Take a look at this short clip I filmed for Stack Magazine and Stack.com on overhead pressing. Should you? Where do you start? Click the link.
Archive for July, 2014
Should You Overhead Press
Posted in Injuries, MBSC News, Media, Strength Coach Podcast, StrengthCoach.com Updates, Training, Training Females, Uncategorized, Youth Training with tags Should you overhead press? Should everybody overhead press? on July 23, 2014 by mboyle1959This Is Really Funny and Too True- Please Listen
Posted in Uncategorized on July 21, 2014 by mboyle1959This is an actual ( I guess we need to check Snopes) answering machine message at a high school in Australia. Even it’s not real it is great.
Meghan Duggan’s TED Talk
Posted in MBSC News, Media, Training Females with tags Meghan Duggan on July 19, 2014 by mboyle1959Thanks to my friend Kevin Neeld for this. Please take 10 minutes to watch this wonderful young woman.
Fall Mentorship Announced
Posted in Uncategorized on July 17, 2014 by mboyle1959We have a few spots left for September
Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog
At MBSC we are trying to do a better job of getting advanced notice out about mentorship weeks so its great that we can announce our next dates of September 15-18th in the month of June.
We will cap this at fifteen so start making plans now. Fall fills fast. To register go to
NY Times- This Is Our Youth
Posted in Uncategorized on July 10, 2014 by mboyle1959Check out this disturbing piece on kids and fitness from the NY Times.
Nice Piece on MBSC Client Mike Grier at the Select 17’s
Posted in Hockey, MBSC News, Media, Training, Uncategorized, Youth Training with tags Mike Grier on July 9, 2014 by mboyle1959Former long time MBSC client Mike Grier is coaching at the Select 17 camp.
Take a peek
Training Elite Athletes- Be Brilliant at the Basics
Posted in Uncategorized on July 8, 2014 by mboyle1959This was a great piece originally written by Dewey Nielsen that I referenced yesterday in my Training Swimmers post ( in case you didn’t click the link)
Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog
Training Elite Athletes- Be Brilliant at the Basics
( Editors note- my good friend Dewey Nielsen wrote this as an MMA article. It was so good I edited it to apply to all sports)
What works best for an athlete? Linear or undulating periodization? Kettlebells or dumbbells? Olympic lifts from the floor or hang? What do you do for conditioning?
I get questions like these a lot and usually my answer comes down to “it doesn’t matter”. I am not saying that undulating periodization doesn’t work or kettlebells are worthless. What I am saying is these things only matter once you are “Brilliant at the Basics”. You must first understand a few things:
What is strength? What is endurance? What is power? What is power endurance? What is speed? What is agility? What is mobility? What is anaerobic and aerobic conditioning?
What are all of these things and how should we train them? Where do these components…
View original post 299 more words
Strength and Conditioning for Swimmers
Posted in Injuries, StrengthCoach.com Updates, Training, Training Females, Uncategorized, Youth Training with tags Strength training for swimming on July 7, 2014 by mboyle1959I received these email questions from a viewer of Functional Strength Coach 5
Here are the questions:
Q 1. Swimming does seem fundamentally different from other sports since we are not on land. I’m trying to figure out how that fact should influence the programming we do during our strength work on land. Swimming is a highly shoulder-driven, internally rotated activity. Keeping shoulders healthy is my primary concern. Do you have any suggestions beyond floor slides to warmup the shoulders and upper body?
My first thought came right from the first hour of the seminar “your sport is not as different as you think”.
This answer was written in a thread on my StrengthCoach.com site by site member Justin Levine
Think of it as “athlete specific” training not sports specific. OF course there are some specific things swimmers need to work on but get them to be a better athlete and they will be better in the pool.
Teach them how to roll and stretch as most youth athletes have no clue how to do this properly. Educate on proper warm-up strategies so they know what to do pre-swim meet. When it comes to the workout, teach basic jumping progressions focusing on landing mechanics first. This will enhance there starts and pushes off the wall. Add in shoulder stability and core stability as fillers. This will create a balance shoulder girdle and a strong core to transfer more force through the legs are arms. Get them “brilliant at the basics” (Thanks Dewey Nielsen author of Brilliant at the Basics) in terms of strength development. Master bodyweight movements first. Split squats, chin-ups, inverted rows, hip lifts, push-ups, planks, push-up walks. Remember to keep it simple because the basic movements will get these kids strong and stable.The workout I just did with 3 swimmers looked like this:
Foam roll
Stretch
Mobility/Dynamic warm-up
Ladders drillsPower:
1a: Controlled squat jump and stick
1b: MB OH and chest slams
1c: Front Plank
1d: Y’s/T’sStrength:
1a: Split squat
1b: Chin-ups
1c: Wall Slides2a: Hip Lifts
2b: Push-ups
2c: Side Plank
And remember to COACH COACH AND COACH MORE!Justin Levine
Owner, California Fitness Academy
http://www.livecfalife.com
Q 2. While leg power is important for swimmers (off the turn and start), it seems less so than for land athletes. Would you recommend a greater emphasis on upper body exercises for swimmers? Unilateral upper body movements for swimmers? I’m even thinking of a band-assisted single-arm pullup rather than a regular two-armed pull-up.
1/3 of the race is start and turn in short course so lower body strength and power are still important. I would not do unilateral bodyweight pulling like you mentioned. I think it could be dangerous.
Bottom line is that although swimming is obviously different, strength training for swimming is not. The same set of basic rules apply.
You must be logged in to post a comment.