I care about proper, efficient, and safe movements. Some people might consider this overbearing and critical, however it is anything but. My goal as a coach and as a professional is to ensure that my clients and athletes are performing safe and effective training. If they aren't then I am not doing my job. If somebody gets injured on my watch, the fault lies squarely on my shoulders. And if there were one movement that I was to create a PSA about today it would be the push-up. Yes, the standard, everyday, run-of-the-mill push-up. The push-up is arguably one of the most difficult movements to master. Show me one person doing the snatch, clean or squat incorrectly and I will show you 20 people performing the push-up wrong. Why is this? Well, I've spent the past 48 hours researching how to do the push-up correctly and I have found very little empirical data. This could be partly responsible for why so much discrepancy exists. Regardless, we should set a precedent. While there isn't a lot of scientific data depicting what the push-up should look like, it does offer some advice. If we observe the push-up (in it's natural habitat), it's really just an inverted bench (chest) press exercise. The movement pattern is essentially the same. At the start of the bench press the head, shoulders, upper back and glutes are firmly and evenly placed on the bench (Graham, 2003). The grip should be slightly wider than shoulder width; with the hand over the elbow (when looking from the top the hand will reside directly atop the elbow)(Graham, 2003). If we remove the bench, the athlete's body position, with the exception of the legs (since they [...]

Recently the question has been asked, what are the signs and symptoms of overtraining? Before we continue onto the signs and symptoms, it's probably important to define and explain what overtraining actually is. While you may never experience this syndrome, it's still important to address the potential threat and take steps to prevent it from occurring. Overtraining syndrome is known by many names. Some may call it burn-out or just refer to the feeling of staleness, heaviness, or low motivation to achieve. As defined by Smith (2004) overtraining occurs when "an athlete is training intensely, but, instead of improving shows a deterioration in performance, even after an extended rest period" (p. 185). Put another way, overtraining is simply the imbalance between adaptation and time allotted for recovery (Sims, 2001). The body needs to be stressed just beyond its comfort zone in order to adapt, this is how we see gains in performance. However, when the stress and frequency outpace recovery the effects can often be deleterious. While overtraining can manifest in many ways (psychological, physiological, biochemical, and immunological) you will probably notice first a change in mood followed by declines in performance (Smith, 2004). As an example, the first signs of overtraining will be psychological in nature; the athlete may go from an outgoing enthusiastic presence to being constantly tired, depressed and uninterested in training or competing (Smith, 2004). While overtraining will affect athletes in different ways, the best thing that you can do is to be aware of its existence. Smith (2004) states that while a general consensus to overtraining does not exist it appears that overtraining is related to an increase in volume and/or intensity of training, or a consistently high volume of [...]

The back squat is a staple at Athletic Lab. You'll find it or one of its variations employed in almost every one of our training sessions. Many people, on first arrival at our facility, are shocked that we teach the deep squat and that our staff are pleased with nothing less than 'parallel'. It is no surprise that our clients are apprehensive when performing the back squat. It is a difficult exercise, and is not as simple as putting weight on one's back and moving the weight up and down in succession. The aim of this article is not to teach the back squat, but rather to discuss two main points of the back squat: technique and safety. Most of you know that we have a highly accredited and knowledgeable staff, but sometimes this is not enough. We certainly understand that, and this is why we constantly provide you with articles designed to pique your interest and challenge your strength and conditioning paradigm. The squat, or back squat as we so eloquently refer to it, is one of our primary, "go to" exercises. Many of you are probably wondering why we teach it. The answer is simple, we use this exercise to enhance performance. Chiu (2009) reminds us that during acceleration, the glutes and the quadriceps supply the majority of force during triple extension and that this triple extension could be significant for an athlete exploding out of a 3-point stance or from blocks, or those in a 'defensive position' (p. 25). As part of a comprehensive program, a highly functional movement such as the squat proves to be an excellent exercise for the athlete or the Crossfit participant. It is the basis, the foundation, [...]

Over half of Athletic Lab's athletes are females. Many participate in sports like volleyball, basketball and soccer that have been linked with very high likelihoods for ACL tears. A large body of literature suggests that gender differences are partially responsible for the high prevalence of ACL injuries in female athletes. It is common knowledge that the female athlete is more susceptible to certain injuries. However, the reasons for why these propensities exist may not be fully known or understood to the athlete, coach or practitioner. The athlete or coach who is constantly keeping up to speed on the latest evidence based research may find themselves perplexed by the number of studies that attempt to determine a causality between genders and ACL injuries. Here we will discuss two studies that provide us with a better understanding of why ACL injuries occur more in females than males. As indicated by Krishnan, Huston, Amendola and Williams (2008) it has been determined that female athletes have a higher incidence of anterior knee pain and non contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries than males (p. 800). Many of us however are left asking how or why this is possible? However, the answer is not as succinct as the question. It has been postulated that altered biomechanics and neuromuscular control play a significant role in the disproportionate incidence of knee joint injuries (Krishnan et al., 2008, p. 800 ). Researchers of this study sought to determine if muscular control of the quadriceps and hamstrings varied in males and females. Although the goal of this study was not to determine causes of ACL injuries, some data was discovered that pertains to this problem. Krishnan et al. (2008) discovered that "females recruit a larger [...]