BFS Magazine

Strength and Conditioning for Women's Sports at Hunter High School

“Heather Sonne is a masterful teacher and attends to any task given to her with great determination and vigor,” says Maile Loo, the principal at Hunter. “She is an excellent instructor, coach and athletic director and works tirelessly to accomplish all tasks requested of her! Her skills and integrity lend to the success of our physical education program and Hunter High School.” 

Jogging or pedaling a stationary bike will raise your body temperature, get your blood pumping, and make you breathe hard, but does this sound like the type of warm-up an athlete should use? We have a different approach to warming up and agility training.

First, we prefer that athletes use the dot drill to warm up before all workouts. The dot drill is an ideal warm-up because not only does it fulfill all the requirements of a good warm-up, but it improves coordination, foot speed, and agility. It also strengthens the ankles, which could be considered a weak link in the body because they are frequently injured in athletics and can be frustrating to rehabilitate. And because an athlete who injures an ankle is five times more likely to injure it again, it makes sense to include exercises that will prevent the ankles from becoming injured in the first place.

When athletes first attempt the dot drill, they often feel clumsy and find it extremely tiring. These difficulties will pass, especially if the athlete commits to performing the drill six times a week. For most athletes, we’re asking for less than 10 minutes of work per week—an investment well worth the price. To further motivate athletes, here are the BFS standards for male and female athletes. 

After the dot drill, we encourage athletes to perform agility drills to help with cutting and changing direction. To this end, we have developed a free download, 25 Agility Drills for Every Athlete. This practical guidebook gives you 25 simple drills using cones to simulate all the basic movements that occur on the field and the court. 

At BFS, we’ve found that if you’re really serious about improving performance in any aspect of strength and conditioning, you have to test it. Whether it’s by how much you lift, how high you jump, or how fast you run, you have to find a way to accurately measure performance so you can set personal records and then break those records. This is also true with the dot drill and agility drills, and we recommend that athletes test themselves twice a month and record the results. 

BFS Cones for PE or Athletics 

THE BFS DOT DRILL PAD

The BFS Dot Drill Pad is the warm up foundation to all the work we do in the BFS Total Program. The BFS Dot Drill gives athletes a perfect start to get their muscles firing before a work out while building the agility and foot speed to compete on the field of play. We recommend two Dot Drill pads for every work out station.

Isaiah Lamb is and exceptional young man who has worked hard - step by step - to carve out a life setting, reaching and crushing his goals! 

A committed BFS Athlete since his high school career Lamb credits his success to discipline learned in early morning BFS workouts. Bringing his best every day to strength and conditioning led to outstanding achievement on the court at Dulaney High School. So much so Lamb went on to play D1 and Professional basketball. 

Learn from Coach Justin Berenson's 23 years of coaching experience. HIs book is a wealth of knowledge no matter what stage your program is at.

"Building An Exceptional Football Program"

By Coach Berenson

Learn how this 23 year football coach took initiative to deal with this challenging school year!

"When the pandemic hit, we were at a loss, trying to figure out what to do. Thankfully, BFS put out the free Home Workout From BFS series. I immediately did the workouts to determine the pace I wanted to use with my athletes."

Coach Berenson

I can’t say enough about the positive impact Bigger Faster Stronger had on my college athletic career and the respect I have for this company.  I first became familiar with BFS as a college sophomore.  Having just transferred to Maryville College in Tennessee as a member of the Fighting Scots football team, we were blessed to have a new head coach and coaching staff who understood and embraced the importance of a sound strength and conditioning program.  

BFS WRSC Certification Online. Improve your coaching career and improve your team's prospects by becoming a BFS Certified coach and teacher this holiday weekend! Sign up for at home, online certification this week and SAVE $50.

Learn how Jake took his baseball to the max with strength training from a BFS Certified coach!

In the past, baseball coaches were reluctant to have their athletes lift weights, unless it was light dumbbells to rehabilitate a shoulder or elbow injury. Now the sport has embraced the weight room, and one athlete who has benefitted from this paradigm shift in coaching is Jake Guggenheimer. 

Why BFS considers this lift a must for serious athletes

By Kim Goss

For many years this BFS core exercise has been attacked by those who thought it had little value for an athlete, by those who thought it was dangerous and by those who thought it was too difficult to teach. They were wrong, and the survival of the exercise has benefited those who want to run faster, jump higher and be overall more powerful.

After 45 years in the business, we know what to look for. We’ll start by helping you identify your specific needs. Then we’ll show you how to decide on a bar that has the proper combination of price, strength and function.

Beware of False Advertising

Tom Lincir, president of Ivanko Barbell Company, warns, “Some manufacturers throw around impressive-sounding measurements of a bar’s strength that are either irrelevant or misleading. Ratings like “1,000-pound test” or “2,000-pound test” may sound impressive because the numbers are big. However, there is no such thing as “1,000-pound test”-it is all a fantasy created in an attempt to satisfy buyers.

One of the greatest marketing ideas in the fitness industry was the invention of the term “energy drink.” The word “energy” sounds much more positive than “sugary sweet,” the primary characteristic of those liquid formulas, which often cost several dollars and often have exactly the same content as soft drinks (with perhaps a bit more caffeine). Let’s take a closer look at the problematic ingredients of most energy drinks, and some healthy alternatives.

Jersey Shore High is a Class AAA school in North Central Pennsylvania. In 2012 the team was 0-10, and the season could not have been considered a rebuilding year, as the Bulldogs had only won a total of five games in the past five years and had not won a district title since 1997. However, Gravish believed his team had a shot at the district title because his team had many athletes returning from the previous team, possessed a good worth ethic, and were motivated by the fact that no one. except for the Bulldog coaching staff.

Coach Gravish, says that one aspect of the BFS program that he particularly likes is that it instills accountability among the players and helps them set performance goals every time they step foot in the weightroom. Jackson especially likes the BFS focus on striving to set personal records with every workout, as well as the fact that BFS is not a “football specific” workout but one that works for all types of athletes.

The BFS Solution

Rather than circuit training, athletes should perform all the sets of a core exercise before moving onto another exercise. This is technically referred to as “station training.” The key to getting athletes through all their exercises efficiently and safely is to develop a rotation system. Let’s go through two examples of athletes performing the squat, one station involving four athletes and another station involving five...