Athletic Performance Toolbox

Training for Speed

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Speed definitely has a genetic component, but you can definitely enhance an athlete’s speed with proper training. In this post you will three strength training in drills designed to improve speed.

In the clip below Barry Kagan (C.S.C.S., L.M.T., R.N.) earned a Master’s Certification from the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association in 2008, a private practice strength and conditioning coach;
former University of Maryland Strength Coach, discusses stride frequency and stride length and the role that fulfill in producing speed.  He also offers three exercises that are designed to improve speed.

While stride frequency ( how quickly your foot can strike the ground over and over) has a large genetic component, technique training can help to make that process more efficient. Stride length is how much distance that you cover and it is heavily influenced by training.  Strength and power training can have a tremendous effect on an athlete’s stride length and thus his/her speed. This is done through resistance training. Whether it is in the weight room, using bands, running hills etc…. , strength and power training will increase your stride length and therefore your speed.

In this clip from Coach Kragan’s training DVD he shares three exercises to help develop speed. The three exercises that he demonstrates are:

  1. Broad Jump followed by a Tuck Jump
  2. Single Leg Broad Jump
  3. Single Leg Tuck Jumps.

These exercises are taken from his DVD entitled Sport Performance Preparation: Fit, Fast & Flexible – Drills for Year-Round Performance Training. This video can offer year round preparation for multitudes of sports in ALL AREAS of Strength and Conditioning. For more information click the link above.

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that your volume is turned up and that you have access to the site. Note some schools block access to YouTube. If you are having trouble viewing from school, please contact you network administrator.

 

For more information about Coach Kagan’s year around complete training program click the image below

Training Female Athletes

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This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

 

High school female athletes want to train seriously, but many worry that strength training will lead to unwanted bulk. This author has found ways to alleviate those fears and teach girls that the weightroom can help them meet both performance and body goals.
By Ryan Johnson

Ryan Johnson is Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Wayzata (Minn.) High School. He is also a frequent blogger at www.Training-Conditioning.com, where you can find his past work by typing “Wayzata” into the article search window. He can be reached at: Ryan.Johnson@wayzata.k12.mn.us.

One of the most positive trends in scholastic athletics over the past generation has been the increased emphasis on girls’ and women’s sports. As participation numbers rise, more and more females are taking sports just as seriously as their male counterparts, and we’ve seen vast improvements in everything from coaching to facilities to training programs.

As a result of this cultural shift, girls’ teams are more competitive than ever, and they’re paying greater attention to conditioning and strength training. While this has paid many dividends for females, the change hasn’t always come easily. Most of us in the high school setting know at least a few girls who don’t want to work hard in the weightroom or would rather avoid it altogether, and their reasoning is often the same: “I’m afraid of bulking up.”

Whether or not this fear is rational, there’s no doubt it’s real. While boys look forward to lifting weights so they can add impressive pounds of muscle to their frame, many girls think working in the weightroom means they’ll inevitably end up looking like the female bodybuilders they’ve seen on TV. For these girls, their fear is just part of being an image-conscious adolescent.

As strength coaches, it’s our job to help female athletes realize that strength training doesn’t mean they’ll start to resemble an offensive lineman or the governor of California. And it’s easier than you might think, if you begin with common-sense education and progress through a strength regimen that helps them meet their performance and body goals without the risk of adding unwanted mass. I’ve managed to do this successfully at Wayzata (Minn.) High School, and with a little planning, you can do the same in your program.

STRAIGHT TALK
Whenever a female athlete tells me she’s worried about adding bulk through strength training, I begin by laying out some basic facts. While I know the strength programs I design for our girls’ teams won’t create bulky athletes, I don’t talk about sets and reps until after we’ve discussed a little anatomy and biology.

First, I tell her that I understand her concern. She’s no doubt seen male athletes at our school “getting jacked” through strength training, so it’s logical to think that working out in the same weightroom would have a similar effect on her. But I inform her that even if she were performing the same kind of strength regimen as the football team (which of course she won’t be), she’s got two things working in her favor: hormones and body composition.

I explain that males have higher levels of testosterone, making it much more likely their weightlifting will lead to visible muscle growth. In addition, females are biologically predisposed to a higher body fat percentage, which essentially insulates them from the sharp, angular “muscle-bound” look they want to avoid.

