Athletics: Strength, Speed, and Health
Staying in top physical shape is critical to always performing your best on the field and gaining attention from college scouts. Today’s top college athletes have a combination of speed, strength, and knowledge of the best methods to stay healthy, so developing these attributes early will result in higher levels of success.
Strength training is not just lifting weights for hours in the gym attempting to max out, but improving both explosiveness and muscular endurance. Muscular power or “explosiveness” is a product of both strength and speed of movement.
The most effective way to increase strength without hurting your speed or flexibility is to complete plyometric exercises, these would include:
- Lower Body: Squats, Jump Squats, Lunges
- Upper Body: Push Ups, Medicine Ball Chest Pass
Speed is a crucial component to almost every sport, and getting faster is possible with hard work and discipline. Flexibility training and regular sprint workouts will help make you quicker as well. Sprinting during training sessions creates muscle memory which will be activated in game time situations.
A few exercises to increase your speed on the field are:
- Uphill Sprints the steeper the better!
- Calf raises try using weights to increase difficulty
- Running Stairs
It may also be helpful to have a coach look at your form – sometimes even simple changes in your technique can help you get faster.
Health is important to maintain because it will allow for you to perform at your best on the field by taking care of yourself off of the field. Eating healthy will provide your body with the proper nutrients to perform at the highest level. Preventing injury is another major factor of health, because if you can’t train or play it is much harder to improve.
Putting the right “fuel” into your body is the foundation of performing on the field, some helpful tips to keep in mind:
- STAY HYDRATED especially while performing strenuous activity
- Vitamin consumption in the form of fruits and vegetables
- Protein and Carbohydrate intake to build and fuel muscles
Taking the correct steps to reduce the risk of injury would include:
- Always wear the appropriate protective equipment (helmet, pads, cleats)
- Stretching before and after physical activity, as well as on off days
- Knowing your body’s limits and how hard to push
Have a question or are looking for some potential help?
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