Timing in Strength Training

Science and Practice Chapter 5

Two Issues

1. How to space the work and rest intervals. Basically….how often do I work out?

2. How to sequence exercises. What exercises should I use? When should I use them?

Timing in Strength Training Timing in strength training is probably

the element of strength coaching/training that requires the most knowledge and experience.

It is also the part of coaching/strength training where individualization play the largest part. Some athletes will get burned out….or make greater gains with certain types of setups. A good coach will have a good idea of what each athlete needs in terms of workload.

Structural Units of Training These are very important! They make up the basic

scheme of almost any training program, from powerlifting to cross country running.

Training Session Training Day Microcycle Mesocycle Macrocycle Olympic Cycle/Multiyear Training

The training session

The training session is the smallest unit of training.

It is often referred to as a “workout” The technical definition according to the

book is: “A workout period comprising rest periods no longer than 30 minutes.”

A training session does not equal one training day

There may be many training sessions within one training day

Bulgurian Olympic

WL Training Schedule

This lifting schedule is a good example of the higher work capacity of elite athletes who have been training a long time

Training Load Recovery

Training load of one workout Restoration Time (hr)

Extreme 72

Large 48-72

Substantial 24-48

Medium 12-24

Small >12

Spacing of Workload

Generally speaking, more workouts that distribute the workload will be more effective and allow more recovery than having less workouts but trying to put a large amount of work in those workouts.

Division I programs will often have lifting workouts in the mornings, and then sport practices later on in the day. Division III schools often don’t have the luxury of doing this because their sport time commitment is not as great.

The Micro-Cycle

The grouping of several training days Usually a week long but can be

different depending on the competition schedule of the athlete.

Sample Off-Season Micro-cycle: Team Sport (Basketball/Soccer)

Microcycle Focus: STRENGTH Monday: Conditioning/Static Strength Tuesday: Explosive

Strength/Plyometrics Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Conditioning/Static

Strength Friday: Explosive

Strength/Plyometrics Saturday: Conditioning Sunday: Rest

Monday:Condition/Static Strength 9:00 AM Weightlifting

Squat Variation (4x5 @ 77.5% T-Max)Bench Press Variation (4x5 @ 77.5% T-Max)Romanian Deadlift (Hamstrings) (4x5)Pullup Variation (4x5)Body Curls (3x10) (core)

3:00 PM Conditioning15x50 yd sprints @ 90% effort with 30”

rest 4x100 yd sprints @ 85% effort with 1’ rest1x GS circuit “Pedestal” 2x10 each

Tuesday:Explosive Strength/Plyos 9:00 AM

Oly Variation #1 (Cleans from Floor) 6x3 @ 70%

Oly Variation #2 (Push Jerks) 6x3 @ 70% 3:00 PM

Cone Hops: 3x25 (1’ rest)Low Box to Box: 3x5 boxes (2’ rest)Standing Triple Jump x 3 (2’ rest)Medicine 10lb Ball Toss for Height 2x8

(2’ rest)

Wednesday:Active Rest

For an active rest day, light sport activity or light crosstraining might be encouraged. An example of this would be shooting around in basketball, or going for a 20 minute jog in the woods with a partner.

Thursday:Condition/Static Strength 9:00 AM Weightlifting

Squat Variation (3x8 @ 75% T-Max)Bench Press Variation (3x8 @ 75% T-Max)Glute-Ham Raise (Hamstrings) (3x10)Pullup Variation (3x10)Windshield Wipers (3x10) (core)

3:00 PM Conditioning10 x “suicide” sprints @ 90% effort with 45”

rest 4x100 yd sprints @ 85% effort with 1’ rest1x GS circuit “Waterloo” 2x10 each

Friday:Explosive Strength/Plyometrics 9:00 AM

Oly Variation #1 (Snatch from Hang) 6x3 @ 70%

Oly Variation #2 (Hang Clean and Jerk) 6x3 @ 70%

3:00 PMHeidens: 3x20 (1’ rest)Hurdle Hops: 3x5 (2’ rest)Standing 5 Jumps x 3 (2’ rest)Medicine 10lb Ball Toss for Distance 2x8

(2’ rest)

Saturday: Conditioning

8x100m with 10 pushups and 30 seconds rest in between.

Mesocycles:

A Mesocycle is a system of several microcycles

The typical duration is one month, although it can be anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks.

