25 Mar
Blog

Individualizing Training: Structural Balance, Intensity and Autoregulation

Writing programs is easy. You only need to do between 1 and 20 sets of 1 to 100 repetitions per muscle group between 5 and 120% of your 1 rpm and rest between sets 1 to 300 minutes. It is science. This is obviously an exaggeration of what is written in most textbooks, but most textbooks contain general guidelines, but do not explain how you can customize these numbers for your customers.

Textbooks are intended for this. To give you a general idea of ​​how to write training based on what is effective for the majority of the population. So if you follow the guidelines listed, you are likely to get some decent results for your customer, but what's next? Are you just adding weight to the bar? Do you play more sets More repetitions? What happens if the performance doesn't get better or even worse? Just go back and repeat the previous program?

The reality is that most people respond similarly to different types of stimuli. If you lift heavily, they become strong. If you make a lot of volume, they will get big provided you eat enough (read the ultimate guide to building muscle and hypertrophy).

What differs is their starting point, how much volume / intensity they need to see adjustment, and their ability to recover from training. Implementing the concept of structural balance (INOL) and using a general training framework that takes fatigue into account can help you design an initial program and provide the data for successful writing of future programs.

What is structural balance?

Let us first define terms. Structural balance simply means that your entire body muscles are balanced. So the muscles on the front of your body don't overwhelm the muscles on the back of your body, and you don't walk around like a gorilla with a massive upper body and a lower-sized lower body.

There are two things you should do to determine if a client is structurally balanced. The first is a simple assessment of posture. Depending on how well you are familiar with the customer, you can determine how deep you can go. For example, an athlete you have worked with in the past and who is very confident may have no problem taking his shirt off so you can see his shoulder blade move.

An overweight 40-year-old woman who is already very afraid of training will likely feel a lot uncomfortable if you ask her to take off her shirt. Regardless of whether your customer puts their shirt on or off, you can generally see a large imbalance such as overly kyphotic T-spikes or twisted shoulders.

The second option is to perform different exercises and compare their or calculated maxima. It should be noted that you would only do this with a customer who has a certain level of training history, or with a customer who has gone through a block with a focus on movement like Block 0 with you. So if the customer is able to run maximum values, or rep maxes, you can see where their imbalances are.

The intensity number of lifts (INOL)

The next definition we have to look at is INOL. INOL is an abbreviation for the intensity of the lifts. The intensity is considered from the point of view of% 1RM and the number of lifting operations carried out at these percentages. The calculation actually used is (repetitions / (100 intensity)). This gives you a score for a particular elevator.

In his work "How to design strength training programs with Prilipens table", Hristo Hristov has recommendations on what score does not cause enough stress for adaptation, what causes enough stress for adaptation and what causes too much fatigue for effective adaptation. Even if you don't use their specific numbers, using INOL is an effective tool to measure how much volume and intensity your customer is most efficiently adapting to.

Autoregulation: adapt your training to your needs

The final definition is autoregulation. With autoregulation, you can adapt your program to things like your recovery and CNS readiness. There are several ways to use autoregulation, which we'll discuss later in this article.

The terms are defined. So what do we do with them? Let's first look at our structural balance. When considering the structural balance, I recommend using exercises that are relevant to your client's goals. For example, if it's a weight lifter, or if you have an athlete who regularly uses the Olympic lifts, you can test for snapping, cleaning, and jerking.

If you don't plan to use the Olympic lifts, there's no reason to include them in the structural balance test. In this case, I recommend testing the conventional deadlift, rear squat, front squat, bench press, overhead press, and barbell row.

Since maximizing or performing AMRAPs on multiple exercises is very stressful, I would split the exercises into 2-3 days with 1-4 days in between. After getting all of your maxima or calculated maxes from your AMRAPs, you can see how the correlation between elevators and your customer's possible imbalances is.

To determine how each elevator should be correlated, you can see the work of people like Charles Poliquin, Christian Thibedeau, and Travis Mash. They have all written about the importance of structural balance and the importance of structural balance.

Exercise selection and baselines

A possible example of a structural balance would be to use the squat as a reference lift. If your customer squats 100 pounds back, they should be able to squat 85 pounds, conventional deadlifts 110 pounds, bench press 75 pounds, barbell row 52.5 pounds, and overhead presses 45 pounds (see Know Your Ratios , Destroy weaknesses).

Now when you look at your structural balance assessment, you also need to consider the client's anthropometry. If you have a client who has extremely long legs and short arms, he will most likely not be able to lift 110% of his squat.

If you have a massive chest and super short arms, you may be able to do more than 75% of your bench press because you only need a shorter range of motion to move the bar. Therefore, use the numbers of your structural balance sheet assessment as a basis, but adjust them based on the anthropometry of your customer as required.

You can use your structural balance test to determine which exercises you want to highlight in your training block. The exercise selection can be determined in different ways. An easy way is to train each exercise category all three days of the week with your earliest primary weakness in training and your strengths later in training to ensure you get the highest quality reps for your primary weakness.

If we split our movement categories into deadlift / Olympic variation, squat / lunge variation, upper body push and upper body pull, we can include an exercise from each of these categories in the training. Since not all exercises are equal in terms of the stress they cause, it is a good idea to use descending stress exercises throughout the workout.

Instead of using the most stressful exercises in each movement category and including conventional deadlifts, squats, bench presses, and barbell rows, you can use descending stress exercises like traditional deadlifts, front squats, overhead presses, and pull-ups.

Determination of individual intensities with INOL

After you have selected your exercises, we can look at the intensities. Using INOL's concept and Hristov's numbers, we can see that in week 1 you want at least 0.4 points for a workout. Everything below does not generally cause enough stress to bring about positive adjustment.

0.4-1 is considered very feasible and optimal if you don't accumulate fatigue, and 1-2 is considered hard but good for charging phases. I am a big supporter of using the minimum effective dose to gain strength, and I think it is always better to go below and increase exercise stress than to exceed and possibly reset.

With this in mind, I would recommend using a score of 0.8 for your primary exercise first. Regardless of which loading parameter you are using, whether it is straight sets, wave loading, working on something heavy and performing back-down sets, the value in the equation (repetitions / (100-intensity)) should be 0.8.

