Strength vs. Power- Which do you need?

“Strength” and “power” are  words that like to get thrown around when it comes to sports and training. But what do they actually mean and how are they applicable to the athlete? Which one is more important? Many times those words are used interchangeably (wrong) and it’s important to differentiate between the two so you can understand what you need to train and how you need to successfully train for those goals. Let me break it down for you. To put it rather simply, strength is the amount of force your muscles can produce. Power is how quickly you can use strength. Think of a continuum with strength on one side, speed on the other, and power in the middle. Power is the athletic, beautiful love child of speed and strength.

Which is more important for the athlete? Both are. Power is the ability to skate fast, have a sweet vertical, or effectively move an opponent out of your way. Many athletes and their parents are always talking about how they need to work on their speed and power but think that strength training isn’t relevant since they don’t need to be “strong” for their given sport. For the sake of this piece, I’m going to ignore the plethora of reasons why strength training is important for every sport and focus on how it is applicable to a powerful athlete.

No one can deny that being “powerful” makes you a better athlete. The quicker you can use your strength, the better you will be as an athlete. However, the more force you can produce, the more powerful you will be. And how do you produce more force? By increasing your strength. I took logic in college, I’m good at deducing these things. Increasing your strength is not only relevant to lifting weights but makes you run faster, jump higher, throw farther, and push people around in contact sports. The ability to exert force, as quickly as you can, against an object (be it a shotput, the ground, or another person), will make you a better athlete. That means you need a combination of strength and speed to become powerful.

You can’t be powerful without a certain level of strength and you also can’t become a better athlete by only focusing on your speed work. As an athlete, you can’t ignore one facet of training and hope to excel as an athlete.

Now you, dear reader, know the difference between speed and power, how they relate to your training, and why you need both. Because knowledge is power!

-Coach Lily

Seven Tips to Survive Thanksgiving

It’s that time of year. It’s the holidays. Family, friends and awesome food. But most of you will freak out about the holiday weight gain. Just google Thanksgiving and weight gain and you’ll come up with a ton of articles on how to stay thin for the holidays. They say the average thanksgiving meal is 3,500 calories. Sounds like a solid bulking session if you ask me. But in all seriousness unless you are dieting down for a bodybuilding show enjoy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the food. Enjoy the company. You won’t gain any weight from one day of cheat meals. It’s not going to sabotage your gains bro, I promise. Stop worrying about cutting 100 calories if you don’t eat the crust with your pie. You’ve been training extremely hard all year, well most of us have and you should be able to enjoy the holidays with your friends and family instead of being miserable over thinking you can’t eat all the good food because you’ll instantly get fat. Sorry the body doesn’t get fat in one day nor in one meal. It’s science so that means it’s true. Now I’m not saying stuff your face till you are so uncomfortable that you can’t move, I mean thats what my training partners and I will do but I don’t suggest that to any of you. So here are

Seven Tips to Survive Thanksgiving

1: Portion control. Select your favorite foods that you can’t live without and select reasonable-sized protions. I suggest you don’t waste your calories on foods you can have all year though, eat the foods that only come out once a year. But here is a secret if you keep your portions small, you can enjoy whatever you like.

2: Workout Thanksgiving morning on an empty stomach. Have it be a serious weight session or just a walk. Get some exercise in and do it on an empty stomach. Your gains will be alright. I’m a big fan of training in a fasted state because it works.

3: Your best bets if you are concerned are white meat, plain veggies, sweet potatoes (not the sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, maple syurp and all that), mashed potatoes, defatted gravy and that delicious pumpkin pie. Those tend to be lower in fat and calories.

4: Don’t inhale your food. Eat slow. Enjoy the conversation at the table. Actually taste and enjoy the food.

5: Eat in the afternoon. Spread the fest out all day. After dinner go outside. Go for a walk. Play football. Enjoy the cool weather. After that come in and have dessert. Watch a movie. Don’t try and cram 4,000 calories into one sitting.

6: Relax on the sugary drinks and alcohol. A lot of calories in drinks and they add up quick.

7: Don’t focus on food. Don’t focus on weight gain (unless you are bulking) or weight loss. Enjoy your friends. Enjoy your family. Celebrate and be thankful for your friends and family. That’s what this holiday is all about.

Happy Thanksgiving

Coach B

10 Articles about fitness and training that you should read!

We have decided to start posting 10 articles every Wednesday that we feel are good reads and informational.  We take a lot of pride here at the Spot in furthering our education, so that we can better serve our clients and get the best possible results.  So take a look and enjoy!

TRAINING

This article provides criteria to help you determine if the person you are training with and seeking advice from is authentic and the “real deal” or a "pseudo" expert.

http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/who-do-you-listen-to/

Get your deadlift on....A great explanation of the benefits of the deadlift and the many varieties of the deadlift that can be performed.

http://www.girlsgonestrong.com/the-deadlift-your-most-powerful-weapon-in-your-lifting-arsenal/

Check out how to minimize risk to prevent injury so we can keep training and doing what we love to do.

http://breakingmuscle.com/martial-arts/injury-prevention-for-the-mixed-martial-artist

Get a few awesome tips on improving your bench press.

http://www.schwarzenegger.com/fitness/post/awesome-workout-tips-part-1?fb_ref=slider

DIET/NUTRITION

Great expose on the "carbs make you fat" myth sensation.

http://www.bornfitness.com/do-carbs-make-you-fat/

This is a little long but well worth the read to gain an understanding of the concepts of intermittent fasting and some of the arguments concerning it.

http://www.romanfitnesssystems.com/blog/intermittent-fasting-101/

Dave Tate lays out simple keys to practice so you can "get it done" and lose fat.

http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/programs/under-the-bar-21-days-to-fat-loss/

YOUR MIND

Ever wonder how to be happy? This article provides insight on why you may not be happy and how happiness can be a reality in your life.

http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/why-you-may-not-be-truly-happy-with-your-life/

Want to change your habits?  This article will reveal key ingredients to assist in successful change.

http://zenhabits.net

Visualization is all about controlling your thoughts - seeing in your mind’s eye the picture you want to create -  and this article lays it out clearly. Though powerlifting is the topic of this visualization article, the same principles can be applied towards whatever goals you are seeking.

http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/strong-mind-visualization/

Speed, Strength & Conditioning, Personal training & Fitness Class Training Video Montage 7/14-7/20

It was another week of records being broken and set.  Spot Athletics strength and conditioning athletes are putting in the time, and getting results.  Our summer volleyball teams are working hard.  Dublin Scioto was pulling big deadlifts, while Hilliard Darby was bench pressing big weight!  We also had the jiu jitsu fighters from GFTeam in here, working hard to maintain their statuses as world champions.  Our personal training clients were sweating hard and seeing results.... while they're getting stronger and healthier, the body fat keeps dropping! Our Kids Athletic Ability Training (K.A.A.T) program had kids putting in some hard work to help them build a solid foundation for their future athletic careers.  Finally, our coaches were working hard on their own training.  If your coaches aren't walking the walk, then how can they expect you to?  Great job to all of our clients!

JL 48'' box jump

This is a video of me doing a 48'' box jump today.  In the picture you can see that my hips are at or a little above Stephen's head.   Stephen is 6'2'', which means my hips were at about 74'' or so.  I should be able to land a 65'' box, but because I have had 7 knee surgeries my knee flexion is very poor and I must land box jumps with mostly straight legs.   This shows how important mobility is for athletes and the ability to box jump high as well.   We work a ton on mobility with our athletes and ourselves because being strong isn't very helpful if you cannot use it properly in competition.