Talk To Me Johnnie
Hard Lessons and Strong Advice from John Welbourn — Power Athlete Founder, 9-Year NFL Veteran, and Strength Advocate.
Talk To Me Johnnie
Hard Lessons and Strong Advice from John Welbourn — Power Athlete Founder, 9-Year NFL Veteran, and Strength Advocate.
Getting Rid of a Rest Day
John, I’ve got a strange request. I’m currently in Iraq and assist with Spit Fire CrossFit (back in the real world, I work at Wright-Patterson AFB and am a trainer at CF Wright-Patt). Spit Fire is your typical military affiliate: lots of fit young soliders who think that if a 15 min metcon is good, then surely 45 mins is better. Hero WODs? Every fucking day. The problem is gains are minimal and the new/unfit/older crowd are either scared off or don’t bring their numbers up anytime soon. I am an avid listener of Robb’s podcast (and follower of your blog) and know how you feel about daily excessively long metcons. I’ve had great success with MEBB program (both for myself and my small crew) and have been lately more and more convinced to make a switch to CFFB...
Going Overhead with Overhead Athletes
Hey John, First off of course, thank you very much for providing the programming for CFFB. It's proved to be the most effective method of developing increased strength for me and helped me gain the weight I've long been unable to gain. I'm a baseball pitcher, 6'4" 200 lbs and haven't pitched for over two years because of a shoulder injury that involved surgery to fix a labrum tear...
Strength & Conditioning Facility
I am in the process of rebuilding a gym I took over. We are a CrossFit affiliate. I have my degree in exercise science and coaching, ACSM CPT, CF Level 1 and will be attending the CrossFit Football seminar in Tampa this December. I took over managing my affiliate in February. I would like to rename the gym and become a more S&C oriented facility, since this is my area of focus and expertise (I train numerous D1-D3 athletes and amateur lifters as well as other athletes)...
Persistence & Determination
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'press on' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race...
Preparing for Big Ted
In 2000, early in the year we played Buffalo at home. At the time, Ted Washington was playing defensive tackle at 400+ lbs and was bringing the big bull-rush. And no matter how much I waved my arms, no matter how much I screamed, Buffalo wouldn't sub in a smaller player...
Increasing IGF-1
John, What's the deal with Deer Antler Extract? Are people really using it in the NFL? It seems totally bogus and the PR around it is very interesting in the NFL. Reminds me of Creatine back in the 90's. But Creatine has actually been studied and shows it actually is beneficial for the weight trainer...
Power Athlete Template
John, What would CrossFit Football look like if you DIDN’T have to satisfy the "metcon craving" of many CrossFitters? If you were given free reign to design a workout protocol that only emphasized strength and power to the exclusion of all else, would it look different? Thanks, DB...