As a physical therapist specializing in sports rehabilitation, I often encounter questions and concerns regarding the safety and effectiveness of overhead shoulder exercises.
Today, I want to address these concerns and shed light on the importance of incorporating these exercises into your fitness routine. So let’s dive in!
The Power of Overhead Shoulder Exercises
Overhead lifting exercises, such as shoulder presses, pull-ups, and barbell snatches, have gained popularity among fitness enthusiasts and athletes alike. And for good reason!
They are fantastic for building muscle and strength in your shoulders, contributing to overall athletic performance.
Think about it – whether you’re reaching for something on a high shelf, loading your gear onto a roof rack, or hanging a picture frame, these daily activities often mimic the motion of an overhead press.
By incorporating overhead shoulder exercises, you can enhance your functional movement patterns and perform these activities with ease.
And its part of our design. Human shoulder complexes are designed to be able to function in a really big range of motion. That includes overhead.
Understanding the “It Depends” Factor
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: the notion that overhead exercises are inherently bad or should be avoided. They are not.
However, there’s more to it.
Whether overhead exercises are suitable for you depends on a variety of factors. I want to emphasize that I am not advocating for blindly performing these exercises despite pain or shoulder issues.
Therefore, to answer this question, we need to take a more pragmatic approach and consider the bigger picture.
Mobility Matters
First and foremost, you must have adequate overhead mobility. Can you fully raise your arm overhead without arching your back, shrugging, or experiencing any discomfort?
If not, it’s crucial to address any mobility limitations before attempting overhead exercises.
This lack of mobility may stem from various areas, including the shoulder joint, the scapula-thoracic joint, or the thoracic spine. While many people focus on the shoulder itself, often the scapular muscles and lats are bigger culprits.
Additionally, muscular imbalances can also contribute to limited overhead mobility.
Remember, if you can’t lift your arm overhead comfortably, it’s best to work on improving your mobility before diving into overhead presses.
Stability is Key
Another critical factor is shoulder and spine stability. To handle the demands of overhead lifting, you need adequate stability in your shoulder girdle.
This stability is achieved through a strong foundation created by your upper back, scapular muscles, rotator cuff, and even your trunk and core.
Muscular imbalances and stability deficits are common issues that can impact the shoulder girdle, so it’s important to address these through appropriate exercises and training techniques.
Remember, the heavier the weight you lift, the more stability your shoulder girdle requires.
Mastering Load Management
In the pursuit of optimal shoulder health and performance, many enthusiasts overlook the importance of load management.
Intensity (weight)
volume (sets and repetitions)
frequency (how often)
Even with excellent mobility and stability, improper load management can lead to soreness and shoulder discomfort over time.
It’s crucial to find the right balance and avoid overwhelming your body’s capacity to recover. Remember, depending on your goals, you may not need to lift maximal loads to get the benefits.
Just like pitchers monitor their pitch counts to prevent overuse injuries, you must understand that pushing too hard or too frequently can hinder your long-term fitness and performance goals.
The Art of Exercise Modification and Scaling
When it comes to maintaining shoulder health in the long run, understanding exercise modification, regression, and scaling is paramount.
Understand, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Each individual may have unique limitations or restrictions that require adjustments. Fortunately, any functional movement pattern can be modified or scaled to achieve the same goal of building strength and improving fitness.
For example, if a barbell overhead press feels uncomfortable, consider using dumbbells or kettlebells instead to allow more freedom of movement. Additionally, the use of a landmine setup can be an excellent alternative when a full overhead position is not possible.
The key is to find overhead lifting variations or positions that work for you while minimizing stress on the shoulders.
Whether you’re dealing with mobility restrictions, recovering from an injury, or experiencing shoulder discomfort, modifying and scaling exercises can help you achieve success while reducing excessive tissue stress.
To ensure effective modifications, regressions, or scaling, it’s advisable to seek guidance from a knowledgeable healthcare professional or fitness expert who can tailor exercises to your specific needs.
Embracing a Mindset of Control
In conclusion, let’s revisit our initial question: Are overhead lifting exercises safe? The answer is a resounding yes.
However, we must acknowledge that individual circumstances and factors come into play. It’s essential to take ownership of our bodies and understand that the exercises themselves are not to blame.
Instead, poor mobility, stability, and training habits are the culprits behind potential issues. By addressing these areas and seeking professional guidance, you can take control of your body’s capabilities and unleash your full potential.
Remember, if you’re new to exercising or currently dealing with an injury, it’s always wise to consult a qualified healthcare provider who can offer personalized advice based on your unique situation.
So, embrace the benefits of overhead shoulder exercises, focus on improving mobility and stability, manage your training load wisely, and don’t hesitate to modify or scale exercises when needed.
With the right approach, you’ll be on your way to achieving optimal shoulder health, enhancing your athletic performance, and enjoying the benefits of a well-rounded fitness routine.
The 5/3/1 training method is a popular strength training program created by Jim Wendler that focuses on core lifts. In the case of April’s Human Performance Program its of squat, deadlift, and split-squat. The program is designed to help lifters increase their strength and improve their overall human performance.
Here are some key points to keep in mind:
How it works
The 5/3/1 method is based on a four-day training schedule, with each day focusing on one of the main lifts.
The lifter performs three sets of five reps on the first week, three sets of three reps on the second week, and one set of five, one set of three, and one set of one reps on the third week.
The fourth week is a deload week to allow the body to recover before starting a new cycle.
All weights are based on a lifter’s one-rep max (1-RM).
Accessory lifts are included but are not the main focus of the program.
Benefits
Simple and effective: The 5/3/1 method is easy to follow and provides a steady increase in intensity that allows lifters to progress throughout each cycle.
Versatile: The program can be adapted to fit different fitness levels and goals.
Builds strength: The core lifts targeted in the program are key to developing overall strength and increasing performance in other activities.
Customizable: The program allows for customization and variation in accessory lifts to target individual weaknesses and improve overall performance.
Encourages consistency: The program emphasizes the importance of sticking to a consistent routine, which is crucial for long-term progress and results.
Tips for success
Start with conservative weights: It’s important to start with weights that are manageable to avoid injury and build a strong foundation.
Be patient: The 5/3/1 method is designed for slow and steady progress. It’s important to trust the process and avoid the temptation to rush or make changes too quickly.
Focus on form: Proper form is essential for safety and maximum benefit. Don’t sacrifice form for more weight or reps.
Track progress: Keep track of weights, reps, and progress throughout each cycle to ensure steady gains and make adjustments as needed.
Don’t neglect accessory lifts: Accessory lifts are important for targeting weaknesses and improving overall performance. Include them in your routine but don’t let them take away from the focus on the core lifts.
In conclusion, the 5/3/1 training method is a proven approach to building strength and improving human performance. Its simplicity and versatility make it a great choice for lifters of all levels and goals. With consistency, patience, and proper form, the 5/3/1 method can help you achieve your fitness goals and improve your overall health and performance.
Its time to intensify our German Body Composition program for continued results
As human performance professionals, we’re always on the lookout for effective and efficient programs to help clients achieve their fitness goals. In last month’s training block we introduced a German Body Composition training (GBC) program.
GBCT is a unique and scientifically-backed workout program designed to help you build strength, improve your cardio conditioning, and enhance your body composition.
This month we build on that by moving from an accumulation phase to a (mixed) intensification phase. We say mixed because this is not a typical intensification phase that moves to higher speeds and/or higher percentage of percent RepMax.
Instead, it starts to do that only in the main strength exercises, and also by adding some higher velocity explosive movements.
So if you’re looking to take your fitness to the next level, or just want to try something new and effective, the GBC program is the perfect fit.
Get ready to challenge yourself and see the results you’ve always wanted.
The Workouts
The workouts are comprised of compound strength movements, high-rep kettlebell exercises, and intense cardio intervals.
The combination of these elements creates a program that is not only challenging, but also highly effective in;
raising your heart rate
increasing lactate accumulation
boosting your metabolism
The program is structured to allow you to perform more total work in each session and to keep your heart rate elevated for maximum calorie burn.
