Footy Pre / In Season Training 2015/16

[cptkirk]

how's everyone going with their footy pre season training? training on your own? with your team? goals? how are you getting them?

here's 3 programs to try for the next few weeks while training is off from my footy training blog:

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014
How to Train Over the Xmas Break

For those teams who commence training pre Christmas, you'll have a 3 or 4 week break coming up.

You've already done some pretty hard yards in the last 4 - 8 weeks in a team setting, focusing on team orientated goals that need to be covered in a team setting.

You now have the time to individualise a little before heading back to team training in early to mid January.

Here's how you can do it.

You'll most likely do your last session for 2014 in the week pre Christmas which will give you 3 - 4 weeks to get some quality individual training in.

First determine your weakest aspect out of strength, speed and endurance. If you can'r decide then use these guidelines to help you:

Strength - Hip Thrust x 10 reps at 1.5 x your own bodyweight

Speed - 20m sprint 3.2secs or less

Endurance - resting heart rate under 60 beats per minute

Now a program for each quality.



Strength

You might be thinking a squat or a deadlift will be the go here but I'm going a different way - I'm going with the hip thrust.

Why?

Pure glutes that's why.

Squats will hit the glutes a bit and so will deadlifts but you can easily do both of these exercises without using the glutes at all.

Hip thrusts can also be performed with everything but the glutes which I'll redirect you to the "Glute Guy" for a little hip thrust tutorial article here.

Other great qualities you'll get is an increase in speed and having strong glutes can really off set a lot of lower body injuries you'll get from footy.

Programming wise you'll hip thrust every time you hot the gym and every off gym day at home.

Rotate through these 2 gym workouts when you go there:

Hip Thrust 1 - work up to a hip thrust max set. Week 1 do sets of 12 until you hit a max. Week 2 do sets of 10, week 3 do sets of 8 and week 4 do sets of 6.

Hip Thrust 2 - do 30 reps with 70% of the hip thrust max set from hip thrust workout 1.

Home Hip Thrust - do 5 x 20 of bodyweight hip thrusts straight intobodyweight glute bridges alternating the exercise you start with (circuit 1 hip thrust into glute bridge, set 2 glute bridge into hip thrust etc). Rest 1 minute between pairs.

Now that I know that you've read the hip thrust how to article above but in the end there is 1 rule that cannot be broken and that is the rule of glute activation.

If at any point glute activation ceases and the stress of the hip thrust shifts to your hamstrings and/pr lower back, then the hip thrust session is over. The point of this exercise is to train the glutes and pretty much nothing else so if it;s not training the glutes then it's really doing but nothing but hurting your back and giving you hamstring cramps.

You don't have to the hip thrust strength level above so leave your ego at the door on this one.

Speed

It staggers me of the little, if any, attention that is given to improving sprinting speed in local footy considering it;s the one's who do what we all do the fastest that play at the higher levels.

Simply staggers me!

Anyway if you're finally ready to take the plunge then here's your 4 weeks of training:

Week 1 - 30m acute hill sprint
Week 2 - 20m flat ground sprint
Week 3 - 20m slight hill sprint
Week 4 - 20m flat ground sprint

You'll do this 3 times a week each week either 3 days in a row (yes all in a row) or every 2nd day, whatever fits your schedule the best.

You're also going to time each sprint so get your stop watch and hand hold time yourself. Once you do a 2 sprints in a row that are slower then you're fastest set, go home.

For example say you do 4 sprints that are progressively faster with the times of 7.05secs, 6.93secs, 6.73secs, 6.44secs followed by a 6.65secs and a 6.59secs, then your quality of work is declining and you want to get outta there.

You'll also rest 4 - 5 minutes between sets and DO NOT cut this short!

Endurance

For 7 days straight, take your resting heart rate every morning immediately upon waking and put it in your phone. After 7 days take an average and that's what we'll use for your resting heart rate.

If you're over 60 beats per minute then you'll need a plan focusing on lower intensity work. If you;re under 60 then you'll still do some lower intensity work but you'll also have some higher intensity stuff thrown in the mix.

Over 60 beats per minute:

Session 1 - Steady state running @ 130 - 150 beats per minute

Session 2 - Steady state running with 10 x 5 second bursts of 100% resting until heart rate is back to 130 beats per minute or 1 minute, whatever comes first. Do your 10 sets of intervals then continue with steady state x 10 - 20 minutes at 140 beats per minute.

Session 3 - Tempo intervals @ about 70% for 15 x 12 seconds with 1 minute rest + 10 - 20 minutes steady state at 140 beats per minute.

Under 60 beats per minute:

Session 1 - Steady state running with 20 x 5 second bursts of 100% resting until heart rate is back to 130 beats per minute or 1 minute, whatever comes first. Do your 20 sets of intervals then continue with steady state x 10 - 15 minutes at 140 beats per minute.

Session 2 - 22 x 5 seconds at 100% + tempo intervals @ about 70% for 22 x 12 seconds with 1 minute rest + 10 - 15 minutes of steady state at 140 beats per minute.

Session 3 - 6 - 8 x 90secs as fast as you can with 3 - 4 minutes rest or when heart rate returns to 130 beats per minute + tempo intervals for 12 x 12 seconds with 1 minute rest.

You'll see I've put in heart rate zones which means you have 2 options - get yourself a heart rate monitor (I got mine off gumtree for $40 - plenty on there for memory) or get annoyed stopping and taking it yourself between sets. In other words get yourself a heart rate monitor!!

So there you go - 3 programs for you to choose from to hit the ground running when pre season starts again in 2015.

"DON'T WASTE A SECOND" - Murray Bushrangers Mantra

 

[WeetBixKid]

Nice post. Kirk, I have a general question - what's the opinion of conventional barbell back squats for AFL training? There seems to be a gradual move away from them to unilateral work (Like Split Squats) & ways of loading that don't so much pressure on the lower back (Front squats, zerchers). Split squats especially seem more appropriate because the transference of power from one leg to another is far more common in our sport than from both legs. Is this true or is barbell squatting still seen as an important foundational movement for gaining strength?

 

[cptkirk]

i'm not aware of a shift but it's maybe more a greater focus on single leg exercises then before...afl s&c guys still want blokes who can squat, deadlift and are injury resistant - that's what they ask TAC s&c coaches...max force output is achieved through bilateral movements so you can't abandon them totally

i'd do strength work with bilateral exercices but all other work with single leg variations as an optimal set up...beware in season though as single leg exercises will cause great soreness which you don't want taking into games

front squatting is till "squatting' too and my off season has been focused on that rather then back squats...front squats for the front of the body and deads for the back of the body so you can easily get away with not back squatting

getting right into it though you really need to nail down what you're doing every exercise, drill and session for? what is the end goal you are looking to get from it? if you can break this down then you might actually see that you don't not need half the stuff you do because everyone else does...get the most from the least is the best way to go

 

[WeetBixKid]

i'm not aware of a shift but it's maybe more a greater focus on single leg exercises then before...afl s&c guys still want blokes who can squat, deadlift and are injury resistant - that's what they ask TAC s&c coaches...max force output is achieved through bilateral movements so you can't abandon them totally

i'd do strength work with bilateral exercices but all other work with single leg variations as an optimal set up...beware in season though as single leg exercises will cause great soreness which you don't want taking into games

front squatting is till "squatting' too and my off season has been focused on that rather then back squats...front squats for the front of the body and deads for the back of the body so you can easily get away with not back squatting

getting right into it though you really need to nail down what you're doing every exercise, drill and session for? what is the end goal you are looking to get from it? if you can break this down then you might actually see that you don't not need half the stuff you do because everyone else does...get the most from the least is the best way to go

Cool, thanks. I train for strength and personally agree with Mike Boyle's reasoning re: ditching back squats, & was curious as to how it may be/was being applied to Aussie Rules.

