Purpose is a result, end, mean, aim, or goal of an action intentionally undertaken, or of an object being brought into use or existence, whether or not the purpose was a primary or secondary effect.

When you step foot in the gym, the field, the track… You better have a purpose and reason for being there!

I often see people who aimlessly move around the gym with no clear goal or end in sight, saying that they are simply in “maintenance” mode and don’t wish to push the limits any longer.

I respect that, but I also wonder why they even train. If you are in the gym, you are there to better yourself. There is no such thing as staying the same!!

I wanted to post this for many reasons. Over the last few months, I got so caught up with running my warehouse gym business that I let my own training sit on the shelf. I was training with NO purpose. After all, as a coach I preach this every day to my athletes and clients that you MUST shoot for something and you MUST get better every time you set foot in the gym. No excuses! If you don’t wish to get better, then you simply don’t belong and you are free to go train at Globo Gym down the street. No problem, this ain’t for everyone!

So, after a self-realization the other day that I was not committed to bettering myself 100% to the fullest, I sought out help. One of the large reasons I feel why my training has been so random is the what I have coined the “Lost-Athlete” syndrome. If you were involved in competitive athletics like I was for many years and trained your a*s off to get better for that sport (or sports), then you know how hard of a transition it can be from going from athlete to hanging it up. I had nothing to compete for any longer and I was LOST. Like I said, if you are a former athlete, you can relate with me on this. I was sick and tired of it and was not going to train aimlessly any longer. My playing days may be over, but the competitive drive never dies!!

I have always been a HUGE fan of Olympic Weightlifting and the benefits it can have for athletic performance, but never really have been instructed on how to do them properly. With personal bests of 231 lb clean and 177 lb snatch at a bodyweight of 185 lbs, my numbers are fairly decent but I knew I could do much better with good coaching and consistency; or training with a purpose!! My goals? To get as strong as possible in the Olympic Lifts (Clean and Jerk, Snatch), compete in meets, and learn the lifts and be able to instruct them as best as I can to better serve my athletes!!

So, I have invested in quality coaching and joined up with Myles Ahead Weightlifting in Ronhert Park, CA. I have begun training with Freddie Myles, a national caliber lifter, this past week and make the 1 hour (round trip) drive 3 days a week. I hope to compete this year in my first competition, so I’m very focused and driven. It feels good to train for something again! See the video below of Freddie with a 163 kg clean and jerk! That’s about 360 pounds… More than the average person can deadlift! Now that’s real strength and athleticism if you ask me!

I also believe in practicing what you preach, so as a coach I feel that being able to show my athletes that I can actually walk the walk  and not just spew some nonsense will pay off dividends in how they respond to me and how I approach their training programs.

The whole point of this post? Don’t be afraid to take risks! Have a CLEAR focus with your training. Write your goals down and be as specific as you can. You must have a laser-like focus and attack it every day. Like I’ve said before,  you’re either 1 step closer to your goal, or 1 step back.. No such thing as staying the same!

I would like to hear your thoughts on this. Have you felt like this before? Have you experienced the “Lost-Athlete” syndrome? Let’s help each other prevent this from happening! Leave your comments and thoughts below!

“How can I possibly get a good workout in when I go on vacation?”

“Will I lose my strength if I’m gone for a week?!”

These are some of the more common questions I receive, especially from athletes and regular trainees who are on the road q uite often.

If you travel enough and stay in hotels, you’ll notice that the typical “gyms” inside the hotel are pretty lame…

More than often you can find 1 or 2 treadmills, a set of dumbbells going no higher than 40 pounds, a bunch of TV’s, a couple machines, and a few other pieces of useless equipment. Sorry, just not my style to sit on a treadmill or machine.. To each his own though; if that’s what you enjoy, by all means..

But if you’re really looking to keep your muscle, strength, speed, and fitness levels high while traveling, here are a couple simple tips to help starve off boredom of regular hotel gyms, keep your workouts intense, and still allow you to enjoy your travels.

1. Invest In a Set of Resistance Bands. Not the typical surgical tubing bands you get from your local sporting goods stores, I’m talking about the heavy duty bands that actually give you some decent resistance. You can pick them up at EliteFTS.com at a pretty good price. Get a pair of each. The exercises you can perform are pretty much endless if you get creative enough – anything you can do with a cable/pulley machine you can do with bands: face pulls, band pull aparts, band good mornings, band rows, etc..
   
