Distance runners, like all athletes, can benefit tremendously by adding a strength training routine to their overall training plan. A runner with a strong core and more powerful legs can run more efficiently and improve their performance. Even more importantly, a strength training plan can help runners stay healthier by reducing their risk of common…
When it comes to testing strength, there seem to be two camps of Coaches. There are those who believe in the one rep max, meaning you build up in weight until you have the maximal amount of weight you think you can lift one time. At that point, you either lift the weight or you…
When designing a strength and conditioning program (or evaluating someone else’s), one of the things you have to be very mindful of is the exercise order. Poor exercise order can lead to sub-optimal gains in power, strength and overall performance – and that’s the best case scenerio. A really bad exercise order can even lead…
The power clean is one of the most effective exercises for building explosive power. But, there may be circumstances where doing power cleans just isn’t an option. Maybe you have an injury limiting your ability to perform the movement, maybe you’re lacking equipment or maybe you’ve not been taught how to properly power clean and…
There seems to be a lot of confusion between the differences of the power clean, hang clean and the full clean. I hear lifts being called the wrong thing all the time and so I’m going to try to help clear up the confusion on power clean vs hang clean vs clean. The difference between…
Coaching cues for power clean need to be short, to the point and still be able to give precise feedback to the athlete who needs to be able to correct form on the fly. Coaching cues are incredibly useful in a weight room for a number of reasons. First, weight rooms are generally very loud…
The Power Clean is the most popular lift among all of the Olympic Lift variants done with athletes. But, why is Power Clean such a popular lift with athletes? What are the benefits of Power Clean for athletes? In my opinion, the three major Power Clean benefits for Athletes are improving the power developed through…
Writing your first Strength and Conditioning Program is one of the most exciting rites of passage as a Strength and Conditioning Coach. You’ve been learning Squatting Progressions, Agility Drills and Shoulder Mobility Exercises. It feels like you have so much knowledge that you can’t wait to put it all on paper. However, once you find…
In your opinion, what are the top five exercises to improve athletic performance? This was the question posed to a group of Strength and Conditioning Coaches. Everything else was open for interpretation by each coach. No follow-up questions to clarify or narrow down the desired responses were allowed. Our group of coaches polled was a…