I go on to talk about what a female athlete can expect to see from strength training, and it’s all positive. The muscle tone she’ll develop in the weightroom means decreasing body fat and modestly increasing the size of her muscles. That won’t change her overall body size, but it will create a firmer, healthier look. As an example, I ask her if she thinks Michelle Obama would wear all those sleeveless blouses if she had arms that jiggled underneath.

Of course, there are many other benefits to strength training, and because I know the athlete is concerned about aesthetics, I frame the discussion in part around how it can make her look better. For instance, almost everyone has a grandmother or older relative who has struggled with osteoporosis and the “stooped over” appearance it may cause. I explain how some of the exercises we do will load the spine and promote a healthier bone structure, so she’ll be less likely to have that problem later in life.

Aside from the appearance-related concerns, another part of selling girls on strength training is establishing peer support. The fear of bulking up is, at its root, largely a fear of “sticking out” from others, so one of the surest ways to allay these worries and increase motivation is by conducting all training sessions in groups. Athletes working in teams are much more likely to stick to their programs, and they’ll be pleased to notice positive results–and the absence of unwanted ones–in themselves and their teammates.

BUILDING A FOUNDATION
So what exactly does our non-bulk-inducing program for female athletes look like? It starts with a series of staple lifts we call the Core of Four, and we introduce them in the following order: front squat, overhead squat, Romanian deadlift, and high jump shrug.

We chose these lifts because they provide a safe, basic foundation for a wide variety of training activities that we’ll introduce later on. For beginners, the Core of Four presents an opportunity to learn proper lifting technique, while for more advanced lifters, it serves as an effective dynamic warmup.

To begin, each lift is performed with a five-foot steel rod that’s one inch in diameter and weighs about 13 pounds. This lets us teach good form and basic mechanics of the lifts with a load that’s light enough to offer minimal resistance, and it also reinforces the idea that athletes can make meaningful progress in training without excessive loads.

Another benefit of this approach is that the Core of Four allows for an easy transition into the Olympic lifts and other progressions. Once the athletes have mastered the four exercises, we start to mix in the more tone-oriented lifts targeting the arms, chest, shoulders, and back, such as dumbbell curls and lunges, incline bench work, shoulder presses, and upright rows.

The girls love workouts with some core and abdominal work, or “tummy time” as they call it. We use a series of core exercises with and without weight, including planks, glute/ham movements, and lower back work combined with traditional abdominal strength exercises such as crunches.

Tummy time always leaves the girls feeling great about their workout. Practically all of them want flatter, firmer bellies, and this is a great motivational tool to support the concept that training without heavy loads will build functional strength and promote the healthy look they desire.

When setting goals for our female athletes in the weightroom, I also focus on injury prevention. Many of the girls, especially those who specialize in one sport, suffer from some degree of repetitive movement syndrome: They’ve developed certain muscle groups through sport-specific activities, but a lack of general strength training has created imbalances that increase injury risk.

In girls’ soccer, for example, it’s common for players to acquire very strong quads from all the starting and stopping they do on the field. If their hamstrings are weak by comparison, the resulting forces on the ACL leave them susceptible to non-contact injuries such as ligament tears. Hamstring exercises in the weightroom, such as glute/ham stands and single-leg hip raises (thrusters) with or without benches, can function as prehab, providing important performance and injury-reducing benefits while not adding any significant girth to the legs–something the girls typically want to avoid.

Using the Core of Four and our other high-priority lifts and exercises, the athletes get a solid introduction to strength training and make noticeable gains. Once they “get their feet wet” with this type of training, they begin to love the look and feel of being toned, they lose their concern over bulking up, and we can progress to greater challenges.

DESIGNING THE PROGRAM
The intro-level activities provide a base of general physical preparedness while assuring our girls that getting stronger doesn’t have to mean getting bigger. As the predictable effects of delayed-onset muscle fatigue and soreness that accompany the start of a strength program subside–with help from recovery methods such as stretching and foam rollers–we take our training to the next level.

In my experience, working with female athletes is easier than working with males in some respects, because if properly educated about the goals of a program, females tend to care more about total-body conditioning. Males want to focus on what they see in the mirror, and on one-upping each other in single-rep max during lifts.

With this in mind, we design a typical strength training program for our girls’ teams around an eight-week cycle, with every week emphasizing a different priority. Since the athletes know the focus for each week, they understand that our primary goal is to give them an opportunity to improve fitness in all key areas of sport performance.

