The majority of competitive athletes compete in events where a variety of motor qualities must be developed to a great degree. Sports such as judo, bobsled, football, decathlon, boxing, highland games, and nordic skiing (to name only a few) require liberal amounts of absolute strength, power, anaerobic strength endurance, and often, muscular hypertrophy as well. The problem … [Read more...]

Circuit Training (CT) for Various Objectives - I’ve put together several sample circuits for different objectives such as maximal strength development, lean mass gain, and explosive strength development. Please use these examples as templates from which you can create your own solutions, rather than viewing them as the "Holy Grail" of CT. In other words, when I point the way, … [Read more...]

Although most athletic skills and events depend upon a variety of physical qualities, speed strength (also called power) certainly rates among the most important. Whenever you need to accelerate yourself (as in running, cycling, swimming, skating, or skiing), an external object (such as a ball, a barbell, a javelin, or another person), or both (such as pushing a bobsled or … [Read more...]

Youth and Muscle Don't always Mix! (I will answer both of the following questions in a single response) Dear Charles, I have hit a hard wall in training and need some advise: I have been training for 18 months with little muscle development despite varying routines, exercises, repetitions, set structure, etc. Currently, I am zigzagging, protein supplementing, and … [Read more...]

Ask Charles Staley #16 - Endurance Training Although many anaerobic athletes often eschew the concept of endurance training altogether, in fact, ALL athletes must have the capacity to endure their event(s), no matter how brief or long that might be. However, for the gym-hardened anaerobicists among us, delving into the World of endurance theory can be daunting, to say the … [Read more...]