Dan John's Intervention DVD Review
I recently reviewed Dan John's newest DVD - 'Intervention', and have to say I picked up a ton of great information and was thoroughly entertained. Not that there was all this 'never seen before' information that is going to rock the strength and conditioning world, but he takes what he knows through his years of experience and organizes it in the most comprehensive, yet simple to follow, way I have seen yet.
I'm going to do my best to highlight some of the key points from the 3 DVD's. Dan and Laree Draper have given their permission to release a few of the PDF's available on the DVD so big thanks to them for allowing me to do that. One thing that is very cool about this, and hopefully others will pick up on this, is that they make all the PDF's available, transcripts of the entire lecture, and its available in mp3 format to download so you can catch the lecture anytime/anywhere.
One of the first things Dan talks about is the Southwood Program he used to teach to his junior high kids (its in his book 'Never Give Up' as well). Here is what it consists of:
The way he goes about teaching it is awesome but don't think I could do it justice trying to describe it here. The main thing is that his athletes have a foundation in quality movement and a great base strength level by the time they are ready to move on. It's no wonder the high school programs were so successful.
He also talks a lot about the importance of 'Absolute Strength'. Think of absolute strength as a glass, and the greater your strength levels - the larger the glass. The larger the glass - the more room for error especially with fat loss clients. He cites a conversation he had with Josh Hillis, a well known personal trainer, who indicated that he saw a trend with his female clients who lost weight and managed to keep it off. The most successful ones could do 3 pull-ups, 3 dips, and deadlift 135lbs 3x. With a smaller glass, you are going to have a tougher time reaching your goals.
Quadrants
One of the major 'tools' Dan talks about were the training quadrants. This was a great discussion on how we need to classify our clients and athletes to know how to train them best. Along the bottom is "number of qualities needed" which basically comes down to how many different skills do you have and how many sports do you know how to play. Along the left side of the figure is "relationship to the absolute maximum" which means how well do you do it (how elite are you?).
Quadrant 1 - Elementary and junior high gym class (or what it should be). Learning lots of skills and how to play many sports. Quality does not necessarily matter here.
Quadrant 2 - Football players would be the best example here but other sports definitely apply. The number of skills required to compete at the highest level especially in a sport like football are numerous, and they must be done extremely well.
Quadrant 3 - The rest of us! And fat loss clients. Not much skill needed and don't need to be super technically proficient at everything. Good enough to get the most out of a workout without getting hurt.
Quadrant 4 - Elite athletes that are very specialized. These are your track and field athletes, specialists in a certain lift, olympic lifters. Few skills but maximum technical proficiency.
Obviously Dan takes the discussion to another level that I cannot, but needless to say if you really think about what quadrant your client(s) belong in then chances are better you will be training them correctly. For example - your quadrant 2 football player does need to clean, snatch, squat, deadlift, heavy carry, sprint, and do plyometrics to improve. The quadrant 3 person does not! You may choose a couple of those to use but the intensity is definitely not the same nor does it need to be.
The Flow Sheet!
This was a lengthy, and fantastic discussion, of what moves matter most and then how to progress and build off of those. Again, I can do this little justice but check out the lectures in the videos and then the flow sheet below.
Each level builds up to the next level. As you progress through the flow sheet you will notice that one movement leads to another, then becoming proficient in 2 movements allows you to move on to another more complicated movement, and then 3, and so on...
To me this discussion alone is worth the price of the DVD! The list gives you the complete how and when to progress through a strength and power training program.
Just a few things on the flow sheets plus abbreviations:
There are some other great discussions on the DVD's as well including strength standards, 'realistic reps', the hip hinge continuum, health vs. fitness, and a ton more. I can't give away everything so check out the DVD for yourself. I don't think you can go wrong with any of Dan's books or DVD's. You can see more on the Intervention DVD here and some great writing from Dan over on his Blog as well.
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