The Science of Sport, Training and Performance

Home
Articles
Books
About Me

Menu

Home
Articles
Books
About Me

Twitter Instagram Linkedin

About Me

Are you a cyclist who swears by FTP and everything

Let’s talk about recovery... What, why, how? R

Let’s talk about recovery...

What, why, how?

Recovery is a restorative or regenerative process relative to time. Recovery is an umbrella term, as it encompasses different modalities of recovery strategies – meaning, it is multifaceted (e.g., physiological, psychological, etc.).

Recovery and fatigue can be seen on a continuum and are jointly affected by physiological and psychological determinants. Having an adequate balance between stress (training load) and recovery is crucial to ensure athletes continue to improve over time and achieve high level performances.

Long-Term Fatigue + Insufficient Recovery = Impaired Performance.❎ What else?

Suboptimal recovery leads to:
◾Nonfunctional Overreaching (NFO): when the increase in training load is too much to handle and there is a transient decrease in performance capacity despite an increase in training stress.

◾Overtraining syndrome (OTS): long-term exposure to NFO. Characterised by physical symptoms such continuous muscle soreness, pain sensations, clinical and endocrinological disturbances (+125 possible signs and symptoms that have been identified in published scientific literature).

◾Illness

◾Injury

Physiological markers, such as creatine kinase, urea nitrogen, free testosterone, cortisol, and other blood-based variables often give valuable information to avoid the ⬆️. In the real-world, measures such as perceived exertion, mood state, heart rate depression, heart rate variability, training log comments and other subjective questionnaires, can go a long way in helping to prevent NFO, OTS, illness and/or injury.

Recovery should be prescribed by taking into account the current period of the season, and the nature of the applied stimulus:

◾Muscle damaging;

◾Cognitively fatiguing;

◾Metabolically demanding.

Importantly, more (training load) is not always better!

Are you prescribing training to yourself (or someo

Are you prescribing training to yourself (or someone else) without taking into consideration exercise intensity domains? You are doing it wrong!

Exercise domains help us to differentiate between intensities that elicit distinct physiological responses unique to each domain. No two domains are the same!

Importantly, there are physiological landmarks that represent the upper and lower boundaries of each domain in the exercise intensity spectrum. Understanding them will ensure we always target the right intensity zones, in order to achieve the desired adaptations!

These physiological thresholds are not set in stone (i.e., do not represent a single point in the intensity spectrum). Instead, each landmark equates to an intensity band (e.g. 340-360 watts) that characterizes each boundary. Everything in physiology occurs on a continuum, along the exercise intensity spectrum. Therefore, each landmark should be viewed more as gradual phase transitions, rather than a single value rounded to the nearest watt or second.

Take a look at each intensity domain here! ☝️

Are you an endurance athlete looking to get the mo

Are you an endurance athlete looking to get the most out of your training, but not exactly sure where to start?

Here’s my 7 + 1 simple yet effective strategies you can implement on a daily basis to take your performances up a level (or two!).

No, it’s not a magical training session or programme “guaranteed to give you tremendous gains in X number of weeks”.

What you see here are some of the things that the average person/athlete (who may not necessarily have a coach) often overlooks when going about their training.

The ideas presented here start from the assumption that you have a goal. There’s a very big difference between going out for a run/swim/cycle, versus going out to train! Important note: a goal doesn’t have to be a competition; it can be anything! But you do have to be striving toward something!

These strategies are not ground-breaking. And they’re not supposed to be. Nothing fancy or complicated. And that’s the beauty of it!

Take it as a reminder of what you should be doing.

Train safely ➡ Optimise your training ➡ Avoid stagnation.

Coaching Philosophies – Finding a good coach An

Coaching Philosophies – Finding a good coach

Anyone who works with athletes, or in the sports science industry in general, knows how “noisy” this industry can be.

Social media only aggravates this problem, due to the number of people that portray themselves as “fitness and performance gurus".

As result, it becomes very difficult for the average person looking for some coaching support to differentiate between what is legit and the stuff that others try to impose on you.

One thing that might help is that often the coaching expertise of these people comes from their own personal experiences, as opposed to a methodical approach backed by science.

Don’t get me wrong. In an industry where there is still so much to be discovered, there is definitely a balance between coaching art and coaching science.

We certainly don’t have the answers to everything. However, it is laughable that their so-called expertise was obtained without ever having read a scientific paper.

If you’re an endurance athlete and want to improve your performance, avoid the temptation of purchasing a “4-week training plan to boost your threshold power/speed”. Yes, such plans are likely to lead to improvements. However...

What is the problem with such plans? They improve your short-term performance at the expense of your long-term development. They rush the process, not to mention the lack of individualisation and coaching support. The list is endless. Plus, if you are not performing any kind of high-intensity work isn’t it common sense to expect improvements from doing some interval training? It certainly wasn’t due to the “magical 4-week plan”.

So much could be said about this. The most important aspect is finding someone who really cares about you and is 100% invested in your development.

My own personal coaching philosophy is based on 7 pillars ⬆️.

…

And much more!

🔗 Link in bio for more info.

Welcome to Inside Sport Science There is an ever-

Welcome to Inside Sport Science

There is an ever-growing gap between scientific research and what is often done in the ‘real world’ with athletes and clients.

Hundreds of articles are published every month in sport science journals alone.

Spending hours reading research papers to find one little ‘nugget’ that can be applied to an athlete’s training programme is often not a possibility for most people.

Even the particularly keen athlete (or coach) who enjoys learning about the science behind training and performance cannot afford to spend this much time going through the literature.

This page aims to bridge that gap.

If you’re a coach/practitioner, here expect to find the most relevant findings from the body of literature, coupled with practical applications, so that you can go away and apply the science to your athletes. Only the best studies make the cut!

If you’re an athlete or just a regular person trying to get the most out of yourself, here you will find important information regarding training optimisation and training practices, nutrition, strength and conditioning, and psychology! Performance is an all-encompassing ‘package’, so don’t expect it to be optimal if all you’ve been doing is focus on just one single aspect, while neglecting others.

The most relevant and debated topics of sports science will be discussed and critically appraised here! The main goal? Tying in what is being done in the labs to tangible performance plans that can be implemented by anyone!

Inside Sport Science

Follow on Instagram

Home
Articles
Books
About Me

Menu

Home
Articles
Books
About Me

Twitter Instagram Linkedin

Copyright © 2023 insidesportscience.com Powered by insidesportscience.com