We’ve ventured down this alley before, whilst this does include those who are training for competitive sport, it also very much covers those training for a specific purpose, be that an event or a certain goal.
The goal could be anything, the key to remember here is that whilst the social world will have us believe that we should be able to deadlift 500kg, whilst doing a handstand push-up with weighted vest on, the reality is, any goal we set requires us to improve our performance in that given area.
Ran a 5k and want to do a 10k – need to improve running performance
Want to be able to do a single leg squat – improve leg strength and balance
There are many many others that would make my word count look impressive, however we shall press on!
The key to training for performance is to understand the desired outcome, from there all associated areas can be analysed and a plan produced (first draft, no plan survives first contact!)
In previous posts, we have talked about performance improvement, how to mix in supporting activities and the need to ensure we look after our bodies by stretching them out. If you would like to read them (or refresh yourself), they are on the site, under the blog. Today we’ll just cover them briefly.
Whenever training someone for performance, I like to have some wiggle room, this is to make sure that we have space for days when we maybe don’t feel golden, days when something goes a little off-piste and finally to make sure that when the time comes to put on the show we are truly ready.
So why does that matter?
It really comes down to making sure we widen all required aspects of our abilities in relation to our goal.
Movement, do our bodies support us in the correct way?
Strength, can our muscles, ligaments, tendons etc perform the required movements, safely and continuously for the duration?
Skill, can we continuously repeat the most efficient delivery of the activity for the duration?
When written, this makes perfect sense, we can have all the skill over a shorter distance, but lack the strength to deliver over an increased one, likewise having the strength means that our body must have the overall movement profile to support specific continuous efforts or a long period.
I will in here offer kudos to those athletes on social who choose to post their stretching and recovery pictures/videos, it has and continues to help more and more people understand how much of a part it plays in the overall delivery of performance.
Time to pick on running again (you are going to think I have a vendetta against it, I really don’t!)
To run longer, we must have good movement profiles as we will tighten the further we go
The longer we go, the more the support parts of our body require as we start to tire.
The further into the event, the more we must have our body tuned to the performance goal.
So basically, be as stretchy as possible, strengthen the smaller areas (ankles, knees etc) monitor and train at the correct pace to ensure we are used to delivering it without thought, so we can concentrate on looking good when we complete said goal.
Nice and easy!
Hopefully this has given you some food for thought, we like to take the wizardry out of programming by explaining how to reverse engineer goals, work with you based on those goals and then watch you achieve them. If you’d like help with a goal you have, or one you maybe want to go drop us an email info@spikefitness.co.uk