The Olympic Lifts: Squat, Power, or Split?
The Olympic lifts and their variations have been a mainstay in athletic strength and conditioning since well before I entered the field in the 1990's. These are variations of the snatch, clean,...
Research on Strength: Volume and Intensity
Most strength and conditioning textbooks have tables that show that for training at a given percentage of one-repetition maximum an athlete should be able to do x number of repetitions. For example,...
French Defense, part two
In the last post we covered the French Defense by having white take d5 on move 3. We showed that this wasn't a very strong position for white. However, there are other...
Battle/heavy ropes: Practice and research
The use of heavy ropes in the conditioning of athletes has become very popular over the last two decades. These are long, extra-thick, heavy ropes that are attached to a fixed point....
Programming for Power
Power is the ability to apply strength quickly. Think of it as an application of strength. Most sports skills are about power; sprinting, jumping, changing directions, throwing, kicking, hitting, etc. This makes...