All-out isn’t always the smartest way to train
Work smarter, not harder! We hosted a special evening last Wednesday at the Family Leisure Centre. The focus of the night was to teach our athletes how to recover. Most athletes know how to work to the max, but when things go wrong and athletes are injured or overtrained, they lack the skill set to properly bring themselves back to health.
We taught the athletes various recovery tools that could be added to their repertoire. The first was how to water run; this is a great way to train when a lower body injury has occurred. We also taught them how to eat and drink right to optimize recovery and also to relax their bodies when they are overworked.
Recovery is probably the most important aspect of training. At one point of time in my life, I was a competitive weightlifter. I even moved all the way to Shreveport, Louisiana to work with one of the best American coaches. I remember one of the first days I was there I trained with a three-time Olympian by the name of Kendrick Farris. He was notorious around the world for his ability to squat an extreme amount of weight. It was not uncommon to walk past the Louisiana State University – Shreveport weight room and see him squatting close to 700 pounds.
So to my amazement on that particular day, I came into the weight room as he was squatting just over 300 pounds. That weight is great for the average person but not for Kendrick Farris. I asked him why he was squatting such little weight, and he politely responded that he was tired and needed a rest day.
That response by Kendrick really resonated with me. Up until that point, I had the mindset that high level athletes pushed hard all the time and only let up when they had an injury.
This change of mindset really set me up for the future. During my athletic years in Louisiana, I rested more than I ever had in the past and got significantly stronger. I learned the valuable lesson to work smarter, not harder.
I have come across athletes as young as 13 years old who are injured and overtrained. They are pushed so hard by their coaches that they reach a breaking point. Now more than ever we see young athletes going to chiropractors and physiotherapists. I did not even know what either of those were when I was 13 years old! We need to allow young athletes to recover when need be and to not train them like they are college level or pro athletes.
This is the main reason that we at the Alberta Sport Development Centre put on a session each year to teach our athletes about the importance of recovery. In addition to this, we are constantly reminding our athletes to rest if they feel beat down.
We want to produce athletes who are healthy and have the best possible chance to have a successful career in the future.
Cory Coehoorn is the coordinator of the Alberta Sport Development CentreSoutheast at Medicine Hat College. He would love to chat with you about their program. He can be reached via email at ccoehoorn@mhc.ab.ca or via phone at 403-977-2124.