What can bodybuilders teach high school athletes?

What NOT to do. 

Why? Body builders are professionals. It's their life, their dedication, their occupation often! Body builders often spend hours at the gym. Body building is a sport of it's own. And honestly, most body builders probably aren't the best basketball, soccer, baseball or football players. But they sure are great body builders!

Lunges and split squats are an athletes best friend!

Look at how bodybuilders lift. They usually have 3-4 exercises per body part, using 4-6 sets of 10-20 reps. Imagine how long this takes and the amount of stress on their bodies! 

But what does it take to be a high school all-star? Dedication to your sport and efficiency in the weight room. Sports are played using a single joint. Athletes don't do preacher curls, leg extensions, calf raises, tricep kickbacks or crunches during sports. They push, pull, rotate, squat and lunge. 

Also, we lift heavy. We keep it short and sweet. 4 sets of 6, 5 sets of 5, not much over 8 reps ever! And we use compound lifts that work 3-4 muscle groups per exercise!

The sad thing is that misguided coaches and parents often teach their young athletes to lift like this. Then when they see the way we lift, I always see the light go on followed by the words, "That makes a lot of sense!"

And these are things we do right now in our FAST Forward program. And they are the movements we'll train in our summer Speed, Strength and Power (SSP) Camp. Interested in learning more about either program?

Contact me at aaron@pairmarotta.com.

Conditioning: What exactly is it?

Conditioning is often thought of as simply post-training misery, often in the form of running and running...and running.

But when I give you this new definition of conditioning, it may very well change the way you coach or train.

Conditioning is simply the body's direct response to stimulus. The body will respond by adapting to the stimulus presented.So if you run and run and run with minimal rest or at a given speed, you or your athletes will get very good at running and running and running at that speed.

This might not be bad for endurance athletes. But think about the effects on athletes that need to sprint or sports that have specific work:rest intervals. What will this do to them?

If you're a baseball or softball player and your coach has you running laps around the diamond for 12-15 minutes, this is going to actually DECONDITION you. Yes, that is right. This will take you out of condition for your sport.

Baseball and softball requires bursts of sprinting followed by often long rest periods. So a better alternative would be to have athletes run a single, or a double followed by up to 8 times the duration of getting to the base.

So for example, if it took a player 8 seconds to run a double, their rest period should be upwards of 1:00. This may seem too long to some of you coaches. You're might calling me a liar, or some other adjective.

But slow down and think about it. If we want our players to get good at running fast, then we need to make sure they run their fastest. Will a player be able to run faster if they know they are going to have to run a 1/4 mile or if they only are running 60 yards?

You don't have to run once and then done, but have them run their double, rest for 1:00 and then repeat up to 10 times. This really won't be that tough because having 10 players running from home to 2nd will allow that first runner to rest almost a minute before the last runner pulls up. Then send them from 2nd to home. Repeat 5 times and you've got 10 sprints in 10 minutes.

So just think about the effects your training will have on the "conditioning" of your athletes. They will get better at whatever it is they do. If you want them to be weak, keep them from lifting. Want them to be slow? Make them run long periods of time with minimal rest.

Want them to be fast, agile and powerful? Send them to our Summer Speed, Strength & Power Camp. This camp will make ANYBODY faster, agile like a cat and lead them in the right direction for optimal sports performance. Don't wait, spots are filling up quickly!