ravadongon

Designing Your Own Sports Specific Program

By Ravadongon

Before jumping into the gym or onto the track aimlessly, you need to go through these 6 stages, methodically, so you can design a program specific to your actual needs. The steps are:

1. Set a goal
2. Identify fitness components to develop
3. Select appropriate tests
4. Conduct gap analysis
5. Construct a training program
6. Monitor progress and adjust program

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1. Set a goal

Give yourself something to target e.g. to win a competition, to go up a grade(s) in your sport, to achieve a personal best...

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2. Identify fitness components to develop

Exercise scientists have identified nine elements that comprise the definition of fitness. The following lists each of the nine elements and an example of how they are used:

You will need to consider which of these components are applicable to your training program depending on what it is you need to develop that is specific to your sport.

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3. Select appropriate tests

Identify appropriate tests that can be used to initially determine the individual's level of fitness. These results will be used to monitor progress made through training.

Aerobic Endurance

Beep Test (Not suitable for rowers, swimmers or cyclists ) – good scores varies depending on sport

Cooper Test – good scores again vary depending on the sport

Anaerobic Endurance

RAST (Running-based Anaerobic Sprint Test)

Anaerobic Power

Upper

Overhead Medicine Ball Throw

Lower

300 yard shuttle run – (intermediate)

Standing Long Jump – (leg) – Good Score = 2.50 - 3.30 m (male), 2.3 - 3.0 m (female)

Vertical or Sargant Jump – (leg) – Good Score = 55-70 cm (male)

Drop Jump (leg) – Good Score = >18”

Muscular Strength Endurance

Upper

Pushup Max (upper body) – Good Score = >45 (male), >30 (female)

Chinup Max – Good Score = >9 (male), >5 (female)

1 min Sit up Max (trunk) – Good Score = 60 (male), 50 (female), Poor Score = 38 (male), 30 (female)

Lower

Wall Squat Test – Good Score = >75 secs (male), >45 secs (female)

Max Strength

1RM Squat – Good Score = 2BW (male), 1.5BW (female)

1RM Bench Press – Good Score = 1.25BW (male), 0.8BW (female)

Agility

T-Drill

20m shuttle run

Max Sprint

Linear Sprint Speed (5-60m)

Bodyfat%

Calipers test – Good Score = 6-12% (male), 12-20% (female)

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4. Conduct gap analysis

Now the job is to conduct a gap analysis of these current fitness level results and the target fitness level results. The results of this process will assist in the design of the training program so that each component of fitness is improved to the desired level. Some elements of your fitness may already be at your target, which was determined in step 2, and these will just need to be maintained. Other elements, which are not at your target level of fitness will need to be improved, so that the desired level of fitness is achieved.

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5. Construct a traning program

The next stage is to prepare a training program using the results of the gap analysis. Remember weak points need to be improved and strengths simply need to be maintained

During the season your primary goal should be to maintain fitness levels, however in the off-season you should be targeting and improving fitness levels.

Aerobic Endurance

- Think carefully about the aerobic fitness level that will suffice for your sport. Some sports do not require such a high aerobic capacity as others
- 5-6x3-5 mins with 2-5 mins rest. Very effective at boosting VO2 max when performed once to twice a week.

- 20x200m with 20 secs recovery OR 10x400m with 60-120s recovery

- 5-10km moderate paced runs

- Interval training sessions will help in that the athlete is always running fast and volume of training is kept low, and there is a reduction of interference with strength and power progress.

- Steady Runs will take less recovery time and are less demanding psychologically.

- To develop aerobic capacity, 2 interval sessions and one to two steady runs.

- To maintain aerobic endurance, 1 interval session per week should suffice.

Strength and Power

- Best results are achieved with 2-4 times/week training

- Weights and plyometric type exercises can be combined in the same session (known as complex training and is very effective for peaking)

- A typical session should comprise of 5-8 exercises with 2-4 sets of 3-12 RM per exercise

- Exercises should be primarily compound movements, with few isolations. Simulation of sports movements is important.
- Personally I like the Westside like format of speed/strength, upper/lower days. For a 3 day/week routine, my favourites are Squat/Bench/Deadlift days or Push/Pull/Legs days.

NOTE:

- Upper body strength is often over emphasized, incorrectly. A lot of the time upper body power is of more importance e.g. tennis.

