Day: June 11, 2019

When it comes to athlete nutrition plan there is no one size fits all plan, no magic pill, no quick answer.  It comes down to knowing your body type and identifying your personal nutritional needs based on YOU.  At the risk of oversimplification there are typically Three body types, all three of which have different nutritional needs.  The bad news is that it is harder for some to get lean than others.. The GOOD news is that EVERYONE can sustainably reach their weight loss or weight gain goal WITHOUT any crazy crash diets.

Lets talk about the THREE body types:

Endomorph, Mesomorph, and Ectomorph

An Endomorph:  These individuals are naturally bigger with a higher tendency to store bodyfat.  They are very sensitive to carbs and respond better to a high protein diet with fat as the predominant energy source.  These athletes will have a tougher time keeping off bodyfat (BUT THEY DEFINITELY CAN!!)  These athletes will have a much easier time gaining strength! Hopping on the endomorph diet early will give them a huge advantage to their weight loss goal.

A Mesomorph:  This body type has the most athletic build.  They are typically a thicker individual with wide hips, shorter limbs, and a good amount of muscle mass.  However, these individuals may have a tougher time gaining muscle mass without gaining some fat in the process.

An Ectomorph:  These athletes are skinnier, naturally very lean, hardgainers.  They tend to have a more slender frame with long levers (arms and legs).  These individuals respond best to a high carb/high protein diet, including a surplus of calories for lean bulking.

Best Nutrition Plan for Athlete

The ENDOMORPH Nutrition Plan

… If this does not apply to your physique feel free to skip over this section:

The endomorph plan is designed to help you lose bodyfat, and change your overall body composition.  This does not mean you have to starve yourself in the process!

These athletes have a higher tendency to be sensitive to carbs,  the excess carbs will get stored in the body as extra fat.  An endomorphic diet plan will replace carbs with healthy fats as your primary energy source, while using a high protein diet as your tools for muscle building.  Using fat as your primary energy source may sound scary when your goal is fat loss… However, healthy fats are essential in helping the body absorb essential vitamins, keep cholesterol at a safe level, and when used as an energy source.. actually promote fat burning in the body!

When calculating your daily macronutrients the endomorph diet will appear like this:

Protein intake: 40-50% of diet

Carb intake: 10-30% of diet

Fat intake: 30-40% of diet

To go more in depth:  the amount of calories and the amount of grams of each macro you need (based on your body weight) are all laid out in our nutrition plan.

Best Nutrition Plan for Athlete

The MESOMORPH Nutrition Plan

Mesomorphs have a more balanced body (the most athletic build)  they do not need to eat as many calories as an ectomorph but they can get away with eating more calories (more important more calories from carbs) than an endomorph.

A balanced mesomorph diet should look like this:

Protein Intake:  25-35% of calories

Carb Intake: 30-50% of calories

Fat Intake: 25-35% of calories

The blueprint for calculating your macros (based upon your body weight) is laid out in our nutrition plan.  This will give you the exact amount of calories you need to eat per day, combined with how many grams of protein, carbs, and fats you should consume in your diet.  The plan also gives you a ton of healthy food options to eat!

The ECTOMORPH Nutrition Plan

Ectomorphs, as we said before, are naturally skinnier athletes who are very lean, but have trouble gaining mass.  Most of their calorie intake will be from healthy carbs and protein.

A balanced ectomorph diet will look like this:

Protein Intake: 25-35% of calories

Carb Intake: 40-60% of calories

Fat Intake: 15-25% of calories

The blueprint for calculating your macros (based upon your body weight) is laid out in our nutrition plan.  This will give you the exact amount of calories you need to eat per day, combined with how many grams of protein, carbs, and fats you should consume in your diet.  The plan also gives you a ton of healthy food options to eat!

So with all that being said, try and stick to the blueprint the best you can… BUT… You also have to live your life!!  This is way we schedule in earned meals.  Some call them “cheat meals” but we call them earned meals because if you are sticking to your nutritional plan you can get away with scheduling in these delicious treats.  These are meals of your choice that you truly enjoy! This can be anything from 5 Guys burgers and fries to a banana split or sundae.  If you have been sticking to your plan mixing in an earned meal can actually benefit you by confusing your system!