Getting Stronger
During the 1st superset, this program differs from traditional high repetition schemes. Instead, we are using heavy weights and lower reps.
One of the key elements of this program is autoregulating the weight for your main compound strength movements.
Each week, you’ll perform a rep test set to determine the correct weight for the following week. This allows you to continually increase the intensity of your workouts and to see continual improvements in your strength and fitness.
Work Density
One of this month’s goals is to increase the total amount of work done. More work in the same time equates to more work density. Density
In addition to the strength and cardio components, the program also includes a high-intensity cardio interval in the second superset. This helps to further raise your heart rate and lactate accumulation, leading to even greater calorie burn and fat loss.
Whether you’re a seasoned gym-goer or just starting out, this program is designed to be highly effective and challenging, with results you can see and feel.
The Program Structure
The program consists of three full-body strength training sessions per week, with each session lasting approximately 50-60 minutes.
Block A is structured around compound exercises including front squats, deadlifts, and bench press, with a focus on building strength. This block utilizes autoregulated rep tests on the main compound strength movement, allowing you to continually adjust the load to maximize gains.
In Blocks B & C, you’ll increase the repetitions in compound exercises are paired with high-intensity cardio intervals, designed to increase heart rate and lactate accumulation, leading to an increase in growth hormone, a key hormone for fat loss.
The program also incorporates the use of supersets, pairing upper and lower body exercises, allowing for a higher heart rate and more total work to be done in a workout.
Nutrition for GBC – Based on Your Goals
Nutrition plays a crucial role in any fitness program, and this GBC program is no exception. The right combination of calories, carbohydrates, and macronutrients can make all the difference in helping you achieve your goals.
Protein
For everyone, adequate quality protein is a good start. A protein shake can be a useful strategy for this GBCT program, whether the goal is mass gain or fat loss. Here’s how:
Mass Gain: Protein is essential for building and repairing muscle, so consuming an adequate amount of protein is crucial for those looking to gain mass. Drinking a protein shake after a workout can provide the body with the necessary protein to fuel recovery and promote muscle growth.
Fat Loss: Consuming a protein shake before or after a workout can help increase satiety, reduce cravings, and improve overall calorie control, which can support fat loss efforts. Additionally, drinking a protein shake post-workout can help promote muscle preservation, which can help maintain a higher metabolism and support long-term fat loss.
For Your Goals
You can also alter your nutrition based on your goals.
For muscle gain:
Increase total calorie intake: Consuming a surplus of calories is necessary to support muscle growth. A moderate calorie surplus of 250-500 calories above maintenance level can help increase muscle mass.
Increase carbohydrate intake: Carbohydrates provide energy for intense exercise and support muscle growth, so increasing carbohydrate intake may be necessary to support muscle gain. Aim for a diet that is 40-60% carbohydrates, with the remainder split between protein and fat.
For fat loss:
Reduce total calorie intake: Consuming a calorie deficit is necessary to lose body fat. A moderate calorie deficit of 250-500 calories below maintenance level can help achieve fat loss.
Moderate carbohydrate intake: While carbohydrates are important for energy, reducing carbohydrate intake can help create a calorie deficit. Aim for a diet that is 30-50% carbohydrates, with the remainder split between protein and fat.
It’s important to keep in mind that individual calorie and macronutrient needs can vary, so it’s best to work with a registered dietitian or nutritionist to create a personalized plan that supports your goals.
Upgrading Your Results
We’ve already talked about the importance of proper nutrition, but there are other factors you can consider to maximize your progress. Optimizing both your recovery and supplements can boost your results.
Supplements for GBC
There are several research-backed supplements that can help improve fat loss and support your muscle growth during this program. These include caffeine, green tea extract, and creatine among others.
Caffeine & Green tea
Caffeine and green tea have been shown to have thermogenic effects, meaning they can increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation.
Consuming caffeine has been shown to boost metabolism, increase thermogenesis and enhance physical performance. Green tea contains a catechin called EGCG, which has been shown to increase fat oxidation, boost metabolism and decrease body weight.
So consider having that cup of green tea before your next GBC session..
Creatine
Most people think of creatine as a muscle building supplement. However, it can be used as a supplement to support a healthy weight loss. Creatine supplementation can help increase muscle mass and strength, which can increase overall metabolism and contribute to fat loss as part of a calorie-controlled diet and exercise program.
Additionally, creatine can also improve high-intensity exercise performance, allowing for more intense and effective workouts, which can lead to improved body composition and potentially, fat loss.
Lifestyle
Additionally, there are other lifestyle habits that can boost the effectiveness of this program. Getting sufficient sleep, staying hydrated, and reducing stress are helpful. Things like meditation, red light or yoga are all great examples of ways to support your training and help your body recover faster.
23.2 Summary
In conclusion, this GBC program is a comprehensive approach to getting lean that takes into account both strength training and cardio to help you reach your goals.
Whether you’re looking to lose fat, build muscle, or improve your overall fitness, incorporating this program into your routine is sure to provide you with noticeable results in a short amount of time.
With proper nutrition, supplementation, and supportive lifestyle habits, you’ll be on your way to reaching your goals in no time!
While the sports and fitness industries are filled with hype, flashy social media accounts, and short-lived personalities, Velocity Sports Performance is quietly continuing 2 decades of excellence by sending athletes to another Olympic Games.
When Velocity was founded in 1999 outside Atlanta, Georgia, Olympians from 5 countries were working with legendary coach, Loren Seagrave. Seagrave was an elite track coach and the founder of Velocity Sports Performance. In that very first Velocity facility, USA Bobsled athletes worked with Coach Seagrave to improve their speed for the 2002 Winter Games.
That tradition of working with elite Olympic athletes continued as Global High-Performance Director Ken Vick set up shop in Redondo Beach in 2005.
“Olympic sports were always a passion for me. I was a Weightlifting coach for several international level lifters and the intensity and passion of athletes pursuing their Olympic dream is unique,” says Vick.
He’d know something about that as he coached multiple athletes going to the Games and directed the high-performance team behind many others, even whole Olympic Committees. In the last decade under his watch, Velocity has supported 54 medal winners across 13 different sports.
Measured Performance
In Vick’s view “For a performance coach, one of the unique aspects of many Olympic sports is that they are measured objectively. We time how fast someone runs, cycles, swims, or paddles. You measure how far they throw or jump, or how much weight they can lift.”
This means that the results of training programs are much more visible. “You can see if what you are doing with them is working. You can’t hide bad training behind a great team or tactics,” he adds.
This has been a major influence on Velocity’s methodology in training, sports medicine, and recovery. “Since we have always dealt with these Olympic athletes, we put added emphasis on measuring training variables and exploring the methods that produced the greatest results. Velocity’s methods have been based on science, proven in the field, and continually refined to stay on top.”
Today Velocity has brought many of these training technologies and methods to the average high school athlete walking through their doors. The elite-level devices, monitoring systems, and training methods are accessible to all.
Velocity has supported National teams and Athletes at the Olympic Games in these sports
Athletics (Track & Field)
Badminton
Beach Volleyball
Boxing
Diving
Fencing
Freestyle Wrestling
Indoor Volleyball
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Soccer
Softball
Sprint Kayak
Sprint Canoe
Swimming
Synchronized Swimming
Table Tennis
Track Cycling
Weightlifting
Supporting Athletes Around the Globe
International Olympic sport has a history of top coaches being recruited to countries with budgets and looking to improve their performance. Working across borders is part of the game and one of the great opportunities to have a lasting impact globally.
Aspiring athletes and pros in the US weren’t the only ones to notice what Velocity was doing. With a steady international clientele, the word was getting out. Countries looking for better performance noticed.
In their build-up for the 2012 Olympics, Team GB brought their developing beach volleyball program to Redondo Beach and asked Velocity to help. It made sense since Velocity had experience training so many top AVP and international players. Now Velocity was tasked with helping them raise their game as the London Olympics approached.
The Chinese Olympic Committee had been a top nation in the medal count, but in 2013 they started working with Velocity in a few targeted sports and several of their provincial programs. A few years later Velocity was working alongside another performance company called EXOS preparing athletes across the entire Chinese Olympic Program.
