Trampoline Periodization Series: Article 4 Maximum Strength

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to the 4rth article of the series. This article will focus on how to develop the maximum strength of the athlete. This phase is usually where a lot of injuries occur if it is not done correctly and or if the phases before were not trained properly. The athlete has to be mentally and physically ready for this phase for it to work properly.

The “maximum Strength” phase includes exercises that are forcing the athlete to use 95-105% of their power. You may ask “how can an athlete use more than 100 % of their strength” This means that athlete is going to fatigue and may not be able to actually accomplish the full number. The athlete should be failing on the last rep. Do not administer a set of 10 at 105% because it will never happen. Due to the fact the intensity is so high the reps must be very low. Usually they are around 3-6. The start of the phase should be 6 reps and as the phase progresses the intensity increases even more and the reps are dropped to 3. In this phase even 1 Rep Max (1RM) can be performed once in a while. 1RMs should not be performed more than once a week to prevent overload and injury.  More on 1RM later.

 The point of Max strength is not to get bigger; we already increased muscle size in the hypertrophy phase to help solidify the body. Now we want the muscle to be useful so that when we ask the muscles to contract fast we will get power.

                                                Speed x Strength=Power

                                                Power= jump height

In trampoline to jump high it is not enough to have very fast contractions, nor is it enough to have Hulk Hogan body type. You need a mix of strength and speed to be able to get a 21 second compulsory. In this phase we are working on the strength. This phase has longer rests and lower volume but higher intensity then our other phases because of the stress it puts on the body.  Keep the exercises simple and short. Squats, push ups, tricep dips, chin ups, crunches, back lifts. Single joint exercises mostly. Full Body exercises are in the next phase and do not jump ahead coaches, even though we all want to. This phase needs to be slow and paced to prevent injury. Every week the athlete should be pushed harder. Text Books say that every 2- 4 weeks change the program.  You are using the same muscles for 4 weeks but use them in different ways every week. For example if your program entails squats, crunch, back lifts, chin ups and  1RM bounding then next week change it to lunges, v lifts, reverse leg lifts and rope climbs. Same muscles, however different orientation. The muscles will learn quicker this way because the muscle says “Hey what’s going on, wait this seems familiar, oh ok I get it”. This happens a lot quicker than if you were to go from our example above of a first week to then say calf raises, handstand push ups, windshield wipers, levers. These are completely different exercises with minimal correlation to the ones done a week before. The coach can keep it simple and change up muscle groups every 3-4 weeks but considering the fact that a complete work out of a trampolinist can be summed up in a few exercises it seems kind of pointless. We also must remember these athletes are still young and learn faster than a 25 year old. A senior team member has gone through these phases and needs to focus individually on each exercise longer then a younger athlete. These younger athletes can breeze through exercise programs differently because their body is still learning. Change it up and take note of their favourite exercises. After a while you will see exercises that they simply put more effort into because they enjoy the movement. I would ten times rather do a V lift then a leg lift. Same muscles but I try harder on V lifts so it would make sense for my coach to prescribe V lifts.

During this “Maximum Strength” phase the athlete should still be doing aerobic conditioning. Start off conditioning with 10 laps and gradually increase it. I also force my athletes to increase their muscle endurance by jogging to exercises rather then walk and take their time. For this phase it will be harder to do that because if the athlete is tired during the exercise then you are not getting a true strength value. You are getting more endurance then anything. Endurance is not the focus right now. For the other phases have them run and jog and keep the rest minimal but this is 1 of 2 phases that require almost complete rest. Do not let them rest fully or the brain goes to sleep but they need to be rested.

The older athletes and the younger athletes should be doing the same exercises but at different intensities. I have heard coaches say that they won’t condition an athlete before a certain age because they are too young. I recommend these coaches reconsider.  Any athlete can condition even ones with asthma and other medical concerns. Sometimes special routes have to be taken to prevent harm to the athlete however any athlete who wants to do trampoline has to condition or their career in the sport is going to be very short. If coached correctly the older athletes should be able to be left to their own devices so that you as a coach can focus on the newer athletes who are lost. I remember when I conditioned my coach went outside and we didn’t see him for an hour. He taught us what to do and if we were confused we watched the big boys and followed them. I’m not saying leave the property but the idea is the same. If coaching is done correctly it should be very easy and the coach should simply be there for teaching new skills rather than yelling at kids to do things properly.  