The eight weeks usually break down as follows:
Week One: Core of Four, basic lifting
Week Two: Olympic progressions
Week Three: Speed/agility/quickness (SAQ) training and plyometrics
Week Four: Dynamic and explosive lifting
Week Five: Metabolic requirements
Week Six: Contrast training (pairing lifts and plyos)
Week Seven: Advanced plyometrics (shock plyos)
Week Eight: Testing and estimating of one-rep max.

Our school terms are eight weeks long, so progressing through this schedule takes us through one complete term.

Some teams and groups of athletes progress more quickly than others, so we make adjustments when needed, but I have found this general framework extremely effective in training female athletes. The progressive nature allows them to master each level and build on the new strength and skills they develop from week to week, so they’re never overwhelmed. They feel a sense of accomplishment along the way as they move from one focus area to the next, and the workouts never get stale.

Saving testing for the final week of the cycle keeps them from worrying too much about one-rep max, which I’ve found scares many girls more than anything else we do in the weightroom. The combination of a heavy load and the fear of failure is very intimidating to some, so we don’t want them to become preoccupied with it throughout the training cycle. By the time we test at the end of a cycle, they’ve made great progress and are at their most confident, so rather than being intimidated, they usually come to see the test as a powerful motivator.

I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers when it comes to optimal training methods for female athletes. But I do have a system that’s been very successful for the girls in our setting, and one that addresses some of the biggest obstacles in working with teenage female student-athletes. An approach rooted in education, gradual adaptation, and carefully chosen training goals can put your girls’ teams on the road to better and better performance–and more importantly, help them become confident and self-assured in the weightroom and beyond.

Sidebar: ROLE OF NUTRITION
When female athletes express fear of the weightroom because they don’t want to “bulk up,” part of the problem is that they don’t understand the large role nutrition plays in muscle growth. The big, rippling muscles they see on male athletes and female bodybuilders are achieved not just through strength training, but often through ultra-high-protein diets and various types of supplements. If my female athletes are eating a balanced diet, that’s one more reason they don’t have to fear becoming muscle-bound.

When talking to female athletes about nutrition, it’s especially important to send a positive message and avoid statements that can be misunderstood. Anytime you’re discussing body fat, tone, and body image, there’s a chance they’ll interpret your words as subtle pressure to engage in unhealthy eating habits, which can start them down a dangerous path.

The best way to avoid this problem and strike the right tone when addressing nutrition is to couch your advice in terms of specific health and performance benefits. For example, I love to recommend chocolate milk to our female athletes as a recovery beverage–it allows me to talk about the value of replenishing carbohydrates and protein immediately after workouts, and also to bring up the importance of calcium for protecting bone density.

It’s critical to watch for indicators that suggest an athlete has developed unhealthy eating habits, an unrealistic sense of body image, or a desire to overwork herself to change her body size. Besides undermining performance goals, these signs may indicate a serious mental health issue, such as an eating disorder, that requires medical attention.

Sidebar: FIVE PROGRESSIONS
In our training program for female athletes at Wayzata (Minn.) High School, we frequently use planned progressions for specific categories of exercises and lifts. This approach allows the athletes to benefit from several variations of a movement in close succession, moving from basic activities to more advanced challenges.

Five examples of our progression plans are listed below. The sets, reps, and resistance vary based on individual needs, time of year, conditioning level, and each athlete’s sport.

CLEAN
Front squat
Muscle clean
Muscle clean drop to front squat
High jump shrugs
Quick clean
Hang clean
Power clean
Clean and jerk

LOWER-BODY PLYOMETRICS
Squat jump
Tuck jump
Pike jump
Box jump
Vertical power jump
Split squat jump
Cycled split squat jump
Squat jump with pause
Speed skater for distance
Power step-up
Single-leg vertical power jump
Single-leg tuck jump
Referee start box jump
Depth drop
Depth drop box jump

SHOCK PLYOMETRICS
Rebound ready hold
Rebound ready bounce
Jump squat with pause
Box jump
Box squat
Counter-movement jump squat
Reactive jump squat
Drop jumps

UPPER-BODY PLYOMETRICS
Med ball push-up
Alternate-arm med ball push-up
Clap push-up
Med ball pass
Balance board push-up
Single-arm med ball push-up
Drop push-up

ADVANCED SHOCK PLYOMETRICS
Push-up with pause
Box drop push-up
Box drop and pop push-up
Floor bench press
Bench drop
Bench drop and press
Bench throw

Plyometric Routine

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Would you like to help your athletes be technically efficient jumpers? Of course you would. In this post your will see a set of 5 exercises that make up  plyometric routine, that will make your athletes better jumpers and help them to take stress off their bodies.

