The Progress Theory

On today’s episode, we have Adam Mattiussi, S&C coach and researcher for the Royal Ballet where we find out just how the greatest ballet dancers in the world physically prepare for their performances.

People don’t normally associate strength and conditioning and ballet. However, elite ballet dancers have an intense rehearsal and performance schedule, which can consist of 6-8 hours per day of training and practising. That is a serious number of jumps and landings, and if the dancers are not physically prepared, the risk of injury or poor performance increases. In this episode, Adam gives us an insight into how elite ballet dancers train, what the common injuries are, and how he physically prepares all the dancers to ensure peak performance.

1:08 - Introduction to the podcast

2:20 - An introduction to Adam Mattiussi and his journey to delivering S&C to the Royal Ballet

12:30 - A typical week of training and rehearsing for a ballet dancer (all depending on their role)

19:22 - How S&C support is structured at the royal ballet

24:23 - An individualised approach to Ballet S&C delivery

26:31 - Types of S&C training used at the Royal Ballet

32:34 - Common injuries in Ballet

35:17 - Does the artistic nature of jumping and landing in ballet derive specific injuries?

37:40 - Changing S&C support due to injury

40:22 - Career advice to those wishing to get into S&C delivery for Ballet

42:50 - Questions from the listeners.

(42:59- 46:09) - How do you optimise recovery when you have so little time for recovery?

(47:11 - 48:55) - Is there any targeted additional conditioning alongside performing?

It was great to truly understand the commitment and how much training an elite Ballet Dancer does for their art, and even more interesting to see how the set-up at the Royal Ballet works in order to provide them with the support they need to ensure peak performance.

I just wanted to provide some final thoughts on some key areas which really stood out to me.

Firstly, just how much training the elite ballet dancers do, especially if they are a principal dancer, often doing multiple rehearsals for multiple shows throughout the week. On top of that, the principal dancers may have performances that consist of sequences involving an intense number of technical jumps in a short space of time. This just makes you appreciate how elite these athletes are and how robust they need to be to tolerate that volume of jumping and landing.

Secondly, because of differences in the schedule between dancer rank, every dancer needs their own individualized approach to support coming from the staff. This seems like a difficult balancing act but I love how Adam has categorised the different approaches each dancer takes for S&C support. He clearly knows his athletes, knows when to provide support and when to try and help work with the team to change a dancer’s schedule to ensure they get enough recovery.

And finally, Adam’s research into an injury at the Royal Ballet has been incredible and I highly recommend checking out his research which I have linked in the show notes. I find it fascinating how certain injuries appear to be more common and can be influenced by the role of the performer and possibly due to the technical demand of the artistic style of jumping. This highlights how important it is to understand your sport and its culture if you provide rehab or S&C support as this knowledge is essential for bringing dancers back to full fitness after injury.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode and if ballet performance is a career you wish to pursue, there is plenty of information here to help you head in that direction and achieve your goals. As always, please follow @theprogresstheory on Instagram and youtube and. It would be awesome if you could also leave us a review and share this episode on your insta story to help the show grow. Also, head to our website theprogresstheory.com and listen to our other episodes. We’ll see you at the next one.

• @theprogresstheory
• @thepricep
• @adammattiussi
• 
  

Organisations

• The Royal Ballet
• St Mary’s University
• St Mary’s S&C BSc
• St Mary’s Sports rehab MSc
• Harlequins RFC
• London broncos
• London Welsh
• GB Weightlifting

Academics and academic work

• Adam’s research
• Alex Wolf trunk training paper
• Jon Goodwin
• Dan Cleather
• Gregg Retter

Hello and welcome to the Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. I am Dr Phil Price and here is another episode of the performance review.

I wanted to go over a few more aspects of my training which I feel need to be discussed and which I feel has greatly helped me over the last 7 weeks. Just to re-cap, I will be attempting my first half iron triathlon at Hever castle at the festival of endurance hosted by Castle triathlon. That’s a 1.9km swim, 90km bike and a half marathon run. I am relatively new to the sport of Triathlon and don’t have a huge endurance background, but this is a great start into what will be learning the science behind being a hybrid athlete i.e developing strength and endurance simultaneously.

