I made a post a while back about the best training frequency for strength athletes (you can find that post here). However, I realise that this blog was created not just for strength athletes, but athletes in general. So after consolidating my years of experience, here are the best training frequencies depending on sport for optimal performance:
1. Team Sports (Football, Basketball, Hockey, Baseball, Rugby, Volleyball, Cricket etc.)
Most team sports can be trained with a generally higher frequency. For non-contact sports (anything other than football and rugby basically), you can train up to 5x a week. These 5 sessions can include hard drills, practice games, or local matches against other local teams. You could maybe add a 6th day for some light drills.
For contact sports, I would spend 3 days a week training drills (tackling drills, kicking, offensive and defensive drills). I would only spend 2 days a week doing actual games/playing with rough physical contact, since this type of hard contact tends to beat up the body.
2. Martial Arts (MMA, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Boxing, BJJ, Judo, Wrestling etc.)
I found a funny post on the Sherdog forums about martial arts training frequency:
I have to say, I do agree with this post! In general, I don't think martial artists should train more than 5 days a week. 5 days of training allows for plenty of time to train a variety of disciplines, but it also ensures that the body does not get too beat up. An easy to way to set up a 5 day schedule for MMA would be:
Day 1 - Muay Thai focus work
Day 2 - Wrestling/Judo training w/ partner
Day 3 - MMA sparring
Day 4 - Taekwondo focus work
Day 5 - BJJ training w/ partner
The minimum training frequency for martial arts would be 3 days a week. This could be structured as:
Day 1 - Muay Thai focus work
Day 2 - Sparring
Day 3 - BJJ focus work
3. Individual Sports (Badminton, Tennis, Golf, Table Tennis etc.)
These individual sports are generally much less athletically demanding than team sports. Therefore, these can be trained up to 6 days a week given that volumes are adjusted well.
4. Track & Field (Sprinting, Throwing, Jumping)
Track and field should be trained 3-4 days a week. Despite not having any physical contact, track and field events actually tire out the body quite a bit (think top speed sprinting, for example). Therefore, these events cannot be trained for more than 4 days a week. If you only compete in one event, then I think you should train only 3x a week. For example, a split for a 100m sprinter would look like:
Day 1: Top speed work
Day 2: Top speed work
Day 3: Acceleration work + resisted sprints
(check out my sprinting program here)
Similarly, most shot putters and throwers only train 3x a week. However, if you train for multiple events (ie. Shot put AND 100m, decathlon), then you can train up to 4x a week to accommodate for your multiple goals).
5. Swimming
Admittedly, I do not have much experience with the sport of swimming as the other sports on this list. But from what I have observed in training plans and athletes, the best training frequency for swimming (no matter which race or stroke) is 3x a week.
6. Climbing
Rock climbers should train 3-4x a week. Those who only boulder/speed climb could get away with 3x a week, but those who performance climb should add in one more session where they actually test their performance climbing. Climbing can be training with a slightly higher frequency since it mainly uses the upper body musculature, which tend to recover faster than the lower body. I personally climb 4x a week.
7. Endurance Events (5km run, 10km run, Marathon, Triathlon, Pentathlon etc.)
Endurance athletes should train around 3-5x a week. If you are a fartlek runner, for example, you can split the week into:
Day 1 - 4 mile run
Day 2 - 8 mile run
Day 3 - 4 mile run
Day 4 - 8 mile run
Day 5 - 1 hr Fartlek
If you train for something less intense, like the 1500m run in track and field, then you can train 3x a week. For triathlon athletes, you can run 3x a week, swim 3-5x a week, and bike 4x a week:
Day 1 - Run, Swim
Day 2 - Bike, Swim
Day 3 - Run, Bike, Swim
Day 4 - Bike Swim
Day 5 - Run, Bike
Why should endurance athletes train with such high frequencies? Endurance events are high volume, and as such the training for endurance events must also be high volume. If such training was only done, say, 2x a week, then the athlete would NOT be adequately prepared to fully complete their endurance event. As a result, more volumes of training are required for these athletes compared to weightlifters (for example), who would train with lesser volumes but higher intensities.
As a general rule of thumb, training 3x a week is a minimum. If you train any less, your athleticism will only be maintained. Also, do not train more than 5, maybe 6, times a week. Training more will lead to under recovery and long term issues with injuries.
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