5 Tips to Maximize your Training Plan

I saw a video recently that someone was asking Usain Bolt, – aka the fastest man in history – if he ever ran laps. His response was great – he just laughed. No, Usain Bolt did not run laps. He ran fast. 

Usain’s approach exemplifies one of the core principles of effective training plans: the S.A.I.D. principle or Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. The body adapts to training so that you get better at what you trained it to do with the exercises. If you want to be fast, you better train fast.

This deserves a follow up question – Wouldn’t just playing the sport be the best way to train for the sport? Why bother with training at all? 

The answer here is simple and there are 2 reasons I don’t think this is a good strategy.

• There are many qualities needed to be a great athlete – sport practice doesn’t train all of those qualities.  Example: being stronger gives athletes more ability to produce force and tolerate more forces in the sport. Just playing the sport won’t make an athlete stronger (unless the sport is strong man competitions.)

• This would require sport training sessions to be done at in-game intensities multiple times per week. Recovering from this training would be very challenging and likely lead to many injuries. 

Here are 5 tips to help you get the most out of your training plan so that you improve your athleticism and achieve greater success in your sport: 

• Strength is Sport Specific: getting stronger is like a cheat code for producing force. Until you’re “strong enough” (more on this in a later post) keep doing the basic lifts to get strong –  deadlifts, squats, lunges, presses, pull-ups and rows. 
• If you want to get fast, you have to run fast. End of story. Once or twice a week do a speed training session and run fast. 
• Use excellent technique, even when you’re tired. Allowing your form to deteriorate when you are tired sends a dangerous message that it’s acceptable to compromise movement quality. This leads to poor athletic performance and increased risk of injury.
• Aerobic fitness is great, but it doesn’t have to be jogging. Sport drills, mobility circuits, or low impact bikes, ellipticals, or other cardio machines can be used. 
• Assess what your actual needs are, and then train those things – the easiest thing in the world is to make a hard workout. Don’t confuse a hard workout with an effective workout. 

Every exercise shouldn’t  look exactly like your sport, but it should be specific to the skill you want to get better at. If you need to get fast practice the skill of speed and run fast. If you need to get strong, lift weights. Then go play your sport and put those skills in action.