It is generally assumed that athletes develop a good foundation after they begin their strength training programs. This may be true in some cases but most often they do not. One of the main reasons for this is that there are so many strength and conditioning coaches with different knowledge sets that they create many different types of strength training programs.
Understand that the foundation for an athlete is analogous to a foundation for a house. If you are going to build a great house you would make sure that you have a good foundation upon which the house could be built. The same applies to an athlete. Athlete’s foundation must be developed prior to all other types of training.
Strength and conditioning coaches will be the first ones to tell you that athletes need a strong physical and technical foundation. They also purport to develop athlete’s foundation in young junior and high school athletes. However, when queried as to how this foundation is developed, the responses vary greatly.
For example, some of the more common responses include doing Olympic lifts, using high intensity exercises, using all compound or multi-joint exercises, using anaerobic exercises and so on. However, is the athlete’s foundation developed by using any or all of the above methods?
The answer can be yes or no depending upon the definition of foundation. For example in my definition of foundation the athlete, especially the young junior high school athlete, to develop a strong foundation you must develop a strong body structure. This means strengthening the bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles and developing coordination of joint movements and muscle actions.
With a strong body and with basic coordination developed in all of the joints and movements, the athlete can learn new skills and progress quickly in his athletic endeavors. More importantly, with such development injuries are typically eliminated or minimized.
These outcomes however, are not possible in other types of programs. For example, if Olympic lifts are the main focus, the athlete’s foundation will be limited to the Olympic lifts which do not have much variety in terms of joint movements, actions and muscle involvement. All the lifts entail moments in a vertical plane and the stress placed on some muscles is much greater than on other muscles. Other important joint actions are typically ignored or minimized greatly.
Those who utilize high intensity training also have minimum foundation development. The reason for this is that they only have time in the training sessions to do a few compound exercises. These exercises involve several joints and major muscles while the other muscles in the body must stabilize the body.
In essence, they overdevelop certain muscles while minimizing development of other muscles. Because of this the foundation is not complete. In addition, studies have shown that high intensity training does not allow for most effective adaptation, the key to growth and development.
A program that develops all the joints muscles and support structures and develops coordination at the same time is most beneficial for young athletes. I have found that the most suitable program to produce these outcomes is the 1 x 20 RM strength training program.
In this program the athlete does over 20 different exercises for one set of 20 repetitions. This is a moderate level intensity program which is best for ensuring adaptation. As a result the athletes gain more strength, strength endurance, power, ligament and tendon strength and basic coordination.
Practical experiences have shown these results when athletes, especially young athletes, stay on such programs for one or more years. There is plenty of variety in the program so the athletes do not get bored and show continual progress.
Because of the development received to establish the athlete’s foundation they perform better on the field and do not or rarely experience injury. This is understandable because of the stronger bodies, joints and support structures coupled with better coordination.
For more information on the 1 x 20 RM strength training program see The Revolutionary 1 x 20 RM Strength Training Program.