Training Principles

TRAIN SMART
Have a plan. Your program should be based on a periodization-training model that divides the year into phases. Each phase has a specific purpose and incorporates different activities, different volumes, and different work intensities. Periodization training helps you make consistent gains, prevent injuries, avoid burnout, and give your best effort when you need it –during the season.

TRAIN HARD
Attack your workouts! You should focus on getting better in all areas, with good discipline, positive attitude and lots of hard work. Always try to use good technique and give 100% during your workouts.

TRAIN CONSISTENTLY
Avoid extremes in training by training at a reasonable level consistently. This will allow the body time to adapt to the stress of training and develop a solid fitness base. If a few days of training are missed, a few extra days of hard training will not compensate the lost conditioning. Instead, the athlete will overstress the body and will be more predisposed to injury.

COST TO BENEFIT RATIO
For every exercise that is incorporated into the program, the benefit of that exercise must outweigh the potential for injury. Each exercise in your program should meet this criteria.

PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
Start slowly and be progressive. You should try to improve during every training session. Overload happens when the body has to respond to training loads that are greater than normal. Intensity and volume are the key factors used to progressively increase the load. Remember these three rules: Core strength before extremity strength, body weight before external resistance and fundamental movement skills before sport-specific skills.