In the video clip below Reid Hall, a highly regarded volleyball strength and conditioning coach, takes you through a volleyball plyometric routine that he uses to train players of all levels.

Here are the exercises:

Drop to Load – 1 x12 with a 5-10 second rest between reps

The athlete begins on a plyometric box and drops to the ground. The athlete should land softly with the toes first followed by the heels. They should descend into a semi-squat position with the knees angles slightly outward. The hands should be back and their back should be angled slightly more that 45-degrees. This is called the loaded position.

Load to Extend  – 3 x 10 with a 30 second rest between sets

The focus of this drill is to move powerfully our of the loaded position. The athlete will begin on the ground in the loaded position with their hands back and in a semi-squat position. They will begin the movement with a powerful arm swing upward followed by a powerful extension of the ankle, knee and hips. The athlete will remain on the ground (do not jump)

Jump Pause   – 3 x 8 with a 45 second rest between sets

This drill is essentially connecting the dots between exercises 1 and 2. Here the athlete will begin in the loaded position. The athlete will and explode up out of the loaded position by powerfully swinging his arms and extending the ankle, knee and hips. They should land softly in the power position and pause for a few seconds.

Continuous Jumps – 4 x 8 with a 30 second rest between sets

The athlete begins in the power position and explodes up, lands in the power position and the explodes up again quickly. The focus should be landing correctly and exploding up as quickly as possible.

Drop to  Box – 6 x 4 with 1 minute rest between sets

This is the final exercise in the volleyball plyometric routine.  It is important that the athletes is not fatigued during this exercise. They will drop off of a short box and land in the loaded position and the quickly explode up and land on a taller box ( at least 6 inches lower than their max height). The athlete will step off the taller box and repeat 4 times to complete a set. This can be done without the second box. Just have the athlete jump up as high as possible after dropping off the shorter box. They should land in the power position.

Coach Reid has many great training ideas for volleyball players. To see more great training tips and to learn more about how Coach Reid can help improve your players check out his YouTube Channel or visit his site Reids Workouts

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that your sound is turned on. Note some schools block access to YouTube

 

Med Ball Drills for Explosiveness

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Here are three simple effective med ball drills that can be used to work on explosiveness. While designed for a NCAA Div 1 basketball team, these exercises would be appropriate for many different athletes.

In the video clip below Brian Bingaman, St. Joseph’s University Director of Strength and Conditioning; named a Master Strength & Conditioning Coach by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCA), as well as Strength & Conditioning Coach Certified (SCCC), and (Level 1 Club Coach) United States Weightlifting, demonstrates three med ball drills that he uses with the St Joseph’s Mens Basketball team.

The drill begins by placing 6 mini-hurdles approximately two feet apart. The athlete will begin facing the hurdles with a medicine ball in both hands. The athlete should begin with the ball at approximately chin height. He will explode up over the mini-hurdle and extend the ball up over his head. The effort should be maximum with the goal to get the ball as high as possible. The athlete should execute proper landing mechanics. The feet should not be to narrow or to wide, but properly balanced. The coaching cue is to land soft or quiet. They should be finishing through their toes. Upon landing the ball should return to chin height. Then with minimal dipping of the knees the athlete will explode up and over the next hurdle.

Coach Bingaman offers two simple variations. Next he has the athlete proceed through the mini-hurdles laterally. Taken note to complete the same number of reps facing each direction. In the third variation he has the athletes execute a quarter turn when the jump in the air over the hurdles. The should execute a 90-degree turn each time the jump.

This sequence is just a sample of Coach Bingaman’s training DVD. For more information about his program click the link Total Body Strength Training for Basketball

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that your sound is turned up. Note that some schools block access to YouTube. If you are having trouble viewing the clip from school, contact your network administrator.

 

Upper Body Strength Training

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This article was provided by Training and Conditioning

To help athletes reach their physical peak, you can’t neglect upper-body strength. From pushing to pulling and everything in between, this roundtable of experts covers effective training strategies for the chest, back, arms, and core.