 

[cptkirk]

An insight into my off season training from Oct til now...

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2015
My Footy Off Season Training So Far

Last year finished with a house move immediately after Christmas hence my absence but now that the Internet is up and going I'm back!!

You might remember my post from Sep/Oct last year detailing my goals for my off season training.

My immediate goal from way back in October, as always is to increase sprinting speed which I detailed my plan to do so in the post linked above.

My other immediate goal was to build a foundation to increase my aerobic capacity which will then move to aerobic power and some then lactic power from late Jan onwards until mid March for our first practice game.

As the plan dictated I had 3 blocks laid out:

Block 1 - High Force, Low Velocity (max strength) x 6 weeks

Block 2 - Moderate Force, Moderate Velocity (power) x 3 weeks

Block 3 - Low Force, High Velocity (max velocity) x 3 weeks

FYI, max strength is the highest load you can lift irrespective time. Power can be broken up into strength speed and speed strength referring to moving a sort of heavy load with a moderate amount of speed or moving a light load with pretty high velocity. Max Velocity is a light load, or unloaded in regards to bodyweight, moved as fast as you possibly can.

I trained each quality with the same exercise for 3 days in a row then rested for 4 days before changing exercises.

For the 6 week max strength block I used the following exercises:

Half Back Squat Lockout working up to 155kgs -

Half Front Squat Lockout working up to 135kgs

Front Squats working up to 90kgs -

Bottom Front Squat working up to 75kgs -

Front Squat with 3sec Isometric working up to 82.5kgs -

Timed Front Squats 5 reps in 5 secs working up to 40kgs -

I used a load drop off of 7% meaning once I hit my 1 rep max then I dropped the weight by 75 and continued to do singles until I rep quality dropped. For times squats I dropped 7% and continued with 5 reps in 5 secs.

If you look close enough the theory is to start with high force (meaning highest load) and work down so the load decreases and thus you're velocity increases slightly each week. You'll see one week I predicted my order wrong and slipped back and then going back up the next week but no biggie.

Block 2 moved to power where I did these exercises x 3 weeks:

Trap Bar Jump Squats with minimal knee bend - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iojCKlfEQtU

Steep Hill Sprint with a best 30m sprint time of 5.84secs

Resisted Sled Sprint with my fastest time being with just the sled itself (obviously) over 15m for 2.69secs.

My drop off for this power phase was different for each week. For jump squats I gauged on jump height and absorption to output time, for hill sprints I seemed to get faster each day so once I hit the previous days best time then I called it quits. For sled sprints I had a load range I worked in and then did some back off sets each day.

Block 3 shifted to max velocity sprinting with my 3 exercises being:

Slight Hill Sprint over 30m for a best time of 5.03secs

Flat Ground 30m Sprint for a best time of 4.03secs

Slight Downhill Sprint over 30m for a best time of 3.01secs

I did upper body using the same principles on 3 of the 4 days I rested legs.

The theory behind the entire set up is that you over train max strength for 6 weeks, which should theoretically take 6 weeks to 'bounce back" but at a higher level.

Then you overtrain power x 3 weeks which takes 3 weeks to bounce back at a higher as well.

So once you hit the back end of the max velocity block, you're max strength and power levels are increased from where you started at the same time, essentially peaking your performance.

I have since moved straight to a conditioning block which I'll detail in a future post but 5 - 10 after my last max velocity session (Christmas Eve) I posted had these results:

40m Sprint in 5.00secs (personal best - did a 5.56sec last year and 6.22secs the year before).

30m Sprint in 3.72secs.

20m Sprint in 3.00secs (couldn't better my 2.94sec I did just after my 10,000 Swing program unfortunately).

I have nit yet been able to test in a definitive non-fatigued state yet and won't get the chance for a little while yet either.

My current conditioning program is 16 workouts usually done over 4 weeks that I'm squeezing into 24 days, which included 3 days while I moved house so really closer to 3 weeks.

Then I launch into more aerobic and lactic power stuff until March which I could condense a down a bit more as well I think which will hopefully give me the chance to do 1 last speed block before our first practice match.

Remember most of my pre-season training is taken from the Ultimate Footy Training Manual which has a full years training from off season to finals all covered in it - you just do the work minus the planning! Head to the Paypal link at the top of the page to order.

You shan't be disappointed!

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015

A Simple Look at Aussie Rules Footy Fitness

The last 12 or so months has seen a big shift in my researching focus in regards to increasing 'fitness". I quotation mark fitness because it could not be anymore a broader term really.

How fit you are is extremely relative. Being adequately fit for footy requires different training modalities then being adequately fit for long jumping. As a personal trainer the majority of people come in say that they want to "get fit and tone up".

As a bloody excellent PT (if I must say so myself) of course I follow that comment of theirs up with a "get fit for what?" question of my own.

If I don't ask that question then I might focus on fitness through the use of the rowing machine when they really intended to say 'I want to be able run 5kms non - stop' or something similar.

Sure I can train the same energy systems on the rower that I can at through running but you need to condition the muscles and specific action to really make the big gains in your specific fitness.

Aerobic fitness is a huge component of Aussie Rules Footy and along with max speed is one of the big 2 recruiters look at before drafting players. It;s all about fast you can sprint, how often you can repeat it and how far can you get through a beep test of dominate a time trial.

I don't think I'm breaking ground with this info but if you actually know how 'fitness' can be categorized for footy then it can help you set a plan of attack with a bit of science behind it.

So we start with the the 2 main energy systems:

- Anaerobic Energy System
- Aerobic Energy System

Anaerobic means "without oxygen" (short bursts of intense activity) and aerobic means 'with oxygen' (longer and less intensive bursts of activity) in regards to energy output.

Anaerobic can be broken up further into:

- Alactic
- Lactic

Alactic refers to "without lactate" (no fatigue build up) and lactic means means "with lactate" (fatigue build up) in regards to energy output.

Got It? OK let's move on...

So we now we have:

- Alactic
- Lactic
- Aerobic

Now you can break each up again:

- Alactic power and capacity
- Lactic power and capacity
- Aerobic power and capacity

Power refers to a single all out, 100% effort where capacity refers to the ability to replicate that all out effort repeatedly to as close as your 1 off effort as possible.

Still with me I hope...moving on.

Each of these 6 fitness qualities have a parameters in how they are best trained:

Alactic Power - up to 5secs of activity, full rest of 3 - 5mins...set a baseline for the days training and once it drops by 5 - 7% in the session that exercise is over

Alactic Capacity - up to 5sces of activity, incomplete rest...again set a baseline for the days training and use a drop off of about 7 - 10%.

Lactic Power - 10 to 30secs of activity, full rest of 4 - 10mins...perform 2 - 12 reps per session

Lactic Capacity - 10 to 30secs of activity, incomplete rest but start at a work:rest ratio of 1:6 - 8 and work down...I would still suggest using a drop off because there's no point continuing to train if your quality has dropped so much you're building far more fatigue then actual capacity.

Aerobic Power - 2mins or longer of activity, full rest with a work:rest ratio of 1:3 - 5 depending on how "naturally" aerobic you are

Aerobic Capacity - 2mins or longer of activity, incomplete rest with a work"rest ratio of 1:1 - 3 starting with 3 and working down to 1

As a general rule - work power before capacity because you can't build repeat efforts of something you don't already have.

Here's a little homework for you - take note of some of the training sessions you done on your own and/or with your team and see how many of these have been covered and let me know your results via the Aussie Rules Training Facebook page.

Also don't forget the Aussie Rules "Ultimate Footy Training Manual"that you can purchase via the Paypal link at the top of the page for your full 12 month footy training program.

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015

How I Rehabbed in 24 Hours...Must Read!

My training is pretty full on at the moment. I'm currently doing 5 gym sessions and 5 track sessions per week.

