All In- Part 1

Lately, I’ve had a lot on my mind. More so than usual. Besides all the personal crap and stresses that everyone deals with on a daily basis, I’ve been thinking a lot about my athletes, how to grow PowerStrength, and all the new possibilities and opportunities that present themselves more and more every day. Don’t get me wrong- this is fun and exciting to think about and I’m thankful for any opportunity that comes my way. However, I have realized that all this thought has led to just that- thinking. Too much thinking lately has caused me to be inactive, or only, partially committed to new ideas and opportunities. This has carried over to some of my daily responsibilities as well. This is very uncharacteristic of me.

So I asked myself, “Are you all in? Training, business, and relationships- are you all in?” I like to be my biggest critic so I answered no to all of these. I know what I’m capable of and right now I know I can do better.

Major 4-week FREAK Transformation

Post by Mark Ehnis

Gus is one of PowerStrength’s biggest all time gym freaks. He had insane results in his first 4 weeks of training. Gus trained 4-5x per week, never missed a workout, trained hard every session, and took his nutrition and recovery just as seriously as he took his training. He came to PSTS to add size and strength, but also to maintain his athleticism. Not only did he accomplish these goals, but he was a great addition to the gym and a fun athlete to train and be around. Like many of our athletes, Gus was a good athlete when he came to PSTS, but he came to us to get an edge and to get more serious about his training. So far so good. Now for the results...

10 Things To Do- Training

10 Things You Should Be Doing As A Serious Athlete-

Training

1. Never miss a training session- consistency is the key

2. Get better at something every day- add 5 more pounds, another rep, or take less rest between sets

3. Train with better, stronger, older and smarter athletes whenever possible

Part 2: Beginner Training- Form the Foundation

Post by Mark Ehnis

Progression begins with technique. An athlete should never progress until his technique is adequate. Notice I didn’t say perfect technique. You can always work on perfecting your technique and in most athletes, they’ll never be perfect- part of being a solid strength coach is knowing when to say “that’s good enough” and move on without risking injury. That being said, when working with beginners, be cautious when adding weight or making the exercise more difficult, until they have shown they can perform the exercise properly again and again.

Varsity PSTS athletes performing some handwalks at the end of their warm-up. Keep the basics in your program and continue to build the foundation even with "strong" athletes!

Part 1: Beginner Training- Form the Foundation

Post By Mark Ehnis

What is a beginner? 

When training athletes, a beginner constitutes a young, 12-15 year old kid- at least that’s what I’m going to refer to a beginner as anyways (Anyone new to training or lifting is a beginner regardless of actual age). I like to look at an athletes “training age”. I define training age as how long has the athlete been seriously training. A 16-year old might have a training age lower than a 14-year old because the 16-year old has never done any training, while the 14-year old has been doing bodyweight workouts and technique training since he was 12. The 16-year old has a training age of 0 and the 14-yeard old has a training age of 2. Get it?

Two 8th grade PSTS athletes performing general exercises of thick rope sled pulls and sled drags