The spaces have been filling up super quick on the Proformance Rugby Camp for the 13th February.
We’ve decided to extend our Early Bird Discount until Friday 8th February so everyone has got an extra week to take advantage of this great deal!
There are a limited number of places left for the day so ensure you book now so you don’t miss out! Click the link below for more info & bookings:
PROFORMANCE RUGBY CAMP FEB 13TH
Following the first camps that ran in 2012 we are really excited to announce that the Proformance Rugby Camps are back for 2013!
The camps are aimed at young rugby players aged 12-15 who want to improve their rugby skills and to learn how to train safely and effectively to improve their fitness and take their performance to all new levels.
The next camps are running during Feb Half Term Week on Wednesday 13th Feb 2013 with a morning session for Under 12s & 13s and an afternoon session for Under 14s & 15s.
Our specialist Rugby Coach, former England Sevens, Gloucester & Bristol Rugby player Jack Adams is delivering the rugby skills and sharing his knowledge and experiences from elite level rugby.
On the Strength & Conditioning side we will be focusing on the development of fundamental strength training techniques appropriate for young athletes!
As with all our programmes the workshops run with small groups (maximum of 8 per coach) which means that you get a lot more time working with our coaches than on some of the larger camps out there. This means that places are limited.
Until the 31st of January you can sign up for the Early Bird Discount price.
For more details and booking please check out our Workshops page!
Yesterday was the second workshop in conjunction with Trimnasium Fitness Centre in Cheltenham and it was a real success again.
The group were superb in terms of their work ethic and desire to learn and there was good progress shown by everyone in the group. This particular workshop was focused on the Clean and Jerk and the first work shop before Christmas was for the Snatch.
The Olympic Lifts are a tremendous tool in an athlete’s tool box for the development of explosive power. So if you have time on your side it’s a worthwhile investment of your time to learn them.
The primary goal of the workshops is to improve the athletes understanding of the correct technique & their ability to execute a safe and effective lift.
Both lifts are very technical compared to the majority of exercises you see being performed in the gym and my advice for anyone wanting to get in to it would be to seek out a good coach to get you started. To demonstrate the technical nature here are the phases of the Clean & Jerk:
1) Start Position
2) 1st Pull
3) Transition Phase
4) 2nd Pull
5) Catch
6) Front Squat to Standing
7) Split Jerk
If there are phases in that list you’ve not heard of there’s a good chance you’re missing something in your lift and you could be putting yourself at risk of injury.
As a coach there are a couple of things I’m looking for before I start anyone on the Olympic Lifts.
1) For the Clean – Can you Front Squat with excellent technique?
2) For the Snatch – Can you Overhead Squat with excellent technique? (i.e. full depth squat, able to maintain neutral spine and bar above the crown of the head)
If you can’t do either of those, in my eyes, the full Snatch or Clean & Jerk aren’t for you yet. You need to be able to execute the Front & Overhead Squats well as they are the positions you will be catching the bar in during the lifts.
If you’re good at those lifts under load, you can be sure you’ve got the strength and stability to catch effectively in the lifts.
We’ve been lucky that both groups that have joined us at Trimnasium have been good squatters so we’ve been able to get into some Olympic lifting.
Throughout the workshop we have coached the proper execution of the individual phases of the lifts & then linked the different phases of the lift together as the athletes demonstrate technical competence.
It was great to see by the end of the session that we had some of the guys executing full lifts with good technique. Whilst other guys in the group still needed to work on some other aspects before they could progress, the main thing was that everyone left with a clear idea of where they were at currently, what exercises they could do safely and what they needed to do to improve!
If you’re keen to involved on the next workshop keep an eye on our Workshops page, check out Trimnasium Fitness Centre on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @proformanceteam
This quality poster came through to my email this week from Matt Lovell, a nutritionist right at the top of the game working with the likes of UK Athletics, Manchester City FC and England Rugby.
I love the simplicity of this graphic he’s put together so I had to share it!
As it says stick it to your fridge and follow the four steps to successful fat loss!
Matt’s website Four Week Fat Loss is well worth a look for more information about his methods.
During his presentation at the UKSCA 2011 conference Bill Foran S&C Coach for the Miami Heat presented a concept I instantly liked – Joint by Joint. It originates from Gray Cook & Mike Boyle check out this link for a full explanation of the concept.
Essentially the primary needs of each joint are as follows:
Joint — Primary Need
Ankle — Mobility (sagittal)
Knee — Stability
Hip — Mobility (multi-planar)
Lumbar Spine — Stability
Thoracic Spine — Mobility
Scapula — Stability
Gleno-humeral — Mobility
For this post I’m just going to focus on the importance of hip mobility, the impact on the body when we have lost mobility and some practical exercises to improve it.