Last Monday saw me in the gym warming up for a lower body sesh when on my last warm up squat set, my back went. Technique was fine, the load was easily doable still being a warm up set, it just went.

Once, maybe twice, my back will do this for no real reason but I have had some pretty bad back pain in the past which I've managed to starve off from proper training mostly.

I suspect that this time it was body telling me to ease up a bit and it was making me do it - you can't tell the nervous system what to do sometimes, it will make you do things you don't want to do!

If you've read any of the pain science stuff coming out these days, a great deal of chronic pain is from your brain. For example if you had a lower back issue for a couple of weeks and it clears up then the injury is gone and so it shouldn't hurt again for no reason now should it?

Except every now and then it does of which I'll explain in a future post, but the gist of it is that your experiences, beliefs and even culture can influence how you deal with pain.

I'm always of the thinking that I can bounce back from an injury which I always do which helps immensely.

Anyway I hurt my back during squats which registered about a 6 or 7 out of 10 compared to some other back issues I've had. I could walk right after it which was a good sign - I had an episode where i was on my own in the gym and I literally couldn't move - that hurt!

Anyway I went straight home and had a nap for about 90 minutes, which is when you regenerate.

During the day I heat packed until I had to go back to work with now a lot of improvement.

I went in early to start some rehab and here's what I done:

1. Supine Breathing x 10 breathe
2. Breathing Long Lever Deadbugs x 8/leg
3. Band Glute Bridge 5 x 10 second holds
4. Prone Stability Hold x 5 breathes

That little circuit worked pretty well for a 5 minute rehab session. I dd 2 hrs worth of clients and repeated that before I went home.

I heated again before bed, put on some heat cream of some sort and went to bed.

I could still feel the back in bed during the night but I could move a bit without aggravating it too much so another good sign.

The next morning rolls around it feels a lot better but the pain/stiffness is still there. It's rally more stiffness then anything because when there is trauma somewhere in the body the body will protect the area by tensing p all the muscles around to stabilise the area and also to stop you trying to move into a position that could cause further injury.

This is the number reason why immediate rehab can be your best cause of action, not ice/rest/ice for days on end.

Fun Fact - ice really only works on reducing swelling for 8 - 12 hours of which then you want to turn to heating and moving the area to promote blood flow and thus healing.

So I did my morning clients and repeated the rehab stuff again and was feeling alright enough to do the upper body session planned for the day. I will always train upper body if I have a lower body / lower back injury and it also helps greatly, ALWAYS, so do it!

I had a bunch of testing to do the day before on the track so feeling alright I thought I head down and see what I could do, if anything at all.

So I hobbled through my first 20 meter sprint, which definitely was not a sprint and certainly wouldn't have looked like it. I timed it and recorded a 3.28 second sprint. Not bad I thought considering my personal best was 2.94.

I did 2 more sprints and my timer kept increasing but the pain and stiffness wasn't decreasing at the same rate. My right side felt very unstable initially but came along to the point that on my 7th or 8th sprint I managed to record a 2.82 second 20 meter sprint. I was happy enough with that and called it a day for those.

I did a 30 meter sprint that tied at 3.97 seconds against a personal best of 3.72 seconds and again I was happy so I just did 1 set of those.

The back was feeling fine so I continued on with a 30 sec aerobic power test followed by a 6 x 30 meters every 30 seconds repeat speed test.

Back was near perfect by the end of it.

Whatever perceived threats had been totally destroyed by continuing to find a way to train. The worse thing you can do is stay still as the brain has no reason to release the protective tension.

I even managed to follow that session up with a 12 minute run for distance with no problems at all pain wise but it had taken a bit out of me and I didn't really get the result I was hoping for. I improved but not quite as much as I was gunning for but I'll test again in a few weeks in perfect health and see how I go.

In the end after that Monday morning where I hurt myself I managed 9 sessions in the 5 days following the Monday.

Don't forget the Aussie Rules 'Ultimate Footy Training Manual" that you can purchase from via the Paypal link at the top of the page for your full 12 month footy training program.

 

[BluesMan]

Hey cptkirk good reading here. In footy pre season my self, and have found some info here useful.

Was wondering what type of back injury you have/had? Is it an injury that keeps on coming up every now and then? One off? Lower or higher (rough vertebrate level)?

I ask because I have lower back issues, having done a stress fracture in L5 a couple of times. Unfortunately it likes to pop up (be painful) every now and then, but it doesn't take as long to fade away as the two bigger incidents.
Essentially what I'm saying is if the type of back injury you have is vaguely similar to my small episodes of pain, then I could replicate your rehab methods to see if that would work for me. Cheers

 

[cptkirk]

it's a once a year thing i get at this time of the year mostly when my training load is at its highest - i was doing 5 gym and 5 track sessions per week at this point at 36yrs old!!

i haven't an specific injury like you have but that sort of stuff i outlines would be something you'd do daily to keep any pain at bay then you'd add a bit more in when you gym it up

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015
A Simple Look at Aussie Rules Footy Fitness Part 2

Earlier this year I did a post that gave some insight into the different energy systems to train and how to train each of them.

This post will give you an insight into the order of which to train these energy systems during the year.

I'm going to write this out as though I am in charge of a footy team from the 1st day of their off season. This will mean that I won't be starting 'again" come team pre-season training, it will build on what is laid out from the off season phase.

Please refer to post linked above for recommendations for each energy system training requirement.

Off-Season Energy Systems Training

This refers to the time between you're last game and the 1st night of pre-season training so we're looking at about 8 weeks.

Goal 1 - Alactic Power

Goal 2 - Aerobic Capacity

Alactic power is the top of the pyramid in regards to energy systems for team sports. The fastest players are generally the best players and is what can set an AFL player apart from an elite VFL footballer. All things being equal, the fastest bloke will get drafted every time and some blokes get drafted purely on speed, in the hope they can be coached to an elite level.

You'll use a short sprints and mostly sub maximal intensity for 4 weeks then increase the intensity and then the distance slightly, in the next 4 weeks.

Aerobic capacity is what you probably already do by going for a few 10km runs per week which is fine, but you need to make sure that you're staying within a heart rate zone that will build actual capacity and not build up fatigue for 2 reasons.

Reason 1 is that speed cannot, and will not, be increased in the presence of fatigue. Reason 2 is that it's October and you can';t be breaking down the body 11 months from finals time or you'll find yourself in a hole you won;t be able to get out recovery wise.

You'll start at the low end of the duration scale and a heart rate of 130 - 150 beats starting at the low end and progressing to the top end over the 8 weeks.

Pre-Season Energy Systems Training

This refers to the start of team pre season. and we'll split this into 2 portions of pre and post Christmas.

Pre-Christmas Goal 1 - Alactic Power

Pre-Christmas Goal 2 - Aerobic Capacity

These goals remain the same but the training will be different. These 2 energy system qualities take the longest to gain so it stands to reason they get the longest training time.

Alactic power will shift to near maximal intensity and slightly longer distances then you ended with pre-Christmas. Just remember that actual max speed can only be held for 2 - 3secs max so use set distances that are too long for actual speed development erring on the shorter side if anything.

Christmas Break Energy Systems Training

This refers to the time between your last pre-Christmas team training session and you're 1st post Christmas team training session. We're looking at 3 - 4 weeks here which is plenty of time to slack off and lose a lot of your benefits from last year. Your goal here is to at least maintain where you are and with a few extra days off you might actually find yourself faster during this time from extra recovery.

Post-Christmas Energy Systems Training

Work back from your 1st practice game to the start of post-Christmas pre-season training to see how many weeks and sessions you;ll have between now and then which will determine how long each goal will be the main focus for.

Post-Christmas Goal 1 - Aerobic Power

Post-Christmas Goal 2 - Lactic Power

After 2 or so weeks of finishing up alactic power ans aerobic capacity development, we'll now move to a few more goals, while maintaining alactic power with low volume, high intensity training as you can maintain it with as little as 30 - 50% of the volume you used to build it, so long as intensity is maximal.

