Do You Play Lacrosse? Why Weight Lifting Should Help Your Game

You’ll get Faster! It increases the number of fast twitch muscle fibers in your body- especially in your legs. It will make you more explosive, faster to turn, and faster at cutting. Attack players, this will get you a step ahead so your teammates can thread the needle a few inches further ahead so you can get your shot or your pass off. Defenders, this means you’ll get beaten less.

You’ll win more ground balls! Fat in the volume of a football weighs about as much as muscle in the volume of a softball. If you train properly, you should add lbs. on the scale! Get over it! When you get in a tussle for a ground ball, and you both go for the ball with the same intensity, if you way more, and are more compact, you’ll come out on top every time! Let’s face it; this game gets more physical at every level of skill increase! Get some meat on your bones! You’ll be able to jump higher for interceptions! Weight lifting increases your fast twitch muscle fibers. These are the fibers you use for jumping! Go Girl!

Your cradle will be stronger! When people check you, you’ll be less likely to drop the ball if your pecs, rhomboids, and deltoids are strong! Your checks will be harder! More effective checks mean we get the ball more! Same reasons as above… you’ll just get stronger! You’ll look better in a bathing suit! Okay, so that’s true too… But you’ll look better when you get old like me! Get started now and never stop, and when you need to worry about that stuff, you won’t need to as much!

More muscle means a higher metabolism… cardio work (running, etc.) does not do the same for you as weight training does. Your heightened metabolism will allow you to eat what your body needs, and not count calories. Note: this does not give us license to binge on candy and hydrogenated fat! And here are some your parents and your coaches will really appreciate!:

Less bone injuries! The stress of lifting weights on your bones increases your osteocyte (bone cell) activity. Your bones become thicker, harder and stronger. This leaves you less likely to break bones, get stress fractures and frank fractures.

Less ankle sprains! It increases the tensile strength of your ligaments. When lifting weights safely, you add safe stress to your joints: ligaments, tendons and fascia (gristle that holds your muscles together). These areas respond by laying down more tissue in those areas. This makes these tissues more resistant to injury. You’ll have less sprains and strains.

In the end, as we age… our bodies begin to start losing muscle mass, and bone mass. If you start out with more of both, you have more to lose. You will be less likely to suffer from osteoporosis later, and, your metabolism will stay higher longer. That means you’ll stay leaner longer in your life!

Misunderstandings about weight training:

Q: Won’t lifting weights make me look burly and masculine?

A: Everyone’s body is different!

Some people put on quite a bit of muscle under their body fat when they first start lifting. This makes them look bigger for a short period of time. Then the fat melts away as you keep up the hard work, and you just look harder, leaner and actually, in the end, smaller. I have heavy lifted weights 5-6 days a week, really hard since I was 12… and that’s a very long time… 27 years! … and I still think I look like a girl! And guess what, so do the guys!

There are some people who fall outside this guideline, or so I have heard. But I have never met one, in all the years I have been training women. The women you see strutting around the gym looking masculine just might have done steroids. NOT a good idea!

Q: Won’t all that muscle I put on later turn to fat if I stop lifting?

A: NO!

They are 2 completely different tissues! That’s physiologically impossible! Ex weight lifters replace their muscle with fat when they stop lifting and still eat the same amount of food!

Warnings!

Please do not start weight training with heavy weights until you are through growing! If you do, it could cause premature closure of your growth plates. That means you won’t get as tall as you should! A good sign you are nearly done growing is the beginning of menstruation. Don’t start lifting weights without some instruction about how it’s done! There are so many good exercises, and so many bad… and balance is imperative!

Ask your parents for permission first as well!

Imagine the Possibilities!

Dr. Jen Milus has been in sports performance enhancement and injury rehab since 1985 and private practice for over 12 years. Dr. Milus is dedicated to helping athletes perform at peak levels, as well as prevent and treat sports related injuries.[adToAppearHere]

When training athletes of any level, having an understanding of what an athlete is going through both physically and mentally is paramount. Dr. Jen Milus has just this understanding. Dr. Milus is a Palmer College of Chiropractic Alumni. She has competed at elite levels as a distance and ultra distance runner. Dr. Milus has also competed in triathlons, mountain biking, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, softball, obstacle course racing, racquetball, volleyball, golf and body building. She is an active sports coach. She has coached softball, soccer, and is currently a lacrosse coach. She has worked with young athletes to collegiate and Olympic level phenoms. She has trained men, women, and children to enhance their power.[adToAppearHere]

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