As above in an ideal scenario the hips are mobile and the lumbar spine is stable.
But when we lose hip mobility, we get lower back pain because the lumbar spine becomes unstable.
So this is the symptom you may see in yourself or your clients/athletes along with hamstring strains.
Without getting into too technical and complex terms for the non-scientists reading this the problem starts because when the muscles in and around the hips become immobile, it is the lumbar (base) spine that begins to bend and extend to produce movements due to the fact the movement is no available through the hip.
So what can we do to get more mobile at the hip?
Here are just a couple of suggestions for exercises to improve mobility to the hips and take some of the strain off the lower back.
Full Hip Lunge Stretch
You can also add in rotational movements to the stretch to get get a more three dimensional stretch through hips. I’ll add some pics for this at a later date.
Split Squats
I love split squats for a number of reasons but one of the main reasons I get people to use them is for the dynamic stretch they provide through the hip of the trailing leg as you lower into the bottom position.
As well as increasing strength they help to either improve flexibility in clients/athletes who are tight through the hips or as a strategy to maintain a good range of movement along with static stretches such as the one above.
There are lots of other exercises out there but these are two I’ve found to be very effective & I’ll add some more exercises into this post as soon as I get chance, but let me know if you find they make a difference for you. If you’re a coach and you’ve got some other good options get in touch, I’m always keen to learn.
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We are very excited to have launched our new Semi-Private Training Packages offering high quality personal training on a small group basis (max 3-4 people per group).
By training in small groups we can give you a lot more training for the same price of your normal 1 to 1 personal training sessions which will give you better results! For the same price as 4 x 1 to1 PT sessions and your monthly gym membership we are offering 3 Semi-Private coaching sessions per week, that’s 12 coach led sessions per month!
For more info about Semi-Private Training check out the 3 new monthly package options on offer!
Preparing your body properly for training and competition is important to ensure you perform to your potential and to reduce the risk of injuries. But it’s also a valuable time to work on new aspects of training or maintain other fitness qualities if time is limited for your training.
Now whilst getting on the treadmill, bike or rower for 10 minutes will no doubt serve the purpose of warming you up, you can make much better use of that time at the start of each session to improve fundamental areas of your fitness.
The Movement Preparation sequence we use is built on the RAMP framework –
Raise body temperature & heart rate
Activate key muscle groups
Mobilise joints
Potentiate – prime the body for the maximal intensities it will be required to produce in the session/comp
The RAMP framework for me is great because it allows me to make the most out of the 10-15 minutes at the start of a session. Now 10-15 minutes doesn’t sound like a lot of time but when you do this every session, every week it accumulates to a lot of training time.
The potentiation phase also provides a nice little window of opportunity to have the athlete doing some power & speed work in a strength phase or a bit of strength work in a power phase; or with younger athletes there some time available to develop technique for the Olympic Lifts.
The combinations you can use are endless and can be tailored to the athletes individual needs and goals of the specific training phase.
This movement preparation protocol is something I learnt from Ed Archer during my time working for him at the Athlete Academy. It was a system we used at the start of every training session with groups and individuals that has proven to be very effective for a number of reasons.
When starting out with a new client/athlete/team this is usually the first thing I will do with them as it provides me with a lot of info and I can start to make decisions about what is an appropriate starting point for them. It serves as a good screening process as immediately it gives you an idea of their capabilities in terms of co-ordination, flexibility, stability & strength.
From a coach’s perspective it ticks quite a lot of boxes the sequence contains movements through all three planes: sagittal, frontal & transverse so it’s providing a more varied stimulus than just getting people running/rowing/cycling at the start of a session. Our sports use movements in all three planes so let’s get the body moving through all of them from the start. It’s also providing a training stimulus for improving co-ordination, core strength, shoulder stability and single leg work.
The basic movement preparation sequence requires no equipment and once you’ve got it down you’ll be through it in as little as 6 minutes. One thing I must emphasize is that although this can be done in 6 minutes, don’t rush it & always aim for technical perfection and then progress the speed you execute it. Quality movement is the priority.
So here we go:
1) Hip Rolls x 10 Each Side
2) Knee Pull to Glute Bridge x 10
3) Mini-Lunge / Spiderman x 10 Each Side
4) Prisoner Squats x 10
5) Press Up to Full Lunge/Spiderman x 10 (1 rep = 1 press up & 1 lunge on each side)
6) Power Position to Full Extension x 10
7) Forward Lunge x 10 Each Side
8) Side Lunge x 10 Each Side
9) One Leg Running Man x 10 Each Side
So those exercises cover the RAM of the RAMP – The ‘P’ I’ll take care of in another series of articles as depending on the training goal and the level of the athlete this will vary.
