SWIS 2016 -Society of Weight-Training Injury Specialists

Society of Weight-Training Injury Specialists

This past weekend we had the privilege of attending the SWIS (Society of Weightlifting and Injury-Prevention Specialists) Symposium in Toronto. This symposium brought hundreds of personal trainers, chiropractors, massage therapists, nutritionists, strength and conditioning coaches, powerlifters, bodybuilders, gym owners, industry thought leaders, and key influencers together for a three days of lectures that discussed the optimization of training, diet, treatment, and rehab for themselves and their clients.
One of ASI’s core values is our commitment to continuing education. As trainers and coaches we believe it is our obligation to our clients and athletes to continue learning from the best coaches, doctors, and nutritionists in the world.

The SWIS Symposium was chock full of extremely valuable information. One of the highlights included learning muscle testing from Dr. David Leaf. Muscle testing assesses if specific muscles are working properly. When muscles that control a joint are not working properly this predisposes it to injury. Muscle testing identifies these muscles and provides the coach with the necessary information to develop a program to “re-educate” them.

We also had the pleasure of having lunch with Dr. Leaf where we discussed everything from performance and rehab methods he uses with his power-lifters, athletes from MLB, NFL, NHL, world class soccer players, and Olympic champions to common injuries seen in high school athletes and how to prevent them.

We also had the opportunity to meet and learn from the world’s leading expert in low back disorders, Dr. Stuart McGill. Over the weekend we learned training techniques he uses with world-class athletes to strengthen the core, develop proper movement, endurance, speed, and power while minimizing injuries of the lower back.

Training Tips from Leaders in the Industry

While talking shop with Dr. McGill between lectures we discussed his research on the safest and most effect ways to strengthen the core coming away with some priceless training tips. We also discussed the studies Dr. McGill has done on the unbelievable core strength of World’s Strongest Man competitors and how their training methods can be adapted to improve athletic performance.

Another highlight was learning different strategies to correct technique in the Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Farmer’s Walk, and Atlas Stone Carry from 3x World’s Strongest Man champion Bill Kazmaier.

The most exciting highlight of the weekend was meeting and discussing business with EliteFTS founder and president Dave Tate. Dave gave a great presentation on gym ownership and how to fine-tune the questions you ask and the impact those questions have on your ability to make better business decisions. After his presentation Dave was generous with his time where we spoke for an hour one-on-one about how to grow a business.

We also attended lectures by Dr. Darryn Willoughby, Director of the Exercise and Biochemical Nutrition Laboratory at Baylor University, and Dr. Bob Rakowski, a certified clinical nutritionist and director of the Natural Medicine Center in Houston, on the nutritional and sleep needs of athletes.

ASI places continuing education as one of our top core values. In this industry the moment a coach/trainer/therapist stops learning is the moment they become obsolete. It is our commitment to the clients and athletes we work with to have the very best information available to ensure maximum results. It is for this reason that we consult and learn from the best in the industry.

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2017 Fall Sports Training

Whether it is the court, field, pitch, mat, or the ice during the fall, you want to make sure you’re ready to perform at your peak level.

No matter your sport of choice, you want to be the best you can be. Are you getting the results you want from your current training program? Sure you’re probably seeing some progress, but we want to see you exceed expectations.

Some Tough Questions for You:

You’re strong as an ox, but are you moving well?
Is the same routine, done the same way REALLY the best approach?
Are you consistently getting stronger, faster, and more powerful?
How long is it taking you to recover after a tough workout or a close game?

What if we told you we can develop a custom workout, specifically designed for your position that would make you stronger, faster, more powerful, and help you recover quicker?
Would you be interested then?
We’ll venture a guess that you’ll answer with a resounding YES!

When its late in the game and the game is on the line, are you the “go-to” player, or just another player in the game.

At the Athletic Strength Institute we want to make you exceptional.

Call us today to get started. We’ll lay out an approach that will make you better. Our proprietary Fall Strength, Speed, and Agility Academy is designed to gets results.

Don’t just get in the game, revolutionize your game.

Click to download the Fall Training Guide,
fall-sports-performance-back.

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ASI Athletes in The News

We did it again. Congrats to Emily Venters, an Athletic Strength Institute athlete, for setting a new personal record by winning the Rim Rock Classic.
We’re super proud of her and her hard work.   Read the full article here.

Venters, a two-time Class 6A state champion, led for the entire race and gradually went faster to increase separation from the rest of the pack. She said the biggest difference in her running this season is her health. Gone are the shin splints that bothered her over the past few years, which meant she never had to stop her training.

 

 

Drew Cook, one of our athletes also competed in the Rim Rock and had a strong showing.

Good job guys!

We can help you get these results as well. Contact us today to get started.

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Structural Balance Workout

Trey Moore Lawrence High Football

Lawrence High School Football: Trey Moore

Last season when the Lawrence High School Lions faced the Shawnee Mission Northwest Cougars Trey Moore suffered a season ending injury when a hit broke his left scapula.

This past Friday the Lawrence High Lions faced the Cougars in their home-opener and first game of the season. However, this season the outcome for Trey couldn’t have been any different.

