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Trip Report: Eleiko Strength Summit

Insight into this great seminar devoted to developing powerful athletes

In the early days, Charles Poliquin was known primarily as a strength coach who worked with elite athletes. In recent years his focus has been in the areas of bodybuilding, personal training and functional medicine. But Poliquin insists that he has not forgotten his roots. Case in point: the Eleiko Strength Summit.

The event was held May 8 at the Poliquin Strength Institute in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. The idea for the summit came from Lennart Blomberg, president of Eleiko Sport AB. In recent years Eleiko has teamed with Coach Poliquin to offer educational programs throughout the world in the area of functional medicine and in strength and conditioning for athletes.

Eleiko was founded in 1957 in Halmstad, Sweden. The name Eleiko has always stood for the highest-quality barbells and training discs in the world. Over 900 world records in weightlifting have been broken on Eleiko barbells, and as such Eleiko has become the standard by which all other barbells are measured. Representing Eleiko were Blomberg, president, and Andreas Andren, sales manager.

In their introductory remarks Blomberg and Andren discussed how Eleiko is growing its business by offering a much wider variety of quality strength training equipment, including the Atlantis line manufactured in Canada, and the popular FreeMotion cable machines, which are unsurpassed for performing functional training. The Poliquin Strength Institute features a 5,200-square-foot gym with equipment available from these three partnered companies.

As with all events held at the Poliquin Strength Institute, the event was first class. Knowledge-based talks were given in the 2,000-square-foot multimedia center, and practical demonstrations were conducted in the gym. A special dinner was provided the night before the seminar at Twenty Water Street, a fine dining restaurant with an amazing view of historic Greenwich Bay; and lunch was catered during the seminar.

Clemson University’s Preston Greene introduced all the presenters and kept the proceedings running smoothly. Here are the topics and the presenters featured in this information-packed summit:

The Use of Eccentrics in Overcoming Strength Development Plateaus
Charles Poliquin
Coach Poliquin led off the presentations by discussing the importance of eccentric training, especially for high-level athletes. Then he showed several practical ways to incorporate eccentric training into the program, using squats, back extensions and reverse hyperextensions.

Modern Trends in Strength Development
Ed Coan
Ed Coan is one of the great powerlifters of all time; he has broken more than 70 world records and was the lightest lifter to total 2,400 in the three lifts. Coan competed primarily in the 220-pound weight class, and his best lifts include a 2,463 total, a 578 bench, a 1,038 squat and a 901 deadlift. Coan participated in a question-and-answer session in which he explained his very simple, yet effective, approach to training, which includes focusing on perfect technique in every lift. He then moved into a hands-on training session in which he described the optimal ways to lift based upon an individual’s body type.

Training for Performance
Brandon Hourigan
Brandon Hourigan is the University of Virginia’s director of football training and player development. Between 2005 to 2008 he was a strength coach at Richmond, which won the NCAA Football Championship subdivision title in 2008. Hourigan discussed how to keep football players healthy and strong through the season.

Using the Tri-Phasic Undulation Block Method
Cal Dietz
University of Minnesota strength Cal Dietz has worked with many world-class athletes, and one reason for his success is that he uses detailed periodization programs that focus on the best ways to stimulate gains in strength. This lecture discussed how looking at the three basic forms of muscle contraction (concentric, isometric and eccentric) can be used to help develop optimal workout programs and break through plateaus.

Off-Season Training for Baseball Pitchers
Jimmy Krumpos
Jimmy Krumpos is a performance enhancement coach at the University of Arizona. Krumpos focused on determining the right exercises and training protocols for baseball, including addressing common injuries and the effects of energy system training on baseball.

Developing Maximal Strength
Hugo Girard
Hugo Girard weighs 330 pounds, has eight percent body fat, and can bench press 800 pounds for reps. His titles include the world champion in the strongman Super Series. Girard discussed how he became one of the strongest men in the world, and he gave a hands-on workshop on how to perform the deadlift to more effectively use the legs.

At the end of the presentations Blomberg presented the first five registrants of the seminar with an Eleiko Olympic Competition barbell. All participants received special gifts, including Eleiko sports clothing. Blomberg then offered his closing thoughts and thanked the nearly 50 coaches in attendance for being a part of this first annual strength summit. The Eleiko Strength Summit was an educational experience that will be remembered – and the next one we’re planning for next year promises to be even better!