National Council on Strength & Fitness - NCSF

Box height, use of the stretch-shortening cycle, and jump direction all change the adaptation response - and the heights that matter are percentages of an individual's maximal jump height, not fixed box sizes.

Above 70% of max.

Countermovement jumps to a high box, for vertical and horizontal power development. This range provides adequate height to elicit maximal force and power, with rest between maximal efforts.

Around 50% of max.

Rebound work. The rebound effect improves reactive strength, turnover speed, and center-of-mass control. Performed forward-to-backward or laterally - lateral variants elicit a greater response from the frontal-plane stabilizers and global movers such as the abductors, and build body control through rehearsal.

At 10–15% of max - a 3- or 6-inch box.

Repeat jumps here promote ankle stiffening and reactive stiffening within the trunk for enhanced transitional rigidity. Commonly programmed as physical readiness for speed, agility, and quickness training after a general warm-up, in 10-second bouts with ground contact speed as the initial focus, progressing to maximal contact speed off the ground and box.

The decision to use box jumps rests on the exerciser's capabilities and the adaptation goal. The key is the competence and speed of the movement at transitions.

A maximal-effort jump to a lower box can produce the same peak outputs as a jump to a near-maximal one.

In one study, elite female athletes performed maximal-intention jumps at 70% and 90% of their maximal jump height. Researchers found no difference in peak center-of-mass displacement, peak force, peak power, peak rate of force development, or concentric time to takeoff.

Their conclusion: with no performance difference, the added risk of failure at high boxes "cannot be justified."

That is one study in elite female athletes, so calibrate accordingly - but the practical rule holds: you do not need 100% of attainable height to elicit a maximal adaptation response. Above 70% of max jump height provides adequate demand for maximal force and power.

In practice: if a client can clear a 36-inch box once, maximal jumps to a 30-inch box elicit the same internal response with a lower threat of injury.

The first sign of a throwing shoulder heading toward surgery is a performance change, not a pain complaint.

Glenohumeral internal rotation deficit - GIRD - is a loss of internal rotation range at the shoulder. Some rotation asymmetry between dominant and non-dominant arms is routine in overhead athletes. At 20° or greater, altered scapular biomechanics during wind-up and follow-through frequently lead to impingement or labral pathology.

The cascade Craig Morgan, MD describes runs in stages. It opens with a painless loss of velocity and command, driven by early loss of internal rotation secondary to posterior capsule restriction, as connective structures in the area become less elastic. The posterior-inferior capsule then becomes progressively less mobile, increasing posterior shoulder stiffness and reducing range. Posterior shoulder pain arrives later, without mechanical symptoms, during late cocking and early acceleration.

From there the restriction shifts the humerus into a posterior-superior position. That strains the labral-glenoid complex and increases external rotation range, bringing the rotator cuff into contact with the glenoid margin - internal impingement. In the final stage the posterior-superior labrum anchors fail, the biceps tendon included, and the labral rim tears. The SLAP event usually requires surgical intervention. Morgan's position is that posterior capsule stretching initiated early in the cascade can prevent that tear.

For the working coach: the cheapest point to intervene is the one with no pain to prompt it. A thrower reporting reduced velocity and command with no symptoms is worth an internal rotation screen.

Shoulder impingement is usually described by where it hurts. The measured deficit is wider than that.

Symptoms present overhead — pain and loss of functional range during overhead movements and various shoulder actions is the presentation that sends someone to get it examined.

Compared with healthy counterparts, though, those with impingement demonstrate limited range of motion and limited force capacity in all directions.

Not only in the painful arc. The whole joint is producing less.

That changes how the rest of the program should read. Routing around the overhead range while loading everything else at previous numbers assumes the rest of the shoulder is intact, and the comparison data doesn't support that assumption.

For the working coach: when impingement is present, treat the whole shoulder as under-producing rather than treating the overhead range as the only thing off-limits.

Scapular dyskinesis shows up alongside most shoulder injuries. That correlation is what makes it easy to misread.

Impingement, rotator cuff disease, labrum injury, clavicle fracture, acromioclavicular joint injury — altered scapular position and motion is associated with all of them. The reading that follows is that the scapula is where the problem started.

More often it appears as a non-specific response to a painful condition in the shoulder complex, rather than as an explicit response to one specific glenohumeral pathology. Pain drives muscle and connective tissue dysfunction; the scapula moves differently downstream of that. Blatant presentations are easy to identify. What they don't tell you is where the chain started, and a rehabilitation plan built on the assumption that the scapula is the origin can miss the condition driving it.

