Athlete’s Arena has gained a great reputation in the area of youth sports performance training in the past 4 years. Recently we have been in discussions with the local medical community about general wellness and providing services that focus on weight management and fitness for the general population. One area we will begin to focus on is the injured adult needing assistance in returning to the everyday challenges of life.

According to Merriam-Webster’s On-Line Dictionary, the definition of the Weekend Warrior is as follows: A person who participates in a usually physically strenuous activity only on weekends or part-time.

Click on the link below to see this GREAT article about the rise and fall of the fitness franchise in America!! I am sure everyone reading this has notices the rising number of "30 min workout" and many other franchises in the fitness and sport-training industry put together and ran by non-fitness professionals. This article has a great perspective on this "boom" and how many fitness professionals feel about it!

The more and more sports performance training (not to mention the fitness industry as a whole) is becoming available to not just athletes but the general public, the more and more we are seeing "gimmicks" and "catch phrases" being used to attract the attention of the consumer. Not only is this an issue, but because their are few regulations on who can call themselves a performance or fitness professional (unlike Athletic Training or Physical Therapy), anyone (in this state) who has a pulse can market themselves as a Sports Performance Coach or a Personal Fitness Trainer. This leads to these "gimmicks" and "catch phrases" as well as a decrease in the general quality of training in the industry.

Sports training and conditioning is NOT just for athletes. Many times I have had to answer the question of "Do you train just kids that are athletes?" My answer is always NO! Every kid out there needs to improve their muscular and cardiovascular endurance, strength, flexibility and improve their body composition. It we JUST focused on athletes, I believe we would be missing the boat on a large population of inactive kids who need to put the "physical" back into being physically active. Check out these statistics: