How cold for cold water immersion to enhance recovery?

Cold water immersion remains one of the most popular recovery modalities used by sports teams to reduce soreness and facilitate restored performance after intense training. Though the benefits of cold water immersion remain debatable, one consensus that has been reached is that it typically enhances perceived recovery and reduces self-reported muscle soreness. Water temperature and …

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Does dehydration impact resistance exercise performance?

Dehydration is known to negatively affect performance and contribute to cardiac strain in endurance sports like running and cycling. Dehydration can also become an issue for team-sport athletes, particularly when competing outside in hot temperatures for prolonged periods of time. Factors such as high body mass and heavy equipment (i.e., football pads and helmets) can …

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Relationship between maximal strength and reactive ability in athletes

A major reason why coaches want to make their athletes stronger is because strength underpins performance in numerous athletic movement skills such as running, jumping and change of direction. Essentially, the more force an athlete can produce into the ground, the better. There is also increasing evidence to suggest that stronger athletes are less likely …

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What performance factors separate successful from less successful teams?

What separates successful teams from less successful teams? One can make a case for a number of underlying variables. For example, some may attribute success, or lack thereof, to training and conditioning methods. Some may argue that reducing injuries and therefore enabling key players to accumulate more playing time is a key contributor to success. …

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Post-activation potentiation with heavy upper-body isometrics

The application of post-activation potentiation training has become more common among strength and conditioning circles. Preceding an explosive, high-velocity movement with a heavy set of strength work will transiently enhance performance by increasing power output, which may result in greater training adaptation.  However, the majority of post-activation potentiation research focuses on lower body movements such …

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How long should you taper following preseason training?

Intense preseason training is an integral component to preparing physically and tactically for the upcoming competitive season. In team-sports like football and rugby, preseason training involves a 2-4 week period of intensified training, often times with 2 practices per day. This results in a heightened risk of injury, illness and excess fatigue. According to Dr. …

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Effects of vertical versus horizontal drop-jump training

In real world settings it is quite rare that a coach will exclusively include or exclude a specific exercise in training. Most coaches are aware of the importance of variety to stimulate various movement patterns and develop specific strength and power. However, in research, the exact opposite is done in order to determine what effect …

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Will increasing lower body strength improve tackling ability?

Most coaches will agree that in-season strength and power training is critical for maintaining performance in team-sports such as soccer, football, basketball, rugby and so forth. Performance characteristics such as sprinting, rapidly changing direction and jumping are all impacted by lower body strength and power. Failing to address this during the season can therefore result …

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Front squat vs. Hip thrust for improving performance variables

There remains a great deal of debate among performance coaches regarding topics such as optimal exercise selection for enhancing sprinting speed, the limiting factors of maximum velocity sprinting and so forth. Slowly over time as more research is produced, more evidence in support of a given training theory becomes revealed and open-minded coaches adjust their …

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Augmented feedback instantly improves jumping performance

Many performance coaches pride themselves on being able to provide instant technical modification or cueing to an athlete that will result in an immediate improvement in a performance measure such as sprinting or jumping. Perhaps the athlete has a poor first step or shoots his/her hips too high off the start. Simply teaching the proper …

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