Velocity coach Mark Williams working with the Chinese Womens Wrestling Team that included two 2016 Rio Olympic Medalists.
“The experience of deploying Integrated Support Teams on the ground in China and advising their teams was incredible. We had challenges that we never imagined but an incredible opportunity to have an impact,” reflects Vick. “Making sure we could coordinate the sports medicine, strength training, speed work, conditioning, and recovery was a task. There was an outdated system there, language and cultural barriers, and we were trying to make a major shift. That’s a tall order, but we were able to see results.”
Years of working with elite performers have driven a methodology based on integrating these different domains. When the entire integrated support team works together to support the effort of the athlete and the plan of the sports coaches, the results speak for themselves.
Winter Olympics Too
Velocity’s expertise doesn’t stop when cold weather hits. Athletes and National Teams from the Winter Olympic Games have relied on Velocity as well. Olympic hockey players, speed skaters, bobsledders, skiers, and snowboarders have all been trained by Velocity.
“Many of the winter sports have incredible demands on the athletes. Take slopestyle and halfpipe events. The forces these athletes experience on jumps and landings are enormous,” says Vick. “We have to not only train for the event but sometimes, more importantly, to be durable and healthy. If you cant practice and develop your skills on the snow because you’re hurt, it doesn’t matter how good you are.”
That’s why Velocity has hosted several national teams in its elite centers. The impact was so visible that they’ve also deployed coaches and sports medicine professionals to work with teams and travel around the globe.
Elite Technology
Managing Velocity staff working with teams all around the world in different time zones presents challenges. One of the solutions for Velocity is taking advantage of cutting-edge technology.
“Technology like our Athlete Management System brings together data from multiple sources so we can use our Integrated Support Team to assist those professionals out in the field. Those coaches and sports medicine professionals aren’t on their own.”
One of the tools that they have used for years is a device from Australia called Gymaware. Its measures vary biomechanical properties of athletes when they are jumping or lifting weights. This highly scientific data can be sued to make programming decisions or day-to-day adjustments.
“The Gymaware tool is a scientifically proven device that’s completely portable. While I love using force plates, they are big and bulky so not great for a team going from country to country every weekend,” laughs Vick. “We get to use the same device to both test and train the athlete and the data feeds right into our athlete management system automatically.”
Today this same technology that was refined and proven with the world’s most elite athletes, is being used in Velocity centers for athletes of all levels. Its also be used remotely by some athletes who follow digital training programs on their own. This lets coaches monitor their training and make precise adjustments to the plan.
Road to Tokyo
One of Velocity’s US locations is an 11,000 sq ft facility hidden away in El Segundo, CA. Once a site that once housed engineers helping send the mercury and Apollo astronauts to space, the spirit of innovation continues as athletes prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The sprint events in track cycling aren’t well known in the US, but they are known at Velocity. After hosting training camps for the US team before the 2008 Bejing Olympics, they’ve now helped cyclists from 4 different countries. One thing remains consistent for these athletes, being strong & powerful. Track sprinters need strength to get the fixed gear bikes up to speed and power to sustain the high speeds attained on the velodrome track.
In 2012 Velocity supported the US Sprint team as well as Trinidad & Tobago athlete Njisane Phillips. Then for the Rio Olympics, they supported the entire Chinese team including the eventual Gold medalists in the Women’s Team Sprint. They also hosted the Australian team in their Redondo Beach for a 1-month holding camp right before the Games.
Athlete Maddie Godby is a Team USA Sprint Cyclist who will compete in Tokyo. She has been training at Velocity Sports Performance with Coach Ken Vick.
Team USA athlete Maddie Godby is the latest track sprinter training with Velocity. The 28-year-old international competitor came to Coach Vick with the goal of getting stronger and more explosive.
Training 2-3 days a week in the gym, she’s used that same Gymaware technology to monitor and prescribe highly specific training that fits her unique needs as an individual and as a sprint cyclist.
“We are fine-tuning at this stage so there are targets and we want to hit the right zones. Just to have that feedback is really helpful. Sometimes that means adding more weight and other times it means less.” comments Godby.
So far, it’s working. She performed at a high level in May in Hong Kong at the only international event in over 14 months. She spent most of that time off the velodrome track since they were closed in the pandemic. However, putting in time, training in the gym, has made her much stronger and explosive. Qualities she’ll put to use in Tokyo.
But there is more than just training according to Godby. “I’m really good at pushing myself and training hard. So in order to do that I needed to find ways to recover better. So that’s a really big part of what I’ve been doing at Velocity.”
Other Athletes in Tokyo
Like many Americans, Velocity will also be excitedly watching the Men’s Basketball competition in Tokyo. This location and its Redondo Beach predecessor have also trained USA Basketball team members Kevin Durant and Draymond Green in past off-seasons.
Swimming will also be high on the list. Velocity was also under contract to support the Chinese Swimming Association for 2 years up to the Olympics Games. Unfortunately, with the pandemic, that plan got cut short in early 2020 after over a year of work put in. Still, several former Velocity staff members including Coach Zach Murray stayed behind to continue working all the way up to the Games.
The Olympic Dream
In the USA many athletes in smaller sports struggle to survive as they pursue their dreams. Velocity has made it part of its mission to support these incredible athletes who are willing to dream. Every year they provide sponsorships for athletes in smaller sports to help them on their journey.
According to Vick, this is something he thinks is important as a coach and as the CEO. “The Olympics, but more so the journey and pursuit of that goal, is inspiring. Athletes like these give us insight into the human spirit and what’s possible. That goes far beyond sport. That’s why we love doing what we do and want to give back to those who inspire all of us.”
When it comes to improving an athlete’s speed, many trainers just stick to their preferred methods. Maybe they have a bunch of go-to speed and agility drills. Others may mostly use strength training with their athletes. For another, it may be technical track drills.
All of these can be effective and have a place in building better athletes.
However, having just one training solution for every athlete will fail many. It leaves many poorly served because, after the foundation, every athlete doesn’t have the exact same needs.
Coaches, athletes, and parents are often confused about whether they need more speed training or more weight room time. Unfortunately, too many trainers skip the actual analysis to find what’s really needed.
Time Trials
To help understand why we need deeper analysis, let’s look at auto racing. I can go out to the race track and do time trials. I can see how fast we can finish a lap, what the top speed is, or how fast we can accelerate.
These are all performance measures.
We’re measuring the performance of both the car and driver.
The car has to produce engine torque, grip the surface of the track, and steer effectively.
Additionally, the driver needs the skill to properly utilize those capabilities. Without those skills, he can’t optimize the performance.
Those performance measures of time, distance, and velocity can give us insight into opportunities to improve. However, they don’t specifically tell us how to improve.
First of all, they were measures of the combined systems of the car and driver.
The times alone can’t tell us if the driver or the car is the limiting factor.
Going further, if it was the car, we still don’t know which components of the system need improvement.
start athlete speed skater sprint race at competition
Performance Testing in Sports
In sports, we do very similar things. We test athletes on how fast they can sprint or do an agility drill. We see how high they can jump or throw an object. It is just like timing the car on the race track.
It requires the driver (like the athlete’s motor control system) to use the race car’s physical performance capabilities (like the athlete’s body) to perform the test well.
Performance testing can help us set goals, see where we can improve, and give us feedback if our training programs are successful.
However, it doesn’t necessarily tell us HOW to improve.
Improving Performance
So what do you do when you want to improve that speed on the race track? Do you jump straight in and upgrade the engine, or maybe the transmission? Maybe change the tires or the cooling system? Maybe you fire the driver and hire a new one.
Any of those may help. But without looking deeper and performing diagnostic tests, you may be wasting time and money on the wrong factor.
If we have a great car, but a poor driver, we won’t get much better by upgrading the engine torque. The driver isn’t good enough to use the existing power on the track right now. Improving the engine and power won’t change that.
On the flip side, the best driver in the world cant take a honda civic and win a professional race. The car just doesn’t have adequate mechanical capabilities to keep up.
