So many RDLs!!!

“Why do we do so many RDLs?” This is a question that the UCSD Strength Staff hears too often. Many responses can be developed for such a great question. But first, what is an RDL? RDL is an acronym for Romanian deadlift, which is a major hip strength movement that helps develop strength in the entire posterior chain. There is almost always a noticeable imbalance between the posterior and anterior chain muscles usually brought about from training, as the focus is on the muscles one can see in the mirror.

It is well known for peak athletic performance, the muscles in the posterior chain, namely the gluteal and the hamstring muscles, need to be strong. In addition and equally important, a strong posterior chain is key for injury prevention, especially in female athletes, as a weak posterior chain is the main cause for most injuries. For instance, studies show that hamstring activity is high in maximal sprinting and jumping movements. This elucidates the prevalence of hamstring strains during sprinting and jumping movements in athletes with less than sufficient posterior chain strength. Coaches and therapists attribute hamstring strains to two main causes. The first and obvious cause is insufficient hamstring strength. Usually, weak hamstrings that are unable to counterbalance the quadricep’s strength during movements will experience greater strain forces during maximal exertion. The second, less obvious, cause is insufficient strength in the gluteus maximus causing the hamstrings to overcompensate for the lack of force from the hip. Both causes increase the likelihood of a hamstring strain or tear. Therefore, RDLs should be utilized to increase hamstring and gluteus maximus strength to allow the athlete to both improve athletic movements and decrease the likelihood of a hamstring injury.

On a similar note, sufficient posterior chain strength and function can prevent common, nagging or season-ending injuries like knee and back injuries. This can be useful for female athletes as they experience a 4 to 6 fold higher ACL injury rate. Studies show that females are less able to resist hip and knee internal rotation during athletic movement, the main mechanism for an ACL injury. In a lateral cutting study, females encountered more hip and knee internal rotation forces during cutting drills than males. Similarly, in a jump and landing study, female athletes experienced significantly greater hip internal rotation displacement for both single leg and single leg hop as compared with males. In both studies, researchers contributed the internal rotation to weak gluteus muscles, which are strong external rotators of the hip. In addition, contributing to the greater incidence of ACL injury in females over males is joint laxity. Females often exhibit more joint laxity in the knee than males. Greater joint laxity in the knee causes instability during movement, increasing stresses on the ligaments. Hamstring strengthening has been shown to decrease knee laxity and increase the ability to resist internal rotation at the knee.  Thusly, RDLs can help reduce the prevalence of ACL injuries in female athletes.

            As we can see, gluteal and hamstring muscle strength is important for optimal and safe athletic movement. Improving hamstring and gluteus maximus strength can improve athletic performance and prevent injuries that can sideline an athlete. So that’s why we do RDLs, and you should too!

STRESS?? YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT STRESS??

With Finals week right around the corner a lot of our student athletes are probably feeling stressed. Stress, whether mental or physical, is a natural part of life and the ability to manage it a common trait shared by just about everything. Like all other living organisms on this planet we are constantly performing homeostasis. Homeostasis is our ability to maintain a certain series of internal conditions. Our bodies can only function properly under these conditions. Stress is anything that forces our bodies to deviate from our normal “setting” if you will. Your body is constantly adapting to stress to bring you back to those normal conditions.

The only downside to this mechanism is that we don’t have an endless capacity to overcome stress. Because of this our bodies prioritize the most dangerous stresses and adapt to those and before it handles all the sub-lethal stresses. A good analogy for this is to think of your body as having a set number of points or money it can use for recovering from stress. If your recovery capacity is your monthly paycheck, then the essential bodily functions are like rent and utilities. They get paid before money is spent on frivolous things or else you are in real trouble. If you only have 100 stress points and it takes 80 points to perform the essential bodily functions, then you will only have 20 points to use on things like working out or studying before you start functioning less than optimally. This is a key point for our student athletes to understand. They are expected to function optimally; their demands are above and beyond just merely surviving. Competing in the top levels of a sport and maintaining excellent academic standing requires them to function at a higher level than most. Just “getting by” is not the end goal; it must be a given and the true end goal is to thrive and perform better than everyone else.