So for the first 3 weeks you have the athletes doing exercises at 6 reps then for a few weeks they go to 5 reps and so on and so forth. But what do you do for the 1RM. Not many trampoline and gymnastics trainings focus on a 1RM. The 1RM acts like a muscle shocker. Think of how it feels to jump on a backyard trampoline and then switch to a Eurobed. Naturally the athlete will jump slightly higher because the muscles are prepared for a backyard trampoline. It is the same thing with trampoline conditioning. Trick the muscle into working a bit harder then it thinks it can and eventually the muscle will get use to that new work load and you will see strength gains. If done too much however the muscles will be strained too often and the body will not be able to recover. 1RM training has been shown to increase DOMS more than other forms of exercise. The technical training is still important and if the athlete comes in every day sore then the skills they do in their routines will look pretty bad. Once a week or once every two weeks depending on the training is a good safe number. Without a GoodLife Fitness at your disposal how are you supposed to perform 1 RMs with your athletes? All the coach needs to do is take an exercise and make it seem almost impossible. For the legs what I do is have them do bounding up onto a block as high as they can. It is simply a run and bounce up onto a block with no hands. The height of the block keeps getting higher once they land one. You can have a line up and each athlete jumps then back of the line. It will go pretty quick and the kids love it because it is like a competition to them. For core I will have the athlete lie back over a vault or block so they are lifting their upper body up with an athlete holding their feet. I then put weight on them and tell them to sit up. I make it hard so they literally cannot move then I relax a bit and allow the athlete to sit up a tiny amount. It is like a cycle I repeat until the athlete has sat all the way up. If you have done it right the athlete will feel like collapsing. Same can be done for chin ups as long as I apply the correct amount of pressure. You have to allow the athlete to move a bit but make sure it is very slow and he or she wants to give up. Then you give them some motivating words of encouragement and push them through.  It does take a while to perform this so having another coach helping will make it smoother. Train the athletes to do this as well. The older ones should know as much as you do about conditioning.

Here is a sample “Maximum Strength” exercise program for the first week

Exercise	reps	sets	Intensity (RPE)	explanation
Burpies	50	1	14-15	Aerobic and Anaerobic base- increases lactate removal so that rest is shorter in this phase and more can be accomplished
Coach resisted squats	6	2	19-20	Coach will be able to put on variable resistance compared to an athlete sitting on the shoulders. Push harder as the athlete gets closer to 6. Stand on a  block to get better leverage behind the athlete
Chin ups	6	2	19-20	Help athlete or resist athlete depending on the strength
Bounding	5-6	2	17-18	Athlete will not usually get that tired after 6 bounding but the ankles need to learn to take eccentric load and reciprocate that load into a jump. Will help prevent plantar fasciitis. Block should be higher than in last phase
Coach Resisted Sit up	6	2	19-20	Put feet under a block and have athlete lay back with arms above head. Sit up as coach pushes down at a variable degree.
Reverse Leg lifts	6	2	19-20	Push legs down and allow slow contraction as athlete holds onto a block.

As you notice this program is shorter. This is due to the fact the athlete will need a larger break in between every set.  It is not about how much is done all the time, it is about what is done. For the one RM days do the same protocols just put on a lot more resistance so the athlete is unable to complete the exercise after one rep.

What if the athlete is bigger than the coach and the coach cannot put enough pressure on the athlete? It is all about leverage.  Most exercises the athlete will not be able to resist the weight of a coach. The only one that may be a problem is squats. I do not see an athlete who is crunching while their coach hangs off of them. I do not see a coach sitting on the legs of an athlete who is doing a reverse leg raise. Unfortunately there is not much a coach can do to increase the intensity of a squat without adding weight. Unless you have a squat rack this may be very hard. So try making the athlete do single leg squats with resistance. Get a knee high block against the wall and have the athlete start with one leg straight and the other half bent on the block. Instruct them to have only their heel touching to prevent a push off. 

Figure 1: Single leg squat

I would encourage any gym that has high level athletes to buy a bar bell with weights. Any manufacturer will have used ones for a good price.  

