Train Muscles To Fire Faster

Train your muscles to fire faster and you will be a better athlete. Get bigger, stronger, faster and more powerful. Explosive weight lifting will improve your power and set you apart from your athletic competitors.



Just as you can do medicine ball exercises, plyometric exercises and light dumbbell exercises explosively, you can also lift heavier weights explosively.

Lifting weights explosively is an advanced form of exercise and shouldn't be done by beginners or youngsters. Your body should have the needed stabilization and strength before beginning explosive lifts.

It doesn't help you improve as an athlete to continually get stronger if power development is not there also. Power, or speed strength (how fast your muscles can produce force) is one of the best physical predictors of success in sports.

Research has proven that only lifting heavy weights at a moderate or slow pace will not improve your explosive power.

Especially at the start of the lift, explosive lifting can be done for exercises like (5-6 repetitions):

--Bench press
--Shoulder press
--Squats
--Leg press
--Hamstring curls
--Calf raises

....and also for bodyweight exercises, like (6-8 repetitions):

--Power step ups
--Bodyweight squats
--Pullups
--Pushups
--Inverted rows

......and medicine ball exercises, like (8-10 repetitions):

--Throws
--Chops
--Slams
--Rotational exercises

Lift explosively, safely and improve your speed and power!

Be sure and download your Free Dumbbell and Medicine Ball Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

Other things being equal, a muscular, powerful athlete will outperform a fat, slower or skinny, weaker athlete. Sports Fitness Hut's Fat Blaster Athletic Power Training System will give you your "lean and mean" athletic machine!

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

Precondition Muscles To Prevent Injuries

Precondition your muscles (training to train) to prevent or minimize injuries. Muscle areas such as the hamstrings need preconditioning because the hamstrings are prone to injury.

Preconditioning can be done all year to supplement your main training program.

Injury risks like torn anterior cruciate knee ligaments, achilles tendon strains/tears and hamstring pulls can be lessened with proper training.

Eccentric contraction training (force reduction) of muscles can significantly reduce your injury risks.

These exercises help build eccentric contraction strength:

1. Running downhill.

2. Depth jumps (emphasize the landing and hold only).

3. Eccentric muscle contraction weight training (i.e., the lowering phase of a lift). For example, you would lift the weight on a hamstring curl for one count and lower the weight for 3-4 counts.

4. Improving your muscular balance. For example, your quadricep muscles should not be significantly stronger than your hamstring muscles. Your frontside should not be significantly stronger than your backside. And, your left side should not be significantly stronger than your right side.

One-legged and one-armed exercises help you to maintain muscular balance.

5. Range of motion should not be restricted. Do exercises with a full range of motion unless you are in rehabilitation. Rehab exercises are done to restore your full range of motion.

Be sure and download your Free Dumbbell and Medicine Ball Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

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

Sports Training Preparation--Get Your Body Ready!

Get your body ready for sports fitness training by preconditioning or "training to train!" Prevent or minimize your injury risk so you can stay on the field and compete! Coaches can't use you if you are always hurt!

You can do sports training preparation prior to your team's training camp. For example, use the summer to precondition your body and get in shape! To compete at a high level in today's competitive climate, you need to show up to training camp "in shape and ready to go!" Coaches will not waste time getting you in shape. There is too much pressure for them to win.

Certain weight training exercises are good preconditioning exercises. They include:

1. Lunges (forward, reverse, lateral and transverse)
2. Step ups (front, lateral and transverse)
3. Shoulder exercises
4. Trunk exercises like planks, bridges and cobras
5. Hamstring exercises like glute/hamstring drops and hamstring curls
6. Pushups, Pullups and other back exercises
7. Bench Press
8. Squats (including single leg)

Many of these exercises can be done as bodyweight exercises.

These exercises should also emphasize concentric (force production), eccentric (force reduction) and isometric (force stabilization) contractions.

Eccentric contraction training of muscles can significantly reduce your injury risks. Eccentric muscle contraction weight training is the lowering phase of a lift. For example, you would lift the weight on a hamstring curl for one count and lower the weight for 3-4 counts.

You also need to do speed and plyometric training to prepare your body for training camp.

Exercise smart and precondition your body for training camp!

Be sure and download your Free Dumbbell and Medicine Ball Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

Other things being equal, a muscular, powerful athlete will outperform a fat, slower or skinny, weaker athlete. Sports Fitness Hut's Fat Blaster Athletic Power Training System will give you your "lean and mean" athletic machine!

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

Sport Specific Training

Sport specific training receives the most attention through television, magazine and internet advertising. Sport specific training is important but can lead to injuries if your body is not ready for the intensity. Foundational strength and stability should come before sport specific training!

You should do a major part of your sport specific training during the offseason when you have more time to devote to improving your athletic skills, strength, power and speed.

Offseason training also gives you time to recover from the full speed, intense exercises. YOU MUST TRAIN FAST TO GET FASTER AND MORE EXPLOSIVE.....IT IS HIGH RISK, HIGH REWARD!

During sport specific training, the exercises mimic the actions made in your sport and strength is developed in the same range of motion used in your sport.

Running exercises also duplicate what you need to compete. For instance, football players would need starting speed, acceleration speed, speed endurance and power. Both training volume and intensity is high during this phase.

Plyometric exercises are also a big part of sport specific training. This is a critical phase for the elite athlete. See this post for common plyometric exercises.

Here are examples of sport specific exercises of different sports:

Basketball - Crossover Lunge



Soccer - Lateral Footwork Drills



Football - Shuffles



Baseball, Softball, Hockey, Lacrosse (just about all sports require rotational power) Medicine Ball Rotational Throw



Start taking steps now to improve your athletic success on the field or court!

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

Sports Power, Speed Endurance And Core Strength

Sports power, speed endurance and core strength will make you an explosive athlete in the first quarter of the game----and the last quarter! When your opponent gets tired at the end of the game, you will still be going strong!



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).

Be sure and download your Free Bodyweight 500 Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

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

Sports Fitness Hut's Athletic Power Training System

The rule of the day in sports competition is bigger, faster and stronger. Every athlete wants these physical traits. Every athlete can improve strength, power and speed. Every athlete needs a plan for athletic success! You can't just show up at the gym 3 or 4 times a week to "workout" and expect to get the results you need to improve your performance.

Listen to this true story! I know a kid who was a pretty good football player in high school. At the end of his junior season, his coach said to him, "if you want to play on the collegiate level, you need to work harder!" That cocky kid was me!

My coach had told me to my face that "you aren't as good as you think you are!" He said that I needed to join his workout club at night to learn how to really train like an athlete.

He was right! Before the beginning of my senior year in high school, I had improved my strength, power and speed to be able to have a great senior season and sign a full-paid football scholarship at the Division I level!

I didn't have a plan! Once I did get a plan, it led to athletic success for me!

Sports Fitness Hut's Athletic Power Training System is designed by me and it is a periodized training plan. A periodized plan will allow you the best chance to peak at the right time---during the season! From my athletic experience and training background, I know what it takes to make it to the next level of competition.

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

Other things being equal, a muscular, powerful athlete will outperform a fat, slower or skinny, weaker athlete. Sports Fitness Hut's Fat Blaster Athletic Power Training System will give you your "lean and mean" athletic machine!

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