The training camp is an integral part of the training process in many sports. But how can you get the most out of it? On this week’s GAINcast we share ideas around planning training camps to get the most out of them with swim coach Chris Webb. In addition, we look at optimal planning of multiple short training sessions, strategies to increase training quality, how much warmup is needed, and more.
The site theme in February was microdosing. We took an in depth look at how small bouts of training can add up to produce big results. Throughout the month we put together 7 new articles, 2 podcasts, and 1 new video from 10 contributors with ideas on how to use this approach in different scenarios. Below we have links to all our new and archived content on microdosing.
At various points in my career I’ve experimented with different forms of minimalist training. Both as an elite athlete, and more recently as a middle aged coach I have found many benefits of short focused training sessions. As our February site theme is microdosing, I wanted to share some of my own experiences with this type of training.
https://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/chalet_home_gym.jpg475896Martin Bingisserhttp://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/HMMR-Full-Logo400.pngMartin Bingisser2021-02-27 14:52:082022-01-07 04:14:51My experiences with minimalist training
The achievement of optimal sport performance at all levels of competition requires that athletes undertake physical, technical, tactical and psychological preparation over an extended period of time. With limited time and energy, it’s no wonder that athletes and coaches can feel they are engaged in a tug of war scenario. As Gandalf said: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
https://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/xavier_team.jpg400750Xavier Royhttp://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/HMMR-Full-Logo400.pngXavier Roy2021-02-26 05:21:002021-02-26 13:13:29A theme-based approach to microdosing training
A hot topic in training is that of microdosing: how can we provide very small doses of stress to provide meaningful adaptations within a training session or program? That’s the theme on HMMR Media this month. But what if, instead of thinking of microdosing through the prism of training, we think about microdosing athlete testing? Would it be better to embed small tests into training regularly rather than doing a large slate of test every month or two?
The traditional approach to testing
A common, and often important, aspect of developing training programs is that of athlete testing. Typically, we use physical tests to understand where the athlete is currently at, along with how much the training we have programmed for them has allowed them to develop. The information gained from these tests can be very useful; we can identify key areas for improvement, and assess the effectiveness of the training so far.
In most set-ups, however, this testing happens relatively infrequently—perhaps on a three- or four-week basis, at the end of a training block, or at the end of a two- or three-month GPP/SPP period. Testing in this manner has to be infrequent, because it can be highly taxing on the athlete. Asking someone to perform a test—usually maximally—massively increases fatigue, along with potentially increasing the risk of injury. Athletes also understand the importance of testing; when I was competing, I became very invested in my flying 30m time; as a result, infrequent testing can be quite psychologically taxing for athletes, further increasing the need for recovery time.
This infrequent collection of data also hampers the use of said data in effective decision making. If we want to understand the fitness-fatigue status of an athlete, a physical test every three weeks doesn’t provide sufficient granularity; the athlete may have been fatigued for a long period prior to the testing taking place, and decisions around fatigue management could have been made sooner. Similarly, testing is often used to inform whether an athlete should be progressed or not; again, having weeks between tests means that the athlete may not be moved onwards quick enough, hampering improvements.
From testing to microtesting
More frequent embedded testing offers an alternate way to incorporate testing into the training plan. The concept of microtesting isn’t all that new: daily measurement of throwing results is the bedrock of Anatoliy Bondarchuk’s training methods for decades and Vern Gambetta has long advocated that training is testing. More recently coaches like Mladen Jovanovic have also criticized infrequent testing approaches and put forward more agile periodization methods that incorporate frequent feedback.
Embedded testing essentially refers to the use of various different tests as part of regular training. This could be in the warm-up as a method of understanding readiness to train, or in the session itself as a means of understanding fitness vs fatigue, as well as progressive adaptation. As a simple example, using sprint times during a session—something many coaches already do—is a form of embedded testing. Provided the conditions are more or less the same, then collecting, for example, flying 30-meter times within a session, and comparing across time, can be hugely informative:
Are the times in one session acutely worse than normal? Then the athlete is potentially fatigued/injured and could do with a rest;
Are the times continually tracking downwards over time? Then your training is likely being effective;
Are the times continually tracking upwards over time? Then fatigue is possibly accumulating, and/or your training might need to be reconsidered;
Are the times in one session acutely better than usual? Perhaps take a closer look at what you have done over the preceding days; could this form part of a future taper program at all?
