Athletic Peformance Training | Manchester, NH

As Safety Professionals, we inherently carry a sense of competition within us that helps us perform our jobs. Whether we’re trying to run down criminals, get that perfect stick in the patient’s arm, or get the first water on the fire, we often compete against ourselves and our colleagues. While this article uses the example of how to use competition in the firehouse, the information can be carried over into the police and EMS worlds too.

Speed is a result of force production and sound mechanics; lifting weights does very little to improve sprint mechanics. Why? Because we’re not sprinting when we are lifting weights! This is common sense!

Motivation is something I consider to be somewhat of an innate skill, and perhaps the most difficult of the three to be good at. All great leaders have charisma to a certain degree. But, how do you coach it?

This week’s article is the second of a 3-part series examining the question “What are the commonalities of great coaches?” Our first article examined Administration, our second Technical Instruction, and our third being Motivation. The idea behind this series of articles is to provide a bit of perspective on how we all fit into either teaching others or individually learning ourselves.

Running may not be the best way of getting oneself into shape. Even though on the surface level it may seem as if running is very beneficial, there are other ways of improving your conditioning level. Do you have a treadmill at home? If you do, is it an expensive coat rack? Probably because running is boring. Learn some other techniques for getting in shape.

This post examines how and why overtraining occurs, along with the consequences of a poorly designed program. I see this occur all the time – an athlete is working hard to improve but ends up burning him or herself out by overdosing on activity. These types of athletes typically are either very self-motivated and doing extra work, or they are athletes who are being force-fed training programs that are not sensibly organized.

For a number of years, I have heard comments made from veteran and new coaches alike: “The day after a tough workout soreness is due to lactic acid in the muscles.” This is not true. Shocked? If you’re saying yes, it’s OK. But, where does soreness come from?

With fall sports already underway, it is important that you don’t overdo it. If you have a fall preseason beginning or sports camp, remember you need to talk to our staff and let us know if you are doing things on top of the Elite Athlete Development Program. It is not recommended that you “double-up” on conditioning or camps outside of our program. This will lead to potential burn out or injury. There is no need for this.

The start of a new month also means the start of a new session of a Fitness Boot Camp. For some, this will just be another month of working with the great personal trainers at NLP, for others it is their first time coming to camp. I did a few months with NLP in 2009, and will be starting my second month of 2010. With that in mind, I wanted to hijack the blog with some advice of one boot-camper to another, of what to expect over the next few weeks and how you can get the most out of it.

The front squat is a great exercise, but you need to make sure that proper form is maintained. Here are some tips to overcome common issues with the front squat.