There are many trainers that boast of their accomplishments with professional and elite athletes. They wear it like a badge of honour on their sleeve. Sure, it’s great for marketing purposes, but how much of the training truly contributes to an athlete’s success? Here’s an excerpt from Andersen & Aagaard, 2010 that puts things into…
The famous adage “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!” applies to strength training as it does to just about any other endeavor. Arriving at the gym with no plan will lead to haphazard results. Tudor Bompa, considered by many as the father of periodization, puts it this way: “In training, nothing happens…
On page 81 of The Elite Trainer, I discuss a controversial topic in strength training. That is, are Olympic lifts necessary to improve athletic performance in sports other than Olympic weightlifting? Let’s take a look at what some of the experts say on this subject. Bret Contreras: “For decades coaches have argued about whether Olympic…
Too often, research based on pathological populations is extrapolated and applied to healthy individuals. One common example is static core endurance training. Here’s an excerpt from Shinkle et al., 2012 on the topic: In sports, muscular demands vary greatly from athlete to athlete. This makes it very difficult to have one statement that will address…