Monday, December 7, 2009

New Twist on My Fitness Assessment




For years now I have separated kinetic and strength assessments with actual training. I had a good reason for doing so. I have always felt that basic assessments needed to be done when the body is rested and the mind is focused only on the task at hand. Of course there are reasons out there why a coach would want to assess his client while not fully recovered or focused (especially for high endurance athletes). Up until this year I have felt assessments need to be kept separate from the stress brought on by training.

This year I have been assessing while hitting clients with hard training. Actually, there is microphase separation in the training. Corrective exercise and reassessment sessions on opposite days of "goal" training sessions. What I have found or verified for myself is that asymmetries throughout the kinetic chain are easier to detect/fix and easier for the client to sense and understand when the client hits a point of slight to mid level discomfort. What I mean by this, is at the point the breathing and heart rate hit a high level and the muscles are beginning to feel pain of lactic acid build up, the client has hit a point of slight to mid range discomfort. I arrange certain basic test within an AA (Anatomical Adaptation)and corrective exercise session. I find the different training days is a big help to keep the sessions motivating, and really justify to myself and to the client why we choose certain exercises.

I do this type of session only a few times a week for clients who are beyond the beginning stages of training. Clients who are not beginners and trying to pack mass and strength, drop fat, and/or perform better in a sport need more sessions to handle these goals without the kinetic assessing/re-assessing. This especially goes for training near maximal load or power output. A client will need to keep "readied" for handling the trauma of this training and the assessments will most likely show negative progression as muscles tighten and bones get compressed during these high intensity sessions. Again, that motivation factor is kept high if I don't bore the hell out of them with corrective exercise drills for their given asymmetries, everyday.

The assessment is given the time it deserves and improvement or lack of improvement can be noted weekly along with progression towards personal goals. Also, the training goes uninterrupted by corrective drilling. So far, this type of assessing/re-assessing, corrective training, and goal training takes up to 12 weeks to run its course. Around the third to fourth week I can really see what the client can do. One primary reason is this is the point the motor patterns are corrected, which eliminates false plateaus or positive signs for kinetic issues. The way I can tell if this phase has worked is there is less of asymmetrical training within the program by the final weeks. If you're a little confused let me show an example:

Say I have a client with a ROM (range of motion) problem with her right shoulder. The left shoulder does the movement just fine. It would not be optimal to attempt to train both the shoulders equally since one has less ROM than the other. So, the exercises I choose to develop better ROM in her shoulders, she will do by performing more sets on the right shoulder (usually two more sets at first), which needs most of the focus. As the training continues, the asymmetrical training should become more symmetrical (meaning the right shoulder is becoming even with the left shoulder in ROM and the sets are equal on both shoulders). This progression can also be justified by the "goal" training days. Hopefully the exercises where shoulder mobility is necessary show improvement. Once a re-assessment shows ROM is equal in both shoulders the hybrid phase for that particular assessment is done.

Currently, I am doing this on myself and you can see what I mean by following my journal on FES forum.

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