Ten Best Strength and Conditioning Moments that Made 2011 Great

If you are like me you probably can’t believe this year has come and gone so quickly.  I usually get reflective this time of year trying to analyze if I have accomplished enough with the 365 days given to me.

Upon review, this year had some bumps but overall has been an incredibly successful year for Rise Above Strength and the strength and conditioning field in general.  In this article I will share ten of the best (in my opinion) strength and conditioning moments, articles and products that made this year great.

At the end of the article you can download a complimentary circuit training manual with workouts that I made just for my loyal readers.

Just a quick note: I do NOT make any money off of the items I endorse; they are just my sincere opinions of what I liked this past year.

Rise Above Performance Training 3^rd Anniversary Party

I have to admit this is the most stressful thing in the world for me to get off the ground but once it is over I am glad we did it.  I never thought I would be celebrating one year let alone three with such a great family of people here at Rise Above Performance Training.

From the food, the strongman contests, the awards presentations and all of the family and friends who came out to celebrate; it was a great day.  You can read more about the Anniversary Party here.

The Minimalist Shoe Movement

I am all about keeping everything simple; training, nutrition and lifestyle.  This new wave of shoes taking the market by storm might be the answer to many people’s foot problems.  They have personally helped me relieve the plantar fasciitis issues I had.  I still think finding the perfect multi-purpose minimalist shoe is a little ways off, however I would recommend people to try them out gradually and see if they are right for them.

One of My Favorite Articles Written By Me

This is my favorite article I wrote this past year.  It mostly had to do with some frustration I have with the cookie cutter workouts that young athletes get and the desire to push them too far.  You can read my post: Five Mistakes when Training Young Athletes here.

One of My Favorite Articles Written By Someone Else

I really enjoy reading articles by Eric Cressey.  He is spot on with his training analysis and is a constant proponent for quality training both in the weight room and in sports to maximize the longevity of an athlete’s career while minimizing injury risks.

Many players and coaches have their youth superstars do too much.  In this particular article Eric points out shortcomings of exhausting the talents of young kids as baseball pitchers.  Read: “Your Arm Hurts? Thank Your Little League, AAU and Fall Ball Coaches.”

Biggest Feat of Strength I Personally Witnessed

Aj and I went to a kettlebell seminar hosted by the Orange Kettlebell Club (OKC) where John “Wild” Buckley brought his 70kg (154lbs.) kettlebell affectionate called “The Nibbler.”  John was the only man up to this point to put it overhead until Aj gave it a try.  Prepare to be impressed as you check out this video: “Aj Makes History”

One-Hour Long Cycle Charity Event

Speaking of the OKC, these guys know how to put on a challenging and worthy event.  This is the second year I have participated in their One-Hour Long Cycle for charity.  This year we raised money for the Japanese Tsunami relief effort.  I was very thankful that the gym raised over $700 to contribute to the event.  I was a little disappointed that I was the only member from Rise Above performing the 1-hour event.  My goal for next year is to raise more money and get at least one person to participate with me.  Read all about the event: One-Hour Long Cycle Charity Event here.

Best YouTube Video

Every once in awhile I find a gem on YouTube that I like to save and go back to for inspiration or a good laugh.  This video was passed around face book and I really found it moving.  Perspective is everything and a huge key to either success or failure.

Best Piece of Equipment I Purchased

When I go for equipment I look for quality, simplicity and versatility.  The Econo Core Blaster from Elite Fitness Systems is all of those things.  It is small, portable and can be used for a variety of exercises in many different planes of movement.  Great bang for the buck.

My Favorite New Magazine

My Mad Methods Magazine is the magazine trainers and serious trainees were looking for.  Forget the popular health and fitness rags, this is a serious training magazine with more articles and programs than advertisements.  The articles are written by top professionals in the field covering everything about unconventional strength training methods.  If you get the magazine you might even see a few articles written by yours’ truly.

The Best Thing About 2011

The best thing in the strength and conditioning world are you guys.  All of my clients and readers of the newsletter are truly inspirational to me and you guys are the ones that get me up every day and allow me do what I love to do.

As a special thanks I have put together some of my favorite circuit training workouts just for you to download and enjoy.  Get your Circuit Training Programs.

Tags: best of 2011

Training for Winter Sports: Best Exercises for Soccer and Basketball Players

The weather is getting colder and the seasons are changing.  With these changes comes the beginning of new high school and college sports seasons with two of the biggest being soccer and basketball.

I have had the privilege of training both soccer and basketball athletes this past offseason and we have used many different training protocols to make sure they are strong, agile and more resistant against injuries going into their seasons.

