My 3 Favorite Exercises for Preventing ACL Injuries
ACL injuries are devastating, and the best remedy for them is to try to prevent them in the first place. In a recent blog post, coach Mike Lefebvre listed 4 things to help prevent ACL tears and laid out a few concepts that we like to train in order to prevent ACL injuries. When we train these concepts, most exercises fit into more than one of the concepts that he mentioned. Below are a few examples of my favorites. Single Leg Landmine RDL Why I like it: The landmine RDL hits just about
Your Guide To Golf Fitness
Each year the average golfer takes their clubs out of storage from a long hiatus and heads to the course to “dust off the cobwebs.” Some of us succeed, and for the rest of us, we never get rid of the rust. We often blame our equipment for our on-course woes, but never take into consideration WHO is swinging the club. Instead of spending unnecessary money on the newest hardware, why not dedicate time to our bodies? Having a golf fitness program is a great way to work on specific
Stay Strong, Stay Fast
Delay Age-Related Decline with Speed Development Training Techniques for speed development can be employed by people of all ages, with minimal equipment, in order to boost overall physical health and delay age-related muscular changes. What is speed development? In simple terms, it is training to produce a maximal amount of force in a minimal amount of time. This type of training produces a different effect on the body compared to generating moderate force over a long-duration activity. As the human body ages, overall muscle mass declines, and fast-twitch muscle fiber declines more rapidly
Baby Steps: Quality Post Rehab Fitness
Small Quality Baby Steps In today’s world we want everything in an instant. From what we eat to our online orders, we want things as fast as possible. This same principle applies to us after an injury or when we’re suffering from pain. We all want the fastest route to the state we were in prior to the injury or pain, but what many people fail to realize is that getting things quickly comes at a cost. The cost when it comes to post rehab training is that if we
5 Training Tips for In-Season Athletes
A common misconception is the belief that athletes should stop training entirely while they are in-season. It’s always a headscratcher when an athlete I’ve been working with is steadily progressing, then I get the “hey coach, I’m going to stop training because my season is starting” message. Of course, collegiate athletes heading back to school who have their specific strength programs are an exception. This usually applies to adolescent and high school athletes whether they are single-sport or multi-sport athletes. It’s foreseeable that in-season athletes schedules will be hectic due
It Really Is A Lifestyle Change
"It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change". Sound familiar? That's what everyone that just started a new diet says because they've started to see results and like what they're seeing. Then they realize that it's taking away from their enjoyment of going out to dinner. Then they can't have what they want at a cookout. Then they want to have a few drinks while they're out playing golf. And soon enough they've given up on it and are heading back to the weight they started at. That's a diet,
Hamstring Injuries Are No Joke
Hamstring injuries are no joke and can linger longer than athletes want. We all know athletes who have had hamstring injury issues that seem to never go away. They’re one of the most common injuries among athletes and studies have shown that reoccurrence rates of these injuries are high as well. With these two ideas in mind, hamstring injury prevention should be top priority for athletes who sports require them to complete high intense sprints and changes of direction. To start off, we need to know what the hamstrings do. The
Rotational Strength Training for Golfers
It is no secret that rotation is an important part to anyone’s golf swing, but what are we doing to improve our rotation? When golfers want to hit the ball farther or have a more fluid swing, buying the newest club is the first thing that comes to mind. By doing so, small improvements may be noticed, but was the problem actually solved? Certain issues on the golf course may not be due to our hardware, but from some type of functional limitation. Being consistent with a proper stretching and
Does Your Behavior Match Your Goals?
As a strength and conditioning coach, I work with a variety of people who have lofty goals—including losing weight, hitting a certain body fat percentage, playing a D1 sport in college, or passing a municipal physical performance test. Many people are clearly focused on their goal and act accordingly; they plan ahead, they complete training sessions no matter how tired or busy they are, and they take charge of all of the details outside of the gym (sleep, hydration, nutrition, stress management). Others clearly have some type of internal conflict, because their
4 Things to Help Reduce Risk of ACL Tears
ACL tears have been plaguing athletics for quite some time. Over the past 30 years, high school sports participation has increased, and ACL injuries have skyrocketed as a result. Each year, somewhere between 100,000-200,000 athletes in the United States suffer this devastating injury. Anyone who’s been through it will likely tell you the aftermath is worse than the injury itself. This aftermath includes the emotional toll, costly surgical repair, long rehabilitation process, missing out on social life, impatience and agitation, and the list goes on. What Causes ACL Tears? The knee joint