Should we be training like professional athletes?

[JoeJustice]

In a lot of the slick mags and all over the internet people offer up training advice based on professional, competitive athletes. Want to learn the best way to get strong? Talk to a powerlifter. What to learn agility? Talk to a basketball player. Interested in explosive power? Talk to a linebacker. Need endurance? Talk to a marathoner.

Men's Health in particular regularly spotlights athletes to gleam training techniques. But I can't help but notice a lot of the workouts for these guys seem over the top. Obviously your average person can't preform at this level, I get that, the idea is to use their example to adjust to your own abilities. Right? And let's not forget athletes (even bodybuilders) had an off-season. They don't preform at this level their whole life, or even the whole year.

I was recently watching an interview of Bryan Kest, the creator of Power Yoga and he said something that made an awful lot of sense to me. He said if you look to western athletes as the pinnacle of western training, you'll see big strong guys but you'll find that many of them suffer from chronic injury in later life. I personally know a couple of attorneys that played college football who in their 40's had to get their knees replaced.

Now I'm not a sports guy, so I don't really follow this stuff and I'm not trying to say "Sports are bad" or anything like that. What I'm genuinely curious about is; should we take our training advice from professional athlete? Do the pros outweigh the cons? Are the cons overrated? Or should the average man train totally differently?

It just seems to me that so many athletes are injured. Even Tiger Woods, who played what most people would consider a low impact sport, has a torn ACL and stress fractures. I can't help but wonder, were it not for modern reconstructive surgery and sports medicine how many professional athletes would be crippled for life?

-Joe

[Max McKinley]

Great post Joe. As has been emphasized so many times on this forum, each individual must learn to listen to his or her own body in terms of training. Body dimensions, leverage, genetics, and other factors all have to be considered in an effective training regimen. Some on this forum could train as professional athletes (as in the context you are presenting in your text). Others should not or cannot. Now, Herschel Walker is a notable exception to what Men's Health, Men's Fitness, et al. highlight and advocate. The Transformetric methods and philosophy give us the tools to achieve some remarkable results. Another example would be Jim Forystek and his sons. One of his sons did or does play college football. A recent thread about training at 50 and beyond had a post (sorry, I don't remember exactly which of you said it) that stated that he now just wants to see how far his body will go in terms of training and fitness goals even though athletics, profession or other endeavors do not require it.

I guess, the answer to your question remains quite subjective to each individual. But I would submit that if we are patient and faithful to the methods and philosophy taught here at Transformetrics, then yes, some of us can and do train like professional athletes. At the very least, we can certainly rise above what we thought we could be and become more than what we currently are.

[Andy62]

Great post Joe, Sports are enjoyable when we are young,but much of the training has gotten out of control. Sports are great in our youth,but beyond that point there is no advantage to training of that type. Infact, I will go so far as to say it is harmful to many individuals as it drains off vital energy that is necessesary for the more critical activities of life and causes injury. Life requires different abilities and skills than the short term controlled environment of sports. There are no referees in life and the lack of immediate rules places more emphasis on emotional strength and flexibility. Creativity and intuitive ability along with emotional flexibility and endurance are much more important in life than in the synthetic world of sports. Transformetrics builds the internal strength needed in life and trains us for the greatest game of all -the game of life.

[John Peterson]

Hey Guys,


Another great post by our friend Joe. I'll respond to it this way. It depends on which athletes we're talking about.

There are and were pro athletes like Ricky Henderson, Herschel Walker, and Woody Strode that train exactly the way we train and advocate here and they were incredible athletes and examples of lifelong. pain free, strength, and fitness. These guys have never been seriously injured using the methods that we teach. Coincidence? No way. Ricky Henderson in particular told the so called trainers and conditioning coaches that were always on his case about training on the weights (which he would not do) that there wasn't anybody else on the team in the shape that he was in 24/7. He also pointed out to the Trainers how often the other guys that did weight train were injured compared to himself. And the bottom line was nobody could prove him wrong.

But I'm with you Joe. Personally, I think that many of those routines are published in the magazines are made up and not what the athlete actually does. This is routinely done to have new articles in order to continue magazine sales. Nothing wrong with that. I just don't think that there is a great deal of truth to most of those articles. And I'm also in agreement about the number of former athletes needing joint replacement surgery. There are two reasons for this. The wrong kind of highly compressive strength training that stresses joints, tendons, and ligaments beyond the body's ability to repair it self AND lack of adequate minerals in today's diet. Without the proper balance of vital elements the body cannot repair itself.

---John Peterson

[monty]

Great Post

Much of what is pushed out there with pro athletes usually done with no scientific back ground at all

I know for instance some of our H.S. coaches are getting workouts for their athletes out of muscle mags.

Or they workout their athletes the way they were worked out years ago, it is the blind leading the blind. I

see it everyday as a coach and PE teacher.

Most people do not like or want change, so they do the sam thing over and over getting the same bad

results.

Monty

[Max McKinley]

Most people do not like or want change, so they do the same thing over and over getting the same bad
results.

Monty

There's that definition of insanity! :act-up:

[Greg Newton]

When I was a teen, we had a genuine Mr. winner training at our college dungeon one summer while he was taking a graduate course. He'd even trained with the Big Boys at the original Gold's in Venice. As I queried him about this and that bodybuilder and what I'd read in the glossy magazines and in the book Pumping Iron, he gave me a bemused look and said that they printed a lot of things that weren't true and exaggerated to sell magazines.

