With the beginning of a new year upon us I figured now would be as good as any to reflect over the ten biggest things I have learned about being in this field.

1.       Quality Nutrition & Sleep Are Key
If you are going to skimp on these two main components when trying to be the best athlete possible, you mine as well go for the trifecta and not even bother training. Seriously though, training improvements only take place if you are getting quality nutrition in your system and logging at least 7-8 hours of shut eye a night. Make it a priority to take care of business before you even enter the training room.

2.       Be Consistent 
There are so many different training programs out there, some better than others, but at the end of the day if you are putting in the work and being consistent that trumps just about anything. Do not get me wrong, there are some awful programs being written out there, I have seen them! Unfortunately these programs are not going to get you too far, but if the program is a good one, get the work in and the rewards will come.

3.       Learn The Basics 
There is a reason athletes are doing cleans, deadlifts, squats, bench presses, lunges and chin ups. They work! There is a progression to learning and mastering these exercises though. Chances are that you will have to develop proper movement patterns, build a base of strength and progress up to these main lifts. Do not rush the process. Be a master at these lifts rather than a jack of all trades at a bunch of lifts that probably won’t get you too far anyways.

4.       O’ Lifts Get You Strong & Powerful
This one goes along with the previous mentioned basic lifts, but I think it’s that important that I wanted to make a point of it again. Olympic lifts teach power and strength development that nothing else can compare to. Just like the other basic exercises, go through the process of learning things correctly and developing an immense amount of power will follow.  

5.       Dynamic Warm Ups=Reduced Injuries 
Preparing the body for the work it is about to do takes more than running on the treadmill for 5 minutes. There should be a planned out dynamic warm up that prepares you for the training program that day. This will not only reduce your chance of an injury it will also make your body primed for greater strength gains.

6.       Psychology Trumps Physiology
Here are two scenarios; I want you to pick the one you would like to be a part of. Scenario one, you enter a poorly lit training room; there is no music on and it is just you. In scenario two, the training room is properly lit, the music in bumping and your teammates are alongside giving you encouragement and motivation. I think we would all most likely choose scenario two and chances are if we did, the training session might be more productive.

 7.       Relax With The Variety  
Variety is the key to life, but not when it comes to your training program. I mentioned the basics before didn’t I; well I promise this will be the last time….maybe, but doubtful. When you want to add variety make it with the volume and intensity or a variation of the main lifts. There are a 100 different ways to do a squat, there is your variety.

8.       Do Not Forget About The Conditioning  
Some programs leave this component out or do somewhat of a skimpy job on it. Conditioning is an important component that should not be overlooked; the volume and specific conditioning will depend on the sport played though. A baseball players conditioning program will be vastly different then a soccer players. Just like the strength part of the program, make sure that the conditioning program is one, included and two, specific to the athletes sport.

9.       Be An Individual
Every athlete has different strengths and limitations, they play different sports at different positions, some are tall some are short, some are going through growth spurts and some are as tall as they will ever be, the list goes on and on. The point is a training program should be individualized to the athlete if they are going to get the most out of it. One size does not fit all!

10.   Turn Up The Tunes 
I’m going back to the psychology part of training to finish. Walk into a training room with your favorite song on pumps you up right? Are you feeling slightly more motivated to get some serious work done? I sure am! From what I have seen from training athletes for quite some time it sure does seem to be a trend. Bump up the tunes and get to work!

There are ten things to think about the next time you start a training program.  Work hard, be dedicated and success will come. Here’s to getting after it in 2013!

There are so many great exercises, that I’m sure all of you are incorporating into your training program, but I thought today I would mention a few that might not be on everyone’s radar. I’m a big proponent of compound, multi-joint movements for numerous reasons that we won’t get into now. But with that being said here are five exercises that everyone should give a try, with proper coaching of course.

1.       Single Arm DB Hang Snatch

This is a great beginner exercise that develops power, strength and speed. Start in an athletic position (good hip hinge, stable core and shoulders back). From there you should drive your hips forward and explode through the floor. Make sure to get a powerful shrug, while maintaining a locked elbow (once the elbow bends, the power ends). To finish the exercise you might want to think about punching the db straight up. Once the db is overhead the shoulder should be packed and the elbow locked.

2.      Reverse Lunge w/ SLDL Combo

Here is a great single leg exercise. You get more bang for your buck from doing this combination of the reverse lunge and single leg deadlift. Start by taking a step back and dropping your knee almost to floor level. Keep your torso upright and eyes focused straight ahead. Return to the standing position and then perform a single leg deadlift on the other leg by pushing your hips back, keeping a stable core and having the shoulders remain back. Come back to the standing position and repeat on the opposite leg. 

