RECOVERY – THE SECRET TO SUCCESS

The stresses and strains of training hard are important to creating overload and adaptation in becoming a fitter, stronger and faster athlete. The approach to achieving gains is different in every sport and every person; however common themes and methods of training have been researched and shown to have significant effects. For example, heavy resistance training will increase an athletes’ strength, speed/sprint training will make an athlete faster, pushing yourself harder for longer will build stamina and engaging in activities such as yoga will increase suppleness. All of these aspects should be considered when designing training programs. However one area is often overshadowed when it comes to program design, recovery. Recovery can be defined as “regaining what was lost” or simply returning an athlete to a pre-training state of readiness (Stone, Stone, Sands, 2007).This is arguably one of the most important areas, as it is during the recovery from overloaded training that the athlete actually begins to change physiologically into a different beast. When putting together your athletes program, planned recovery is vital. How you want the athlete to be able to perform everyday can also be linked to the training goal – if gaining maximal strength is the goal, lots of recovery from high intensity but short duration exercise is needed, whereas if improving stamina in a games player such as tennis, where they are required to compete daily at high intensities for up to two weeks, recovery will not be 100% complete after everyday due to the volume of work they must endure, but should be factored into the overall program to allow varying intensities of training. In this article, I’ll examine the current research on different types of recovery strategy, give a few examples of what has worked in the past and put forward a plan that can be used to help you.

STRETCHING

Stretching has been the primary form of exercise used for recovery for the past 40 years. There has been lots of research into the effects of different types of stretching and the influences this has on muscle damage markers and perceived muscle soreness following various types of training. If recovery is the restoration of a state of readiness, then it is important that players also prepare themselves for physical training by conducting a warm up including dynamic stretching and a progressive ramp of intensity and game mimicking movements. Typically static stretching has been reserved for improving flexibility and recovery post-exercise. It is important that the muscles are in a warmed and pliable state so as to maximise the effect of elongating the muscle fibres. Therefore if performing a stand-alone stretch session a warm up should be conducted to enable the thermo-elastic properties of muscles to initiated. Static stretches should be held for approximately 30 seconds, this enables the Golgi tendon organs within the muscle fibres to relax and the (new, longer) muscle length to be maintained without muscle spindles firing to protect the body from the damage of overstretching. There are various types of stretching that can be utilised to increase flexibility;

Static: holding a stretch at a set length for 20-30 seconds, this can be done actively by the athlete or passively with assistance from either a partner or equipment.

Dynamic: movement based flexibility, where the muscles are progressively taken through an increased range of motion under a controlled tempo. The use of external equipment such as stretching beds, bands, Swiss balls can also assist in enhancing this form of stretching.

PNF: Proprioceptive-Neuromuscular-Facilitation is where the muscle is taken to a length of stretch and then the athlete pushes against the resistance of a partner or piece of equipment for ~6 seconds to initiate the activation of the Golgi tendon organs and cause autogenic inhibition (relaxation of the muscle after adjustment to the new length) before taking the muscle into a passive static stretch at a greater length. This process is repeated 3-5 times to increase the range of motion and is one of the more effective methods of stretching.

SMR: Self Myofascial Release, recent trends in the fitness industry have seen an increase in the usage of equipment such as foam rollers and trigger point release balls as a method of enhancing flexibility by breaking down tough fibrous fascia to increase the elasticity of the muscles and connective tissues. It is based around Myofascial meridians and lines of tension that run throughout the body, arguing that if one area of the body is ‘tight’ it could be due to compensation for a movement or muscle imbalance elsewhere in the body. For further reading on the area, I recommend ‘Anatomy Trains’ by T.W.Myers (2009).

Ballistic: not often used for increasing muscle length after training but can be utilised before. Ballistic stretching involves progressively taking a muscle through a greater range of motion in a fast moving dynamic action repeated several times with an increased stretch each time e.g. leg swings. This is not a form of stretching that I would recommend for post-exercise or increasing muscle length beyond a transient phase.

