Pro Training Secrets for Better Performance

It's an early-February morning, and the Athletes' Performance training center looks like backstage at the ESPY Awards—except that the jocks are clad in workout
gear, and not formal attire.

At one end of the training floor, "performance coaches" direct a group of baseball players that includes Pat Burrell of the Philadelphia Phillies, Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and Brian Roberts, the pint-size but powerful infielder for the Baltimore Orioles.

Curt Schilling is lying on a padded table as a physical therapist examines his famous ankle. Outside, NFL prospects pull weighted sleds across an Astroturf field. Last year, NFL teams drafted eight Athletes' Performance clients in the first round, including top-10 picks Ronnie Brown, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, and Carlos Rogers.

Roberts, who at 5'9" hit 18 home runs last season, surveys the scene and shakes his head. "Look at the people you see here. You work out all your life, then come here and quickly find out there are more effective ways to train."

It's an impressive show of talent gathered here in Tempe, Arizona, to improve strength, power, and overall performance, under the whip of Mark Verstegen, better known to these pros as the fast-talking, flat-topped hulk of energy who has pioneered the concept of "performance training." At 36, the Men's Health "Muscle Guy" columnist still looks as if he could suit up as a linebacker for Washington State, which he did until a career-ending arm injury launched his coaching career.

In his new book, Core Performance Essentials, Verstegen shows how anyone can follow the same routines used by the likes of top athletes in almost every sport.

You, too, can add your name to his list of all-star success stories.

Do Your Prep Work

If you could spend 3 minutes at the beginning of your workout to boost production for the rest of your regimen by 20 percent, would you do it? How about if you knew that such chiseled athletes as Crawford and NFL wideout Nate Burleson perform the same exercises?

Verstegen's "movement-prep" routine usually consists of six to eight exercises that boot up the body's computer and prepare it for action. But you only have to do two of them.

First, perform 10 hand walks. Start in pushup position: legs straight, hands on the floor. Keeping your knees straight, walk your feet toward your hands. (Your hips will rise toward the ceiling.) When you feel a stretch, walk your hands out until you're in pushup position again. That's one repetition.

Next, do 10 repetitions of what Verstegen calls the world's greatest stretch. Take a large step forward with your left leg to get into a lunge position. Now bend down and place your left elbow against the instep of your left foot while keeping your right knee off the floor. Pause momentarily, then lift your left hand and place it outside your left foot. From this position, push your hips to the ceiling (your back knee will straighten) and lift the toes of your left foot toward your shin. Finally, stand up and step forward into the next lunge and repeat. That's one repetition. "You're giving your muscles mobility and stability, which will support the rest of your workout. This is the most important and easiest thing you can do to improve performance," says Verstegen.

Master Time Management

You'll never see a pro at Athletes' Performance resting between sets. That's because Verstegen believes in workout density—packing as much as possible into a workout for maximum physiological response. "Time is the limiting factor for most of us. Put the work back into working out," says Verstegen.

The key: strategic arrangement of exercises. By alternating between upper- and lower-body exercises, and movements in which you either push or pull, you'll be able to do set after set at your highest intensity—without resting. So you'll double your workout efficiency. And that means you'll save time—or get more done during the same period.

In fact, you'll be better off than if you spent the previous 2 minutes ogling bare midriffs. By activating more muscles, you're increasing the amount of muscle-building and fat-burning hormones released, so you'll grow stronger and leaner.

Here's how to set it up: Organize your workout so that an upper-body pushing movement is always followed by a lower-body pull, and an upper-body pull is always followed by a lower-body push. See the lists below for basic examples, then click on each for a video demonstration of each exercise.