Despite my focus on other areas, my high school boys always find a way to squeeze in bicep curls!” laments Mike Volkmar, MS, CSCS, PES, Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. Such is the dilemma for strength coaches when training the upper body. While the performance professional knows that building and maintaining strength, range of motion, and stability in the shoulders, back, chest, and thoracic spine holds incredible value, athletes typically want to focus solely on making their biceps and pecs pop.

But there’s no reason a successful upper-body training program can’t do both. In fact, it can target those goals and many more. Often, there’s an injury prevention angle, especially for throwing and overhead athletes. And many regimens also look to balance pushing and pulling motions.

So to figure out how to put these objectives together in an effective program, we asked six strength and conditioning coaches, including Volkmar, for their thoughts. (See “Our Panel” below.) In this roundtable, these experts share their tips for training the upper body and ensuring everything from big muscles to small stabilizers get the attention they deserve.

OUR PANEL

Justin Blatner, MA, SCCC, CSCS, USAW, is a Strength and Conditioning Specialist at Washington State University. He works with rowing and cheer and is the coordinator for track and field strength and conditioning. Blatner is also a certified speed and agility coach through the National Sports Performance Association.

Tad Johnson, MEd, CSCS, is Strength and Conditioning Coach for Clarkson University men’s and women’s ice hockey. With the women, he was a part of both the 2014 and 2017 national championship squads. Previously, he served as Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Minnesota, where he helped the women’s ice hockey team claim a national title in 2013.

Ed Nordenschild, MEd, CSCS, is Associate Athletics Director for Strength and Conditioning/Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Olympic Sports at the University of Virginia. Prior to Virginia, he was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at California State University, Fresno, where he received the NSCA’s Coach Practitioner Award in 2003.

Michael Shumaker, MS, is Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Performance at Mississippi College. Before that, he was an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Auburn University.

Mike Volkmar, MS, CSCS, PES, is Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. He’s a member of the NSCA New Jersey Advisory Board, wrote Tabata Workout Handbook, Volume 2, and co-authored The Mobility Workout Handbook: Over 100 Sequences for Improved Performance, Reduced Injury, and Increased Flexibility. The Peddie School received the NSCA’s Strength of America Award in 2016.

Andrew Wun, CSCS, USAW, is Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif. His program was recognized with the NSCA’s Strength of America Award in 2017. What is your philosophy on upper-body training?

Tad Johnson: My approach begins with asking two questions: 1) What do we need from the upper body in terms of strength, power, and conditioning? and 2) What are the common injuries we see in the upper body?

What we need from the upper body depends on the sport, whether the athletes are male or female, and how coaches expect their teams to play. The common areas injured in ice hockey—the sport I work with here at Clarkson University—are shoulders, wrists, and the head.

After answering those questions, I construct a training program to help facilitate performance and reduce injuries. I divide upper-body training into three categories based on the different needs of our male athletes, female athletes, and goalies. In general, the men do the most strength and hypertrophy work, the women do the most power work, and the goalies do the most strength-endurance work.

Justin Blatner: The upper body needs to be trained in multiple planes, and each plane should be targeted at least twice per week. This assumes healthy shoulders and adequate range of motion overhead, as well as sufficient internal rotation. The small stabilizers of the shoulder should also be addressed through warm-up drills and exercises that focus on external rotation, upward rotation of the scapula, and protraction/retraction of the scapula.

Mike Volkmar: First, we go back to basics! This includes push, pull, carry, and rotate.

Secondly, we make our athletes earn the barbells and dumbbells. They have to pass a push-up test before they can use either piece of equipment. I expect our boys to complete two or three sets of 20 to 25 push-ups, and our girls need to do two or three sets of 10 to 15 push-ups. Next, both girls and boys work up to 50 percent of their bodyweight in dumbbells for the chest press. That is typically around 35- or 45-pound dumbbells per hand for the boys and 20- to 30-pound weights per hand for the girls. Once they’ve accomplished those two steps, they have earned the barbell chest press.

Ed Nordenschild: For the most part, we pay more attention to the pulling or back side of the upper body than we do the pushing or front side. In addition, we usually do not train the upper arms specifically, as we feel they get sufficient stimulus with heavy pushing/pulling exercises. However, we do target forearm work in sports where we feel grip and wrist strength are important for performance, such as baseball, field hockey, and wrestling.

Michael Shumaker: My philosophy varies by sport, but every athlete needs to do anterior and posterior upper-body work for general strength development and injury prevention. We pull more than we press because I believe the posterior side is more important.

