Author: Kyle Newell

Wrestling is a dynamic sport, which is unique because it is a form of combat. When analyzing the best way to design a specific workout for a combat sport, it must be realized that the athletes are constantly trying to manipulate and stabilize their own body mass as well as their opponents. Wrestling workouts should be designed to enhance the wrestler’s ability to develop pure bodyweight strength and power. In order to train these athletes in a sport specific manner, their workouts should include dynamic movements using the bodyweight of another person. This article will look at the best ways…

Having an intense desire to succeed is the key ingredient to living the life of your dreams. For our purposes, we will examine some of the ways to keep that desire in the gym, on the field or any other fitness endeavor you choose to participate in. However, these tips or attitudes can be used in any area of your life. One of the main elements that all successful people have is that they know what they want. They may not know at the time how they are going to achieve this, but they know which direction they are going…

Myostatin, also known as growth/differentiation factor 8 (GDF-8), is a protein in humans and animals that regulates muscle growth. The myostatin protein inhibits excessive muscular growth. Myostatin is essential to the human body if it is to have a proper metabolism and retain homeostasis. It takes 50-100 extra calories a day to maintain just one pound of muscle. Imagine what would happen to our metabolisms if we had uncontrollable muscle growth? The body also needs to maintain a stable temperature and more lean mass means that the body’s cooling efficiency will drop. Large muscles also means that fibers are added…

Football is a game of fast, quick, high velocity, powerful and stabilizing movements. There are also a lot of pushing and pulling movements that occur in the sagittal plane. These movements require concentric as well as eccentric and resistive rotational forces. What this last statement means is the body will try to stabilize any rotational forces in the transverse plane. It will be important to take all of these components into consideration when designing a football strength and conditioning program. Right off the bat, we need to look at how the athlete’s core, or in this case, the football player’s…

Football is a game of leverage, power, speed and strength. It would be tough to pick all of the best exercises for a football player. It would really depend what you place your greatest emphasis on. This article will pick the five best strength and power exercises that could have the greatest carry over effect to the field. The hang clean would be a great choice. The hang clean involves the whole body producing very high power outputs. It will give the football player optimal neural recruitment, enabling him to develop high power in minimal time. I prefer the hang…

Many people think of golf and assume that it is a sport requiring little strength and power. Well, I have news for you, that assumption is wrong! Have you ever seen the speed and force of Tiger Woods’ club head? It is something to behold. Power is a product of velocity x force. These two components have an inverse relationship, so as one goes up, the other must go down. However, by adding in strength training, which is the ability to move maximal loads, we will be able to move heavier loads at faster speeds over time. This article is…

Many people are often at a loss as to how to get their calve muscles to grow. This article will examine different methods of calve training and what seems to work best. After reading this article, you will never again say, “My calves won’t grow.” It is visibly apparent that fitness enthusiasts of different ethnicities have varying levels of calve muscle development. Usually it will look something like this: people of Asian descent have very large calve muscles, African American people calve muscles on the small side, while Latino and Caucasian people can range from small to large (please realize…

For any of you strength coaches out there that are starting out training a high school or for that matter, a college team, you must realize that time is much more limited than during the summer and off-season. I am lucky if I get two 30 minute sessions per week with the team. So with so little time, I have had to trim all the excess fat off of the workouts and get down to business. There are also other issues that you may have to deal with such as player cramping and the mental side of the player. This…

You might be wondering what the heck the title is all about. Well, truth be told, I went skiing with my girlfriend this past weekend in a vacation home near Woodstock, NY. The wind chill was negative 14 degrees. So that is where the sub-zero comes in. And well, the rest of the title, as usual my idea was ‘inspired’ by something I was doing and it all kind of fell into place. I am on a mission to be in the best shape of my life (you have to practice what you preach, right!) and I knew that no gym…

I have been researching some different strength coaches lately. While I was watching the University of Pittsburgh’s strength coach, Buddy Morris, and the University of Memphis strength coach, Tom Myslinski online during the EliteFTS interviews, they said that as soon as you get sick, cease training. He referenced this to a book that I had just finished reading by one of the top Russian researchers/professors in the field. In the past, I would continue to pound my body even in the face of illness and many times I would not get better until many weeks had passed. This is not…