KID TRAINING

Strength and Conditioning for Kids

Human Performance Athletics provides athletic training and general conditioning programs for individuals or groups of any age. You can join one of our existing programs or set up your own. Or, we can work with your athlete privately. We offer a number of conditioning camps and similar programs in Napa, CA. We can also consult with any coach or athlete around the world to help design a strength and conditioning program for an individual or team. The program would be customized toward the sport, age, and abilities of the athletes. This program would include a team training website that would contain your team's training program, pictures and video of the exercises. It would also include a nutrition presentation that you can use for athletes, coaches, and parents. Other nutrition tools for athletes will be included in this program.

Personal training is also available for adults. Go to: www.nutritionandexercise.com/services.htm for more information.

This is a new part to my site and is under construction, so I'll be adding a lot of new information in the coming weeks. Currently, you'll find some sample videos, and some articles regarding training.

At the core of the Human Performance Athletic method is structural mechanics. Our focus is to make sure that every joint, muscle, bone, ligament and tendon is doing what it is supposed to do. Here's the typical process for designing a program for an athlete(s).

Assessment

First, a postural assessment and gait analysis is conducted to identify muscle and skeletal strength's and weaknesses. This is one of the most critical parts of building an exercise program for athletes and non-athletes. We use a plumb line, along with an inclinometer (medical level) and a goniometer (measures angles) to evaluate what the athlete's muscles and bones are doing in a resting state. The athlete's imbalances will show up in this assessment. Furthermore, in the next pictures you can see that we'll perform a running and walking analysis to pick up any other dysfunctions that we'd want to correct via stretching, strengthening, and run coaching.

Click here for a video clip of the gait analysis.

Exercise Prescription

Second, the information gained from the assessment, health history, functional assessment (flexibility and strength testing) and the type of sport that the athlete is involved in will determine the exercise program. Exercises are very specifically chosen, and ordered in such way to mitigate the dysfunctions that were discovered in the assessment. Every joint, muscle, and tendon are accounted for when designing this program. This prescription will allow the athlete to reduce injuries (forced or degenerative), increase strength, improve balance, and improve endurance. I WOULD STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST ANY PROGRAM AT ANY LEVEL THAT DOES NOT USE THE AFOREMENTIONED EVALUATION AND PRESCRIPTION TECHNIQUES.

The following articles describe some of the more fundamental parameters and research for designing exercise programs for kids.

Click on the following articles:

For Kids: Strength Training for Prepubescent Children and Adolescents

All Athletes: Building an Elite Athlete

We typically don't use weights with prepubescent children unless they're working with one of our trainers on a regular basis. There will be a lot of agility, range of motion, and speed exercises. Here's a sample of some of the exercises that would be used for kids under 14 years old.

Walking Hurdles: No jumping here. This exercise is focused on building strength, range of motion and balance.