Here’s an excellent example of how to place extra workouts in a weekly off-season football training schedule along with what an extra workout accomplishes (or should).
Once you’ve experienced a hamstring strain, you wish nothing more than for it to never have happened or at least for it to never happen again.
These videos made me realize what I needed to do in order to preserve longevitiy in doing what I love…lifting!!
When developing the strength and explosiveness program for the University of Pittsburgh men’s hockey team, there were several factors I had to take into consideration as a coach. Hopefully my experience thus far will help you in similar situations.
Squat injuries happen more frequently without a proper warm-up. Dr. Ryan Smith discusses a few simple movements he uses that can save you from painful complications.
Team DOS just received the new Econo Prowler a couple months ago with the intent of using the hell out of it.
The sacroiliac joints (SI) are a common source of lower back problems for a wide range of people including housewives, professional athletes, and elite lifters. The SI joints don’t discriminate.
Due to a recent influx of hip flexor questions, I decided to put together a few thoughts on the issue.
Anyone who has worked with field and court sport athletes has undoubtedly dealt with his fair share of athletes with ankle injuries.
Injuries are a major setback for any competitive athlete. It can be physically taxing to recover and mentally stressful and draining to be sitting on the bench and going through rehabilitation.
I’m a lifter just like you. I’m not a trainer nor do I have any connection to the strength and conditioning field outside of elitefts™.
Recently, I received an email from an average, middle-aged man who, after years of training, was unable to pick up his three-year-old son over his head due to shoulder pain. His goal was very simple.
I first started lifting when I was about 11-years-old. I started doing little things before this time, but I entered a weight room when I was about 11-years-old.
Whenever I’m approached by an avid exerciser or athlete who complains of knee or lower back pain, the first thing I do is check out his or her backside…literally. Not to sound like a sexual implication, but observing the glutes actually helps me understand a client’s description of knee and lower back pain.
I’ll start off by putting it simply—you must train hard and recover hard! Here are some healthy ways to recover your body and restore your muscles!
At some point or another, just about every bodybuilder and athlete on the planet is bound to get injured. Luckily, for most of us, these injuries are usually minor and don’t result in anything more than a slight inconvenience for a few days.
In part 1 of this series, I introduced some ways in which a strength and conditioning coach can deal with an athlete’s shoulder pain.
In Part 1 of this series, I went into some detail on why I really didn’t like the catch all term “impingement.” In Part 2, I’m going to talk about the different kinds of impingement—external and internal.
Roughly 10–15 times per week, I get emails from folks who claim that they have shoulder “impingement.” Honestly, I roll my eyes the second that I read these emails.
It’s been a while since I’ve contributed an article to this site and so much has changed.
The serratus (anterior and posterior) is one of the most overlooked and undertrained areas of an athlete’s body, especially in powerlifters. These muscles aid in the lockout of the bench press and stabilize the shoulder blade and shoulder girdle. By neglecting this area, you can suffer during the last half to one inch of your bench lockout.
The following is a recollection of an incident that I suffered close to 12 years ago. It changed my approach to personal exercise and ultimately helped me carve my career in the fitness field.
As a strength coach, I work with many athletes who suffer from chronic joint pain. When I hear them complain about shoulder and knee pain, my first reaction is to blow them off and tell them to go stretch. However, after suffering from the same types of nagging pains myself, I know that their pain is very real.
Earlier this season, Josh Hamilton put on an amazing show with 28 homeruns in the first round of the major league baseball (MLB) Homerun Derby.
The rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder play a very important role in the prevention of shoulder injury and in the execution of overhead throwing and hitting actions.
Last summer, I worked with a college running back who was contemplating quitting football because of chronic hamstring injuries.
Pain in the front of the knee is becoming an epidemic among serious lifters and fitness enthusiasts alike.
Popular sporting literature such as health and fitness magazines, internet training, and sport sites as well as articles written by athletes, coaches, and physical therapists have endorsed the use of techniques such as massage, hydrotherapy, and hyperbaric oxygenation as ways of speeding up the recovery process and thus improving athletic performance.