We are constantly preaching about the ways to improve your capacity to overcome stress; a way to get more magical recovery points, or to be more efficient with the points you already have. Your body uses sleep, nutrition, and hydration to aid in the stress adaptation process. The trick is to lower the “cost” of your essential functions to allow yourself more capacity to recover from the extra stress of playing sports. Eating fast food or junk food because you need calories will be enough to keep you alive, but your body will end up using more of its recovery capacity to process that food and make it useful instead of helping you recover from a long day. Not getting enough sleep means your body has to put in overtime to keep you alert and functioning, instead of working at remembering the key points of the chapter you just read, or overcoming the soreness in your hamstrings. If you are not sleeping and hydrating properly, or eating food “just to get the calories in” then you are compromising your ability to do the other things that are demanded of you. Your body doesn’t care how well you do in practice or in the classroom. It only cares about maintaining those conditions that keep you alive.

You, however, DO care how you perform in the classroom and in your sport and you must work extra hard to “eat your cake and have it too.” Not taking care of your body is just going to make it work harder to survive at the expense of your athletic and academic performances. If you want to manage stress better, be consistent and be proactive about taking care of your body. The less work it has to do to maintain those essential conditions, the more capacity it has to recover from those “above and beyond” stresses that you place on it. 

5 Ways to Dominate Life

What makes a competitor? How do you go about taking your performance to a new level? What can you do to get the best gains possible while still enjoying the collegiate life? These are some of the questions we as a Strength and Conditioning staff asked ourselves. With that, we decided on 5 ways that can help you achieve those goals and DOMINATE LIFE.

1. Diet
"The first wealth is health." 
Your diet plays a monstrous part in how you think, feel, perform and recover. Think of it like this: you the “Ferrari” of the PCH, are cruising along filled with a full tank of premium gas (lean protein, whole grain carbs, fruit). Like wise, your teammate also a Ferrari starts along side of you with a tank full of regular (a Double Double w/ fries, Carne Asada nachos, or last nights left over pizza). You both start strong and powerful, handling the turns with precision. Soon after however you will continue to excel from the cleaner energy source while your teammate becomes sluggish, bogged down with gunk buildup in his engine from the subpar fuel. As simple as it gets, the better quality fuel you put into your engine, the better that engine can perform. Fill up with the best to out perform the rest!

 2. Training
“The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”
Each year incoming athletes come into the weight room with the intentions of becoming stronger, faster, and better conditioned to excel above the competition. With that, the Strength and Conditioning staff welcome the challenge EVERYDAY to improve your overall athletic capabilities by pushing you to your limits and beyond! Now think for a minute what you could do if you came in 3 months better then when you left for summer? Think of all the sweat, hard work and devastating fatigue you experienced throughout the school year in order to become better, faster, and more agile. Why waste it by not utilizing a summer strength and conditioning program. Think about your teammates, hold each other accountable, and prepare to come back the following year ready to train hard and build upon your efforts from the previous year.

 3. Recover Strategically
"You have to do what others won't to achieve what others don't."
Recovery from exercise can be accelerated with proper attention to stretching, massage, nutrition and sleep. Some techniques like stretching, massage, and contrast showering draw fresh oxygenated blood in to muscles and promote the elimination of waste products. After your weight training session its imperative to cool down properly to regain proper muscle length, improve tissue quality and release tension held around joints. Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) is one of the methods of stretching most used by today's athletes, massage therapists, personal/athletic trainers, and professionals. Active Isolated Stretching allows the body to repair itself and also to prepare for daily activity. The Active Isolated Stretching technique involves the method of holding each stretch for only two seconds. The contrast shower is a simple and convenient way to stimulate vitality and promote detoxification, as well as treat generalized areas of pain and soreness. The idea is simple: alternating between hot and cold water while you are showering to stimulate your body to heat itself up and cool itself down, in order to compensate. This temperature contrast helps strengthen and normalize the nervous, circulatory, endocrine (hormonal), musculoskeletal and immune systems and is excellent for helping the body cope with physiological and psychological stress. Deep tissue massage is not spa-type relaxation massage. Deep tissue massage can and will be uncomfortable at times. In addition to deep tissue massage, athletes will also benefit from a massage technique known as “myofascial release”. This technique specifically affects the connective tissue and works to restore fascia to its’ natural state. Connective tissue dehydrates as we lose fluids during training and “shrink wraps” (much like Saran Wrap does in the microwave). This “shrink wrapping” compresses muscle tissue; therefore, limiting range of motion and reducing circulation. Below are just some of the benefits from deep tissue massages:

• Relieves muscle tension through improved circulation. 
• Reduces muscle soreness and fatigue through enhanced circulation. 
• Increases the amount of oxygen and nutrients. 
• Increases circulation disposes of waste products and hastens recovery time. 
• Increases/restores range of motion; thus improving running efficiency and performance. 
• Improves flexibility- this reduces the risk of injury, improves running efficiency and performance. 
• Restores posture and gait. 
• Reduces excessive scar formation. 
• Decreases adhesion formation. 
• Releases fascial restrictions. 
• Improves connective tissue healing. 

4. Practice, Practice, Practice
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
A staple in any athletes regiment is practice. This is a quiet reminder that those who allow their skills to become dull and unrefined allow the competition to surpass them. The idea is to be better then you were yesterday by any means necessary. It doesn’t mean you must practice, lift or run everyday. It means that you constantly evolve your knowledge of the sport or activity your going to engage in. This might mean watching a professional game, learning a lift better by seeking out mentors for tips or just recovering smarter. The idea is to continually refine that blade so the next time competition comes knocking you’re not only better but able to slice and dice.

5. Continuing Education
“Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.” 
Choose a book that requires effort and concentration and read a little of it every day, so that you read it from cover to cover in 100 days! Make it a point to learn at least one new thing daily (think of a year’s time). The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will each day: Learn the name of a new muscle and how it works, a new book to read, or a new skill such as surfing. The continual growth mentally with effect other facets of your life. Better balance surfing will give you better balance on the field, improved knowledge of a muscle group can help you learn a more effective way to train it, a new book will expand your vocabulary and provide though provoking concepts about life. The only limitation you have is YOU!

The Hierarchy of Nutritional Concerns

One of the many roles that strength coaches fulfill for their athletes is that of nutritionist. It might not be something we’ve been classically trained in but nutrition is a science we do know a lot about. Food is the fuel to our performance, and we are obsessed with performance, therefore we are often obsessed with food. Many strength coaches can rattle off information about macronutrient timing and breakdown until they are blue in the face, but does this hit home with their athletes? The fact of the matter is any advice on any subject is useless unless it leaves an impact on whoever is listening. I believe the best nutritional advice you can get is going to be the simplest and that which will allow you to make consistent and immediate changes to better your diet. That is where I came up with the idea of “the Hierarchy of Nutritional Concerns.” The point is for an athlete to consider where he or she is on the hierarchy and to make adjustments until they are ready to move onto the next stage. We want to give athletes a progression to how they should go about addressing their diet. Changing one’s diet is a difficult task since so much of what and how we eat is a habit. This approach, by changing one manageable thing at a time, will make it easier for the athlete to stick to these changes in their diet.

Caloric Needs
The first stage of the hierarchy is to learn what an appropriate caloric input is; or in general terms, how much food you should eat. You will fall into one of three categories: a need to gain weight, a need to maintain weight, or a need to lose weight. These categories coincide with three caloric needs: more calories, the same amount of calories, or less calories consumed, respectively. Counting calories can be tedious, inexact, and difficult at times, so the easiest way to establish your caloric input is to vary the amount of food you eat until it matches your caloric needs. This will take some experimenting but you should learn about how much food you actually need to eat, and you should be able to consistently eat this amount. If you begin to address anything about your diet while still eating the wrong amount of calories chances are you will not see the results you want. Once you can master your ability to match your caloric input with your caloric needs you can move onto the next stage.