Aerobic development will also be maintained with some specific drills for it as well a greater emphasise on skill drills which can also be performed at an aerobic capacity type intensity.

Again remember when you're training the power side of anything you need full rest between sets so plan some easy skill drills between these sets.

After 3 - 4 weeks of aerobic and alactic power now we can head into alactic capacity. You can't build high capacity if you have low power so ensure that power is trained, and improved upon before capacity. If you're not fast for 1 set then how can be fast for 5 or 10 sets? You can't.

You'll need to be a programming demon at this point because you now need to address alactic power, aerobic capacity, aerobic power, alactic power and now alactic capacity all at once.

Plan the bulk of your energy systems work prior to your 1st practice match as those early games will build more fatigue then any other games you play for the year as the body gets accustomed to the intensity of change of directions and contact/bumps.

You'll also struggle to implement your game plan effectively if you're still slugging it out on the track 2 a week and going into games already half knackered so the focus for training is on high quality with "some" volume that will decrease from week to week until round 1 where you want to be at your peakiest best!

This is all laid out for you in the Ultimate Footy Training Manual so get your hands on one before it's too late to do something about it and round 1 is on top of you!

I've actually got a 25% off offer at the moment if you go via this link: https://payhip.com/b/VS0B

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2015
Monitoring Fatigue During the Season[/paste:font]

After a 3 - 4 month flogging it;s finally time to get some game time with practice matches being scheduled to start in the next week or 2 for most clubs.

There's nothing like that first 5 minutes of the first practice match, especially if it involves a big tackle, to really take the wind out of your sails in a pinch!

With practice games comes a weekly goal with that goal being game day Saturday. During the off and pre-season you can train continually with the end goal being how your perform in the months after you started training (games).

This means that you can train any day you like and you can induce pretty much as much fatigue as you like because you can always throw a rest day or 2 in the mix. If you're a little tired going int the first team training session of the week then it's not the end of the world.

Come the in-season though and this all needs to change because you need to "peak" each and every Saturday for the next 20 - 25 weeks.

This will require personal monitoring each and every day.

All AFL, VFL and some of the upper amateur teams do this to individualise player training loads to an extent. If you have access to GPS data for training then this can work even better but 99% of us don't.

The advantage of using a personal monitoring is that by keeping track of various internal and external factors, you can correlate these with periods of tiredness and less then stellar performances on game day.

This means you can avoid insanity - doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

So each day as soon as you wake up you'll monitor the following:

Sleep - duration of sleep + quality of sleep. You could also track if you dream or not which is the point of your sleep where the best recovery occurs. You don't have to remember what you dreamed of, just if you did or not.

Mental Stress - had a row with the missus? Someone stole your seat on the bus? Anxious? Big exam coming up? All these things can have an affect on your stress levels and thus performance output.

Soreness - lingering soreness from the weekend? New soreness from training? Nagging back pain that comes and goes?

Fatigue - hopefully you know what you're peak fitness feels like when you're at your at your absolute freshest.

Motivation - to train and play. Are you keen as mustard today or happy that it's a few days away?

Mood - compare this to your normal mood/personality.

Apart from hours of sleep, rate each of these 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 with 1 being the best so with 6 sections to assess the highest score you can get is 30 which means you get the week off!!

Resting Heart Rate - take this each morning in bed as soon as you wake up. Take a 10 second reading and multiply it by 6.

Protein - 1 serve equals something about the size of the palm of your hand.

Veggies - 1 serve equals 1 cup

Fruit - 1 serve equals 1 piece or a palm size

Cheat Food/Drink - refers to all processed foods that come in a box and all drinks that isn't water or a low sugar sports drink.

Beers/Ciggies - put in how many you had on each day...BE HONEST!

Again what you're looking for is the correlation between your high scores, poor performance and (hopefully not), injury.

This way you can avoid the pitfalls next time around and at a minimum it will make you very aware of things like getting to bed earlier.

I'll be starting mine Monday morning.

Here's what it looks like in table form (click on to get the full table):

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015
Rate of Perceived Exertion

In the past I have mentioned auto regulation of your training which refers to training "on the fly' a little bit and using a set point of load or rep speed to decide how far hard you'll push this session.
For example you might have a max of 100kgs but you reach 90kgs and it feels pretty heavy. The speed is slow so you have a fair idea that today isn't one for setting personal bests, or even trying them, so you might just do s few extra sets of 2 - 3 reps at 905 of that 90% and call it a day.

Rate of perceived exertion is a similar concept but you assign effort level numbers to each exercise. You might have used %'s before but this method can be flawed as you would base the %'s off your max, but as described above, your 1 off max isn't your everyday max so that moderately hard 85% day can quickly turn into a ball breaking 90% day which, in regards to recovery, could stuff your whole week up!

RPE refers to how hard a set feels or how far away you are from failure you are in regards to "reps left in the tank'. For example you might do a set of 5 reps @ 80kgs. After the set you think you could probably have done 7 reps at that load.

The table looks like this:

RPE x 10 = 0 reps left in the tank
RPE x 9 = 1 rep left in the tank
RPE x 8 = 2 or 3 reps left in the tank
RPE x 7 = 3 reps left in the tank with good bar sped and acceleration
RPE x 6 = fast bar movement with minimal effort

So instead of working up to a % of load which can be different each day as described above, work up to a rep number at a particular RPE such as 5 reps at a 9 RPE where you'd finish the exercise when you perform a set at a load that will allow only more rep.

Then move on to your assistance work.

To take this a step further you can assign RPE 's to your other sessions too for speed and aerobic / anaerobic conditioning and include this in your activity load monitoring from last week to again pick up on trends against increased and decreased performance.

Don't forget you can pick up the Ultimate Footy Training Manual that has full in-season training recommendations and programming to ensure that you STAY at your physical peak throughout the season! Click the Paypal link at the top of the page.

 

[cptkirk]

SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2015
Heart Rate Variability



Keeping the subject of personalising your own training to fit you and no one else, we move to heart rate variability testing which refers to assessing your physical and mental state of mind through specific iphone app's which can help dictate how hard you should train on a given day. It could replace or be combined with using rate of perceived exertion and the manual method of monitoring fatigue during the season of which I have posted about previously.

To start with there are 2 regulatory mechanisms of the body, the autonomic nervous system (ans) and the neuro endocrine system (nes). The ans and then broken into the parasympathetic nervous system (pns) and the sympathetic nervous system (sns). Both of these are part of the fight or flight equation:

PNS - Flight

SNS - Fight

The ANS is stimulated when the brain senses a any form of challenge and once it is activated, it stimulates the output of cortisol, a stress fighting but fat storing hormone, and adrenaline which keeps us alert by increasing heart rate and blood pressure by quickly mobilising energy reserves while cortisol works more slowly to help replenish energy supplies.

All of these adaptive changes is called allostasis which refers to maintaining stability, or homeostasis, through change.

I bet we've all played with the bloke who has a bit of white line fever and gets quite ramped up during games - this is from him being in a very sympathetic state which for competition, is actually essential.

On the flip side we've all played with that bloke who looks like he's barely awake who pretty much stays in a parasympathetic state regardless of the "challenge'.

The biggest trick though is to be able to interchange through both the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.

So you're on the ground and going like a bat of hell (how bad was Meatloaf that time?) and you blow up and it's time to interchange to recover. What needs to happen here for you recover in as fast a time as possible is to swiftly move into a parasympathetic state to slow your rate down and to start shifting your body back to homeostasis (normal).

Thinking long term, training with high volumes and intensity means you enter a sympathetic dominant state very often which is fine but during this time you feel a bit rundown, have trouble sleeping and have a lack of appetite compared to normal, then you're getting stuck in the SNS and not shifting back to the PNS, meaning you're not really recovering enough and sooner rather them later, you're body might make you take a break through illness or even injury.

