It’s time to get in shape!

PEABODY – Conditioning is Fernando Braz’s mantra, and he is trying to instill it in young athletes at his Going the Distance summer program.Braz, who coaches track at Peabody High, said, “Conditioning is the key to success in athletics. My view is that it is the ability to cover all bases, being aerobically fit when it’s required that you have to go the duration, and anaerobic to be able to recover very, very quick and be explosive.”The almost 400 athletes who attend his program at Bishop Fenwick High School in Peabody include middle-schoolers, high-schoolers and a few adults. The program is seven weeks long … two weeks of essentially independent study at home, and five weeks on-site.Each on-site week has three-day sessions, consisting of agility, quickness, balance and speed on Mondays; resistance on Wednesdays; and endurance on Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays are used for home practice under program guidelines.Over the course of the program, Braz said, “the intensity (gets) higher and the volume increases (until) just about the weekend before the start of the fall season.”Activities might include running uphill, stretching and doing squats, all with the goal of literally going the distance throughout a season.”Hill running is most effective for speed,” Braz said. “It forces you to run leaning forward and tuck in at the middle. It’s on our resistance day (Wednesday). You go up against something with a force.”That something is a 30-yard jaunt uphill at Fenwick, coming after 10 seconds of squats.”You get up and explode uphill,” Braz said.”Going the distance” might also include preparing the human body to avert injuries. Braz detailed one stretch that aims to do just that.”(It’s) a walk and knee hold,” he said, “for the upper hamstring and lower periformus. It keeps the hip flexible and prevents ACL and knee damage.”Braz said the athletes who have taken the program include individual state champions, college All-Americans and members of state champion teams.”We stress communication,” he said. “Parents are on board with everything we do.”His coaching staff includes 10 assistants who are between 17 and 20 years old, including his niece, Catarina Rocha, who starred in track at Peabody High, where she was a member of the Class of 2013. Rocha works with 10-to-12-year-olds in the program.”She’s very intense,” Braz said. “She won’t let anyone get away with anything. But she’s patient and compassionate.”Braz has run the program on the North Shore for six years, and at Andover High the past 14 years.”I thought about how can I best help young people,” he said, “what could I do to be able to (help) kids and adults be more skilled. I always believe conditioning is the key to everything.”