Lay the foundations for a good training program: planning and variables to be considered in professional and semi-professional athletes, competitive amateurs

By Dr. Devis Zamburlin

Many times training programs are requested from athletic trainers, coaches, personal trainers or room instructors, to improve the performance of semi-professional or professional athletes, or amateurs. In all cases, the bases and the precautions to be followed are many and only if all the variables are taken into consideration, the professionals of the sector will be able to do an excellent job.

The knowledge that the professionals of the sector have to induce to calculate the following variables:

• Training volume (hourly duration of sessions, tonnage, or number of Kg used per session or training period)
• Order of exercises
• Number of repetitions, speed and intensity of execution, serial number
• Recovery intervals

TRAINING VOLUME

The actual volume is the amount of work carried out and includes the hourly duration of training, the number of Kg raised in each session, the number of exercises, and the number of sets and repetitions of each exercise or training period.

Generally, the trainers note these figures to establish the work volumes for subsequent training sessions. The amount of work and training varies at this point from the athlete's back-ground and the type of strength training followed up to that point.

If the athlete wants to develop muscular strength or maximum strength - for example - they will perform many repetitions with heavy workloads, establishing a high-volume training program. The volume will instead be medium if you want to develop the power in its different aspects (low load and relatively long recovery intervals).

If we talk about high profile athletes the overall volume will become important, there are no shortcuts; in fact the improvements are achieved through a constant physiological adaptation, acquired through an increase in training volume.

As the athletes get used to the training sessions, the recoveries between the series and the various training sessions must take place in less and less time.

The increase in volume must take into account the athlete's biological structure, the specificities of the discipline practiced and the importance of force in the discipline itself. An excessively drastic increase would cause fatigue or injury to the joints, which would not support the new volumes adopted.

Finally the total volume of the training load varies according to the sport practiced and the role that the force plays in it.

At this point it is right to ask how we can find the intensity intended as the load of training. In the context of strength training this is expressed with the percentage of load compared to the ceiling, or of the maximum load that can be lifted in a single attempt (a repeated maximum RM).

By intensity, therefore, we will understand the function of the strength of nervous stimuli activated during training; this intensity is determined by the muscular effort and energy expenditure of the central nervous system (CNS).

The strength of the stimuli depends on the load, the speed of execution of the movement and the duration of the recovery intervals between the repetitions.

Now it is right to make a distinction between the workouts that the trainer will want to submit to his athlete:

• The training load, expressed as intensity, refers to the mass or weight lifted.
• In isokinetic training this load translates into the force that the athlete uses against the resistance opposed by the machine.

• The over-maximal load exceeds the maximum strength of the athlete. If the eccentric method is used (which combats the force of gravity), in most cases, charges between 100 and 125% are used. In these cases assistance must be given by two people at the end of the barbell. (RECOMMENDED ONLY TO PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES);
• The other loads, instead, are those that are normally used in the gym, taking into account the type of force that one wants to develop and above all the specific combination for a given discipline of strength and speed, or of strength and resistance.

Order of exercises

It is necessary to alternate exercises between the limbs and other muscle groups, to ensure a better recovery. If you want to train all parts of the body we can work in this way (it is a suggestion, not a diktat):

• Legs, arms, abdomen
• Legs, arms, backbones and so on

The amount of exercises chosen should take into consideration the functionality of these in relation to the specific technical skills of the sport concerned.

In body building, a different order is proposed many times: first the large muscle groups and then the small ones, but if it comes to training a specific sport in this way we will overwhelm the small muscle groups as we cannot train the largest ones.

The exercises should perfect the abilities of the sport practiced to produce the maximum strengthening of the primary muscles and create a MOTOR MEMORY, which allows to consolidate these abilities.

Going more specifically, speaking of athletes, we can give an example to understand the importance of the order of exercises. In the case of trainers who want to train employees or housewives not involved in sports this example is not valid and we will behave according to the previously illustrated criteria.

PALLAVOLISTA: technical leap involved in the jump, to go to the wall and crush. Exercises to perform half squats with raised heels. There is no need to worry about training large groups or babies first, because the affected muscle chain (buttocks, ischioperoneotibials - IPT, calves) takes place in the same sequence in which the jump occurs.

Athletes have two options to respect the order of the exercises prescribed by the trainer:

• VERTICAL from top to bottom, favoring a better recovery of the muscle groups involved. Repeating the first exercise the muscles will have already recovered. This is more recommended for athletes who are looking for maximum power and strength, as it ensures longer recovery intervals between repeated, therefore better regeneration.
• HORIZONTAL the athlete performs all the series of repetitions of the first exercise, before moving on to the second: in this specific case there will be a local fatigue such as to determine hypertrophy and reduce the power capacity or maximum strength after series.

CONTINUE: number of repetitions, serial number and importance of recovery »