Often times parents of young athletes come to us asking if their young athlete is too young to begin resistance training or participate in a sports performance training program at Skill of Strength. Who can blame them? Everyone’s heard the old rumor that weight lifting stunts kid’s growth, right? Obviously, parents don’t want to mess with that! Now, … Read More
Over the last few years I’ve spent a ton of time writing programs for athletes who play various sports. I’ve worked with high school and collegiate athletes, professional fighters and some incredibly strong people at my gym, Skill of Strength. Twice a year we host an event called the tactical strength challenge or TSC. I love preparing … Read More
Today we’ll go over my favorite active straight leg raise correction (ASLR). I’m a huge fan of the functional movement screen. My first FMS certification was at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston around 2008. Since then, I’ve been using it with all of my clients. We utilize the entire screen at Skill of Strength, but … Read More
This post could also be called, how to find a strength and conditioning coach who knows what he/she is doing! Today’s post is inspired by something that happened last week. An athlete we just started working with told me about a guest strength coach who came to his school to take his football team through … Read More
Shoulders that are stuck in internal rotation eventually wreak havoc in some way, shape or form! I see this all the time! Many people are stuck in a position where their shoulders are internally rotated, they lack thoracic extension, and they don’t have even halfway decent scapular retraction and depression. If you’ve worked with clients that move like this, you … Read More
It’s been my experience that a lot of people misunderstand sports performance training. You may be thinking, what’s to misunderstand? Isn’t sports performance training just a fancy way of saying you are an athlete working out so you’re not completely out-of-shape when the season rolls around? Kind of, but not really. Here’s the issue. Many people view sports performance … Read More
Last week, we were able to host a kettlebell swing workshop at Puma North America in Westford, Massachusetts. We worked with our awesome HR contact over at Puma to set up a 45-minute kettlebell swing workshop for any interested Puma employees. Luckily, it was a gorgeous day so we got to have the workshop outside which … Read More
Every so often I work with a client/ athlete who has incredibly restricted shoulders. Whether due to injury, poor training habits, or postural issues, the restrictions and decreased range of motion can make for some grumpy shoulders. A common theme I’ve seen with these clients is that they don’t respond well to traditional mobility work. They … Read More
Every fall and spring as athletes transition back to their field sports, they inevitably find themselves riddled with hamstring pulls and hip flexor strains. Often times athletes are procrastinators, and they try to cram what should have been 3 months worth of training into a 3-week period when they realize pre-season is right around the corner. Now, … Read More
We made up the title of this drill because the actual description is incredibly long. However, it’s still accurate because it really is a great mobility drill. What we’ll go over in today’s video is a front-foot-elevated split squat paired with a behind-the-neck overhead press. The goal of this mobility drill is to improve overall hip … Read More