Quality of Food
When you have an idea of how much food to eat, the next change to make is what kind of foods you are eating. High quality foods will result in the highest quality performance of your body. A lot of your performance in the pool, field, weightroom etc. is dependent on your body’s ability to respond to stress. The less attention your body has to pay to overcoming the stress of poor food choice the more attention it can pay to overcoming the stresses of working out and competition. Highly processed foods will produce inflammation in your body, which is a stress to overcome. Limiting this inflammation by eating more natural and wholesome foods will result in less unnecessary stress for your body. A majority of your diet should be composed of foods that have stood the test of time, and were not artificially made. They are often foods derived from things that once walked this earth or grew in it (ever see a Pop-tart tree? Me neither.) Once you have found that you are still able to stay within your caloric needs and you are eating mostly meats, plants, nuts, or dairy then you can move onto the next stage.

Macronutrient Breakdown
A lot of people begin at this stage and do not have mastery of the first two stages and will see less than desirable results. The macronutrients are the three major sources of energy your body derives from food: protein, carbohydrates, and fats or lipids. Each macronutrient provides different benefits and so the amount of each will vary per the demands on an individual’s body. Protein is arguably the most important macronutrient for athletes, and a majority of calories should be consumed from protein sources. Protein is an important molecule in almost all cellular processes and therefore is needed in high amounts for the system to run most efficiently. Eating enough protein for your body is going to allow it to carry out its normal processes and effectively respond to the stress of workouts and competition. Protein sources include meat, nuts, dairy, and beans. If you don’t feel fresh and “normal” at anytime, chances are you need to increase your protein consumption. Fats will provide the most energy per unit for your body so your main meals should contain some form of fat. The healthiest forms of fat can often be found from animal byproducts like dairy or in plant oils like olive or coconut oil. Since they provide the most energy they are very important in helping an athlete fulfill the high energy demands on their bodies so that the body can still carry out its normal processes. Carbohydrates are the macronutrient that can be varied the most in an athlete’s diet. They provide the body with a quick source of energy, but do not aid much in terms of recovery from stress. They are most useful in fueling the efforts that impart the stress. Consumption of carbohydrates should vary depending on the level and intensity of the stressful event (practice, game, workout etc). The best sources of carbohydrates will come from fruits and vegetables in the form of fiber. When you have an understanding of the macronutrient amounts that work best for you, and are composed mostly of high quality foods, and also fall within your caloric needs, then you are ready to move onto the next stage.

Nutrient Timing
The most specific and last stage of the hierarchy of nutritional concerns is the timing of your nutrients. Once all the other stages have been mastered, the last thing to tinker with in perfecting an athlete’s diet will be when he or she eats what they eat. If the diet is meant to complement or even aid in an athlete’s performance, than it must be tailored specifically to that performance and this is only done if the fuel is made accessible to the body in time for the performance. The most important period of nutrient timing is going to be pre-workout or pre-competition. Eating too close to a workout or competition will not give the body the time to break down the food and will often leave an athlete feeling weak or even nauseous. Eating too early will leave the body without the fuel necessary to complete the effort. Since carbohydrates are the most readily available form of energy, they are best consumed before a workout or competition along with some protein. Since fats take the longest to digest, they are generally best to avoid in the hours leading up to a workout or competition. After a workout or competition your body is looking to recover quickly and is in need of the energy to do so, and the building blocks to use. Therefore post-workout protein and carbohydrate consumption is important. Fats will be most beneficial to helping with long term recovery and restoring energy supplies, and are best consumed long before a competition or anytime after. A general guideline would be carbohydrates and protein closer to a period of intense effort, and protein and fat further away from that time.

The best way for an athlete to get the most advantage from their diet is for them to experiment and find what works best for them. It helps to be brutally honest with where you stand in the hierarchy. Eating quality foods a few times a week does not mean you have mastered this stage and are ready to worry about your macronutrient breakdown. Focusing on a broad concept like eating quality foods until you have grasped and mastered this concept will make it easier to keep it in check when you begin to address your macronutrient breakdown. The key to an advantageous diet is consistency with the basics. Athletes love progression, accomplishment, and most importantly seeing results. Helping them understand what they need to focus on in order to advance and the most efficient way to go about doing it will hit home with them. With the hierarchy of nutritional concerns, an athlete will understand the basics of maintaining a proper diet and when they will be ready to progress the complexity of it in order to see the best results.

