So, you have been going to the gym, and you have worked “really hard” on getting stronger or fitter. But, when it has come time to show that off on the field, you have not quite shown the results of your hard work.
So, how do you turn what you do in the gym onto the field? Sometimes, there is a lot more to training than just lifting weight or running. For us, as Performance Coaches, our goal is to see people be able to train, and play the MOST amount possible so one of our jobs is to identify faults or concerns and fix these so that you can train and play more, and with better intensity.
From my years of coaching in the gym and putting people back into a sport, here are my top 3 things that matter when it comes to improving athletes:
- Mobility
- Neuromuscular Strength
- Power
MOBILITY
Why is mobility so important? The way I would explain this simply is in the absence of appropriate mobility, strength cannot be used to develop power that is in the direction that is desired.
What does this mean? So, if you are trying to run fast, and you cannot move well through your hip joint and your back is really tight, then your hip flexion and extension will be limited, therefore limiting your stride length, and force production capabilities. In running, mobility DEFINITELY affects speed, positioning and acceleration!
If you are playing cricket, and your shoulder mobility is poor on one side and you are trying to throw repeatedly, it will most likely lead to injury and stop you training or playing. If you improved this, your injury risk reduces and you improve your time able to train or play.
NEUROMUSCULAR RESPONSE
This is the electrical system within your body. The speed of translation of signals between receptors in your body, and your brain is critical to being able to produce high amounts of force going in the right direction. Many people think that by getting bigger, you get stronger. In the true sense of the word, often this is true. BUT, what I would like to focus FIRST is to make as much of your muscle as possible work to generate the force you want it to. If you have 1 million fibres, your want nearly all of these to be firing.
So, if you want to jump higher, then you need to get stronger. This means you need to make sure that as many as possible fibres of muscle in your lower limb particularly are firing when you go to squat, deadlift or jump. This means you need great stability at the trunk to be able to control the force you are producing with your lower limbs.
POWER
Power is defined as work performed divided by the time you did the work in. So, the more work you can do in less time, the more power you develop. The neuromuscular response of your body to strength training will provide you with more ability to produce more power.
Next article will be focused heavily on mobility and how to improve this, with different types of work you can do to help.
Because I believe Mobility is so important and it starts the ability to develop strength and power, I have provided an example of the mobility work you need to be doing on a daily basis to help improve your mobility around your hip joint.
