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Advanced Athletic Leg Training:
Complete Neuromuscular Overload

All strength and power sport athletes need to develop high levels of leg strength for optimal performance. Leg strength contributes to speed, power, balance, and agility, key components in almost all sports. Traditional resistance training programs typically overlook single-leg exercises due to their difficulty and awkwardness. This is unfortunate because single-limb training is extremely important in developing sport-performance skills, as well as being of assistance in the development of muscle size and strength.

I am very excited about this lower body resistance training program as it is specifically directed toward athletes and athletic movements. I believe this program will be found efficient, effective, stimulating, novel, and exciting to athletes concerned with their performance. Single-leg training enables the athlete to visual the transfer of training to sport-specific movements and fosters a desire to continue improving in these exercises.

The workout has taken traditional resistance exercises and modified them to incorporate either more muscles OR more sport-specific actions to increase the transfer to the actual sport action. This type of training fully prepares the athlete for pre-season plyometric, speed, and agility training, especially in power sports such as basketball and hockey.

Compound exercises and free weights are the primary tools for sport-specific improvements. Machine isolation exercises (i.e. hip adduction) have been replaced by more creative and efficient exercises (i.e. lateral step-ups) that utilize greater amounts of muscle mass and the desired motor pathways. Free weight exercises stimulate the muscle to hypertrophy (grow) and for agility and balance (motor pathways) as well. Thus we may describe the advanced athletic leg-training program as complete neuromuscular training. Finally, the movements demand recruitment of the "core" (abdominal & low-back) musculature for stability and help to improve strength in this area.

The program is designed as a circuit of leg exercises that use only the athlete's bodyweight as resistance. Advanced athletes may hold dumbbells (DB) in their hands as they improve and greater resistance is required. The beauty of the leg workout is in its simplicity. No fancy equipment is needed except for a step or bench, allowing the workout can be performed anywhere and at anytime.