Favorite Strength Training Exercises for Young Athletes

Posted on: August 4th, 2009 by IYCA 3 Comments

Strength Training Exercises for Young Athletes

Tony Reynolds is a cut above almost every Strength Coach I know.

And that’s why he’s 100% in charge of the content for the message board
on www.IYCAMembers.com

When our Members have questions about training young athletes, their
is no one in the world I trust more than Tony to answer them.

But not only does Tony answer questions, he also contributes to the message
board every day with fantastic thoughts, opinions and suggestions.

Tony detailed some of his favorite strength training exercises to use with young
athletes last week and I just had to make sure that you saw this goldmine of
information. Below is a description of one of these exercises:

Single Leg Low Pulley RDL

Equipment:
Low pulley lowered as far down as it will go (ankle height) with a “D” handle attached.

Starting Position:
Grasp the D-handle in your right hand and face the pulley. Move far enough away from the pulley so you can perform a full range of motion without the plates touching the stack.

Stand on your left foot with your head up, base leg knee slightly bent (10-15 degrees), spine neutral but tilted, and hips pushed slightly back.

The Motion:
Flex at the base leg hip. As your torso moves forward and down “push” your free leg back for counter-balance. The free leg hip should not flex during the exercise.

You may need to slightly flex the base leg knee an additional few degrees as your hips travel back. This will allow you to keep your weight on the back half of your foot and reach forward maximally with the d-handle while keeping a neutral but tilted spine.

Descend until your back is near parallel with the ground. Reverse the motion and return to the top.

Things to Avoid:
Letting your hips push out to the side.
Dropping the base leg knee valgus
Over flexing the base leg knee…its an RDL not a squat
Losing a neutral spinal alignment
Loading the front half of the base foot
Hyperextending the hips/spine at termination of the ascent

Let me know some of your favorite strength training exercises for young athletes below…

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Kids Fitness Programs: Should They Really Lift Weights?

Posted on: February 10th, 2009 by IYCA 21 Comments

Developing The Perfect Kids Fitness Program

The commonly held belief that strength training for kids is dangerous to the growth plates is simply not accurate provided that appropriate guidelines are followed with respect to, specifically, exercise execution. In fact, improved sport performance, increased muscular endurance and enhanced bone strength are all likely benefits of resistance training for children.

More over, an increased need for correct kids fitness programs due to the rigors of a typical soccer, football or baseball game place far more of a strain on the structures of kids than does a well-executed lift. In fact, Mel Siff in his book Facts & Fallacies of Fitness suggests that “stresses imposed on the body by common sporting activities such as running, jumping and hitting generally are far larger (by as much as 300%) than those imposed by Powerlifting or Olympic Lifting.”

The real crux of this issue stems from the argument of which type of resistance training is most safe or suitable. In North America, we tend to buy into the concept that fitness machines are most safe due to their static nature and fixed paths which remove our need to stabilize during a movement – which would be fine if the body actually worked like that, but it doesn’t! This is why I am so outspoken against ‘youth sized’ strength training machines. To the uneducated eye, they certainly appear more safe and prudent than training with free weights, especially in dynamic movements such as Olympic lifts… but are they? Should kids stay away from dynamic strength training exercises like the Olympic lift?

Dangers of Lifting in Kids Fitness Programs?

If there is not a fully qualified an exceptionally experienced coach involved, than yes – without question. However, can the Olympic lifts actually be beneficial for younger athletes… let’s examine that.

While machine-based strength training for children has been shown clinically to be positive, it does not appear that the clinical evidence supports anything other than the fact that isolated strength has increased. More over, due to their static nature, it can certainly be concluded that machine-based strength training does not positively impact coordination or movement skill – something that is extremely crucial for young athletes.

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