Let us take a minute and discuss tapering. This is the concept of reducing the workload before a competition. If you have started this program in September then the athletes are competing by the time you get to this phase. This makes it tricky depending on the timing of the competitions. During the week of a competition, reduce the amount of conditioning but do not change the phase. Instead of 2 sets maybe only do one set and the time it takes to do the other can be spent doing routines beforehand. Please coaches do not get any bright ideas the week before a competition. Keep it simple and easy, no point in working a brand new skill two days before a competition. There is lots of time for that but the last thing that needs to happen is an injury because the athlete tried a flifis that he or she has never done before. Stick to routines and drills and half the conditioning program and increase the stretching program by a bit. Not much because that will create soreness as well but a slight increase like an extra 30 seconds on each stretch would be great.

It has been shown that stability and balance exercises cause the same musle activation as heavy loads. This means that during tapering and injuries the athlete can work on balance exercises instead of high intensity “Maximum Strength” training. Here are a few examples:

Single leg squats on the ground

Handstand balancing

Balance beam exercises

Stand on one leg catching foams or a ball

Log rolls- athlete starts on back in a hollow rock position and rolls over to stomach, then again to   

                  back all the way down a line trying not to touch the ground.

Single leg hops on a soft matt

Foam Pit races

Balance board – get a piece of wood and a large dowel

     All of these exercises stress the muscle but in a less intense fashion so they may be proper substitutes for conditioning during a period of tapering or rehabilitation.

Next is our “Power Phase”. 

Thanks everyoneJ

Trampoline Periodization Series: Hypertrophy Phase

Hello Everyone,

This is the third article of the Trampoline Perioization Series and today I will be talking about the “Hypertrophy” phase. This phase tends to be left out because athletes and coaches love to skip to the power training or max strength phases. Skipping this step can cause a lot of injuries as well as causing the athlete to decrease performance.

Hypertrophy is defined as the increase in muscle fiber width due to training. The number of fibers does not increase; it is the circumference of each fiber that increases. Hypertrophy is important for a few great reasons. (1) It prepares the athlete for the next phase where extremely heavy loads are going to be placed on the body. Going from an RPE of 10-12 in our “Basic Strength” phase to an RPE of 19-20 is a big jump so the athlete needs to go to an RPE of around 15-16 first to prepare the body. (2) This phase has the reps and sets at a specific number where muscle building takes place rather than endurance or neuromuscular adaptations. The endurance phase was in our “Basic Strength” phase. Because the athlete is just starting out the reps are very high at a low intensity. This will not bulk up the athlete; it will simply tone them and awaken the muscles. Hypertrophy is set at reps around 6-8 for 2-3 sets depending on the athlete. Neuromuscular adaptations which I will discuss in our “Power” phase has even lower reps that range from anywhere from 1-6. More on that later.

This muscle building allows a few things to happen.First of all it increases the impacts that are allowed to be taken by the athlete. Muscles act like cushions. If you punch someone in the shoulder they will be ok usually, well unless the Rock is your opponent. Take a punch on the wrist or a hammer to the foot and a lot more damage will be done simply because there is no padding. You can imagine this phase as a blow up phase and you are blowing up the bubble wrap for your athlete. Not to say he can’t be “popped” but it does increase the impact that can be withstood. In trampoline this is good because it is a violent sport compared to gold of ping pong. Trampolinists are always flying off the trampoline an violently slapping their back on the matt, arching the back on a bad landing, twisting the knees and or ankles on a under twisted skill ETC.

