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Lead Stories: Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Interval Training on Consecutive Days

Posted October 15th, 2007 at 11:45 AM by Martha Jones

Section: Running & Training, Training Tips, Health & Fitness, Exercise

running track The faster an athlete moves in training, the faster he or she will be able to move during competition. So athletes use a training technique called interval training in which they run, cycle, skate, ski or swim very fast for a short time. When they become severely short of breath, they slow down until they recover, and then move very fast again.

Researchers at Ithaca College showed that athletes can gain as much by doing this type of intense interval training on consecutive days as on alternate days (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, September 2007).

Interval training causes considerable muscle damage, so it usually leaves athletes sore the next day. Most trainers recommend exercising at a slower pace until the soreness disappears. That is why athletes usually follow each intense day with one or more easy days.

However, many competitions require an athlete to exercise flat out for several consecutive days. He/She may have to compete in multiple preliminary heats over several consecutive days to reach the finals.
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Do triathletes get injured more often than one-sport athletes?

Posted March 12th, 2007 at 12:29 PM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Cross Training, Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab

Triathletes are injured only about one third as often as marathon runners even though they do far more work in their program of swimming, cycling and running. Training intelligently for three sports is less likely to injure you than training very hard for one. Training is limited by damage to skeletal muscles.

Every time you exercise, your muscles develop small tears with bleeding. It takes at least 48 hours for muscles to heal from exercise. Each sport stresses a particular group of muscles most. Marathon runners who train every day stress the same muscles and often do not allow adequate time to recover from the previous day’s workout, so they are at increased risk for injury.

Top triathletes train in different sports on consecutive days. Running stresses the lower leg muscles most, cycling stresses the upper leg muscles most and swimming stresses the arms and shoulders most. Triathletes usually set up a workout schedule that includes two sports on one day and one on the next.
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How can I avoid overtraining?

Posted December 10th, 2006 at 4:18 PM by Martin Kennedy

Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Training Tips, Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab

One of the most difficult problems for athletes is knowing when you are training too much. You make a muscle stronger only by stressing that muscle, feeling sore on the next day, and taking easy workouts or days off until the soreness goes away.

Then you are supposed to take a hard workout again. If you do not feel soreness on the day after a hard workout, you have not injured your muscles, and they will not become stronger. However, if you try to work hard when your muscles feel sore, muscles do not recover and will feel sore all the time.
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What causes muscle fatigue during endurance events?

Posted December 5th, 2006 at 3:00 PM by Martin Kennedy

Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Training Tips

When you exercise for a long time, your muscles start to burn and feel sore, which forces you to slow down. You call this fatigue and tiredness, but a recent study from Japan shows that muscle fatigue is caused by damage to the muscle itself (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, July 2005).

This also explains why exercising long and hard enough to feel the burn for an extended period leaves your muscles sore for one or more days afterwards. Athletes call this Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and they learn that they have to have this next-day soreness to improve for competition.
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Principles of Training

Posted October 28th, 2006 at 7:00 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Training Tips, Health & Fitness

training athlete fit.jpg You will not become a better athlete by doing the same training regimen each day.

Athletes train by taking hard workouts on one day, feeling sore on the next, and not taking another hard workout until the muscles stop feeling sore.

It’s called the hard-easy principle.

If you want to become stronger or faster or increase your endurance, you have to exercise hard or long enough to make your muscles burn. Then your muscles will be sore for one or more days.

However, if you try to exercise hard when your muscles are damaged, you will tear them and the muscles will weaken.

If you wait for the soreness to disappear, your muscles will be stronger than they were before your workout. As you continue to take stressful workouts only after the soreness disappears, you will become progressively stronger and faster and have greater endurance. Read the rest of this entry »

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