On Friday night Trey rushed for 168 yards and 3 touchdowns and scored another an a short pass out of the backfield. Congratulations, Trey, on an incredible first game of your senior season.

If you have been paying attention to our YouTube channel, you’ve probably seen some videos of Trey working out at the ASI facility.  The important thing to note about the approach we have taken with Trey is  twofold:

1) Injury Rehabilitation: We have been working with Trey to get him healed, stable and ready to progress to the next level.  We believe that no matter what the reason for being in the gym, without a strong foundation you aren’t positioning yourself for future success or injury prevention.

2)Performance:  Granted its a small sample size, but if your  last performance is the one you are measured by, we’d say Trey is doing VERY  well ! This is just the beginning of the results we expect to see from Trey.  Because he has a strong foundation combined with the other drills and exercises we have developed for him, he is progressing at an incredible rate.  He’s able to recovery quicker and he’ll stand a better chance to stay healthy and durable all season long.   For more on injury prevention, check out these two blog articles.   Preventing Concussions  and  Structural Balance Assessments.

We’re always excited when one of our clients has success between the white lines.  Call us today to see what we can do for you or your athletes.

Stay Strong!
Chris.

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Client Success! Rio 2016 Olympics

Rio 2016 Olympics Success !

Time for a shout out. We are super proud of one of our clients.  Courtney Frerichs, one of Athletic Strength Insititue’s own finished 11th in the Rio Summer Olympics in the 3k Women’s Steeple Chase with a time of  9:22.87

 

 

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Hurdle Jumps for Explosiveness

Plyometrics for Explosive Power

Next time you go to the gym, do us a favor and really observe the people that are lifting weights. Take a close look at how the move. Don’t necessarily pay attention to how much weight they are lifting or how many reps they can bang out. If you spend enough time hanging around the bench press area, more than likely you’ll see a group of guys that move some serious weight.

But are they explosive? Is that guy repping 245lbs a ridiculous amount of times explosive? Probably not.

Big and strong is great and it looks good in the mirror.

Becoming more explosive is something that should be a high priority for all athletes and high performers.

The combination of strong, flexible, and explosive turns you from average into a bad mother trucker.

Save a few sports, strength without the combination of speed and explosiveness won’t do you much good. Unless you are in a very specialized sport, being insanely strong without moving well doesn’t make you a high level performer. The more versatile you are…in any sport, the more advantage you have over your competition.

When it comes to developing explosiveness, there are tons of exercises out there that can help you accomplish this. At the Athletic Strength Institute one of our go to movements is hurdle jumps. We like this exercise a lot because its simple and extremely effective because it does an excellent job of firing up your central nervous system and can technically be a “full body” exercise, although its primarily focused on the lower body. Plyometric hurdle jumps are one of the staple movements we use when we are putting athletes through our NFL Combine Training regiment.

Ok, great, I’m sold. How do I do them?
How to perform Hurdle Jumps

• Set up 3-5 hurdles 2-3 feet apart. In the example we are using 5.
• Start with feet together, shoulder width apart.
• Take a small step towards the 1st hurdle and leap over it with both feet
• Make sure you land on both feet and explode over the next hurdle
• Repeat this until you reach the final hurdle

Tips: When jumping aim to get your hips as high as possible. At this point pull your knees up to your chest when clearing each hurdle.
This is a fluid motion, meant to be performed in quick succession. There shouldn’t be a pause mid way through the process.
As we mentioned earlier, the minute your form suffers…you’re done.

Sets: Perform 3 sets or less if your form suffers. Because the nervous system takes longer to recover than the muscular system, rest 2 minutes between sets.

How Many Should I Do?

Do enough to be effective, but don’t go overboard. Typically with our athletes we do about 3 sets of these. Make sure to push yourself and challenge yourself, but when your form starts to suffer its time to call it quits on the hurdle jumps. This is a demanding movement and because of the nature of it, you can seriously injure yourself if your form degrades too much.

A little background on plyometrics:

A plyometric exercise comprises of three phases:

• Eccentric phase:  This is also referred to as the landing phase and involves the pre-loading (energy is stored) of the agonist muscle group.
• Amortization phase:  This is the transition phase between the concentric and eccentric phases. It’s important that this phase occurs as quickly as possible or it reduces the stored energy from the eccentric phase and lowers effectiveness.
• Concentric phase: This is the take off portion of the movement where all the stored energy is used to produce force.

Why are plyometric movements important?

• Enhanced performance – No matter what sport you are involved in, the explosive and compound movements of plyometrics will increase your performance. They help make you stronger, quicker, and more explosive.
• Build muscle – Due to the demanding nature of these movements, you can quickly build muscle because you are primarily working the fast twitch muscles in your body.  The fast twitch fibers are the largest and strongest in your body.
• They can be their own workout- If you are lacking equipment of a normal gym, you can still get an extremely effective workout with minimal equipment.

We use a form of plyometrics with all of our athletes. If you have questions or want to learn more about implementing plyometric into your fitness regiment, give us a call or shoot us an email.

Stay Strong
Chris.

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