Archive for functional strength

Functional Strength Training: Key to Generating Power and Speed

By Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC · Comments (0)
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

This is the final post of a four-part series on functional strength training. Click below to see other posts in the series.
Is Functional Strength Training A Fad? A Gimmick?
Stop Leaking Speed!
You Need To Be Stable To Perform Your Best

If parts one, two, and three of our series on functional strength training haven’t convinced you that you must be a strong and stable athlete in order to perform at your potential, consider this:

1. Becoming functionally strong will make you faster. Guaranteed.

2. Together with a solid training program and time spent on sport-specific drills, being functionally strong will make you an all-around more powerful athlete.

3. You will NEVER unlock your ultimate athletic potential by simply putting in mega-hours practicing or training.

These are the simple facts…. By becoming functionally strong you will teach your body how to generate power AND move effectively and efficiently. Focused functional strength work will get the big prime movers moving, and the stabilizers stabilizing. You will build more effective and solid biomechanics to move you efficiently and speedily in your sport.

So how does functional strength help you generate power?

For one, it allows you to build and use “elastic return” when running. Here’s what we mean.

A runner—let’s call him John—is functionally strong. In his running he is reaping the benefits of good biomechanics, sound stability, and enhanced mobility and flexibility—all afforded by adopting and adhering to a functional strength plan over time.

John looks as though he runs effortlessly. He always looks like he’s in the zone, and never seems to be expending great effort for the speed he is running. When you see him you think, “Mr. Smooth.”

Of course no one can run without effort, not even John. But what runners like John have—that you likely do not—is the ability to minimize the energy and effort used to run by having a musculature that efficiently stores and returns energy—elastic return. That’s how they generate POWER. And that comes from being FUNCTIONALLY STRONG, in all the right ways.

Here’s a simple explanation of elastic return:

Your muscles are like big rubber bands. When you stretch the rubber band you are building elastic energy. Let it go, and the force built up in the band is suddenly released and it, literally, flies. That concept is the same for your muscles. “Elastic return” is the ability of your muscles to store energy and return the force that is built up.

When you run, your leg and hip muscles stretch, just like a rubber band. Force and power build up in the stretched muscles. Your muscles then release the force, which propels you with forward motion—elastic return.

A muscle with higher elastic return will return more stored energy allowing you to run faster and longer while using less energy. It makes you more EFFICIENT and POWERFUL.

Faster running, fewer heartbeats. Win-win.

The ability to be a more efficient, powerful, and faster athlete with great elastic return in the muscles is available to anyone willing to commit to becoming functionally strong. What are you waiting for?

Subscribe to our mailing list

 

Comments (0)
Categories : Elastic Return, Functional Strength Training
Tags : , ,

Stop Leaking Speed! You Need Functional Strength Training

By Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC · Comments (0)
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

Four-part series on the importance of Functional Strength Training:
Is Functional Strength Training A Fad? A Gimmick?
Functional Strength Training: You Need To Be Stable To Perform Your Best
Functional Strength Training: Key to Generating Power and Speed

Stop Leaking Speed!

“My easy run pace is a minute per mile faster.”

“How did I just drop 10 seconds in my 100 meter swim repeats?”

We hear these kinds of comments ALL the time from our athletes. Invariably, after a few months of dedicating themselves to the customized functional strength program we prescribe here at Pursuit Athletic Performance, our athletes start to notice improvements in their speed.

We will say it loud and clear:

YOU WILL GET FASTER, BE MORE POWERFUL, MORE AGILE, MORE STABLE, MORE INJURY-RESISTANT, AND ABLE TO GO THE DISTANCE IF YOU BECOME AND STAY FUNCTIONALLY STRONG.

When we first see an athlete, whether it be a runner, triathlete, or cyclistr, nine times out of ten they are “leaking speed.” They leak speed through a number of things:

  • Compensations in their movements
  • Overall weakness
  • Incredible instability
  • Using all the wrong muscles to power their way through training and racing

Most of the time, the athlete’s prime movers like glutes are weak and inactive, while the smaller stabilizing muscles have stepped in to do the work. These small stabilizers end up shredded workout after workout, leading to the inability to recover from hard training, and, ultimately, to injury.

The scenario above presents itself in all levels of athletes right up to the elite of the elite. (The elite just compensate “better,” and draw on a deep pool of natural talent to power through.) Eventually, the functionally weak athlete–no matter who they are–will end up in a performance plateau (at best), and likely injured.