So for this performance review episode I wanted to focus on a few programming decisions. This isn’t just the rationale behind why I have included something, but why I didn’t do a certain test but intend to in the future. Ultimately, this isn’t an 8 week training programme and then i’m finished. I want to continue to push and develop as a hybrid athlete for years to come so decisions I make here early on are really quite important.

So, the 3 topics I will cover in the performance review are:

• The 3-minute all out test and why I’m saving that for later
• Porgramming volume and intensity for 8 weeks
• And why performing is a skill and should be included in your programme.

Why I didn’t do the 3-minute all-out test

On one of our recent Progress Theory podcasts, we chatted with S&C coach Christian Vassallo and his work and research on the 3-minute all-out test and its use in programming. It’s an awesome episode and I’d recommend all of our listeners to check it out as the 3-minute all-out test is horrible to do, but it is easy to implement and gain information about your current physical capabilities. As a short overview, the 3-minute all-out test provides you with your critical speed (if running), or critical power if cycling or rowing etc. This is the speed or power you theoretically can maintain for a long duration based on your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. You can train above this speed, however, you have a limited resource to be able to maintain that speed. Think of it as the battery life on your phone. The higher you venture above this speed, the more limited your capacity is to maintain that speed. With this knowledge, you can programme training at different intensities because you know how much battery life you have at certain speeds and power outputs. You can also use this information to predict race performance.

So if this test provides you with so much valuable information, why haven’t I done it for my training leading up to the half iron. Put simply, I'm working my way up to it. The 3-minute all-out test is still a maximal intensity effort, and due to entering a new sport, I felt I was not ready and in the right physical condition to do it. Firstly, this is from an injury perspective. After injuring my soleus during the marathon just before Christmas in 2020, the muscle tissue does have a tendency to restrain itself (the biggest predictor of injury being previous injury and all that). I still have work to do on this issue, and appropriately increasing the volume running along with an appropriate strength programme will help. However, doing a test where I have to maximally sprint when the muscle tissue isn’t ready to handle that load is not smart. Think about it this way - if someone was new in the weight room would you get them doing a 1RM squat? If you’re smart, you wouldn’t. If they’re new to training or are coming back from injury they’re likely going to improve in the squat if the programme is appropriate, regardless of what their 1RM squat is. This is the same situation with my running. 

Now you could also argue why I didn't do the 3-minute all-out test for my cycling. That decision was based on knowing what the main focus of the training was - the efficiency of the skill. I am new to road bikes and I am still learning how to perform the skill, especially on the hills. It is so easy for me to revert back to just pushing on the pedal rather than producing force throughout the whole cycle. Therefore, if I had done a 3-minute all-out test at the beginning of the 8 weeks I would have done it with shoddy technique. How valuable do you think that data would be for me? If my skill improves a lot in 3 weeks, all of a sudden I'm programming training based on numbers achieved during a test when my technique was considerably worse.

These are all decisions a lot of coaches have to make when working with a new client or working with someone that is working with a new goal. Testing is great when applied appropriately, and this time for me I thought it was better to work with RPE’s (rating of perceived exertions), as I can subjectively judge intensity for sessions and give me time to perfect the skills I’m working on. It would be harder for me to eliminate junk miles if I’m so focused on hitting certain speeds and power outputs.

However, once I’m more proficient at the skill of cycling and running, which I am hoping is after this half iron man, then I will definitely be doing the 3-minute all-out test. With a more proficient skill base, I’ll be able to push myself to hit certain intensities based on my current physiological capabilities and hopefully use more precise training to improve physiologically.

