeder, a trainer, had written in a 1995
edition of Powerlifting USA.

His best 40-yard dash time had been 4.9 seconds. In two months, he said, it
was 4.6.

Schroeder - whose unconventional training methods focus on trying to link
the firing of neurons in the nervous system to the motion of fast-twitch
muscles - has now had six more years to work on the skinny kid whom he
shocked with his feigned indifference that day, and the results have been
far more startling than that prickly greeting.

At the NFL scouting combine in February, Archuleta made the experts do
double takes at their stopwatches with a 4.37 40-yard dash. He also caught
their eye with his bench press. Athletes at the combine are asked to press
225 pounds as many times as they can; Archuleta did so 31 times.

"He was always well regarded by our staff; he just improved his status,"
Lawrence McCutcheon, the Rams' director of college scouting, said. "Running
the times he did and lifting the amount of weight he did at the combine was
just added incentive.

"I never thought, and probably nobody else thought, he'd run the kind of
time he did in the 40 and lift the amount of weight he did. Thirty-one times
for a guy that weight is unheard of."

Archuleta, who stands a shade under six feet and weighs 210 pounds, was
drafted as a strong safety. His bench press is that of an offensive or
defensive lineman, his maximum coming in at 531 pounds. His best squat? Try
660 pounds.

Yet this young man from Arizona was not born with such capabilities.

"He was not God's gift to the world athletically," said Schroeder. "He had
to work for everything he achieved. I saw a skinny, cocky high school kid.
He was the star on his team. He was going to do me a favor by training with
me. Little did I know six years ago, he [would]."

Word of Schroeder's unusual training methods has gradually found its way to
elite athletes. They include Cardinals star wide receiver Rob Moore as well
as backup quarterback Chris Greisen and Packers running back Edgar Bennett.

Chicago White Sox outfielder Chris Singleton, former major-league
outfielder Darrin Jackson, Milwaukee Brewers slugger Geoff Jenkins, and
former big-league pitcher Brian Banks are Evo Sports clients, and Schroeder
has worked with decathlete Justin Smith and model Dodge Billingsley.

"You become an athlete; you don't just get big or strong," said Archuleta,
who brought ASU teammates Todd Heap (drafted in the first round by the
Ravens) and Steve Trejo (signed recently by the Lions) into Schroeder's
clutches within the last year. "The first thing was my speed. That's when I
knew there was something going on here."

Schroeder, 46, says that he didn't invent any of the exercises he uses,
that he simply found a way to optimize them in a certain sequence.

After earning a degree in kinesiology from Baker University of Baldwin
City, Kan., he set forth on a career that was born, painfully, out of
misfortune. He suffered a broken neck and back when he was struck by a
vehicle while riding a motorcycle at age 19. The accident, he said, left him
temporarily paralyzed and blind.

Convalescing, he read physiology and sports periodicals about Russian
athletes' training methods. He expanded his reading to German and Russian
methodology from the 1890s and 1900s and added data from the Egyptians and
the Greeks.

"Everybody lifts weights," Schroeder said, "but not everybody gets results.
Not everybody got stronger, not everybody got faster, and not everybody got
powerful. I figured it had to be something more than just going in and doing
the same exercises."

His techniques, he said, provide those assets in concert with sharpening
motor skills.

How unorthodox are they? Well, there's one exercise where you stand, bent
slightly forward at the waist, legs spread wider than shoulder width,
holding a 45-pound barbell plate like a steering wheel with both hands. You
drop it, then catch it in midair - over and over.

Why? Because it converts to about 130 pounds of force per repetition,
Schoeder says.

Then there's the contraption that looks like a bench-press machine beneath
four poles. A heavy, rectangular, metal slab slides up and down the poles.
You lie on your back on the bench, and two people drop the slab. You have to
catch it.

Each time you do, it's 7,000 pounds of force, Schroeder says.

An alternative exercise with this apparatus is one in which you lie on the
bench and push the slab up, let it go, and catch it, repeatedly. Sometimes,
you mix drops and catches.