This number can initially be increased by up to 10 to 20% for your primary exercise. However, you need to decrease some of your other exercise categories by the same percentage. Every week you can decrease the volume and increase the intensity. After each training block, increase the INOL from week 1.

If the previous training block was effective, increase Week 1 INOL to 0.88. If this is effective, increase it to 0.96. Continue increasing the value until you see no positive adjustment. If INOL gets too big in a single workout and you routinely cannot recover enough for another hard workout this week, it is better to reduce the volume that day and add another workout within the week.

At this point, look back at your training logs and see which week 1 INOL your customer has improved the most. Take advantage of this amount of training volume for most of the year, while occasionally going over to accomplish too much and recover, and you will set your customers up for the best chance of success as the volume is tailored to them.

It is important to remember that when you exercise, you are not exercising in a vacuum. What happens on day 1 affects day 2. With this in mind, we want to be able to automatically regulate our customers' training based on what we can do on a given day.

There may be days when your customer didn't get enough sleep, ate enough calories, separated from their partner, or the previous training session was too stressful so that they cannot achieve the numbers they suspect to hit that day . This can become very obvious once the customer starts training and you can then make an adjustment. Ideally, however, you want to be able to adjust the workout before you start training.

To decide whether or not to change the plan, you should use a CNS readiness measurement procedure. There are different possibilities. One option would be to test heart rate variability (HRV). There are a variety of tools that you can purchase to measure HRV, but they cost between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars.

Another possibility is to measure the bar speed at a reference percentage for a reference lift. The equipment would also cost you a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. These are great tools that you can use. So if you have the resources, I would recommend purchasing them as they provide you with a lot of training data.

However, if you don't have the money for HRV or accelerometer equipment, you can use cheaper methods like a handheld test bench. In Thomas Kurtz's book Science of Sports Training, he discussed measuring grip strength to test recovery, since grip strength correlates with CNS readiness.

He states that an athlete whose grip strength decreases by more than 2 kg is under-recovered. A handheld test bench can be purchased for just $ 20. It is important that you use the same hand test bench for every test. Using others will reduce the reliability and validity of your test.

Another thing to consider is that if you have a lot of exercise that puts strain on your grip, you may get a low score due to peripheral fatigue instead of systemic fatigue. For this reason, it is a good idea to do a secondary test like a countermovement jump height.

If your customer is not sufficiently rested and needs easier training, you can apply the "rule of 60" and reduce the burden on the training volume to 60% of your original plan (see super training). Instead of reducing the volume in the form of sets / repetitions, I would recommend reducing it by the training intensity (% 1RM) as the maximum under-regenerated athlete for that day is likely to be lower and this still offers a lot of exercise with the movement.

Continuous assessment and adjustment

Using INOL with your automatic regulation protocol will also help you plan for the future. At the end of each training block, review the adjustments you had to make and what the INOL your customer ultimately did based on those adjustments. In this way you get a better picture of the training volume to which your customer can actually adapt and you can plan future training blocks more efficiently.

Initial training programs for every customer are always a sound guess. However, if you use these tools in a bottom-up approach, you may be more likely to use a top-down approach for future programming for your customers. Seeing how they adapt to a specific program helps you understand them better and create more personalized overtime.

Everyone adapts to similar stimuli in a similar way, but the ability to customize a program for each customer increases their chances of consistently optimal results. Stand out from other trainers and use your tools to offer your customers the best program.

18 Mar
Blog

Training Load: Find Your Right Volume

What kind of athlete are you??

The one who never stops exercising? The athlete trying to beat the competition?

Or are you the one who is constantly looking for a way to hack the system?

Which one is better?

From a health perspective, what increases the risk of injury: over or under training?

The answer? Both.

Working too hard is as harmful as not working hard enough.

Please note that these are non-contact injuries due to overuse. These are avoidable. Contact injuries are a different story. We don't have as much control over what happens when two players collide on the soccer field or basketball court.

Find your training balance

The best performance programs target a “sweet spot” where the training is intense enough to make athletes better, faster and stronger, but not so much to cause injuries.

Regardless of sport, we should consider two factors when setting up training programs::

  1. The intensity of workouts or movements. This is also known as "loading".
  2. How quickly the intensity "increases".

Let's define "training" a little further:

  • Acute training is the amount of training volume in the past week.
  • Chronic training is the average amount of training volume over the past 4 weeks.

Think of acute training as well as tiredness. How tired are you from your workouts or workouts in the past week? Chronic training includes looking back over the past few weeks and thinking about how fit you are from these workouts.

If you objectively compare how you feel now, how you have felt in the past three to six weeks, you will get interesting data on how ready you are to compete. For example, I train a group of adult distance runners to prepare them for half and full marathons over a 15-week cycle.

These athletes run their maximum mileage three weeks before the race day. The time remaining until the competition is called "rejuvenation" in order to reduce the acute training load. The goal is to feel fresh on the starting line and still have the capacity to run 13.1 or 26.2 miles.

Rejuvenation weeks can be a source of stress for athletes who fear that they will not run, work out or train at their usual high volume, but there are scientific reasons for this strategy. If an athlete has made himself comfortable in the week before a race, but has good mileage throughout the training cycle, he is still well prepared for the day of the race.

The acute training of this athlete would be classified as low because he would be well rested. However, your average chronic workout is high because the athlete has built up a base for endurance in the weeks before.

The role of training load

The load is a measure of the intensity of a training session or the stress on the body from this session. Three things define this for an athlete:

  1. External training load: “work” or “volume” (total distance, lifted weight, number of sprints, jumps to rebound a basketball, collisions in soccer, etc.) 1
  2. Internal exercise load: the body's reaction to exercise (perceived exercise rate, heart rate, blood lactate, oxygen consumption) 1
  3. Individual characteristics of the athlete: age, experience, history of injuries, physical performance

In summary: training result = external stress + internal stress + individual characteristics of the athlete.

All of these factors are important to determine the effect of a particular workout. The same external load can have different internal effects depending on the person. For example, how a 21-year-old college college soccer player would react to 4-mile training compared to a 40-year-old athlete who started running a few weeks earlier.

