Pitt Iron Works Strength and Conditioning Gabriel Naspinski ACE 685

Description of Internship Assist with the strength and conditioning program of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers football team. Duties –Assist in demonstration of proper form of resistance exercises. –Assist in demonstration and set up of various drills. –Assist in testing and collection of data. –Critique form of athlete performance of exercises and drills. –Assist in discipline of players. –Perform general maintenance and cleaning of facilities.

Scheduled Hours Basic schedule of internship was Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 6:30 am – 4:30 pm. Spring football schedule was Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 6:30 am – 1:30 PM

Considerations It is important to note that the staff that I worked under started this January. Upon taking over this program, it was apparent that many inadequacies of the former strength and conditioning coaches were ingrained into their players. This presented many problems which included: –Players were not disciplined by former coaches –Poor training systems.

Considerations Problems continued –Athletes that had no idea how to train. They must learn their bodies and know what they are capable of. –Players that were simply out of shape and too fat. Previous staff did not give players access to a nutritionist and set firm guidelines.

Duties Demonstrated lifts in the weight room Coached players on proper technique in lifts and running Disciplined players for infractions of the rules

Duties Maintained equipment Stocked nutritional supplements Initially taught the other interns the correct forms of box squatting and bench pressing

Duties Pre and post-workout –Setting up for the workouts (getting correct bars, chains, bands, med-balls etc. in place) –End of the day which would include setting up for the next day’s workout

Skills Lower body strengthening – box squat

Skills The box squat is the main exercise used to strengthen lower body –Teaches proper form to utilize muscles of the posterior chain Sit back Knees out Chest up –Ensures depth of squats –Sitting on the box breaks up the eccentric/concentric chain

Skills Lower body accessory – Includes many exercises for the posterior chain, such as the reverse hyper

Skills Upper body –Bench press is the main upper body lift. Elbows should be at a 45 degree angle Shoulder blades should be retracted and tight Bar path should be in a straight line

Skills Upper body work consists of work for the following muscle groups. –Triceps Players on this picture are doing an elbows out extension known as the Tate Press. Trains the muscle to increase cross sectional area. Usually done for 8-12 reps.

Skills Triceps –Heavy pressing movements are also utilized to enhance strength such as 1) Board press: athlete lowers the bar to a designated amount of boards and presses up in a straight line. Strengthens the movement in various angles that may be sticking points.

Skills Pressing movements continued: –2) Rack lockouts: athlete starts from a dead stop to build static strength at various angles that may be sticking points. Trains the movement. In this picture two sets of doubled bands are added to increase the tension in the strength curve which does not allow deceleration. This forces an athlete to press explosively through the top of the movement.

Skills Pressing musculature of the pecs and delts: –Chain pushups are a great way strengthen stabilizers and pressing muscles. Athlete performs pushups in gymnastics rings suspended from chains with heavy chains on the back for added resistance

Skills Lats – athletes must train the lats not only to strengthen the bottom end of the bench press, but to correct imbalances that many have coming in as a result of undertraining. Exercises include: –Pulldowns

Skills Rows on machines and with free weights

Skills Upper back (trapezius, rhomboids, teres major and minor) and posterior delts –Trained with various exercises such as shrugs, high rows, DB cleans, and various external rotation work for upper back and rotator cuffs. Pictured is a pull to the face with a cable machine.

Special devices At Pitt we use many advanced scientific methods to strengthen and test players. Tendo units are an example to use. It is a computerized unit that is attached to the sleeve of the bar. The device measures the velocity of the bar. If the athlete is not explosive enough, weight is subtracted. If the athlete exceeds the recommended velocities, weight is added.

Coaches A strong point of the staff at Pitt is that both the head strength coach and assistant strength coach train. In this field, there are too many coaches that do not practice what they preach. The coaches at Pitt lead by example.

Coaches Buddy Morris – Head Strength and Conditioning Coach. Second picture is at the Ohio Valley Bodybuilding competition at 49 years old.

Coaches James Smith – Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach. James owned his own training center in California prior to coming to Pitt and narrowly missed the cutoff to become a Navy SEAL.

Coaches Tom Myslinski – Former NFL offensive lineman with the Cowboys, Bears, and Steelers. Now the head strength and conditioning coach with the Cleveland Browns.

Coaches Myself, Gabriel Naspinski – Intern Strength and Conditioning Coach. I compete in powerlifting and have squatted over 700 lbs, benched over 500 and deadlifted over 600 at a bodyweight of 240 lbs. I hope to increase these numbers to over 800, over 550, and over 650 in my next competition.