As coaches, we get asked all the time, “What can my athlete do at home to supplement their strength training?” In a perfect world, we all might have a nicely equipped gym in our basement and children who knew how to train with perfect technique. That may be a little unrealistic, so I want to showcase the perfect way to do some great exercises with little or no equipment.
The combination of these exercises is perfect: it will create a well-rounded, less injury prone athlete. So don’t skip chin-ups and only do push-ups. There are real reasons why we want to balance these muscles out properly and avoid injury.
During in-home training, we essentially want to train 3 parts of the body: The upper, lower, and “core.” There are hundreds of variations of these exercises, but for the purpose of a youth athlete training by themselves, we want to keep their plan and their exercises simple. As you’ll notice below, however, we will provide some regressions and progressions to account for all ability levels.
Progressing Properly
We also want to make progress. If an athlete does 3 sets of 10 reps of each exercise for 6 months straight, they will certainly get stronger. But not as effectively as if they added progressive changes to their exercises.
For example, if they start out with 3 sets of 10 squats, they might progress to 3 sets of 12, then 15. Then maybe 4 sets of 12. Then, as that gets easier, they may pick up a weight or any object in the house. Maybe it weighs 15-20 lbs and is noticeably more challenging. That’s when they might re-start their training with 3 sets of 8 reps, and progress again from there.
For High School athletes, eventually it’s going to be important to start loading weight on. However, we highly encourage all High School athletes to train with proper guidance on technique, set/rep schemes, and progressive overload. That’s when our unlimited training plans come in handy!
5 Strength Training Exercises To Do At Home:
Squats
Push-ups
Chin-ups (And a great chin-up bar to buy for home)
Lunges
Planks & Side Planks
Programming
Now, how do you put it all together and create a program for your athlete to progress at home? Below is an example of how you might progress these exercises. Below that is a blank sheet for your athlete to print out and track their progress. Don’t limit the training to just 12 weeks though! Continue to modify the sets, reps, and weight. Keep making slow, steady progress provided your athlete is still using proper technique.
Youth Strength Training At Home - Sheet1 (1) (1) Youth Strength Training At Home - Sheet1 (2)As always, if we can help in any way, just email us at [email protected] !