Strength in numbers: high school's are facilitating strength and conditioning facilities at a record pace.

The proliferation of state-of-the-art weight rooms on the high school level continues unabated. Some rooms rival those of Division I schools and professional sports facilities.

"The trickle down effect from the pros and colleges to high schools has been huge," says Tom Proffitt, director of athletic sales and education for Hammer Strength. "Then you have the pros and former pros who are giving back to their respective high schools by donating money or buying equipment."

Proffitt says that Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher gave $25,000 worth of equipment to Lovington (N.M.) High School, his alma mater. That kind of money can do wonders for a school on a tight budget.

"We put 34 racks into a high school in Georgia. That's more than a college," adds Proffitt. "We're doing 10,000 square-foot weight rooms in schools in Texas. Where we used to have lulls in our business, for maybe a month or so, we don't anymore. It rolls from one job to the next."

Chris Poirier, manager for Perform Better, Inc., says the biggest piece of the strength and conditioning pie is coming from the high school sector. With the number of college strength programs having maxed out, many high schools that don't have a top-shelf strength and fitness program are either joining the fray or revamping existing facilities.

Keeping up with the Jones' also plays a huge factor.

"Coaches go to conferences and they hear how a certain coach in the same division had an off-season workout program and improved his team," Poirier says. "Of course those coaches would want to do the same for their programs."

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So where does a fledgling high school start? It all depends on budgetary constraints. Bruno Pauletto, president of Power Systems, suggests the following:

"The first thing you need is variety, to train the total body," says Pauletto. "You will need a good selection of equipment. There are too many options on the market. The most economical and effective way is free weights and barbells--the staple to any strength program. They are very versatile. You can do many things with them at a low cost. As for machines, buy whatever you can afford."

Perform Better's Poirier believes high schools have to be a little more creative on the financial side. His suggestion is creating strength and conditioning facilities by using some of the budget money from the Physical Education department.

In short, P.E. can run some weightlifting classes during school hours when the sports teams are inactive.

"Coaches are going to other coaches," Poirier says. "The football coach is going to the track coach and the basketball coach and saying, 'Let's take a little out of your budget and a little out of your budget and together we have a budget for strength and conditioning.'"

The P.E. angle is more than a pipe-dream. On December 15, 2000, the United States Congress approved a mammoth omnibus spending bill that included fiscal year 2001 funding for the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Labor, Treasury, the Postal Service, and the entire Legislative Branch of the federal government.

Included in the bill was a $5 million appropriation for the Physical Education for Progress (PEP) Act, originally introduced by Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and actively supported by physical educators in partnership with many organizations across the country. The Physical Education for Progress Act is now an authorized program of Title X of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Under the PEP program, the Secretary of Education is authorized to award grants to help initiate, expand, and improve physical education programs for kindergarten through grade 12 students. Funds can be used to purchase equipment, develop curriculum, hire and/or train P.E. staff, and support other initiatives designed to enable students to participate in physical education activities.

"P.E. is starting to come back and have more of a presence," says Proffitt. "Part of it has to do with the increasing awareness of child obesity. What have really helped are the PEP grants. We're putting in more cardio equipment into the high school facilities. So they will benefit the P.E. classes and athletic programs."

WHAT'S NEW?

There is only so much you can do with a barbell, rack system, training plate, or lat machine. In essence, you can't reinvent the weight. What strength and fitness manufacturers are doing, however, is improving equipment to help elevate athletic performance.

"What has happened is things have been refined and improved," says Bruno Pauletto. "But there is nothing new, per se. Everything has gotten better. Dumbbells have gotten better. Now, instead of having a flat handle they have an ergonomic handle, which fits your palm better. But it is still a dumbbell. Those small refinements are what I have seen over past 10 years when it comes to strength training, especially for the clientele my company serves--high school and college sports programs.

"The basics are basics. There is no machine that has been introduced or nobody thought about that makes you go, Wow!"

The wow factor aside, companies continue to test the boundaries of research and development by making subtle adjustments to functional trainers, jump trainers, and everything in between. Just as compact cars revolutionized the auto industry, compact equipment is all the rage in gyms from Syracuse to Sacramento.

Life Fitness has introduced the Hammer Strength Olympic Heavy-Duty rack system, a line of equipment the company touts as ideal for high school and university facilities. Comprised of five units (8-and 9-foot Olympic Heavy-Duty Power Racks, Multi-Rack, Half-Rack, and Adjustable Bench), the versatility of the line allows trainers and coaches to train more athletes in smaller spaces in less time.

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XMG, Inc. is also redefining workout room limitations with its X-iser Machine. Using only 2 cubic feet of space (folds to 20.5" X 13" X 4"), the X-iser is a unique and revolutionary exercise device that can train the entire body for enhancement of speed, power, strength, balance, range-of-motion, and endurance, all while not impacting joints or the back.

Designed by Dr. Juris Terauds, a Fellow of the International Society for Biomechanics in Sport and head of the international research team that developed the first stair climber, the X-iser is a state-of-the-art training tool for professional and Olympic-level athletes. It is also a potent injury rehabilitation tool, according to the company.

Where strength training has really changed, according to Pauletto, is in movement or more specifically, ballistic training.

"Speed, agility, moving," he says. "This is where people are really starting to better understand what it is all about. Strength training has always been and will always be basic. Sports are movement. You don't sit on a bench press and lift weights when you are on the court or out on the field. You have to move. It's the total combination."

"Ballistic training creates a maximal rate of force development," says Jake Wehrell, director of marketing for Genetic Potential, makers of Vertimax, the market leader in jump trainers. "You would create more force development by just doing bench presses and squats. But it's the rate of the forced development, which is mostly neural, which makes the difference."

Wehrell says that the distinguishing kinetic about Vertimax is that it applies a non-varying level of resistance throughout the complete concentric and eccentric movement, or, in laymen's terms, the entire jumping motion.

"When an athlete has an increased rate of force development, he will jump higher and start quicker," says Wehrell. "Your vertical jump and first step quickness are markedly improved. And coaches will notice that their athletes are demonstrating playmaking moves and game winning intensity. It's all because the players are starting quicker, adjusting better, and staying with their opponent tighter."

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While many tout the benefits and acceptance of ballistic training, others, such as Perform Better's Poirier, sing a different tune.

"You will always see ballistic-type training but you're not seeing a strong push," Poirier says. "There's always been that type of training--plyometric type drills--even before it was called ballistic training. Athletes always did bounds and hops. We used to call them agility drills. Today these drills are more program-based and more organized. We're seeing more of an emphasis on core training."

To the uninitiated, core training centers on the muscles from mid thigh to the chest.

"That area is a power source," says Poirier. "Take any sport, whether you are throwing a ball or swinging a bat or your running, and all that energy is being transferred through the core. It's a vital area to train."

Core-type training utilizes any product that creates some instability when doing an exercise, such as a body weight squat or a lunge. One such product is a Bosu, which is four products in one--stability ball, balance disc, wobble board, and plyo-box.

Says Poirier: "Ten years ago, if you asked a football coach to have an athlete stand on a balance disc, with one leg, he wouldn't understand how that would relate to training. Today, coaches know the answers."