Jim Smith and Joe Defranco are two of the best and most innovative coaches in our industry, so when I heard that they were coming out with a new dvd called “Extreme”, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
Extreme is the third product that coach Smitty and Joe D. have put out within the last year or so. Powerand Amped warmup are the other two products that I also purchased and highly recommend them if you’re a coach or athlete.
Extreme is a fantastic resource utilizing over 130 exercises that bridge the gap between traditional lifts such as squats, deadlifts and benching to improve performance on the playing field.
Ultimately, the goal of a coach is to produce gains that transfer on the playing field on game day and this dvd allows the viewer to gain insight to a smorgasbord of supplemental exercises to achieve those goals.
The exercises are broken into Upper Body, Lower body, Rehab and Core to name a few. The value is seeing the creativity behind many of the movements, and if you understand how the body moves and the rationale behind the movements you start to look at many basic movements from a different perspective and it allows the coach to really get creative with exercises.
Below is a video from going through a variation of the rollout they use in the dvd.
If you want to learn from the best and add more tools to your toolbox get your copy of Extreme here.
In part 1 we talked about the different types of core training exercises and implementing them in your training program.
In part 2 we are going to talk about developing stability while standing and integrating it with movement.
Anti Lateral flexion and rotation is an area that many athletes lack strength and stability in. It would be nice to see some studies correlating back pain or knee pain with anti lateral core stability/strength. If someone has a link to some studies please comment below.
The benefits of owning lateral stability are especially important for rotational athletes such as baseball players, tennis players and golfers to name a few. I’m a huge fan of integrating stability with movement patterns once the athlete masters the basics such as planks and tall/half kneeling variations as I feel this most closely mimics how the body functions while moving.
Below is a video of Tony Gentilcore of Cressey Performance performing a pallof press while squatting.
You can also add lateral movement and hip strength to the pallof press.
Below is variation of the press using the TRX rip trainer with a band around the knees to facilitate glute activation.
This is a great exercise for athletes that need stability in the frontal plane as it incorporates both the upper and lower body working together to stabilize.
Recovery is a arguably the most underutilized process in training. Everyone wants to train hard and often to get results and if you’re an athlete that includes practicing your sport. However, without adding recovery techniques to help the body adapt and improve from your training sessions, the work you put in the weight room is futile and will only lead to frustration.
The bottom line is basic recovery principles such as getting in 8-9hrs of sleep per night, going to bed at a reasonable hour(before midnight), addressing nutrition and soft tissue work are integral to get the most out of your training program.
Below are a couple of articles you should check out regarding recovery.
The Parasympathetic Nervous System:Looking for a Way In. by Patrick Ward a respected and knowledgeable strength and conditioning coach and licensed massage therapist whose opinion I highly respect especially regarding recovery principles and the nervous system.
Patrick talks about the parasympathetic nervous system and the role breathing has with stress, pain and recovery.
Sleep by Joey Giandonato talking about the role of sleep and why it is important.
Assessing and addressing core stability is an important part of a solid strength and conditioning program . The reason for that is the better you can control/stabilize your pelvis the better you can demonstrate force through movement. This applies to whether your goal is getting stronger and lifting heavier weights, or getting faster on the field. I have never seen an athlete who was fast and explosive who didn’t also have good core stability. Now this doesn’t mean that only thing one has to train is the core. I get asked that question a lot, and the bottom line is that force production is the name of the game if you are an athlete. In order to get stronger, you must have stability in the right places to demonstrate force.
Here are some basic guidelines and exercises regarding programming some core stability exercises into your program.
1. Anti extension which is preventing and controlling back extension/hyperextension. This is especially important with clients who have an excessive anterior tilt and have back pain.
Some examples include front planks, ab roll out variations, body saws and loaded zercher sandbag carries
2.Anti Flexion which is preventing your low back from flexing. Consistent and repetitive flexion of the spine may potentially cause issues with disc herniations down the road.
Examples of anti flexion exercises include hip hinging, dead lift variations and squat variations. In addition the prone knee to chest mountain climber using sliders or the TRX is another great exercise that we use with clients who have a posterior tilt/flat back to teach them the difference between hip flexion and lumbar flexion.
3.Anti lateral flexion,which is preventing the low back from flexing to the side.
Some examples of exercises include side plank variations, pallof presses, landmines, suite case carries using farmers walk handles.
4. Anti rotation, which is preventing rotation in the pelvis and low back.
Some great anti rotation exercises include bird dogs, renegade rows, single leg RDL’s and hip thrusts.