When scheduling these earned meals try your best to stay within your macro count! IT IS POSSIBLE!  These meals are best scheduled on a heavy workload day in the gym.

Included in the nutrition plan is a full list of foods you can eat (Healthy proteins, carbs, and fats)  as well as a proven intermittent fasting plan for anybody (athletes/non-athletes).  Results are guaranteed!

Knowing your body type is the first step towards reaching your goal.  Once you identify your body type you can gain insight into your bodies sensitivity and which food will promote muscle growth and fat loss in your body and which foods will be detrimental to your success.  The amount of calories, protein, carbs, and fats are all laid out in our nutrition guide.  The guide also provides you with food options for each category.  Start your journey to your best physique and highest performance!

Want To Learn More About Nutrition For Your Body Type?

Heres the deal… Someone comes up to you and says; “You’ve got one year to turn yourself into a physical specimen..But here’s the catch.. you can only do 5 lifts”  What are you gonna pick?

After much thought and lots of second guessing myself  it became clear to me what I would pick.  The decision was not made by which lifts were my favorite or which lifts were gonna make me look better at the beach… The decision came from a practical standpoint.  If you are trying to turn yourself into a beast of an athlete you have to attack the body from all angles.  The body can do incredible things… When you think of all the most athletic movements in sports its pretty clear that the body works most efficiently and most often in multi joint movements.  If you want to avoid imbalances you must keep all quadrants of the body strong.  Whenever you are designing a workout program you need to take into account 5 areas: Upper Body, Lower Body, Anterior Chain, Posterior Chain, and of course The Core.

1- Clean and Jerk:  Probably the most important lift on here for overall explosiveness and athleticism. (However… Also the most dangerous) You are combining an explosive pull of the ground using the whole posterior chain, extending the hips for maximum explosiveness; and just when you think the exhausting part is over you have to catch some heavy ass weight in a front squat and stand it back up.. ” Oh the lift must be over right?” Hell no you gotta jump and throw that weight as  high as you can over your head while trying to support it in a split squat.. and then you stand it up and smile.  Keep in mind however that this lift is not for everybody. We live in day and age where desk jobs, tight hips, and internally rotated shoulders dominate the world. So before we try anything too heroic lets do our stretches and mobility. (that’s a topic for another day)

2. Front Squat   I chose front squat over back squat for a few reasons.  1) Safer on the back  2) Teaches thoracic and hip mobility and 3) Hits the anterior leg (quad) hard. (Later on down the list we have trap bar deadlift to crush the posterior chain.)  I’m not gonna sit here and try to classify the front squat as strictly knee dominant because you are still using the glutes and hamstrings BUT the quads do the majority of the work on a front squat.  WHY is it safer than back squat?……  When squatting the bar always has to stay over the center of the foot… with the bar front loaded it becomes much easier to keep your spine vertical… The positioning of the bar on your back during a back squat naturally will cause you to lean forward to maintain balance therefore placing more pressure on your low back.  And as for thoracic (mid/upper spine, and lat) mobility …your ability to keep your elbows up during a front squat is the only thing keeping you from attempting a hammer curl with your front squat weight.  If you don’t have thoracic mobility you will not be able to keep your elbows up, tension in your core will be lost, and you’ll find yourself supporting heavy ass weight with your fingers and wrists.

3: Bench Press:  The Bench Press is gonna be your horizontal push.  The biggest mistake on this lift is shoulder positioning .  When you bring the bar off the rack you should try to dig your shoulder blades (scaps) into the back of the bench to pull your shoulders out of their internally rotated position and into a powerful pushing position.  DRIVE THROUGH YOUR FEET!   Benching gets a bad wrap… it is only harmful when your shoulders are not retracted.  You can tell if you’re doing them wrong if your traps and shoulders are more sore than your chest the next day.

