4 Benefits of a Warm Up

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A Waste of Time?

There are many athletes that view the warm up as a waste of time.  It’s unfortunate that they view it this way.  They obviously don’t understand the true benefits of a properly designed and performed warm up.

So what are the benefits?

1. Increased Flexibility & Mobility - A good warm up can help to improve an athletes flexibility.  Of course this is important for the workout that is about to be undertaken, but it’s also important as part of long term flexibility development.  If an athlete doesn’t take part in activities that increase flexibility, they will lose it.  This includes stretching post-workout and warming up pre-workout.

2. Improved Performance - Warming up helps to increase muscle temperature, tissue flexibility, heart rate, and breathing rate.  All of these physiological responses to a warm up are meant to get your body ready for exercise.  It’s kind of like taking time to warm up your car on a cold morning.    Can you just hop in your car and drive off?  Yes.  Is it going to work as well when you do that?  No.  The same can be said for your body.

3. Decreased Injury Risk – Every time an athlete trains, practices, or competes, there is a chance of an injury.  A warm up is the first thing that an athlete can do to decrease this risk.  The primary reasons behind this are discussed in #1 and #2 above.

4. Improved Mental Focus – How focused are you without a little effort to forget the stresses that filled your day?  After dealing with customers, co-workers, emails, phone calls, traffic, family, etc, most of us are a little bit rattled and unfocused.  Even though many of our athletes may have different stresses, do you think that it’s much different for them?  Even teens have school, jobs, family issues, and social issues.  A warm up helps them to get focused.  It can help them to forget the issues they faced during the day and help them to remember why they are training.  If the workout is in the AM, the warm up can help to wake them up a little bit.  This can lead to improved performance and attitude.

While it’s important to take your athletes through a warm up, it’s also important to be able to tell them why they need to do one.  That can help them to give better effort during the warm up instead of just going through the motions.

 

Mark

 

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Crossfit – As Seen On TV

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There's a right way, and there's a wrong way....

There’s a right way, and there’s a wrong way….

 

The Film Doesn’t Lie

Last night I was flipping around the TV looking to see what was on.  I only had a few minutes so I didn’t want to get too involved in anything. I came across a show about the 2012 Crossfit Games.  I’ve watched a few minutes of these shows in the past but never really paid much attention to them.  During last nights show, one of the events included female athletes doing pull-ups.  When I started to watch the pull-ups, I was left almost speechless.  Their legs were swinging with each rep.  Actually, swinging is an understatement.  Their form was horrible.  It almost reminded me of a gymnast swinging on the parallel bars.  During the same competition, the athletes had to complete a combo lift that included a front squat.  They had judges observing the squats to ensure that each squat was to parallel depth.  What amazed me was the fact that they cared so much about form on one exercise but not the other.  While many people know what Crossfit is, many others don’t.  These national shows are a chance for them to reach a lot of people and show off what they are all about.  Unfortunately, what I saw is more likely to scare people off.  It scares potential clients because it seems unsafe.  It scares Strength Coaches and Personal Trainers because we can just see injuries waiting to happen.  I know that Crossfit has a lot of fans out there.  It also has a lot of detractors.  From what I saw, I can understand why it has so many of the latter.

 

Mark

 

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Supplement Salesmanship

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A few days ago my brother stopped in to a health food store to buy some supplements.  The person working behind the counter was very helpful.  In typical fashion, the cashier simply started to rattle off lots of information about a couple of products.  He made a few specific comments about creatine that I’ve never heard before. While its possible that the info is accurate, it’s unlikely. The information is probably not backed up by science.  If he had to come up with the source for his information, it would most likely have been “somebody told me”.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into a health food store had a similar experience.  Once I started to think about it I realized the real issue.  The real issue is that many people are gullible and will take the information they get from a health food cashier as gospel. The issue doesn’t really affect those that work in the fitness industry. The problem affects those who are less informed. This includes a large portion of consumers. I know that this isn’t surprising to most of us. Unfortunately it does affect millions of people everyday. They mistake information from a cashier, an ad in a magazine, or somebody at the gym telling them something as 100% accurate info.  So what can be done?  Just keep trying to educate your clients.  I know, at times it feels like we are Sisyphus rolling a rock up a hill endlessly.  But it’s all that we can do.  Just keep trying to educate your clients.  With as many influences as there are nowadays (parents, coaches, teammates, salespeople, tv, the internet, etc), you might be the only source of reliable info that your athlete hear.

