Why these exercises are in your sport block

When Strathlon builds your plan around a sport, it adds a small block of accessory exercises on top of your base lifts: things like a landmine rotation, a face pull, a split squat, a box jump or a kettlebell swing. Those exercises aren't picked at random. Each one targets a physical quality that a named group of sports specifically demands, drawn from the same training research behind Strathlon's sport-by-sport guides. This page collects that reasoning in one place, quality by quality, so you can see why a given exercise showed up in your plan and what it's actually doing for you.

The short version: bat and racket sports need rotational power and shoulder care; endurance sports need posterior-chain and single-leg strength to hold form late; field and court sports need single-leg strength for cutting, hip power for acceleration, and landing control for the knee; overhead and water sports need a stiff midline; combat sports need grip, neck and explosive hip drive. Everything below is the detail behind that sentence, with the sport guide each claim is drawn from.

A framing note before the detail. Sport-science research describes what tends to help a group of athletes on average. It can't predict exactly what any one body needs. Training age, current strength, injury history and the specific way you play your sport all change how much a given exercise matters for you. So this is written as can, tends to and is associated with, never as a guarantee. It's general education rather than medical or individual coaching advice, and it isn't a substitute for a qualified strength-and-conditioning coach or clinician.

Rotational power: bat, racket, club and stick sports

Cricket, golf, tennis, baseball and polo all ask for the same underlying skill: turning the hips and trunk fast enough to whip a bat, racket, club or mallet through the ball. That speed doesn't start in the arm. Tennis's serve and groundstrokes are described in the training literature as a kinetic-chain, ground-up rotational movement: force starts in the legs, travels through hip and trunk rotation, and is delivered out through the shoulder, arm and racket. Cricket's batting and bowling actions work the same way, which is why explosive rotation is treated as one of the more sport-specific qualities a batter or bowler can train in a gym. In baseball, a rotational medicine-ball throw is directly correlated with bat swing velocity, batted-ball velocity and pitching velocity in college players.^[1]

That's the case for training rotation two ways at once, and it's why a Strathlon sport block usually pairs the two. The first is producing rotation: cable or band rotations and chops, and a landmine rotation (a barbell anchored at one end, swept across the body under control), train the hips and trunk to turn with speed and rebuild that turn for the next swing. The second is resisting rotation: an anti-rotation Pallof press, held or pressed out from the chest against a cable or band, trains the trunk to stay stiff rather than twist when a load tries to rotate it. Golf's training guidance groups these together as anti-rotation core work (Pallof press, plank, bird-dog, chops and lifts), noting that a stable trunk transmits leg and hip power to the club and spares the spine. Polo's mallet swing is described the same way: build the power to rotate with medicine-ball throws and cable rotations driven from the hips, and build the ability to resist rotation with the Pallof press, dead bugs and heavy carries, because a swing is only as powerful as the trunk that transmits it. If the core gives, hip power leaks out before it reaches the mallet, bat or racket instead of adding to the swing.

Cricket's fast-bowling and batting guidance draws the same conclusion from the other direction: heavy hip hinges and squats produce the force, and anti-rotation and anti-lateral-flexion trunk work (the Pallof press, suitcase carries, side-plank variations) is what keeps that force from leaking sideways through the spine on the way out. So a landmine rotation and a Pallof press showing up together in your block isn't decoration. One trains the hips and trunk to generate rotation fast. The other trains them to hold still under load so that speed reaches the bat or racket instead of getting lost in a collapsing trunk.

The swinging or throwing shoulder

Any shoulder that swings a bat or club, serves a tennis ball, or throws a cricket or baseball delivers that motion through hard internal rotation, over and over, across a season. Baseball's guidance is explicit about the imbalance this creates: the rotator cuff, and particularly its external rotators, are routinely outmatched by the internal rotators that drive a throw, so the muscles that decelerate the arm take a beating every single repetition. Cricket describes the same pattern in a bowler's throwing shoulder, and tennis says it plainly about the serve: the shoulder takes an enormous, repeated load, heavily internal-rotation dominant, and overuse there is one of the sport's most common chronic problems.