4: Trap Bar Deadlift:  One of the most alpha exercises you can do.  This exercise hammers the posterior chain…Glutes, Hamstrings, Back, Traps, Core.. you name it. It may seem as simple as lifting something up off the ground and putting it down but it is also the most important lift to improve your speed as an athlete.  The main movers during this lift are also the main accelerators when you sprint.  I picked the trap bar deadlift over the barbell deadlift because it is easier to get your spine in a healthy vertical position when your hands are at your sides as opposed to out in front of you.  DON’T think “Pull” on a deadlift… Think “Push” through the center of your feet.. your arms are just ropes along for the ride.  Keep your core tight, your back flat, and your grip strong.  Although I did not technically add a horizontal pull (such as a row) into my top 5, keep in mind that the only way you will be a healthy and successful deadlifter is to pinch your shoulder blades back and keep them from getting pulled forward by the weight… essentially this is a row… you are using the same muscles you row with to stabilize massive amounts of weight from pulling you forward.

5: Pull Up:  The pull up is my final destination on my top 5 essential lifts.  This vertical pulling movement plays an antagonist role to our vertical push (the jerk).  People forget that our lats are part of our core and play an essential role in almost all upper body strength movements in sport.  Make sure as you are doing these you make an attempt to retract your shoulders just like every other lift.  Healthy joints are going to be the key to your success.. if your mobility is forgotten you will not be able to stay healthy and reap the benefits of these lifts.

DID I FORGET ABOUT CORE???

HELL NO… Each of these lifts relies on your core to stabilize the spine during the movements.  Without a strong core these lifts will never improve and will eventually lead to injury.  Try practicing these lifts without a weightlifting belt to fully build up your core and get it ready to support heavy weight.

BE SMART, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

Thanks for reading guys, I’d love to hear input from you as well on what you think and if you agree or disagree with what I’m saying.  Video Below has demos off these lifts in order.

Much love,

Joey Coyne

In the strength and conditioning world it has been no secret that slow steady state cardio is not the most beneficial way to train athletes (sorry runners).  It is not game-like, it has diminishing returns on strength gain, and (this is my opinion) it’s not that exciting…  Don’t get me wrong, its obviously great for your cardiovascular system, its been shown to benefit your mental clarity, and its a simple way to get out enjoy some nice whether and break a sweat.  However there are more practical ways to train for sport endurance and at the same time burn fat!

Think of the way most sports are set up… Hockey, Basketball, Lacrosse, Rugby, Football…They require bursts of maximum intensity followed by a brief period of rest or low intensity…  Which leads me to wonder, “if one of our most vital attributes as an athlete is our fast twitch explosiveness, why would you do anything to inhibit that?”

Don’t get me wrong, I know endurance is a crucial part of sports… However there is a more practical, skill specific way to approach it without sacrificing our athleticism.

From a genetic standpoint some athletes are more slow twitch than others, some are far more fast twitch.  The slow twitch athletes are more “born to run” as Bruce Springsteen would say,  having a high capacity for aerobic work at a steady state.  Some athletes on the other hand, are more fast twitch, generally having larger, more powerful and explosive muscles.  The problem with too much slow oxidative aerobic training is that it converts muscle fibers to slow twitch, and unless you are a cross country runner this is not beneficial.  SO…. How can we improve our aerobic capacity and maintain our power, explosiveness, and overall strength??  …And oh yea.. burn massive amounts of calories at the same time?

High Intensity Interval Training and the After Burn Effect!

There are many ways to set up these workouts.. The main premise behind them is to establish predetermined intervals of exercise and rest.  Some examples of these would be 2:1 (30 sec of exercise/ 30 sec of rest)  1:1 (30 sec of exercise/30 sec of rest) 1:2 (30 sec on/ 1 min off).  It all depends on the intensity of the exercise.  Not only is this style of training more relevant to athletes .. it also has many benefits to the general population with regards to fat loss.