2. Learn to Love Unilateral Movements. Unilateral = training one limb at a time. More than likely there will be no squat/power rack at your hotel gym, so the next best option is to train 1 arm/leg at a time using dumbbells. If they aren’t heavy enough to challenge you, either up the total volume, perform timed intervals i.e. 45/15, 30/30, etc., or (even better) invest in a ketllebell. If you are driving, you could easily store this in your car and bring into the hotel gym when you want to train, or even better, go outdoors and bring a couple bands with you.
   
3. Get REALLY Good at Bodyweight Training. Bodyweight training is not done enough; pretty sad really, when most people have a rough time performing a few chin ups, bodyweight squats, or push ups without caving over. You can get an awesome training session in with a few basic bodyweight movements. Again, get creative, have fun, and enjoy the benefits of bodyweight training for strength, speed, and power.
   

BONUS: Here’s a simple travel workout you can do with minimal to no equipment:

1A.) Sprints 6-10 x 30-50 yards

2A.) Push Ups 3-4 x Max Reps

2B.) Pull Ups 3-4 x Max Reps

3A.) Swings (Use DB, KB, or homemade t-handle) 75 total reps

4A.) Band Pull Apart 4 x 25

4B.) Planks 4 x 60 seconds

As you can see, you really don’t need a whole lot of equipment to get the job done. Just the right attitude and mindset to get better!

Simple, right? I’d like to hear your comments below.. What are your favorite ways to train when you are traveling?! Remember, just because you’re on the road doesn’t mean you still can’t get a solid workout in!

See ya,

John Cortese

PS- I know that most of you by now have heard the Elliott Hulse and Mike Westerdal are about to release Lean Hybrid Muscle: Reloaded. This is GREAT news for you. Why? I have a SWEET hook-up for my blog subscribers when LHM launches next week! If you want in on this, be sure to sign up for the newsletter to hear more! I’ll have more details in the next few days, but in the meantime, be sure to “Like” this post and leave me your comments below!

I’ve got a great audio interview for you that I was asked to be a part of a couple months ago. Travis Self of FITT Warehouse Training Systems in Atlanta, Georgia and I spoke on the phone for nearly an hour about GPP, strength development for youth athletes, educating parents on WHY it’s so vital for young athletes to get stronger, and much more.

Check it out by clicking the link below.

John Cortese Interview with Travis Self <— Click Here to  Listen!!

Hope you enjoy,

John Cortese

Be sure to leave your comments in the comment section below. If you liked this interview, please “Like” by pressing the Facebook “Like” button!

“Work hard and you will achieve what you’ve set out to do!”

Is it really that simple though? I think it is, and I’ll tell you why.

In order to REALLY achieve a LARGE goal that you have, you have to be willing to do what others aren’t. Are you willing to stay in on the weekends and do what it takes to reach your desired goal? Are you willing to eat what others are not? Are you willing to skip out on those extra fries and beer at the football game in order to finally see your abs?

You see, it’s simple… But it’s not easy. With any goal that you set out to achieve, you must realize that the universe and everyone around you may not always want you to succeed. It may even seem like nothing has gone your way no matter how hard you have tried. But, keep at it long enough, show consistency and dedication, some patience, and the never-say-die attitude to keep going no matter how bad it might seem – and you’ve got yourself the chance to succeed no matter what you’re trying to accomplish.

Why am I telling you this? This can relate to practically anything in life. More specifically though for athletes, it just flat out makes me very upset to hear all these kids who want to be All-State, get a Division 1 scholarship, etc; but how many of them are REALLY ready to sacrifice a few things in their life in order to get there? Are you willing to put in the work year round? Most athletes aren’t these days.

No matter what you do, there should be NO regrets when you look back. We should be doing EVERYTHING in our power to succeed. I’m telling you from experience that I do have regrets and I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I did. I’ve been there and have seen it all. I know what’s expected of athletes at the college level. I know what it’s like to win big and I know what it’s like to get smoked in a sprint race. I know what it’s like to drop a huge pass, wide-open on the way to the endzone; I also know what it’s like to train in the rain, at 1 in the morning, at 5 in the morning, after work. As an athlete I’ve made many mistakes but also had some success along the way too. Now as a coach, I’m telling you that if you are willing to do whatever it takes to win and do what your friends and others are NOT willing to do, then you will go far.

