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Strength Training: Out Power the competition!

"I can now be more physical while taking on kids bigger than me." - 13y.o. football player - Huntington Beach, CA

The Fundamental Factor For Athletic Improvement

Increasing strength is an essential element of improving athletic performance for nearly every sport.  Functional strength training using resistance is the generally accepted method for increasing athletic strength.  Functional training involves the use of multiple muscles and joints in athletic-like movement to increase strength.  Machine-based exercises, such as those performed in most fitness centers, are not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatric and the American College of Sports Medicine.  Both organizations recommend functional training using resistance techniques for young athletes.

Methodology – The Champion’s Quest Strength System

Champion’s Quest uses a specialized strength training protocol comprised of a progressive continuum of resistance and movement-based functional strength designed around an athlete’s specific performance goals.   Each athlete sets specific goals, which are then translated into a rigorous strength development program using our scientifically based strength training system.  We focus on resistance strength development and power lifting only begins after an athlete reaches appropriate growth maturity.

It is important to develop strength in a way that promotes the athlete’s performance.  Too often, strength is developed simply for the sake of looking more athletic, not being more athletic.  The performance coaches at Champion’s Quest increase the functional strength of athletes using our “Train the Way you Play” system.  Strength development for football lineman is radically different from than of a swimmer. In fact, training a swimmer like a lineman would result in a loss of buoyancy.

The Champion’s Quest protocol is a based on a trifurcated strength development model that focuses on:

1. Teaching proper athletic biomechanical movement to build an efficient and effective athletic foundation for strength
2. Advancing the development of the ideal muscle type distribution for each athlete base on that athlete’s specific sport and goals
   
3. Increasing the overall athletic strength mass of each athlete to the level needed to support that athlete’s   goals.  
   

Biomechanics – The Base for Strength Development

Does it make any sense to completely rebuild a classic car on an old, rusted-out chassis? Of course not. Likewise, we wouldn’t dream of increasing an athlete’s strength in a way that would reinforce poor athletic form and inefficient movement. Biomechanical and postural deviations not only sub optimize athlete performance, they are often a contributing factor in athletic injury.   The first step in proper strength development is teaching and reinforcing the proper athletic biomechanics.  To re-teach proper biomechanics, movement analysis, knowledgeable instruction, real-time video feedback, specialized training equipment, and continuous feedback are incorporated in the Champion’s Quest strength development protocol.

Muscle Type Distribution – Moving Toward the Ideal

Muscle fiber is generally categorized as either Type I (slow twitch or slow oxidative fibres) or Type II (fast twitch, including Type IIa, Iib, and IIx). The slow twitch muscles are more efficient at using oxygen to generate more fuel for continuous, extended muscle contractions over a long time. Slow twitch fibers help athletes run marathons or play for longer periods of time.  Fast twitch fibers generate short bursts of strength or speed, but can only be sustained very short periods. Having more fast twitch fibers is beneficial for explosive speed since it quickly generates a great amount of force.  Every person is born with roughly 50% of each type of muscle fiber. Core biopsies of muscle tissue in Olympic sprinters show that they possess about 80 percent fast twitch fibers, while those who excel in marathons tend to have 80 percent slow twitch fibers. 

Its is generally held that muscle may switch fiber types from "fast" to "slow" due to training.  This would account for the difference in muscle type distribution among athletes in different sports.  This means that proper training may increase the desired amount of muscle fiber by converting slow-twitch fiber to fast-twitch or vice versa.  The Champion’s Quest strength development protocol and system uses specific methods to reconfigure muscle distribution toward an ideal archetype for the demands of the sport of each athlete. 

Champion’s Quest increases functional athletic strength using a multifaceted strength development system.  The primary types of strength development include deceleration strength, functional strength, core strength, endurance strength, and speed strength (power).  Increasing strength is essential to improve athletic performance.  Properly distributing added muscle mass is equally as important.  Champion’s Quest uses its “Train the Way You Play” methodology to develop the optimal distribution of new muscle.

Athletes require complete body control to be effective in athletic movement.  The Champion’s Quest strength development system first builds core strength, functional strength and deceleration strength.  Once these fundamentals are developed, peak athletic performance can be achieved by increasing endurance strength and speed strength.

Core Strength - The "Bridge" That Connects the Upper & Lower Body

Champion’s Quest athletes receive proper and efficient core training to elevate their ability to control their body effectively as well as to increase the rate of force production throughout the entire kinetic chain of movement. Core strength refers to the ability to stabilize the spine and hips effectively. Therefore by becoming more stable, the athlete will increase their ability to perform functional strength movements, increase their explosiveness and reduce the risk of injury.

Functional Strength – The way Athletes Increase Strength

Functional strength refers to the ability to effectively transfer one’s strength to any given athletic movement. At Champion’s Quest athletes are not trained in a machine packed gym. Our athletes are trained in an environment where their body control, coordination and core strength is constantly being challenged, just like it will be challenged during competition. Youth athletes are not miniature adults and should never be trained like an adult. Champion’s Quest athletes must first demonstrate strength relative to his or her body weight prior to using a load of weights. Even then the athlete’s strength program is closely monitored by our Performance Coaches in order to promote a safe, progressive and functional environment for the athlete.

Deceleration Strength – Quick Stopping Power

This is also known as eccentric strength (the lengthening of a muscle while under a load), which refers to the ability to slow down the body’s speed of movement. At Champion’s Quest our athletes experience magnified results in their athleticism due to their increased ability to stop their body’s movement in a fraction of a second. It is very important to understand that teaching the body efficient deceleration techniques as well as developing deceleration strength is the best way to develop this ability. This is the one of the best ways to increase an athlete’s ability to quickly change direction as well as obtaining an elevated level of agility.

Endurance Strength – Play Longer

Every athlete needs to have the physical ability to out last and out perform his or her opponent. Increasing an athlete’s muscular endurance develops this ability to outperform the competition. Athletes, whose sport requires them to perform for long durations at a time, need to train their muscles to handle this demand. Also, it is vital to understand that having a lack of muscle endurance leads to faulty movement patterns (or bad from) which leads to a higher risk of injury. At Champion’s Quest we use scientifically proven muscle endurance training techniques with our athletes in order to allow for optimal gains in their ability to compete at a high level for long periods of time.

Speed Strength – Essential for Speed and Quickness

Another term commonly used for speed strength is power. Every athlete requires some sort of power in his or her sport. The desire to increase performance in areas like jumping, running and throwing all require the ability exert maximal force in the shortest amount of time. Here at Champion’s Quest our athletes get to this level of training for power by first developing a solid athletic foundation among other physical and mental prerequisites. Proper technique must first be learned prior to advance strength training. Once proper and efficient technique can be performed repeatedly then the athlete will perform exercises that are completed with a rapid acceleration of their body weight. The next level of power training then involves moving their body weight along with an extra load of resistance, which is also performed at a rapid rate. 

The science behind this type of training is as follows; the athlete will feel lighter and more explosive while performing in their sport due to the fact that their body is used to performing similar (functional) exercises with extra resistance.  The bottom line is that power is developed by the athlete training with a progressive scientific approach, not by just running through reps in practice.