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.
Whether you play sport occasionally or intensively, there’s a high likelihood that you’ve experienced pain or got injured at some point in your life. Sprain, strain, overload or stress injury… If you’re too careless, you can run into a variety of obstacles to your physical well-being.
Like the forehand in tennis, the swing in golf or the flat pass in soccer, the jump shot is a technical movement of paramount importance in basketball. According to some expert coaches in the field, acquiring mastery of this movement requires one essential element: repetition. But what exactly needs to be repeated to improve shooting skill?
In the training world, machines are up to debate. Sometimes considered to be reserved for novices or for people returning to training after a long period of inactivity, they couldn’t stimulate the « stabilizing » muscles in the same way as free weights (barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell…), they would allow less freedom of movement than those kind of weight, they could be less « functional », less « specific », and would be of use only to learn the basics of a movement or to target specific muscles.
Like stretching and squatting, weightlifting is a common practice in strength & conditioning. Developing explosiveness through a powerful triple extension, improving coordination by sequencing the lower and upper body together, working on mobility, stability or dynamic balance, many are the arguments put forward to justify the use of the main movements or their derivatives.
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?
Arrivées dans le monde de l’entraînement il y a plus d’une décennie, les échelles de rythmes ont d’abord connu un franc succès, avant d’ensuite susciter de vives critiques ces dernières années. Aujourd’hui, les avis sont divers et variés concernant cet outil, certains l’utilisant très régulièrement, d’autres l’ayant complètement abandonné. Entre les deux, on peut trouver des raisons d’avoir recours aux échelles de rythme de temps en temps, en ayant conscience à la fois de leurs avantages et de leurs limites.
Dans le monde de la musculation, les machines font l’objet de débats. Parfois considérées comme réservées aux novices ou aux personnes en reprise après une longue période d’inactivité, elles ne solliciteraient pas les muscles ‘’stabilisateurs’’ au même titre que les poids libres (barre, haltère, kettlebell…), elles permettraient moins de liberté de mouvement que ces derniers, seraient moins ‘’fonctionnelles’’, moins ‘’spécifiques’’, et elles ne serviraient qu’à apprendre la base d’un mouvement ou à cibler des muscles précis.
À l’instar des étirements et du mouvement de squat avec charge, l’haltérophilie constitue un outil que l’on retrouve fréquemment en préparation physique. Développement d’explosivité à travers une triple extension puissante de hanches-genoux-chevilles, amélioration de coordination, séquençage du bas et du haut du corps ensemble, travail de mobilité, de stabilité ou encore d’équilibre dynamique, nombreux sont les arguments avancés pour justifier l’utilisation des mouvements principaux ou de leurs dérivés.
