Archive for the ‘Strength Training’ Category

Recovery Between Strength Sessions

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Adaptation doesn’t take place during a training session, it is during the recovery.  Knowing this, is makes sense to plan your workout routine with hard days (higher intensity) and follow those up with easier days (lighter intensity).  It seems like some people feel they need to go at it hard every time they train.  This can lead to over-training and decreases in performance in the weigh room or on the field/court.  Here is an example I use with college athletes during a typical week of training:

Day 1
Medium Intensity

Day 2
High Intensity

Day 3
Low Intensity

Day 4
Medium Intensity

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Hip Strength

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

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).

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Muscle Fiber Adaptations

Monday, January 11th, 2010

This is a follow up to one of my recent posts titled Purely Genetic or Hard Work & Dedication.

In that post, I noted that certain physical characteristics such as muscle fiber composition (type I and type II muscle fibers) is predetermined or genetic.  I made that statement to inform you that you cannot convert all your slow twitch muscle fibers into fast twitch muscle fibers and start winning gold medals.  However, there is actually more to the story.  Type I and type II muscle fibers have different capabilities (type I fibers has a greater aerobic capacity and able to produce less force at slower velocities, while type II fibers have a great anaerobic capacity and are able to produce more force at faster velocities).  Now the theory that many of us have heard is that you are predetermined with the number type II fibers at birth (the fibers all athletes want so they can be fast and explosive during sport).  However, there are hybrid fiber types that have the capacity to change based on the stimulus provided to your muscle.  A well-designed training program (weight, speed, agility, and power training) actually has the ability to change muscle fiber composition in hybrid fibers!  Training can actually alter the ratio and percentage of type II to type I fibers that leads to increased strength and power-generating capacity.  This really strengthens the argument that great athletes become “great” because of hard work, dedication, and a well-structured training program throughout their entire life.

Every athlete has the capacity to improve based on the stimuli provided to the body.

Source:
Bompa, Tudor and Haff, Gregory. Periodization – Theory and Methodology of Training. Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2009

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Sunday Morning Performance Training Sessions

Monday, January 11th, 2010

I will be holding sports performance training sessions at College of The Canyons track/football field on Sunday mornings.  One training group is specifically for baseball athletes.  All athletes are also welcome to join other training sessions, either before or after the baseball group.  Training sessions will be one hour in length and always in morning.  Exact time slots will be determined before the weekend so athletes can plan their schedules accordingly.  Cost is $20 per session and athletes are not required to purchase a package of training sessions ahead of time.  If you are interested in training or know other Jr. High, High School, or College athletes that are interested in training send me an email or give me a call.

Train Hard- Train Smart
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A Call Out To All Coaches

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

The great coaches have goals for their teams/athletes and devise a plan that will accomplish those goals.  For example if the goal for a basketball team is to win a championship the coach will put together a strategy for each opponent, teach technical and tactical skills, create a season long practice schedule, and motivate/inspire his athletes.  This leads me to my main topic…This same approach (guiding athletes to success) should be taken by strength and conditioning coaches as well.  A game plan needs to be in place if the athletes are going to consistently improve throughout the training program.  I see too many coaches (many times it’s the head coach because the team doesn’t have a qualified strength and conditioning coach on staff) take the approach “no pain, no gain” or “100% intensity every time”.  Of course you want your athletes to work hard, but it should be a planned routine consisting of high, medium, and low intensity days.  There should be days were you teach your athletes (low intensity) and days where you condition the heck out of your athletes (high intensity).

Going along the same lines…Soreness is not necessarily a sign of great workout.  Anyone can make an athlete sore (literally anyone that knows how to talk – just say “run 100 sprints uphill” or “do 500 push ups and sit ups”).  I love to hear athletes say things like “my coach has the hardest workouts” or the “the training sessions are so intense”.  I ask the athlete what they did during the training session and usually their response is something like this “first we did a mile run, 100 sit ups, bench press and lat pull downs and finished with the leg press/leg extensions/leg curl for 5 sets.  I couldn’t move my legs for 3 days”.   There are definitely ways to make the training routine more sport specific.   If an athlete only has only X number of training sessions before the season starts, the coach should make the workouts as sport specific as possible.  There are times to work on general fitness and conditioning, but make sure it follows your yearly plan.  Every training session should follow the game plan and help the team/athletes accomplish their ultimate goals.

Remember “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.

Train Hard-Train Smart
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Fitness Anywhere: Make your body your machine.

ASAP On The Radio

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Be sure to check out last weeks on-air interview on KHTS about sports performance and the ASAP Baseball Academy.  http://hometownstation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18658:lifestyle-fitness-december1-2009&catid=100:lifestyle-fitness&Itemid=173

khts_christmaslogo_greenoverred

Train Hard – Train Smart
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Sport Specific Training

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

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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Jump – Bound Matrix

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

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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Interesting Research Articles – Part II

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Researchers at Appalachian State University looked into the possible relationship between maximal leg strength and sprint speed.  Most strength coaches would assume that lower body strength training ( this study investigated back squats) would have a positive affect on sprinting speed.  This study confirms this the relationship between maximal strength and speed.  (It’s always great to see when science supports real world application)

This is important for youth athletes to understand as well.  If you want to get faster there a few things to do on a regular basis:

  1. Work with a sports performance specialist or an individual who understands sprinting mechanics to develop basic technique – leg action, torso position, and arm action.  Then practice this technique over and over again.
  2. Get stronger!  This can start a young age by doing body weight strength training exercises.  By the time an athlete is in 7th/8th grade they should be doing resistance training with weights.  The emphasis is always on the movement patterns though.

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Athletic Core

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Many times core resistance training looks like this:

Sit ups BASEBALL/ Side Crunches

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.

Tim Lincecum 030122-O-9999J-028 Tennis Volleyball

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