John

Internal Program Review: In-Season Strength Training for an Advanced High School Swimmer

Strength & Conditioning, Swimming Performance / By

Last week, we posted an article explaining that not only are endurance training and strength training acceptable to overlap during the in-season, but that when used concurrently, strength training can actually reduce the chance that an endurance athlete will fall victim to overtraining. Here is one such example of a program that we developed for …

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Performance Enhancement Strategies for Cyclists: Fixing the Quadriceps-Hamstring Ratio

Cycling, Ruthless Performance Ride America, Strength & Conditioning / By

Regardless of your preferred cycling style, be it mountain biking, distance, or sprint if you’re spending a lot of time pedaling, it is very easy for the ratio of quadriceps to hamstring input in each pedal to get further and further out of whack. In a perfect world, you would have a near even input …

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Strength & Conditioning Fundamentals: Hidden Volume

Board Sports, Cycling, Hunting, Microblogs, Strength & Conditioning, Swimming Performance / By

Let’s imagine that you’re deadlifting. If you’re training with us at Ruthless Performance, you’ll likely do 1-2 sets of 10 reps with an empty barbell before adding weight; for intermediate-level athletes we’ll do 1-2 sets of normal barbell deadlifts. For more advanced trainees it may be a set of Jefferson Deadlifts followed by a set …

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How to Avoid Overtraining in Endurance Athletes: the Value of In-Season Strength Training

Cycling, Physiology, Strength & Conditioning, Swimming Performance / By

In the holiday lull of the lengthy winter swim season, some of our better athletes are chipping away at their weaknesses, building to their strengths, and generally outworking the competition. While some excuse away their laziness over the holidays as a ‘break’, others view it as a chance to double-down on swimming, but very strategic …

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Featured Fitness Content: Volume 50 (Mid-December through Mid-January)

Cycling, Featured Fitness Content, Microblogs, Strength & Conditioning / By

Mid-December through Mid-January has been filled with great fitness content from top influencers from trusted industry professionals. Because of this, we’re going to be re-launching our Featured Fitness Content series that we’ve been providing our readership since the early days of Ruthless Performance when the business still went by The Fitness Resource. If you’re a …

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Dryland Training Microblog: Tip 3 – Use Unilateral Exercises to Develop the Lower Extremities

Strength & Conditioning, Swimming Performance / By

Tip #3 – Use Unilateral Exercises to Develop the Lower Extremities If you are limited by access to equipment or adequate time to develop athlete proficiency at the primary barbell lifts, unilateral exercises are a very strategic selection. While bilateral exercises such as the traditional barbell back squat or deadlift may be rate-limited in their …

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Physical Preparation Strategies for Big Game Hunters: Optimizing the Ankle

Hunting, Strength & Conditioning / By

Two of the biggest complaints long-time hunters have about their physical abilities in the field are nagging, continuous knee pain and chronic low-back pain. There’s a multitude of causes for these including: poor glute activation–which tends to cause an overreliance on the lower back as a means of stabilizing the trunk, packs that are too …

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Dryland Training Workout 12-12

Dryland Training Microblog: Tip 2

Strength & Conditioning, Swimming Performance / By

Tip #2: Train Lower Leg Flexion for More Resilient Breaststrokers   Lower leg flexion, notably leg curls like the machine hamstring curl, swiss ball hamstring curl, valslide hamstring curl, and a handful of other variants regularly take the backseat in targeted hamstring training to hip hinging variations like the Romanian Deadlift (RDL), Trap Bar Deadlift, …

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