Endless Sled Dragging Variations That Will Dramatically Improve Your Per...
Get your ass out there and start dragging some sleds! It’s not as much of a drag as you think it is. With 22 variations to get you started, the possibilities are truly endless.
The Misunderstanding of Sport-Specific Training
Running around and practicing soccer skills while wearing a weighted vest, attaching a band to a hockey stick or a baseball bat, and a myriad of other ridiculous activities in the weight room do not count as sport-specific activities.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dave Tate — How To Find Your Perfect Weight Class
You may be between weight classes or on the far end of the spectrum. Find out if your future should include Big Macs and candy bars or chicken and rice.
Do Steroids Cause Injuries?
Darden takes on a question that many lifters shy away from: what are the real consequences of performance enhancing substances?
The National Strength And Conditioning Association Joins With Volt Athle...
Technology on the forefront of strength & conditioning
Strongman Training–The Iron Sport Method
A lot of internet trainers write a lot of articles about strength training, but really have no personal success in the strength world.
Looking Back on What Worked This Summer
Looking back, I think it was a highly successful summer of training.
Youth Sport Training Considerations
Setting the stage for sport success when it counts- begins when it doesn’t.
Is Your Coaching Antiquated or Just Heedless?
When position coaches do film breakdowns and pages upon pages of scouting reports, they’re being virulently unproductive.
High School Happenings
It has come to my attention that many high schools are underserved in the strength and conditioning department.
Hold on to the Damn Ball!
Recently, I received a call from the head basketball coach of a team I’m strength training.
Training Young Athletes and M.O.L.D
The long-term approach to youth fitness and sport training is an essential ingredient and critical component of understanding how to work with clients in this very sensitive demographic
Plyometric Training for Basketball Players
Strength coaches need to assess a few things in regards to basketball players and the implementation of plyometric training.
Powerlifting for Sport: Five Reasons Why Your Athletes Should Be Doing It
I will give you five very good reasons why powerlifting exercises and repetition schemes should be used in your athletic conditioning programs.
My Journey to the Grappler's Quest: Part 2
The nerves didn’t hit until I walked into the Las Vegas Sports Center for Friday night weigh-ins.
Making the Switch from Powerlifting to Fighting, Part II
There’s no question that strength is a huge asset in any sport. In “Making the Switch from Powerlifting to Fighting, Part I,” we established the carryover of strength developed specifically for the platform. It can relate to fighting in a big way. Clearly, there are changes that need to be made to harness this strength and make it useful on
Five Essential Movements for Hockey Players
Hockey is a sport of intensity, physical contact, stamina, strength, and speed.
Off-Ice Conditioning for Hockey Players
For years, coaches have been failing to attain maximum results when putting their hockey players on an off-ice conditioning program. Much of this comes from misunderstandings. Typically, an unknowing coach will put far too much emphasis on aerobic training despite its near uselessness in hockey specific conditioning. For example, timed miles, which I have performed as a player and have
Training Athletes: A Matter of Balance
The title of this article is a little misleading. It’s not about the balance that most trainers think about such as standing on one foot on a Bosu ball. It’s about building a physically and structurally balanced athlete. These ideas and qualities are what form the exercise selection of our strength program. Our staff has five major goals in mind
Training Economy
When it comes to strength and sports—and how to increase strength for those sports—most of the information out there is about sports such as football, powerlifting, basketball, and hockey. But what about the lesser known sports such as cheerleading, figure skating, and dance?
Shot Put “Westside” Style
I have employed the conjugate system of training with my throwers’ lifting program for four years with tremendous success. One highlight in the weight room was taking a male thrower with a 385-lb squat freshman year to a 615-lb squat/500-lb front squat as a junior. We also had a thrower make a 60-lb PR in the hang clean after not
A Day in the Life of a Strongman Contestant: The 10 Things I Learned
Rites of passage that involve impressive feats of strength have been around for thousands of years. They exist in many different forms and many of them originated in Northern Europe and Scandinavia. Tests like the Husafell stone carry, which originated in Iceland, have now become objects of desire for many would-be Strongmen throughout the world.
