Athletic Development

Athletic Development

Next-Gen’s, Tom, Meaghan and myself, were fortunate enough to attend an athletic development workshop with Christian Woodford from Woodford Sports Science Consulting. The topic of the workshop was athlete development; general physical preparation for athletic sporting demands. This is an area that I personally am extremely passionate about.

Teaching correct movement patterns should be priority – people should be technically competent in the squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, overhead pull and bent over pull movements. Competency in these movements translates to sound athletic ability. However, in gyms across the world, individuals are doing these movements with heavy weight before they are technically sound. This leads to poor movements patterns, under and over utilization of certain muscles, and places the individual at increased risk of injury.

Strength is the underpinning physical attribute required for optimum performance.

Whether you play a field based, endurance or power based sport, strength is essential. However, the art is in identifying which muscles need strengthening. Due to modern lifestyle where we sit for long periods of time, we lose inhibition in our gluteal muscles, some of the strongest muscles in the body. A well designed strength program should focus on gluteal muscle strengthening, as well as core development and ‘posterior chain’ activation. Once the individual has adequate strength, development of other physical attributes such as power and speed can take place.

So whether you are a weekend warrior or elite athlete, everyone can benefit from a strength and conditioning program.

At Next-Gen, we are able to guide you from the fundamentals of movement right through to advanced lifting. Spending just a couple of hours in the gym each week can have significant benefits. Performance will improve and injuries will be fewer.