Winning Tips for Optimum Recovery

Overtraining, as we have seen, is a complex syndrome with no guaranteed solutions. However, certain interventions show promise for prevention and treatment. A key concept is recovery, the antithesis of overtraining. One of the biggest difficulties in dealing with motivated but overtrained athletes is that the interventions generally consist of asking them to do less: “Take a day off from training.” “Take it easier on those intervals.” “Don’t do that workout.” “You’re hurting yourself by training too much.” The idea of doing less presents a dilemma to athletes who likely became good through tough training and pushing through the bad days and who are seduced by “if this much training is good, more must be better” thinking. They overtrain by simply doing more of what made them good. The message of doing less is therefore extremely difficult for these athletes to hear and goes against most training philosophies. A typical reaction: “What do you mean, do less? My competitors aren’t taking a day off.”

Recent developments in research on overtraining have shifted focus from overtraining to the idea of underrecovery. Instead of telling an athlete to cease some aspect of training, we can instead channel their need for action toward recovery activities. Indeed, the concept of effective, regular, and varied recovery activities has become part of the language of today’s smart, professional athlete, which is also the best way to sell it. Statements like “You’re not doing everything you can to succeed if you’re not taking care of your recovery” challenge athletes to tackle recovery (and decrease susceptibility to overtraining) in a way that telling them to reduce their training regimen never could. How can coaches and athletes recovery principles to enhance training and decrease the chance of overtraining? Individualization is key. The

first step is to incorporate recovery systematically into training. If a periodized training program is used, it’s important to incorporate more recovery activities into the higher-volume and more-intensive training periods.

An ideal training program that incorporates passive and active recovery activities should include a variety of techniques. Just as there are numerous ways to work on endurance training (hill running, strength and conditioning programs, sustained skill practice), and good coaches mix things up to maintain motivation, there are many ways to enhance recovery. Coaches and athletes should keep this aspect of their training programs as fresh and interesting as the rest of their training.

Coaches must be good teachers and enforcers of recovery principles with their athletes. For example, an active rest day at the track shouldn’t turn into a track meet if rest is the goal. Particularly at the elite level of sport, athletes need to learn that

appropriate recovery is as much a part of their job as is their training regimen, diet, or sleep.

Overtraining: Balancing Tough Practices and Performance

Josh is a nationally ranked football player, a senior in high school who is preparing for D1 college. With his sights set on graduation and moving up to the college level, Josh sets out not only to attend his team’s twice-a-day practices and semiweekly weightlifting sessions, but also to do more than any other player every day. He comes to practice early in order to work on foot work and stays afterward to lift weights. He’s up early each morning to get in an extra run. After week one, Josh is tired but confident that he will be in far superior condition than his competitors. Week two brings on increasing fatigue and difficulty sleeping, which begins to worry Josh. Josh tells me, “I need to learn how to relax or something—I can’t seem to get myself ready for practice.” After learning more about his symptoms of hard training and fatigue, I broach the subject of overtraining, but Josh isn’t interested in hearing about it.

Josh’s lack of competitive motivation continues; he is uninterested in eating and lethargic, and he becomes increasingly anxious about his prospects at. At the beginning of the season, he plays poorly.

Josh’s case is all too common—an athlete who seeks to put distance between them self and their competition by doing more, and then more again. Josh’s opposition to acknowledging that he might be overtraining is a frequently observed feature of this syndrome.

What is overtraining, and how can you tell when you or an athlete you coach is overtrained? One of the major difficulties in answering this question is the lack of a reliable way to assess whether an athlete is training at the optimal level versus entering the negative realm of overtraining.

Overtraining, defined by the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) in 1999 as “the syndrome that results when an excessive, usually physical, overload on an athlete occurs without adequate rest, resulting in decreased performance and the inability to train,” is on the rise.

While we might argue that overtraining is an almost inevitable by-product of elite athletes being willing to do anything to “get the edge,” this phenomenon is spreading to other levels of sport as well. Researchers are noting an increased incidence of overtraining among even the youngest athletes, who appear all too ready to absorb our culture’s messages about “more is better” and “no pain, no gain.” More recently, of course, overtraining has come to mean something very different—an undesirable outcome of too much training that actually prohibits positive adaptations. For the sake of this discussion, I will limit the term to refer to an undesired outcome of fatigue and performance decrements.