Taking heart rare variability is something you would do everyday to get a gauge at how your body is tracking against your playing stress, training stress and outside stressors because they all add up and once you overflow the cup, it can take a while to get rid of this excess build up. This means that relationships, food quality and alcohol can also have a big effect on your readings.

I have recently started using an app called HRV4Training for my own heart rate variability. There are others on market such as bioforce and iathlete that are reportedly the go-to app's for this but they require a compatible heart rate monitor and mine is compatible.

HRV4Training provides a lot of funky readings which I'm still not sure what they mean exactly as the creator isn't great at answering emails but it does give you a reading against your baseline and let's you know how you should tackle training today.

The home screen tells you your assessment today, yesterday's assessment and you're baseline based on the last 7 days.

It provides with 1 of 3 tips to program your training for the day.

#1 - Your condition has improved since yesterday and is above baseline so go hard today

#2 - Your condition has worsened since yesterday and its below baseline so take it easy today

#3 - Your condition has worsened for 2 days in a row so take today off.

So even though I don't really know what the actual numbers mean, it tells me how I'm going so that's good enough for me at the moment.

Now you don't have to live your life by what it tells you to do, it might be game day where it says to take a day off, but what you can do there is go back to your monitoring and rate of perceived exertion tables and find correlations between your scores and your 'low' days which should be able to help you alter your training and lifestyle accordingly.

It's a free app so download it and have a play around with it and when I find out what all those numbers mean, I''ll post it up!


POSTED BY FULL CIRCLE FITNESS AT 5:41 AM 0 COMMENTSLINKS TO THIS POST

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015
Amateur vs Elite GPS Comparison

Today I just want to point you towards 3 articles I've come across the last few weeks.

The first one is GPS data collected from an actual AFL team over 4 quarters from a world renown strength and conditioning coach's site Mladen Jovanovic and can be found here.

It can be quite hard to read but if you click on the csv file link in the first sentence you can have a look at it in excel spreadsheet and it makes a bit more sense.

It covers 199 different categories!

Do take some time to have a good look at it though as it may just help you with your own game in regards to what you do and don't do on a regular basis.

The second and third articles are both from the VAFA (the best amateur league here in Melbourne) that shows the GPS readings from 2 of their top line players and can be found here and here.

It shows the following for each player:

Amateur Player - Jack Bull
Position –Nomatic (midfield, wing, interchange)
Total Distance – 15.06kms
Average Speed – 6.21kms/hr
25% of running time @ 13.5km/hr or faster of which 600m of that was above 21.6kms/hr which is zone 6 running (highest velocity/top speed)
Sprint Efforts – 106 @ 16kms/hr or faster

Amateur Player - Tom Humphrey
Position – utility but deep defender who goes with the best forward runner
Total Distance – 14.7kms
Zone 6 Running – 285m
Top Speed – 30.71kms/hr
Walking – 1km more then Jack from ball being at other end

You constantly here of mates saying "this bloke could have played AFL if he wanted to' but that's simply not true. "Wanting to" includes wanting to work harder then everyone else and that;s exactly what you need to do to reach some of these numbers.

These amateur blokes are reaching AFL-type GPS readings but certainty aren't playing AFL but it shows how close you can be to 'the standard" but so far away for 1 reason or another.

GPS units are becoming more common in local/amateur footy so if you have the chance to get a hold of one definitely give it a go and see how you fare.

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015
In-Season Training Musings

If you remember back to earlier this year I had a what I thought was minor blow out of my lower back. As it turned out it got progressively worse and resulted in me not being able to run, sprint and jump, as well as pretty much next to zero leg work in the gym, for around 6 weeks.

It only came good for practice match number 1 in mid March so I've spent the last 10 or so weeks trying to get myself back to the strength level I was at pre-back blow out.

So from that I have needed to alter my training to fit where I'm at physically. We're 5 games in with the 6th tomorrow and the back has been fine for the most part in each game but it can pull up a bit stiff in the days following games. Oh, and I'm almost 37 and not the spring chicken I used to be!

So my aim is now to be as fully rested for game days as I can be so my training is sub maximal at best and even when my HRV app says I can train intensely, I will only train with "intensity" on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

With all of that in mind, here's what I've been up to:

Rehab - for my lower back rehab I started using a technique that I'd been reading about for a while now but had never actually performed called Be Activated which is a muscle activation technique made popular by a South African physio Doug Heel. I'll probably do a long winded post on this very soon but you can read a bit about here. He's just come to Australia for the 1st tome this past April so it's very new to Australia but of course Jonny-on-the-spot (me) had his dvd's prior to that as I couldn't attend any of his courses. Anyway they're pretty fantastic and now serves as much warm up for training and games.

Lower Body Strength - so even though my lower back came "running/sprinting good", it has taken a lot longer to become "gym good", especially in regards to deadlifts and squats. The back just wasn't feeling spinal loading that well so I had to find some alternatives. So to train the deadlift pattern I opted for romanian deadlifts after working up to those with 1 dumbbell deadlifts off a step - an exercise I use with 1st session beginner clients in the studio - that's how little loading I could use initially. I worked these up pretty slowly and have just "maxed out' this week on those. The 2nd alteration I had to make was to get rid of back or front squats and use a modified landmine / belt squat which worked sensationally up to a point.


It's a bitch to set up and to be honest you probably couldn't get it happening in a public gym but I own my studio so I can do what I want!! I think this set is with 105kgs which I could do no worries but when I tried to amp it up to 125 it was too hard to load up and move the step away on my own - with a partner it would be fine though. No spinal loading, no worries.

Lower Body Explosiveness - there is a huge correlation between standing long jump and acceleration sprinting speed.


So as my pulling up from games ability has somehow left me in the last year and a bit (upsetting), I need to find alternative ways to train speed. I'm playing deep full forward out of the square this year so all my running is pretty much 90 - 95% sprints during a game so I only need to supplement that with something to assist with speed development. So I have just come off a 3 week cycle of sub maximal standing long jumps which I will retest next week. Training sub maximally means you train at around 70 - 90% and the focus is on practicing the lift but with limited fatigue build up. I did 8 x 3 at 75% of pre tested distance, 8 x 2 at 80% then 8 x 2 at 85%.

Program Design - now that I have built my strength back up I can now program for strength maintenance through speed strength and strength speed methods but also with some auto regulation thrown in to manage fatigue and to make sure that only quality work is being performed to again minimise fatigue. I've made up 3 parameters that I'll use in my training:

Speed - more reps then secs time per set (5 reps in 3secs for example)

Power - same reps in same secs time per set (5 reps in 5secs for example)

Force - less reps then secs time per set (2 reps in 5secs for example)

I haven't quite worked this out yet but I have a fair idea of what my max numbers are so I can gauge what training effect I'm after for that day (speed, power or strength) then use the recommendation from above for whatever I choose to train.

Schedule - just a quick bit on my schedule you must be aware by now that I don't train with my team because of work commitments so I can set my own schedule which so far this year has been upper body Tuesday, lower body Wednesday and Upper body again Thursday which seems to be working well as far as being fresh for game day is concerned. I can't train everything I want to train though but that can be a good thing as then I'm only including the absolute necessities and seeing as though 80% of your results will come from 20% of the things you do, making that 20% is critical.

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015
Nat Fyfe Transformation

Like most of you, I salivate when Nat Fyfe is on - I believe he has over taken Garry Ablett Jr as the games best player. H e was drafted as 68kg-er!



I actually remember when he debuted as I heard a whisper he was a goer and traded him into my Supercoach team.

Still pretty skinny after his first pre-season with the Dockers, he took one of his trademark pack marks for his very first AFL goal. As hard as he tries to, there's still not much to actually flex at this time!!



It was probably his third year that I started to notice his body changing rather dramatically, relative to his previous body, which was wiry and thin.

