“Accidental fitness” is a great concept articulated in a recent GAIN Master Class coffee break by University of Portland assistant cross country and track coach Jack Mullaney. Essentially accidental fitness is that small edge of fitness you get from general life activities, like walking to class, perhaps working in the yard or just moving meaningfully. Read more
I still remember the first circuit I ever completed. It was at Baltimore Friends School in what was basically a converted storage closet off the gym that barely fit a universal machine in it. My coach, Gerald Russell, had us either do circuits of 3 sets of 8-12 reps around the universal or a body weight circuit of 3 sets of 8-12 reps. The days we did the body weight circuit were so much tougher. But I still remember the pride I felt when I finally could belt out 3 sets of 12 dips. Read more
Strength and conditioning coaches normally understand what the S stands for in S&C. But how do you define the C? In August we put together a variety of resources, including 2 new video lessons, 3 new podcast episodes, and 4 detailed training articles. Below you’ll find links to all our new resources and some highlights from our archives on the topic. As always, become a Plus Member to make sure you get access to all of the vast resources on the site. Read more
If you visit Notre Dame High School you will see we are big fans of circuits. Martin and I put together a video on leg circuits last year, and that is just one category of circuits we use. In this article I am going to give you an idea on how I set up and structure circuits we use in training. Read more
Conditioning for team sports and contact sports has evolved a lot in recent years, but when you look around there are still some big misconceptions that many coaches cling on to. There are two points that always stand out to me: that conditioning is only about energy systems and that conditioning only comes through volume. In this article I take a look at how we can rethink these areas and share what I have implemented in rugby training sessions to address both topics. Read more
Healing an injury is only one step in the complex process to return an injured athlete to the field. Being on the sidelines can have a large impact on the physical and psychological condition of an athlete, which also needs to be addressed in the return to play process. In other words, we need to recondition the athlete. Physiotherapist, athletic development coach, and footballer Leigh Egger joins this week’s podcast to talk about the process of reconditioning and helping injured athletes. Read more
This article is adapted from a piece I wrote for Athletics Weekly in September 2018.
When we think about conditioning, one time of year comes to mind: the preseason. As the season ends, the next year inevitably starts with a rest phase, followed by rigorous preseason training. As many sports are about to head into their training camps for the fall season, it is time to rethink our approach to the preseason. Read more
Athletes are reporting to training camp in many sports right now and that often means one thing: grueling fitness tests to check an athlete’s shape. But the testing is getting out of hand. On this episode of the GAINcast we take a close look at fitness and performance testing, with examples of how to do it right and wrong. Read more
Strength and conditioning coaches normally understand what the S stands for in S&C. But how do you define the C? On this episode of the podcast we look into the often overlooked part of our job, as well as getting a few rants off our chest, and discussing the current state of American throwing.
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Our annual tradition is to start off the year with a combined episode of the HMMR Podcast and GAINcast to discuss the state of training for sports. The whole crew gets together on this episode to talk about some of the issue facing our profession, the recent topics we’ve been studying, and our goals for 2019. Read more
