Spartan Training: Day 1

As a young child I used to watch American Gladiators religiously. In addition to American Gladiators, I used to watch Nickelodeon's GUTS. Both shows put contenders against themselves in strenuous activities, all leading to a final challenge. On American Gladiators it was THE ELIMINATOR; on GUTS is was the Aggro Crag. These shows appealed to both my sadistic, bring the pain, personality and my competitive nature.

The way I looked at both the Eliminator and the Crag was simple, don't let it beat you. To me it seemed simple, assess the situation and go for it. So whether it was climbing a cargo net, swimming 25 meters, running up a treadmill, or sprinting up a mountain while big rocks came tumbling down on your head, I was down for the challenge. Unfortunately I never made it to either competition, so then I heard of adventure-type races like the Spartan, Warrior, and Tough Mudder.

So the decision has been made. The first weekend of June I will take part in the Tri-State NY Spartan Sprint. All gimmicks aside, the reason I chose to do a Spartan Race is because, well, it is the most local of these obstacle course type races.

Personally I have never been much of a runner. I could keep up with most people in a dead sprint, but once that sprint went past a few hundred yards, I was done. So a marathon/triathlete I am not, in fact I loathe running. So the next best thing to me, a Spartan Race. Not too far, enough obstacles to break up the run, and the defining factor, 30 minutes away where I live. These factors appeal to me and a group of my friends. So we will be entering the race with the thought process of beat the race, not let it beat us.

My training regimen must change as a result. No more can I ignore cardio workouts and just go through the motions. I have a goal now, a goal that I must be ready for. The plan is simple, lift heavy weights, a lot of times, and with limited rest. Cardio-wise, the plan is to progressively get to where I can run for 3-5 miles without stopping. Ya know because in most cases I'd rather re-break my ankle then to take another step. So the treadmill and arc trainer will become familiar allies, as will my jump rope and battle rope. Hopefully I will be prepared enough to perform, hopefully.

Snowboarding

Recently, I spent the day snowboarding in upstate New York. Now I've been out west to Colorado to snowboard and nothing is like it. However this weekend the conditions, by comparison to most north east conditions, were pretty good. The amount of ice on the mountain was minimal, especially earlier in the day. We got in a good 6 solid hours of boarding time on saturday.


So where am I going with all this? Snowboarding, or skiing, are full body sports. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. The main focus of snowboarding are on your legs and your core. While most of my work outs contain some sort of core stabilization, none of them have prepared me for the beating my body took saturday. I haven't really been going a lot in the past few years, so my body was not at all accomodated to the positions I found myself in, not to mention the temperature and other outside factors affecting my performance. So here I am going to try and break down snowboarding and describe how it physically affects your body.

Three Sport Athlete?

Before I begin today's post I must start off with a few definitions that will help to make the following entry more easily understood.

Periodization an approach to conditioning that brings about peak performance while reducing injuries and overtraining in the athlete through a training and conditioning program that is followed throughout the various seasons.

These seasons then are broken up into Macrocycles referred to as off-season, pre-season, and in-season.

The Macrocycles are then broken up into Mesocycles divided into the Transition, Preparatory, and Competition Periods. 

Transition Period - Ranges from the last Competition through the early off-season. A time to physically and mentally decompress.

Preparatory Period - Ranges from the off-season through the preseason. This is where your training for competition begins. Preparation for the actual competitions through hypertrophy, endurance, strength, and power training.

Competition Period - When you compete in games/events and take part in Skill Training.

Cross Training - Training for a specific sport by substituting other activities that have similar values of the original sport.

Where I live, in Rockland County NY, you always see people pushing for the Three Sport Athlete. In high school all I could remember was hearing, you should be a Three Sport Athlete. I was looked down on by my coaches for not partaking in three sports. And I always asked, why? Why aren't two sports enough? Why can't I just specialize at one sport? What makes participating in three sports so great?

Simply answered, our society encourages people to be "well-rounded." So we push our children to be well-rounded athletes. Playing three different sports leads an individual to be constantly active and doing new things. In theory it keeps the athlete mentally refreshed, leading them to not focus on just one thing all of the time.

I agree with the concept of the Three Sport Athlete. You want to push children to be good at everything and to try new things. However, I don't believe in the Three Sport Athlete. If an athlete excels at one sport in particular, then why force them to partake in two other sports. This especially holds true if the athlete in question is ineffective at the other two sports. I find that pressuring an individual to partake in three sports is overbearing, especially if the only purpose is to "keep them active." There are many ways to stay active, yet not participate in multiple sports, with multiple coaches, leading to multiple stresses. 

This leads to my idea of the Two Sport Athlete. A true athlete should only be partaking in two sports, the one they excel in, and another that they love or enjoy playing. This thought process follows along with the concept of Periodization. The athlete is using the second sport, their off-season, as a mental break from their true sport.  However, they are still cross training, just not performing workouts specific to their sport. Therefore, this second sport should take place in the season following their number one sport. 

Most educated coaches will prefer the effects of a Cross-Training effort and push their athletes to compete in another sport following their season. By following periodization, training in a different sport will be beneficial during the transitional and early preparatory periods. The added variety to the training regimes will lead to a happier, more refreshed athlete. Diversifying himself or herself will lead an athlete to have fun with their off-season "training."

To compete in another sport during the focal sport's preseason, the athlete will have defeated the purpose of having a preseason. The preparatory period for the upcoming sport will have been disrupted by the rigors of the current season they are participating in. This type of setback will limit them and in turn disrupt the competition period, where they should be peaking physically.

In conclusion, don't force upon the athletes competition in three sports. Two sports is perfectly enough, and in my opinion ideal. Feel free to disagree.