The training is too intensive for the 40-year-old and can increase the risk of injury. Conversely, the run would be “too easy” for university athletes with little to no cardiovascular gains.

External stress can also have different effects on the same athlete. A hard week of training often makes an athlete feel tired, stressed, and tired. If proper recovery measures are not taken, exercise performance may be affected.

It is also important to understand the impact of “life factors” on training: emotional disorders, illness, stress, or recent training history. Respect these factors and change the training accordingly.

Tracking the external load

This is easy to monitor for endurance athletes such as runners, swimmers and cyclists. GPS watches can log distances and speeds.

Most elite / professional athletes are now using GPS-based sensors to track movements and training specific to their sport. For example, the number of jumps in volleyball, collisions in rugby or soccer, strokes while swimming or sprints per game in soccer. Trainers can increase or decrease the training load depending on what a particular athlete had in competition.

Since GPS watches are not useful for strength training, calculate the load as follows:

External load = number of repetitions x kg weight lifted 3

Tracking the internal load

The perceived load rate is one of the easiest ways to track the internal training load. Rate the intensity of the session on a 1-10 scale. Multiply this rate by the length of the training session in minutes:

Internal load = RPE (scale 1-10) x minutes of training

This score could also be referred to as an "exercise minute". Researchers are still collecting data on different scales for "high" or "low" effort for different sports. At the moment we consider a score of 300-500 among football players as a low intensity training session and 700-1000 is higher

Heart rate or VO2 max multiplied by minutes of exercise would also be another way to track internal stress. Blood lactate concentration measurement is a technical and invasive method, but a unit of measurement.

There are other scales for top athletes like the recovery stress questionnaire that measures mood, stress levels, energy, pain, sleep and nutrition. The total number of points indicates the well-being of the athlete, so that trainers or strength and fitness experts can adjust the training accordingly.

The role of individual athlete characteristics

Studies on rugby and Australian soccer players show that age affects athletes' response to conditioning programs. Research also shows that older athletes are at higher risk of injury from overuse.

With regard to these studies, one has to ask whether the risk of injury results from over-intensive training sessions or whether the risk is increased because older athletes may have earlier injuries more frequently. Research also shows that the history of previous injuries is a major risk factor for a new injury.

Irrespective of this, a training program should be adapted to the age, experience, injury history and general physical fitness of the athlete.

Calculate your training load

Tracking external and internal stress, or acute and chronic training, can help determine if you are an optimal zone for your goals. More importantly, it can indicate an increased risk of injury. Consider the training example used previously:

"Top weeks" for a half marathon runner (weeks 8 to 11 of a 15-week program):

  • Week 8: 21 miles
  • Week 9: 23 miles
  • Week 10: 25 miles
  • Week 11: 30 miles
  1. Acute stress (kilometer week 11) = 30 miles
  2. Chronic strain (average mileage 4 weeks earlier) = 24.75 miles

Now take the acute stress (30) and divide it by the chronic stress (24.75) to get a ratio::

Acute stress ÷ chronic stress = ratio of acute to chronic stress (30 / 24.75 = 1.21)

"Taper weeks" for the same race (the last weeks before the competition):

  • Week 12: 24 miles
  • Week 13: 23 miles
  • Week 14: 18 miles
  • Week 15: race week
  1. Acute stress (mileage in week 14) = 18 miles
  2. Chronic stress (average mileage of the 3 weeks before) = 21.67

Calculate the ratio again::

Acute stress ÷ chronic stress = ratio of acute to chronic stress (18 / 21.67 = 0.83)

Research shows that the sweet spot or optimal zone for training is a relationship between. 0.8 and 1.3.3.2

The runner is in the above-mentioned "peak weeks" in the optimal training zone. He has built up enough mileage base to stay in this zone through the rejuvenation and start the racing week.

Research has also shown that a ratio above 1.5 is a “danger zone” for training. The increased risk of injury is higher in the weeks after training with this type of stress.

How many of us were in this situation? We feel great in a certain training week and continue to increase the intensity. When training becomes more difficult, we initially feel invincible. Then the wheels fall off. An injury happens "out of nowhere" and we wonder what went wrong. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "but I felt so GOOD, Carol! I don't know what happened ?!"

Unfortunately, this is a simple trap, but monitoring the acute to chronic stress ratio can be helpful.

But maybe you are not running. You – lift weights, CrossFit, play soccer, insert sports of your choice. How do you keep track of your training?

The same concepts apply::

  • Calculate the acute training load of the last week (number of repetitions x kilogram of weight lifted). Or add up the number of sprints, minutes of soccer training, etc.
  • Find the chronic training load (average of the last 4 weeks).
  • Divide the acute stress into the chronic stress and compare it with the figure above.
  • Remember to take internal training factors and individual characteristics into account.

The conclusion of the volume training

  1. Intensity is important. Both overtraining and undertraining endanger athletes. A training program must prepare the athlete for the requirements of their sport, but the coach and the athlete must understand that it can take a few weeks to reach this point.
  2. Sudden increases in training intensity endanger athletes. Monitor acute training (how tired you are over the course of a week) and compare it to chronic training (how "fit" you have been in the past few weeks).
  3. Monitor the body's response to exercise. The internal training load. Use the perceived exercise rate x number of minutes you have spent training. Think of other factors – age, stress, sleep, etc. These are all important to determine what your training load should look like.

References::

1. Gab bed TJ. The paradox of training injury prevention: Should athletes train smarter and harder? Br J Sports Med. 2016 Mar; 50 (5): 273-4. 80. doi: 10.1136 / bjsports-2015-095788. Epub 2016 Jan 12

2. Blanch P, Gabbett TJ. Has the athlete trained enough to play safely again? The ratio of acute to chronic workload enables clinicians to quantify a player's risk of later injuries. Br J Sports Med. 2016 Apr; 50 (8): 471-5. doi: 10.1136 / bjsports-2015-095445. Epub 2015 December 23.

3. Bourdon PC, Cardinale M., Murray A., Gastin P., Kellmann M., Varley MC, Gabbett TJ, Coutts AJ, Burgess DJ, Gregson W., Cable NT. Monitoring athletes' training load: declaration of consensus. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2017 Apr; 12 (Suppl 2): ​​S2161-S2170. doi: 10.1123 / IJSPP.2017-0208.

