Medicine ball (MB) use can be traced back to Ancient Greece when they found a therapeutic use for a crude sand filled ball. Athletes and coaches have been using them every since. Just as it is important to classify your MB exercises by the area they improve it is also important to classify them [...]
Archive | Exercises & Techniques
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Push-Up Progression
Even babies want to do push-ups! But, they’re not as easy as they look for some people. Many athletes struggle to do even one perfect push up. We can find ourselves at a loss for words when we’re implementing simple bodyweight movements, and the lifter has a difficult time performing them. These exercises, like chin-ups [...]
Football is Coming!! : In-Season Metabolic Conditioning
I’m sitting through my second round of Sportscenter…I should be in bed. Seeing the football camps going on reminds me that high school camp is starting up tomorrow. We’ve got a total body lift a couple times this week to start out the In-Season strength training program at one of our high schools. It was [...]
Don’t Have Mindless Exercise Choices
A long time ago I was doing a phone interview for a Strength Coach position. The Associate Athletic Director was actually the one who asked this question. I don’t know if she gave two shits about the answer I gave, but this was over 6 years ago and my answer to this question has stayed [...]
For the Best Traps, Do More than Shrugs
Trap Training When most of us look at the trapezius, we see the lump of muscle directly over the shoulders. It’s probably one of the most intimidating muscles when trained correctly and developed. Not too many guys pick a beef with the hoss that has traps growing out of his ears. Everyone remember Goldberg? Yup….nobody [...]
Albion College Football Takes Steps to Improve Neck Training
Strength and Conditioning professionals and sport coaches might sit around at the end of the day and discuss how the numbers are going for the squat, maybe how the technique needs to get better on the bench press, or even how the slant-board is kicking ass at promoting dorsal flexion for the ankle. It’s all [...]
What is Neck Strength Training?
Neck training is not HIT, it’s not a strong-man competition, it’s not German Volume training, it’s not training the proprioceptors of the neck to become more explosive athletes (Even though some neck muscles have shown a high density of muscle spindles, yes, that is a knock on idiots claiming idiotic things). I’ve been watching an [...]
Crossfit: Not For Everyone
Crossfit will probably never go away. I’m not here to be an advocate of it or bash it. Parents and athletes do need to become more educated on what it actually is or can be. It’s just another way to workout that needs to be implemented when and where appropriate. Grant Stoddard took time to [...]
Tough (Haphazard) Vertimax Conditioning
There’s dozens of ways to overload triple-extension. Olympic movements, jumping movements with dumbbells, weighted vest jumps…the list goes on. Some ways may be safer than others, easier to implement, easier to coach, or even more efficient. It’s all up to you. The Vertimax fits several of the criteria we look for, for the movements we’re [...]
Battling Ropes: Great When Not Silly
Jim and Adam take a brief moment to discuss an exercise tool that can be great when used correctly and silly when not. Battling ropes have been around for decades. Over the last couple years they have certainly been much more commercialized than ever before. We do believe there are plenty of great things about [...]
Plyometrics: Progressing to Advanced Skill and Intensity
To build on our previous plyometric video, here we discuss some coaching tips that may be extremely important for progressing to more intense plyometric exercises. If you saw the last video, you should notice the progression from those beginning plyometrics to these more advanced exercises. Hopefully these videos allow reflection for whether we’re using the [...]
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