Speed 101: the Starting Position

What if I told you I could shave time off of you 40-yard dash right now? As avid football fans know, the 40-yard dash is the make 0r break drill for college or pro prospects. One-tenth of a second can be the difference between becoming a first round draft pick or, in some cases, even [...]

Long Distance Running for Football???

Okay, I have to step up to my soap box for a moment. When it comes to sports performance and personal training, many strength and conditioning coaches and personal trainers tend to out-think themselves (or sometimes not even think at all…). Instead of sticking to and expanding upon simple and relative training concepts, fitness professionals [...]

Athletic Performance Training Principles

Here are the ten principles for building a top-notch athletic performance training program as originated by Mike Arthur, Master Strength and Conditioning Coach and the Director of Strength and Conditioning at the University of Nebraska. 1. Closed Kinetic Chain (Ground-based) Exercises MosAdd Newt sports are played with the feet on the ground. Sports skills are [...]

Squats

In my many years in this profession, I’ve heard every myth in the book about performing squats. The myths I hear most often are: “Squats are bad for your knees,” and “Squats can injure your spine.” Typically, I refer to ALL squatting myths simply as EXCUSES. The truth is ANY exercise can be harmful if [...]

5 X 5 Program For Size & Strength

In regards to putting on some decent size and coupling it with a solid base strength, there’s an old fashioned program that has stood the test of time: the good ol’ 5 x 5 Program. It’s an old school program that has been recommended and popularize d by world renowned strength training professionals such as [...]

Interval Training for Conditioning: Tabata Style

Tabata-style training is a form of interval training that employs 20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of recovery. This cycle is repeated 8 times and should take a total of 4 minutes. What’s great about this style of interval training is that you can apply this protocol to nearly any exercise. [...]

Foundations and Tools of Agility Training

To succeed in athletics, you need quickness, strength, power, flexibility, balance, and agility. But you’ll need to functional train properly to improve all of these aspects. Today, we’ll talk about four foundations and tools for training for increased athletic agility. Prioritize core strength and development in your training routine. Having a strong core is critical [...]

Offseason Treadmill Interval Conditioning: 400′s and 200′s

Two great offseason conditioning drills that I’ve used are the 400′s and 200′s treadmill interval workouts. They are easy to follow, hard to do, and they work. They’re great for ensuring that athlete’s don’t fall too far off of the conditioning wagon during the offseason. And because the workouts are done on a treadmill, periodization [...]

Barefoot Warm-up

A Subtle Change to My Dynamic Warm-up Routine I recently made a subtle, yet effective change to how I perform my active dynamic warm-up prior to my workouts. I do them barefoot. Oh, don’t get it twisted, I DO wear socks. But I dump the shoes as soon as I get ready to go through [...]

Proper Preparation: the Dynamic Warm-up

Coaches and athletes alike tend to overlook the importance of a proper and comprehensive warm-up and the role it plays in optimizing mental and physical preparation for every workout, practice, and game. So, what’s the best way prepare an athlete for performance? The most practiced strategy has been to perform a light warm-up (jogging a [...]

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