Something to consider about stretching that is often overlooked is to utilise the full range and angles available to stretch at a given joint. Often just the main muscle fibres are focussed on and stretching of peripheral fibres, lateral, medial, superior or inferior to belly of the main muscle can require changed angles, amounts of tension and length of stretch. A great follow up read on stretching can be found in ‘Stretch to Win’ by A. And C. Frederick (2006).

WATER IMMERSION: HOT, COLD AND CONTRAST BATHING

Immersion in water has been used as a relaxation and recovery method for thousands of years. How many times have you heard someone say they had a nice hot bath and now feel relaxed? Regardless of the temperature, water causes hydrostatic pressure to act on the bodies’ fluids in the immersed regions. The removal of swelling or oedema and post exercise metabolites such as lactic acid from peripheral areas will assist in the recovery process.

In more recent times cold water has been used in recovery processes’ also. Cold water causes shunting of the peripheral blood towards the thoracic region. Superficial blood is also redirected into deeper tissue to maintain body temperature, as the process of homeostasis and auto-regulation takes full swing. From personal experience of having ice baths or cold water baths, you certainly feel the thermogenic effects of the transfer of blood. I have always found cold water baths helpful in my recovery process, although I mainly only used them when I return from training with a significantly elevated body temperature or I have trained in hot conditions. The cooling effect lasts for up to 2 hours, by which time I will have had the chance to eat, stretch and rest and return to a pre-exhausted state.

Hot water immersion causes vasodilation and increased circulation. Blood moves superficially in order to maintain core temperature and also increases the supply of oxygen to clear post exercise metabolites in the skeletal musculature. Hot or warm water immersion is typically the common practice of most exercising individuals, if not simple for the fact that we prefer warm water to cold, however the increased circulation in the peripheral muscles after exercise may not be the best solution to recovering from intense training. Overheating of the muscles can cause post-exercise metabolites to pool or remain in the muscles and can lead to cramps or an increased amount of time to return to pre-exercise state. The use of alternate hot and cold water immersion can therefore be of benefit via the alternation of these physiological states, this is known as a flushing effect or contrast bathing. 

The use of contrast bathing has been associated with decreases in muscle damage markers (creatine kinase) and perceived muscle soreness post-exercise as well as the removal of blood lactate and other metabolites post-exercise. However this does not guarantee complete recovery post-exercise and repeated performance within a few hours can be sub-optimal. This brings us back to the question of what you are recovering from and how long you have in order to return to a pre-fatigued state.

Recent research has made the following suggestions towards application of hot and cold immersion;

• Cold water immersion is generally between 8-15°C.
• Hot water immersion is generally between 38-42°C.
• The ratio of hot: cold immersion is commonly controlled at 2:1, with no significant changes in perceived soreness following 1 minute immersions, but positive outcomes when using 2 minute plus immersions. Recommendations would be to do 2-3 minute cycles between hot and cold immersion.
• The overall time frame for immersion has been experimented with; 15 minute protocols have elicited greater physiological responses than shorter protocols of 3-5 minutes. Based on this recommendations would be to complete 12-20 minutes on contrast bathing dependent upon immersion times and number of cycles.

Importantly though if water temperatures are not controlled the effects of contrast bathing are significantly reduced, if at all present.

