SpeedEndurance.com » Track & Field

Interview with Stephen Maguire, Coach of Jason Smyth [VIDEO]

Jimson Lee — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

This is Part 7 of a multi-part series from my recent trip to Orlando & Clermont, Florida.

Part 1 was with Dennis Mitchell and Part 2 was with Brooks Johnson.

Parts 3 & 5 was Hurdle Touchdown Times with Kellie Wells Training and Part 4 included Håkan Andersson.

Part 5 was myself being interviewed by Derek Hansen.

The Oscar Pistorius story isn’t the only headline in attempting to compete at both this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.

Northern Ireland’s Jason Smyth has his vision affected by a condition known as Stargardt’s Disease. He won two gold medals at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, and became the first Paralympic athlete ever to compete at the (able bodied) European Championships in 2010.

The 100 meter Olympic “A” standard is 10.18 and Smith ran 10.22 in 2011, just missing it by an agonizing 0.04 seconds. The good news is his 2012 opener was a 10.24 performance, the fastest ever as an opener.

There are no controversies here with devices assisting in a better performance. He is legally blind.

What makes this story unique is Smith is training at the National Training Centre in Clermont under the watchful eye of Stephen Maguire, who works along with Lance Brauman. (Brauman’s interview will appear later on this Blog)

I had the chance to shadow a full workout with both Maguire and Brauman, and afterwards, I interviewed him with some coaching questions.

In this interview, we actually get a good insight on some of the magic workouts and distances that both coaches use.

Interview with Stephen Maguire

In the last part of the interview, he talks about using Freelap and how it helps.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Hemoglobin and Fatigue at Crunch Time with InsideTracker

Jimson Lee — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Question: I play soccer and notice that I am getting less separation in the end of games. Ever since I started eating better I have found that the improvements in body composition have not translated on the field. Last week I was found not to have mono but my hemoglobin was lower than the keeper on my team, who also is on the same diet plan. I am confused, shouldn’t I have a higher hemoglobin level being a midfielder?

Answer: Many athletes that play team or mixed sports find themselves halfway between power sports and endurance sports with hemoglobin values. The reason is that training endurance and games will raise one’s plasma volume (blood changes) for better microcirculation. The real culprit I see is not the drop in hemoglobin from changes in plasma volume (PV) but likely from eating stricter. Modifications like eating eggs without yolks or strict meal combining are common patterns that reduce the nutrients needed to support hemoglobin function. A one week food diary is invaluable to find what patterns of eating you are doing to see what micronutrients are causing problems. Most nutritionists try to give general advice for healthy eating with athletes, but extreme diets are often taken from bodybuilding and physique competitions that don’t care about human performance, just human appearance. Be careful about

Training is not going to make changes to your hemoglobin scores unless you are using altitude tents, and even if you did the impact is going to be minor. Most pro or elite athletes that would benefit with extreme adjustments are unable to sustain the use of the equipment because of travel demands. The irony is that those that need such devices are the least able to benefit from it from a logistics standpoint. The international Skating Union found no relationship between Hemoglobin levels of elite or lower level skaters.

"The number and percentage of abnormal hematological findings were found to vary between 0 and 2 %, and failed to show a clear pattern or trend over the years. There was no difference in mean Hb levels between top ranked and lower ranked skaters, and no meaningful relationship between Hb concentration and ranking could be found."

Does the research mean that no pattern exists with performance? It’s complicated, but a simple way to summarize the interaction with all of the factors is to get to normal ranges of mixed athletes. A German study¹ showed that normal values were very narrow, but if a severely low score is present, it’s suggested that one follow up with a medical professional. Ferritin can hint to why hemoglobin values don’t fall in norms, but rare combinations of normal ferritin scores and low hemoglobin scores can occur, and the reasons are so different no real pattern exists. Elite athletes may have lower scores than sedentary people, so high scores or very extreme scores are not necessary, and genetics play a huge role with biomarkers. Screening 3-4 times a year is suggested.