It Pays to Win

It pays to win is a phrase our offseason teams have been hearing a lot this spring. As a staff we decided it would be a good time for our offseason teams to get back to competing. This meant that everything from our warm ups to our actual lifts were going to be competitive in nature and we would reward winners and punish losers. Hence the birth of our unofficial slogan of this week: “It Pays to Win.”

Collegiate athletes are near the top level of their sport and every one of them will tell you they did not reach that level without being competitive people. Something within drives them to work on bettering themselves and their team. During the season they satisfy their competitive hunger by playing their games or competing in practice to earn more playing time. When the season is over, so is their opportunity to compete on a regular basis. For many athletes, this makes for a very long and boring offseason. The last thing we want is for our athletes to lose focus of their goals even though they may seem far away. So it is important to incorporate competition into a team’s offseason plan to keep their focus and bring back some of that fire that makes our athletes so great.

Looking for ways to make our warm-ups competitive we immediately thought of carry relays. Racing is the most basic form of competition and the external load of a sandbag or a teammate activates just about every muscle in your body. Our winners got to go on to their lift, while the losers continued to race against each other. For our lifts, we split the teams up into smaller groups and had them compete in various ways. Sometimes we would have them perform a strength circuit for time. Or have the smaller groups compete for maximum tonnage with a particular movement over a timed set. Another great method was to pair two athletes head to head and have them compete for maximum reps of a movement in a set time. We even had our women’s soccer team race through an obstacle course and play some tug of war.

Our competition week gave us great results. The athletes loved the change of pace and our workouts saw a considerable increase in intensity. As strength coaches, we loved being able to remind our athletes of their own competitive spirit. The offseason can be a long and arduous time for an athlete; however, they must never forget that this is the time when the most important gains can be made in their training. Our athletes will not soon forget why it pays to win, which will make them a force when they get to compete against another team in season.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A COLLEGIATE STRENGTH COACH

A lot of people ask me what my job is like and I usually give short and simple answers; write programs and coach athletes in their workouts. I’ve come to realize that this just scratches the surface of what my job entails. Very few people out there understand the nuances of the job and the lifestyle that accompanies it. So I decided to jot down what a typical day is like for me. I wish I was creative enough to make this stuff up and I assure you the following account is completely true.

4:27 AM: First alarm goes off. I immediately chug 32 oz of water. Not only will I rehydrate from sleeping but I will soon have to pee so bad that even the warmest, most comfortable bed would not contain me.

4:31 AM: Second alarm goes off. This alarm means go time, literally. I place my feet on the floor and make a quick evaluation of my joints and muscles. Soreness is never a huge issue for me but most of the time my lumbar spine feels as if it’s frozen in carbonite like Han Solo.

4:45 AM: Dressing for the day. I was given 4 t-shirts to wear and have acquired a few others from my school so my work wardrobe is simple. Gym shorts (usually worn above the knee), sneakers, a hoodie, and I am good to go.

4:50 AM: Making breakfast. I have found that making a fresh breakfast shake is much better than having one sit overnight, so I pull out my blender. This particular day I had no more Greek yogurt, so I substituted ice cream, with it goes a banana, frozen berries, milk, protein powder and some creatine. As I’m blending I can’t help but think if I am bothering any of my neighbors.

5:00 AM: Out the door. My work bag and lunch were packed the night before so I just grab my fish oils and Rockstars and head to my car.

5:05 AM: Usually listen to talk radio in the morning unless I can find some music right away. I got into this habit because I’ve found that hearing people who sound intelligent keeps me awake.

5:12 AM: Show up at my boss’ house. The strength staff carpools to work every day; its more eco-friendly and we were only given one parking pass for the three of us. I usually show up a few minutes early, text the other coaches (they live next to each other) and then read Twitter or the news.