Wouldn’t it be nice to burn more calories and burn fat while sitting on the couch??  Well if you do these HIIT Workouts you can.. this concept is known as the “After burn Effect”, or in scientific terms Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption.  During low intensity exercise oxygen uptake increases for a few minutes but then reaches a steady state where the oxygen demand = the oxygen consumption… On the other hand, during high intensity exercise the body develops an oxygen debt.  If exercise is intense enough the body continues to expend energy in attempts to return the oxygen debt and the bodies homeostasis back to normal ( aka your body is burning calories while you chill) After high intensity workouts the body has a laundry list of things it needs to return to normal.. It needs to re-synthesize ATP and Creatine Phosphate, return the body to normal temperature, return oxygen to the tissues, blood, skeletal muscles, repair damaged tissues… the list goes on and on.  All of this work requires energy (AKA Burned calories)

The “After Burn Effect” of HIIT training is associated with elevations in metabolism due to all of these “chores” the body needs to do after exercise to return to homeostasis.  The body has to work twice as hard to restore itself after high intensity bouts as opposed to low intensity (steady state) cardio.  The higher the intensity of exercise, the less proportional the oxygen uptake to heat expenditure.. leaving the body with a lot to take care of after the workout.

Also Read: Best Nutrition Plan for Athlete

So when trying to burn fat remember: Intense bouts of work followed by short rest periods (preferably 30 sec or less)

Here’s a sample of a HIIT Circuit:

20 sec on/ 10 sec off (5 rounds)

  1. tire flips
  2. tricep dips
  3. ropes (ripples)
  4. burpees
  5. box jumps
  6. Pull Ups

Here’s another example: 3-5 rounds

  1.  Air Dyne Bike 1 min
  2.  30 sec rest
  3.    Push Ups (max reps in 30 sec)
  4. 30 sec rest
  5. Trap Bar Deadlifts @ 50-60% (max reps in 30 sec)
  6. 30 sec rest
  7. TRX Rows (max reps in 30 sec)
  8.  30 sec rest

Are you frustrated cause you are spending way too many hours at the gym and you still don’t look like Arnold… Could it be the 12 slices of pizza per week.. Nah.. Maybe the 28 beers you slam every weekend… Doubtful… could it be the way you workout…hmm?  It’s probably a combo of all of these.. and chances are you’re not gonna look like Arnold anyway.. but there is a better way to  come closer to looking your best.  Laying off the pizza and booze will help but lets take a peak at your workout.

Is this you?

Hit a set of 10 on bench…strike a double overhead bicep pose in the mirror… Undo your weightlifting belt (cause you totally needed it for that set of 10 at 60%)… send an email…scroll through instagram… Build up the courage to talk to that girl over by the water bubbler… lose that courage… then hit your next set 10 minutes later…

I’m just messing with you but there’s a point behind all this…  There’s no reason you should leave the gym after 2 hours with no pump, no sweat lost, and a laundry list of lifts you were supposed to do that you could’n’t get to.

There’s gotta be a more efficient way right??

Lets go back to the days of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his short-short wearing, creepy mustache having,  bodybuilding buddies.  The 70’s… No cell phones, no social media, no emails in between sets… So what do you do while you’re giving your muscles a rest in between sets?  Oh.. That’s right… Another exercise!

And thus, the concept of super-sets was born.

The premise behind a super-set is simple… Hit an exercise.. put the weight down.. and during the “rest interval” hit another exercise while the previous muscle group rests.  Super-sets minimize the rest interval between 2 (even 3) exercises and can cut the time you usually spend at the gym in half.  By shortening (or even eliminating) the rest period between sets we will increase the intensity of the workout.  More work in less time may not sound very appetizing… But if you have proper knowledge of the body and how it functions you will be able to use super-sets to not only save time, but eliminate imbalances.

So if you are trying to put together an efficient and effective plan and don’t know where to start take these super set tips into account:

GENERAL RULES OF SUPER-SETS

1)  For every push or press there’s gotta be a pull

If you’re going to do some sort of push/pressing exercise like a DB Bench you want to jump right into the antagonist of that exercise after, a DB Row (or any sort of row).  If you are doing an overhead press, you could super-set it with pull up or pulldown.  If we get in the habit of doing too much pressing and not enough pulling our over dominant chest going to pull our shoulder into an unhealthy internally rotated position.

