5 Key Concepts For An Optimal Training Program

Training for any sport involves building a framework that will foster success. Program design is the most critical building block for a successful training plan. Periodization, an integral part of program design, can help build this foundation if used correctly.

An effective training program should foster four main goals: build the desired performance level, prevent detraining, prevent under-recovery (and injury), and provide for a standardized and methodical progression of mechanical loading.

Though many coaches will agree on the types of workouts needed for success, there is great disparity in the application of the principles of periodization. This could, in effect, be the difference between success and failure, or between optimal performance and injury.

There are 5 key concepts underlying any optimal training program:

1. Timeline for training progression: There is a natural timeline for training adaptation. It will take the human body anywhere from 10 to 14 days to fully adapt to the current training demands. An optimal training program should maintain intensity and duration factors over this natural timeline so that the body can adapt to the current workload - before making any progression in these parameters. Although 10 days may be optimal, most people are driven by the standard 5-day-work-week-2-day-weekend plan. With that being the case, a 14 day mesocycle is preferred.

2 . Assess the “Big Picture” plan first: Plan no more than 1 or 2 primary goal events over the course of a season. Avoid “racing to train”. With 1 or 2 goal events on the calendar, you can now structure a training “map”. Plan one week in advance of the event for a “peak” week, then schedule everything in the aforementioned two week mesocycles backwards to today. This builds in the necessary time at the end of the cycle for recovery and peaking prior to the goal event, and allows for methodical 2 week cycles to be built in prior to it. Peaking is priority!

3. Time for tissue recovery and adaptation: In order for any training to be effective, there must be appropriate time for recovery from and adaptation to the training sessions. I have used the philosophy of having no more than 2 to 3 days of training before a day of recovery. These 3 to 4 day “microcycles” allow the athlete to build in recovery as a priority: if it is the most important aspect of training, then schedule it first! Recovery days can have activities that foster recovery (i.e. hatha yoga, meditation, jacuzzi, etc) or can simply be time off. This microcycle sub-framework promotes a high frequency of training stimuli followed by an obligatory (and needed) training recovery as it is needed. This will prevent detraining as well.

Here is what the basic framework might look like:

4. Schedule activities that build sport performance capacity: This is done via activities such as strength training in a “high load, low repetition, one set” approach. The goal of strength training is not as a “workout” as much as it is a stimulus for muscle fiber recruitment, collagen synthesis, and to promote tissue recovery. Strength training activities, given that they are low volume, can be performed as a recovery day activity.

Then, and only then, do you put in the specific training sessions on the remaining training days that will provide the necessary stimuli to promote the desired physiological training responses. In this approach, the training sessions are the last piece to be built in, not the first.

5. Have a methodical plan of progression: This is closely related to #1. Training is not arbitrary – there must be a standardized means of progression of interval and duration work. Every two weeks, a review of the athlete’s training log is performed. If the athlete has been able to accomplish the current training demands successfully (and have been able to recover from them sufficiently), then progression is indicated for the next two week mesocycle. If not, then the next two week mesocycle will stay at the current level of workload.

If you build your training program with these concepts firmly in place, not only will you progress steadily towards your performance goals but you will also stay injury-free in the process! 

Stay tuned for an upcoming ebook on training principles and how they apply to sport and injury recovery – or just dive into “RunSmart” in the meantime for a preview.

Photo credits: kevinthoule; training mesocycle image from RunSmart:A Comprehensive Approach To Injury-Free Running