Persevering
I’m always amazed and amused at how many guys are in and then suddenly out of competitive powerlifting and bodybuilding. Many of these guys have almost unlimited God-given potential to become national or even world champions.
Olympic Lifting for Athletes: Power Clean!
It’s extremely important that athletes perform Olympic lifts correctly. This means teaching lifts through a progression designed to implement proper form. Doing the lifts incorrectly, which is the case with the vast majority of young athletes, reduces the effect of the lift and creates a much higher likelihood of injury.
Acceleration
In any sport, athletes need to be able to accelerate as quickly as possible to get to the ball or opponent first. As a coach, you must put your athletes in the best possible position to succeed.
Benefits of a Strength and Conditioning Program
If you’re reading this, you probably have a good understanding of why strength and conditioning is important. However, I’d like to reach the coaches, athletic directors, and lazy athletes who will never reach their potential because of a lack of education.
The Making of a Road Grater with Racing Speed: The Linemen’s Evolution
“Real deference doesn’t come based on size and intimidation but on monster work capacities and real street toughness.”
Life Isn’t Just about Wins and Losses
Sports, physical training, and coaching have been my life for the last three decades. From the time I started playing soccer when I was five years old until today, many of the life lessons I’ve learned have either been found on the field, in the dojo, or in the gym.
Children Should Minor in all Sports and Major in None
The title says it all, which is a quote from Tom Myslinski, currently the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania. Every youth sports related newspaper or magazine article you read these days has children as young as 7-8 years-old playing organized year-round sports.
The UNO Warm Up
I’ve been working with athletes for quite some time. Even though I haven’t overhauled the way I do things, I definitely make changes on a continual basis. One thing that has seen many changes is the way I warm up athletes. I’ve always used some type of movement-based stretching, and I’ve tried to stay away from any pre-workout static stretching.
General Preparatory Classifications for Division 1 Football
Although there are several different reasons for this, lack of time in the day is a large one (especially for the collegiate strength coach). Here at Northwestern State University (NSU), we developed a method for classifying our athletes to make their programs/training more individualized.
Insight into Baseball Training
I get bombarded with emails on a daily bases ranging from business issues, training questions, product opportunities, spam and a number of other issues. While I personally answer most of my emails there are times when I forward them onto people I feel can do a better job answering the questions than I could.
Strongman for Athletic Strength and Conditioning
The study of the science of strength and conditioning for sports is a huge endeavor. There are many differing opinions and many things that work. The key is to find out what works for your athlete based on his or her individual differences, strengths, weaknesses, and of course, sport.
Do You Need Your Brakes Fixed?
Many articles out there deal with enhancing acceleration but pay little attention to deceleration or force absorption. However, in most cases, you must be able to absorb force before you can create force.
Sliding Filament Theory of Muscle Contraction, Fiber Types, and Training...
It has been over fifty years since the sliding filament theory of muscle contraction was first proposed.
Mechanic or Race Car Driver?
The way that athletes are taught in our sport expert education system is a problem for me. I feel this isn’t just a problem of the sport expert education system but is also common to other educational systems as well.
What Makes Functional Training Functional?
One of my favorite things to do is to sit back and observe people. Sometimes I feel like I am a scientist looking at some weird experiment gone wrong.
Bench Training with Ed Rectenwald
Coming up with new articles each month can be a challenging task and coming up with quality information can be even harder. After a couple hundred articles I find myself repeating myself time and time again.
Push/Pull
This article was inspired by Alwyn Cosgrove and something that he mentioned to me in passing.
The Individualization of Team Training
In many instances team weight training consists of athletes of varying levels of strength preparedness- all performing the same training parameters.
Field Day
Field day at elementary school means dunk tanks, water balloons, Italian ice, hanging with your friends, cool games and a bunch of other cool stuff.
Strongman and Westside Training
I get calls just about every day asking for help integrating strongman training and Westside style training and I see a lot of confusion with this.
The Unmaking Of An Athlete, Part Two- The Beginning
Unfortunately the unmaking of an athlete begins long before college.
The Significance of Specific Strength Development in MMA
As the sport of MMA progresses so must the specific means and methods of fighter training.