The world of athlete training can be, well, downright confusing.

There are so many training methods, exercises, pieces of equipment, etc. out there that it leaves one to wonder which is the optimal path for them.

Perhaps you have experienced similar thoughts.

For me, I am a simple man.

I like to break things down to the bare bone qualities and decipher what about each training implement and style is the core to it’s objectives.

When you approach training with this mindset, you are able to streamline the thought process and restore clarity to the muddy water.

There really are 3 areas that go into the development of an athlete.

1. Practicing the skills and techniques involved in the sport, to a point that their action is second nature and can be executed with speed when called upon during competition.
2. Preventing injury in training that isn’t the competition itself, and correcting adaptations that have arisen from frequent sport play. For example, a baseball pitcher will often develop imbalances in their throwing shoulder, presenting itself in adjusted posture and potentially pain. While, the body has adapted for a reason, to perform the action the most efficiently, if allowed to get too far to the extreme, injury could, and most likely will happen.
3. Strengthening and increasing the power capabilities of the muscles involved in the sport.

Front Squat, High Bar Back Squat, and Low Bar Back Squat

3. The Pull Up- If I were to name the one exercise that I believe all athletes should master, it would be hard to argue with the pull up as it requires a different kind of strength than the squat and deadlift. Rather than just hoisting an external load around, with the pull up, you must be strong at moving your entire body, much like you must do in sports.

If you are able to perform 15 or more pull ups you are far more advanced than most athletes you will ever come across. You also will be a pretty fast individual as well as there being a strong correlation to pull up strength and sprinting speed.

The pull up strengthens the grip, lats, arms, abs, and shoulders in varying degrees, is when conquered, will allow an athlete to powerfully transfer the force from the lower body though the hands to execute a sport task.

4. The Push Up- Most would assume that the bench press is the master exercise for strengthen the body in pushing movements, but I disagree, especially for an athlete. In the bench your arms and shoulder are locked into a dangerous position, preventing them from rotating naturally as they should. It should go without saying that this is not a recipe for success in avoiding injuring the athlete.

The push up reigns supreme for its ability to allow the shoulder to move naturally, strengthen the muscles of the shoulder girdle, chest, and arms, as well as the abs through an isometric contraction.

Every athlete should be able to at least perform 25 full range of motion pull-ups in under 30 seconds. Sadly most can’t. Though fortunately, this mean an opportunity for you to rise above them.

5. Triple Broad Jump- For developing explosive power, many like to use the olympic lifts, the ‘clean and jerk’ and the ‘snatch, along with their variations. I however feel that the time to learn those lifts is too long for a non olympic athlete.

I also feel that there is a better way that transfers over more to the demands of field/court sports. That way is the triple broad jump.

It’s execution is simple. Jump forward 3 times consecutively.

The reasons for its awesomeness are three-fold. First, it has a very low learning curve. Second, every sport requires the ability to jump, so why would you not train it. Finally, the consecutive jumps require the athlete to display great reactive, or ‘ploymetric’, strength as well as balance and cooridnation, just as seen in competition.

A good number for the average athlete to aspire for is over 20 feet.

However, we are not after average, we are after excellence. 25+ feet should be the objective for all, with an elite eye towards 30 feet.

So there you have it. The 5 Key Exercises of the Dominate Athlete. If you improve in each of those areas. I guarantee that your performance will DRAMATICALLY improve.

Best Wishes,

Kyle

Are You a Cincinnati Athlete?

The following is a response to a question posed to me by the, father of a Strive Athlete, asking how to improve his daughter’s foot and hand speed on the tennis court.

“As far as increasing foot and hand speed, when discussing carry over to tennis, we must first look at what produces the actions of foot and hand speed, which is the nervous system.

Thus in order to improve the speed of the feet and hand for the sport actions of tennis, the nervous system must be taught how to be more efficient at sending a high frequency of impulses as well as creating a high degree of synchronization of movement.

