Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Green Sports Performance Center INSIDE LOOK

Get an inside look at some recent training with Coach Anthony Colarusso at the Akron General Sports Performance Center in Green Ohio!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Posture, Pilates, and Your Athletic Success

Hello Everyone!

A short time ago AGSP's Adult Performance Class was treated to a couple of Pilates workouts by Certified Instructor Anne Laing. She had our class on a piece of equipment called The Reformer which allowed us to train our bodies in a low-impact way.

Did you know that some famous athletes have done private Pilates workouts at Akron General's Health and Wellness Center in Montrose?

Did you know that many professional athletes from all sports use Pilates as a way to decrease their injury risk and improve their performance?

Pilates can be a great compliment to all of an athlete's intense practices and sports performance training because it is geared to realigning the body back to optimal lengths and tensions.

One of my favorite sayings during training is, "if your posture isn't correct, there is no way you are the best athlete you can be." Can you think of one NBA, NFL, or MLB athlete that has horrible posture? How about one that has just poor posture? You will be hard-pressed to find one.

Proper posture means you are aligned in the best possible way for your body to perform. Muscles need to be at certain lengths and tensions, and having proper posture ensures that you are giving them the foundation to do that.

What a shame it would be to have your athletic career not be as successful as it could be because you didn't have proper posture! Pilates can be a great compliment to help you reach your fullest potential!

For a Pilates classes and their descriptions check out THIS LIFESTYLES SCHEDULE. To reach Anne directly, you can email her at  laing_anne@yahoo.com or visit her Linkden Page

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart and Akron General Sports Performance

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

You are only as Good as you are Strong

Hello Everyone!

What happens when you get stronger?

It might sound like a silly question, but as an athlete it's vital to understand the effects that getting stronger has on your performance.

Sports are, in a grand sense, displays of force. The amount of force you generate is directly limited by your strength. You could have flawless mechanics, but if you can't generate a lot of force, you won't be performing at a very high level.

Becoming stronger allows you to apply more of ANYTHING. Opportunities like:

  • More force into the ground which can translate to more speed
  • More force into your opponent which allows for better execution
  • More force into the ground which can translate into higher jumps
But if you don't have the strength in the first place you are self-limiting yourself! You can't use what isn't there!
Strength gives you the opportunity to create more speed and higher jumps.
That's one of our "secrets" at AGSP. We train to make our athletes stronger which builds their "strength tanks" to give them as much opportunity to perform better as possible.

Maybe a better question to ask is, "What happens when you don't get stronger?".

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart and Akron General Sports Performance