Both soccer and basketball share similar movements in their sports; stop and go running, deceleration, cutting and acceleration and jumping components.  In this article I am going to share with you some of my favorite training exercises I use to get these athletes ready for their season.

Deadlift

There has been a timeless debate in the “strength and conditioning world” regarding which exercise is better to build strength, size and game speed; the squat or the deadlift.  Both exercises are great and should be used but if I had to pick one over the other for soccer and basketball players it would be the deadlift.

Like the squat, the deadlift is a highly effective movement to train the hips to extend.  Most sports are dependent on the athlete’s ability to extend their hips, whether it is to sprint, change direction or jump.  Being able to move and accelerate and object from the ground using one’s hips leads to great strength and power development essential in sports.

The one advantage that the deadlift has is the ability to train starting strength which is the ability to move the body quickly from a dead stop.  Many athletes, parents and coaches ask how they can improve their child’s “first step.”  This first step development comes from training to move deadweight quickly and effectively.

Forward Lunges

This is one of those exercises that I had used in the past, forgotten, came back to it while training at Cressey Performance.  When doing forward lunges again, I realized how weak I was at it and then realized the huge value it has.

I have had many of my athletes primarily performing reverse (step-back) lunges because I felt they were able to get into proper position easier and they could use the back foot explosively to train the first step.  This movement was great for that however I was neglecting one huge component necessary in both of these sports: deceleration.

Most deceleration during soccer and basketball comes when the athlete is moving forward and the front leg needs to slow the body down to change direction.

Forward lunges require the front leg to decelerate.  The forward lunge trains the hamstring muscle group to slow the body down through the eccentric contraction much like it needs to do when playing a sport like soccer and basketball.

During sports the body must decelerate loads greater than the body weight alone due to the acceleration of the body creating a greater force vector.  When doing this lunge variation with added resistance the body learns to deal with forces great than body weight alone much like what occurs when playing sports.

Kettlebell Swing

The kettlebell swing has several advantages when it comes to training for soccer and basketball; namely training the posterior chain (primarily hamstring and hip muscle groups) for power production, it can also be used as a conditioning tool.

Many strength and conditioning coaches utilize Olympic lifts (clean and snatch) to train the power element of sports; while these lifts may be great for power generation, they take much longer to learn the technique when compared to the kettlebell swing, and they are good for maximal power production whereas soccer and basketball are sports that utilizes repetitive bouts of sub-maximal force production.  Sports like soccer and basketball consist of a series of repeated sprints and stops; not an all or nothing explosive movement.

Kettlebell swings can be done within a strength program for repetitions if training posterior chain power production is desired or it can be done for time intervals if training for conditioning.

Core Stability

Core stability for soccer and basketball are crucial for the athletes to perform optimally.  Not only must the core be stable for the athlete to perform their dribbling and shooting skills effectively they also must have a strong core to be able to fend off all of the knocks and fouls that opponents will perform to steal the ball or disrupt a game winning shot.

Training the core for stability is quite simple and I recommend a variety of core stability exercises within a particular training program.  Plank variations, ball or wheel rollouts, strap fallouts, Pallof presses are all great exercises to train the core through stabilization.

Conditioning Circuits

This is one component that is not used frequently enough in strength training protocols.  It is one thing to make your athlete strong and perform well in the weight room, but if they cannot perform better at their sport then the job you’ve done is not complete.

In my article, Get with the Circuit, I touted the need for solid conditioning programs for athletes that needed both strength and endurance.  Adding a conditioning circuit into the program once a week will greatly enhance your soccer and basketball athlete’s strength transfer from the weight room to the field and court.  It is important that these athletes gain the strength endurance necessary to perform repeated measures of sprinting, stopping jumping, and cutting.  The athletes who are able to maintaining this strength endurance cycle will most likely be in better shape and perform the best at their respected sport.

Some of my favorite exercises to include into circuits are jump rope, kettlebell swings, pushups, body rows and the Prowler.  Time should be suited close to what would be done during a game situation.  I like circuits of 4-6 stations doing 20-30 sec. of work and resting for 10-20 sec.

Conclusion

Soccer and basketball players are just like any other athletes in respect to the fact that they need to be strong, stable and conditioned.  The details within a program should be tailored for each specific sport and specifically designed for the individual athlete for optimal success.

Tags: athlete training, athletes, athletics, basketball, training

Kettlebells for Young Athletes: Part II

In the first installment of this series we briefly looked at studies concerning weight training for young athletes and the potential risk associated with it.  Though the notion of strength training itself was not seen as potentially dangerous, implementing improper protocols and exercise selections may have negative effects on the growth of the body and may increase the chance of injury.  I have also found that upon creating proper training programs for young athletes the use of kettlebells is extremely advantageous for teaching proper set up and lifting mechanics used in major lifts.  In many cases kettlebells are much easier and safer to progress than using the traditional bars and dumbbells.

