Interview for Colosseum Training

Hey guys, here's a small interview I did for a strength coach out of Oklahoma named Lucius Tirey. Check out his website as he's got lots of cool training articles/videos/pictures etc. and seems to have something really unique going on. (http://www.thecolosseumtraining.com/)


Interview with Dan Allison; A Strength Coach, Powerlifter and founder of
"Garage Training" in Michigan.

I found Dan through mutual friends in the strength world. He isn't just someone off the street
with beach muscle who got certified and trains at your local gym. He is a true student of the
field and someone who doesn't just "talk the talk" but "Walks The Walk!!" Those of us who
aspire to learn more and get better know how important it is to share thoughts with one
another and pick each others brains. This is what makes "us", our athletes and our lives
better. Enjoy!





LT- First off I want say thank you for talking the time and sharing your style and beliefs
towards training. First question is around what age did you start really training and studying
the world of strength and conditioning?

DA- I started really training the summer before going into 9th grade to prepare myself for
the upcoming football season. I was a scrawny 150lb’er who could barely bench and squat
115 lbs. To be honest, I had never heard of a strength and conditioning coach until
probably my sophomore year of college. I stumbled across guys like Charles Poliquin and
Chad Waterbury and T-nation and immediately knew that was what I wanted to do. This led
me to choosing the major of exercise science/physiology and into being the strength coach
for a high school football team, private strength coach (working on getting my business
“Garage Training” going this summer), and being a volunteer strength coach at Western
Michigan University.

LT- Who would you say as far as “GURU” do you look up to and study the most?

DA- Charles Poliquin is my favorite coach that I look up to. I was introduced to his work by
Chicago based strength coach Chris Grayson. Chris is the next guy that I immediately go to
for advice. Other than that, I really enjoy hearing what all of the guys at Elitefts have to say
(especially Dave, Jim, and Harry Selkow), Elliott Hulse, Joe Hashey, etc. I like to hear what
everyone has to say.

LT- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your style of training? What kind of split do you use
(conjugate system, 5-3-1, sheiko ect) and why?

DA- When I’m preparing for power lifting competition (3/4 of the year usually) I generally use
a conjugate template. The reason I choose the conjugate method is because it is just so
user friendly in the different ways you can manipulate your program design. I like the
changing of exercises and rep schemes every couple of weeks and the excitement of trying
to break records week to week. It brings out a competitive spirit in everyone.

The other time of the year is spent taking a break from the stresses of max effort weights
and dynamic effort movements and getting reps in and messing around with different
training methods. Right now I’m in that ¼ of the year where I am messing around. I’ve been
experimenting with some of Coach Poliquins German body composition principles in the gym
and out of the gym. I have been getting great results in terms of gaining lean mass and
being extremely well conditioned.

LT-I’ve seen from following your logs and videos you like to do a lot of conditioning style
circuits. Why is that and how do you fit them into your training schedule?

DA- The why on this sort of goes along with the last question in that I’m in that ¼ of the year
where I simply experiment with various training methods on myself before putting others
through the same type of program. I’m using full body German body composition style
training in the gym right now. I’m doing this to get as lean as possible, build work capacity,
and to take a break from max effort work before I start preparing for power lifting again. It’s
somewhat of a little break on my joints and mind to help to re-kindle the fire I’ll need to prep
for this year’s meets. The cool thing about this recent fully body scheme is that with all of
the 6-8 rep max dead lifting that I’ve done, my max dead lift has increased about 10lbs
without even training to directly.

As for the outdoor conditioning sessions that I have lots of videos of; it probably seems like I
do a lot of these because recently it’s all I have taken video of. I train at the universities
public weight room and I usually just get in and get out and don’t feel like bringing my
camera in there. So what ends up happening is over a period of two weeks I’ll have three
videos of outdoor conditioning but no videos of the six or seven in the gym sessions. We
typically do the conditioning circuits on Sundays and maybe one day in the middle of the
week. On Sunday, the people I get to come out are usually just your average Joes looking
to shed some body fat. None of them are competitive athletes (a couple bouncers, two
strength coaches, and one pre-contest body builder who use the prowler for fat loss) and
then I just jump in to get my hands dirty and try to “practice what I preach.” These sessions
generally last 20-30 minutes maximum. Everyone has a great time and with the lack of
eccentric movement, all attendees generally feel pretty refreshed the next couple of days.