…with Jim Wendler, Mike Ruggiera, Tom Deebel, Julia Ladewski, Mark McLaughlin, Alwyn Cosgrove, Lance Mosely, James Smith, Brian Schwab, and Travis Mash
In this article, we’ll take a look at the theoretical basis for CLT to improve something even more elusive—neural performance and recovery.
Chronic shoulder pain is nothing new to lifters or overhead athletes. It can range from something you just live with and work around to debilitating and career ending.
If you don’t know anything about lacrosse – if you’ve never actually seen a game – chances are you’ve bought into the almost universal, yet severely mistaken, notion that it’s a leisure class sport populated by rich preppie-types from elite private schools in the Northeast.
I won’t change much. I plan on running a 12-week cycle of higher volume once I’m cleared to go full speed. I want to gain about 40lbs for November. I’ll need the extra volume to gain some muscle and size.
Short, middle, and long-distance runners all need explosiveness.
There aren’t many among us out there who make a living from their three lift totals.
Ask any powerlifter what his most important joint is, and he’ll promptly answer “the hips.” The hips provide strength and stability in all three lifts. If you’re weak at the hips, you’re not going to do much on the platform. The same goes for all other athletes. The posterior chain is crucial for athletic success.
Tired of banging your head against the wall trying to fix old injuries that have been preventing your total from going up? What should you do when the foam roller, specific sport stretching, equiblock, and massages are no longer helping? Well, guess what? Here’s your golden ticket to PRville…
To all my fellow lower back pain sufferers who have subjected themselves to needless surgeries, cortisone shots, and therapies that flat out don’t work, here is my story.
“Well, I stand up next to a mountain I chop it down with the edge of my hand.” –Jimi
I feel it is the responsibility of any trainer or coach working with young throwing athletes to have a solid working knowledge of the shoulder.
I am going to attempt to provide the reader a generic blue print for individuals suffering from an acute shoulder problem to a chronic condition.
There has been an epidemic of sorts in the past few years regarding ACL injuries and young female athletes.
Female athletes are more prone to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries than males. Depending on the study, comparing male and female athletes, females are said to be anywhere from 4 to 6 times more likely to tear their ACL.
Most periodized training programs for athletes follow a Western or linear model.
I sometimes wonder if there are any prerequisites at all to getting a job as college strength and conditioning coach.
“Strength is an essential component of all human performance and its formal development can no longer be neglected in the preparation of any athlete”
The nervous system of athletes in speed and power sports can be enhanced by various means such as coordination exercises, structural work, and traditional power lifting methods.
One of the first pressing, inquisitive minds who stepped on the face of this earth was Socrates.
The individual control and systematic manipulation of volumetric management is largely dependant upon the proper integration of critical training variables.
Maybe it’s because I found out the hard way that you must vent information through a screen door in order to attain measurable improvements every training session in the real world. Maybe it’s because I have been doing research lately on American training strategies and I got a swift kick of deja vu.
The training process must include a critical and determined degree of fatigue, followed by an appropriate duration to which Reserve Strength may be elicited.
The individual control and systematic manipulation of volumetric management is largely dependant upon the proper integration of critical training variables. Specifically, these elements that must be monitored in training for sport can be generally classified into the broad category of measurement.
One of the most asked questions throughout the day was “What would you have done differently, if you knew what you know now?” And though I answered the question as best I could, I couldn’t help but rethink the question over and over.
When discussing training, there are many things to consider, such as speed work, building absolute strength, improving form, raising work capacity, recuperation, and selecting exercises and rotating them them in proper sequence to avoid adaptation.
Get fast and slam a big log up overhead. As an added bonus your bench will go up too.
This article is all about you, as a unique individual, training for your goals and based on your needs.
Last month I addressed the restorative measures of ice, massage, and rest to aid recovery. These methods are designed to not only increase workout performance and reduce injury, but help you feel better when you’re not training. Other useful methods include stretching, diet, supplementation, stimulants, and contrast methods.
What do you call it when someone makes a bonehead mistake in training? I am going to muster up all of my will power and be nice this time as I liken it to the baseball player that has fallen prone to poor pitch selection- swinging at bad pitches