The takeaway here is to get tested during key milestones of the season 3-4 times and watch your diet carefully, especially during heavy training periods and with diets that have very strict rules and limited options. If the diet is not something the has variety or whole food options, one has to be very careful of micronutrient pitfalls.

For more information, visit InsideTracker.com

1. SCHUMACHER, Y. O., A. SCHMID, D. GRATHWOHL, D. BU ? LTERMANN, and A. BERG. Hematological indices and iron status in athletes of various sports and performances. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc.,Vol. 34, No. 5, pp. 869–875, 2002.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Heart Rate Variability (HRV), The Warm-up, Cryosaunas and Recovery

Jimson Lee — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:50:00 +0000

Every week, ithlete will cover general questions on training and recovery, as well as specific best practices with Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

If you have a general question or a specific question on how to use ithlete you can email ithlete.support@myithlete.com.

Question 1: I seem to struggle in the trials and practice, even during taper periods. I have experimented with different warm-ups and don’t know what I should do differently to ensure I move onto finals as I am usually seeded 6-10th each week. I run the 100m but have a 200 and 400m background. Any ideas?

Answer: A lot of different possible variables could be the culprit here. Most likely it’s the configuration of the week and I suggest using the same structure for a month and see what could be the problem with a process of elimination and trial and error. It’s not an exact science but the easiest way to get started is the sequence of workouts during the week. Many times the ingredients are correct but the order is wrong. Another possible tweak is the volumes of the sequence of choice. Finally look at the entire block or theme of the month and see if the plan is allowing for good racing. Sometimes a speed development block shows itself later as it creates a fatigue debt to the body.

Another problem I am seeing is that athletes are not warming up hard enough because conditioning seems to be less popular as athletes in the 100m tend to be less classically trained with a foundation of general fitness. Instinctually athletes tend to warm-up less if they are less fit, and the results reveal this. Many athletes think they are technically making mistakes in the races (coordinative degradation) but the primary reason is that no potentiation from some build up sprinting was not done. Don’t be afraid of getting tired, but be waiting perfect feeling as you could do too much. Just enough to taste the speed but not enough to get full.

Finally, athletes with great facilities and programs that include external equipment or the same meet schedule year after year tend to get stale or are hopelessly dependent on medicine balls throws and weight lifts to get going. This is fine for early training periods but coaches need to remember rehearsal should be similar to meets. If you need certain modalities and they are not available at athletic meetings (track meets), you will likely to have problems early in the rounds. Try experimenting with the above options and see what works with you with a training diary.

Question 2: I saw Kobe Bryant talking about cryosaunas on ESPN and I decided to experiment with going to one and seeing if it made a difference in my HRV. I use Kubios and found a great reading immediately after but later that night I didn’t feel better and got sick. I play D1 soccer in the south and wanted to help my recovery from a busy training week. The price of the application is extremely expensive and I have to drive 90 minutes to get to the clinic. What can I do differently?

Answer: Very good question. HRV is starting to make progress as an indicator of effectiveness of therapy and recovery, not just training load. Commercial cryosaunas are often not rooms (cryochamber) but freestanding barrels. While the brochure may say total body, it’s more of a torso and upper leg application. This means that the most important area, the receptors of the skull, are not getting the same sensations of a room. The immediate response of a commercial system will create a very rapid change but the effects are not lasting. One important point is that recovery methods are often sparks of stress to create a natural internal response, and too much or the wrong timing will backfire, especially when an athlete is financially stressed and driving long distances to get treatment. Biochemically the cold will not cause immunosupression, but chronic inflammation and life stress could be the reason you got sick.

Cold Water Immersion (CWI) has lost interest because of mixed reviews from the scientific literature and the rise of cryosaunas and cryochambers, but CWI still has use when athletes are in competition periods. College and Professional sports usually have competition periods based on commercial incentives, not ultimate performance, especially in the United States and Western Europe. Buchheit and colleagues¹ stated in their conclusion that:

"The present study supports the likely benefits of using of CWI before and after supramaximal exercise performed in the heat. When used after a single exercise session, CWI significantly restored the impaired parasympathetic function to almost pre-exercise levels. Thus CWI may serve as a simple and effective means of accelerating parasympathetic reactivation during the immediate period following supramaximal exercise."