See how simple that was? Easy… No. It’s going to take some serious lifestyle changes to accomplish some of these tasks.

How bad do you want it?

This is not very complicated, as most of the time (I say most of the time meaning 9 out of 10) the average athlete will simply get faster and jump higher/further just by getting stronger.

I still don’t understand why more athletes and coaches won’t invest in the general physical preparedness of their athletes, but would rather shell out their hard-earned cash on “sport-specific” gadgets and gizmos that won’t do anything to get them stronger and moving better. I’ll take it a step further and say that the younger the athlete, the further away they should stay away from specialized “sport-specific” training centers and spend more of their time training with a competent strength coach or trainer to help get them stronger, resistant to injury, increase body awareness, etc.

Instead of focusing solely on 1 sport, year-round, I would like to see more young athletes participating in 2-3 sports while being involved in a properly designed strength and conditioning program. It used to be normal and encouraged that athletes participate in different sports each season, especially at a younger age. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see athletes specializing in 1 sport in high school, or even worse, in middle school. Playing multiple sports is a form of “cross-training” and helps to create athleticism, spatial/body awareness, and more importantly, prevent boredom and burnout.

OK, back to the topic at hand. Weight training for speed and power is pretty simple and needs to be focused on large, multi-joint movements first. Think about training movements and movements in multiple angles and planes, not just training muscles. To keep things very simple, you should devote each weight training session to training the entire body. Once you get stronger and more mature, you can start to break up the training into upper and lower body workouts, but for now, most athletes would do just fine performing full-body sessions. You’ll break the sessions down by movements (I got some of these basic principles and guidelines from Jason Ferruggia, owner of Renegade Strength and Conditioning in NJ):

1. Power/Speed Development movement (i.e. medicine ball throw or some sort of jumping exercise; if you’re technique is solid, you can also perform a clean, snatch, or jerk variation. 3-10 sets of 1-5, focusing on speed of the movement, not the load lifted.
   
2. Primary Barbell Lift (squat, deadlift, bench press, or military press) These have many variations, so get creative. 3-5 sets of 1-10 repetitions depending on time of year, athlete, age, etc. This is the time to push yourself and get stronger!
   
3. Upper Body Assistance Work: You can get pretty creative with this, but normally I will pair 1-3 exercises and rotate through each one of them until the desired number of sets and repetitions are achieved. Use your own bodyweight, dumbbells, or bands for this type of work; I like stuff like chin ups, dips, push ups, handstand push ups, dumbbell presses/rows, band pull aparts, etc.. 2-5 sets of 8-15 repetitions is a good range to stay within.
   
4. Lower Body/Trunk Assistance Work: Roughly the same guidelines as above, but this time you’ll want to pick a single leg exercise (optional), an abdominal movement, and a posterior chain movement (one that hits the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings). Again you can pair them to save time and make it more efficient; I like split squats, step ups, lunges, 45-degree hypers, back extension, reverse hyperextensions, planks, sit-ups, hanging leg raise, etc. 1-3 sets of 6-20 repetitions here is a good range (keep the single leg volume low starting out).
   
5. Finish with some sort of conditioning or finisher whether that be sled drags, medicine ball slams, sandbag loading, farmer walk, etc. Don’t go crazy on this though; if you’re after speed and strength, do just enough to maintain and challenge yourself, don’t do so much where it takes away from your goals.
   

Example:

1.) Clean 5 x 3

2.) Squat 5 x 5

3a.) DB Bench Press 3-5 x 10

3b.) DB Rows 3-5 x 10-12

3c.) Band Pull Aparts 3-5 x 15-20

4a.) 45-Degree Back/GHD Sit Up 2-3 x 15-20 each

5.) Battle Rope 3-5 x 30 seconds

Combine this with simple sprint work and you should be on your way to improved athletic performance. Get strong and you will more than likely get faster and jump higher/further.

PS- Don’t forget about your warm-up and mobility! Gotta be able to move, too!