If you are ever confused about what exercises you can super set together think of it like this:  Take the movement you just did.. and do it in reverse or rewind… More often than not that right there will give you the exercise.

2)  Core can be done after or in between everything.  It can even help create a Tri-Set ( 3 exercises back to back to back) for the ultimate time management.

For Example:   3 rounds

  •   Shoulder Press x 10
  •  Ab Wheel x 10
  • Pull Up x 10

You could be done with 3 rounds (90 total reps) in 5 minutes with Super-sets/ Tri-sets and your body would benefit from an almost aerobic standpoint depending on how quickly you went.

3)  Legs can be super-setted with anything.

However, take into account the energy expenditure of certain big lifts like Cleans, Squats, and Deadlifts… Essentially these lifts are full body lifts and are very taxing on the central nervous system.  There is no need to super-set them with another lift.  Your best bet is super-setting them with some sort of mobility exercise ( like a wall slide or hip mob.)

4) Super-Set Rules are meant to be broken

For example:  If you are doing a finisher at the end of your workout and want  to test your bodies threshold you can mix in a super set like this…

A set of 10 tricep dips right into as many reps as possible on Cable Tricep Push downs to really test the muscle with a couple different stimuli.  Sure you may only be able to get 6 reps at a weight you could usually get for 12-15 but the pre-exhaustive effect is a great way to shock the body.

Another example of this would be to do max push ups after each set of bench… You wont set any personal records in terms of numbers that day… But you will build muscle.

Also Read: Workout Program – Your Ride Or Die Big 5

If you are trying to create the most balanced body, take this into account when planning which exercises can be super-setted together:

Chest —————– Back            (Horizontal Push ——— Horizontal Pull)

Shoulders ———– Back          (Vertical Push ————– Vertical Pull)

Biceps ————— Triceps        (Elbow Flexion ————— Elbow Extension)

Chest —————– Biceps         (Elbow Extension ———— Elbow Flexion)    

Back —————— Triceps         (Elbow Flexion ————— Elbow Extension)

Legs —————– Anything      (Hip Extension, Hip Flexion, Knee Extension,                                                                                Knee Flexion)

Core —————– Anything 

*Keep in mind there are some outliers… Some isolation exercises such as Chest Fly’s, Reverse Fly’s, DB Side Raises, DB Front Raises, Shrugs, etc do not require any flexion or extension of the elbow and therefore can be super-setted with just about anything.

Example of a super-set:  DB Incline Neut. Grip Bench right to DB Hammer Curls

It should really be no secret now that there’s no magic pill or easy fix that’s going to help you throw like the next Nolan Ryan or hit like the next Barry Bonds… And in all honesty not everyone’s rotator cuff was blessed with the god-given potential to touch 90, or the combo of 20/10 vision and fast twitch muscle fibers to adjust to a tight slider and hit it 400+ feet. However, if you want to take your game to the next level and be the best player you can personally be you HAVE to buy into the fact that baseball is a game full of fast, violent, athletic movements.

This isn’t your grandfathers baseball anymore… We’re in a league where outfielders move like NFL Free Safeties and hitters produce enough rotational force to hit a round object into oblivion with a stick.  New technology such as Statcast and high speed cameras allow us to track the physics of these movements and breakdown the science behind them… The conclusion we’ve come to… THESE GUYS ARE FREAK ATHLETES!

Travel Baseball Program

Lets take into account a specific example from Jackie Bradley Jr. against the Texas Rangers back in July… JBJ is in center… line drive is smoked off the bat… He has 3.4 seconds to cover 50 feet and make the catch… But lets take into account all the synapses that need to fire in the brain and all the decisions that need to be made in these 3.4 seconds:

  1. Initial Read On The Ball (Whats My First Step)
  2. Do I Lay Out Of Let It Fall And Play It Safe?
  3. If IDive And It Gets By Me Its a Triple Or Worse…
  4. After Your First Step… Whats The Most Efficient Way To Cover 50 Feet In 2 Seconds?