NUTRITION

Possibly the most important area to have corrected in order to speed up recovery. Just like running a Formula 1 car on high octane fuel, athletes too need to replace the correct amounts and types of fuel in their bodies in order to repeat high intensity performances. I could write a whole other blog about nutrition for athletic performance and no doubt will in the future, however the key principles needed when talking about nutrition for recovery are proteins and carbohydrates. Proteins repair the damage done to muscle cells by free radicals released during high intensity training and carbohydrates replace the muscle and liver glycogen stores (energy tanks) within the body in order to continue functioning at high intensities. Carbohydrates also help with the co-ingestion of protein and increase absorption levels when combined. Optimal ratios depend upon the type of exercise / sport and the duration and intensity. Endurance athletes such as marathon runners, tri-athletes and swimmers should use a recovery ratio of 4:1 CHO:PRO, whilst intermittent sports players could use a ratio closer to 2:1. Refuelling of nutrients should occur within 2 hours post-exercise, ideally around 30 minutes after completion, to enable blood to begin flowing around the digestive organs again after exercise induced shunting. The quantities that you should consume are also important during this ‘open window’ of time after training. Dependent upon your sport and the type of training you have just completed – strength and endurance training needs would differ significantly – however not much more than 40g of protein can be digested in any single serving, protein above this value is likely to not be processed and simply be excreted. Often supplement companies will sell their product based around you receiving a massive dose of protein – often far greater than can be digested – in order to gain size, mass, strength or perform longer. I my opinion this is marketing in order for you to buy more of their product. Typically 20-40g per serving or meal is sufficient for protein. If the ratios mentioned previously are to be followed this would leave approximately 80-160g of CHO for endurance athletes and 40-80g of CHO for sports players. Recovery drinks are useful for gaining these needed macronutrients quickly and in an easily digestible form.

Hydration is also vital to recovery. As little as 2% dehydration can result in decreased performance and often several litres or kilograms of fluids can be sweated out during exercise. Recommendations are to consume 1.5x the amount of fluids lost during exercise. You can calculate how much fluid you have lost by weighing yourself pre and post-exercise. If possible you should also aim to replace the electrolytes lost from sweating, notably sodium, potassium and magnesium, these can be obtained through eating fruits, vegetables and nuts or via an electrolyte supplement such as ‘EleteWater’.

MASSAGE

Massage is the ‘ultimate’ recovery method. It combines the movement or superficial blood back towards the organs for clearance of post-exercise metabolites and deoxygenated blood. It can lengthen the fascia, connective tissue, myofibrils and muscle fibres to an improved state of readiness. It can be used to release muscle tension and knots and it is also relaxing and therapeutic if performed correctly. However it is possible to have a bad massage and this can have a negative effect of recovery. The type, duration and area massaged has to be correct in order for the athlete to enhance recovery. This is why working in a multi-disciplinary team and utilising expert advice where possible creates a best practice scenario. Massage is also expensive and time consuming as it requires another person to perform, so may not be the ideal scenario. 

The use of some of the above techniques can be just as productive towards enhanced recovery and importantly can be conducted individually and easily. For example when away in another country alone, a player can utilise bands, balls and rollers along with good nutrition and contrast bathing to facilitate an equal effect.

Recovery for repeated performances is vital to success at the highest levels. There are many inexpensive and convenient methods available to the exercising athlete and most simply require, forethought and planning. Ultimately looking after your body as an athlete is your primary job, finding your own individual recovery strategy that works for you can help you win more and achieve greater success.

Thank you for reading, be sure to check out the website and twitter feed for updates on current training and further articles.

Fabrizio Gargiulo

Suggested Reading

‘Anatomy Trains’, Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists. Thomas Myers, (2009).

‘Stretch to Win’ A. And C. Frederick (2006).

Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance. Kelly Starrett (2013).

Reference list

Cochrane, D. (2004). Alternating hot and cold water immersion for athlete recovery: A review. Physical Therapy in Sport, 5: 26-32.

Gill, N., Beaven, C. and Cook, C. (2006).  Effectiveness of post match recovery strategies in rugby players. British Journal of Sports Medicine 40: 260-263.

Haddad, H., Laursen, P., Chollet, D., Lemaitre, F., Ahmeidi, S. and Bucheit, M. (2010). Effect of cold or thermoneutral water immersion on post exercise heart rate recovery and heart rate variability indices. Autonomic Neuroscience, 156 (1): 111-116.

Hamlin, M. (2007). The effect of contrast temperature water therapy on repeated sprint performance. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 10: 398-402.