The exercises that answer this are consistent across every one of these guides. Cable external rotations (band or cable work at the shoulder, turning the forearm outward against resistance) train the external rotators directly, correcting the imbalance the swing or throw creates. Face pulls, along with prone Y and T raises, rows and serratus work, build the scapular stabilisers, chiefly the lower trapezius and serratus anterior, that hold the shoulder blade in a position where the rotator cuff can actually do its job. Polo's shoulder guidance names this pairing directly: rotator-cuff and scapular-stability work through external rotations, face pulls, and controlled overhead and rowing patterns, alongside the main pushes and pulls, because a strong, stable shoulder generates and tolerates the swing better and holds up against the overuse niggles that build up in a throwing-type action. Golf adds loaded carries to the same list, alongside rows and pain-free pressing, for the same shoulder-stability purpose.

There's a real number behind bothering with this. A systematic review of injury prevention in high-performance tennis players found that adding core stability work and eccentric rotator-cuff training was associated with roughly a 26% reduction in overuse injuries and better-preserved shoulder range of motion.^[2] A widely-used framework for preventing shoulder injuries in overhead athletes builds its programme around exactly this combination: strengthen the external rotators, train the scapular stabilisers, and restore posterior-shoulder mobility with stretches such as the sleeper and cross-body stretch.^[3] None of it removes the risk that comes from swinging or throwing hard every session. It lowers the odds, which for a shoulder doing that much repeated work is worth having.

Why endurance athletes lift

It's a fair question why a runner, cyclist, swimmer or rower needs a squat rack at all. The answer sits in what actually goes wrong late in a long event. A systematic review of strength training in middle- and long-distance runners found that adding heavy, low-rep lifting to a running programme improves running economy (the energy cost of holding a given pace) and time-trial performance, without harming aerobic fitness.^[4] A later meta-regression across the same literature confirmed the effect at different running speeds^[5], and a comparison of heavy resistance training against plyometric training found the heavy-lifting effect on economy was the larger of the two.^[6] Strength doesn't grow the aerobic engine much. It makes the body around that engine cost less energy to run, so more of the fuel you're carrying goes toward speed rather than toward just holding you upright.

That matters most exactly when it's hardest to notice: late in the event, when muscular fatigue is setting in through the hips and legs. Rowing's guidance names the mechanism directly for the sport's most common injury: as the hips, hamstrings and trunk tire through a long piece, the pelvis tips back at the catch and the lumbar spine rounds and takes load it isn't built to bear, and continuous work on the ergometer makes this worse the longer it goes on. Triathlon's guidance frames the accessory block around the same idea, describing it as a finisher that trains the ability to hold form late, because the swim, bike and run alone leave the strength gains that support late-race form on the table.

The exercises that build that support are the same across running, cycling, triathlon and rowing: a Romanian deadlift or a hip thrust for the hip hinge, and a split squat for single-leg strength. Running's guidance is direct about what the hinge is for, listing the deadlift and Romanian deadlift as the movements that strengthen the glutes and hamstrings that drive propulsion and control landing. Cycling makes the same case for the pedal stroke: the downstroke is driven heavily by the glutes and hamstrings, and training the hip hinge builds the muscles that push the pedal down and back, balancing the quad-dominant nature of the sport. Rowing treats the hinge as protection as much as power: a well-drilled deadlift and Romanian deadlift teach the hips and back to load together with a braced, near-neutral spine, which is exactly the pattern that fails when a rower's back rounds under fatigue. The glute and hamstring strength these lifts build is what holds your stride, your pedal stroke or your rowing stroke together once fatigue starts working against your technique.

Single-leg strength and resilience

Running and cycling load one leg at a time. Every running stride lands on a single leg with a ground-reaction force of several times body weight, absorbs it, and returns much of that energy on the push-off.^[7] Cycling's guidance makes the same point about pedalling: it is fundamentally a one-leg-at-a-time action, and the research on cyclists specifically includes single-leg press and single-leg hip work for that reason, partly because unilateral work exposes the left-right differences that bilateral lifting can hide.

A Bulgarian split squat, a rear-foot-elevated single-leg squat, and a plain calf raise both train that one-legged reality directly, in the exact loaded position running and riding actually use. Running's guidance lists split squats alongside the squat and leg press as the base movement for building leg force with little added mass, and calf raises (straight- and bent-knee) for the calf-Achilles complex that absorbs and returns most of every stride's load. Cycling's single-leg work is described the same way, matched to a bike-specific single-leg press and step-ups.

