Elite Edge Deep Dive: Building Lateral Strength & Speed (Part 3 of 4)

Developing Agility, Power, and Injury Resilience

Why Lateral Strength & Speed Are Essential for Athletes

Athletic performance isn’t just about moving forward—it’s about moving efficiently in all directions. Whether it’s a football player cutting past a defender, a basketball guard executing a crossover, or a soccer player reacting to an opponent’s movement, elite-level agility separates dominant athletes from the competition.

Lateral strength and speed are critical for:
✅ Explosive Change of Direction – The ability to decelerate and re-accelerate without losing power.
✅ Injury Prevention – Weakness in lateral stabilizers increases ACL and groin injury risk.
✅ Sport-Specific Movement Quality – Acceleration and deceleration occur in multiple planes of motion in nearly every sport.

The HSE Conjugate System for Youth Athletes integrates lateral strength work, plyometrics, and contrast training to enhance agility, r...

Elite Edge Deep Dive: Building Posterior Chain Power

A strong posterior chain—the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back—is the foundation of elite speed, explosive power, and injury prevention. The HSE Conjugate System for Youth Athletes maximizes posterior chain strength using a scientifically structured Max Strength Lower 2 program.

This session incorporates superset methodologies, combining Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP), contrast training, force coupling, and progressive overload to improve strength, speed, and movement efficiency. If you’re an athlete looking to run faster, jump higher, and improve resilience, this breakdown will show you exactly how we program posterior chain power for optimal performance and injury prevention.

The Science Behind Posterior Chain Power

The posterior chain is the powerhouse of athletic movement. Whether sprinting, jumping, or changing direction, strong glutes and hamstrings are essential for:

✅ Force Production – More power in each stride...

Pregnancy and postpartum recovery are beautiful yet challenging times for the body, and understanding the role of relaxin—a hormone that significantly affects joints and ligaments—can help moms navigate movement safely and effectively. Whether you're pregnant or recently had a baby, being informed about relaxin’s effects on your body will empower you to exercise with confidence while minimizing discomfort or injury.

What is Relaxin?

Relaxin is a hormone that prepares your body for pregnancy and childbirth. Its primary job is to loosen joints and ligaments, especially in the pelvic region, to allow for a growing baby and a smoother labor process. However, relaxin doesn’t just affect the pelvis—it impacts ligaments all over the body, which can lead to increased flexibility but also instability and discomfort.

How Relaxin Fluctuates During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Relaxin begins to rise early in pregnancy, starting around ovulation and increasing through the first trimester. By the ...

The Science Behind Low Body Max Effort Strength Training

The goal of max effort training is simple: lift heavy, recruit more muscle fibers, and teach the nervous system to generate higher force output. However, true athletic strength isn’t just about moving heavy weight—it’s about how efficiently that strength translates into explosive movements.

Over the next 4 weeks we are going to dig into one of our Max Effort training sessions. Here are some key concepts you will need to know to understand the Max Effort Lower Body Training session. All terms are as defined by the NSCA Textbook.

Rate of Force Development (RFD): “The rate at which force is developed in response to a stimulus, often determining an athlete’s ability to produce power in sport-related movements.”

Why It Matters:

• Athletes don’t have time to apply max force in competition—they must generate high levels of force rapidly.
• Training with explosive movements (like jumps and sprints) alongside heavy lifts accelerates...

What started as a casual night out turned into a full-blown homeschool heart-to-heart! We ran into a couple thinking about homeschooling their kids, and like most parents considering the switch, they had a ton of questions.

Since we’re still figuring things out ourselves, I told them the truth—I lean on the HitSquad Homeschool community all the time. So, we took to Facebook and asked the squad… and WOW. Dozens of parents chimed in, asking the same questions, sharing their struggles, and dropping some seriously helpful advice.

The Big Questions We Asked:

1️⃣ If you were in public school, do you regret making the switch to homeschooling?
2️⃣ What’s been the biggest win for your kids’ education?
3️⃣ What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced?

The responses were real, raw, and ridiculously helpful. And then we thought… why stop there?

