Tuesday, April 14, 2009

How to screw up your training.

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Over the years I have noticed some good ways to screw up your training. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Lift too heavy too often, or increase amount of weight lifted in a sharp manner (over 10% per week)
2. Do a hard jumping workout or plyos when you are really sore.
3. Don't give yourself a break from either weights or plyos every 2-3 weeks.
4. Neglect elastic work from your program, or basic jumping exercises
5. Jump too many times in a single session in hopes of a PR (example, doing 10 sets of hurdle hops instead of 4 when going for a PR, when you only did 4 sets the week before)
6. Do some sort of CNS intensive training the whole year without a break.
7. Don't enjoy a good social life outside of training.
8. Follow someone elses training program without thinking about the context.
9. Dont train in a progressive manner throughout the year, gradually increasing volume by no more than 5% a week.
10. Don't spend time doing lifting sessions devoted to speed, i.e. squats and olympic lifts in the 50-80% range