Chatham University Athletics

Develop all aspects of an individual through strength and conditioning and educational life events. Have a passion to train and motivate athletes with the desire to continue to learn and assist others to find, set and achieve their goals.
Provide a comprehensive scientifically supported and appropriate training program to prevent injuries maximize athletic performance through sport specific strength and conditioning approaches. Hold yourself to the highest standards every day and in all that you do. Each morning wake up with self-discipline and determination with the purpose of being great. Setbacks and difficulties will come but we will attack each of them with a relentless effort and learn and overcome. Through leadership, proper guidance and strategic challenges reflected by the coaches, student athletes will manifest a strong strength and conditioning program while also achieving growth in leadership, accountability, work ethic, discipline and teamwork. These are skills that can be applied beyond a student athlete’s collegiate career. Training will begin with a thorough warm-up. Warm-ups are important to increase internal temperature, elevate heart rate, excite the central nervous system, increase range of motion and mentally prepare athletes to train. Warm-ups will include; soft tissue work, mobility, muscle activation, torso stability and foot quickness. Warm-ups can also be used as movement screening tests. Warm-ups will start general and move to specific movements for the training day. Athletic movements are quick and explosive. Training explosively stimulates the recruitment of fast twitch muscle fibers, which develops power. Train fast and you will become fast. The difference between strength and power is the speed of movement. Developing the ability to apply force rapidly can improve sport performance. Speed and power are built upon a solid foundation of strength. This allows for the proper sequencing and maximization of other training variables. Working in hand with our Sports Athletic Training Staff there will be an understanding of the degree of the injury. We will know what the athlete can and cannot perform during training. Injured athletes will have a program employing alternative training exercises with the approval of the Athletic Training Staff in order to expedite the return to play of the athlete. Athletes will understand that they have an injured body part, not an injured body. Student athletes will go through the rigors of training together regularly. There will be good and bad times and uncertainty. Through this process, athletes will develop stronger bonds and therefore a sense of respect and accountability amongst their teammates. Programs will be developed to meet the biomechanical and metabolic needs of each specific sport. Olympic lifts, squats, upperbody push/pull and trunk stability exercises are fundamental movement patterns that create strength, power and force production. Appropriate training volume and intensity will reflect the needs of the sport, season, position and individual. Periodization is the progressive variation of training regulated by the period of the year and training age of the athlete. When the neuromuscular system becomes accustomed to the stimulus, program periodization is changed and promotes continued training progress during an athlete’s career. Progressive overload occurs when the body responds to training loads greater than normal. Overload causes muscle tissue to break down into a catabolic state. The body will then adapt through proper rest and nutrition. By compensating repeatedly, the muscles develop strength and/or endurance depending on the stimulus. Progressive application of the training load is a fundamental component in program design (increase work capacity), which can maximize performance while decreasing injury. The weight room is nothing more than a vessel for athletes to learn life lessons they will take with them for the rest of their lives. Total person development will be an ongoing process that begins the moment the student athlete sets foot in the weight room. By enhancing strength, speed, explosiveness, agility, mobility, metabolic conditioning, body composition, nutritional habits and recovery methods, performance should increase. The mainexercises used are multi-joint ground-based movements that help athletes improve force production, in turn increasing speed, strength and power. We are training movements and muscles. Sport is multi-dimensional, so we need to train our athletes in all three planes of movement. This will teach athletes to stabalize musculature while moving specifically for their sport. Healthy, strong muscles and joints decrease the risk of injury by allowing the muscle and joint to dissipate more force as well as to speed up the recovery time needed for injured student athletes. Programming injury prevention exercises for common injuries in specific sports are important prehab work. We will work alongside our Athletic Training Staff to reduce injuries. Dedication to the strength and conditioning program develops an individual’s accountability, discipline, focus, teamwork, maturity and competitiveness. All this leads to an increased commitment to team goals.

1. Soft Tissue Work
2. Dynamic Warm-Up
3. Mobility/ Muscle Activation
4. Resistance Training
   1. Power/Olympic Lift
   2. Strength Movement
   3. Accessory Exercises/Injury Prevention
   4. Stabilization Exercises
   5. Prehab Exercises

Explosive/Total Body- Medicine Ball Throws, Jumping/Bounding/Sprinting, Olympic Lift (Clean, Snatch, Jerk, Variations), Push Press
Squat- Goblet Squat, Front Squat, Box Squat, Back Squat
Hinge- Dead lift (Barbell/Trap Bar), RDL, Good Morning
Upper BodyAuxillary Movements- Hip Dominant SL/DL, Knee Dominant SL + Variations Combo (Lunge + Variations)
Bracing/Pillar Work- Anti-Extension (Plank + Variations), Anti Rotation (Paloff Press + Variations), Anti Flexion (Lateral/AP + Variations)