This is where high mileage tends to bite. A systematic review of running-related injuries found roughly 40–45% of runners are affected by an injury over a given period, with the knee and lower leg the most common sites: patellofemoral pain (runner's knee) is consistently the single most prevalent complaint, alongside Achilles tendinopathy.^[8] Cycling's guidance points the same way for its two most common overuse complaints, anterior knee pain and low-back pain, and reports that adding hip strengthening to knee strengthening works better than knee work alone for reducing patellofemoral pain. Single-leg strength and a durable calf-Achilles complex are the direct, load-bearing answer to both problem areas, built proactively rather than only once the knee or the Achilles is already sore.

Calves: the spring that stores and returns energy

A large share of the spring in a running stride, a jump take-off or a landing doesn't come from muscles contracting at all. It comes from elastic tissue, chiefly the Achilles tendon and the arch of the foot, stretching under load and recoiling like a pogo stick, storing energy on the way down and returning it on the way back up.^[9] The better those tissues store and return energy, the less metabolic energy each stride or jump costs, and the more force comes back on the next take-off.

Calf raises, done both straight- and bent-knee, load the calf-Achilles complex progressively so it can handle that repeated stretch-and-recoil without breaking down. Running's guidance places this work directly alongside the plyometric side of a block: hops, skips and bounds train the same fast stretch-shortening cycle heavy lifting alone doesn't reach. Basketball's guidance makes the on-court version of the same point, describing strong calves and feet as contributing to a stiffer, more responsive ankle for jumping and cutting. A calf that can't store and return energy well costs you spring on the very next jump, and it costs you control on the landing that follows it, which is exactly where the next section picks up.

Cutting: accelerate, decelerate, change direction, repeat

Football, rugby, futsal and handball share the same repeating pattern: accelerate, decelerate, cut, repeat, over and over across a match. Futsal's demand analysis puts a number on how much braking is actually involved, recording roughly 87 high-intensity accelerations and 80 high-intensity decelerations in a single match, a braking load that nearly matches the sprinting load. Football's guidance describes the same profile: accelerations and decelerations occur more frequently than any other high-intensity action in a match, more often even than the sprints themselves.

Almost every one of those cuts, plants and stops happens off a single leg, which is why a split squat and lateral single-leg work such as a lateral lunge sit at the centre of the cutting block. Football's guidance lists the split squat, step-up and single-leg Romanian deadlift as building the unilateral strength and control a bilateral barbell squat can miss, directly relevant to accelerating, decelerating and cutting off one leg. Rugby groups split squats, single-leg RDLs, step-ups and lateral work together for the same reason, noting that single-leg strength underpins accelerating, decelerating and cutting off one leg, which is exactly where knees and hamstrings get hurt, so the same work transfers to both performance and resilience at once. Getting stronger in a squat pattern carries over to the sprinting these cuts are built from: a meta-analysis of team-sport athletes found that improving back-squat strength was associated with roughly 3% faster sprinting on average.^[10] A broader review of the role of strength in sport reached the same conclusion across sprinting, jumping and change of direction generally, and linked greater maximal strength to lower injury risk as well as better performance.^[11]

Acceleration off the mark

Getting off the mark fast is a hip-extension problem before it's a leg-speed problem. Rugby's guidance calls the hip hinge (deadlift, trap-bar deadlift and hip thrust) the "contact engine" of the sport, because it extends the hips explosively in a carry, a tackle and a sprint alike. Football's guidance places the hip thrust in the same role for the same reason, loading the posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings) that drives horizontal acceleration off the line.

A heavy hip hinge builds the force. A box jump teaches the legs to release that force fast rather than slowly. Futsal's guidance is direct about the connection between the two: box jumps, broad jumps, bounds and pogo hops train the leg to produce force fast and to reuse elastic energy on ground contact, the difference between being strong and being explosive, and that reactive strength is what converts squat and hinge numbers into a sharper first step. That's the pairing behind a hip thrust and a box jump sitting in the same block: one builds the raw hip-extension force, the other teaches the nervous system to express it in the fraction of a second an acceleration actually allows.

Landing: where knee injuries happen

Basketball, volleyball, netball and skiing all involve a huge amount of jumping, and it's rarely the jump itself that causes the serious injury. A single volleyball player can perform more than 250 jumps across a five-set match, and basketball's injury data consistently puts the knee among the most commonly affected sites, including the ACL, typically from landing or cutting rather than from contact. Netball's evidence is the clearest on exactly where things go wrong: a video analysis of 21 ACL injuries in elite netball players found that 17 of the 21 (about 81%) occurred during jump-landing and only two from cutting, with a common pattern of decelerating hard after jumping for a high pass and landing with the knee extended and the foot planted.^[12] The danger isn't the jump. It's the uncontrolled landing after it.

