How much strength do athletes need?

Thank you, that looks like an interesting article for me to read during my night shift tonight.

Will read, hopefully absorb and comment later.
 
Interesting article. I'm not really knowledgeable enough to agree or disagree on most of what he wrote lol. But it makes sense.

It got me thinking about a sport like BJJ though, Where (IMO) the stronger you get the less advantageous it gets to spend more and more time into getting stronger (compared to when you started.) In other words, if it took you a year to go from 185lbs squat to a 350+ lbs squat, then that's a great deal of increase. However if you then trained the same amount of time for another year and only got 50 more lbs on your squat. You did indeed definately get stronger, but it seems like diminishing returns for your time investment (obviously it gets harder to improve the stronger you get.)

Where is, or how would you determine the line for when you should switch focuses from absolute strength, to more of explosion and power or muscular endurance (note on switching FOCUSES, not saying you shouldn't be doing some of this all along). Now I know it's probably a highly personal thing as to where this line would be, along with what type of game plan you employ. But I was just curious as to what y'alls opinions are on that.
 
Interesting article. I'm not really knowledgeable enough to agree or disagree on most of what he wrote lol. But it makes sense.

It got me thinking about a sport like BJJ though, Where (IMO) the stronger you get the less advantageous it gets to spend more and more time into getting stronger (compared to when you started.) In other words, if it took you a year to go from 185lbs squat to a 350+ lbs squat, then that's a great deal of increase. However if you then trained the same amount of time for another year and only got 50 more lbs on your squat. You did indeed definately get stronger, but it seems like diminishing returns for your time investment (obviously it gets harder to improve the stronger you get.)

Where is, or how would you determine the line for when you should switch focuses from absolute strength, to more of explosion and power or muscular endurance (note on switching FOCUSES, not saying you shouldn't be doing some of this all along). Now I know it's probably a highly personal thing as to where this line would be, along with what type of game plan you employ. But I was just curious as to what y'alls opinions are on that.

Obviously, most normal people will see diminishing returns on the time the invest into strength training. This point might be salient to you, however, at least as a rationalization to continue some form of strength work:

As the athlete ages MS strength levels play a more important role to ensure successful athletic performance. Athletes begin to lose their elastic strength qualities in their late twenties, thus the counter balance to the reduction of this elastic strength physical quality is the continued enhancement of MS values.

The greater the amount of MS “banked” via years of strength training, the greater the athletes ability to maintain the “balance of the scales” so to speak, during the aging process where elastic abilities are lost and MS qualities are gained/stored.
 
In regards to "staying fresh" vs "staying strong", I would imagine that the NFL's new collective bargaining agreement has played an impact on that. They drastically reduced the number of practice days in pads a team can have over the course of the season. Don't remember exactly, but I think it's something like 11 or 12 over the course of the season. I'm sure that having less practices where alot of hitting is involved will allow the teams' s&c coaches to do more strength work while still allowing the players to stay fresh during the season.
 
Well, from people I know in the industry, from the sounds of it, NFL s&c is more along the lines of babysitting than anything else. I'm not saying that holds true for every player or even ever team but, for the most part, that is what it is like.

Thanks for posting the article, though, GiJoe. That was a good read.
 
Well, from people I know in the industry, from the sounds of it, NFL s&c is more along the lines of babysitting than anything else. I'm not saying that holds true for every player or even ever team but, for the most part, that is what it is like.

Thanks for posting the article, though, GiJoe. That was a good read.

That's sad and unfortunate.
 
When you get to that level, as the s&c coach, you walk a fine line trying to make them work as well as not pissing them off because these owners have millions of dollars invested in them. In the same token, if someone gets hurt under your watch, you will be gone. It is because of that, that I'm sure the coaches don't really want to push it too hard.

Plus, outside of a few teams that I have heard of, most NFL guys don't stick around during the off season. They are off doing their own thing at other places. There are private gyms that do push these guys such as Bommarito's and DeFrancos but then there are other places that will baby the shit out of them for fear of pissing them off. I have witnessed both these things first hand.
 
@ GiJoe.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definately not talking about stopping strength training. I"m talking about switching your focuses from maximum strength development, to more power/explosiveness, or muscular endurance. While putting your strength on maintenance.
 
I think a good, balanced program for athletes should address all three.
 
Interesting article. I'm not really knowledgeable enough to agree or disagree on most of what he wrote lol.

This. I have read and re-read but it's too much for me to process.
 
Thank you, that looks like an interesting article for me to read during my night shift tonight.

Will read, hopefully absorb and comment later.

You've got "nights" I take it?
 
I think "Science and Practice of Strength Training" does a better job of addressing the subject matter. Of course I'm comparing a textbook to an internet article, which isn't entirely fair.
 
I like "Easy Strength" by Pavel and Dan John. It's like my bible and it touches upon these issues without being overly technical.
 
Power is nothing without control
~Pirelli
:icon_lol:

More/bigger muscle allows for more strength. More strength provides the potential for more power. BUT, obviously, at a certain point, proprioception and neural drive must be developed for this larger or newer muscle mass. In general, sport-specific exercise and training close the gap and allow for the creation of usable power.

So, to answer the question "How Much Strength Do Athletes Need?, since we all adapt/learn at different rates, the point where strength training needs to stop and sport-specific training needs to begin will vary on the individual. Therefore, athletes should get as much strength training as is possible, while keeping an eye on the amount of time it will take them to adapt to the newly gained strength.
 
I think "Science and Practice of Strength Training" does a better job of addressing the subject matter. Of course I'm comparing a textbook to an internet article, which isn't entirely fair.

Zatsiorsky addresses a whole host of subject matter better than any internet article I can think of. And after reading the full article, I was disappointed. I get upset when someone writes an article outlining a theoretical framework for strength training, but fails to provide any practical programming suggestions.
 
I do like the acectdote about Dave Meggett.

It made me do some thinking about my own strength training. I'm currently just a gym warrior with nothing to train for and the goal of getting stronger. I'm quite a ways from being "strong enough", but I think it illustrates that at some point I will probably be "strong enough" and will want to expand my training to include other things while being okay with slower strength progression.
 
It's an interesting article and seems to do a good job of explaining all the issues but like GiJoe said, it's a bit disappointing that he doesn't offer any practical training advice. I guess it's more a piece to read, think about, and discuss with your trainers or trainees.
 
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