The NCAA guidelines are changing the way you communicate and track athletes. Want to ensure you’re taking the right approach to stay compliant? Here’s a breakdown of what the rules are, how to prepare your team and ways to ensure your technology is supporting your work.

Subscribing to an online platform to help you build your strength training program is a great first step towards improving your workflow and empowering your team.

S&C's Impact on US Rangers

Performing with & without Equipment 

*Updated September 2020*

Body Weight Workouts

We've updated this article as it is relevant now more than ever. With more athlete's training from home it is important to appropriately adjust training to fit their situation. Often, this means updating programs to bodyweight only exercises. Check out some suggestions our team has put together on how bodyweight workouts can be extremely beneficial to athletes. 

Even if athlete's do have access to some equipment at home body weight workouts can be used as a way to take a break from a typical weight workout routine. This is also a great trend for building up your athlete's confidence to workout on his/her own. By going over simple, yet effective exercises consistently you can educate each on how to perform these exercises on their own when more weight is added. 

These can be turned into pretty difficult workouts if your athlete needs more intensity. Adding in less rest can be a simple way to increase the intensity and keep their heart rate up.

Bodyweight workouts are also a tool to utilize for athletes that are coming off of an injury or for new athletes. This is the place where you get back to the fundamentals and really tune in on doing the movements properly.

Bring in the importance of body awareness when teaching movement. They should be aware of how their whole body is working together. Often times, when we are surrounded by weights we have the instinct to keep doing more. But more is not always better, especially if the quality of movement is lacking.

Movement is the building block for progress, so properly educate them on how to move well, and often.

Key Tip: "All great coaches keep it simple." - Michael Cazayoux

Focus on mastering the basic fundamentals. It is easy to get caught up in the newest trends and trying to stay on the cutting edge. But the basics are the core to all the movement progressions your athletes will be learning.

Don't get eager to jump to the next new thing and neglect mastering the basics.

Multi-functional equipment
Let's break this down a bit. What is functional training and why is it so popular? Great question.
Functional training puts an emphasis on movement quality over load and intensity. Just like Tanna Burge does when training athletes at Texas A&M.
"More isn't always better. It's just more. So make sure that what you're doing is really good quality. I would much rather have really solid quality of movement with a load on, than crappy movement quality with a high load, because then you start to get these wear and tear issues."

Group Training

Group training is becoming more popular than ever before.

Speaking of bettering yourself as a coach and training your athletes more efficiently, let's talk about training athletes together. It can be difficult at times when some members are injured, or if your group is at different levels. Here are a few tips you might find helpful:

Leveraging software
While premier training software is now acting as another assistant coach on the floor with you, the best tools also allow you to deliver individualized training days from 1 program. Meaning, build 1 plan for an entire team or group of athletes, all while knowing they'll each get their individual weight prescriptions. Individualization without wasting time. Checkmate.

Don't be fooled, when you use platforms like Bridge, you're not lacking individualized approaches, rather you're allowing yourself to spend more time on the floor with every athlete all while knowing their plans are automatically adapting to progress. One-on-one time with each athlete was one of AS Roma's biggest accomplishments after implementing an effective structure. Want to know why? Listen here to find out.

Using online training programs such as Bridge in this way makes it easy for unexpected changes. If an athlete gets injured or is sick you can quickly and easily make adjustments to their workout for the day or week. You can spend your time checking in with different athletes while making edits on the fly. Say goodbye to flipping through excel sheets to find what was done a few week's back. This can be especially handy come holiday season when you and your athletes are miles apart - everyone can still be working as if they never left the training center.

Managing Your Methodology
Let's turn to your methodology. Not sure if you have one? Trust us, you do, even if you don't know it yet. This is an area few systems can help you mold, but those that do are complete game changers.

For example, say you're on-boarding a new staff... stressful right? Leveraging systems that allow you to create a robust training structure, defined by your varying training cycles will help get everyone on one page must faster than your current model. Don't believe us, see how EXOS uses our system to enhance their education across 200+ sites globally.

Platforms like Bridge will not only allow you to build a complex training ecosystem, it will also make your life a lot easier. Think back to the last time you did have to onboard a new coach, especially one with little experience. Was it difficult to teach them about the movement modifications you prefer? If an athlete can't perform one level of an exercise, it can be difficult to know which replacement to leverage.

Nutrition

Hot off the stove- our latest nutrition tips! 

Nutrition is always a hot topic in performance because it is so important. With new fads coming in and people changing what fuels them we will cover all you need to know about pre and post-workout eating and everything else an athlete's body needs for optimal performance.

We all run into conflict, as much as we may try to avoid it. But the way you handle that conflict can be an instrumental tool in how you define your gym's environment. It is easy to get defensive, especially when someone is critiquing something you are so prideful in.

But, if a client is bringing up a negative emotion they are feeling towards your training process - validate it. If one person is strong enough to bring it to your attention, chances are a couple other people are feeling similarly.

Rather than dismiss and deny the feelings someone is sharing with you, take it as a learning experience on how to grow. The same with training - you only get better from correcting mistakes and improving.

Positive Coaching

This goes hand in hand with training towards your clients needs.

Positive coaching is a hot topic right now - coaches and trainers implementing this strategy into their daily routines are seeing positive results in their client's growth and motivation. Positive coaching is taking over how to train, check out info and classes at the Positive Coaching Alliance.

Communication 

We have all heard it before - first impressions matter. But rather than shrug it off as advice we've all heard, let's break down why we're always talking about it. As a personal trainer, interactions and connections can seriously impact your retention rate.

Why? Because your first impression sets the tone for your relationship.

The moment your client walks in to meet you, they're assessing you and your ability. Asking themselves, "is this who I want to spend such vulnerable time with?" And you need that answer to be yes, every time. It can all start with a good first impression. Consider these tips around body language and communication to ensure that first session is great.