Andrew Wun: As a strength and conditioning coach at the high school level, my athletes do not have much experience, if any, in the weightroom. They are very young in their physical development, so it is important for me to teach them the fundamental movements and progress slowly from that foundation. Therefore, our general approach for training the upper body is to have a pulling movement for every pushing movement and work through all planes of motion. I also make sure to focus on the dominant side of the body just as much as the non-dominant side because I want my athletes to be well-balanced.

How has research shaped your upper-body training philosophy?

Volkmar: Every day, I read the research provided by the NSCA and articles written by the titans of our industry. If I uncover an exercise or new protocol I can bring to my athletes, I might give it a shot.

That being said, many of my athletes are new to exercise, with a training age of less than one year. They don’t need programs based on the latest research—they need the basic tenets and core principles of strength and conditioning.

I do add some of the newer, research-based, “sexier” movements and protocols with my third- and fourth-year kids, though. For instance, over the years, I’ve added resistance on their bench presses with bands and chains, and I’ve introduced cluster sets for those who have plateaued on the bench or shoulder press.

Blatner: Research has validated the need to train movements multiple times per week to make progress during the offseason. Early on in my career, I used research to dispel for myself some of the old myths about training, such as only benching to a 90-degree bend in the elbows for baseball players.

Studies specifically on various soft-tissue modalities and physical therapy-based exercises that are too complex for group training have helped me appreciate the value of working closely with a skilled sports medicine staff. This has also helped me to know when to refer an athlete to them.

Shumaker: I have read a lot about baseball training, specifically for pitchers, and I have almost completely changed the way I program that sport now, compared to when I started in this profession 12 years ago. In addition, I have altered my approach to the shoulder capsule, and I am more aware of how training affects that area.

Nordenschild: Research has made us more aware of the importance of the pulling motion in regard to overall training, as well as the way we deal with pushing exercises in the throwing and overhead athlete. Now, we are more inclined to use dumbbells with them and a neutral grip. Further, we use prehab exercises in an effort to stay ahead of shoulder injuries and overuse.

Johnson: Findings on complex/contrast training to develop power have helped validate my approach to the upper body. Also, reading books and having conversations with other professionals have allowed me to re-evaluate what I am doing and how to make it better. As a result, I’ve moved away from the barbell and include more dumbbell and landmine exercises in my workouts.

How do you schedule upper-body work into your strength and conditioning program?

Blatner: In most cases, it is incorporated into total-body lifts three days per week. If a team is training on back-to-back days, there is typically an emphasis on lower body one day and upper body the next.

Within each workout, there are usually one or two upper-body pushing exercises and one or two pulling exercises. Generally, I strive to maintain a balance between these two areas with a 1:1 pushing-to-pulling ratio, while training a variety of planes of movement. This is really important because otherwise the body becomes unbalanced, and risk of injury increases.

Volkmar: The vast majority of my athletes operate on a three-day, full-body split. This allows me to accommodate my multisport and younger athletes who need to focus on movements, not muscles. When I program upper-body exercises specifically, I try to maintain a balance of push and pull within each training week. Then, each day emphasizes either chest or shoulder work. I also keep in mind the upper back and lat stress that accompanies our Romanian dead lifts, dead lifts, and power cleans.

Our swimmers and football players are the only athletes who get dedicated upper-body days because they are the only ones who train year-round and operate with annual planned performance regimens. Swimmers have a short offseason phase of upper-body work after their competitive season in the winter. Meanwhile, football players follow a four-day split in the winter session focusing on general physical preparedness and hypertrophy.

Johnson: Typically, my athletes do upper-body work after their lower-body work. I use complex/contrast methods for both of these areas. Complex/contrast training is great for potentiating the nervous system through the alternated sequencing of heavily loaded, lightly loaded, and/or ballistic movements. Post-activation potentiation is the goal, which helps to improve power output. By developing power in this manner, our athletes acquire the ability to move an opponent out of the way quickly, produce a harder shot, and improve passing speed.

How do you target different areas of the upper body—such as the shoulders, arms, chest, and back—in your training?

Shumaker: I place the most emphasis on the back, chest, and shoulders. By honing in on these areas, I can train the smaller muscle groups, as well. For instance, if we use an underhanded or flip-flop grip on vertical pull-ups, this engages and activates the biceps. And when we perform certain horizontal presses, we engage the triceps more. Very rarely do I program a high volume on biceps curls or triceps extensions alone.