I would drop the drive and think about using conventional ice baths and save your money. Some athletes benefit from them while others may not respond well. I suggest taking your HRV scores in 30-90 second samples every hour for 6 hours to get a indicator of what your own unique body does. Remember to rotate the use of it with other complimentary therapies such as soft tissue treatments and training off site to prevent staleness or training monotony.

1. Buchheit M, Peiffer JJ, Abbiss CR, Laursen PB. Effect of cold water immersion on postexercise parasympathetic reactivation. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 296: H421–H427, 2009. First published December 12, 2008; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01017.2008

Wallace Spearmon wins Manchester 150m (VIDEO, SPLITS)

Jimson Lee — Mon, 21 May 2012 08:30:00 +0000

I want to congratulate Wallace Spearmon on his last minute victory at the Manchester Great City Games 150 meters. Walter Dix pulled out at the last minute, so he had very little time to pack his bags and “cross the pond”. Be sure to follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PrinceSpearmon

As expected, Dwayne Chambers gets off to a rocket start, but eventually the speed endurance of Wallace Spearmon closes the gap for an easy victory.

Just as a comparison, since I am collecting stats, here are his 50m splits along with Tyson Gay’s 2011 race, and Usain Bolt’s WR of 14.25 set back in 2009.

Here is the video from BBC:

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Interview with Dan Pfaff: 5 Questions

Jimson Lee — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

This is Part 4 of the weekly “Friday Five” series where I ask 5 tough questions to world class elite coaches. Week 1 was with renowned jumps coach Boo Schexnayder. Week 2 had Dr. Mike Stone of the USOC and NBA and Week 3 was performance specialist Henk Kraaijenhof.

Dan Pfaff is the Director of the Lee Valley High Performance Center in North London.

His resume includes coaching 29 NCAA champions, 33 Olympians to seven Olympic medals and 45 athletes to the IAAF World Championships, where they have won 10 medals.

Prior to London, he was at the US Olympic Track and Field Training Centre in Chula Vista, California. At the Collegiate level, he was women’s track and field head coach at the University of Texas-El Paso and assistant coaching positions at the University of Texas-Austin and LSU.

More information on Dan Pfaff can be found at the “Learning from the Legends” seminar alongside with Tom Tellez.

Friday Five is sponsored by Freelap Track and Field, a leader in electronic timing.

Interview with Dan Pfaff

Q1 – SpeedEndurance.com: Acceleration is a major quality to the jumps, sprints, and hurdles. In the short sprints many people struggle in the later phase of acceleration because of elastic abilities. Could you share specific examples through jump training that have made an impact with your sprinters? Any staples in your program that seem to help?

Dan Pfaff: In my experience the struggles with late phase acceleration often are found in mechanical violations more so than elastic capabilities. Awareness of axes, force application angles, foot strike position and timing are just a few of the areas where it goes wrong. That said, there may be a tendency to use more muscular volitional force than needed because of improper elastic strength development or applications. As referred to in Henk’s interview we use a lot of short end multiple jumps, various types of endurance plyometrics over 40-60m and exaggerated elastic running techniques working on the transition zones. It is essential to control contact times and flight distances on these activities.

Q2 – SpeedEndurance.com: You often get a lot of athletes with laundry lists of injuries, especially post collegiate. With the throws being so ballistic to the body how do you keep the spine healthy when pushing large explosive athletes to their limit?

Dan Pfaff: Integrated soft tissue work combined with joint manipulation schemes is paramount in spinal health with large power/speed athletes. We do major blocks of training and session components with medicine balls, weight plates and various other appliances to explore, develop, denote function, etc. We spend a great deal of time doing rotational work as described above and constantly move the fulcrum of rotation by changing the moment arm angles. It is critical to maintain proper postures and mechanics in all movements from the warm-up to the cool down. We are very strict in the weight room and during plyometric sessions about these markers and metrics. We undulate loads based on functional analysis daily.

