GPP = General Physical Preparedness

 Decathletes: geniuses of GPP

Off season athletes (of any sport) should do training that is non-specific to the sport they play. The training should be more generalized, other wise stated, the workouts you do should prepare you for any athletic event set before you. So your training should be such that you could run a 5k if someone asked in a decent time, or you could run a 100m in a decent time. You could do a horizontal athletic movement (front to back), or do a lateral athletic movement (side to side) just as well. Basically you are looking to do well at any number of events, and you will not run record times, throw record throws, or jump record height/distances.


Great sites that help with GPP are below. I'm sure there are many many more, and if anyone has any please put them in the comments.
www.crossfit.com
www.crossfitfootball.com
www.gymjones.com
www.crossfitendurance.com/
http://coachrut.blogspot.com/
http://www.cathletics.com

Most of these are Crossfit based. I am a big fan of Crossfit for GPP (not so much for specific training), although there are many other ways to achieve GPP. I would speak to a qualified trainer for more GPP training, or simply do a Google search for "General Physical Preparedness" and see what you come up with. Also, many of the sites above serve specific purposes, so I would recommend a mish mash of them--do one workout from one, the next day choose another (the first three choices on the list already do a nice job of mixing activities, so you could stick to the workouts posted on those sites).

Nack

Strongest American Teenager....EVER!

I don't know what to highlight about the below video: the fact that he is doing the lifts that I am sure make you a better athlete than any other lift (Squat, Snatch, and Clean&Jerk), or the fact that he is the Strongest American Teenager ever. I think I will go with the second, because anyone that has spent time with me in the weightroom knows how important I think the above mentioned lifts are to power/strength/speed athletes.

Imagine the hard work that this young man has put into this interest of his. I will not say that "anyone can do this", because that would be stupid; but there is no way he would have a 500+# clean&jerk (!!!) or a 440# snatch (!!!x10). The fact that he achieved these numbers means that he, most likely, had a good amount of coaching, but did a lot of work independently; ate a lot, but ate very well; did uncommon things, but did them uncommonly well; sacrificed "fun-time" for "work-time", but tell me he hasn't created his own fun in the process; and experienced a bunch of pain, but loved every minute of it. Never talked to the guy, but I bet he has bucket-loads of passion. Passion will take you a long way.



Remember the Nike commercial post from a couple of weeks ago? If so, great! If not, check in more often. Anyway, that commercial had the quote"Passion has a funny way of trumping logic." The logic before young Mr. Mendes was that the Americans could not have strong young weightlifters; the laughing stock of world Olympic Lifting--fodder of jokes for Germans, Chinese, and Bulgarians. This young man's passion has proven their "logic" wrong.

I hope, hope, hope you can draw a correlation from this young man's situation to that of your own. What do you think you have to do to reach levels that seem out of reach, but are humanly obtainable?

Nack

P.S., I might be coming off as somewhat of a music snob, but sorry again for the music in the video. I love cheesy 80s music, but come on! Here? Really?!?