Another factor that has been around since the sixties and has become extremely sophisticated in the nineties are performance enhancing drugs, both illegal and gray area. That is the other side of sports training that is glossed over.

I also want to add something that really disturbs me and Monty hit it on the head. Too many high school coaches are training kids with the weights. They are doing everything from bodybuilding to powerlifting to Olympic weightlifting. They are even reaching into middle school. I have trained teen athletes with weights in the past. I also have observed the plethora of injuries in the way of blown out disks, knees, and shoulders I see in the high school athletes I teach. I do not think most teens have achieved the physical maturity to weight train.

In the seventies, that was the general attitude. One of the original strength coaches for football, E.J. "Doc" Kreis told my father back in 1975, when "Doc" was at Clemson, that I didn't need to be lifting weights. He told my dad I need to be running, doing pushups and doing chin ups because my bone structure, joints, and tendons weren't ready for the weights yet. Good advice. I wish I hadn't jumped the gun looking for a short cut.

[isorez]

I think it also is a factor of 'what your goals for your training are', too.
From firmly making the committment to 'get into shape'..to establishing maybe a new baseline for endurance...heart rate....blood pressure...to maiking a sound decision for weight loss or weight gain..etc.
Knowing this can first establish the baseline of how individually we want to curtail and arrange our training.
Yes, many of these magazines do show some outrageous workouts....but knowing what you want to acheive can be the first 'filter' in realizing what you need to do to borrow from some ideas here and there to incorporate them into a decent workout.

[Big Bear]

Great Post Joe!

Great discussion everyone!Another problem I see is that people will then follow advice of these theories when out of shape and injure themselves.I see tit all the time!

John great points and the ones that have trained this way seem to have longer careers and better,'after sports lives'.I remember reading once that Kareem Adul Jabar owed his longevity in the sport to doing Yoga.

Great points Monty and Greg and I see this all the time as well.I have trained many athletes with nothing but bodyweight exercises but what does the athletic department decide to do?Update their weightroom and hire a kid still in college to show the students the lifting he has been taught(for summer conditioning).

Luckily many have experienced the benefits of the training I have developed over time here and they are after me about spring and summer training.We already lost a lineman last year-hurt his back trying to squat to much weight.If the coaching community could only look at the lifelong well bing of the athlete I feel we would be all better off,as well as phys.ed.programs.

peace,
jason

[dynogoalie30]

I think that the training information that is on this forum,I do use and apply before I would listen to someone to say to train like a pro. What needs to be remembered is a lot of us dont have an off season or a ton of extra time on our hands to train 7 days a week, 24 hrs. I as a meat cutter get up at 4 in the morning and get home a 3, after busting my tail all day, doing what I do for 29 yrs. some days I just go for a walk if I am to pooped.I believe the advice giving here by the members and John Peterson, apply to people that have somewhat of a normal life, and even if I had a ton of time on my hands like some of these professional athletes,I am afraid if I trained like they did I would either burnout, or get injured, like I said the training advice on this forum, I lthink applies to people who have normal lives, and the workouts can be done at home or in the park, without taking a huge chunk of time, just my thoughts.

[isorez]

dyno,
Nice post. You are right, some days due to work and other committments, family, etc....you are just plain tuckered out and thats usually when I know I need to do something for the day, becasue it has just gotten away from me and if I don't do something I basically inflict a sense of 'guilt' on myself that somewhere in the day there was time to do 'something'. At this point, I will go through a DVR workout or bang out only a few sets of pushups/squats....just something so that I know there was at least 20 or 30 min. in the day that I put something in the tank until I know I can give it a full workout the next day.

[chris64]

Competitive sport in itself is NOT road to longevity. Frank Rudolph Young Yoga Secrets for Extraordinary Health and Long Life 1976

[Greg Newton]

just something so that I know there was at least 20 or 30 min. in the day that I put something in the tank until I know I can give it a full workout the next day.

Words of wisdom.

[Bruno]

A question that needs to be asked "are the athletes that are hurt later in life, hurt during their training/exercising or are they hurt by on field injuries?"

Ricky Henderson was and probably still is in great physical condition. As a player he had a nagging "hammy" injury. Was this injury caused by his workouts or was it caused by physically pushing his body past a safe limit in pursuit of excellance in his sport.

[monty]

An example of someone being trained in a negative way is a kid who a few years ago was one of the best high school hurdles and jumpers in the U.S. He went to a university on a scholarship to run track. In the off season he was lifting so heavy that when track started he was only able to run the times he ran as a H.S. freshman. He has since transferred to another Univ. The school he went to is a very prominent school in athletics. These strength coaches that trained this kid should be fired. It seems like so many of these certified strength guys are former football guys who think all should train with heavy weights day in and day out, what a bunch of ignorance and EGO. Most these guys that I see that are so called experts are fat, outshape slobs, who have chronic physical issues from doing heavy weights. I know there are some good ones out there but sure don't see many.

I am ranting since I see this ignorance everyday with the athletes in my school.

Monty

P.S. Don't get me started on so called personal trainers either. HAHA!!

[gruntbrain]

Cherry pickin' a "hero's" pgm is at least a worthwhile experiment; challenge yourself but recognize your aspirations likely differ from the "hero's"

I suspect most or even all celebrity fitness books don't reveal the "real pgm" & are designed to sell books rather than pass on useful info

[Andy62]

We are all professional athletes. The game we are training for is the game of life.

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Saxon/DPP/dpp01.htm#4

[Andy62]

Check out the average life expectancy of a Pro footall player

Weights and drugs!


http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/10/3/122610.shtml