Lateef, F. (2010). Post exercise ice water immersion: is it a form of active recovery? Journal of Emergencies, trauma and shock, 3(3): 303.

Pugh, L., Edholm, R. and Fox, R. (1960). A physiological study of channel swimming. Clinical Science, 19: 257-273.

Vaile J, Blazevich AJ, Gill N. (2007). The effect of contrast water therapy on symptoms of delayed onset muscle soreness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 21: 697-702

Vaile, J., Halson, S., Gill, N. and Dawson, B. (2008). Effect of hydrotherapy on the signs and symptoms of delayed onset muscle soreness. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 102 (4): 447-455.

Wilcock, M., Cronin, J. and Hing, W. (2006). Physiological response to water immersion: a method for sport recovery? Sports Medicine, 36: 747-765.

Zuluaga, M., Briggs, C., Carlisle, J., McDonald, V., McMeeken, J., Nickson, W., Oddy, P. and Wilson, D. (1995). Sports Physiotherapy: Applied Science and Practice. Churchill-Livingstone, Melbourne.

APA coaches have been working with young athletes for the past 15 years, ages start from 4 years upwards. Coaching of young children requires a very different approach to coaching adolescent or adult athletes. Engagement in the activity is a key factor and making the sessions fun will ensure the child wants to continue learning. Mixed in with all this from an S&C coaches’ view point is the need to improve some of the physical qualities of the young athlete. APA operates itself around 5 key principles: Skill, Speed, Strength, Suppleness and Stamina. These key areas are expressed differently with different age groups and have different levels of importance based on the individual needs of the athlete and the current stage of training they are at.  

At U11 level we focus on developing an all round great athlete by improving their fundamental movement skills; this includes the ability to balance, co-ordinate themselves in relation to objects and to synchronise movements. Our role as S&C coaches is to improve these areas so that it translates to improved sporting success. One of the centres APA currently works at is Gosling Sports Park, home to one of only four International high performance centres for tennis in the country. Gosling has over 500 children accessing the centre to learn how to play tennis and to improve their play, both physically and tactically. APA S&C coaches work with young athletes on a daily basis and one of the current themes of work has been focused on balance, locomotive synchronisation (different types of movement such as running, skipping, carioca, side shuffles and hopping) and rhythm. As S&C coaches we like to have a quantifiable measure of athleticism and performance. Wobble cushion balance, and agility run and skipping have been used to measure the three areas of improvement recently. Initial training involved static balancing, learning of different types of movements and various skipping challenges. There was a mixed ability amongst the young athletes and thus as expected they all improved at their own individual rates, however upon re-testing all of them had either learnt new skills, whereby they previously couldn’t skip or do carioca or side shuffling. Or they had improved the level to which they could co-ordinate their own bodies to skip, move and balance.  

This has led to our next themes for work over the 6 weeks leading up to the Christmas break. Dynamic balance – including stopping and landing mechanics will be the progression from static balance, reactive agility and movement will enhance the learnt locomotive skills and crawling patterns will begin to develop some ‘functional’ strength. APA has invested vast amounts of time into developing the curriculum we use to enhance our young players’ athleticism, however we do not get vast amount of time to deliver all of the coaching aspects that we want to improve on. This is where the expertise of the APA coaches Daz Drake (founder of APA), Martin Skinner, Dom Boyle and myself (Fab Gargiulo) comes into play. We use innovative and intuitive methods that for example with the U11 academy players, can encompass a vast amount of training, learning and development into a short amount of time. I work predominantly with the U11 age group and as part of a tennis squad session will get 20mins per group to work with and improve their physical proficiency.  

