How Athlete's Bodyweight Strength Training Powers Explosion

Build your athletic body with strength and power training to explode your body past your opponent. Stay stronger and more explosive for longer periods during your games and you will win most of them!



Overall body strength training is a given.  Core strength training is where many athletes fall short.  Since all movement begins with the core, you can't take shortcuts or your power and explosion will suffer.  Your power will experience a shortage before it reaches your arms and legs.

See 5 -Part Core Training Series

The goal of the core training program is for you to develop optimal levels of functional strength and dynamic stabilization.

You can start at the highest level of core stabilization training you can control. As with other areas of integrated training, a core training program should be:

1. progressive, systematic, sport-specific and challenging,

2. multi-planar (sagittal, frontal, transverse), multi-dimensional (stabilization, strength, power) and variable (sets, repetitions, intensity, etc.),

3. varied with contraction velocities (different speeds), and

4. varied with modes of training (airex pads, foam, floor, disc, etc.) and body positions.

Core training exercise progressions should follow these paths:

1. Slow to Fast
2. Known to Unknown
3. Stable to Controlled to Dynamic
4. Low Force to High Force
5. Correct Execution to Increased Intensity

One of the first signs of fatigue that I look for in an athlete is whether he or she can remain strong and upright towards the end of the game. If your core is weak, you will start to "bend over" and lose power and explosiveness when you run. Next, your arms will start to "flail" instead of pumping powerfully to fuel your running.

Adequate core strength helps your speed endurance, which is the ability to maintain maximum velocity or a percentage of maximum velocity for a prolonged period of time or in a fatigued state. The best players and teams have excellent overall body strength, core strength and speed endurance (and they win the most games).

Interval training for speed endurance is different than regular speed training. Speed endurance sprint intervals last from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. Also, recovery time is reduced to prevent complete recovery by the athlete. Here is an example of speed endurance training:

Shuttles - Place cones at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 yards. You would sprint to the 5 yard cone and sprint back to the start. You would then sprint to the 10 yard cone and sprint back to the start. The same would be done at the 15, 20 and 30 yard cones. That is one set. Rest for 2 minutes between sets. Do 5-6 sets.

Get after it with the following download.....

Free Bodyweight 500 Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
Sports Fitness Hut

Metabolic Fitness Training For Sports

Many sports such as football, basketball and soccer require different levels of strength, speed and power.

For example, soccer requires constant running---jogging, half-effort sprints and maximum effort sprints. Football requires short bursts of power, sprints, jogs back to the huddle and endurance. Football also requires relative strength, which is the strength level per unit of bodyweight. Basketball requires repeated sprints, jumps and sub-maximal effort runs and cuts during the game.

No matter the sport, metabolic fitness training can get you in peak condition for your sport.

Metabolic fitness training means that you are is being conditioned at the cellular level. You can make improvements in resting heart rate, cardiac output and blood volume. Your body fat will also decrease.

Metabolic conditioning will make you a better conditioned athlete and will allow you to use your skills more efficiently for a longer period of time. The strongest and fittest players and teams at the end of the game usually end up as the winners.

Metabolic training for football players could be set up to mirror the actions, plays and situations found in a 4 quarter game. That is, the training would mimic every play in the game as well as rest periods and time between plays. The same could be done for any sport's game. The goal is for you to be physically fit to play your sport at the highest level.

Train hard and smart!

Download your FREE 10-Minute Strength and Power Workouts now!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
Sports Fitness Hut
Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs