Sleep is crucial to an athlete's overall performance. However, sleep can be a hard metric to track and control - especially for student athletes. Ways to enhance sleep isn't always a one size fits all. So, we complied a list of different tips to help your athletes get in those important z's. 

In episode #5 of Powering Performance, we chat with two performance experts to learn about training methodology, rising trends and educating your clients. We break down some of the knowledge gained from EXOS’ Director of Continuous Improvement, Stefan Underwood and Jon Barlow who oversees the Pro and Elite Sports at EXOS Arizona. They share their insight on their philosophies around training and how to create athlete buy-in.

New to the Scene

Things we're focused on...

Here are some topics that are generating quite a bit of buzz. They are not to be overlooked, because hey, if you have made it this far, you must want to stay up to speed.

For a more in-depth dive into tech used in sports click here

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."

If you're looking to implement group training in your facility or become a group class instructor, this next section highlights some key insights.

Everyone always thinks they have the latest and greatest trend or new tool for training. But in a field that is vastly growing it can be hard to cut through the noise. And while many of the trends are great, you need to be able to figure out what best matches your values, training style and clients aspirations. So, let's take a look at the different trends people are talking about right now so you can find what might best fit for you.

Online Training