In sports, we have to consider whether an athlete needs to improve their speed by upgrading their physical capabilities or their motor control. Coaches do this by analyzing techniques and seeing if they have the basic strength & power qualities needed.
If one of these is the clear limiting factor, then they know where to spend time and energy.
Professional car mechanic working in auto repair service.
Looking Under the Hood
If a race team wants to win they don’t stop at how the car performed on the track. The crew takes it into the garage, looks under the hood, and does diagnostics.
It is not enough to only know WHAT the car can do in terms of power or efficiency. They need to analyze HOW its being accomplished.
That’s what we do when we use Strength Diagnosis with an athlete. We are going beyond the performance tests by looking under the hood at their strength and power capabilities.
After all, there are very different types of strength needed to improve linear sprinting, change of direction, or jumping height. Even within a sprint, different types of strength influence initial acceleration versus maximum velocity sprinting.
Strength Signature
The Velocity Strength Signature is a method developed over 20+ years to identify sport-specific strength qualities. By measuring the kinetics in 5 different movements, we can quantify all six types of athletic strength.
An athlete’s unique profile across these six types of strength is what we call a Strength Signature. Just like your written signature, it is unique.
It also tells us a lot about how we can help you improve through training. By considering your specific goals, and evaluating your Strength Signature, coaches can help you target the right type of strength.
Then you can continue to train hard, but now you’re doing it smarter.
Summary
Whether it’s a race car on the track or an athlete in the gym, performance testing shows us what’s possible and how we are doing.
However, in both cases, performance testing doesn’t necessarily tell us why we are performing that way or how to improve it.
So with our race car, we look under the hood and diagnose the limitations of the car.
With athletes, we look under the hood with Strength Diagnosis to find out what types of sport-specific strength they need to improve and stay healthy.
These are the 5 “rules” we consider when we’ve designed training programs for swimmers. No matter whether we are talking about the developing swimmers, Collegians, or Olympic Gold Medalists we’ve trained at Velocity Sports Performance, these rules always apply.
Swimming Is Unique
An elite competitive swimmer is like any other athlete in many ways. They need a good foundation of coordination and basic strength throughout the entire body. This base of athleticism is useful for coordinating general motion and basic physical health.
However, swimming is unique among athletic movements. No other sport is performed in another substance and without contact with the ground.
Yes, there are sports like rowing or kayak which propel a vessel through water. There are also sports like skiing or snowboard where athletes ride over snow. Or speed skating, hockey, and skeleton which slide over ice.
First, in all those other sports you get to breathe. You have to get your face out of the water to breathe in swimming.
Second, there is the fact that almost everything else has movement produced or controlled by producing force and directing it through the feet into the ground.
A swimmer propels themselves through water primarily with the upper body instead of through the legs into the ground. They have to manage the laws of not just physics, but specifically hydrodynamics to swim.
1. The Pool Rules
Since humans are not native to the water, swimmers need to spend a lot of hours in the pool. They need to be in the water developing and maintaining their feel for the for it and efficiency moving through it.
For all training, that becomes the priority. They need to be in the pool.
While an athlete’s sport is always the priority, it’s even more true for a swimmer. It is more important than any dryland, core, conditioning, or strength program. They don’t get the same “cross-training” benefits from doing something on land.
Other ground-based athletes have the advantage that daily locomotion and lifelong development give them.
It’s an added foundation for most athletes’ sporting movements. They are used to being on the ground, with-in gravity, and producing forces, and getting kinesthetic feedback.
Swimmers aren’t that fortunate. To get those benefits, they have to be in the water.
Hours upon hours in the pool are required for developing the movement skill and specific conditioning need to excel in the sport. When designing and delivering performance training for swimmers, this always has to be kept in mind.
One of the strongest Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for swimmers can be as simple as healthy hours in the pool swimming.
That brings us to the 2nd priority. Keeping them healthy.
2. Stay Healthy
If a swimmer is injured and can’t swim, they have broken rule number one. Keeping them in the pool is the priority but keeping them injury and pain-free goes beyond just being in the pool.
Shoulder Pain In Swimmers
Shoulder pain, injury, and dysfunction are prevalent in swimmers.
“Shoulder pain is the most frequent orthopedic injury in swimmers, with a reported prevalence between 40% and 91%… Swimmers at the elite level may swim up to 9 miles per day (more than 2,500 shoulder revolutions). Muscle fatigue of the rotator cuff, upper back, and pectoral muscles caused by repetitive movement may result in microtrauma due to the decrease of dynamic stabilization of the humeral head.”
Epidemiology of Injuries and Prevention Strategies in Competitive Swimmers Sports Health, May 2012
These microtraumas, in turn, can lead to a swimmer’s shoulder symptoms.
That’s because the majority of propulsion in swimming strokes is from the upper body. Only the breaststroke or the underwater dolphin kick (the fifth stroke) have significant contributions to propulsion from the lower body.
A ground-based athlete produces a ground reaction force with the lower body. It is directed through the center of mass to take sports actions.
A swimmer instead will generate forces against the water that must propel them. In most strokes, the majority (80-90%) of propulsion is generated by the upper limbs.
The shoulder is unique. It has a huge degree of mobility. In fact, the shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body.
This allows for an extensive range of motion through multiple planes of motion. Unfortunately, the shoulder is also inherently unstable due to this mobility.
Conversely, since it’s highly mobile, this joint also needs lots of stability. The shoulder complex has to transfer all the force generated in the upper extremity into the torso. That means all of the small muscles that stabilize the glenohumeral and scapula-thoracic joints need to function well.
For a swimmer’s shoulder to function well those muscles need to fire in a coordinated manner, have enough strength to stabilize and transfer force, and the endurance to do it for thousands upon thousands of repetitions.
That’s a big ask and part of why there are so many painful shoulders in swimmers.
3. Streamline
Dryland training for swimmers should emphasize torso and pelvic control to maintain a streamline position
Athletes and coaches need to understand that technique trumps strength. The amount of drag in the water is a bigger factor in swimming velocity than propulsion.
Think about that for a moment. Minimizing drag, which requires maintaining the body’s streamlined position, is more important than propulsion.
Hydrodynamics tells us why.
The faster a swimmer goes, the more drag there is. It goes up exponentially. So anything that breaks the streamline and creates drag has an exponential impact to slow the swimmer.
On the other side of this problem, is the fact that propulsion gets harder as you swim faster.
The faster a swimmer’s hand moves through the water, the more resistance the water creates. It’s also exponential.
So the faster you go, the more drag slows you down and the harder it is to push the water.
Training for A Swimming Streamline
To minimize drag in the water, athletes should strive to maintain an elongated spine and streamline position, as well as display advanced lumbopelvic control.
Staying streamlined and minimizing drag in the water is primarily the realm of the pool and the swim coach.
However, on dryland, we can create the prerequisites the swimmer needs for this.
For the prone strokes of freestyle, butterfly, and breast, this requires the entire posterior chain to help the lower half of the body from dropping. The posterior chain includes all the muscles along the back of the body from toes to the head.
Exercises that link the entire posterior are key for swimmers.
Swimmers also need a foundation of strength and stability in their pelvis and torso.
The “core” of the body can be defined in many ways. For the purposes of the swimmer, we are defining it 360 degrees from the pelvis through the scapula.
During each swimming stroke, they have to manage rotational forces from the upper body and into the torso. They have to keep their streamline from the head, through the torso, and down into the pelvis and lower body. Any break in this chain will lead to increased drag.
This is why comprehensive core training is key. There is a place for isolated exercises of the core and pelvis, but it’s the multi-muscle/joint exercises that build connectedness need for swimmers.
4. Starts/Turns
Starts are an important part of the race that dryland training can greatly influence
Whether it’s swimming, sprinting in track & field, or a BMX event, everyone wants a great start.
In swimming, the opportunity to push off the blocks, overcome inertia, and generate horizontal momentum can be incredibly important. So we need to consider this when designing training programs for swimming.
Turns are the same.
Each turn is an opportunity to use the large muscles of the lower body to generate propulsion and build speed. Unlike sprint distances that have few turns, long-distance races have many, each an opportunity to gain speed.
