ARE YOU AN ATHLETE STUCK IN YOUR TRAINING ‘SAFE ZONE’?
Is there a certain pace that you know you can maintain and your body feels good?
But as soon as you up the pace just a little, go for a run with friends or do a session at the track or road; your body blows up?
Now, by ‘blowing up’ we don’t mean a little muscle soreness, but a significant amount of soreness or pain that leaves you unable to train for a few days or longer. And it leaves you fearful of doing the same type of session again, scared that you’ll end up injured.
If this is you, you need to consider that you might be stuck in your safe zone. There's a clear ceiling to the amount of work that you can put into your body before it breaks down, so this is where you stay… comfortable and safe.
But imagine being able to increase that ceiling - your capacity for work - with the confidence and knowledge that your body can pretty much cope with anything you throw at it.
A strength and conditioning program is a great way for us to be able to dial things back and actually put some controlled intensities into these muscle tissues, so that when you're out on the trails or on the track, the intensities, descents and terrains that used to break you are no longer an issue.
“ …you've now got to a point where your body can no longer endure that any more. As soon as intensity is ramped up it can no longer tolerate the expectations that you have in your body.”
Where have you been going wrong?
It's generally the impact forces that break athletes down over time; whether they are good for 10k, 20k, 40k, when they start to go beyond that threshold, it's the impact forces that break them down. They start to crumble, and this is the level of tolerance and resilience that we're looking to improve.
Take someone who works on a building site for instance. Someone who lifts heavy, awkward objects on a daily basis without really thinking about it. They lift with their back, rather than their legs, and then one day ‘ping’ their lower back goes. Potentially something quite significant such as a prolapse, a disc etc, and they say “I wasn’t doing anything much at that time and it just went!”
The fact is that they had been lifting poorly for a long, long time, potentially decades, and then after all that abuse their body and their weak spot has finally given in.
Similarly within the endurance world, people will run and run and run, asking anything and everything from their body for years. They haven’t put any focused intensity through their joints and muscles outside of their running and even though they might not have had a significant injury yet, they’ve ignored regular aches, niggles and weaknesses. And then ‘bang’: muscle, tendon, ligament injury, completely out of nowhere.
If this is you, chances are you have a great engine and a strong mindset to be able to push through multiple barriers and pain thresholds. However, you've now got to a point where your body can no longer endure that anymore. As soon as intensity is ramped up, it can no longer tolerate the expectations that you have on your body.
How to get out of your safe zone?
There IS an answer to getting out of your safe zone, and that is to bring some intensity back into your training.
Be mindful that this is not intensity or “strength” work during your swim, bike or run sessions. You simply can’t put controlled, directed or focused attention into the key areas that need it by doing it this way. The “strength efforts” that you're putting in on the bike or in the water are not loaded - there's no impact involved - and therefore no significant loading of the tissues and joints. All you’re doing is putting more volume into your body, which isn’t going to target your weaknesses, but rather increase the likelihood of overtraining and speeding up your time before injury occurs.
You need to be consciously loading your body, lifting some weight, doing some form of plyometrics etc. Done in small doses, two to three times a week and integrated effectively into your current training program, you're going to start to realise that you’ve actually got a lot more to give.
“You need to put some work in, rather than just relying on manual therapy from others.”
How to go about it?
Progressively - The approach you want to have is progressive, ‘micro-doses’ so to speak. You want to allow your body to recover and adapt, as this is where growth will happen. Avoid overcomplicating things by bringing in too much load, complexity or power too soon, or you're going to blow yourself to pieces. You need to find the appropriate way of increasing this tolerance within your body. Done correctly, your body will start to acclimatise to the intensities that you're asking it to produce.
Power, Speed, Intensity - Although the majority of you will be endurance athletes training and racing over long distances, do not think that elements such as power, speed and intensity don’t relate to you. These are the things that build the robustness and the resilience that you’re looking for.
What if you’re currently injured?
If you’re struggling with injury right now, you need to start thinking about what you’re going to do to come back stronger than before your injury. You need to start introducing load and intensity into your ligaments, tendons and muscles, to allow them to then start to adapt, grow, stabilise and strengthen, then you’ll be able to express more speed and power in the future.
If your rehab approach is currently just stretching, massage or multiple other hands-on treatments, this is all a superficial approach. We’re not saying to avoid altogether, but don’t let that be the only thing you do. You need to put some work in, rather than just relying on manual therapy from others.
Essentially you’ve got the engine, but right now your body needs to play catch up - you need to bring your level of strength, power and speed up alongside your aerobic capacity. And even if you’re limited by injury, you can start with something; whether just it means keeping your feet on the ground and starting to strengthen and stabilise. You’ve got to start asking better questions week in, week out, bringing in new drills, new behaviours, and new habits that are going to give you the resilience you need.