Strength and Conditioning Gone Wrong
Strength and Conditioning Gone Wrong
Are non contact injuries easily preventable? 100%! Are muscle imbalances preventable in the weight room and with proper mobility? 100%! I have been blessed to put myself in a position to train some of the best athletes in the world and country from Mason Parris, Myles Amine, JJ McCarthy, Jack Tuttle, Cornelius Johnson, Blake Corum, Will Johnson, Donovan Edwards, Will Johnson, Colston Loveland, and many more. Here’s what I have learned.
The biggest epidemic in high school, college, and professional sports are non-contact injuries that lead to a devastating path for athletes.Why are these issues being ignored? Why are athletes not being properly evaluated? Why have pulled hamstrings, season ending knee injuries, back pain, shoulder pain, etc. become the new normal? Why is improper running form being ignored? Our feet are the first point of contact on the ground!
The basis of all strength and conditioning programs is a proper evaluation of each individual athlete or client. To prescribe different individuals a program that is unilateral across the board for everyone is outrageous, as each individual has their own mobility concerns, strength imbalances, and corrections that must be made in order to progress and thrive through a program effectively and efficiently, but most importantly, to significantly reduce risks of injuries.
Facilities across the country from the high school to professional levels nowadays have drastically improved, and will continue to improve from year to year as technology advances and budgets increase due to the importance of strength and conditioning. It would also be a safe bet to assume that programming continues to evolve as athletes are evaluated and studied, but are they? Even at the highest levels, athlete evaluations are being neglected year after year.
This leads me to wonder, why does the individual with tight hamstrings, hip flexors, glutes, etc. continue to back squat and dead lift? Why does the athlete with one side of their body performing better than the other side of their body continue to perform bilateral (training both sides of their body at the same time) movements in the weight room? Why does the individual who had acl surgery perform bilateral squats for their rehab, while they continue overusing the stronger side? You get the point!
Even in a team strength and conditioning setting, it’s imperative that every individual on that team gets evaluated so that they can strengthen their body in the most effective way possible for them, instead of aimlessly doing what everyone else is doing because they’re on a team. That lack of detail, information, and preparedness is what puts athletes at harms way when they are playing their sport.