COC Women's Volleyball...a reflection

Just messing with my new computer and its movie maker....a little inspiration courtesy of some of my ex-female volleyball athletes. Enjoy!

Up for some Dosercise??

Local sports editor for the Santa Clarita Valley Signal Newspaper Cary Osbourne wanted to get a taste of what's often (affectionately) coined 'Dosercise'....here is his story of that faithful day at COC....

By Cary OsborneSignal Sports Editorcosborne@the-signal.com661-259-1234-529Posted: June 12, 2009 8:34 p.m. document.write(writeModDate("June 13, 2009 4:55 a.m."));
POSTED June 13, 2009 4:55 a.m.

We entered an upstairs dance studio at the College of the Canyons gymnasium with AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” rattling the walls. “Was it a message?” I asked, as in, “Get ready for hell?” Robert dos Remedios just smirked as we carried in kettle bells. Over the years, I’ve heard countless times about how dos Remedios or “dos,” the head strength and conditioning coach at College of the Canyons, has gotten COC’s athletes into superior shape through punishing exercise. Greg Herrick, whose women’s basketball team runs a 40-minute stampede and consistently leads the state in scoring, has told me it’s dos who whips his players into shape. Garett Tujague, COC’s head football coach, says his team can play five quarters every game if it has to. Because of dos. I needed to see it first-hand. Tujague told me he had been training with dos, so I asked him if I could watch. Then I asked if I could join him. On June 3, I joined dos, Tujague and assistant strength and conditioning coach Daniel Corbet for a workout. It lasted 30 minutes. After the bells rang and the workout was over, my head was light. Oatmeal was in danger of flowing in a northerly direction. Sweat poured from my head. And I had the worst case of cottonmouth I can remember. The cause of all this was the challenging workout dos put us through. Just three days prior, I ran six miles. For the past four months, I have regularly run about 10 miles a week. I thought I would handle dos’ punishment well. But his philosophy of intense training, giving the maximum on every rep, was taxing on my body. Kettle bells, bear crawls, pushups, pushups with suspended rings, crunches, chopping with a weighted ball, mountain climbers with a band wrapped around the waist, squats. It was constant. dos told me that his kind of workouts are not popular. Not popular with athletes or in the fitness industry. “They’re not popular because of how you feel,” he said. dos said this circuit training uses the overload principle — overload the body to get maximum results. After we bear-crawled to pushups, we duck-walked with a light kettle bell, then a medium kettle bell, then a heavy kettle bell. After that exercise, I walked outside for some air, thinking I might puke, only to be told we had one more circuit left. It was four different exercises done in four minutes with maximum effort. Mountain climbers with a band, plank run, squats and pushups. At each station, I could see the remnants of sweat that dripped from Tujague’s, dos Remedios’, Corbet’s and my head. dos explained that this type of strenuous anaerobic exercise was better than aerobic exercise because it helped the body burn more calories in the long run. He mentioned excess post-exercise consumption, or EPOC for short. EPOC is an increased rate of oxygen intake after exercise and, because of it, the metabolic rate increases for a longer period of time. So as hellish as this exercise was, it was certainly good for me. And in the end, that’s what dos’ job is — to get results. Maybe that’s why Herrick and Tujague, whose teams are at the top of their conferences year in and year out, give him a lot of credit.

Cougar Strength and Coach Dos.....

By Cary Osborne Signal Sports Editorcosborne@the-signal.com661-259-1234-529
document.write(writeModDate("June 12, 2009 8:25 p.m."));
POSTED June 12, 2009 8:25 p.m.