Causes of Overtraining

Stressors related to training and nontraining can cause overreaching and overtraining. In the training realm, an overtraining effect can be elicited in several ways: sessions that are too long or too intense, progressions of training increases that are too steep, and too little time devoted to recovery between sessions, to name a few. Although training volumes and intensities and competition frequency are important factors in this equation, athletes and coaches need to be aware of nontraining stresses that can contribute to overtraining, including nutrition, general health, lifestyle issues such as sleep behavior, and environmental stresses caused by juggling life areas such as school or family. When a number of these stressors combine, they can lead to emotional distress and an increased susceptibility to overtraining. So just as all athletes may react differently to the same training load, they may also react differently to other life elements that interact with their training and lead to overtraining. Good coaches and self-aware athletes pay attention to such outside stressors and adjust the training accordingly.

According to physiological research, we cannot define the exact point at which training goes from being effective to negative for all athletes. In fact, our understanding of the interaction of physical and psychological stress shows that such a point cannot exist, since overtraining is an individualized response. The good news is that this understanding points to a direction for intervention. Although simply reducing the training load is not a guarantee against overtraining, careful and individual tailoring of the training load, with a simultaneous awareness of the effects of other life stresses, helps to optimize training plans.

Athletes can help themselves by doing the following:

• Developing self-awareness of how training and other life stresses are likely to affect them

• Proactively learning strategies to deal with sport and non-sport stressors

• Recognizing the symptoms of overtraining

• Regularly using training logs and other behavioral monitoring techniques to assess optimal training levels

• Learning and properly using recovery techniques

• Striving for balance between sport, school, work, family, social aspects, and other life elements

• Choosing the right coach, who, balances support and challenge in training situations; is a good communicator; encourages recovery, and helps other athletes thrive.

Coaches can help themselves by doing the following:

• Understanding the causes of overtraining, including the fact that it can be brought on by numerous sport as well as non-sport factors

• Taking time to know their athletes, understanding how all kinds of stress may affect them and how vulnerable they are to overtraining

• Creating a supportive and challenging coaching environment that allows athletes to honestly share their thoughts and feelings about their training

• Incorporating regular monitoring of training intensities for each athlete by using logbooks, heart rate assessment, and pencil-and-paper tests

• Adding recovery strategies as a regular part of training, and using good training/recovery principles

• Keeping hard training fun

How coaches and athletes can more effectively accomplish this task will be the focus of future blog posts.

When To Use Heat On An Injury

Heat has been used for thousands of years in the treatment of different types of pain. Experience shows that it has a beneficial effect on pain arising from inflammation, which is the body’s defense mechanism in cases of injury due either to accident or to overuse. Injuries caused by trauma or overuse, such as ligament injuries and muscle ruptures, are often treated during the acute stage by cooling and bandaging so that the bleeding in the injured area is limited. After the initial 48 hours, heat treatment can be introduced to help the healing process. Heat may be started once the risk of hemorrhage is over, and aids healing by increasing the blood flow to the injured area.

If an injury is treated by heat applications in its acute stage the blood vessels expand, and the blood clotting procedure may be disrupted. The amount of fluid in the tissue increases. This leads to increased bleeding in the injured area, increased swelling and higher pressure in the surrounding tissues. The result may be more pain and slower healing than would otherwise be the case.

Perhaps the most important effect of heat treatment is its influence on collagen fibers. A tendon is composed of 90% collagen fibers and 10% elastic fibers. Collagen has viscous and elastic properties, which means that the more rapidly a tendon is loaded, the stiffer it becomes. Heat increases elasticity and plasticity, so after its application the collagen fibers become more flexible and more capable of rehabilitation exercises. Heat also decreases joint stiffness and relieves muscle spasm. This reduces the risk of injury.

Heat can be used in both the prevention and rehabilitation of overuse injuries and to combat the aftereffects of torn muscles and tendons. It can be valuable during warm-up before training sessions and competitions and in cold weather, increasing the mobility of joints.

What To Do In Case Of Emergency | Injury Management For Coaches

When muscles, tendons, or ligaments are damaged, blood vessels in the area are also torn, and bleeding spreads rapidly into adjacent tissues. The bleeding causes swelling, placing increased pressure on surrounding tissues, which become tense and tender. The increased pressure causes pain in sensitive tissues, and the combination of bleeding, swelling, and increased pressure can adversely affect and delay the healing process.

Once bleeding has been controlled, some blood remains in the tissues and has to be resorbed. This function is performed mainly by the lymphatic system. A variable amount of scar tissue forms in the area and constitutes a weak spot in the injured muscle, tendon, or ligament. If too early or too heavy a load is applied to this scar tissue, injury is liable to recur.

