Some parents and coaches will be up in arms about training an athlete that is in the 8th grade, while others will think it’s great and that it’s setting that child up for a lifetime of good health and habits.  From my perspective the only difference is not in if you train the athlete, but in how you will train the athlete.  I am upfront with parents about the fact that when kids are younger (ages 9-13/14) we will do more of what seems like a gym class with them.  We will do more movement based games, drills, and exercises focusing on proper motor development to make sure that their body is properly developed and then we will work them more and more towards a traditional strength program as they get older. 

There are a lot of variables we factor in like: maturity (both physically and emotionally), development (how well do they move for their age), strength (how do they handle their own body weight when performing), and lastly we base our training models off of a development chart which shows what athletic skills (ie speed, flexibility, strength, etc.) are most easily developed during those ages. 

It’s important as a parent, coach, or athlete to know where you stand and what your goals are both short and long-term.  We always take on athletes with the thought that they will be with us long-term (years) because of the continual progress that they will make.  Once you know what the goals are, it is up to you to move in the direction that is best suited for the situation.

1) Lifting heavy weights makes your stronger, not bigger! Now, on that note, it can get a little more sticky. What do I mean? I could go on and on describing a whole host of scenarios that could change what my above statements are, but in a general sense it’s only this: The body adapts to the stresses which are put on it. If you stress the muscles for a longer period of time and more frequently, they are going to adapt to those stresses, think multiple exercises for the same muscles/movements and multiple workouts a week. It’s those multiple stresses that cause the muscles to grow and adapt bigger than they were before. Unfortunately, many people see big guys lifting large amounts of weight and think that the two always go hand-in-hand. That’s not true. While there is definitely research and science to support this, it gets much more complicated. Without getting into the science and losing you, the easiest way to understand it is this.

Take two men or women who are the same height, weight, and age. While they may appear (on paper) to be the same, in reality they could be completely different. One athlete may have a completely different fiber make-up (fast twitch vs. slow-twitch); one athlete may be much more neurally efficient than the other; movement efficiency (think of moving smoother and more efficiently vs. just producing more force (neurally efficient). The list can go on and on.

The simple take-away from this post: Lift heavy with all of your athletes. That means male and female both, endurance sports (cross-country) and power sports (football). That does not mean you need to do heavy singles, doubles, or triples with your marathon runners on deadlifts, but it does mean that you should work on improving their strength in at least the 5-8 rep range. You also need to use your knowledge as a coach to understand that an athlete must first be able to do the movement properly before you start trying to load them with external resistance. If an athlete doesn’t have a good deep squatting pattern, make them a better squatter before you start throwing multiple plates on the bar. Choose appropriate lifts to load. A cross-country runner may not need to do heavy bench presses, but it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t load that pattern with some variation of a resisted push-up. Strength is very important in performance and injury prevention, don’t avoid it for the wrong reasons!

There are numerous exercises and movements which you can do for the upper body while incorporating total body power (ie plyometrics); one example that we use is the overhead medicine ball throw with a crow hop.  Typically we will do around 3 sets of about 4-8 throws.  It depends on what phase we’re in and what time of year the athlete is training–as well as what sport they play.  Often times if you’re using this with a team, you can pair it with some core and mobility work (ankle, hip mobility/prone planks, side planks etc.) to maximize usage of space and time.  This allows your athletes to keep moving and be productive.

To take a look at a simple pattern, think of hip extension, the pattern of pushing your leg out behind your body.  Multiple muscles contribute to hip extension ( class=”hiddenSpellError” pre=”">glute max (butt), hamstrings (3 muscles, back of upper leg), and adductor magnus (inside/back of upper leg)) so when one muscle isn’t doing the amount of work that it should, other muscle(s) have to make up for it.  Make sense?  If 100% of hip extension is broken down to 50% glute max (butt) and 30% hamstrings (back of upper leg), and 20% adductor adductor “>magnus (inside/back of upper leg), but your glute max is only contributing 30%, all of a sudden your hamstrings and adductor magnus are asked to do 70% of the work .  That is significantly more than they are supposed to do or are used to doing.  This is asking for an injury to the hamstrings from over working. 