Train hard,

John Cortese

These days it’s very trendy to use bands and chains for building muscle and strength. Several years back, I got caught up using chains and bands with almost everyone in my gym. After a couple years of doing this I realized that nobody was progressing any faster than they were before. It occurred to me that what we were doing was overkill and from then on, I kept the chains and bands reserved for only the strongest members of my gym. Now I don’t use them at all (or at least in that sense).

The fact is that there is no need to use bands or chains unless you are extremely strong. If your max squat is 225, squatting with bands and chains isn’t going to do much for you in the way of building muscle or gaining strength. In fact, it will be detrimental to your progress. Tons of people have gotten inhumanly strong for decades without ever using bands or chains and plenty of guys continue to do so today.

Unless you are capable of doing a full back squat, all the way to ground with no belt and pristine technique with 500 lbs, you have absolutely no business using bands or chains. These are advanced tools to pull out of the toolbox only at the times when you really need them. During your first several years of training all you need is a hammer and nail. Don’t search deeper in the toolbox for something you don’t need yet. If you get to 545 lbs and plateau there for a while then maybe it’s time to pull out the chains and bands. But not before then. The problem is that when you incorporate advanced methods before you need them you miss out on the potential huge gains that they could provide later on down the road when you really need them.

So layoff the bands and chains until you are really advanced and stick with more tools for building muscle, at least until your strength levels are at the point where the entire gym stops to watch when you squat or deadlift.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com

Hybrid Muscle Training for Sports

By: Mike Westerdal

Regardless of your body type or the type of training that your body responds to best, hybrid muscle training is all around, the most effective way to build muscle and get lean. Often times, guys ask me how hybrid training carries over into sports. Well, regardless of the sport, hybrid muscle training can help you be at the top of your game.

But did you know that there are also sports that by their very nature help you develop hybrid muscle? Actually, any sport that simultaneously incorporates resistance and cardio can be considered a hybrid activity. There are a number of sports that do this-let’s talk about some of them now.

Football: This is a phenomenal sport that incorporates hybrid muscle training. The heavy pads provide resistance and with the all the cardio that is involved in the sport, it helps build type III or hybrid muscle. Other aspects of football that involve hybrid training include blocking and training with sleds during practice. All of these are activities that require endurance (the cardio part) and the muscles to deliver sustained strength (the resistance part).

If you have any doubt that football is an awesome hybrid training technique that can build a powerful, muscular physique just look at guys like Adrian Peterson, Terrell Owens or retired stars like Herschel Walker. All three have amazing physiques-and it all is the result of hybrid muscle training.

Strongman: This is really is all about hybrid muscle training. Unlike say powerlifting where the goal is to achieve your one-rep max, strongman training simultaneously requires both strength and endurance. And as you know, the best way to develop these qualities is through hybrid training. Examples of hybrid training activities that you see in strongman competitions include the tire flip, log carrying, truck pulling and the keg toss, among others.

And if you have any doubt that strongman training won’t build a powerful, muscular physique, just take one look at Mariusz Pudzianowski and believe me, you’ll eat your words.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA): This one also incorporates hybrid muscle training-in fact, it’s essential. Look at the guys fighting in the UFC. Do you think jogging ten miles a day carries over into the octagon and is going to help a guy get in shape for fight? No-two minutes into the match and he’ll be winded. Why? Because the successful fighters have developed hybrid type III muscle that has strength, power and endurance. They need to develop long, sustainable strength. You don’t get that from ordinary training. When these guys train they have to mimic the moves they’ll be doing in the octagon-grappling, pulling and other things that go on in a real fight. Guys like Ken Shamrock, Matt Hughes and Randy Couture all have developed hybrid, type III muscle.

Highland games: Seriously, this is about as hybrid as it gets. Have you ever seen these events? Some of the hybrid training activities you’ll encounter in Highland games include the 56-pound shot put, the hammer throw with a 22-pound round metal ball attached to a handle, or the caber toss. This would have to be the signature event for the Highland games. The caber is a tapered log or pole that varies in height (roughly 19′-22′) and weight (100-130 pounds). They lift it, run with it and then heave it.

Lumberjack games: You’ve probably seen these on TV before. These games require participants to carry out feats of strength and endurance using extremely large and heavy logs. This one is 100% hybrid.

