NEWS & EVENTS
Blog - Athletic Development
  If you’ve been reading your emails, you know I’m not a huge fan of distance running (or other steady-state forms of “aerobic” exercise) for athletes. In fact, I think it’s counterproductive. Sometimes when I talk about this I get the feeling that people regard my comments as “theory” and refer back to the “this is the way I did it, and it worked for me” mentality. Addressing the latter, our understanding of the interaction of the nervous system and soft-tissue structures within the body, as they relate to performance, has DRASTICALLY improved over the last 15 years. If you were going in for heart surgery and your 65 year-old surgeon said, “I’m going to follow the same protocol they used when I was a kid”, you’d find a new surgeon. Training is no different. Distance running has been rooted in sports training for decades, but it is NOT the most effective (results) or efficient (time) way to conditioning athletes. Consider the conclusions from a recent study: - Prolonged endurance exercise reduces the ability to produce force at high velocities. - Long-term aerobic training results in a decrease in the absolute content of fast twitch muscle fibres (Type IIa and Type IIx), which results in a decreased ability to produce high amounts of force or produce force rapidly. - Compared to strength training alone, combined strength and endurance training results in a significant increase in total cortisol (a hormone with a catabolic effect on muscle) levels, possibly due to the excessive stress of adrenal activation. Interestingly, strength training alone has actually been shown to decrease cortisol levels. - When the total amount of work is equal, continuous and interval training produced equivalent adaptations in aerobic capacity, but the interval training resulted in greater adaptations in anaerobic capacity and power output. - Compared to an aerobic training group, an interval training group lost 9x as much body fat. This occurs despite the interval training group burning less overall calories. - Compared with controls, sprinters had a significantly increased compliance and elasticity of the tendon and aponeurosis of the vastus lateralis and medial gastrocnemius at high levels of force production, whereas long-distance runners had a significantly decreased compliance and ability to absorb energy. Reference: Elliott, M., Wagner, P., & Chiu, L. (2007). Power Athletes and Distance Training: Physiological and Biomechanical Rationale for Change. Sports Medicine, 37(1), 47-57. There were several other notable conclusions from that study as well, but the take-home message is already clear. For team sport athletes, conditioning should be done using interval training, which improves the athletes’ ability to move explosively for a longer period of time. To your continued success, Kevin Neeld, MS, CSCS Director of Athletic Development (856) 269-4148 P.S. In-season, pre-season, off-season, it doesn't matter. Training is a YEAR-ROUND process. Call me today at (856) 269-4148 or send me an email to start training to take your game to the next level today!
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Almost inevitably when a parent or coach steps into our facility while we’re training their kid/team, one of the first things that comes out of their mouth is, “They aren’t even sweating. Work them harder!” I’ll be the first one to point out a lazy athlete and the first to speak out about the benefits of hard work (read: effort) on physical and mental toughness. Having said that, there is FAR more to training than just making someone sweat. Michael Boyle once said, “Any idiot can write a book, and most idiots do.” I say, “Any idiot with a whistle can make someone tired, and most idiots do.” It’s important as parents and coaches that we learn to dissociate fatigue and effective training. If I asked 100 athletes if they wanted to be more explosive and faster, I bet I’d get a yes response 100 times. By definition, maximal effort throughout training requires the athlete to be well-rested. We have a saying at Endeavor: “Explosive. Not tired.” I’ve found that most of our athletes are conditioned to sprint, jog back to the starting line, then go again immediately. The second you start a sprint while still breathing heavily, your speed training has officially become conditioning. Before speed, power, and most strength training, I want our athletes to be focused and recovered. I want concentrated maximal effort. I get that athletes need to be able to focus and move efficiently when they’re fatigued, but the only way to improve their maximal capacity is to train them under well-rested conditions. My colleague Jim Snider, Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Wisconsin, recently said to me, “You can’t have speed endurance if you don’t have speed.” Point taken. There’s a time and a place for conditioning, but it should not be the entire focus of the training session. As an example, a typical training session at Endeavor may look like: Dynamic Warm-Up (Joint mobility and muscular activation work): 10 mins Speed Training (Linear and Transitional): 10-15 mins Power Training (Jump training, med ball throws, and Olympic lifts): 10-15 mins Strength Training (Lower Body, Upper Body, and Pro- and Anti- Linear and Rotational Core Training): 30-45 mins Conditioning (Shuttle Runs, Slideboards, Sled Drags, and Work Capacity Circuits): 10-15 mins In 10-15 minutes of conditioning, we’re able to improve our athlete’s ability to perform at a high level and recover rapidly between efforts (the ultimate goal of conditioning). THAT is when your athletes should look tired, not during the speed work in the beginning. Think quality, not quantity. To your continued success, Kevin Neeld, MS, CSCS Director of Athletic Development kneeld@endeavorfit.com (856) 269-4148 P.S. In-season, pre-season, off-season, it doesn't matter. Training is a YEAR-ROUND process. Call me today at (856) 269-4148 or send me an email to start training to take your game to the next level today!
