RAQ Training

I venture to say that there are more recreational professional athletes out there than any other population of athletes i.e. collegiate, high school, professional, semi professional. This series whole purpose is for you guys the women and men that play the game for the love of it not for any external incentive other than bragging rights and personal fulfillment. This a four part series in which we take a look at the weekend warrior aka recreational professional athlete. In part one, we defined what and who a recreational professional athlete was what characteristics they possess. The second part looked at the first part of a three part series of how does a recreational professional athlete train by breaking down the periodization that one must go through to successful train to be at an optimal level of performance. In addition, during that breakdown we looked at what each section main goal or purpose was and what an athlete could effectively get from each section. To recap the three sections were off season, pre season, and in season. Now we will look at the importance of stretching and strength training as well as performance training i.e. speed, agility, quickness training.

Stretching can help with muscle recovery and optimizing muscle gains and increasing flexibility. Active stretching also known as static stretching is the most common of all stretching and is usually performed before working out or before doing any type of activity. Static stretching is performed by a person stretching and holding that muscle or group of muscles in a position for a particular period of time (30-60 seconds). Contrary to old beliefs, the best time to work on static flexibility is at the end of your workout, and not in the beginning! After every workout you should follow with a static stretching routine to cool down and recover.

Athletes should warm-up by jogging, rope jumping, jumping jacks, total body movement, etc. preceding a dynamic stretching routine. The warm-up increases the body temperature and blood flow to the muscles, and lubricates the joints. Always remember warm-up to stretch, and not stretch to warm-up. Recent studies have even begun to show that dynamic stretching may be more beneficial than active stretching. Dynamic stretching also decreases muscle tightness and subsequently prevent muscle tears. Dynamic stretching is a bit more complex and consists of an athlete performing movements that replicate those inherent to their particular activities and sports. Dynamic stretching uses speed of movement, momentum and active muscular effort to bring about a stretch. Unlike static stretching the end position is not held for a particular extent of time. Examples of dynamic stretching would be a lunge walk, butt kicks, lateral lunge walk, high knee march, etc. (Coming soon the weekend warrior dynamic stretching regiment!!!).

We now move into the importance of strength training. Strength training is important in more ways than one. For starters, strength training benefits include an increase in muscle size and tone, increased muscular strength, and increases in tendon, bone, and ligament strength. Lifting weights has also been shown to improve psychological health as well by increasing self-esteem, confidence and self-worth. As a result, athletes that perform strength training become an asset to their team because they will be able to endure the whole season by minimizing injures usually sustained from participating. All exercises performed in the gym should be functional in nature meaning that they should carry over to the field. No exercise should be performed unless it will increase and enhance the chances of the athlete being a better player in their sport period. We use the term functional training to explain this concept and athletes should train in the gym and/or field with this concept in mind. If you can carry your strength and speed over the course of an entire game you will run circles around your opponent which translates into winning!

The next concept that we discuss is plyometric exercises or jump training for lower body plyometric exercises. Plyometric exercises are high intensity training techniques used to develop power, strength, and speed. The most common plyometric exercises include hops, jumps and bounding movements. One popular plyometric exercise is jumping off a box and rebounding off the floor and onto another, higher box. In many sports the athlete performs many quick and explosive movements. Plyometric exercises aid in training the muscles to fire faster and stronger thus creating more force resulting in quicker movements from point A to point B. Also because plyometric exercises are explosive and taxing to the body, they should be done first before any other exercise is performed so that the athlete does not expose themselves to injury. In addition, due to the nature of plyometric exercises their are precautionary measures that one should consideration when doing them. One being the weight of an individual. Individuals that are 250 lbs or moe should not try to perform jumping from boxes no higher than six inches due to the weight that is placed on their joints from the landing of the impact. Likewise, it is not recommended that an athlete no matter how much they weigh perform plyometricexercises on consecutive days due to the stress demand that plyometric exercises place on the body. Remember, plyometrics are done in an explosive quick manner so it takes a lot of energy to perform these exercises that are being prescribed. Therefore, the athlete needs time to recover from doing the exercises.

Finally, the recreational athlete should also incorporate some type performance enhancing training i.e. speed, agility, and footwork for their sport. Reaction is the elapsed time between the presentation of a sensory stimulus and the subsequent behavioral response. Agility focuses on the ability to accelerate, decelerate, stabilize the body and quickly and dynamically change directions without the loss of body control and posture. If you can do all of these things efficiently you will maximize your ability to change direction quicker than your opponent. This component is equally if not more important than linear speed in most sports. Quickness focuses on ability to react to visual and auditory cues with little or no hesitation. This is a major part of every sport because every sport involves an athlete reacting off of what their opponent did or is going to do. If you can improve your quickness, you will be one step ahead of the competition.

In most recreational leagues and sports, these three components are key to making big plays on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Again, the athlete wants to train in a manner that will transition their training rather it be in the weight room or on the field into their game. Some drills can be used during the in season as well to help maintain and enhance conditioning. At the same rate, these drills are great for building team cohesion during practice as a great way to change up the style of practice or implemented at the end of practice as a great way to keep all athletes engaged throughout the whole practice session. Either way, I have found them to be of great assistance not only for cardiovascular endurance training, but also a great teaching tool to help athletes learn the game and understand their role and others when they are out on the field and/or court.

So to recap the recreational professional athlete now knows who they are, the different periods that they should go through as well as each goal of that particular periodization. They also have now learned what they need to be concentrating on while in the gym as well as while on the field with proper warm ups and stretches before and after activity to prevent themselves from getting hurt. In addition, we have talked about the importance of functional training and why a recreational professional athlete would use plyometric and performance training to enhance their game. In a nut shell we have visited every aspect of physical training that the weekend warrior needs to keep in mind when building the perfect machine. The last of this series we will visit the mental aspect of the game and why its as important as training physically and what the athlete needs to look for when training mentally.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Personal Training, sports specific workouts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.