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Strength Training for Young Athletes - William Kraemer and Steven Fleck
Strength Training for Young Athletes
by William Kraemer and Steven Fleck
NEW, 296 pages
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About Strength Training for Young Athletes
Young superstar athletes have dispelled long-standing misconceptions that strength development should start in the late teens. But much discussion has continued regarding what type of training is most beneficial.
Strength Training for Young Athletes provides all the answers as the authoritative guide to strength development for 7- to 18-year-old athletes. World-renowned strength and conditioning experts William Kraemer and Steven Fleck present the latest facts on the effects of strength training on growth, development, and performance. The authors then make recommendations relative to starting age, choice of exercises, frequency of training, rate of progression, and philosophical aspects of program design.
Learn how to individualize the age-appropriate sample training programs provided, based on the athlete’s physical, psychological, and emotional maturity as well as the demands of the sport. Such carefully designed programs not only improve athletic performance and prepare young athletes for higher competitive levels, but they also help to decrease the incidence of injury along the way.
Strength Training for Young Athletes is the most complete and credible resource for developing the muscular foundation for athletic success.
About William J. Kraemer
William J. Kraemer is a professor in the department of kinesiology working in the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. He also is a professor in the department of physiology and neurobiology and a professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center.
Dr. Kraemer held multiple appointments at Pennsylvania State University, where he was professor of applied physiology, director of research in the Center for Sports Medicine, associate director of the Center for Cell Research, and faculty member in the kinesiology department and the Noll Physiological Research Center.
Kraemer had served on the Sports Medicine Committee for the United States Weightlifting Federation and on the Sport Science and Technology Committee for the United States Olympic Committee. He received the National Strength and Conditioning Association Lifetime Achievement Award for bringing science into the development of strength and conditioning programs.
He is editor in chief of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, an associate editor of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, and an editorial board member of the Journal of Applied Physiology. A former junior high and college coach, Kraemer has coauthored many books and articles on strength training for athletes.
About Steven J. Fleck
Steven J. Fleck is chair of the sport science department at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Previously, he headed the physical conditioning program of the U.S. Olympic Committee; served as strength coach for the German Volleyball Association; and coached high school track, basketball, and football.
An internationally known expert on strength and anaerobic training, Fleck was a vice president of basic and applied research for the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). He is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). He was honored in 1991 as the NSCA Sport Scientist of the Year.
Fleck has authored many books and numerous articles on strength training and physical conditioning. He is also a columnist for Muscular Development.
Reviews of this Book
"In Strength Training for Young Athletes, Dr. Kraemer and Dr. Fleck teach how to develop a safe, effective program, addressing the physical and psychological maturation of each individual. This book should be required reading for anyone training young athletes."
Robert Jursnick
Executive director, National Strength and Conditioning Association
"I know first-hand that a successful young athlete has a well rounded training program that includes strength training. An ideal resource for those who want to get it right, Strength Training for Young Athletes will help you design a program that will prepare your athletes for their next level of performance."
Mike Nitka
Director of strength and conditioning, Muskego High School
Former Vice President, National Strength and Conditioning Association
About Strength Training
Strength training is the use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance, and size of skeletal muscles. There are many different methods of strength training, the most common being the use of gravity or elastic/hydraulic forces to oppose muscle contraction. See the resistance training article for information about elastic/hydraulic training, but note that the terms "strength training" and "resistance training" are often used interchangeably.
When properly performed, strength training can provide significant functional benefits and improvement in overall health and well-being, including increased bone, muscle, tendon and ligament strength and toughness, improved joint function, reduced potential for injury, increased bone density, a temporary increase in metabolism, improved cardiac function, and elevated HDL (good) cholesterol. Training commonly uses the technique of progressively increasing the force output of the muscle through incremental increases of weight, elastic tension or other resistance, and uses a variety of exercises and types of equipment to target specific muscle groups. Strength training is primarily an anaerobic activity, although some proponents have adapted it to provide the benefits of aerobic exercise through circuit training.
Strength training differs from bodybuilding, weightlifting, powerlifting, and strongman, which are sports rather than forms of exercise, although training for them is inherently interconnected with strength training, as it is for shotput, discus, and Highland games. Many other sports use strength training as part of their training regimen, notably football, rugby, lacrosse, basketball, hockey, and track and field
The basic principles of strength training involve a manipulation of the number of repetitions (reps), sets, tempo, exercises and force to cause desired changes in strength, endurance, size or shape by overloading of a group of muscles. The specific combinations of reps, sets, exercises, resistance and force depend on the purpose of the individual performing the exercise: sets with fewer reps can be performed using more force, but have a reduced impact on endurance.
Strength training also requires the use of 'good form', performing the movements with the appropriate muscle group(s), and not transferring the weight to different body parts in order to move greater weight/resistance (called 'cheating'). Typically failure to use good form during a training set can result in injury or an inability to meet training goals - since the desired muscle group is not challenged sufficiently, the threshold of overload is never reached and the muscle does not gain in strength. There are cases when cheating is beneficial, as is the case where weaker groups become the weak link in the chain and the target muscles are never fully exercised as a result.
The benefits of strength training include increased muscle, tendon and ligament strength, bone density, flexibility, tone, metabolic rate and postural support.
Strength Training for Young Athletes
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