Article recommendations week #33 2016

We have searched the web for the most valuable and interesting articles of week #33 2016

Strength Training Articles

BreakingMuscle shared a few good articles this week,
– Willpower Won’t Work: Hack Your Habit explaining that changing behaviour is much rather dependent on changing a habit as opposed to will power. I do like the point, but I would challenge, that the answer lies somewhere in between. If you have a look at the video a bit further down from Usain Bolt, you can see, he relies a lot on willpower. And who wants to argue with Usain Bolt?
– 10 Drills to Improve Your Full-Body Flexibility a good overview of some really useful flexibility drills
– Why Most Speed and Agility Training Protocols Suck an honest and true evaluation of common practices

Goalcast broadcasted a video of Usain Bolt, where he Explains How Hard He Works Behind The Scenes Have a look, it’s an interesting video, showing he must have a big enough reason WHY he does the training day in day out.

Robertson Training Systems discussed a Periodization for the Everyday Athlete I like the common-sense based approach to planning training and periodizing training in this article.

Eric Cressey explained Rhythmic Stabilizations: Where Should You “Feel” Them? really good considerations for throwing and hitting athletes.

T-Nation has a Tip: Get Your Head Right For Overhead Pressing A good quick tip how to position your head in an overhead press movement. But actually, the position is dynamic and changes throughout the movement.

Stack shared two article
– The Best Shoulder Exercises You’re Not Doing a good collection of exercises hitting and throwing athletes should engage in.
– Olympic Athletes Are Eating So Much Fast Food That the Rio McDonald’s Set an Order Limit a stunning fact how Olympic Athletes push McDonald’s to the limits of their capacity.

The PTDC published an article from Dr, Stuart McGill A Trainer’s Guide to Help Manage and Fix Lower Back Pain a very solid and informative piece on Back Pain and how to resolve it.

Juggernaut Training Systems showed good mobility and stability considerations.

Key takeaways for me from this practical demonstration and knowledge sharing.
– Mobility aims to change the perception that athletes feel better and more supple, rather than leading to adaptations.
– Use your warm-up sets with purpose, address mobility issues in the warm-up and work on mobility, where you need mobility. Pretty common sense, but common sense is not always common practice. If you need more mobility in the Front Squat, work on that mobility in the Front Squat.
– Work on the desired movement pattern you want to improve by doing this movement pattern, which ties in with the previous point. An example of this you can find in the article How to get a stronger Back Squat in 7 steps where the basic idea is, if you want to Back Squat more you need to Back Squat.

Youth Strength Training Articles

Frontiers in Physiology published Effects of Resistance Training in Youth Athletes on Muscular Fitness and Athletic Performance: A Conceptual Model for Long-Term Athlete Development a bit of a heavy read for those who are not familiar with reading scientific literature. The bottom-line, appropriate resistance training / strength training is safe for children. Strength training should be designed via the use of free weight and multi-directional and multi-planar movements.

EliteFTS looked at Strength Training for Young Athletes — Safety, 1RM Testing, Growth Plates, and Testosterone evaluating safety of resistance training for children and youth athletes and concluding, appropriate training is safe and beneficial.

Plyometric Training Articles

The Youth Basketball Coaching Association explained The Effects of Frontal- and Sagittal-Plane Plyometrics on Change-of-Direction Speed and Power in Adolescent Female Basketball Players a good example of the application of plyometrics / plyometric training in youth Basketball, not only to enhance jumping ability, but also change of direction speed.

Back Squat and Front Squat Articles

BreakingMuscle shared Women: Protect Your Knees With the Sprinter Stance Squat showing how to implement a good article of a variation of the Squat, the Sprinter Stance Squat. It’s worth noticing, that even though it’s a great exercises / squatting variation, it’s difficult to overload after a certain point / strength level.

Power Clean and Power Snatch Articles

Catalystathletics showed cool training impressions from their Summer Training Camp

Catalystathletics offered good advice on When Do You Push with the Arms in the Jerk? looking at what point the arms are getting involved in the Drive phase of the Jerk, whether it’s a Split Jerk or a Squat Jerk.

Stack shared 17-Year-Old Colombian Weightlifter Jeison Lopez Might Be the Strongest Teen on Earth some pretty impressive footage. Have a look

And if you wonder what Olympic Weightlifting or derivative exercises of Olympic Weightlifting can do for you, a picture says more than a thousand words

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHSWpBjAuge

Highlights of the week

After Elis Ligtlee success last week in the women’s Keirin event (track cycling), see last weeks review

We had Matthijs Büchli winning the silver medal in the women’s Keirin event (track cycling)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJL71i-DsL1

Congratulations Matthijs, well deserved!

Have a look at the video from the Holland Heineken House, they know how to celebrate their success.

The BMX event was nerve-wracking with a lot of crashes in the quarter-finals, but luckily all guys went through to the semi-finals. Have a look at the impressions below, you can see the concern in the faces.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJQ5iGPD5D1

The Semi-final and final was equally nerve-wracking and left mixed emotions. I am really sad for Laura Smulders riding a good tournament and falling in the final, Twan van Gendt by missing the final by literal a few centimeters and Niek Kimmann for missing the podium.

Have a look at the impressions from the semi-final and final below.