Is the juice worth the squeeze? Strength & conditioning quotes

What is your training priority?

At the recent GAIN conference there were plenty of great insights from the delegates and faculty.

I have put some of my favourites here.

Cole Peterson came up with this quote when describing how much time and effort we should spend on any activity.

This came up in the hypertrophy round table: at what point is an extra 2.5kg going to make a difference in this athlete’s bench press? An athlete only has so much time and energy, so we need to make sure it is devoted in the right areas.

“Function follows form, form follows function”

Tania Cotton describing the importance of having correct form. This then facilitates correct function, which again creates correct form.  We are only interested in the efficiency of movement and its effectiveness in the field of play.

Form without function becomes stylistic and has zero relevance. Function without form is inefficient and could lead to injury.

“Preview, review, be positive”

Clay Erro describing how he starts every session.

He sets the scene for the imminent session,he reminds his players what happened last time and he is positive.

He got us to do this off the track, because when we moved onto the track, it was time to work.

He reminded us as coaches that we should be looking for effort and rewarding it. It is easy just to recognise ability.

“The human body is still a prototype”

Vinnie Comiskey reminding us that we are all different and we are still evolving as a species. Therefore we should be cautious about using modalities such as ice.

There were no refrigerators 1000 years ago, so why would we be responsive to ice?

“The body has a mind of its own, so I try to create movement maps”

Andy Stone talking about his philosophy of teaching physical education classes. He has been looking at neuroscience and is trying to train the brain within movement. He asks “where does the brain stop and the body begin?”

There was plenty more, but these highlights show just a snippet of the great information that was being shared by all.