Entering the water off the start, and coming off the turns are the fastest velocities during any event.
Starts are the fastest, and turns are second. To maximize the benefit, swimmers need power in their lower bodies to be explosive in both.
For sprints, the start (to 15m) makes up a large portion of the entire race and drops as the distance increases. In shorter sprints, this can be over 25% of the race so you better get it right.
Turns on the other hand (5m in, 5 m out), take up a larger portion the longer the race is. This makes sense because the longer the race, the more total turns there are. In a 1500m race, the turn time can be 30-40% of the race.
So making the most of these is critical in a sport where hundredths of a second make a difference.
Explosive Training For Swimmers
The swim start, and a good turn, require the athlete to explode from a static or relatively static position. In this position, the ankle, knee, and hip are all bent and ready to explode off the wall.
Although the swimmer is horizontal in the water, their alignment and force vector is like a vertical jump.
During turns the position and biomechanics are very similar to a vertical jump
We need to highlight the static position here because there are differences in the strength qualities required when exploding from static positions.
The static muscle contraction
In many athletic movements, the athlete will perform a counter-movement first. This is the bending of the knees and hips while they dip down before a vertical jump. This occurs before they begin pushing back up explosively, and it gives them added force into the ground.
For a start, the swimmer is in their start position, knee and hips bent, and muscles tensed ready to fire. They need to immediately explode forward on the gun so they don’t waste valuable time.
It’s a static position.
They cant take advantage of that added force from the countermovement.
A turn is essentially the same. If they execute the flip turn well, their feet are near/touching the wall, with the knees and hips already bent. They don’t perform a countermovement sinking closer into the wall.
When they have contact with the wall they need to instantly generate high levels of force to explode off the wall. All of this has an impact on their training needs.
This lack of countermovement means when training for explosiveness in the lower body means they will need to have a high rate of force development.
Rate of force development is the ability to turn on the muscle quickly to achieve high forces in a small time. It can be developed with explosive exercises including plyometric jumps, medicine ball throws, and explosive weight training.
5. Propulsion
Ground-based athletes develop forces from the ground up, in a coordinated extension of the hips, knees, and ankle. The summation of these forces propels them forward.
Similarly, swimmers must develop a coordinated, multi-segment flexion from the upper body through the hips to summate the highest propulsive forces.
The dryland training of swimmers needs to include elements that emphasize the coordinated application of strength from the fingertips through the core and to the toes.
This is the “tip to toes” connected concept.
A key feature of “connected” exercises for swimmers is that the core and hips are controlled for stability at the same time while the upper extremity generates power in pulling and pushing moments. This goes back to the earlier rule that streamline is more important than propulsion.
So in dryland training, we shouldn’t sacrifice core control and body position for more power. We also strive to develop the forces and power with full-body control.
For an exercise to develop “connectedness” the following qualities need to be developed;
Athlete exhibits pelvis and spinal control during movement
Athlete demonstrates scapular control during strength application
Athlete develops pulling tension across multi-segmental, muscle/fascial lines
To achieve this swimmers should emphasize multi muscle/joint exercises. Gymnastic type fundamentals on rings and parallettes are a great way to build a solid foundation and always connect the core and shoulder complex.
Kettlebell exercises also are a great tool to emphasize the connection and develop stability in the shoulder girdle.
Training Smart for Swimmers
To design an effective training program for swimmers, you have to first understand the demands of the sport. Many of the same training methods used for other athletes will pay dividends for swimmers as well.
However, there are unique aspects to swimming we have to consider as swimmers reach higher levels.
Hydrodynamics are the driving factor and only when we understand their impact on the swimmer can a program be “swimming specific”.
The key concepts are;
The time in the pool rules all else
Healthy swimmers are in the pool and capable of efficient technique
Maintaining a streamline is more important than greater propulsion
The starts and turns are the faster parts of the race and make up large portions of it
Propulsion in swimming develops from the fingertips and connects through the core
Building training for a swimmer begins at a young age by developing all-around athletes. On top of that athletic foundation, dryland then continues to become more swimming-specific by following the rules above.
There are many ways to train swimmers, but to be effective, the rules need to be followed.
Eccentric strength is critical for athletes because they encounter a lot of eccentric actions. These movements are both impactful to performance and often linked to non-contact injuries.
One of Six Types Of Athletic Strength
Athletes need strength to absorb eccentric overload in motions like landing, stopping, follow-through, and change of direction. Think of this type of strength as your shock absorbers and brakes.
These activities come with high levels of force, and often high levels of speed. Think about an athlete who just went up for a rebound in basketball or spike in volleyball.
After that jump, they have to absorb the forces of landing. That means controlling them so they don’t get injured, and so they are ready to go into the next action they need to make.
When we say eccentric, we are talking about motions where muscles are lengthening while still contracting. As a simple example, think of a bicep curl. When you are curling the barbell up, that’s a concentric contraction. The muscles are contracting, and your bicep is getting shorter. On the other hand, if you lower it back down slowly and don’t just let it fall, you are fighting against gravity. This is an eccentric contraction. The muscles are contracting to resist gravity but are lengthening
Eccentric strength is important for athletes when they have to absorb forces. You can see the athlete above is absorbing forces on her lead leg as she slows for sprinting and lowers to get the ball.
Any athlete that needs speed on the court or field also needs brakes. Most sports involve changes of direction.
Going fast is great, but if you don’t have the brakes to stop or change direction, you’ll have a hard time using your speed.
Think of eccentric strength as brakes for an athlete. Since they often need to stop, change direction, and land, eccentric strength is important for athletes.
High forces can be developed during these eccentric actions.
In fact, your body can produce higher forces eccentrically than concentrically. Plus, the brain uses a different motor control strategy than for the concentric motion.
So, if you aren’t training these motions, you won’t have the coordination and motor control optimized.
Strength Signature
When we perform a Strength Diagnosis for an athlete we identify the six strength types for athletes. The relative levels of these different types of strength create a profile of the athlete.
When it comes to eccentric strength, we call this quality Absorb.
Since we know eccentric strength is important for athletes, we measure it. To derive this value, an athlete is actually tested on how efficiently they can handle eccentric forces and then reuse that force to produce a subsequent explosive movement.
Training Eccentric Strength For Athletes
Absorb is trained in several ways. One is in the weight room because eccentric strength needs high levels of force to be stimulated.
Sometimes this is heavy lifts, or extending the time in the eccentric (lowering) phase of a lift. It can also be done with special equipment that focuses on the lowering phase.
Plyometrics that focus on overloading and controlling the landings is another good way to build your ability to Absorb.
Eccentric Strength Is Important For Athletes
Just like a fast car needs reliable brakes to corner well and stop, an athlete needs eccentric strength to perform well and stay safe. Developing this type of strength requires specific training with the right methods to improve it safely.
Sport-specific
training is a constant topic of discussion among athletes, parents, and
coaches. For our team at Velocity, it comes up
daily in settings from local performance centers to our coaches at Olympic
training facilities.
While some performance coaches scoff at the idea of
sport-specific training, we think it’s a great thing to discuss.
It just seems like commonsense after all.
It’s based on you competing in a sport.
You want to improve performance in that sport.
You have decided to spend time and energy on training other than sport/skills practice.
Therefore, it’s perfectly logical that it should be specific.
In this article, we are going to cover the essential things you need to understand about sport-specific training. This includes:
Why you want sport-specific training
What sport-specific training is
Transfer of training
How sport-specificity affects Long term Athletic Development
How do you figure out what’s specific for your sport
Sport-specific speed, strength, stamina, and mobility
Why Do You Want Sport-Specific Training?
Whenever
an athlete wants a training program, one of our key questions is: Why Do You
Train?
It’s
at the foundation of how Velocity approaches athletes. We need to understand an
athlete’s WHY? Their deeper motivation.
How
does this have anything to do with a specific training program?
Context and coaching
See,
as coaches, our responsibility is to help guide you to the right solutions. If we don’t have any context to your question about
sport-specific training, we are making assumptions.
Those
assumptions could be wrong.
