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If you’re constantly feeling “tight,” your first instinct might be to stretch. You stretch your hips. You stretch your hamstrings. You stretch your shoulders. And maybe you feel better for a little while, but the tightness keeps coming back. So what if you don’t actually need to stretch more? Sometimes, that feeling of tightness isn’t a lack of flexibility. It may be a lack of strength and control. Strength Training Can Be Your Mobility Training Mobility isn’t just about how

One of the most common questions coaches hear is: “Coach, what weight should I use?” Percentage-based training is a great tool, especially when we have a reliable 1RM to base those percentages off of. If we know an athlete’s 1RM, we can use percentages to prescribe training loads and create a clear target for the session. But even with a known 1RM, I still like to use RIR (Reps In Reserve) in combination with percentage-based training. Why? Because an athlete’s 1RM doesn’t ac

If you ask most people what it means to be healthy, they'll usually mention: Exercise. Go to the gym. Lift weights. Go for a run. While exercise is incredibly important, it's only one piece of the puzzle. Health, and long-term performance, is built on four pillars: Sleep Nutrition Mental Health Physical Exercise Whether you're an athlete chasing peak performance, a parent trying to keep up with your kids, or someone who simply wants to feel better each day, these four areas w

The Problem: Too Much Output One thing I see with female athletes is they are incredibly driven. They’re practicing, lifting, doing extra conditioning, playing their sport, and trying to improve every single day. More ≠ Better The issue isn’t that you aren’t working hard enough. The issue is that your training stress may be exceeding your ability to recover. The Empty Tank Training Side: Recovery Side: Lifting 1. Sleep Practice/Games

More Isn't Better One of the biggest mistakes I see athletes and coaches make during speed training comes down to two things: Doing too much volume. Not taking enough rest between sprints. If every sprint leaves you exhausted, you're probably not training speed anymore. Many athletes wear fatigue as a badge of honor, believing that if they're breathing hard or drenched in sweat, they had a productive speed session. But speed training isn't about how tired you get, it's about

A lot of people stay active by walking, doing yoga, or taking Pilates classes. Those are all great forms of exercise, and if you enjoy them, keep doing them. But if your goal is to build and maintain strong bones, they aren't enough on their own. Here's why. Bone Adapts to Stress Bone is living tissue. Just like muscle, it adapts to the demands placed on it. So, the question becomes: What tells bone to adapt? There are two primary sources of mechanical stimulus that help your

How One Molecule Supports Muscle, Bone, Brain, and Healthy Aging When most people hear the word creatine, they picture athletes, jacked men, or someone just trying to build muscle in the gym. But here's the thing... Creatine isn't just a sports supplement. It's an energy supplement. Every cell in your body relies on energy to function, whether you're lifting weights, chasing your kids around the house, going for a walk, concentrating at work, or simply getting through your da

The hardest part about being a strength coach isn’t designing a program. It’s creating a plan that is engaging, purposeful, and effective over time. That’s where the art of coaching comes in. Because the truth is, great training can be mundane sometimes. The fundamentals aren’t always flashy. They aren’t always exciting. But mastering the basics, and doing them consistently, is what creates results. Now, does that mean training has to be boring? Absolutely not. Good coaching

One of our core principles at Cadet Athletic Performance is Leadership. While we want to build better athletes, we believe building leadership Is key to that process. This is especially important in youth athlete development, where habits, behaviors, and identity are still being formed. The goal isn’t just to improve performance today, but to help athletes develop traits that carry over into sport, and life. And importantly, this is developed in the training environment, not

Recovery is where we actually gain the benefits of the hard work we put into training. Recovery isn't just cold plunges, saunas, cupping, massages, or fancy recovery gadgets. Those things are nice perks to have access to, and if they work for you, then great. But the best modality to improve recovery and performance in and outside of your sport is FREE. It's sleep.

Just because you’re no longer throwing on a jersey or competing in an organized sport setting doesn’t mean you should stop challenging yourself. Training for health is important. But if we’re being honest, training only to “stay healthy” can start to feel repetitive over time. Sometimes the best thing you can do is put something on the calendar that gives your training purpose outside of the weight room. A goal creates excitement. It gives you direction. It makes training fee

The “Slow Cooker” Approach to Long-Term Performance One of the biggest misconceptions in strength and conditioning is that a training session only “counts” if you leave feeling completely exhausted. Many athletes and parent's associate: Heavy sweating Extreme soreness High heart rates Total exhaustion with a productive workout. But fatigue alone is not the goal. There’s a major difference between working out and training. Working Out Working out is often based around: Chasing

Why You Should Still Lift During the Season We put in so much work in the off season, then lose a lot of those adaptations when we stop training during the season. And with youth sports, kids are playing ALL the time. Is there truly ever an off season for them? Everything has its own context but in general let’s look at the following 3 graphs to help explain what your training should look like in season versus off season and why I still strongly encourage you to lift during s

“Sport-specific training” gets overused. You’ll hear things like: “If it doesn’t look like the sport, it’s not useful.” “My kid plays soccer, they should train like soccer players.” “We need to make the gym more game-like.” But trying to mimic your sport in the weight room is not the goal. The most sport-specific thing you can do is play your sport. What actually builds performance The weight room exists to build the foundation that allows you to express skill better, strengt

One of the biggest mistakes athletes make during the return-to-sport process is thinking they need to immediately “grind” their way back into shape. More conditioning. More intensity. More soreness. More exhaustion. But getting tired and getting better are not the same thing. Working Out vs. Training “Working out gets you tired. Smart training gets you better.” There’s a difference between exercising and actually training with purpose. Training with purpose takes more discipl

Hello runners! Whether you’re doing a walk-to-jog, fast walk, 1 mile, 5K, marathon training, or just getting into running, stop and read this. If you love running (or want to start), you need to think about this: What is running not giving your body? What demands is it placing on you repeatedly? Running is a sport, even recreational running. And like any sport, your body should be trained to handle its demands. Running is highly linear and repetitive, which is why it’s import

ACL injuries are often discussed as if they’re random or unavoidable. But when you look at the research, patterns emerge. Female athletes experience ACL injuries at significantly higher rates than males. Depending on the study, this difference is commonly reported as approximately 2–8 times higher risk (Arendt & Dick, 1995; Agel et al., 2005). The important question is not if the risk exists, but why. The answer is not one factor. It is a combination of anatomy, hormonal infl

Most adults think cardio has to be hard to be effective. But one of the most powerful (and overlooked) tools for improving health, performance, and body composition is actually the opposite: Zone 2 training. Why Cardiovascular Health Matters Your cardiovascular system is the engine behind everything you do: energy, recovery, training performance, and long-term health. Improving it helps you: Feel more energized day to day Recover better between workouts Support heart health a

The benefits and common misconceptions about youth strength training