How performance training helps 37-year-old in sports and work

Sports have always been a part of Josh Anderson’s life. Growing up he was active in basketball, baseball, football and track. Today, the 37-year-old plays basketball and softball twice a week each along with volleyball. But injuries, knee and back pain, and age have slowly been catching up to him and he started to realize that he needed to get in better shape in order to stay competitive. Looking for a change and a competitive edge, Josh began training at Tactical Strength & Conditioning. “I’m getting older and I’m starting to get injured more often so I’m trying to relieve my injuries and get a little better performance.”

Initially, we conducted an assessment to determine how his body moves and identify any problem areas. Based on the assessment and Josh’s goals, we developed a training program to improve his movement efficiency. One of the primary components of his training program has been to focus on developing a solid foundation, joint stability and mobility. Only after a solid foundation has been established, can an athlete truly develop strength and power safely and effectively. We worked on his joint stability and mobility through core training and a lot of stretching. Initially, Josh felt a little out of his element as the exercises were a lot different than what he remembers doing back in college when he was powerlifting. “I never did stretch growing up and I never stretched when I powerlifted and that led to a lot of injuries. Now I’m training smarter.” [CONTINUE READING THIS POST..]

Defining Strength and Power

In the next few weeks, we will be discussing the process of “Building an Explosive Athlete.”  This will be a multiple article discussion covering various areas of building explosiveness.  However, before we start, we must first define what it means to be explosive, powerful and strong.  Many people use these terms loosely and carelessly.  We will try to define these terms to create a clear understanding of how they differ from and/or relate to each other. [CONTINUE READING THIS POST..]

Gracie Technics Academy

I would like to send out a huge mahalo to Rylan Lizares and his boys at Gracie Technics Academy.  Rylan is a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt under Professor Pedro Sauer and the owner/founder of Gracie Technics Academy.  Rylan trains at Tactical Strength and he invited me to his “open mat” session on Thursday night at his new location above OTM Fight Shop on South Beretania Street.  I was pretty excited to experience my first jiu-jitsu class and the guys at Gracie Technics did not disappoint.  [CONTINUE READING THIS POST..]

Maximizing Performance Through Core Training

Let me start by stating we do PERFORMANCE TRAINING. Many people confuse what we do with “core training.” Core training is a small component of performance training. It would be like telling a basketball coach that he only coaches dribbling.

In order to better understand core training, we must first define the core. The core is the area from your hips up to your shoulders. We also refer to that region as your trunk. Many people mistaken the core for just the abdomen and lower back, but it also includes the upper back, chest, and hips. With core training, there is a progression we follow. As I mentioned in a previous post on the performance training pyramid, performance training follows a stability, strength, power progression. Core training follows that same progression. First, we start by working on core stability. Next, we train for core strength. Finally, we train the core to produce power. [CONTINUE READING THIS POST..]

The Performance Training Pyramid

Our training methodology consists of three main sections, Joint Stability/Mobility, Strength, and Power. Each section has multiple phases and progressions. It is similar to a pyramid as you must first start with a solid foundation, Joint Stability/Mobility. The Strength section is then built upon this base and then finally Power can be developed.

One of the faults of traditional training programs was that they ignored the Joint Stability/Mobility aspect of training. Traditional or “Old School” strength coaches like to see heavy weights being lifted and take pride in developing massive muscles. [CONTINUE READING THIS POST..]