Wun: With the exception of some shoulder prehab work, all of our upper-body movements are multijoint lifts. These hit all the major muscles of the upper body and work a lot of the smaller stabilizing muscles. So we pair lifts like the bench press with barbell rows, the push press with pull-ups, push-ups with TRX rows, and the incline press with landmine rows.

Blatner: I think in terms of movements rather than specific areas. So I’ll target horizontal pushing and pulling, vertical pushing and pulling, and a variety of movements at the shoulder—such as Y-raises, dumbbell reverse fly or rear raises, and scapular punches and retractions—to work the stabilizing muscles. In terms of training the arms, this is accomplished predominately through our multijoint pushing and pulling exercises. Occasionally, triceps and biceps exercises are included.

How do you incorporate upper-body training for athletes in a variety of sports?

Blatner: The main aspect that changes from sport to sport is the number of each type of exercise athletes perform. For instance, a shot putter is going to complete more upper-body exercises than a soccer player, while a rower is going to perform fewer pushing exercises and more pulling exercises than the shot putter. Similarly, a tennis player might spend less time on absolute upper-body strength than a football player but will likely spend more time proportionally on explosive upper-body exercises.

Shumaker: All athletes need upper-body strength no matter their sport. One that’s often overlooked is cross-country. When our fall athletes reported, I had to explain to the freshman runners that they needed to perform upper-body exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and shoulder presses for many reasons but especially for posture. Without upper-body strength, they could become crouched on runs when they get fatigued, which could hinder their breathing and negatively affect performance.

Specifically, how do you address upper-body work in overhead/throwing athletes?

Blatner: These athletes require more training of the stabilizing muscles around the shoulder than other sports. A program for a throwing athlete may include additional corrective exercises during the warm-up and will include more shoulder-specific exercises in the main lift. Adequate mobility is also imperative for keeping the shoulder healthy in overhead athletes. Stretching, combined with corrective exercises, is a great way to train shoulder mobility.

When choosing exercises for these players, it’s important to assess shoulder health and pick movements that have the best benefit-to-risk ratio. For instance, if an athlete’s shoulder is not stable, cleans or clean pulls are better choices than a snatch.

Shumaker: In throwing/overhead athletes, the shoulder capsule needs extra attention. If not trained correctly, it can lead to damage in other joints, such as the elbow. I try to train the bigger muscles of the shoulder first, including the delts, lats, obliques, and traps, before working on the smaller muscles in the rotator cuff.

Our lifts for throwing and overhead athletes target the posterior side more, as well. This is because every time they throw, perform a swimming stroke, or spike a volleyball, they are already training the anterior side of their shoulders, arms, and pecs. So if we bench press for 40 reps, these athletes will then pull for 45 or more reps.

Nordenschild: We are careful with the intensity and implements used when doing overhead movements with these athletes. Neutral grips and dumbbells are incorporated whenever possible, and volume is carefully monitored.

What upper-body deficiencies are you seeing most often in athletes? How do you address them?

Shumaker: This is the easiest question so far. The posterior sides of our incoming freshmen are usually neglected, no matter the sport, because most kids in high school rarely train the posterior side. And many male athletes in particular only focus on what I refer to as the “pretty muscles”—the biceps and triceps.

To address this, I spend tons of time teaching and perfecting bodyweight movements, specifically push-ups, pull-ups, and planks. These are great exercises to watch when new athletes come in because they help to determine weaknesses or deficiencies. For instance, if an athlete’s hips sag in a push-up, you automatically know their core is weak or not engaged. Planks are the same way. And if an athlete can’t do a pull-up correctly, it shows the weakness of their posterior side.

If I have a player who cannot do regular push-ups, I have them perform incline push-ups. Similarly, if an athlete can’t do pull-ups, we will reduce their bodyweight with the assistance of bands and perform pulling movements from various angles.

Volkmar: My athletes sit for six to eight hours every day before coming to the weightroom, so I see a lot of Upper Crossed Syndrome—a muscle imbalance pattern in the neck, shoulders, and chest. For overhead/throwing athletes specifically, I see tight lats and chest muscles, limited thoracic spine mobility, and weak scapular muscles.

To fix these deficiencies, I use a joint-by-joint approach. Mobility and stability rely on each other, and each joint is affected by the ones above and below it.

