15-min Conditioning: Maximum Destruction

I’m not a fan of “one-off” workouts. I’m all about training in a well planned system for superior results. I mean, have you ever talked to me?

While training plans are always best, sometimes it’s fun and totally appropriate for you to test yourself with a really hard single workout. It can be used as a measuring stick for the future or a way to see who ends up in the bathroom first: you or your buddy.

Also, if you only have a short amount of time and want to smash yourself (ie, maximize your time), this will be a good option for that, too.

Equipment needed for maximum destruction… I mean, progress:

Assault Bike or Woodway Curve***

Do a solid warm-up (if you need ideas here’s How to Warm-up in a Hurry)

Once you’re ready to go, hop on your bike or treadmill and go…

:45 as hard as possible (watch your watts and/or speed to ensure maintaining your peak) combine with 90-sec Active Recovery (jogging or light-ish biking)

REPEAT 6 times

Alright, so I know the above workout looks pretty benign. It is NOT. Please use good judgement before deciding if this is a good workout match for you.

If you’ve tracked your output via speed or watts and maintained your peak output, you can effectively leave the gym knowing your body is well on it’s way to recovering to a state that is more healthy and useful than when you walked in! 

Closing thought: if you’re not messed up the rest of the day, you didn’t actually give it your all and need to try again next week. Hey, sometimes we have to teach our body how to work. It’s okay, but just know this one is a killer.

***Lots of equipment can work like a traditional treadmill, spin bike or a VersaClimber. You want to be able to see some sort of measurable for your work and recovery periods. I would not recommend elliptical or stepper.

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Conditioning for Team Sports: Buck the Tradition

The conditioning that I've started relying on focuses on the energy systems that I need my players to be able to work efficiently in. We are constantly pushing the body to recover as quickly and as efficiently as possible. That does not mean stopping and fully resting. It almost never means stopping for me anymore. The game of basketball never really stops, for free throws and foul shots yes, but not for very long. More often than not, they have to keep moving, keep moving, keep moving, and then there's a burst. Soccer is very similar to this, that game does not stop, literally it does not stop.

So we have to be training for that, not training for the most extreme ridiculous thing that never happens in the game or the match. This means understanding when you use a five second work period, and when you use a 15 second work period. And when you could use what would be the extremes for these team sports, a 30 to 60 seconds work period. Use those minimally, that's extremely intense when you do those work periods. Even when using those extremely intense methods, the focus is always recovery, because that's what's going to really help you win.If the players can only be super fast once or twice, and then they can't recover, they're no good to you.

To train for this recovery, we have to be working in the correct heart rate zones. In the offseason, I'll run this type of conditioning and we will do very general recovery, generally called active recovery in between work periods. An example of this would be max effort broad jumps to work on explosive power and then to recover, it might be something like jump rope, battle ropes, or weighted carries. The active recovery is more general in nature during this time, but as we get closer to the season and into the season, the active recovery will become more specific. An example of this would be again using a broad jump and then using light layups for example for active recovery. Now, we're working in a place and working in a way where we're minimizing the impact, because we're being very smart about when we actually asked them to run. And we're being really smart about getting creative on things where running isn't required. If they're out there doing their sport, that's probably enough of the high volume running, that’s something we want to minimize as much as possible. I may keep short sprints on a treadmill or something during the season, but all of our active recovery is going to be through different methods. This could be slow step ups, where there isn’t much impact but that's still working the running muscles, right?

What we are really looking for with conditioning is how hard the heart is working, or beats per minute. So you can look strictly at that, but then you also can't forget about what the sport entails, specificity of that movement, and the current workload of the athlete. So if you look at what the athlete’s currently doing, and you think, okay, we're in season they’re getting a lot of sport specific training in, this should change the exercises used during conditioning. For example if they are fully in season let’s take away the joint pounding and do short sprints and a kettlebell carry to recover. This works because at this point we are only really looking at what the heart rate is doing. Now, if we're getting ready for a training camp or preseason time period, a time we're not heavily involved in practices, then we want to get more sports specific movements and sports specific muscle groups involved. So that same all out sprint, might then be paired with, you know, some more jogging, for example, to actually recover.

There's a lot you can do with this. It's just like anything else, get creative. There’s not one correct to do things. BUCK THE TRADITION. Forget all of the suck it up buttercup, if you cant finish it you’re weak and didn’t prepare conditioning sessions. You need to be looking at what the sport requires to be successful in it, and where your athletes actually are, where you actually are and bridge that gap between where they need to be and where they are right now.

