Tabata Protocol

So, back in 1996, Dr. Izumi Tabata performed a study in which 2 sets of athletes followed 2 different sets of exercise protocols. Group one performed steady state cardio 5 times per week and group 2 performed 4 mins of intervals and 1 steady state per week. Group 1 finished with a higher average Vo2 Max but Group 2 started lower and gained more overall. The interval protocol that group 2 followed consisted of 8 rounds of 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. You know the story by now. You should also know that if something sounds too good to be true then it probably is, especially in this case. What most people fail to point out is that the 20 seconds of exercise is performed at 170% of Vo2 Max!!

In Tabata's study, the Vo2 Max was determined by having an athlete exercise while measuring his oxygen uptake and gradually increasing the exercise intensity until the athlete’s oxygen uptake no longer continued to rise. This was considered 100% of their Vo2 Max and it is often associated with complete exhaustion and/or vomiting. The 20 seconds of exercise was then performed at an intensity level 70% above this.

Tabata protocol = MAX effort. You physically cannot achieve this level of intensity with push-ups, star jumps or skipping. You definitely cannot perform 2 sets of Tabatas one after another with different exercises.

Please keep this in mind when referring to interval training. I know I will in future.

Happy Halloween

Alan

Core Work

A number of people recently have asked me about core work and what they should be doing. Core work has got a lot of press in the last while and there is a lot of misinformation out there about it so I've decided to write this to clear up a few issues.

First, lets define what we're talking about. I will define the core as all the muscles of the torso and mid-section. This includes all the abdominal muscles, the lower back muscles, the gluteal and hamstring* muscles and the hip rotators.

*The hamstrings are included as they work in unison with the glutes to flex the pelvis.

Now, next lets look at what the torso actually does during exercise. Simply put, the torso links upper body strength and lower body strength. It does this in four ways:

• Rotation
• Lateral Flexion
• Felxion
• Stabilization

and stabilization can be broken down to:

• anti-rotation
• anti-lateral flexion
• anti flexion

basically, the opposite of the other function of the torso.

How best to train the torso? This is where it gets somewhat sports specific. For example, a hockey player, who spends a good deal of time with the torso in a flexed position, should allocate more time to anti flexion work than a say a baseball batsman.

Once you decide which areas your specific sport uses more frequently, then you should allocate more torso training time to that area.

So which exercises work best?

• If your sport involves a lot of rotation then medicine ball work should definitely be looked at.
• Wood chopper exercises should be included in any program to develop anti rotation and anti lateral flexion.
• Planks, bridges and plank progressions should be included to cover basic stability.

Torso work can be done in isolation but small changes to your current workout can help work the required areas. E.g.

• performing a unilateral exercise instead of bilateral
• heavy front squats
• performing upper body exercises on one leg
• performing suitcase dead-lifts instead of normal dead-lifts

When to perform torso training exercise?

Traditionally torso exercises, namely sit-ups and crunches, have been performed at the end of a workout. I believe that proper torso training should be performed after plyo work but before any strength work in any workout.

I hope this helps. If you want any more specific information about your own program or your sport please feel free to contact me.

Off Season

I was asked to write an article for the IFDA newsletter on off season training and injury prevention. I've decided to share it with you here too. Its non specific and doesn't go into too much detail but I feel it gets the message across. Comments greatly appreciated.

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Off Season: a time of year when a particular activity, typically a sport, is not engaged in and as such can be broken down into the following areas:

Complete downtime. This is where no ultimate is played, where the other activities you’ve put aside to play Ultimate can be undertaken and the body can take a well earned break after a hard season. The length of this complete down time is up to the individual but I’d recommend anywhere from two to eight weeks. The benefits of complete downtime are huge. You get to show people you have a life outside Ultimate, your body is allowed time to repair those little niggles (you get a few weeks without ibuprofen) and best of all you’ll end up missing playing Ultimate.

Off Season. This is a great chance to prepare for the coming season. It’s a great time to keep ticking over with 1 or 2 skill/tactical based training sessions per week with the rest of the time spent on the following areas

• Strength Training. The benefits of an increase in strength are twofold: Being a stronger athlete allows you be a more powerful athlete; the energy demands of the top game can mean the body uses muscle tissue as fuel. This atrophy can lead to injury unless the muscle mass is large enough to sustain it.
• Functional Training. Developing proper athletic movement patterns is a great way to avoid potential injury.
• Rehab/Prehab. Whether it’s the tight hammy that needs to be looked at or the glute that has a tendency to go at vital times, now is the time to fix it (rehab) or to ensure it stays fixed (Prehab).
• Flexibility and Mobility. The off season is the perfect time to increase your flexibility and range of motion. An increase in both of these areas will not only help you recover quicker from training it will reduce the risk of picking up an injury.

Pre Season. This is where the fun starts. Conditioning, movement patterns and skills can all be trained hard in pre season with a solid off season base behind you. Lashing into pre season without a solid base is an injury waiting to happen.

Some Dos and Don’ts for off season training.

• Do get into a gym and increase your strength
• Do train like an athlete – get advice from a good gym instructor
• Do train your weaknesses harder than your strengths
• Do Stretch after every session
• Do increase ROM before each session

• Don’t train like a body builder – focus on movements not the gun show
• Don’t run (you’ll run enough during practice) – not even for warm-ups
• Don’t rely on other forms of fitness to carry over to Ultimate e.g. the best swimmers do not make the best runners and visa versa.

Example Timeline (2010/2011)

This is only an example but I believe there are 26 weeks between October and March (inc)

Hypertrophy Program

A few things have changed since I started my 6 week program:

The weather has changed
I've got a job
My long term goal has a date

Because of this I've decided to spend the next 8 weeks putting on some muscle. To do this I'm going to cut my conditioning work to 1/2 sessions per week.

Here's what the next 8 weeks workouts look like on paper.

Day 1.
Bench Press 4 x 8-12
Dips 2 x 8

Db Bench Press|

| Superset 3 x 12

Flys |

Db Shrugs 4 x 12

Prone Incline Shrug 3 x 8

Day 2.

Power Clean x 8/6/4

OH Press x 8/6/4

Front Squat x 8/6/4

Face Pulls 3 x 15

Leg Raises 4 x 12

Day 3.

Inclined DB Press 3 x 12

Pullover 3 x 12

Flys 3 x 12

BB Shrugs 4 x 12

Upright Row 3 x 8

Day 4.

Dead lift 5 x 5

Pull ups 5 x 5

Face Pulls 3 x 15

Leg Raises 4 x 12

Alan

The Next 6 Weeks

So after a month or so faffing its time to get back into some training. Below is the template I'm going to follow for the next 6 weeks (till the end of September). Hopefully by that stage the IFDA/WFDF will have sorted their shit out and I'll have a clearer idea of the time available to be fit enough to compete at EUC 2011 (If I make the squad!!!)

I realise that this is quite general but I'll include more specifics at the end of each day.
Laura is keen to do some plank work maybe 3 times a week so I'll probably do that with her too.

I plan on eating whatever I like on Sundays, to increase Leptin levels and keep me sane, and have a fast day on Monday. I'll let you know how that goes. Its only 6 weeks and I've one out of the way already.

Alan