Strength and Conditioning Knowledge Center

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 …

Injuries are known to be the worst nightmare to everyone (athletes, people who work out or who don’t train at all…). Having an injury means to suffer a change in your movements. This means that the person will become dependent during the time of the injury and their daily life will not develop as always. …

Motivation is something very important to know how to manage any high-performance athlete and “amateur” sport. Many times, we coaches think that athletes become machines because they reproduce and reproduce workouts practically every day of their sporting life. However, it is very important that athletes do not stagnate and that they have clear goals and …

A team is formed from the qualities, abilities/skills and characteristics of each athlete. Each athlete’s characteristic is visualized in the team as a whole so that all together they form a competitive and efficient team. Selecting the people who will share the field during the competition is not an easy task. For example, during the …

In previous blog articles we have seen what characteristics athletes must have for them to be recruited for a team. In this post we are going to focus on how we should carry out this recruitment process, what are the main variables to take into account and what we should focus on. Recruiting athletes is …

What is Bat Exit Velocity and Why is it So Important in Baseball and Softball? Image taken from Chris Chow (Unsplash) Bat velocity is the speed with which the ball leaves the bat just after the impact  (Nicholls, Elliott, Miller, & Koh, 2003). Exit velocity is one of the main metrics taken into account in …

Before you know if you should train with stiffness, what is it? Image taken from Bruce Mars (Unsplash) Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a functional muscle disorder caused by eccentric muscle contractions or unknown forms of exercise (Hotfiel et al., 2018). By performing biopsies at the muscular level, it has been proven that there …

Periodization of training in sport: what is it and where does it come from? Image taken by Joel Muniz (Unsplash) The periodization of training is the tool that coaches have for athletes to respond to the training load with beneficial adaptations for their sports performance (Medicine, 2013). If the load used is less than necessary, …

How did you plan to study for an exam? Most students focus on studying the days leading up to the test, but they know that they would do much better if they spread out those hours of study over the months. Many of us have experienced the end result firsthand: if you are lucky, you …

Differences between planning, periodization and scheduling   There are three terms that are often confused when we want to capture in a calendar the objectives of the training and the sessions that we are going to carry out to achieve it. Planning, periodization, and scheduling are often interchanged, but each term refers to different functions …

Lactate threshold refers to a person’s ability to perform aerobic exercises the fastest they can before the fatigue kicks in. Exercises performed close to this threshold lead to a sudden rise in blood lactate levels. Blood lactate is usually 1-2 mmol/L when you rest or perform low-intensity training. However, it rises to over 20mmol/L when …