Posts Tagged ‘Athlete’
Attention Parents! Why you NEED an EXPERT
First, let me say there are some really great high school strength coaches across the country. I know some of them personally and know for a fact they would never allow these shenanigans to occur on their watch.
Unfortunately, this is an all too common scene is high school weight rooms across America. There are so many things wrong with this video there are too many to list and get into!
Where is the coach? Where is the supervision? Who taught these “athletes” how to train?
Well, the “coach” is probably doing something else instead of making sure these kids don’t break their necks and backs. Clearly, these “athletes” haven’t received one ounce of quality instruction. This is what happens when you dismiss quality strength coaches and their training facilities as “too expensive” because your athletes get to lift weights at school for FREE. Do you really want your athlete to be the best? Do you want them to get stronger, faster, and more explosive? Do you want your athlete to be injured or become indestructible and injury free?
Please take that into consideration when opting for the high school weight room training. You know what they say. You get what you pay for.
If you want to take your athlete’s training to new heights and you live in the Richmond, Virginia area you owe it to your athlete to come by Real World Strength and Conditioning for a FREE trial today.
Train for Athleticism
There’s nothing I like more than lifting heavy stuff!
I can’t describe it but there’s just something about over powering the iron that gets me jacked up like nothing else.
While heavy lifting is a staple of my programming, so is training for athleticism. Like I’ve said before, what good is all that size and strength if you cannot do anything with it? Don’t get me wrong, if powerlifting or bodybuilding is your sport of choice then you need to train a certain way to succeed.
For me, being an athlete and working mostly with athletes, I have to keep my edge and the best way to do that is training like one!
Below are 3 keys to training for athleticism.
1. Be explosive
Whether it is olympic lifting or sandbag training, incorporating explosive movements is a must. Whether they are sport specific is up for debate. However, there is no denying their effectiveness. I’ve never seen a great athlete that wasn’t explosive. Have you?
2. Bodyweight training
Being able to control your body in space is an absolute necessity for an athlete. Pushups, pullups, dips, jumps, burpees, handwalking, and animal crawls are a must. Not only will they get you strong and jacked but they will help increase mobility and flexibility, enhancing athleticism.
3. Sprint
I cannot stress this enough. I have never met an athlete that couldn’t run! We were made to sprint. To quote a colleague, “any person that doesn’t sprint is NOT an athlete!”. Sprinting will not only help increase your speed but it will keep your body strong. Not sprinting leads to weakness, PERIOD. I don’t care what type of sprinting it is, hills, sleds, track, JUST DO IT!
I incorporate all 3 of the above keys in my training on a weekly basis. I start at least two lifting session each week with some type of explosive movement. Some type of bodyweight training is included daily and I make sure to sprint at least twice per week.
Keeping these keys in your training will make you a better athlete and always have you prepared for battle.
Bodyweight Brutality and a Challenge
One of the biggest problem areas I see with young athletes and adults alike is a lack of strength with bodyweight movements.
This shouldn’t be surprising actually, since laziness and weakness is engineered into nearly every single piece of “fitness” equipment today. Lay here, sit here, stand here. What ever happened to using the ultimate machine, your body?
I see athletes and adults that can’t do 10 proper pushups and even a single pullup. It drives me insane.
You simply cannot expect to perform at your best if you are not able to move and control your body in space effectively whether you’re a competitive athlete or just a weekend warrior.
If you really want to get strong practice your pushups, pullups, squats, and lunges. A good barometer of where you are on the bodyweight strength meter is being able to perform at least 25 pushups, 5-10 pullups, 50 squats, and 50 lunges. If you can’t hit these numbers, get to crankin’!
My session today finished with a brutal bodyweight challenge. Check it out below.
Get Strong(er) Wk 3 – Day 3
1 – Hang Snatch 5×4
2 – Bench Press 5×4
3a – Thick Rope Recline Rows 100 reps
3b – Pushups 100 reps
Here is the challenge.
Perform 100 reps each of the rows and pushups in as few sets as possible and let me know your results.
Today I finished in 6 rounds.
I need to be stronger than that.
I’m determined to improve.
Crush the bodyweight movements and you’ll be crazy strong, pack on slabs of rugged muscle, and increase your on field/court performance no matter what sport you choose.
Keep killin’ it out there.
Why you must include conditioning in your training plan…
I’ll keep this one short and sweet.
To me incorporating conditioning is a no brainer. If you’ve been following this site for a while you know I’m a huge proponent! Forget traditional cardio! As the say “conditioning is where it’s at!” However, I am by no means advocating the abolishing of all steady state cardio, there is a time and place for it but if you’re training for performance you need to condition. What good is all that strength if you can’t move with it? Train like an athlete and it will pay dividends in our training, no matter your goal.
During this training cycle I’ve included some GPP/conditioning on my non lifting days. Take a look at what I did this morning as well as yesterday’s training log. I was going to film this training session but my tripod was nowhere to be found.
Conditioning:
Hill Sprints x 10 (rest period was the time it took me to walk back to the bottom, roughly 45sec.)
4 min Tabatas (20/10) alternating the battling rope with sledgehammer swings. I did this for 4 rounds.
As you can see this was short and sweet but I assure you it was highly effective!
Full Body Training Log: Wk 6 – Day 2
1 – Bench Press 5×5,4,4,3,2
2a – Military Press 3×6,6,5
2b – 1 arm DB Row 3x23ea., 23ea., 20ea.
3a – Weighted Ring Dips 3×12, 12, 9
3b – Barbell Walking Lunges 3×16,16,16
3c – Burpee 3×10
I kicked it up a notch on this one.
I can’t wait to squat tomorrow.
Am I weird for saying that?!?
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