High School Physical Preparation

Over the last month I have been working with the local high school in developing a program to physically prepare the athletes for their given sport. The significance of this school is that it is particularly small. This makes athletics dependent on athletes participating in multiple sporting competitions. So, most important is the induced fatigue almost year round from sport practice and competition. This made frequency and recovery highly important when designing a program for athletes that are exerting such high efforts throughout the year.

All that being said, the focus then was on a program that didn't require high frequency of training and still was able to develop an advancement in there preparedness. This meant that proper alternation in workout were needed. Exercises in consecutive training sessions should minimally involve the same muscle groups and thus repeat the same pattern of muscle coordination (Zatsiorsky 1995, 96). Also when large muscle groups are worked periods of 48 hours or rest are optimal. For optimal recovery from training and competition a 3 day per week program was implemented. Day 1- Lower Body, Day 2- Upper Body, Day 3- Full Body. This allowing for optimal recovery between large muscle groups and for muscle groups to be worked 2X per week.

Also with athletes of this age (14-18) certain qualities need to be prioritized for further development. Enough power-related work must be done during the early years to maintain the genetically determined levels of white muscle fibers. However, until desired samototype is developed methods to increase cross-section of muscles must be emphasized. After this the reverse is true (Francis 1992, 25). Choice for power exercises range from a snatch/clean variation and a plyo metric/med ball progression. To promote maximal strength, sets are held at five reps and will sometimes drop to three. This allows for maximal loads while still inducing a hypertrophy in the muscles as a bi-product compared to singles which are also dangerous for some athletes because the high percentage requires a lot of coordination to perform the movement.

With so many athletes participating in multiple sport exercise variation can have a heavy influence on adaptation and SORENESS. If you have played a basketball game with heavy legs you know what I'm talking about. In the end performance in competition and injury prevention is the main goal. So exercise selection of "core" lifts will remain the same, while supplementary ones will change. This will induce as little soreness as possible when transitioning to a new mesocycle. Example of core lifts are Front squat, RDL, Bench Press, and Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat (RFESS). Some may think that not alternating Core exercises will ultimately lead to stagnation or plateau. But, every time you complete a performance goal that passes previous results your body is introduced to a new stimulation and will be forced to adapt. The avoidance of stagnation is how intensity is set. The training principle known as progressive overload is key. As Mike Boyle once stated, if you take an athlete and have him front squat 135 for ten reps while only adding 2.5# weights to each side each proceeding week, by the end of the year they could potentially be at 395#. A lot of problems with programs fail because athletes miss reps. SO in selecting weight, athletes started at a moderate load and are using progressive overload at small increments through out the training cycles and have shown improvement each week and PR's are already being set.

Eample:
Freshman-Football, Basketball, Track, and Baseball
Week 1-4 (last set recorded each week)
Front squat x5: 165, 170, 175, 180 (PR)
RDL x5: 155, 160, 165, 165
Hang Clean x3: 170, 175, 185 (PR)
RFESS x10: 100, 105, 110, 115
Bench Press x5: 145, 150, 155, 160

Warm Up/Activation should address coordination, preparation for training, and the undoing of the poor postural habits throughout the day. Taking into account that students are sitting for almost the entire day while a school, a build up of stiffness and tissue creep may incur. When students are sitting for upwards to an hour a half at a time only to get up to go to another class stiffness issues will undoubtedly follow. When sitting Hip flexors will stiffen which will inhibit gluteal function. This should be taken into consideration when developing a quality warm up.

Warm up: (10-12 min)

4 Hurdle/Dynamic Routine continuous

(2x each way or 1xR/L)

R/L Step over/inch worm

Lateral over/high knee pull

Backwards over/lunge elbow to instep w/ knee ext.

Alt Over-SLRDL

Lateral under- Crossover walk

Leg kick/quad pull

Activation

(1x10 each)

T-spine mobility

Glute Bridge

Lateral Band

F/B Monster band walk

Shoulder PNF

Band Pull Apart

Phase 1-Day 2

Linear Unilateral, Lateral Bilateral

Short Box single leg jump:2x3 each

Medicine Ball: Side tosses: 2x15 each (kneel)

Lateral jumps over short hurdles:3x6 each (stick landing)

All in all, the entire workout never will take more than an hour which works perfect for those who do this during P.E. class and prior to school. The key to a successful youth training program is supervision. Fortunately, the athletes have set times and sometimes multiple coaches to observe technique, motivate, and ensure safety practices. A well designed program can go a long way in terms of youth athletes having a good expereince in sport competition. Seeing improvemnts is not only motivating but also goes a long way in building character and confidence which are beneficial far beyond the spectrum of sports.