John M. Cissik
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John M. Cissik aspires to provide athletes and their coaches a resource to aid in improving their athletic performance and to develop research based strength and conditioning programming. The mission is to provide confidential, evidence-based strength and conditioning solutions while giving back to the athletic and local community.
John M. Cissik
9M ago
Weightlifting is what got me into strength and conditioning. Back when I started out there was no Cross Fit as a result there were more people fencing than doing the Olympic lifts. This created a needed skill set in the strength and conditioning world. Like everyone else back in the day I read every translated ..read more
John M. Cissik
9M ago
Hamstring injuries are the bane of athletes that sprint. The thinking is that there is a need to strengthen the hamstrings eccentrically to prepare them for the point in the sprinting cycle where the lower leg is uncoupling and the hip is extending. In other words, the hamstrings are resisting the knee from hyperextending during ..read more
John M. Cissik
9M ago
The purpose of this study was to determine is long-term (multi-year) maximum strength training had an impact on explosive isometric strength, contractile properties, and neuromuscular activation when compared to untrained individuals. The study compared 49 untrained individuals with 14 who have engaged in heavy resistance training (70%+ of 1-RM) for 3+ years. The 14 trained ..read more
John M. Cissik
9M ago
For me the Olympic lifts have been the foundation of the strength and conditioning profession. Way back when I started Olympic lifting (early 1990’s, way before Cross Fit), there were more people fencing than doing the Olympic lifts. This made this knowledge a real asset as, back then, it was considered to be an important ..read more
John M. Cissik
10M ago
Basketball is an interesting sport to develop strength and conditioning programs for. I’ve coached it from both sides as a basketball coach and as a strength and conditioning coach. Morrison et al did a great literature review looking at the sport, what types of assessments are used at different levels, and providing data on those ..read more
John M. Cissik
10M ago
Spiering et al have a 2023 publication in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that looked extremely interesting to me. The study was titled “Maximizing strength: The stimuli and mediators of strength gains and their application to training and rehabilitation.” The authors begin by pointing out that it is important to understand all of ..read more
John M. Cissik
10M ago
One of the goals of a strength and conditioning program is to enhance an athlete’s power. Certain exercises, like the Olympic lifts, do a better job of this than others. Having said this, there is an inherent limitation to even the Olympic lifts, which is that fatigue has a negative impact on power. Think about ..read more
John M. Cissik
1y ago
Resisted sprints: running uphill We’ve had a few posts discussing different ways to do resisted sprinting. This approach to sprinting could be thought of as applying strength training to sprinting. The idea being that as the athlete adapts to it they will be able to apply that increased motor unit recruitment to non-resisted sprinting, resulting ..read more
John M. Cissik
1y ago
Complex training If you are in the strength and conditioning field long enough you will see old ideas come back under new names. One of those ideas is complex training, which is now often seen in the research as post activation potentiation. Simply put, complex training combines a heavy strength exercise with a power movement. ..read more
John M. Cissik
1y ago
Resisted sprints: partner sprinting Resisted sprinting is a way to make sprinting more difficult. The idea is that athletes will learn to recruit more motor units during resisted sprinting and then this can be transferred to non-resisted sprinting, resulting in a faster athlete. There are a lot of ways to do resisted sprinting. Partner sprinting ..read more