Program Design: Linking It All Together

By John M Cissik

To incorporate multiple biomotor abilities into a safe and effective training program---that's what counts. John Cissik, author of Strength Training For Track & Field, gives you a five-step method for success.
 

    As many readers are no doubt aware, there is a lot of literature on the long-term design of training programs. This long-term design is meant to provide the structural framework within which daily, weekly, and monthly training is organized. There is also a great deal of information on the training of various biomotor abilities. For example, there are many good resources on the training of speed, strength, mobility, technique, and endurance.
    But while there is a lot of information on how to structure long-term training programs and on how to train individual biomotor abilities, there is not much information on how to incorporate multiple biomotor abilities into a safe and effective training program. This knowledge is important for two reasons. First, training methods interact. In other words, training each biomotor ability affects the others. For example, strength training will affect one's ability to execute speed
and technique training. Second, the effects of fatigue accumulate over time. If we put together the training program unwisely, then the athlete will not have an opportunity to recover and this will lead to injury and poor performance.
    For example, squatting heavily on Monday followed by resisted sprints on Tuesday followed by maximal effort jumps on Wednesday will result in an athlete who has not had a chance to recover his /her phosphagen energy system or had a chance to recharge the nervous system.
    This article is going to tackle how to link the training of the various biomotor abilities together. It will do this by presenting a series of steps that a coach can follow during the development of the training plan and then providing a sample program that incorporates these steps.
    Here are the steps that should be followed during the development of the training plan:
    1.    Determine the needs of the event
    2.    Relate the needs of the event to the time of year
    3.    Determine the needs of the athlete relative to the event and the time of year
    4.    Begin the program design with the most important biomotor ability
    5.    Integrate the other biomotor abilities around the most important one.
 

STEP ONE: DETERMINE THE NEEDS OF THE EVENT

    In order to effectively employ training tools, we have to understand what qualities are important for each event. As I outlined in an earlier Track Coach article, this is done through analyzing the event in terms of the muscles/movements involved, energy systems involved, speed of movement, and the specific needs of the event (2).
    For example, a 100-meter sprinter needs strong lower body muscles to exert force against blocks and the ground and to maintain posture upon making contact with the ground. The trunk needs to be strong enough to maintain posture during the race.
    Upper body muscles need to be strengthened to help with a powerful arm drive. A good 100-meter sprint will take place in 10 to 12 seconds depending upon the level of ability of the athlete, meaning that the bulk of the fuel will come from the phosphagen energy system with some contribution from anaerobic glycolysis. Speed of movement is very fast, with some athletes reaching five strides per second (4).
    The 100-meter sprint also has specific identifiable phases, each of which contributes to the outcome. Gaffney (1995) estimates that each phase of the sprint has the following contribution to the outcome of the race:
    •    Reaction time: 1 %
    •    Block clearance: 5%
    •    Acceleration: 64%
    •    Maintenance of maximal velocity: 18%
    •    Lessen degree of acceleration: 12% (3)
    Understanding all of this in­ formation gives us a great foundation for designing the training program.

STEP TWO: DETERMINE THE NEEDS BASED UPON TIME OF YEAR

    The time of year is going to have an impact on what tools are used and what biomotor abilities are stressed. For a collegiate sprinter, the fall would be a foundational period for the development of those qualities that are important for the event (technique, speed, strength, mobility). Volume would be greater and intensity would be lower. As the fall progresses to the winter, the focus would shift to a greater intensity (and corresponding lower volume) with more specific exercises employed.
    Depending on the coach's philosophy, competition could see everything from a maintenance of the biomotor abilities to the highest intensity training of the year. As the intensity increases and as the focus on competition increases, time avail­ able for training individual biomotor abilities would be reduced.

STEP THREE: DETERMINE THE NEEDS OF THE ATHLETE RELATIVE TO THE EVENT AND TIME OF YEAR

    This is where a combination of knowledge of the athlete and his/ her testing results comes into play. First, it's important to understand the athlete's history. For example: What level is he competing at? What is his experience in terms of fitness (this tells us what exercises we can reasonably expect him to have mastered). Is he prone to injuries? And so on.
    Second, it's important to evaluate the athlete. This ensures that training is progressing as it should and also ensures that the athlete is developing the qualities that we consider to be important. For ex­ ample, for our hypothetical sprinter, we might consider the following evaluations to be important:
    •    Maximal strength (the back squat) to help determine ability to get out of the blocks
    •    An ability to use maximal strength quickly (the standing long jump or bounds)
    •    Acceleration (30m crouching sprint)
    •    Maximal velocity (30m flying sprint)
    •    Speed endurance (150m or 300m sprint) (1)
    Clearly we don't need a lot of tests, we just need the ones that give us the information that we consider to be important.