A method I have recently been using to great effect with the young athletes is to combine many of these areas of focus into an assault course. This works on many levels; firstly the exciting nature of having lots of equipment to use (as well as the coaching) keeps the children engaged in the tasks, making the assault course challenging. Placing restrictions on how they can move about engages them to think for themselves and to problem solve.  Finally, building in team work and competition encourages them to focus and do their best and most importantly from the coaches perspective is that all of the aspects you want to improve can be covered. The structure of the course can be changed every week/session and can have different aims of focus. Currently as balance is a key area for improvement my young athletes are working on staying on a line whilst navigating obstacles with a few coach led constraints in place such as; not being allowed inside a hoop or having to face in one direction at all times. However the emphasis on this type of task is for the athletes to lead their own learning and discovery often by trial and error. To some children this comes naturally, to others less so. The ability for them to problem solve whilst doing an athletic task will have great translation across other aspects of their later lives, but also works very well in a sporting context, particularly an individual sport such as tennis, where the player is not allowed to receive any coaching whilst playing and must overcome many psychological barriers as well as physical demands in order to be successful. Part of the training is aimed at the young athletes ability to think for themselves and I consider this a key component to developing mental strength for later challenges. The children have loved the training so far, the aspects of training that have been targeted are improving all while being very engaging and challenging to the athletes – something I like to describe as ‘hiding the vegetables’.  

  As with most coaching techniques there is a trade off between the depth of work done on a single aspect of fitness versus covering many areas at once. The rationale for the method of work I am currently using is that many areas need to be covered in a short space of time and with varying levels of athlete all working at the same time. During individual sessions I will spend greater time on specific areas, but the group sessions have worked well with a continued variance in activity and lots of activity. As a team of S&C coaches at APA we have discussed this topic on several occasions without drawing a definitive conclusion and I believe that there is no single way to ‘skin a rabbit’ but that varied approaches should be considered dependent upon the situation.  

Taking different approaches towards training outcomes will always be a discussion point, so we’d love to hear from you online or at one of the forthcoming APA workshops with your view points. Hopefully this quick article has highlighted the innovative ideas we have at APA and how we work to achieve the maximum potential out of all our athletes, as young as 4 years old.  

Thanks for reading, be sure to check out www.athleticperformanceacademy.co.uk for more information on APA training and connect with us via twitter and facebook.

Fabrizio Gargiulo

Check out the link for full details!!!

In previous posts I eluded to the trend to programme in strength preparation cycles that emphasise ‘work capacity’ to prepare for more higher intensity forms of training.  The aim here is to develop a Volume base of General fitness that will augment future performance.

I wanted to discuss this further from four specific viewpoints:  developmental athletes, strength/power sports, fat loss clients, and general fitness enthusiasts, and determine the reasons why each of those specific population might want to use volume in their initial strength phases.

Before we get into the detail I should say that the overall aim of any programme should be to provide a training stimulus that will augment performance and minimise injury risk.  Any programme aiming to create an appropriate training stimulus must respect the overall training principles of overload, variation and specificity.

As a general rule for overload I believe in progressively increasing the intensity of a biomotor ability first before learning to endure that quality. Therefore I really start to focus on the endurance of the anaerobic qualities of speed and power at the end of a training block during the ‘conditioning phase’.

1.  Developmental Athletes

For my developmental athletes (school aged children who aspire to become professional athletes) the focus of the strength sessions in early cycles is building a ‘movement efficiency base.‘ Work capacity is something that I really focus on in the final stages of their development where we focus on them ‘enduring’ the anaerobic qualities of speed, agility, and power for longer periods of time.  I call this phase the conditioning phase (see diagram above). Work capacity in earlier stages of development will mainly be achieved by doing more sessions per week and separate cardio sessions.   However it will be also be a by-product of individual weights sessions because as I said in the previous post I will be doing strength endurance in the gym because it facilitates more repetitions which has many benefits to the newbie lifter but specifically:

a.  Progressive Overload– I believe in focusing on building intensity first and this is done very progressively.  I believe in the concept of the ‘minimum stimulus threshold’ which basically says that I find the lowest form of stress that can still cause an adaptation and start there.  I don’t want to go in at the deep end when lower forms of stress will get the job done.  This is why I will start with strength endurance- simply because the load is lower.