For the working coach: treat altered scapular motion as a finding that opens the assessment, not one that closes it.

The exercises that fix a tight muscle are not always the ones that stretch it.

A desk-bound client's tight lats, pecs, and hip flexors will respond to static stretching.

The core-component work leans on loading and activation instead — a deviation from traditional exercises that still improves the problem areas.

Tight latissimus dorsi: reciprocal inhibition using neutral-grip overhead plate swings.

Tight pectorals: loaded pulls and prone reaches.

Tight hip flexors: overhead Bulgarian squats, which lengthen the trunk and the fascial lines tied to the hip flexors.

The pattern is to place resistance through the range you are trying to restore, and to activate the muscles that sitting has left under-active — rather than working the tight side passively and alone.

Changing load location and switching to unilateral exercises is what drives the activation-specificity and range this population needs.

For the working coach: when a stretch alone isn't moving a desk-posture restriction, load the correction.

Save for your next program write-up.

A full day at a desk creates two muscular problems at once, and stretching only addresses one of them.

Sitting migrates the body into flexion - posterior pelvic tilt, flexed spine, internally rotated shoulders. That position shortens the hamstrings, hip flexors, re**us abdominis, pectoralis major, serratus, and anterior deltoids.

In response, the muscles on the other side become less active: the glutes, rhomboids, posterior deltoids, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, and spinal extensors.

Lengthening the shortened muscles is necessary, but it leaves the other side where it is. Restoring the posture means loading those under-active muscles back into action, not only stretching the tight ones.

For the working coach: a desk-posture correction that is all stretching is doing half
the job.

Correcting desk posture has a structure: Stretch, Move, Load.

Sitting for forty hours a week shortens some muscles and leaves their opposites under-active. Restoring range takes more than a stretch - it takes work placed across all three components of a session.

Stretch. Static holds in the cool-down lengthen the tight structures. Multi-second holds - field lunges with an overhead reach held four seconds per side, forward lunges with a T-reach - return the shortened tissue toward baseline length.

Move. Dynamic drills in the warm-up restore mobility and rehearse the patterns the desk has taken away. Tri-sets from the "move" category - reverse lunges with an overhead reach, good mornings with an IYT reach - double as motor rehearsal and correction.

Load. The core component is where resistance drives activation. Changing load location and shifting to unilateral work promotes activation-specificity and range.

Overhead Bulgarian squats lengthen the trunk and the fascial lines tied to tight hip flexors; loaded pulls and prone reaches open tight pecs.

Ideally the problem areas are addressed three times a week. Where session time is short, stretch-and-move "homework" keeps the work going and shortens the adaptation period.

For the working coach: sort every corrective into Stretch, Move, or Load, and every issue gets addressed in every session.

Loaded rotation work for a golfer shouldn't simply mimic the exact swing motion - an overly specific replication can interfere with swing mechanics.

Rotation is central to the swing, so the instinct to load a weighted version of it is understandable. Develop trunk rotation instead with movements that train the pattern without copying it: ballistic band rotation, ballistic single-arm rows with rotation, rotational medicine ball throws and slams at varied angles and heights, and ballistic landmine rotation drills.

On the medicine ball work: focus on speed, not weight. Use lighter balls - 4 to 8 pounds - and focus on flow patterns.

For the working coach: rotational power belongs in a golfer's program, loaded through general trunk rotation rather than a weighted copy of the swing.

Source: NCSF - Power for Golf - Journal of Personal Training, Spring 2025

Golf power hinges on generating and transferring ground reaction forces in three directions: vertical, horizontal, and rotational.

Vertical. At impact, the best golfers are actively extending their hips and knees, and vertical jump height is one of the few movements correlated to golf performance. Build it with Olympic lifts (hang cleans, high pulls, clean pulls), medicine ball slams and throws, jumps, and kettlebell swings - emphasizing rapid hip flexion and extension, neutral spine positioning, and short amortization phases.

Horizontal. The swing shifts weight between the feet, and the demand compounds across the lies a player actually contends with - uneven stances, uphill positions, sand traps. Frontal-plane power work sharpens the pattern: lateral lunge rebounds, puddle jumps, lateral skiers with plate rotation, lateral box jumps with a ground-contact emphasis, and lateral depth drops.

Rotational. Central to the swing, but loaded exercises shouldn't simply mimic the exact motion - an overly specific replication can interfere with swing mechanics. Develop trunk rotation with ballistic band rotation, ballistic single-arm rows with rotation, rotational medicine ball throws at varied angles and heights, and landmine rotation drills.

Balanced development across all three force vectors builds clubhead speed and driving distance without compromising swing mechanics.