4. Rogalski B., Dawson B., Heasman J. et al. Training and game strain as well as injury risk among Australian elite footballers. J Sci Med Sport 2013; 16: 499-503.

5. Gab bed TJ. Development and application of a model for predicting injuries in non-contact soft tissue injuries in elite collision athletes. J Strength Con Res 2010; 24: 2593-603.

17 Mar
Blog

Training Load: Find Your Right Volume

What kind of athlete are you??

The one who never stops exercising? The athlete trying to beat the competition?

Or are you the one who is constantly looking for a way to hack the system?

Which one is better?

From a health perspective, what increases the risk of injury: over or under training?

The answer? Both.

Working too hard is as harmful as not working hard enough.

Please note that these are non-contact injuries due to overuse. These are avoidable. Contact injuries are a different story. We don't have as much control over what happens when two players collide on the soccer field or basketball court.

Find your training balance

The best performance programs target a “sweet spot” where the training is intense enough to make athletes better, faster and stronger, but not so much to cause injuries.

Regardless of sport, we should consider two factors when setting up training programs::

  1. The intensity of workouts or movements. This is also known as "loading".
  2. How quickly the intensity "increases".

Let's define "training" a little further:

  • Acute training is the amount of training volume in the past week.
  • Chronic training is the average amount of training volume over the past 4 weeks.

Think of acute training as well as tiredness. How tired are you from your workouts or workouts in the past week? Chronic training includes looking back over the past few weeks and thinking about how fit you are from these workouts.

If you objectively compare how you feel now, how you have felt in the past three to six weeks, you will get interesting data on how ready you are to compete. For example, I train a group of adult distance runners to prepare them for half and full marathons over a 15-week cycle.

These athletes run their maximum mileage three weeks before the race day. The time remaining until the competition is called "rejuvenation" in order to reduce the acute training load. The goal is to feel fresh on the starting line and still have the capacity to run 13.1 or 26.2 miles.

Rejuvenation weeks can be a source of stress for athletes who fear that they will not run, work out or train at their usual high volume, but there are scientific reasons for this strategy. If an athlete has made himself comfortable in the week before a race, but has good mileage throughout the training cycle, he is still well prepared for the day of the race.

The acute training of this athlete would be classified as low because he would be well rested. However, your average chronic workout is high because the athlete has built up a base for endurance in the weeks before.

The role of training load

The load is a measure of the intensity of a training session or the stress on the body from this session. Three things define this for an athlete:

  1. External training load: “work” or “volume” (total distance, lifted weight, number of sprints, jumps to rebound a basketball, collisions in soccer, etc.) 1
  2. Internal exercise load: the body's reaction to exercise (perceived exercise rate, heart rate, blood lactate, oxygen consumption) 1
  3. Individual characteristics of the athlete: age, experience, history of injuries, physical performance

In summary: training result = external stress + internal stress + individual characteristics of the athlete.

All of these factors are important to determine the effect of a particular workout. The same external load can have different internal effects depending on the person. For example, how a 21-year-old college college soccer player would react to 4-mile training compared to a 40-year-old athlete who started running a few weeks earlier.

The training is too intensive for the 40-year-old and can increase the risk of injury. Conversely, the run would be “too easy” for university athletes with little to no cardiovascular gains.

External stress can also have different effects on the same athlete. A hard week of training often makes an athlete feel tired, stressed, and tired. If proper recovery measures are not taken, exercise performance may be affected.

It is also important to understand the impact of “life factors” on training: emotional disorders, illness, stress, or recent training history. Respect these factors and change the training accordingly.

Tracking the external load

This is easy to monitor for endurance athletes such as runners, swimmers and cyclists. GPS watches can log distances and speeds.

Most elite / professional athletes are now using GPS-based sensors to track movements and training specific to their sport. For example, the number of jumps in volleyball, collisions in rugby or soccer, strokes while swimming or sprints per game in soccer. Trainers can increase or decrease the training load depending on what a particular athlete had in competition.

Since GPS watches are not useful for strength training, calculate the load as follows:

External load = number of repetitions x kg weight lifted 3

Tracking the internal load

The perceived load rate is one of the easiest ways to track the internal training load. Rate the intensity of the session on a 1-10 scale. Multiply this rate by the length of the training session in minutes:

Internal load = RPE (scale 1-10) x minutes of training

This score could also be referred to as an "exercise minute". Researchers are still collecting data on different scales for "high" or "low" effort for different sports. At the moment we consider a score of 300-500 among football players as a low intensity training session and 700-1000 is higher

Heart rate or VO2 max multiplied by minutes of exercise would also be another way to track internal stress. Blood lactate concentration measurement is a technical and invasive method, but a unit of measurement.

There are other scales for top athletes like the recovery stress questionnaire that measures mood, stress levels, energy, pain, sleep and nutrition. The total number of points indicates the well-being of the athlete, so that trainers or strength and fitness experts can adjust the training accordingly.

The role of individual athlete characteristics

Studies on rugby and Australian soccer players show that age affects athletes' response to conditioning programs. Research also shows that older athletes are at higher risk of injury from overuse.

With regard to these studies, one has to ask whether the risk of injury results from over-intensive training sessions or whether the risk is increased because older athletes may have earlier injuries more frequently. Research also shows that the history of previous injuries is a major risk factor for a new injury.

Irrespective of this, a training program should be adapted to the age, experience, injury history and general physical fitness of the athlete.

