5 Things Every High School Athlete Should Know About Resistance Training

Jason Price, MS, CSCS, ATC, LAT, CPT, USAW Club Coach

Athletes are beginning to discover the benefits of resistance training at earlier and earlier ages. Resistance training is a very important part of the young athletes training for sports because with a decrease in physical education programs in our schools and early specialization of many athletes in one sport at young age. Athletes are already set up for injury because they have muscular imbalances, loss of functional movement, decreased range of motion at several joints and tight muscles at very young ages. Being involved in a proper resistance training program will help many of these issues and help to prevent many of the injuries that are epidemic among high school and middle school athletes. A “proper” and let me stress “PROPER” resistance training program for a middle school and high school athlete will be designed to improve or prevent the potential for injury because of lack of functional movement, muscular imbalances, decreased flexibility and mobility.

So with this I have come up with my list of the 5 things every high school athletes should know about resistance training.

1. Keep it simple at first. There are a great number of different ways to make athletes strong and there are a great number of different modes to make athletes stronger. But, the most EFFECTIVE and most APPRORIATE way when dealing with high school and middle school athletes is to teach basic barbell exercises and slowly increase the resistance and branching out to other more complicated exercises as the individual master the basics. Resistance training with free weights requires solid technique and this should be adhered to when instructing this age group before resistance is increased and more complex lifts are attempted.

2. Lift heavy when it is time to lift heavy. When dealing with High School and Middle school athletes they all worry about how much weight is on the bar. This is the last thing the athlete and more importantly the coach should be worried about. When utilizing resistance training for sports conditioning weight is an arbitrary number. If an athlete resistance trains and the program is effective then the weights they are lifting should go up that means they are getting stronger. But, the focus of the program should not be to achieve a lift at X amount of weight. The program should be designed to get stronger, build lean muscle, etc. The focus should NEVER be on the weight being lifted. As athletes master the technique and adapt to the training the weights WILL go up. But, prematurely increasing the resistance because the athlete should be lifting heavier weights is not only inappropriate it is dangerous and injury WILL happen.

3. Technique above everything else. If the technique is not solid then it does not matter how many reps, sets, how much resistance, what the rest intervals are, or etc the program will be fatally flawed and the athlete will either end up injured or not reaching their full potential. Lifting with solid technique is the MOST important factor in a resistance training program. If you lift with improper form you will get stronger. But, your risk of injury goes up dramatically and you will not come close to reaching your full strength potential.

4. If you think you understand what proper technique is, YOU DON”T. Lift technique is not as simple as it seems. It is easy to learn and easy to follow but, the urge to prematurely increase weight and let little technical flaws go are extremely hard to contain as an athlete and a coach. Like most things there are many ways to skin a cat. This holds true for resistance training technique. There are different ways to do the exercises but there are ways that are correct and proper and ways that are incorrect and improper but get used none the less. How should a young athlete find out what is right and what is wrong. That brings us to the next topic.

5. All People who instruct athletes on resistance training are not created equal. What most middle school and high school athletes need when beginning to train with weights is a qualified instructor to help teach proper technique and get them training on a program designed to have them reach optimal performance. This may seem as simple as going to your local gym and hiring a personal trainer or going to your nearest sports performance training center and signing up for a training package. But, who is really training the athlete? Here are three things to consider when looking for a qualified individual:

What should an athlete be looking for in a qualified individual to teach them how to train with resistance training for sports performance? Here are a three suggestions to look for in a qualified individual.

1. Are they a CSCS? A CSCS is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist. They are certified via the National Strength & Conditioning Association and the all CSCSs are required to pass a certification exam and have graduated from an accredited college with a degree in exercise science or related field. The CSCS is considered the gold standard for Strength Coaches. To learn more about CSCSs go to www.nsca-cc.org

2. Do they have a coaching certification from USA Weightlifting? Olympic Style weightlifting and its variations are very popular for training athletes. The only qualified people to instruct these lifts are people who have been certified by the USA Weightlifting Federation. They offer certifications as either a Sports Performance Coach or Club Coach. Both of these Certifications teach the instructor how to effectively coach the Olympic style lifts and their variations. For more information go to www.usaweightlifting.org.