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Articles by Women's Swim
How Performing More Sets With Less Rest Builds Size, Strength and Power
Read More >> Athletes have three goals: Build muscle, get stronger and increase explosiveness. Some athletes only want one of these things. Some want to be strong as an ox with no regard for quickness. Some want to be muscular, but are weak as a kitten. And some want to be explosive, yet have no muscle mass on their frame. In my time as a strength coach, such "one-issue" athletes are rare. Most athletes are not specialists in their training goals, but instead generalists.
1 Set, 20 Reps: The Strange Workout Strategy That Gets Results
Read More >> There are many unanswered questions in the field of strength and conditioning. Where should inexperienced athletes start with weight training? How should athletes train after their competitive season is over? The 1x20 system by Dr. Michael Yessis, a famed sports performance trainer who's specialized in adapting and implementing training methods from the former Soviet Union, sheds light on what could be a fantastic option for these types of athletes.
Doing Just a Handful of Reps on Your Rest Day Can Amplify Your Performance
Read More >> The world of sports performance has made a huge push toward rest and recovery in recent years. This has happened for a few reasons: Cell phones late at night cause athletes to sleep less. A lack of quality nutrition impedes recovery from training. And constant stress doesn't allow athletes to shift from the "fight-or-flight" sympathetic state into the "rest-and-digest" parasympathetic state. Recovery is absolutely critical, as that is when adaptations occur.
How Assisted Jumps Make You a Better Athlete (and Why You Don't Need Bands to Perform Them)
Read More >> Vertical jump training can be confusing. Type into Google "how to increase vertical jump," and you'll find thousands of opinions. Some say you need to squat twice your body weight, others say to train your calves with high reps, and some say you need core strength. These opinions are rarely entirely wrong. They just lead athletes down the wrong path. They don't give a good starting point for vertical jump training. What Determines Vertical Jump Height?
Why You Should Use a Trap Bar Instead of a Barbell for Your Jump Training
Read More >> A higher vertical jump can take months, even years, to develop. Taking a vertical from the mid-20s to the high-30s is something that requires significant time, sweat and effort. For this reason, athletes should only use exercises and methods that provide the biggest return on investment. A recent study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research looked into this by comparing the benefit of Trap Bar Jumps with those of Barbell Jumps.
Vary Your Rep Range for Greater Gains
Dunking a basketball, deadlifting 600 pounds, growing big biceps—these are all things I wanted to do when I started lifting. But there was a problem. I didn't know how to reach those goals. I asked questions. I read books, articles, forums and anything I could get my hands on. But every answer brought more questions. As I learned more, I questioned more. With time my results mirrored my knowledge.
Why Ample Rest Is Key to Building More Fast-Twitch Muscle Fiber
Athletes are always interested in "getting more fast twitch." Everyone has two general types of muscle—slow-twitch muscle fibers (also known as type 1 fibers) and fast-twitch muscle fibers (type 2 fibers). Although slow-twitch muscle fibers do the majority of the work during slow and moderate aerobic workouts, fast-twitch muscle fibers are used for shorter, more explosive movements—like sprinting and jumping. However, most athletes are confused on how to develop fast-twitch fibers.
Why Training to Failure Can Actually Hinder Your Strength, Power and Explosiveness Gains
If you're unfamiliar with the term, it refers to performing as many reps during a set as you possibly can. Only once your body "fails" and you can no longer squeeze out another rep is the set complete. It's also often noted as "AMRAP," short for "As Many Reps as Possible." In theory, training to failure seems like it'd guarantee serious gains.
Can Your One-Rep Max Really Predict Your Jumping and Sprinting Ability?
These words are repeated over and over by many strength and conditioning coaches, leading athletes to believe strength is the ultimate key to enhancing athletic performance. And how do we often measure that strength? With one-rep maxes. While strength certainly plays a role in actions like sprinting and jumping, does increasing your one-rep max in lower-body exercises guarantee improvement in these areas?