Give it a go, and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.
This is one of the most simple yet effective tools for coaching the correct position for acceleration and to begin getting strength gains made in the gym to transfer to actual movements.
The focus should be on quality execution of single repetitions to begin with and then you can to progress to executing ‘doubles’ & ‘triples’ when you are able to maintain the technique.
Start by using 2-3 sets of 8 single repetitions (4 on each leg) and take about 90-120 seconds between sets. I often use it at the end of a Movement Preparation sequence before heading into the main body of a session.
As a coach one of the common things I hear when I’m talking to people about their strength training is that they’re banging away just trying to go heavier and heavier week on week.
Training in this way may get you results up to a point, but you’re going to hit a plateau at some point. In addition, if you’re always lifting at a 100% repetition max (RM) load (i.e. that maximum load you can lift for a given number of reps) you are constantly subjecting your body to a high level of stress that will result in a lot of fatigue & may in the long term result in over training.
The fact is you don’t have to max out every session to get stronger.
A system I have used with a lot of clients/athletes over the years is a step loading system varying loads across a training cycle between 80-105% of a rep max load. The loading pattern that has worked consistently for me is 80% – 90% – 95% – 105% then the pattern repeats itself.
With this system you lift “very heavy” (105% RM) once every 4 weeks and that week is followed by a recovery week of 80% RM to allow for supercompensation (see previous article on recovery for an explanation of this process) because the unloading gives your body an opportunity to recover. The process then repeats itself building the loads back up over the next few weeks from 80-90-95% to another 105% load.
In case that doesn’t make sense here’s an example programme to make it clearer:
Taking the example of the Back Squat – at the start of the cycle Client A is able to squat 100kg for 5 reps. Employing the above loading system for the next 4 weeks he squats as follows:
Week 1: 4 sets x 5 reps @ 80kg
Week 2: 4 sets x 5 reps @ 90kg
Week 3: 4 sets x 5 reps @ 95kg
Week 4: 4 sets x 5 reps @ 105kg
Having completed week 4 with a new 5RM of 105kg the next 4 weeks % RM loads are calculated from this new PB.
So based on 105kg 5RM the loads for the Back Squat for the second 4 week cycle would be:
Week 5: 4 x 5 reps @ 84kg (80%)
Week 6: 4 x 5 reps @ 94.5kg (90%)
Week 7: 4 x 5 reps @ 99.75kg (95%)
Week 8: 4 x 5 @ 110kg (105%)
Now this certainly isn’t the only way to get strong and there are lots of variations to the sets, reps and variations to %RM that you can utilise, but this system has produced consistent strength gains for me as a coach and reported improvements in the athlete’s physical and mental freshness/preparedness for their training after the carefully planned recovery weeks.
Learn more about Periodization and Programme Design with Nick Grantham at his Physical Preparation for Performance & Speed Workshops 21st & 22nd February 2015. Nick will be covering 5 major areas: Programme Design, Core Training Concepts, Metabolic Mayham: A Modern Approach to Energy System Development, the Art & Science of Coaching and Speed, Agility and Change of Direction. For more information & to take advantage of the incredible Early Bird Discount Bundle >>CLICK HERE<<
Having been working with junior athletes between the ages of 11-18 for the last few years one of the major areas that is a concern for me is what opportunity, if any, do they have to recover within their weekly schedule? Do parents, school teachers and club coaches have any idea of the total work the young athletes are completing in any given week? What are the implications of their training schedules to the athlete’s long term development and their health?
What is recovery?
Recovery is a process resulting in a return to baseline energy levels and then an optimal performance state.
Understanding the process of recovery
Crucial to understanding the importance of recovery is understanding the process that the body goes through as a result of exercise/training/competing. The body is always striving to maintain homeostatis (balance) of the bodily systems so it will constantly adapt to stresses that we place on it. In the context of sport, stress comes in the form of training for and competing in that sport. Training is a manipulation of stress to bring about desired changes in the body as it strives to cope with the stress and achieve balance again. In training terms this is known as Supercompensation (Gambetta, 2007)
The diagram below (Figure 1.4 source: Zatsiorsky, 1995) is the theory of Supercompensation which is a four step process. The horizontal line is the athlete’s baseline level of fitness/preparedness. The vertical axis and curved line represents the changes in the athlete’s fitness/preparedness as a result of any workout.
