Check out a training sessions with the women’s volleyball team at Pierce College. They are getting ready for the upcoming fall season by out working all other JC volleyball programs in the weight room and on the court.
I use the workout tracks by Workout Muse – make sure to check them out.
Train Hard – Train Smart
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I went to LA Fitness this morning with the intention of doing front squats. When I got to the weight room I realized that all 3 half squat racks were being used by meat-heads doing bicep curls. Are you kidding?! You really need to take up an entire squat rack to do bicep curls with an Olympic Bar. I was trying to get some real work in while these pathetic individuals would do a set of bicep curls, rest 3 or 4 minutes and then do another set. The funny thing is I would bet these guys go to the gym and only do biceps the entire workout. What a waste of time and energy…
This should be outlawed at the gym.
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Check out a few action shots at Pierce College.
Every program at Pierce College is designed with these training principles in mind (Training philosophies I and Training philosophies II). Every program is 3-6 weeks in length – depending on the training goal and phase of the program.
Here is a quick clip of a Friday “Fun” Day circuit with a few football players at Pierce College.
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The hips need to function properly to maximize athletic potential considering the role hip strength plays in sprint speed, explosiveness, and change of direction. I recently demonstrate a series of exercises to help improve hip mobility. The video associated with this post illustrates how incorporating a mini band into your routine can improve hip strength. Many of the exercises are performed in multiple planes of motion. This is important because many strength exercises are primarily performed in the sagital plane which can lead to deficiencies in the other two planes (frontal and transverse).
There are powerful muscles in the hip that work to produce many athletic movements. The hips need to be strong and stable to transfer energy during sporting movements such as hitting, pitching, and kicking (soccer). However, the hips can not do their job effectively if they are locked up or restricted in their range of motion.
Hip mobility is extrememly important to help protect the lower back and knees. There is a limited amount of motion that takes place at the lower back, so the hips actually need to be the area where the greatest range of motion comes from in the core.
Shown below are a few simple stretches that will definitely help improve flexibility of the muscles of the hip and enhance mobility of the entire joint.
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If you are an athlete or coach, analyze your entire training program to make sure it is sport specific. Check out this key sentence from Tudor Bompa and Gregory Haff’s book Periodization – Theory and Methodology of Training:
“The concept of movement pattern specificity reveals that the type of muscle action, kinematic characteristics (ie. movement patterns), kinetic characteristics (ie. forces, rate of force development, power output), muscle groups activated, and acceleration or velocity characteristics of the movement all contribute to the exercise’s ability to transfer to the sporting activity.”
Your movements in the weight room should never try to replicate sports movements (check out this blog for more on this topic). However, the exercises you choice should have characteristics similar to your sport. You want the exercises to carry over to the playing field otherwise why would you waste your time in the weight room to begin with. Once you begin to understand these scientific principles, it makes sense to incorporate ground-based training (exercises performed in standing positions), Olympic lifts and other high power output exercises, exercises in the full range of motion, and exercises in all planes motion. At the same time, it should begin to make sense why it is not as beneficial to train on machines that control only one movement and usually control the speed of the movement. Not to mention that most machines require the athlete to sit or lay on their back/stomach – that doesn’t look anything like sport!
Train Hard-Train Smart –> it’s not just important to train with intensity, it’s important to train with the correct knowledge too!
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Athletes are always looking to develop their lower body explosiveness and power. Improve your lower body strength (Lunge Matrix). Convert strength into explosiveness with the Jump-Bound Matrix. Check it out:
This video takes you through jump and then bound progressions in multiple planes of motion. This series would benefit every athlete (it may not help a billards player – but every other athlete).
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After the previous post about Myofascial Release I had a couple general questions. So I have decided to do an additional post to clear a few things up.
Here is some more information about this topic:
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Many times core resistance training looks like this:
However, it should look something like this:
Read my previous post on core training for other great functional core exercises with medicine balls. Notice how the cable and medicine ball exercises have something in common – you use your entire body and you are in a standing position.
Take a look at these athletic movements below and notice the commonalities between each movement. With exception to the volleyball player, they are all standing on either two feet or one foot (however, remember the volleyball player jumped off two feet or one foot to get in the air). It is important to notice the amount of torque (rotation) throughout their core during these movements. Their core is not working in isolation – the big powerful muscles of the legs and hips or working. The muscles in the back, shoulders, chest and arms are also involved in the movement. If you are an athlete or coach looking to strengthen or enhance the power of these movements, I would suggest the exercises I demonstrated in the video or the medicine ball exercises. The medicine ball exercises are great because the athlete must generate force throughout the entire movement – even during the release of the ball which is extremely sport specific.
Train Hard- Train Smart
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