Tag Archive | "training planning"

weights

Designing your own workouts – Part 3

weights

In the final part of this 3-part series, we procvide you with 5 split-routine options to help you plan your workout week

1)      Upper/Lower body split.
Simply divide your body in half and train your legs on Monday, your upper body on Wednesday and your legs again on Friday. The following week reverse your body parts so that over the 2 week period, every muscle group gets equal attention. This is a good method for those new to split routines. By way of progression, you can perform the upper/lower body split and train each half twice a week (Monday = lower body, Tuesday = upper body, Thursday = lower body, Friday = upper body). This increase in frequency can be beneficial for some trainees.

2)      3 Way Split.
This is a body part spilt where on Monday, you perform exercises for your chest and triceps, back and biceps get trained on Wednesdays and legs and shoulders are worked on Fridays. Rest over the weekend and start over on Monday by repeating the cycle.

3)      4 Way Split.
This routine breaks down the body into even smaller groups which means workouts can be shorter or you can get a lot of work done in the same time. On Monday perform exercises for your chest, on Tuesday train your back, rest on Wednesday, train your legs on Thursday and on Friday focus on shoulder and arms.

4)      4 way functional split.

This system ensures that all muscle groups are given equal attention in terms of volume and is ideal for anyone wanting to ensure their muscles remain “balanced”. Monday train hip dominant exercises such as dead lifts and back extensions, on Tuesday focus on vertical pushes and pulls i.e. shoulder presses and lat pull downs, Thursday concentrate on quad dominant leg exercises such as squats and leg extensions and Friday focus on horizontal pushes and pulls i.e. bench presses and seated rows.

5)      Power lifting split.

Monday squats and assistance exercises, Wednesday bench press and assistance exercises, Friday dead lift and assistance exercises. This routine is especially good for those wishing to focus on strength either for power lifting or sports.

Once you have decided on which split routine you want to follow – one of the above or one of your own devising – you can start plugging in exercises into your programme. Again, there are lots of options to choose from but as a general rule of thumb, select 2-3 exercises per large muscle groups and 1-2 for smaller muscle groups and choose a variety of exercises to work your muscles different ways e.g. for chest you may start off with flat bench press, perform incline dumbbell flies next and finish up with dips. Rotate your exercises every 6-8 weeks to avoid getting into a training rut but don’t change things so often that your workouts aren’t consistent. Remember to change the training variables from time to time to keep your workouts fresh.

Planning your training week may take you some time but, once you have a plan and you stick to it you can record and measure your progress from one week to the next. Make sure you regularly increase the weights or do more reps to keep forcing your muscles to adapt and new levels of fitness and strength are all yours!

Posted in Fitness, Resistance training, WorkoutsComments (0)

triathlon

ultra-FIT Tri Challenge Event News

The ultra-FIT Tri Challenge

Entrants advice

Dorney Lake, Eton Nr Windsor Sunday May 23rd 2010

UF_Tri_logo3_web

The event

The ultra-FIT Tri Challenge, held at Dorney Lake, Eton Windsor on Sunday May 23rd 2010 consists of a Half Olympic Distance of 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run plus a 3Quarter Olympic Distance of 1000m swim, 30km bike and 7.5km run.

The swim

The Half Olympic triathlon starts with a 750m swim, a one-lap rectangular course in the Lake. The 3Quarter Olympic Distance 800m swim is a two-lap rectangular course in the Lake. The start will be a deep water start. Keep the buoys on your right as you swim round the course. The swim exit will be clearly marked with a large buoy and flags.

The bike

Then it is a four-lap 20km bike course, which takes you around the lake 4 times. The 3Quarter Olympic bike course is a six-lap 30km bike course, which takes you around the lake 6 times. You must count your own laps!. Drafting on the bike is not allowed. Drafting is cycling too closely behind another cyclist and therefore taking pace from that cyclist. The drafting zone is 7m, so keep at least 7m behind the cyclist in front, unless you are overtaking. An approved cycle helmet must be worn for this section.

The run

Lastly, the Half Olympic 5km run finishes with 2-laps of the lake with the 3Quarter 7.5km run being 3-laps.This final run will be clockwise round the right hand side of the Lake, to finish just outside the transition area. Your race number must be clearly visible at all times. Water will be available on the finish line.

