Bridge the Gap Practical: Programming Tactics for Speed/Power Athletes Training Toward the 2018 Games

Bridge the Gap Lecture: Programming Tactics for Speed/Power Athletes Training Toward the 2018 Games

Ground-based free weight lifts, especially the explosive Olympic-style lifts, are highly recommended for athletic conditioning for the core muscles. They can provide a moderately unstable stimulus to augment activation of the core and limb muscles, while still providing maximal or near maximal strength, velocity, and power output.

This article contains a sample progression to use with high call volume fire departments to help maintain mobility while building job-specific strength and avoiding a hyper-fatigued state.

Competence, autonomy, and relatedness are three keys to promoting a more intrinsically motivated athlete. These components can be combined in nearly limitless ways, which is especially important for the long basketball season.

While exercise is safe for most participants, many screening strategies have been implemented to reduce the likelihood of injury, and possibly death, from exercise. This article shares an objective strategy for selecting an appropriate assessment method based on a client’s resistance training status and experience.

Deloading is a period of reduced training stress where training demand is intentionally reduced to mitigate physiological and psychological fatigue and promote recovery. A deload is commonly implemented to enhance readiness for subsequent training and occurs between or during training phases. During a deload, training is typically modified by reducing the intensity of effort, training volume, duration, or frequency. Adjustments in exercise selection are based on recovery goals and the specific demands of the athlete’s training. Deloads are commonly preplanned and implemented into the training program every 4–8 weeks based on the structure of the training cycle and recovery needs. Alternatively, deloads are sometimes applied reactively using an autoregulatory approach to accommodate unexpected fatigue or performance decrements. While deloading shares conceptual similarities with tapering and training cessation, it should be differentiated based on its objective, structure, and positionality with the overall training program. The purpose of this article is to describe the current research landscape, propose areas for future research, and to provide broad practical recommendations for implementing deloading within the strength and physique sports training program.

This excerpt from the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 4th Edition gives a quick glimpse into some of the implements used in strongman training.

Live high/train low: what changes can be expected, what dose is required, and is it preferable to other training models for improving performance in endurance sports such as running, swimming, and cycling?