Download KIN 225: Introduction to Athletic Training

Chapter 4
Conditioning & Strength Training in Athletics
Overview
• Purpose of conditioning and
strength training
• Fitness-testing procedures
• Fitness-testing parameters
• Exercise prescription
• Developing the strength-training
program
• Types of strength training
• Equipment selection
• Integrating other fitness
components
• Preventing injury
Purpose of Conditioning and Strength Training
• Athletes’, and the athletic trainer's, role in
conditioning and strength training
– Optimize performance & athletic development
– Prevent injury
• People in other exercise settings
– Enhance health and wellness
– Optimize performance
• Older adults
– Maintain health and wellness
– Improve quality of living
Fitness-Testing Procedures
• Measures the athlete's level of fitness
– Helps identify muscle groups or energy
sources that need to be trained
• Usually includes tests of muscular
function, cardiovascular function,
speed, agility, and body composition
– SPARQ testing provides sport-specific
evaluation
• www.sparqtraining.com
• Preseason participation evaluation
Fitness-Testing Procedures
• Ongoing evaluations
– For athletes
• Help to identify particular weaknesses that may have
developed
– For physically active (non competitive
athletes)
• Indicate progress toward fitness goals and whether
changes in the program are advisable
• Postseason fitness evaluations
– Used to plan and assess the off-season
training program
Fitness-Testing Parameters
• Muscle function
– Muscle strength
• Ability of the muscle or group of muscles to overcome a
resistance
• 1-repetition maximum (1RM) test
– Muscular endurance
• Ability of a muscle or group of muscles to perform a repetitive
action
• Sit-ups, push-ups, or more sport-specific evaluations such as the
squat with a light weight for a cross country runner
– Muscle power
• Rate of performing work: A weight lifted (force) through a range
of movement (usually a vertical distance) divided by the unit of
time required to perform the lift
• Vertical jump
Fitness-Testing Parameters
• Cardiovascular function
– Evaluating aerobic power
• Ability to use oxygen in performing
work
• 1.5 mile (2.4 km) timed run, step test, 2
mile (3.2 km) timed run
– Evaluating anaerobic power
• Ability to perform activities of very
short duration using metabolic
processes that produce energy without
oxygen
• Vertical jump, shuttle run
Fitness-Testing Parameters
• Agility and speed
– Agility
• The ability to start, stop, and change
direction
• Shuttle run, T-test, Edgren Side Step test
• Proper footwear; time to learn the pattern
before being timed
– Speed
• Length of time required to travel a set
distance
• Running—preferably in distances similar to
those that occur in the sport; timed dashes
such as the 40 yd (37 m) or 100 yd (91 m)
dash for sports with short bursts of sprinting
Fitness-Testing Parameters
• Flexibility
– Joint structure
• Structure of joint surface determines
the motions available
• Ball-and-socket versus other types of
joints
– Effects of muscle size
• Muscle bulk can limit movement
• Can avoid this loss of flexibility in two
ways: stretching the same muscle that
is strengthened and strengthening the
opposite muscles (antagonists)
Fitness-Testing Parameters
• Flexibility (cont.)
– Ligament and tendon composition
• All connective tissues are made up of
collagen and elastin
– Some people have more elasticity
than others have
– Age and sex
• Females tend to be more flexible than males
• As people age, they tend to decrease in
flexibility
– Active people are more flexible than
sedentary people
Fitness-Testing Parameters
• Flexibility (cont.)
– Testing
– Importance
– Hamstring: sit-and-reach test
– Pectoralis major muscles:
supine, elbows clasped behind
head; then relax shoulders to
allow elbows to move toward
table
Fitness-Testing Parameters
• Height, weight, and body
composition
– Uses of anthropometry: height
and weight
• To determine position on team an
athlete is best suited for
• Self-knowledge
• Unexpected changes can be a sign of a
medical condition
Fitness-Testing Parameters
• Height, weight, and body
composition
– Body composition test is more
significant
• Amount of fat in relation to lean tissue
• High levels of fat affect ability to move
optimally and are associated with
certain diseases and illnesses
• Methods of measuring
– Skin calipers
– Body mass index
– Hydrostatic weighing
– Bioelectrical impedance
Exercise Prescription
• Needs analysis—considering the objectives of
the program
– What muscle groups should be conditioned?
– Demands of sport: Physiological and biomechanical
analysis of the skills of the sport
– Abilities of the athlete
– Energy systems
– Muscle activity: concentric, eccentric, or isometric?
