The world’s best experts answer your strength training questions. Whether you want to learn about competitive weight lifting, sport specific strength training, or injury recovery and prevention, browse advice from experts like Wendy McLure and Matthew Pendola.
Squeeze elbows and shoulder blades back, lift hands independently, rotate around to a big Y, reverse it back to where you started, and then slowly return your arms down. Transcript: "Squeeze elbows back, squeeze shoulder blades back, lift hands independently, don't let them touch. Straighten out your elbows without losing any shoulder extension all the way back and up. Lock out your elbows, feel the squeezing, and feel your upper back work. Slowly rotate around and end up in a big Y, just like you guys would do Y's on the ground. Try to rotate all the way back. From here, we're going to go ahead and reverse it just like a shoulder car, slowly rotating, reaching back for that back corner, ending up here, triceps lockout, elbows bent, slowly return but not to your lower back, and then down."
It's difficult to answer what the best dryland exercises are for swimmers without knowing more specific information like the event they swim and where they are in their career. However, any exercise that gets them moving and brings joy to their training can help them become a faster swimmer. Transcript: "What are your favorite dryland exercises for swimmers? I think the difficulty of that question is what event do they swim, where are they at in their career, what do they enjoy, what do they need to work on? I mean that's just a tough question to answer in a general way. But I would say anything that gets them moving. A happy swimmer is a fast swimmer so something that helps them bring joy to what they're doing and making sure that they're always consistently getting better with what it is that they're working on. I've got one of the most elite back strokers in the world, would you have anything to add? I thought you were going to tell me some of your favorite exercises and I was going to perform it right now. Next time. Next time. We'll look for it in part 2. Boom. Boom."
I'd do three exercises: a dumbbell chest press, pull up and trap bar deadlift- each for 8 reps. Resting 30 seconds inbetween, I would do 3 rounds of these exercises - known as a three by three- which is an effective way to train even with short periods of time. Doing this 3 times a week can be very effective. Transcript: "I love these type of questions. I actually think about these type of things all the time. So what I would do is, if I had 10 minutes, I'd actually say, I'd do it nine minutes. So what I'd do is take three exercises. So let's say we're going to do an upper body push, an upper body pull, and some sort of a squat. So I'm going to say, I'm going to do a dumbbell chest press. I'm going to do a pull up and then into a trap bar deadlift. I would do each exercise for about eight reps, which is going to take me approximately 30 seconds. I'm going to get 30 seconds rest, and I'm going to do three rounds. So typically, we'll call this a three by three. It's actually a very effective way of training in season, and especially if you have short periods of time. If you could do that three times a week, I think that can be really effective and give you a really big bang for your 10 minutes."
Hamstring injuries are common in sports, and from a coaching perspective we need to look at them from three angles: mobility, strength, and power. Transcript: "One of the most common movement and strength dysfunctions across all sports is hamstring injuries. From a coaching perspective, we want to look at this from three ways-- mobility, strength, and power. First, does the athlete have the requisite range of motion at their joints and extensibility in their tissues? Second, can they produce force through that range of motion? And then third, can they demonstrate that athletically with explosive power and speed?"
I like doing single-arm and two-arm clean and press exercises as part of a low-volume power circuit before games. Transcript: "The landmine exercises that I like doing are the single-arm clean and press. I usually use this day before a game on a low-volume power circuit. Single arm adds some rotary component to the exercise. I also use a two-arm clean and press. As shown here, these exercises work on power and reactive strength."
Yes, it is possible to increase strength mass ratio without excessively gaining weight. This depends on the structure of your strength program. Transcript: "Is it possible to increase strength mass ratio without excessively gaining weight. Yes, it is definitely possible to do this. It depends on how your strength program is structured whether you are more of a hypertrophy or mass gaining program or if you are on more of a strength program. I have trained hundreds of cyclists who want to get stronger but they do not want to put on mass. And I have tested people before and after 100 before and after, and we have been able to see some massive strength gains in the gym without an increase in body weight. So take a look at how your program is structured and choose the appropriate program for what your goals are."