This is where my opinion comes into play. I have seen a lot of injuries in trampoline that I am very certain would have never occurred if this phase was fully trained. Too many coaches and athletes half-ass this phase and as a result ankles become twisted, knees become sore and so on and so forth. In my opinion strengthening the muscles is not good enough. The mind and body have to be use to taking an impact. The mind is a much undervalued component of all injuries. Having done my undergraduate Thesis on Neurodegenerative Diseases, I have done a lot of research on how the brain works under pressure, and how it reacts to unknown external stimulus. At the end of the day crunching your ankle on a tumbling pass will do more good for your ankles then any hypertrophy training regimen. Specific training for the muscle will help of course, however the signal that is sent from the affected area to increase ankle stability is stronger. Plus the athlete learns to take pain and eventually by comparison trampoline falls are low on the totem pole. I have people ask me if my ankles are ok after I fall out of a skill onto the end deck witha stuck landing from 15 feet in the air. In my head I am questioning why is this person even asking, obviously I am ok, that was nothing, I have taken 10 foot falls onto concrete because I missed the corner of the floor on a tumbling pass.  With this said not every injury can be prevented with training and sometimes luck is not on your side and you get a ball on the trampoline which is perfectly positioned for you to land on. Or you get double bounced accidently during a game of dodge ball and your ankle is not reay for the impact. I would be very interested to start a intense training program focusing on the stabilization of ankles and knees and backs on the younger athletes coming up and see if there is a decrease in the injuries that are affecting our athlete’s today.

“OK great Greg, tumbling probably will help decrease ankle and knee injuries, so what am I going to do ask the kids to come and do tumbling a few times a week?” – No because no one wants to. In a perfect world yes you would incorporate small amounts of tumbling into your trainings however a simpler way of going about it does exist which I will discuss.

The idea of taking impact does not mean it has to be from a double back or a double layout. It can simply come from jumping off a block and bounding. Bounding is the term given to the mechanics of how a tumbler gets maximum eight off a tumble track or a gymnastics floor.

In the muscle there is a protein called Elastin and it basically gives the properties of stretchability (do not know if that’s a word, but I like it anyway). Without it in our muscles there would be a ridiculous amount of injuries.  It allows the muscle to stretch in awkward situations and bounce back before too much injury is done. This can also be used for POWER. If you take a muscle and hypothetically take out the Elastin then you would get a counter movement jump power of let’s say for example 100 Watts. If you put the Elastin back in then the athlete will slightly stretch the muscle before  the jump and then add the contractile power of the actin and myosin interaction and increase that watt outage to let’s say 130 Watts. The Elastin wants to go back to resting length and like a rubber band it will snap back into place causing a slight increase in power. This will be discussed further in our “Power” phase.

Figure 1: As you can see Elastin wants to be bundled up but has the ability to stretch which saves the muscle from injury and can be used to increase power output by stretching before contraction called the "Stretch shortening Cycle (SSC)

In the “hypertrophy” phase you are warming up the body for the quick contractions that are about to be utilized.  Have the athlete jump onto block, have them jump off of blocks, have athlete’s jump in different body planes such as frontal and sagittal. My athletes are going to begin their “Hypertrophy” phase in the fall on their way to Provincial 1 because they are still on their “Basic Strength” phase.

So far I have discussed the concept of increasing impact to the body by taking impact so let us move onto the conditioning side where traditional exercises are used to increase hypertrophy. There are two types of hypertrophy and if you have been following I have discussed each a few times. I will re-discuss them now. Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy is the concept of increase the sarcoplasmic fluid within the muscle belly. The sarcoplasmic fluid is the fluid around the muscle fibers that holds all of the substrates. If you recall we spoke of these substrates within the nutrition series. By increasing sarcoplasmic hypertrophy you are increasing the amount of fluid and therefore the amount of substrates and enzymes used to catalyze reactions that fuel exercise. The other form of hypertrophy is called myofibular hypertrophy. This is where the numbers of myosin and actin increase and cause strength gains. It is a debated controversy as to which one works better and even if they can be done separately of each other. Some research shows that body builders rely on sarcoplasmic hypertrophy because it makes them look bigger but their strength is not as high. It is common to think of an Olympic lifter as a myofibril hypertrophy dependant athlete because they do not need size, they need power in a small container. If you were to have an Olympic weight lifter undergo sarcoplasmic hypertrophy training he would be in a weight class higher then he should be but will only be able to lift a fraction of what he is suppose to be able to judging by the size. Most studies show that these styles of training are improved simultaneously and only slight if any differences are really present. Some studies show that sarcoplasmic hypertrophy does not even increase muscle size like it is believed.

The take home note would be that substrate volume and actin and myosin interaction are equal in the production of strength. Each athlete needs both and the substrate volume will come from their nutrition rather than their hypertrophy training. For more information on the nutrition needed for a trampolinist look at the nutrition series.

