Strength is defined as the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert maximum force and is an essential quality that most recreational sports people need to develop. Combined with a well rounded conditioning programme, strength training can have a huge impact on playing performance including increasing speed, reducing the likelihood and severity of injures and making players more resistant to fatigue. In this article, we’ll explore just how to set about gaining some strength for your sport…

Firstly, it’s worth mentioning that training for strength is very different from the bodybuilding type training that many people engage it. Bodybuilding workouts utilise relatively light loads, short rests, and multiple exercises per muscle group and are all about creating bigger muscles (correctly termed hypertrophy) whereas strength training focuses almost exclusively on increasing performance. Bodybuilders, while often very big, are generally not as strong as smaller athletes who focus on strength training. Strength training will cause some hypertrophy but it is a by-product of training as opposed to the aim. The hypertrophy caused by strength training can best be thought of as “functional” or, in other words, not only will the muscles look bigger, they will also be much better suited to the demands of your chosen sport. The muscle developed by strength training will be useful rather than “all show and no go” which is more likely to be the case with bodybuilding training.

To develop strength, exercises must be selected that allow a significant amount of weight to be lifted. Exercises such as squats, dead lifts and bench press are the cornerstone on which to build an effective strength training programme. These compound or multi-joint exercises provide plenty of “bang for your buck” and will allow you to get the most from your training time. Isolation exercises such as dumbbell flies and tricep extensions are not ideally suited to the development of strength as they don’t permit large loads to be used safely. Don’t worry if you have no idea about how to go about designing an effective training programme as later in this article we’ll provide you with a basic strength training workout to get you started.

The chart below shows the difference between hypertrophy, general strength and maximal strength training.

	Hypertrophy	Strength – general	Strength – maximal
% of 1 rep max	67-84	85-92	93-100
Reps	6-12	3-5	1-2
Rest	30-90 seconds	3-5 minutes	3-5 minutes

 

As you can see, heavy weights, relatively low reps and longer rests are the parameters for strength training – it’s all about quality as opposed to quantity and each work set should be performed with near a high degree of focus and intensity. Maximal strength training is suitable for those who already have a history of working out with heavy weights and want to specialise it strength sports such as weight lifting, power lifting or highland games whereas general strength training is more suited to field sports such as rugby, Gaelic football and sports where strength is just one element of the physical characteristics needed for success.

Because of the near maximal effort required during strength training, it’s important to warm up thoroughly prior to exercising. Once a general warm up of light cardio and dynamic stretching has been completed, it’s time to do a more specific warm up for the exercises to be done on that particular training day. The best way to get ready for a strength training workout is to perform a couple of light to moderate sets of each exercise before piling on the weight. This gives you the opportunity to practice the exercises in question and also assess your strength on that particular day. Only after you have completed 2-3 “warm up sets” should you start working with weights closer to your 1 repetition maximum (1RM). This practice will reduce the likelihood of suffering injury and also make the work sets more effective as your muscles are more likely to be working optimally after a few specific warm up sets.

Once you are fully warmed up and ready for your working sets, you may want to consider using a pyramid approach and increasing the weight slightly set by set – this practice reinforces your warm up and allows you to ease into your workout.

For example:

1^st Set – 5 reps at 65kg
2^nd Set – 4 reps at 70kg
3^rd Set – 4 reps at 75kg
4^th Set – 3 reps at 77.5kg
5^th Set – 3 reps at 80kg

To keep improving your strength, it’s vital that you keep striving to lift progressively heavier weights. If you lift the same weights week after week, month after month, your strength levels are very likely to remain the same. Regular increases in the weight lifted or the number of repetitions performed will ensure you keep making progress with your strength training.

In part 2, we’ll provide you with a simple strength training programme that will fit into your regular weekly workout schedule.

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Power is a very desirable trait for most sports people and describes the ability to perform movements both strongly and quickly. In this article we’ll examine power training and provide you with a workout to get you started in your quest to develop more power…

Power is technically expressed as force divided by time – in other words it’s not just strength but strength at speed. Examples of power in sport include sprinting, kicking, throwing, jumping and tackling. Strength, whilst very important, makes only a relatively small contribution to power development so it’s worth spending time on this vital component.

When it comes to power training, correct exercise selection is vital as only certain movements lend themselves to the pursuit of power. For an exercise to be suitable for power training, it must allow you to accelerate the training implement you are using. The best power exercises are the ones that allow you to either leave the floor as in various jumping exercises or let go of the weight you are lifting so it sails off into space! Medicine ball exercises are particularly well suited to power training but there are also some barbell and dumbbell exercises that will improve your power such as the Olympic weight lifts (clean & jerk and the snatch) but these require specialist coaching and are beyond the scope of this short article.

Power training is similar to strength training in that it uses maximal efforts, relatively short sets and long rests. Power training is all about quality over quantity so if you feel that, during a power workout, you are beginning to slow down then it’s probably time to take a break or reduce the training load. Every rep you perform should be as powerful and fast as the previous one as, after all, we are training to speed you up and not learning to slow down!