Wetsuit use

Use of a wetsuit is highly recommended if the water temperature deems that wetsuits are optional. Please contact www.triandrun.com for wetsuit hire, purchase or advice. The wearing of wetsuits in triathlon is governed by British Triathlon rules and is totally dependent on water temperature one hour before the start of the race. The rules are:

  • Water temp = less than 14 degrees – wetsuits are compulsory
  • Water temp = between 14 degrees and 22 degrees – wetsuits are optional
  • Water temp = above 22 degrees – wetsuits are banned

 

We won’t know until each race day whether wetsuits will be compulsory, optional or banned this year. However, we do say that wetsuits in fact help with buoyancy and warmth, so we strongly recommend that you wear one if they are optional. As May is the start of the triathlon season, the water temperature may be less than 14 degrees, so wetsuits could be compulsory for this event.

 

Venue and car parking

The venue is Eton College Rowing Centre, Dorney Lake, Boveney, near Eton Wick SL4 6QP. Please leave plenty of time to get here. Car parking will be at the side of the bike course. The only access will be via the main access road. Just follow the signs as you come into the venue. You will have at least an 800m walk to the race site, so allow yourself extra time after you have parked your car. The closest station is Windsor and Eton Riverside and taxi’s need to be pre-ordered.

Results

The results will be on the website www.humanrace.co.uk within 24hours of the finish and photos will be available on www.sportcam.net

If you haven’t entered yet it’s not too late. If you don’t think you can tackle the half of 3Quarter distance on your own, grab some mates and enter as a relay team

Enter online @ www.humanrace.co.uk/triathlon

We look forward to seeing you at Dorney Lake May 23rd!

ultra-FIT and the Human Race Team

“The harder you train the week prior to the race, the more you take away from your race day performance”

One of the greatest rewards and feelings in triathlon, is experiencing the perfect race, when all appears to go perfectly to plan in all three disciplines, your transitions were swift and you achieve a new personal best!  This can only be achieved following months and probably years of hard work, self discipline and determination, and I have come across many triathletes that rarely experience such a perfect priority race.  One of the biggest reasons for under achieving is insufficient recovery i.e. training too much during the competition phase and not allowing yourself to recover pre and post racing and training.

The best way to approach race week, is to make rest the major objective of the week. When a taper is executed correctly, you increase your chances of achieving the perfect race tenfold.

There are a number of different approaches to tapering, and each taper can be individual to the athlete. I would advise you to discuss a specific taper with your coach or attend one of theTriLife.com training days, to find out which approach would be best suited to yourself. A word of warning on tapering. Yes, although I did previously state that the objective the week prior to your priority race should be rest, there are several studies that have shown that total rest causes steady loss of fitness. The happy medium would be between your normal training week and total inactivity. Reducing the volume of training by 40%-60%, reducing the number of intervals within your key sessions by 50% and increasing the normal recovery time between repetitions.

Train Hard and race SMART!

Rich Jones

www.thetrilife.com

Posted in Events, Get Outside, Sports Training, TriathlonComments (0)

Marathon

Fancy a spin before a spring marathon?

Paced event is perfect warm up for the London Marathon

There’s still time for competitors in this year’s London Marathon to take part in the perfect pre-race build up; the 13.1 mile Lucozade Sport Race Your Pace event at Dorney Lake, near Windsor, on Sunday 28 March 2010, but entries are closing very soon.

 

Liz Yelling will pace you

Liz Yelling will pace you

Led by double Olympian, Liz Yelling, this unique Human Race event, supporting the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, enables runners to try the pace they’d like to run over the longer Marathon distance on a flat, accurate, four-lap course led by a team of ‘pacers’.

To help put this into practice, Race Your Pace will split competitors into two groups of runners setting off at different times. The first start, ‘Performers’, at 10am is for those who have run between one hour five minutes and one hour forty five for a half marathon while ‘Improvers’ is for those who have run a half marathon in over one hour forty five minutes.  Improvers will leave at 12.30pm.

Within each of these groups a variety of pacers will set the pace. So, for example, Performers will have pacers running at 7, 7.5, 8 and 8.5 minute mile pace while Improvers can choose from 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5 or 12 minute mile pace.

After the race Yelling, who has a marathon personal best of 2hrs 30 minutes, will be holding a series of 20-minute seminars on how to Improve Your Performance.  Yelling says the reason for the seminars is to help runners set and reach their goals.

‘I want to help people to achieve their own personal marathon or half marathon goals and knowing how to pace effort helps runners to feel in control of their race,’ says Yelling.  ‘They feel good as they run, stay relaxed, motivated and on track and it gives them the confidence to achieve their targets,’ she adds.