Efficiency is the key word there, which is trainable to a limit of the athlete’s genetic potential. Some athletes are just better “wired” to be efficient in their movements. Think a guy like Barry Sanders.

So in order to improve efficiency of movement, the nervous system must have the movement ingrained, or hard-wired, within in its process so well that producing the action is second nature.

The answer to this is in drilling the proper technique, repetitively and exactly the same, over and over again.

The nervous system needs to have zero thought in what to do, only react effortlessly.

So my recommendation would be to drill more tennis.

Now this doesn’t mean to practice hard for hours on end, as this will lead to injuries  but rather, segment the movements down to their basic parts and then ingrain those parts into Nicole’s system repetitively. This reminds me of Bruce Lee and the countless kicks and punches he would drill every day, so that when it came time for a fight, the body would simply react with no thought or effort of him.

So you might have her work lateral shuffles and net approaches in their separate parts, for 10-20 seconds (the duration of a normal point), followed by complete rest, so as to keep the nervous system fresh and ready to learn.

For hand speed, break it down into reps of forehands, back hands, and volleys. Again focus on repetition of QUALITY movement, over the quantity performed. Obviously you want good form ingrained.

Again the training the nervous system is the goal. It is the conductor of movement.

Now as far as things outside of drilling the skill, which is going to obviously have the highest degree of carry over, rotational medicine ball throws, “frequency jumps”, and change of direction drills will help, which I have already begun to implement with her.

However, with all of that said, the thing that will give her the most bang for her buck at the moment, considering her current stage of development, is increasing her strength, and drilling the movements of tennis like I talked about earlier.

At home, to further the development of strength, it wouldn’t hurt to work on some lateral lunges, to develop lateral hip strength for strong rotation and quick change of direction abilities.

Finally, in regards to arm strength, obviously there is going to be some lag between her dominate arm and non-dominate arm, so a disparity is always going to exist. That said, as far as what I see in the gym, I don’t see a significant difference.

If you are talking about arm strength in the regards of her swing being stronger on the right then left, the answer in decreasing the disparity is in her hips.

She displays a good ability to properly engage her hips in rotation before her shoulder on her right side, but on the left, the hips don’t rotate well, and when they do, often move at the same time as her shoulders, which leaves a lot of power on the table. Going back to the message of my answer on foot and hand speed, this goes back to the nervous system not being efficient, due to a lack of exposure to proper hip action from that side.

I’m currently working with her on some drills that will teach her to properly rotate her hips from the left side, as well as create a separation between her hips and shoulders, to increase the stretch placed on her mid-section during rotation, allowing her muscles of the mid-section to act like rubber bands being pulled back and then snapping the shoulders forward with great velocity and power.”

Best Wishes,

Kyle

From this month’s newsletter:

One of the reasons for the success of the training programs designed at Strive is the ladder of progress that each athlete must go through (Initiation, Apprentice, and Gladiator). I have benchmarks that every athlete must reach before they are moved along in their development. This ensures that they are physically and mentally prepared for the future demands that I will ask of them.

Often in your high school program, they will throw everyone, regardless of readiness and abilities into the same program, which often leaves athletes well behind in their development, and at a greater risk for injury.

Some of the athletes that walk through the doors of Strive blow right through the ranks on their way to the top. However, for others, they can be stuck laboring at the Initiation level for quite some time.

So what is the difference between those who quickly excel and those who remain the same? In my opinion it comes down to 3 things.

1) Those who excel, come in more physically mature to begin with.
2) Those who are slow to advance, started at a VERY low level of preparedness.
3) Those who advance quickly are quite often the same ones who come in on their off days to get in extra workouts, push the pace of their workouts, always challenge themselves to perform one more rep or use 5 more pounds, and frequently will train at home with push ups, pull ups, lunges, jumps, and sprints.

Out of those three, #3 is the one that is actually within your power to change. I’m going to be honest with you. Most of the athletes should be coming in to the gym, at a minimum of 1x more per week.