Mark

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You Can Write It On The Board, But You Still Have To Coach It

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A few days ago, a friend of mine started an online discussion about coaching.  He made a statement that criticized coaches who just write the strength workout on the board and then don’t actually “coach” it.  He was referring primarily to high school sport coaches.  In an ideal world, this wouldn’t happen.  Unfortunately, it happens much more often than most people realize.
So why does this happen? Usually it’s due to at least one of the following reasons:

  • The sport coach does not have a great strength training background.  He/She knows that their players should lift weights but they don’t understand all of the details about technique and program design.
  • The coach is overwhelmed with the duties of their sport and uses the class to plan for practices and games, make phone calls, etc
  • The ratio of players to coaches makes it difficult to truly instruct the athletes in proper training techniques

While all of these do make things difficult for the coaches, it still shouldn’t excuse them from just writing the workout on the board and trusting the kids to follow it correctly.  So what are the drawbacks for the kids involved?

  • Safety - As we all know weight rooms can be dangerous places. Poor supervision greatly increases the chances of something bad happening.
  • Not following the plan - As most of us know, teenagers all think they have a better way of doing things. In many instances, they will choose to follow their own plan rather than the ones they are given. This can create problems related to recovery among other issues
  • Effort Issues - Obviously some people are not nearly as motivated as others. Without someone watching over them and pushing them a little bit, they will never achieve what they’re fully capable of. Of course the other side of things is that some people are super highly motivated. Sometimes somebody has to hold these people back a little because they don’t understand the big picture of the training plan.
  • Fails To Prepare Them For College - Besides the fact that the athletes are missing out on proper physical conditioning that will benefit them at the college level, they are missing out on even more.  They are not being taught that strength training is important.  They also are learning that minimal effort is acceptable.  I’m sure that their college coaches will just love that.

While there are possible solutions, I won’t go on a rant about the most obvious one – putting a qualified person in charge of the S & C program – or any other ones.  I will say this, it’s a shame that it happens.  In the end, it affects the kids negatively.  Hopefully this is a trend that will change sooner rather than later.

 

Mark

P.S.  Be on the lookout for our mobile site www.sports-upgrade.mobi to debut soon.

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Balanced Training

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Is your training program balanced?

Let Me Count The Ways…

How many different ways are there to draw up a training program?  How many different things influence a program?  Some programs are written up based on powerlifting concepts, some are more Olympic lifting based, some are written based on other concepts, and some are combinations of all of the above.  So which one is the right one?  Well that’s easy to answer:  the one that works best for the individual athlete.

Is there one perfect program?  No.  If there was, everyone would be using it.  That’s one of the neat things when training athletes:  based on what the athlete needs, we are all allowed to use our background and beliefs to design a program.  Regardless of what influences you in your program design, you need to keep one key thing in mind when designing the program.  What’s that?  You must keep the program balanced.  What has to be balanced?  Everything does.  What does everything include?  Check the list below to find out:

Balance This:

  • Push Exercises  & Pull Exercises - This should be common sense but some programs are loaded too much in one direction.  Remember, the object of training is to make the athletes better, not create imbalances.
  • Power & Strength Exercises - While there are different types of programs, there does have to be some sort of balance.  I don’t believe that a program can be based entirely on strength  or on power.  While I don’t necessarily think that it has to be a set amount of either type of work, both areas need to be addressed.
  • Prehab/Corrective Exercises & Training Exercises - Is there a place for prehab and corrective exercises?  YES!!  Do I like to see an entire workout based on them?  No.  I believe in trying to find ways to incorporate prehab and corrective exercises into the training plan.  At the same time, as long as it isn’t going to injure the person, I want them to be able to get in some “traditional” training during the same workout.  There is a place for both and they should coexist in the plan.
  • Flexibility & Strength/Power Exercises -  We’ve all seen the stereotypical “muscle bound” guy walking down the beach.  They’re strong as an ox.  Unfortunately, they are so inflexible that they can’t even move.  This is the last thing that we want in our athletes.  It is just setting them up for an injury.  Therefore, we need to make sure that there is an adequate amount of flexibility work included in our programs.  By in our programs, I don’t mean as a “homework” assignment for the athlete.  As we all know, in reality, they probably won’t do it (or will do it halfway).  Therefore, it needs to be included in the daily plan.
  • Speed/Agility/Conditioning Work - Do athletes need to work on speed?  Yes.  Agility?  Yes.  Conditioning?  Yes.  No matter what level they are, there needs to be some work in each of these areas.  Of course, it doesn’t have to be an equal split between the three.  The program should be based on the individual athletes needs.  But no matter how much they need conditioning work, speed and agility can still be integrated in to the program.  No matter how much they need to get faster and more agile, they cannot forget about conditioning.

Where does this leave us when we plan programs for out clients?  It generally leaves us with a multitude of things that we can choose to work on.  Unfortunately, none of us have the time needed to do all of those things. That is what creates the balancing act when planning a program.  We have to find time and ways to incorporate strength, power, speed, agility, conditioning, and flexibility exercises into our programs.  We also have to create a program that is based on individual needs, strengths, and weaknesses.  That is the challenge that we are all faced with.  Of course, putting together a good program and coaching the athlete through it makes all of the challenges worthwhile when you see a great end result.  That is the reward for the challenge.

 

Mark

 

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Combine Prep Isn’t Just Physical

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Lacrosse Faceoff Pic

 

Combine Prep Opportunity

I recently trained a high school athlete for a lacrosse combine.  While I haven’t trained lots of lacrosse athletes previously, I was excited by the opportunity.  Besides, most of the training was focused on the combine events and not the sport itself.  We had about 2 weeks to prepare so we mainly focused on fundamental speed and agility skills .  We covered all of the basic things like arm drive, body position, accelerating, decelerating, etc.  Over the two weeks the athlete made numerous improvements in his physical skills and I felt sure that he would make a good showing at the combine.  Since he had never participated in a combine before,we also talked about everything from getting proper rest to how the combine would probably be run.  We he showed up on combine day, I wanted him to be prepared for every possibility that he might face.

The Result

A day after the combine, the athletes father called me to give me the results.  First, the father informed me that the coaches had told the athletes that they weren’t concerned with how fast they ran at the start of a game.  They wanted to see what they could do when they were tired.  Because of this, the combine participants all had to run multiple gassers before they did any combine drills.  While this was something that was certainly different from most combines, the athlete ran the gassers and still had an outstanding day.  He ended up impressing a lot of folks.  When the father told me the story and gave me the results, I was very happy with what the athlete was able to accomplish.

Mental Preparation

Just like all Strength and Conditioning Coaches, I always want my clients to do well in their sports, combines, tryouts, pro days, etc.  However, the father made one comment that made me realize how well prepared his son was for the combine.  He said that when his son showed up to the combine, he was “comfortably confident”.  To me this meant that he was confident in his physical skills, but that he also felt comfortable with everything that he was about to experience.  Those comments, plus the gassers that the kids had to run, made me realize how important it is for athletes to be prepared for all aspects of tryouts, combines, etc.  That should help them to perform better but should also help them to handle anything unusual that happens (like the gassers, rain, etc).  While I normally try to work in some mental preparation when I train athletes for these events, I really emphasized it with this athlete.  Primarily that was because he had never been to a combine before.  However, after his experience, I make sure to cover any details that I can with all of my clients.  This applies even to athletes that have been to multiple combines/tryouts.  While veteran athletes may have lots of good info, they may have picked up some bad “tips” also.  There is no telling what info that have gotten from other athletes, coaches, the internet, etc.  Because of this, sometimes it is necessary to do some “damage control” and make sure that they have good info to follow.  I probably put more emphasis on this part of the preparation than other people do.  The thing is, if I train someone, I want them to do their best.  I’m not just there to go through the coaching motions and take their money.  To me it doesn’t matter if it is a high school kid hoping to perform well at a combine, or a pro athlete prepping for a pro day or tryout.  Yes, if the pro athlete gets signed, it’s a great feather in your cap.  However, to the high school kid, his performance is just as important.