What I’m getting at is that these guys are elite athletes.  The traits they have developed over time are skill specific to the trade of baseball.  Elite levels of anticipation, reaction time, and physical skills are the deadly combo that these athletes need to train for in the off season.. not just taking lazy hacks off a tee or playing a sloppy game of catch with 0 intent.  Which leads me to the point I’ve been aiming at.. It’s not going to be your 400lb bench, or your exact duplication of Jon Lesters Jaeger Band routine that’s gonna get you there.. it is going to be your ability to train your body to perform these athletic movements… Chances are if you can’t do a body weight lunge without your chest collapsing and your knee caving inward you’re not gonna be a 90 mph thrower or a powerful hitter.

Hey guys – I just wanted to quickly address a misconception and a physics-based approach to how we should be training speed in a safer, more effective method…

The misconception is that more sprints at practice or at your workout are going to make you faster… Sure a few max effort sprints will improve your efficiency and will gas you, but there are better forms of conditioning and more effective ways to be faster.  If you are training max effort sprint work for reps without optimal rest (minutes in between) your body will not be able to produce peak force each sprint.  You will start moving slower, and your body will get used to this and make it a habit.  There is a time and place for conditioning, but when you are trying to train absolute speed.. it is not the time.

Speed is our ability to produce as much force as possible off the ground in the quickest amount of time.  When we are sprinting we are producing maximal force each stride, exhausting the glutes and hamstrings. Repetitive overload of these muscles is not sustainable and this is why we see so many hamstring pulls in over-trained, sprinting athletes.  Elite level sprinters will produce over 1,000 lbs of force into the ground during each push off in a sprint.  The amount of work done during one 100 m dash is essentially more than an elite powerlifter will do in one week.   If sprinting is our only form of sprint training, there is no way we can sustain maximal power output throughout a full training session, without slowing down or getting hurt.  So how can we train the muscles necessary for sprinting in a more effective manner?   We need to work on not only STRENGTHENING the muscles involved, but simultaneously improve our fast twitch velocity off the ground.  Where does this happen??

THE WEIGHT ROOM!

The formula for power in the physics world is Work/Time (P=W/T).  Work being the energy transfer that occurs when an object is moved over a distance.  So it should’n’t be taboo to think that our training methods should be similar to those of POWERlifting athletes. Sprinting is a a power movement and must be trained as such.   We need to improve our glute and hamstrings ability to propel and accelerate the body forward.  We cannot just force a longer stride length by making an effort to reach further out each stride.. We need to truly develop the muscles that generate the legs extension and launch it forward.  Think about the movement of the leg during a stride… Pretty similar to the mechanics of a deadlift right?  Extending the leg, bracing the core and powering off the ground in a timely manner.

Same goes for exercises such as the sled push and sled pull.  Going heavy on these gives us the opportunity to produce maximal force each stride we take maintaining postural integrity that is similar to our take off position in a sprint.  When going heavy on a sled push, its important that we do not go for maximal speed, but maximal force production off the ground and knee drive.  If we try to move a heavy weight too quickly, then we will compromise our sprint form and maximal power output of each stride and deviate from our proper mechanics.   Just like anything in sports, we can practice good mechanics or bad mechanics… but enough reps is going to make it a habit.

At the same time, everybody knows a big guy that can deadlift and squat a lot of weight but can’t run for his life…  Why aren’t these guys fast on the field?  1) They may have mechanical errors in their sprint form. 2) They may have a lot more mass on their body to propel forward and 3) They haven’t trained their explosiveness off the ground.. Through jumps , various plyo drills, and speed lifts we are training our bodies fast twitch muscle fibers to produce as much force as possible off the ground in the quickest amount of time. 

