People often fail to realize that physical activity creates metabolic fatigue. When too much metabolic stress kicks up, performance begins to deteriorate due to muscles not being fueled properly. Over time, this creates a catabolic environment in your body—one which is suitable for muscle breakdown or atrophy.

   While exercise is arguably one of the best solutions to a healthy body, it serves no purpose when there’s no fuel to perform. So, an anabolic environment is desired instead. This is an environment which is suitable for the replacement of fatty layers in your body with leaner tissue.

   While the term “anabolic” is commonly associated to steroid use, the more proper association needs to be focused on metabolic efficiency. In other words, by staying anabolic before, during and after exercise, your body’s tendency of storing calories as fat decreases. This is one of the main reasons why smaller, frequent meals throughout the day help an individual stay leaner and perform better, regardless of their physical goals.

 . . . exercise and ego don’t mix?

    One thing that’s really annoying is how ego and pride have become dominating measures of good performance. More specifically, people often associate more time spent or weight used with a productive workout. The annoying part about this is when those specific time and weight quantities are casually thrown around in conversation with peers, often in a bragging sort of way.

   While there’s nothing wrong with being proud of yourself for doing more work, there is a problem when “more work” becomes the daily expectation. This expectation is the driving force behind an egotistical character at the gym. An egotistical person fails to acknowledge the fact that the human body is very dynamic, and exercise performance varies on a daily basis. They don’t account for the external stresses like work, lack of sleep or relationship problems that will invariably effect the quality of a workout. This is one of the main reasons why quality conquers quantity measures in life.

 . . . exercise variety can sometimes be counterproductive?

    While a workout with lots of exercises may look good on paper, too much variety may lead to poor performance. Moreover, the quality of a workout can often suffer when people fail to realize what works best for them. Instead of focusing on the how many muscle groups you hit, ask yourself if your workout was really efficient in terms of exercise range-of-motion.

   There’s much to be accomplished by the majority of the American population when exercises with larger ranges-of-motion become the major concentration of their workouts. More specifically, by including no more three main exercises

per session – deadlift or squat, bench press, and rowing variations – people can attack many muscles at once while revealing their strengths and weaknesses. Having less exercises to perform during a workout can also boost personal motivation, to not only maintain better rep quality, but potentially increase their frequency of training.

If you found the aforementioned information helpful, I’d love to hear about it.  Please just post a quick comment below!

The only problem is, everyone lives such a dynamic life that they really don’t understand the essence of giving the body what it needs to perform optimally. And then people wonder why stress, illness, or fat storage sneaks up on them so easy.

Well, I believe we all have the ability to perform physically and mentally optimal every day. It’s all in the matter of how we approach our daily nutrition. There are two schools of thought when approaching eating habits, and one of them allows us to conquer those environmental stresses by bringing us health and longevity.

Living to Eat

Someone who lives to eat primarily eats for taste and pleasure. While some healthy foods can be made quite appealing and tasty, the majority of calories consumed by a person who lives to eat are out of temptation. There is no structure to this daily eating approach, and the body becomes vulnerable to environmental stresses due to the absence of real, nutrient/antioxidant-dense food. More specifically, someone who lives to eat thinks of cravings – refined and artificial foods that satisfy an individual only temporarily – before health and longevity. As a result, when this person gets off track with their nutrition, it becomes quite difficult to shift their focus back to performing mentally and physically optimal.

Eating to Live

A person who eats to live understands that the human body endures various environmental stresses that it must adapt to in order to survive. In other words, food is viewed as a requirement to meet the physical demands that are placed on the body. Eating food for health benefits rather than out of temptation is made a priority, and frequent structured feedings of nutrient or antioxidant-dense food becomes an every day habit. More specifically, someone who eats to live seeks protein (lean, animal sources) and veggies – foods that satisfy an individual longer, yielding health and longevity – before short-term cravings. As a result, when this person gets off track with their nutrition, they are more disciplined to shift their body back into the momentum required for daily activities.

