What "Training Like An Athlete" Actually Means...

If you're new here hi, I'm Justin. 11 year veteran of the fitness industry training real people and getting them real results. I've trained many high school athletes as well as some WHL hockey hopefuls, and one of my first mentors in this industry is now the strength & conditioning coach for the pro women's soccer team here in Calgary. 

I've lost count of how many times I've seen it on social media the last couple of weeks.

A post saying "follow this efficient training split to get your athletic body back."

Okay, you've got me intrigued. I'll see what you have to say.

What follows is the most basic bodybuilding split that has ever been written. No real "athletic" work in sight.

Let me tell you what I saw just today. The post started as I mentioned above and what followed went something like this:

1. Squat - 3x6
2. Bench - 3x6
3. Lat pulldown - 3x8
4. Dumbbell shoulder press - 3x8
5. Superset bicep curls and triceps pressdowns - 3x10-15

Now, on the surface there's not really anything wrong with that workout, it covers some basic movement patterns with heavier loads so you'll be able to build some strength and some muscle with workouts like that.

From an athleticism lens though, this ain't even half the equation.

Things like this can and should be PART of athletic training, as an important part of being athletic is having some muscle mass, but there's a lot more to it than just that.

Then we have the other end of the spectrum.

"Train like an athlete" and it's just the most random mix of crap since the invention of TGIFridays.

• Random exercises with no overload.
• Thousands of random, low level "plyos".
• Making everything front loaded to be "sport specific".
• Circus act looking exercises with balance boards on top of bosu balls.

Nonsense. It's all nonsense.

But wait, then there's somehow a third end to this spectrum and perhaps you've seen this one before.

Trying to be "sport specific" by just mimicking the movement of the sport but holding weights while you do it. I've seen that one a thousand times. I won't lie, in my younger training days I've been mildly guilty of that one. We all make mistakes.

Let's get a couple things out of the way before we dive in to what athletic training really is.

First, "athletic" is not a look but a series of trainable qualities.

Second, we build sport specific skill on the field/court/ice, we build athleticism in the gym. 

Alrighty, now let's get into what athleticism really is.

Let's take a look at some of the very best athletes in the world. They'll look different and they'll have some different qualities among them, for example Leo Messi will be more aerobic based than someone like Myles Garrett, but there will be a lot of commonalities among the best of the best.

When I think of the best athletes names like Lebron James, Justin Jefferson, Myles Garrett, Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Usain Bolt and Simone Biles come to mind. They all do different things in their sport so their specific skills will be different, but they all have a few common traits:

• Fast
• Explosive
• Powerful
• Strong
• Jacked 

I'm sure you've heard me say before that good training is wildly boring, good athletic training is no different. If you look at Christian McCaffrey's gym training program on paper you'd think "there's no way that this works for a top level NFL athlete." 

It does. And I'd say it works pretty well.

You might be thinking "Justin, I don't need all that stuff to be healthy."

You'd be correct. You don't NEED it, but it can be extremely beneficial.

You don't need to jump like Lebron, but doing some jumping in your training can help strengthen your tendons and ligaments as well as contribute to bone mineral density. It also helps retain our muscular power, which is one of the first things we lose as we age, even faster than strength and muscle mass. 

You don't have to sprint like Usain Bolt, but having some fast running in your program can help maintain tendon elasticity, and because it is higher intensity than jogging it can also contribute to bone mineral density and help retain our power output.

You'll be happy you did these things and retained your power, joint and tendon strength if you ever fall down, or maybe your kids/grandkids ask you to play something with them that requires a lot of moving around in crazy directions, or maybe you want to hike up that mountain, or maybe you want to get on the golf course and hit bombs. It doesn't matter what it is, but don't you want to be able to say yes to it?

Now comes the most important part, what do you actually do?

That's difficult for me to say, because much like basic strength training I first need to know where a person is starting from before giving them a program. When we do things like jumping, sprinting and explosive work, it's important to start slow and build upon it as throwing it all at you right away is almost a surefire recipe for injury. 

When we're putting together a program to improve our athleticism, it is important to note that these types of exercises are very physiologically demanding, even more so than the big compound movements like squats and deadlifts, so exercise order becomes a much bigger consideration than it otherwise would be. We don't want to be doing our heavy lifts and then going into explosive work as a "finisher".

A very general rule of thumb for exercise order is:

• Move fast
• Move powerfully
• Move heavy
• Build armour

Of course, this rule only applies if you fitting everything in one day. We can split this up over different days if your schedule allows for it. 

If you're looking to get started with trying to improve your athletic qualities, allow me to drop a starter 2 day program for you.

DAY 1

1. Pogo hops: 2x15 - focus on keeping straight feet and springing quickly off your toes.
2. Depth drops: 2x3 - Choose a box that you consider medium height and focus on landing with soft knees and full foot contact.
3. Trap bar deadlift: 2x3 - Focus on a slow eccentric and an explosive lift
4. Superset: Goblet squat - 2x6-8 @ 2.1.1 tempo/Dumbbell side bend - 2x8-10 @ 2.1.1 tempo
5. Superset: Incline dumbbell press - 2x8-10 @ 2.1.1 tempo/Incline dumbbell row - 2x8-10 @ 2.0.1 tempo

DAY 2

1. Sprint: 2x30m, 2x50m @ 50-60% of your max speed
2. Skater hop: 2x3 per side - focus on quick ground contact and exploding off your feet
3. Front foot elevated split squat: 2x5/side @ 2.1.X tempo(the 'X' signals for a fast lift)
4. Superset: B-stance dumbbell RDL - 2x6-8 side @ 2.1.1 tempo/Cable wood chop - 2x6-8/side
5. Superset: Chin-up - 2x8-10 @ 2.1.1 tempo/Dumbbell shoulder press -  2x8-10 @ 2.1.1 tempo 

Simple. Efficient. Effective.

Will this program turn you into an elite professional level athlete? No. But it will protect your power and build strong, capable and resilient muscles and bones.

Also keep in mind that this is just a starting point for someone that's never done this type of training before. We would build off of this and bring more on as you gain more  strength and experience. 

As with any sort of training it's not a sprint, but a marathon.

Unless of course you're actually training to sprint, but even then the process of getting better is a marathon.

I'm going to leave you there for today.

If you read this and like what you read, please share with your friends!

Lots more stuff coming soon.

Be good, friends.

-Justin

P.S. If you're tired of waiting until next Monday to start... and then saying the same thing on Tuesday, I want to talk to you about 1:1 strength coaching. I'll work closely with you and construct a program that survives the busy seasons, not just the times when life is perfect.