Introduced to the world of training over a decade ago, agility ladders were initially a great success, but have come in for some harsh criticism in recent years. Today, people have varied opinions about them, with some using it often and others having abandoned it altogether. Between the two, we can find some reasons to use ladders from time to time, while being aware of both their advantages and their limitations.
In many sports, vertical jumping is a valuable athletic quality to have in your arsenal if you want to perform at your best. To develop it, weight training is often recommended, with the loaded Back Squat at the forefront. Although at first glance, the use of this exercise to help jump higher seems obvious, a closer examination leads us to question the real link between squat strength and vertical jumps. This article seeks to shed light on some of the answers.
For many years now, stretching has been a popular practice, both within and outside the sporting world (Babault & al, 2021; Spense, Helms & McGuigan, 2022). The proposed benefits are plentiful: increased flexibility, reduced risk of injury, improved performance and facilitated recovery. And yet, when it comes to scientific studies, current data paint a rather different picture. So, what’s the truth?
This idea first came from a desire to work on conditioning at sub-maximal intensity (in order to enhance metabolic flexibility) differently from the classic, linear-long
