Home Strength & Conditioning Training for Fitness & Sport Preparation

We’ve stressed in all our blogs the importance of regular physical training and preparation for your technical sport practice and competition; regular physical training is also essential for your general wellbeing too.  All training modes are clearly important, as each of the training modes, for example, strength training, sprint drills, plyometrics, and agility drive a range of adaptations including nervous function (neuromuscular) and muscular changes (morphological).   However, a clear differentiation between the modes of training is that strength training requires some level of resistance (external load), where plyometrics, sprint and agility drills can be performed with little to no equipment – just a clear flat open space. 

The equipment factor can be viewed as a barrier and stop or reduce individuals, especially youths, starting or performing regular strength training (at home or as a group session at their sport club).  However, the equipment factor shouldn’t be a problem, as for untrained individuals (very low training age) including youths, performing bodyweight training has clear positive outcomes (5, 8, 9) .  Many of the studies have suggested that untrained individuals should start with bodyweight training, especially for lower body exercises (various squats and lunges), as bodyweight training has been linked with better motor control and coordination (13) and may be a major influence in reducing lower limb injuries, especially knee injuries (ACL’s), as see in the FIF11+ warm up programmes (4).  When it comes to resistance or strength training, it all comes down to context and where the individual’s is starting from.

The prescription of training, therefore, is better viewed on a spectrum, from untrained to trained.  The terms untrained, beginner, or novice are easy to define, as their training age is zero and they are very new to strength and conditioning.  it is more complex to define, intermediate or experienced, which are under the umbrella of trained.  Perhaps the development of the individual from untrained to trained should be based on a range of factors including training age, skill level, relative strength ratio, and confidence to name a few (see below figure).  Remember that the main aim of physical training is to place a stimulus (overload) onto the system.  This specific training (stimulus) will fatigue the system, which leads to the system overreaching (relative to the frequency of training).  With adequate rest, recovery, and nutrition, the system will supercompensate leading to improvements in fitness, again specific to the training.  We previously discussed that when selecting exercises, the exercises can generally be viewed as either capacity led (greater overload/external load) or skill led (greater speed/coordination). Variation of an exercise is another factor to consider in exercise selection, especially early in the training journey.  Changing or varying the exercise, for example full press ups and incline press up on a box, can also be viewed towards more skill-based adaptations, improving muscular coordination (inter-and-intra-coordination), which is great for untrained individuals, including youths.  Any development in coordination is strongly associated with motor learning and reducing injuries (2, 6).  Therefore, bodyweight strength training is a great place to start for untrained individuals, including youths (10) especially if equipment is sparse.  Performing bodyweight strength training with optimal frequency will lead to significant improvements in muscular characteristics – strength, coordination, motor control, and posture (5, 8, 9).

Use Bodyweight Strength Training as Your Base Conditioning Programme

So, if accessing a gym is a challenge, do not let this be a barrier or put you off from starting a strength and conditioning programme, especially strength training.  Moreover, if you are untrained/new to strength training, training at home with bodyweight exercises, and maybe a set of dumbbells, kettlebell, or medicine ball is a great start – plus, this will save you time and money (travel time and gym membership).  Use this time effectively, as you can focus and practice your exercises, improve and develop your coordination and skill, all in preparation to eventually joining a gym.  This block of training can be viewed as a base-conditioning programme, anatomical adaptation, or simply, general preparation (arguably the most important part of training).   

The principle progressive overload is often cited within strength training or resistance training, and as previously stated, overload is clearly an essential factor, as overload is a part of the stimulus that leads to fatigue and thus drives a range of adaptations.  For example, an individual might start their squat programme at 50kg, completing 12 repetitions (approximately 70% of their 1RM).  Over a set number of weeks, the individual will be able to perform more repetitions at 50kg, thus the individual is becoming stronger.  At this point, the individual can increase their training load, perhaps by 5% (52.5kg), as this new load will again place a new stimulus on the system.   However, when performing strength or resistance training at home and added load is limited, bodyweight exercises can be modified or varied to drive different muscular coordinative strategies – this is like adding a better operating system to your laptop! Your nervous system can recruit the muscles in an optimal order.   This is important to understand as varying your home bodyweight training will prepare you for more demanding training sessions and potentially decrease risk of any overuse injuries and promote both improvements in balance (7) and coordination (1). 