So what are some good exercises for actin and myosin interaction? –Start with more specific exercises than in the “Basic Strength” phase. Instead of froggy jumps put in partner squats. This is where one partner sits on the shoulders of the squatter. Have the athlete perform push ups with blocks on their backs or with the coach pushing down. Turn the crunch holds into a coach resisted sit up or v lifts. The coach needs to simply try adn take a general exercise and focus on a particular movement. Generally the idea is to train the movement rather than the muscle. The athlete will not be doing a hamstring curl on a trampoline so instead activate the hamstrings with a squat jump onto a block instead. The athlete will not be doing an overhead press on trampoline so have them do a front raise with a weight to re-enforce a proper arm swing on a take off.  I could make another list but the it will look very similar to the list in the “Basic Strength” phase article. This is because the exercises are not going to look much different but the way they are performed is going to be. Add weight and resistance to ever exercise.  Find fun and creative ways of doing it of course but generally there is only so many exercises that will help your athlete. There is going to be repetition. As a coach you have to help motivate these athlete’s at their starting stage to keep doing the exercise.

This brings up a small side note on the style of coaching. I spoke to Dave yesterday and we discussed appropriate training for different types of athletes and different levels of athletes. The gist that we agreed on was that at the early stages the athletes need to be pushed and told what to do so that the correct training habits can be implemented for later use. After this base is established then the coach can relax the leash and allow the athlete to do what they feel is good for them. The coach must be careful however to not relax the leash to much at any age or level because the athlete will start to get lazy and  coast on their accomplishments. The periodization for this phase is still the “tight leash” phase because these athletes need to be taught what is expected from a high level athlete. Some ask me why do i push my athlete’s like national level if they are simply in provincial or even interclub. Simple. They come to me and say they want to learn trampoline. I ask if they want to compete and maybe one day travel across Canada showing off their skills. If they say yes I train that athlete as if they are going to be on senior team. The training and competition mentaility needs to be taught early as possible. Look at all the parents who baby their children and give them whatever they want at a young age and then become strict later on. That method rarely works because the child is already use to “GIME GIME GIME”. Athlete’s are the same way.  

OK back to Hypertrophy. Here is a example program for a “Hypertrophy Phase”. Please remember this program needs to be changed and played around with to keep the athlete's interested. 

Exercise	Reps	Sets	Intensity (RPE)	explaination
Front raise	8	2	15-16	Prepare for power phase
partnerSquats	8	2	15-16	Prepare for power phase
V lifts	10	2	15-16	Do slow with resistance
Handstand walking	A single floor length	3	15-16	Assist athlete or find partners- if handstand is not mechanically sound start with feet on shoulder wheel barrow walks
Back arch lifts	10	3	15-16	Has to be same as v lifts or compensations arise such as kyphosis or lordosis
Windshield wipers	12 ( 6 ea)	2	15-16	See below for explanation
Resisted Single Leg calf raises	8	2	15-16	See below for explanation
Bounding onto a block	10	2	15-16	Start forwards and then start bounding side to side. Mix it up and have some fun. We do “roof tops” where blocks are lined up and athletes jump block to block, down up, sideways, backwards etc. They love it.
Jump off block onto ground	8	2	3-4	Start off small and gradually increase when proper landing mechanics are achieved. Do not move up to quickly or injuries will occur

Windshield Wipers:  The athletes lay down on their back and pike the legs into the air, arms out to side for balance. Drop the legs to the side keeping piked as much as possible. Flexibility may be an issue however if appropriate stretching has been practiced then the athlete’s should be able to achieve a proper pike at this point.  No resistance is needed at this point. It is hard enough already.

Resisted Single Leg Calf Raises: Have the athlete stand in a handstand position with their hands above their head on the edge of a block. The coach pushes down the athlete as they do a calf raise. This encouranges tight body along with the extra resistance of a calf raise. Athlete’s may not be able to do a single leg calf raise and in these extreme circumstances add an extra set every training and give home conditioning.

To go through every exercise is going to take too long. Coaches, analyze the movement patterns in trampoline. Recreate those with your imagination off the trampoline. This concludes the “Hypertrophy Phase”. If there are any areas that you would like me to go into more depth about or things that I have said that are incorrect please let me know because I am still in school and learning. I would rather criticism then praise. Feel free to message me.