Better testing = better decision making
By taking this approach, it’s clear to see how more frequent data collection can support your decision making. Similarly, around resistance training, changes in bar velocity may be indicative of fatigue, for example—collecting bar velocity data, especially when the adaptations you’re chasing require a high velocity of movement, can therefore inform your decisions in real-time. Vertical jump height might also be used, perhaps straight after a warm-up, to quantify readiness to train and again allow for real-time decision making to occur—hopefully providing better outcomes. For field-based sports, a submaximal running test—which could form part of a pre-training warm up—can be an effective may of monitoring aerobic fitness adaptations, and, if heart-rate measures are collected, may also give insights into fitness and fatigue.
Another example of this comes in the form of injury monitoring. From an epidemiological standpoint, there are three types of prevention. Primary prevention refers to taking steps to reduce the risk of injury; i.e., can we stop the athlete from becoming injured, before an injury occurs? Tertiary prevention refers to reducing the risk of reinjury, once injury has occurred. Both of these forms of prevention are the most common within sport, but there is a third type of prevention we can utilize—secondary prevention—which refers to detecting an injury early and preventing it from getting worse; i.e., we’re injured, but we don’t yet know it.
Embedded testing may assist in better understanding when we’re in the secondary prevention zone, as identified in a study published in 2020. Here, a group of soccer players underwent regular in-season hamstring strength testing in the first training session after a match. If players demonstrated a 14% or greater reduction in isometric hamstring strength in this test, they underwent a second test in the afternoon; if strength in this second test was still below the desired level, the player was referred for medical examination. If strength scores were within the normal bounds, the player undertook training as per usual. When compared to a control group, that did not utilize regular testing, the intervention group had five times fewer hamstring injuries.
Spread it out
Whilst we typically view microdosing through the lens of adding small amounts of work (i.e., training) to sessions, perhaps we should cast our net wider, to consider what other useful practices we can spread across sessions—as in the example of embedded testing. It’s clear that more regular data collection can inform more effective decision making, around aspects such as training monitoring, fitness, fatigue, and risk of injury. In contrast to more traditional testing regimes, embedded testing allows for quicker decisions to be made. It also reduces the impact of testing sessions on the training program, reducing physical and psychological stress on the athlete – appearing the be a win-win.
https://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/stopwatch.jpg360639Craig Pickeringhttp://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/HMMR-Full-Logo400.pngCraig Pickering2021-02-23 12:34:132021-02-23 12:34:18Microtesting: rethinking your testing strategy to improve your decision making
Look back in time and the everyday demands of the world automatically traditionally created a physically intelligent person. To be physically connected to the natural world through the body and culture used to be vital for survival. Then came industrialization and the information economy. Now we don’t have to be physically sophisticated to eat, survive, or earn a living. That’s great to some extent, but the byproduct is that most of us have become more alienated from our deconditioned and objectified bodies.
In strength and conditioning we often have a “more is better” concept. A minimalist approach, on the other hand, has many advantages and can help make sure we are efficient with training time. Rather than doing more, we can also try to get more out of the work we’re doing.
https://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/delacey_romania2-1.jpg475900James de Laceyhttp://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/HMMR-Full-Logo400.pngJames de Lacey2021-02-13 02:53:152021-02-14 02:20:13How little can we do?
With the exceptions of professional athletes and some students, most sportspeople are time poor. Travel, work, study, family and competing, take up time in strangely inconvenient blocks that mess up your meticulous training routine. If the plan says, “90 minutes”, then it is easy to become disheartened when you only have 60 available. Or, for the ultra-committed, you become sleep-deprived as sleep is what “gives” in order to “make-it.” This is a short-term solution that comes back to kick you in the backside as you underperform in your sport or life.
https://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/marshall_gain.jpg475900James Marshallhttp://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/HMMR-Full-Logo400.pngJames Marshall2021-02-05 04:15:112021-02-05 14:08:02Four rules for microdosing training
We often think about the stimulus of key sessions or training phases. But more often than not adaptations come from the accumulation of training over the long-term. On this week’s episode we look at the cumulative training effect, the role of small doses of training stimulus, and how to connect sessions together to enhance the cumulative effect.
We all know less can be more, but doing less is hard. We all hate to be out worked. Coach Tony Holler came to track and field coaching as an outsider and stumbled upon the benefits of minimalist training. On this week’s GAINcast he joins us to talk about how his training program came about, how it is put together, and additional thoughts on training speed. Read more
https://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/gaincast_165.png315600Martin Bingisserhttp://www.hmmrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/HMMR-Full-Logo400.pngMartin Bingisser2019-07-15 07:52:122019-07-15 07:52:12GAINcast Episode 165: Minimalist training (with Tony Holler)