An example of this would be Westside Barbell having very short mesocycles as they change their exercises every 2 weeks.

The average mesocycle will typically be 3 microcycles of increasing intensity and then a “recovery” microcycle totaling 4 weeks.

Sample Mesocycle

1 2 3 40

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Training LoadWeek:

Types of Mesocycles

AccumulativeIncreasing the athletes motor potential.

Increasing non-specific fitness Transmutative

Turning that potential into sport specific fitness

RealizationalPeaking mesocycles. Used to reach the

highest possible level of sport performance

An example from track and field I am training a 100m dash sprinter in track

and field. At the beginning of the season I will use accumulative mesocycles with the focus of increasing top end speed. I might use some overspeed training over the course of 30 meters to accomplish this.

After I have gained the non-specific gains in fitness (better top end speed over a short distance) I will use a transmutative mesocycle focusing on longer sprints at full effort (2x120m at 97%) to transform the speed gained into competition speed.

Macrocycle

Refers to one entire competitive season A macrocycle is filled with mesocycles Mesocycles are filled with microcycles Microcycles are filled with training

sessions

An olympic cycle is 4 years in lengthIn an olympic cycle, the first 3 years might be

high volume, with the last year possibly being a bit lower in volume.

Florida State Example

Short and Long Term Planning Short term planning refers to

planning micro and meso cycles Medium term planning refers to

planning the macrocycle Long term planning refers to

planning training over many years….for example the Russian sport system.

90% of coaches don’t get past short term planning….personal observation

Short Term Planning

The goal of short term planning is to effectively manage fatigue

Training sessions should be designed so that CNS intensive work is done fairly fresh.

Short Term Planning

A general principle of short term planning is also the fact that fatigue effects from different types of work are fairly specific.

An example of this would be: I probably couldn’t have 2 days of ME bench press in a week, the CNS fatigue would be too great. However, I still can have a good RE bench pressing workout later on in the week after my ME session, because the fatigue left over from that day is specific to heavier weight and lower reps, so I can still have a good submaximal workout.

Short Term Planning and Specific Fatigue Since the effects of a certain exercise

can be specific to that movement, it is a good idea to use different exercises over the course of the week. For example, I might do an ME flat bench press on Monday and then an RE incline dumbbell press on Friday.

Superposing training fatigue If you perform two training sessions

consecutively that train similar qualities, the traces of fatigue from those two exercises will be “superposed” on each other, or in simpler terms, stacked.

This will lead to a very high level of fatigue.

So for example, I wouldn’t want to max out in squat 2 workouts in a row, unless I wanted to walk down the stairs on my hands the next couple days.

Targeting Motor Abilities in Micro and Mesocycles Each mesocycle should have a

training focus. If you try to improve too many abilities in a single mesocycle, the body will not know what to adapt to.

A common saying in training: Maintain your strengths while you focus on your weaknesses.

Targeting Motor Abilities in Micro and Mesocycles There are many motor abilities which

can aim to be increased by training. These can include:Max StrengthHypertrophyExplosive StrengthReactive Strength (plyos)SpeedAlactic ConditioningLactic ConditioningAerobic Conditioning

Targeting Motor Abilities in Micro and Mesocycles In any given cycle, no more than 2 of

these abilities should be focused on. Whatever 2 are being focused on should comprise about 70 to 80% of the training in that cycle. The other 20-30% can be used to maintain the other qualities. Max Strength Hypertrophy Explosive Strength Reactive Strength (plyos) Speed Alactic Conditioning Lactic Conditioning Aerobic Conditioning

Workouts and Training Days The general idea in planning strength

training is to have the athlete do as much work as possible while being as fresh as possible.

Unlike training for an endurance event, in strength training, it is not necessary for the athlete to walk out of the weight room exhausted. They actually shouldn’t be exhausted walking out of the weight room. This doesn’t mean that an individual set cannot be tiring.

Work/Rest Intervals

The total amount of sets in the training of weightlifters has not changed in the last 50 years, but the length of the workouts have increased.

Sport science has proven that the distribution of training volume into smaller units produces a more effective training stimulus for the nervous system.

Work/Rest Intervals

When lifting heavy weights, rest periods are often 4 to 5 minutes long. Even if you don’t feel tired when only

resting a minute or two between heavy sets, it is better anyways for your CNS to take a longer recovery.