 ThanksJ

Periodization of A Trampolinist Series: Article 2- Basic Strength Phase

           Hello everyone, this article is going to address the first phase of periodization which is called “Basic Strength”. We will start with an athlete who does not know anything about trampoline or conditioning. I will be leading you through the appropriate steps to properly condition this athlete until the senior level where they will then need to maintain all phases equally due to the hectic competition schedule that we discussed in the Intro.  

          The “Basic Strength” phase is the most important phase because if it is not done correctly then the upcoming phases will not be successful or cause injury. If we look again at the chart from the last article this phase is the phase that requires the largest volume and intensity compared to the rest of the phases. This phase is needed to get the athlete use to conditioning and training. If we have an athlete who has never done any sports before then we have to start very small and work our way up progressively. As long as the principal of progressive overload is followed carefully any intensity and duration can be achieved in a workout, eventually.

       The “Basic Strength” phase will usually begin in September if this new athlete is planning on trying Provincial level 1 in the winter season. This phase will last a few months to even maybe a year. This duration depends on the style of coaching, the attitude of the athlete and the training parameters. We will start with an athlete who has no sporting experience because if we start with a worst case scenario than any other athlete will seem easier to deal with.

      The basic strength phase will start with an aerobic conditioning base. This could be anything that is steady state long duration exercise. Generally running is the best and easiest way to train this aspect. Depending on this athlete’s baseline fitness the coach may have to start with jumping jacks and progressively increase the number until running can be achieved. Most athlete’s can run and will not be a problem. The key is not how much the athlete can do but how much  the athlete can improve. Many strategies can be implemented here. Some of my favorite ones are:

     A)     Positive re-enforcement : “ Jimmy if you can show 5 laps around the gym I’ll let you pick the next exercise out of a list” ETC

       B)      Negative re-enforcement: “ show me five laps or you get an extra set added to the program”

       C)      Time constraints: “ you have three minutes to finish your laps or you get to start all over again

       D)     Chasing: “ If I catch you then you have to restart”

       E)      Race: “first one to finish all their laps without cheating gets a free pass on the next exercise” – this one cannot be done too often because obviously the conditioning is then going to not be as effective.

       F)      Progressive demand: “ Every week I am going to add two laps” , “ every week you are expected to run 5 laps quicker” ( timer)

      G)     Run in different environments: “ ok lets run outside today guys and gals” , Let’s jog around the block” ETC.

         The most important point is that the coach has to keep changing up the program. Running around every day the same exact way and duration will not work past a week or two. The athlete will get bored, slow down and reduce improvements. Keep it fun, lively and entertaining as much as possible. 

The reason the aerobic capacity needs to be the first aspect trained is because it is the base of all exercise and every energy pathway stems from it. Every form of exercise begins with aerobic and switches to a more direct pathway after a few seconds. A sprinter for example is using aerobic means to fuel the first second or two of the race and the ATP-CP system kicks in after to give him that boost till the end.  The aerobic system also is in charge of the recovery of the athlete in between training turns and competition. Lactate clearance is improved with an increase in the aerobic system. If you want your athlete to be able to train like a beast then his lactate threshold and lactate removal systems need to be in check. More on lactate threshold later.

         So after the aerobic conditioning is done the next part of the “Basic Strength” conditioning plan is activating the muscles. For an athlete who has never done conditioning before the muscles are not going to be very active and in some cases the athlete will not even know how to “flex” a muscle on cue. The strength aspect is simple. Either slow repetitions of low intensity or a large number of repetitions with moderate intensity. Unless you are working with high level athletes in a sports lab it will be difficult to determine what exactly is low intensity adn moderate intensity. To determine this you need to have a base line measurement of the athlete which many coaches do not have. You can go to the extent to have your athlete tested for their current max strengths and aerobic/anaerobic capacities, however many coaches do not have time for this or the equipment to accurately measure these aspects. Start of easy, too easy is not the end of the world, and monitor the child with a number scale. The traditional one is called the “Rate of Perceived Exertion” (RPE). It is a scale of 1-20, 20 being the hardest exercise and 1 being very very very light. I usually use a scale of 1-10 just to simplify. In this phase you want the athlete to be at about 6-7. You want the body to be stressed but if it is too great then the body will get very sore and the athlete will feel very crappy for the next few days. For most coaches who need to keep the athlete happy most of the time starting them off by running them into the dirt usually is not a great idea. If this was Russia then they athlete would have no choice and the situation would be a little different.

