3 Tips for Improving Your Athleticism from Sports Performance Specialist Carmen del Mastro 

Training to grow big biceps and six-pack abs requires a different approach than training for explosive power, speed, and stability. As an athlete, it’s important to integrate drills and develop skills in the gym that’ll transfer onto the field, court, or track. To get a better idea of what you can be doing to improve your athletic performance and become a more explosive athlete, we asked Sports Performance Specialist Carmen Del Mastro to share a few tips. Read on to see his suggestions. ‍

1. Focus on rotational patterns

Del Mastro says that one of the “best tools” is to use a “medicine ball or a couple of heavier bands” to work on rotational patterns. “We’re just naturally rotational by nature as human beings, and I think a lot of that gets lost when we’re building out a general program,” he says of most traditional gym programming forgetting to prioritize rotational movements. 

To implement rotational patterns into your own training, Del Mastro recommends adding medicine ball throws or rotational twists with a band. “I would highly recommend these for everyone to do, so you can actually feel how your body should actually be moving, as opposed to just run-of-the-mill bench press, deadlift, things of that nature,” he says. 

2. Prioritize single-leg movements

While exercises that work both your legs – like squats and deadlifts –  are great, Del Mastro says that focusing on single-leg movements can help athletes balance out both sides of their bodies equally. “We’ve found that sometimes there’s a deficit from one side of the body to the other, and if we can balance out our athletes and make the left side the same as the right side and vice versa, then we can actually help the athlete prevent injury,” Del Mastro explains. 

As well as preventing injury,  Del Mastro says that single-leg exercises can also help improve explosiveness, and suggests starting with movements like “single leg bounds and single leg jumps.” He recommends spending about “30 to 45 minutes” to focus on movements like this for optimal benefit. 

3. Customize your training for yourself 

With so many trainers and fitness programs on the internet these days, it can be tempting to just copy and paste a program for yourself. However, Del Mastro cautions against this, saying that each program is “generally specific to that particular athlete,” and will depend largely on his athletes’ sports, the amount of time they have to train, and their goals. 

Del Mastro says that customizing his training programs based on his athletes’ athletic needs is something that sets his programming apart from others, which tend to focus on the same exercises for every athlete. He notes that while he will generally include some similar exercises for each program, he’ll make sure to assess “if someone has an injury, if someone is lacking or has limited rotation on the left side of the body as opposed to the right side of the body, if they’re engaging with the ground a little bit more on the right side, then I’ll dive into those things a little bit more.” 

While you don’t necessarily need to have a program created by Del Mastro to reap these benefits, remember to individualize your training to fit your body, athletic goals, and limitations to see the best results. 

‍Want more from Carmen Del Mastro? Follow him @nooch_13 for helpful training videos and drills, or train with him here. 

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