Strength Tip Of The Day…

The Progression Of An Athlete/Fitness Junkie…

I’ve been getting several questions lately regarding my approach to training athletes. Several folks have been asking me “So Coach what do you do with a typical athlete from day one?” Well that’s a great question and I’m going to try to paint the picture for you right here in my latest blogisode! Keep on reading to find out.

From Day 1 Moving Forward…

Today’s post is going to be a bit of a quick one. I just wanted to point out a simple progression that I use with many of my athletes in terms of getting them ready to perform. Before I do anything I always run my athletes through a series of dynamic warm up drills. If you aren’t familiar with these you can see these in my latest Kettlebell Power And Speed Formula ebook. These are highly advantageous for increasing your body temperature to warm up the muscles while also getting your nervous system prepped at the same time to perform some movement!

After this I may go through some light to heavy conditioning work with a newbie (depending on the level of athlete) to further get them in the groove of moving around. During this time I’m also looking at how the athlete moves. I’m looking at how he or she runs and controls their body. This plays a big part into the whole evaluation.

Once this part is done I then take them over and examine how they look in a squat, lunge, and push up (or push up plank position). From here I can observe and make some decisions on what to correct with the athlete/fitness junkie. For instance, when performing the hip hinge within a squatting or deadlifting movement many athletes tend to be tight through the hips and at times the ankles so I generally end up helping them to stretch out and further mobilize these areas. I usually do this by making sure their calves, hip flexors, adductors, and glutes are not too stiff to perform the movement. Some corrective stretching might be in order to free up the hips and ankles such as a good set of assisted squats.

Remember the SAID principle which is an acronym for Specific Adaptations To Imposed Demands. Basically this means that in order to get better at a certain skill or movement you simply practice that skill or movement. Now when it comes to performing a strength movement the key is to PROPERLY practice it in order to get better at it! 😉

Once this is done I’m moving on to teaching them how to efficiently hinge the hips through a squat, deadlift, and ultimately a kettle bell swing pattern. Once they have mastered the basics of these moves I work on building their baseline of strength with squats, presses, pulls (pull ups, or rows) , and lunges.

Granted there are variations of these in the strength building phase, but the point is that I want them to be good at these moves while building a solid strength base. Once they have this strength base then I focus on developing more of that athletic performance part involving more explosive dynamic drills (medicine ball slams, throws, plyometrics, etc.). In addition to this I make their strength lifts more dynamic and advanced as well (band resisted presses, kettle bell swings/snatches, and rope pull ups). So the short and simple answer involves the following breakdown of this whole progression:

• Test
• Asses
• Correct 
• Basic Strength Development Phase
• Athletic Performance/Dynamic Strength Development Phase

In a nutshell this is the progression of all of my athletes. Granted the variables in the middle may change due to specificity in relation to the demands of their sport, but this is pretty much it. If you want to get your hands on some awesome dynamic warm up drills along with how the last phase mentioned in this list is developed then get yourself a copy of my brand new Kettlebell Power And Speed Formula ebook!

Please leave your questions and comments in the comment box below this article! Your feedback is incredibly valuable to this blog/ forum and I’d love to help you out if you do have any questions that relate to this article. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart my friend.