5:15 AM: First energy drink of the day. I (we) usually crack our first energy drinks in the car on the way to our office. This usually provides for interesting car ride banter; today we debated the utility of stop lights at this hour, discussed the pros and cons of seafood and the terrible driving habits of the other assistant coach. None of us will be speaking in a tone softer than a shout from this point on for the rest of the day.

5:20 AM: Open the office. Our first team rolls in at 5:45 so we get in a little early to get settled and get ready, or to just argue about the taste differences between diet and regular versions of sodas. The funniest part is that none of us can even remember the last time we had a soda. More yelling ensues, until we settle things by listening to “Blame It on the Boogie” by Michael Jackson.

5:50 AM: A few of our baseball guys are sleeping in the hallway instead of foam rolling, so we call our first audible of the day. The warm-up becomes sandbag sprints, broad jumps, and bear crawls. I usually use this time to set up the weight room for their lift but on this particular day I stick around to witness the “lesson.” The lift is pretty energized, they had hang cleans and our freshmen are doing really well with the movement. I’ll probably say “hips” and “elbows” over a hundred times in the next hour.

8:00 AM: After two groups of baseball guys, the water polo team comes in to lift. I warm them up in an auxiliary basketball court while the baseball guys finish up. This is a fun group to warm up, they always have energy. It’s also fun to watch the “sea animals,” (our term for water athletes) move about and look athletic on land.

8:35 AM: Water polo guys are gutting out slow eccentric squats; the scene is absolutely awesome. Unfortunately, I am asked to grab the head strength coach’s water bottle from our office downstairs. I’m not too upset because I forgot mine down there and I am already dehydrated from yelling all morning. I also use this time to finish energy drink #1.

9:00 AM: Men’s soccer. Men’s soccer presents a bit of a logistical nightmare for us. This is a large group with a lot of class conflicts so a few guys will show up late. This is a dense lift, meaning they will always have correctives or other things to do between sets to keep them moving and focused. We see a lot of quad- dominant deadlifts with them so most of my attention is spent adjusting our deadlifts and preventing “log jams.”

10:00 AM: Women’s soccer. This is a very coachable group and they get it done today. Also it’s our last team of the morning. With a nice break to look forward to we are a little more relaxed and at ease with them. I lock up our equipment cabinet only to find that a single band has been left out and have to unlock the cabinet and put it back. One more look over of the weight room and find everything has been put away.

11:05 AM: Pre-workout meditation. More Michael is being played in the office; I’m sitting and annihilating a jar of peanut butter. I also crack open energy drink #2. I look up what my lift is for today, 4 sets of 3 at 85% 1RM clean and jerks, followed by some front squats. I’ve been on my feet for the last 5 and a half hours… its fine.

11:22 AM: We leave our office to head to the other weight room for our staff lift. We probably spend most of the walk practicing our Wookie calls and complaining about the stadium steps we’re about to climb.

11:40 AM: After applying some Tiger Balm, doing some soft tissue and mobility work, I pick up the bar and begin warming up. The heavy triples for clean and jerk are absolutely brutal; I question ever writing them into an athlete’s program again.

12:20 PM: Somehow I find myself conditioning with a Prowler. I thought the clean and jerks were conditioning for today. We start experimenting with a negative rest protocol for Prowler sprints. In four minutes my heart rate will be 180 beats per minute. The experiment yields reliable data.

12:40 PM: We flag down the track coach in his golf cart to drive us back to our main athletic building. It’s an 8 minute walk that would have taken us at least 15 on this particular day.

12:57 PM: Lunch. We all grab our lunches, pop them in the microwave and chat with our equipment manager. Lunch for me is a pound of ribs I made a few days earlier and a green pepper I’ll eat like an apple because I was too lazy to cut it. Pretty soon I’ll be finished with energy drink #2.

2:00 PM: Men’s and Women’s Swimming. They jump rope during their warmup so trying to set up their lift can be like moving through a field of lasers.

3:00 PM: Women’s Basketball comes in. Their lift goes smoothly and their focus is evident which makes my job easy and to me easy is boring.

