Weight Rooms

As summer is approaching I am hearing a couple of athletes talking about just lifting at their high school weight room.  When we ask their reasoning they usually respond with “I will just do what we have been doing in here”.  While last week I did say that most of our athletes have a better understanding of  correct lifting technique than most personal, trainers there is still a lot more that goes into a quality training program than just knowing how to perform an exercise with proper technique.

First off, the exercise selection is just a small portion of what goes into the actual training program. There are certain phases of progression that must be followed each week to insure that consistent improvements are made, and you are setting yourself up for the next phase.  This is the periodization part of the program that includes certain set and reps.  Secondly, not only are the sets and reps important in a proper progression, but so is the FOCUS of the particular phase.  One phase could be focused on making sure the movement is controlled and slow, while another phase could be focused on max power production.  Both of these need quality supervision so the athlete is not at risk of injury and so the athlete is performing the exercise with the focus of the phase in mind.  Notice I said the word supervision! This is probably the number one reason our athletes should not completely dedicate their summer to a high school weight room.  Every high school weight room I have ever lifted in or peaked my head in, has usually little if any supervision. There are also a lot of athletes mimicking someone’s horrible form in an exercise because that person may look strong.  Now it could benefit you if you are currently coming to CAP during the summer, and wanted to get some extra work in at your high school weight room.  Just let Scott or I know and we would be more than happy to write up some assistance exercises to help you reach your athletic potential. 

For those of you that come to CAP also know that the weight room is really only ¼ of the program.  You have focused warm ups and cool downs that will help with the prevention of injuries.  You have speed and agility training that cannot be performed in the weight room and you have the periodized conditioning that is being researched in every phase.  These very important aspects of our program can be slightly imitated but defiantly not duplicated when you are unsupervised and with out the proper plan.

I would love for our athletes to get in extra work on in their on at another gym or high school weight room because we only dedicate about 30 minutes per session to strength training (and that is usually the bare minimum), but please make sure to talk to us first so we can help you supplement what you have done here, rather than destroying what you have done here.