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Q: I want to ask for some advice on transforming my body so that I can become an elite athlete.
Current Stats :
Age - 17
Height - 193cm
Weight - 85kg
Gender - Male
My goals are :
- Increase speed and vertical leap
- Get bigger and stronger
- Increase flexibility and range of motion
- Improve endurance level
- Keep body fat percentage low
- Improve basketball skills (eg shooting, passing, dribbling)
The sport that I compete in is basketball. I do MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) as training and for fun as well.
What sort of training should I do considering what my goals are and what sports I am doing?
I have done lots of research on athletic improvement but there is so much information out there and it is hard to know what information I should use. None of the countless number of training books and programs I have bought tailors specifically to what my goals are either; I’ve read DeFranco, Cosgrove, Ferruggia, and Baggett.
A: 1. Recognize that you cannot ride two horses with one saddle. It's very difficult to develop endurance and maximal strength/power simultaneously, but at your age, it's still likely a possibility. Strength endurance is dependent on maximal strength, so if you get stronger, you'll automatically improve endurance-wise regardless of what endurance-specific activities you do.
2. There are many ways to skin a cat. DeFranco, Baggett, Cosgrove, and Ferruggia are all good friends of mine and all of them get results. Additionally, there are hundreds of other coaches getting results - and all of them are using unique programs. What you'll find is that we all agree on the 90% and play around with the leftover 10%. And, what you’re also find is that no matter how well written a book is, it’ll never cater to your specific situation perfectly.
3. A large portion (probably 75%) of my athletes are your age, and I have an appreciation for what it takes for you to compete at the next level, if that's of interest to you. Right now, focus on becoming a better ATHLETE before you work overtime becoming a better basketball player, MMA fighter, etc. Can you jump rope? Can you do a clean push-up? Can you even skip? How about sprint mechanics; are they good? If you're like most of the kids who walk into Cressey Performance on Day 1, the answer is NO - and we need to backtrack a bit.
If the answer is YES, you need to take into account your injury history and some performance testing. In my Off-Season Training Manual, I talk about tests to determine whether you need more strength, more reactive work, or a combination of the two. Generally speaking, basketball guys are a lot of the strength component with some lower volume reactive work at strategic points in the off-season.
Eric Cressey |
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| Ever since Mike Robertson and I introduced our Magnificent Mobility DVD, we’ve been inundated with email inquiries about how what we’re recommending is different from yoga and Pilates. And, those that actually appreciate the difference keep asking what we think about it.
Let me preface this entire article by saying that I’m all for anything that makes people enthusiastic about exercise, or gives individuals an outlet to relieve stress. If you’re not moving, you need to move – regardless of what it takes to make you do so. With that said, I gave these two modalities three strikes before I called them “out.” Here are my main issues with Yoga and Pilates:
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| Episode 9 of the FitCast, with Eric Cressey
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| To some, resistance training is the Rodney Dangerfield of the running community; it gets no respect. To others, it’s like Tom Cruise; runners think it might be useful, but it just doesn’t make any sense to them. And then, there are those to whom resistance training is like Abraham Lincoln; it’s freed them from being slaves to ineffective programming. As a performance enhancement specialist who has a lot of “Abe” endurance athletes under my tutelage, I’d like to take this opportunity to bring the Rodney and Tom runners in the crowd up to speed. With that in mind, let’s look at the five most prominent myths present in the running community with respect to resistance training
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| If you're an athlete - you must squat. Period. This straight-to-the-point gives you 10 tips you can use right away to instantly increase your squat strength, which means more strength on the combat field!
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| Listen to this exclusive 20 minute interrogation with Eric Cressey as he goes into great detail about what all athletes should be doing before they train!
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| If you needed an expert on Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, you might contact Professor Daniel Mahoney at Assumption College.
For an expert on squatting, there’s Fred “Dr. Squat” Hatfield of the International Sports Sciences Association.
For an in-depth discussion of deadlifting, I contacted Eric Cressey, M.A., C.S.C.S.
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- Myles Kantor |
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| Keeping kids healthy involves so much more than annual checkups and immunizations. Exercise, recreational fun and good nutrition are all part of the road to good, life-long health. The Pediatrics Now Fit Tips Team includes some of the most highly respected youth sports experts and trainers in the field today. These talented guys are are not only going to provide us with tips on keeping our kids fit but in helping us negotiate the often confusing world of youth sports today.
We recognize that you are doing a lot of amazing things to keep your family healthy but that you are also all very busy and finding the time to keep everyone on track is often really daunting. Small Changes, Big Results is designed to help you and your family make realistic changes to your every day lives that will help you improve the health of your mind, body and soul. The results may not happen over night, and may not require you to do more than tweak a few things here and there, but the impact on your over all health will be enormous!
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| Featured below are my top five prehab week deloading strategies. For most of you, this will be week 4 of every four-week cycle. You don't have to adhere to this strategy year-round, but rather once every two to three deloads you take.
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| Part one and part two of this series outlined exercises to improve posture on the bike and increase leg strength. In this last installment, we'll look at two strategies for keeping you healthy over the long haul.
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LEARN
HOW TO
DEADLIFT
- Avoid the most common deadlifting mistakes
- 9 - minute instructional video
- 3 part follow up series
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