The bulk he put on through his hips and upper legs was extraordinary, as evident below:



If you're a budding footballer and you're looking to bulk up in the off season, this is what you should focus on. Instead of having 3 upper body days, do 3 lower body days.

You'll get faster, increase endurance, increase injury resistance ad be able to handle physical pressure in close quarters during a game.

It also shows that if you really knuckle down for 2 - 3 off season's then you can really make all the muscle gains you need. You don't want to be heavy that you can't cover ground like you normally do but you don't want to be so light that you can't compete in 1on1 contests and be pushed off the ball easily.

 

[saj_21]

FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015
Nat Fyfe Transformation

Like most of you, I salivate when Nat Fyfe is on - I believe he has over taken Garry Ablett Jr as the games best player. H e was drafted as 68kg-er!



I actually remember when he debuted as I heard a whisper he was a goer and traded him into my Supercoach team.

Still pretty skinny after his first pre-season with the Dockers, he took one of his trademark pack marks for his very first AFL goal. As hard as he tries to, there's still not much to actually flex at this time!!



It was probably his third year that I started to notice his body changing rather dramatically, relative to his previous body, which was wiry and thin.

The bulk he put on through his hips and upper legs was extraordinary, as evident below:



If you're a budding footballer and you're looking to bulk up in the off season, this is what you should focus on. Instead of having 3 upper body days, do 3 lower body days.

You'll get faster, increase endurance, increase injury resistance ad be able to handle physical pressure in close quarters during a game.

It also shows that if you really knuckle down for 2 - 3 off season's then you can really make all the muscle gains you need. You don't want to be heavy that you can't cover ground like you normally do but you don't want to be so light that you can't compete in 1on1 contests and be pushed off the ball easily.

I noticed his leg development in the games i've watched him this year and really noticed how powerful they are. He has surpassed Ablett as the games best even if Ablett was playing footy this year like he was last year (Fyfe has more affect on a game as opposed to accumulating possessions, but that's a debate for another board). If you notice when Fyfe plays he is so explosive and powerful through the packs and in the air, no doubt this comes from his legs/core not his arms.

Completely agree train legs for increased output on a footy field.

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2015
Be Explosive for 4 Quarters



There is a saying in sport that goes "you can be fast, but can't be fast for long"...or can you?

The ability to repeat your top speed, or close to, is pretty much the golden requirement for AFL hopefuls these days with short bursts of play alternated with short bursts of rest on the bench.

A quick energy systems lesson first.

There are 3 main energy systems being alactic, lactic and aerobic.

The alactic system (a short, full intensive sprint) is improved by increasing the amount of creatine phosphate that your muscles can store and use which might mean you can sprint faster for the same distance, or maintain speed for a longer distance.

Now we probably know that its our fast twitch muscle fibres that do the job for fast and explosive movements but did you know that your slow twitch, endurance based fibres can also assist in these endeavours.

Your slow twitch muscle fibres can actually produce as much force as your fast fibres but they don't do it as quickly so lets think of it this way.

If you're fast twitch dominant then you might be able to run flat out for 40 meters before you start to slow down. If you are extremely fast twitch dominant (like me fortunate and unfortunately) it means that you're speed will drop off very quickly once your fast fibres fatigue.

If you develop your slow muscle fibres which as mentioned above are as strong as your fast fibres but take a little longer to hit their stride, then once your fast fibres start to fatigue, the slow fibres can take over and you'll be able to maintain your top speed, or close to, for longer.

Another bonus of increasing your slow twitch fibre size is that your muscles will improve their ability to work aerobically. When your also anaerobic dominant (again like me but a lot better this year!) then you'll have a great first effort and sprint but you'll gas out very quickly and take a while to recover. When your muscles get better at utilising oxygen as an energy source then you'll improve your repeat speed from faster recovery, you won't use as much energy during your most intensive efforts and you'll also improve your ability to use fat as fuel which will improve body composition. All sorts of wins there!!

OK, so to train for this you need to use the tempo and explosive method in the gym which I've got from Joel Jamieson (there's a 4 week conditioning program on that home page I did in the off season that cut my 2.4km time by 30secs!). I've been running this for the last month and have used squats and jump squats.

For the tempo method you do sets of 10 reps but each rep is 2 seconds down and 2 seconds up which means you'll purposefully have to slow the movement down as you want it to be "even" and controlled the entire time.

For the explosive method I'm using jump squats which are done for sets of 10 - 15 seconds.

Here's the program Joel prescribed for this:

Week 1
Day 1 - Tempo 4 x 10 with 45secs rest between sets + 8 - 10mins active rest + 4 x 10 with 45secs rest between sets (remember 2 secs up and 2secs down!)
Day 2 (3 days later) - Tempo 5 x 10, 45secs rest btw sets

Week 2
Day 1 - Tempo 4 x 10, 40secs btw sets + 8 - 10mins active rest + 4 x 10, 40secs rest btw sets
Day 2 - Continuous aerobic work (boxing etc) x 15mins @ 120 - 160 beats per minute
Day 3 - Tempo 6 x 10, 40secs rest

Week 3
Day 1 - Explosive 4 x 10secs, 40secs rest + 8 - 10mins active rest + 4 x 10secs with 40secs rest
Day 2 - Continuous aerobic work x 20mins @ 120 - 150bpm
Day 3 - Explosive 5 x 10secs, 40secs rest

Week 4
Day 1 - Explosive 6 x 12secs, 35secs rest + 8 - 10mins active rest + 6 x 12secs, 35secs rest
Day 2 - Tempo 4 x 10, 35secs btw sets + 8 - 10mins active rest + 4 x 10, 35secs rest
Day 3 - 6 x 10secs, 35secs rest

Week 5
Day 1 - 8 x 15secs, 30secs rest + 8 - 10mins active rest + 8 x 15secs, 30secs rest
Day 2 - Tempo 5 x 10, 30secs rest + 8 - 10mins active rest + 4 x 10, 30secs rest
Day 3 - 6 x 12secs, 30secs rest

Week 6
Day 1 - Explosive 5 x 15secs, 20secs rest + 8 - 10mins rest + 5 x 15secs, 20secs rest
Day 2 - Explosive 5 x 12secs, 20secs rest

I've just finished week 4 with a big week 5 coming up - it will be near death that Monday session!!

UPDATE - WEEK 5 MONDAY SESSION DAMN NEAR KILLED ME!!

 

[cptkirk]

TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2015
My 'Mini" Pre-Season



OK, so we played the top team who were undefeated up to that point and we smashed them taking us to the top of the ladder. We have the most points for and the least against so I was sure we were the better team anyway but we gave our first game to them back in round 2 which was shite.

Anyway with a premiership literally in reach for us (and me - #44 above), I'm dedicating the next 3 weeks to a mini pre-season to set me up for the finals. I will leave no stone un-turned and leave nothing to chance that I can control.

I'm 37 for god's sake and this might be the last chance I get for that elusive premiership!

So I actually started this last week, with a game Saturday and another this Saturday, then we have a bye which fits perfectly as I can train pretty much everyday for 10 or so days.

We do have a big game this week against the new second placed team but my performance was pretty good after week 1 and week 2 (this week) is an easier week compared to last week and the next 2 weeks after that so hopefully I'll still be fresh for this week. A win will put us a game clear of top spot and pretty much assure us the week of week 1 of the finals.

The truth is I could probably keep doing what I'm doing and play alright but like I said, I'm not taking any chances.

Anyway this is what I've got laid out.

