Questions and Answers on Endurance Training

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Question:
I am a beach volleyball player and I would like how to prepare for next season's competitions. How should I plan my off-season training? For conditioning I usually run sprints. Here is an example of my typical week of workouts:

Mon.
1. 800m run (Rest between sets 1 1/2-2 min.)
    4 x 200 stride
    sand jumps
2. 6 x 400
3. 6.x 300
Tues.
1. 10 x 100
2. 12 x 50
3. ladder 150, 100, 50 x 3
Thurs.
1. 8 x 200
2. 10 x 150
3. ladder 200, 180, 160, 140, 120, 100

Answer:
As shown in the above sample of your week of workouts, in every period, in all training cycles, in the first part of your workout you did longer distances and then shorter. Such workouts may be good for a short-term improvement in endurance but ruins speed and agility because the short runs are done when you are fatigued and relatively slow. While the warm-up should start with low-intensity activity, the beginning of the main part of the workout should consist of higher intensity efforts (in your examples, the sprints) and end with lower intensity efforts (in your examples, the longer runs). Study Science of Sports Training to learn why such training in the long-term leads to overtraining.

Here is my general outline for off-season training for beach volleyball.

First, reduce intensity of exercises, and start to gradually increase the volume of exercises. Keep most exercises aerobic (see Summer 1996 issue of Stadion News). Do one or two strength training workouts per week, unless you feel otherwise. These strength workouts should include general strength exercises to lay a base for your specific skills and not be as hard as to make you sore or even stale the next day.

In the remaining workouts (the majority of workouts) do your sport-specific exercises in a aerobic way, meaning that your heart rate stays low—180 less your age (for example, if you are 30 then the heart rate should be 150 bpm). Learn new techniques and new ways of doing known techniques.

Practice in the regulation court to keep (or develop) the sense of court so you know exactly where its boundaries are. This is an important skill that one of my friends noticed US beach volleyball players seem to be lacking. When she watched matches in Chicago she noticed that players were going a lot after balls that were going out of bounds.

Do lots of general exercises that you cannot do in the season, such as swimming and easy running at heart rate equal 180-less-age.

Thomas Kurz

Question:
I am a high school football player. I need fundamentals to help me gain endurance and mostly speed. I was wondering if you knew any good book with speed drills or endurance drills?

Answer:
There are a few books that contain information on developing endurance and speed and show the speed and agility drills. The first that comes to mind is the book Explosive Power and Jumping Ability for All Sports. Some others, such as The Gambetta Method: Common Sense Training for Athletic Performance by Vern Gambetta and Power Training for Sport by Tudor Bompa, are listed at The Athlete's Bookshelf (http://www.stadion.com/bookshelf.html).
Principles of developing all physical abilities and how to reconcile development of speed with development of endurance are explained in the second edition of Science of Sports Training.

Thomas Kurz

Question:
I am a bodybuilder and I am using your stretching method. In your book Stretching Scientifically on page 64 you show a weekly plan of workouts. Only one workout is dedicated to endurance. I thought that one should do aerobic exercises more often than that.

Answer:
In the majority of sports and especially in contact sports such as boxing, judo, kickboxing, and wrestling, one exhausting aerobic endurance workout per week is usually enough because two (or more) technical workouts also stress all capabilities, aerobic fitness among them, along with developing technical skills. Auxiliary workouts, short (under one hour) and done in addition to the main workout of the day, may be used to develop aerobic fitness by exercising aerobically but not to exhaustion.

Thomas Kurz

Question:
I recently purchased your book [Stretching Scientifically] and your video [Tom Kurz's Secrets of Stretching]. I desire to follow your instructions to the letter (I refer to your advice against riding a bicycle for those that want great flexibility). My problem: Up to now I have been riding a bicycle for my cardiovascular workout! I live in a city apartment so jump rope and running without being on concrete are impractical. What is your suggestion?

Answer:
Climb and eventually run up staircases.

Thomas Kurz

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