Do
you want sport-specific training because you have potential in the sport and
want to play at a high level? Some athletes are just
trying to make their team or get playing time.
Maybe
you want to train specifically so that
you can reduce your risk of injury. Or perhaps
you’ve had an injury and are trying to get back to your performance level
before.
Perhaps you’ve tried some training that wasn’t
“sport-specific” and you didn’t see results, or worse it had a
negative effect on your game.
All of those goals may, in fact, require
some type of sport-specific training. However,
they are also different.
A coach needs to understand this. After all, when we look deeper, sport-specific training is really; your goal-specific training.
If a coach doesn’t really understand your goals, then your training might be off-target.
Most
athletes seek sport-specific training to meet their sport-specific goals. If
your coach doesn’t try to understand you and your goals, then they might be
missing the mark.
That’s bad coaching.
So
let’s start by redefining the underlying motivation for sport-specific
training;
You want results in your sport.
You don’t want to waste time and effort on training that doesn’t contribute to those results.
The purpose of sport-specific training is to use training to effectively and efficiently reach your goals in the sport.
What Is Sport-Specific Training?
Since we know what the purpose is; what is sport-specific training?
When
we discuss “sport-specific” we hear a lot of different concepts.
Often it’s based on doing things that look like the sport. Drills that use the
sports equipment; balls, bats, gloves, sticks, etc…
Other times it’s practicing sports skills with rubber bands
on, wearing weight vests, or hooked up to bungee cords and devices.
At the elite level those ideas occasionally come up,
but the discussion tends to get more straight to the point. Our Olympic teams and pro
athletes want results.In their sport.Period.
With a small margin of error in many elite sports, training has to be specific
Elite
athletes face heavy physical and mental demands. The margin for error can be incredibly small. In some of our Olympic sports hundredths of a second are the
difference between a Gold medal and not being on the podium at all.
An
athlete facing that can’t waste time or energy. They can’t add wear and tear to
their body if it doesn’t give them better results in return. Their coaches care
about the same thing.
Sports specific training transfers to better performance, lower injury risk and increased competitive longevity.
Transfer
of Training
This
brings us to the concept of “transfer of training” in sports. Is the training
you are doing transferring to improved performance in your sport? Is it
transferring to lower injury risks so you can be in the game competing? Is it
helping to extend your career for more years?
Those
are the questions that we ask of every component of training at the elite
level. As an athlete has more years of training, this becomes harder and harder
to achieve. This is related to their
“window of opportunity” for different qualities.
Windows
of Opportunity
An
athlete’s opportunity to improve a skill or ability is not infinite. A human
will never run 100mph or vertical jump 20 feet. There are limits to human
performance. So let’s apply this concept to a physical ability. Sprinting.
To make our point let’s get a little extreme. A 3 year knows how to run. They won’t be that fast compared to an Olympic sprinter.
If we consider the Olympic sprinter near the top of human potential, then the 3 year has a huge window of opportunity to improve. The Olympian is nearing human limits, so their window of opportunity is very small.
An Olympian has developed to such a high level, their room for improvement is usually very small.
This concept has a profound effect on the transfer of training. At early levels, doing general things will bring big dividends. A soccer team of 8-year olds will improve their soccer skills just by becoming more coordinated. Doing things like skipping, jumping hoping and running will increase their basic athleticism.
They get a lot of “transfer” (improvement in their sport)
from that unspecific and relatively less intense training.
General Athleticism Helps Young Athletes
That
general athletic training also doesn’t overstress the body. It doesn’t limit
the skill set being developed later. Maybe at 8, they are playing soccer, but by
10 they decide they like volleyball. That library of basic athletic movement
skills can be drawn on for most sports.
However, that high-level athlete is entirely
different. Just doing general skipping,
jumping and hopping won’t improve their performance. Our Olympic athletes
generally have a decade or more of training. Their window of opportunity to
improve is much smaller than that 8-year old.
Fundamental athleticism is great to keep elite players functioning, but it won’t help them improve sports skills.
Whereas a little training effort may have lead to 75%
sports improvement for the 8-year-old, the elite athlete has to put in a lot of
work to even improve 1%.
They have to put in more effort, endure more wear and tear
on their body and manage large emotional and mental stresses. There is no room for waste,
so training becomes more and more specific. Sport-specific training is
essential for efficiency and effectiveness at the elite level.
Long Term Athlete Development
Model
Velocity employs a long term athletic development model
that helps address the need for specificity. It builds specificity from the ground up
through a foundation of athleticism. At the
early stages, this provides the transfer of training without the repetitive
stress and strain of high specificity.
As an athlete progresses, they continue to benefit from the transfer of training. They accomplish this by focusing on using different types of strength and building athletic movement skills. This gives them a larger library of skills to take to sports practice and put into their technical skills.
As they gain some additional training experience, they can start to become more specific to their sport, their position, and their individual needs.
So, start at the start. To use an analogy, we don’t start future professional drivers in Formula 1 cars at age 8. It’s specific, just not effective. You start them on a far more basic type of car and track. Any young athlete training outside of their sports practice should employ an LTAD model of sport-specific training.
Athletes should progress from general to specific based on the years of training experience of the athlete.
Understanding
Your Sport
As
an athlete, you don’t have to be a sport scientist. Still, you should be
learning about your sport as you train. Hopefully,
you are getting that in part from your coaches. That means both your sport and
performance coaches.
To determine what IS specific to a sport we strive to understand sports. The Velocity High-Performance Team utilizes experts in performance, sports medicine, biomechanics, sports science, and more to determine this along with the sports coaches.
While there can be thousands of components to elite
performance, they can be grouped into some big buckets to understand.
Sports
Skills
When it comes to the actual competition, it’s the athlete’s technical and tactical skills that clearly rule the day.
Technical skills are what we typically think of as their sport skills. Dribbling a ball, executing a gymnastics routine or hitting the ball. These skills are developed through thousands of hours of deliberate practice.
Sport skills include both technical and tactical skills. For instance, a wrestler needs the skill to exact a move, but also needs to know when to choose that move and use it.
Tactical
skills are the athlete’s abilities to judge and analyze elements of the game.
It’s also their decision making in those moments.
Can the linebacker read the lineup of the opposition and
the strategic situation to diagnose what play is most likely?
Can the rower recognize the other boat picking up the pace
and consider the distance left and their own energy reserves?
Awareness of what’s happening, analyzing it, and making a
strategic decision is an often under-appreciated skill in sports. However,
it can make the difference between being a Hall of Famer and not even having a
career.
Physical
Abilities
When
the sports skills are equal or close it may be physical skills that separate
athletes. In fact, at some point, their
ability to develop technical skills can be
affected by their physical abilities.
For instance, consider a quarterback or pitcher trying to
perfect their throwing technique for more velocity. As
they work with sports coaches they may be trying to move through new ranges of
motion for better movement efficiency. However, if their underlying mobility isn’t adequate, they
won’t be able to execute that technical model.
The
same could be true for strength or movement skills. Athletes need a foundation
of physical abilities to build on. This is what we often refer to as
“athleticism.”
Mindset
The
third component of sports competition is the athlete’s mindset. We use this
term to encompass their cognitive processes and brain’s physiological
processing. When we ask world-class athletes
and coaches how much of the game is mental, they typically respond anywhere
from 50% – 99%.
A winning mindset includes the resiliency to overcome obstacles.
Of
course, you can’t win mentally if you don’t have sports skills or physical
ability. What this tells us is that those things will lose importance if your
mindset isn’t right.
With
this model of performance, you can begin understanding what is needed in your sport.
You can begin looking at what you need as an individual to succeed. If sport-specific training is about achieving results in the sport, then you need to know what leads to success in the sport.
In
the end, the thing that tends to increase your sports skills the most is
playing and training your sport.
Now
a lot of performance coaches hate to hear this, but it’s true. Playing your sport and training your technical and
tactical sports skills is as specific as it gets.
However, there are often limits on this. Physically
from energy systems and repetitive motion. Access to coaching time or
field/court space. Weather. Ability to use deep focus on the same skills.
