It has for a while been my personal position that sportsmen of all sorts and all levels can gain benefit from a smartly designed and well executed strength training program. I have regularly seen this to be the situation in my personal athletic activities.
No matter what sport I was playing at any given time, weight and strength training were part of our overall training routines, and for good reason. Strength coaching not only builds just strength, but depending on the design and kind of the strength training program, sportsmen can improve balance, coordination, suppleness, power, speed and endurance.
One area of strength training which has been gaining popularity over the last one or two years is Functional Coaching ( although many of these exercises have been around for a long, long time ).
Functional Coaching is focused on building strength in the muscles we use to perform daily functions like carrying groceries, walking up and down steps, cutting wood, shoveling the drive, and so on.
Coaching in this manner sounds right in that the strength gains made are relevant to the areas that we need strength in. If you consider it this way, though the bench press is a great resistance training movement, I wouldn't say that it necessarily helps somebody that is looking to gain strength required for their job as a cook.
Think of functional coaching as specific to the sport or way of life that a person lives. I read a neat phrase recently that expounded learn to train the "go" muscles, not the "show" muscles. That just about sums up functional training.
So what are some Functional Coaching exercises? There are actually masses of functional movements, and it fact I'd say you can make a discussion that pretty much all exercises can in some ways be considered functional movements, but in the interests of this writing, we'll just name a couple of the more frequently utilized ones.
Take into account that Functional Coaching can involve weights and weight machines, use resistance bands and tubes, medication balls, kettle bells, ropes, pull-up bars, plyometric "jump" boxes or platforms, and stability balls. Regard it like this, the main muscles utilized in swimming are the shoulders, the legs and the back.
Secondary muscles would be the arms, the hips and the core muscles. To set up a functional training programme for swimmers, I would like to recommend swimmers focus upon buttressing movements that target both the main and secondary muscles used. I would say pull-ups and other pulling movements would be of use for the back muscles. Overhead presses and lateral raises with kettle bells or resistance bands would be appropriate exercises for the shoulders, but also add some movements that target the rear deltoids and the rotator cuff muscles for balance.
Most times injuries occur in the shoulders springing from an absence of balanced strength inside particular muscles in the shoulders. For legs, squats are always a go-to exercise and leg presses work similarly also. I prefer these 2 leg exercises as they work the whole leg and not just specific muscles in the leg. I lately read research debating how to become a faster pool swimmer by tapping into the free speed that comes out of a powerful kick-off from the sides of the pool.
This research discussed squats as a movement to help a swimmer increase the power they generate from kicking off the sides during each lap. So it is comparatively easy to develop a functional programme on your own if you think about it. Simply establish which muscles you are using for a particular function or sport, and then find exercises that strengthen those muscles. From there it is merely a matter of performing these exercises during your workout routines.
It is also worth mentioning that many exercise that need balancing, like One-Leg Romanian Squats using a bench and dumbbells, force you work on balance and bolster the muscles that are concerned in balancing yourself during the exercise. This improves balance, but can also transliterate into more power and agility, which are both vitally important in sports performance.
It is worth entering into both Functional Coaching and Sport-Specific Strength Coaching to take your sports performance to the higher level. Strength coaching is a complete must for any sportsman looking to be competitive in any sport or recreational activity. Whether you do resistance band coaching, resistance training, power yoga, Cross Fit or any other kind of strength training, it should be considered just as important as flexibility and precise sports coaching.
No matter what sport I was playing at any given time, weight and strength training were part of our overall training routines, and for good reason. Strength coaching not only builds just strength, but depending on the design and kind of the strength training program, sportsmen can improve balance, coordination, suppleness, power, speed and endurance.
One area of strength training which has been gaining popularity over the last one or two years is Functional Coaching ( although many of these exercises have been around for a long, long time ).
Functional Coaching is focused on building strength in the muscles we use to perform daily functions like carrying groceries, walking up and down steps, cutting wood, shoveling the drive, and so on.
Coaching in this manner sounds right in that the strength gains made are relevant to the areas that we need strength in. If you consider it this way, though the bench press is a great resistance training movement, I wouldn't say that it necessarily helps somebody that is looking to gain strength required for their job as a cook.
Think of functional coaching as specific to the sport or way of life that a person lives. I read a neat phrase recently that expounded learn to train the "go" muscles, not the "show" muscles. That just about sums up functional training.
So what are some Functional Coaching exercises? There are actually masses of functional movements, and it fact I'd say you can make a discussion that pretty much all exercises can in some ways be considered functional movements, but in the interests of this writing, we'll just name a couple of the more frequently utilized ones.
Take into account that Functional Coaching can involve weights and weight machines, use resistance bands and tubes, medication balls, kettle bells, ropes, pull-up bars, plyometric "jump" boxes or platforms, and stability balls. Regard it like this, the main muscles utilized in swimming are the shoulders, the legs and the back.
Secondary muscles would be the arms, the hips and the core muscles. To set up a functional training programme for swimmers, I would like to recommend swimmers focus upon buttressing movements that target both the main and secondary muscles used. I would say pull-ups and other pulling movements would be of use for the back muscles. Overhead presses and lateral raises with kettle bells or resistance bands would be appropriate exercises for the shoulders, but also add some movements that target the rear deltoids and the rotator cuff muscles for balance.
Most times injuries occur in the shoulders springing from an absence of balanced strength inside particular muscles in the shoulders. For legs, squats are always a go-to exercise and leg presses work similarly also. I prefer these 2 leg exercises as they work the whole leg and not just specific muscles in the leg. I lately read research debating how to become a faster pool swimmer by tapping into the free speed that comes out of a powerful kick-off from the sides of the pool.
This research discussed squats as a movement to help a swimmer increase the power they generate from kicking off the sides during each lap. So it is comparatively easy to develop a functional programme on your own if you think about it. Simply establish which muscles you are using for a particular function or sport, and then find exercises that strengthen those muscles. From there it is merely a matter of performing these exercises during your workout routines.
It is also worth mentioning that many exercise that need balancing, like One-Leg Romanian Squats using a bench and dumbbells, force you work on balance and bolster the muscles that are concerned in balancing yourself during the exercise. This improves balance, but can also transliterate into more power and agility, which are both vitally important in sports performance.
It is worth entering into both Functional Coaching and Sport-Specific Strength Coaching to take your sports performance to the higher level. Strength coaching is a complete must for any sportsman looking to be competitive in any sport or recreational activity. Whether you do resistance band coaching, resistance training, power yoga, Cross Fit or any other kind of strength training, it should be considered just as important as flexibility and precise sports coaching.
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