Christine Brooks – Draft script
Overview of core training principles
Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci said: “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who
boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.” In
other words, without a map of the essential physiological laws of training and some
understanding about training theory you cannot guide your athletes toward their
maximum genetic potential.
Athletic preparation contains a number of essential parts that together must solve the
fundamental problem related to taking an athlete from a current physiological work
capacity and exploitation capability to a higher level so their performance in their
sport improves. Solving this problem involves manipulating the methods by which the
body maintains its homeostasis. You design an athlete’s training program to induce
subtle, progressive changes in the way the body uses its energy resources and
builds capacity to relevant internal structures. Indeed a training stimulus is designed
to mobilize a specific type of energy resource and cause certain types of internal
structural adaptations. Without this ability to physiologically adapt, the body could not
get stronger, faster or more coordinated. A positive physiological adaptation equals
improved athletic performance.
What you will learn
When you have completed this module you will understand:
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The six important principles of training
How this knowledge applies to training situations.
Basic Training Response
Training challenges the body’s homeostasis and the physiological stages through
which this happens is the same for all athletes.
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Warm up: During the warm up relevant physiological systems move into high
gear, resulting in an increase in performance capacity.
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Training session: At the end of the warm-up the athlete enters the phase of
training where homeostasis is disturbed. Early in the training session the
athlete's body can easily cope with the training stress. As the training session
continues the body's resources are taxed beyond their capacity and
performance begins to deteriorate. The athlete enters the fatigue phase. The
rapidity of fatigue relates to training stimulus intensity. As training continues
the accumulation of fatigue causes a gradual decline in performance.
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Rest period: When the training session ends, the athlete now enters the rest
period.
During phase 1 of the rest period the body returns to homeostasis - energy
resources are replenished and damaged structure repaired. This is
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traditionally referred to as 'recovery'. Total time for return to homeostasis
depends on the depth of the accumulated fatigue, the training stimulus
intensity, and the speed with which the athlete’s body can return itself to
normal homeostasis.
During phase 2 of the rest period the stressed internal structures of organ
systems used during the training session are reinforced. This is the training
effect and is referred to the “'supercompensation or overcompensation”
stage. The purpose of training is to produce as many relevant training effects
as the adaptive mechanism can handle.
The training effect (overcompensation), cannot occur without adequate rest. An
effective training program must have a built in rest period!
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Decay: Due to the temporary nature of a training effect, another training
session must occur at the peak of overcompensation, or the body will regress
to a lower level of physiological functioning.
The athlete's response to training depends on the nature of the resources mobilized,
and how they are mobilized. This is very individualized.
Application: Test your understanding
Skeletal muscle has extraordinary adaptation capabilities depending on its
functional demands. Think about the logic of the following statement regarding the
adaptation of muscle. “Muscle can turn into fat when you stop working out, and fat
turns into muscle when you start working out”. Does this statement make any
sense given that muscle consists of protein structures of linked amino acids, and
fat consists of triglycerides with a very different molecular structure from amino
acids?
Training principles
There are six important training principles to consider when designing the training
stimuli for each training session. They are as follows:
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Individualization
Specificity
Progression
Overload – variables include frequency, intensity, time and stimulus type
Reversibility
Variety or variation
1. Principle of Individualization: Athletes do not respond in the same way to the
various types of training stimuli you may use. Heredity determines many
physiological factors such as heart and lung size, muscle fiber characteristics,
physique and balance. The amount of rest and sleep they obtain is critical to their
adaptation capacity. Diet and current health or injury status also influences their
ability to complete the training session with the intensity you intend.
Each athlete has a unique physiological work capacity and stress tolerance. Every
system in an athlete’s body has an upper limit depending on their genetics. Strength,
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breathing capacity, blood transport, oxygen transport, etc. are influenced by the
athlete’s genetics and for this reason each athlete will respond to training differently.
For this reason, the training program must be designed according to the athlete’s
abilities, potential, and stage of learning. Their limits of training stress tolerance and
the effectiveness of different training stimuli depends upon:
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Biological and chronological age
Experience or training age.
Capacity for the training stimulus. There are several biological and
psychological factors determining the ability to cope with the training stress.
Health status
The athlete’s recovery capacity.
In other words the effectiveness of and training program depends on the athlete’s
physiological readiness for specific types of training. Readiness, in turn, depends on
an athlete’s age and maturation. For example, an athlete who is between 6-10 years
of age will not benefit from anaerobic conditioning. However, an athlete over 14 years
can responds to anaerobic training quite well.