Ideally, an athlete should be in the gym 3-5 days per week, however, I know that it would be too much for you too afford if I priced memberships high enough to accommodate that many training sessions.

This is why membership at Strive, includes not only personal training, but a gym membership as well. This allows you to come in and work out on your own to better yourself. Strive is here to provide to you all the tools you need to excel in your sport and life. Fulfilling this is what fuels my drive everyday I awake.

Those who rise through the ranks also push themselves continually in each training session. It’s a shame to see the kids who don’t do this, continually cutting corners in their warm ups and workouts. They have been given an incredible opportunity by their parents, that will allow them to become the best possible athlete that they can be, and they put forth half-effort, because they are SCARED of hard work and the discomfort and pain that hard work brings.

To those athletes, let me be honest with you, if you continue to display that attitude throughout your life, not only will you not achieve anything as an athlete, but success as an adult will be hard to come by.

The best athletes in the world have one thing in common. They make it a priority to outwork their competitor. If their competition trains 2 days per week, they train 3. If their competitor has a ‘so-so’ diet, they will hone their diet to a ‘T’ to optimize their performance. The know that lean meats, vegetables, potatoes, rice, eggs, milk, and fruit are the backbone of success.

If you truly want to rise through the ranks and become the best absolute athlete you can be, then you must make it a priority to make it into the gym more often. You must also understand that if you truly want to be your best in your sport and play into college and beyond, then training for your sport has to be your #3 priority (#1 being family #2 school).

This means social events, the movies, video games, etc must take a backseat to school, family, and your sport. Sacrifice is the name of the game. Success comes to those who remain relentlessly fixated and determined to achieve all of their goals, despite obstacles and failures.

If you wish to achieve greatness, you must realize that you will have to sacrifice some things in your life in the best interest of pursuing your dreams and goals.

Best Wishes,

-Kyle

One of the most important elements for the young athlete to develop is strength.

Often times, thanks to the media showing high level athletes performing ladder drills to no end, younger athletes and their parents get led to believe that some 4 week speed and agility camp is what is going to separate their child from the pack.

The problem for most of those athletes who fall into this trap is that they can barely squat two wet socks.

Think of it this way. Both speed and agility require you to quickly move and explosively propel your body through space.

So if you are an athlete who weighs 150lbs, but can’t even squat at a minimum, your bodyweight, how do you expect to be able to move your own body with any semblance of power during competition.

Strength is the base for all athletic function.

Let’s use a car for example.

If you wanted to increase the speed of your car, what would you do?

If you took the “speed and agility camp” approach, you would probably put on a new set of rims, install a high flow air filter, and hook up a new exhaust system. Sure the car would look cooler and sound great, but it wouldn’t really be any faster.

However, if you took the “get stronger” approach, you would install a new Hemi engine or a V-8 with 400+ horsepower to the wheels.

For athletes with not much training experience, the biggest bang for their buck is going to be in the form of getting stronger…a lot stronger.

It will allow them to apply more force into the ground, resulting in a faster athlete, who hits, throws, and jumps tremendously better than they did before.

Add in to the mix that strength will also decrease their risk for injury due to the new found stabilization and strength of their joints, and it is undeniable what must been done.

Check out this video of one of our 16 year old Baseball Players Squatting 400 lbs.

Best Wishes,

Kyle Bohannon, Owner of Strive Training

One of the athletes told me the other day of their desire to use weighted baseballs to prepare themselves for the upcoming season.

The question is, are weighted baseballs really all that beneficial and when is a player ready to use them?

Weighted baseballs are known to help develop the specific strength of the throwing motion to improve a player’s velocity.

Sounds good and all, but what about the extra stress that is placed on the arm using a weighted ball?

Throwing a baseball is the single must fastest action in all of sports, and most baseball players, especially pitchers, have some sort of tearing or degradation going on in their shoulder joint as a result of throwing, even if they are not feeling any pain or experiencing a drop in velocity.

