Strength Training Articles

Articles Tagged with Athletes

Using Bodyweight Exercises to Increase Fitness

Implementing bodyweight exercises allows you to increase your strength, size, athleticism, and mobility. Movements such as pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, dips, air squats, Hindu squats, and burpees are some of the oldest exercises we have used to increase physical fitness.

Wed Jun 22, 2022

Understanding Max Effort

At Westside, we perform max-effort variations of the squat, good morning, deadlift, and bench press to increase absolute strength and improve intermuscular and intramuscular coordination. We dedicate two training days per week to max effort work, max effort upper and lower. To avoid accommodation, we perform a different max effort upper and lower exercise each week.

Fri Jun 10, 2022

Modified Max Effort

Instead of achieving maximal motor unit recruitment by performing a lift at 100%, the main exercise is performed for three or five rep top sets that still reach suitable motor unit recruitment levels.

Essentially, we are losing the ability to achieve the highest level of motor unit recruitment with the reduction in intensity. Still, we are gaining a meaningful boost in recovery and decreasing the likelihood of programming failure or injury in the future.

Modified max-effort allows a lifter struggling with recovery to be afforded the benefits of high-intensity weight training while reducing the overall impact on recovery associated with an all-out max effort lift.

Fri May 27, 2022

Conjugate Football: Max Effort Lower

The successful implementation of max-effort training for football players calls for intelligent programming combined with proper instruction. This means that you are selecting the appropriate exercises, using the correct rep and intensity ranges, and adequately educating athletes on the execution and intent of each exercise.

Wed May 25, 2022

Posterior Development to Improve Athleticism

No matter the sport, maintaining a strong posterior chain is essential. Strong glutes, hamstrings, and back muscles improve sports performance and lower injury rates. There is no doubt about it; an athlete with an adequately developed posterior chain will run faster, jump higher, and experience a reduced risk of back or knee injury throughout their career.