Sports Conditioning and Body Control
Sports conditioning seems to be a Buzz word or new thing in the Fitness industry today. However for those athletes and coaches who have used this for their training style over many years it is more an awakening to those who train only with traditional strength and weights training with isolation movements rather than functional movement patterns used to enhance their sports activity and generally better everyday movements.
Quite simply if we master movement of the body by controlling momentum with balance, speed, and agility training and ensure that we are training movement and not just muscle, we become more efficient and stronger and faster as our brain responds to these requirements.
Improving Body Coordination with Sports Conditioning
Successful sport conditioning requires integrated coordination of your entire body. Your body a linked system that works together to coordinate athletic actions. Your body functions as a linked system in everyday life too – such as when bending over to pick up a baby, lifting the baby overhead to produce a smile. This is dependent on leg, torso and upper body strength – both prime movers and stabilizing muscles.
Some muscles must contract to help produce movement, others contract to help balance the body, while others contract to stabilize the spine and hold it in a safe, neutral position. Still other muscles will kick in each time your body recognizes a shift in position or to correct an error – such as detecting a loss of balance.
If we don’t train the body systems of balance, deceleration, speed, agility and reactivity very simple movement demands such as quickly stopping in tennis, lateral movements on a basketball court, running backwards to catch a ball and even random everyday activities like playing tag with a child will result in injury. This linked system is a kinetic chain and produces functional movement safely. This is also called proprioception training.
Stability Balls and Balance Boards
Training with Stability Balls and Balance Boards build your body together as a unit. These tools produce improvements that support athletic, dynamic movements such as sprinting flat out, beating two defenders, then suddenly stopping and changing direction for an attacking opportunity. Balance training helps build stronger joints, improve balance, builds a strong back and abdominals as well as improves coordination.
Remember you are only as strong as your weakest link! A strong core helps us to produce stronger movements that convert over to more power and speed. There are several pieces of equipment out there that will enhance sports specific training as well as functional movement skills. These include stability balls and balance boards, the “smart toner” tubing for added resistance and strength, the BOSU Ballast Ball for improved core strength as well as other explosive power drills and flat rung ladders and micro hurdles for speed agility and reaction training. You now have lots of variety and drills for improvement of athleticism and sports conditioning. Take advantage of these powerful tools and get into Sports conditioning to improve functional movement. Twist conditioning are the world Leaders in this field of education and products and can assist you with product and education.
