Training Articles - Strength
- Muscle confusion training for athletes: Is it beneficial?
Matthew Rowe looks at the popular concept of muscle confusion and discusses whether it can improve our athletic performance.
- Football Strength
Jonathan Walker provides some advice on the importance of strength training in football.
- The best chest workout for broad and square pecs
Mark Kislich explains what he learnt from Jay Cutler, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charles Poliquin about Building Muscle Fast.
- Strength comes in many forms - here is
how to develop them
An overview of the classifications of strength and how we can develop strength.
- Strength training for throwers
Professor Allen Jackson and Davin Boydstun offer suggestions to increase strength for track athletes who participate in the throwing events.
- What factors need to be adapted in youth resistance training?
Kalan Jones discuss training adaptations when working with our youth. The growth and maturation process for adolescents varies with each individual. A child's maturation is often looked at according to their chronological age, but more importantly, development depends on a child's biological age.
- 5 Ways for Skinny Guys to Bulk Up
Useful tips that can help you pack on a bit of muscle and begin your journey towards getting stronger and muscular.
- Improve Your Deadlift
When it comes to any big lift, you need to set it up correctly. Not setting up correctly can lead to failure and injury.
- Guide to Dumbbells
Dumbbells are a great strength training tool, and we have seen some of the world’s best athletes achieve their optimum best performance through strength training with dumbbells.
- Pilates for Athletes
Pilates is one of the most dynamic exercises that focus on developing multiple areas that are a core requirement of a good athlete.
- Ripped Forearms
Joe Fleming provides a five-minute workout for ripped forearms.
- Start Lifting Weights Today
Joe Fleming provides ten reasons why you should start lifting weights consistently.
- Avoiding Injury When You Start Lifting Weights
Nurse Susan provides some tips on how to avoid injury when you first start lifting weights.
- Improve your Deadlifts
Nurse Susan provides five tips to help you improve your Deadlifts.
- Are your muscles growing?
Helen Rogers considers five reasons why your muscles are not growing.
- The Best of Both Worlds: Old School Training's Marriage to Modern Day Science
Alex Eriksson looks at strength training and wonders if a combination of the old school know-how and modern-day science is a way forward.
- Four Reasons Not to Skip Leg Day
Nancy Moore provides four reasons why focused legwork should be included in your training program.
- Muscle Building Tips
Annie Jones provides advice on five key muscle building tips to help you move from scrawny to brawny.
- Weights versus Sprints
A review of the various viewpoints on the role of weight training in a program designed to improve speed.
- Muscle Balance: Getting it Right
Muscle balance is vital in preventing injuries and may help develop maximum speed and improved muscular performance. If not addressed, through a well thought out and disciplined training program, muscle imbalances can slow down and injure the young athlete.
- Strength Development for Young Adolescents
The experience of providing resistance training education to groups of young adolescents has been etched in my mind. This is and can be a delightful experience, but it requires constant supervision and control. The focus of youth strength training programs needs to focus on correct technique, smooth, controlled motions, less resistance and many repetitions.
- Resistance training for young
athletes
Some guidelines for starting a strength-training programme with young athletes
- Promoting healthy weight training programs for young female athletes
The research indicated that after boys go through puberty, they have an increase in muscle development. Their gluts and hamstring muscles are much bigger and stronger while females seldom experience this burst or increase muscular strength. Females tend to be more dominant through the anterior compartment of the upper leg. The quadriceps and front muscles become thick, leaving the back muscles, such as the gluts and hamstrings less developed, leading to a muscular imbalance through the upper leg's anterior compartment. This condition puts more stress on the ACL therefore, increasing the chance for injury (Moore, 2008).
- Tips to Promote Continued Strength Development
Strength training advice which may be helpful to those in the intermediate or advanced stages of training who may be: searching for ways to stimulate the growth of muscles, reached a plateau in strength improvement or demonstrating boredom with their current training routine.
- How to stretch and strengthen your muscles
You do not need equipment or gadgets to stretch and strengthen your muscles, and there are a surprising number of exercises for endurance and strength that you can do at home, when you travel, or even at the office.
- The benefits of strength training for young female athletes
The two pprimary reasons for resistance training in junior female athletes are injury prevention and playing performance. Female athletes have a higher incidence of lower-limb injuries than male athletes, with studies showing that they are two to eight times more likely to suffer knee injuries. This may be linked to strength and flexibility imbalances in the lower limb, both of which can be addressed through proper training.
- Women, weight and weight training
A review of some myths associated with weight training for the female athlete
- Squatters rights to leg power
Downhill skiers do it, too. Most track and field athletes consider it an essential part of their supplemental training. Even soccer and hockey players rely on it.
- Strength and muscle balance
checks
A speed-strength imbalance between two opposing muscle groups may be a limiting factor in the development of speed. Muscle balance testing to compare opposing muscle groups' strength is vital to prevent injury and guarantee muscle contraction and relaxation speed.
- Free weights offer more specific training
than machines
The main problem facing the newcomer to resistance training is where to begin, since choosing the appropriate training method can significantly impact the program's effectiveness. And the critical question for most people is: should I use free weights or machines?
- How strong do your athletes need to
be?
How 'Strength' training can be your primary path to success.
- Myths of Exercise Prescriptions
Four of the training myths circulating the fitness world.
- Why you need E-Lifts in your Training
Plan
New training techniques can be positive, significantly if they evolve from an established and proven training system. Plyometrics is an excellent example of the positive evolution of training methods.
- Shoulder pain reduction using resistance
training
An overview of the shoulder anatomy and suggests an appropriate training programme to lower your risk of a shoulder injury possibly.
- Strength Training and the Young
Athlete
Should pre-adolescent kids lift weights, or should they not? Will it stunt their growth or increase their likelihood of future sporting success? Is growth plate damage a real concern or merely an exaggerated issue? This debate has raged on for years. Hopefully, this article will help clear up some of the problems.
- Power gym training for athletes
When visiting a gym, one will find many athletes doing all sorts of exercises with all kinds of reps and sets. The question is, why are you going to the gym and why are you doing resistance training? When power is your goal, exercise should be as follows:
- Medicine ball workouts that can do
wonders for your running velocity and power
Most medicine ball drills involve lifting, throwing and catching the ball. Still, the real focal point for such activities is the muscular 'corset' surrounding the junction between the trunk and the legs.
- The full squat from the trainer's
perspective
Advice that will enable you to monitor the athlete's execution of the exercise to ensure that it is performed correctly and safely.
- Stair climbing for lower body
strength
How stair climbing can be used to develop lower body strength.
- Identifying and correcting technical
exercise mistakes
A review of the types of mistakes that can occur in the execution of a lift when weight training.
- The benefits of explosive strength
training for rugby football
A look at the areas of the game where developing explosive strength can benefit rugby players.
- Olympic lifting for athletes made
easy
How to develop a sound technique to perform the Olympic lifts effectively and efficiently.
- Attacking the sticking points that are
inherent in all lifts
How you can increase the speed of the bar movement in the bench press.
- Hip flexors - the most underdeveloped
muscle group in strength training
Despite their importance to a wide range of athletic and sporting activities, the hip flexors are the most neglected major muscle group in strength training. It is very rare to find training programs that include hip flexor exercises. By contrast, there is usually a great deal of emphasis on exercises for the leg extensors.
- Punch like a jackhammer
How boxing and martial arts athletes can improve their punching power.
- Strength Training for Boxers
Recently athletes from all sports have begun to realize the importance of weight training. So, why have boxers been reluctant to realize the importance of resistance training?
- Getting 'set up' to start right -
part 1
How to correctly position your body and hold the bar correctly when weight training.
- Getting 'set up' to start right -
part 2
One may think the approach would not be that big of a deal when lifting the bar off the floor or performing any specific lift but it is the beginning of the start.
- Getting 'set up' to start right -
part 3
A look at the grip width on the bar, the grip on the bar, the angle of the thigh with the torso and the elbow position.
- Getting 'set up' to start right -
part 4
A look at the torso position, head position, preparing to move the bar and interaction with the bar.
- Getting 'set up' to start right -
part 5
A look at the importance of the shoulder and hip joint interaction with the bar, the alignment of the shoulder joint to maximize the pull, the alignment of the hip joint to maximize the pull and the initial pull off the floor.
- Strength training for children
Biomechanical research has shown that throwing, running and hitting impose larger forces on the body than weight training. These activities have been shown to place heavier stress on growing bones' growth plates than weight training. To minimize the potential for growth plate damage, closer attention should be given to the activities mentioned earlier.
- Five secrets to a bigger chest and
arms
The secret to building a bigger chest and developing your upper arm muscles.
- How to assess your One Repetition
Maximum (1RM) for strength training
How to assess your one-repetition maximum (1RM) for strength training.
- How to gain muscle mass but not
fat
How to gain muscle mass while losing body fat as well.
- How can I measure/test my athlete's
core strength?
If core strength is poor, then the torso will move unnecessarily during motion and waste energy.
- Here's some more good advice from
Popeye on pumping iron
Iron deficiency is a common problem for the trained athlete, particularly females and those on restricted diets.
- Static Contraction Training - Maximum
Overload in Minimal Time!
Instead of focusing on the amount of exercise and frequency, Static contraction training emphasizes the intensity of the workout session. This is done by working with weights above what you would use during a traditional strength training workout routine.
- The Magic Workout
How your muscle fibre type determines your ideal strength training workout.
- Ladder Training
How do you go from only performing a couple of press-ups or dips to completing 100 reps?
- Release natural steroids to build
muscle
While most adults are looking for ways to lose weight. Many teenagers are looking for ways to gain weight and increase muscle size to improve sports performance. New research discoveries show how to increase your body's natural steroids to accomplish this goal faster than ever.
- Strength Training for Women
Why strength training is vital for women, but the programme depends on their event, not their gender.
- High heart rate strength training
(HHRST)
What high-heart-rate strength training is all about and an example of a six-week training programme.
- Why you need E-Lifts in your training
program
The mechanics of E-Lifting and why E-Lifts are essential to your strength-training program.
- Using the slow lifts to improve the fast
lifts
Elite Eastern bloc athletes have long utilized this method as a "plateau buster" to promote progression in athletes who are experiencing stagnation in their training.
- Productively timing your two a day
workout
How is it possible to successfully strength train multiple times per day?
- Six of the best to flatten your belly
Like most things worth having, developing a great set of abdominals is not easy. Still, it is possible to achieve success if we apply ourselves and exercise our bodies and our minds. It is not just about training hard - but training smart.
- Drag yourself out of the gym and into shape
The weighted sledge provides several training opportunities for developing many facets of fitness, from low-level cardiovascular conditioning to anaerobic conditioning when performing sprints to muscular endurance, hypertrophy and strength work.
- The Power Clean
Since speed and power go hand in hand when in the weight room, we must focus on the same training elements that will help us be faster on the field or the track.
- Super Sets
How to develop pure strength, muscular endurance and lose fat.
- Fitter, faster, stronger, leaner!
How to go from your current physical performance levels to dizzying new heights by making logical progressions in your workouts.
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