Sport-specific training is as much about training movements that counteract what you do in your sport as it is about training the movements and muscles you need to perform. Or at least it should be if you want your body to let you continue enjoying your sport.
Foam rolling the adductors
I used the analogy of the spare tire on your car – it gets you there, but it’s not as good as a full tire (unless your spare is a full tire, but you know I’m referring to cars with the mini spare tire). Same deal with muscles in the body – when a muscle is doing it’s secondary job, it tends to not be as good at it. If you continue driving on the spare tire, it’s going to either seriously limit your speed, or it’s going to blow. Same goes for when a muscle is consistently asked to do it’s secondary function in addition to it’s main function.
Fitness Product Review: Rogue Bella Bar
women generally have smaller hands than men. It makes sense if you think about it, particularly for women who are a bit, um, less tall. A 5’2″ woman using a regular 28.5mm bar for deadlifts is about the equivalent of a 6’0″ man using fat grips for deadlifts. You’ll get a great grip workout, but would you really use fat grips for ALL of your deadlifts? Of course not – you’d be losing out on so much posterior chain development. So why do we have people with smaller hands lift with the same diameter bar?
Sir Isaac Newton on barbell jump squats
The problem is in the fine details. When you jump up, even though the bar is on your back, it is not a part of you. You jump up by pushing the ground away from you, and the bar on your back goes with you. But there is a slight delay. You start to accelerate upwards ever so slightly before the bar does. The result of this delay is that the barbell will get to the peak a touch later than you do, which means that it also starts it’s acceleration back to earth a touch later than you do. Since you both travel back to earth at the same rate, you will hit the ground first, and then the bar will hit you.
The 30 day The Core is the Core challenge
Every day for the next 30 days, you will do 4 exercises, one each for:
Anterior (front) core
Lateral/rotary (side) core
Posterior (butt!) core
Core plus – an exercise that is big on core but also works something else
Anyone see what I did there? Balance! When I think of core, I think of the many great trainers and educators whom I have learned from over the years. Virtually all of them advocate a strong core, but their definition of core goes far beyond “the six pack muscles”. We got obliques, we got transverse abdominus, we got glutes, we got multifidus, we got QL…There’s a whole lotta muscles in your core, and all are important in maintaining a happy, healthy, and high-performing body.
The truth about sport-specific training
How is this possible? If you think about what each sport requires, it should become pretty self-evident. Do you have a sport that you play? Start thinking about what you need from your body to be able to do it. Now read the training description below and consider whether it adequately describes the needs for your sport:
Strong rotary core muscles to control movement and transfer energy between your upper and lower body.
The ability to balance and express power with each leg.
The ability to push, pull, and stabilize yourself or an external object with your arms.
Mobility in the ankles, hips, and upper back/shoulders.
Work capacity (stamina) to be able to perform these tasks repeatedly.
SMART is the new functional
A recent discussion on the StrengthCoach.com forum about whether certain exercises are functional revved up my mental gears. The discussion was about whether farmer’s walks and sled pushes were functional. The discussion evolved to include Turkish Getups and rear foot elevated split squats. I started thinking about whether I would consider those exercises functional. Or do I think they’re functional for some people but not others? Then I thought about some of my favourite exercises, and how functional they are. Is a shoulder elevated hip lift functional? I mean, how often does one sit on the floor with their shoulders leaning against something, lift one leg and then use the other leg to thrust their hip to the ceiling repeatedly?
New magazine workout! Should you try it?
Truth be told, this wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. In fact most of the exercises in the program are great exercises. So why did my blood pressure start to rise as I read it?
The right exercises mean nothing if the form is poor or the progressions are inappropriate. Allow me to elaborate…
Ready or not, ski season is coming!
If you were going to do the thing you love most for the first time since 2006, would you make sure you were prepared? I hope so! I keep myself pretty fit in general. You know, cuz I’m a trainer. But I want to take full advantage of a week of BC’s finest, which means it’s time to up the training.
“This workout was not at the intensity I expected”
I think the notion of intensity is one of the most misunderstood aspects of training, and that this is particularly true for beginners and those who have injuries or are returning to activity post-injury.