Q3 – SpeedEndurance.com: Maximum speed mechanics require a dramatic contrast of explosive contractions and rapid relaxations. What things can coaches do to help develop the ability to relax antagonists besides max sprints and the psychological areas? Can non-sprinting methods help generally or is this something that must be hardwired through sprinting?

Dan Pfaff: I have come to believe that “switching” is a poorly understood and researched area of movement. I think using an agonist/antagonist approach is a bit too reductionist for my taste. The symphony of muscle groups is very precise and involves very small units of time. Many major muscle tears occur under fatigue and what we are finding from our tensiomyographic research is that even minor fatigue disturbs activation potentials, rate of force development and latency of muscle recovery from extreme firing orders. If these big ticket items are disrupted, we then have to ask what is going on in reflex loops, efferent/afferent feedback systems, et al.? Timing and relaxation are complex skills influenced by numerous variables. The art of coaching is to discover correct function at lower stress levels and then evolve this as intensity, pressure and completion stressors arise. It is a complex blending of neuropsychology, physiology and biochemistry for sure. As coaches, we don’t always have access to lab monitoring devices so pragmatic field schemes must be created and monitored for these factors.

Jimson’s Note: TMG is Tensiomyography, a tool that the English Premier League uses as well as other top soccer leagues. Elite sport is using it in Track & Field and one of the leading experts will be interviewed soon on SpeedEndurance.com.

Q4 – SpeedEndurance.com: You have talked about doing blood analysis with athletes during the season in the past and have looked at several biomarkers such as neurotransmitters. Many coaches in the speed and power wish to challenge the body by depleting the nervous system to build what you would call a bigger battery. How do you safely overreach?

Dan Pfaff: I think that as one increases load volume or stress it is imperative to have field metrics and markers to monitor nervous system reactions. As Henk stated in his interview, there are various ways to use jumps or throws to aid in this cause. We have batteries of throwing movements, jump movements, bar speed parameters, coordination indices on all components of work just to name a few items of monitoring. There are some really good semantical surveys out there on the web for monitoring things also. Training diaries are critical provided the athlete is honest and thorough. We have found that surveys are just as accurate for most of our needs when compared to TMG or short blood pulls pre-training.

Q5 – SpeedEndurance.com: Every athlete has a style to fit their expression of tasks. Could you share what coaches need to do better with identifying what things to leave alone and what to change at the early developmental phases in order to make it easier to succeed later? Any general guidelines or tips?

Dan Pfaff: This again is the art of coaching influence when it comes to error detection and correction skills of the coach. I have always worked to seek the most gross errors that violate large biomechanical principles and that appear to be a source of re-occurrent injury factors that turn chronic. I think it is critical to have a model of movement for each phase of the athlete’s activity and once that is obtained, then as stated, look for major violations. Look for things that look cumbersome or that drain the energy faster than other movements. Some coaches are afraid to tamper with gifted athletes especially if they are producing at a high level. I think this is a huge injustice to the athlete for major violations only lead to burn out or chronic compensation patterns that eventually lead to poor function. Knowing a model and being wise in training prescription values based on thorough research of what is truly being done at the top levels is the foundation for educated change mechanisms.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Ballistic Power for Better Athletic Performance

Jimson Lee — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:15:00 +0000

This article was written by Kenta’ Bell, a two time Olympian (2004, 2008) in the Triple Jump and the 2001 Gold medalist at the World Student Games in Beijing, China. His PR is an impressive 17.63m and he is also the 2003 & 2010 USA National Champion.

His website is www.thinkingfeet.com and you can reach him at horizontalvelocity (at) hotmail.com

This is a new series on “When Athletes become Coaches”. His previous post was Advanced Plyometrics for Jump and Sprint Training, a must read.

