Fred Hatfield II
"Son Of Squat"
.
interview done by: Igor
N. Jolevich
.
.
Igor: Since you are
a strength coach at the Northern Illinois University, who do you currently
train?
Fred: We have 17 varsity
sports: football, baseball, softball, gymnastics, volleyball, wrestling,
men's soccer, women's soccer, men's tennis, women's tennis, men's swimming
and diving, women's swimming and diving, men's golf, women's golf, women's
cross country, men's basketball and women's basketball. Not all of
these sports seek my services. Perhaps in the future, they will see
the benefits I can offer.
Igor: Can you give us a basic example of the access a strength coach uses
when conditioning athletes from different sports?
Fred: The first step is
to always set a foundation of fitness, which believe it or not, is not
always a given. From there, there is only one simple question to
ask: What is it the athlete must do in his or her sport? From
there it get rather complicated. There are 7 components to "strength",
three different pathways of energenics and 16 different athletic fitness
goals to consider. All are important, however to different degrees.
For example, a tennis
player must have explosive,
anaerobic, and aerobic endurance in different amounts (the former two actually
being more important than the latter). They must be agile and have
dynamic balance, not to mention alot of skill.
However, static balance
and flexibility are not as important to them as they may be to a gymnast.
The key is to give each athlete the tools they need to excel in their individual
sport.
Igor: Since you have competed in high school varsity wrestling,
can you suggest some exercises which strengthen the neck specifically?
Fred: There are many ways
to strengthen the neck. Examples are the various 4 way neck machines,
head harnesses and manual resistance methods. Wrestlers (in this
country) often use "neck bridges" to strengthen their neck -- an exercise
which is not recommended for everyone. However, in my experience,
the true "secret training method" wrestlers use to strengthen their neck
is simply wrestling! Have someone crank a half, three quarter or
power half Nelson on you long enough and you will get a strong neck!
Igor: Do you think that powerlifters need some kind of conditioning
that’s not sport specific? If so, why? And how should this conditioning
be accomplished?
Fred: Yes, but very little.
Powerlifters operate purely in the ATP/CP pathway. In a meet, over
the course of several hours, you must perform several warm ups and 9 total
lifts. However, my father once said, "Get in shape so you can 'get
in shape!' " Once a year a powerlifter may do well to do some high
rep- constant tension training to promote capillarization. This will
allow quicker recovery in the long run. I'm talking maybe 5 weeks
out of the
training year, and in the
far reaches of the off season. If there is no time, do not bother.
Such benefits can be accomplished through "Giant Sets".
Other than that, a
word to the super heavyweights: You will not compete forever!
Too many of you are leaving us due to your enormous size and a heart (while
BIG in more ways than one!) that simply cannot keep up. I once
read that Ken Lain had started
engaging in aerobic training after his career. A wise move.
So powerlifters who may be in danger of heart attacks must address the
issue. To these folks I say, "Do something to stick around --
the world would be a better
place with the likes of Pasenella, OD Wilson, Chuck "The Truck", Magnus,
Matt Dimel....." [apologies to other greats I've missed.]
Igor: Do you think that hypertrophy has it’s importance in powerlifting?
Fred: Absolutely!
Powerlifters seem to have gained the reputation of having phenomenal central
and peripheral nervous system development. True they do... However
this "electrical wiring" is only part of the equation. The
muscles are the engine.
Better wiring to a bigger engine means more weight lifted. There
is the factor of weight classes, however, I suggest you get as much muscle
as possible and shed as much fat as possible to keep in your
class.
Igor: What is your personal attitude towards the powerlifting paraphernalia?
Fred: Boy, isn't this a
touchy subject! I find it strange that we allow supersuits, knee
wraps, bench shirts and belts -- all which clearly inflate totals by aiding
the muscles involved in lifting the weight, but do not allow straps for
deadlifting which simply aids in the grip -- not the legs or back which
do the actual lifting. I fail to see the logic behind that.
I think I actually got quite
good at getting the most out of my equipment; especially the belt, supersuit
and knee wraps. My thought is that since they were legal, I'd use
them and learn to use them. Despite all this, it will
always be the strongest
athlete who wins. They can win with it, or without it. Therefore,
I really could go either way.
Rickey Dale Crain once made
a good argument which makes me lean toward allowing the use of equipment.
Equipment companies generate revenue and IF they sponsor meets, they are
helping the sport. Unfortunately, one thing the sport could use more
of is financing. If these equipment companies are sponsoring meets,
it helps.
However, once again.
The strongest survive! Period!
Igor: Do you think that the body can adapt and become more or less resistant
to the zig-zag calorie intake?
Fred: The body has seemed
to be able to adapt to everything except the AIDS virus! The zig zag method
is meant to cause a positive adaptation which leads to the most efficient
use of calories as well as (in theory, with good support) limit fat storage.
In other words, the zig zag method not only causes an adaptation, it uses
it for the better! The reinforcement of the zig zag method betters
the function of the body.
Igor: For a powerlifter, do you recommend that they stay at the same
weight and accomplish all that’s possible or do you recommend increasing
the body-weight?
