Posterior Chain Strength – RDL

The Romanian Deadlift is a great way to strength the primary movers of the glutes and hamstrings. I’ve been reading a lot of information on knee injuries, primarily ACL tears. The research shows that ACL tears usually come from a sheering force of the leg. I’ll speak in simple terms, the athlete plants his/her foot, the bottom portion of the leg stops, but the momentum forces the upper leg forward still. This sheering force seems to be more prevalent in female athletes and male athletes with weak hamstrings. In order to protect your knees, make sure you are training your body equally, ie if you do 10 sets of quad exercises, you should match it with approximately 10 sets for the hamstrings (of course you may split the training sessions). Here is a classic, simple, exercise that will help the hamstrings grow stronger.

Romanian Deadlift Tutorial

The RDL video is one of our first videos and has nearly 40,000 views! Obviously this lift is important to a lot of people.

-J. HASHEY, CSCS –

Core Training Article

Thanks for the postive responses I’ve received from the hanging core variation video! In order to answer people’s questions I wrote an article on the topic and sent it over to Scott Bird at Straight to the Bar.com. Here is the full article!

CLICK HERE FOR THE CORE TRAINING ARTICLE

-J. HASHEY, CSCS –

Compare College Football Training Programs

Here are clips of two college strength and conditioning programs for football: Michigan and Colorodo. Take a look at them and respond to this post by letting me know which one you think is better. Take a note to the form of both, especially the clean, and see how it varies (one major difference). I won’t give any other hints!

Michigan

Colorado

- J. HASHEY, CSCS –

Wednesday Video – Terry Tate

With all the serious training talk, even I need a break for some humor. Back again comes Terry Tate. Imagine if everyone took that intensity to the weights!

Back to Basics: Front Lunge

I’m a big proponent of unconvential training methods, however I still make sure I have the lifting staples in my program. I use the crazy stuff as supplemental exercises or finishers. Here is one of the basic lifts that is important to get into an athlete trianing program. It is important for athletes to work their legs unilaterally. A classic for this is the Front Lunge. Boring, perhaps, effective, definately!

Mix it up with a sand bag on your shoulder for a variation every once and awhile.

- J. HASHEY, CSCS –