The Lucozade Sport Race Your Pace event takes place on Sunday March 28 and is aimed at runners of all abilities and speeds and there’s still time to be part of it. Entries are £25 or £30 to include the seminar.

For details and online entry visit www.humanrace.co.uk.

Entries close Monday 22 March 2010.

 

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ultra-FIT-BOOK

Book and Gift Idea: ultra-FIT – your own personal trainer

ultra-FIT-BOOK

Written by ultra-FIT editor – John Shepherd, ultra-FIT – your own personal trainer, will be your personal trainer on call 24/7 to answer your fitness questions.

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Motivation, Weight training, Flexibility

Circuit training, Nutrition, Fat Burning

Health benefits of exercise

Sports specific fitness and much, much more……..

Click on image to purchase

We’re also offering a special promotion on the book and an annual subscription to the magazine at present.

Personal Training for a year for just £31.49

e-mail subs@ultra-FITmagazine and we will contact you tot take up this offer

Get ultra-FIT – your won personal trainer for £18.99 (includes P&P) and a year’s half price subscription to ultra-FIT for just £12.50

To take up the above offer email: [email protected] or tel: 01736 350204

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sport balls

Are you planning your sports training?

Christine_O_on_your_marks

If you’re serious about your sports performance then you should be planning your training, so that you will be in peak competitive shape when it matters.

Technically speaking training planning is known as ‘periodisation’. The former Easter Bloc countries were very instrumental in its development in the nineteen sixties. Two men in particular stand out, the Russian Leonid Matveyev and the former Rumanian Tudor Bompa.

Christine_O_on_your_marks

Types of periodisation

Matveyev and Bompa’s work has been been re-interpreted and modified to produce different periodisation models for different sports – all aim to achieve the optimum conditions for peak performance when it matters. Under the ‘classic’ linear model/models the training year is divided into distinct training phases. Dependent on their duration these are termed, ‘macro’, ‘meso’ and ‘microcyles’. As a rough guide macrocycles last months, mesocycles weeks, and microcycles days. Within each cycle, the key training variables of volume, intensity and specificity are manipulated to create the desired training effect.

Sports, such as track and field and swimming, tend to lend themselves more to Matveyev’s original thoughts on periodisation, for example, unlike those such as judo, football, cricket, rugby and tennis. Two key reasons can be identified:

  • The performance outcomes in training and competition are easily measured. For example, the enhancement of CV ability can be monitored by heart rate control
  • These sports have a relatively low skill component and are much less dependent on other players and the opposition’s tactics

This means that a highly quantifiable periodisation programme can be established and worked toward. This is not the same for the more ‘qualitative sports’, with their much greater and diverse skill requirements and affecting variables.

Double (two peak) periodisation is another form of linear periodisation (as opposed to single – one peak periodisation). Matveyev discovered that significantly greater gains in performance could be achieved on a year in year out basis when two competitive peaks were trained for – this would normally be for the indoor season and the late outdoor season for a track sprinter, for example. It was estimated specifically that, the 100m athlete could expect a 1.55% improvement in performance over a double periodisation year, compared to just a 0.96% one with single periodisation. The figures for a high jump athlete make even more impressive reading, with a 5.05% versus 2.40% return ratio. It’s believed that two competitive periods and their preparation phases allow for the continuance of higher and more specific training intensities, with little disruption to technical proficiency (skill acquisition). Note: due to the different physiological processes involved in developing a substantial and lasting endurance base, double periodisation is not recommended for those involved in these sports. Nor is it suited to multi-competition sports, unless in-season breaks are scheduled. Additionally for those sports that allow it, double periodisation should not be practiced year in year out. Every third or fourth year the athlete should return to a single periodisation plan, to enable foundation condition to be re-established and progressed. It should also be noted that it is possible to create a triple i.e. three peak, periodised training programme.

Skill dependent sports periodisation

It is possible to develop a periodisation model that will apply to sports such as judo. Even though a judo player will condition themselves with weights and anaerobic/aerobic activity, in a quantifiable way. They will also need to spend much time progressing to a more tactical, intuitive and literally more combative competitive peak. This has led coaches in judo and similar sports to devise their own periodisation approaches. For example, judo coaches equate time on the mat i.e. time send doing judo, as the key element of the training variable ‘volume’ i.e. the amount of training done (1). As the competition macrocycle approaches more time is spent practicing the sport and less on general conditioning, in order to develop peak performance. Although this may seem an obvious pathway to follow, it is surprising how many coaches and athletes (whatever their sport) overlook this and become overly preoccupied with developing, strength and power, at the expense of skill.  This often results in a situation whereby the performer becomes fitter, for example, stronger and/or faster, but not actually any better at their sport – more on this later.

