All Blog Posts Tagged 'athlete' (36)

Strengthening The Neck

Protects Your Athletes

New research offers evidence-based protocol,

which may be a step in reducing concussions

By Ralph Cornwell, Ph.D. and Mark Asanovich, MS,

Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Va.

As strength and conditioning professionals, you are charged with the duty of first and foremost…

DO YOU KNOW THE NUMBERS???

DO YOU KNOW THE Numbers???????

COACHES EVERYWHERE KNOW HOW MUCH THEIR ATHLETES BENCH PRESS OR SQUAT.

ATHLETIC TRAINERS ARE AWARE OF MUSCLE IMBALANCES , INJURIES  OR THE PREDISPOSITIONS OF THEIR ATHLETES.…

Strengthen The Head And Jaw

The infrahyoids are made up of four muscles; three of which attach to the hyoid bone, the omohyoid, the sternohyoid, and the thyrohyoid.  They lie right over the trachea.  The infrahyoids can be and are often damaged in whiplash.

Infrahyoids: flex the neck.

Suprahyoids: open the jaw.

The hyoids are involved in chewing and movements of the tongue.

The hyoids are heavily involved in posture and a…

Brace Yourself

Brace yourself to get ready.

Only at a velocity of zero can a muscle produce its maximal force, yet its length does not change.   In training this is called an isometric contraction and techniques such as pushing or pulling on an immovable bar or against a given load on an exercise machine at a particular angle are used to Get Stronger.

If you brace, tensing your musculature as…

Still Fast But A Lot Slower

Still Fast But A Lot Slower

If you look at men or women from the ages of 18-80 and examine the shortening velocity of their musculature you may be tremendously surprised to find that age has no effect on how quickly a muscle can change its length or V max.

With aging there is a decrease in maximal force and power due to the loss of muscle mass and not to the unloaded shortening…

The No Hands Shrug

The No Hands Shrug

Very seldom in any contact sport do you complete a season without a  hand or lower arm injury.

When playing a collision sport it is extremely important to keep the stiffness and volume of the muscles of the head and neck up, especially during the season. Continuing to train all the cervical musculature means also training the trapezius.

At the University of Toledo heavy rubber bands are used for…

Stanford Strength Coach Kevin Tolbert

Kevin Tolbert is the Head Strength Coach at Stanford University. He…

Things To Do With A Gripper

Negative Only Grip

Grip with two hands

Grip with one hand

Pinch Grip

Grip With Two Fingers At A Time

Train Individual Digits

Colgate University Knows How to Train the Head and Neck Musculature of Their Athletes.

Gabe Harrington and I worked together at The United States Military Academy at West Point as assistant strength…

Ralph Cornwell Files-Women and Neck Training

Ralph Cornwell is a Ph.D. candidate in health promotion/human performance at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Prior to pursuing his Doctoral Degree he was a collegiate strength coach.…

KNow the Rules before you break the Rules

Training the muscles of the head and neck are essential to an athlete's protection and performance. The best case scenario for training the musculature of the head and neck…

Another Way To Do A Manual Squat

Using The Floor As The Trapezius

There are many ways to do manual front of the neck. Laying on a bench or sitting on the floor seems to be the most popular.

Mike Gittleson was the Director of Strength & Conditioning at the University of Michigan for 30 years and was a part of 15 Football

Championships in that time. He explains, that laying on the floor is an effective way to manually…

Life has many turning points. Each turning point involves a choice. While they may difficult choosing can be a catalyst for personal growth.

Ralph Cornwell is a Ph.D. candidate in health promotion/human performance at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Prior to pursuing his

Doctoral Degree he was a collegiate strength coach.



He is currently developing a protocol for…

What is interesting about potential is that it is a latent excellence. Being latent we know that potential is there. The issue in athletics is that potential may or not be developed.

In strength and conditioning every rep can give you a different result. Being purposeful and getting the most out of effort will dramatically

change the potential of each individual and the…