Box jumps build the spring that produces the jump in the first place, but done with attention to the landing they also rehearse absorbing force through a bent hip and knee rather than landing stiff-legged. Skiing's guidance pairs box jumps with soft landings and drop landings for exactly this reason, and is explicit that mastering a controlled, double-leg, soft landing comes before any single-leg or higher-impact variation. Single-leg Romanian deadlifts and step-downs build the eccentric strength that controls a landing on one leg specifically, the position most of these injuries actually happen in: netball's guidance lists split squats, step-ups and single-leg Romanian deadlifts as building strength in the exact position a player lands and cuts in, and skiing describes step-downs as building the eccentric quad, glute and hamstring strength that controls force while lengthening under load, turn after turn.

This training genuinely protects the knee, as much as it builds performance. A meta-analysis of meta-analyses covering neuromuscular training programmes (balance, landing mechanics, strength and plyometrics together) found they reduced non-contact ACL injuries by around 50% across athletes generally, and by roughly two-thirds in women.^[13] The benefit depends on actually doing the work consistently rather than once. Landing mechanics are a trainable skill, and box jumps, single-leg RDLs and step-downs are how that skill gets built.

A stiff midline for overhead and water sports

Swimming, water polo, gymnastics and climbing all move force from the legs and hips, through the trunk, out to the hands, whether that's overhead on a bar or ring or through the water on a stroke. Gymnastics' guidance describes the trunk's actual job plainly: it transmits force between the upper and lower body and holds rigid shapes, hollow, arch and straight-body, under load, so the highest-value core work is anti-extension and anti-rotation bracing rather than endless spinal flexion. Swimming's guidance frames the same requirement for the water: anti-rotation and anti-extension core work holds a rigid, streamlined line, tying the pulling power of the lats and back to the leg drive of the kick.

A hollow hold, lying on the back with the lower back pressed down and the arms and legs held just off the floor, trains exactly that rigid shape under tension. Gymnastics' guidance lists hollow holds alongside planks and loaded leg raises as the way to build a core that can stay stiff rather than one built on crunches. Climbing's guidance makes the leak explicit: a climber with strong fingers and a weak, unstable core still leaks force, because the core's job on a wall is to keep the hips in and transmit force from hands to feet, and it lists hollow holds, front planks, dead bugs and the Pallof press as the way to build that anti-extension and anti-rotation strength.

The common thread across all four sports is that a floppy midline costs you power somewhere between where it's produced and where it's applied. Whether that's a swimming stroke, a ring hold, a climbing move or a water-polo pass, force generated by the legs and hips has to cross the trunk to reach the hands, and a hollow hold is how that crossing gets trained to hold firm under load rather than bend and waste it.

Grip and neck in combat sport

Boxing, MMA, BJJ and wrestling are all decided, in part, by grip. BJJ's guidance is the most direct about how much this matters and how it degrades: controlling grips, sleeves and collars underpins almost every position, and handgrip force measurably declines across a match.^[14] Wrestling's guidance makes the same point about hand-fighting and control: wrestlers are famously strong pullers because the sport is a pulling contest as much as a pushing one, and grip endurance matters more than peak crush strength for keeping control of a wrist or a collar tie when your forearms are screaming late in an exchange.

Loaded carries, farmer's or suitcase carries held for time rather than for a fixed number of reps, train exactly that endurance rather than a one-rep grip max. BJJ's guidance recommends favouring longer holds and carries of roughly 30–60 seconds over one-rep grip tests, because grip endurance is what decides who keeps control when both athletes are tired. Wrestling lists farmer's carries, thick-bar holds and rope climbs for the same reason.

The neck matters for a different reason: absorbing impact rather than controlling an opponent. The evidence here deserves an honest, two-sided read. An observational study of high-school athletes found that each additional pound of neck strength was associated with roughly a 5% lower odds of concussion.^[15] But when a systematic review looked specifically at whether training the neck actually reduces concussions, the intervention evidence was found to be limited and inconclusive.^[16] Boxing, MMA and wrestling all describe light, progressive neck work (controlled flexion, extension and lateral holds, never maximal or ballistic loading of the cervical spine) as sensible, low-risk insurance on that basis: plausibly helpful for absorbing impact, and useful for clinch and grappling strength in its own right, but not a proven shield against concussion. It sits alongside skill, defence and sensible sparring management, without replacing them.

