Strength & Conditioning - How To Train Everyday As An Athlete & Avoid Overtraining
About the Author
Ben Foodman is a licensed psychotherapist & performance specialist. He owns his private practice located in Charlotte North Carolina where he specializes in working with athletes to help them overcome mental blocks (the yips), PTSD, ADD / ADHD and achieve flow states through the techniques of Brainspotting & Neurofeedback. If you are interested in services, use the link here! Enjoy the article below!
Introduction: Elite Athletes & Daily Strength & Conditioning
There is no question that elite athletes like Lydia Valentin (featured in above photo by Hookgrip) train incredibly hard and smart to achieve high levels of success. Different athletes can handle different workloads, and elite athletes more often than not require high quantities of very intense of training to become successful in their craft. Many athletes and coaches try to mimic training regimens such as lifting two times per day, sometimes five to seven days per week believing that they will yield similar results. Unfortunately for these individuals, they will oftentimes run into problems with recovery due to the subjective demands of general adaptation syndrome and other training variables. Because of this, there has understandably been a responsible push within the sport performance community to promote a healthy work/rest balance in order to avoid athlete overtraining syndrome.
I believe rest is a vital part in an athlete’s development both from a performance and a health standpoint. However, I have been rethinking the possibilities of training seven days per week and have come to the conclusion that this can be done in a responsible manner. With that being said, athletes and coaches that choose to train this way should be honest about how well they feel they are recovering under these training tactics. For this Training Report, I will be reviewing self-monitoring recovery strategies, what daily training protocols look like, and how different psychological systems will affect training outcomes. I will primarily be discussing this through the lens of Olympic weightlifting (however this concept applies to all sports). First, we need to understand why we should seriously consider daily training regimens and why we need to be careful adopting this training approach.
Part I. How to listen to your body when training
Newton’s third law of motion states “for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. If object A exerts a force on object B, object B also exerts an equal and opposite force on object A. In other words, forces result from interactions.”. Consider for a moment some of the types of goals that athletes set for themselves: I want to compete and place in the top three at the Olympics; I want to play professional baseball; I want to place in the top 10 at the Boston Marathon for my age group; I want to win the USAW Junior National Championships. These are lofty goals and when we consider Newton’s third law, one can safely assume that this principle applies here from the standpoint that the quantity and quality of training will need to match the desired outcome goal. You can’t compete in the Olympics unless you are at the very least training hard and smart. An athlete’s process and performance goals have to accurately reflect the path towards their desired outcome goal or all of their work is for nothing. Therefore, athletes and coaches should seriously consider daily training but need to reimagine what this looks like (as opposed to the old school ‘tough it out’ ideology).
Daily training does NOT mean that the workload intensity is the same every day. In fact workload intensity should vary greatly. When designing daily training programs there should be several factors that are consistently programmed: Try to periodize by weeks meaning that each week should be a new progression towards altering intensities and goals (e.g. week 1 hypertrophy, week 2 strength, week 3 power, week 4 d-load); design micro-cycles based on two categories that occur each week (e.g. days 1, 3, 5, & 7 are heavy training days while days 2, 4, & 6 are technical light work load days); finally be flexible in training. Before each training session, individuals should constantly assess the quality of recovery, and identify stress factors in the athlete’s personal life that could affect training (e.g. you’ve been getting great sleep and you can perform at higher intensity, you are experiencing interpersonal conflict with a loved one and are under stress). Whatever is happening in an athlete’s life, having flexibility means that you might be able to dial up the intensity, but more often than not you may need to lower the workload if recovery from training is decreasing. So what exactly does this programming look like?
Different sports require different strategies when implementing daily training. While this article is primarily focused on discussing daily training as it pertains to Olympic weightlifting, I will also provide a general sample approach that other coaches and athletes can use as a blue print when considering this model. Keep in mind that when designing a program, you will need to be acutely aware of the primary energy systems that are being taxed during training. This will in many ways influence when, where and how long your recovery training days look. For instance, Olympic weightlifters will want to have heavier/strength enhancement days, followed by light movement/technical adjustment training days. Ultra-runners could stack consecutive heavy run days with one another, but follow these training cycles with light recovery run days or strength training activities.
Again, flexibility is key to this process. Minor injuries, poor sleep, or personal issues will undoubtedly affect the performance during training. It may even be necessary to discontinue training if OTS appears to be a possibility or obviously if there are areas where injury is most likely to occur. Athletes can regularly fill out exercise readiness forms (see below daily training models) and track how their average score is progressing. A trusting relationship and constant communication between the coach and the athlete is a necessity for this to work effectively. Dedication to active recovery methods outside of training will be a significant factor to maximize the effectiveness of this process (e.g. foam rolling, hydration, etc.). Finally, the athlete’s overall training experience will be another significant factor as athletes who have been training longer will most likely have a better understanding of what their body needs.
