Exercises for sport performance

[bigbadboss101]

I want to train smart this fall/winter to improve my sports performance.  I play football, baseball, volleyball, golf, jet ski, tennis, ultimate frisbee etc in the summer.  What exercises are best to achieve the following goals?

Football - I want to increase my speed.  Lunges, leg presses, and calf raises?

Baseball - more bat power?  Oblique exercises, tricep extensions, and forearm exercises?  To improve on throwing, would rotator cuff exercises be key?

[Blindfaith]

try some swiss ball exercises, plyometrics and a good weight training regiment!

[ralph4u2c]

ive heard alot of trainers for the pros in baseball and basketball using alot of weighted balls for abs, stretching, and back instead of just normal crunches and other exercises.

[Blindfaith]

i did a practicum with the trainers that train the Vancouver Canucks hockey team...and they get them doing tons of **** with balls, balance boards, and other intricate toys that they have concocked up......its actually very cool the stuff they use...you would never think of using them.

But they also do tons of weights. As well as a rediculas amount of cardio!

cheers

[sage]

i played on my hs basketball team, and our conditioning involved countless hours of sprints and drills but also plyometric exercises. im thinking for football, this helps too. as for baseball, ya, you have to work the core or your body (ab & lower back work) along with hips/legs. a friend of mine plays college ball at a D-III level and he always talking about doing abdominal training, and "girly" stuff including lots of stretches for the hip flexor ad upper leg region. im thinkning working your forearms helps too

[deaconbill]

Can someone enlighten me?  What exactly is plyometric exercise?

[Blindfaith]

here check this site out:

http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/plymo.htm

[khafra]

The best advice I'd have is Par Deus's article, "A Revolutionary Approach to Strength Training" in article 2 or 3 of then-Big M'fr magazine. You can find it on Avantlabs.com
Some good ideas on power and speed there.

[Inzah Dude]

Go to http://www.naturalmuscleinc.com/ , then click articles. Then click on the ones about improving yourself in and outside the gym.They are articles about olympic lifting and plyometrics.

[Matt T]

I personally beleive that a routine based around squats and olympic lifts (clean and jerks/snatches) will improve sports performance over typical bodybuilding type training. O-lifting builds explosive strength, speed, and flexibility while at the same time stresses the cardiovascular system (try doing 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps of clean and jerks, you'll be puffing like a freight train). Just my opinion and I hope it has proved to be of assistance to you.

[crazypete]

props to matt t, but lower reps on the olympic lifts and squats, under 5 and under 8 respectively. also bench, incline dumbell, bentover rows, pullups, shoulder press, dips (basically old school stuff). lower the weight for a count of 3 or 4 and explode up (ok if it goes slow as long as you attempt to get it up as fast as possible).

core training is key, for lower back, powerlifting deadlift (bent knee), for abs stuff on swiss ball (work both heavy and light, ie some sets so you can't do more than 8-10 reps - use added weight).

flexibilty is key, a good article:
www.testosterone.net/articles/215lazy.html
yes i know its t-rag, but this has nothing to do with bogus supplements and ian king is a premier strength coach, so please no flames

plyo, great for sport specific training. i like to do two types, 1- sprints and jumping, 2- mobility drills (ie: set two pylon 12-15 feet apart, crouch down and move laterally as fast as possible between the two touching the ground by each pylon. do as many as possible in 30s - 90s, change this up. STAY LOW. this drill is great for lateral speed, acceleration)

as for that balancing stuff, i ignore it. i believe that it has more application early in training for stability or rehab. not to many times in sports that you have to balance in that manner. thus i like plyo better for promoting muscle control (more realistic). besides, most of the time your feet are fixed and you are pushing off.

some other exercises that would benefit more than baalance boards are single leg squats and deadlifts.

cheers, pete

[sage]

great great advice mattT/crazypete. the foundation of college/pro football training involves olympic/power lifts and resistant sprint training (i.e using "windcatchers", trainers holding on by sled,etc) As far as the lifts are concern, without a doubt, the lower rep (possibly even 3-5 range) are optimal for football strength. (but the position you seek performance in determines the variety of workouts too. legs are huge as you know: O and D line busting out of their crouches from the legs up, receivers and db's fighting from the line of scrimmage for positioning, your "ups", qb's drop back and setting, and of your fundamental tackling starts from a slight bend in the legs and bursting through the target). baseball involves similar needs for strength in the lower half of your body (batting: step, pivot with hips, follow through) abdominal strength helps too.

[Richie]

try to stick to heavy compound movements
1. flat/incline barbell presses
2. squats/boxsquats
3. power cleans
4. push presses
5. dead lifts
you can't go wrong with these!

[spatch]

When you do cardio, do sprints with a few seconds break in between. Dont do mile runs or anything, b/c you never run more than 100 yds in a football game at once.

[CDONDICI]

Cleans, Push Presses, and Snatches are your friend and should be your #1 priority in the weight room, followed by benches, squats, ab work, rows, and deadlifts.

Plyometrics, sprint work, and agility training are also very important. Follow all of this up with some endurance training and stretching and you will be set.

[dontknowaboutme]

Cleans, Push Presses, and Snatches are your friend and should be your #1 priority in the weight room, followed by benches, squats, ab work, rows, and deadlifts.

Plyometrics, sprint work, and agility training are also very important. Follow all of this up with some endurance training and stretching and you will be set.

I thought O-lifts were common sense nowadays for sports training.

[az2u]

Check out Mark Vestegen's websites
CORE Performance - Celebrating the High Performance Life
Athletes' Performance

Perform Better - The Experts in Functional Training and Rehabilitation

Lots of books/videos for performance.

Be careful w/olymic lifting. Find a good coach. Technique is everything.