Chapter 4

1. Chapter 4 Conditioning & Strength Training in Athletics

2. Overview • Purpose of conditioning and strength training • Fitness-testing procedures • Fitness-testing parameters • Exercise prescription • Developing the strength-training program • Types of strength training • Equipment selection • Integrating other fitness components • Preventing injury

3. Purpose of Conditioning and Strength Training • Athletes’, and the athletic trainer's, role in conditioning and strength training • Optimize performance & athletic development • Prevent injury • People in other exercise settings • Enhance health and wellness • Optimize performance • Older adults • Maintain health and wellness • Improve quality of living

4. Fitness-Testing Procedures • Measures the athlete's level of fitness • Helps identify muscle groups or energy sources that need to be trained • Usually includes tests of muscular function, cardiovascular function, speed, agility, and body composition • SPARQ testing provides sport-specific evaluation • www.sparqtraining.com • Preseason participation evaluation

5. Fitness-Testing Procedures • Ongoing evaluations • For athletes • Help to identify particular weaknesses that may have developed • For physically active (non competitive athletes) • Indicate progress toward fitness goals and whether changes in the program are advisable • Postseason fitness evaluations • Used to plan and assess the off-season training program

6. Fitness-Testing Parameters • Muscle function • Muscle strength • Ability of the muscle or group of muscles to overcome a resistance • 1-repetition maximum (1RM) test • Muscular endurance • Ability of a muscle or group of muscles to perform a repetitive action • Sit-ups, push-ups, or more sport-specific evaluations such as the squat with a light weight for a cross country runner • Muscle power • Rate of performing work: A weight lifted (force) through a range of movement (usually a vertical distance) divided by the unit of time required to perform the lift • Vertical jump

7. Fitness-Testing Parameters • Cardiovascular function • Evaluating aerobic power • Ability to use oxygen in performing work • 1.5 mile (2.4 km) timed run, step test, 2 mile (3.2 km) timed run • Evaluating anaerobic power • Ability to perform activities of very short duration using metabolic processes that produce energy without oxygen • Vertical jump, shuttle run

8. Fitness-Testing Parameters • Agility and speed • Agility • The ability to start, stop, and change direction • Shuttle run, T-test, Edgren Side Step test • Proper footwear; time to learn the pattern before being timed • Speed • Length of time required to travel a set distance • Running—preferably in distances similar to those that occur in the sport; timed dashes such as the 40 yd (37 m) or 100 yd (91 m) dash for sports with short bursts of sprinting

9. Fitness-Testing Parameters • Flexibility • Joint structure • Structure of joint surface determines the motions available • Ball-and-socket versus other types of joints • Effects of muscle size • Muscle bulk can limit movement • Can avoid this loss of flexibility in two ways: stretching the same muscle that is strengthened and strengthening the opposite muscles (antagonists)

10. Fitness-Testing Parameters • Flexibility (cont.) • Ligament and tendon composition • All connective tissues are made up of collagen and elastin • Some people have more elasticity than others have • Age and sex • Females tend to be more flexible than males • As people age, they tend to decrease in flexibility • Active people are more flexible than sedentary people

11. Fitness-Testing Parameters • Flexibility (cont.) • Testing • Importance • Hamstring: sit-and-reach test • Pectoralis major muscles: supine, elbows clasped behind head; then relax shoulders to allow elbows to move toward table

12. Fitness-Testing Parameters • Height, weight, and body composition • Uses of anthropometry: height and weight • To determine position on team an athlete is best suited for • Self-knowledge • Unexpected changes can be a sign of a medical condition

13. Fitness-Testing Parameters • Height, weight, and body composition • Body composition test is more significant • Amount of fat in relation to lean tissue • High levels of fat affect ability to move optimally and are associated with certain diseases and illnesses • Methods of measuring • Skin calipers • Body mass index • Hydrostatic weighing • Bioelectrical impedance

14. Exercise Prescription • Needs analysis—considering the objectives of the program • What muscle groups should be conditioned? • Demands of sport: Physiological and biomechanical analysis of the skills of the sport • Abilities of the athlete • Energy systems • Muscle activity: concentric, eccentric, or isometric? • Injury patterns • Team's injury history • Athlete’s injury history

