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Hey Travis,

Great site and great gym.  I am a teacher and athlete in NY and have been using the westside method for two months now and I love it.  But my question is what type of training will you do with younger or less experienced athletes, would you put them on a bodyweight program until they are strong enough to lift weights or would you give them light weight to use?  Hope to hear from you soon and keep up the good work.

In Strength,

Bill Felice, NY

I appreciate the question and you taking the time to ask for my input. It seems like just yesterday I was searching for some similar answers to these questions. The average age of my athletes varies but this will be true with almost all of your athletes that are under 14. Start with body weight exercises and keep it simple. As there strength, ROM, endurance, coordination, etc improve you can begin to implement the weights.

Here is some rules to go by when training young athletes

1. Relative Strength or body weight strength or “strength base” – This is just what is says, being able to use your own body and handle its weight efficiently and until they do, external loading is a No NO!!! Become proficient with push up and variations of the push up, body weight squats, lunges, dips, recline rowing, band assisted chin ups, etc.

2. Compound Lifts – Kids are always in a sport so teach them and focus on the exercises that provide the most muscle for the effort “GYM ECONOMY” Use compound lifts like the squat, Deadlift, Military, etc and become great at those.

3. Technique – This is huge and it’s a lot easier to teach proper technique to kids when they’re young and bad habits’ haven’t’ formed to bad. This is especially true with compound lifts. If they have bad form, safety and strength gains will be sacrificed.

4. Plan – It’s important to have an idea of goals, skill level, sport requirements and athlete weaknesses down on paper. This will better help you to plan out your workouts, track progress, and help the kids get better.

5. Assessment – Just like a school would test you to see what you know before entering there classes you should find out where your athletes are in a areas of strength and flexibility. Body weight exercises, broad jumps or vertical jumps or even med ball throws for power, and for those who have a base background in the core lifts the squat, dead, and bench are good starting points. You then perform your strength training program and then test to see if you are stronger. If not, it’s time to re-evaluate your program.

6. Don’t Obsess with Numbers – again, learn form and technique first and don’t worry about anyone but you. That’s important for the kids to only be concerned with themselves and there goals.

7. Don’t Train Like a Pro – It doesn’t matter what muscle and fitness says Adrian Peterson does, do what is best for you!!

If you’re not sure continue to ask for professional advice, hit me up on the “Q&A” portion of my site and I’ll be glad to help you out!!

In the end Bill, just have fun with it, make it competitive for the kids, teach them and you’ll be just fine!!

Stick to these and you’ll see a big improvement!!

Train. Play. Dominate.

-Travis Self

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Hey Travis,

My son has femoral anteversion.  Although he is a great athleted, he has very tight hamstrings and weak hip abductors.  What can we do strengthen, stabilize and reduce stress on his knees and help improve his muscular system to adapt to this challenging problem?

Best Regards,

Sean

Hey Sean,

I appreciate you contacting me and inquiring my knoweldege of this issue in regards to possible corrections through strength training.  I will tell you up front that I’m not an orthopedist nor do I like to prescribe strength training regimens to an athlete who I’ve not met to assess any muscular or flexibility limitations but I will help you with some examples of some things I may “recommend” to better help his strength and flexibility.  Being that your son has been diagnosed with femoral anteversion you don’t need an explanation of what it is however, I will inform you that many children are born with this and as they progress into adolescence and adulthood it subsides and corrects itself.  Surgery is very very rare and in most cases is more trouble than it’s worth.  It’s understandable that his hamstrings and hip abductors are very tight because those muscles are acting opposite of there main function.

Most kids grow out of this or it becomes self corrected by age 8 or 9 and maybe age 12 at latest.  There are many outside things used such as shoes, wires, passive stretching methods, etc. but these things are discouraged due to the potential harm they may cause.  Should he not be able to grow out of it by that age, it’s very likely he won’t.  The good news is that besides a clumsy gate, and awkward sitting style his athletics and strength training regimen wouldn’t change too much. We would have to focus alot on strength through a full ROM, strengthening and building his vastus medialis to better protect his patella, as well TKE’S to strengthen his knee as well as the rest of the quads to better ensure knee stability.  I may suggest also strengthening his anterior tibialis through concentric exercises (dorsi-flexing his toes) and as pain subsides in his knees and or strength improves eccentric loading will be focus.

A heavy dose of PNF stretching of his lower extremities, i.e. calf, quads, and IT Bands will better help his flexibility as well as program “new” pathway’s for the muscle to move.  It’s also important that he learns how to properly “decelerate” or land properly in his athletic movements to better protect his knees.

Alot that has to go on to make sure he can improve his strength levels as well as his athleticism at this point in his young athletic career.

Good luck and I hope this helps you both out.  Contact me directly for an appointment to better assess his strengths and weaknesses (678) 978-3400.

Keep me posted!

Train. Play. Dominate.

-Travis Self

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Travis,

I watched your How to make a sand bag dvd it was great.  Where do you get your duffle bags and what type?  I bought a top loading duffle bag but I don’t know if that will work.  If you can help that would be great.

Thanks,

Billy

Hey Billy,

Thanks for watching the video and asking some questions about it.  Sandbags are great and very inexpensive ways to improve ones strength and GPP.  I’m fortunate to have a coach/trainer who is in the military who supplied most of the duffel bags.  To better answer your question though army laundry bags are just as good and will really hold some good weight.  I do suggest however to maybe line your bags with 10 mil construction bags to better ensure durability.  We currenly have some of those bags in our gym as heavy as 150 lbs.  I hope that helps and keep me posted on your training as well as with any questions you may have.

Train. Play. Dominate.

-Travis Self