Strength Training For Athletes Part 1

I have never made a true post on here about strength training. In order to build muscle, you must strength train, so let's talk about exactly how to do that. Many of the emails I get come from high school, college, or adult athletes asking me how to improve there strength and can I set up some strength training programs for them? Well, today I will teach you all the basics of strength training and check back tomorrow and I will provide a great in-depth strength training program. Most any coach or trainer will agree there are 5 components of any strength training program you must master. These components are hypertrophy, maximal strength, strength endurance, explosive power, and periodization.

Hypertrophy refers to increased muscle size. This is only one part of a strength training program that should only be used for a select group of athletes such as football players. This is because increased muscle size and bulk can be a problem for many athletes such as wrestlers. Increased muscle size and bulk will cause weight gain. Remember that a bigger muscle is not always a stronger muscle.

Maximal strength is the highest possible force a muscle can generate. This is what people are talking about when they say what they "max" at in a given lift. This is a great way to know how strong you are and to get stronger. Interestingly, maximal strength does not seem to have any effect on hypertrophy. Therefore, athletes who do not want to gain weight will take advantage of this to get stronger, but not bigger.

Explosive power is something that most athletes will use. This has to do with anything that is not just one maximal effort. Most sports require endurance and longer muscle output. Maximal strength will show how strong you are, but does not usually convert to explosive power. When you mix power training with things such as plyometrics, maximal strength can be converted into explosive power. Plyometrics are such things as squat jumps for the lower body, and work with a medicine ball for the upper body. I will elaborate more on this in my next post.

Strength endurance is something almost athletes will need at one time or another. This involves such sports as distance running, swimming, and cycling. Endurance can be developed in the gym through circuit training. This involves using lighter weight with high repetitions and not much break between sets. The goal is to keep your heart rate up. Many endurance programs that involve weights do not help with many sports. A runner will gain much more endurance out of simply practice than spending time in the weight room.

Periodization is the final part of strength training. This will involve all strength training programs. This element will divide your overall workout plan into sections or periods all with a specific outcome. This prevents over training and allows you to move onto the next period when you reach your goal. Athletes will not be able to make strides week in and week out. Periodization promotes changes in workout intensity which will allow for greater performance enhancement later on. This all sounds confusing, but when I break it down in my next post it is very simple.

There ya go. These are the basics of strength training. I will develop an in-depth strength training program tomorrow for you all to use. Email me if you have any questions at ryan@andersonpersonaltraining.com. Have a good day guys.

the fitnessexpert