15. Exercise Prescription • Goal setting • Short-term goals • Include immediate (individual day) and short-range (month) goals • Contribute to the long-term goal • Long-term goals • Must be established by the athlete • Should be specific, measurable, and attributable to the conditioning program • Limitations to the plan • Recognize that obstacles to achieving the goal will occur, and establish alternate plans • Provide communication and encouragement

16. Exercise Prescription • Exercise plans • Training volume: Amount of work performed • Exercise order • Station approach: Maximize overload on one muscle group before moving to the next • Circuit training: Work a muscle group to fatigue, and then hurry to the next exercise, maintaining the elevated heart rate

17. Developing the Strength-Training Program • Resistance and overload: essential to every program • Exercise intensity • The percentage of the 1RM: relationship of percentage to strength gains • Hypertrophy method • Goal is increased muscle mass through increasing the size of individual muscle fibers • 5 to 12 reps at 70 to 85% of the 1RM • High-intensity training method (HIT) • Goal is to improve recruitment of existing muscle fibers rather than to increase the size of the fibers • Intensity reaches up to 100%; amount of weight increased if athlete can lift prescribed weight more than four times

18. Developing the Strength-Training Program • Periodization • Brings about peak performance by constantly changing training stimulus (intensity, volume, specificity, etc.) • Reduces risk of injury and overtraining • Macrocycle comprised of mesocycles, mesocycles comprised of microcycles

19. Developing the Strength-Training Program • Macrocycle • Duration of competitive training • Annual for most athletes, every four years for Olympic athletes • Progresses from high volume, low intensity non-sport specific to low volume, low intensity, sport specific activity

20. Developing the Strength-Training Program • Mesocycle • Preparatory phase • Off-season (3 sub-phases) • Hypertrophy/endurance • Low intensity, high volume • Non-sport specific • Strength • Moderate intensity, moderate volume • Power • High intensity, low volume • Sport-specific

21. Developing the Strength-Training Program • Mesocycles (continued) • In-season • Competition phase • Maintenance driven • High intensity, low volume • Post-season • Transition phase • Unstructured • Allows time to recover physically & psychologically

22. Developing the Strength-Training Program • Progressive overload • Gradual increase in the stress placed on a muscle as it gains strength or endurance • Accomplished through increasing repetitions or resistance

23. Developing the Strength-Training Program • Rest periods and training frequency • Rest periods: Amount of time between consecutive sets • Longer—3 to 5 min—when training for absolute strength (1RM loads) • Shorter—30 to 60 sec—when training for muscle hypertrophy (8-12 reps with submaximal weight) • Rest periods in circuit training: 1:1 ratio and when to modify • Training frequency: Length of time between exercise sessions • Typically, weight training done on alternating days • Longer recovery needed if early in exercise program, if exercises are multijoint, if maximal or near-maximal loads are used • Shorter recovery needed if low volume used on days between high-volume training, or if athlete has been weightlifting on a regular basis for several years

24. Types of Strength Training • Isometric • Muscle generates a force, but there is no joint movement; resistance is greater than the athlete is able to move • Strength gains are greatest at the precise joint position at which the contraction is performed • Isometrics are not often applicable to sport performance, though consider holding positions in wrestling and gymnastics, abdominal muscles in swimming, abdominal and back muscles in running • Difficult to measure the overload

25. Types of Strength Training • Isotonic • Moving the joint through a range of motion with a set amount of resistance applied • Occurs in lifting free weights and in most activities of daily living • Variable resistance • Delivers a varying resistance at different points in the range of motion • Offset cam on Nautilus/variable-resistance machines; sliding lever bar systems; rubber bands or elastic tubing (provides increased resistance as the band is elongated) • Isokinetics • Muscular action performed at a constant velocity • Isokinetic machines provide a maximum resistance throughout the entire range of joint movement

26. Types of Strength Training • Concentric and eccentric training • Most sports involve both phases • Concentric muscle activity • The shortening of the muscle when a limb moves through a range of motion with a resistance applied • This muscle action is the force-production part of almost every human movement • Eccentric muscle activity • The lengthening of a muscle (lengthening contraction) that occurs with lowering of a weight • Does not occur in every form of isokinetic exercise (some isokinetic machines do allow eccentric contractions), proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation exercises, or manual resistance exercises without modifications • Does occur with most other weightlifting machines and in all forms of body weight conditioning (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, etc.)

