Strength
training is a practice that has been around for centuries and can be dated to
times as far back as the Chou Dynasty (3600 B.C.) when subjects would have to
pass weight lifting tests before entering the military (www.cscca.org/news/legendsaward/2007/epley).
It was used as military training throughout time until the 19th
century. Circus performers would use strongman feats as an act in their shows
to draw in large crowds of people (strongmanvsbodybuilder.wordpress.com/.../the-circus-the-strong-man).
Although strength and conditioning is an ancient practice, until recent years
these practices were very primitive; guys tossing weights around to be strong
but with no real structure to what they were doing. It was this lack of methodical
approach to strength and conditioning that made it a taboo practice for
traditional sports teams in America. Many coaches believed that lifting weights
was detrimental to the performance of their athletes. These coaches thought
that strength training made their players “muscle bound” and hindered their
ability to move during play. It was not until 1969 when a University of Nebraska
track athlete’s career was ended due to a back injury that the need for a
profession in the strength and conditioning field was considered necessary (www.cscca.org/news/legendsaward/2007/epley).
Keep
an eye out for the next installment of my blog. We will be looking into who, what and where
that unfortunately injured Nebraska athlete came from and what he did to
revolutionize the world of college athletics with some heavy pieces of iron.
I can honestly say that as an athlete I knew very little about strength and conditioning. In high school we would lift a couple days a week but our soccer coaches made it up, and it didn’t seem to have much logic behind the workouts. In college, even though I was a member of our University’s Women’s Soccer team, we had no sort of weight lifting program. It really was not until I came here to Tarleton State and got to know our strength coaches on staff, that I have come to truly appreciate what strength training can do for the athletes. As an athletic trainer, I want my athletes as strong as possible to prevent injuries, and our strength staff is extremely knowledgeable on training athletes for their sport. I find it shocking still that some coaches do not see the value in strength training. I look forward to following David’s blog and learning about how Nebraska’s track athlete revolutionized the world of college athletics.
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