A good functional strength program will improve the stability of your joints, improve neuro-muscular firing, and give your greater range of motion. Most of all, your true athleticism emerges as you stop leaking performance energy and are able to transfer POWER from your sport-specific movement into SPEED.

In our next post, we discuss the important role of functional strength in providing stability and power transfer.

Subscribe to our mailing list

 

Comments (0)
Categories : Functional Strength Training
Tags : , ,

Is Functional Strength Training A Fad? A Gimmick?

By Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC · Comments (0)
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

This is the first in a four-part series on functional strength training. Click the links below to read the other posts in the series:
Stop Leaking Speed; You Need to Be Stable to Perform Your Best; Functional Strength: Key to Generating Power

Trends and fads in the fitness world come and go. There was Tae Bo, step aerobics–the list is endless. In 2012, even the ever-popular Pilates fell off the American College of Sports Medicine list of the top 20 worldwide fitness trends.

So what about the ubiquitous “Functional Strength Training”? Is it too a fad? A gimmick?

The answer is a resounding NO.

In our series of four posts on functional strength training, we’ll walk you through:

  • What functional strength training is
  • Why it is necessary for your sport-specific training
  • How it can make you a stronger and more powerful athlete

Let’s start with an overview.

Functional strength training involves building strength and mobility by moving in multiple planes of motion with the use of multiple joints. FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH MOVEMENTS RELATE TO WHAT YOU ACTUALLY DO IN A GIVEN SPORT.

Our bodies are called on to move in many different ways and in different planes when participating in sport. Functional strength movements mimic this by breaking down how we move, and FOCUSING the athlete on the firing multiple muscle groups in various positions with varying ranges of motion and intensity. Think one-legged split squats done with rubber bands for resistance, and executed in different ways–two feet on the floor, or on one leg.

The muscles of the core are engaged, and a degree of instability is incorporated to call on neuromuscular balancing. Add to that, learning to transfer power in sport-specific movements, and you have the basis of a proper functional strength plan. Over time, it all works together to allow individuals to perform their sport more efficiently, faster, and with less risk of injury.

In an article in Lava Magazine, Matt Dixon, MSC puts it well. He says:

The primary purpose of including functional strength as part of an overall training program is to make an athlete just that–an athlete. Creating a platform of muscular balance, synchronized muscle firing, and optimal ballistic output of the muscles can translate across all sports.

We couldn’t agree more.

Functional strength training is the KEY to you being able to derive maximum benefit from your training. Being functionally strong allows you to unlock speed and create the foundation for DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT.

When you watch Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington run a 2:48 marathon after a 112-mile bike, believe it when we say the woman has outstanding functional strength. Talent by the boatload for sure, but she is also incredibly strong, stable, and mobile in all the right ways. And you can be too.

There is hot debate in the endurance world on the role of strength training. Many triathlon and running coaches claim all you need to do is “just train more” for performance gains to be made–strength training need not be part of a plan. We know that advice is dead WRONG, and counterproductive to your performance and goals over the long term. You can see our blog post about that issue here.

The hundreds of athletes we have worked with prove that a focus on building functional strength–separate from sport-specific training–is CENTRAL to improved performance. It’s borne out with any and every client–from vet to newbie–who followed and stuck with our training recommendations.

Functional Strength Training is an immutable part of a good, comprehensive sport training plan whether you are a runner, triathlete, or swimmer. This might be a new truth for many. But to not be FUNCTIONALLY strong does an immense disservice to your training and performance. Without it, you can’t even come close to unlocking your ultimate potential.

Subscribe to our mailing list

 

 

Comments (0)
Categories : Functional Strength Training, Gait Analysis
Tags : ,

Functional Strength Training: You Need To Be Stable To Perform Your Best

By Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC · Comments (0)
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

This is the third post of a four-part series on functional strength training. Click below to see other posts in the series.
Is Functional Strength Training A Fad? A Gimmick?
Stop Leaking Speed!
Functional Strength Training: Key to Generating Power and Speed

Functional Strength Training: You Need To Be Stable To Perform Your Best

We’ve spent the last few blog posts talking about what functional strength training is, and outlining why it is supremely important for any athlete to get and stay as functionally strong as possible. Let’s talk now about the importance of STABILITY, a key athletic component that can be greatly improved through functional strength training.

“Stability? Huh? No coach has ever mentioned that.”