The sign on the office door reads: “Cougar Strength, Championships Start Here.” Inside the office, Robert dos Remedios talks about transformations.The sort of transformations that have helped win championships.dos Remedios, College of the Canyons’ strength and conditioning coach since 1998, has helped athletes become, as head football coach Garett Tujague puts it, “beasts.” “What I say is have somebody you trust take a picture of you in your skivvies, then when you’re done take another picture,” Tujague says of the strength and physique changes of his athletes.dos Remedios, 42, helps train a majority of the athletes at College of the Canyons.It’s football where the most publicized changes are made.Two of his star pupils are NFL players.dos Remedios said he remembers when NFL running back J.J. Arrington and defensive lineman Isaac Sopoaga arrived at College of the Canyons as vastly different athletes than when they left.“J.J. couldn’t have been more than 175 (pounds),” dos Remedios says. “Isaac was 225, 230 when he got here.”By the time Arrington left COC for Cal, he was up to at least 200 pounds and Sopoaga was nearly 300 when he arrived at Hawaii.Tujague puts it in better terms.He says Arrington’s lateral movement improved so much that he could “shake you in a phone booth.” Sopoaga got so strong he could lift himself from the ground into a standing position.The results come from a no-nonsense approach that constantly challenges the human body.dos Remedios says his program is not popular because of the way athletes feel after the workout.He pushes them to exhaustion, challenging them to overload their bodies.His athletes use sleds, rings and bands. They run in a sandpit, wheelbarrow each other up stairs and chop with a weighted ball.But dos Remedios is well-known across the country.He writes for Men’s Health magazine. He wrote the book “Men’s Health Power Training.” He is also called upon to speak to other trainers and coaches.Today, he is in Chicago to do that.In April, he spoke at the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association conference in April.“I know it was the first time they hear a JC coach talk,” he says.In 2006, he was awarded the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Professional of the Year.dos Remedios says there are plenty of examples of guys who have arrived at COC spindly and awkward and gone through his program and become big and mighty.The most success, he says, comes from the guys who spend three years in his program.An example he pointed to is David Padilla.Padilla, a center who started one varsity year at Valencia (2007), grayshirted in 2008 at COC then was a backup in 2009.Tujague says if the season were to begin today, Padilla would be the team’s starter.When he arrived at COC, though, he weighed 230 pounds.Padilla says he was in good shape, but never envisioned he would be where he is today — a 270-pound muscular football player.“Nervous, I’d have to say,” Padilla says of how he felt when he first arrived at COC. “There were a lot of big guys, a lot bigger than me. I knew I had to work to get to their level.”dos Remedios says that there are some grayshirts who take advantage of that time by making the most in the weight room, as they are ineligible to play in games.Padilla did just that.Recently, Padilla broke the school’s all-time power clean record, lifting 333 pounds three times in succession.Padilla credits dos Remedios.“He definitely puts us through hell,” Padilla says. “We are pushed to the limit everyday and it’s all about your personal effort you put in.”What is hell?The training is usually four times a week.Lifting is done for 45 to 50 minutes.Then another 35 to 40 minutes is spent doing exercises outside of a weight room.Those could be running in a sand pit, sled pulls, tire flipping or running the bleachers.Sounds simple?It’s not.The intensity and the types of exercises are unlike any the athletes saw prior to their arrival at COC.“We outwork everybody,” dos Remedios says.dos Remedios gives an example of the intensity of the workouts.He hands out index cards that asks the athlete to do four sets of eight reps on an exercise.On that first set, he expects them to do their max.Some kids will hand in cards where they increase weight from set to set.dos Remedios knows that the ones who decreased their weight from set to set were giving their everything from the beginning.The strength and conditioning coach says there is the hope that a thought crosses every athlete’s head when they’re training with him.The thought is that they want to quit or that they hate the exercise because of its intensity.Padilla says there are those that quit. Some on “dos Day.”“dos Day” falls on the first day of football practice with pads.After the practice, the football players go through conditioning drills — timed 100-yard dashes and bleacher runs, to name a few exercises.It’s a breath-taking, heart-racing, vomit-inducing hell ride.“In the end, you see people quitting,” Padilla says.That’s how the football team sifts out the dedicated from the non-dedicated.The women’s basketball team, head coach Greg Herrick says, made a transformation that’s not measured by pounds but by points.Herrick’s teams have led the state in scoring eight of the last 13 seasons.He said, though, that the old knock on the Cougars was that they couldn’t play defense.After dos Remedios arrived at COC in 1998, Herrick said that changed.“Ever since we had him, we’ve been physically able to guard people,” Herrick says. “Our leg strength has been such that we can guard people man to man.“He has transformed us from a one-dimensional team to do more things than just score.”It has also prepared his team to get faster on the fast break.Herrick says dos Remedios prepares his girls through torturous exercises in the school’s sand pit.And the strength and conditioning coach has been hard on the girls at times.Herrick says dos Remedios has even kicked girls out of the weight room for not giving enough effort.There’s a warning sign next to the football office at College of the Canyons.It reads, “June 15, 6 a.m., no excuses, no explanations.”That’s the first day of summer practice for the COC football team.It’s the first day dos Remedios gets to work with them as well.Tujague is quick to correct somebody who calls what dos Remedios dishes out as punishment.“We don’t call it punishing,” the coach says. “We call it getting better. We’re going to get better June 15th"