Calculate your training load

Tracking external and internal stress, or acute and chronic training, can help determine if you are an optimal zone for your goals. More importantly, it can indicate an increased risk of injury. Consider the training example used previously:

"Top weeks" for a half marathon runner (weeks 8 to 11 of a 15-week program):

  • Week 8: 21 miles
  • Week 9: 23 miles
  • Week 10: 25 miles
  • Week 11: 30 miles
  1. Acute stress (kilometer week 11) = 30 miles
  2. Chronic strain (average mileage 4 weeks earlier) = 24.75 miles

Now take the acute stress (30) and divide it by the chronic stress (24.75) to get a ratio::

Acute stress ÷ chronic stress = ratio of acute to chronic stress (30 / 24.75 = 1.21)

"Taper weeks" for the same race (the last weeks before the competition):

  • Week 12: 24 miles
  • Week 13: 23 miles
  • Week 14: 18 miles
  • Week 15: race week
  1. Acute stress (mileage in week 14) = 18 miles
  2. Chronic stress (average mileage of the 3 weeks before) = 21.67

Calculate the ratio again::

Acute stress ÷ chronic stress = ratio of acute to chronic stress (18 / 21.67 = 0.83)

Research shows that the sweet spot or optimal zone for training is a relationship between. 0.8 and 1.3.3.2

The runner is in the above-mentioned "peak weeks" in the optimal training zone. He has built up enough mileage base to stay in this zone through the rejuvenation and start the racing week.

Research has also shown that a ratio above 1.5 is a “danger zone” for training. The increased risk of injury is higher in the weeks after training with this type of stress.

How many of us were in this situation? We feel great in a certain training week and continue to increase the intensity. When training becomes more difficult, we initially feel invincible. Then the wheels fall off. An injury happens "out of nowhere" and we wonder what went wrong. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "but I felt so GOOD, Carol! I don't know what happened ?!"

Unfortunately, this is a simple trap, but monitoring the acute to chronic stress ratio can be helpful.

But maybe you are not running. You – lift weights, CrossFit, play soccer, insert sports of your choice. How do you keep track of your training?

The same concepts apply::

  • Calculate the acute training load of the last week (number of repetitions x kilogram of weight lifted). Or add up the number of sprints, minutes of soccer training, etc.
  • Find the chronic training load (average of the last 4 weeks).
  • Divide the acute stress into the chronic stress and compare it with the figure above.
  • Remember to take internal training factors and individual characteristics into account.

The conclusion of the volume training

  1. Intensity is important. Both overtraining and undertraining endanger athletes. A training program must prepare the athlete for the requirements of their sport, but the coach and the athlete must understand that it can take a few weeks to reach this point.
  2. Sudden increases in training intensity endanger athletes. Monitor acute training (how tired you are over the course of a week) and compare it to chronic training (how "fit" you have been in the past few weeks).
  3. Monitor the body's response to exercise. The internal training load. Use the perceived exercise rate x number of minutes you have spent training. Think of other factors – age, stress, sleep, etc. These are all important to determine what your training load should look like.

References::

1. Gab bed TJ. The paradox of training injury prevention: Should athletes train smarter and harder? Br J Sports Med. 2016 Mar; 50 (5): 273-4. 80. doi: 10.1136 / bjsports-2015-095788. Epub 2016 Jan 12

2. Blanch P, Gabbett TJ. Has the athlete trained enough to play safely again? The ratio of acute to chronic workload enables clinicians to quantify a player's risk of later injuries. Br J Sports Med. 2016 Apr; 50 (8): 471-5. doi: 10.1136 / bjsports-2015-095445. Epub 2015 December 23.

3. Bourdon PC, Cardinale M., Murray A., Gastin P., Kellmann M., Varley MC, Gabbett TJ, Coutts AJ, Burgess DJ, Gregson W., Cable NT. Monitoring athletes' training load: declaration of consensus. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2017 Apr; 12 (Suppl 2): ​​S2161-S2170. doi: 10.1123 / IJSPP.2017-0208.

4. Rogalski B., Dawson B., Heasman J. et al. Training and game strain as well as injury risk among Australian elite footballers. J Sci Med Sport 2013; 16: 499-503.

5. Gab bed TJ. Development and application of a model for predicting injuries in non-contact soft tissue injuries in elite collision athletes. J Strength Con Res 2010; 24: 2593-603.

03 Mar
Blog

Why Training Partners Are Essential

Someone is strange who takes a dangerous path or climbs the highest peak without the support of a team and the encouragement of a partner who goes on the hike with them. If someone hikes alone on a monstrous mountain, he has probably done it with others many times. They initially relied on the help of a guide and the help of a group of people who took on the task with them before they could do it themselves,

The desire to share an experience is practically the same for anyone starting a new physical or fitness practice. You might start a new sport or go to the gym for the first time to start exercising. And if you think, why should it be the same? It is human behavior, In both cases, you need guidance and companionship with others who share this experience and want to do the same work.

The typical gym

What membership fluctuation rates do big box gyms see? I imagine there are statistics somewhere, but even without them, it's a safe conclusion that it's high. Some health clubs have also created a structure in which members are automatically charged monthly fees, although they rarely, if ever, use the facility,

The entire membership funnel from marketing to after-sale is designed and set up for this. These health clubs are of course dishonest about their intentions. However, the entire framework fragments and isolates members from one another so that they can never group together or receive the support they need from each other to progress.

What we long for

Ultimately, most of our behaviors and motivation come from searching for connection, This includes ambitions to get in shape. When people can and can get together to participate in an activity such as lifting weights, they connect. But there is more than just a feeling of connection due to the common interest.

When you improve physically, your health, endurance, performance and appearance change for the better. and your mind, whatever you think, is not separate from your body or mind, When your physical health improves, your mental health improves, and vice versa.

When mind and body are in harmony,

  • You can connect more deeply with every experience and with every person.
  • You have a better direction of how you can live your life.
  • You can get the energy of shared experience.
  • You feel more comfortable with yourself and this will also be noticeable in others.
  • You will really connect with others if you work authentically.

With the connection, the experiences we share can become the narrative we all want to build with friends. We want to create a story together that we can remember later and relive together.

Gyms can be a great place to find this. Sharing physical battles undoubtedly brings friends closer. That is why we make training partners friends and we make our friends our training partners.

It is much more likely that the bonding experience will take place in a smaller independent gym than in a major company type. These smaller indie gyms with tight communities instantly connect to others working on this concentrated strength or high-intensity discipline.

And you should be working on finding a place like this where you can work out if you're looking for fitness in four walls, This is the time when we find a place where we can satisfy what we long for with people who can identify with that desire.

Fight, shared

The need for a struggle to deal with is built into people. We have not met this primary need and it is not a matter of opinion.