Managing volume and intensity. 8 weeks vs longer

I wanted to discuss the how volume and intensity of training changes over the 8-week programme. 8 weeks is an interesting length of time because it is short enough to have it as 1 mesocycle if programmed slowly and appropriately. People often see a mesocycle as a block of training usually with the training load or intensity increasing, followed by a deload. The bog-standard approach to this when displayed in textbooks is 3 weeks of increasing intensity followed by 1 week of deload. This approach is fine if you have a good duration of time because you can structure many of these mesocycles one after the other, which is common in the off-season for rugby. However, mesocycles don’t have to be 4 weeks long, and 8 weeks is short enough to maintain an increase in volume or intensity over 5-7 weeks before tapering off. Any longer, like 12 weeks, you run the risk of injury because you’ve pushed for too long with deloading and allowing the body to recover. 

This was shown quite well by the work of Professor Robert Hickson, whose seminal work on concurrent training showed both strength and endurance could be improved together. However, at the 7-week mark, participants reached a peak of performance and then started to decrease in subsequent weeks. This is clearly the time when you add in a deload week to aid recovery and avoid this dip in performance, or your start tapering off with the aim to peak at around 8 weeks. It is this strategy that I have taken with my programming for this half iron man. If I had longer, 12 weeks or 16 weeks, I would have definitely deloaded earlier.

To conclude this section on programming I just want to highlight the importance of knowing how long you’re programming for. You’ll be able to push and programme for certain adaptations differently depends on the length of the programme. An 8-week programme or a 12-week programme may have the same goal, but how you get there will be different, and a common error is pushing too much for too long. You can get away with it with an 8-week programme. A 12-week programme? Not so much.

So, with this in mind, volume and intensity are structured as follows. Let's start with volume. The volume of training increased slowly, with its peak reached at the weekend of week 5. On this particular weekend, the swim, cycle and run distances covered are similar to the event itself (except we covered them over the entire weekend rather than one after the other). From here, the volume started to go down but slowly, and this was to accommodate more of the brick sessions being performed at and around ‘Race pace’ i.e the amount of higher intensity work was increasing.

The intensity slowly increased from the start all the way to around week 7, a very linear progression. This is mostly because running, cycling and swimming were becoming easier as I was becoming more efficient, so by week 7, I was performing at higher speeds at similar RPE’s to week 1 (and for a recap on RPE - please see performance review 1). The weekend of week 7 includes a recce of the racecourse and a brick session. The bike and run legs of the half iron will consist of 2 laps each, so for the bike, it’s 45km loop and the run is a 10.6km loop. The aim of the end of week 7 is to perform 1 loop of each as a brick session at our estimated race pace, so we can get a proper feel of the course and see where we are at before we taper for the week leading up to the event.

Performing is a skill. Practise it.

This neatly segues into my final point which discusses performance practise as a skill. For someone that is new to a sport, there are a lot of new skills which need practising. It isn’t all about how cardiovascularly fit and efficient you can get at all 3 disciplines. Sure, they’re likely the most important components, but competing consists of a number of logistical and mental skills which you need to get more comfortable with. Because of this, the following was included in the 8-week programme:

• A competitive Olympic distance triathlon on the weekend of week 4. A perfect opportunity to be more comfortable competing alongside others, finding your food and water strategies, making sure everything is set up correctly to ensure a quick transition
• A brick session on the weekend of week 7 using the actual course. It gives you a chance to practice and become familiar with the course, determine your RPE for race pace on the actual course, and just see how far you’ve come along during the past 7 weeks.

People often only want to compete if they’re in their best shape or have trained for it, but competing can be used as part of the training programme. Use competitions effectively by specifically outlining which goals you personally want to achieve or what you want to find out about yourself. During the Olympic distance triathlon, my focus was on getting used to the new bike set up (it was all wrong - best I find that out early), determine an RPE for the run at a specific pace post swim and bike, and plan out my transition strategy (which, again, needed a lot of work). Without competition, I would not be able to find this information out. It made me a better athlete. I learnt more than if I had just gone through the miles out of competition over the weekend. So stop comparing yourself to others, list what you need to know about yourself and see if you can utilise a competition effectively to find the information to help you train and become a better athlete.