So, what’s the take home message?  Don’t forget to emphasize mental preparation with your athletes.  It can help your athlete to be better prepared.  It can also give them a huge advantage when things don’t go exactly as planned.

Mark

Sports Upgrade Training

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Sports Training Without Expensive Equipment

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You don’t need to break the bank for training equipment

Sometimes we get very wrapped up in the newest piece of training equipment.  We see it, hear about how it can help your athletes, and we just wish that we had it to use.  Unfortunately, it usually costs an and arm and a leg to own.  So what do you do?  Do you did deep into the bank account and buy it or just do without?

In reality, you can probably do without it.  While it’s always nice to have the newest and neatest equipment, is it really necessary?  Many excellent coaches started off working with limited resources.  That means that they had to get creative and learn ways to make athletes better without having access to the fanciest equipment.  They started off using basic equipment like cones and ladders and went from there.

When I was in college studying to be an Athletic Trainer (ATC), I was assigned to assist at a local high school.  Since much of Athletic Training involves hands-on learning, this was where I would gain knowledge to supplement my classroom learning.  I was to observe, learn, and eventually practice under the supervision of the Head ATC.  One of my memories from that experience was that we used old bicycle inner tubes for ankle rehab. We didn’t use fancy thera-bands.  We didn’t have the money in our budget.  You know what?  The inner tubes worked just fine.  We didn’t have a lot of other fancy things that local rehab clinics had.  However, we got creative and found ways to get the job done.  Now, are things easier if your training room is stocked with every piece of equipment imaginable?  Yes.  Can you get by without having one of everything?  Yes you can, especially if you don’t have any other choice.

The same goes for sports performance.  I’ve worked at places that had almost every bit of equipment that you can imagine.  How much did we use?  Maybe half of it got used in the course of a month.  In any given year, we might have actually used 95% of it at least once.  Was it nice having all of that equipment?  Yes.  It meant that you always had lots of options for training.  Could we have survived without some of it?  Yes we could have.  And you know what?  Our programs would have still be good and our athletes would have still gotten better.  In all actuality, it might make you a better coach if you don’t have as much equipment.  It makes you research and develop other methods to accomplish things.  Just remember, it’s your skill as a coach that makes the difference, not the tools that you use.

Mark

Sports Upgrade Training

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Heads Up On The Ladder Drills

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Keep your head up!!

 

Ladder Time

If you’re like most strength & conditioning coaches, agility ladder drills are part of your program.  Some coaches use them as a warm up while others use them to develop footwork and agility.  While there are numerous drills that can be used, there should be one constant.  What is that, you ask?  The athlete should keep their head up during the drill.  Let me repeat that – the athlete should keep their head up during the drill.  That’s kind of a pet peeve of mine.

Heads Up

How many sports that use agility can you name that are played with your head down?  Football, soccer, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, softball, volleyball, etc all require you to keep your head up if you are going to be a good player.  Because of that, why would we encourage head down behavior in our drills?  Shouldn’t we teach athletes to keep their heads up?  When an athlete is just starting to learn a particular ladder drill, they might need to keep their head down.  However, once the athlete has run through the drill a few times, they need to try to keep their head up.  Will this slow them down?  A little at first, but once they get used to it, the skill will transfer better to their sport.  Isn’t that what we want?  Ultimately we want athletes that are quicker and more agile on the field or court, not just during a drill.

