NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Episode 21: Lawrence Herrera

Lawrence Herrera, owner and founder of LH Performance, talks to the NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about how strong is strong enough, keeping the training simple, and relating to athletes and coaches.

Lawrence Herrera, CSCS, has been a strength and conditioning coach since 2003 and is the co-owner and founder of The Performance Ranch in Albuquerque, NM, and he is also the NSCA State Director for New Mexico. Over the last decade, Herrera has worked with professional endurance athletes, National Football League (NFL) players, United States national team athletes, collegiate athletes, and some of the best age group athletes from the region. Over the last four years, he has also had the opportunity to work with some of the best Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters in the world. He has even helped several to title contention.

Follow Lawrence on Instagram: @laweranceherrera | Find Scott on Twitter: @scottcaulfield

Show Notes

“Collaboration and communication with the other coaches.” 4:55

“My passion has always been to see people excel.” 5:47

“I try to minimize as much pain as possible… get them to move better… and then get them stronger.” 8:05

“Getting that person strong ENOUGH [for their activity or sport].” 8:20

“Being able to watch those fights with them [coaches and athletes]… and then I go ‘Okay, how am I going to fit that into how I train them?’” 15:10

“… the big thing with fighting… is you’ve got to be able to do different types of movements.” 15:25

“Conditioning—for these guys—it’s absolutely paramount; if they’re not conditioned to go in the ring—they can be the best fighter in the world, but if they don’t have that gas tank they’re not going to last long.” 15:53

“Benchmark: we use the air bike; the assault air bike is our mainstay… I have them do a test on that, it’s usually a mile and a half… generally it takes about anywhere from four to five minutes… we use heart rate a lot and then we rest for a minute, because that’s usually the typical rest period and I see how the heart rate comes down from that effort.” 16:44

“Lots of grip strength work.” 17:56

“I try to make it simple.” 18:47

“I’m not looking at max squat or max bench, because again, they just need to be strong enough.” 18:53

“Talking a common language.” 19:44

“Communicate in the same language.” 20:20

“With any sport, you need to watch it, you need to talk with the sport coach.” 20:39

“I don’t do a lot of sport-specific stuff.” 22:11

One coaching practice to eliminate: “using exercise as punishment.” 32:04