For the past month, here at The Foundry, Central London Personal Trainers, we’ve been working with former England and Ireland International footballing star Olliver Nicholas, after his agent approached us with the goal of helping him improve his strength and body composition for a new professional contract.
We are in the process of producing an article on strength training for football soon so I’ll hold out on most of the theory behind the practice but we thought it would be nice to shout a bit about Ollie’s success and share some of the methods behind his training.
Functional hypertrophy is essential for football
Making sure you are balanced is equally as important
Methods
Ollie’s main problem was a poor and irregular diet combined with a lack of structure to his training programme.
We spent two weeks of general preparation balancing out a few strength discrepancies between his legs and an exaggerated spinal curve and reducing body fat. We have spent the subsequent 3 weeks on an intermediate strength programme. Training has been similar to the 5×5 method with a two way split of upper and lower body. Sessions have been every 3 days. Upper body primary exercises include weighted dips and chins and lower body exercises include back squats and Romanian deadlifts.
We have also managed to take the first steps in improving his diet. I would suggest he now eats better than the majority of 18 year olds, however there is still a little way to go as Ollie has an impressive sweet tooth.
Adequate and appropriate post workout nutrition has been essential, but for funding reasons no additional supplementation such as Creatine has been used.
Results
The pictures speak for themselves however his body composition and strength statistics are below:
Body Composition:
We haven’t taking his month measurements yet, but in the first 3 weeks Ollie has reduced his bodyfat by 3% and increased his lean mass by 2.7kg
Despite primarily focussing on Ollie’s strength (see his lifts below) we have clearly acheived a level of hypertrophy too. Structural work finished just before the second measurement and it clearly shows if you look at the amount of lean mass Ollie put on between the 2nd and 3rd measurements. This is not surprising as he has very minimal structured training history so has responded incredibly well to the training stimuli. We can assume that his anabolic hormones are suitably high for an 18 year old and he has lots of natural strength.
Strength Gains:
| Exercise | Weight – 10/10/10 | Weight – 29/10/10 |
| Weighted Dips | 25kg 5RM | 32kg 5RM |
| Back Squat | 78kg 5RM | 90kg 5R |
His dips have improved by 28% and his back squat by 15% in 3 weeks. Even allowing for the initial training effects to the nervous system and Ollie’s good genetics, these are still great strength improvements which any intermediate athlete would be happy with.
The moral of Ollie’s results is that a well structured training programme is absolutely essential for everyone. Don’t think you can just make things up on the day or swap programmes after one session. You need consistency and effort and planning but the results are worth it. It has been a pleasure for all of us to work with Ollie and we wish him all the best in his professional career.
What Ollie had to say:
I have been working with Personal Trainer Dave Thomas at The Foundry, London, for the past month in preparation for a move abroad, in the hope of receiving a new professional contract.
The intensive, yet sensible training program has allowed me to quickly and efficiently correct all the minor discrepancies that were initially found by Osteopath Ricardo Davids & Structural Specialist Keith Littlewood in my Assessment in order to be able to move onto my Strength & Conditioning work.
On the Health, Strength, Fitness, Speed & Agility side of things Personal Trainers Rob Teppett & Dave Thomas have put me through my paces via tough yet enjoyable exercises both challenging me on a physical and mental level in which I will need to be able to perform under highly demanding training schedules. Dave Thomas, through his experience, encouragement and intellectual insight has in just four weeks helped me become, and feel, much stronger and more powerful, which not only show in my physique but also in the statistics with me being able to lift more weight week after week.
A HUGE thanks to Rob Teppett, Dave Thomas, Helen Thomas, Keith Littlewood & Ricardo Davids of The Foundry, Liverpool Street, for all your help & I look forward to working with you in my professional future.
Thanks – Oliver Nicholas
Check back soon to learn more about strength training for football.
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