How You Can Build Muscle With Cardio Workouts
Read More >> Be bigger, stronger, faster—the universal desire of athletes. To achieve these goals, a training program moves through muscle gain, strength and power phases. However, I always ran into a problem. During the initial hypertrophy (muscle gain) phase, athletes would often be too gassed to complete their workouts. We had to reduce the load just so they could get all their work in.
Pre-Workout Static Stretching Can Sabotage Your Strength and Muscle Gains
Read More >> Stretching can play an important role in athletic development. Maintaining normal, controlled range of motion is essential to feeling healthy, performing well and avoiding injury. We all know it should be done, but the question is when? For athletes looking to build muscle, pre-workout stretching could actuallybe holding you back. A recent study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology investigated this phenomena.
A More Effective Way to Take Creatine
Creatine monohydrate has long been used by athletes for greater muscle gain and energy during workouts. Not many question its effectiveness, as there is plenty of research backing creatine as a training supplement. However, one thing many athletes overlook is when to take creatine for maximum gains.
Jump Higher With These 10 Tips You've Never Tried Before
For some athletes, vertical jump height is a major pain point. Those with the right DNA can increase their vertical by simply jumping more. But for most athletes, this isn't the case. If you fit in with that latter group, here are 10 tips I've used to help athletes dunk and increase my own vertical into the upper 30s. A study in Ergonomics found that, among soccer players, high performers in the vertical jump use a more hip-dominant strategy than low performers.
The Simple Diet Change Found to Help Athletes Jump Higher and Sprint Faster
Many athletes seek an edge to increase their vertical jump. Whether it's a special supplement, lengthy stretching routines, Vertimax workouts, etc.—we're all after quick results. Unfortunately, explosive ability just doesn't work that way. We typically have to spend entire offseasons building muscle, strength, power and speed before these qualities can be used to help us jump higher. But what if there really was a way to increase our vertical jump in a very short time?
Research Reveals Unilateral Exercises Significantly Strengthen Both Halves of the Body
Unilateral exercises are becoming increasingly popular in sports performance training and for good reason. Unilateral exercises, meaning exercises that focus on one arm or one leg at a time, possess several key advantages over bilateral movements (which target both legs or both arms at the same time).
Why Band-Assisted Jumps are the Missing Link for Your Explosive Training
Athletes are in the unending pursuit to enhance explosiveness. Who doesn't want to jump higher, sprint faster, hit harder and cut faster? The ability to execute these explosive actions comes down to power output. The equation for power output is this: If you want to enhance your ability to produce power, you should ensure you are working on every part of this equation (force, velocity and power in and of itself).
The Biggest Reason You Can't Get Lean (and the Easiest Way to Fix It)
Read More >> Gaining muscle and losing body fat—it's everyone's fitness goal. There are millions of books, supplements, workout programs, coaches and meal plans focused on the topic. Although that might sound like it would make the task easier, much of this information contradicts itself. One source says to minimize carbs, another says you don't have to. One says to eat small meals throughout the day, another says to fast for most of it. No wonder people find it so difficult to get lean.
Study Reveals The Best Coaching Cue To Use For Drop Jumps
Many athletes perform Drop Jumps to enhance athleticism. It's a great exercise to improve reactive strength, the ability to develop maximal forces in minimal time. Think of all the things in sport that happen under a time crunch—going up for a rebound first, beating a defender to catch a football or getting off the ground quickly to snag a rising line drive. A great deal of reactive strength is crucial for these sort of actions.
Why Your Balance Training Isn't Making You a Better Athlete (And What to Do Instead)
For many athletes, balance training means BOSU balls, stability balls and a variety of awkward-looking tasks performed on wobbly implements. However, the transferability of this type of training to sport is questionable. Since most sports (basketball, football, track and field, etc.) are played on a stable surface, does it make sense to train balance on an unstable surface? Should you perform balance movements that don't replicate what you do in sport?