It’s much easier to tell an athlete to “just train more” for gains in their chosen sport than to explain why seemingly amorphous concepts like stability, mobility, and neuro-muscular firing are essential for top performance. Driven athletes often like short answers, and the advice that seems to resonate–and is most readily accepted–is to train more, more, and still more. We have an informative blog post here on why following the “just train more” philosophy is ultimately disastrous.

But back to the issue of stability….

If you are not functionally strong, your body cannot remain stable during the rigor of training or competition–and you need to be rock solid. When an athlete is functionally weak, FORM is the first thing to go when fatigue sets in. We’ve quoted trainer Matt Dixon in this blog before, and, again, he sums up why being a stable athlete is so important. In this case, he writes on the sport of triathlon, but his words apply across many sports:

The elements of triathlon are each performed in effectively a single plane. However, when fatigue sets in, the first thing you will notice is the athlete’s inability to control slight lateral (out-of-plane) movements. Hips and shoulders rock from side to side, efficiency drops and the metabolic costs rise. Once this instability sets in, it is extremely hard to reverse.

Instead, using functional strength training to ignite the big prime movers (glutes, quads, and hamstrings) so they can do their job for extended periods of time is essential. The important, supporting stabilizing muscles can then go to work to help you KEEP GOOD BIOMECHANICAL FORM OVER LONG DISTANCES. If you want to perform at your best over the long haul, the simple fact is you have to be solid and stable.

We know sport–particularly running–shouldn’t and doesn’t have to hurt. Injuries do not have to be accepted as the norm. Athletes can return to race and make gains season after season. None of that is possible, however, if you are a weak, unstable athlete, falling apart biomechanically.

In our next and final post in this series, we’ll talk about how functional strength training helps you produce more power. And we all want that!

Subscribe to our mailing list

 

Comments (0)
Categories : Functional Strength Training, Stability
Tags : ,

What You Don’t Know About the Core Can Hurt You (Part 1 of 3)

By Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC · Comments (0)
Saturday, April 13th, 2013

This is the first post in our three-part series on core development. There others are Core Training: Why Hard Effort Does Not Always Equal Success and Core Class, Boot Camp… Great Ways to Get Stronger? Not Necessarily….

The lumbar spine is not meant to greatly twist and flex, and the disks in the back are harmed by those movements. Sit ups, crunches, leg lifts and the like are completely counterproductive to your goal of becoming a better athlete.

There is so much misinformation out there about core “strength” and core “training.” Athletes have been misled by years of improper training guidance, including any number of popular core (fad) “strength” programs that are at once deceitful in their marketing promises, and often very harmful.

If you are an athlete interested in good health AND better performance, it is time to learn the real story of the core–what it is, how it works, what it is designed to do, and how to develop proper core strength and stability.

What Is the Core? What Is Its Purpose?

You may think of the core as isolated abdominal muscles such as the familiar transverse abdominals, obliques, and anterior abs. In fact, your core is the ENTIRE trunk from your hips and pelvis to your neck and cervical spine. Its purpose is to be your body’s foundation for

all of your sport movements. The purpose of this foundation (your core) is to STOP or control motion, not create it. This is critical! In fact, athletic stability stops or controls motion (in the pelvic girdle for example) in the presence of motion somewhere else in the body (such as in the swinging arms and legs of a runner). This is a hugely important concept that we will cover more in-depth below. We will also talk about how the core is designed to provide “reactive stabilization” and work as an integrated unit synergistically with every other part of your body.

Your Core Must Be Stable

The true goal of core development is to create STABILITY, which is central for superior athletic performance, protection from injury, and overall good health. The pelvis and the lumbar spine, in particular, must be rock solid. Why does this matter?

Most athletes have no idea, but core stability is how you transfer power to your arms and legs. Without stability in the pelvis and the lumbar spine, your big agonist muscles, or prime movers (glutes, quads, hamstrings, lats) cannot activate. Most athletes haven’t a clue that their ability to generate ballistic output and speed originates from a neutral pelvis and a stable lumbar spine–never from the limbs alone.

The more stable the core, the more power you can generate with your extremities.

The lumbar region in the human skeleton

Core stability allows your entire kinetic chain to fire at optimal efficiency. So if you swim, bike, run, moving from a neutral pelvic position with a stable lumbar spine is the fundamental basis for your ultimate performance potential. All your hopes, dreams, and goals for training and racing start with a stable core.

Reactive Stabilization. What’s That? And Why Should I Care?