Eating to live is obviously the preferred style of eating if you want to get the most out of every day. For a similar, more elaborated template on how to eat to live consistently, I strongly recommend you check out “The Hero Diet” section in The Hero Handbook by Nate Green. Not only will this help you manifest better eating habits, but this free, “no gimmicks—just specifics” handbook will put life into a more fun and productive perspective. All he asks is that you pay it forward by spreading the word, as I just have. By the way, did I mention The Hero Handbook is free?

Now go eat to live consistently, and “become your own hero” in the process, as my friend and mentor Nate Green so eloquently puts it.

I’d love to hear about your progress in the comments below, too.

   Due to my various computer uses, I sometimes have a tendency to open too many browsers at once, or have my computer perform too many tasks. The result is something we all hate—computer slowness. I’ve realized that it’s important to stop this tendency if I want the computers I use to perform efficiently.

   As with developing better habits with using computers, I believe that knowing what to do is just as important as learning what not to do in order to reach fitness goals. So I’d like to share a few unspoken fitness rules, and explain what can be done to become more efficient at staying in good shape.

Stop seeking advice from people who don’t practice what they preach.

    Certifications and degrees don’t do much good if the associated health professional doesn’t practice what they preach. And it’s pretty obvious when their physical appearance is inconsistent with the advice they give others, too. In this capacity, I believe one of the ultimate qualifications for someone to give fitness or health advice is their physical body composition.

   Before looking to certifications and degrees, I encourage you to first determine what kind of body you’d like to achieve. Then think about anyone you know – could be a friend, an enemy, or a celebrity – who resembles your goal appearance. Find out what nutritional habits and training methodologies these people apply on a daily basis, and finally, tweak the variables to suit your own physiological profile.

Stop throwing away your workouts.

    Seriously—if you’re going to just go out and trash your body on the weekends, you mind as well not go to the gym at all.  Similarly, if you follow poor workout nutrition habits, you’re only throwing away all your hard work. What you put in your body is what you’ll produce anyway. Working out in a catabolic state – that is, an environment that suits loss of muscle tissue – is the ultimate negative outcome from any poor energy consumption practices.

   In order to minimize poor performance, simply set limits for your body if you decide to go on the dark side. Or just don’t give into temptation at all. The latter may be harder for the majority, however. This will enable you to train in an anabolic state more often – that is, an environment that facilitates lean muscle accrual – and to stop throwing away your workouts once and for all.

Stop following routines or programs that your body responds poorly to.

    Sometimes a routine from a printed or online media source will look pretty cool. That same workout may also work for others very well. But, if the methodology behind those set and rep schemes doesn’t fit your physiological profile, you definitely won’t benefit from applying them. So, the best way to address this issue is to start logging everything—from nutrition to your daily workouts performed. Logs are often overlooked keys to reaching goals more efficiently, and they will help you determine what your body does respond best to, indefinitely.

** |<| Do you know of any other good fitness rules? If so, I’d really like to hear about them.  Please feel free to post away, and share your thoughts in the comments below. |>|**

While the psychology behind a new beginning is a very powerful motivator, I’d like to remind you how similar resolutions are to daily goals and dreams.  More specifically, every minute of every day, we are either taking a step forwards or backwards from achieving our goals and dreams.  The only real difference between resolutions and goals or dreams is that a new year is often associated with the former.  With this in mind, I’d like to point out some ways you can maximize your mental and physical capacities from a fitness perspective so that you’re in tip-top shape for conquering your resolutions and goals or dreams.

Mental Capacity

Maximizing your mental capacity involves:

Minimizing intimidation

No matter how good we are at something, we have to remain humble in the fact that there’s always going to be someone else out there who’s better.  This also applies to the large range of training experience present in the gym.  For those on the beginner end, it’s important to realize that just getting into the gym is half the battle.  As such, the atmosphere upon your arrival each day should not hinder your own motivation to gain some progress momentum – regardless of whether you feel intimidated or overwhelmed by what others are doing.  Find comfort in the fact that there’s a good chance some of the gym regulars are performing a movement wrong anyway.