STEP FOUR: BEGIN THE PROGRAM WITH THE MOST IMPORTANT BIOMOTOR ABILITY

    Once we have gone through the first three steps, we will under­ stand what physical qualities are important for success, how this may change depending upon the time of year, and how we may gauge our athlete's development in light of this information. Now we are ready to develop our training plan.
    To keep things from getting confusing and overwhelming, it's best to develop your training plan around the most important biomotor ability. In other words, plan the most important biomotor ability first.
    With our hypothetical sprinter, we're going to classify speed as the most important ability. Realize though, that this may change de­ pending upon the athlete's needs and the time of year.
    There are several guidelines to help us with designing the training plan for the first biomotor ability. These are:
    •    Consider the nature of the qualities trained: Is this a recovery workout? Is it a workout focused on maximal, all-out efforts? Is the workout focused more on endurance?
    •    Don't train the same qualities two days in a row. If today's session is focused on maximal, all-out efforts then tomorrow's session should be focused on a different quality. This allows for recovery.
    •    Consider the nature of the energy systems trained: Is the workout training primarily the phosphagen energy system? Anaerobic glycolysis? Aerobic glycolysis?
    •    Don't train the same energy systems two days in a row. Again, this allows for recovery.
    Are there exceptions to the above guidelines? Absolutely. Level of ability, training experience, fitness, program philosophy, access to facilities, time of year, etc., will all have an impact. However, the above guidelines give us a place to start with the design of our program.
    Keeping the above guidelines in mind, we're going to develop our sprinter's speed training program according to Table One. Table One shows the focus of each day's speed workout, the qualities trained, and the energy system(s) trained.
    Philosophically, the bulk of the speed training is focusing on acceleration and maximum velocity training. Stride length, stride frequency, and pool work is thrown in for recovery. You can see the qualities and the energy systems trained and how they are arranged so that there is adequate time for recovery.

STEP FIVE: ADD THE OTHER BIOMOTOR ABILITIES ACCORDING TO THEIR IMPORTANCE

    Once the main biomotor ability has been addressed, it's time to add in the others. As a general guideline, biomotor abilities should be linked together by the qualities and the energy systems trained. In other words, a day with speed training focusing on all-out explosive effort and the phosphagen energy system should only include the biomotor abilities training those qualities and energy systems.
    Biomotor abilities should be added to the base plan by order of importance. For the sake of this article, and for simplicity's sake, we're going to divide the biomotor abilities that our hypothetical sprinter may use into the following. (I realize there are more and that there can be even more subdivisions, but this is just meant to be an example):
    •    Mobility exercises
    •    Strength training: bodyweight strength training (includes core training and "prehab" exercises like shin splint prevention drills), maximal strength training, Olympic-style weightlifting, hypertrophy strength training, and eccentric strength training
    •    Speed training: technique drills, stride length, stride frequency, acceleration, maximal velocity, speed endurance
    •    Plyometrics: horizontal jumps, vertical jumps, throws.
    Our priorities for this sprinter are speed, strength, plyometrics, and mobility. Table Two provides an overview of linking all of these qualities together.

    Grouping the workouts by physical qualities and energy systems has an interesting effect on strength training workouts; it results in shorter, more focused strength training workouts. If one is training explosiveness (or an all-out effort), then one cannot combine Olympic style weightlifting exercises with hypertrophy-type training. The result is that there are a lot of strength training sessions in this workout plan, but each session is meant to be very short.
    The maximal strength work­ out may consist of 4-5 exercises to train the entire body. Bodyweight strength training is meant to be performed in a circuit fashion (i.e., fast pace, little-to-no recovery). Olympic-style weightlifting work­ outs should generally consist of 2-3 exercises. Hypertrophy workouts may include 4-8 exercises but these would be done with little recovery between each set.
    Tables Three and Four show how this approach to program design could change the strength training program. Table Three shows the strength training program that would have been implemented without linking the training. Notice that each session attempts to accomplish everything. Table Four shows the shorter, more focused strength training sessions that are implemented as a result of linking everything together.

    Plyometric sessions generally consist of 2-3 exercises. Mobility sessions can be recovery workouts or simply used as a warm-up exercise.
    Figure one provides an overview of volume and intensity for the week. Notice that Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday are low-intensity days providing for recovery. Monday and Friday are higher-intensity days (i.e. recovery days closely follow high-intensity days) with Wednesday and Saturday being moderate-intensity days.

    Program design can be an extremely complicated and confusing affair. Taking the time to analyze the event and the athlete to determine what qualities are important can make a coach's life easier. Once this has been done, the training program for the most important ability should be designed keeping several simple guidelines in mind.
    Finally, other biomotor abilities should be added to the program again keeping the guidelines in mind. In this manner a safe, effective, efficient program can be put into place that targets the appropriate qualities while still allowing for adequate recovery time.
 

FROM: TRACK COACH 178