The problem with regular training is that it is just that – regular. Do the same session week in and week out, and your body – fantastic piece of tri-kit that it is –simply adapts to the training and you start getting little or no extra benefit. With the new Thursday session, John Bolton of the Heritage has taken a 17-week schedule and built into it a high intensity, highly varied routine. You will learn a new cross-training routine, develop it, make a training gain, and then move on to the next routine.
The overall emphasis of the course is to develop your energy systems (ESD = Energy System Development). Never heard of them before? Well energy systems are basically your aerobic and anaerobic systems. Aerobic energy gets you some of the way, anaerobic keeps you going. To be a good triathlete you need to develop both of these, and the good news is that developing one helps the other.
The new session uses a technique called ‘blood-shunting’ which is just like it sounds – rapidly driving blood through your body. The technique involves alternating between upper and lower body workouts. As you switch between the two blood is rapidly ‘shunted’ up, down and through your body, creating a high-intensity workout. Many of the routines will involve ‘boxing’ exercises – however, the benefits of these classes transfer to all sports as they are primarily aimed at energy system development. Put simply, while you will be working out like a boxer every Thursday til May, you will be an improved swimmer, cyclist, runner and triathlete next summer.
The 17 week programme splits down as follows (the actual length of each period will depend on progress made, but each period will last at least 4 weeks). All sessions are high intensity, and should not be undertaken by anyone who does not already have a base level of fitness – these classes are not suitable for beginners.
Week 1-6; Bexercise. Consisting of station based exercises such as floor to ceiling ball, skipping, speed ball, pads, each individual will spend 30 – 60 seconds at each station before moving on. Incorporated in the session also will be group based activities, this portion of the class will vary between repetitions and length of time for each activity. All the routines in this class are based around boxing training or boxing techniques.
Week 7-12 Circuit Training. Also a station based exercise routine where the class will work in pairs or as individuals. Activities last 20 – 40 seconds before moving on. Each station will comprise body resistance exercise such as press ups, sit ups, etc and resistance exercise such as squat, shoulder press, etc. Some aspects of boxercise may also be used during this routine from time to time.
Week 13-17 Kick Boxing. In phase three we move on to kick-boxing, a completely non contact routine incorporating various punches and kicking combinations. The emphasizes is more on kicking, with a combination of punching, floor to ceiling ball, speed ball and body resistance exercises incorporated into the routine.
John is confident that by combining the intensity of the workouts above with the variety of the three phases in the programme that you will experience results in 17 weeks that no other training technique could deliver. The sessions will be hard, your will know you have worked out, but they will pay off. These classes have been specifically designed by John – a top-class endurance athlete – for Trilogy, and have been specifically designed to deliver results in the 2008 season. While you will need to keep up the rest of your training routine, if you follow this programme, you can expect to improve next year.
With 17 weeks of high-intensity, controlled work-out, you can look forward to benefits across all three sports. One of the biggest gains will be in swimming, where your arms will have a much higher level of local muscle endurance and so will be able to cope with working at a higher intensity for a longer period. On the bike, your arms won’t tire as much – meaning a more efficient bike, especially on the hills, and the benefits of building endurance in the legs will help across each part of your tri race.
One last thing to note. The Heritage and many other gyms offer classes in all the above – kick-boxing, boxercise and circuits. The intensity of these classes are kept to a certain level for good reason – many participants are novice atheletes. The Trilogy Classes are advanced and designed for a group of people who have a good background in training and fitness. The classes will be led by a single instructor (Danielle) and are closed to non-Trilogy members.
While many of you are Heritage members, the classes above have been designed for us, we have exclusive and private use of the studio for the duration of our classes, and we have been given a dedicated instructor to deliver the programme. For this reason, the ESD session is a paid-for session, just like Pilates, Swimming or Spinning.