– Injury patterns
• Team's injury history
• Athlete’s injury history
Exercise Prescription
• Goal setting
– Short-term goals
• Include immediate (individual day) and short-range
(month) goals
• Contribute to the long-term goal
– Long-term goals
• Must be established by the athlete
• Should be specific, measurable, and attributable to the
conditioning program
– Limitations to the plan
• Recognize that obstacles to achieving the goal will occur,
and establish alternate plans
• Provide communication and encouragement
Exercise Prescription
• Exercise plans
– Training volume: Amount of work
performed
– Exercise order
– Station approach: Maximize overload on
one muscle group before moving to the
next
– Circuit training: Work a muscle group to
fatigue, and then hurry to the next
exercise, maintaining the elevated heart
rate
Developing the Strength-Training Program
• Resistance and overload: essential to every program
• Exercise intensity
– The percentage of the 1RM: relationship of percentage to
strength gains
– Hypertrophy method
– Goal is increased muscle mass through increasing the size of
individual muscle fibers
– 5 to 12 reps at 70 to 85% of the 1RM
• High-intensity training method (HIT)
– Goal is to improve recruitment of existing muscle fibers rather
than to increase the size of the fibers
– Intensity reaches up to 100%; amount of weight increased if
athlete can lift prescribed weight more than four times
Developing the Strength-Training Program
• Periodization
– Brings about peak performance by
constantly changing training stimulus
(intensity, volume, specificity, etc.)
– Reduces risk of injury and overtraining
– Macrocycle comprised of mesocycles,
mesocycles comprised of microcycles
Developing the Strength-Training Program
• Macrocycle
– Duration of
competitive training
• Annual for most athletes,
every four years for
Olympic athletes
– Progresses from
high volume, low
intensity non-sport
specific to low
volume, low
intensity, sport
specific activity
Developing the Strength-Training Program
• Mesocycle
– Preparatory phase
• Off-season (3 sub-phases)
– Hypertrophy/endurance
» Low intensity, high volume
» Non-sport specific
– Strength
» Moderate intensity, moderate volume
– Power
» High intensity, low volume
» Sport-specific
Developing the Strength-Training Program
• Mesocycles (continued)
– In-season
• Competition phase
– Maintenance driven
– High intensity, low volume
– Post-season
• Transition phase
– Unstructured
– Allows time to recover physically & psychologically
Developing the Strength-Training Program
• Progressive overload
– Gradual increase in the stress placed on a
muscle as it gains strength or endurance
– Accomplished through increasing repetitions
or resistance
Developing the Strength-Training Program
• Rest periods and training frequency
– Rest periods: Amount of time between consecutive
sets
• Longer—3 to 5 min—when training for absolute strength (1RM
loads)
• Shorter—30 to 60 sec—when training for muscle hypertrophy (812 reps with submaximal weight)
• Rest periods in circuit training: 1:1 ratio and when to modify
– Training frequency: Length of time between
exercise sessions
• Typically, weight training done on alternating days
• Longer recovery needed if early in exercise program, if exercises
are multijoint, if maximal or near-maximal loads are used
• Shorter recovery needed if low volume used on days between
high-volume training, or if athlete has been weightlifting on a
regular basis for several years
Types of Strength Training
• Isometric
– Muscle generates a force, but
there is no joint movement;
resistance is greater than the
athlete is able to move
– Strength gains are greatest
at the precise joint position
at which the contraction is
performed
– Isometrics are not often
applicable to sport
performance, though
consider holding positions in
wrestling and gymnastics,
abdominal muscles in
swimming, abdominal and
back muscles in running
– Difficult to measure the
overload
Types of Strength Training
• Isotonic
– Moving the joint through a range of motion with a set
amount of resistance applied
– Occurs in lifting free weights and in most activities of daily
living
• Variable resistance
– Delivers a varying resistance at different points in the range
of motion
– Offset cam on Nautilus/variable-resistance machines;
sliding lever bar systems; rubber bands or elastic tubing
(provides increased resistance as the band is elongated)
• Isokinetics
– Muscular action performed at a constant velocity
– Isokinetic machines provide a maximum resistance
throughout the entire range of joint movement
Types of Strength Training
• Concentric and eccentric training
– Most sports involve both phases
– Concentric muscle activity
• The shortening of the muscle when a limb moves through a
range of motion with a resistance applied
• This muscle action is the force-production part of almost every
human movement
– Eccentric muscle activity
• The lengthening of a muscle (lengthening contraction) that
occurs with lowering of a weight
• Does not occur in every form of isokinetic exercise (some
isokinetic machines do allow eccentric contractions),
proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation exercises, or manual
resistance exercises without modifications
• Does occur with most other weightlifting machines and in all
forms of body weight conditioning (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups,
etc.)