I’ve used these type of circuits you see in the videos with athletes who compete in anaerobic
based sports. The movements are generally the same but the loads used and work to rest
ratios are structured quite differently. With the fat loss guys we just get out there and try to
kill ourselves once or twice a week. I’d be glad to elaborate later on some conditioning
circuits geared for a particular sport.


LT- It seems like anytime I have a new athlete come in and I bust out the foam roller they
look at me like “What the hell are we doing?” kind of sad cause I’ve found that most of the
high school programs have no sort of recovery sessions, just the all or nothing principle so
to say. What kind of things do you like to do for a recovery and how important do you feel it
is towards your training?

DA- I think recovery should be taken as seriously as the training sessions or games
themselves. The faster you can recover, the faster you can get back out there and make
some sort of progression. Look at some lifters who are 300 lbs and can only get two
training sessions in per week versus a 220lb lifter who has the recovery ability and work
capacity to train 4 times per week. The 220 lb lifter is going to make progress at a much
quicker rate.

My personal favorite things for recovery are:
-foam rolling, my range of motion is much better after rolling and my muscle soreness
almost splits in half after a good foam rolling session. I feel that you need to be aggressive
with the rolling to get the most out of it though.
-dynamic stretches, five or six stretches in a row usually does it for me. Something like:
warrior lunges, lunge w/twist, toe touches, high kicks, and some fire hydrants for the hips.
-band work: I like to take the mini jump stretch bands and do pull apart, press downs, good
mornings, and various stretches for the lats/pectorals/shoulders.
-Quality food, I’ll let this lead into the next questions.

LT- To the million dollar question “Strength Coach Dan, What do you take?” I’m sure you
get that from time to time. How do you feel about supplements? Do you believe in all the
hype that places like GNC try to sell you?

Oddly enough I get this million dollar question all of the time. Since I’ve managed to stay
around 200-205 lbs at 10% body fat or under for almost 2 years now since being a 250lb’er
a lot of people wonder how I stay so lean. So of course they just assume it’s all the hot
selling GNC stuff. Well it’s pretty far from the average GNC regimen. I actually made a blog
post on this yesterday so I’ll let the detail unfold there: http://strengthcoachdan.blogspot.
com/2009/03/answering-age-old-question.html

But to sum things up:
-Poliquin Twice Daily Multi-Vitamin
-Zinc Supreme (by Designs for Health) 90mg per day
-Magnesium Glycinate Chelate (by DFH) 1 gram per day
-Fish Oil (usually PFO, DFH, or Barlean’s) on average 12-15 grams per day
One’s I didn’t mention in the blog:
-Champion Nutrition Whey Protein: 2 scoops post workout or for a meal replacement mixed
with a greens powder and some flax meal
-Scivation’s Exxtend BCAA powder: 20 grams during training, 10-20 grams post training.
Usually only for sessions lasting longer than 25 minutes
-Glutamine Powder (when I feel like buying it or when I’m trying to get really lean) 20-50
grams in a post workout shake to bring down cortisol and replenish glycogen

LT- During my boxing career I watched others go to extreme measures to cut weight and
how they ate fueling their bodies. I always found it easy to make changes up or down with
adjusting my nutrition and eating well. What is your diet like and how do you feel it affects
your lifts, energy and recovery ect…?

DA- Nutrition is life and death. This comes from a guy who used to be 250lbs and was
weaker than I am now at 200-205lbs. My training was generally the same, but my eating
has gone from one spectrum to the other. I was first sold to the bodybuilding/ animal pak
mumbo jumbo of “Just f’ing eat”. So I followed this motto from my senior year of high school
to my sophomore year of college and went from 210lbs to a peak of 270lbs at one point. I
ate fast food and dorm food every day ALL day. I was tired ALL of the time, always sick, the
only motivation I had was to lift 4 times per week. The rest of my life was so lazy and
unproductive. Then I was introduced to Charles Poliquin and Dr. Jonny Bowden’s methods
of nutrition by Chris Grayson and his colleague Ben Knapp who were working in Detroit at
the time. I started following these principles (eating real whole foods, mainly protein, fats
and vegetables, in large quantities I might add) and in six months I went from just under 30
% body fat to 6%. I entered two bodybuilding contests for the heck of it at this time as well
to motivate the fat loss. I wasn’t really hooked on the whole bodybuilding thing but I have
fallen in love with the “cave man” eating methods I learned at this time. I’ve eaten following
these principles for a couple of years now (but have made the diet even better) and my
strength training, body composition and general well being have never been better. I eat
mainly organic foods and when I can’t I eat foods that are as raw and as unprocessed as
possible. (Minus the artificial sweeteners in the bcaa and protein drinks, but hey the
lemonade bcaa’s are like candy)

