
"Whatever muscles I have are the product of my own hard work and nothing else."
-Evelyn Ashford
-Four Time Olympic Gold Medalist
This blog is designed to bring information and inspiration to Athletes, Coaches, Strength & Conditioning professionals, Athletic Trainers, and whoever else may find the information here benificial to aid in helping improve thier athletic performance, professional developement, and life. www.athletesequation.com

"Whatever muscles I have are the product of my own hard work and nothing else."
-Evelyn Ashford
-Four Time Olympic Gold Medalist

Injuries are bound to happen in the sport of Wrestling. By design the sport pits two athletes to grapple until the victor shows physical and/or technical dominance by pinning their opponent or scoring more points. In order the most common areas of injury are the lower extremity, upper extremity and the head & neck. Most of these injuries occur during matches and most commonly during the take down. Also the sport of wrestling requires athletes to meet weight restrictions determining what class they will compete at. Often this requires rapid weight loss by caloric and hydration restrictions. All though this is not the recommended procedure for making weight it is often the path chosen by wrestlers of all levels. This type of weight loss has been shown in studies to be accompanied with decreases in strength, power, anaerobic and aerobic capacity. So, while decreasing weight is the desired result all of these will have a negative impact on a Wrestler’s ability to achieve optimal performance on the mat.

push off the single leg and try to achieve maximum vertical height. Land softly on the same leg absorbing the force of landing through the ankle, knee and hip. Regain balance before initiating the next repetition.
towards the floor maintaining a straight body position. Return to the start position and initiate rotation by lifting one hand and arm of the floor and rotating the body maintaining a straight body position until the up arm is perpendicular to the ground. From the up position lower the body by rotating back to the start position in a controlled fashion. Then perform another standard push up and perform a rotation on the other side.
forming a straight body position. Keep your body straight as you lower your chest towards the floor. When you reach the lowered position push yourself away from the floor explosively. Your hands should leave the ground and the as you begin to descend absorb the landing through your wrists, elbows and shoulders. Assume a standard push up position and repeat.
for bearing weight during wrestling activities.





"I hated every minute of training, but I said, don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."
-World Champion Boxer