Because power training involves maximal velocity movements, it’s absolutely vital that you warm up properly before exercising and only embark on a power training programme after having progressed through phases of muscular endurance and strength training – power training is the tip of our intensity pyramid. Performing power training before your body as attuned to the demands of this type of exercise may cause you injury.

To get you started with power training tomorrow we’ll provide you with a ready-made routine.

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Like skinning the proverbial cat, there are numerous ways to develop cardiovascular fitness for sport. With so many options available, it can seem a little daunting when trying to decide what type of training to do so in this article we’ll give you a broad overview of the training methods available to help you decide what type of cardiovascular training will help you improve your sporting performance the most.

Cardiovascular fitness is a combination of adaptations that allow the body to take in, transport and then utilise oxygen while we exercise. The greater the amount of oxygen you can make use of (defined as your VO2 max) the fitter you’ll be. Like all things fitness though, the adaptations you will experience from your exercise are very dependent on the type of training you do which is why it’s important to have knowledge of a variety of cardiovascular training approaches. When explaining the various training methods available, you will notice that running is mentioned on most occasions but it’s important to note that any form of cardiovascular exercise such as swimming, cycling or rowing can be substituted for running if you prefer.

 

Long slow distance training (or LSD for short) describes the practice of training at low levels of intensity for prolonged periods of time. LSD is typically done at around 60% of your maximum heart rate and develops the ability to keep going for a long time at a slow pace. LSD is a necessary part of many endurance athletes training e.g. marathon runners and triathletes but for field sports players who are required to work in an intense start/stop fashion, LSD has limited benefits and should only make up a small percentage of your training time. LSD, because it is relatively “easy”, especially compared to more intense training methods described later, is ideal for use as a recovery session between tougher workouts.

Fartlek – funny word but excellent training method, Fartlek means speed play in Swedish and describes workouts that are flexible and varied, involving running at a variety of paces within the same workout. The idea is to randomly mix up your training pace to challenge your cardiovascular system in a variety of ways during the same workout. For example, after jogging for a few minutes to warm up you may alternate bouts of sprinting and walking for a few minutes, followed by a fast burst of 5 minutes at close to your fastest sustainable running speed before jogging to recover. Then you may run a few hill repeats before heading home at a steady pace. By mixing up your running speed in this fashion you’ll be replicating the demands or sports more closely which is a better way to prepare than LSD type training.

Fast Continuous Running (or FCR for short) is also called tempo or threshold running and is probably one of the best ways to train to specifically increase your high end aerobic fitness. FCR requires running (or rowing, cycling etc) relatively short distances/durations but at maximal sustainable aerobic speed. Good examples of FCR workouts are running or rowing 5km or swimming 1km. FCR workouts are literally a race during which the aim is to find your anaerobic threshold – the fastest sustainable aerobic pace. If you were to go any faster, you’d have to slow down or maybe stop because your muscles would become flooded with lactic acid. FCR workouts are tough! The high degree of lactic acid produced means that FCR training is as much a mental as a physical battle to keep going but as they are relatively short (around 20 minutes) you should be able to “tough it out”. FCR is a great method for preparing the body for the last few minutes of a match where you have to dig deep despite being tired.  

Interval training – best described as periods of work alternated with periods of recovery, interval training can be performed in a variety of ways to target both aerobic and anaerobic fitness and is the training method that most likely to be field sport specific. Interval training allows you to work harder than usual, especially compared to LSD or FCR, as for every few minutes of work you get a few minutes of rest. Performing long intervals with short recoveries will challenge the aerobic system whilst short, more intense intervals with longer recoveries will help develop the anaerobic energy pathways. Here are a few examples of interval training for you to try. Remember to warm up thoroughly before trying any of these workouts…

1)      Aerobic intervals 1
Run fast for 3 minutes walk for 1 minute. Repeat 4-6 times

2)      Aerobic intervals 2
Alternate 2 minutes fast running and 2 minutes jogging. Repeat 4-6 times

3)      Anaerobic intervals 1
Sprint 400 meters, rest 2-3 minutes. Repeat 5 times

4)      Anaerobic intervals 2
Sprint 30 seconds, rest 90 seconds, repeat 10 times

There are endless variations you can use for interval training but as a general rule of thumb there are 3 sets of accepted guidelines you can use to help you design your interval training workouts.

	Intensity	Duration	Work to rest ratio
Aerobic	Up to 90% MHR	2-5 minutes	1:1 to 2:1
Anaerobic (lactate)	90 – 95% MHR	1-2 minutes	1:2
Anaerobic (phosphate)	95 – 100 MHR	0 – 20 seconds	1:6

 

Bear in mind the chart above is only a guideline to get you started – by manipulating the training variables of speed, duration and recovery you can constantly challenge your body with new stimuli to keep your fitness improving.

So, next time you plan to do some cardiovascular training, first think about why you are doing it. Make sure your training method reflects you goals and that for every minute you spend training you get the maximal results.

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