Arm wrestling: Your probably wouldn’t have thought of this one but yes, arm wrestling is most definitely a sport that incorporates hybrid activities. After all, it does require long-or sustained strength-and the only way to get that is through hybrid training.

Track & field: Besides the running, you’ve also got activities like the shot put and the javelin throw. Both of these are activities that require both strength and endurance.

Kettlebell competitions: Kettlebells have been around a long time. Their shape and handles make them ideal for hybrid training. Some of the activities you’ll see here that require long strength include the clean and snatch or the one- or two-armed kettlebell swing, among others.

CrossFit Competitions: These are the kinds of routines that are often touted as the “military” workouts so you’ll often see military and law enforcement guys participating in these events. Nearly all of the activities require strength and endurance.

So there you have my response to the question about how hybrid muscle training carries over into sports. As you can see, not only does hybrid training and the development of type III muscle fibers enhance your athletic performance in many sports some sports are even hybrid in their nature.

About The Author

Get my free report entitled, The Warrior Physique – Building The Super Hybrid Muscle. Click here to learn how you can rapidly build muscle and burn fat at the same time. Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight training magazine.

The 5 x 5 Training Program

By: Mike Westerdal

Owner, CriticalBench.com

Sometimes, we all get in a rut or hit a plateau and are looking for a routine to shake things up and kick-start the gains. And often, when this happens, guys start looking for the newest “hot” routine they see in a magazine. But more often than not, the answer is not found in what’s new and hot, but rather, it’s found in what is tried and true. If this might be you, then you definitely ought to consider the 5×5 workout. It’s a readily adaptable time-tested routine that is ideal for beginners and advanced trainers alike.

The foundation of 5×5 is pretty simple-five reps and five sets of each exercise. You get a 90-second rest between sets and a three minute break between exercises if your goal is strength or a 90-second break between exercises if your objective is gaining size. You can also choose something in the middle-the choice is yours and depends entirely on what you hope to achieve.

Because of its intensity, powerlifters often use the 5×5 program to realize gains in both size and strength. It’s also an ideal training regimen for someone who has been lifting higher reps for a while before starting a serious powerlifting program.

The basic 5×5 program can be done either as a split or full-body routine. You can do a full-body workout 2-3 times a week or, you can alternate upper body one day and lower body the next or any other combination that you’d like. Whatever you decide, you can maximize your results by focusing on compound exercises-which use multiple muscle groups-rather than isolation exercises that only focus in a single muscle.

To make the most of 5×5 you should use the maximum weight you can lift. When you’re able to do 5 sets of 5 with that weight, increase the weight by 5 – 10% until you can again do 5 sets of 5 and so on. You can also increase the intensity by shortening your rest periods between sets and exercises.

Here are some sample routines (note: because the 5×5 program is intense, always be sure to do several warm-up sets before getting started). Remember that the 5×5 routine is highly adaptable so come up with combinations that work for you. In any case though, keep your workout to a maximum of one-hour.

Full-body workout:

This is a great full-body workout you can do three times a week:

Monday: Bench press, bent-over rows, squat and deadlift;

Wednesday: Weighted dips, weighted chin-ups, deadlift and hanging leg raises (just 2 sets of 5 reps for the leg raises);

Friday: incline bench press, front squat, glute/hamstring raise; renegade row (with dumbbells or kettlebells), and saxon sidebends;

Split routines:

Here are a couple of good split 5×5 routines to get you started:

Split one:

Monday/Thursday: Bench press, bent-over row, barbell curl and tricep push-downs;

Wednesday/Friday: Barbell squat, glute/hamstring kickback, seated calf-raise, hanging leg raises;

Split two: This is an advanced 6-day a week routine (alternate A/B):

Monday/Thursday (chest/back): A) Incline bench press, wide grip pull-up (palms facing you), weighted rope crunches; B) Chest dips, one-arm dumbbell rows, weighted lying leg raises;

Tuesday/Friday (shoulders/arms): A) Upright row; close-grip bench press, preacher curls; B) Rear delt rows, triceps pushdowns, incline hammer curls;

Wednesday/Saturday (legs): A) Squats, lying leg curls, calf raises; B) Leg press, stiff-legged deadlifts, calf press;

One of the things I love about 5×5 is that it is highly adaptable to meet your particular lifting goals. Since 5×5 has been around for so long, it’s easy to find plenty of proven routines for just about anyone-beginners, powerlifters, high-intensity trainers and lots more. Because of its intensity, whether you’re doing a full-body workout, a split routine or another modified version of the program, you should do the 5×5 program on a 12-week cycle. Work it hard for 12 weeks and at the end of the cycle take a week or two off from the gym to give your body a chance to recover.