Ballistic Power for Better Athletic Performance

Kenta Bell. Photo Credits; Viewimages

Where balletic and athletic meet to create ballistic movement

The ability to accelerate, change directions quickly, and jump high are all directly related to explosive power. The common misconception of explosive power is often mistaken for how much weight the athlete can move.

Unfortunately, Much of this weight is improperly lifted technically for the sake of lifting more weight. The growing sentiment in most strength and conditioning programs is based upon the term "building a bigger engine". The ability to be dynamic and explosive in athletics are directly affected by Rate of Force Development (ROFD or RFD). Their is a necessity in athletics for the ability to start, stop and change directions quickly. When an individual possesses these skills he or she is typically termed athletic or skilled. I define this as heightened body awareness, and high ROFD. What many of the so called gurus don’t understand is this type of dynamic skill isn’t developed by just applying more weight to a bar and squatting lower, nor is it gained by loudly stomping your feet when performing Olympic lifts.

Unfortunately bigger and stronger doesn’t guarantee faster. In most cases there is significantly more benefit to decreasing body weight and improving the strength to weight ratio. Performing the specific necessity at a higher rate of speed can only attain high skill and speed acquisition. Contrary to most thoughts and beliefs an individual can yield high strength gains without lifting extreme weights.

At what point are we strong enough? At what point does lifting more weight come with diminishing returns?

RATE OF FORCE DEVELOPMENT

Probably the most important and under-recognized area of applied science pertaining to strength training and athletes. ROFD essentially refers to the speed at which force can be produced. I can’t think of a single example in athletics that wouldn’t benefit from a faster ROFD. A faster ROFD results in quicker, more explosive movements and gets the bar moving faster. One study found that three times as many motor units (MU) were activated during a ballistic contraction compared to a slow ramp contraction.

We constantly argue the science and theory of slow and fast runners based upon slow twitch and fast twitch MU. Science has shown us that the fastest runners apply higher vertical forces into to the ground in the shortest amount of times. Together, slow and fast twitch MU produces more force than either can individually. Greater recruitment in a shorter amount of time incites intramuscular tension more rapidly. Superior technique combined with correct muscle firing sequences and high rate of force development more often than not will put you in position of athletic Excellency.

EXERCISES

For this article we will look at three of my favorite exercises for developing motor unit recruitment and neuromuscular coordination as applied to ROFD. Each of the exercises have been tested individually as well as in combination for the purposes of athletic performance enhancement. Strategically applying strength to skill and speed to performance through isolated integration.

1) Depth Drop (shock tension jump)

This particular exercise is often called a shock tension jump and categorized as plyometric. The very nature of this exercise is strength building and power training at both the most basic and highest level. As previously mentioned the most important requirements of being athletic and efficient lie within the ability to stop and start rapidly. In the cycle isometric – eccentric – concentric when looking at the elastic principles of force reduction and production we address 2 of 3. Muscle contractions when sprinting and jumping don’t occur slowly. The time and speed of contraction is rapid and forceful. This type of contraction when the muscle lengthens is referred to as an eccentric contraction.

There is also substantial evidence that confirms pre-tensing before contact results in greater motor unit recruitment during the eccentric phase. Before now there has never been sufficient data that allowed the coach/athlete to know what types of forces were specifically generated and in what duration of time. Based on laboratory study that I have done we now have a much clearer picture. Dropping from a height as low as 10” produces (pound) forces upward of 1,400lbs in as little as 0.4seconds. This type of force time curve would be impossible to replicate doing a traditional squat movement. This data is valuable in understanding the application and implementation of this type of training.

See the video below:

2) Box Squat to Box Jump

This is one of my favorite non-weight bearing power explosive exercises. This multi-joint, multi-complex movement challenges the athlete in a variety of ways. This exercise produces raw explosive power while forcing the athlete to overcompensate for any height/barrier perception issues. Likewise, it produces the full spectrum of muscle contraction/muscle recruitment firing processes. Beginning with iso-eccentric immediately transferring to concentric and finishing in an eccentric stabilization. In order to complete this exercise he or she must complete triple extension in the process of dynamic hip extension and gluteus recruitment.