4:05 PM: Men’s Basketball is warming up and I’m grilling the freshman about what they had for breakfast. I tend to ask our freshman about their breakfast habits and slowly but surely we’re starting to make better decisions.

5:20 PM: Finally finish up with teams for the day. The basketball redshirts and freshman stayed after their lift for a little “beach work,” so we designed a nice little circuit for them and stayed to watch.

5:30 PM: Last Youtube session of the day. We all head down to our office, sink into our chairs, and start conjuring up some of our favorite Youtube videos. The “Pepe Silvia” scene from Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and a hilarious video about Snapple Cap Facts are played and quoted tirelessly. I experience some shortness of breath climbing the stairs for the thousandth time today as I leave.

6:15 PM: Sitting in traffic I realize I naturally hook grip my steering wheel. Not sure if this is cool or not. Also thanks to rush hour traffic, the drive that took me 10 minutes this morning is now half an hour.

6:20 PM: I get home and immediately pull out a package of frozen meat and start defrosting it. While it defrosts I read a little of Essentials of Strength and Conditioning or catch up on some strength and conditioning blogs.

8:20 PM: My girlfriend comes over with some items for dinner. We’re having taco salad and I’m already excited about having leftovers for lunch tomorrow. After dinner I’ll do the dishes, foam roll, stretch and get ready for bed.

9:30 PM: Pre-bed routine. Get my clothes ready for tomorrow, get lunch ready for tomorrow, double check both my alarms, and pack my bag; despite my best efforts I can’t seem to be in bed before 10 which is very frustrating.

10:13 PM: Lights out and usually asleep in a few minutes. I never seem to have trouble falling asleep at night, 4:30 comes quickly.

Well, there you go, a day in my life. It may sound crazy and hectic and you might question how I do it everyday. I’ve learned from my mentors early on that success in this industry is very dependent on your own passion for doing it. I can’t remember a day where I didn’t fall asleep excited about work, or the last time I wanted to stay in bed because I didn’t feel like working. I assure you this account is not very different from other strength coach’s lives, and that speaks volumes to the passion and character of a collegiate strength coach.

Introducing Strength and Conditioning to Freshmen

As the new school year begins, our incoming freshman are getting their first exposure to collegiate strength and conditioning. Much to their surprise a lot of them probably won’t grab a heavy weight for a few more weeks. Like most things in life, when it comes to proper weight lifting you must learn to walk before you can run.

When an athlete comes to us as a freshman we have no real idea on his or her experience with strength training or conditioning. Some may have come from high schools with an excellent strength program and some might have never worked out in their lives. As a strength staff we must introduce them to the world of strength and conditioning in a manner that will not only keep them healthy in the short term, but also set them up for long term progress and success.

The first phase of this introductory period is a basic movement competency screen. This phase tests our athletes on movements that we intend to load at some point in their training. They must prove to us that they have the joint mobility, body control, and kinesthetic sense to master these movements before we can load them. Our athletes are given a lot of reps with bodyweight and sometimes banded assistance to help them “groove the pattern.” This period is important because this is their opportunity to learn some of our coaching cues, as well as understand what we are looking for when we ask them to perform a movement. They may not be moving heavy weight around, but they are allowing their bodies to master certain movements so that when they become loaded the movements are automatic. We also use this time to strengthen their cores, and introduce them to some basic finishers to keep their strength and work capacity from digressing.

The next phase is going to work as their introduction to weight lifting. They should have an understanding of how to move properly, so now we begin to load them with weight. They might be on a program similar to the one used by their teammates, but with lower volume to allow more time for us to teach and coach them. This period also teaches them things about the weightroom that will be important for them to work efficiently with their teammates. Things like loading a barbell, using dumbbells, reading their programs and recording their weights might be new to some so this period is a good chance to learn how to work within the weightroom.

Finally, they should be ready to begin working on the same program as their teammates. By now they should have mastered basic movements, and have sufficient experience within a weightroom environment to understand what we expect from them. This learning process is designed to ensure their safety as well as eliminating any bad habits they might have picked up outside a good strength and conditioning program. This sets them up very well for a long term training career, as well as develops a positive attitude towards the weightroom.