     This phase needs to focus on ALL MUSCLE GROUPS, not just the ones applicable to a trampolinist. The body works as a whole and if some parts are better developed then compensations arise which affects performance and causes injury. Compound exercises are recommended rather than one joint exercises such as bicep curls. Isometric holds are also recommended in this phase as it helps to activate the muscle. Muscles need to be strong in concentric contraction (shortening of muscle), eccentric contraction ( controlled lengthening of the muscle) and isometric contraction ( holding of a specific position). Everyone knows concentric contraction as it is the most common. Eccentric contraction tends to be neglected unrightfully so. Eccentric contraction helps to strengthen muscles and acts as a builder for concentric contractions that are not able to be performed yet due to a lack of strength. If your athlete is unable to do chin ups and you cannot spot them all the time due to time constraints have them try simply holding their chin above the bar or tell them to jump up and count to 20 before they are fully relaxed at the bottom. This form of training is not as common and therefore causes “Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness” (DOMS) at a quicker rate. If you were to run up the CN Tower you would recover better than if you ran down.

        The athlete should be doing exercises with full range of motion (ROM) during this phase. Usually this is the case in all phases but there are some exercises that require short movements that I will discuss in later articles. If the full ROM is not being achieved the body is already learning to compensate and puts priority in certain areas. The goal of “Basic Strength” is to basically strengthen the entire body and get it prepared for the upcoming year.

        Overall body tightness needs to be addressed in this phase as well because that is going to eb a reoccurring theme in their trampoline career. Anyone who has been around the sport can tell when an athlete is lose in the air and it simply looks sloppy, not to mention the athlete is at a greater risk of losing control and potentially injuring themselves upon landings. Have the athlete focus on squeezing every muscle as hard as they can for an interval. Simple exercises include handstands against the wall while the coach tries to separate the legs, bend the back or bend the arms. During the first few weeks of the exercise the coach will have to be vigilant on the pokes and prods so the athlete remembers. After a while the athlete will remember on his own accord and it will become second nature.

       The first 6 months to a year of conditioning is the most important due to the fact it will plant the seeds for the rest of their conditioning habits. The coach has to be very strict at this time because the athlete’s will rebel and try to cheat usually. Coaches cannot allow this and have to be watching like a hawk every second of their conditioning. I start off by yelling, motivating, pressuring athlete’s to condition hard. Then I test them and pick one athlete every training session to watch. I know what the program is and I will watch closely, unnoticed by the athlete. The first time I let it go and line all my athletes up at the end of training where I note what I saw. I give them a warning, explain the importance of conditioning, ask them if they understand and then let them go home. I keep watching the ones that seem to be lazy athletes and if I see them cheat at all, even by one rep they start that entire exercise over again from set 1. Very quickly the athlete’s learn to not the chance that I am watching them and do the exercises properly.

               It is important to remember to change up the program every few weeks to keep the body guessing and to keep the athlete interested. All the research says that every week the athlete should have a relaxation day where the muscle actually has time to grow and develop. For a provincial athlete normally this is not an issue due to the fact the athlete will not be training 6 times a week and be in danger of over training. Most Provincial athletes start out at a few times a week and work their way up to about 4 usually before going national. For your younger starting athletes do not waste a day of their conditioning with a deload training.

The athlete’s need to have fun as well so try having a weekly conditioning competition. Once a week try having the athletes compete against each other for the longest handstand holds or the most v-snaps in a  row, ETC. It is an easy way to force the athletes to condition harder when there is no competition. I do not think it would be a great idea to do this every day because less conditioning is done per athlete because a lot of them are sitting around waiting for their turn to try their best. It is a good bench mark for the coach and a motivation tool for the athlete.