Training At Home with Limited Equipment – You Can Still Improve Your Fitness by Using These Principles

When performing bodyweight strength exercises, or strength exercises with limited equipment in the terms of barbells and dumbbells.  By altering a variable, and not the standard number of repetitions, sets or rest period, but rather the range of motion, speed, and/or complexity, this will change the mechanics of the exercise and thus force the system to learn (motor learning) new muscular coordination strategies.   To give a practical example, let’s use the lunge exercise.  The lunge exercise can be performed in a various of ways from static to dynamic, jumping to an actual static hold.  Either performing a static hold (isometric) or with a limited range of motion, this will alter the type of muscle contraction, how the muscles work together, and the amount of work completed.  Changing the speed and complexity of the lunge can go together, but in general terms, altering the speed will result in greater ground reaction forces, rate of force development, and may utilise the stretch-shortening cycle (bounces or small jumps).  Complexity is more associated with locomotive changes and body limbs, so a lunge can be performed forwards, backwards, or to the side, again changing how the muscles are recruited.

Early in strength training, especially when using bodyweight exercises, it is not important to design your training programme by muscle groups (and for strength and athletic development it probably never is).  At this early stage of physical development, it is more important to learn a range of skills that incorporate a range of postures, motor learning, coordination, and balance – as these physical qualities are all strongly linked to reducing the risk of injury (3, 11, 12, 13). 

Range of Motion - Generally speaking, it is recommended that you should train through a full range of motion, for example, in a press up, control your chest to the floor and then lift to full extension through the elbow.  However, if you reduce the range of motion to half the distance travelled, you will alter the muscle recruitment, plus reduce the overall work completed.  If you completing change the range of motion by performing a static contraction, you will alter the muscle contraction type, from concentric-eccentric to isometric – for example a press up to static press ups, frequently called a plank.  So, from a mechanical perspective, a greater range of motion will lead to different neuromuscular adaptations, as the neuromuscular system will need to coordinate co-contractions – how the muscles work together to produce movement. 

Speed - When starting or learning new exercises it is suggested that the movement is completed or practiced at slow speeds, as this allows the system time to coordinate the musculature.  As the technique improves, which is probably changes in inter-musculature coordination – muscles, prime movers, antagonists, synergists working more efficiently or muscle synergy.  Furthermore, the system starts to learn better co-contraction strategies, which means that the joint mechanics are better controlled reducing the risk of injuries.   Once the exercise technique looks better (improved motor control), by adding speed into the movement, for example, a press up into a power press up – trying to push off the floor as fast as possible, this creates a completely new motor learning experience, where the system must adapt and learn effective muscular coordination in conjunction with the stretch-shortening cycle - plyometrics. 

Complexity - Each exercise can be regressed in complexity by either reducing locomotion (travel) and/or the balance component.  For example, in the lunge exercise, a static lunge movement is performed by allowing the body to move down to the floor and then back up.  As the body is not travelling, the complexity is reduced (centre of mass is kept over the base of support).  By adding a travelling component, either forwards, backwards, or sideways, this increases the complexity of the exercise (potentially a change in the centre of mass), and again, the system needs to coordinate the musculature, plus manage the posture and balance of the system through effective feedback mechanisms. 

Our App Delivers Strength and Conditioning Sessions for You to Follow at Home or in the Gym

Our training app has been created to help all athletes, including youths (untrained), with starting a strength and conditioning programme.  Training sessions are delivered relative to your starting training age and skill level.  Each session has videos so you can watch each exercise and learn the different techniques – postures, balance, and coordination.  Furthermore, by uploading your training data, for example repetitions completed and exertion level (RPE), the app will track your progress in your training history – this allows you to increase your workload which will develop your overall fitness.

Your training sessions will change frequently, as this will reduce monotony in your training, plus offer you a range of exercises and drills to learn and practice.  Remember that in the early stage of training, learning new exercises and drills will improve your coordination and prepare you for more demanding future training sessions, along with sport preparation.    The app will also offer different training types, for example bodyweight training circuits, sprint training, plyometrics, and gym-strength sessions.

You can also upload personal bests, or try a strength and conditioning test, for example, press ups, vertical jump, or 20m-sprint.  By uploading your score, you will receive feedback on your dashboard.  This aids both in your training and motivation, as you can revisit the tests anytime to assess how your training is impacting your physical development.