The core is also designed to reactively stabilize during dynamic movements. In other words, the core kicks in to prevent inefficient motion in the presence of motion elsewhere in the body. For example…

As a runner swings her arms and legs, a properly-functioning core reacts to stabilize the spine, pelvis, and shoulders and allow for the transfer of power to the legs. This reactive stability, coupled with proper mobility, muscular balance, and overall functional strength, allows for the optimal firing of your big prime movers. The supporting stabilizing muscles can then go to work to keep good biomechanical form over long distances.

Reactive stabilization of the core is very close to the silver bullet athletes are constantly searching for.

Employing a stable core is how your true athleticism emerges as you stop wasting energy and are able to transfer EFFORT from your sport-specific movement into SPEED throughout your training and racing.

Have a Strong Core? It Can Still Be A Weak Core

This is a really important paradox for athletes to be aware of. Even if your core is strong–i.e. isolated abdominal muscles are well developed–if it is UNSTABLE, there is no doubt you are LEAKING SPEED. The instability is guaranteed to lead to compensation in all of your movement. As a result, you are forced to use the wrong muscles to power your way through training and racing. Your risk of injury is also much, MUCH higher.

Working the Abs

Many athletes have been led to believe they are enhancing their training by doing exercises like sit ups and crunches. Many popular “cult” training programs that are thought to be “cutting edge” and cool, include these kinds of exercises.

Core stability has no relationship whatsoever to working abdominal muscles in isolation.

Exercises like these allow motion to occur through the lumbar spine, negating, as we explained earlier, the functional purpose of that area of the body. The lumbar spine is not meant to greatly twist and flex, and the disks in the back are harmed by those movements. Sit ups, crunches, leg lifts and the like are completely counterproductive to your goal of becoming a better athlete. Strong abdominal muscles in an unstable core do nothing to stabilize you at the precise moment you need to mitigate unwanted movement to create power and speed.

To ignite your core into the wellspring of powerful athletic movement that it is designed to be, you must train the “core” in a functional, sport-specific, and authentic way. Quality functional movement and strength training is the way to go.

Training Core Stability

To build a stable core we recommend you have a scientific gait analysis conducted at a reputable institution. Find the root causes of your weakness and imbalances then, with help from a carefully-selected trainer, objectively and scientifically rebuild thorough core stability. You need to carefully research various trainers and select one who has a deep understanding of core stability and functional strength training. Rather than crunching, you should be working a perfectly executed (we can’t stress the perfect execution part enough) planking regimen. A well-designed regimen will include front and side planks,  moving planks, and longer continuous plank holds. 

When you have a truly stable core, it is then–and only then–that you can safely and effectively increase load and dynamism in training. It is then that your sport-specific training will really begin to work, and the results you have been searching for will begin to manifest.

###

We will continue this series on the core with two additional posts. We will examine the insidious infiltration of the “training” mindset into core development. Then we’ll delve into how core development is more than just picking some random exercises and expecting great results.

Subscribe to our mailing list

Comments (0)
Categories : Core Stability and Strength
Tags : , , , ,

Core Class, Boot Camp…Great Ways to Get Stronger? Not Necessarily… (Part 3 of 3)

By Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC · Comments (0)
Saturday, April 13th, 2013

This is the final post in our three-part series on core development. There others are What You Don’t Know About the Core Can Hurt You and Core Training: Why Hard Effort Does Not Always Equal Success

Hello Everyone!

Coach Al here. I am wrapping up our series on core development with this video blog post. I want to take the time to delve into another serious misunderstanding that pervades the athletic world about core development work and functional strength training. It is the idea that if you go to a class or boot camp, or you work really hard using the latest, popular DVD, then the benefits of improved performance and diminished risk of injury will come.

There is no doubt that a strong and stable body will keep you healthier and make you faster. However, taking classes or following a routine on a DVD amounts to nothing more than selecting exercises at random as they do not not address your particular issues and weaknesses. Without first knowing how YOU MOVE in order to tailor strength work to your particular needs, you will not secure the benefits you seek and deserve. A generic, random approach to core development and functional strength work is NOT smart training, and is not a good use of your time.

I hope you will listen and come away with a better understanding of what it takes to get truly strong. If you do the work, you deserve to reap the benefits of better performance, reduced injury, and enhanced overall health.

The other posts in this series I recommend you take the time to read are What You Don’t Know About the Core Can Hurt You and The Insidious Infiltration of a Training Mindset into Core Work.