Reflections from the Perform Better Summit in Chicago...

Well, I'm back from another great trip to Chicago and presenting (and attending!) the Perform Better 3-day Summit. Once again Perform Better has confirmed that they ARE unmatched as far as continuing education in this field. The lineup, as always was STACKED full of amazing lectures and hands-on sessions. I truly enjoyed hanging out with, learning from, and picking the brains of all my great colleagues. Folks like Brian Grasso, Robb Rogers, Mike Boyle, Gray Cook, JC Santana, Alwyn Cosgrove, Mike Robertson, Sue Falsone, Diane Vives, Bill Hartman, Todd Durkin, and Lee taft are just SOME of the folks I learned from this weekend....man, the list just went on and on. We are talking the BEST IN THE BUSINESS folks! As I always say, if you are a trainer, PT, strength coach etc. and you live ANYWHERE near ANY of the PB Summits and aren't in attendance, I TRULY have to question your dedication to your field, your continuing education process, and most importantly your clients and/or athletes. I came away with DOZENS of new ideas (along with some sore muscles....) this weekend. I can't wait for The Long Beach Summit in about a month...for me it's another chance to GET BETTER!!

Wednesday Morning Madness....

I have had the great fortune to meet a great guy named Frank Addelia. Frank is a trainer at our local Spectrum club who specializes in TRX, kettlebells, clubbells, ropes etc. Basically the stuff that REALLY gets you in shape....FAST. After I teach my interval spin class on Wednesday am's me and my assisant Danny Corbet spend about a half hour doing what we call the Frank(enstein) workouts with Frankie. Awesome stuff.....just brutal! Check it out!

Cougar Strength

My Winter/Spring intern Nick Wagner put together a great compilation video of what we do in our programs day in and day out. Thanks to Nick for all his hard work as he heads back to North Dakota to wrap up his undergraduate degree!

"Power Cleans" vs. "Cleans"

It never ceases to amaze me when internet gurus insist on picking holes in my training videos. The funniest one is a blog that was forwarded to me drilling me about the form that "I allow" in my weight room. It was a power clean sequence of one of my kids pulling 333 x 3 reps. yes I say 'PULLING' as you can see if you take it frame by frame to make sure the he gets complete quadruple extension each rep (and that he does...this is the entire reason we incorporate Oly lifts BTW). The knock is that his feet are too wide etc. Oh yeah, I teach all of my kids to catch with their feet wide all the time (please note the sarcasm). I have females and lots of my male athletes who I can vid that would display clinic form on their lifts...I just happen to think that 333 x 3 is pretty special. here is the vid in question....


Here is another one of my kids pulling 286 x 3.....haven't heard much internet hating on this one although it was one of the very first YouTube vids I posted....



Lastly, for the 'gurus' who have somehow become experts at the Oly lifts behind their computer desks I need to clarify something. At the blog where I got hammered on allowing such awful form they posted an example (see below) of what they considered a 'good power clean'. One problem, it's not a Power clean. This is why I have a prob with internet wizard trainers, when you don't know the difference between a 'power clean' and a 'clean' or 'squat clean' you probably shouldn't be hosting a 'fitness blog' (what exactly does that even mean? 'Fitness Blog'...sigh).


My vids are up on YouTube for you to peruse.....unedited, real-world training. Enjoy.