Just to summarise: I will be doing the 3 minute all-out test in the near future and using it to make programming decisions. However, as I’m new to the sport and coming back from a calf injury, it is best to leave more intense forms of testing for when I am ready. An 8 weeks training programme can be seen as its own mesocycle. You can push the volume and intensity for longer than 3 weeks before deloading. However, if you're programming for longer than 8 weeks, this may not be appropriate. The length of the programme will hugely determine how you structure your programme. And finally, practise competing. Structure it into your training. Make specific goals so you can learn about yourself. Training competitions are a great opportunity for this.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode and found this information helpful for your own training. I plan on doing many more of these so please subscribe to the Progress theory so you get all our episodes downloaded straight to your phone when they’re released. Please follow @theprogresstheory on Instagram and youtube, leave a comment or share us on your story. We really appreciate the help as we grow the channel. You can also find me on Instagram @drphilprice as I document all my training. Also, head to our website www.theprogresstheory.com where you can find all of our content.

We’ll see you ln the next episode

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance.

In this episode, we have Steve Griffiths who has taken his experiences from a career in banking and trading and applied them to his ideas on developing mindset, which he now teaches to developing and elite level athletes. Steve has a 10+ year career working on the trading desks at international Investment Banks and has a degree in Maths with Economics from Royal Holloway, University of London and a Masters from Imperial Business School.

Steve comes highly recommended to me by close personal friends, all of which have said working with Steve has completely changed their ideas around self-belief, intentions, trust and worthiness. In this episode, we touch upon how our beliefs determine our intentions, and we have the ability and free will and choose what our beliefs are and how to act on them. I loved this episode as it allowed me to realise just how much control we have in shaping our future. If you enjoy learning about mindset this is the perfect episode for you.

In this episode, we discuss:

2:46 - An introduction to Steve Griffiths

4:36 - How Steve’s background has led to his career as a mindset coach

7:40 - The importance of setting your intentions early

11:32 - Is going off-track from the direction of your goals a good or bad thing?

15:25 - constructive vs destructive beliefs

19:19 - Should we view our beliefs regularly and objectively?

23:20 - Using perceived ‘negative’ emotions may not be such a bad idea: Tennis example

28:41 - Sport is chaotic. Practise harnessing your emotions in training to improve how you react to your emotions in competition

30:31 - Trust and worthiness

34:06 - Do you need to feel worthy in order to trust yourself?

37:06 - How to distinguish between facts and beliefs

40:33 - Allowing deconstructive beliefs to limit your potential

44:03 - 3 pieces of advice for anyone struggling with deconstructive beliefs

49:03 - Steve’s choice of progress theory guest

Mindset is a topic that is incredibly popular at the moment and can often feel diluted. However, when Steve talks about his ideas around beliefs, worthiness and self-reflection, everything becomes clear and just feels so simple.

I love the idea of having a reference point. It is the perfect opportunity to self-reflect on your beliefs and provide clarity around what your beliefs are and how you have the choice to impose your beliefs onto your experience.

I also liked how Steve provided clarity around how we have a tendency to see deconstructive beliefs as facts, which stops us from acting on them appropriately. It’s crazy to think of all the untapped potential in the world just because people saw deconstructive beliefs as fact when in reality it is just their perception. And perceptions can change, but it is up to you.

And finally, how asking and telling are the same thing. I’ve never heard it framed that way before, and when you do it just highlights just how much free will you have. So use it wisely.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode and it has sparked some creativity around your own ideas on mindset.

We’ll see you in the next one.

@theprogresstheory

@thepricep

@s.x.griff

In this episode, we mentioned the following resources:

The nature of your personal Environment

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. In this episode, we have Dr Luke Hughes, a Post-Doctoral research fellow in applied Exercise Physiology at St Mary’s University, and an expert on blood flow restriction training.

I’ve noticed blood flow restriction training is getting more popular in the training space and on social media. More blood flow restriction products are available to buy and people are starting to utilise this method to enhance their training. But is it worth the hype? What are the mechanisms behind blood flow restriction training, how does it work? Can anyone use it and is it possible for it to be dangerous if used inappropriately? Well, Luke provides all the answers to these questions so every listener will have information to help decide whether blood flow restriction training is right for them and how to use it.

