Strength and Conditioning Knowledge Center

Barbell Velocity Tracker – What’s its Purpose? A Barbell Velocity Tracker connects directly or indirectly to the bar and calculates how far it has moved and how long it has taken to move. The use of barbell speed trackers is growing exponentially in recent years (Gonzalez-Badillo et al., 2022). The use of bar speed trackers …

The VBT App Velocity-based strength training (VBT) is an alternative approach to strength training that has gained increasing attention (research). During VBT, training intensity is controlled by monitoring the concentric velocity of each repetition using devices designed to measure this variable. Until a few years ago, only elite athletes who could afford expensive equipment  to …

The Westside system, developed by Louie Simmons, differentiates three training methods: maximal effort, dynamic effort and repeated or repetition effort (Simmons, 2022). The difference between them is the load used, the velocity at which we move the bar and the fatigue reached, or how close we get to muscle failure. The ideal is not to …

What’s The Force-Velocity Curve? In 1938, Hill reported a relationship between force and velocity in frog skeletal muscle and this formed a hyperbole (Hill, 1938). Since then, many researchers in the field of exercise physiology have been studying how strength training affects such a relationship between force and velocity (Sugi & Ohno, 2019). Gregory Haff …

Team sports make up a large part of the overall number of sports played in society. In fact, children and teenagers often focus on team sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, or handball, leaving aside other more individual sports such as athletics, swimming, tennis, or any contact sport. However, what children are not able to …

There Are as Many Performance Tests as Athletes Performance testing should be part of sports planning to obtain information about the athlete’s condition and the effectiveness of training. Recreational athletes train a few days a week because it is not their real way of life. Elite athletes train almost every day but cannot afford to …

What are the training phases that field sports athletes go through? The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) developed an evidence-based fitness training system based on scientific principles more than 20 years ago (NASM, n.d.). Dr. Mike Clark, its creator, established five distinct but complementary training phases to improve the physical performance of field sports …

The preparation for a new sports season begins with the end of the previous season. Athletes need rest, but we must keep in mind that the sooner a season ends, the sooner the next one begins. This period in which the coach and physical trainer meet to set up the next season is complex because …

First key to becoming a great S&C trainer: specialist of specialists   They say that “knowledge does not take up space”, but it does take up time. They also say that “learner of everything, master of nothing”. There are many personal trainers who have a client portfolio that includes pregnant women, older adults, people with …

What is long-term athletic development (LTAD) and why is it important? Image taken from Brett Wharton (Unsplash) Physical activity improves the overall health of children and young adults by reducing the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and suicide, among other chronic medical conditions (Washington et al., 2001). Increasing youth physical activity has become …

What is a key performance indicator (KPI)? Image taken from Jonathan Chng (Unsplash) A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that shows how effectively an athlete’s specific objectives are being met. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs from now on) are useful to evaluate the success of the objectives set for each athlete. Every athlete …

In the last decade, the importance of physical exercise for health and sports performance has gained great relevance among the population. So much so that in the last 30 years, more scientific studies related to physical exercise and performance have been published than in the previous 80 years. This is because sports science has been …