- Lower body work should not be neglected. You should have a much higher 1RM Squat than your 1RM bench

Anaerobic Endurance

- Both lactate and ATP-PC systems should be developed, but in the correct proportions for each sport

- Sports with continuous plays will require more emphasis on lactate system training, while sports with short bursts and more frequent rest/play patterns will require more emphasis on ATP-PC system training

- Anaerobic endurance development should be trained 2-3 times/week

ATP-PC Development:

- 3 x 10 x 30m sprints, starting every 30 seconds, 5 mins between sets

- 15 x 60m sprints, 1 min rest between sprints

- 20x20m shuttle run, 45 sec rest between runs

Lactate Development:

- 5-8 x 300m, 45 sec rest between sets, complete till pace significantly slows

- 150m intervals (400m pace), 20 sec rest between sets, complete until pace significantly slows

- 8 x 300m, 3 mins rest between sets (lactate recovery training)

NOTE:

- Full anaerobic training should not take place with full aerobic training as well: one or the other must be prioritized.

Speed And Agility

- Movement patterns – lateral and/or linear

- Speed profiles – Acceleration and/or max speed over longer distance (30-60m)

Acceleration:

- Max leg strength and leg plyometric exercises (long jump, standing triple jump, hurdle hops, and combination jumps (horizontal).

- Sprint starts – 20 x 5m (30 secs rest between sets) – specific – reactions to signal/ball or starting at different positions e.g. lying on floor

- Foot speed drills – frappier drills

- Resisted accelerations – max 10m efforts, trainer pulling with tubing, must not be overdone and always finish session with normal accelerations

Max Sprint Speed:

- Hill sprints – 8-10% gradient approx

- Sprint drills – improve running technique, coordination and stability of synergistic muscles involved in running

- Sprint workout - 5 - 10 x 30 - 80 m max efforts. 3-5 minutes rest in between.

NOTE:

- Athlete must be fresh, no heavy weight training or hard endurance sessions the day before

- Long rest periods are vital. Maximum speed development is not possible with fatigue, after all this is speed development, not speed endurance.

Agility:

- Agility Plyometrics – (lateral hops, depth jump and 180 turn, line hopping) – target agility requirements of your sport.

- Ladder Drills

- Agility drills and shuttles – (lateral shuffle, crossovers, back stepping etc., plus shuttle runs and drills which involve turning, e.g., the T drill.) – once mastered drills can be made more sports specific, add catching a ball into the drill.

Balance and Co-ordination:

- Variety is important

- Balance beam, wobble board are good ideas, challenging co-ordination as well is important e.g. balancing on a wobble board while catching/juggling

- Use gymnastic balls, do static stomach and lower back exercises, i.e. bridging – development of core stability

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6. Monitor progress and adjust program

Every 4 weeks ask yourself:

- How has the training gone?
- How are you progressing towards your target fitness level? (re-tests need to be done at the end of every 4 weeks, allow for one week where they can be done without training interference)
- Do you need to make any adjustments to your training?

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Glossary

ATP-PC - Adenosine Triphosphate Phosphocreatine (system). The ATP-PC system uses phosphagens to produce energy very quickly and without the use of oxygen. Your body has a very small phosphagen reserve, which lasts about 15 seconds. It takes your body about 3 minutes to fully replenish phosphagen stores (Fleck, 1983).

Lactate (AKA gycolysis) - relies on glucose (sugar) as a fuel source and it can produce energy for moderately intense activities of about 3 minutes in duration; but for highly intense activities for only about 45 seconds. Most people are familiar with a by-product of incomplete glycolysis known as lactic acid or lactate.

Plyometrics - a type of exercise using explosive movements to develop muscular power, esp. bounding, hopping, and jumping

VO2 max - the maximum amount of oxygen in milliliters, one can use in one minute per kilogram of body weight, has the units mL/kg/min.

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Helpful Links

Strength Training Exercise Database –
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

Power and Plyometric Training Exercise Database – http://www.exrx.net/Lists/PowerExercises.html

Fitness Tests – http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/eval.htm

Vegeto

That's an impressive formula, I didn't read the whole thing yet, but I took some of the jist of it. It looks very thorough.

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Gappa238

well done rav!