These
are all things that can limit the ability of the athlete to just practice more for continued gain. When
you cant do the sport more it makes sense that other training could help you
get better.
Specific
To Sport, Position or You?
So if we are talking about sport-specific training that is
not just practicing the sport itself more
With
the goal of improving performance, you need to start considering how specific
to get. Is sport-specific training really
enough?
For
instance, a lineman and defensive back in football are both in the same sport.
Do they have the same specific demands?
Not
even close.
That’s
an extreme example but it carries over into a lot of sports. Different
positions may have some unique specific requirements.
Then
we can take this further to be more specific. If we look at different players
in the same position, they may have different styles. Let’s say the soccer forward who is all finesse and amazing moves
versus the power player who relies on speed and jumping higher to win in the
air. Same sport, same position, different styles.
Go
a step further and we can start to look at your individual genetics and
predisposition. What about your unique history of injuries and physical
qualities. When that window of opportunity gets smaller, these things come into
play.
In
the end, the level of specificity in training is inverse to the level and
training age of the athlete. The younger and more developmental the athletes,
the more benefit from general training.
The more elite the athlete with years of training, the more specific training need to be.
The laws of physics apply to all sports so a lot of the fundamental movement patterns look similar. Physics aren’t sport-specific.
Sport-Specific Training
We have already acknowledged that skills and tactics are
best improved in sports practice. However, we are
focused on determining what type of
physical training will be the most specific for your sport.
Training
that leads to better performance. Less injury. Longer careers.
So. what physical qualities are specific to any sport? Let’s start by defining some broad categories; speed, strength, stamina, mobility, and resiliency.
What Is Sport-Specific Speed?
Speed
and agility are valued in almost every
sport. To et specific, you can start understanding different aspects to speed
in sports.
As you try to understand what makes speed specific to your
sport you can start by thinking about how much of the movement is straight
ahead versus laterally and diagonally?
That’s
an important factor. Is there a lot of straight-ahead sprinting like a wide
receiver in football or a soccer forward? Or is it more sideways or mixed
movements? The type you see in sports like basketball and tennis as examples?
Athletes developing the fundamentals of acceleration at Velocity in Greenville, SC.
There
is a lot of crossover in training these. It’s
especially true at earlier stages of sports development, but as you go up in
level the difference is greater and training techniques more specific.
How often do you change directions in your sport? That’s another way to determine your sport-specific training needs. A player reacting to opponents or trying to lose them may make a lot of change of direction movements.
What Is Sport-Specific Strength?
Too often athletes think that strength is how much weight you can lift on a barbell. For an athlete, strength is so much more than that.
That
big lift barbell strength is often useful and represents one type of strength.
You need to understand that there are different types of strength and which you
need in your sport.
Strength is simply the act of applying force. Applying force to the ground, ice or water. Force applied to your bike, bat, racquet or a ball. Applied force to move your bones and joints into different positions.
Strength not only moves you, but it also holds you together. Your muscles, fascia, and connective tissue use contraction to make you function. Strength protects you when you absorb impact. Impacts from striking the ground when running. Internal stress from decelerating your arm after throwing or swinging the stick. Impact from opponents or landing on the ground.
Every Athlete Needs Strength
So
EVERY athlete needs strength. The devil is in the details.
Strength is simply about generating and applying force. Athlete’s need to develop several types of general and sport-specific strength
Those details are about how fast it’s applied. The direction and motion. The muscle groups. And it’s the transition from one strength type to another. This is what defines strength for an athlete.
This is why the Velocity Strength Signature was developed. To help elite athletes understand what type of strength they needed to train.
To
help illustrate this, let’s consider the strength needed by an NFL lineman and
a tennis player. Do both need to be strong?
Many
people may jump to the conclusion that a lineman needs strength and a tennis
player doesn’t. After all the lineman is pushing around another 300lb human who
is really strong. The tennis player is
only moving their body and swinging a little racquet.
If
we are thinking in terms of something
like a 400lb back squat this might be relatively
accurate. That is what we would call Maximum
Strength. The ability to contract slowly (compared
to many sports movements) and at very high force levels.
The tennis player does need some of this strength type, but they also need to cover the court really quickly. The tennis player is lighter and goes side to side changing directions. Those changes are going to require more eccentric strength. The ability to absorb their momentum going one way, stop and go back the other.
This is also strength, but a different type. Sports generally requires multiple types of strength, with some more important than others. Strength training starts to become specific when you train for specific types of strength.
For
many people, this may be one of the most obvious. A marathon runner needs
different stamina than a 100m sprinter. The Olympic weightlifter has different
energy needs than the 1500m freestyle swimmer.
It
does get harder as we move to team sports and activities that are not
steady-state or really short. The body essentially has 3 main energy pathways and it
uses them in different ways for the sport.
To condition for this type of sport, we can train multiple energy systems together so it mimics the sport. At other times we focus on building up one more than others.
It’s not only sport-specific but position, style of play and individual specific. Even in a sport like basketball, two teams may need very different conditioning based on their style. A high pressure or fast-break style will require different conditioning than a slower tempo, ball control focused team.
What Is Sport-Specific Mobility?
To produce your sports technical skills, your body needs to
achieve certain body positions. You need to move your joints
and muscles efficiently through specific ranges of motion.
If you are limited by the flexibility, stability
or mobility of your body, you might not be able to effectively develop
that sport skill.
Most people can understand the difference needed in
mobility between an elite gymnast (huge mobility demands) compared to a cyclist
(only a few specific areas need mobility).
During training, sport-specific mobility comes from more than only stretching certain areas. Even effective dynamic warm-ups and full range of motion strength training help.
Athletes need mobility, flexibility, and stiffness in different amounts based on their sport.
First of all, understand you are right to want sport-specific training. Which means reaching your goals and improving performance in a sport.
Why
wouldn’t you want that?
Sports specific training transfers to better performance,
lower injury risk and increased competitive longevity.
Therefore, you need to find training that will get results and not waste your time and energy.
1.Your Athletic Development
Level
That means to first consider your level. A young athlete will get an effective transfer from developing all-around athleticism. Start at the start if you haven’t been training for years.
2.Your Sport Demands – Speed,
Strength, Stamina
Next, you need to understand what your sport demands. A good coach and performance system should actually help teach you this and guide you to a better understanding of your sport.
If you are training right, you’re going to see a lot of benefits for a long time. Moreover, this requires the right;
type
of movements
strength
qualities
energy
systems development
needed
mobility
3.Your Individual Needs
Finally, if you want to see benefits, your training needs to address your specific needs. If you’re slow, get faster. If you get injuries often, become more resilient physically.
This
is particularly true when it comes to sport-specific strength training.
Everyone can get stronger, but are you building the right type of strength? Do
you know your own genetic disposition and what type of strength will help you
on the field?
Sport-specific training is needed. Just make sure you know what that means and when. Ask questions to make sure your coaches do as well.
It’s a common cue you might hear from a coach. “Load to explode!”
That’s because it is fundamental to many sports movements and involves two of the six types of athletic strength.
LOADING YOUR MUSCLES
Loading is what you see athletes doing in a countermovement or wind-up. It’s that pre-stretch in many movements that increases their power. It measures how quickly you are able to build up force doing in that counter-movement.
Scientifically we describe this as the rate of force development. It tells us how quickly you can turn on your muscles and build up force. In the STRENGTH SIGNATURE, we describe this type of strength as LOAD.
When people are talking about strength, they often mean an athletes ability to apply maximal forces. They are talking about max strength.
But to generate maximum strength, peak forces could take over a second to build up. In rate of force development, we are looking at time frames of as little as 50-200 milliseconds.
the backwards leg swing before the kick is a counter-movement
As an example, picture a player about to jump. They first bend their knees and hips and dip down in what’s called a countermovement.
That counter movement helps build up force levels in the muscles and store some elastic energy to use while they jump up.
LOAD is the strength ability to have a high rate of force development during that counter-movement.
Another example would be an athlete “winding up” to throw a ball or a punch. Or maybe a hockey player winding up for more power in their slapshot or a tennis player preparing for a big swing.
