Combined training methods and routines

Combined training shows how weight training releases the awesome power of 'plyometric training'.

Plyometric exercises

Plyometric exercises develop fast muscle fibre.

It's based on the understanding that a concentric (shortening) muscular contraction is much stronger if it immediately follows an eccentric (lengthening) contraction of the same muscle.

It's a bit like stretching out a coiled spring to its fullest extent and then letting it go: immense levels of energy are released in a split second as the spring recoils.

Plyometric exercises develop this recoil. Muscle fibre stores more elastic energy and transfers more quickly and powerfully from the eccentric to the concentric phase.

These are the steps towards combined training.

Combining training with plyometrics weight training, used correctly, has a vital role to play in laying the foundations for generating specific sports-related power. Unlike traditional weight training, plyometric drills can closely mimic both the movement pattern and the speed of execution of actual sports performance.

A larger and stronger muscle built up by weight training will be able to generate greater force plyometrically, and strengthened tendons and muscles will be less prone to strains and pulls. Combining weight training with plyometrics is also used for a heightened fast twitch muscle fibre response.

The four stages of plyometric training

• At early stages plyometric drills develop low-level power and general sports-specific movement pattern conditioning, as well as specific endurance.
  You'll then move on to the next three stages: 
   
• the main power conditioning phase 
   
• the pre-competition phase and up to 
   
• competition phase

Once in the competition stage, in power sports the activity itself acts as the prime conditioner: nothing beats a competitive situation for optimum power expression.
Avoid the wrong kind of weight training.

It has long been accepted that weight training can improve performance. Many athletes and coaches get caught up with this 'bigger is best' strategy. But, contrary to popular belief, lifting progressively heavier weights does not in itself lead to improved power and speed.

In fact the opposite happens -- it can slow you down. Get it wrong and you'll find that increased bulk will give you nothing but an additional load to carry around. Get it right, and weight training releases awesome power.

A while back we realized that once an athlete decides to move up to a higher competitive level, he or she wants to get there as quickly as possible.

In practice, this means:

1. Immediately dropping the many aspects of training that are ineffective or irrelevant.

2. Applying a science-based training program that's specific to your sport or event.

Once a properly structured program is in place, performance dramatically improves, and once your performance begins to progress, you won't want to slip back. An athlete spends most of his or her time training rather than competing.

Seven major areas of fitness

1. Planning
2. Injury Prevention
3. Mobility
4. Endurance
5. Strength
6. Speed and Agility
7. Psychology

Education is a strong motivator and you'll find the more you learn the faster you progress. Here are some of the benefits you'll accumulate from the various workbook modules:

• Improve the strength and power of movements by optimizing the functioning of your nervous system. 
   
• Experience a leap in power and stamina as you change your exercises to mimic the intensities of your sport or event. 
   
• Nullify weaknesses by applying specific strengthening and mobility exercises -- a crucial technique all athletes should master. 
   
• Transform your circuit training to improve strength, power, economy and VO2 max. 
   
• Improve 'lactate threshold' ' the best predictor of endurance performance ' by using intense workouts close to maximum velocity. 
   
• Utilize 'Neural Training' to fine-tune the nervous system to sustain fast intensity for the full duration of your competitive event. 
   
• Build endurance (rather than strength) for your common 'at-risk' muscles such as your back and trunk. 
   
• Maintain constant speed and power right through to the final stretch (just when the rest of the field slows), using one of the world's most effective but forgotten training methods. 
   
• Reduce your heart rate and deliver more oxygen to hard-working muscles by increasing blood volume to exceptional levels before competition.
   
• Improve flexibility and avoid injury using the dynamic strength workout. 
   
• Quickly carve away body fat and replace it with lean muscle.

Continue your program development at Combined training with weight training.