Sports injuries may take so many different forms that it is impossible to create a standard protocol for their management. Certain guidelines for immediate treatment can, however, be drawn up.

– Listen to the injured athlete’s description of how the injury occurred and what symptoms are present.

– The injury should be examined in the light of the history. Is there any bleeding, swelling, an open wound, or any other abnormal sign?

– A simple functional assessment of the injured part should be made. Can the injured athlete carry out normal movements of the part (with or without a load) without pain?

– The area around the injury should be examined. Is there tenderness in soft tissues or bone? Can a defect be felt in any soft tissue?

If there is swelling and tenderness together with pain when movements are made or a load is applied, treatment should be started as follows.

Compression

A compression bandage is intended to provide counter-pressure to the bleeding developing within the injured area, so that the body’s own functions can take effect more easily. A compression bandage is an elastic bandage applied with careful tension. It should be applied as soon as possible. It is convenient to position an ice pack with the aid of an elastic bandage so that cooling and compression effects are achieved simultaneously. The compression bandage should be kept in position usually for another 2 days after cooling has ceased, provided the location and extent of the injury allow it.

Ice

When soft tissue injuries occur, the first priority is to attempt to stop the bleeding, since this results in swelling, pain, and tenderness. Therefore, in soft tissue injuries, reduce the extent of the bleeding by compression bandaging, rapid cooling, an elevated position of the injured limb, and rest. This enables the body's self healing mechanisms to take effect more easily. The use of ice on the injured body tissues brings about:

– a local pain-relieving effect which makes the injured athlete feel better and may encourage a return to sporting activity. Here trainers and coaches have a great responsibility: if an injury needs cooling it is probably of such severity that further exertion will only delay healing. Common sense should prevail;

– contraction of the blood vessels so that the blood flow is reduced in the injured area. The effect of the treatment is limited and does not really start for 15 minutes. Less swelling may occur and healing proceed more rapidly.

***Heat treatment should not be started until at least 48 hours after the injury has occurred. 

The same applies to massage.***

Ice is usually applied for 15–20 minutes per treatment and may be applied hourly for the first 24–72 hours after the injury. During each application of cold therapy, four progressive sensations will be experienced: cold, burning, aching, and numbness.

***Ice therapy has mainly a pain-inhibiting effect. Icing will therefore mask the real extent of the injury. There

is a great risk that an injury will get worse if the athlete resumes activity after cooling.***

Rest

It is generally true to say that an injured athlete should rest the injured part for 24–48 hours and that it should not be subjected to loading. It follows, therefore, that the athlete should be assisted from the scene of the injury and taken home or to a doctor, as soon as possible. Crutches are usually very helpful.

Elevation

When an injured part is elevated, its blood flow is reduced, and expelled blood is transported away from the site of injury more easily, thus reducing swelling. An injured leg that is elevated should be supported at an angle of more than 45° when the patient is lying supine. Four or five cushions or a stool placed under the leg will achieve this effect. In cases of extensive bleeding and swelling the injured part should be kept elevated for 24–48 hours if possible. Subsequently, it should be elevated whenever the opportunity arises.

Pain relief

Cooling, compression, and rest usually provide relief from pain in soft tissue injuries. Pain-relieving medication may be given if the examination is complete but should be avoided in the early stages as it can complicate further treatment if continued analysis and medical examination are required.

Injured athletes should seek a medical opinion within 24–48 hours in cases of:

– persistent symptoms arising from injuries to muscle, tendon, joint, or ligament;

– severe pain.

It is generally true to say that a doctor should be consulted if there is any uncertainty about the diagnosis, and thus the treatment, of any sports injury.

A medical opinion should be sought urgently in any of the following circumstances:

– unconsciousness or persistent headache, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness after a head injury;

– breathing difficulties after blows to the head, neck or chest;

– pains in the neck after impact, whether or not they extend to the arms;

– abdominal pain;

– blood in the urine;

– fracture or suspected fracture;

– severe joint or ligament injury;

– severe muscle or tendon injury;

– dislocation;

– severe eye injury;

– deep wound with bleeding;

– injuries with intense pain;

– any injury in which there is doubt about its severity, diagnosis or treatment.