Lifting weights at the T-Max take around 10 minutes of recovery afterwards, because of the large toll that is taken on the CNS.

Exercise Sequence in Strength Training Include main sport exercises before

assistance exercisesDon’t do arm curls and shoulder shrugs first

Use dynamic, power-type drills before slow exercises, such as squatsDo olympic lifts first. This is a general

statement, there are some cases where doing a sequence, such as deadlift-clean-snatch can be beneficial due to CNS potentiation.

Exercise the larger muscle groups before the smaller ones

Intensity in a training session The heaviest sets should be early in

the workout. If you are doing max effort work (ME)

you don’t want to wait until the end of the workout to do it.

Take Joe DeFranco’s max effort day workout for example.

Contrasting Flexibility

It might be a good idea to do some flexibility work between heavy resistance training sessions to help speed up recovery and prevent a loss of flexibility.

Special Strength Sessions A “special strength” workout is one

that is done outside of the teams regular practice time. (In team sports)

For example, a regular strength workout would be one that you do right after practice.

A special strength workout is one done outside of practice. Sports requiring high maximal strength levels will benefit from special rather than regular strength work.

Microcycles and Mesocycles The timing of heavy resistance

protocols in cycling workouts is dominated by two main ideas:Allowing enough recovery between

exercise periodsFinding the right balance between the

steadiness of a training stimulus. (When do I change exercises? I need to have them around long enough to cause adaptation, but need to switch enough to promote the principle of variety)

Allowing adequate recovery in training

In order to allow adequate recovery in training, exercises in consecutive training sessions should minimally involve the same muscle groups.

It would not be a good idea to have two consecutive workouts using the snatch lift exercise.

Recovery Time and Muscle Size The recovery time of an exercise varies

with the size of a muscle It will take much longer for a large

muscle group such as quads and glutes to recover than a small muscle group, such as the calves or forearms.

These small muscle groups might only take 12 hours or less to recover. A large muscle group such as the quadriceps will take at least 48 hours to recover from a tough workout.

Squats in Olympic Training Sessions The use of large multi joint exercises are not

used very often in a training week. Squatting 3 times a week would be extremely taxing on an athlete.

Olympic lifters typically only squat about twice a week in their lifting programs with about 72-96 hours recovery between sessions.

When working with athletes who’s sport is not just lifting, and they actually have to go to practice as well, It might be a good idea to squat even less than this (once a week).

Squats and Fatigue

In many sports, squats are dropped from the training program 10 to 12 days before important competitions.

Stress Cycles

Sometimes experienced athletes will use “stress microcycles” to try to break through a plateau in their training.

A stress microcycle is a microcycle where more training is put into the week than the athlete can recover from immediately.

The gains from one of these microcycles will be seen in the weeks after the stress microcycle.

Medium Term Planning

Planning the macrocycle can also be referred to as periodization

Periodization refers to the changing of exercises, training loads, and methods during pre-season and in-season training.

This needs to be done in a training year. If the same training is applied the whole year the athlete will likely level off early and find staleness in their training later in the year.

Classical Periodization

2 authors of classical periodization are Tudor Bompa and the Russian, Matveyev.

Typical periodization will have:Higher volume, low intensity exercises

early in the year. Lower volume, and higher intensity

exercises later in the training year. Some sort of conversion to power phase

before the competitive season.

4 Issues in planning the macrocycle:

Delayed Transformation Delayed Transmutation Training Residuals The superposition of training effects

Delayed Transformation

A very important training concept What delayed transformation means

is that during periods of strenuous training, athletes cannot achieve the best performance results.

This occurs for two main reasons. It takes time to adapt to a training

stimulusHard work induces fatigue that will

accumulate over time. A period of relatively easy exercise is needed to realize the effect of the previous training sessions.

A visual example

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80

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Training LoadPerformance

Training Weeks

Th

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tical U

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Delayed Transformation

The period where the training load is reduced, and the performance begins to rise is the “period of delayed transformation”

So, once again, if I train hard with weights and sprints for a few months, I might notice my sprint speed in the 40 yd dash decrease. Once the season nears, I decide to ease back on my training. What I will find is that my performance in the 40 will improve as I ease back on my training.

Time period of delayed transformation Typically about 2-6 weeks. Average

time is 4 weeks, or one mesocycle. This mesocycle is sometimes called the “realization” or “precompetition” mesocycle.