Stage 1 – Application of training (stress)
When any form of training or sport is completed by an athlete this stress is followed by a depletion of the body’s energy stores creating a state of fatigue demonstrated in the first section of figure 1.4. At the lowest point if the athlete were to attempt to perform in their sport there would be a predictable drop off in the level of their performance.
Stage 2 – The Recovery Phase
When the athlete is given a suitable period of recovery which could be in the form of active rest, a recovery session or a light training session. The athlete’s energy levels and preparedness to perform will return to baseline levels.
Stage 3 – Supercompensation Phase
This is the body’s adaptive response to the fatigue brought about by the training and it is a rebound above and beyond the baseline levels creating a heightened state of energy levels and preparedness to perform. At this point if they athlete were to perform in their sport/training we would expect performance to be of a higher level than normal.
Stage 4 – Loss of the Supercompensation effect & return to baseline levels
From the peak of supercompensation there is a natural decline back to baseline levels if there is no new training stress applied, known as the detraining phenomenon.
Slaves to the Schedule
Athletes invariably train and compete according to a set schedule, and when careful consideration is not taken this schedule can be intense/excessive/challenging. Typically the athlete will follow this schedule regardless of the readiness of the athlete to train or perform. In such cases, athletes will not be at their optimum to train or compete due to insufficient recovery or poor adaptation to their training again as a result of little or no recovery time, or poor recovery strategies.
Certainly the young athletes I have been in contact with appear to have little or no recovery planned in to their weekly/monthly schedules. The more gifted and talented the athlete it appears the more demands are placed on them as the school teachers and club coaches insist on their involvement in any and every game/sport going with little thought given to the benefit of the session to the individual and there appears to be little communication between any of the parties to ensure that the young athlete is not overtraining. From teachers that I have discussed this issue with they are aware of young players playing 3 games in a week including 2 in a weekend.
I’m not pointing the finger of blame at any of the parties in the mix as they are all facing different challenges that make it unrealistic to plan to this extent for each individual athlete in the school or club. However, for that small percentage of young sports people who have shown signs of the capability or desire to compete at the highest level surely we must take the time to plan their training and competition schedule appropriately to avoid physical/mental burnout?
What is overtraining?
Overtraining is the result of a long term imbalance between the amount of stress applied to the body through training and the individual’s ability to tolerate and recover from the training. Symptoms of overtraining aren’t always clear but residual fatigue, persistent minor injuries, loss of motivation and a lack of progress are some examples of the negative effect that it can have.
Physical symptoms include reduced appetite, a tendency to tire easily during exercise, weight loss, a slight increase in blood pressure, an elevated resting heart rate.
The effects can also be psychological in nature and athletes may show nervousness, inner unease, poor motivation and eventually depression. (Siff, 2003)
The importance of sufficient recovery and optimally planned training
In an optimally planned training schedule another training session would take place at the peak of the supercompensation curve and the process would start again from step 1 and at the end the body would rebound to a level of preparedness above and beyond the level following the first training session as demonstrated in figure 1.5 below.
Figure 1.5 – Optimal recovery time between training sessions (source: Zatsiorsky, 1995)
If sufficient recovery can be achieved consistently over a long period of time the result is going to be a continually rising curve taking the athlete towards a superior level of performance as well as hopefully maintaining a healthier, fresher athlete.
In contrast, if the recovery period between training sessions is insufficient the results are much more detrimental to the athlete. If the next training session is applied before the athlete’s energy stores have returned to baseline then supercompensation is never achieved resulting in greater levels of fatigue and further reductions in the athlete’s readiness to train and perform.
Figure 1.6 – Insufficient recovery between training sessions (source: Zatsiorsky, 1995)
If this trend continues in the long term the athlete’s physical development will be hampered and their level of performance will be decreased as there are increasing levels of fatigue and less energy available to the athlete. In the long term this is the scenario that will lead to overtraining putting the athlete at risk of developing the symptoms described above.
Finally if training sessions are not completed frequently enough (i.e. too long between sessions) we will lose the supercompensation effect and there will be no noticeable gains from the training being completed as demonstrated in figure 1.7 below. The result again being limited or no development in the athlete’s physical capabilities or performance.
Figure 1.7 Recovery between sessions is too long (source: Zatsiorsky, 1995)
Recommendations / practical application:
|
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
|
Moderate Workload |
Heavy workload |
Very Heavy workload |
Light workload (Recovery week) |
Please feel free to comment and question my views on this subject.
Author: James Baker
References:
Zatsiorsky, V. (1995) Science and Practise of Strength Conditioning
Siff, M. (2003) Supertraining
Gambetta, V. (2007) Athletic Development
