Periodization has become the Holy Grail of sport training. Don’t all the best athletes and coaches utilize different phases of training at different times of the year?
The concept, in theory, makes great sense. Training should be built around the human body’s normal mechanisms of training adaptation and recovery. Training should be designed in order to optimize gains in performance while minimizing the risk of injury.
But the traditional application of periodization is lacking. As many other issues in sport training, it has a good basis in physiology, but incomplete interpretation and application. So is periodization hurting your training plan? And if so, what can we do to optimize it?
I am very thankful that I have always had a lot of interests in life, and that I have had the great fortune to be able to immerse myself in many of them over the years. I think they call that “life experience”.
When it comes to writing and blogging, most “authorities” suggest finding a niche and then writing about it. That’s easy if you only have one or two areas in your life that tantalize your intellectual and emotional senses. When I started writing in earnest, I thought that keeping work separate from life was the “right” thing to do. But as I have found a voice in my writing, I have discovered that “who I am” meanders through all of it, providing that “je ne sais quoi” that makes it all a reflection of me.
There is always a lot happening down at my Crossroads of work and life. Here’s what to expect on this website and blog in the weeks ahead. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
Do you train your brain as often or as intensely as training your body?
Traditionally, training focuses on any number of workouts to develop the physical mechanisms of performance. They focus on the perceived physical limiters to success.
But what if the primary limiter to success isn’t physical? What if it is mental?
Many may think that mental training is only necessary for an elite athlete, that it is just the difference between winning a gold medal or a silver medal at the Olympics. Most people don’t even think about training their brain, but will spend countless hours training their body. How am I supposed to "train my brain" ... and why bother? My brain works just fine as it is – or does it?
The primary limiter to success – in sport training, in injury recovery, and in life, is the brain. So why not focus our efforts on this organ?
In my last post, I outlined the current need for a health revolution. Cost, lack of evidence-based practices, and perhaps greatest of all, cultural change, are the issues preventing a system of health from being sustainable and effective.
We are in need of a change in our approach to health. Over time, we’ve seen the attempts at incremental change. We’ve witnessed this in our recent health care reform debates. But at this point in time, if you continue to do what you’ve done, you will get what you’ve got thus far. And that is a “system” that is broken in many places.
A system of health needs to be seamless along the continuum of health – from disease to the absence of disease. It needs to focus on the mechanisms of health and on optimizing human performance within all contexts of health. It needs to be truly client-focused. It needs to be built on a foundation of learning and transformation at the level of the individual, in order to then foster cultural change socially and politically.
We are in need of a Revolution – and it starts today with the unveiling of the Smart Life Project.
Over the past 40 years, there has been a progressive, silent attack waged on the health of the American population.
The problem starts with a dysfunctional health care system that is more about "illness" than "health". Chronic medical conditions in our aging population have forced the cost of health care to skyrocket. But if you think the problem is with the Baby Boomers, think again.The same effect is noted with our youth, who are growing up inactive, overweight and having low self respect. The current system is unsustainable when it consumes 17% of the gross domestic product – and it is only going to magnify over time given the current population dynamics. It is a simple equation:
Generation X + Generation Z = an impending health disaster.
The phrase "patient-centered care" has also become a misnomer. The current system isn't "patient-centered" in any way whatsoever. Why?
First of all, I find it ludicrous that a physical therapist, in this day and age, requires a gatekeeper to decide when physical therapy is and is not necessary and appropriate. I’ve written about it extensively, and frankly it just evades the power of logic. I don’t tell an orthopedic surgeon when surgery is appropriate, nor do I tell them how to perform it. I don’t tell a gastroenterologist when surgery is appropriate, nor do I tell them how to perform it. And I sure don’t expect anyone other than a physical therapist to know when physical therapy is appropriate, or how to perform it. A pretty simple issue of professional autonomy, I’d say.
Of course, don’t tell that to a physician or osteopath or chiropractor. I might start sounding like some kind of uppity therapist that just wants to … do … his … job … in the context of his professional training and licensure. Sound familiar?
What makes it even worse is that if you are going to take on the role of gatekeeper, then darn well know your responsibilities in order to perform the task properly. If you are going to own the keys to the car, then learn how to drive that car responsibly. Sadly, this doesn’t appear to be the case in the vast majority of scenarios.
Training methods have a long history of being based on anecdote. The anecdote typically comes from a coach or athlete who have applied their “theories” to the training realm and succeeded. Of course, this success could be due to any number of factors, most of which may have nothing to do with the actual physiology underlying the training itself.
But then these training approaches are applied to various populations, and invariably athletes end up with varied results. They get injured. They get burnt-out. They start to think that if it worked for Athlete A, why doesn’t it work for me? And then they start to wonder if they just don’t have “the right genetics”.
One of the best excuses for the inability to perform, or to train, or to compete, or to attain lofty goals, is genetics. It has become the perfect self-limiting, self-fulfilling prophecy. You don’t have the right alignment. You aren’t talented enough. You aren’t smart enough. You just don’t have the genetics to do this sport. Go ahead, give up now. Don’t waste your time.
Allan Besselink, PT, DPT, Ph.D., Dip.MDT has a unique voice in the world of sports, education, and health care. Read more about Allan here.