Return to Training Calls for Individualization in Programming
/As athletes come back to the playing fields, gyms and weight rooms, they are coming back in all shapes and fitness levels. Some have transformed their bodies through internal motivation, support from their coaches and parents, and perhaps access to good equipment or creative resourceful of other implements (logs, bricks, sandbags, etc.) to challenge the body.
And yet others…well, you know…they tried to defy physiology and ignored the concept of detraining or “use it or lose it”, and are, let’s just say, back to square one or maybe even minus square one.
In our last blog, we provided an overview of returning to sport post-COVID including both general public health guidelines and more specific strength and conditioning recommendations for a safe and effective return to training following inactivity. Here, we will further address a few general principles of returning to training.
Ramp It Up: Easy to Hard, Simple to Complex
An early account of strength training takes us back to Ancient Greece and a wrestler named Milo of Croton. As legend has it, Milo trained by carrying a newborn calf on his back every day until the animal was fully grown. And as the calf grew, so did Milo’s strength. This tale is frequently used to demonstrate and teach the fundamental concept of progressive overload.
Image courtesy of Jason Severiiano Lampkin
Training sessions, and actually all practice sessions (please share with sport coaches), should be designed and appropriately implemented over time similar to the story of Milo. In this sense, training sessions should have a continual and gradual increase in the workload over time and reflect the individual athletes' current levels of fitness and fatigue, so as to not induce excessive exertion and increased risk of injury.
Too often, the antithesis of progressive overload occurs with the athlete who has been inactive for a prolonged period, like during COVID, going from couch potato to high training frequency and high training loads in the first week or two resulting in excessive soreness and fatigue. Just think if younger and weaker Milo tried to carry a nearly full-grown animal early in his training. Research indicates that a rapid spike in training volume from week-to-week of greater than 10-15% has been shown to increase the risk of injury. This also points to the importance of documenting practice and training plans including distances and intensities.
Even within the week, there should be some variation in training load to avoid overtraining, monotony and boredom, and allow for adequate recovery. Many think that “more is always better”. Instead, alternating between hard, moderate and easy training days during the week can lead to greater adaptation. Remember, growth (adaptation) occurs when there is the right blend of stress (training) and rest.
Rest and Recovery are Critical Components: Get the Basics Right
As mentioned above, rest and recovery are part of the training; however, too often we focus on training and ignore the other side of the equation. When training occurs without adequate rest and recovery, there is ‘maladaptation’, diminished performance and an increased risk of injury and illness.
The cornerstones of recovery should be nutrition and sleep. There are several excellent resources available for nutrition and sleep education.
In terms of nutrition, it’s all about putting the right types of foods in your body, in the right amounts, and at the right time. Highlighting each of these is beyond the scope of this blog. However, here are a few key tips from our Q&A with Dallas Cowboys Director of Performance Scott Sehnert:
Only food—no supplements!
Stay hydrated—with water, juice, and milk, not sodas or energy drinks.
Carbs throughout day—they will fuel the high-intensity, intermittent bouts of activity and training seen in most team sports and strength and conditioning.
And, let’s add:
Shop around the perimeter of the grocery store.
Power Hours: Top off fuel tank with small snack prior to practice and replenish within 15-45 minutes following practice or training.
Use the pee-chart (light like lemonade is preferred) to check hydration status.
As for sleep, it is recommended that teenaged athletes get 8-10 hours of sleep per night. Compared to the school year, this may not be as much of a challenge for some in the summer but it still warrants education and monitoring.
Here are a few strategies to improve sleep:
Establish consistent sleep and wake schedules, even on weekends
Create a regular, relaxing 15-30 min bedtime routine like a hot shower or listening to soothing music
Create a sleep-conducive bedroom that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool
Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows
Turn off gadgets at bedtime — avoid watching TV, using a computer or phone
Avoid caffeine close to bedtime and monitor caffeine intake during the day
Athletes need to get the cornerstones – nutrition and sleep - right before we even start talking about other recovery methods like hydrotherapy, compression garments, etc. So, let’s start here.
Coaches and parents definitely need to be part of the recovery plan with constant reminders and reinforcement about the importance of nutrition and sleep for optimal performance, health and athlete well-being. As Sehnert stated “Coaches can provide a great voice with constant reminders. They can ask ‘What did you have for breakfast?’ and/or ‘What’s for dinner tonight?’.”
Along these lines, don’t ignore personal feedback (oral or written) from the athlete on motivation, enjoyment, stress, fatigue, injury, etc. Monitoring athlete health and recovery by a simple readiness questionnaire like the one in the Volt app can serve useful. These wellness surveys often have 3-5 questions scored on a 1 to 5 scale.
Individualization
As previously mentioned, some athletes trained and others did not during the past few months. And even so, among those athletes who did not train or trained very little, there will be variation in their current fitness level and also how quickly they adapt to training upon return from COVID.
This speaks to the principle of individual differences or individualization, which can relate to both programming and the response to training. Both of these matters can be addressed in the Volt app.
First, the overall program and the periodization or training calendar can be adjusted. In some cases, a coach or athlete may want to initiate training upon return from COVID with a 1 or 2 week Foundation block. The Foundation block is designed to introduce (or re-introduce) athletes to Volt training and prepare them to train on a serious strength training program. It is comprised of mostly bodyweight movements with the workouts being low-moderate intensity to help athletes develop movement technique and work capacity.
Furthermore, coaches and athletes can utilize the movement replacement tool to individualize based on personal preference, equipment, injury, sport, or as part of a movement regression which may be necessary as athlete’s return to training. The Movement Replacement tool allows you to customize the training program, movement by movement. You can choose to replace a movement just for one week, for the entire block, or always.
And again, not all athletes will adapt at the same rate as the individual responsiveness to a training program has been shown to vary widely. As the athlete progressively adapts to the training and gets stronger, Volt will also adapt to the athlete in real-time using the Smart Sets feature and its artificial intelligence engine called Cortex™. This works by the user (athlete) providing a rating of perceived exertion or effort following the completion of a set. The system then provides continual re-adjustment of the estimated 1-rep max and corresponding adjustments in the training load set-by-set; thus, making every set and the training program individualized!
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Learn more about Dr. Eisenmann | @Joe_Eisenmann
