 High school sports can be very demanding for young athletes. Practice is often 5-6 days a week for 2-3 hours a day in the preseason. During competition season, athletes will have games (or meets) and tournaments 1-3 days a week. For many kids this is their first exposure to a full sports season and intense competition. Even at the JV high school level, athletes will encounter tough competition that is taken more seriously than in middle school or lower-level club sports. The high school varsity level is competitive in nearly in every sport. Depending on popularity, making the varsity team can be tough. This is why in-coming high school athletes need to be well prepared for long practices and high-level competitions BEFORE they even start their preseason practices.
0 Comments
 I absolutely love running, but I didn’t always feel this way. It took years of on and off running to adapt to it and become proficient enough to enjoy it. One thing that helped me and many other runners improve their performance was to have a consistent weight and resistance training program. More importantly, this will help prevent injuries that are certain to occur to runners without a proper weight training plan.
 Having been in the personal training business for almost 20 years I would often get the question, “how many pullups should I be able to do?” Here in our Palo Alto, CA studio I don’t get it as often as previous big gyms I worked at, but it still comes up. There are many answers to this question depending on what standards you are looking at. You can easily find these by searching for pullups for military service, presidential fitness standards for kids, or just everyday standards. I’m not trying to dodge this question, but it really depends. The short answer for the amount to be considered “good” is: for men 5-10, for women: 3-5. This is a very general number and for certain fit or athletic groups this number would be much higher.
 It’s September as of the time of this writing and it always reminds me of my pre-season training prior to the first day of high school wrestling practice in early November. The season comes up quick with competition starting 3-6 weeks later, so it was always important to be well prepared for grueling practices and my first match.
 When I first meet with a high school athlete in our Palo Alto gym, I always check for movement quality and how well they can handle weight training. Personal training for the high school athlete should focus on 4 main concepts: safety, movement quality, joint stability, and beginner strength development.
|