Keep in mind that athletes at the same chronological age can be up to four years
apart in their developmental and biological development. The athlete’s psychological
readiness is also and issue. The athlete must have the desire to participate in their
training program.
2. Principle of Specificity.
The principle of specificity recognizes that the body’s adaptive mechanism targets the
chronically stressed internal structures. Cyclists must cycle. Runners must run.
Swimmers must swim. The signals the adaptive mechanism receives from running is
very different from swimming or cycling. There are crossover adaptations between
biking, swimming and running useful for general body conditioning. However, the
adaptations that occur are specific to the exercises you include in the general body
conditioning program. This means, if you want to develop general body strength then
cycling, running or swimming will not accomplish this. The athlete must use
resistance exercises to increase strength.
When it comes to applying the principle of specificity it is easy to make mistakes. For
example:
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Let’s say you want to improve an athlete’s javelin throwing power (i.e. move
the javelin very fast with high force). In may seem logical for the athlete to
practice with a heavier javelin. However, if the athlete alters throwing
mechanics while throwing the heavier javelin then this training stimulus could
be counterproductive. You could be training the wrong neural pathways.
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Similarly, lifting weights at low velocity increases low velocity strength, but
has little effect on high velocity strength. High velocity lifting, on the other
hand, does not stimulate much muscle growth.
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When training an endurance runner to use a higher percentage of fat for
energy rather than glycogen it might seem logical to reduce carbohydrate
intake. However, arbitrarily reducing carbohydrate intake is not only
detrimental to endurance performance, it does not stimulate the body to use
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fat in preference to glycogen.
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If an endurance runner builds muscle mass during a weight training regime
the extra muscle mass can act as dead weight, interfering with a runner's
ability to optimize distance-running capabilities. An endurance runner’s
weight training program is designed to strengthen the motor unit recruitment
capacity of the neuromuscular system, not to add significant protein to the
muscle.
In other words, using the wrong training stimulus causes the wrong adaptation.
Understanding human physiology helps you avoid these kinds of coaching errors.
3. Principle of Progression.
Throughout an athlete’s career it is important to follow a logical progression and
development of skills. The basics for progression involve moving from easy to difficult
in a systematic manner. Start with the most basic set of skills and evolve to the more
complex. Start with low load and gradually increase the load. The speed of
progression is an individual variable and this becomes more challenging as the
athlete matures. Almost any reasonable program will cause adaptation in untrained
individuals. However, as the athlete nears their genetic potential their training
program design becomes more difficult.
4. Principle of Overload.
Overload is fundamental to adaptation. A training load is the amount of work an
athlete performs during a training session. When the athlete's organ systems are
challenged by the training load the adaptive mechanism is set into action during the
recovery and overcompensation phase. The training load causes fatigue, and
recovery permits the subsequent adaptation so the athlete’s organ systems reach
higher physical work capacity and thus, a higher level of performance.
There are four ways to increase the load on the athlete's body. You can increase the
volume of training, frequency of training, intensity of training, and time or duration of
the training. Whichever of these variables you mix together the bottom line is this: If
the training load is insufficient there is little or no adaptation effect and therefore, no
improvement in athletic performance. On the other hand, a loading too high for the
athlete’s current level of physiological capacity can result in a serious side effect of
hard training called overtraining syndrome.
The principle of progression and the principle of overload work together. As the
athlete’s adapts to the training stress you progressively increase the load slightly
either by increasing the volume, frequency, intensity or time of stimulus application.
When the athlete adapts to the new load, then you increase it slightly again and so
on.
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Application: Test your understanding
The legend of the ancient Greek wrestler called Milo claims he began lifting a
calf (weight about 34 kg) every day until it was full grown (weight around 544
kg.). Explain how this legend illustrates the principle of progressive overload. Do
you think the legendary tale of Milo is potentially true?
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5. Principle of Reversibility.
If training stops the size of all the internal structures stimulated to grow, increase in
number or add structures will gradually return to a level matching the new chronic
level of physical activity. The applies equally to all physiological systems including
those involved in the athlete’s aerobic capacity, strength and flexibility among others.
This is referred to as detraining. You will also see this principle referred “decay” or
“regression’. An athlete, under complete bed rest can decrease the training effect up
to 10% per week. As well, if athletes train erratically, there will be very little or no
adaptation effect.
Injuries can be a particular problem. Muscle atrophies whenever it is not used, which
simply mean it will get smaller. The body will only maintain a level of muscle mass it
is currently using on a regular basis. Once the athlete begins training again they can
regain this muscle loss.
