{"id":19150,"date":"2020-11-29T22:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T02:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=19150"},"modified":"2020-12-07T16:38:29","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T20:38:29","slug":"strength-training-for-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/strength-training-for-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Strength Training for Athletes: Prioritize Your Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is strength training for athletes<\/a>? How does The 4-Hour Body <\/em>recommend athletes complete strength training?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strength training for athletes is a program for building muscle without compromising your sports-specific skills. You want to enhance and prioritize your sports performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on for The 4-Hour Body<\/em> approach to strength training for athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Strength Training for Athletes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are some principles to keep in mind for strength training for athletes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principle #1: Train your sport-specific skills six days a week,<\/strong> do sports-related training (such as conditioning) three days a week, and do strength training three days a week on the days you\u2019re not doing sports-related training. (In Part 2, we learned that training less frequently is effective for building strength, but as athletes have more complicated goals than simply getting stronger, they should train more than once a week.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principle #2: Sets should only contain two or three reps.<\/strong> Total reps should number around 10, whether that\u2019s five sets of two or three sets of three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principle #3: Do only a few exercises that target most of the bodies\u2019 muscle groups<\/strong>, such as the bench press or deadlift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principle #4: Spend five minutes resting in between all sets.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principle #5: Don\u2019t push to failure<\/strong> (being so fatigued you can\u2019t do any more reps).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principle #6: You should feel stronger after lifting than when you started.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principle #7: Do the Janda sit-up<\/strong> to strengthen your abs. According to scientific theories, Janda sit-ups are effective because they force you to contract your hamstrings, which turns off your hip flexors and forces your abs to do all the work (people often cheat at abs by recruiting their hip flexors for help). To do the exercise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n