Exercising under fatigue changes ones mechanics. Form gets sloppy. In the world of sport, performing under less than ideal conditions (and ever more so in the tactical world) is mandatory. You cannot ask for an extra few minutes to stretch, warm up, shift the angle of the sun or change the arena temperature. One of(…)
Many people who participate in long distance running, cycling or swimming supplement with carbohydrate beverages. The idea is that over long-periods time, the glucose necessary for fatty acid mobilization becomes used up and the athlete ‘hits the wall’ or ‘bonks out’. With replenishment, they can continue properly mobilizing fatty acids to fuel the activity and(…)
We’ve discussed interval training previously (here, here, here and here). So it is established that intervals help one lose weight, increase mitochondrial density, lactic capacity and other factors. As a coach, you need to ask yourself- can my athletes integrate intervals without a) taking away from their skill work and b) burning them out so(…)
Running economy, defined by de Oliveira Assumpcao, et al 2013, as the energy demand for a given velocity of submaximal training, will determine how two athletes of equivalent VO2max will race. Now, few people only train running but incorporate sports activity, weight training, plyometrics and other forms of training. This creates muscle damage which can(…)
Masters athletes (those more than 35 years old) will slow down. The question is simply the rate. Numerous studies have demonstrated that compared to their inactive counterparts who peak at 35 and begin a rapid decline, athletes have a slower gentler curve, with decline somewhere between 50 and 70 years old (depending on the sport(…)
Brown, et al 2011 had 419 marathon runners complete a survey on race day. This was used to gather different data. First, the average age of men and women were 41 and 38 respectively indicating that marathon running is popular with a slightly older sports crowd. They had trained 6.8 months for this race and(…)
The specificity principle of training, suggests that specific training methodologies should be employed to maximise the training effect. In other words, sprinters should employ sprint training to improve their performance etc. When it comes to applying the specificity principle to soccer, this means that on-field football training provides the best method of training. Della et al. (2006) that(…)
Pictured above is Ed Whitlock. He currently holds the world record in men’s marathon times 70-74, 74-79 and over 80. At the age of 70 he completed a marathon 2:59:10, at 73, 2:54:48, at 76, 3:04:54 and at 81 he recorded a time of 3:15:54. With the coming wave a baby boomers, we should expect(…)