In this second half of the series I will highlight some of the advantages that the kettlebells have over bars and dumbbells especially when it comes to progression of the exercises.

Kettlebell Deadlift Variations

The first installment explained how the kettlebell deadlift is essential for training hip extension and how it could be much safer to implement than a traditional barbell deadlift because it is much easier to set up and execute with proper technique.  Once the technique is mastered and executed with the weight the trainer has established as the goal, then small variations of the movement can be used to further enhance strength gains.

The Single Arm Alternating Deadlift is executed like the standard kettlebell deadlift but uses only one arm at a time and switches at the top.  The challenges come with maintaining proper body alignment by keeping the shoulder back and chest up.  Also, on the single side there may be an urge to shift body weight to the side of the kettlebell and the athlete should not allow for this.  The single arm alternating deadlift forces the athlete to completely activate the core muscles to resist this shift and maintain proper body alignment.  Lastly, the individual grip strength is trained.  Grip is usually much stronger on one side compared to the other side.  By only using one arm to maintain the kettlebell in proper position it is possible to focus entirely on the one arm for the given repetition and the other on the next, in order to narrow the strength deficit between the two arms.

After the young athlete’s technique is stable and consistent you may find that the kettlebell may become too light to elicit a proper training effect for the athlete.  Most kettlebells only reach around the 100lbs. mark; but instead of jumping directly into the barbell version of the lift, the strength coach may opt for one more variation before.  The Double Kettlebell Deadlift is great for the young athletes whose technique has become solid and their strength is progressing.  This variation offers all of the benefits of the other kettlebell deadlift variations; being able to keep the weight very close to the body for the initial set up, training each arm (grip) individually allowing for balancing out the sides all the while being able to increase the weight to a fairly heavy level.  Once the athlete is able to perform this variation with weight totaling around 135lbs. successfully then they can consider the barbell deadlift.

Kettlebell Squat Variations

As discussed in the first installment, the squat is a very important exercise for athletes to improve core and hip strength, however a traditional barbell squat calls for loading the bar and placing it on the back of the athlete which increases the risk of injury to the less experienced lifter and also may compress the spine.  After mastering the bodyweight squat using kettlebells, the kettlebell goblet squat is the next step in the training process.

After the athlete gains experience in the standard kettlebell goblet squat, like we explained in the first article, the movement can be altered to take it to the next level.  Double Kettlebell Front Squats simulates a barbell front squat without having the athlete hold the barbell in the initially awkward fashion.  Using two kettlebells allows for an increase of weight used which can enhance strength gains and it also challenges the core muscles which must be engaged fully to maintain proper body alignment during the execution of the movement.

The Single Kettlebell Front Squat is another great option for young athletes, which is similar to the double front squat version, however when using a single kettlebell racked on one side of the body there is a much greater need to focus on proper technique and balance between the two sides of the body.  The single kettlebell will not only pull the chest down and forward, it wants to cause a shift towards the side of the body where the weight is.  The athlete must counter this motion and keep the chest up and the weight distribution equal on both legs.

Kettlebell Swing Variations

We established the kettlebell 2-arm swing as an excellent alternative for Olympic lifting for the young athlete to improve hip drive and power.  When the 2-arm swing technique has become consistent, then swing variations can be introduced.

The 1-Arm Kettlebell Swing is performed the same way as the 2-arm version, however the single arm version will stress the grip on the working side much more.  It is also a useful movement to balance out the strength and movement coordination between sides.  Usually one side of the body will be stronger and more coordinated and this will be quickly evident when performing this movement.  When executing this movement I recommend to swing the free arm along with the kettlebell side which helps maintain the shoulder in their proper position and also facilitates easy transition to the next variation, the alternating swing.

In the Alternating Kettlebell Swing the athlete will be switching hands.  This allows the athlete to increase their coordination and their work capacity as they begin to get fatigued in one arm, they can switch to the other side and keep the movement going.  The frequency of the hand switch is only limited by the coach’s imagination.  If you want the athlete to train strength and coordination you can have the athlete go heavier and for shorter duration.  If you are training the conditioning of the athlete, keep the weight lighter and switch hands every few repetitions.

Conclusion

Once the young athlete has mastered the basic kettlebell movements these above variations allow for safe progression in programming.  In the third part of this installment, I will go into some of the variations of the single sided movements that kettlebells have to offer.

Tags: athlete training