3.        Inverted Row

The invention of the TRX has made this one a popular exercise among professionals in the field, but as we know most others are not including as many pulling movements in their training as they should. Begin by taking the handles and walking it in to a point that will be challenging. To start extend the arms while keeping the body in position and stable. Pull yourself up to the handles; once the handles reach your sides begin to lower yourself under control back to the starting position. 

4.      Single Arm Landmine Press

I guarantee almost no one is doing this exercise. It is a simple movement to learn that will development upper body strength and core stability. In a slightly athletic stance hold the end on a barbell in one hand and push it up. Return the barbell to the side of your shoulder under a controlled manner and repeat. 

5.      Plank Transfer

This is an advanced plank movement that should not be attempted before mastering the previous progressions. Start in a plank position with a db to the side of one shoulder. Without moving your hip and shoulder level reach out and bring the db underneath your chest. Take the db with the opposite hand and bring it to the outside of the other shoulder. Repeat that process back to where the db started. That is one rep!

There you have it, five exercises that are worth giving a try. 

The drive sled is an amazing tool to develop strength and speed. There are multiple movements that can be done, with the sled push usually being the most common of them all. In this post we are going to talk about how versatile the drive sled can be. The five movements I’ll touch on today are the high sled push, forward harness sled pull, backward sled pull, lateral sled pull and sled drag.

The high sled push focuses on shoulder girdle and core stability, while using the lower body to power the sled forward.  This is a great option for developing triple extension and hip drive. The upper body should remain as stable as possible while one leg performs triple extension and the other triple flexion. 

The forward harness sled pull is another option for developing triple extension and hip drive, but it gives you a little different feel then pushing. Having the sled almost feel as if it is pulling you back makes the hip drive that much more important. You are constantly fighting to pull the sled every inch. Same  coaching ques apply as above.

The backward sled pull is a killer for the posterior chain. The quads are getting worked when the knee is extended, but the focus will be on the hamstrings and glutes for this one. Tip: Make sure the legs are doing the work and keep your elbows straight the whole time. Also, do not let the shoulders round forward. 

The lateral sled pull is a great one for working on anti-rotation; you are also working on triple extension and hip drive in a lateral motion which many athletes need. Think about a runner on first baseball or a running back making a lateral cut before a forward sprint and you get the picture. 

The rope sled drag is one of my favorites. It combines a great amount of lower body and core strength to keep your body stationed and upper body strength to pull the sled towards you. Your arms and back will thank you…. actually they will be pretty sore so they might not. (FYI that is Benny our guard dog making sure things stay safe, good job Benny!)

These are some great ways to develop an extreme amount of strength and speed. Any athlete that wants to excel on the field should try to get their hands on a sled asap. Chime in and let me know what other ways people out there are using their sleds to get strong! 

Power= Force x Velocity

This simple equation tells us that you must generate force rapidly to increase power production. Both of these components, strength training and the ability to apply force rapidly, we’ll call it speed here; need to be included in a properly constructed trained program to develop a powerful athlete. If both components are not trained properly you end up with two different scenarios. In the first scenario the athlete only focuses on strength training, which produces a rather strong athlete with an ability to generate force rather quickly, but you know it could be faster and it doesn’t look quite right. In the second scenario the athlete is really focused on doing things quickly, this produces an athlete that seems to move rather well, and he is slightly faster and can jump slightly higher but it looks like something is missing.

Let’s take a look at things when both components are trained properly. Training strength and speed will give you an athlete that is both strong and can use that strength explosively. That is the key, being able to use strength explosively. Now we have developed the complete package that will lead to improvements on the field of play. Sprinting faster, jumping higher and throwing harder all include components of power production.

When this well developed athlete takes the field of play they will have the greatest chance at success. The basketball player that wants to be able to jump higher or sprint down the court faster will have the ability to do so, the football player that wants to drive back the opponent or leap to catch the ball will make it happen, the lacrosse player that wants to throw the ball harder or chase down the loose ball will win the race; the list goes on and on.  For every athlete that has to run, jump, swing, throw, strike and catch, the ability to be powerful should be priority number one.

So now that I have convinced you that athletes need to train both force production (strength training) and velocity development (speed/explosive training) how about some examples of things that the athlete should include in a training program.  Without getting into too much detail strength training includes performing lower body movements that can be both single and double leg hip dominant and knee dominant, upper body horizontal and vertical pushing & pulling movements, and a variety of core stability and anti-rotation movements. Explosive training includes Olympic lifting with barbells, dumbbells or kettlebells, medicine ball throws & slams, Plyo box work and moving anything else as quick as possible.

If your goal is to be the best athlete you can be include both strength and speed/explosive training in your program.