This topic came up again when we were designing a program for an athlete who needs change of direction -speed and agility as well as a good cardiovascular base for her sport.
Now what could this sport be? Pretty much anything, right? It could be boxing or badminton, or it may be lacrosse or basketball. A lot of sports require those qualities.
We know that by doing quick feet drills, speed ladder, plyometrics etc, we are able to improve the foot speed, deceleration strength and agility and so on. On the other hand, we also know how the get someone's cardiovascular fitness to a higher level. For example, a steady state run could classify as a means to the second goal.
I think the problem occurs when the adaptations from the training are looked at within one dimension only. It is true that 30-60 min running improves your cardiovascular fitness but what does it do to your foot speed and adaptations from the agility training?
Our movement system is not aware that we might have a primary goal for the exercise in mind. It does not know that we would like to gain cardiovascular fitness from the running but exclude the slower foot contacts of distance running.
In order to choose the right exercise for a given goal, we need to analyze ALL the adaptations that the activity will cause in our bodies. We can't underestimate our ability to adapt to a given stimulation.
So, where is this getting at?
My unscientific feeling about this is, that basically if your goal is to be fast in the feet - make as big percentage of foot contacts as possible, FAST. We might be contradicting our goals if we think that the slow steady state run will not affect our foot speed. By running a 3-mile run, the athlete might making more foot contacts than in an actual speed training workout and all of them are slower than desired in the match/game-situation.
Solution suggestions:
What if I chose to analyze all the adaptations of a given training modality before prescribing an exercise program?
Some of the systems related to movement and performance:
1. Cardiovascular system
2. Neuro-muscular system
3. Psycho-Emotional systems (is that a word?)
IF we look at for example the heart rate curve of an intense resistance training circuit, we will notice that it could classify as an high-intensity interval workout. Or we can look at an uphill hiking as a method to create adaptations in the mobility/stability and dynamic flexibility of the ankle complex and "forget" about the heart rate adaptations.
So, just to wrap up, we decided to have the athlete perform speed and agility drills for faster foot contacts and steady state and perform interval bike rides for cardiovascular base. We could choose to use the fast foot drills to create cardiovascular adaptations by changing the recovery time as well but we decided to separate the two goals from each other as much as possible and combine them closer to the competition season.
Anyway, adaptation has different levels and dimensions - 3D Adaptation, if you will.
You are what you eat - Feed the machine!
Tommi
PS: "We are what we love, not what loves us." Charlie Kaufman
