All athletes are different, with varying training history and therefore varying levels of response to a training stimulus. For instance, the athlete who has never trained for bigger muscles will see large improvements from a very basic hypertrophy programme, whereas the seasoned professional requires much more rigorous stimulus for small improvements.  Essentially the distance to the training ceiling is much smaller.

There’s always the temptation to re-create the training programme of an athlete that you admire.  Generally, these will prove unsuccessful for a number of reasons, which I will explain throughout. 

What’s important to understand about re-creating a programme is that any form of training will show good levels of improvement in an untrained athlete (so why do something really hard?). However, the volume and amount of loading of an elite level programme will sooner or later lead to injury or burnout. It’s just not sustainable.

Knowing enough about training principles to understand the general concepts of another athlete’s training programme and applying some of the concepts to your own training can be useful. But if you don’t understand it, don’t use it – simple as that.

Equally, taking an average programme that you’ve seen within a magazine and applying it will provide average results. Do you want to be average, or do you want to be the best version you can be?

Individualization of training will optimise results and enhance the desired adaptation to a training protocol. Bearing that in mind, here are the components to consider to properly construct an individualised plan:

1.     Training history

2.     Movement efficiency/literacy

3.     Injury

4.     Age

5.     Gender

Let’s explain these points. An athlete’s training history can determine the amount of training volume that they can tolerate. An athlete with a long and varied training history (without big gaps) can deal with a larger and more varied training programme. For instance 5+ sessions per week. 

This is important as it means that recovery can occur quicker, and training can be harder without causing too much damage. A beginner athlete doesn’t need this complexity to cause improvement – so keep it simple in this case. 3 sessions would be enough.

Along with training history probably goes movement efficiency.  An athlete that has been coached from a young age (or for a considerable time) *should* have a greater range of skills when it comes to movement. This means that more exercise choices can be available, meaning a more varied programme can be applied. 

Examples could be split squats, Olympic lifts or jumping exercises, versus more conventional leg press, smith machine squat or body weight lunges. Variety can useful for increasing adherence and reducing boredom.  I say *should* because some athletes stay away from exercises or movements that they don’t like. This can ultimately become a stumbling block down the road.

Next comes injury. Considering past injuries and how the athlete now functions can guide and help choose exercises, or movements.  This may be a reason why the athlete took up cycling in the first place, so be sure to factor that in.  Also consider if any further improvements can be made to a previous injury. Was a rehab programme completed effectively, and can any large limitations be reduced with some attention?

Age shouldn’t always be considered with training history. I’ve coached 10 year olds with longer training histories than 30 year olds. However it does help to form a good idea about the opportunities available in terms of training time available and other commitments. 

Youth athletes are extremely complex and depending on the stage of maturity there are a number of elements to consider. Some are bone and muscle growth, testosterone (or lack of) and the response of training to muscle development or cardio improvement. 

Within cycling, there are much less opportunities for injury than in other sports but form and technique are no less important to teach good movement patterns at a young age – these are lifelong skills.

Equally, as we age, muscle strength and bone density decreases, recovery takes longer and maximal heart rate reduces. However, it’s unequivocal that both strength training and cardio exercise are important to living longer.  There’s a lot to consider! If you would like more info on either youth or older adult training, please comment below and I’ll write some specific articles.

Finally comes Gender. Since the physiology of muscle in males and females is the same, there is no real reason that they should be trained differently. Training programmes should therefore be designed to improve the performance of the muscles used, regardless of gender. 

There are two possible differences between males and females, which are absolute strength and time taken to see muscle size increases. Female absolute strength is lower than males, by about one third.  This is mainly to do with upper body strength, the lower body strength between genders is very similar – good news for cyclists. 

Because of a difference in anabolic hormone levels, hypertrophy can take longer and require more training sessions to produce muscle mass in females than males. Again, carrying muscle mass isn’t particularly important for most cyclists (except for certain track athletes) so again, on the whole, nothing to worry about.

In summary, a programme that is designed for you will be much more effective than using someone else's.  However, it can be useful to take a programme and adapt it to your needs. Consider your availability to train - don't try to go from zero to a session a day, build it up. Equally, start at a low weight and reduce the sets, increase them over time. Change the exercises to something that is achievable for you. If you can't squat, use a smith machine or leg press instead, whilst you work on flexibility or other issues to allow you to squat in the future. Finally, improvement will come. Give it time (6 weeks plus) and be confident in your design.

Now that those elements have been explained, we can spend time investigating task and athlete-specific strength. See the next article in the series for more info!

~ JC