There's also something called the inertia-impulse machine. A weighted
block, attached to ropes and pulleys, slides back and forth in a long,
grooved base that stands a little more than a foot off the floor.

By pulling with your arms or legs, you control the block's movement while
moving your limbs as fast as you can for 10 seconds. Then you rest 10
seconds. Then you get to do it all over.

Archuleta, Moore, Heap and Trejo were each able to do 35 to 40 repetitions
during each 10-second interval. A half-dozen or so intervals with the legs,
for example, are said to be the equivalent of running several 100-meter
sprints.

"I knew when I hurt myself that one of the things I was going to have to
work on was to get back my explosiveness," said Moore, who underwent surgery
to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last October.

"Everything we do in here is about explosiveness. Everything is fast-twitch
muscle [oriented]. Everything is neurological, getting the nerves to fire
quicker. I plan on being far better than I was when I was healthy."

Moore said he improved his bench press 70 pounds, to nearly 400, in four
months. Trejo said he improved his 40-yard dash from 5.1 seconds to 4.63 in
a year. Heap said he improved his bench press about 100 pounds in a year and
went from a 4.70 to a 4.58 in the 40.

"Remember the old break-dancers? You know, where they moved in segments?"
Schroeder asked. "That's not how you run; that's not how you play sports.

"Your body has to work in unison. That's what we do here. We teach it to do
that."

You have to put in a little time at the gym just to be able to do these
exercises.

"The last two months, it's been one to three sessions a day six days a
week, anywhere from two to six hours a day," Archuleta said.

There are some, of course, who suspect that there is more than hard work
involved, that such dramatic improvement must be the result of steroid use.
Schroeder says no way.

"When people hear what Adam can do, they say, 'Ah, it's just drugs,' "
Schroeder said. "I don't allow anyone in my gym on steroids. If I suspect
it, I have them get a drug test."

For Archuleta, the off-the-wall methodology has been priceless. But
Schroeder says he gets results whether the subject is Deion Sanders or an
average Joe, whether one's a football player, a power lifter, a swimmer, or
a gymnast. He customizes the routine to the individual, but the principles
remain the same.

He said a 78-year-old woman he trains using the same methods hikes the
Grand Canyon several times a year. He has a 65-year-old, he added, who added
170 pounds to his power lift and won a world title.

"I want to create machines out of human athletes," Schroeder said. "I want
them to be healthy. I want them to perform at levels that I'll go pay $75 to
watch them.

"Why can't baseball players hit .400 all the time? There's no reason why
not. Why not have more people running faster 40s, instead of just having
Carl Lewis, this old guy who runs fast still? Why can't Mark Spitz make a
comeback in swimming?

"It should be the norm. We don't tap everything we have."

 

[Becoming]

All of it sounds great and cool, I like the ideas and it is nice to ponder and think about, but so much of the information is not publicly available so it is hard to evaluate...

Also, I would like to see some repeatability...

I am not a doubter- just it is all like little secrets at this point that everyone just speculates on...

 

[coolcolj]

Well once you have seen everything he does, read, watched his DVD, Add a good book library of stuff from Yuri Verkhoshansky, Super training and Science and Practise of Strength training etc
it's pretty easy to piece it all together

In fact a lot of the info is out there in CT and Staley's articles.

The human body works a certain way in every person, understand that and the sky is the limit. Its' all about eccentric, isometric and concentric and how they link together but are still seperate processes in the CNS.


Schroeder's motto is - before you can exert force, you have to able to absorb it. Store it and release it.

 

[MT375]

All of it sounds great and cool, I like the ideas and it is nice to ponder and think about, but so much of the information is not publicly available so it is hard to evaluate...

Also, I would like to see some repeatability...

I am not a doubter- just it is all like little secrets at this point that everyone just speculates on...

Apart from the obvious reason he proabably doesnt post it, he does mention in the article that it is extrememly customized and tailored to the specific individual and what their needs are.