Why You Should Train like an Athlete

    You want to be lean. You want to be strong. You want everyone to do a double take every time you walk into the room. Then why are you doing a monotonous machine based, body part split exercise program with some slow paced cardio added in? You're an athlete!  Humans were not designed to spend their day driving to work, followed by sitting behind a desk typing away on a computer, then driving home only to cap off the day sprawled out over the couch with an over-sized bowl of double fudge chocolate ice cream.  Oh ok, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention you managed to get a few sets of seated leg extensions in. Insanity! We are meant to jump, sprint, and lift heavy objects off of the ground! They are the elements of sport.

This is what your meant to do.

(December 26, 2009 - Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images North America)

   If we are built to function that way, why would you train any different?  Regardless of your goals, your regimen should be built to improve strength, function, movement efficiency, flexibility, mobility, and energy production components. With improvements in these areas, you will be capable of training harder and longer than before, while actually being in a better position to avoid injury and burn more calories. 

   How can you reap the benefits of athletic strength and conditioning? Implement these 6 elements into your program to begin training like the athlete you are today.

1. -Resistance Training-This should go without saying
2. -Pick one key basic exercise- Every workout(squat, deadlift, bench, military press, pull up, etc.) each workout and perform it first.
3. -Do Not Neglect-Incorporate unilateral leg work and posterior chain work. Neglecting these training stimuli will lead to muscular imbalances and eventually injury. 
4. -Balance- Balance horizontal and vertical pushing with plenty of horizontal and vertical pulling.
5. -Progressive Overload-Week after week beat your previous best, whether through increasing the weight (1-2%) or the reps, just flat out get better.
6. -Deload-Every 3-6 weeks undergo a deload week in which you reducing the overall training volume and intensity.  Also try and avoid and heavy barbell loading on your back.  The point of this week is to allow your body to recover from the previous weeks of hard training and prepare you for the next block
7. -Keep a log-This goes hand in hand with #3.  Keep a detailed log of what exercise you did, how much weight used, plus the number of sets and reps completed at each weight
8. -Train explosively and Avoid Going to Failure-In a controlled manner, try to accelerate the weight as fast as possible. Never continue sets past a point where the speed of the movement slows down noticeably. This will keep you from frying your system and thus allow for continuous improvements
9. -Implement High Intensity Cardio-Add complexes, sprints, hill sprints sled work, etc. 
10. -Perform soft tissue work-Include foam rolling as well as implementing a dynamic warm up pre-work, and a static stretching session 4-6 hours after your workout to increase flexibility and mobility

To learn more about how you can train like an athlete, visit www.trainstrive.com website today.

Till Next Time Fueling that Drive,

Kyle Bohannon, CSCS

Owner/Head Trainer 

kyle@trainstrive.com

www.trainstrive.com