Sarcopenia also means muscle loss, but in this case it refers to a loss in muscle
mass due to the aging process. Sarcopenia appears to begin around 40 years of age
and accelerates after the age of approximately 75 years. Most atrophy due to aging is
seen in muscle fibers recruited for high-intensity, anaerobic movements. Although
sarcopenia is often associated with physically inactive individuals, it also occurs in
individuals who remain physically active throughout their lives. This accounts for
declining strength and performance of master athletes. Unfortunately, sarcopenia is a
fact of aging and while it can be slowed it cannot be reversed. It is really important for
master athletes to avoid injury because of the difficulty they will have in rebuilding lost
muscle.
The key point is that while rest periods are necessary for recovery, extended rest
intervals reduce the adaptive effect. Detraining occurs within a relatively short time
period after an athlete stops training. About 10% of strength is lost 8 weeks after
training stops, and 30-40% of muscular endurance is lost during the same time
period. Some organ system structures are dismantled within days and this is an
important consideration when reducing training (tapering) in preparation for
competition.
6. Principle of Variability:
High performance training is demanding and requires a considerable number of
hours of repetition. High performance athletes will undertake around 1000 hours per
year much of that repeating the same movement over and over. This can lead to
training monotony. Even lower volumes of training undertaken by younger training
aged athletes can lead to monotony and boredom if the training lacks variety. This is
a particular problem for endurance athletes where there the technical requirement is
fairly low such as is the case for running, swimming, cycling, etc. It becomes a
challenge to keep the training sessions fresh, different, and interesting.
Training jargon permits communication with others in your sport
You have been introduced to quite a bit of training jargon in this module. Every field
of study has its own terminology and/or jargon. Jargon is simply a term used to
describe a characteristic language of a particular group and coaching is no different
from any other group. It has its own lingo that is often meaningless to outsiders.
Communication with other coaches, and your ability to read the research literature
relevant to your sport necessitates you become familiar with the key terminology and
jargon of training. Principles of training are important laws guiding the development of
all training programs. Violate any of them and you run the risk of ruining an athlete’s
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career.
Application: Test your understanding of the training principles
• Measurable performance changes taking place over time when
following a sensible training program is due to the major physiological
concept referred to as _____________
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Athletes of different physical and physiological maturation and
capacity respond differently to training. This is referred to as the
principle of:
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This principle explains the loss of training gains due to the cessation
of training or overtraining.
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This principle dictates a change in a training routine to prevent
boredom and staleness.
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Response to training that can be affected by heredity, maturity, diet,
sleep and other factors. The principle explaining why this occurs is:
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This principle is fundamental to adaptation. It encompasses four
variables – volume, intensity, time and frequency.
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Fatigue, recovery, overcompensation and decay are all components
of ____________
Challenge your logic about training outcomes
• During periods of insufficient training stimulus, the athlete can
experience the following: (a) decreased capillary density around the
muscles within 2–3 wk of inactivity; (b) decline in the muscle cell’s
ability to extract oxygen from the surrounding capillaries within 3–8
wks; (c) progressive reduction in the enzymes needed by the muscle
cell to produced ATP; (d) decline in muscle fiber cross-sectional
area. To what training principle do these adaptive changes refer?
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The Powerbreathe is a device designed to act like dumbbells for the
diaphragm and the other muscles of inspiration that are active when
the athlete takes a breath. Explain why the Powerbreathe illustrates
the principle of specificity.
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Detraining or the cessation of training can lead to muscle (atrophy)
(hypertrophy) (sarcopenia). Circle the correct answer.
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Do you think the following statement is true? “If athletes are not
feeling pain during training, then they are not making any
physiological gains”. Explain the reasoning for your answer.
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Christine Brooks – Draft script
References:
Mujika, I., and S. Padilla. Muscular characteristics of detraining in humans. Med. Sci.
Sports Exerc., Vol. 33, No. 8, 2001, pp. 1297–1303.
Verkhoshansky, Yuri. Main Features of a modern scientific sports training theory. New
Studies in Athletics (3)1998, pp9-20.
Bompa, Tudor. Periodization Training: Theory and Methodology (4th edition).
Kendall/Hunt publishing, 1999.
M. L. Pollock, C. Foster, D. Knapp, J. L. Rod, and D. H. Schmidt. Effect of age and
training on aerobic capacity and body composition of master athletes. J Appl Physiol,
Feb 1987; 62: 725 - 731.
Jörn Rittweger, Pietro Enrico di Prampero, Nicola Maffulli, and Marco V. Narici. Sprint
and endurance power and ageing: n analysis of master athletic world records.
Proc Biol Sci. 2009 February 22; 276(1657): 683–689.
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