Here’s a sample food log from this week:

(not listed: I use a lot of Mustard, Balsamic Vinegar, and Organic Ketchup as well. If I’m
trying to lean out, I usually emit the ketchup)


Cheese, Mozzarella, part skim



171 11.4 2.2 14.7

Whole Egg



280 16.0 0.0 25.2

turkey breast 2oz.



330 2.4 0.0 69.0

Fage Yogurt



260 20.0 6.0 14.0

Spinach, raw



14 0.2 2.2 1.7

Broccoli, raw



90 1.0 17.5 7.4

Cucumber, raw



24 0.3 4.3 1.2

Turkey Bacon



120 2.0 0.0 24.0

chicken breast



220 2.0 0.0 50.0

raw almonds



510 42.0 15.0 18.0

Raw Cashews



156 12.0 9.0 5.0

Whey (champion)



500 6.0 6.0 104.0

Fish Oil



150 15.0 0.0 0.0

flax meal



188 12.0 8.0 8.0

Twice Daily Multi



0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Zinc Supreme



0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Total 3,013 142.3 70.2 342.3


LT- As many of us know from watching some of your videos you compete in Power lifting.
What are your best lifts in competition?

DA- Best lifts are:

198lb class unequipped (aka Raw)
Squat: 555
Bench: 355
Dead Lift: 515

LT- What are your plans as far as future competitions?

DA- I plan to compete in two meets so far this summer in Michigan. One USAPL meet and
one ADFPF meet and am planning on another two next fall. I’ll probably compete at 198lbs
one last season before I move to 220. I’d really like to break the 600 mark on the squat
before I move to 220. That would have to be my biggest goal at the moment for this string
of contests.


LT- I know I am always learning and looking back at some of the things I do or did and think
“why the hell was I doing that” What are some of the mistakes you’ve made in your training
and what kind of advice would you give to others who are starting to work out or looking to
get into Powerlifting, Bodybuilding or Strongman for example?

DA- I mentioned earlier that I competed in bodybuilding; I would have NOT trained like a
bodybuilder for those contests. I lost a good deal of strength during that time and it took me
awhile to get it back. Anyone that has eaten correctly for body composition knows that the
diet takes care of the fat loss. I would have trained to get stronger and just ate to lose body
fat. I probably look like more of a bodybuilder right now from power lifting style training,
strongman type conditioning, and some awesomely delicious primitive style eating habits.

My advice to others who are looking to get into Powerlifting or Strongman? First off, choose
a few main compound lifts to really improve your strength in (1-5 rep max type
improvements) and then use the rest of the workout to get your reps in for whatever other
strength qualities YOU need. If you’re underweight, then some hypertrophy work would be
for you to make a desired weight class. If you’re extremely de-conditioned then you should
choose a couple compound lifts rotate back and forth with them with incomplete rest periods
to get in shape. And most of all, don’t be afraid to compete. If you think “I’m not ready yet”,
then there will never be a point when you’re “ready”. You just have to sign up and immerse
yourself. You don’t really learn anything about yourself or how your training is really helping
you until you actually compete.

LT- I want to thank you for your time and sharing your philosophy towards strength training
in general. What does the Future hold for Dan? Is there anywhere where others can keep
up with you? (Youtube, Blog ect)

DA- I am honored to be a part of this and really appreciate you taking the time to choose me
for an interview. The future is bright, I’m heading out to NYC in May for a Charles Poliquin
seminar, heading to the Perform Better Summit in Chicago this June, and am applying for
graduate assistant positions as a university level strength coach. Keep up with my daily
grind at http://www.strengthcoachdan.blogspot.com , http://www.youtube.
com/strengthcoachdan , or feel free to email me anytime at dannya5199@yahoo.com as I
love to answer anyone’s questions.