Particularly when it comes to bodybuilding, the answers to what we seek are not necessarily found by looking for the latest and greatest but by looking to the past, learning from the wisdom and experience of the greats who came before us. If you’re looking to make gains in both size and strength, and you think you’re up to the challenge, then you might want to give the 5×5 workout a try-you won’t be disappointed.

Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight lifting magazine. It hosts the Internet’s largest FREE exercise database and is the home of many workout routines including the Critical Bench Program to help you increase your bench press. Just click the image below to see what the critical bench program can do for ya!

*Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Westerdal

**Below is a guest post from Mike Westerdal, owner and creator of CriticalBench.com

Enjoy,

-John Cortese

For a lot of bodybuilders, competitive athletes and guys who just like to work out, sore muscles are the marker for a “good” workout. If you’re muscles aren’t sore the next day or the day after that, then you probably didn’t work out hard enough-that’s what a lot of us have been taught to believe, anyway. But is that really true? Is it necessary for us to train hard enough so that every time we work out our muscles are sore? Let’s find out.

For years, fitness and medical experts thought that sore muscles were the result of lactic acid building up after an intense training sessions. Lactic acid is produced when you exercise or lift really intensely-when the muscles are screaming for more oxygen than what the blood can possibly deliver at that moment. Because the body can’t deliver the oxygen the muscles want, it compensates by beginning another process-one that works in the absence of oxygen. Lactic acid is a by-product of this process. And since it is an acid, it causes us to “feel the burn.”

So while on the surface it seems to make sense that lactic acid could be the culprit in causing sore muscles after an intense training session, it’s just not so. In reality, the lactic acid gets washed away from the muscles pretty quickly-it doesn’t hang around for hours or days. But, the muscle soreness we’re talking about here doesn’t show up for anywhere from as little as 8 to up to 36 hours after we train. So if can’t be lactic acid causing the soreness, what is it?

Modern science points to micro-traumas…

..as the real perpetrator that causes the post-training muscle soreness. Micro-traumas are just what they sound like: small abrasions, tears or otherwise localized damage to muscle fibers-specifically, the membranes and contractile elements. Researchers have taken biopsies of muscles suffering from training-induced micro-traumas discovering that the z-bands were bleeding, causing their function to be disrupted.

The z-bands are filaments that hold the muscle fibers together as they slide over one another while contracting. When they’re damaged and bleeding-even though it’s microscopic-the muscle fibers become swollen and of course, sore.

They’ve even found a way to evaluate just how badly the muscles have been damaged by measuring the level of creatine phosphokinase (CPK) in the bloodstream. CPK is normally found inside of the muscle fibers but the when the fibers are damaged the CPK is released into the bloodstream. The higher the level of CPK in the bloodstream, the greater the damage to the muscles, which means more soreness.

Some people say that stretching after you train can alleviate the severity of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)-which is what it’s being called these days. However, knowing what we now know about what causes the soreness, we realize that this just isn’t true. While stretching-before and after a workout-is always a good idea, it won’t do much of anything to reduce or eliminate sore muscles the following day because micro-traumas are the real source of the pain, not lactic acid.

So is muscle soreness necessary? The answer is that to some degree yes, it is needed. It’s the stress or trauma that comes from lifting hard and heavy that causes our muscles to grow and become stronger. If you never train to the point where your muscles are sore the next day then the truth is, you’re not training hard enough-and you’re not seeing the results you’d probably like to see. On the other hand, ignoring the soreness and forging blindly ahead training “through the pain” is not the answer either. If you don’t pay attention to what your body is saying, you’ll pay the price sooner or later and wind up injuring yourself-possibly very seriously.

The secret to managing the soreness is two-fold:

1) increase your workload gradually. Don’t try and show off by making huge leaps in the amount of weight you’re lifting-give your muscles time to adapt.

