MBSC Seminar

Although there are many things I learned this week at Northeastern, I am going to switch gears a little bit and talk about the seminar I attended on Saturday. On Saturday, I traveled to Woburn, Mass to visit Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning. First off I have always been a huge fan of Boyle so I was extremely excited to get to meet him in person. In the beginning of the seminar, I got to watch the trainers at MBSC put their athletes through complete workouts. It was interesting to see the different styles each trainer portrayed. Following the workouts the lectures began. Dan John was the first to speak, and he brought up many interesting points. He explained in great detail what the role of a strength coach really is and what kind of impact they have on their athletes. He also made it very clear how much crap is out there in the field of strength and conditioning. Meaning that everyone on the internet claims to have the perfect program to get bigger stronger and faster, but in reality this is mostly a marketing tool to sell bogus products with zero results. Overall, Dan John brought great humor and I really enjoyed his time. Next was Mike Boyle. Mike is a pioneer in the strength and conditioning industry so it was great to hear his case for single leg training. Boyle clearly got his point across; training unilaterally is more beneficial than bilaterally. He backed this statement up with a ton of research, and explained how his athlete’s injury rates are lower than ever. What’s more important than keeping your athlete’s healthy? Nothing, bottom line. What I found very surprising was that his athlete’s haven’t back squatted in 12 years. Squats have been replaced with rear foot elevated split squats, lunges, and single leg deadlifts. This proves that training unilaterally is safer, and mimics the same strength levels at bilateral training. Overall, the MBSC Seminar was a great experience that I look forward to attending again.