Subscribe to our mailing list

 

Comments (0)
Categories : Core Stability and Strength
Tags : , , ,

Ask Coach Al: Performance Enhancement Through Strength Training (Audio)

By Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC · Comments (1)
Friday, April 12th, 2013

Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKS

Hello Everyone!

As many of you are well aware, the core of our mission at Pursuit Athletic Performance is to get each individual athlete the FASTEST they can be, performing to their ultimate potential with far less risk of injury. So, how do we do that? In addition to smart, progressive training, we train each athlete to be as  functionally strong, stable, and mobile in the way they, personally, need to be. Hand-in-hand with that goal, is our work re-educating athletes about the importance of strength training as it relates to PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT. And, believe me, it does relate.

In this audio post I talk about strength training and its value. Here are just two reasons why this issue is important to understand:

1. If you are muscularly balanced, stable, and functionally strong you will be far more durable, be much more resistant to fatigue, leak less energy, and be able to create power and speed. You absolutely will BE FASTER as a result—AND be more durable and able to resist fatigue.

2. If you take the time to understand and learn, you will execute a strength program more precisely, be more committed, and enjoy the process more!

I think there is lots of valuable learning here. Hope you find it helpful, and let me know if you have any questions.

Coach Al

Play audio here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe to our mailing list

Comments (1)
Categories : Ask Coach Al, Functional Strength Training, Podcast, Stability
Tags : , ,

Coach Al’s Debrief: Four Principles Guiding Lisbeth Kenyon’s Training for Norseman Xtreme Triathlon

By Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC · Comments (0)
Friday, August 10th, 2012

Hello Everyone!

Today’s blog post is, I believe, the most important one I have done to date.

Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKS

The video below not only elucidates the passion my partner Dr. Kurt Strecker and I share in the tenets at the core of Pursuit Athletic Performance, but it also gives you a look at how that philosophy formed the foundation of the coaching program I put together for Lisbeth Kenyon’s training for Norseman Xtreme Triathlon. Lisbeth had an amazing result at the world’s most difficult long course race coming in 3rd woman overall, and together with the first two finishers, smashing the existing course record. I am getting a lot of questions about how she trained.

Lisbeth Kenyon at the finish of the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon

There are four principles I talk about in the video that are, in my opinion, the cornerstones of effective, results-oriented training. These four keys are at the basis of the coaching program I design for EVERY athlete, Lis included.

1. Movement Quality First

This is the baseline for EVERYTHING–your training, your racing, getting faster, unlocking your true potential, and reaching your goals. It is the reason for our gait analysis system, and why all of our athletes undergo the process. (If you want to know more, I gave an entire lecture on the topic of “Quality Movement First” that you can download here. )

2. Quality over Quantity

Training is more than just going “hard,” or “hard before long,” or any other coaching catch phrase out there today. It’s also not about maxing out “training load,” but, rather, it’s about building your work capacity under the auspices of quality movement. If that’s not the focus or the strategy of the training you do, you will be forever limited in your development. That’s just the simple, hard truth.

3. Strength, Strength, Strength

Looking for a magic bullet? Strength is it. True functional strength designed to shore up YOUR personal weaknesses and compensations is not just something “nice” to have. It is truly the foundation for all athletic accomplishment, regardless of your ability or your sport. We created the image posted here to bring attention to the widely-accepted belief that we need to run to get in shape. Actually, the truth is just the reverse. You need to get in shape–and get strong–to run. Strength is the limiter for any athlete in any sport, and the most important determining factor for your success.

4. There Is No Short Cut–No Easy Way

There are no special shoes, no magic workouts, no short cuts that lead you to outstanding achievement. Unlocking your personal athletic potential must be done from the inside out–you can’t impose it from the outside in. Lis understood this on a cellular level. It’s not always fun or sexy to work on the fundamentals and skill development, but it always circles back to the basics when striving to reach one’s potential.

It truly is an incredible honor to coach Lisbeth Kenyon. It is humbling to have an athlete of Lis’s caliber believe in our philosophy, put her trust in it, wrap her arms around it, and then work very, very hard on the training prescribed for her. The victory at Norseman is surely all hers. Lis’s result is a testament to her talent, physical and mental toughness, and unwavering dedication.

But Lis is YOU. That’s right, the fundamentals that I talk about here are essential for ANY athlete no matter your ability, experience level, your age, or your sport. At Pursuit Athletic Performance we see the four principles outlined above take athletes to levels of performance they never thought possible. Hope this video is helpful to you.