Both anti rotation and anti lateral flexion stability are important especially in rotational sport athletes like golfers baseball pitchers and tennis players. Since these athletes spend most of their time rotating its a good idea to throw in these exercises to keep the low back healthy.
You should have some combination of the core stability exercises listed. Depending on how many weight training session per week you lift, the combinations are endless and don’t be afraid to get creative.
Eric Cressey has a great article on programming core exercises into your program.
Below, is an example of working anti extension and anti lateral flexion with the plank using a band.
You can make this more dynamic by adding two bands and pulling the athlete into lateral flexion. I originally got that idea from Jim Smith and Joe Defranco. They have a dvd coming out soon called Extreme, detailing creative ways to get stronger and faster.
Try some of these exercises out and let me know how they feel.
It’s been a while since my last post. I just got back from the Soin family reunion in Philadelphia. Congrats to my cousin who got married and it was great to see the family.
Things are getting busier at Zenith Strength. We just ordered a Pit Shark Belt Squat machine that should be in sometime in December. We now have another tool to work with our athletes in season to blast the lower body and also work through some upper body injuries for those who can’t front or back squat. I’ll write an article on hip belt squat and post videos once that arrives.
There is so much info on the web with so many coaches blogging and writing articles I thought I would pick a few I liked. As a strength coach, I have a huge list of coaches I follow for training related info, sports performance and rehab/injury prevention stuff. Unfortunately, the majority of people and athletes never get their hands on this information and continue to do some pretty ridiculous stuff because they read it in a magazine or the buddy told them to try a certain exercise.
Here are a couple of articles and videos that I wanted to share.
Just about every sport involves short bursts of acceleration, whether it’s a wide receiver getting off the line of scrimmage to run a route or a tennis player chasing down a drop shot, an athlete’s ability to accelerate is one of the most important factors that determines success on the playing field. The bottom line is that you must put a tremendous amount of force into the ground to propel yourself forward. In order to do this you must work on getting stronger. In addition to strength training, another key component is teaching the proper mechanics of acceleration making sure that the athlete is pushing into the ground versus sliding the foot back.
Joe Defranco has a great article on acceleration mechanics and some great cues on teaching the start of the 40 yard dash and explains importance of getting full hip extension during the acceleration phase.
At Zenith Strength we use many different tools to improve linear acceleration of our athletes.
Here are my 3 favorite exercises to strengthen the lower body and improve first step acceleration.
1. Heavy Forward Sled Drags and Heavy Pushes
Heavy sled dragging and sled pushing should be a staple in your program if your goal is to improve starting strength and leg drive.
Both movements teach hip extension and enable the athlete to put force into the ground to improve their hip extension strength.
They also put the athlete at a 45 degree angle which is the position you want to be in when accelerating.
You can also combine the sled work and get a drag push combo. I got this idea from Joe Defranco a few years ago.
Below is a video of the drag/push combo.
2. Split Squats with the rear foot elevated.
Split squats are a fantastic exercise to build single leg strength in the quads, glutes and hams in the weight room.
The rear foot elevate split squat (rfess) is the go to strength exercise used by Mike Boyle, Joe D and Martin Rooney, some of the best coaches in the industry, for developing strength for linear acceleration. They work with some of the best athletes in the world and when they talk about what works for them you have to pay attention!
Here’s a video of Ben Bruno doing some RFESS with 75lb dumbbells and a weighted vest.
3. Woodway Force Resisted Sprints
The Woodway Force is a fantastic piece of equipment found and used by top collegiate programs and training facilities to build acceleration power as well as top speed leg turnover.
We can set the load, which is the resistance, to teach the athlete to drive back to propel them forward and really work on improving their hip extension power output.
We will use a load that is 10-20% of the athlete’s body weight and have them sprint for 5 secs and rest 30 secs sometimes longer to make sure they are fully recovered during our power workouts. You can adjust the duration and rest periods depending on the sport you;re training for.
If you don’t have access to one you can also uses resisted bands around the waist.
Here’s a video using the Woodway force .
Try these exercises out and you should notice an improvement in your ability to accelerate.
Lateral quickness and the ability to change direction and cut is a necessary skill in order to perform at a high level on the playing field. Unfortunately many strength training programs don’t address lateral stability and strength.
Below is a list of a few of the exercises we use at Zenith Strength to improve lateral movement and quickness
Band Resisted Turn and Go
Cut stop change of direction.
Cross over sprint with change of direction.