"Stand Up for what you believe - even when you stand alone."
In the December 2005 issue of Training & Conditioning Magazine the article "All in the Hips" by
or wind up injured and visiting the Athletic Training Room. As stated in the article the hip is a very dynamic joint with over 20 Muscles that directly infulence the movement of the joint. On top of the muscles that act on the hip their are several other muscle groups that act as synergists to hip movement (abdominals, Quadriceps, and Low back muscles). Weakness in the hips is often associated with these synergists picking up the slack. Just like the shoulder the hip is a ball and socket joint with the ability to produce great ranges of motion in all three planes of motion. This being said the hip does not have anywhere near the range of motion the shoulder has. The hip has ranges of motion of 110 to 120 degrees in flexion, 10-15 degress in extension, 30-50 degress in abduction, 30 degress of Adduction, 40-60 degrees of lateral or external rotation, and 30-40 degrees of medial or internal rotation compared to
the shoulders ROMs in the same motions (flex 160-180 deg., ext 50-60 deg., abduct 170-180 deg., adduct 50-75 deg., lat or external rot 80-90 deg., med or internal rot 60-100 deg.) (2). The main reason for the descrepancy of these range of motions are that the hip has much more musculature surrounding it and the pelvic girdle has more fixated joints as compared to the mobile joints in the shoulder girdle. Now, the hip needs to be a strong and stable structure and that is why its range of motion is decreased even though it is a ball and socket joint like the shoulder. The Hip needs to be able to withstand significant forces associated with standing, walking, and running. Standing on one limb puts 2.4-2.6 times the body weight through the hip joint and running will put a whopping 4.5 times the body weight or greater.(2)
What I loved about this article is that it talked about how the hip moves in the three planes of motion and how it is typically exercised in only two. The three planes of motion are frontal, sagittal, and transverse. The hip is primarly worked in the frontal and sagittal planes. But, injuries that occur from hip weakness primarly happen from being weak in the motions taking place in the transverse plane. These would be the Internal or Medial and External or lateral rotation. Most athlets are weak and also tight in these movements. Training these movements as the article states will greatly decrease the change of injury to the hip, knee, thigh, and low back. It is the deficiencies in the rotational
motions of the hip that the author trys to stress the importance of recognition and addressing in the workout plan. The author gives six reasons why these exercises should be implemented into a training program. They are:What I also like about this article was how the author presented the matiral. He did not come out and say you MUST add these exercises to prevent injuries. He explained that there is so much out there that it can become difficult to implement everything into a program. The short of it is that when you have x amount of time and z amount of stuff to get accomplished sometimes things like y have to get cut out. Most of the time y is the injury prevention and flexibility exercises. But, where more and more athletes and coaches are taking the time to implement a general and specific dynamic warm up there is a place where these exercises can be implemented. The following are the exercises that the author recommened for training the hip in the transverse plane.
"No Matter who you are and what you do for a living, there will be instances in your life when you'll have to show courage and be strong."
"In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins."
It is our Mission at Ullucci Strength & Conditioning to provide resources to improve the education of Athletes and people who work with athletes on subjects pertaining to Strength & Conditioning. One of the resources we use to educate ourselves and our clients is the NSCA's Performance Training Journal. It is offered for free and is an online publication that is bi-monthly. As a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and a member of the National
Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)want to promote their mission. The NSCA's mission as the worldwide authority on strength and conditioning is to support and disseminate research-based knowledge and its practical application, to improve athletic performance and fitness.
I believe that the online Performance Training Journal does a nice job disseminating information in a manner which is easy for athletes and coaches who may not have a great background in exercise science or the art and science of strength and conditioning. The articles are written by individuals out in the field of performance training and their researched based articles are designed to provide information to athletes and coaches which the can incorporate into their practice. Their readers are readers much like the readers of this site, people that want serious, in depth information about strength and conditioning.
I recently Read the book "Never Give Up" by Tedy Bruschi with Micheal Holley. It was released earlier this year and it is Tedy's story of how he recovered from his stroke in February of 2005 to play in the NFL again. Now this book is not going to make you a better athlete, coach, athletic trainer, etc. But, this book was very inspirational and it was filled with lessons that many athletes and people who work with athletes can take away from the book and teach them how to deal with set backs and challenges. It is over coming these set backs and challenges that gives sports and athletics the ability to build character in people. Ask anyone what the benefits of athletic are and one of the first things they will tell you is that is builds character and confidence. But, it can also destroy character and confidence as well, that's why sports psychologists have jobs. Never Give Up is filled with Tedy's point of view on how he accepted the set backs and the challenges of being a stroke survivor and was able to not just return to normal neurological and physical health but also return to his vocation, which just happens to be playing middle linebacker in the NFL. 
I took away from this book three major points that will help me except the challenges of my career and in my life. These three points are:
I took these three things from this book and plan on keeping them as part of my life and my coaching. As a self proclaimed football junkie I loved this book as well because it was filled great football commentary and insight into a great NFL player while explaining his great comeback story.
I found this book to be a very quick and easy read which was tough to put down. I think it is a great read for anyone involved or not involved in athletics.
"Always Bear in Mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing."
If you already have not receive the Ullucci Strength & Conditioning Newsletter and would like to please email me at jprice@risportsmed.com.If you are interested in contributing to the Newsletter please email RE:Contributor Here. We are looking for qualified authors who would like to reach a broad audience of individuals interested topics related to Strength & Conditioning.

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
Basketball is a graceful game which the player can utilize their natural physical abilities with their acquired skills in the sport. Two aspects of the physical attributes the basketball player has that can be developed to help improve the player are Strength & Power. That is why developing these two attributes are the cornerstone of our basketball training programs. Currently we have numerous high school basketball players working out with us to prepare for their upcoming season which begins right after the Thanksgiving holiday. One of our standout athletes is a 17 year old female basketball player who is in her senior year and already committed to play at the Division I level at an New England University. Her goals when coming to Ullucci Strength & Conditioning to were to improve in the areas of strength, power, and be prepared to handle the challenges of the increased intensity of the game at the Division I College Basketball in 2008. She had been apart of some general conditioning over the summer with us and we have begun an 8 week Strength and Power phase which will take her right up to her Competitive season. After the 8 week program their will be a two week transition period into her Competitive season, where she will participate in a one to two day a week maintenance program.
performed. We did not perform any strength testing as she does not have much experience in resistance training. Due to this lack of training history we have spent four training sessions going over proper technique in the Power clean, Bench Press, Back and Front Squat, and other exercises she is unfamiliar with. We performed all exercises for repetitions and a predicted maximum was attained in each exercises. However, these "maximums" are not set in stone and will be adjusted during the program to attain the proper training effect without sacrificing proper exercise technique. After the 8 week program we will perform a 3 RM test in the Bench Press and Back squat. We will also perform a max repetition test in the pull up.
"Plans are nothing; planning is everything."