Train strong, train smart,
Coach Al

P.S. A great photo album of Lis’s day on the race course can be seen here.

Comments (0)
Categories : Ironman, Musings from Coach Al, Triathlon
Tags : , , , ,

Musings from the Med Tent With Dr. Kurt Strecker: Pain in the Butt

By Dr. Kurt Strecker, DC, CCSP · Comments (0)
Monday, July 30th, 2012

Dr. Kurt Strecker

Hello Everyone!

Dr. Kurt Strecker here with a video series this week, “Musings from the Med Tent.” Today, let’s talk about pain in the butt–the real, often debilitating pain athletes experience in their derrieres.

Virtually every week we see an athlete complaining, and often shut down, by pain in the piriformis, the gluteus medius, or somewhere else in the backside. Why is it so common, and what can we do about it?

Pain in the butt is, most commonly, due to muscular imbalance. A runner, for instance, moves primarily in one plane of motion. To be healthy athletes, we must have muscular balance in all three planes of motion. When balance is lost and imbalances set in as the miles add up, typically, there is injury.

Our first steps with pain-the-the-butt athletes is to restore mobility and stability in all three planes of motion. This is hugely important to do. In a majority of cases, proper gait analysis and specific prescriptive functional strength exercises can help athletes heal and get back to training and competition.

HOWEVER….

If balance is restored, and proper mobility and stability is in place, and an athlete continues to have symptoms, then it is time to go look deeper. Lately in our gait analysis lab, we have had a number of runners whose butt pain pointed to more serious hip joint pathology in terms of the labrum. I go into more detail in the video below about why this happens, and what you should do.

As an athlete, you can save yourself from a lot of pain and unnecessary downtime from training and racing if you get yourself functionally strong, muscularly balanced, mobile, and stable. So much of athletic performance depends on the optimal functioning of your butt and all the gluteal muscles–maximus, medius and minimus–in concert with the functional integrity of your hips and pelvis. This is the powerhouse that generates propulsive athletic movement, and when functioning properly, is majorly important in helping to prevent injuries.

Next up in the Med Tent series–What to Do With a Pebble in Your Shoe.

Comments (0)
Categories : Dr. Kurt Strecker, Functional Strength Training, Gait Analysis, Musings from the Med Tent, Running, Stability
Tags : , , , , ,

Coach Al and James Wilson of Mountain Bike Strength Training Systems: Improving Athlete Performance

By Linda Patch · Comments (0)
Friday, July 27th, 2012

Renowned movement experts (our own) Coach Al Lyman and James Wilson of Mountain Bike Training Systems present an outstanding talk about the fundamental importance of becoming a strong, mobile, and stable athlete in order to reach one’s full performance potential in sports as diverse as running, triathlon, and mountain biking. This podcast is loaded with information and inspiration for ALL athletes, no matter your sport. Coach Al and James give you the no-nonsense truth about what it takes to excel to the best of your personal ability. A few of the topics they touch on are:

  • Why functional strength matters greatly in activities normally viewed as endurance sports
  • Training the miles is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of unleashing ultimate performance
  • Why “just train more” is just plain wrong
  • Why “strength training” is a misnomer, and what it really is
  • How training outside of your sport manifests itself in your sport
  • Training as a lifetime endeavor — longevity vs. short-term gains

Our downloadable podcast is below. Direct download here. Enjoy!

Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC

Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC is the co-founder of Pursuit Athletic Performance, a movement-based sport training company. He is a nationally-recognized coach of endurance athletes from novice to elite, since 1999. He coaches the reigning 45-49 Age-Group Ironman World Champion and course record holder, Lisbeth Kenyon. As an athlete, Coach Al is a 25-time marathon finisher with a personal best of 2:39 at the Boston Marathon, and a nine-time Ironman Triathlon finisher, including three finishes at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

James Wilson

James Wilson is an author and professional mountain bike coach dedicated to using “strength training” to help athletes climb better, descend faster and “basically dominate all aspects of mountain biking.” He trains all levels of cyclists including world cup mountain bike racers. He writes for Decline Magazine, and has built a following for his writing and his training program from coast to coast.

 

Comments (0)
Categories : Ask Coach Al, Functional Strength Training, Kettlebells, Mountain Biking, Running, Stability, Triathlon
Tags : , , , , ,
Next Page »

 ORDER BY JUNE 4

Subscribe to our mailing list