Many of our athletes this week used the Lightened Method in their bench press training. The Lightened Method is performed by attaching bands from the top of the power rack, and then around the bar. What this serves to do is effectively change the strength curve: the lift becomes lighter in the bottom portion, where the leverage point is the hardest, and then heavier at the top of the lift, where the leverage point is the easiest. This allows the athlete to handle a supramaximal load while still performing a full range of motion, providing an excellent option to not only provide a strong neural stimulus, but muscular overload as well.
There’s always a good deal of anticipation and excitement any time our athletes use the Lightened Method in their programming, as they greatly enjoy using the heavier weights the method affords them. This week was no different, as our athletes chattered throughout the week about what they planned to hit, and several of our college and professional athletes texted that they had “FOMO” (“Fear of Missing Out”) from not being able to do it. It’s always important to remember that training is a human endeavor, not punching in numbers on a robot: athletes likes/dislikes/emotions/feelings etc all play a massive role in their engagement into the training, and subsequent results, so methods like the Lightened Method, that produce great results AND the athletes greatly enjoy, are tremendous options to use to continue to build their strength.
212 Athletes on the Field
Brandon Wulff hit .410 with a 1.000+ OPS in spring training
Myles Denson went 7-13 with 2 HR’s and 2 2B’s in UNLV’s series this past weekend
Jack Little had a dominant spring training throwing 18 IP with only 2 earned runs
Zach Grech leads the nation with 13 saves
Jr Leo Uelmen hit 92mph on the gun in his second high school start this past
week