Starting the New Season on the Right Note

As you start looking at your next season, you should always start with a review of the previous  one. After you have given thought to things you did well, things you might not have, races you  liked and the ones you didn’t, your strengths and weakness, the next step is to start planning the  next training season. One of the things that definitely should be included it strength training.  

 In his book, Periodization Training for Sports, Tudor Bompa simply states, “Strength training is  one of the key ingredients in building the physiological foundation for peak performance.” I  couldn’t agree more. I have seen it time and time again and my athletes would be the first to tell  you it is true from their experience as well.  

 I like to start my athletes with at least 4 weeks of Transition, where they work on rehabilitating  from the season, freshen their minds and do some cross training. They also start to go to the gym  for some super light non-specific lifting and stretching. After Transition we start the Preparation  Phase. The Preparation Phase can be considered “pre-habilitation” for the base building load to  come. During Prep they continue to cross train for a portion of their endurance exercise and they  start spending more serious time in the gym. Anatomical Adaptation (AA) is their first phase of  weight training. AA begins in the Transition Phase and continues into the Preparation Phase.  

 When lifting for Anatomical Adaptation there are three main objectives that you must keep in  mind, increasing bone density, strengthen ligaments and tendons, and increase the oxidative  capacity of your slow twitch muscle fiber which is a biggie. This next point is very important;  accomplishing these objectives takes a lot of time. When I say a lot of time, I mean weeks or  months not days. So, novice and beginner athletes need to spend as much as 10 weeks (minimum  time of 3 weeks for most experienced athletes) using an AA weight approach before moving on  to Maximum Strength lifting (MS). With MS lifting, as the name implies, the loads are intense  and if your tendons and ligaments are not prepared injury rather than progress could be in your  future. Do not be in a hurry to finish AA and to move on to MS.  

 For their AA weights I have my athletes use Circuit Training. Circuit training is a sequence of  exercises performed in order and then repeated. An example of a very short circuit would be  squat, bench press, leg press, back to squat, bench press and leg press. That would represent 2  times thorough a 3 exercise circuit.  

 I use 8-10 exercises at first for all levels of athlete and then I like to move my experienced  athletes to a 6-8 exercise circuit after a few weeks. Tudor Bompa makes a few recommendations  on exertion and load that I think are good. He recommends that beginner and novice athletes (I  consider those with less than 3 years in the gym novice) work to an exertion on each exercise set  of slight discomfort when first starting circuit training in the Preparation Phase and working to discomfort in the later weeks of the Preparation Phase. I like to remind athletes, and have to  often, more isn’t better, better is better. Remember, sticking to process will get you results and  pushing too hard, too often will get you over-trained. Slight discomfort is good enough to start.  While experienced athletes should begin in the early weeks of Preparation with discomfort and  work up to high discomfort in later weeks of Preparation. As for load, Novice’s are  recommended 30-40 percent of their 1 rep maximum which is quite light. Experienced athletes  use a slightly heavier load but only 40-60 percent of 1 rep maximums which is still somewhat  light. Something to consider is the guidelines for Load that are made later in this article. Again  Starting the New Season on the Right Note Part 1- AA Weights By: Peter Cummings  

 note that the above recommendations are for the Prep Phase not Transition. For Transition, the  load ends up dictating a MUCH lower rating of intensity.  

 Progression of Load throughout the AA weight phase is important because as mentioned you will  be changing over to MS weights. Progression of Load throughout the phase will help insure that  the change to MS will be safe and won’t be a huge shock. So, for novice, increasing load every  two weeks (30%, 35%, 40%) for six weeks is a good progression and for experienced athletes  increasing load each week with a step down on week 4 (40% of 1RM, 50%, 60%, 50%, 60%,  70%) of a six week cycle is good progression. You must try to increase load gradually. Be sure  to use a formula that works for you. If you are doing increased load but getting sloppy you are  not improving. Remember, better is better. Quality reps with even slight increases in load are  better than an increase in load that lacks quality. 

As a guide for load, Bompa makes some very specific recommendations. During the Transition  phase, which might be the start for some people getting back into the gym, he recommends 4-6  short tonnes per microcycle or week. This converts to approximately 8,000-10,000 pounds per  week. So, for example, if you did 1 set of 6 different exercises, 15 repetitions each, 3 times a  week with an average weight of 40lbs. per rep you would have lifted 10,800 pounds! So, it is  very, very light. When you move into the Preparation Phase things get a little more serious. Here  he recommends 16-22 tonnes per week at peak load for cyclist. This converts to 35,000 to 48,000  pounds per week!! So, if you are lifting 3 times a week you are looking at 12 to 16 thousand  pounds per session. Those are some pretty serious loads. Remember, first few weeks (Transition)  very, very light loads.  

 As for speed of lift, which is always important, I recommend slow controlled movement in the  AA weight lifts. It has been shown that a slight pause at the bottom (while under load) of each  repetition works extremely well for loading and strengthening tendons and ligaments. Speed of  lift will change with each phase.  Studies have shown that weight training reduces injuries, improves economy of movement,  improves maximum strength, strength endurance and if done correctly does NOT lead to weight  gain. Train smart and safely and your time in the gym will pay off in Aces next race season.