Delayed Transmutation

This is similar to the “conversion to power” phase of Tudor Bompa’s training scheme.

DT refers to the use to specific exercises to turn the non-specific work done in the offseason to specific power that can be used in the competitive season!

For example:

I spent much of the off-season lifting weights and doing hill work. My event is sprinting.

To produce delayed transmutation, I will do a lot of bounding and sprint work on the track to transform my non-specific gains (strength/hills) to specific gains (sprint speed)

Things to consider:

The training content (exercises) and training load should vary over the entire season.

Training cycles need to follow one another in a certain fashionAccumulationTransmutation (transfer to sport specific)Peaking

Training Residuals

When an athlete stops strength training, the process of detraining occurs.

The rate that an athlete will lose strength is dependant on a few factorsDuration of the immediately preceding

period of training (accumulation period)Training experience of athletesTargeted motor abilitiesAmount of specific training loads during

detraining

Quickly gained/quickly lost

Duration of prep period

Generally speaking, the longer the period of training, the longer the training effects gained from that period will stick around during detraining loads.

“Soon ripe/Soon rotten”

Training experience

More mature/experienced athletes will experience detraining at a slower rate than novices.

Mature athletes can often achieve good results after relatively short periods of retraining.

Targeted motor abilities

Once the special training ceases, different training benefits are lost at different rates.

Perhaps the most applicable part of this theory would be that of performance gains made because of neuromuscular efficiency, and gains made because of muscular hypertrophy. Structural gains last longer than CNS

based gains.

Amount of specific training loads during detraining Sometimes, it might be good to only

put specific training loads into a training program in amounts that will allow that quality to be maintained, or lost at a slow rate.

For example, a coach might keep a little bit of max strength training style training in the program during the competitive season (5x2 @ 90% 1RM) twice a week to keep the athletes from losing max strength)

The trade-off of periodization Varying training loads and content

over the course of a year is necessary for athletic success

Although targeted motor abilities can reach high levels at the end of the training year, non-targeted, or early targeted motor abilities can fall to very poor levels towards the end of the training year.

An example

I am training over the course of the year to improve my speed and explosiveness for x-team sport. Early in the year I focus my training on a large volume of strength training, but as the season progresses, I taper off the strength training and focus on speed.

The problem here as, although my speed will increase at the end of the year, I will have neglected my strength for a large enough period of time that it has decreased significantly.

Old and new periodization

New planning

New planning is based around the cycling back and forth of differentmotor ability emphasis over the courseof the training year.

Think, in this case of moving back and forth between training emphasis in mesocycles throughout the year, with stimulating and retaining loads (not detraining loads).

Hybrid Periodization

According to myself….a hybrid of the classical version and the newer version might bethe best way to go. I’ll provide an example of what I am talking about with some training schemes.

An example

Lets say we are shooting for increasing our explosiveness and jumping ability for track and field.

Motor ability A is maximal strength (weights)

Motor ability B is plyometric strength

Example training schedule Monday: weights Tuesday: plyometrics Wednesday: active rest Thursday: weights Friday: plyometrics Saturday: active rest Sunday: rest

Let’s say this is our basic training template for the whole year, for this example.

Example training schedule Let’s say that the following represents a

retaining training load for each type of training:

Strength (M/R)Cleans 2x5 @ 80%Squats 2x5 @ 80%Step ups 2x5 @ 80%

Plyometrics (T/F)Max jumps for height: x3Bounding: 75m totalHurdle Hops: 2x5 hurdles

Example training schedule Now let’s say we wanted to focus on the

mesocycle to be on stimulating strength, but retaining plyometric ability. Here is what that might look like:

Strength (M/R)Cleans 4x5 @ 80%Squats 5x5 @ 80%Step ups 3x5 @ 80%

Plyometrics (T/F)Max jumps for height: x3Bounding: 75m totalHurdle Hops: 2x5 hurdles

Example Training Schedule Now let’s say we wanted to focus on the

mesocycle to be on stimulating plyometric ability, but retaining strength. Here is what that might look like:

Strength (M/R)Cleans 2x5 @ 80%Squats 2x5 @ 80%Step ups 2x5 @ 80%

Plyometrics (T/F)Max Jumps x 8Bounding 200mHurdle Hops 6x5 hurdles