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

How To Organize Your Strength Workouts

Post by Mark Ehnis

Organize your workouts properly or beware of losing a sleep fight

If you're reading this blog, I'm sure everyone is aware of the importance of including strength work (lifting weights- preferably free weights) in your workout routines. Whether you’re an athlete, or a just a regular gym goer, the structure of these strength sessions is an important factor that must be take into consideration for maximum results. Having a plan in the gym will take you a long ways. The first step to a solid training program is to have a goal and know what you're training for. The second is to have a plan. That plan begins with structure and order to your workouts. 

5 Reasons Athletes (and Everyone Else) Should Train in a Group

Post by Mark Ehnis

Every athlete has those days when the last place they want to be is in the gym. The motivation just isn’t there. They show up and just go through the motions, not really pushing themselves and probably skipping some sets or exercises altogether. This does nothing for their goals and they could’ve spent their time doing something else, anything else. Sound familiar? It happens to every regular gym-goer as well.

I’m not going to get into whether it’s okay to skip out on part of your workout when you’re not feeling up to it- sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. What I am going to touch on is the importance of athletes (and everyone else) training with a training partner or with other small groups of athletes.

If you’re serious about getting results and tearing it up in the gym, then a good training partner is hard to find. They need to have similar goals, not be a distraction to you, and preferably are stronger and in better condition.  You don’t want someone backing out every other day and not showing up- physically or mentally. Personally, I can’t stand training with someone who talks my ear off in between every set- I need to friggin’ catch my breath and recover for the next set and I can’t do that when I’m asked a million random questions. I like to train with somebody who is going to bust my balls if I slack off. Someone who helps you benefit in some way. Training partners aside- below you’ll find 5 Reasons everyone should train with a group (3-8 people).

Exercises That WORK

Post by Mark Ehnis

Calf raises, smith machine benching, pec deck flyes, inner/outer thigh machine…are these the types of exercises in your program? If so, you need to ask yourself why. Any exercise you add to your program must serve a purpose or it needs to go. There are thousands of exercises to choose from so it can get confusing on what to add and what to leave out. Beware of choosing exercises just because you saw the biggest guy in the gym doing it or you saw it in a magazine.

Now, where do we begin? You should always start your workout with at least one main strength movement. This a compound lift, training multiple muscle groups at the same time. In my programs it’s always a bench variation, squat variation, or deadlift variation- in essence, “the big 3” according to powerlifting and strength terms. These movements (I’d also add in overhead pressing movements) are the greatest movements you can do in the weight room for strength and mass gains. Add in some bodyweight and strongman exercises and you have yourself a nice little day at the gym.