For those lying on the more experienced end of the spectrum, it’s important to realize that your knowledge of various ways to train each area of the body automatically gives you more “space” in the gym when it comes to picking an exercise.  Not to mention, your prior knowledge of a gym’s general volume throughout the week is always nice for planning your own training sessions around others.

Listening to our body

There’s no sense in following a routine or program that your body responds poorly to.  After all, the only thing that delivers results on a given day is your body.  Sometimes this requires you to focus on doing more of what your body responds best to on a given day by sacrificing variety. 

Even though this sounds like common sense, listening to your body is a skill that must be acquired over time.  Therefore, its ultimately up to you to determine how to tweak the variables (exercises and rep schemes + loading mechanisms, nutrition and diet overall, and supplementation if used) to suit your body and goals.  One word of caution: Do not use this as excuse to be lazy because of a little metabolic fatigue or to skip from one training methodology to another just because of impatience.

Physical Capacity

Maximizing your physical capacity involves:

Getting rid of distractions

The two outstanding distractions I’m referring to are cell phones and food advertisements.  Basically, do anything and everything possible to keep cell phones out of sight and sound when training. This is out of respect for others and especially yourself.  Cell phones take away from the quality of a productive workout by influencing your mental capacity to stay in the zone.  As a result, physical performance becomes hindered, and the training effect for a given day is gone.

In terms of food advertisements, suffice it to say that we are what we eat.  This cliché demonstrates that, if you eat junk, you’ll produce junk.  Although the gradual move towards healthier dietary habits is getting better, the majority of food advertisements present junk in the most attractive way.  In reality though, when’s the last time you ate at a fast food restaurant and the food looked exactly like the picture on their advertisement? 

Healthy food can also be attractive.  And the benefits from an attractive healthy meal are very real.  Real food instills that “healthy full” feeling.  This  isn’t something that can be felt after consuming refined foods.

Training rather than working out

Some days the body performs better than others.  On those days you feel really good, why not become even more engaged toward getting the most out of that workout?  Taking advantage of these ”on days” is paramount to your success in the gym.  When you do this, you are no longer working out.  You are training in effect to surpass previous efforts.  This feeling can only happen if you are truly in the zone, which means you’ve already maximized your mental capacity and you’ve eliminated oustanding distractions for a given training session.   You can reproduce this training effect every time if you really want to.

********* 

So it’s up to you–the individual.  I’ve simply reminded you of a few necessary requirements for maximizing your mental and physical capacities on a given day.  Hopefully these reminders will help you keep pushing hard and conquer your resolutions and goals or dreams.

We have the tendency to seek out activities that bring us a sense of self-accomplishment, regardless of everyone’s personal meaning for the word. I believe a great deal of this self-accomplishment is related to staying in shape mentally and physically over breaks, so here are a few reminders along with a bonus workout since you know I’m all about fitness.

Realize that there’s no such thing as the off-season.

A true athlete or average person that wants to maintain a lean body year round understands that there’s no such thing as the off-season. While rest has its time and place, your muscles need to be activated often so they’re ready for daily activities and future workouts. The cliché, “if you don’t use it, you lose it” therefore needs to be exercised mentally and physically if you want to maintain or improve upon your body’s current capabilities.

Make New Year’s resolutions short-term goals.

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions because people typically get in the habit of focusing on too many objectives at once and turning those into one yearly goal. This mentality is what leaves them falling behind in terms of progress. So instead of making a long-term yearly goal, focus on one thing at a time by breaking down what you want to accomplish on a weekly or even daily basis.

As a strong advocate of fitness, my weekly goal is to progress in my overall performance during workouts by increasing the quality of reps of less, equal, or even more weight for select exercises. My daily goal is to do whatever it takes to fuel my body with healthy sources of energy—for performing optimally during workouts and when using my noodle. What are your short-term goals?