Top 5 Yoga Poses For Athletes

Yoga focuses on improving your physical, mental and spiritual well-being. The goal of yoga is to harmonize your body, mind and spirit through a combination of poses, meditation and breathing exercises. Unifying your body, mind and spirit allows you to achieve a sense of wholeness, peace and self-realization. In addition to achieving inner peace, practicing yoga has many physical and mental benefits. For example, the physical exercise involved in yoga can increase your strength and flexibility. Yoga is also a very effective tool for relieving stress, calming your mind and allowing you to achieve complete physical and mental relaxation. 

Anyone can practice yoga, regardless of age or fitness level. If you have a physical limitation, you can modify yoga to meet your needs. For instance, people with limited mobility can perform yoga while sitting in a chair. Almost everyone can find yoga useful, since yoga provides such a wide variety of benefits. For example, people who work in offices can perform stress-relieving practices to give their overworked minds a break. Athletes and dancers can perform strengthening practices to restore their energy and improve their stamina. Children can practice yoga to improve their attention span and concentration. Seniors can also practice yoga to feel strong and improve their strength and flexibility.

Top 5 Yoga Poses

1. Pigeon Pose helps to open and increase the flexibility of your hips. This pose also helps to strengthen your back, stretch your thighs and increase the flexibility of your groin.

2. Child’s Pose is a seated forward bend that stretches and releases your spine and lower back. Make sure you do not rest your weight on your neck and forehead. You should also be able to breathe evenly while performing the pose. Child’s Pose is a simple pose that is comfortable and safe for almost everyone. However, you should avoid this pose if you have knee problems or high blood pressure.

3. Downward-Facing Dog Pose lengthens your spine and provides an intense stretch to the back of your legs, with an emphasis on stretching your calves. As you perform the pose, keep your shoulder blades wide and your spine lengthened. You should also try to establish one straight line with your arms and spine and another with your legs, but make sure you do not lock your elbows or knees. To form these straight lines, try visualizing your body making an upside down V shape.

4. Cobra Pose develops strength and flexibility in your spine and back, with an emphasis on your lower back. 

5. Knee Down Twist improves the flexibility of your spine. Performing this pose also opens your chest and shoulders, while stretching your lower back and hips. As you perform Knee Down Twist, only lower your knee as far as is comfortable for you. It is more important to keep both of your shoulders on the floor than to lower your knee all the way to the floor. As you hold the pose, allow your body to soften and release further into the twist with each exhalation.

You can create a personal yoga practice to meet your needs. Make sure the poses you select include forward, backward and twisting movements of the spine, as well as shoulder and hip movements

Refueling Your Muscles after a Workout

After working out, you want your muscles to recover. Recovery is essentially the process of replenishing muscle glycogen. The better your recovery, the harder you'll be able to train during your next workout. There are three critical periods in which to feed your muscles with carbs. These three periods are explained in the following discussion.

1. Immediately Following Your Workout

Your muscles are most receptive to producing new glycogen within the first few hours following your workout. That's when blood flow to muscles is much greater, a condition that makes muscle cells practically sop up glucose like a sponge. Muscle cells are also more sensitive to the effects of insulin during this time, and insulin promotes glycogen synthesis. You should therefore take in some carbs immediately after you work out.

 The question is: What's the best type of carb for refueling?

 Answer: carbs with a high glycemic index.

The glycemic index is a scale describing how fast a food is converted to glucose in the blood. Foods on the index are rated numerically, with glucose at 100. The higher the number assigned to a food, the faster it converts to glucose. A sport drink containing glucose, sucrose, or a glucose polymer (all high on the glycemic index) is a rapid and efficient restorer of glycogen. Some of these drinks may also contain fructose, which isn't as fast at replenishing muscle glycogen as either glucose or sucrose. That being so, try to avoid fructose, including fruit, as the sole source of carbohydrate in the period immediately following your workout. Stick to high glycemic index choices containing glucose and sucrose.

2. Every Two Hours Following Your Workout

Continue to take in a mixture of low and high-glycemic carbs every two hours following your workout. A word of caution: There is a drawback to high glycemic index foods. They may produce a fast, undesirable surge of blood sugar, and you can feel weak or dizzy.

3. Throughout the Week

To keep carbohydrate replenishment on track, stay on a high-carbohydrate diet from week to week. An excellent study of hockey players, whose sport requires both muscular strength and aerobic endurance, found that during a three-day period between games, a high-carb diet caused a 45 percent higher glycogen refill than a diet lower in carbs. By consistently fueling yourself with carbs, you can keep your muscles well stocked with glycogen.

 Giving careful thought to what you eat and making sure you get plenty of carbohydrates will provide a solid foundation for optimizing both your performance and your health.

