5 Rules for the In - Season Athlete

Spring is right around the corner, and almost every athlete I train is In- Season to some degree (Lacrosse, Club Soccer, Club Volleyball, Track, Baseball/Softball, AAU Hoops). Some of my athletes are involved in two of these sports during spring or are trying to train for football while playing one of them. Here are 5 Rules for the In - Season Athlete to live by.

1. Lifting 2x per week is better than lifting 1x per week. BUT, lifting 1x per week is better than lifting ZERO times per week.

I have said this before, the biggest mistake I see kids make is neglecting their strength training during the season. You do not have to go into the gym and do your full off- season routine. However, hitting a few sets of the major muscle groups 1 - 2x per week will go a long way towards keeping you strong and maybe even getting you stronger. Don't be the athlete who gets weaker when the playoffs come around!

2. In - season = more practices and games = more running = more calories burned = the need to hydrate more and eat more.

This is pretty simple. If you don't lift weights and don't eat or drink enough, you will lose mass. Keep healthy snacks such as bars, fruits and other hand food in your bag. Drink Gatorade before practice and on the way to your next workout or practice. Keep taking your nutritional shakes and maybe even drink more of them on days when you have lots of games or activities. Think about an AAU basketball tournament where you might play 3- 5 games in one day. How many calories do you think you are burning on that day?

Here is an old blog with a calorie calculator I use.

3. Anything that you do athletically requires the need for an athletic warm - up.

Proper warm -ups are all over my blog STS warm - up. Just jogging around the track or even worse doing nothing but getting in lay - up lines is a recipe for nagging hamstring pulls and other injuries. All warm - ups should elevate body temperature and heart rate and move joints in a full range of motion.

4. If it hurts or it is swollen (knee, shoulder, hip, groin) ICE IT!

Ice is a magical thing for sore joints and it is FREE! Fill up an ice tray with water, put it in the freezer, take the ice cubes and put them in a bag. Put the bag where it hurts. AMAZING!

FYI following rule #3 will reduce the need to do #4.

5. Sleep

I would like to see all my athletes get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night, ideally closer to 8. This means that if you are up at 7am, you are in bed by midnight at the very latest.


Follow these simple rules and you will see how much better your body feels throughout the season.

Pre - Season Lacrosse Training

The boys from Olentangy High School's Lacrosse team have been going hard in the gym since September. Last week, we started Week 1 of our 6 week Pre - Season block. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have the team broken down into two groups.

Group 1 - Monday - Power and High Speed Work, Lower body strength, Upper body pulling

Group 2 - Monday - Shoulder prehab, Upper body pressing, core, arms - Then they warm up and go through lateral plyometrics and multi - directional conditioning.

On Wednesdays, the groups flip - flop.

Fridays consist of various circuits, sled work and medicine ball throws.

Here is a video of our circuit from last friday.











Here is great training video of one of our speed/ power days.



Click over to the Olentangy Lax facebook link to view some photos.

http://www.facebook.com/OHSLax1

Putting Mass on the Athlete

Wow it has been a crazy few weeks and now I finally have some time to write.

Almost every call I get at the gym revolves around parents wanting their kids to improve sport performance - run faster, jump higher, ect. Along with that, I have a ton of adolescent boys who simply need to get bigger. They want to get bigger to get better at their sport (football, lacrosse, soccer, ect). Let's face it, they also want to get bigger because its cool to be "jacked up".

So do we just bodybuild the heck out of these kids with no regard for their sport performance? Uh no. The ultimate goal is to put mass on a kid AND have them get faster. It happens a lot with my clients who have never trained in a comprehensive system like ours. If you are skinny, weak and slow, there is a good chance you will get a lot faster by getting stronger.

But, what about the kids who are already fast for their position but need to get bigger? Now, I am not in the business of making kids slower, but what if their speed stays the same? This is when we consult the magic Force equation.

Force = Mass x Acceleration

Think about it like this


Who would you rather be in a collision with?

A 160 lb running back that runs a 4.7 40.

OR

A 190lb running back who runs a 4.7 40.

I think the answer is pretty obvious. Even though the number is the same on the stop watch, the amount of force the kid can produce now will pay major dividends on the field. Plus, size is one of the major things that college coaches look for when they are recruiting. A lot of kids are automatically excluded because they are too small.

So before spending your entire off-season running with a parachute on you, analyze if getting bigger will be an even more effective way of improving your performance.

In team sports, more times than not, BIGGER IS BETTER!