BA Issue 91, Oct. 2014 by Sport Stars Magazine

BA Issue 91, Oct. 2014

There are steps to good strength training. Don’t skip any Most athletes, at least the ones I train, primarily are looking to develop as much power as possible. Whether its lower body power for sprinting or upper body power for discus throwing, the goal is to produce as much power as you can. I have noticed over my last 12 years in the industry that people want to shortcut the process to develop that power, and in doing so they hinder their ability to actually create the best power possible. They do this by going directly into the power phase of training by working on muscle firing speed, and never developing the physical attributes necessary to increase the underlying factor of power: strength. In order to increase strength, one must start from the ground up and take part in the cumulative effect of training. There is always a base that underlies everything right down to the smallest intricacies. I have found that when you start at that small base and build up, you exponentially increase your ability to develop great strength and explosive power. For example, if I want to increase my lower body power, a great exercise is the power clean. Once you develop the correct technique of the lift, you can add much more weight and increase power — but that takes great strength. In order to increase the weight on the bar, you have to be able to hold more weight on the bar. In order to be able hold more weight on the bar, you have to have great grip strength. So the underlying base is grip strength in this area. Most people would skip right to doing plyometrics and jumping without developing this area first. So instead of jumping right to the end training point, start to think about how you can take it right down to the base to increase the results you can get ten fold. ✪

Build a base Anthony Trucks is an IYCA-certified trainer who covers weight training for SportStars.

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October 2014

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