JT Performance

🍫🥛 is the key?

My S-Tier Exercises for Athletes (bucket matters more than the exercise) - Squat: High bar back squat - Sprints: 10m fly sprints - Upper-power: Smith machine throw - Hinge: RDLs - Pull: Weighted Chin-ups - Plyometric: Hops - Jump: Broad jump - Push: Bench press - Fitness: Play

1minute = 42% stronger 😳 There’s one big problem with neck training: Most people don’t do it.

I do these instead. I’m not a huge fan of landmine punches. They’re popular with combat athletes because they look like a punch. But that’s an easy trap to fall into. Just because a strength exercise looks like a sporting movement doesn’t mean its a good exercise

There are no mandatory exercises for athletes. Adaptations > exercises. So I put together 80+ of my favourite exercises for athletes across strength, speed, power, plyometrics, conditioning + more. Including a few I missed in the YouTube video: jacktylerperformance.com/80-…

Cheat reps

We're hiring a YouTube Fitness Editor Apply here: ytjobs.co/job/44591?r=855&ut… #ytjobs #VideoEditor

Overrated Recovery Tools: - Obsessively Tracking HRV - IV Drips - Peptides - Ice Baths - Light-blocking Glasses Underrated Recovery Tools: - Surround yourself with close friends - Spend quality time with family - Get out the house - Eat like an adult - Naps

If I could only pick two neck exercises, it would be incline neck flexion and harness extensions. Both allow for a greater range of motion than most neck exercises and will build pretty much all the size and strength you need. Do 1–3 sets of both, twice a week. However, if you don’t have access to this equipment or you’re a beginner, I’d highly recommend starting with manual resistance: Twice a week, do 1–2 sets of 3–5 reps in every direction: flexion, extension and lateral flexion. That’s all you need. For advanced athletes, you might also want to consider heavy isometrics, particularly if isometric neck strength is crucial in your sport - for example, rugby scrummaging or grappling. Finally, to prepare your neck for the high-velocity demands of sport, consider partner reactive work or overcoming isometrics. But for most people, just pick an exercise, do it once or twice a week, and actually start training your neck. The easiest way to do this is to throw a couple of sets in between sets of bench, squats or any other compound lift.

Here’s what training athletes should look like: 1. Build the car Develop the raw physical abilities of: - Speed - Strength - Size - Conditioning - Change-of-direction - Etc. It’s far less sexy than it seems. Basic training methods, progressed properly, for a painfully long period of time. No short cuts. 2. Develop the driver You can have the body of a Ferrari, but if you can’t drive it, you’ll still crash. I see too many athletes obsess over improving their physical qualities while forgetting the main thing: Getting better at their sport. Technical skill.
Tactical understanding.
Decision-making.
Thousands of hours of practice. I see too many athletes obsess about building their physical abilities that they forget the main thing - your sport. Your training should be built around developing your technical and tactical abilities, not your bench day. This doesn’t mean I “hate” contrast training, primers, or isometrics - I just think we’re majoring in the minors.

“Supplements” for improving performance in contact athletes In my opinion, many athlete simply don’t eat enough carbs (particularly around training) Despite being drastically more effective than any sports “supplement” P.S. I first posted this about 5 years ago. Sorry for the repost, working on long form YouTube content. Good stuff coming…

Building athletic legs obviously depends on what sport you actually compete in. A rugby winger should train slightly differently from an O-lineman. But the general principles are pretty similar. If you strip it right back, I think about it in 3 parts: 1. Build a bigger force ceiling 2. Learn to produce that force faster 3. Learn to apply it in a sporting context The best tool for building a bigger force ceiling is, of course, weight training. More muscle gives you more potential to produce force, heavy strength training increases maximal force production, and your tendons and bones adapt to tolerate those forces. Basically, build the hardware. The second part is probably what most contact athletes neglect. You need to be able to produce a lot of force when you don’t have much time to do it. I don’t tend to lean heavily on Olympic lifts here. They can definitely help, but I don’t think there’s anything particularly special about them, and I’d rather spend that time on max-speed sprinting, maximal jumps and plyos. Top-end sprinting in particular is massively neglected. Then you’ve got the final part: actually applying all of that force in your sport. And this isn’t doing random “functional” exercises that sort of look like sport. It’s years and years of actually playing your sport and learning to solve those movement problems. You can then use drills to isolate specific things you want to improve - like high-speed 1v1s for evasion. Build the hardware. Learn to use it quickly. Then learn to use it in your sport.

Recovery isn't about doing more, it's about doing less. That's one of my favourite ways to frame recovery. Most people think of saunas, ice bath, massage guns. But real recovery is training less, getting some more sleep, spending time with family, switching off and eating good food. The other stuff can help, but it's not something you should rely on year round. I like Dr. Andy Galpin's framing on this. He says, are you chasing adaptations or performance? If you're in the middle of a tournament, say, rugby sevens, ice baths are a legitimate tool. Yes, they may blunt training adaptations, but you don't really care about that. You just care about performing and getting your legs fresh for the next day. But we know they do blunt training adaptations. So if you're chasing adaptations in the middle of a training block, these shouldn't be something you rely on. Your main tool will be quality sleep and nutrition - as everyone knows. But probably most importantly - quality load management. Load management doesn't always mean doing less. It just means pushing yourself a bit beyond what you're capable of. So you build your capacity over time. But not spiking volume that drastically increases your injury risk. In athletes, this takes a lot of maturity. Because it's easy to optimize for short-term results instead of playing the long-term game. But fundamentally, good load management is the most important part of recovery.

What does “train like an athlete” actually mean? “Train like an athlete, not a bodybuilder’ has become a buzzword on social media Usually followed by: Random, underloaded strength exercises Thousands of low level plyometrics (that aren’t doing much) Or, worst of all, fascia training nonsense. But training like an athlete actually looks more like this: Build the car Develop the raw physical abilities of: Speed Strength Size Conditioning Change-of-direction Etc. It’s far less sexy than it seems. Basic training methods, progressed properly, for a painfully long period of time. No short cuts. Develop driver You can have the body of a Ferrari, but if you can’t drive it, you’ll still crash. I see too many athletes obsess over improving their physical qualities while forgetting the main thing: Getting better at their sport. Technical skill.
Tactical understanding.
Decision-making.
Thousands of hours of practice. I saw GSP hit his first 2 plate bench the other day. Elite athletes aren’t always as impressive in the gym as you think. They’re just masters of their craft. The gym should help you become a better athlete. It shouldn’t become your sport.