Last week I mentioned developing a philosophy for Strength and Conditioning for King’s Ridge Christian School. I mentioned there were three parts and that I would be doing some further detailing of those three pieces for y’all. The first point in that written philosophy was injury prevention. I recognize that this is an obvious necessity in the strength and conditioning world and that many CrossFit gyms are well aware of this as a primary focus but I want to detail out two specific ways that good coaches and owners as well as trainers around the world can be creating a culture of health and fitness and keeping kids and adult athletes training rather than recovering from injury. Below is the exact paragraph as written for the philosophy:
“Injury Prevention: In high school athletics, specifically in cultures where athletes play multiple sports, the key to success is keeping them on the field and out of the trainers room. The strength and conditioning department will always work to this end in two specific ways. Majorly, we will avoid movement, volume, intensity, exercises, and activity that will cause or be the catalyst for injury. Secondly, we will utilize and embody exercises and a training program that prevents injury through the full development of an athlete’s strength, power, and precise movement.”
Obviously one of the key ingredients for preventing injury is programming and loading in such a way as to not overly-tax athletes body. While I am a huge believer that the body can sustain large amounts of load and, especially in the teenage years, can endure and flourish under extreme circumstances, there is always a limit. Understanding deloading and the basics behind simple periodization can be huge stencils for programming and creating workouts that build up athletes instead of pushing them toward injury. Lots of times the specific sport is blamed for injury when in reality the injury was made possible by poor training and poor coaching in the weight room. It is obviously fundamental that movement is paid close attention to and regarded highly by the coach in the weight room but it must go hand-in-hand with proper programming and with long-term goals. This facet for injury prevention is not a new one nor is it one that should come as a shock to most of you.
The second facet that I focused on in my philosophy surrounding injury prevention is basic strength development as the primary source for preventing injury. Strong muscles help protect joints. Dense bones, strong ligaments, tendons, and joints are also massively important for injury prevention. Bottom line: the stronger athlete is harder to hurt. Furthermore, the strong athlete bounces back from injury a lot quicker than a deconditioned one. Proper strength gain, specifically the strength gained through squatting, pulling, pressing, and the Olympic lifts, can be the number one reason athletes survive the beating they take on their field of play. This should be the number one reason, in every gym across the world, to lift heavy things. People who lift heavy things regularly are much harder to injure and are better prepared to excel in their sport. Thus from a philosophical standpoint, when I do my job well I prevent injury. Preventing injury is not necessarily a focus for me as much as it is a direct result of doing my job well in the weight room. As Mark Rippetoe so famously stated, “strong people are harder to kill and more useful in general.” More on this to come.
Developing Power & Strength through the use of the Olympic Lifts.
