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SPORTS PERFORMANCE
An ideal program for all athletes and for all sports to experience camaraderie and team building in a safe, supportive, and high-energy environment. Our sessions focus on developing Speed, agility, strength, competency in body-weight movements, and resistance work.
Student-athletes can work with Fit Factory Inc. coaches to improve their sports performance and learn safe techniques to protect their bodies.
Our athletes are trained in a high-intensity strength-and-conditioning program that includes:
Ground based movements – Sport skills such as running, jumping, or throwing are initiated by applying force against the ground. You need to select lifting exercises and conditioning drills that apply force with feet against the ground such as squat and hang clean, hang snatch, or push jerk. The more force your athletes can apply against the ground, the faster they will run and the more effective they will be in sports skills. Other exercises will do little to improve performance.
Train movements, not individual muscles – Our strength and conditioning program is based on exercises and drills involving multiple joint actions to improve athletic performance. Athletic skills such as running, jumping, and throwing require multiple joint actions. We only use free weights, because free weights allow movement in three dimensions simultaneously. This makes the transfer of strength and power easier to merge with the development of sport skills. Free weights require an individual to stabilize the load as it is lifted, thus requiring the assistance of stabilizing and fixating muscles. Machines have a path that is dictated where an individual does not have to stabilize the load over the duration of the lift, thus not allowing sufficient work to the stabilizer and fixator muscles.
Training explosively – The amount of force required for a given activity is regulated by the use of two different types of motor units found in the body, fast twitch and slow twitch which vary greatly in their ability to generate force. Football and basketball players are interested in developing fast twitch fibers while cross-country runners are interested in developing their slow twitch muscles. The number of fibers a fast twitch fiber innervates is greater than a slow twitch fiber and the contractile mechanism of fast twitch muscle fibers are much larger. That is why all this adds up to a fast twitch fiber generating a force being four times greater than a slow twitch fiber. In most cases, football and basketball players are born with a higher ratio of fast twitch fibers which allows them the potential to be powerful if they train correctly.
Principle of Variety – The load or amount of weight lifted for each exercise is the most fundamental component of a strength-training program. The application of the load has a crucial impact on maximizing performance and keeping injuries to a minimum. Overload happens when the body responds to training loads greater than normal. The overload causes the muscle of the body to go into a catabolic state or break down. The body then adapts, through good nutrition and rest, by compensating through the development of more strength or endurance. Intensity and volume are the key factors used to progressively increase the overload. The use of heavier loads increases the intensity. Adding more repetitions increases the volume. Each method causes specific adaptations. Increasing the weight and keeping the repetitions low develops strength and power. Increasing the number of repetitions and keeping the weight lighter causes improvement in work capacity and muscular size.
Principle of Periodization – Phases are different combinations of volume and intensity each translating into different responses by the body. Usually a cycle starts off with a base phase, which progresses to strength phase and finishes with a peak phase. The area of each building block of the pyramid represents the volume of the load. The base phase represents the greatest area or capacity of volume. The top of the pyramid, or peak phase, represents the least amount of volume performed. The height of the pyramid represents the magnitude of intensity. A program should go from high volume/low intensity to low volume/high intensity.
Principle of Specificity – When one is training for competition; they should perform lifts or drills that replicate the motions performed on their field of play. This is accomplished by training the proper energy system, as well as training the correct muscles fibers. Football and basketball players needs to perform drills and exercises that tax his ATP-PC energy system, as well as his fast twitch muscles fibers. A 10 K runner on the other hand wants to train their aerobic energy system and their slow twitch muscles fibers. Performing exercises and drills that replicate the movements performed in competition will translate into more power and speed during the game or the race. Interval training is similar to specificity of training. Interval training states that a conditioning program should try to replicate the work to rest ratio that the athlete is provided with during competition. An example of this is the sport of football. Players put forth maximal effort for five to eight seconds, and then they rest for sixty seconds between plays. The conditioning programs these athletes participate in should replicate the work to rest ratio the players are faced with during the game.
Split Routine – The most efficient routine to use for athletes is referred to as a split routine. This routine consists of alternating the type of exercises performed and executing them on alternate days. For example, do the explosive lifts on Monday and Thursday and the strength lifts on Tuesday and Friday. The split routine allows half of an individual’s body to recover while the other half is worked.
Injury Prevention – To prevent injury it is important to understand how and when they occur. A significant portion of conditioning must be devoted to injury prevention. Groin strains, ankle sprains, and shoulder instability all occur in the force-reduction (eccentric) phase of movement. Therefore, it is necessary to spend considerable time on force reduction, which involves stopping and changing direction. Injury prevention work is also included as part of the daily warm-up and in individual sessions as needed.
Functional Mobility and Postural Control – Functional mobility represents much more than touching your toes. Athletes must posses the ability to move their joints in the needed range of motion demanded by the sport. Mobility represents muscle flexibility, joint range of motion, and multi-segmental interaction of the body parts in functional positions and movement patterns. It includes the way body segments such as the pelvis, legs, torso, shoulders, and arms interact in functional situations. Mobility is highly variable among athletes; however stretching is not the only solution. Poor posture sometimes causes internal resistance within a joint. This improper position causes the body to rest in an asymmetrical state and may cause unnecessary stresses on the body.
Diet and Recovery – Proper nutrition and rest helps meet the energy demands of training. The body requires six separate types of nutrients in order to function properly: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. It is important to consume a balance of different types of food to supply the necessary nutrients. An imbalance of these nutrients may cause undesirable adaptations, such as increase illness, injury, or excess body fat. Hard working athletes go through a tremendous amount of stress as a result of their daily training cycles. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds supply a natural source of vitamins such as Vitamins A,C, and E; also known as antioxidants which assist in neutralizing the metabolic by-products of stress. Carbohydrates are the preferred source of fuel to the brain and body, however not all carbohydrates are created equally. An Athlete should consume a most of their carbohydrates from complex sources such as vegetables, whole grain breads and cereals, rice and other starchy foods. Protein is the building blocks for the body to maintain and repair it self.
*Nutrition consultation and Meal prep is available*