Conjugate for Rodeo Part I: Bull Riding

So you read the title and probably thought, "strength and conditioning for rodeo? Where is this going?", or "great, another meathead talking about conjugate again." Full transparency I got excited about going to the PBR World Championships and I went down a rabbit hole. It would be a ton of fun to coach rodeo athletes. 

Growing up one of my favorite things to do was going to the Walker County Fair and Rodeo every March. We would go and check out the carnival rides and then watch the Bad Company Rodeo. I loved watching bull riders and bareback riders. My parents enjoy telling the story of 4 year old me going in for a scramble. I didn't bother catching a sheep, goat, or whatever it was, because I was heading to the shoots. The announcer on the horse (I don't remember the actual title of the gentlemen) rode over to me and asked, "Young man what are you doing?" I replied, "I want to ride a bull." I meant it. Little did I know my genetics would steer me towards heavy lifting and contact as I got older. Nevertheless, I've always been a fan of the men and women who compete in rodeo's week in and week out, earning a difficult living. That's real grit. 

Over the last couple years there have been more events showcased in the form of P.B.R Teams Series. This immediately grabbed my attention. What was even more intriguing was reading about the strength and conditioning protocols for bull riding. So this led me to writing this article and discussing "Conjugate for Rodeo". Now, we aren't talking about trying to stay on a bouncy ball for 8 seconds because it's sport specific. There are two different competition forms in rodeo. One form of competition is called "Rough stock" for obvious reasons. You ride horses and bulls that will undoubtedly wreck your world. Judges give a score based on the rider and the stock performance. The stock and the rider each can earn up to 50 points. You may have a great performance as a rider but you need the animal to perform in order to earn a high score. The other form of competition is timed events like team roping and steer wrestling. Timed events are exactly that. How quickly can you complete a task such as wrestling a steer to the ground. There are certain penalties that a competitor has to be aware of in timed events, but I won't get into that. For the sake of this article, I will provide a program for each event type. Let's go with bull riding and steer wrestling.

So first we will take a look at a needs analysis for bull riding.

Bull Riding Needs Analysis:

Goal ride time: 8 seconds.

One or two rides a night over the course of a couple to several days.

Primary energy system: ATP.

Training needs:

- Grip, core, neck, and full body strength is very important.

- Balance, coordination, and plyometrics are all very beneficial to protecting the rider.

- Sarcoplasmic & Myofibril Hypertrophy for longevity and durability.

- Some change of direction drills for getting up and avoiding the bull. Kind of important. 

General Physical Preparedness for Bull Riders

General Physical Preparedness is training aimed at increasing your overall physical fitness. No matter what sport you compete in, no matter what your goals are, you want a big gas tank. The bigger the gas tank the more you're capable of doing and the easier it is for you to adapt to different stimuli. For bull riding we will utilize a ton of sled dragging with several different variations. It would also be good to use recovery days for sled dragging and some change of direction work. I love to use weak link or work capacity circuits as a warm-up to build work capacity, one of such days being sled dragging. For this scenario we will drag sleds on our dynamic days. We will sprinkle in lying starts and change of direction work here and there on dynamic days as well. Within the warm-up we will do a ton of adductor and hip circle work along with core. These need to be conditioned. We will do so by utilizing movements in the warm-up each session. 

Weak Link Circuit Example for a Max Effort Lower lifting session:

a. Belt Squat (25-40% of Back Squat) x3x25

a2. Hip Circle Lateral Walks x3x20ft

a3. Plank x3x1 minute

a4. Face Pulls x3x25

Typical pre-fatigue circuit with no rest intervals for a significant amount of volume in order to build work capacity. This has been made very popular by Matt Wenning who I regard as one the best in the strength and conditioning field. This is a very efficient and effective way of building work capacity without taking up too much of an athletes' time. It's also a great way to incorporate sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and improve tendon health and durability. 

Rodeo athletes have a unique training approach in that outside of some technique tools like quad broncs or "robo" buckers, you have to actually make time to get on livestock and fine tune your skills. Due to this the lifting split needs to be adaptive and flexible. Without divulging too much information (I do have a business for this) we will go with a 3 day split.

