With all the knowledge we have available to us, you would think that we have gotten past the idea that distance running will get an athlete in shape for any sport. So how should we program for athletes? Sport-specific? Sort of. In order to approach something that is actually sport-specific, we must take into account the actual demands of the sport.
My heroes were strength athletes I admired and wanted to be like. They give us a base for the kind of person we want to become. But as we grow up, we eventually realize that our heroes are no different than us. That moment is the time to kill the heroes and rise above them.
I’ve noticed a lack of variety in how people deadlift — conventional or sumo — as well as the fact that they rarely change pulls. As someone who does both, I wondered why that was. I set out to solve that mystery with a survey and found some answers from a variety of respondents…
After eight years of competing in strength sports and seven years of supervising employees, I’ve found that these parts of my life share several similarities when it comes to success. I’ve learned what makes the best coaches and bosses stand out from the rest. These three keys will help you do just that.
Your athletes’ load and acceleration will vary greatly depending on the skillset and experience of your athletes. Your athletes’ levels of experience will impact the ability of what they can and cannot do, as well as how you can assess and train these athletes at each level.
In this episode of Table Talk Podcast, Dave Tate and Jim Wendler talk about a couple of documentaries, majoring in exercise science, the best way to break down the conjugate method, and more.
Have a lat activation issue? So does elitefts athlete Joe Sullivan. After getting the green light from his physical therapist (and thinking like an athlete even though he’s a self-proclaimed “dumb weightlifter”), he’s working on some isolation exercises, like the quadruped row.
Just the other day, I was listening to a motivational speech that got me going. That speech made it clear to me that an evolution of the thought process and perception of what training should be is how lifters and strength athletes progress to the higher levels.
The DOMINATE method is a way of working out a team with the bare minimum while still being able to maximize results. It consists of eight principles that all successful strength and conditioning programs must have and must be able to do.
I recently reconnected with an old client: Don Cherry, whom I first met as a 16-year-old football player. Over the last several years, I’ve been lucky to watch that kid I trained in the belly of the Beast become a college and NFL football player and most recently, one of the voices behind a great podcast.
I believe the most important role of a strength and conditioning coach is to create programs that minimize the risk of injury. Armed with knowledge from a study on rugby injuries, I wrote a program that focuses on strengthening injury-prone areas. Here’s what I came up with.
“It got to a point where I couldn’t feel my legs… I got the up call, and nothing happened.” Join Team elitefts athlete Jo Jordan as he receives his medal on-stage for the 2019 XPC Worlds competition. He recounts his lucky comeback in the squat event and shares a sneak peek at what happens behind the curtain…
Between three jobs, strongman competitions, and his appearance on The Titan Games, 105-kilogram World’s Strongest Man Anthony Fuhrman shares his thoughts on pro middleweight strongman issues, meeting one of his childhood idols, and Taylor Swift.
Sprinting with a weighted sled has become my go-to exercise for improving an athlete’s ability to accelerate because it teaches and trains those mechanics. My athletes have consistently improved thanks to to sled sprints!
elitefts columnist Ashley Jones is Australian by birth, a New Zealander by choice and marriage, but first and foremost, he’s a strength and conditioning coach with 40 years of experience under his belt with plenty of passion and advice to spare to future coaches.
If speed is what we’re going after, then why do the weights on both our heavy and light days continue to climb, and bar speed continues to fall? As we get deeper into the competitive season and continue to put more tonnage on the athletes, we are burning the candle at both ends.
Here are the articles, blogs, and logs that were clicked, read, liked, and shared the most for January: Operation Be Less Fat, GHR Methods You Should Be Using, Extra Bodybuilding Workouts for the Powerlifter, a Six-Week Wave Bench Progression, and more! Find out too, a couple of things we’re compiling for February.
Coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, equipment personnel, and league officials all have distinctly different vantage points on the same subject matter. Somewhere along the lines, one of the most critical perspectives gets lost in the shuffle: the players’.
“If the bar ain’t bending, then you’re just pretending.” What that saying doesn’t account for is the danger of a bar bending over you mid-squat. Joe Sullivan’s no pretender, and luckily he’s here to tell the tale of surviving a bar-bending incident that could’ve been deadly.
Our first-ever guest is David Kitchen, who serves as the Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning for the UNLV Rebels football team. Kitchen talks about everything from his life journey to discipline and even the different sociology principles he’s studied in an attempt to better his athletes.
This is the first question you should ask yourself when training a team. To get this point across, I’ve attached my entire fall football training program.
Young strength coaches, go back to the basics to improve your athletes’ performance.
You can have the holy grail of training programs, but if it doesn’t fit your job, it isn’t any good.
In a perfect world, you’re always getting stronger and your PR’s are always moving higher. Well, this world isn’t perfect, and you need to remember that if you want to get stronger.
As I see it, there are three directions that this profession can go. I know I favor one and I’ll explain why.
On my 40th birthday I reflect on the things I learned for each year of my life.
Through our many adventures, Chris Duffin and I trained, went four-wheeling, ate A LOT, and talked about many aspects of coaching and programming.
How can you sell your vision when it’s difficult to score your vision? Start with goals!
If you aren’t getting stronger or making gains, you’re doing something wrong. Your first job is figuring out what that is.
You took a step forward and now it’s summer. This time of year means nine weeks of strength and conditioning bliss and nine weeks of scheduling, programming and executing our own version of “the master plan.”
Was I able to do these things and reach the level that I did simply because I believed?
Where is your confidence and what are you willing to do to strengthen it?
With your athletes and with your staff, communication is all you have for keeping everyone on the same page. If you won’t talk to them, you won’t understand them, and your program will fail.
Entering the time period away from pre-season or in-season training, our head coach made his expectations clear: “I want to see bench presses go up by 20 pounds and squats by 40 pounds in the next five to six weeks.” Easy, right?
A shorter range of motion means a bigger bench. Here’s how to get your chest closer to the bar without taking your ass off the bench.
There’s nothing wrong with trying the newest, flashy technique, but if you don’t know how it will help your team, stick to the basics.
I can only imagine from my personal experience with depression how athletes like Dave Mirra reach the point of tragedy.
This could be the simple rule to great strength — are you following it?
Let’s discuss protein powders, fat burners and pre-workouts, and what specific things you should look out for.
This problem started to creep up on us several years ago and I only see it getting worse.
If I never did another meet, wrote another article, or coached at another seminar, I would still love lifting.
In an endless flow of meaningless words, latch onto the lessons that challenge your mind and dictate your actions.