Conditioning: .. Ideas From Patrick Beith
Conditioning: .. Ideas From Patrick Beith
Conditioning: .. Ideas From Patrick Beith
www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
Regular, interesting and potentially valuable ideas are presented .. I have made some refinements to
distances/times (imperial cf. metric). Note! references may be made to Northern Hemisphere seasons.
It is for you to decide on the value of ideas as related to your circumstances.
However, Patrick shares his ideas, and seldom do we not learn something from such a person.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Most coaches agree that conditioning work is a must for summer training. What they don't agree on is
what conditioning is. Conditioning should not be referred to as just aerobic training.
If you are a speed and power athlete and you are running mileage, I truly feel bad for you. You are
putting yourself at a severe disadvantage and are actually hurting your performance.
Some of our conditioning work focuses on recovery. There are so many programs that are just
hammering athletes with sprints, agility work, plyos, weights, etc. These modalities should be worked
on but there needs to be a structured recovery program in place. You can't overload the central
nervous system day in and day out, recovery is essential.
As they say, you don't get stronger and faster from the workouts, you get stronger and faster from
recovering from the workouts.
What types of conditioning should you do?
I continually stress the importance of general strength circuits. You can work on multiple facets while
performing GS circuits. You are working on strengthening, balance, coordination, and aerobic
capacity. We use this as a recovery day type of workout.
These workouts are especially great when training younger athletes. General strength circuits help build
a greater work capacity, something today's youth athletes are badly in need of.
Example of a General Strength workout:
General strength circuit performed on the grass:
Split Squats - 10 each leg .. Jog 50 metres
Rotational Push-Ups - 8 each .. Jog 50m
Bicycles - 1x30 .. Jog 50m
Burpees - 1x10 .. Jog 50m
Staggered Push-Ups - 10 each .. Jog 50m
Russian Twists - 1x25 .. Jog 50m
Backwards Lunges - 10-each leg .. Jog 50m
Lateral Lunges - 10 each leg .. Jog 50m
Reverse Crunches - 1x20 .. Jog 50m
1 Leg Squats - 10 each leg
Rest 3 minutes (incl. stretches) and repeat circuit.
Advice on the activities above (and many others) is available,
and/or consult Complete Speed Training .. DVD series
Useful: www.nwaswimaths.com
PRESENTATIONS: Swimming Presentations
- Core Strength Exercises for Swimmers
- Swiss Ball Training
PROGRAMS: Athletics Programs
- A Session at the Pool 1 & 2
- NWA Extensive Tempo (200-400 runners)
Swimming Programs
- A Dryland Circuit
These are
- NWA Dryland Circuit 1 & 2
examples
General Programs
only;
extra
- Bar Circuit
programs are
- Netball Medicine Ball Circuit
available and
- NWA Poolside Olympics 1
are being
- Power Circuits
added
- Superball
regularly.
- NWA 20-30 Min. Circuit
TEMPO RUNNING
1. EXTENSIVE TEMPO
Extensive Tempo are runs at 65-79% intensity (HR ~140-160). I typically use these runs at 100-600m.
The length of these runs are going to be dependant on the demands of the sport.
For the most part, I do not use Extensive tempo runs too often. The old saying 'train slow to run slow'
could be used here. A problem with extensive tempo is that you can't work on your running form at all
with such slow speeds. The demands of most sports do not require our athletes to run far distances at
slow speeds.
The benefit of using extensive tempo runs are they can be used to help flush out the system. If your
athletes are feeling tired from previous workouts or even sore, extensive tempo workouts are great for
recovery.
We do use them at the beginning of training sometimes to build a little base before jumping into
intensive tempo workouts. Also this type of workout helps to enhance oxidative mechanisms.
We use extensive tempo with our general strength circuits for the most part. This is where the athlete
runs-jogs-walks briskly from station/exercise to the next.
" = seconds
' = minutes
Next 2 weeks
Monday: Acceleration
Tuesday: GS Circuits
Wednesday: Maximum Velocity
Thursday: GS Circuits
Friday: Acceleration
Saturday: Intensive Tempo
GS = General Strength