For example, if we have a strength lift like a deadlift or a squat in our programming, it is important that we also put just as many if not more jumps and speed lifts into the regiment.  Some of these will include deadlifts for speed at 55-65%,  weighted jumps, depth jumps (producing force off the ground in the quickest amount of time), speed squats, split jumps… the list goes on and on.  It is important that you get strong and it is important that you learn how to move your own bodyweight and other external forces quickly.  This sounds pretty similar to the concept of speed production doesn’t it?  This IS speed and this method of training is a proven physics based approach to speed training.  Get in the gym, I’ll see you there.

It is no secret that no matter what sport you play you need to train accordingly in the off- season for the demands of that sport.  A foundation is required, an engine is needed. As we build up our base in the off-season we have every intent of going into our season at peak strength and peak conditioning;  We have placed ourselves in the best position to play at our best and stay healthy throughout the season.  However we cannot lose sight of the fact that strength gains are much more easily lost than achieved. 

We’ve put in the sweat equity throughout the off-season, we’ve grinded through countless reps week after week, pushing our bodies to new levels of strength, evolving our nervous systems into a finely tuned machine.  The unfortunate fact of the matter is ” If you don’t use it, you lose it”.  6 to 8 weeks of strength gains can be lost in as quickly as 2 weeks if one does not continue their maintenance work.  I would liken this to a new Ferrari that you neglect to take in for service… No matter how well it runs and how much Horse-Power it has when you purchased it; if you don’t take it in for oil changes and put air in the tires its going to get run down.

Long Story short we need to make sure that our athletes maintain their off-season strength gains in-season for a few reasons.

1) Keeps them performing at their highest potential

2) Helps them avoid injuries;  the stronger and healthier you can keep the body the less stress on the joints and ligaments

3) You are putting yourself in a better position to take your strength to new heights next off-season.

Let me attack numbers 1 and 2 together… Our goal is to obviously have our athletes heading into the season at a physical peak… The rigors of a season and practices take a toll on the athletes body; This toll however is not the same type of stress and stimulus we can create in the weight room.  The way the body is taxed In-Season will break us down over time, this is why we need to stay on a maintenance program to continue to keep the body strong.  The second we start to atrophy and lose strength In-Season is the second we start to put our joints, ligaments, and muscles at risk for injuries.  Don’t forget that the muscles support the joints and ligaments…. Weakness, tightness, lack of mobility/stability are ALL indicators of potential injury risk and need to continue to be addressed In-Season.

However,  don’t get it twisted how an In-Season athlete needs to be trained…  The priority is keeping them  on the field and at their best… NOT how much they can deadlift 6 weeks into their season .  The In-Season program takes a Mobility, Stability, Functionality, and Strength Maintenance approach.  This means lower volume, lower frequency, and a high emphasis on movement quality.  The intensity CAN stay relatively high, YES HEAVY WEIGHTS WILL STILL BE LIFTED… But all lifts will be done optimally, Not Maximally.  Meaning the athlete will be sparing a few lbs or reps on their lifts in order to preserve the nervous system.

The common misconception for In-Season training is that we should be doing low weights and high reps… This is incorrect..  We cannot forget about the reason for In- Season training.. Strength MAINTENANCE.  High rep/ Low weight training is the same style of training body builders use to achieve “The Pump”.  This pump is due to the fact that there is a high frequency of crossing over between the myofibrils involved (Actin and Myosin)  … Not to get too scientific,  but this frequent crossing over causes more blood flow to the muscles, more build up of hydrogen ions due to an oxygen debt, and more muscle growth… However this phenomena leads to a lot more delayed onset muscle soreness the next day due to muscle damage and metabolic stress… Long story short this is not ideal for an In-Season athlete.

**NOT TOO MANY ATHLETES LOOK LIKE THIS, NOR DO THEY NEED TO**

Lower rep/ Higher weight training (with less volume) will allow them to maintain their strength while having complete technical mastery and will not cause extreme muscle soreness the next day.  This type of training paired with an elaborate active warm up/warm down will allow the athlete to maintain mobility, stability, flexibility, and strength all throughout their season.

Lastly if we can have an athlete maintain their strength throughout a season it puts them in a better position to increase their strength next off-season, instead of regressing back to their original starting point.

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