From Parts Unknown.

Today I’ve got a very solid interview from a coach who is going to be a regular contributor on the Serious About Strength Blog.

I don’t think this interview needs much introduction as it pretty much starts at the basic level, peaks with some great training insight and then finishes on a basic note.
All I need to tell you, is that if I have a question about my training cycle or feel stumped by any particular problem, I usually enlist the help of this guy.

Here it is:

PV-For the record, please state your name:

JF-Jordan Foley

PV-Tell us a bit about your athletic background and what sports you played growing up:

JF-Growing up I played just about every sport. Once I got into Junior High and High School I focused on hockey, rugby, track and field and soccer. I continued to play Varsity Rugby in University and in some Men's leagues.

PV-So a pretty typical sports career. How did you get involved in lifting weights and strength sports?

JF-I began messing around with weights in grade 8 and used to do a high rep circuit of every exercise in the small weight room at my school. My brother and I went there occasionally in the evenings when my dad would go back to do work (he was the principal). This was very sporadic but I enjoyed it. In grade 10, I got a little more serious but not a lot smarter. I used to lift about 5 times per week at lunchtime and the 'plan' was something like this.

Monday - Bench - pyramid style, lat pulldown - pyramid style. Did about 8 sets of each.

Tuesday - Squats - pyramid style, hamstring curls and sit-ups

Wednesday - Same as Monday, sometimes did close grip

Thursday - Same as Tuesday

Friday - Biceps, we did a giant circuit or 4-5 exercises for 3 sets. We did about 10-15 reps per set.

We based this on the advice or our phed teacher who was a beast and used to lift with us, different routine though. It wasn't great but it could have been worse. In grades 11-13 I started lifting more seriously but it was way too high volume and was based on body part splits. I got most of this crap from magazines. Looking back, again, it was bad but could have been worse. I still hit the big exercises and built a good base for later in life.

When I got to university I started to really read up on training and talked to anyone who I thought knew something about lifting. I started really designing my own plans and things really took off. I did this to help my performance in rugby. I attribute a huge part of my rugby success to becoming bigger, stronger and faster.

In the summer before my last university rugby season, I competed in 2 beginner strongman shows and I had a lot of fun. When I was done my rugby career I knew I needed to compete in something to keep me sane and goal oriented so I decided to choose strongman as my new sport of choice.

PV- That’s really impressive that you had a plan in grade 8. Most guys in there 20’s still don’t have a plan. Is it obvious that this is my first time taking an interview?

JF-Not really because you have obviously plagiarized most of these questions.

PV-Plagiarized is such a hard term, I prefer, “Recycled”. We’re hopefully going to have you as a regular contributor on this blog and no doubt you’ll bring some much needed book learning expertise about training.

Why don’t you tell us about your education background in physical and performance training?

JF-My formal background is a Bachelor of Arts in Health Studies, a Bachelor of Physical and Health Education (minus one non-credit component, long story), a Bachelor of Education in the Junior/Intermediate Division with Health and Physical Education as my major and I am also a CSCS (NSCA). That being said, all of that didn't teach me a whole lot about training. It taught me some basics about the human body and helped me sort through the bullshit that I often read. It taught me to be sceptical and to think critically. If you cannot do that then I think you are useless in pretty much any field or industry. You will never come up with something unique or useful.

Aside from my formal education, I read about 5 books per month. Usually 2 are training related and 3 are success or motivation oriented. I like to read about success and successful people so that I can find out what the common links are and then duplicate them. In addition to reading books, I read everything on elitefts.com, marunde-muscle.com, t-nation.com, ericcressey.com and defrancostraining.com. I read anything I can find from anyone I consider worthwhile and this is where the internet is great. Some of my favourite authors are Mike Boyle, Date Tate, Louie Simmons, Jim Wendler, James Smith, Buddy Morris, Joe Defranco, Mark McLaughlin, Landon Evans, Bill Hartman, Mike Robertson, Alwyn Cosgrove and many more. I'm sure I forgot a ton of guys but if you read everything on the net from those guys then you will be in a decent situation.

PV- Now that we have the formal stuff out of the way, tell us what your personal training philosophies are:

JF-For team sport athletes: Get strong head to toe. Leave no stone unturned as far as strength. I think that trying to be super specific will not help you for a variety of reasons, which go beyond the scope of this question but I do believe in training the same muscles and similar movements. If I get my athletes strong on a variety of squatting, deadlifting, single leg, pressing, pulling and twisting movements then there is a high likelihood that when they find themselves in an awkward position that they will be strong enough to perform in this position as well as protect themselves from injury. It is also very important for athletes to be mobile and fast. The key with this is to only do what you have time for and what your athletes will realistically do. You can gather all this info from the Parisi Warm-up video and sprint info from Charlie Francis. I will leave you on your own to study that and if you have any questions that I may be able to help with, let me know. It is all actually a lot simpler than some coaches make it seem.
For individual athletes: The proper integration of your strength work, your technique work, your energy systems work and your sport practices are crucial. Attention can be paid to volumes and intensities of all of these since your training is mainly dictated on what YOU need. If you coach individual sport athletes and you do not account for this then you are doing your athletes a huge disservice.

