Day 4 at IHP

Day 4……this week is going far too fast! JC picks us up from the hotel and we head to IHP, with some Santana (the guitarist) music in the background on the CD player.

The first lecture was taken by JC, this was probably the best so far…not quite sure how they keep getting better and better but they do! We learnt about programme design and the stages required to optimise performance. With this we learnt how to adapt this to help clientele with limited time or specific individual needs.

We discussed the volumes and frequency required to train each sub section of a programme in a progressive manor. We later focused on power; this can be a combination of force and speed or amount of work done in a specific amount of time. JC shared with us some of his latest findings from the training floor about how to improve power and how to measure increases in power just using a stop watch to record time. This kind of information is not in any books, journals or any publications at present, so it is great to get our hands on this to give our clients the benefit as early as possible.

JC presented us with a very clear and easy to follow template for programme design that takes all the element of risk of leaving a particular movement pattern out of a training programme away. We then talked about the transfer from training room to outside world. JC then discussed his opinions on the need to not over emphasise the increase in absolute strength but more to develop strength you can use. For example, on a rugby field it’s unlikely that you will need to pick up more than 200Kg, so there is no need to keep striving to improve this 200kg figure, why not strive to improve your ability to pick someone up and throw them backwards. This is where the functional exercises give you the edge, transferring absolute strength into something you can use in whatever situation it may be. He is not saying that you don’t need to be absolutely strong to perform well, but when you get to this level, perhaps it’s more beneficial to work on transferring this into a powerful specific movement, rather than worrying whether you can lift 5Lb’s more!

JC also shared his views on the over training culturisation that surrounds swimming and endurance sports.  He proposed that most endurance athletes train too much because they believe that because this is how it was done before, and internationally, this is how they do it in my country so this is how I must train! We need to replace high quantity with high quality. Ultimately it’s not the person who trains the most that wins; it’s the person whose training is most effective that will win!

A practical illustration of this is a swimmer who does a 30 length warm up and swims 10 x 100m and 5 x 150m sprints. If the swimmers event is 50m, then why not train at the pace you want to achieve but for shorter distances, so you know how it feels to go at that pace not at sub maximal paces over distances that aren’t even applicable to your sport.

Right that’s it for me…..tomorrow is the last day…lectures and practical in the morning, then the Functional Training Specialist exam and then a workout with JC to finish me off.

Catch you tomorrow

Andy

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 12:03 am and is filed under IHP Functional Training Mentorship with JC Santana.