Strength Training for Athletes: 8 High Level Strength Training Exercises
It almost seems hard to believe now, but there was a time where many people believed that it would somehow be harmful to athletes to train outside their sport and in the gym.
That belief is now long outdated, but the number one reason it persisted was because young people often feel themselves accelerating in skill and fitness as they play a sport longer, while older, more experienced athletes progressively lost their fitness levels as they became more efficient at doing what they did. In other words, the more efficient (or better) you are, the less stimulus you get to grow and become more fit.
When you aren’t challenged, you lose your conditioning. That is the core of why an athlete must have a strength training component to their overall plan.
Why Strength Training is Important for Athletes
The strength training of athletes has varying needs and bets to hedge against compared than the average gym goer. A proper strength program will help you:
Reduce your injury risk, keeping you playing and practicing more often.
Increase your strength and mobility, making you a better, more well rounded athlete who simply moves better.
Give you an opportunity to play longer: the older and more experienced you get, the less likely you are to get the same fitness benefit you may have once had in your sport.
To take on a strength and conditioning program outside of your sport is to address all of the above concerns and ultimately make you the best athlete possible.
Strength Training Needs Proper Programming
You can take the exercises listed below, or any exercise for that matter, and throw them into your training routine and still get no results. That’s because if the exercises aren’t properly programmed into your strength workout or done at the wrong time for the athlete, they’ll be ineffective.
In general, strength training programs for athletes should be phasic. This means you should be working on different athletic and physical qualities at different times of the month or year, and be intelligently switching it up.
We go through many phases at DiSalvo Performance Training, but we generally start with the following framework:
1) Structural Balance
the muscles needed for larger exercises or your sportWhen you come to DiSalvo Performance Training for your first session / movement and training assessment, we’ll be assessing your structural balance, first and foremost.
2) Hypertrophy and Skill Acquisition
Hypertrophy refers to literally increasing muscle size. It involves more volume of training (typically more sets and reps) and also gives us a good chance to really drive home acquiring the skill of the exercise.
3) Strength Intensification and Focus
This is where you can really expect to get strong and watch the weight on the bar increase. For many athletes, this phase isn’t as long as they might expect, but depending on if your sport is in-season or out of season, you may be spending a great deal of time here.
4) Specific Athletic Qualities
Rather than think “sports specific exercise,” we think of specific athletic qualities more broadly. As strength coaches, this is where we would use words like “explosive,” “agility", “speed,” “endurance” or some descriptor of the qualities of your sport. For example, a wrestler, a hockey player and a shot-putter would all need to be “explosive,” but only the wrestler and hockey player require endurance as well. For that reason, a wrestler and hockey player may have more similar strength workout programs than you might imagine.
8 High Level Strength Training Exercises for Athletes
The most important thing for everyone reading: an exercise doesn’t discern between high level or low level— everyone should perform them the same way. There is no advanced technique: what makes someone a high level athlete or high level at the exercises below is that they’ve mastered the basics and fundamentals of the movements.
A high level athlete in their sport who is unable to perform a sound version of any of the exercises below indicates to us that that movement is an area of need.
If your strength workouts lack any of the following exercises, then you may want to contact an experienced strength and conditioning coach at DiSalvo Performance Training to better help guide your efforts. We’re happy to help.
Exercise 1. Split Squats
Most sports (outside of strength sports) require dynamic and individual use of your limbs. A split squat trains this in your lower body and can be progressed and regressed an infinite number of ways. Front Foot Elevated Split Squats are great for beginners to understand how to properly bend at the knee joint.
Exercise 2. Deadlifts
Deadlifts are the ultimate expression of hip extension. Many sports require powerful use of hip extension and there’s no better way to create stronger hips, legs and backs.
Exercise 3. Loaded Squats (any variety)
We could write a whole book on this (and many have), but having a competent, appropriately loaded squat will help your knee, ankle and hip health, while also contributing very positively to your balance and overall standing base and stability.
You can load a squat in many different ways: with a barbell on your back, your front shoulders, a kettlebell, sandbag, or belt squat (pictured above), and all have different outcomes and uses.
Exercise 4. Pull Ups
Pull Ups may be the best exercise to display and test an athlete’s upper body strength. It measures two incredibly important markers of a high level athlete: their grip strength, and their back strength. If you know anything about DiSalvo Performance Training, you know we prioritize the posterior strength of an athlete above all else. Grip strength is paramount in any sport where you must make a connection with your opponent or with your own hand on a piece of equipment.
Exercise 5. Bench Press
The Bench Press is a very technical exercise that gets a bad rap as the culprit for shoulder issues, but frankly, that signals to us that you were never taught how to properly bench press. This exercise is very important for an athlete’s pushing power, as well as their ability to generate and transfer tension from their arms. From football players to martial artists, this is an important skill.
Exercise 6. Broad or Box Jumps
At some point, strength training has to cover “power training,” which refers to an athlete’s ability to move quickly and forcefully. Box Jumps train this skill vertically, while Broad Jumps do so at a more horizontal force vector. For many athletes, both are beneficial strength and power training exercises.
Exercise 7. Loaded Carries
Loaded carries, whether they are Farmer’s Carries or any variation you can think of are great strength training for an athlete’s grip and core. Did you know that the core and grip are intimately connected, with higher level of core strength correlating with better grip strength? Loaded Carries train both simultaneously, so we think they’re an essential part of your program.
Exercise 8. Conditioning
It’s easy to get caught up in strength training and to forget that one half of “strength and conditioning” is conditioning itself. Besides the obvious benefits for sport, a lack of conditioning contributes negatively to recovery and the ability to train adequately hard. A de-conditioned athlete will be less likely to recover from harder bouts of exercise.
You can use any piece of cardio equipment, like the fan bike pictured above, or you can use your own two feet for some good old fashioned running. Just make sure that whatever you use to aid in your conditioning doesn’t hurt you physically somewhere else. Consult one of our trainers for more help on this.
Troubleshooting Your Strength Workout
“The strength training of athletes has varying needs and bets to hedge against compared than the average gym goer. ”
If you have any trouble performing the above exercises, you’ll need to regress these movements to strengthen the muscles involved. Sometimes, people are discouraged when they have trouble with any of the above exercises. However, if you’re already a good athlete, this should be encouraging to you: you’ve achieved a lot with a glaring weakness that can be easily fixed. That’s a good thing!
It’s Nice to meet you, I’m Mark DiSalvo, CSCS.
Are you an Athlete trying to take your game to the next level?
I’m the founder and owner of DiSalvo Performance Training in NYC. I’ve been training high level athlete and clients of all backgrounds for over a decade. I’ve been the strength and conditioning coach to grapplers of all levels and disciplines: from youth to professional and Olympic-level, as well as professional basketball players, and many other sports. I’m currently a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu himself, with 10 years of experience in the sport.
I’m confident that my staff and team can help. I’ve built a team of trainers and developed programs designed specifically to help athletes like you become the best versions of themselves.
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