Introducing: The Parent Power-Up in HitSquad U! 🎉

Because let’s be honest—homeschooling can feel like jumping into the deep end with no floaties. But yo...

What’s the Science

At the core of the HSE Conjugate System for Youth Athletes is a strategic approach to cycling training intensity—an essential practice to promote adaptation while preventing burnout and injury. This method is rooted in the principles of the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), which outlines how the body responds to stress through three stages:

• Alarm Phase: The body detects stress (such as high-intensity training) and initiates a response.
• Resistance Phase: With proper recovery, the body adapts, growing stronger and more resilient.
• Exhaustion Phase: If stress is chronic and recovery is inadequate, the body’s resources are depleted, leading to burnout and heightened injury risk.

For youth athletes, managing central nervous system (CNS) fatigue is crucial. Constant high-intensity training without variation can lead to excessive CNS fatigue, impairing performance and overall well-being. At HSE, we cycle intensity—on max effort days, athletes perform sets of 2 w...

Pregnancy is an incredible journey, but as your body adapts to growing a baby, it undergoes postural changes, weight shifts, and increased strain on muscles and joints. To support your body, minimize discomfort, and prepare for labor and postpartum recovery, focusing on key muscle groups is crucial.

In this guide, we’ll cover three essential muscles to strengthen during pregnancy, why they matter, and safe, effective exercises to help you stay strong.

1. Erector Spinae: The Key to Posture and Back Support

Why It Matters

The erector spinae muscles run along the spine and are responsible for maintaining good posture and spinal support. During pregnancy, as your center of gravity shifts, the lower back tends to arch more to compensate for the growing belly. This can lead to back pain and discomfort.

How to Train These Muscles

• Romanian Deadlifts
• Suitcase Deadlifts

These exercises strengthen the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings to provide postural support and reduce strain....

The Science and Strategy Behind the HSE Conjugate System for Youth Athletes

In the competitive world of youth sports, training must be as dynamic and multifaceted as the athletic demands placed on young competitors. The HSE Conjugate System for Youth Athletes is an innovative approach designed to develop strength, explosiveness, and speed in a balanced, integrated way. In this educational deep dive, we explore the origins of this system, the physiological science behind each training modality, and how this method drives performance improvements across all sports. Whether you’re a parent, athlete, or strength coach, this post is designed to leave you smarter and better equipped to elevate athletic performance.

Setting the Stage: Background & Problem Statement

Traditional training programs often isolate individual qualities—focusing solely on strength, speed, or endurance. However, every sport demands a blend of these attributes. Recognizing that very rarely does an athlete rely on ju...

At HitSquad Elite, we don’t just build strong athletes—we build explosive, resilient, and dominant competitors ready for the highest levels of play. Our system is rooted in the conjugate training method, a proven strategy inspired by Westside Barbell but tailored specifically for youth athletes. By balancing max effort, dynamic effort, sprint training, and elite-level plyometrics, we ensure that every athlete in our system develops strength, speed, and power simultaneously—without overtraining.

What Makes the HSE Conjugate System Unique?

Traditional strength programs often focus on linear periodization, where one quality (strength, speed, power, endurance) is emphasized at a time. The problem? Athletes need all these qualities year-round, not just in pre-season or off-season blocks. Our conjugate method avoids these limitations by training multiple performance qualities at the same time.

The Science Behind It

The original Conjugate Method, developed by Louie Simmons at Westside...

The Science Behind Strength & Power: Dynamic Total Body Session 1

At HitSquad Elite, we train youth athletes with one goal in mind: build explosive, dominant, and injury-resistant competitors who are ready for the next level. Our system is built on proven strength & conditioning principles, but we don’t blindly follow what works for powerlifters or professional athletes. Instead, we adapt the Westside Barbell Conjugate Method for youth athletes, ensuring they develop strength, speed, and durability without unnecessary breakdown.

One of the biggest differences in our approach is how we modify dynamic effort training to develop explosive power—not just brute strength. Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on one of our dynamic total-body strength sessions, breaking down two of our most effective supersets for upper-body explosive strength and total-body speed-strength.

This isn’t your typical “lift heavy and hope for the best” program. This is high-performance training built for long-...