Training at an ELITE LEVEL (1)

Today’s excerpt will be about strength training and the adjustments we are making at The U to better help our clients and athletes.

For many years, strength training has been looked at much of the same way. Training has only slightly changed in the last 25 years. Why are many of athletes still training like body builders? Why are we now just questioning if our training actually transfers to the field? In the last 20 years, are we actually seeing LESS injuries?

What we are learning inside The U is that our athletes are generating forces in baseball movements (swinging and throwing) that are heavily dependent on how “deep” their body can load and how “connected” their body is when it unloads. We are starting to see that the connection of the body moving as a single unit produces much of the desired output. In this explosive connection during the unload, we are seeing a proper kinetic sequence of events that are a by product of the athlete’s ability to load the proper muscles and get in the proper body positions. At this point, we have a good understanding of proper bio mechanics of the throw and swing.

The question now is: How does a deadlift, squat, and bench press relate or compare to any of these baseball moves. The answer is: These weight exercises HARDLY relate at all. We do agree that these exercises do build strength that can help support the body through these movements, but we do believe there is a much more efficient approach that can build strength and directly relate to these baseball moves.

What do I mean by “directly relating to the baseball moves”? We have adopted exercises and exercise techniques that activate and work the body as a unit and not isolating a specific body group. Our new techniques and exercises now revolve in “resisted loads” and eccentric strengthening. During resisted loads and eccentric moves the body’s fascial system is activated and trained. Learning how to train our clients’ and athletes’ fascial system has given us undeniable results. The fascial system is what we see when we see elite athletes move at elite speeds and rotational explosion. This is the “connection” that we have pin pointed as an elite move when we see an athlete swing or throw. We have adopted the training program and philosophy of the fast growing company called Functional Patterns. This company has done a fantastic job helping us and educating us so that we can continue our journey in being the best we can for our athletes!