Fred: Depends on your goals.
If your goals are to lift as much as possible, get as big as possible.
If your goals are to win championships, find your rightful weight class.
If your goal is to be the greatest powerlifter ever, find your
rightful weight.
Igor: Some world-famous powerlifters, like Ed Coan and others, use a
periodized training scheme – progressing in weight from 10 reps to a max
single during a 14 week span. Personally, what do you think about this
training approach?
Fred: Individual differences.
Personally, I always seemed to peak around week 8. However, I'd start with
6 reps and work down to a single. It's not the numbers that make
the program. It's the planning that makes the program.
"Periodization" is NOT a
training approach... It's a forgone conclusion. You cannot go heavy
and hard all the time, so you must cycle intensity and change approaches
in order to make continuous gains.
Igor: Can you tell us influence your father, Frederick C. Hatfield,
had concerning your current interest in strength and coaching?
Fred: I suppose it was around
the age of 10-12 when my father and I were driving around New Orleans
when he questioned me about my interest in powerlifting and his profession.
He asked what I wanted to do and whether he was influencing me. I
said, "Dad, I want to be a professional baseball player."He said to go
for it and not to let his sport or profession influence me. Well,
let's jump ahead to my high school baseball tryouts. My coach said
I
was the greatest baseball
player he'd ever seen despite three minor flaws. I couldn't hit,
couldn't throw and couldn't catch! So much for baseball!
But yes, he has influenced
me. All my life I've had a good balance of physical, academic and
intellectual culture. I excelled in being physical and learned the
human body well. When I entered college, I immediately
declared my major of exercise
physiology. It wasn't until my senior year that I became interested
in strength coaching, however. As for powerlifting... I grew
up around the guys, so I wanted to compete in the
sport. So I did.
Despite that, for some reason
I had a love for wrestling. I competed in that as well. For
certain reasons, I gave up on powerlifting and once I started talking to
some collegiate crew members, I realized that I am better at
glycolytic sports and took
an interest in rowing. Right now, I am persuing that sport.
In DeKalb, I have two minor problems holding me back: no shell and
no water to row on! I am looking to enter indoor ergo meter meets
now. I
must say, I have a long
way to go!
He's influenced me... But
never pushed me into anything. He only offers to help at anything
I want to do.
Igor: Dr. Squat rejects the current popular trends that “hardgainers”
must work out less. As the matter of fact, his opinion is that “hardgainers”should
do just the opposite: train more and eat more and rest more! What are your
personal thoughts about this? Please elaborate…
Fred: Much of it has to
do with genetics and not realizing individual differences. Consider that:
women recover slower than men, young folks recover quicker than older folks,
small muscles recover quicker than large muscles, red muscle fiber recovers
quicker than white muscle fiber. All these, and more must be carefully
weighed.
The classic hardgainer approach
from what I understand his someone with poor genetics. So, you are
not big and can not get big. What is the most likely reason?
Hardgainers claim that they do eat right and if they take longer
rest periods between workouts,
they assume they are recovering more and therefore correctly. The
only logical reason is that they have poor genetics.
So, the hardgainer has eliminated
the nutritional and recovery factors. What's left? The fact
that they have more red muscle fiber -- which does not grow as big as white
muscle fiber -- than white muscle fiber. From what I've
read about the "hardgainer
approach", they want to maximize the size of their white muscle fiber as
much as possible. Good for them -- they are correct. However,
let's assume that a hardgainer has a fiber ratio of 55% red and 45% white
muscle fiber. This means that 55% of their muscle is red fiber, which
can be trained more often. It has a higher ability to recover.
45% is white fiber. While it's ability to recover is less, it can
grow twice it's size.
Seemingly a reason to train
less often. But let's not forget that even though red fiber muscles
don't get as big, they can still grow!
The Size Principle states
that it is possible to train the red muscle fiber and not the white muscle
fiber by using lower intensity. To train such red fiber, you use
low weight, high reps and greater sets and frequency -- which
does not interfere with
the recovery of white muscle fiber. To train white muscle fiber,
you use heavy weight, less reps and lower sets and frequency OR explosive
movements. Mixing them together, you train hard not so often and
train light often.
So the hardgainer's routine
is only missing optimal training of the red muscle fiber. You want
optimal size? You gotta train these buggers too... OPTIMALLY!
Throw in the fact that some
muscles like the abs, forearms and calves are almost always predominately
red muscle fiber, and you have a need to train as often as possible.
Then throw in the fact that every time you train, growth
hormone and testosterone
is released which benefits all muscles.
The Hardgainer approach
seems to focus on recovering from workouts. Well, not all muscle
or tissues recover at the same rate. This is the flaw in the Hardgainer
approach.
As for overtraining?
I dismiss this word. The proper term is under recovery. Proper
sleep and nutritional habits need to be implicated. That's not the
fault of the program, but that of the hardgainer.
Igor: Thank you very much for the
interview, Fred! It was well worth it! You were right when you said
that you could add some wisdom to my page!
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