After working out and being fully exhausted the last thing anyone wants to do is cool-down. Everybody just wants to lie down and fall asleep. The cool-down is the part in a workout that is skipped most often. People feel they are done with the workout and that is it. What people don't know though is that skipping the cool-down could actually end up hurting them even more. While working out, even if the workout is safe, you are putting strain on your muscle fibers, ligaments, and tendons. The strain and the work that your muscle fibers, ligaments, and tendons are all undergoing build up of metabolic waste in your body. Having a proper cool down can help flush out these toxins that build up and can prevent soreness and stiffness from occurring. Cooling down properly also helps to slowly bring your heart rate back to normal. This is important to prevent dizziness, fainting, and blood pooling that can occur from suddenly stopping a vigorous workout. Blood pooling occurs when you suddenly stop exercising because the force that pushes blood back to the heart slows as well. If a cool down is not performed then the blood that builds up can cause swelling and pain. Thus, cooling down can help prevent blood pooling from occurring by slowly reducing the heart rate. Something like a light jog can even help by causing small contractions forcing the blood vessels to continuing pumping blood back to the heart. At Athletic Lab we recognize that having a proper cool down is important and we never skip it. Here are some exercises that are good to include in cool downs: Light Jog Lying down Quadriceps stretch Pigeon Stretch (Hip stretch [...]

Results. This is what athletes expect from a training protocol. Sure, there are temporary benefits from training such as stress relief and enjoyment, but ultimately athletes and coaches want results. The best way to determine if an athlete is progressing is by testing them. Seems simple right? Well, there are a few things to take into consideration before testing an athlete. First, it is important to determine what needs to be tested. Some sports may have different biomechanical and physiological requirements than others. For example, a long distance runner does not need to necessarily be tested on their agility, while with a football player or soccer player this would be extremely important to incorporate. In an article from the, "Strength and Conditioning Journal", they found that acceleration and max speed is very important to add to a testing battery for soccer players because it relates to the game. A soccer player sprints about every 90 seconds in a game, which in a 90 minute game this would be extremely important. After determining what needs to be assessed it is then important to determine what test works best. There are many different tests out that can assess the same thing. To test strength, you can do the bench press or back squat. To test aerobic capacity, there is the 2-mile run for time, the beep test, the Yo-Yo Intermittent recovery test, and many more. To determine what test works best you have to again look at the sport and skill level of the athlete. You would not want someone who has never performed a back squat to do a 1RM back squat to test their strength. It would be better suited for them to do a [...]

Train, train, and train some more. This seems to be the motto these days for many elite athletes. It is easy to become consumed by your sport and think you have to train hard all day everyday, but when does your body have time to recover? Not enough people think about how important sleeping is for their body to be able to heal and perform at peak performance. Having the optimal amount of sleep is very beneficial for performance, because your body naturally releases Human Growth Hormone (HGH) when in a deep sleep. HGH helps with not only metabolizing fat, but also with recovery and healing of the body. If you train all day every day without sufficient amounts of sleep, then your body will not recover and heal. If your body does not have enough time to heal, then training will not be nearly as beneficial, and you could also run the risk of hurting yourself and overtraining. A study performed on 11 healthy athletes from the men's basketball team at Stanford University showed that after increasing the amount of sleep of each athlete by around 110.9 minutes a night, their overall ratings of physical and mental well-being improved. Their speed during 282-foot sprints also improved from 16.2 seconds to 15.5 seconds and their shooting accuracy by 9% on free throws and three-point field goals. Here are a few tips on how to help improve your sleep: Have the room completely dark (or as dark as possible) when going to bed. Try and have a regular sleeping schedule. Clear your head before going to bed. Write down any thoughts or things you have to do the next day. Avoid drinking any caffeinated beverages or [...]

You have been recruited to play at the collegiate level. The National Letter of Intent is signed or going to be signed within the next month. Your technical skills for the sport are worthy so now you are ready to play in college, right? What many athletes, especially females, forget about when coming into college is the strength and conditioning aspect of the sport. The competition in college is very different than in club or high school athletics. Think about it, the team you are about to go play for is not only practicing but also going through strength and conditioning training with a strength coach all spring. Why should you be doing any different? This means it is very important to be prepared before going in especially for fall season sports. Teams that compete in the fall such as football, soccer, and volleyball have only a week or two of training with the team before being thrown into the season. Coming into college strong and developed will help with injury prevention. I play on the East Carolina Women's Soccer team, and our coach always says that if an incoming freshman can make it through the first fall without injury, their chance for injury for the remainder of their career is significantly reduced. Why not decrease that risk even more by starting to work on your speed, strength, and conditioning and agility right now. I tore my ACL freshman year and believe if I was better prepared coming in it would have reduced the risk of tearing it.