Athletic Performance Training

Are you an athlete? Do you just like to stay in shape? Are you a weekend warrior? Do you need to shed a bit a weight? These questions, among many are things to be answered when getting into the debate between athletic performance training and personal training.  They both are great and very needed....yet different.  To distinguish between them, you first must look at what kind of athlete you are, if you're an athlete.  And if you're not, look at what you;re trying to accomplish.  Your goals will very much determine what kind of training you need.  If your goal is to get faster and build speed, so that you are quicker getting to a puck or faster changing directions, chances are you need some performance training.  Maybe you like to stay active, eat healthy and maintain your weight.  If that is the case, you're probably looking at personal training.

Athletic performance can be a little more detailed than personal training...especially when looking at a high performance athlete. The high performance athlete needs to take a few different variables into consideration when developing their program.  First they should look at whether the training is during the season, in the off-season or during the preseason.  When it's during the season, they will probably want to maintain the strength gains they made during the off-season.  When it's preseason, it's likely that they are gearing up for the season and going pretty hard.  While during the off-season, it's time for muscle building and gains in both muscle, speed and power, which isn't to mention all the muscle imbalances that they have developed during the season.  And that's for the athlete that has specific seasons, like a hockey player or football player.  What about the athlete who trains for a specific event?  Like boxing, gymnastics or track.  They must periodize they're training so they can peak at the time of the event.  Lots of things to take into consideration, eh?

But, what about the non-athlete? What do they need to look at? Well, start with activity level. How active are you? What are they eating like? And they probably have certain muscle imbalances, too. And then there's the weight loss.  What to do about that?  This is just as complicated as athletic performance, just a different type of complication. And much of the two will start to cross over.  Sometimes it's tough to see which one the athlete is.  Some trainers do both, some trainers do one, but the one thing they all have in common is to getting you to achieve your goal!!