Next Level Guide To Cows Milk Alternatives

There are many reasons to stop drinking cow’s milk: You’re lactose intolerant, you’re protesting on behalf of animals, there’s too much fat in it… the list goes on.

It’s surprising to some, but we can actually get the nutrient fixes that milk gives us from alternative sources. It makes sense — we’re the only ones on the planet who drink another species’ milk, so it’s not like we naturally depend on it.

Soy milk — It’s the classic alternative and for good reason: It’s high in protein and B vitamins, low in fat, lactose-free and most are fortified with even more helpful minerals. Additionally, if you’re used to skim milk, the taste change is minimal. Take heed with more than a glass a day, though: It has components that stimulate estrogen production, which can encourage imbalances that create health issues.

Taste: Faintly sweet. Some varieties have a slight tofu flavor.

Pros: It has almost as much protein as cow's milk, plus plant chemicals that may help inhibit absorption of cholesterol. It's often fortified, so shake the carton well—added calcium tends to settle at the bottom, says Zied.

Cons: Some studies suggest that overconsuming soy promotes breast cancer. "A good guideline is about 25 grams of soy protein per day," says Zied.

Best in: Creamy soups and salad dressings, sauces, casseroles, and other savory dishes. Vanilla-flavored varieties are great in coffee or tea (or by the glass!).

Almond milk — This one’s been climbing the charts lately because both companies and consumers have discovered that almond milk is delicious. Some swear by it and say it tastes even better than soy. It has all the same benefits as soy (although it’s generally slightly less fortified with other minerals) and tends to stay fresh longer. The only caution to take with almond milk is with children: Some doctors say the early introduction of nuts into a child’s diet can predispose them to a nut allergy.

Taste: Creamy, rich, and slightly nutty with a hint of sweetness

Pros: The least caloric of the bunch, it's fortified with vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that fights UV damage, as well as calcium and vitamins A and D.

Cons: While almonds themselves are a good source of fiber and protein, the milk contains skimpy amounts of these nutrients (that's because the milk is made by grinding the nuts and mixing with water). Almond milk is also higher in sodium than other alternatives.

Best in: Smoothies, coffee, and cereal

Hemp Milk — This is a newer alternative that’s yet to gain steam. It offers nutritious benefits similar to the above milks, although the protein content isn’t as high as it is in soy or almond. It’s creamier than most alternative milks, so it’s more than suitable for most cooking. For vegetarians or vegans wanting to vary the types of protein they consume, this is also a great choice.

Taste: Nutty and earthy

Pros: It's naturally rich in omega-3 fatty acids—wonder nutrients for your heart, brain, and mood. Hemp milk is made with cannabis seeds, but it won't get you high, because it lacks significant THC (the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana).

Cons: Depending on the brand, you may gulp only 10 percent of your daily calcium needs. It's not a great source of protein either.

Best in: Mashed potatoes, muffins, and quick breads. Unobtrusive in flavor, it's a good stand-in for cow's milk in baked foods.

Rice Milk — Rice milk has all the usual benefits, except it exchanges high protein content for a high carbohydrate count. The taste can be suspect and it’s hard to cook with, but you certainly won’t find many people allergic to this product.

Taste: Light, watery, and sweet

Pros: The carbs. "Have a glass before or after a workout—it offers carbs to fuel and fluid to hydrate, and like a sports drink, it's a good source of electrolytes," says Nancy Clark, R.D., author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook.

Cons: The carbs. If you're trying to drop a few pounds, it's best to eat whole-grain carbs, which contain filling fiber; rice milk has zero.

Best in: Desserts, baked goods, pancakes, and French toast. Its natural sweetness complements indulgent foods.

Coconut milk - While coconut milk is high in saturated fat, it is much healthier than other saturated fat products, and the fat is easily metabolized by the body. Coconut milk also offers some particular health benefits. It is anti-carcinogenic, anti-microbial, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral. The main saturated fat that it contains, lauric acid, is also found in mother's milk and has been shown to promote brain development and bone health.

Taste: Thick, creamy, and, well, coconut-y

Pros: It has the least amount of sodium and can be fairly low-cal—even some flavored kinds will cost you only 90 calories per serving. Plus, most brands are fortified with half a day's worth of vitamin B12, a brain-boosting nutrient.

Cons: "The majority of fat is saturated," says Lauren Slayton, R.D., founder of Foodtrainers in New York City. But at five grams per serving, it constitutes less than 8 percent of your total daily value for fat.