Maximize the efficiency of your workout space.

I’m typically a strong advocate for getting into the gym, but sometimes reality sets in with weather and leaves you with suboptimal driving conditions. This is often the case with winter weather, so you have to remain indoors. You don’t have to miss a quality workout, though. Regardless of season, the take home point is to use bad weather to your advantage. How so? You’ll begin to understand the importance of applying space-efficient workouts, whether at a crowded gym or in your own home.

I’ll expand more on space-efficient workouts in the future. But for now, I’ll leave you with a teaser workout you can apply over break. The emphasis is to be explosive on your reps while still maintaining good form for each exercise in the circuit below.

Let’s put those words into action . . .

Special thanks to the demonstrators in the video!

DB Goblet Squat

DB Swing

DB Overhead Press

In sum, it’s important to do whatever possible to stay in shape mentally and physically over breaks because “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it!” So even if fitness isn’t your forte, I encourage you to stay mentally active by engaging yourself in a book of interest or watching an intellectually stimulating movie.

Movement Patterns of Volleyball Players

The majority of the physiological and metabolic demands for volleyball players reflect the fact that there’s a tremendous amount of jumping involved on the court. “The ultimate goal of any [strength and conditioning] program for volleyball players is to get them jumping higher than blockers,” Nein said. “So it’s important to make them progressively forceful through their [core] by increasing their lower body power as well as their rotational power.”

The movement patterns of jumping higher and hitting harder thus make the volleyball player harder to defend during the game. According to Nein and Coach Knight, volleyball players are already very athletic even before they begin any new progressive training program. However, the following concepts are progressed individually amongst players to make them harder to defend come game time.

In no particular order, Nein says that plyometrics, rotational stability work, mobility work and lower body development make up the core of what needs to be accomplished from a strength and conditioning standpoint. As far as upper body training goes, the two main goals are strength and power work for the back anterior. “The back acts as an arm decelerator when hitting the ball,” Nein said. “By incorporating power work for the back anterior, we generate scapular stabilization and strengthen the rotator cuff muscles, [both of which are necessary for movement patterns on the volleyball court].”

What Volleyball Coaches Look For

Although volleyball players seem to be very athletic and quick individuals to begin with, coaches still look for lots of explosive development overall—especially during the season. “I look for explosive power and quickness, along with the ability to recover quickly,” Knight said.

According to Knight, the team really started to train seriously about six years ago. Their records over that period definitely tell no lies, as the team went from 25-12 (6-1 CAC) in 2004 to 32-5 (8-0 CAC) in 2009. Certainly an optimal strength and conditioning experience has facilitated such success. “We can play for five hours with just a 30 minute break and still play at a high level,” Knight said. “This is the tournament format the entire season where we play back-to-back matches.”

How to Train Like a Volleyball Athlete

If you think you have what it takes to train like a volleyball athlete, give the following sample warm-up and workout a shot. Focus on rep quality by maintaining explosive power on the lifting (concentric) portion and a controlled but quick lowering (eccentric) of the weight on each movement.

A2. Reverse Rotational Lunges + Bench Step-Up with Knee Drive + Overhead Press (Leftside #1)

A2. Reverse Rotational Lunges + Bench Step-Up with Knee Drive + Overhead Press (Leftside #2)

A2. Reverse Rotational Lunges + Bench Step-Up with Knee Drive + Overhead Press (Rightside #1)

A2. Reverse Rotational Lunges + Bench Step-Up with Knee Drive + Overhead Press (Rightside #2)

B2. Cable Face Pull (with Rope Attachment)

C1. 90-Degree Bent-Over Barbell Row

D1. Narrow-Grip V-Ups to Waist

D3. Resistance Band Core Twists

At Salisbury University (SU), Knight is the women’s volleyball coach, and Nein is the manager of facilities and fitness programs at SU, a strength and conditioning coach, and a CSCS*D and SPARQ National Trainer.