While many people attack the hamstrings saying that they are weak, often it is simply that the glutes are not doing as much of the hip extension as they should.  According to Shirley Sarhmann’s (world renowned physical therapist) book, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes, when there is an injury you should look for a weak synergist (muscle that assists with the same movement).  In our example, if the hamstring is injured you should look at the glutes…if they aren’t functioning properly, there is your issue.

How do you help minimize the risk of injuring your hamstrings?  Simple: do more glute activation!  Do it on a regular basis (even everyday if you can fit it into your workouts or practice schedule.  Simple glute activation movements include exercises like single and double leg bridges will do the trick.    Try a couple sets of 10-15 reps to help get your athletes to “feel” their glutes firing before doing more dynamic movements like running, squatting, etc.

What does that mean for you?  The faster a skater skates, the harder (and more at risk) your adductor magnus is for injury.  How d you prevent that?  Make sure that your athletes are doing some sprint work .That does not mean all of it must take place on the ice.  It is very valuable to have the athletes off of the ice where they can get some “cross-training” done.  A good mix of both should help fit the bill.

Remember: keeping athletes healthy through an entire sports season is really about balancing all aspects of their life from school, social activities, sports, family stress, etc.  Getting your athletes to use this sheet will help go a long way to building more muscle and having more energy throughout the winter months.

The link comes from Robert Dos Remedios, a strength coach out in California.  This was posted on his site: http://coachdos.blogspot.com/2009/08/recoverythe-key-to-optimal-performance.html

Items needed: blender, cottage cheese, chocolate milk, ice, and peanut butter.

*If you read cottage cheese and you aren’t a fan of it, don’t worry, I’m not either. I was very skeptical at first of having it in the shake, but it makes the consistency of the shake superb!

The follow recipe is from John Berardi’s Gourmet Nutrition cookbook. If you want more information on this, you can visit www.johnberardi.com or www.precisionnutrition.com. We also are the only company in Maine to offer their nutrition program for those who are interested in taking it to the next level.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake:

1 cup of chocolate milk (8 oz)
1/2 cup of cottage cheese (fat free, 1%, or whatever you have)
2 tbsp of peanut butter (I prefer Teddies unsalted)
1.5 cups of ice

Put the milk in the blender, add the cottage cheese, and then the peanut butter and ice. If you are having to make your own chocolate milk, mix the milk before you put it in the blender. The chocolate syrup will fall to the bottom and it won’t mix.

Blend and enjoy.

The shake provides around 400 calories and 30+ grams of protein. If you can find carb countdown milk, use that as the sugar will be reduced from normal milk.

1) The longer you push it back the easier it is to avoid it.  If you don’t like doing your lower body but you’re a hockey player, probably a great idea to start adding them into your program.  Especially if you love to bench and do curls!  If you always do the exercises you like and think you’re good at, chances are you’re skipping over what your body really needs to take it to the next level.  If you do various chest and arm movements, then you either run out of time or are too tired to train your legs at that point, you’ll be significantly more likely to just avoid training them period.

2) You will have more energy.  At the beginning of your workout, while your central nervous system (CNS) is fresh and your mind is focused, get the movement(s) you are least likely to do done then.  I always tell kids that if they finish everything I want them to do, then they can do their beach muscles.  In an ideal world you work from the most explosive power movements like cleans, push-presses, jerks, etc. to the most isolated movements, but if you aren’t going to get some things done because you just won’t do them, place them first in the workout unless you get used to doing them, then rearrange to a proper programming template.

WHAT?! Seriously….I’m sure there have been a few more studies published since the last 365 days passed, not to mention the people who have practiced hands-on for the last 365 days either trying to prevent or rehab ACL issues.  The scary thing to me is that most people are ok with being as good as they are on this current day…no one wants to put in the time and effort to get better. 

Every single day I am looking for new and better information to challenge what I do with my athletes and how I train them.  If I find there is a better way to do something, I swallow my pride and switch it up to try it out.  That’s not to say I abandon my programming.  Typically there must be substantial reasoning between the combination of research and practical application for me to even try something.  If, however, it looks promising, try it!  If it doesn’t work, go back to your old method(s).

Moral of my story: Don’t be satisfied with where you are.  Always look to find a way to get just a little bit better.

For a sample program on ACL prevention that can easily be incorporated into practices or training sessions, please visit www.finer-points.com and download the Plyo’s 101 pdf.  It’s a great starting point for coaches, parents, and athletes.