Grantham - The Strength and Conditioning Bible: How to Train Like an Athlete

To my wife Kate and our children Erin and Joe.

To my mum, dad and brothers.

To all of my mentors, colleagues and friends in the profession and to all the athletes and coaches, both past and present, that Ive worked with over the last 18 years, thank you. You have all helped me form my views and beliefs and become the coach I am today.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

This is not a book written by an Internet expert. This is a book written by a real coach who trains real people.

I first worked with Nick in 2003 at the English Institute of Sport and Ive continued to track his progress for more than a decade. I know that this book condenses, refines and delivers the knowledge and experience of one of the UKs leading hands-on strength and conditioning coaches.

Nicks track record speaks for itself. Hes spent almost 20 years working behind the scenes in high-performance sport, coaching athletes from 35 different sports, including five Paralympic sports. Hes trained athletes to compete in four Olympic Games, two Commonwealth Games, and numerous World and European championships. More recently, hes turned his attention to professional golf and football. No one knows better than Nick that training is about results, and this book will help you get them.

High-performance athletes and teams seek out Nick to take them to new heights, and Nick is an expert you should listen to not because he works with high-profile athletes and teams, but because alongside his coaching commitments with high-performance athletes, he has managed to work with real people in the real world. What many people dont know is that, throughout his career, Nick has always continued to work with normal people on an everyday basis, bringing to the general public his unique combination of fundamental principles and innovative ideas, allowing everyone to train like an athlete.

Each chapter of this book will have been researched, applied and observed in the real world so that the training guidelines that Nick shares with you can be applied to beginners and advanced trainees alike. Although the information in this book is normally only shared with high-performance athletes and coaches, Nick has managed, in his own inimitable style, to make the complex seem simple and the difficult achievable, providing you with an easy-to-understand and logical training system. His book will help any competitive or recreational athlete, as well as those who simply want to unlock their athletic potential.

This book will teach you the fundamentals of training without the need for hype!

Welcome to Nicks world where everyone can train like an athlete.

Adam Beard MSc, ASCC

Director of High Performance - Cleveland Browns

Head of Physical Performance - Welsh Rugby Union - 2009-2015

Head of Fitness - 2013 British & Irish Lions Tour

UKSCA Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year 2013

PREFACE

What can you do to improve your current fitness levels? How can you make sure you dont pull a hamstring playing football? Whats the most effective training method to improve your 10km time? What do you need to do to make sure you can keep up with your grandchildren?

Sure, you can train harder, spend more hours at the gym, pound the streets for hours on end in an attempt to eke out some extra improvements in your performance. But wouldnt you rather train a bit smarter, rather than harder?

Ask yourself two important questions

1. Do you want to improve your fitness training so that you are in the best shape of your life and you have the confidence that your body can do what you want it to?

2. If I told you that there are some simple strategies that can help you optimise your training and performance, would you use them?

What were your answers?

If you answered yes to both questions, read on, because in this book Im going to explain how a well-designed integrated performance conditioning (IPC) programme can help you achieve your personal fitness goals. Im going to show you how to train like an athlete. The good news is that you dont need to quit your job and turn pro! Simply read this book to discover how the pros do it.

If you answered no to either of the questions, then you can stop reading now and go and do something else, safe in the knowledge that your fitness goals will always remain just out of reach!

INTRODUCTION: THE ROLE OF S&C IN BEING THE BEST YOU CAN BE

The human body was designed to function as an integrated unit, so why do so many mainstream training programmes fail to develop total-body functional fitness?

Is The Strength & Conditioning Bible: How to Train Like an Athlete really appropriate for you? Absolutely. Most fitness enthusiasts and recreational athletes training is ineffective, based on outdated information, old wives tales and hearsay. It would seem that pretty much everyone thinks they are an expert in this area, and are often more than willing to offer their opinion on how you should be training. Simply mention that youve joined a gym or are training for a marathon and sit back while friends, family and colleagues offer you their pearls of wisdom on precisely the best way to get fit, usually preceded by the words when I trained for. As well-meaning as this advice is, why would you trust your next-door neighbour (who, after all, spends all day working in IT for a living) with your health and well-being? This is your body we are talking about. You only get given one, so surely you want to ensure that what you do to it is based on something a little more robust than what your neighbour (remember they work in IT all day!) picked up from a magazine they read in the dentists waiting room!

You can listen to the advice offered by your next-door neighbour, or you can read this book and access the combined knowledge and experience of a coach (thats me, by the way) who has forged a successful career from developing highly effective training programmes for some of the countrys most successful athletes. Ive been working in high-performance sport for more than 15 years and Ive figured out that the secret to success is to develop integrated conditioning programmes that are efficient and effective, and will optimise training results to ensure that the work taking place in the gym impacts directly on performance. Ive used these tried-and-tested training methods in high-performance sport and Ive also successfully implemented my training strategies with recreational athletes, weekend warriors and the general population. If your training goal is to either improve your athletic performance or get into the best shape of your life, you cannot underestimate the value of integrated performance conditioning and the impact it will have on your performance.