We do box squats because they teach correct form and MU recruitment. In combination with the explosive power development of plyometric box hopping drill this exercise is hard to beat. Also noted that it is safe for all age ranges and categories from developmental to professional elite.

3) Squat Jump (Elastic Band Assisted)

This exercise can be classified as a plyometric depth reactive jump. As a result of the external pull support helping overcome inertia and the pull of gravity this exercise is far more forgiving on the joints. Performed similar to your basic dumbbell squat jump. However, for this particular exercise we will be assisting the concentric muscle shortening contraction through the strapping of overhead elastic pull support. By reducing the ground contact time one thus improves the ROFD and improvement in explosive reactive properties. As previously noted this type of ballistic exercise creates greater intramuscular coordination leading to higher yield in muscle tension and recruitment of 3x the motor unit.

Each of these particular exercises is regarded as central nervous system training. This as a result of the high nervous system activity and speed of muscle contraction. There are several other exercises and modalities that assist one in the improvement high rate force development. When performing this type of training quality outweighs quantity and one should strive for technical mastery.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Research Review: Testosterone, Growth Hormone, Nutrition and Training

Jimson Lee — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Here is a follow up on my case study on How to Track and Improve your Testosterone & Zinc levels Naturally with InsideTracker.

Q – SpeedEndurance.com: After reading Dr. Stone’s interview, it seems that heavy training is important to help hormones for power and recovery. Any special considerations regarding nutrition and training that I should be aware of to maximize my testosterone and growth hormone levels? What can I do naturally to get an edge in speed, power and strength events? I heard brief workouts keep testosterone up and ZMA helps. Any ideas here?

Answer: Unfortunately very little can be done to increase hormone levels, unless you are severely impaired by overtraining or are malnourished. The endocrine system already does a great job regulating itself, but you can ensure optimized training and recovery by getting adequate nutrition. The classic Hakkinen and Komi study on junior weightlifters showed an increase of testosterone and power over time, but hormonal levels proved more difficult to interpret.

Training should challenge the body so that it learns to adapt to the demands of stress and competition. Those that have more power are more resistant to injury and overtraining. Research has found that intense, explosive multi-joint exercises elicit favorable adaptations for speed and power athletes. Sports teams with less training time benefit from maximizing, but throwing events do have the luxury of including more power-based exercises. Acute hormonal response from intense exercise is very difficult to monitor, so it’s best to look at changes over long periods of time rather than week to week. Sometimes (hormone) downregulation has had rebound effects in performance, but this hasn’t been proven in the scientific literature without invasive measurements..

Proper nutrition starts with the basics, such as caloric needs and basic micronutrient needs. No legal supplement has been shown to increase testosterone, but current protein and carbohydrate drinks have anabolism benefits without increasing testosterone. Growth hormone is very misunderstood and currently nothing can be done to increase the levels naturally in athletes. ZMA is popular, but research shows it does nothing for normal athletes who aren’t severely deficient. In fact, most athletes have normal levels of zinc and magnesium, although it may still be wise to monitor mineral levels during heavy training periods.

In summary, you should think about preserving your natural anabolic profile by simply getting sufficient sleep, making better food choices, and progressively overloading the body. Baseline screening of testosterone is a great way to create a handy reference to refer to if you see signs of overtraining – although by then it’s usually too late. To successfully avoid overtraining, experts suggest that you should get screened 3-4 times a year. Remember that you don’t need to have high testosterone to be a world-class athlete, but having low testosterone may be a sign of something wrong in either your training or diet.

For more information, visit InsideTracker.com

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Sprinters & Power Athletes

Jimson Lee — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Every week, ithlete will cover general questions on training and recovery, as well as specific best practices with Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

If you have a general question or a specific question on how to use ithlete you can email ithlete.support@myithlete.com.

