By Hailey Caughron
Clink! Clink! Clink! The sound of weights being pushed and pulled while sweat builds on the brows of athletes pushing their limits can be heard before, during, and after school daily. The weight room is an unspoken necessity for sports teams' success, health, and improvement, yet Louisville High School has never funded or prioritized an efficient weight program…until now.
Summer weights have always been a mandatory part of athletes' summers at LHS, but this summer, the program drastically changed, and adjustments were required by both students and coaches.
Activities director and assistant principal, Kaleb Walker states, “Towards the end of my first year here, I noticed that our athletics department and training programs needed an upgrade. I wanted to give LHS a program that would not only make our athletes stronger but also challenge them and make them want to show up in the morning and get better.”
Explosive Edge was just the program to do that. Explosive Edge is a weight and athletic training program based in Nebraska that offers training programs to individuals, teams, and schools. The goal of their programs is to use the help of science and Postural Restoration (which involves the posture of the muscles as well as breathing techniques) to create safe and unique workouts for athletes and non-athletes alike.
Previously, the weights program was run by volunteer coaches in the summer. The coaches would pick out the warmups, lifts, and agilities each day, so having new people come in was a drastic change.
Senior Braden Soester said, ¨I was a little nervous about the new program. We all were so used to the usual program with our coaches, and I didn´t know how well the athletes would like the program or if it would even be worth the time … but we all ended up really liking the program and it left us feeling motivated and healthy all summer.”
The new program required all athletic coaches to attend seminars and classes on the proper training, that way they knew how to properly teach the warmups, lifts, and agilities. It also provided coaches with other nutrition, health sciences, and team advice education. This training was crucial in decreasing the amount of pain and injuries athletes have.
One of the reasons that makes Explosive Edge popular is that the workouts are designed to target muscles, ligaments, and tendons to build strength everywhere in order to prevent pain and injury.
Lifter of the Year winner Cody Hrdy states, ¨Since we started the new program and I´ve continued to lift using the things I’ve learned, I’ve noticed that I’ve had less cramping, fewer injuries, and overall just less pain in my season so far. I’ve gotten stronger and faster, but I´ve also been able to enjoy my season more because I’m not in so much pain or worrying about being injured.¨
There is no doubt that the athletics department of Louisville High School has grown and hit massive milestones this year. Not only are athletes adding more weight to the bars, increasing inches to their verticals, and taking off seconds on their sprints, but they are also preventing injury and having fun while doing it. Thanks to Explosive Edge and its instructors, the LHS weight room has been booming with activity and success.