Longhorns in the Weightroom

And sadly, of those terrible videos, they’re often posted by someone to show off how strong, intense or creative the coach is in the weight room. Unfortunately, for those who know better, these videos often shine a spotlight on how incompetent that coach is rather than make them look impressive. But most people who view these videos don’t know any better and assume that the coach MUST know what they’re doing and gives them heaps of praise for being so intense or creative. Or praises the athletes for lifting crazy weight…even though their technique is unsafe.

So when I ran across one of the rare videos on the net of a weight room session being run well I had to post. The video below shows a nice?session(s) of the Texas Longhorns Track & Field team in the weight room.?I’ve never met the coach but there are lots of things being done right in this video. Personally, I’ve never farmed out the strength training of my track athletes to a strength and conditioning coach because there are few I’d feel confident in handling it and the overwhelming majority of videos you find on the web support this notion. But Coach Zepada seems to be doing a great job bringing the right amount of intensity and teaching while focusing on basics of strength. There’s no crazy yelling and screaming, no ridiculous exercises, a good mix of body weight and free weight strength, nothing unsafe, and appropriate loads that are challenging but not beyond technical limits are being used. ?Check out the video and post comments to the forum.