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Conditioning for Team Sports: Conditioning & Energy Systems

The next thing is we need to discuss with conditioning is making it specific to the energy systems used during the athlete’s sport.  The energy systems that our body is using while we're sitting down and watching TV are very different than the energy system that it's using when we go for a light 30 minute jog, which are different than the energy system that we use when we are sprinting, which are different from what’s happening on the court during a game.

Basketball athletes typically push hard for 15, maybe even 30 seconds at a time. Then they get rest periods where they are still moving (often quickly) but NOT at max speed.This is similar to soccer, where you sprint for short bursts of five seconds, and then half the field jogs and walks. While the fast action goes on elsewhere on the field. And then they sprint again. And then they get a nice recovery period where they’re jogging or walking. Lacrosse is in that same boat, all of these sports use very similar energy systems.

Using giant traffic cones adds to the drama of any drill.

Now, one of the things that you can talk about is the energy system requirements of different positions in soccer in particular, where there are differences that should be accounted for. But let's just talk more generally right now. And say, if we can look at real heart rate data, or even just get a stopwatch out and time these sprint versus walking periods. I have never seen soccer players max effort sprint and change direction for 60 seconds over and over and over again. Nothing resembling the 300m shuttle test for example happens during these sports. It just doesn't happen. For more information on this idea please see our previous blog post on misconception about conditioning.

The closer test would be the one where you sprint then full field, jog to recover, and then do it again. That's a good midfielders test. We have to understand that, to be the best that we can be at the sport, we can't be going way outside the realm of what the sport actually requires. Now there is a cross training period that we can do in the offseason. But even then, you're not going to be going to these extremes and just asking the body to do these ridiculous things.

We have to look at what's happening in the game, which are these small bursts of dynamic movements. The athletes are all over the place, they're in different planes of motion, they're not running straight forward the entire time, they're changing direction like crazy.  We have to look at the work time period for these small bursts of dynamic movements and the active rest between them.

This is where the concept of active recovery comes into play. The next article in this series explain how this type of conditioning can be accomplished but for now, try to make the conditioning match up with what the sports asks of the athletes.

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Conditioning for Team Sports: Monitoring Load

So getting back to this idea that there is a better way to condition our athletes, besides these white knuckling feel like you're getting punched in the face and kicked in the gut workouts. Is there a better way?

I say yes, absolutely.

The first thing that must be done is accepting the idea that not all workouts should be that hard. Embracing a monitoring system (HRM, external load, etc) or at a bare minimum using the RPE system is an absolute must. The RPE scale is a rating of perceived exertion, which is the idea of rating the difficulty of a workout/training session on a scale of 1-10. You as the coach should have an idea of how hard do you want this to feel for the athletes on a scale of 1 to 10.

That's really, really important because, if you are wanting to give your athletes a stimulation day, which is going to be a little bit lighter, then we will want to hit at a 6 or 7 on a scale of 10. This isn’t too tough and should feel pretty good. It’s enough to improve fitness while not interfering with the ability for the athlete to recover. If after the session they come back and they're all reporting that the session was a 9 or 9.5 then you've missed your mark. If you absolutely destroyed them, because you’ve missed your mark, you don’t understand the fitness of your athletes and this is going to cause problems.

Now, with that said, if you are getting reports back showing a 9 or 9.5 and you say, you know what, I've done this workout 1000 times, this is a 6/6.5 at most on that scale. Your response should not be to tell them they're out of shape, they didn't do what they had to do, or they’ve got to just pick it up.

Your response has to be okay, what am I going to do to adjust this program to meet the needs of my athletes, because right now, they're not in the kind of shape that I want them to be in. You need to get them to the point that this workout does feel like a six or a seven. A lot of coaches take this attitude of, well, you know, I haven't been playing the sport for 20 years, and I can still do this. So what, you are not your athletes, and your athletes aren’t you. It is your job as the coach to make sure they are a proper fit.

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Conditioning for Team Sports: Common Faults in Conditioning

I want to talk about conditioning. In particular conditioning for athletes that are playing team sports. I’m going to be speaking from my own experiences with many sports, but most notably, basketball. This has been on my mind lately because, if conditioning is done correctly, that's one of the solutions to better performance that I’m supposed to deliver to my team.

But the big, BIG caveat with that is, most of my players in the WNBA are playing basketball year round, whereas in the NBA, those guys get a bit more time off. Rest is important for a team’s performance, as this allows the body to recover from a brutal season and gives us time to increase strength. See our earlier blog post on the importance of strength for why this is one of the most important times of year for my players.

