If you follow the Beijing Olympics and get to watch some of the Danish athletes, 9 of these athletes from badminton, wrestling and table tennis have received their strength and conditioning programs from me for 2 or more years.

Here are two of many keys principles guiding strength and conditioning for Olympic athletes:

1. Make the training harder than the competition.
2. Achieve multiple training goals simultaneously.

Principle 2 is always applied in the preparation for training (the "warm up"). In some instances the warm up is as much a social as a physical event, but the elite athlete seeks an advantage over the opponent in ANY aspect of the training.

The difference between an optimal warm up and a random warm up could be 1-2% in performance per training session or one injury per year; this can translate into a significantly better performance over a 4 year period.

The Olympic athlete understands this and treats the warm up as an important aspect of the practice.

Below are key elements the typical, general warm up prescribe:

1. Joint mobility of all joints from head to toe.
2. Static stretching of tight muscles.
3. Light endurance work for key stabilizers.
4. Light strength work.
5. Ligh to medium work to increase heart rate.

Based on a sport specific template, each player had an individual warm up program that is adjusted regularly, however, not as often as the regular training program.

Athletes with more than one session a day often require a slower more mobility oriented warm up in the morning and a shorter more active warm up in subsequent sessions.

As a coach, I communicate and supervise the warm up as strictly as the regular program. You can't tell the athlete that the warm up is important and then not pay attention as they are doing it.

The same goes for stretching/cool down. Nothing annoys me more than to see an elaborate strength program ending with "abs:3 sets to failure" and "Stretching".

To learn more about optimal warm up and how to make the training harder than the competition pick up a copy of Supplementary Beach Training by clicking here.

Committed to your uninterrupted Success,
Karsten Jensen

NOTE: Another great for optimal warm up strategies is "The Strength Warm Up DVD" by John Paul Catanzaro, buy it today by clicking here.