Give these a try and let me know if you notice improvement with lateral quickness and cutting.
I’ll post some videos of some of our favorite strength exercises for lateral movement that we use to supplement our speed training next week.
If you are an athlete who is interested in getting faster and more explosive you need to add glute ham raises in your training program if you’re not doing so already.
Glute-ham raises are fantastic for training the posterior chain which is usually lacking in many people and developing hamstring and hip extension strength which is important if your focus is on improving speed and quickness.
The problem is that the glute ham raise is very hard to perform. Most people won’t be able to complete reps without severely arching their backs using lumbar extension instead of hip extension, definitely not something you want to do if you would like to keep your low back healthy and pain-free.
Mike Robertson has a great instructional video on how to perform the glute ham raise correctly.
We came up with a glute ham regression using the pull up revolution pro, which deloads the body on the eccentric portion so the client can achieve full hip extension and also assists the client for the concentric portion so that the athlete can work on maintaining neutral spine.
Daniel demonstrates the glute ham raise regression below:
Once the athlete can perform a couple sets of 6-8 reps with solid form, we gradually reduce the band assistance and will eventually progress to loading them with chains.
Another benefit to improving strength through glute ham raises is that it transfers over to improving the deadlift and squat.
Mike Robertson has an article about this you can check out here.
If your goal is improve your explosiveness or you would like to improve strength by lifting heavier stuff, give this regression a try and then start progressing and improving your strength.
At Zenith Strength we are constantly thinking about ways to get more creative to help our athletes improve.
My brother who is a tennis coach mentioned that most players have issues with the proper footwork for the overhead.
After watching some of Eric Cressey’s med ball drills that he does with his pitchers, I came up with a variation for our tennis players.
In the video below, David Hsu is working on his cross over step as it relates to the overhead, drops back and throws a weighted 12oz med ball to work strengthening and his motion and developing more force. The ball weighs slightly more than the average tennis racket is about the size of a baseball. You can get these at power-systems
We generally do this after some band resisted cross over steps to take advantage of the neuro muscular stimulus the band tension provides.
Assessments and corrective exercise are extremely important factor in designing a strength and conditioning program. It doesn’t matter the sport you play or the goals you have. The coach needs to have an idea on how you well you move and the easiest way to do that is with a few exercises. Before we get started, I highly recommend Assess and Correct from Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, and Bill Hartman. A&C is great as it will improve your ability to assess clients and athletes. There are also corrective exercises with progressions to improve movement issues and you can add them into your dynamic warmup.
Regarding basketball athletes there are a few things we look at that basketball players usually have some restrictions with
1.Ankle Mobility
2.Hip Mobility and stability
3.Previous injury history
Keep in mind that I am generalizing and that not everyone who plays basketball will have these issues which is why it is preferable to thoroughly assess the athlete prior to training them.
Ankle restrictions and lack of dorsiflexion is very common amongst basketball players and this can occur for many reasons such as type of footwear worn, using ankle braces while practicing, and/or due to sprained ankles.
We also take a look to see if there are soft tissue restrictions in the calf and soleus that may be inhibiting ankle movement and if there are we address that by using some SMR techniques with a lacrosse ball or stick. If that doesn’t work we will refer out for soft tissue work.
Here are a couple of ankle mobility drills we use for the ankle. Keep in mind that there are endless variations of mobility drills out there.
I learned this from KStarr and have been using this for a while now and have been seeing a lot improvement with our athletes. Check out Mobility wod for some innovative mobility drills.
I like this set up with the band just above the malleolus as it allows the ankle to glide from the band distraction.
Calf stretch using the pro stretch.
I highly recommend this if you don’t have one as it the best way to stretch out your gastroc. The prostretch also works well for plantar fascitis and other foot issues too.
Hip Mobility can be an issue for basketball players. Generally speaking from the players we have assessed hip flexors both the Psoas and Rectus Femoris will be short and stiff. The Thomas test is a good way to test hip flexor shortness.
Below is a detailed explanation of the Thomas test and what to look for.
We also check hip strength/stability using the overhead squat and single leg squat test.
You can also use the step down test to see if the knee caves in. Hip stability is extremely important regarding knee health and is a key component in our program design to prevent ACL injuries.
And lastly we take down the athletes injury history because the strongest indicator of an injury is a previous injury to the same spot. By assessing the athlete and addressing the needs of the athlete and improving movement patterns our goal is to reduce the likelihood of a serious injury so the athlete can reach their performance goals on the court.