Studies Conclude That Isometric Training Can Reduce 'Jumper's Knee' Pain
On the path to jumping higher and sprinting faster, many athletes encounter a condition known as "jumper's knee," which is medically referred to as patellar tendinitis. It is identified by significant and extended pain in the ligament which connects your kneecap to your shinbone. Jumper's knee can be so debilitating that it takes an athlete out of their sport entirely. Rest, ice and constant visits to the trainer often seem like their only options.
French Contrast Training: Your Secret Weapon For Jumping Higher
There's a lot of confusion surrounding vertical jump training. Some say to simply practice jumping more often, some say you need to perform Olympic lifts, and some recommend hours of stretching. Reaching the truth can be difficult, but research and experience help lead the way. In general, solid vertical jump development comes down to five key factors: Although this clears up some of the confusion, it brings along its own questions. How can you fit all this into one training session?
Add 50 Pounds to Your Back Squat in 8 Weeks With the Barbell Hip Thrust
When looking at success and failure in sports, many athletes find their downfall comes from a lack of strength. Researchers and coaches often evaluate an athlete to be "strong enough" when they can Back Squat twice their body weight. For a 200-pound athlete, that would be a 400-pound Squat. However, for many athletes, this number is difficult to achieve.
New Study Shows You May Not Need Olympic Lifts to Increase Your Vertical Jump
Dunking a basketball, catching a football over a defender, elevating to spike a volleyball are all athletic movements where a big vertical jump is a huge advantage. If you are not genetically gifted, chances are you've searched for hours trying to find the best way to jump higher. Some say squatting heavy, some say Jump Squats, and some say Power Cleans—cutting through the noise to find the best method can be difficult.
Why Doing Cardio After Your Lift Could Sabotage Your Strength Gains
Athletes want to be the Jack of all trades—conditioned, strong, fast and muscular. The problem is, it's tough to gain muscle and get in good cardiovascular shape at the same time. But since athletes can't skip out on either, how you structure your training is critically important.
Save Time and Make More Gains: Paired Set Training
One of an athlete's greatest limitations is time. With the demands of practices, skill work, sleep, school, etc., it can be hard to find an extra hour to get in a lift. And if athletes are trying to put on muscle mass, the time demand becomes even greater. To gain size, training must be done with a high volume (load x repetitions) and it must induce muscle fatigue—both of which take up a significant amount of time.
Study Proves That Mental Training Will Help You Lift Heavier Weights
If you want to maximize your chances of being a better athlete, winning games and reaching your athletic potential, you'll need to piece together several components (diet, sleep, stress management, good coaching, strength training, etc.). As far as strength training goes, your attempts to increase strength and power need to be maximized. Strength training in and of itself is multi factorial (volume, intensity, rest periods, phase potentiation, etc.) It can get complicating.
The Absolute Easiest Way to Increase Strength and Power
Athletes are always looking for the newest secret to increase strength and explosive power. We are never short on methods to use for these goals—Vertimax, Olympic lifts, training super heavy, etc. But what if you could get stronger and faster without new methods, but from a simple change in execution? González Badillo et al. looked into this. Twenty physically active participants were assigned to two Bench Press groups: Both groups controlled the eccentric (lowering portion) of the lift.
How to Use a Short Workout the Day Before a Game to Increase Your Explosiveness
Training to increase explosiveness is no easy task. You can spend months trying to add an inch to your vertical or shave a millisecond off your sprint time. Entire annual plans are made to build muscle, get stronger, and finally transition these traits into minor changes in explosive ability. Small improvements in explosiveness can make the difference between winning and losing. What if, instead of taking months and years to make small changes, you could increase explosiveness in one short workout?
Use Belly Breathing to Recover Faster
We hear it all the time: Training doesn't make you bigger, stronger or faster. Recovery from training makes you bigger, stronger and faster. Sleeping, taking days off, eating enough healthy food, managing stress all have huge impacts on our ability to recover. When these aren't enough, we look to add other modalities such as ice baths, contrast showers, antioxidants, protein supplements, compression, etc.
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