Hinge power: the kettlebell swing

A kettlebell swing is a hip hinge done fast: the same hip-extension pattern as a Romanian deadlift or a deadlift, but driven explosively so the kettlebell floats out in front of the body on the strength of the hips alone. BJJ's guidance groups it with trap-bar jumps and medicine-ball throws as the sport's explosive-power work, done because the decisive actions of a grappling match ride on power more than on maximal strength alone, and because the point of this work isn't to build more strength, it's to teach the strength already built to come out quickly.

That's the same rate-of-force-development quality behind a takedown or a throw. Wrestling's guidance names weightlifting derivatives, jumps and medicine-ball throws for exactly this purpose, describing rate of force development, how fast you can express the strength you have, as the quality behind an explosive shot or a snap-down. A hinge trained slowly builds the strength. A hinge trained fast, like the kettlebell swing, is what turns that strength into the sudden hip snap a takedown or a throw actually needs. Because the swing is repeated for reps rather than performed as a single lift, it also keeps the heart rate up through a set, which is a useful side effect for a sport built on short, repeated bursts even though building that side effect isn't the main reason it's in the block.

Common questions

Why does my plan include an exercise that doesn't look anything like my sport?

Because most of what actually transfers to a sport is a physical quality, and copying the sport's movement literally is rarely the point. A Pallof press doesn't look like a golf swing, but it trains the anti-rotation trunk stiffness that lets a golf swing's hip power reach the club instead of leaking through the spine. The exercises in your block are chosen because sport-science research on your sport, or a close relative of it, ties that specific movement pattern to a specific demand your sport places on your body.

Do I need every exercise in the block, every session?

No. Sport blocks in Strathlon sit on top of a base of squats, hinges, presses and pulls, and they're meant to be an accessory layer added on top of a session, rather than a full session on their own. The base lifts are what actually make you stronger. The sport-specific accessory work is what points that strength at the demands named above. Both matter, but the base always comes first.

Is any of this a substitute for skill practice or coaching in my sport?

No. Strength and conditioning work supports the physical qualities a sport draws on. It doesn't replace technical coaching, and for contact and combat sports in particular it doesn't remove risk, including concussion risk, that skill, officiating, protective equipment and medical oversight are what actually manage.

Takeaways

• Rotational power is produced from the ground through braced hips and a stiff trunk, rather than from the arm. Landmine rotations and cable rotations build the turn. The Pallof press keeps the trunk from leaking that power sideways.
• A swinging or throwing shoulder needs direct cuff and scapular work. Face pulls, cable external rotations and loaded carries are associated with roughly a 26% cut in overuse shoulder injuries in tennis players when combined with core stability training.^[2]
• Endurance athletes lift for economy rather than size. Heavy strength work improves running economy without hurting aerobic fitness, and Romanian deadlifts and split squats build the hip and leg strength that holds form together late in an event.^[4]
• Running and riding load one leg at a time. Bulgarian split squats and calf raises train that reality directly, aimed at the knee and Achilles complaints that dominate high-mileage injury lists.^[8]
• Field-sport cutting is single-leg work. Split squats and lateral lunges build the strength behind hard accelerations and decelerations, which outnumber sprints in match data from football and futsal alike.
• Acceleration is a hip-extension problem. Hip thrusts build the force. Box jumps teach the legs to release it fast enough to matter off the mark.
• It's the landing, more than the jump, where knees get hurt. In one video analysis of netball ACL injuries, 81% happened on landing; box jumps, single-leg RDLs and step-downs train the control that prevents it.^[12]
• Overhead and water sports need a midline that won't bend. The hollow hold trains the trunk stiffness that carries force from the hips to the hands without losing it along the way.
• Grip and neck strength fade first in combat sport. Loaded carries build the grip endurance a long exchange demands. Light, progressive neck work is sensible, low-risk insurance rather than a proven shield.
• The kettlebell swing is a hinge trained for speed. It teaches the explosive hip drive behind a wrestling shot or a throw, the same pattern a slow Romanian deadlift builds strength for.

If you take one idea away, make it this: every exercise Strathlon adds to a sport block is answering a specific question about how your sport loads your body. Once you know the question, the exercise stops looking arbitrary.

References

The figures and findings in this guide come from the sources below, carried across from Strathlon's individual sport training guides. Where a source is cited by name in a Strathlon guide but doesn't carry its own formal reference-list entry there, that's noted in the citation here rather than a title being invented for it.

