Prep and Build Periods in Training
Pace yourself and
take your time, this is important.
Finding a nice balance between
pushing yourself, recovery periods, endurance, and other forms of training
including threshold and speed I believe is a skill yet to be acquired by 95% of
the gym population. So often I see
people at the gym injured whether it’s their shoulder, hip, ankles, etc. I also see these same people sprinting on the
treadmill, doing military presses with 45 lb dumbbells over their heads, and
heading into an advanced TRX class which involves putting your feet into the
straps and holding planks for about 10 minutes.
I don’t think people take the time to go back to the basic exercises and
build up a base so that when they want to build themselves to a certain level,
they already have a great foundation to build upon.
Here is a client of mine that doesn't mind being an example. He is a highschool baseball player who is at times running at high speeds and is chronically spraining his ankle. can you see why? Here he is at a slow jog, maybe 4.5 mph.
With my current triathlon-training
program, courtesy of The Triathlete’s Training Bible, written by Joe
Friel, I am in a strength training stage right now that is called AA, meaning
anatomical adaptation. This will get my
tendons, muscles, and systems ready for greater loads a little later in my
training. The purpose of this though is
to prevent injury! Here, we are
performing higher reps at either body weight loads or small weights. Here we need to develop balance, core
strength, posture, and stability. I
can’t tell you how many clients I see at the gym who can’t hold a proper plank. Tucking the pelvis back and keeping their
shoulder blades involved is difficult!
Performing a proper squat with the chest up, no increased lordosis in
the back (meaning excessive arching) and excessive forward traveling in the
knees is also very difficult for some people, but those same people are taking
35 lb. kettle bells and are doing thrusters! Just now on the news on the Today show they
are showing people at home how to hold a plank on your hands and do rows at the
same time with dumbbells! I see injuries
in your future…which might mean I need to go to physical therapy school because
business is booming.
Back to explaining the prep
period. It’s time to get your body ready
for training. I have even decided to go
back to the basics even though I teach an advanced cross training class with
Olympic lifts and heavy weights.
1.
Nutrition: Make sure you are eating enough while
you train. Different philosophies will
lend themselves to different ideas of how much protein, carbs, and fat you
should be taking in. Make sure you get
in plenty of liquid, and If you are doing a lot of cardiovascular training and
weight training I would suggest at least 1.2-1.4g/kg of body weight. Many people cut out the carbs to lose body
fat and weight, but you need those essential sugars for brain function, for
your muscles to contract and relax, and also for recovery! Fats are very important for aerobic endurance
and also for hormone regulation and organ protection, also for vitamin
absorption so if you want healthy strong bones, eat your fat!
2.
Stretching: Many people don’t stretch nearly
enough. I will see people with low back
pain and they only have 45 degrees of movement in their hamstrings. If you don’t have movement here you can’t
bend from your hips so you will take it from your back instead! I see shoulder pain when the scalenes are so
tight and thoracic back has no movement because of constant texting and forward
head positions at the computer.
Especially after being on the bike or running, it is so important to
stretch out the front of the hips, quads, external hip rotators and more. I took a class with Charlie Weingroff who is
a physical therapist and top trainer to NBA players like Lebron, Chris Bosh,
and more on how important the hip flexors are to improved hamstring
flexibility, leg health, etc. I do his
routine every day and after I run on the treadmill, my cool down is walking
backwards for 5 minutes. Do you ever see
anyone walking backwards on the treadmill!!??
It opens up the front of your
hips and helps the hamstrings and glutes to contract and relax.
3.
The Workout:
Right now it is a lot of body weight training with high reps and short
recovery periods of only a minute or less.
I am performing 3-5 sets of 20-30 reps of all the basic exercises. Pushups, Pullups, squats, hip extension,
lateral lunges with furniture sliders, toe walking, rotator cuff exercises,
YTM’s, dips, TRX exercises, and balance work.
It is possible to work up a sweat and to feel sore with no weights
people! Also, perform lateral movements,
not just front and back. You need to
develop the muscles that support your hips and knees, and it wont be don’t by
just moving front and back.
Is that a pronated foot I'm looking at???
ReplyDeleteOr possibly navicular drop?
DeleteI think its a combination of many dysfunctions. He was very weak in the hips so His inability to recruit all of his external hip rotators, piriformis, and also weak VMO and vastus lateralis. His feet really needed strengthening as well as his ankles, so toe scrunches, to taps, balance boards, Single leg stability. This has since cleared up and he's doing really well now! Thanks Kyle!
Delete