For strength athletes: Work the main movements hard. Squats, Deads, Presses and Pulls. I think about 80% of your results will come from the proper use of these exercises on a regular basis. Also do not forget to train specifically for your sport. You MUST train the lifts that you compete in. I know this can sometimes be difficult for strongmen and I can understand that. If this is the case for you, do what you can, GET STRONGER. If you get stronger, every event gets easier, period. I will use an analogy to relay this: Let’s say you are helping a buddy move and you’re carrying a massive box that weighs like 40lbs. Some people would have trouble carrying this and say “it’s not heavy, it’s just awkward.” That’s bullshit, it is heavy for them given the shape and size of the box. It is a weird shape or not optimal for lifting or carrying, much the same as many of our events. But if I were carrying that box I don’t give a fuck how big or weird it is, it’s 40lbs and it will not be hard to carry because I am strong enough to handle it no matter the size or shape. I’m not saying my event proficiency is amazing, because it’s not. But there have been several times in my training cycles where I have done no event training but simply got stronger on everything and I went and smashed events the first session that I couldn’t do in the past while I was regularly practising those events. One last thing for strength athletes, don’t be a fucking slob. Do some conditioning and it will help your health, recovery and performance.

PV-What is your competitive background in strength sports, and what are your most valued achievements?

JF-I’ve competed in strongman since 2005, but 2006 was my first real ‘competitive’ year.
My most valued achievement was getting 10th place at my first OSM in 2006. It was my first really heavy show and I was shitbait going into it. I only weighed 220lbs and was just looking to make the finals. That show had guys like Travis Lyndon, Joe Montgomery, Jose Plante, Peter Galer, Dallas Hogan, etc in it and I thought I was going to die. I was so happy to pull out a 10th place. A close second to that was getting 3rd at the 105kg Nationals that year.

To be honest, I really haven’t done much since then that has satisfied me but I did get 6th at OSM 2007, won Kingston’s Strongest Man 2006, 2nd at New Liskeard this year, 2nd at the Bavarian Strongman Competition this year as well.

PV- I always say that being unsatisfied is the only way to improve. What type of training methods are you currently using?

JF-I currently use a modified WSBB split. I have been using a form of this for about 2.5 years now for strongman and for about 2-3 years prior to that I was using the principles when I was training for rugby.

I do keep it pretty basic though. I focus on slow and sustained progress. Never miss lifts and listen to your body and mind. On that note, I am currently using Wendler’s 5-3-1 to bring up my incline press and it’s working great. Easy progressions that allow you to have off days are the key when you have a job and a life, you never know when you are going to peak from week to week. That is unless you intentionally do it and your life is moulded around it but realistically not many of us can do that for every training cycle.

PV-What are your opinions on recovery, rehab and prehab?

JF-This is like brushing your teeth….we all know that we should do it but people tend to blow it off. Then they only notice the neglect when the shit hits the fan and they either have cavities or can hardly reach depth in the squat.

PV- Great Shit analogy Rick!

JF-I think that recovery is paramount in training. You can only train as well as you recover and one is useless without the other. You need to be sure to address all aspects of it, which I feel are: nutrition, rest (time between workouts), sleep and stress. For those of us who work for a living, we need to also use a deload week every 3-6 weeks. I say this because I notice that when I am busy with my job or school, I have to pay particular attention to recovery and require a deload week but when I am on holidays and sleeping and eating plenty I can go full out for weeks and weeks.

Rehab and prehab serve and important role as well but you need to be sure to not get carried away. The purpose of rehab and prehab is to either help you return to training/competing in your desired activities or to help you continue to train/compete in your desired activities. What I mean by this is that if you have an injury you may have to alter your training in a big way but once that injury is healed you may only require a little bit of prehab to prevent the injury from returning and killing your training.

For strength athletes and most athletes in general you would be wise to focus on shoulder stability, thoracic mobility, lumbar stability, hip mobility and soft tissue quality. If you address these things a few times per week you will instantly feel better and your training will be able to continue without setbacks. Some great resources for this information are Eric Cressey, Bill Hartman and Mike Robertson.

PV-Tell us a bit about the school you are working for and the position you hold there?

JF-Currently I work at an all boys independent high school. I work in residence with the boys, I teach a few sections of learning strategies and supply teach. In addition to this I coach football, hockey and rugby. We are currently renovating our weight room and once that is complete I will be designing and implementing strength and conditioning programs for our students and staff. It is our hope that in the future that this can be a fulltime position where the coach would also help teach physical and health education units in performance enhancement and physical fitness.

PV-So when you are working with these young (and presumeably weak as shit) athletes, where do you start and what are your staples in terms of exercise selection?

JF-Wow, this is complicated question but I’ll try and give you some of my ideas.
I usually lay out a simple program that focuses on squats, single leg exercises, press, rows, chin-ups and lots of lowback and ab work. The key to being able to do this is being there to coach them through it. If I see something that is not working out I will either modify it on the spot or take it out and come back to it later. I like to hit the focus lifts with lower reps but not necessarily a high load. This gives them an opportunity to lift “heavier” weights while still maintaining good form. It is also possible to accumulate a high(er) volume by simply using more sets than using high reps sets that inevitably end up being of poorer quality.

