Only the strong survive

WITH A new calendar year started, and being nearly halfway into the current school year, training and competitions for sports have been well underway. Track and field athletes at the youth and senior levels, who completed their ‘background season’ or ‘preparation phase’ of training late last year, now open their competition season with preliminary and developmental meets, advancing towards bigger meets – Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) at the school level, the National Senior Championships at the senior level, and - for the elite - the 2025 World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo later this year.

Schoolboy footballers, in turn, now use the current period as background for their next competitive season, while Jamaica Premier League footballers continue their current competitions.

The background/preparation period, where general training/strength-and-conditioning is emphasised, applies to all sports and should be optimised. Not only should there be physical preparation for sports performance, but also comprehensive pre-participation screening by sports medicine physicians; full diagnosis and optimal rehabilitation of any lingering injuries from the previous season (or before) by appropriate sports medicine specialists; thoughtful and strategic return to play after a rest and/or rehabilitation period as appropriate; and implementation of injury prevention mechanisms wherever possible.

Strength and conditioning (S&C) - i.e. exercise training using weights and other forms of resistance (also known as gym work) to enhance sports performance - is pivotal during the background season/preparation phase, and even beyond.

S&C spans the performance spectrum, from rehabilitation of injuries to injury risk reduction/injury prevention, to optimal sports performance. S&C has been scientifically shown to improve key sport performance indicators such as speed, power, and work capacity or endurance. It is also a key part of full/optimal rehabilitation for an athlete’s return to sport after injury; and can help to reduce the risk of injuries or re-injuries.

S&C accomplishes these goals via increasing general strength and capacity through General Physical Preparation (GPP), the earliest phase of a structured S&C programme, which fits right into the background season.

With greater GPP, track athletes can withstand longer and more intensive training throughout the season, with less undue fatigue and potentially less likelihood of injury. They can be better prepared for the rigours of repeated rounds of racing, especially during major meets and championships

For team sports like football, general physical preparation increases overall strength and capacity, potentially making players less injury-prone over the course of long competitive seasons, and indeed their whole competitive careers.

Gradual exposure to heavier weights and/or increasingly challenging training sessions – termed ‘progressive overload’ – is actually protective. It prepares the athlete’s body for the significant forces encountered during sport, whether from collisions with opponents; forceful movements like twists or rotations, or throws; or powerful actions like swimming, hitting, kicking or sprinting.

For example, while it is commonly felt that hamstring injuries occur because of a lack of flexibility or tight muscles, in many instances, it is because of a relative lack of strength and capacity of the hamstrings to withstand the repeated, rapid, high forces that they encounter in sprinting. This lack of strength and capacity may be as a result of imbalanced gym programmes which overemphasise exercises that strengthen the large and powerful quadriceps muscles (multiple versions of squats and lunges, popular in most track and field gym workouts), but underemphasise the hamstrings and how they specifically work in sprinting. This can predispose them to injuries when faced with the demands of training and competing. Likewise, other muscular injuries in athletes (e.g. shoulder, lower back, etc.) also occur when there is inadequate or imbalanced strength work for the muscles and their relevant movements and functions.

Balanced, well-structured S&C, through GPP and progressive overload, develops greater reserve or capacity in the relevant muscles and their respective movements and functions, and strengthens weak links while potentially creating a buffer against the possible negative effects of training, school and life stresses.

For all the reasons mentioned above, S&C should also continue beyond the preparation season, and even throughout competitive periods.

While it may seem counter-intuitive or counterproductive to maintain gym work during competitions, the opposite is true.

Maintenance-level S&C training during competitive periods has multiple benefits, including injury risk reduction over the long haul of a competitive season, and increased resilience, should injury occur. The in-season programme must be modified for intensity and overall volume, with fewer, but the most essential, bang-for-your-buck exercises.

A qualified S&C specialist or S&C coach can analyse the needs and demands on the athlete throughout the background preparation and competitive seasons, to design effective programmes that support the athlete across the performance spectrum of rehabilitation and return-to-play, preparation, in-season maintenance and, ultimately, optimal performance.

Dr Dialo-Rudolph Brown is a sports physical therapist and certified strength and conditioning specialist at The University of the West Indies Sports Medicine Clinic. Contact: dialob.rpt.cscs@gmail.com.Sport Pulse and Sport Matters are fortnightly columns highlighting advances that impact sport. We look forward to your continued readership.