al amount of exercise will maintain the current fitness level.
Simply stated if you do not achieve “OVERLOAD” during your workout you will not improve.
The best way to achieve this is by constantly monitoring your performance capacity and adjusting it accordingly. If deterioration in performance is indicated, then you need to reduce either the frequency and / or the intensity of training, rest is the best recovery.
The easiest way of controlling overload is by using the acronym ‘F I T T ‘
This will predominantly be decided by someone’s work and other commitments, and how much ‘free’ time they can realistically dedicate to training each week. More frequent the training program the greater will be the fitness benefits, particularly true with respect to any sport requiring endurance training.
This is the most important of the factors, as sets the tone of the whole workout. For cardiovascular exercise intensity is proportional to maximal aerobic power. It is most easily monitored using a heart rate monitor, as is directly proportional to the degree of overload.
For strength training this will be governed by the amount of weight lifted, which in turn will be decided upon by your repetition target (see part 3).
As already stated in previously, quality is far more important than quantity. To help achieve this, preparation can help eliminate a lot of time wasting. Also what you are training for, and the intensity you are training at will also dictate the length of your training sessions. Train don’t strain.
This refers to the method of your training. In cardiovascular examples are; interval, fartlek or long slow duration, in strength training you may employ pyramid, supersets or compound sets.
The purpose of a training program is to:
– Reorganise/ improve the major energy system used in the activity
– Via the overload principle, construct a program to develop that particular energy system
All programs must be specific to developing the energy system predominantly used during performance of the athletes chosen sport. Regardless of event, time of performance (duration) is related to the energy system, i.e. long and slow, or short and explosive, see table below:
|ACTIVITY||EVENT TIME||SPEED ATP/CP (%)||ANAEROBIC (%)||AEROBIC (%)|
All of these four factors will also be governed by what activity you are training for, what part of the season, and if there is a final end / competition date. Therefore it is often a case of working backwards to plan your training schedule.
Lots of sports work in phases and seasons. Be it running, triathlon, football or cycling; most usually have ‘on’ and ‘off’ seasons. Therefore depending on your level and goals, it can be beneficial to plan and adapt your training around this, we’ve all heard of horses ‘peaking’ for the Grand National, this is no different.
The main difference between elite and amateur athletes is their preparation. Amateur athletes tend to train hard all year round, with little or no rest. Elite athletes train to peak. For example if I was to prepare an athlete’s annual planner I would divide it into three main training phases:
1. Off-season (winter)
Training generally non-specific, keeping generally active to maintain body mass near competition mass (adjust calorie intake accordingly).
- Long slow duration activities to increase capillarisation
- Participation in alternative sporting activities for relaxation
2. Pre-season (transition)
- Often 8-12 weeks prior to competition
- Remember ‘train to race, do not race in training’
- High intensity program used specific to the athletes sport, utilising predominant energy system
- Maintain weights / circuit training x 1 per week
- Controlled long slow duration activity 1-3 per week of 2-4hours to enhance lipid metabolism
3. In-season (competition) training
- For those that compete regularly, then competition itself should maintain the increases in energy systems attained in pre- and off-season. Provided that they do not over-compete!
- Plan the season, choose the events where want to be a contender, and some events as a spectator (gain exper