Increase amino acid intake.

    We all should know by now that amino acids are the building blocks of protein. What may not be so obvious is the fact that amino acids themselves are not calorie dense. In fact, there is absolutely no caloric value attached to amino acids. So, what’s the point in consuming them for energy?

   Amino acids indirectly supply energy once they enter the bloodstream by increasing the functions of the various systems in your body. For example, the skeletal system supports the muscles in your body while the cardiovascular system promotes blood flow needed during your daily activities.

   Since amino acids play a key role in protein synthesis, the muscular skeletal system’s functions are enhanced to increase lean tissue accrual, and in turn, burn more calories at rest. Likewise, increased blood flow and circulation in the cardiovascular system means a higher metabolic capacity and thus greater caloric expenditure.

How to apply this tip: Mix branch chain amino acids (or just l-leucine) in water with crystal light on-the-go packets (optional-for flavor). Drink prior to breakfast, or sip leisurely throughout the day. They also do a protein shake justice.

Drink lots of cold water.

    The recommended eight glasses of water a day is so 20^th Century. When I say drink lots of water, think more like a gallon or two a day. It’s especially important that you consume water upon waking in the morning, before and after meals or around times of increased physical activity. Thirst quenching is needed at these times. And since a large percentage of the human body is made up of water, why choose carbonated or caffeine-loaded beverages to quench your thirst? If this was common sense for you, consider the following. Water acts as an appetite suppressant because it boosts metabolism. Energy is necessary to heat any cold water you consume before excreting it in the form of urine. Your body burns calories in this warming process.

How to apply this tip: Be sure to add water into your diet — especially after waking up, around mealtimes and times of increased physical activity.

Eat clean foods.

    Smaller meals more often are the optimal way for increasing your metabolism without exercise, especially if your nutrition isn’t always the best. But you can also boost your metabolism by just eating when you’re hungry—or basically by incorporating the old three meals a day approach. The only way the three meals a day strategy works is if you eat clean, though. This means that every one of your three meals must consist of real food. I’m talking about food that actually takes time to prepare and chew up rather than from a box on the shelf or freezer. Clean foods do the work for you and thus have healthier affects on digestion and metabolism.

How to apply this tip: Have a lunch or dinner consisting of lean meat, green veggies, and some healthy fat (such as olive oil or raw/unsalted nuts).

   Last time I covered how to train like a soccer athlete. You can head over to this page to view that post. Now with the help of Matt Nein, Head Football Coach Sherman Wood, and Assistant Head Coach Robb Disbennett, I present to you the second installment of this series for the fall semester: sports specific training for football athletes.

Movement Patterns of Football Players

    After the needs analysis is performed for the physiological and metabolic demands on the football field, movement patterns are sub-divided into groups of players due to the large range of positions. According to Nein, the SU Strength & Conditioning Program uses four groups when designing an optimal training plan. “When designing their yearly plan, our main focus is on size, strength, and power,” Nein said. “These three main components are broken down into four groups to be consistent with their respective movement patterns.”

   The first group consists of the offensive line, defensive line, inside linebackers, and long-snappers. The second group includes quarterbacks, kickers, and punters. The third group contains slots, super-backs (AKA full-backs), and “dawgs.” The fourth and final group is comprised of wide receivers, defensive backs, cornerbacks, and safetys.

  Nein says each group is basically examined individually to consider what needs to be accomplished from a strength and conditioning perspective. For example, “size, strength, and power are equally important in group one while group two primarily involves a mix of strength and power,” Nein said. Groups three and four both depend on power and size; however, the former outweighs the latter in group three.

   “We’re trying to see how power [from muscles used in sprint speed especially] dominates the explosive spectrum for the fourth group, while in group three, power is still important but hypertrophy plays the greater role,” Nein said. “For example, super-backs [from group three] are going to need that size to get through a defensive line in a game whereas a wide receiver [from group four] is going to need that speed and agility from their explosive power once they catch the ball.”