For example, if athletes cannot keep their elbows or chest up during a front squat, I know they have some thoracic spine issues. So I will prescribe half-kneeling, kneeling, and lunging thoracic spine rotations, medicine ball thoracic extensions, and bench thoracic extensions. If I see irregular movement in the scapula during push-ups or know of an overhead athlete who has a pre-existing history of shoulder issues, I’ll have them do band scapula retractions, elbow push-ups, and push-ups plus a dumbbell superman press. We also do a lot of standing and unsupported exercises to reinforce core stability, and our warm-ups include shoulder and thoracic spine mobility to counteract bad posture. Of course, if an athlete shows really poor movement, I refer them to the athletic training staff.

Blatner: The main deficiencies I’m seeing in young athletes are lack of internal rotation of the shoulder, an inability to raise their arms into an overhead position, and poor thoracic posture. These deficiencies are multifaceted and do not always have the same underlying causes. Daily postural habits, sport/training background, and prior injury are some common causes, though.

The majority of the corrective exercises I use come from the Functional Movement Screen [FMS]. However, I’ve learned others from courses in Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization and the Postural Restoration Institute, as well as from other coaches, physical therapists, and chiropractors. Some of the exercises I incorporate regularly are the FMS 90/90 arm sweep, 90/90 rib roll, Bretzel, Bretzel 2.0, Y-slides on the floor, wall slides facing forward and backward, YTLW shoulder raises, and belly breathing.

How do you incorporate injury prevention/prehab into your upper-body work?

Wun: I suffered a major shoulder injury when I was in high school that essentially ended my athletic career, so I have all my athletes perform upper- and lower-body injury prevention exercises with an emphasis on shoulder prehab. I don’t want to see any of them suffer a preventable career-ending injury like I did.

My overhead athletes perform different shoulder prehab movements every workout. These consist of rehab exercises a sidelined athlete would use to come back from an injury, such as Ys, Ts, Ws, and Ls from a bent-over position or some external rotation work with a band from different angles and positions. I finish each session with this injury prevention work and core stability, so that everything I say about doing the extra things to stay healthy is fresh in athletes’ minds as they leave the weightroom.

Volkmar: Going into my ninth year at the Peddie School, I have noticed the injury patterns of the young athletes in each sport. So I know to add rotator cuff strength and shoulder stability exercises for our swimmers to protect their shoulders and more core stability and thoracic mobility work for our rowers to protect their lower backs.

Blatner: I include prehab exercises in a couple of ways. First, teams perform corrective movements in their warm-up, such as thoracic rotation and shoulder mobility exercises. For most squads, I use YTLW raises as a warm-up for some of the smaller shoulder stabilizers, as well. These are great for overhead athletes and those who perform overhead lifts.

Occasionally, I’ll include correctives paired with some of the major lifts, too. An example would be a 90/90 rib roll or arm sweep paired with the bench press.

The last couple of exercises in our workouts—such as proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation D2 pattern shoulder raise and dumbbell reverse fly—also work smaller movements around the shoulder. We won’t hit all of them in one lift, but we’ll perform most or all in some facet over the course of a week.

Shumaker: We add prehab exercises like YTIWs and alphabets in the beginning of some workouts for activation and range of motion. These exercises are performed with two-and-a-half-pound weights and target the rotator cuff muscles. Or we add some of the prehab exercises as fillers toward the middle of workouts, along with some flexibility/mobility movements.

One example of this is performing YTIs on the suspension straps paired with seated or standing wall slides. With these exercises, the athlete is developing strength while working on range of motion. My volumes and intensities for these combination movements are usually low.

What trends do you think will shape upper-body training going forward?

Johnson: The trend that I have embraced and expect to continue is the increase in dumbbell work over barbell work and how it has helped to keep shoulders healthy. Our male hockey players have moved to strictly dumbbell and landmine overhead pressing—they no longer do anything with a barbell overhead. The female hockey players still do some barbell push presses because their range of motion is typically better than the males, but the amount they do has decreased.

Blatner: Our understanding of the shoulder, how to train it, and what correctives to use if it is not functioning properly have certainly advanced. Related to this, I think there has been a trend to use overhead lifts more for all sports. Before, these were somewhat taboo. But if an individual has a healthy shoulder, these lifts can be great for building strength and stability, increasing performance, and reducing risk of injury.