Anyone who has exercised for a period of time has experienced a ‘high’ from it. The rush of endorphins that occurs during and shortly after activity is an inherent part of the work done and directly related to the level of intensity one can tolerate. The endocannabinoid system is a group of neuromodulatory ligands and [...]
For those of us that are involved in professional sport, managing the off-season and pre-season periods can be difficult at the best of times for the standard team or athlete competing from September – May. How much time an athlete needs in the off-season is always planned, but often comes down to subjective feelings of the athlete & coach, [...]
While religion and spirituality are generally taboo topics in medicine and sport, research into them is taking place and their effects being monitored. Larimore et al 2002 completed a literature review on the use of positive spirituality interventions with normal treatment. They conclude that there is a positive correlation between mental and physical health, most [...]
Our pro football expert Frederico kicks off his soccer series for us here. Freddy gives us a unique insight into his off-season/pre-season conditioning, taking us from the sunny beaches of Brazil to fitness testing and week 1-8 pre-season. Enjoy! – It is usually a good idea to do some kind of training during the few weeks of off-season. [...]
Pictured above is Andre Ward, super-six boxing world champion. If there is any athlete in sport today that characterizes mental toughness, it’s him! In our three tips for the top, we referenced Manchester United youth coach Eric Harrison’s top tips to becoming a great footballer which in fact can apply to any sport. Here at Unchained Fitness, [...]
If you have followed our series on sports psychology linked here, you will understand our point that it plays a very important role in being ready to compete. Every now and then a player on your team will show up for training with a headache, a niggling injury, accumulated fatigue, boredom, bad mood, or otherwise. These scenario’s [...]
We have written a little about LTAD, however we haven’t yet posted on motor-skills training for U8 – U12. With that, I thought i’d comment on some of my guiding principles which I hope can help fitness coaches to think about their approach to it. Motor-skills training should target (static & dynamic) balance, reaction time (using visual, [...]