Monday/Day 1: Sub Max Effort Lower

GENERAL WARM UP: (Choose 1)

- Ground Series (Lower)

- Dynamic Linear Emphasis

- Simple & Sinister Movement Series (If short on time)

WEAK LINK CIRCUIT: 

*Start with 1 or 2 rounds of each without rest and progress to 4 rounds as able over the next couple phases of training.

*Squat Weeks:

- Belt Squat (25-40% of Back Squat) x25

- Reverse Hypers x25

- Face Pulls x25

- Plank x1minute

*Deadlift Weeks:

- Suitcase Deadlift x25

- Reverse Hyper x25

- Seated Shrugs x25

- Plank x1 minute

Sub Max Lower:

A. Kettlebell Swings 3x5

B. SSB Box Squat 5x5 working up to 5RM.

C. DB RDLs 3x10

C2. Chin Up's 3x6-10

D. Wall Squat with Foam Roll Squeeze x6x30 seconds

E. Reverse Hypers x50 total reps in as few sets as possible.

*Couch Stretch, Band Hamstring Stretch, Vertical Hangs.

Tuesday/ Day 2: GPP:

*Complete in 20 minutes or less. Could complete this prior to rodeo specific practice.

*Use 1/2 of your body weight on sleds.

- Sled Drag... 120 feet

- Reverse Sled Drag... 120 feet

- Sled Good Morning's... 120 feet

- Hip Circle Lateral Walks... 60 feet each direction

*Stretch as needed.

Wednesday/ Day 3: Sub Max Upper

GENERAL WARM UP: (Choose 1)

- Ground Series (Upper)

WEAK LINK CIRCUIT: 

*Start with 1 or 2 rounds of each without rest and progress to 4 rounds as able over the next couple phases of training.

- Light Dumbbell Bench Press x25

- Chest Supported Row x25

- Back Extensions x25

- Plank with shoulder taps x15 each side

Sub Max Upper:

A. MB Chest Pass 2x5

A2. MB Overhead Slams 2x5

B. Flat Bench Press 5x5 Building up to 5 rep max.

C. Chin Ups 3x6-12

C2. DB Skull Crushers 3x8-12

D. Chest Supported I Y T 2x8/each

*Delt Circles, Band Pec Mobility, Band Lat Mobility.

Thursday/ Day 4: GPP

- Dynamic Warm Up / Plyo's

- Lying Starts 4x10-20 yards

- Change of Direction drills

Complete in 30 minutes or less. Could complete prior to rodeo specific practice.

*Stretch as needed

Friday/ Day 5: Dynamic Total Body:

GENERAL WARM UP: (Choose 1)

- Corrective mobility

WEAK LINK CIRCUIT:

*Use 1/2 of your body weight on sleds.

- Sled Drag x120 feet

- Reverse Sled Drag x120 feet

- Sled Goodmorning x120 feet

- Side Planks x1 minute each side.

Dynamic Total:

A. Box Jumps 3x5

A2. Deceleration Push Ups 3x5

B. SSB Box Squat (50% plus Red Bands) 5x5

C. Supinated Bent Barbell Rows 4x8-10

C2. Step Up's 4x8-10 each leg

D. Band Hamstring Curls 100 reps in as few sets as possible

D2. Band Face Pulls 100 reps in as few sets as possible

Rodeo doesn't really have a season beyond competing in order to qualify for the National Finals in December of each year, or the "American" rodeo in which contestants compete in a regional qualifier leading up to the championship series. I would suggest throughout the year changing up the 3 day split from 2 sub maximal or max effort days and a dynamic total day to a 3 day split consisting of 1 total body sub max effort day and 2 dynamic days in which to complete more repetition effort work during down time or longer periods of time between rodeos. But keep in mind, these cowboys and cowgirls make a living earning money at rodeos all year long and sponsorships might require a minimal number of appearances or competitions to meet the requirements of their contract. So, keeping it flexible is very important. 

In part two I will go over programming for steer wrestling. 

Thank you for indulging my interests. 

- Coach V