In this episode, we discuss:

1:10 - An introduction to Dr Luke Hughes

6:27 - What is blood flow restriction training?

8:24 - The mechanisms behind blood flow restriction training

10:28 - Low loads used during BRF training = quicker recovery?

12:21 - Which populations can use BRF training?

14:13 - Using BRF training to help laid and fatigue management for sports performance

17:23 - Using BRF training to stop muscle wastage for astronauts in space

23:06 - How do we programme BRF training?

26:45 - BFR training after ACL reconstructive surgery

29:00 - Common mistakes using BFR

32:36 - The right pressure to use with your BFR cuffs

36:28 - What to look for when buying a BFR cuff

39:55 - Questions from viewers

40:04 - Question 1 - BFR training and pain reduction? By @cmvincentandi

44:03 - Question 2 - Can BFR training increase capillarization in muscles with a big cross-sectional area? By @kemperman_human_movement

47:32 - Question 3 - What are your thoughts on cuffs that autoregulate occlusion pressure such as the air bands by Vald and Suji? By @adammattiussi

50:29 - How to contact Luke and learn about the courses he’s leading in BFR training

An amazing episode, which really answered my original questions around whether blood flow restriction training is worth the hype. The benefits of using blood flow restriction training can’t be denied as it's been heavily supported by the research, and it seems like its benefits would be huge if used appropriately with the right patient or athlete at the right time.

I just wanted to provide some final thoughts on some key areas which really stood out to me.

• Firstly, just how useful blood flow restriction training can be during early rehab. We know after serious surgery we go through a phase of muscle weakness and a reduction in size. However, BFR training can be used almost immediately after surgery (3 days post) during bed exercises and walking and has been effective at reducing this muscle loss and aid recovery.
• Secondly, I was amazed by the potential BFR training can have for athletes. As low loads are used the recovery is much quicker, meaning we could reduce the fatigue from strength training but still get similar adaptations. This could lead to an increase in other training, or the reduction in fatigue will mean the athlete is more fresh for sports training and competition.
• And finally, the pressure created by the cuff should be specific to the individual and consistent over multiple training sessions. We currently don’t know enough about the cuffs you can buy which don’t measure pressure. Do they work or is their effect limited? More research over the coming years will hopefully explain this

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode and have enough information to allow yourself to make the decision if blood flow restriction training is right for your goals. Please follow @theprogresstheory on Instagram and Youtube and share this episode on your insta stories. Also, head to our website theprogresstheory.com and listen to our other episodes. We’ll see you in the next one.

• Follow our Host / Guest
• @theprogresstheory
• @thepricep
• 
  

In this episode, we mentioned the following resources:

• Owens recovery course
• Vald Airbands
• Suji Device

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. In this episode, we have Rob Anderson, Strength & Conditioning coach for the Scottish Rugby Academy and director of Athletic Evolution, a podcast that focuses on youth athlete development.

Rob and I discuss the current misconceptions surrounding strength training for youth development, including why strength training does not stunt your growth, and why we shouldn’t just focus on aerobic conditioning at young ages. We also hear how Rob’s wealth of experience has developed his approach to coaching youth athletes. So if you coach youth athletes, work in schools, or are currently a developing athlete yourself, this episode gives plenty of take-home messages for you to implement into your own coaching and training.

In this episode, we discuss:

1:13 - An introduction to Rob Anderson

5:34 - Where Rob’s Interest in youth strength coaching came from

9:53 - Is there a culture change happening for youth coaching?

12:54 - Misconceptions surrounding youth strength training

18:52 - Why bone needs strength training

23:42 - Misconceptions around aerobic conditioning for youth athletes

26:51 - Is past research on youth strength training out of date?

30:54 - The aim behind the Athletic Evolution podcast

36:18 - What key performance indicators to focus on during talent ID to avoid the ‘early maturer trap’.