With this in mind, does it seem smart to give a weak player a weighted baseball that will only serve to further increase the stress to the arm?

You must also take into consideration that weighted baseballs will alter mechanics in some way. So a player who is either very raw in their delivery, or is not consistent, would be further putting themselves behind the 8 ball if they begin using a training tool that will negatively impact their delivery.

Before you begin using weighted baseballs then it would be smart to ask these two questions:

1. Am I strong enough elsewhere to warrant the need of placing the extra stress on the arm to further improve velocity? Most players at the high school level, and many at the levels beyond, would be far better served to further increase total body strength before thinking about using weighted baseballs. It more “injury preventative” and will give them a bigger bang for their buck.
2. Is my technique refined and consistent? As I said earlier, throwing weighted balls will alter mechanics. The novice who is unrefined in their mechanics will only be putting themselves further behind with weighted balls. However, for those who excel in producing and repeating their mechanics, they can use weighted balls with more confidence because their body has a deeper engraving of the proper throwing motion, and thus will not lose those mechanics after throwing a weighted ball.

The first annual 2012 Strive Strongman Competition for the Freestore Foodbank took place over this past weekend and it was a huge success.

Overall, we had 9 participants and donations ranging from canned goods, winter clothing, and money. For this being the first year of the event, I would consider it a success.

I am most certainly looking to make this a yearly event at Strive, and know that as each year progresses, it will get bigger and bigger, and the number of people we can help together as a family will grow.

Now on to the competition itself. The 9 athletes competed in 5 events to take home the title of “The Strongest Athlete in Cincinnati.”

The events were:

1. 5 Tire Flips for time

2. 15 pound overhead backwards medicine ball toss for distance

3. 60 yard 470lb Prowler Push for time. The wet ground made this one even more tough.

4. 100lb Chain Pushup for reps.

5. 180lb Zig-Zag Farmer’s Walk for Time

And the results…

3rd place- Jack Morgan

2nd place- Genesis Hillard

1st place- Noah Heard

Check out the video Highlights of the Competition:

Kyle

You are all well aware of the benefits that the training sessions you receive at Strive have on improving your performance on the playing field.

You should also be well aware of the added benefit of being a member of the Strive Family, in that you can come to the gym on your own time to get extra work in.

However, despite this, very few of you ever take on this opportunity.

Zach Even Esh, a strength coach based in New Jersey, just recently posted a short article on is site that I felt I had to share with you. I can’t say it better myself:

Champion Workouts and Extra Credit Training

I also HIGHLY suggest you listen to this video by Arnold about the Mindset of a Champion.

Best Wishes and See You at Strive,

Kyle

The past few weeks have been hectically awesome and I am proud to now announce that Strive has a NEW HOME!

It is an incredible 1800 sqft opprotunity. It is located in the same warehouse cluster as the current Strive, as it is simply across the street and the end of one of the buildings.

This place certainly has incredible potential for us to fill it out as we grow as a family, should be Strive’s home for a long time.

This place would not have happened without the dedicated members of our family. I am truly humbled and gracious for their belief in me to deliver on my promises to elevate their performance.

The landlord still has some renovation work to do to clean up from the previous tenant, but I would put an estimate of the middle of next month to move in to the new space.

Here are some pics of the NEW STRIVE!

Best Wishes,

Kyle

It has been awhile since I last posted the 2nd part of this series. My life has been ever hectic lately and I have been busy at work setting up my 2nd outlet for training information, The Art of Physical Fitness.

In part 1 and part 2 of this series I have talked about the factors of technique and flexibility in improving sprinting performance.

Today, to conclude this series, it is about time I talk about the element that speaks true to my heart, and that is strength.

Strength can have the most profound impact on improving not only sprint speed, but all around performance as well in young athletes.

Taken from another blog post of mine:

“As I have said before, strength is the foundation for all athletic function. I don’t care what sport you play, having a foundation of strength is required.