Week 1

Day 1 - 20mins of steady state activity @ 130 - 150bpm + High Resistance Intervals 10 x 10secs keeping heart rate bteween 160 - 170bpm then resting until back at 130bpm

Day 2 - Tempo Runs - 8 x 10secs every 60secs @ 70%

Day 3 - 20mins of steady state activity @ 130 - 150bpm + High Resistance Intervals 10 x 10secs keeping heart rate bteween 160 - 170bpm then resting until back at 130bpm

Week 2

Day 1 - Tempo Runs - 8 x 10secs every 60secs @ 70%

Day 2 - 25mins of steady state activity @ 130 - 150bpm + High Resistance Intervals 10 x 10secs keeping heart rate @ 165bpm then resting until back at 130bpm

Day 3 - Tempo Runs - 10 x 10secs every 60secs @ 70%

Week 3/4

Day 1 - 10 to 20mins of steady state activity @ 130 - 150bpm + High Resistance Intervals 12 x 10secs keeping heart rate @ 165bpm then resting until back at 130bpm

Day 2 - Tempo Intervals 10 x 10secs every 60secs @ 70%

Day 3 - 30mins of steady state activity @ 130 - 150bpm + High Resistance Intervals 10 x 12secs keeping heart rate @ 165bpm then resting until back at 130bpm

Day 4 - Tempo Intervals 8 x 10secs every 60secs @ 70% + Threshold Training 3 x 5mins @ 170bpm

Day 5 - 10 to 20mins of steady state activity @ 130 - 150bpm + High Resistance Intervals 15 x 10secs keeping heart rate @ 165bpm then resting until back at 130bpm

Day 6 - Tempo Intervals 8 x 10secs every 60secs @ 70% + Threshold Training 3 x 5mins @ 170bpm

Day 7 - Cardiac Power Intervals 5 x 90secs w/ 3mins rest

Day 8 - 10 to 20mins steady state activity @ 130 - 150bpm + Tempo Intervals 12 x 10secs every 60secs @ 70%

Day 9 - High Resistance Intervals 12 x 10secs @ 165bpm resting til 130bpm + Threshold Training 3 x 5mins @ 170bpm

Day 10 - Cardiac Power Intervals 6 x 90secs w/ 3mins rest + Tempo Intervals 8 x 12secs every 60secs @ 70%

I should finish this up on the Wednesday or Thursday of the week after the bye.

For steady state activity I've made up some circuits for glute hip extension, foot/ankle stiffness, core and I'm also doing a mini blitz for hip thrusts so they get trained 4/week at the moment.

High Resistance Intervals are done through very high intensity boxing, treadsled, high tension bike and high tension cross trainer.

Tempo Intervals are simply up and back runs in the studio with 2 turns per set.

Threshold Training will be done on either or a combination of cross trainer or outside running (weather dependent).

Cardiac Power Intervals will probably be done on a cross trainer.

The idea is to limit impact on my almost 37 year old legs but I will be able to throw some impact stuff in during weeks 3 and 4.

I should mention that I got these training idea's from Joel Jamieson from www.8weeksout.com.

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2015
Video on Program Development

In my last post I outlined my mini pre-season I'm currently doing along with the other stuff I'm working on. I was my Thursday workout up on the whiteboard yesterday and thought I'd shoot a quick video of how I structure a workout that has a lot of different components in it with the aim to make it as time efficient as possible.

It's a pretty crappy hand held video shot on the spot with no planning but you should get something out of it...hopefully!

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
Read This Before Hitting the Gym This Off-Season

Here's to season 2016!


Quality 80's Scanlon Footy Card Pose!
After finishing on top with only the single loss for season we disappointingly went our in straight sets! To make matters worse I hyperextended my knee in the last round and missed our 2 finals games so I was pissed!! I've missed probably 5 games tops in my entire career through injury and I miss 2 with "my' best chance of that elusive premiership.
I frequent the health and fitness board on www.bigfooty.com and a couple of weeks ago a posted put this up:
"...Hi guys, I'm looking for some inspiration for a new routine. At the moment I'm still doubting between a push/legs/pull split (5 day cycle) or a push/pull split (3 day cycle with a lighter session every 3rd cycle). Does anyone have experience with this?..."
Here was my response:
Here's a few options:

Option #1 - train everything (movement/muscle) everyday doing 1 exercise for each muscle/movement at moderate to high intensity but low to moderate volume.
Sample:
Military Press paired with Front Squat 3 - 5 x 5 - 8 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your last set
Bench Press paired with Deadlift 3 - 5 x 5 - 8 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your last set
DB Row paired with Bulgarian Split Squats 3 - 5 x 5 - 8 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your last set
* repeat every training session
Option #1 is a great option for easing your way back into training in the early off season. You could do the same exercise each session or 1 variation for each session of the week.

Option #2 - train everything everyday but do 1 exercise for moderate to high intensity and high volume in each session
Sample:
Military Press 8 - 15 x 1 - 5 leaving 1 rep in the tank on your final set
Front Squat 2 - 3 x 3 - 5 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your final set
Deadlift 2 - 3 x 3 - 5 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your final set
DB Row 2 - 3 x 3 - 5 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your final set
Bulgarian Split Squats 2 - 3 x 3 - 5 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your final set
What you end up with is 1 lift exercise being the main focus of the day and the others are simply there to fill between sets of the main lift and to give them so extra volume but performed at an intensity that won't fatigue you for the main lift. You'll also notice that bench press has been taken out of this day as it is a competing lift with the Military Press as it uses the same muscles.
When planning this day out decide how many Military Press sets you'll do then spread the other exercise sets among them.
Option #3 - is the same as option #2 but you have 2 focus lifts per session at a slightly lower volume but the other lifts staying with low volume and moderate to high intensity.
Sample:
Military Press paired with Front Squat 6 - 12 x 1 - 5 leaving 1 - 2 reps in the tank on your final set
Deadlift 2 - 3 x 3 - 5 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your final set
DB Row 2 - 3 x 3 - 5 leaving 2 - 3 reps in the tank on your final set
* can add in some biceps and core on this day for filler exercises

Option #4 - use a variety of rep types (not ranges) like isometric, eccentric, drop catch, rebound etc and rotate through them throughout the week. You can either do a full day of the 1 rep type or do 1 exercise for each rep type per session.
Rep Types - isometric, eccentric, pliometric (traditional rep style), high velocity, deadstop, drop an catch, rebound etc
So you could choose 4 - 6 rep types and do 1 exercise for each of them on each day
or
Choose 4 - 6 exercises and do 1 rep type for 1 exercise like this:

Military Press - High Velocity
Front Squat - Eccentric
Bench Press - Isometric
Deadlift - Pliometric
DB Row - Deadstop

Then rotate the rep type for the same exercise list the next training session.

So before heading off to the gm and doing your chest day have a look at what's above here and see how this could work for you

 

[cptkirk]

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2015
Footy Training Concepts You HAVE to Know About

Each year I learn about 1000 new things when it comes to training which means the stuff I did only 12 months ago can be completely different to what I do today!

While watching the Hawks spank the Crows (45 - 14 already in quarter number 1!) I'm brain storming idea's to put into the book but when putting something together for the masses like this it's can be hard deciding how technical to go and if it is "technical" how can I make that simple?

Don't worry that's my problem not yours so here's some things I'm mulling over, some of that have been mentioned in this blog before.

Training Residuals - this refers to the minimum of frequently certain qualities need to be trained in order to maintain them. You can't train everything hard all the time so this is vital because you don't what to lose in a future phase of training what you worked so hard to gain in a previous training phase.

Lower Leg Stiffness - refers to rigidity of the foot and ankle complex and the ability of it absorb forces put through it during sprinting and to resist deformity. Think of how fast your newly pumped up footy bounces off your boot compared to when it's slightly deflated. Watch a 100m sprint in slow motion and watch their lower leg, upon ground contact the heels barely lower towards the ground!