b.  Skill acquisition– Higher reps allows you to teach and reinforce movement patterns- proper form will be ingrained in your very soul!  I will use supersets of non-competing exercises with no rest between exercises and 1-minute between supersets.  By working one pair at a time, having a minute between supersets and giving 2-minutes rest before moving onto the next pair it doesn’t become like a circuit but I do get lots of practice at movements.  I want to keep the metabolic stress under control so I get maximum quality.

c.  Phase potentiation– for the newbie there will be some physiological adaptations that would potentiate the increased performance in subsequent strength cycles.  This is mostly due to neural changes such as greater intra- and inter-muscular coordination, as well as structural benefits to the connective tissue elements.

2.  Strength/Power Sports

During Strength cycles Mike Stone manipulates volume load to create specific adaptations in his Olympic Weightlifters using summated microcycles. The weekly increases in volume load provide for progressive overload and are followed by a deload week after every 3-weeks to enable adaptation and recovery.

However as we know if you just focus on strength for an extended period of time you are very likely to stagnate so Mike does start with a Volume base which causes a short term volume load increase to prepare for his strength cycles!!!. This SHORT-TERM VL INCREASE POTENTIATES  INCREASED PERFORMANCE – AND MAY BE RELATED TO HORMONAL ALTERATION.

According to Mike Stone the benefits of a Volume Base in this situation relate to hormonal alterations which are based on the concept of creating fatigue through Concentrated Loading.  You are producing a lot of testosterone but due to the high volume you’re also producing a lot of cortisol which induces stress/ fatigue. This is achieved by doing sets x reps schemes in the region of 3 x 10.  This may seem just like standard hypertrophy work but to a strength/power athlete who likes to lifts heavy things for few reps this is a shock to them!

a. CONCENTRATED LOAD (VERKHOSHANSKY 1977) HIGHER VOLUME LOWER INTENSITY (UP TO 8 WEEKS) – MARKED VARIATION – MAY BE ACCOMPANIED BY INCREASED FATIGUE AND DECREASED PERFORMANCE -OFTEN RESULTS IN A DELAYED INCREASED IN PERFORMANCE UPON RETURNING TO NORMAL TRAINING.

Notice how that once the strength phase has been completed (BLOCK 2) following the concentrated loading (BLOCK 1)  there are two noticable spikes in Volume again during the power phases (BLOCK 3 and 4).  This type of volume increase called Over reaching.  

b. VERY SHORT- TERM OVER-REACHING: (KUIPERS AND KEIZER 1988; STONE ET AL. 1996) SHORT TERM INCREASE IN TRAINING VOLUME ANDOR INTENSITY WHICH MAY RESULT IN A SHORT TERM  PERFORMANCE DECREMENT. THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF OVERREACHING  THAT CAN OCCUR ARE NOT TYPICALLY AS  EXTENSIVE OR SEVERE AS THOSE ASSOCIATED WITH OVERTRAINING – OFTEN RESULTS IN DELAYED INCREASE IN PERFORMANCE UPON RETURNING TO NORMAL TRAINING.

So as well as the volume base that Mike uses there are also mini volume spikes to create that fatigue again during otherwise lower volume cycles (i.e., power cycles).

3.  Fat Loss Clients

For me I see a lot of the scope of building a Volume base being related to raising metabolism both during the workout and post-workout by exploiting a physiological phenomenon know as EPOC.   Fat loss clients are creating a fat loss base by doing lots of exercises with minimal rest to challenge the body both anaerobically and aerobically-meaning they will work their muscles and their cardiovascular system.  This is achieved by doing strength endurance circuits such as 5 exercises done with only 30-seconds rest between them.  This is great for fat loss because it ramps up metabolism.  This type of training is called ‘metabolic resistance training.’  This fat loss base is designed to create more insulin sensitivity so that you are better able to process sugars in your strength phases!