So how do you get athletes to keep their heads up?  Just coach them to do it.  If that is the expectation, your athletes will start to do it.  Of course, you can give them some help by making the skills more complex.  For a few ideas, check out my post on using tennis balls.

 

Mark

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Lower The Injury Rate By Strength Training

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Strength training helps to prevent injuries.

 

What is the most important function of a strength training program?  To get stronger to perform better?  To get faster?  To be able to jump higher?  Guess what?  It’s none of these.  The most important function is to help prevent injuries. I’ve mentioned this many times before in my other posts. Here’s a doctor who is delivering the same message.  It’s a short read but worth your time.  You can share it with others to help teach the importance of strength training for young athletes.  I hope that you enjoy it.

Mark

 

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An Ounce of Prevention for Ankle Injuries

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If you’re an athlete, you need to keep your ankles healthy.

Often I hear athletes mention that they have “weak ankles”.  My guess is that the problem isn’t so much “weak ankles” but an initial ankle sprain injury that was never given a chance to fully heal and be fully rehabbed.  I don’t doubt that some people are born with weaker ankles than others, much like some people are born faster than others or stronger than others.  The thing is, many athletes don’t seem to take the time to strengthen their ankles.  One way to help with this is to work some exercises into your training program.  I like to find ways to incorporate them into the warm up when possible.  This allows you to use them to help get the body ready for the training session while also doing some prehab or rehab work for the athlete. Most of the activities are fairly easy to do.  Here are some ideas:

  • Walks - These include variations of normal walking.  By putting the feet in unusual positions, you are forcing the ankles to adapt and become stronger.  So what types of “walks” are there?
    • Toe walks
    • Heel walks
    • Toes pointed in
    • Toes pointed out
    • Inside edges
    • Outside edges

I usually have the athlete begin with 10 yards of the first four types of walks. Over time I progress them to 20 yards.  I generally substitute the inside/outside edge walks for the toes in/out every other workout.

  •  Line Hops - These basic plyometric hops can help the ankles get used to landing in various positions.  It is another great and easy activity to help strengthen them.  These can be worked in as part of a warm up or as part of the actual training program.  To do them, simply pick a line on the ground and hop over it. The jumps don’t have to be high but should focus on getting back and forth over the line as fast as possible.  The athlete should begin using two feet to hop and then progress to one foot hops.  They can be done for reps or for time.  The hops should be done in multiple directions:
    • Laterally
    • Forward-back
    • Diagonally
  • Moving Hops –  Moving hops are all done over a distance and on one leg.  This makes them more difficult than line hops.  I usually have athletes start at 5 yards per foot and progress to 10 yards.  Here are the variations.  They should be done each direction on each foot.
    • Forward
    • Backwards
    • Right
    • Left
  • Single Leg Balance Drills -  These drills are conducted while standing on one leg while on an Airex balance pad.  Here they are in order of difficulty.  (Note – the drills should be done on flat ground first before progressing to the Airex pad).
    • Standing -  The simplest drill is to stand on one foot and balance.  This should be done for 10 reps of 10 seconds each.
    • Arm drills - One variation is to combine balancing on the pad with arm drills. This creates more body movement which increases the stress on the ankle joint.  I usually have the athletes do 20 reps with their arms but they can also do them for time.
    • Squats - While I’m not sure that I would have an athlete attempt to do a full one-legged squat on a pad, I think that partial squats are fine.  I usually have athletes complete 1-2 sets of 10 reps.

These are just a few ways that I have found to include ankle work in a training program.  In encourage you to try them and to create your own variations. There are certainly many other great ankle exercises including using exercise bands and training in the sand. While I’m also a big advocate of both of these, I prefer to use many of the examples I gave above instead.  Many of them have other benefits besides just helping to strengthen the athletes ankles (ex. – plyometric benefits).  Give them a try.

 

Mark

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