50:05 - Rob’s philosophy for youth coaching and training

1:00:15 - The LTAD Network

1:06:22 - How to get in contact with Rob

So many take away messages from this episode, and it is amazing to see just how far the area of youth training has come in the last 10 years. Not only do I think this is great, but I think it is so necessary that youth coaching is seen as a specialist area. That way it can attract the best coaches for the job who have the right training, experience and skill set.

I just wanted to provide some final thoughts on some key areas which really stood out to me.

• Firstly, just how much of a minefield youth talent ID is, and it is crazy that some still fall into the trap of selecting athletes based on their current performance, rather than actually looking deeper into how much potential that athlete has.
• It was great to have the relative age effect explained in detail to fully understand how it may influence the selection process. It’s great to hear of strategies such as bio-banding, getting players to compete against those of a similar biological age, are being employed to allow both early and late maturers to develop the skills that they need. An early maturer getting selected when they shouldn’t and a late maturer getting overlooked are definitely outcomes that will be less common if we provide better environments for youth athletes to develop.
• And finally, how ‘windows of opportunity have been so prevalent on youth athlete development models, despite scarce support from the research, and that using a more concurrent approach to training may be necessary for optimal youth development.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode and it has piqued your interest in getting involved with youth coaching. For more youth development content check out Rob’s work with the LTAD Network. However, for now, please follow and share @theprogresstheory on Instagram and youtube head to our website theprogresstheory.com and listen to our other episodes. We’ll see you in the next one

Follow our Host / Guest

• @theprogresstheory
• @thepricep
• 
  

In this episode, we mentioned the following resources:

• LTAD Network
• Athletic Evolution

If you would like to give us a review on Podchaser, please click HERE.

It can really help others discover the podcast.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Progress Theory. In today’s episode, we’ve brought on Christian Vassallo, S&C coach and researcher, to discuss the 3 minute all-out test.

The use of the 3 minute all-out test is becoming more popular as coaches are finding it is easy to use and provides them with the perfect information about their athletes to aid their programming. But what is this information? How can it be so easily obtained and then used to make training programming decisions? In this episode, Christian breaks down how you perform the 3 minute all-out test, the physiology behind the information it gives you, and how it can be used in a training programme.

As always, please follow and share The Progress Theory on Instagram and Youtube, head to our website theprogresstheory.com, and check out all of our other episodes. But now, here is Christian Vassallo

In this episode, we discuss:

1:38 - An introduction to Christian Vassallo

3:50 - His work setting up Traainer

5:54 - What is the 3-minute all-out test

9:31 - Can you use the 3-minute test on other equipment, such as a bike or rower?

13:12 - The shuttle run version of the 3 minute all-out test

14:33 - Variables of interest from the 3-minute all-out test

18:10 - What is critical speed?

23:42 - How can you predict your battery (D’)

26:05 - How to use D’ and critical speed to make programming decisions:

32:57 - Eliud Kipchoge and his critical speed

35:52 - Using power for running programming

36:31 - Can the 3-minute all-out test predict the performance of both short and long-distance races?

42:50 - How you can Use D’ and critical speed to determine race strategies

45:43 - Questions from Instagram

46:11-50:04 - How to use the 3-Minute test for improving field-based sports

51:00 - How to contact Christian

This was a great episode, it provided some great information about a test that seems so simple but can give you so much valuable information for your training. I love that you can use it for pretty much any sport. Whether you’re a runner, rower, cyclist, or play an intermittent sport like rugby or netball, the 3-minute all-out test can be easily implemented into your training.

I just wanted to provide some final thoughts on some key areas which really stood out to me.