27. Types of Strength Training • Plyometrics • Also known as stretch-shortening cycle exercise • Stretch phase: Eccentric loading phase • Shortening phase: Force-production or concentric phase • Every physical activity incorporates the stretch-shortening cycle • Critical feature: A concentric force production follows every eccentric load absorption • When a muscle is stretched prior to the onset of a contraction, the contraction is greater than it would have been otherwise • Can be used as part of a rehabilitation program or to prepare for a specialized skill or performance

28. Equipment Selection • Must understand biomechanics of the sport or activity, then attempt to find specific exercises to challenge the relevant muscles to adapt, and choose equipment on these parameters • Free weights • Strength-training machines • Can be less expensive than free weights • Safer for young athletes—cannot drop weight on foot or chest • May not provide an adequate range of exercises for all sizes of athletes or for all strength levels

29. Equipment Selection • Individual machines • Take up more space and cost more than free weights • Major benefit: can exercise an individual joint action or muscle group • Other equipment • Functional activities • Plyo balls, elastics, swimming or pool work • Comparing equipment types • In general, free weights are thought to be more beneficial than machines • Machines offer an advantage when range of motion is limited—in rehabilitation situations or for athletes who have disabilities

30. Integrating Other Fitness Components • Aerobic endurance training • Nearly every physical activity requires some degree of cardiovascular, or aerobic, endurance • Establish fitness level by using a cardiovascular stress test to determine the maximal heart rate • The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends an exercise intensity for aerobic conditioning between 60 and 90% of the maximal heart rate (or 50 to 80% of the VO2max obtained in a stress test) • Overload required, short-term goals leading to long-term goals in a steady progression

31. Integrating Other Fitness Components • Anaerobic training • Not as universally required as aerobic training, but critical in most sport activities • Training principles • Requires short, intense bursts of activity • Should be sport specific • Possible methods: running short, intense sprints; performing short, intense bouts on a slide-board, bicycle, step-up equipment; and so on • Cannot be sustained for long periods of time • Can use interval training to allow body to recover • Who should train anaerobically? • Primarily for people with moderate level of fitness who want to improve this aspect of their conditioning • Not appropriate for older adults or others who have low fitness levels, or for anyone who might risk injury doing exercise at high intensity • People at risk for cardiovascular disease should be carefully screened • Program design • Advantageous to vary distances of sprints during the workout • Increase volume gradually to avoid injury: Increase mileage or time spent by no more than 10% per week • Alternate interval training days with days of rest or more moderately paced exercise

32. Integrating Other Fitness Components • Flexibility/stretching programs • Rationale for stretching: reduction of injury? improvement of sport performance? use in rehabilitation? • Passive stretching • No work on the part of the athlete • Another person carries limb through range of motion; must have training • Active stretching • Athlete takes an active role in the stretching • Uses his or her own body to produce the stretch • Contract/relax stretching • Partner or therapist provides the resistance to the contraction and stretches the muscle group • Preliminary contraction may allow the muscle to more fully relax during the stretching cycle • Single, straight plane of motion

33. Integrating Other Fitness Components • Flexibility/stretching programs • Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) • Requires that three movements occur: flexion/extension, abduction/adduction, and rotation • Diagonal patterns of movement traversing three planes • Stretching methods • Static: Joint moved to the point at which tightness is felt, and that position held • Ballistic: Involves a bouncing movement; not entirely safe • Dynamic: Involves sport-specific movements; for example, "high knees" for sprinters

34. Preventing Injury • Coaching methods • Particular coaching techniques or instructions can cause or prevent injuries (e.g., spearing versus head up during tackling in football) • National Standards for Athletic Coaches (National Association for Sport and Physical Education/American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance [AAHPERD]) • Matching athletes on motor skill performance • Controlling biomechanical stress/overuse • Role of extrinsic forces (someone else landing on your foot) • Modifying physical demands placed on athlete (being aware of illness and fatigue)

35. Considerations for Female Athletes • Hormonal differences • Neural differences • Strength/body weight ratio • Absolute vs. relative strength