Apple Pie Theory

I received a tweet (@CoachCarlisle) the other day that mentioned the “Apple Pie Theory”.  The “theory” was an explanation to the order of our weight room workouts.  The topic came up when I was going through our training progression and one of the coaches at the clinic argued that they did not believe in “wasting time to do body building work outs”.  So I developed this “theory” at that moment to help this coach understand why I design programs the way that I do.  From that point and still today when I go to speak at clinics I will always finish my talk with this idea.

Here it is: 

The most important day of a training program is …? No, it’s not today … today is your fault.  If your athletes came in and didn’t have a great workout … blame yourself.  They showed up, they did what you asked them.  If it wasn’t full of energy or you didn’t get done what you wanted to get done, then it is your fault. 

Tomorrow is the key to a great program.  How am I going to get them back to do my work out?  They probably won’t come back for your personality or the ten sets of ten you did on Back Squats.   As a high school coach this is a huge issue.  A personal trainer only gets paid if their clients come back tomorrow.  Even in some college settings getting the athletes to string together consecutive work outs can be a problem.  You need to find a way to make sure they will be back tomorrow.  As strength coaches we need to make sure that our work can be seen by the athlete.  If they can’t see it – they will not believe it. 

Can you show them that they got faster if you don’t time them every day?  Can you show them they are a better football player by doing cone drills?  Can you show them how the plyo’s you did today helped make them more explosive?  You need something that motivates them to come back.

This is why I dedicate the last 10 – 15 minutes of every workout to doing biceps and triceps.  What?  You don’t have time for this stuff?  Yeah, I know big arms never won a game.  But I also know that if I can’t get my athletes back into the weight room for another work out I probably won’t win many games. 

This is what I call my “Apple Pie Theory”.  Let me explain what I mean.

I love my mom … my mom is and always will be the greatest cook in the whole wide world.  Just look (as I stand in front of the audience with my arms extended from my body) … I am a product of my mom’s greatness!

But here is the problem … I remember my mom cooking chili, well that doesn’t seem so bad … but with spaghetti noodles in it … she also made liver and tuna casserole.  This is just some of the things but more times than not the meals were amazing.  But no matter what she cooked I always left the table knowing that my mom was the greatest cook in the entire universe!

I thought about it a while back and I finally figured it out.  You see when we finished our dinner mom always had great desserts for us.  Brownies, ice cream, apple pie and they were great.  So whatever she may have cooked for dinner we always left the table happy.

Why do I tell you this?  Mainly because I just want to brag about my mom, but also to make a point.  My mom used some great psychology on us whether she knew it or not.  She’s pretty smart, so I think she always knows what she is doing.  You see, she kept us coming back for more.

Professionally I took this approach (theory) to my workouts.  I ask my athletes to do things harder and longer than they ever thought they could.  I ask them to run, jump, crawl and lift tremendous weight.  And when they are done with that I ask them to run some more.  I feed them the meat and potatoes and unappealing workouts that I must do to ensure their progression to be successful athletes.  If I stopped at that point, they would be dragging their worn out bodies to the locker room, and they would complain about how tired and sore they were.  And then someone would throw out … “I’m not coming back tomorrow”. 

It only takes one.

Here is how I applied the psychology of the Apple Pie Theory.  I had the athletes do all the movement drills – all of the flexibility, mobility, stability and core exercises – all of the pulls, squats, presses – all of the back and shoulder work.  And then I would finish with bicep and tricep work.  Why at the end?  Because this is when dessert is served.  This is after they have eaten all of their meat, potatoes and vegetables.  All of the squats and pulls and running.  The things they NEED.  Now they get to do work which will give results they can appreciate off the field.  “Proof” of their hard work.  They get to pump their arms up.  Give them those mirror muscles.  This apple pie is actually “brain candy”.  It is more addictive than the most powerful drug.  It’s the incentive that makes them come back day after day. 

The athlete begins to notice when he is showering and he can feel the muscles and he washes the sweat off.  That’s “brain candy”.

It occurs when the athlete is walking down the hall at school and the girls are all oohing and ahhing about the big arms.  That’s “brain candy”. 

It happens when the football coach finally notices the kid, after a season where he didn’t even know the kids name.  This is the same coach who may not venture down to the weight room during the off season because of recruiting, or because they believe that it’s all about the X’s and O’s and not the Sammy and Joe’s.  He sees the skinny sapling is developing into an oak tree.  He can’t see that he is faster or more explosive but he sees the difference in how the athlete is physically developing.  That’s “brain candy”.

The young man goes home and his parents, who rarely talk to their kid except to tell him how he screwed up, notice.  But they put their work aside, take their head out of their iPhone and notice his hard work.  That’s “brain candy”

With all this positive reinforcement, all this “brain candy”, the athlete can’t wait to go back and do the hard work, eat the liver and onions, which will lead to the apple pie … biceps and triceps.

You keep the dessert at the end as the carrot to the workout.  They will have excuses why they can’t do the running.  They will sneak away if you leave the core work to the end.  But they will stay after hours to get their arm work in.  “Buy their ticket to the ‘gun’ show”.  Mirrors become important, not as technique guides but as visual measurement tools.

As a strength coach during the off season at the high school and college level there is so much time to work.  During these periods of time the athletes can, and need, to develop as much as possible.  Because of the long periods of time (8 – 12 weeks) that the athletes are working you’ve got to find ways to keep them motivated in non-maximal efforts.  So how important is developing an athlete’s biceps and triceps?  On the field – maybe not a lot – but in the development of the athlete through a training progression I believe it is the most important tool that I have.