If we don't have an obvious external struggle to get involved with, we create a pseudo-struggle in our minds, our daily lives, our relationships, and sometimes in society. Creating an imaginary conflict is a way to self-sabotage – something I can talk about.

The selection and strategic challenge of some physical struggles that we have to face on a daily basis prevents us from creating artificial mental conflicts that are more harmful than instructive, But here's the problem: The physical struggle, by our standards, must be serious and significant enough in our minds to prevent us from creating more fictional mental conflicts that cause self-sabotage.

It seems that we all have an inner judge who decides whether what we do deserves our efforts and undisturbed focus. If not, our thoughts will wander and we will look for other conflicts.

But if we spend time with others who are participating in the same type of fight as we do, physically or otherwise, and we see that they are enthusiastic about wrestling with it, the mountain itself seems worthwhile.

It is essential for our group, so we believe that it is undeniably crucial. And that's why it is necessary to train a physical discipline or to do sports with teammates in order not to stop,

The role of the fight

My powerlifting trainer and employer, when I was a college strength trainer, was my training partner for many years. He decided to keep the fight as strong as possible and never deviated from it.

When I trained with him, my life was straightforward and my thoughts were clear. I had few concerns and thought about my work and training. I took up my coach's fight and focused my will on it and it kept me on a direct path, I have made unique improvements in this regard and my focus has kept me from unnecessarily complex in my life.

Then I left this job, this place, this training partner and this particular job. And without this worthy effort, I made my life complicated. The complications then drove me further away from training, and without anyone to share the practice with, I resigned from any concentrated physical pursuit.

Years passed; I started Olympic weightlifting again, but without consistency or diligence. Eventually, however, I was fortunate enough to bring great weightlifting trainers and former world-class Olympic weightlifters to my gym. I was taught by them and had the opportunity to train next to them.

I have to live out new stories and share them with new people. They provided support and friendship, and I made progress and matured in life lifting and weight lifting and learning to focus my energies.

I kept my goal of participating in a physical fight and added more. I teamed up with Muay Thai fighters and then with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players. I spent time with more experienced opponents and learned how they thought about their work. I found that martial artists and martial artists have an unusual way of joining together to advance personally and individually.

In strength training, the training partners support each other to overcome some external obstacles. But in the martial arts school they test and fight against each other in order to push and grow internally, It's not just about contesting the person in front of you. It's about tackling your internal struggles and barriers and using the struggle with others as an instrument to do so.

Almost everyone in these places understands this, even if they don't recognize it. When sparring and practice are over, they feel more connected than before. You are grateful to the other person for the gift received, They shared an experience that will help both of them on their way to progress and understanding.

Designate your vehicle for growth

Jiu-Jitsu seems to be one of the best means for personal growth, and it is connected with the need for a community of supportive people. I speak as an absolute beginner with no experience and only with a new perspective to compare behavior patterns that I have observed elsewhere.

All martial arts can be described as physical chess between opponents. And jiu-jitsu seems to be one of the most difficult chess games, Confrontation and strikes require instinctive reactions that have to develop into a habit.

But there is also an active intellectual struggle when you change strategies, read your opponent and adjust your movement while the person opposite you reacts to your movements and actions.

The complexity and possibility of attacks and defenses in Jiu-Jitsu make this all the more complicated. So it is necessary to roll with different types of people in a school to train your strength and skills, Everyone on this mat understands this and it creates a completely shared recognition that this is a worthwhile struggle. They form a group of people who believe that this practice will produce a better person.

Share the successes

Everything that is done is better if it is shared with others. It makes the good better. People have a spirit when they win together and achieve something together in cooperation and support, When they move forward together, it is almost as if there is another force with them, a recognizable spirit that is independent of a person.

There is also responsibility when you share your efforts with a group, Not a person can be flawless in their efforts or absolutely objective about where they are neglected and where they need to focus on improvements.

Everyone needs training partners to be honest, to pull, push, pull, or sometimes pick them up – and they also need to learn what it's like to do that for others. If you do this, you will understand and get to know this spirit. By giving this, you can get it better and with greater impact.

This is the beauty of the group that shares the adventure. Therefore, it is undeniably important to find this group and your training partners, regardless of which fitness or exercise you choose, A partner will support you and give you meaning. And with that purpose, you can stay on the right path, even if life seems to do everything to keep you from going.

Jesse competes in Olympic weightlifting and used to be a powerlifter. It has been featured in major strength and fitness publications. You can read more of his work on his website.

You might like it too:

01 Mar
Blog

Why Training Partners Are Essential

Someone is strange who takes a dangerous path or climbs the highest peak without the support of a team and the encouragement of a partner who goes on the hike with them. If someone hikes alone on a monstrous mountain, he has probably done it with others many times. They were initially dependent on the help of a guide and the help of a group of people who took on the task with them before they could do it themselves,

The desire to share an experience is practically the same for anyone starting a new physical or fitness practice. You might start a new sport or go to the gym for the first time to start exercising. And if you think, why should it be the same? It is human behavior, In both cases, you need guidance and camaraderie with others who share this experience and want to do the same work.

The typical gym

What membership fluctuation rates do big box gyms see? I imagine that there are statistics somewhere, but even without them it is a sure conclusion that it is high. Some health clubs have also created a structure in which members are automatically charged fees every month, although they rarely, if ever, use the facility,

The entire membership funnel from marketing to after-sale is designed and set up for this. These health clubs are of course dishonest about their intentions. However, the entire framework fragments and isolates members from one another so that they can never group together or receive the support they need from each other to progress.

What we long for

Ultimately, most of our behaviors and motivation come from searching for connection, This includes ambitions to get in shape. When people can and can get together to participate in an activity such as lifting weights, they connect. But there is more than just a feeling of connection due to the common interest.

When you improve physically, your health, endurance, performance and appearance change for the better. and your mind, whatever you think, is not separate from your body or mind, When your physical health improves, your mental health improves, and vice versa.

When mind and body are in harmony,

  • You can connect more deeply with every experience and with every person.
  • You have a better direction of how you can live your life.
  • You can get the energy of shared experience.
  • You feel more comfortable with yourself and this will also be noticeable in others.
  • You will really connect with others if you work authentically.

