Principles of a Solid Strength and Conditioning Program

If you search the internet, you will find all kinds of strength and conditioning blogs and programs to purchase. Walk in to any indoor sports complex and you will probably find some kind of speed and agility program that is offered. Since kids are playing more sports then ever and youth obesity has increased dramatically, I think it is great that many training options exist. But......How do you distinguish between a sound strength and conditioning program and a class that involves running around hurdles and cones just for the hell of it?

Obviously all strength coaches and trainers have had different learning experiences. Some might prefer squats while some coaches don't squat at all. Some swear by sled training while others live and die by high speed treadmills. Regardless of background and experience, the following principles are universally followed by the top strength coaches in the world.

1. Quality over Quantity..........I would rather see 6 really good push ups then 15 bad ones. I would rather see 5 good reps at 200 then 2 descent reps and 3 forced reps at 215.

2. Train fast to be fast...........Speed drills are 3 - 7 seconds in duration with at least a 5:1 rest to work ratio. I will not go into a long rant here as I have written about this many times before. Do not mistaken mindless amounts of running for speed training.

3. The body must be prepared for high intensity work with a proper dynamic warm up. Just sitting down and stretching then going for a jog will not get it done. See my past blogs for our SOAR warm up progression. The links below will show you some parts of our warm up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r9jc5pdxrU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rQDeTQ5dvU

4. Balance in exercise selection. We must sprint AND work on deceleration and change of direction. We must do vertical plyometrics AND lateral plyometrics. We must push AND pull with the upper body. We must do knee dominant lower body exercises AND hip dominant exercises. Imbalance in training will lead to imbalance in the body which will lead to injury.

5. Rest is just as important as the training. If you want to get bigger, faster and stronger, then you can't train at a high intensity everyday. You will be sore, tired and your CNS will be fried. A great strength coach will design a program that will allow you to recover from high intensity workouts.

6. Always be coaching. The easiest thing for any trainer to do is to make you exhausted. But did the trainer make you better? The program and facility is only as good as the coaching that goes along with it.