2) Allow your body plenty of time to rest and recover between training sessions. Remember, the rest and recovery part of bodybuilding is equally as important as the lifting weights part. It’s during this process that you’re muscles are actually growing-not when you’re working out.

So while it shouldn’t really be your goal to completely eliminate training-induced muscle soreness it is important to know that you can manage it and minimize its impact on your body and your training routine.

This will be a series of posts about strength and conditioning for youth athletes; read Part I below.

This is a topic that I’m very passionate about and I have some strong views on, so bare with me here while I shed some light on why I feel even youth athletes need to be involved in some form of basic strength training. Hear me out…

For some reason, we’ve been brainwashed and told that you have to be a certain age to participate in a structured strength training program. This is due to the fact that most people associate strength training with bodybuilders they see on TV or in the latest magazine. This is the exact opposite of what we want to associate to our youth athletes.

Now, when I use the term “youths” I’m speaking of athletes ranging from 8-17 years old. Every age group have different needs and the type of training they would participate in. The goal of a strength training program for a child at the age of 8 would differ GREATLY than one for 17 year old Johnny who is a 200 lb runningback. Make sense so far?

It makes me cringe when I see a high school aged kid who is so out of shape, weak, immobile, and tight that I want to scream. Yet, they are playing a sport often year-round; club team, travel squad, all-stars, regular season, etc. This is just an overuse injury waiting to happen. Whatever happened to playing multiple sports? If you are going to subject a 10 year old to full contact football but hesitate allowing this young athlete to learn how to move his body, decrease risk of injury, improve relative body strength and fitness, and just feel better overall with a basic strength training program, then we as a culture have sorely missed the boat.

I have spoken about this before, but we need to quit looking for quick fixes for NOW (i.e. wanting little 10 year-old Billy to decrease his 40 yard dash time because he HAS to be the best in youth football; this is a great recipe for burn out and quitting the sport because it’s no longer FUN) and start looking at LONG TERM ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT. I firmly believe in this. You must always look long-term in order to keep training fun, keep the kids coming back for more because they WANT to and ENJOY it! Yes, strength training CAN be fun; what a concept!

This post sounds a bit like a tangent and ramble, but enough is enough. Strength training, while properly supervised by a competent and experienced coach, is one of the safest activities you can take part in. The younger the athlete, the simpler the program should be. For example, if I had a group of 10-year old football players, they may see me twice  a week for 30 minutes at a time. Our focus would simply be improving body awareness, coordination, relative body strength (i.e. getting really good at moving their own bodies with movements such as push-ups, squats, walking lunges, leap frog jumps, light medicine ball throws, jump rope, hand walking, gymnastics, etc), and getting some good mobility training in while incorporating this type of stuff into a game-like atmosphere. You can just see how fun and rewarding this type of basic training can be; especially since nowadays most kids see P.E. in school as a chore and the lack of physical fitness and strength in the average teen is pretty sad. Maybe if we shut off the TV and X-Box we would have less injuries in sports and more kids actually enjoying being active. Just a thought.

So, what’s the real truth about strength and conditioning for youth athletes? It CAN be done, if it’s done RIGHT and it’s FUN. Here are a couple guidelines I like to follow for youth strength training programs:

• Keep it SIMPLE. The younger the athlete, the less complex their training needs to be. No need for fancy workouts or exercises.
  
• Monitor frequency and duration. A younger athlete’s training frequency (i.e. how often per week or month they trained) and duration (length of a session) would be less than an 18 year old’s.
  
• Master bodyweight exercises first before looking for additional resistance.
  
• Use games and team-building style sessions whenever possible. If you can incorporate strength training into a game or competition, they will forget they are even “working out” anyways. Keep it fun!
  
• Have a plan and make sure whatever these kids are doing that a purpose is behind it.
  

If a child can be subject to a full-contact sport, then they should be involved in some sort of program that lets them learn how to move their bodies safely and properly, strengthen muscles to decrease risk of injury, and build confidence and self-esteem that will carry over into a positive experience in sports.

Stay tuned for Part II, if you have any questions feel free to leave them below.. What are your thoughts on youth athletes and strength training?

See ya!

John Cortese