1. Taniyama D, Matsuno J, Yoshida K, Pyle B, Nyland J. Rotational Medicine Ball Throw Velocity Relates to NCAA Division III College Baseball Player Bat Swing, Batted Baseball, and Pitching Velocity. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2021;35(12):3414–3419. PubMed 34570055
2. Amor-Salamanca MS, Rodríguez-González EM, Rosselló D, de Lluc-Bauza M, Hermosilla-Perona F, Martín-Castellanos A, et al. Risk Factors and Prevention of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Adolescent and Adult High-Performance Tennis Players: A Systematic Review. Sports. 2025;13(10). PubMed 41150471 · PMC12568103 full text
3. Cools AM, Johansson FR, Borms D, Maenhout A. Prevention of shoulder injuries in overhead athletes: a science-based approach. Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy. 2015;19(5):331–9. PubMed 26537804 · PMC4647145 full text
4. Blagrove RC, Howatson G, Hayes PR. Effects of strength training on the physiological determinants of middle- and long-distance running performance: a systematic review. Sports Medicine. 2018;48(5):1117–1149. PubMed 29249083
5. Llanos-Lagos C, Ramirez-Campillo R, Moran J, Sáez de Villarreal E. Effect of strength training programs in middle- and long-distance runners' economy at different running speeds: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2024;54(4):895–932. PMC11052887
6. Eihara Y, Takao K, Sugiyama T, Maeo S, Terada M, Kanehisa H, Isaka T. Heavy resistance training versus plyometric training for improving running economy and running time trial performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine – Open. 2022;8(1):138. PubMed 36370207
7. Cavanagh PR, Lafortune MA. Ground reaction forces in distance running. Journal of Biomechanics. 1980;13(5):397–406. PubMed 7400169
8. Kakouris N, Yener N, Fong DTP. A systematic review of running-related musculoskeletal injuries in runners. Journal of Sport and Health Science. 2021;10(5):513–522. PMC8500811
9. Ker RF, Bennett MB, Bibby SR, Kester RC, Alexander RM. The spring in the arch of the human foot. Nature. 1987;325:147–149. PubMed 3808070
10. Seitz LB, Reyes A, Tran TT, Saez de Villarreal E, Haff GG. Increases in lower-body strength transfer positively to sprint performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2014;44(12):1693–702. PubMed 25059334
11. Suchomel TJ, Nimphius S, Stone MH. The Importance of Muscular Strength in Athletic Performance. Sports Medicine. 2016;46(10):1419–49. PubMed 26838985
12. Belcher L, Whatman C, Brughelli M. Video analysis study of anterior cruciate ligament injury mechanisms in elite netball players, 2024. Cited by name (Belcher, Whatman and Brughelli, 2024) in Strathlon's netball training guide rather than carrying its own reference-list entry there; included here with the same PubMed record it links to. PubMed 35129089
13. Webster KE, Hewett TE. A 2018 meta-analysis of meta-analyses of anterior cruciate ligament injury-reduction training programmes, published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research. Cited by name (Webster and Hewett, 2018) in Strathlon's futsal training guide for the roughly 50% (and roughly two-thirds in women) reduction in non-contact ACL injuries, rather than carrying its own reference-list entry there. PubMed 29737024
14. Andreato LV, Lara FJD, Andrade A, Branco BHM. Physical and Physiological Profiles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Athletes: a Systematic Review. Sports Medicine – Open. 2017;3(1):9. PubMed 28194734 · PMC5306420 full text
15. Collins CL, Fletcher EN, Fields SK, Kluchurosky L, Rohrkemper MK, Comstock RD, Cantu RC. Neck strength: a protective factor reducing risk for concussion in high school sports. The Journal of Primary Prevention. 2014;35(5):309–319. PubMed 24930131
16. Daly E, Pearce AJ, Ryan L. A systematic review of strength and conditioning protocols for improving neck strength and reducing concussion incidence and impact injury risk in collision sports: is there evidence? Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology. 2021;6(1):8. PMC7838928

This is general educational information rather than medical or individual coaching advice. The sport-science figures here are drawn from published research and are framed as population-level guides and associations rather than guarantees: individual needs vary widely with training age, sport, level, sex, history and schedule, and are best personalised with a qualified strength-and-conditioning coach. Anyone with pain, an injury, a health condition, or who is pregnant or postpartum, should consult a qualified clinician before starting or changing a training programme, and persistent shoulder, knee, back or neck pain should be assessed rather than trained through. See our Terms for more.

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