Types of Strength Training
• Plyometrics
– Also known as stretch-shortening cycle exercise
• Stretch phase: Eccentric loading phase
• Shortening phase: Force-production or concentric phase
• Every physical activity incorporates the stretch-shortening
cycle
– Critical feature: A concentric force production
follows every eccentric load absorption
– When a muscle is stretched prior to the onset of a
contraction, the contraction is greater than it
would have been otherwise
– Can be used as part of a rehabilitation program or
to prepare for a specialized skill or performance
Equipment Selection
• Must understand biomechanics of the sport or
activity, then attempt to find specific exercises
to challenge the relevant muscles to adapt,
and choose equipment on these parameters
• Free weights
• Strength-training machines
– Can be less expensive than free weights
– Safer for young athletes—cannot drop weight on
foot or chest
– May not provide an adequate range of exercises for
all sizes of athletes or for all strength levels
Equipment Selection
• Individual machines
– Take up more space and cost more than free
weights
– Major benefit: can exercise an individual joint
action or muscle group
• Other equipment
– Functional activities
– Plyo balls, elastics, swimming or pool work
• Comparing equipment types
– In general, free weights are thought to be more
beneficial than machines
– Machines offer an advantage when range of motion
is limited—in rehabilitation situations or for
athletes who have disabilities
Integrating Other Fitness Components
• Aerobic endurance training
– Nearly every physical activity requires some degree
of cardiovascular, or aerobic, endurance
– Establish fitness level by using a cardiovascular
stress test to determine the maximal heart rate
– The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
recommends an exercise intensity for aerobic
conditioning between 60 and 90% of the maximal
heart rate (or 50 to 80% of the VO2max obtained in
a stress test)
– Overload required, short-term goals leading to
long-term goals in a steady progression
Integrating Other Fitness Components
• Anaerobic training
– Not as universally required as aerobic training, but critical in most
sport activities
– Training principles
• Requires short, intense bursts of activity
• Should be sport specific
• Possible methods: running short, intense sprints; performing short, intense bouts on
a slide-board, bicycle, step-up equipment; and so on
• Cannot be sustained for long periods of time
• Can use interval training to allow body to recover
– Who should train anaerobically?
• Primarily for people with moderate level of fitness who want to improve this aspect
of their conditioning
• Not appropriate for older adults or others who have low fitness levels, or for anyone
who might risk injury doing exercise at high intensity
• People at risk for cardiovascular disease should be carefully screened
– Program design
• Advantageous to vary distances of sprints during the workout
• Increase volume gradually to avoid injury: Increase mileage or time spent by no
more than 10% per week
• Alternate interval training days with days of rest or more moderately paced exercise
Integrating Other Fitness Components
• Flexibility/stretching programs
– Rationale for stretching: reduction of injury?
improvement of sport performance? use in
rehabilitation?
– Passive stretching
• No work on the part of the athlete
• Another person carries limb through range of motion; must have
training
– Active stretching
• Athlete takes an active role in the stretching
• Uses his or her own body to produce the stretch
– Contract/relax stretching
• Partner or therapist provides the resistance to the contraction
and stretches the muscle group
• Preliminary contraction may allow the muscle to more fully relax
during the stretching cycle
• Single, straight plane of motion
Integrating Other Fitness Components
• Flexibility/stretching programs
– Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation
(PNF)
• Requires that three movements occur: flexion/extension,
abduction/adduction, and rotation
• Diagonal patterns of movement traversing three planes
– Stretching methods
• Static: Joint moved to the point at which tightness is felt,
and that position held
• Ballistic: Involves a bouncing movement; not entirely safe
• Dynamic: Involves sport-specific movements; for example,
"high knees" for sprinters
Preventing Injury
• Coaching methods
– Particular coaching techniques or instructions can
cause or prevent injuries (e.g., spearing versus
head up during tackling in football)
– National Standards for Athletic Coaches (National
Association for Sport and Physical
Education/American Alliance for Health, Physical
Education, Recreation and Dance [AAHPERD])
• Matching athletes on motor skill performance
• Controlling biomechanical stress/overuse
• Role of extrinsic forces (someone else landing
on your foot)
• Modifying physical demands placed on athlete
(being aware of illness and fatigue)
Considerations for Female Athletes
• Hormonal differences
• Neural differences
• Strength/body weight ratio
– Absolute vs. relative strength