Mistakes by Athletes
Athlete Downfall and Why
by Antanas Sleckus
Don’t get me wrong nobody’s perfect, especially me, many of these ideas came from my “Stupidity”, a rollercoaster of discovery, injuries and re-injury, does that sound about right? Trust me you are not alone in this. Now enough of the bullshit, they are in no particular order because I couldn’t decide which is more important. Read, learn and implement.
Not Preventing Injury
My introduction shows that I’m no stranger to injury. In all cases one or more of these factors came up:
Muscular imbalances and weakness
Overtraining
Insufficient warm up
Stupid shit, (yes I’ll admit it.)
Preventing injury should be at the top of the list for every athlete. Injuries lead to time out and further frustration. This is a checklist I have used help to prevent injury:
Warm up properly: The job of a warm up is to raise the body’s temperature, get the muscles ready for lifting and creating suppleness of joints and ligaments. I realise it can be boring, but a 600lb squat crashing on top of you because of a blown out knee, when prevention was available, doesn’t sound much fun, does it?
A sport specific warm up helps with athletic skills. This technique is being utilised to Olympic lifters, Athletes. Olympic lifters use empty barbell to practice each phase of the pull individually. This counts as a warm up and being specific of the sport.
A good warm up needs to consist these things: Mobility work, repetitive movements to raise the body’s temperature, soft tissue work on exceptionally tight areas and light resistance exercises.
Training correctly: I’m a fan of heavy lifting but the heavier the weight the greater chance of injury. As fatigue sets in, correct form goes to the crapper; this is prime time for injuries. You need to utilize heavy lifting by using de-load, high-intensity, and restoration weeks for ultimate performance. Heavy lifting does work but you can only go so far and you will plateau eventually (For a beginner this rule may not apply).
To aid your “bullet-proofing” try: correct posture, correct nutrition, being generally strong/fit, being mobile and flexible and wearing correct footwear. Your body needs to maintain a careful balance to work at its optimum. Lose this balance by overdeveloping and keeping the opposing muscles weak and you are asking for injury. On the last point, a lot of stupid shit has lead me to injury in the past. If something smells like shit and looks shit and it is usually shit for your body. (Not my line, I read it somewhere but it’s a good rule to go by)
Training Like a Bodybuilder
Many of us did it and some are still doing it, but its time for change. Many athletes go down the path of training like a bodybuilder which is a no no. I agree some things intertwine between athletic performance training and bodybuilding. Why waste time on things that aren’t going to help you on the field, court and the pitch?
One of the greatest quotes worth reading and remembering is "If you are doing curls and bench presses, some other guy is doing squats and powercleans and when you get on the field, he is going to f***ing kill you!" Doing things that don’t translate into increased athleticism is unnecessary for an athlete. This idea might take time to seep in. It’s ok, you are the one wasting your training time, not me.
A strong core is what athletes usually lack. For athletic purposes a strong core is essential, as all athletic power starts generating central of the body, not the other way around. Now I’m not giving you an excuse for crunching heartlessly, as developing your core should be done using compound movements with some direct work. If you are going to perform isolation work you must heavily weigh down most movements. Timed leg lift holds, heavily weighted sit ups, hyperextensions and rotational movements should be “bread and butter” of a well designed program. To save time apply the Tabata training method to Medicine ball and sledge hammer work, it does wonders for conditioning and core power.
“Speed” and “Power” are terms used by all athletes. What all athletes have in common is that they would kill for the both. You need three qualities to be fast. Get stronger, get more explosive and get flexible. If you can’t touch your toes you have issues.
Get stronger by utilizing lifts like Olympic back squats (No quarter squatting, assholes), Deadlifts, Olympic lifts, Pull ups, Dips, Lunges, Single leg squats, DB rows, Overhead strict pressing. Basically all compound movements.
Get explosive by performing short explosive sprints, jumps and leaps, Westside type of box squats, explosive medicine ball work and of course Olympic lifts. Take a lot of care in learning these, it is time invested well.
Get flexible by performing dynamic mobility movements at the beginning of your workouts. Work on tight areas with soft tissue rolling and static stretching. Concentrate on relieving tightness in these areas: Hamstrings, Hips, Quadriceps, Calf’s and Gluteus for the lower body. For upper-body concentrate on shoulder range of motion, work on rotator cuff tightness, joint capsule range of motion, shoulder girdle tightness and tissue quality.
Many great programs use the 5x5 base which works wonders for most athletes. Programs by Mark Rippetoe, Bill Starr and others have added mass and strength like no other. One thing that really ticks me of is the need to fuck with them. I don’t know what it is but everyone seems to be doing it. They have been proven to work and created by some of the top experts in the biz; do you actually think you can do any better?
OK now this next point is going to get me killed by most high school athletes, but don’t spend too much time benching. Before you try to cut my throat let me make couple points. Too many people use crap form which leads to injuries, mainly in the shoulder region. The Second point is that if you are an overhead throwing athlete, the extra stress on your shoulders is dangerous and the movement has no athletic carry-over. Think about it, when in a game are you perfectly flat on your back? Very little athletic carry-over and the whole big chest-no leg look, it just looks plain weird.
Not Learning the Sport
It’s all good being strong, fast and explosive but if you don’t fully understand your trade, you will not be able to express your qualities in your field. There are no perfect “cookie-cutter” programs that will make you the next Michael Jordan, but work on your weaknesses and you will become a better athlete over all. “Practice, Practice makes perfect” Have you heard of it, so guess what… it’s true. Work hard on the skills you will need in your sport. Apply the principle of specificity when training but don’t over do it, stages of hypertrophy have to happen.