What Football Coaches Look For

    In terms of being physically strong and prepared, football coaches essentially look for overall endurance and work ethic. According to Head Coach Sherman Wood, football players need to be able to maintain that high level of energy during the end of the game as when they started.

   “We all want them to be physically strong; but in addition, I like for more of my players to have plenty of endurance (high rep/low weight) as well,” Wood said. “I would like for our players to be strong and well conditioned in the first and fourth quarters.”

   According to Assistant Head Coach Robb DisBennett, the extent to which players are exposed to proper strength and conditioning programs at the high school level helps show whether the athlete is physically ready. Basically, the guys with more experience are able to start faster while those with less exposure often need to be taken to the next level with the SU Strength & Conditioning Program first. “Freshman often realize right from the start that they’ll have to become bigger, faster, and stronger in order to compete with other players,” Disbennett said.

   Coach Wood summarized physical preparation in the following manner. “Team organization, training smart, proper nutrition, injury prevention and mental toughness are all key components of physical preparation,” Wood said. “The [SU Strength & Conditioning] programs prepare our players through these examples . . . if you are consistent in these areas, you will be well prepared for games.”

   Coach Disbennet reinforced relative strength and game preparation in the following manner. “Ultimately, it comes down to the individual level,” Disbennett said. “Do they have good work ethic, and are they willing to do what it takes to be successful?”

How to Train like a Football Athlete

    Considering the large range of positions in football and the input from Nein, Coach Wood, and Coach Disbennett, I’ve decided to compile a weekly hybrid workout plan that incorporates those three main components necessary on the field. More specifically, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays consist of (high-threshold hypertrophy-based) full body workouts to facilitate strength and size development in the football athlete. Tuesdays and Thursdays involve explosiveness and strength endurance workouts to improve the power and agility in the football player. In both cases, you’ll notice that a great deal of work ethic is necessary. The following are sample workouts for Monday and Tuesday with their respective training components.

Glute Bridge (5 sec. holds – Dynamic Activation)

Plyometric (Explosive) Push-Up (Dynamic Activation)

IA. Quadriceps Potentiation: Barbell Ballistic (Jump) Squats

IB. Quadriceps Stimulation: Barbell Front Squat (clean grip)

Bodyweight Bench Dips (strength endurance)

   At Salisbury University (SU), Wood and Disbennett are the men’s head and assistant head coaches, respectively, and Nein is the manager of facilities and fitness programs at SU, a strength and conditioning coach, and a CSCS*D and SPARQ National Trainer.

   On the other hand, people who go that extra mile and use nutrition to fuel their fitness goals are the same ones who believe workout nutrition is the most important energy period of the day. These are the same people who tend to be more interested in achieving long term fitness success, and focus on becoming better during a workout. Long term fitness only starts with breakfast and is put into full force once nutrition and workouts become consistent.

The real purpose of breakfast

    The way you start your day from a nutritional standpoint is one of the best indicators of how the rest of your day is going to go. If your breakfast primarily consists of the quick fix, finger foods and/or packaged snacks and sugar coated cereal, you’re setting yourself up for nutritional failure throughout the rest of the day. Why? Your artificially induced pleasure from foods that aren’t real give you a craving for more of the bad stuff throughout the remainder of the day. Thus, the real purpose of breakfast is to break into optimal nutrition habits right away from your fasted state after waking.

Eating the good stuff first

    You don’t have to be perfect. It’s ok to treat yourself to an unhealthy food choice once or twice a week. Just don’t make it an everyday thing. Instead, start making a habit out of eating the good stuff first. This doesn’t mean to purposely leave just enough room for indulging in unhealthy items after a good meal. Load up and actually feel full on the good stuff first. The more you focus of real foods rather than artificial and refined ones, the more you will experience a lifestyle full of quality.