Big Toe - the big toe is THE connection from the foot to the glutes which is where all your power comes from in regards to speed and running economy. There's been plenty of who-ha about minimalist footwear so increase the use of all of your toes but from what I've read in the past and by looks of the image of Usain Bolt below, I'm not sure that using all of your toes is as critical to performance as is mastering the usage of your big toe. It's not a great image as I took it off the TV but you can clearly see the dominance of his big and second big toe while others look all squashed together. I did a heap of bog toe stuff a few years back and the glute soreness during the season post games from this indicated that it definitely increased my glute usage.



Consolidation of Stressors - I first read about a coupe of years ago over at www.juggernaught.com and is connected to the training residuals point from earlier. As stated you can't train everything at 100% all the time because you only have so much recovery to go around and once you exceed that then performance decrease is right around the corner. This means that once your recovery 'cup' is filled, then introducing any other stress will overflow it so you need to decrease a current stress to allow room for a new one. Too many footy players and coaches are at fault of this and in the end when you're after speed and skill development all you develop is fatigue and none of the training adaptations you;re actually after, comes to fruition.

Overspeed Eccentric - for max velocity sprinting speed and running jumps you want your tendons to do most of the work. Alternatively for acceleration sprinting speed and standing jumps you want your muscles to do most of the work. In both cases the more you can put into the eccentric action of all of these endeavors, the greater the output you'll have. Now when most people think of eccentric contractions they think of loading up a barbell and doing a slow negative reps but it's the slow bit that won't do jack for your footy performance. A moderate to fast eccentric is what you want because if it takes you so long to build up the eccentric energy and turn it around into concentric energy, then the ball has been and gone while you're still loading up! I will be doing a few phases for this in my own training in the coming months.

So that's part 1 of this series and I'll be back soon with the rest. Let me know any questions you have via the Facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/aussierulestraining

 

[cptkirk]

Footy Concepts You HAVE to Know About Part 2

I'm back with the 2nd installment of training concepts you may not know about, but HAVE to know about, to optimise your footy training program.




Last week we covered training residuals, lower leg stiffness, the big toe, consolidation of stressors and overspeed eccentrics so lets finish this list off.

Be Activated - this isn't a new thing by any means but the way this is done is. It's the brain child of an ex-pysio from South Africa named Douglas Heel. I caught onto this about this time last year and then read as much as I could on it (there's not a lot to go on really) and then purchased his DVD set which made a lot of things clearer. He came to Australia earlier this year bit for some reason didn't make it to Melbourne so I missed out on seeing him in person which is far better then the DVD's on their own I've been led to believe by other "be activated" enthusiasts. It refers to activating the body through a specific series of muscle activation points. This muscle activation can wake up the body and free it from defensive postures brought on by physical and emotional stress. For example when the body is stressed in anyway, breathing becomes shallower and your posture changes (hunched over). This effects your breathing efficiency as now your breathing has moved from being performed by your diaphragm to your chest, shoulders and neck. The all important diaphragm is the center of the body is directly connected to the psoas. This crucial because our body has 2 main functions it will do above all else - it will breath (hopefully through the diaphragm) and will move (hopefully through the psoas) and of these 2 area's can't do the job then it will find another, but less efficient way to do this. This results in the aforementioned stress and tiredness mentioned above. This can also eliminate the need for stretching as an activated muscles is a long and strong muscle.

Rate of Perceived Exertion - RPE has been around a while to gauge effort level for certain things but it's now making an imprint on your training. % based programs (3 x 5 @ 75% for example) doesn't take into account the daily levels of fatigue you have which means that 75% can be 65% on your great days but 85% on your not so great days. Using RPE can ensure that you are training at the level you want to, respective of the state of your training readiness for that particular day. So instead of using % based programs, try using the REP scale. An RPE of 10/10 is a single-max-grinding rep. An RPE of 9/10 is heavy but leaving 1 rep in the tank. An RPE of 8/10 is pretty heavy but leaving 2 reps in the tank. An RPE of 7/10 is heavy-ish with 3 reps left in the tank. So you can plan your week with a mix of easy, moderate and hard days based on RPE. Start practicing now as this can take a bit of trial and error to get right.

Heart Rate Variability - I posted about this and the way I do it earlier this year but it works in conjunction with RPE a fair bit. So immediately upon waking you test your daily HRV which tells you your readiness to train on that particular day. Like I said above the same wright can feel different on different days depending how well you recovered from your previous session and/or lifestyle habits. If you've got a max strength day planned but you feel lethargic and can barely get yourself out of bed then that 90% is gonna feel like 120% and you won't even move it an inch which can send your recovery back even further. Once you get a handle on your HRV and get an idea of where it should be when you do everything right, then you can assign an RPE to the different results you get. So if you get a HRV score better then you're average or baseline, then that's gonna be a good day to hit a 9 or 10 RPE. If it's below your average HRV then you'll need to play around in 6 - 8 RPE range.

Energy Systems - you know how badly some blokes work out at the gym? Well I think there are footy players and coaches training just as bad, if not worse, in regards to energy systems training. In a nut shell your main goal should be to improve speed. AFL players do the same that we all do, but faster. Once you improve your speed then you want to be able to use it in a game repeatedly with as little speed fatigue drop off as possible. Now most blokes will think straight away 'let's do 10 x 100m sprints with no rest.' WRONG! For starters 100m sprints are game specifically at all as you'll never run as fast as you can for 100m in a game of footy - EVER! Secondly you might be fast for the first 100m sprint but you won't be for the others so you've trained speed for 12 - 15secs then pretty much fatigue build up from then on. Surely I don't need to tell you that the biggest performance killer is fatigue. You're next port of call is to train your aerobic system to improve your recovery between bouts of speed. So you wanna train short and fast or long and slow essentially. Training in the middle is great for building up fatigue but you'll get minimal speed and recovery increases from it and it will often be detrimental to both those.

So there's some idea's to get your brain ticking over and be on the look out for the new 2016 Ultimate Footy Training Manual being released in the next week!

 

[Drumroe]

Footy Concepts You HAVE to Know About Part 2

Energy Systems - you know how badly some blokes work out at the gym? Well I think there are footy players and coaches training just as bad, if not worse, in regards to energy systems training. In a nut shell your main goal should be to improve speed. AFL players do the same that we all do, but faster. Once you improve your speed then you want to be able to use it in a game repeatedly with as little speed fatigue drop off as possible. Now most blokes will think straight away 'let's do 10 x 100m sprints with no rest.' WRONG! For starters 100m sprints are game specifically at all as you'll never run as fast as you can for 100m in a game of footy - EVER! Secondly you might be fast for the first 100m sprint but you won't be for the others so you've trained speed for 12 - 15secs then pretty much fatigue build up from then on. Surely I don't need to tell you that the biggest performance killer is fatigue. You're next port of call is to train your aerobic system to improve your recovery between bouts of speed. So you wanna train short and fast or long and slow essentially. Training in the middle is great for building up fatigue but you'll get minimal speed and recovery increases from it and it will often be detrimental to both those.

So there's some idea's to get your brain ticking over and be on the look out for the new 2016 Ultimate Footy Training Manual being released in the next week!

Just interested in some more on this. So does this mean you dont believe in stuff like running 120% MAS for 15s:15s? Or is that counted as short and fast? Or even at a more basic level doing something like 6x400s on 3 minutes? (Assuming you're running it at 75-90s pace)

 

[cptkirk]

Just interested in some more on this. So does this mean you dont believe in stuff like running 120% MAS for 15s:15s? Or is that counted as short and fast? Or even at a more basic level doing something like 6x400s on 3 minutes? (Assuming you're running it at 75-90s pace)

There is a place for lactic capacity for sure but you'll top out after 3-4 weeks of it meaning you only need to do it at the back end of pre season prior practice games

That being said if you're still slow then why make yourself slower with fatigue work and if your aerobic capacity is poor then the recovery between those 400's probably won't be enough in 3mins and thus each subsequent set is going to be far slower then if recovery was better

Now think in game terms when you're running at that speed and how often you'd get the ball...never...plus you just won't run like that in a local/amateur footy game