Youth Strength & Conditioning Platform for Schools, Sport Clubs, and Academies.

Our platform helps to deliver effective training and tracks athletic progress and development, with the core objectives of reducing the risk of injuries and to promote both sport readiness and performance.  The platform’s features include 

• Strength and conditioning tests and dashboard to monitor and compare athlete metrics
• Athlete app - athletes can discover new exercises and train independently
• Track data - monitor athlete’s training loads, RPE, and training adherence
• Reports - simply create squad, team, and individual athlete reports
• Full curriculum - follow a strength and conditioning curriculum with a library of session plans

References

1. Behm, D.G., Faigenbaum, A.D., Falk, B., & Klentrou, P. (2008).  Canadian society for exercise physiology position paper: resistance training in children and adolescents.  Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab, 33, 547 – 561.
2. Benjaminse, A., Gokeler, A., Dowling, A.V., Faigenbaum, A., Ford, K.R., Hewett, T.E., Onate, J.A., Otten, B., & Myer, G.D. (2015).  Optimization of the anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention paradigm: novel feedback techniques to enhance motor learning and reduce injury risk.  Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 45(3), 170 – 182.
3. Benjaminse, A., Lemmink, K., Diercks, R.L., & Otten, B.  (2010).  An investigation of motor learning during side-step cutting, design of a randomised controlled trial.  Musculoskeletal Disorders, 11, 1 – 8.
4. Bizzini, M., & Dvorak, J. (2015).  FIFA 11+: an effective programme to prevent football injuries in various player groups worldwide – a narrative review.  British Journal of Sports Medicine, 49, 577 – 579.
5. De Souza-Santos, D., Eduardo de Oliveria, T., Pereira, C.A., Evangelista, A.L., Bocalini, DS., Rica, R.L., Rhea, M.R., Simao, R., Vazquez La Scala Teixeira, C. (2015).  Does a calisthenics-based exercise program applied in school improve morphofunctional parameters in youth?  Journal of Exercise Physiology, 18(6), 52 – 61.
6. Gokeler, A., Benjaminse, A., Seil, R., Kerkhoffs, G., & Verhagen, E. (2018).  Using principles of motor learning to enhance ACL injury prevention programs.  Sports Orthopaedics & Traumatology, 34, 23 – 30.
7. Goncalves, C., Bezerra, P., Clemente, F.P., Vila-Cha, C., Leao, C., Brando, A., & Cancela, J.M. (2020).  Effect of instability and bodyweight neuromuscular training on dynamic balance control in active young adults.  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17, 1 – 10.
8. Kozlenia, D., Popowczak, M., Szafraniec, R., Alvarez, C., & Domaradzki, J. (2024).  Changes in muscle mass and strength in adolescents following high-intensity functional training with bodyweight resistance exercise in physical educational lessons.  Journal of Clinical Medicine, 13, 1 – 13.
9. Lipecki, K.  (2018).  The effect of 10-week bodyweight training on body composition and physical fitness in young males.  Journal of Kinesiology & Exercise Sciences, 82(28), 35 – 43.
10. Lloyd, R.S., Faigenbaum, A.D., Myer, G.D., Stone, M.H., Oliver, J.L., Jeffreys, I., Moody, J., Brewer, C., & Pierce, K. (2012).  UKSCA position statement: Youth resistance training.  UK Strength & Conditioning, 26, 26 – 39.
11. Myer, G.D., Faigenbaum, A.D., Chu, D., Falkel, J., Ford. K.R., Best, T.M., & Hewett, T.  (2011).  Integrative training for children and adolescents: techniques and practices for reducing sports-related injuries and enhancing athletic performance.  Clinical Focus Orthopaedics and Osteoporosis, 1(39), 74 – 84.
12. Valovich-McLeod, T.C., Armstrong, T., Miller, M., & Sauers, J.L. (2009).  Balance improvements in female high school basketball players after 6-week neuromuscular-training program.  Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 18, 465 – 481.
13. Williams, M.D., Ramierz-Campillo, R., Chaabene, H., & Moran, J. (2021).  Neuromuscular training and motor control in youth athletes:  A meta-analysis.  Perceptual and Motor Skills, 125(5), 1975 – 1997.