Team Sports

Periodisation can also be difficult to apply to team sports, such as football and rugby. Like judo, these sports have a high skill component but are particularly affected by a long and highly competitive playing season, particularly at the elite level. This would make the more linear types of periodisation used by track and field athletes and swimmers virtually impossible to implement. Trying to develop more endurance or greater speed and strength in-season progressively would lead to potential injury, over training and staleness among players. Conditioning coaches in these sports will therefore tend to boost the key physical ingredients in pre-season training and then aim to maintain these in-season (see page 78 and our pre-season team sports workout).

Squad rotation

Squad rotation offers a way to maximise team performance. Elite football and rugby sides often perm their starting line-ups from their squads, in order to rest players and maintain and develop their condition. Both fitness coach and manager must be in harmony if this approach is used. Chairmen, fans, player injuries and the overall success of the team can of course throw a spanner in the works.

Different training plans for different playing positions

Developing different training plans for different playing positons is also a must for successful team periodisation. Rugby forwards have different physiological requirements than backs, as do football strikers and mid-field players. In consequence training planning must take into account positional variations. Again the specific fitness required will be developed pre-season and then maintained in-season – this means that the conditioning coach needs to be particularly savvy when determining ‘what fitness’ is needed by each player, relative to their strengths and weaknesses, the time in the playing year, and the demands placed on them by their other training. The latter applies at the elite level in particular, football coaches for example, although working with the team’s conditioning coaches, will work players hard tactically. These workouts can take their toll physically on players and leave the conditioning expert with a conundrum – how to train players for fitness when this is being done as a spin-off of tactical training. In such a scenario a ‘less is more approach’ may be the best one to take, with the conditioning coach providing restorative training that will boost the players’ mental and physical freshness. Such workouts could include, cross-training, stretching sessions and specific skill work, such as sprint drill sessions.

Undulating periodisation

Undulating periodisation is probably the best option for the team sports conditioner. This model combines much shorter training phases (days/weeks) – multiple micro-cycles – with different modes of exercise and exercise intensities. Basically the various ingredients in the training mix are cooked up at the same time. One day the emphasis could be on speed and power, the next on endurance and the next on skill and agility. Undulating periodisation relies heavily on the knowledge and ability of the conditioning coach, he or she has to fully understand the needs of the individual and the team and have in place a repertoire of workouts and tests that can be juggled to maintain players in as near to peak condition throughout the season as possible.

Periodising Skill

Skill should never be neglected when planning a training programme. I indicated that neglecting this may lead to decreased performance, despite the athlete being in better ‘shape’. Take my own sport, long jump – a jumper may improve their strength, speed and power, yet find that this does not improve their distance jumped because they are unable to convert these qualities into increased distance at take-off – the skill requirement. Optimum timing and technical performance can only be achieved by marrying the application of strength, power and speed and so on to sport’s skill. Periodisation must account for this and must not allow for the development of physical condition to outpace technical requirements.

Consequentially, ‘skill strength’ periodisation models have been developed (SSP). Utilised again by the Easter Europeans this method emphasises the development of sport skill at the beginning of the training year and throughout, before more ‘power’ is added in subsequent training cycles.

Competition

The culmination of months of periodisation can come down to a matter of seconds. It’s no use devising the greatest, most detailed and systematic training plan, if the athlete is unable to ‘perform’. One of the world’s most renowned coaches Frank Dick states that (2): “Competition is the only means of adapting to the stressor of competition and to avoid its particular stress, simply increases the stress potential of the next one.” This incidentally throws up a further reason for the use of progressive psychological strategies to be implemented in harmony with the athlete’s physiological preparation – the development of the competitive psyche.

Conclusions

Designing the ultimate training plan is no easy task; there are so many variables to consider. I hope that the information provided will arm you with the knowledge and tools to make a start on this.

References:

1)                  www.judoamerica.com/ijca/periodisation/

2)                  Dick FW Sports Training Principles P303 A&C Black 2002

Posted in Fitness, Resistance training, Sports Training, Triathlon, Understanding FitnessComments (0)


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