classics

Is Running Steps a Good Idea, or a Bad Idea? An interesting question ….. I love to run steps whenever I get the opportunity.  Years ago when I was in my early 20’s, I was living with my sister and brother-in-law in their condominium in Pompano Beach, Florida. The building we were living in at the time had upwards of 20 floors. This meant the fire escape stairwell had 40 flights of zig-zagged steps, with each flight containing about 10 steps. In Florida, this meant that the non air-conditioned fire escape was extremely warm and got hotter the higher you… read more

Why Isometrics with Resistance Band Training  Helps Athletes Beyond the Benefits of Weights   We receive numerous requests from trainers, coaches and athletes of all ages and sports backgrounds asking us to explain how our programs are different from others. We also receive similar requests from developers of other speed training programs and jump training programs to explain the same. In particular, most would like to know how isometric training with the resistance band differs from isometric training with weights.  Most of them don’t see a difference and would like to know.  Their initial gut feeling is that, “they’ve got… read more

The 3 Types of Muscle Contractions Concentric, Eccentric, and Isometric Your speed training program will deliver your best sports performance when you train your muscles with all three! Part 4 of 4 – Isometrics Part  1 – Muscle Contraction Types Part  2 – Weight Lifting Part  3 – Plyometrics  Part  4 – Isometrics    In this section, I’m discussing several different types of isometric exercises and define which types of muscle contractions are involved in the exercise, and why that exercise is important to overall athletic performance.  Isometric Training Isometric training exercises are unique for several reasons.  First, they are… read more

The 3 Types of Muscle Contractions Concentric, Eccentric, and Isometric Your speed training program will deliver your best sports performance when you train your muscles with all three! Part 3 of 4 – Plyometrics Part  1 – Muscle Contraction Types Part  2 – Weight Lifting Part  3 – Plyometrics  Part  4 – Isometrics In this section, I am discussing several different types of plyometic exercises and define which types of muscle contractions are involved in the exercise and why that exercise is important to overall athletic performance. Plyometric Training Most people use plyometrics training because they involve what is termed… read more

 The 3 Types of Muscle Contractions Concentric, Eccentric, and Isometric Your speed training program will deliver your best sports performance when you train your muscles with all three! Part 2 of 4 – Weight Lifting Part  1 – Muscle Contraction Types Part  2 – Weight Lifting Part  3 – Plyometrics  Part  4 – Isometrics   This section describes several different types of weight lifting exercises and defines which types of muscle contractions are involved in the exercise, and explains why that exercise is important to overall athletic performance. Weight Lifting Weight lifting, otherwise known as strength training, forms the foundation… read more

The 3 Types of Muscle Contractions Concentric, Eccentric, and Isometric Your speed training program will deliver your best sports performance when you train your muscles with all three! Part 1 of 4 Part  1 – Muscle Contraction Types Part  2 – Weight Lifting Part  3 – Plyometrics  Part  4 – Isometrics Weight training, plyo training and cardio training, as effective as they are, only incorporate concentric and eccentric muscle contractions and therefore, if that is the extent of your speed training, you will be missing out on the third key ingredient in sports training, known as isometric contractions. Sports skills… read more

Hit longer drives with Golf Swing Muscle Training Understanding and strengthening the muscles used in the golf swing will help perfect your golf swing and lower your score – And so much the better if you can do those golf exercises at home!   You may not know the muscles’ names; but, you can begin to appreciate how perfectly the human body was designed. And, if you really apply yourself and do the proper research, it isn’t long before you arrive at an entire list of muscles that need the proper training and conditioning that go into the perfection of… read more

How to add a few more inches to your running vertical jump in less than two weeks Train your hip flexors for just 3 minutes a day and watch your leaping ability soar! Hey, basketball players, does your vertical jump coach have you training your “Pectineus” muscles? or “Sartorius” muscles?  SAY WHAT?  Why do I need to train these muscles? I didn’t know they even existed! Read carefully. If you want to increase vertical jump height as much as possible and increase running speed as much as you can, then you need to read this article. Two Most Important Muscles… read more

Speed Training from AthleticQuickness.com ….. What is the Speed Training Secret to Condition Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers for Quick and Powerful Contractions?   Targeting Your Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers Properly Is Key To Speed and Quickness The key to the effectiveness of these programs is their ability to isolate and strengthen very quickly and easily the specific muscle groups and the fast twitch muscle fiber types that are responsible for quick and powerful reactions. The AthleticQuickness exercise programs are ‘pure’ speed training programs, because unlike others, these programs do not mix endurance training with speed training.  They have one objective only, and that is to condition… read more

Fast Twitch and Slow Twitch Fibers   Part 1: Muscle Tissue and Contractions Part 2: Types of Muscles Part 3: Fast Twitch and Slow Twitch Muscles Part 4: Physiological Effects of Strenuous Exercise                 Skeletal muscle consists of two main fiber types: Type I fibers and Type II fibers. The Type II fibers are further subdivided into two groups: 1) Type IIa and 2) Type IIb Type I, Slow twitch Fibers. They are called slow twitch fibers because when compared to the Type II fibers, they are slower to contract. Some studies suggest that their contraction rate is two to… read more