When looking at training in the college setting, it is most common that the sports coach maintains some control of the training program depending on their experience. Typically these college coaches were on a successful team in the late 90s or early 2000s that may have won a conference championship or had a semi-successful NCAA Tournament run. Unsurprisingly,  that tends to mean they have a lot of experience with conditioning and not very much experience in the weight room.The conditioning while on this team was their coaches ran them into the ground and then ran them some more. This creates a positive association between extreme running based conditioning workouts and success. And the thing they all have in common is just the the unbelievable volume, and pounding on the athletes bodies, with very, very little rest.

And that's what I really want to focus on today: talking about is that a reasonable approach? Or is there a better way?

What all of these programs/coaches were asking for was the best of both worlds. Both worlds in that they want volume, because of the high mileage seen during the sports of soccer and lacrosse in particular, with basketball also having considerable mileage as well. But they also want to be fast, because there are all these bursts of speed within all this mileage on the field of play. So then they take those two concepts and say, well, we have to be fast, and we have to get a ton of mileage so logically, the only way to do that is to do those things every single day and combine them.

And this is where you get those 300 yards shuttles tests that you have to do 10 sets of in :60 with a brief recovery come from. Another favorite is the full field 110-yard sprint that must be completed in 16-17 seconds, you have a minute to jog back and rest then go again for around 10-12 sets.Those are just a few of the standard examples.

And the result is: a lot of overuse injuries. An inability of the athlete to recover. Not because these drills are difficult, but because they are unrealistic and we now know better ways to safely and effectively train athletes.This is problematic, because, if we have a pain point in one area of the body, the athlete starts to compensate, to try to lessen the pain as much as possible. Then a new pattern develops, a pattern that is weakening one area of the body, while over using a completely different part of the body. And that is how we effectively perpetuate this injury risk cycle.

These coaches do not typically have a notion of the effect different surfaces have on the injury risk of their athletes either. When coaches decide to condition athletes that are accustomed to being on grass or turf on a track, this can cause major problems. Field athletes are used to running on soft ground, in their cleats. They're not track athletes, they're not accustomed to that difference in joint stress. And these are things that you have to take into consideration. If you're going to do that with your team, or an athlete, or you want to do that yourself, you must respect the surface and you have to respect the volume that you're asking your athlete’s bodies to do.

One of the things that typically happens to these coaches when they want to start a conditioning program for their team is that they just throw them in the deep end. If this happens and the athlete struggles with the program, I recommend backing off a week from the real program and maybe reducing that workload, give it your best, and then see how you feel those next couple of days. This will give you a real sense on if you need to work yourself into the program or if you can just go ahead and get it started.

For example, if you do half the volume of the program, and you're crazy sore for two, three days afterwards, or you can't even really make it through at the times that you're supposed to hit, then that's a real clue that some things need to be adjusted for you. If you're overseeing athletes, you have got to make that adjustment, that is the smart, sensible thing to do. If you don’t you’re just begging for injuries down the road.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

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Conditioning for Team Sports: Strength as the Foundation

In our multipart Team Sport Conditioning series, Sarah Walls goes in-depth on the various factors impacting team sports' fitness and conditioning.

My career began and grew in the college strength and conditioning setting, where I was very fortunate with the strength coaches that I worked with and under. The structures and procedures I use today as well as my coaching philosophy were taught to me by these coaches, and I believe that is a big part of what has moved my career forward. I am thankful everyday for the mentors I had early on in my career, what I learned from them has helped me become the coach I am today.

I monitor everything that happens during a single heartbeat. It’s that important.

One of the things I quickly learned from these mentors was that strength is the foundation for performance on any level and of any type. No matter the sport and the dominant motor ability, strength is the base that affects all other qualities. This can be taken to the extremes of endurance by looking at cross country or marathon runners, where likely the most successful ones are stronger in the very specific ways they need to be stronger. Obviously strength is not the dominant motor ability in the case of a largely aerobic sport, but once those dominant qualities are evened out like they are at the top level, it is the stronger athlete who wins.

The same can be said for team sports as well.

If we are to believe that strength is the foundation of any performance training program, then you have to make sure that your athletes are strong in appropriate ways for the sport. Louie Simmons says “It does no good to be strong in the wrong exercises.” Applied to more endurance based sports we could say it does no good to be strong in a way that does not benefit sport performance.

Supporting the development of strength in all athletes, regardless of the sport, doesn't mean that we're trying to build everybody into powerlifters or olympic weightlifters. We are, in fact, trying to make them pretty darn strong, just not to the extremes.  So with that said, there's still a lot of room to develop an enormous amount of strength that is appropriate for the sport. The bottom line is make yourself of your athletes as strong as you can, without it negatively affecting the sport performance.