A muscle forced to operate beyond its customary intensity by increasing the load

Overload is the threshold prescription to cause a desired outcome.  A muscle will only strengthen when forced to operate beyond its customary intensity. The load must be progressively increased in order to further adaptive responses as training develops, and the training stimulus is gradually raised.

For most people, the term “load” makes them think of a weight.  That can be true in regards to resistance training, however in the Cardiorespiratory Fitness sense, load can mean the amount, distance, type, and/or the intensity of the exercise.  So to see an improvement in Cardiorespiratory Fitness in a particular event, as well as improvement in resistance training, you need to examine the type of training you are doing, determine your goal in that type and go from there.2

A way to ensure that you are following a progressive overload is by remembering and following the acronym FITT.  FITT stands for: Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type.

Frequency→  increasing the number of times you train per week.

Intensity→  increasing the difficulty of the exercise you do.

Time→  also known as duration, is increasing the length of time that you are training for each session.

Type→  Increase in the difficulty of the training you are doing.

Think of progressive overload like building a house.  You lay a few bricks the first day, go away, rest, recover. Come back the next day and add some more bricks. Over time you have a house.  Another example is from Greek history; the Myth of Milo and the Calf 1.

    “To become the greatest wrestler in Greece, to win six Olympic laurels, Milo had to train like the rest           of us.  His method?  Borrow a new-born calf and carry it around Croton day after day, week after week, and month after month.  As the calf grew, so did Milo’s strength, until he was the strongest wrestler in Greece and could carry the now full grown bull upon his back.”1

This is a slightly extreme example, but the principle is the same.  Try to do more each time in order to see results.  This can be for anything and not just for resistance training, you don’t try to run a marathon right at the start.  You build up to that distance over time.

References:

2 Baechle, T. R., & Earle, R. W. (2016). Essentials of strength training and conditioning (4th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Training to improve an athlete’s performance obeys the three principles of training: specificity, overload and reversibility.

SPECIFICITY

To improve the range of movement for a particular joint action, you have to perform exercises which involve that joint action, for example, it is quite possible for an athlete to have good mobility in the shoulder joint but to have poor hip mobility. Practising shoulder mobility exercises may further improve the shoulder mobility, but it will not affect the hip mobility.

Specificity is an important principle in strength training, where the exercise must be specific to the type of strength required and is therefore related to the particular demands of the sport. Although specificity is important, it is necessary in every schedule to include exercises of a general nature (e.g. power clean, squat). These do not relate too closely to the movement of any athletic event. They do, however, give a balanced development, and provide a strong base upon which highly specific exercise can be built.

OVERLOAD

When an athlete performs a mobility exercise, he/she should stretch to the end of his/her range of movement. In active mobility the end of the range of movement is known as the active end position. Improvements in mobility can only be achieved by working at or beyond the active end position.

Passive exercises involve passing the active end position, as the external force is able to move the limbs further than the active contracting of the protagonist muscles

Kinetic mobility exercises use the momentum of the movement to bounce past the active end position

A muscle will only strengthen when forced to operate beyond its customary intensity. The load must be progressively increased in order to further adaptive responses as training develops, and the training stimulus is gradually raised. Overload can be progressed by:

• increasing the resistance e.g. adding to the barbell
• increasing the number of repetitions with a particular weight
• increasing the number of sets of the exercise (work)
• increasing the intensity- more work in the same time, i.e. reducing the recovery periods

REVERSIBILITY

Improved ranges of movement can be achieved and maintained by regular use of mobility exercises. If an athlete ceases mobility training, his/her ranges of movement will decline over a period of time to those maintained by his/her other physical activities.

When training ceases the training effect will also stop. Athletes must ensure that they continue strength training throughout the competitive period, although at a much-reduced volume, or newly acquired strength will be lost.

WARM UP AND COOL DOWN

Time spent on warming up and cooling down will improve an athlete’s level of performance and accelerate the recovery process needed before training or competition. As a result, the coach must encourage the athlete to regard the warm up and cool down as an essential part of both the training session and competition itself.

WARM UP (Examples)

Warming up should at least consist of the following:

• 5 to 10 minutes jogging – to increase body temperature
• 10 to 15 minutes dynamic stretching exercises – reduce muscle stiffness
• 10 to 15 minutes general and event specific drills
• Lower leg drills
• Leg drills
• Technique drills
• 4 to 8 easy run outs over 30 to 60 metres – focus on correct running technique
• Dynamic stretches are more appropriate to the warmup as they help reduce muscle stiffness.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A WARM UP?

Performance may be improved as an appropriate warm up will result in an:

• Increased speed of contraction and relaxation of warmed muscles
• Dynamic exercises reduce muscle stiffness
• Greater economy of movement because of lowered viscous resistance within warmed muscles
• Increased blood flow through active tissues as local vascular beds dilate, increasing metabolism and muscle temperatures

COOL DOWN (Examples)

Warming down should consist of the following:

• 5 to 10 minutes jogging/walking – decrease body temperature and remove waste products from the working muscles
• 5 to 10 minutes static stretching exercises- decrease body temperature, remove waste products from the working muscles and to increase range of movement.
• Static stretches are more appropriate to the cool down as they help muscles to relax and increase their range of movement.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A COOL DOWN?

An appropriate cool down will:

• aid in the dissipation of waste products – including lactic acids
• reduce the chances of dizziness or fainting caused by the pooling of venous blood at the extremities
• reduce the level of adrenaline in the blood

What is a muscle forced to operate beyond its customary intensity by increasing the load?

Which of the following refers to the muscle forced to operate beyond its customary?