For me this is subtly different to what I would do to build a volume base with young athletes because the circuits here are designed to raise metabolism and use exercises which require lower levels of skill so they can tax the muscular and cardiovascular system simultaneously.  I try and work these systems separately with developmental athletes.  Even though my young athletes will be doing higher reps in earlier training phases they will be doing them at a controlled tempo so heart rate won’t increase as much as in these type of metabolic resistance training circuits.

Normally fat loss clients will also do extra metabolic work in the form of sprint intervals which also taps into aerobic recovery from anaerobic work, but I guess my caveat here is to be smart and not programme in exercises modalities that they’re not ready for.  I’d rather they do sled drags or bike intervals as a start then progress to running based intervals.  For my developmental athletes training   I don’t want them to rely on getting their increases in their uptake of oxygen from only ‘recovery’ from high intensity strenuous exercise.  I also think young athletes should do some direct aerobic work from actual aerobic intervals of longer duration as well as a little bit of continuous running! Not just maximal effort anaerobic work with aerobic recovery!!

4.  General Fitness enthusiasts

I found a great article on the pros and cons of Cross fit because this is perhaps the classic case of doing work for work’s sake.  Read the full article here.  In a nutshell the problem with building a volume base using things like Crossfit is that ‘You do a little of everything. And the ‘everything’ are all super demanding exercises!!!  You do some Olympic lifting, and some powerlifting, and some bodyweight stuff, and some cardio stuff, and some running, and some sprinting, and some intervals, and some circuit training, and some whoop do doop- (my note: all in the presence of fatigue). And you will, yes, “get in shape.” You may even get abs to show off at the office pool party.

I actually don’t have any problems with the idea of building general fitness by doing a bit of everything.  This is exactly what I am aiming to do with my developmental athletes.  I just go about achieving it a different way.  I train all the components mentioned above in a given week (which in itself builds work capacity or a volume base!), but I don’t feel that the way Crossfit is designed is ideal to ‘develop’ general fitness of your average fitness enthusiast because I have concerns about the form of the exercises.  I wouldn’t want my athletes to attempt to do Olympic lifts, power lifts and track sprints all in the presence of fatigue.  And I think that sort of prescription should be reserved for later training cycles, such as my conditioning phase. I would build my base by training those exercises separately.  And I would see Crossfit as the equivalent of sending a recreational runner off to do an Ironman!!

Conclusions

Developmental athletes are building a movement efficiency base to get good at lifting in later cycles.  Strength/Power athletes are building a fatigue base to get a rebound in performance in the next strength cycle.   Fat loss clients are building a fat loss base to improve insulin sensitivity and general fitness enthusiasts are building a general base of fitness which doesn’t serve a particular purpose for future cycles.

In yesterday’s post I gave you my own take on work capacity.   To give a bit more detail to this topic Dan Cleather talks about training three components of strength that have different volume and intensity demands.

He calls them:

1.  The Intensity bit

2.  Grease the Groove (GTG)

3.  Just Get it Done (JGID)

I think we all recognise these elements no matter what you call them.  I call them Main Power/Strength lifts, Secondary strength lifts and muscle conditioning components.  Like Dan I train the three components concurrently and these form the basis of every weights session.

I wrote a Blog about this concept of changing the emphasis of a session previously. See it here.

Here is a caveat with the ‘Intensity bit’:  

Remember that the high intensity bit of the session doesn’t necessarily need to be high intensity in all cases- with a development athlete you could be working on developing tripple extension technique, so this aspect is as much about quality as it is about intensity.  Make sure that the work is done at a high quality.  

Also the GTG component of the session could take on a more strength focus or a more work capacity focus depending on how you work it.  If you use barbell complexes for example, but for 2-6 reps with no rest between each exercise then it becomes more metabolic.  But if you give them complete rest but work at a lower percentage of your maximum it can be a good strength developer but with a bit of volume