The average Joe(if someone can tell me why it is Joe versus another name I would like to know, I am sure I could Google it but it is easier to accept whatever someone else tells me without doing my own research.) has very little knowledge on body physiology and its modes of operation, this quite alright. I personally have no knowledge on how the stock market works or how to predict when stock will rise or fall. For that reason I would not tell anyone where to invest their money; except in me, you can take that to the bank. However, many parents feel the need to tell their kids how to train for their sport without any knowledge on how the body works.
That leads me to my title, parents, cross county running IS NOT THE ANSWER to your kids athletic woes. To quote Mike Boyle, "Want to make your kid suck at everything (sports) for the rest of their life? Put them in Cross Country!" I cannot count the number of times I have heard a parent tell me, that they told their kid to start jogging 30-40 minutes in preparation for the upcoming season, (basketball, hockey, football, lacrosse, volleyball, wrestling, etc.) Then say, "You're in kin. that's good, right?" Short answer is NO. Before the avid runners string me out over a 10 km chase and trounce me when my hamstrings cramp allow me to elaborate, 1.) I have no problem with running, if you enjoy it then by all means run. It is an aerobic activity with some positive side effects, lower resting heart rate, increased O2 uptake, endorphin release etc. 2.) If you are going to be truly competitive in an endurance race then yes, I believe you need to run to see how your body handles the demands.
However, if we examine sport demands and body physiology, steady state aerobic conditioning for nearly all sports is close to useless in my opinion. Cross country running is a steady state exercise, meaning that your heart rate is constant and oxygen intake is equal to oxygen demand. This sort of state is replicated in very few sports. In order to understand why this type of training is not beneficial we need to first examine the body's energy systems. Simplified we have 3 systems from which we can access energy. The first two systems are oxygen-independent and will produce energy for up to 2 minutes, well within the playing time of nearly all sports before a recovery break is given.
Below is a chart displaying the energy systems and the duration of each, naming is slightly outdated.
There are very few sports that will 'tap in' to the aerobic system excluding an endurance event such as marathon, 1 500 M, etc. If this energy system will not be drawn on then why should we concentrate our training on it? The average football snap lasts 4-6 seconds, 9 seconds is a very long play with 40 seconds of recovery. A hockey shift is 45- 50 seconds then triple that in recovery.Wrestling is 3, 2 minute periods during which the body is required to perform multiple explosive movements linearly and laterally with short rest in between. None of these sports have steady state heart rate's or O2 consumption and as a result should NOT be trained through that method.
The second reason is type of muscle fibers development. Fast/Slow Twitch is a term that gets tossed around quite a bit. To overly simplify the concept muscle fibers can be either Type I -slow contracting, slow fatiguing, Type -II fast contracting, fast fatiguing, or transitional - containing both types of fiber. Type II can be further divided into IIA-utilized for fast, repetitive, low intensity movement and are recruited following Type I; and IIX-recruited for high intensity, high power movements. Evidence exists that FT is the default setting for muscle fibers and that specific training can cause fibers to take the properties/become the type required for the task. IE.) Explosive training can cause a shift in ST fibers to a FT orientation. What does this all mean? It means that if your athlete is training steady state, ST fibers will develop and FT fibers will begin to take on ST characteristics. This also means that when the rebound comes off the backboard in a 2 point game the shoelaces aren't leaving the ground. It means that your volleyball player doesn't make that match point block, or your wrestler isn't scoring the third period blast double.
The prescription of steady state training is employed most often out of lack of knowledge and I hope that this helps educate, if it saves even one athlete from detrimental training then I have done my job.If aerobic training is to be done it should come from interval type training, where the specificity of the drill can be altered based on rest time. Lower work to rest ratio (1:1, 1:2, 1:3) will lead to aerobic training where as higher ratios (1:5, 1:6, 1:7) will target the anaerobic systems. Intervals can mirror the sports work to rest demands allowing the body to adapt as increasing anaerobic and aerobic capabilities. So next time you are prescribing a training regime for your son/daughter/friend keep in mind that cross country running is not King. Coach V
Coach - Is anyone here allergic? Yes, No? Is anyone here allergic to hard work? If you are get back in your car and drive home. Let me know how mediocrity tastes. Everyone else come with me.
Good post and I agree about 85%, but there's something being left out. A lot of times this type of training isn't about improving performance, it's about improving training capacity for practice. If a wrestlers body can't operate at sub-maximal levels for extended periods of time they simply can't put in the # of reps it takes to master the mechanical movements and techniques required. You can have an athlete who is fast, powerful and explosive and has the conditioning to get through a match no problem, but if they don't have the Aerobic capacity to get through hundreds of reps in a two hour practice, that athlete will see very little technical or skill development which, especially in the early days of an athletic career, is AT LEAST as important as training for peak performance.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delayed response Google has not been functioning on my computer properly...I told them what was up and they fixed it ASAP In response
ReplyDelete1. Your wrong. Why? Read 2.
2. Because I said so, Why? Read 1.
Joking aside, I agree that baseline conditioning is important but that is a 3-4 week process max of aerobic training IMO. And I am not saying don't aerobically train after that, but rather do not do it in a steady state format. I would suggest rather interval training. Here is my reasoning, steady state exercise are typically one of three things: Bike, swim, or run. These activities all lead to overuse injuries in many cases. Working with an elite athlete they are already creating imbalances as a result of their sports demand it is nearly unavoidable and I would want to avoid any other issues that could further compromise any body alignment or musculoskeletal issues. For example, bike riders have very tight hip flexors and lumbar issues. Swimming puts stress on the rotator cuff and small muscles of the back (often causing tendonitis or bursitis) and perhaps somewhat surprising, the knee. Running comes with its fair share of lower body issues. For this reason I would choose an alternative means of aerobically training to avoid stress on the body and save the "wear and tear" for practice/game settings as much as possible. Obviously, additional training will place added stress but it needs to be as intelligently done as possible. Just my opinion neither right nor wrong. Tanks.
And your not wrong either Brent realized I never actually said that. Just different thought lines.
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