Best in: Coffee, tea, pudding, smoothies, and oatmeal—it's a go-to thickener.

All milk alternatives have added vitamins and minerals in order to make them similar to cow's milk. To determine which one is the best is a bit tricky, but it would greatly depend on what your nutrition goals are.

It may come down to taste, so determine which of these milk alternatives you enjoy drinking the most while still fitting in with your dietary guidelines. My only recommendation would be to avoid the products with added sugar as the calories greatly increase in those.

Which of the above milk alternatives do you prefer?

Nutrition Questions and Answers

Q: What should I eat before I lift workout?
A: By eating carbohydrate before exercise, you’ll provide fuel for a stronger workout (even just 5 to 10 minutes beforehand offers benefits). By eating a little protein along with the carbohydrate, you’ll start to digest the protein into amino acids, which get used by the muscles during and after exercise. Good choices for a preexercise snack include fruit yogurt, low-fat chocolate milk, cereal with milk, a poached egg with toast, and almond milk and an granola bar.

Q: I’ve heard I should eat as soon as I finish lifting weights, but I’m not feeling hungry then. Why is immediate refueling so important?

A: After a hard gym workout, your muscles are primed for getting broken down: Their glycogen (carbohydrate) stores are reduced, cortisol and other hormones that break down muscle are high, the muscle damage that occurred during exercise causes inflammation, and the amino acid glutamine that provides fuel for the immune system is diminished. If you just guzzle some water
after your workout and dash to work, you’ll miss the 45-minute postexercise window of opportunity to optimally nourish, repair, and build muscles. You can switch out of the muscle breakdown mode by eating a carbohydrate–protein combination as soon as tolerable after you exercise.

Q: Why are protein supplements so popular? Are they better than real foods?

A: In today’s fast-food society, a mindless way to get healthful (no cholesterol, low fat) protein is through supplements. Plus, the label tells you exactly how much protein you are eating and takes away the guesswork. But protein supplements are not a whole food and fail to offer the complete package of health-protective nutrients found in natural foods. Use them to supplement wise eating, if desired, but not to replace it.

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6 Things You Must Have For A Successful Spring Training

As a strength coach, I am constantly looking for ways to improve my clients athletic ability or—more importantly— strength, speed, and mental. I want them to have a program that would make a difference. I want them to have both the mental AND the physical advantage going into a game.

Throughout my quest to achieve this goal, I have always been looking for programs that work. I’ve tried EVERYTHING. I bought about every book, dvd, attended every seminar I could find and talked to as many people as possible for ideas. Some of the programs allowed for some success while others have been an epic fail.


So, my quest continued as I patched together programs and had moderate success, but not the success that I knew that I could achieve.



Finally, though years of trial and error, I have come to the conclusion that success is the result of hard work—brutally hard work—that follows a well-developed plan of attack. The reason that most people are not successful is that they are victims of poor planning or not planning at all.. I get the most out of my clients because in addition to making them work hard and want to win, my training involves careful planning. Success depends on identifying needs along with your weaknesses and then formulating an appropriate plan of attack.




The Next Level plan of attack includes the following:

Strength training – the foundation on which the plan of attack rests. We use barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sleds and more with the idea to develop the greatest levels of strength possible.

Speed training - my thoughts on the significance of speed can be summed up in this quote from The Art of War, by Sun Tzu: “Speed is the essence of war.” Special sprint training will employ a variety of drills to maximize absolute speed.

Agility training – start, slow down, change directions, and accelerate with a minimum loss of speed. Agility drills require rapid changes of forward, backward, vertical, and side-to-side movement.

Flexibility training - one of the most important, yet misunderstood, areas of athletic development is range of motion, or flexibility... often mistaken as simply stretching.

Mental Toughness training – toughness is flexibility, responsiveness, strength, and resiliency under stress. Toughness training puts you in control of your performance level on and off the field.

Recovery Training – recovery must be planned, scheduled and “trained” just like any other element of your complete training plan of attack. Knowing how and when to recover may prove to be the most important skill in your life.

One thing is for sure the possibilities are endless and there’s no way you’ll get bored with your training using this plan of action..

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· Increase acceleration and MAXIMIZE breakaway speed
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· Learn drills, cues and workouts teaching you how to accelerate smoothly and reach your fastest top speeds
· Discover the secret tomaintaining near top speed so athletes can outrun their opponents every time…or run them down

This is a great opportunity for athletes to receive top of the line professional CERTIFIED instruction to significantly improve game-day speed.

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