Triathletes – Prep your Body for a Better 2016 Season
Welcome to the off-season! Pat yourself on the back for another solid year and go into the winter with a real plan
If you reflect on your year of triathlon training and competition, you will probably agree that you put in a ton of volume and intensity. Your body is thanking you for taking a few months off before you break it down again.
Strength and flexibility training is the key to your performance next year. This doesn’t mean hitting the weight room and hammering out bench presses. Your strength sessions should be focused on preparing your body for next year’s volume, preventing injuries, and increasing your performance from the previous year.
Triathlon is taxing on the body, and if you don’t take the proper steps to prepare your body for the next season of triathlons, you will be disappointed in the outcome.
Think of your body as a machine. This machine requires specific preparation in order to perform at its optimal level.
The components of your machine include your bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles and joints—all of which need to work together to create a well-oiled machine. Without specific strength training, you will be less efficient and more prone to injury. Prepare your body to manage pain and to give yourself the best possible chance for a healthy and fun triathlon season.
Prevent Injuries
As you know, triathlon is a sport that demands a great deal of volume. Most injuries develop from the continuous stress placed on the joints. Running and biking require the same joint actions over and over again. This can create an imbalance between certain muscle groups, which then leads to dysfunction in the joint. Strength training will help develop underactive or weak muscle groups, which can help develop optimal joint movements throughout the body.
You see it everyday when you are training. The runner who is hunched over and whose knees dive in at each foot strike. Or, the guy on the bike whose knees dart out every pedal stroke. These examples are common muscle imbalances that can be corrected through a proper strength training and flexibility program. The more you can limit or prevent muscle imbalances, the greater chance you have of being healthy year round.
But how do you know which muscles need strengthening and which ones need lengthening? Every body is different and one persons strengthening or conditioning programme may not benefit another’s.
The Performance Matrix is an on-line screening tool, which assesses an individuals movement patterns and highlights their strengths and weaknesses. This assessment will then guide our physiotherapist into tailoring a specific programme that will target your individual areas, which require work. You will end up with around 6 tailored-exercises that should be practiced throughout your off-season.
Remember, triathlon is an addictive sport. An addiction that will break you if you don’t train properly. Use this offseason to reflect on your previous year, analyze your races, and figure out where you could have improved.
Ask yourself this: “Did my performance program put me in the best position possible?” Challenge yourself to add specific strength and conditioning to your offseason performance program and reap the benefits at your future races. Enjoy the offseason!
For more information on the Performance Matrix and how Body Logic Health can help your training please see our website: http://www.body-logic.co.uk/performance-matrix.php or contact us on: 020 79246068