Pre, peri, and post workout nutrition

    The timeframe just before, during, and after your workout isn’t called the “window of opportunity” for no reason. We’ve all heard the cliché that you are what you eat. Well, in a similar manner, what you eat is what you’ll produce. If you eat junk, you will produce junk during your workout. And if you eat any junk after your workout, that will simply act as carryover for future exercise. Therefore, the most important nutritional period throughout the day is what you consume before, during, and after a productive workout. So, how do you take advantage of this most important nutritional period throughout the day?

   Nutrient timing is all about properly spacing out your macronutrients – and thus calories – in such a manner to help you perform optimally. Simply put, you consume slower digesting foods farther away from your workout time and faster absorbing items closer to and during the time you exercise. I’ve provided a basic sample template for your reference. Adjust portion sizes to accommodate your fitness goals and caloric needs.

Basic Strength Training Workout Nutrition Template

   With the help of Matt Nein, Coach Jim Nestor and Coach Gerry DiBartolo, I present to you the first installment of this series for the fall semester: sports-specific training for soccer athletes.

Movement patterns of soccer players

   If you’re going to practice the way you play, it makes sense to train in a similar fashion. Where do you begin, though? As with any training program, it’s essential to first know where the athlete is coming from before identifying where they’re headed. “A needs analysis for all teams is performed first to consider what the greatest physiological and metabolic demands are coming from on the field,” Nein said. “Common injury sites and other important considerations like speed and agility are also noted.”

   The results of this needs analysis are then broken down to form the optimal training program that’s consistent with the movement patterns of soccer players. There’s obviously a great deal of running and kicking involved on the field. Both aspects incorporate explosiveness into the soccer athlete. “It’s just a matter of where on that explosive spectrum the [soccer players] fit,” Nein said.

   What’s not so obvious is the strength needed in the posterior chain (back side) of soccer players to help facilitate those frontward-dominant movement patterns on the field. So for the SU Strength & Conditioning Program, “the focus is to create power from the hips,” Nein said. “The mechanics of running and kicking are strengthened while minimizing risk of injury on the back side.” 

What soccer coaches look for

    In terms of being physically strong and prepared, soccer coaches essentially look for overall quickness. “We look for athletes that are quick (within 10 yards), who have longer distance speed (over 20 yards), and who can withstand the challenge of holding off players (upper body and leg strength) as they battle for the ball,” DiBartolo said.

   Quickness is broken down into speed and agility from the perspective of the women’s soccer coach, who explains why the ability to hold off other players is incorporated into SU’s Strength and Conditioning Program. “The strength of the player overall, particularly the cardio aspect, is something we look at to evaluate speed and agility—which are two important factors on the field,” Nestor said. “Nein knows the importance of not being knocked off the ball since his brother is a soccer coach.”

   Undoubtedly, such explosive characteristics can only be developed over time. According to both coaches, how long those skills take to acquire is entirely dependent on the consistency and level of commitment by the player. In any case, the SU Strength & Conditioning Program becomes quite essential for increasing the soccer athlete’s preparedness during game time.

   “The SU Strength & Conditioning Program has been an outstanding resource for our players both during the season and throughout the off-season with training sessions,” DiBartolo said. “The rate of improvement in the strength and fitness of our players from their first to second year is directly related to the program developed by Matt Nein and the SU Strength & Conditioning Program.”

How to train like a soccer athlete

   The following represents an example of a typical warm-up and workout for a soccer player, depending on the level of experience and whether the training is during or out of season. So if your answer to my first question was yes, here’s your fix! Otherwise, I still encourage you to check out the training routines for ideas on how to spice up your own routine.

A1. Single-Leg Deadlift

A1. Substitute – Good Morning

B2. Dumbbell Reverse Lunges

C2. (First) Substitute – Narrow Grip Eccentric Pull-Ups

D2. Inverted Row (Supinated Grip)

   At Salisbury University (SU), Nestor and DiBartolo are the women’s and men’s soccer coaches, respectively, and Nein is the manager of facilities and fitness programs at SU, a strength and conditioning coach, and a CSCS*D and SPARQ National Trainer.