OK T-men, I have am seeking some help from the only people who I
believe will be able to give me the correct answers. I participate in a
sport that is extremely demanding on the entire body. The timed event
lasts only about 2 minutes and requires an absolute maximum effort plus
some be put forth. It requires you to have great upper body strength and
extreme leg endurance in addition to a great anerobic threshold. While
actually competing in this event, the metabolic heat generated by your
body is not removed because of the equipment you are wearing and it is
not uncommon to lose 3 to 5 pounds of total body weight (from sweat)
over the duration of the event, which is again about 2 minutes in length.
As a testiment to the extreme nature of this sport, many competitors
tend to throw up after the completion of the event (probably from
de-hydration and or as a reaction to the extremely high levels of lactic
acic that builds up in the body). My question is what kind of training
program should I follow to improve my performance in this sport and
decrease the length of time it takes me to actually complete the course
(the quicker the time the better since the fast guy wins !) Any help would
be greatly appreciated.
Tell us the sport. Are you embarrassed?
I appologize for neglecting to identify the sport. It is the firefighter combat challenge.
Oh shit! That’s tough, ballsy stuff, Rob! You guys are true athletes, no doubt. I’m not an expert in that area, but I hope you get some good responses. I’d suggest sprint training, compound explosive movements in the gym (powerclean etc) and of course, realistic practice- i.e. try to train on the actual events with the actual equipment. This is what most strongmen competitors do. Good luck!
Sorry this is a little short but here are two suggestions: 1. Definately do some sprint training. Depending on how long you have to train, the more elements you could work, basically in sprinting you could train acceleration(10-40yd runs), maximum velocity(40-80yd runs) or speed endurance(80-150yd runs). Work on one for a month then switch and have 1-2 days/wk devoted to this.
2. Work your hamstrings/glutes or hip dominant as the King bloke calls 'em. I would think that the deadlift and it's variations would be the priority in your training. With squats and upper body(compound lifts of course) coming in secondary. Lastly, keep reps in the 1-8 range and time under tension in the 10-40sec range. Hope this helps.
To raise your lactic acid threshold, I would do German Volume Training or an alternate Germany Body Comp. I do the GBC workouts with no rest in between movements A1-A4 or B1-B4. Then I rest. Ex: today I did front squats, no rest, dumbbell bench press, no rest, sitting leg curls, no rest, Roman Chairs. THEN rest for 2-3 minutes.
I don’t see how keeping a low TUT would help, since your competition requires a very high lactic acid threshold AND anerobic conditioning. So if you do wind sprints, do 'em with as little rest in between as possible. Or you could do squats like this: Squat, rest 30 seconds, squat, rest 30, squat, rest 30, squat, rest 30, squat. Then perform 20 pullovers. This would really help your lungs. The variations, as you can see are endless. Regardless of the training paradigm you chose, I can’t see any way out of doing squats with minimal rest in between sets.
Strenght training is strength training. Now this is a classic:there isnt such a thing as sport-specific strength training. The only thing you want to do is GETING STRONGER. You can’t gain specific types of strength, not even “explosive strength”.
So concentrate on what actually will get you stronger, period.
Laurent, so are you saying that if I want to get stronger AND increase stamina I should just do a “normal” strength program i.e. reps between 4-12? I race motocross and my races last about 30 mins, and if I’m stronger I can manoever the bike more easily but I still need to go the distance.
Greetings Rob! Check out “Periodization Training for Sports” by Tudor O. Bompa. In Chapter 11, Conversion to Muscular Endurance, on page 195, he provide a training protocol for short term muscular endurance events (approx 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length). In addition to the book, I recommend reading the two T-mag articles entitled The Periodization Bible parts 1 and 2 by Dave Tate. These should take you a long way in designing an effective program. Good training. Midnight