You could take part in all the speed and agility camps you want, but just know that the the payoff is limited. As the analogy goes, it’s like putting a new set of rims on a Chevy Cobalt and expecting it to go faster.

You need to get under the hood of the car and increase the horsepower of the engine. Speed is greatly dependent on the ability to apply force into the ground.

The greater the force available to be produced, the higher the potential. Thus, the only way to increase the amount of force available is to increase strength. Unless we are discussing a high level athlete who is already incredibly strong, all athletes should focus the majority of their energy in increasing their strength levels.”

Another way to look at it is to simply ask yourself the question of how fast do you really think an athlete who weighs 180lbs and can only squat 135lbs is going to be?

The major determining factor in sprinting speed in the ability to produce force rapidly. Since most athletes cannot produce enough force as it is, strength must be the primary focus.

The exception in this case would be for an athlete who is overweight. Shedding ‘function-less’ (in regards to sprinting), mass will decrease the level of force that the athlete will need to produce to overcome their own bodyweight.

Bottom line, you must increase your strength through squats, deadlifts, lunges, hip thrusts, calf raises, and sled drags as well as training the abdominal muscles to resist rotation.

When you combine strength, technique, and proper joint ranges of motion, your sprinting speed will rise.

Best Wishes,

Kyle

In part 1 of this series, I discussed the importance of technique training in increasing speed.

If you look like a rag doll being thrown through a tornado with body parts going in 20 different directions, chances are that you aren’t likely to be moving very fast.

However, often, you can drill technique as much as you want, but the athlete never seems to improve.

The problem lies within strength and flexibility imbalances.

Today, I want to briefly talk about the flexibility side of the equation.

Due to the repetitive nature of sports and our day to day lives, many athletes wined up all wound up, like a pair of headphones.

Even when they run, you can just see the stiffness of their joints and their limited ranges of motion.

To keep this from being too long of a post, today I am just going to address the two most common areas that are inflexible in an athlete’s sprint performance, the hip flexors and the internal rotators of the arm.

Athlete’s with tight hip flexors are commonly those whose sport either requires them to hold hip flexed position for prolonged periods of time (Think a catcher) or their hip flexors undergo a rapid lengthening repetitively (Think soccer player). This can be combined with an athlete who is in school all day, and is seated in an uncomfortable chair for hours on end.

Repetitive stress leads to adaption, which is sometimes good, but when the adaptation severely hampers performance, something must be done.

Carl Lewis showing good flexibility in his hip flexors during his push off

When an athlete has tight hip flexors and runs, they will look like they are making very choppy steps, instead of long graceful and powerful strides.

Because of their inflexibilities, they are unable to fully extend their hip at push off, leading them to covering less ground than they could with each stride if they had better flexibility.

The Thomas Test is a good tool for determining hip flexor flexibility.

Ignore the awkward promo picture of the video

There are a few fixes to this problem in the form of special stretches.

PNF stretching, by the hands of a knowledgeable coach, chiropractor, or physical therapist is in my opinion the best way.

However, for many athletes, they do not have access to a professional who can do this for them.

Instead, performing a kneeling hip flexor stretch can work wonders.

Performing this stretch morning, noon, and night should be performed by this athlete for upwards of 60 seconds at a time.

Moving on to internal rotator tightness, this issue can be seen often when an athlete runs with their shoulders rounded forward and their arms cross the mid-line of their body. They often look like like they are banging away on a snare drum.

Typically in this case, the answer lies in stretching the pec through transverse abduction (As seen in the picture below) and external rotation, and by strengthening the upper back musculature, namely in external rotation and retraction (pulling together) of the shoulder blades.

Pec Stretch

When these two areas have been addressed and improved, the athlete will be able to exhibit a much longer and more forceful push off, as well as having a swifter moving arm swing that is more efficient at projecting the body forward, improving the timing of the leg action.

Stayed Tuned for the Conclusion in Part 3.

Best Wishes and Think Big,

Kyle