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When I was growing up, I was always told that you shouldn’t lift until you’re 13, at the earliest. The idea was that your growth plates weren’t closed and that lifting could result in growth plate fractures and/or stunted growth. Of course, I wasn’t the only one being told this. This message is still being spread today and has been for decades. It’s true that growth plates aren’t closed in adolescents. That’s about the only ounce of truth to any “weightlifting isn’t safe for kids” message I’ve ever heard, and frankly, it’s STILL not a concern. Let’s look at some of the research behind this. A 2010 review of studies looking at the safety of lifting for kids found that: 1) Youth resistance training injury rates range from 0.0017-0.176 per 100 participant hours. This translates to one injury for every 568.18-58,823.53 hours. Do you think you could play 60,000 hours of any sport without getting hurt? Not likely. 2) 2/3 of lifting-related injuries to 8-13 year olds were to the hand or foot related to dropping or pinching. In other words, if a kid is smart enough to know that dropping a weight on their foot will hurt, they’re safe. 3) 24 of the 27 of the included studies reported ZERO lifting-related injuries. The 3 studies that did all reported one injury each. 4) ZERO growth plate injuries have been documented (ever) in studies supervised by a professional. The authors of the study also noted that there was ZERO evidence that weight training stunts growth in any way. I could go on and on with stuff like this. The fact is that weightlifting is DRASTICALLY safer than sports like soccer, baseball, basketball, football, and hockey, which we have no problems with young kids participating in. In fact, lifting can significantly DECREASE young athletes’ risk of injury during sports. Consider that forces going through the hip can easily exceed 9x someone’s body weight during running. Muscles are great force absorbers. However, if the reactive forces from the activity exceed the muscles’ capability to absorb/reduce them, the forces are transferred to the joint. This does NOT mean that a 100 lb kid needs to be able to squat 900lbs to reduce the forces they see in sports; that whole concept is ridiculous. The point is that getting stronger can be done safely AND reduce sport-related injury risk (and, of course, increase performance). On top of that, quality instruction can help make sure the athlete’s movement patterns are efficient and effective, again, ensuring that their performance is high and that they’re distributing forces evenly across the joint and not excessively wearing down one area. To your continued success, Kevin Neeld Reference: Faigenbaum, AD, & Myer, GD. (2010). Resistance training among young athletes: Safety, efficacy, and injury prevention effects. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 44, 56-63.
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I’ve been hearing a common message from parents and coaches of players that train at Endeavor recently: “He/She looks so much more confident out there!” Whether it’s on the field, court, or ice, players that put in the time to train hard with us, almost instantly gain the confidence they need to dominate at their sport. It’s evident from the stands. Something about them changes. They play more aggressively. They don’t hesitate. They LOOK more confident out there. Amazingly, parents and coaches are commenting on these changes in their players within the first two sessions they have with us. Within two hours of training, athletes completely transform their psychological make-up to become a more confident, formidable competitor. THAT is incredible. Training at Endeavor will make athletes stronger; it will make them faster; it will make them better conditioned; and it will drastically reduce their injury risk. Most of all, it will make athletes more confident and mentally tougher. Who wouldn’t want that? -Kevin Neeld P.S. Call me today at (856) 269-4148 or click here to email me to get started on the training program that will completely change your physical AND mental make-up!
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Med ball throws are one of the best ways to develop full body power, especially in rotational patterns. Unlike most traditional lifts, you don't need to worry about decelerating the load, which can put a lot of stress on your muscles and joints and cause you to reduce your power output. With med ball throws you just throw the ball as hard as you can, generating power straight through to the release. We have 15 medicine balls at Endeavor ranging from 3-7 kg. For months I've been telling my athletes that if they throw them hard enough, the balls will pop. That's always the goal: Throw the ball with everything you have. Make it pop. Most people are skeptical when I say the balls can pop. Check out this picture from my former home at Cressey Performance in Hudson, MA:  Eric Cressey, co-owner of Cressey Performance, calls this the Med Ball Graveyard. In an email from Eric, he notes, "These are just the ones on display. We've got about two dozen broken ones behind the wall, too. I'd say we break one every 10-14 days." This is a brilliant display of extreme power. ...Either that or Eric slits all the balls before his athletes come in. -Kevin Neeld P.S. For more information on how you can train to develop the full body power you need to excel at your sport, contact Kevin Neeld at (856) 269-4148 or via email by clicking here.
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