Athletic Edge is a sport-specific, performance-enhancement training center.  We work with athletes from all sports, the primary focus being to break down that athletes’ sport — and often their position — into a series of movements.  Understanding the biomechanics of those movements, we then develop periodized programs to map out peak performance at the critical time of the sport’s cycle.



Aimed at athletic sucess, our staff and facility always stays cutting edge

Our staff — all of whom have studied the exercise sciences and are certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association — are always staying on the cutting edge of industry information.  Our trainers have advanced degrees and have come from settings in professional and collegiate sports.  Having worked with professional athletes, we siphon many of those training experiences down to our younger, yet-serious athletes.  Many of our high-school and collegiate athletes are recruited for athletic scholarships at Division-I programs.  Others vie for junior national positions on some of the country’s best amateur teams.  And some others go on to play professional sports.

What makes Athletic Edge special is the passionate philosophy that runs like electricity throughout the place.  Most training centers offer mainly one type of training, whether it be Olympic lifting, power lifting, functional training, speed/agility/quickness training, plyometrics, high-intensity training, Westside weightlifting, or even old-fashioned bodybuilding.  Their belief is that their one method works for all people in all situations.




We are constantly weighing time-tested practices with new advances in technology

We do not see this to be true.  While we do believe all of these methods have value, it is only as long as they are used in the proper context of the right person at the right time.  We understand all the methodologies and have them all at our disposal, but we use only the appropriate ones when training each athlete at a time.  If you consider exercise programs to be administered like exercise prescriptions (where you apply forces onto the body and place energy system and neurologic demands on the athlete), you can understand the need for the trainers to be educated, experienced, thorough, creative and in tune with an individual athlete’s particular needs.  (Unlike other facilities, we do not do group training with athletes at different levels, with different needs and from different sports for exactly this reason.  This group mentality severely limits the potential of athletic gains, since each person and each sport has its own specific needs.)

Other facilities might back up their training choices with a study done somewhere in the world.  The problem, though, is that there are very few double-blind studies done in the industry.  Either the tester or the subject might know what they’re trying to prove, which skews the results from the start.  And for every result, there is usually an opposing view which appears to be equally valid.  Without a sophisticated understanding of the human body — anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, biomechanics and motor learning — it is impossible to sort through the research and come up with an educated conclusion.  Especially one that’s appropriate for one athlete playing a certain position in a certain sport.  That’s where Athletic Edge comes in.  We do all the learning for you.

Another point where we differ is in the way we view the initial evaluation.  Most facilities want to show client improvement via gains made when re-evaluated.  But they’ve trained the athlete to master the test, not improve at their sport.  Athletic Edge puts clients through evaluations, analyzes the results and designs individual programs using the proper methodologies.  Clients will show improvement once re-evaluated, but the differences are due to true physiologic changes.  And the real results are felt on the playing field, course or court—the only place where they should matter.

Staying current with the latest scientific information in our industry allows us to offer the best service.  We are constantly weighing time-tested practices with new advances in technology.  We cull the most effective aspects of the various training philosophies and methodologies available.  And we are constantly offering a better and better product.

A True Pioneer
Ben Shear is Founder and Director of Strength and Conditioning at Athletic Edge Performance Enhancement Training Center in New Jersey. It is considered to be one of the nation’s premier conditioning facilities for High School and collegiate athletes. The staff of certified coaches bring years of experience from the professional, collegiate, and private settings. In addition to implementing time-tested training methods from around the world, they use the most up-to-the-minute, cutting-edge technologies and equipment to evaluate, analyze, and train their clients, for strength, speed, agility, power and quickness.

Ben and his staff train athletes and teams from 8 years of age to the professional level, with the focus being the High School and collegiate athlete. The workouts are age-, sport-, and position-specific, and many of their clients go on to achieve all-area, all-state and all-American status. They currently have athletes participating in sports teams at Penn State, Duke, Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, Georgetown, Villanova and many others top athletic and academic universities.





Committed To Excellence
Our staff, all of whom have studied the exercise sciences and are certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, are always staying on the cutting edge of industry information. Our trainers have advanced degrees and have come from settings in professional and collegiate sports. Having worked with professional athletes, we siphon many of those training experiences down to our younger, yet-serious athletes.