With the connection, the experiences we share can become the narrative we all want to build with friends. We want to create a story together that we can remember later and relive together.

Gyms can be a great place to find this. Sharing physical battles undoubtedly brings friends closer. That is why we make training partners friends and we make our friends our training partners.

It is much more likely that the bonding experience will take place in a smaller independent gym than in a major company type. These smaller indie gyms with tight communities instantly connect to others working on that concentrated strength or high-intensity discipline.

And you should be working on finding a place like this where you can work out if you're looking for fitness in four walls, This is the time when we find a place where we can satisfy what we long for with people who can identify with that desire.

Fight, shared

The need for a struggle to deal with is built into people. We have not met this primary need and it is not a matter of opinion.

If we don't have an obvious external struggle to get involved with, we create a pseudo-struggle in our minds, our daily lives, our relationships, and sometimes in society. Creating an imaginary conflict is a way to self-sabotage – something I can talk about.

The selection and strategic challenge of some physical struggles that we have to face on a daily basis prevents us from creating artificial mental conflicts that are more harmful than educational, But here's the problem: The physical struggle, by our standards, must be serious and significant enough in our minds to prevent us from creating more fictional mental conflicts that cause self-sabotage.

It seems that we all have an inner judge who decides whether what we do deserves our efforts and undisturbed focus. If not, our thoughts will wander and we will look for other conflicts.

But when we spend time with others who are participating in the same type of fight as we do, physically or otherwise, and we see that they are enthusiastic about wrestling with it, the mountain itself seems to be worth it.

It is essential for our group, so we believe that it is undeniably crucial. And that's why it is necessary to train a physical discipline or to do sports with teammates in order not to stop,

The role of the fight

My powerlifting trainer and employer, when I was a college strength trainer, was my training partner for many years. He decided to keep the fight as strong as possible and never deviated from it.

When I trained with him, my life was straightforward and my thoughts were clear. I had few concerns and thought about my work and training. I took up my coach's fight and focused my will on it and it kept me on a direct path, I have made unique improvements in this regard and my focus has kept me from unnecessarily complex in my life.

Then I left this job, this place, this training partner and this particular job. And without this worthy effort, I made my life complicated. The complications then drove me further away from training, and without anyone to share the practice with, I resigned from any concentrated physical pursuit.

Years passed; I started Olympic weightlifting again, but without consistency or diligence. Finally, however, I was fortunate enough to bring great weightlifting trainers and former world-class Olympic weightlifters to my gym. I was taught by them and had the opportunity to train next to them.

I have to live out new stories and share them with new people. They provided support and friendship, and I made progress and matured in life lifting and weight lifting and learning to focus my energies.

I kept my goal of participating in a physical fight and added more. I teamed up with Muay Thai fighters and then with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players. I spent time with more experienced opponents and learned how they thought about their work. I found that martial artists and martial artists have an unusual way of joining together to advance personally and individually.

In strength training, the training partners support each other to overcome some external obstacles. But in the martial arts school they test and fight against each other in order to push and grow internally, It's not just about contesting the person in front of you. It's about tackling your internal struggles and barriers and using struggles with others as an instrument to do so.

Almost everyone in these places understands this, even if they don't recognize it. When sparring and practice are over, they feel more connected than before. You are grateful to the other person for the gift received, They shared an experience that will help both of them on their way to progress and understanding.

Designate your vehicle for growth

Jiu-Jitsu seems to be one of the best means for personal growth, and it is connected with the need for a community of supportive people. I speak as an absolute beginner with no experience and only with a new perspective to compare behavior patterns that I have observed elsewhere.

All martial arts can be described as physical chess between opponents. And jiu-jitsu seems to be one of the most difficult chess games, Confrontation and strikes require instinctive reactions that have to develop into a habit.

But there is also an active intellectual struggle when you change strategies, read your opponent and adjust your movement while the person opposite you reacts to your movements and actions.

The complexity and possibility of attacks and defenses in Jiu-Jitsu make this all the more complicated. So it is necessary to roll with different types of people in a school to train your strength and skills, Everyone on this mat understands this and it creates a completely shared recognition that this is a worthwhile struggle. They form a group of people who believe that this practice will produce a better person.

Share the successes

Everything that is done is better if it is shared with others. It makes the good better. People have a spirit when they win together and achieve something together in cooperation and support, When they move forward together, it is almost as if there is another force with them, a recognizable spirit that is independent of a person.

There is also responsibility when you share your efforts with a group, Not a person can be flawless in their efforts or absolutely objective about where they are neglected and where they need to focus on improvements.

Everyone needs training partners to be honest, to pull, push, pull, or sometimes pick them up – and they also need to learn what it's like to do that for others. If you do this, you will understand and get to know this spirit. By giving this, you can get it better and with greater effect.

This is the beauty of the group that shares the adventure. Therefore, it is undeniably important to find this group and your training partners, regardless of which fitness or exercise you choose, A partner will support you and give you meaning. And with that purpose, you can stay on the right path, even if life seems to do everything to keep you off the path.

Jesse competes in Olympic weightlifting and used to be a powerlifter. It has been featured in major strength and fitness publications. You can read more of his work on his website.

You might like it too:

27 Feb
Blog

Overhead Stability: A Strength Training Must

In this video tutorial, recorded with an active and loud Precision CrossFit, I will introduce a series of movements based on creating overhead stability. Overhead stability is really lost in many athletes, and I've seen that since I started strength conditioning. I want you to think about the muscles required to hold weights above your head or to stand on your head.

Increasing awareness of these muscles is essential for my strength training programs. I use it for everyone. The exercises in this video will really help you find the right way to maintain this solid hull, reduce the risk of injury, improve your shape, and ultimately lead to major increases in strength and overall performance.

video Index
00:50 Overhead walk with barbell
01:49 Overhead walking lunges
03:25 Snatch Grip Barbell Walk
04:23 Clean grip barbell walk
05:15 Snatch Grip Barbell Walking Lunges
05:50 Clean Grip Barbell Walking Lunges
06:12 Box Pike Handstand Push Up Hold
07:28 Hold handstand
08:33 Hold wall covering handstand
09:22 Bottom-up kettlebell press
09:52 recommendations
27 Feb
Blog

Overhead Stability: A Strength Training Must

In this video tutorial, recorded with an active and loud Precision CrossFit, I will introduce a series of movements based on creating overhead stability. Overhead stability is really lost to a lot of athletes, and I've seen that since I started strength conditioning. I want you to think about the muscles that are required to hold weights over your head or to stand on your head.