• Firstly, that the critical speed is faster than you think. I can imagine most people new to this test must think that everyone slows down almost to a crawl during the final minute of the 3-minute all-out test, just because it’s so hard to maintain that all-out intensity for that long. However, you’d be surprised how fast the default speed you resort to is. It just feels slow because of how fast you were going at the start.
• And finally, I thought it was just incredible that Eliud Kipchoge maintained 97% of critical speed throughout his 2-hour marathon, which means his critical speed is greater than 21 kilometres per hour. I don’t even know if I can sprint that speed. His physiology is incredible.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode and have learnt a lot from it because I certainly did. All of Christian’s details can be found in the show notes. For now, please follow and share @theprogresstheory on Instagram and youtube, head to our website theprogresstheory.com and listen to our other episodes. We’ll see you in the next one

@theprogresstheory

@thepricep

@cvassallocv

@traainer

Traainer

Garmin

Myzone

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance.

We’ve started a new series of episodes. These Progress Theory episodes aim to discuss how I (@thepricep) am putting Science into practice into my own physical challenges, as the best way to learn about human performance and sport science is to put it into practice, see what works and what didn’t work, reflect on the results, review and repeat the process.

What is important about these Progress theory Episodes is how they’re going to focus on how I am making my programming decisions. What information am I using? How am I determining what is important for me and my training for a particular event at that given time? It is these decision-making skills that I hope will help our listeners make their own programming decisions. Making a training programme that is both specific to you as an athlete and your goal is difficult and requires a lot of thought as to what to include in your programme, what not to include in your programme, and decide where the right level of training is for you. For example, working on too many things at once may appear specific to your goals, but may accumulate too much fatigue which actually decreases performance or even increases the risk of injury.

It is these types of issues that this podcast will discuss. I won’t just list through my programme as that would be dull. However, I will go through key decisions and scientific principles that I think make up the important components of my programming, explaining my rationale behind them.

So, the first challenge is The Gauntlet at the festival of endurance at Hever Castle hosted by Castle Triathlon. 1.9km swim, 90km bike, finished with a half marathon run. Only 8 weeks to prepare, which isn’t much considering the poor training state at the beginning of the year.

In this episode, we discuss:

0:00 - Introduction

2:30 - The Gauntlet

4:10 - My training history

6:00 - The specific components of the programme covered in this episode

7:14 - Efficiency is key and the driver of decision making in this programme

10:07 - Rate of Perceived exertion

15:01 - Exercise focus

16:38 - Poor motion around the C7/T1 junction

22:00 - Left hip impingement

25:28 - Left foot being a poor shock absorber

28:52 - Contrast sets

34:25 - Episode summary

There are plenty more things to talk about, including the programming over the 8 weeks, which I will definitely cover in the next few episodes. I hope you enjoyed the episode and that it sparked some ideas in your own training.

Please follow @theprogresstheory on Instagram and youtube, leave a comment or share us on your story. We really appreciate the help as we grow the channel. Also, head to our website www.theprogresstheory.com where you can find all of our content.

We’ll see you in the next episode

@theprogresstheory

@thepricep

Castle Triathlon

Rich Blagrove The Progress Theory episode

DG coaching

WattHealth

Google Scholar

Ratings of Perceived exertion

Bands

Toe spacers

Garmin

Wedges

The Progress Theory is back with more legends. This time we catch up with medical Dr and elite CrossFit athlete Dr Carys Webster. I’ve been following Carys on Instagram for a while and I’ve always been so curious how she manages to balance 12 hour shifts at the hospital and training at the elite level in Crossfit, all the while studying for a Masters in Sports and Exercise Medicine. I had to get her on The Progress Theory to find how she does it, particularly as she’s continually improving as an athlete and challenging the podium against other athletes who train full time.

In this episode we discuss:

· Carys’s background in sport and how she got into Crossfit

· Her goals as a competitive CrossFit athlete

· How she has managed to balance training while working long shifts in ITU? How she manages her week.

· What changes have been made to her training during the global pandemic

· Her training and how she’s developed with her coaching team @redpill_training

· Her interest in Exercise Physiology, which led her to start her own blog. And how she uses the blog to further her passion for exercise physiology and provide some clarity on the misinformation of training content that is out on social media

· Why she started an MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine and how she is using further education and her experiences to further her medical career.