Part II. Daily Training Models
OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING MODEL
Day 1
Snatches 3 x 2 @ 80% of 1 RM, C&J 2 x 2 @ 80% of 1 RM
Back Squats 3 x 5 @ 80% of 1 RM
Superset 1
Push Press + Snatch Pulls
3 x 5 @ 8/10 difficulty, 3 x 5 @ 9/10 difficulty
Day 2
Snatches 3 x 2 @ 80% of 1 RM, Power Cleans + Power Jerks 2 x 2 @ 80% of 1 RM
Front Squats 3 x 5 @ 80% of 1 RM
Superset 1
Bench Press + Clean Pulls
3 x 5 @ 8/10 difficulty, 3 x 5 @ 9/10 difficulty
Day 3
Snatches 2 x 2 @ 50% of 1 RM, C&J 2 x 2 @ 50% of 1 RM
Day 4
Snatches 3 x 2 @ 80% of 1 RM, C&J 2 x 2 @ 80% of 1 RM
Back Squats 3 x 5 @ 80% of 1 RM
Superset 1
Push Press + Snatch Pulls
3 x 5 @ 8/10 difficulty, 3 x 5 @ 9/10 difficulty
Day 5
Snatches 3 x 2 @ 80% of 1 RM, Power Cleans + Power Jerks 2 x 2 @ 80% of 1 RM
Front Squats 3 x 5 @ 80% of 1 RM
Superset 1
Bench Press + Clean Pulls
3 x 5 @ 8/10 difficulty, 3 x 5 @ 9/10 difficulty
Day 6
Snatches 2 x 2 @ 50% of 1 RM, C&J 2 x 2 @ 50% of 1 RM
Day 7
Snatches 2 x 2 @ 50% of 1 RM, C&J 2 x 2 @ 50% of 1 RM
GENERALIZED MODEL
Day 1
Heavy Work Load Day
E.G. Slow long-distance training, repeated hill sprints, etc.
Day 2
Medium Work Load Day
E.G. Set timed runs, interval training, etc.
Day 3
Active Recovery Day
E.G. Recovery runs, accessory strength training, technical development, etc.
Day 4
Heavy Work Load Day
E.G. Slow long-distance training, repeated hill sprints, etc.
Day 5
Medium Work Load Day
E.G. Set timed runs, interval training, etc.
Day 6
Active Recovery Day
E.G. Recovery runs, accessory strength training, technical development, etc.
Day 7
Active Recovery Day
E.G. Recovery runs, accessory strength training, technical development, etc.
Part III. EXERCISE READINESS QUESTIONNAIRE
On a scale of 1 - 5 (1 being negative, 5 being positive) rate your experience with the following situations
1. Quality Of Sleep
2. Overall Mood
3. Recovered From Previous Training
4. Appetite Is Healthy & Baseline
5. Bodyweight Is Healthy & Baseline
6. Social Relationships Remain Strong
7. You Are Progressing In A Normal Rate Towards Performance Goals
Part IV. Physical & Psychological Recovery Performance
As previously stated, one of the core tenants of training daily requires an extreme commitment to recovery. Not only should the workload and intensity be light on days that would normally be considered ‘off days’, but there are other factors that need to be considered. First, athletes and coaches need to honestly assess the social and psychological stress that the individual athlete is experiencing outside of training. Psychological stress can have a significant affect on the body’s immune system, and if an athlete’s immune system is being taxed outside of training then there is no question that an increased workload will add to that stress accumulation. Psychological stress can be affected by many factors such as problems with interpersonal relationships, clinical mental health issues (e.g. ADHD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Unspecified Trauma & Stressor Related Disorder, etc.), and other variables.
Sociologically, even athletes that compete in individual sports as opposed to team sports (e.g. Olympic weightlifting vs. football) have their sport performance outcomes affected by their environment. Whether it is the interactions they are having with other athletes, or the pressure they are feeling to perform for their sponsors, these events have a significant impact on performance. Ultimately athletes need to effectively self-monitor their lives both in and outside of their sport and develop a deep understanding of what their true health baseline is. Coaches need to develop trust with their athletes in order for them to feel comfortable to freely share how they are feeling under this training discipline. In conclusion, daily training can be done effectively and should be seriously considered, but only if everyone is honest and committed towards making healthy recovery during training cycles.
Note To Reader:
If you are an athlete reading this segment of the TRAINING REPORT, hopefully this content was helpful! I put the Training Report together because I felt like many of the discussions on issues such as the Yips/mental blocks, strength training & other subject matter on athlete performance concepts were really missing the mark on these ideas (e.g. how trauma is the direct cause of the Yips). If you are interested in learning more, make sure to subscribe below for when I put out new content on issues related to sport psychology & athlete performance! Also, if you are looking to work with a mental performance specialist, you are in the right place! USE THIS LINK to reach out to me to see if my services are the right fit for your goals!
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