Your Feet Are Your Biggest Supporter
When you ask for advice on training to improve your golf game, you’ll probably hear responses about rotational power, hip mobility, and core strength. While all of these aspects of training are important, you can’t forget about the two structures that support you through all 18 holes: your feet! Your feet are your foundation for balance and power. If they don’t support you properly, it doesn’t matter how much mobility, strength, or power you have, you have failed to create a strong connection with the ground. This results in a loss
Reducing The Risk for ACL Tears with Movement Quality Screening
Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears are nothing short of soul-crushing. Athletes who suffer one are in for a long 9–12 month ride of surgery concerns, head-scratching post-op differences of opinion, and the potential for insurance companies to prematurely cut them off, resulting in high risk for a re-tear. It is extremely frustrating that we still lack common knowledge about this injury. Especially when we have been seeing such a huge spike in ACL tears in recent years. In America alone, over 200,000 ACL injuries occur each year and 70 percent
Fighting Low Back Pain Through Exercise
Low back pain (LBP) is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, preventing many people from engaging in work as well as daily activities. While working out with back pain may seem undoable to many, neglecting it entirely can oftentimes do more harm than good. This misconception needs to be addressed because when prescribed appropriately, exercise decreases stiffness, facilitates fluid exchange between discs to reduce swelling, and repairs muscle fibers that help support the back. While it’s important to avoid certain movements that can stress the area, delicate programming with
Get More Bang For Your Buck!
We often talk about the importance of strength and conditioning in optimizing your sports performance. Sadly, just showing up for your session isn’t enough to see any improvement in your game play. Here are three ways you can optimize your sessions every time you step foot in the gym. Do It Right Your strength and conditioning coaches write programs with a purpose. Every movement is selected for a specific reason, but that is only achieved when you perform every exercise properly. Here are some ways to ensure you’re doing a movement “right”! Proper
Did The Pandemic Cause Us to Lose Sight on The Importance of Strength Training?
When closing mandates went into effect during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic we experienced life without gyms / fitness centers. At the time, most of us didn’t have a decent “home gym” so we needed to find ways to keep active with minimal to no equipment at our disposal. Over the past two years, I have met a handful of people who either lost motivation to work out or shared with me that they only do cardio. This cardio-only trend made me want to dive a little deeper
The Equation for Improving Sprint Speed
Many athletes enter the gym with the goal of getting faster. As strength and conditioning coaches, how can we make sure that happens? There are two variables that we can manipulate to help an athlete get faster. Speed is a simple function of the distance an individual covers with each step (stride length) and how quickly those steps happen (stride frequency) (1). If you improve either variable, your speed will increase. Stride length is often increased through developing power through the legs. Power development is a common theme in strength and
Overcoming “Gym Anxiety”
A recent study conducted by the Global Health & Fitness Association, showed that 50% of Americans are too intimidated to visit a gym and workout around other people. Signing up for a gym membership may be a breeze for some, but it is a gut-wrenching thought for many. Fear of being judged, fear of appearing confused, not knowing how to exercise with proper form, and fear of injury are just a few things that cause someone to experience “gym anxiety”. We need to be empathetic of gym anxiety because it
Dear Those Who “Don’t Have Time” for Exercise,
It’s no breaking news that exercise is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. However, despite much of the population knowing that the benefits of exercise range from decreases in depression and anxiety, to improved cognition, to weight loss, to a decreased risk of chronic illness (1), over 75% of Americans do not get the recommended amount of exercise (2). As a strength and conditioning coach, I’m passionate about exercise. Despite my love and appreciation for training and moving my body, combined with four years of learning the importance of exercise
Engaging Youth Athletes with Games!
As we’ve written about before, getting young athletes involved in strength and conditioning has numerous benefits. That being said, one of the more difficult aspects of training young athletes is keeping them interested and excited to come to the gym to train. The best way to keep a young athlete coming back to the gym is to make it feel like play, while also improving their sport performance. Here are 5 drills to try with youth athletes to get them faster and stronger, while feeling like recess! Paloff ABCs Any paloff press
The Fitness Puzzle – Which Piece Are You Missing?
When it comes to fitness goals, most people end up falling short of where they would like to be. Part of that is the lofty expectations that people have, and part of it is our “instant gratification” society where people want a quick fix. But take out the people who expect to lose 20 pounds in a month, and there are still plenty of others who make a commitment to diet or exercise and never see the results that they would like. It’s often something that the individual doesn’t realize