I consider that to be the ‘art’ of strength coaching, recognizing when something is not working and fixing it. It’s easy to make a program on paper but when you see a flaw in form or execution what do you do and why do you do it? That’s the key right there. For instance if a kid’s form is off on the squats, what is it? Is it lack of strength, mobility, practice, focus….???? Once you figure that out, what are you going to do to fix it?

PV- I couldn’t agree with you more about how training programs on paper are not the same in the weight room. It takes a few hundred hours in the gym to be able to identify these things both as a coach and as a lifter.I know you are a “go to” guy in the strongman and strength training community (as I’ve used your knowledge and resources myself), what would you say is the biggest mistake most guys are making when trying to get cock strong?

JF-I think most guys are using tunnel vision and only focusing on what they are good at. If something is not making you better at what you do (strongman, powerlifting, a particular sport) or helping you get closer to your goals then STOP IT. Don’t waste your time on things that have no purpose. Of course there are some exceptions to this rule but it is the most common thing that I see that is holding guys back.

PV-What are some of the most common questions you get asked by your peers and training partners?

JF-I would say the most common question is “why do you do such and such?” it’s always about the why and sometimes about the how. I have a specific reason for everything that I do personally and for everything that I recommend to others. A lot of people have difficulty seeing why I do some of the things that I do but it always serves a specific purpose. This is a great question for people to ask because it means that they are concerned with what they are doing which is crucial for continued progress.

Another very common question revolves around exercise intensity. I usually don’t use percentages to progress my weights and also rarely prescribe them. I often spend a lot of time explaining to people what a ‘heavy triple’ or a ‘near max’ is. While I often get this question, the usual answer is that this is something that needs to be figured out on your own with the guidance of someone who has already figured it out. You need to know what ‘feeling’ produces the desired result and similarly, what ‘feeling’ produces the undesired result.

PV-If you could assemble a panel of experts who you feel are the best of the best in terms of knowledge and experience in the strength and performance world, who would be on that panel? (lets say top 6 brains in the world)

JF-Charlie Francis, Buddy Morris, Mark McLaughlin, Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey and James Smith.
There are plenty of others as well but at this moment, this is my list for both my personal and coaching needs.

PV-Now that we have them all assembled, what would be your 3 most important questions for the group?

JF-Some of these questions are actually groupings but it’s my answer so I’ll do whatever I want!

1) How can we build and maintain maximum strength by using sub-maximal weights?

2) How can we monitor/modify volume and intensities without the use of an OmegaWave system? What sort of auto regulation schemes do you use?

3) How do you monitor/modify many athletes in a team setting? Who is responsible for the recording of workouts? What systems do you use to chart individual and team progress?

PV-Who are your favourite training partners and why?

JF-When I first started training Strongman with Joe Montgomery and Thom Lamb I really took off so those guys would have to be my favourites. From there I have trained with a bunch of really good ones: Dain Wallis, Dave van den Heuvel, Cody Kennedy, Sean O’Donnell, Brandon Watt, Dave Shorrock, Adam Ross and Dave Brown. Coincidentally, all of those guys are really good friends of mine as well. I think this has really helped me because we communicate well with each other to figure out what each of us needs to progress.

The bottom line is this, training partners don’t need to be experts or anything like that, they need to be committed to progress and be reliable to show up and help the whole group get better. They also need to be honest with each other about what is needed and what should be discarded.

PV- So true, just reliable and committed to getting better. But Dain Wayliss???? C’mon how hard up for a partner does a guy have to be?

What does the future hold for Jordan Foley? What do you hope to achieve and contribute in the next year?

JF-I wish I knew. Right now my career is my focus and I am trying desperately to land a fulltime physical education teaching position or a job as a strength coach. This is very tough to do in Ontario and anywhere in Canada for that matter. This means that I might even end up overseas teaching next year or anywhere at all. It is very important for me to love what I do all day every day and for me this means I MUST be either teaching physical education or strength coaching. I will also be looking for strength coach jobs and in the next few years this might mean that I go back to school for a masters degree and to gain some more intercollegiate experience as well.
As far as my lifting goes, I plan to continue to bring up my strength and also focus on my event proficiency by hitting events at least every 2 weekends. If all goes to plan and my job/job search doesn’t screw my training too much I hope to go top 5 this year at OSM.

PV-Final Question, If you were a character on the Trailer Park Boys, who would you be?

JF-Toughest one for the end eh……but I have thought about this carefully and one really sticks out above all else….GREEN BASTARD.

PV-Thanks Coach Foley for the great interview and I look forward to your goal oriented training methods and highly analytical input here on the Serious about Strength Blog.(and of course your “angry coach” style attitude that I’m sure the readers of this blog will enjoy)

(I was very suprised Coach Foley never listed "Chuck Berry" as one of the experts he'd pick for the ultimate round table discussion. Who knew?)