Increasing awareness of these muscles is essential for my strength training programs. I use it for everyone. The exercises in this video will really help you find the right way to maintain this solid hull, reduce the risk of injury, improve your shape, and ultimately lead to greater increases in strength and overall performance.

video Index
00:50 Overhead walk with barbell
01:49 Overhead walking lunges
03:25 Snatch Grip Barbell Walk
04:23 Clean grip barbell walk
05:15 Snatch Grip Barbell Walking Lunges
05:50 Clean Grip Barbell Walking Lunges
06:12 Box Pike Handstand Push Up Hold
07:28 Hold handstand
08:33 Hold wall covering handstand
09:22 Bottom-up kettlebell press
09:52 recommendations
26 Feb
Blog

A Comprehensive Guide to Unilateral Training for Injury-Free Training and Performance

Getting strong is pretty easy: move heavy weight in the classic compound lifts– deadlifts, squats, bench press and military press. If you can put large numbers in these elevators, congratulations, you are strong.

But the story doesn't end here. The story really begins with the complementary work that will hopefully enable you to continue to gain weight in the long term in a healthy and sustainable way. After all, it is difficult to get strong if you are constantly dealing with injuries after injuries. We believe that one-sided training (one-armed, one-legged, etc.) has an extremely positive impact on health, stability, coordination and the balance of the joints.

There should be periods in a cyclical, periodized, and progressive program year when the focus is definitely on the classic compound lifts, where these one-sided movements are purely complementary, and periods during the year when they can get a bit into the year more in the spotlight.

For example, if you are sometimes a powerlifter (or exercise like a powerlifter) throughout the year, it can be very valuable to move away from the classic barbell lifts and introduce barbell or kettlebell variations to fix weaknesses and at the same time provide some recovery to enable heavy compound lifting.

Below are some examples of variations on single arm, single leg, and barbell exercises to promote an injury-free hard workout. Let the rep range determine the load,

The one-armed dumbbell bench press

Do 3 sets of 10 to 20 per arm with a 60 second pause.

The one-arm dumbbell shoulder press

Do 3 sets of 15 to 20 per arm with a 60 second pause.

One arm breakaway rows

Do 3 sets of 10-15 per arm with a 30-60 second pause.

One-arm row of dumbbells

Do 3 sets of 10 to 20 per arm with a 30 to 60 second pause.

Lift the dumbbell to the side

Perform 3 sets of 10-20 with a 30-60 second pause.

Clean and press the one-armed kettlebell

Do 3 sets of 10-15 per arm with 30 seconds rest.

One-armed overhead walking lungs

Perform 3 sets of 15 m with a kettlebell or dumbbell (each arm) for a 30-60 second break.

Single leg step ups

Complete 3 sets of 15-20.

Double front rack step ups

Perform 3 sets of 10-15 with two light kettlebells.

Single leg RDLs

Do 3 sets of 10-15 with a light / medium weight kettlebell.

Keep it simple

Keep things simple, The last couple of repetitions should be hard and you should leave 2-3 in the tank. You can make these supplements progressive by increasing the load (weight), the volume (number of sets), the rest period (reduction of the rest period from week to week) or by changing all three variables.

Remember to add new exercise variations every 4 to 12 weeks or whenever you feel that progress has stalled. This means that you cannot add more weight without affecting the technique.

23 Feb
Blog

A Comprehensive Guide to Unilateral Training for Injury-Free Training and Performance

Getting strong is pretty easy: move heavy weight in the classic compound lifts– deadlifts, squats, bench press and military press. If you can put large numbers in these elevators, congratulations, you are strong.

But the story doesn't end here. The story really begins with the complementary work that hopefully will enable you to continue to gain weight in the long term in a healthy and sustainable way. After all, it is difficult to get strong if you are constantly dealing with injuries after injuries. We believe that one-sided training (one arm, one leg, etc.) has an extremely positive impact on health, stability, coordination and the balance of the joints.

There should be periods in a cyclical, periodized and progressive program year where the focus is definitely on the classic compound lifts where these one-sided movements are purely complementary, and periods during the year when they can get a little into the year more in the spotlight.

For example, if you are sometimes a powerlifter (or exercise like a powerlifter) throughout the year, it can be very valuable to move away from the classic barbell lifts and introduce barbell or kettlebell variations to fix weaknesses and at the same time provide some recovery to enable heavy compound lifting.

Below are some examples of variations on single arm, single leg, and barbell exercises to promote injury-free hard training. Let the rep range determine the load,

The one-armed dumbbell bench press

Do 3 sets of 10 to 20 per arm with a 60 second pause.

The one-arm dumbbell shoulder press

Do 3 sets of 15 to 20 per arm with a 60 second pause.

One arm breakaway rows

Do 3 sets of 10-15 per arm with a 30-60 second pause.

One-arm row of dumbbells

Do 3 sets of 10 to 20 per arm with a 30 to 60 second pause.

Lift the dumbbell to the side

Perform 3 sets of 10-20 with a 30-60 second pause.

Clean and press the one-armed kettlebell

Do 3 sets of 10-15 per arm with 30 seconds rest.

One-armed overhead walking lungs

Do 3 sets of 15m with a kettlebell or barbell (each arm) for 30-60 seconds rest.

Single leg step ups

Complete 3 sets of 15-20.

Double front rack step ups

Perform 3 sets of 10-15 with two light kettlebells.

Single leg RDLs

Do 3 sets of 10-15 with a light / medium weight kettlebell.

Keep it simple

Keep things simple, The last couple of repetitions should be hard and you should leave 2-3 in the tank. You can make these supplements progressive by increasing the load (weight), the volume (number of sets), the rest period (reduction of the rest period from week to week) or by changing all three variables.

Remember to add new exercise variations every 4 to 12 weeks or when you feel that progress has stalled. This means that you cannot add more weight without affecting the technique.

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