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Friday, January 16, 2015

A Simple Look at Aussie Rules Footy Fitness


The last 12 or so months has seen a big shift in my researching focus in regards to increasing 'fitness". I quotation mark fitness because it could not be anymore a broader term really.

How fit you are is extremely relative. Being adequately fit for footy requires different training modalities then being adequately fit for long jumping. As a personal trainer the majority of people come in say that they want to "get fit and tone up".

As a bloody excellent PT (if I must say so myself) of course I follow that comment of theirs up with a "get fit for what?" question of my own.

If I don't ask that question then I might focus on fitness through the use of the rowing machine when they really intended to say 'I want to be able run 5kms non - stop' or something similar.

Sure I can train the same energy systems on the rower that I can at through running but you need to condition the muscles and specific action to really make the big gains in your specific fitness.

Aerobic fitness is a huge component of Aussie Rules Footy and along with max speed is one of the big 2 recruiters look at before drafting players. It;s all about fast you can sprint, how often you can repeat it and how far can you get through a beep test of dominate a time trial.

I don't think I'm breaking ground with this info but if you actually know how 'fitness' can be categorized for footy then it can help you set a plan of attack with a bit of science behind it.

So we start with the the 2 main energy systems:

 - Anaerobic Energy System
 - Aerobic Energy System

Anaerobic means "without oxygen" (short bursts of intense activity) and aerobic means 'with oxygen' (longer and less intensive bursts of activity) in regards to energy output.

Anaerobic can be broken up further into:

 - Alactic
 - Lactic

Alactic refers to "without lactate" (no fatigue build up) and lactic means means "with lactate" (fatigue build up) in regards to energy output.

Got It? OK let's move on...

So we now we have:

 - Alactic
 - Lactic
 - Aerobic

Now you can break each up again:

 - Alactic power and capacity
 - Lactic power and capacity
 - Aerobic power and capacity

Power refers to a single all out, 100% effort where capacity refers to the ability to replicate that all out effort repeatedly to as close as your 1 off effort as possible.

Still with me I hope...moving on.

Each of these 6 fitness qualities have a parameters in how they are best trained:

Alactic Power - up to 5secs of activity, full rest of 3 - 5mins...set a baseline for the days training and once it drops by 5 - 7% in the session that exercise is over

Alactic Capacity - up to 5sces of activity, incomplete rest...again set a baseline for the days training and use a drop off of about 7 - 10%.

Lactic Power - 10 to 30secs of activity, full rest of 4 - 10mins...perform 2 - 12 reps per session

Lactic Capacity - 10 to 30secs of activity, incomplete rest but start at a work:rest ratio of 1:6 - 8 and work down...I would still suggest using a drop off because there's no point continuing to train if your quality has dropped so much you're building far more fatigue then actual capacity.

Aerobic Power - 2mins or longer of activity, full rest with a work:rest ratio of 1:3 - 5 depending on how "naturally" aerobic you are

Aerobic Capacity - 2mins or longer of activity, incomplete rest with a work"rest ratio of 1:1 - 3 starting with 3 and working down to 1

As a general rule - work power before capacity because you can't build repeat efforts of something you don't already have.

Here's a little homework for you - take note of some of the training sessions you done on your own and/or with your team and see how many of these have been covered and let me know your results via the Aussie Rules Training Facebook page.

Also don't forget the Aussie Rules "Ultimate Footy Training Manual" that you can purchase via the Paypal link at the top of the page for your full 12 month footy training program.

                                                 

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