EXPLOSIVE POWER
Coaches and athletes often talk about explosiveness and power since these are qualities that athletes want. Jumping, sprinting, hitting, throwing, and changes of direction can be described in these terms.
But it isn’t always clear exactly how they are looking at it.
In physics terms power is how much work can be done in a period of time.
However, if we rearrange the formula for power, we end up with a formula that says Power = force * velocity. Basically that means power is strength multiplied by speed.
POWER = STRENGTH X SPEED
Power is a determining factor in athletic movements such as jumping and sprinting where time to perform is limited. It is often framed relative to bodyweight because that matters when an athlete in running and jumping.
The more power they can develop per pound of bodyweight, the more it will project their body forward.
Think of it as an engine and it’s power output. A big engine with lots of power might not move a large truck that fast, but put it into a smaller, lighter car and it flies. More power per pound.
In our STRENGTH SIGNATURE, EXPLODE is the average power an athlete can produce relative to their bodyweight.
Load To Explode
As mentioned earlier, that loading action, makes the following explosive movement more powerful. That’s why it’s so important in sports and we see it so much.
This combination of two types of strength in a coordinated athletic movement is a key part of performance training. We want faster loading, and more explosive power.
Training LOAD
Loading is trained when we put an emphasis on how quickly muscles fire, not just how hard. Two of the ways we commonly do this are through starting explosive exercises from a pause, and by overloading counter-movements.
Static Ballistics
Sometimes the way to force an athlete to work on a specific strength quality is to put them at a disadvantage. This means they will have to overemphasize it, thus stimulating improvement.
In Load, we are talking about the ability to turn on muscles quickly.
So we take away momentum and counter-movements. Doing explosive exercises like jumps or Olympic lifts from a static start can be a big help here.
Overloaded Counter-Movements
To improve the Rate of Force Development (LOAD) during a counter-movement, you can overload the counter-movement with added weight or movement speed.
For instance, in some plyometric or agility drills we have athletes use medicine balls, weight vests, or bungee cords to overload the “loading” portion before they explode.
This is a really effective way to not just build general Load ability but to work on the motor control for applying it to a specific movement.
Training EXPLODE
In addition to training Speed and Agility, we also develop an athlete’s power capability through weight training and plyometrics.
Plyometrics
Jumping exercises can teach athletes how to apply their strength quickly or can be used to overload it.
Through different types of plyometrics, we can train specific movement patterns that athletes need so that their EXPLODE qualities translate to improvements in their sport.
Olympic Lifting
Olympic lifts and variations are great for developing athletic power
One of the most effective ways to improve EXPLODE is with Olympic lifts. By their nature, these movements combine strength and speed.
Athletes don’t need to always do the full competitive versions of the lifts or be as technically perfect as an Olympic caliber lifter. Basic technique and variations of the lifts are useful tools for all athletes seeking increased power capabilities.
Train Your Ability To Load and Explode
It’s a key part of sport most athletes should be training. By training these two strength types you can increase the speed and power of many key athletic movements. When it comes to strength training for athletes, it’s not only about how heavy a barbell you can lift.
The strength hockey players need to succeed is not always obvious to the casual observer. While lifting big weights like a heavy squat or bench press is impressive, strength is a lot more than just the matter on a barbell for athletes.
Here’s what you have to understand, those heavy lifting exercises are just one type of strength. It’s high force, but relatively slow (at least when compared to most sports movements).
In Velocity’s strength taxonomy, that’s what we’d call Max Strength or simply FORCE in the Strength Signature.
There are 6 types of strength we refer to for athletes. The development of all of them is crucial in building a better hockey athlete over the long term.
However, as a hockey player progresses, they will eventually focus on developing specific ones to higher levels and in the planes of motion that dominate the sport.
A player will need to increase their FORCE or maximum strength for quite a few years into their career. Young players in the NHL are often still building this as you won’t hit your higher-level until mid-twenties.
This serves as a base for many of the other qualities we are going to talk about. It also provides a degree of protection by increasing the load tolerance of the athlete’s soft tissues.
To go beyond that general strength, we perform a Strength Diagnosis through testing athletes and identify their unique Strength Signature—a profile of all 6 types of athletic power.
Even without that type of individual analysis, here are the 3 types of strength we’d like to see in a hockey player.
This strength quality is all about being able to absorb and control high levels of eccentric force. Eccentric muscle actions are where the muscle is applying force, but still stretching longer. It’s a critical and unique type of strength that is often neglected in many hockey players.
Every time a hockey player goes into a high-speed turn, they rely on eccentric strength to control those g-forces of the curve. If they want to go faster, they need more eccentric strength. When they take the impact of another player, they need this strength quality as well.
Training to improve this eccentric quality is done through a specific focus on absorbing and controlling forces. We use various overloaded plyometrics where the emphasis is on the quality and loads during landing or stopping.
It can also be achieved in traditional strength exercises when we focus on using extra slow tempos to lower the weight. Think of going downward in a squat and taking 6 seconds to do it.
Finally, we can really improve it by using special machines. We can overload the eccentric actions in diagonal and rotation patterns we see in hockey skating and shooting with flywheel inertia.
Explode
This is a power quality, meaning the player can apply big forces in a short time. We measure it relative to bodyweight because it directly correlates with a hockey player’s ability to propel themselves on the ice. High power output is needed for high skating speeds. It also contributes to things like shot power and making contact with another player.
Power is increased by first increasing strength to adequate levels and then focusing on speed of resisted movement. How much strength is enough? You have to test to figure that out.
Power per pound of body weight is important in hockey
To increase power, the variations of explosive Olympic lifts are a cornerstone. They are one of the most effective and efficient ways to increase whole-body power output.
Plyometrics and medicine ball throws are additional tools that can improve a hockey player’s capabilities. Performing these in lateral and rotational movements patterns helps transfer the explosive improvements from the weight room to the ice.
Another really effective method is to couple strength and power exercises together one after the other. Techniques such as complex and French contrast training rely on the increased nervous system activation of strength lifts. A heavy strength movement is followed by an explosive activity that takes advantage of this increased neurological state.
Load
This type of strength is all about how quickly you can turn on your muscle units and produce force. It’s their rate of force development.
Maximum strength is traditionally about peak force generation, but that could easily take well over a second to build up.
In hockey, things move much quicker. Even long contact times with the ice are only in the 300-500 msec range. Like in many sports, in hockey, it’s not always about how much force you can produce, but instead how quickly you can create it. We want our hockey players to be able to “load” their muscles rapidly so they can explode into the next action.
Using exercises that put athletes at a disadvantage by taking away momentum and counter-movements forces them to work on their force development rate. This is often done with lighter loads that let the athlete focus on moving quickly, instead of just grinding against weight. Giving athletes feedback through velocity tracking technology in the weight room helps drive the right adaptations.
Measuring specific strength qualities identifies an athlete’s Strength Signature
Instead of using generic programs, we tailor strength training to players after building a base of strength. This is done by actually measuring the 6 strength qualities to develop their Strength Signature.
The Strength Signature is a profile based on over 20 years of data from elite athletes around the globe. We can identify where a player’s relative strengths and weaknesses are so that an individual program can be created for optimal results.
Injury Prevention
Another reason we use Strength Diagnosis for hockey players is to identify strength imbalances that could put them at higher risk of injury. Whether they’ve been healthy until now or already had injuries, our Strength Diagnosis is an advanced step in keeping them on the ice and healthy.
For instance, a player with high EXPLODE and FORCE, but a low ABSORB score is at higher risk. It’s like a car with a really powerful engine and lots of speed, but bad brakes. That’s the formula for a crash.
Athletic Strength for Hockey
Once you understand that there are different types of strength, you can start to identify the types of strength hockey players need.
While a base of general strength is useful for a developing hockey player, understand that athletic strength has many qualities. To optimize performance and reduce the risk of injury, make sure you train the right type of strength.
On top of their basic force production capabilities, hockey players need specific types of strength. Absorb, Explode, and Load are the strength types hockey players need to thrive on the ice. Neglecting these essential qualities can leave holes in their game or put them at a higher risk of injury.