Q1 – SpeedEndurance.com: A lot of coaches use the term “stimulate” or “deplete”, what are examples of this type of training and how does one decide what to do. I am a 200m sprinter and sometimes do the 4 x 400m.

Answer: Usually coaches use the term stimulate as a term to create an adaption with the minimal dose of work, while deplete is to challenge the body maximally, usually creating deep fatigue. Ideally one would just do the minimal threshold of training to get results, but eventually everyone will stagnate and hit a plateau. When stimulating, most methods are less risky and very conservative in both method and volume/intensity. Depletion is more of a volume approach at the specific intensity required to elicit a deep rebound effect.

Deciding when to use either approach or combination is more of a philosophical approach rather than something that is concrete in training theory. With any risk, the reward must be carefully weighted against other options, so depletion is not suggested unless one is an elite athlete and the training in the past was sound and well planned. Often plateaus are problems in training design, and improvements can be made without resorting to more aggressive methods.

Most options for stimulating are brief but intense options such as 3 x 150m, but depletion work is closer to 6-8 of the same distance. Running the 4×400 volume via depletion may help with the conditioning needs, depending how important the relay performance is to your team and coach.

Q2 – SpeedEndurance.com: I see there is a lot of research showing that HRV can be an effective training tool for endurance athletes, but does it work for speed & power athletes as well?

Answer: A lot of lab based research has been done on runners & cyclists, primarily for convenience reasons – it’s much easier to line up study participants on treadmills or fixed bikes than it is to go out to the track or weights room with sophisticated equipment. The principles behind using HRV remain entirely valid for the wider athletic population though. HRV measures the body’s response to training & competition, and fatigue of the energy systems shows up just as well with speed & power athletes. A good example is a study performed in 2011 on powerlifters and reported in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research reported that:

After training, weightlifting performance of the subjects decreased below baseline in parallel with suppressed parasympathetic power (high-frequency [HF] HRV), whereas sympathetic power (normalized low-frequency HRV) was slightly elevated at 3 hours of recovery (p , 0.05). Both weightlifting performances and parasympathetic power returned to baseline values in 24 hours and further increased above baseline during 48–72 hours of recovery in a similar fashion (p , 0.05). Circulating DHEA-S level dropped at 24 hours (p , 0.05) and returned to normal values by 48 hours. Muscle pain increased at 3 hours after training and remained higher than baseline values for the 72-hour recovery period (p , 0.05). Our data suggest that parasympathetic power, indicated by HF HRV, is able to reflect the recovery status of weightlifters after training.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Interview with Jimson Lee

Jimson Lee — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:45:00 +0000

This is Part 6 of a multi-part series from my recent trip to Orlando & Clermont, Florida.

Part 1 was with Dennis Mitchell. Part 2 was with Brooks Johnson.

Parts 3 & 5 was Hurdle Touchdown Times with Kellie Wells Training and Part 4 included Håkan Andersson.

Here is a rare interview of myself being interviewed. Usually I am asking the questions, but while I was in Vancouver, Derek Hansen of RunningMechanics.com stopped and asked me about the road to London 2012. There is a Canadian connection as several of my Canadian coaches are working for UK Athletics.

Here is the link to the original article. The video was recorded on May 1, 2012.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

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Iwan Thomas on the Pressure of the Olympic Trials

Jimson Lee — Sun, 13 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

This is a great five minute video that all athletes should watch before the Olympic Trials.

Yes, the video talks specifically about the pressures of the UK 400 meter Olympic Trials, but the take home messages can be for any country, any event, or any sport.

After 4 or 8 long years of training, and all the sacrifices, it’s time to go hard or go home.

There are several tips on how to perform at the trials, everything from mind games to execution. For example…

Sometimes, the race is won or lost before the starter says, “On Your Marks”.

And then there is “round management”.

There are no friends in Track & Field when the starter says, “On Your Marks”.

Good points. Take note.

Here is the video on YouTube:

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video