For the fifth summer in a row, Trinity Sports has hosted its July training camp, a 4 hour per day, 5 day per week, 4-week sports conditioning camp. There really is nothing like getting up at 8 in the morning and for 4 grueling hours, pushing your body to the absolute limit. Camp was a huge success this year. Each year more and more middle and high school athletes are hearing about Trinity Camp and making it a major part of their summer conditioning. We hit the 100-camper mark for the first time this year, an impressive number given no advertisement other than word of mouth.

There were a number of changes to this year’s camp that made it unique in comparison to the previous years. For one, we came up with an official Trinity logo, which makes the t-shirts look very professional and much more recognizable. The addition of Cindy Walsh to not only the Trinity trainer crew but also the Runwithpower crew brings Trinity its first female representative, which was great for the female athletes in camp. Continue to check Runwithpower for posts by Cindy, as she will be talking about her training experience and her athletic career.

The biggest change to camp was the focus on sport specificity in the second session. The first session of camp is the first 2 hours of each day, where the training consists of high levels of muscular demand to increase range of motion and efficiency in the athlete’s structural joints, particularly the hips, taking their athleticism to a whole new level. The second session in the past was all about strength. The campers would spend a great deal of time lifting as well as doing dynamic strengthening. This year, however, we split the campers into their individual sports for the second session and they would spend time doing strength focused on their sport’s demands, as well as doing skill training in their sport. We had soccer, basketball, volleyball, football, track and cross-country, and baseball. The addition of the sports specific session helped out tremendously as the athletes began to integrate their training into their sport.

Finally, the first session of camp was much more focused on quality of training rather than quantity. We traditionally spent the first week and a half doing what we call a “tear-down”, where the athlete’s body becomes significantly fatigued and stressed as the extreme levels of demand take their toll on their muscular system and break through any inefficient muscular patterns that may be limiting their performance. What this normally does is it causes the athlete to relearn how to move in those fundamental ways with greater efficiency of movement. The rest of camp, then, is to rebuild the athlete with their new muscular patterns. This year, we did not do a tear-down. The reason for this was, many of the campers were in the middle of summer league competition, and when you do a tear-down, the athletes performance may temporarily suffer until they are able to train for a few weeks with their new muscular patterns. Instead of tearing down by doing heavy demand, we made the workouts not quite as intense at first, but really emphasized proper form on every single exercise to get the greatest benefit without breaking down the body. In the end, we liked the tear-down from the previous years, but again the new style helped the summer athletes to be able to perform well in competition during camp, and it also contributed to them being able to develop their sport specific skills during the second session.

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Here are a few tips we wanted you to be aware of if you are going out for a run. First be aware that it is ok for you to run outside when the temperatures drop below freezing.

1. Choose the right clothes – Keep in mind your body will make it seem like it about 20 degrees warmer than it really is outside. So you will still sweat while your running or working out. This means you want to avoid choices like cotton that hold on to your sweat. As you run it makes it easy to get chilled as the sweat freezes. Try to make sure the layer closest to your skin is a dri-fit material designed to draw moisture away from the skin.

2. Protect the extremities – Make sure to keep your head, hands, and feet warm. Check out your local running shop for hats gloves, and socks to help keep the feet warm. Keeping your extremities warm is a great way to prolong your run. I have been working out in the cold plenty of times and needed to stop because my feet could no longer take it.

3. Stay Hydrated – Like I mentioned earlier you will still sweat in the cold so it is important to make sure you stay hydrated. Stay hydrated before your workout and then make sure to have some water at a spot along your run. It is very common for us to not drink as much water when it is cold outside so make the effort. Being dehydrated can have a serious negative effect on your run.

4. Warm-up inside – If at all possible try to do your warm-up somewhere warm. This will help to make sure that you are allowing the muscular system to be capable of accomplishing everything necessary for a proper warm-up without the negative side effects of the cold.

5. Careful with your Asthma – Make sure you check with you Doctor if you suffer from asthma before you go exercise in the cold. The cold air can worsen symptoms of asthma and other respiratory problems so make sure it is safe before you go exercise in the cold.

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THERE IS MORE TO DO THAN JUST RUN ON STAIRS

Stairs are typically used as a way to increase knee drive and many runners will occasionally run on them. We wanted to show you some additional moves to use while at a stadium or around stairs that can help increase your power in your stride. These can also be used as a warm-up before you go run. Keep looking for our new Warm-up and Cool-down program coming out in the next week. Combine these stair drills with the warm-ups and you will be amazed at how much better your stride will feel.

Scott Olson

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