Carys is a sponsored athlete, being supported by @officialcnp supplements. If you wish to contact Carys she can be found on Instagram @caryswebster

#progresstheory

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. On today’s episode, we have Dr Rich Blagrove, Lecturer in Physiology and Strength & Conditioning at Loughborough University and researcher on strength training for middle and long-distance runners.

Rich has a wealth of knowledge from over 10 years of coaching and researching how strength training can improve running performance. Here we discuss important topics such as what factors separate the elite and amateur runners, what types of strength training you should be doing to improve your running performance, and how strength training may reduce the chance of you experiencing an injury. Whether you’re an experienced runner or someone that is new to the sport there are plenty of take away messages you can implement into your own training.

In this episode, we discuss:

• 1:14 - Congratulations on Rich’s new book
• 2:18 - Rich’s Background
• 3:31 - The aim of Rich’s new book
• 6:47 - The main skills and/or qualities to develop to improve endurance running performance
• 9:22 - What physical qualities do elite marathon runners have which are lacking in amateur marathoners?
• 15:01 - Why strength training essential for running economy and long-distance running performance
• 18:21 - What types of strength training a runner should include in their training
• 20:19 - How to incorporate plyometric training into a runners program when running is already a plyometric activity
• 25:16 - Can long-distance runners do too much strength training?
• 29:38 - Does strength training reduce injury risk?
• 36:26 - How different would strength training look like when comparing a 5km runner to a marathon runner?
• 42:41 - Where is the line drawn between the roles of an S&C coach and a running coach? What is the role of an S&C coach within a running coaching team?
• 51:05 - How to get in contact with Rich

This was a great episode with so many take away messages, which whether you are an experienced runner and amateur runner, or someone looking to start running, there is something in this episode to help you improve your running training.

Here are some final thoughts on some key areas which really stood out to me.

• How using strength training to improve the running economy is really important for all levels of runners
• How a runner’s strength programme for all different distances will generally look the same (consist of strength, ballistic and plyometric training). How we structure these training modalities around running training which is the main difference
• Take advantage of the warm-up. A great opportunity to regularly incorporate strength training. A warm-up if used appropriately is a form of strength training.
• One of Rich’s surveys that he did on runners for his PhD work showed that most runners mainly did strength training to reduce the risk of injury. However, it's proven that strength training improves performance, not reduces the risk of injury. Theoretically, strength training should decrease the risk of injury and it is definitely a reason why we all do it. Fewer injuries = better consistent running = increased performance. However, reducing injury risk is harder to prove and the quality of science on this isn’t great.

@theprogresstheory

@thepricep

@rich_blagrove

• Work profile: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ssehs/staff/richard-blagrove/

• Rich’s books:
• The Science And Practice Of Middle And Long-distance Running
• Strength And Conditioning For Endurance Running

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory, where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. 

My Name s Dr Phil Price Senior Lecturer in Strength and Conditioning Science at St Mary’s University and researcher in human performance.

I’ll be chatting with scientists, coaches, and athletes to discuss the latest ideas in performance science and how you can apply them to your training and everyday life.

These skills can be applied towards improving sporting performance and conquering physical challenges or developing a better quality of life. 

We aim to do this with honesty and impartiality. 

With the wealth of misinformation often portrayed by the media and unqualified social media influencers, it is important we understand the science behind human performance. 

To test the ideas discussed on the show I will be implementing them into my own training for my own physical challenges; giving an honest insight into my training successes, programming decisions, and opinions on how to optimise human performance.

Subscribe for free to The Progress Theory and you’ll have a new episode with top quality guests downloaded every Monday morning ready for your morning walk or commute to work. 

Additional episodes where I discuss my training for my upcoming challenges will be released on a Thursday. So check them out!

Make sure you follow us on Instagram @theprogresstheory where we’ll keep you updated on all upcoming news about the show, and head to our website theprogresstheory.com where you can find all our show notes and information on all our guests.

Come join the journey, and we’ll see you in the next episode.

------

Hosted by Capitvate.fm