Conditioning
Conditioning is another aspect that athletes take to the extreme. Don’t get me wrong you require a certain level of fitness to be an efficient athlete but too many people try to be explosive, strong and conditioned at the same time. It isn’t going to happen. Do you want to be conditioned or explosive? Pick one and stick with it, once you get explosive and strong you may change focus, maintaining your strength and speed levels and improving on your cardio vascular fitness. Another point seeing a 300lb lineman running for hours is painfully ugly to watch.
Long distance running is for long distance runners and a wrong way to train a strength athlete so leave it alone. To be explosive and strong you need type two muscle fibres and prolonged low intensity cardio vascular work destroys those muscle fibres. For this reason you can’t do both. The answer is high intensity interval training and the best method is strong man conditioning or general physical preparedness (GPP). You probably have seen strong men performing tire flipping, sled dragging, sledge hammer work and farmer walks etc. Don't worry about losing muscle mass because GPP relies on intervals so no time for your body to turn into a catabolic state.
Not only is it a great method of conditioning it also does wonders for your grip. Strong man conditioning has great athletic carryover and it will bring your strength and total body awareness/coordination together.
Good reading on the subject
Taking on too much
I realise people have busy life styles because I certainly do. In-between education, work, sport and running RG can lead to total spare time destruction. You have to learn how to take time off, recuperate and take the load off (literally some times). Hardcore training not only takes its toll on your body, it will also play havoc with your mood and mental state. Work too hard with no recovery periods it will lead to depression. An athlete has to be able to handle the workload not only physically, but mentally.
An easy way to tell if you are overtraining is to look at your mood. If your head feels like a mess take some time off. Your lifts will not suffer as long as you trained smart because it takes time to show your improvement and recovery days do exactly that. All good programs use periodization with peak, de-load and recovery phases. As you recover from the peak phases your gains will truly show, you can cycle again. You will be mentally and physical ready again.
As a beginner you can basically do anything and progress but once you reach an advanced level it becomes much more difficult. To understand the concept of planned overtraining Kelly Baggett’s article is great and puts many things into perspective.
Poor Nutrition
Nutrition is so overestimated it’s ridiculous. To put it simply if you are missing your Pr’s, cant move onto heavier weights, not getting any bigger, not losing any weight and feel tired you need to look carefully at your diet. Yes it is that important. Be a smart athlete. Ff you need to lose weight don’t spend hours running but cut down on the calories you are consuming.
Correct nutrition can be a scary area to delve into. So do some good reading first. To help you out for now, clean up your diet and you will see results instantly. If you need to lose weight, eat fewer calories. Eat 6-8 small meals daily and all meals must contain a lean protein source and vegetables or fruits. Any other carbohydrates besides veggies and fruits need to be consumed after training.
If you want to add lean muscle mass consume more calories but don’t go overboard. Try consuming about 150-200 calories extra and track your fat gains. If it’s too great cut down on your calories and re-evaluate your food choices. Consume more protein. It can become difficult but this is where a good protein powder can come into.
One thing that really pisses me off is “Over-supplementing.” Get your training and nutrition into gear and see gains instantly. Only once that is achieved you may look into serious supplements. Without fail all lifters need to be taking fish oil, glucosamine sulphate (for joints) and a good multivitamin. If you are really that desperate, invest into a good protein powder and still then it should never be a substitute for food. Creatine is another good choice; plain monohydrate powder is the way to go. Supplements aren’t substitutes for hard work and dedication.
Goals
Not setting goals is another downfall by any person. Set goals in life and your training. This will make you achieve a certain weight quicker and make you work harder. Set one goal you want to meet by the end of a certain period, don’t go overboard and choose an entire list. Tackle them as they come along, one by one.
Not using Olympic lifts
This has been my biggest downfall, and as mentioned above, invest in this skill. It is a very complex lift which needs to be broken down and performed repeatedly. Don’t give me that bullshit of “it’s too hard” or “we are not Olympic lifters”. Nobody said you were however you will be using Olympic lifts to improve on athletic performance. Olympic lifts have great athletic carry-over.
If something works in each discipline of training, why not use it? If strong man conditioning works on increasing cardiovascular fitness without slowing you down, why not? If Olympic lifts help you get generally more explosive and stronger why not? If sprinting works for track athletes in the acceleration phase why not? You get the picture I was trying to make. If it works use it and Olympic lifts work. Start thinking differently to the usual:
Monday-Chest and Triceps
Wednesday- Lower body
Friday Back and biceps.
Knowledge
Ever heard the saying “Knowledge is power?” Well you can take it literally in the pursuit of athletic excellence. You will do jack squat without knowledge. True, the internet is a great place to read up much of what you find on the net, smells of shit (Remember the rule of the three shits?).
The next best thing is to read a good book. Invest in human anatomy and training philosophy books. They will help tremendously in understanding the human anatomy and this will go along way in training correctly.
Bad attitude
Nobody likes a smart ass and nobody is perfect as I have mentioned before. Being stuck up and ignorant isn’t cool, especially if you are an athlete. Help people, don’t just “tut” and dismiss them. Remember, you were once the new kid on the team or the scrawny guy in the gym spending countless hours curling. Being intimidated isn’t nice and it doesn’t make you look big. Take a positive attitude to life and you can’t go wrong.
Closing Thoughts
These are just some things I have picked up. Injury is inevitable and takes time to heal fully. The main thing is how fast you can aid the recovery as an athlete and get back to training. The road to full recovery may be long and frustrating but what defines you as a great coach and athlete is how quickly you can recover and what you can do to prevent injuries. I wrote this article to be taken with a grain of salt, they are just my over-exsadurated views. Lift, Learn, Read and Implement.
...Talk and Discuss but be warned…No BS..
