It’s no secret that professional athletes hit the weight room hard. If you search for the name of your favorite male athlete plus “workout” or “gym” on YouTube, you can likely find video evidence of it crush a 495 pound deadlift or pushing huge kettlebells as if they were nothing. But that kind of training is overkill for casual players in the beer league, isn’t it?
Not correct. If you play any sport, whatever your level, you need to lift weights – especially if you only play once or twice a week. Here’s why.
Exercise is tough, weightlifting makes it easier
Practicing any sport means performing several challenging movements: sprinting, lunging, and jumping; frequent, sudden changes in direction; throw; to step; swing a bat, bat, or bat; reaching for a catch; kick off a starting block. All of these movements require rapid flexion and extension of multiple joints, and enough balance and coordination to remain upright. They are difficult – and the less you practice them, the harder they put on your body.
This is probably why casual athletes get injured so often. If you’re at your desk most of the time, something as “simple” as sprinting a loose pass in pickup basketball can be stressful enough to increase your risk, such as pulling a hamstring strain. The American College of Sports Medicine points this out that resistance training strengthens bones and tendons in addition to muscles, and that it appears to reduce injuries of all types, including lower back injuries, in people of all ages. They recommend weight training for everyone from professional athletes to “non-competitive beginners”.
Lifting makes you stronger
You can probably see where this is going. Picking up heavy material makes you strong, and when you are strong you are less likely to get hurt. However, if you inevitably do this – because let’s face it, it will happen – you will recover faster.
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I’ve been training for about two months and can already confirm this. Last month I sprained my right ankle for about a millionth time while playing soccer. It hurt a lot, but to my surprise, I ran the mile home well. The next day my ankle was stiff and slightly swollen, but not painful. Within a week I had full range of motion again; after three it was as if nothing had happened.
My sprained ankle career goes back almost 20 years and I’ve never had a cure in less than two months, let alone a few weeks. I wish I had started exercising as an injury-prone teenager, but better late than never. (If there are teenage athletes reading this, whether or not prone to injury, get yourself to a squat rack.)
How to start lifting weights for sports
It’s pretty simple: Put a damn weight on the bar. If weighted movements are already part of your fitness routine, increase the weight over time. If not, go to the squat rack (or sign up for a beginner weightlifting class) and get started.
Not everyone has access to a bar and plates, however, and this is where the humble dumbbell comes in. You can do anything from snatches and cleans to swings and deadlifts with a pair of dumbbells, and since they also have many options for one-sided (one-sided) exercises, they are ideal for rehabilitation after injury. Skip the expensive sets with it useless little weights– Two heavy (at least 25 pound) dumbbells will get you off to a good start. You can order more as you get stronger. (I ordered mine from Dick’s Sporting Goods, and there are still in abundance.)
With certain moves you can hardly go wrong Squats and Deadlift. These classics are great for building both confidence and strength. So if you feel lost, start with this. From there, look for recommended strength training programs for your sport. All off runner for tennis to soccer players can benefit from training and it is never too late to start.
Look at the Olympic lifts
Pretty much every strength training program builds strength and protects against injury, but the right program will also make you faster and more powerful. If that’s your goal, meet your new best friends: the ripping and cleaning and wanking.
Athletes who practice contact sports (especially girls) are often discouraged from lifting weights in the first place, so Olympic lifting is a foreign concept to many of us. What a pity: Weightlifting (one word) requires exceptional strength, coordination, and balance, and it generates tremendous amounts of power – every essential ingredient for athletic performance in two efficient movements.
Whether tearing and cleaning and jerking are best for all athletes is controversial. Some coaches argue that time in the weight room is better spent doing simple exercises like squats that don’t require as much technique. However, if you want to do explosive strength exercises with barbells, USA weightlifting is a strong argument here:
Snatches and Cleans and Jerks produce some of the highest strength outputs in all of the sport. Strength, the product of strength and speed, is the main ingredient in helping people run faster and jump higher. Incorporating the Olympic lifting exercises into your workout is the most effective way to build strength and speed.
Olympic lifting exercises require that an athlete apply a force to the floor through a rapid and coordinated “triple extension” of the ankle, knee and hip that reflects what happens when sprinting and jumping, the core components of most sports. Aside from practicing the sport itself, Olympic lifters have the next highest impact on direct improvement in athletic performance in sports where strength, power and speed are critical.
The bottom line: Olympic lifts are proven to build strength, power and speed – and make you feel like a total badass. No matter what sport you play, that’s pretty hard to argue with.
If complex barbell exercises aren’t quite your speed just yet, that’s fine. Movements are less important than weight. Whether you’re doing simple front squats or a clean and jerky competition caliber, the key is Consistently use weights that feel heavy. As long as you challenge yourself, you will only get stronger and more powerful.