         What about stretching?  Stretching is easily one of the most important aspects of any conditioning program.  Without stretching, the body will tighten up and the needed range of motions will not be able to be achieved on the trampoline. Not to mention the fact that tightness of the muscles can lead to cramping and tearing of the muscles. What is the best way to stretch though? Everyone you ask will say something different. Text books say that 20-30 seconds is the minimum amount of time needed to deactivate the Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO) and the muscle spindles. These are the sensors that detect muscle tension. Once pushed into a pike an athlete’s sensors will tell the brain to tighten up the muscle to prevent a tear. Once the position is held the brain realizes that it is ok and slowly releases the muscles and allows for an increase in ROM.  I find holding for a minute is much better and usually make the athletes do straddle, pike and all three splits for one minute each two times. I come around and push the athlete’s down to ensure they are not wasting time by just sitting there acting like they are stretching.  I stretch all the major muscle groups and force the athlete’s to increase their flexibility rather than maintain in. If the athlete’s are to flexible then power in the muscles decreases and the coach has to be careful of this. However this is not an excuse for the athlete to not have full splits and a flat pancake and pike. Simply said, other countries jump higher than we do but have better flexibility as well so obviously you can be both. The decrease in power only comes at very flexible states such as rhythmic gymnasts and contortionists. If the athlete holds splits for an hour before bouncing then they will feel weaker and won’t be able to jump as high. If general flexibility is good enough to do splits at any time then the athlete will not feel weak and their flexibility will not hinder performance. Coaches need to remember that before trampoline specific training stretching needs to be minimal and short duration. Do not twist the athlete into a pretzel because they will feel “wabbly”. It is more important to have them warm up, get their heart rate up, go through the major muscle groups in a dynamic fashion. This means to move slowly into and out of the position rather than a static hold. Static holds will relax the muscle and make it harder to contract because you are confusing the GTO and the spindles in the muscle. Dynamic stretching simply tells the muscle “get ready, time for exercise” .Static stretching is to be done after the training before the athletes leave. Do not do Ballistic stretching with the athletes because it confuses the GTO and muscle spindle as well due to the quick bouncing effect.

So let’s look at what a sample program may look like for the first week of an athlete’s conditioning program.

 

Exercise	reps	sets	Intensity (RPE)	explaination
5 Laps around gym	1	1	6-7	Aerobic capacity
Froggy jumps ( jumps from a deep squat ( butt on ground) to a full leg extension jump for distance with arms above head)	20	3	6-7	This is a full body exercise and is the full ROM of what a prebounce will look like if done correctly- no load on the body yet except body weight
Front support	30 seconds	2	6-7	Core stabilization
Reverse Support	30 seconds	2	6-7	Core stabilization
Side Support	30 seconds	4 ( switch sides)	6-7	Core stabilization
Calf raises	30 ( two legs)	2	6-7	Plantar flexion in the bed
Tricep dips	10-15	2	6-7	Arms have to be able to straighten and full ROM must be implemented here as it also acts as a stretch
Chair Sits	30 seconds	2	6-7	Strengthen legs and core- make athletes hold a sponge above head to strengthen shoulders for take off

          This program will roughly take 25 minutes to finish including rests. Most of the training is done on the trampoline so for a beginner half an hour of conditioning should be sufficient. After this the stretching can begin and as I recommended stretch all the major muscle groups such as:

Abs

Back

Hamstrings

Quads

Calf

Toe point

Shoulders

Chest

Triceps

Lats

        Each should be held for 30 seconds twice which means that the athlete is only stretching for 8 minutes. An hour and a half of trampoline training along with roughly 30 minutes of stretching and conditioning. This equals out to about a 2 hour program. I would recommend a starting athlete train this program twice a week for the first half a year or so. The coach needs to remember to change up this program regularly here is a list of exercises that would be acceptable for the “Basic Strength” phase.

Chip up holds or negatives

Handstand against wall

Lunges

Push ups

Sit ups

Rocker holds

Mermaid holds

Back arch holds (coach holds feet down as back is lifted by athlete)

Crunch holds (same as above but for stomach)

Run ups onto a block

Push up run ups

Wheel barrow runs

Inch worms across the floor

Suicides

Single leg hops

Two feet hops across floor

Jump on a matt

leg lifts or holds

handing rows off a low bar with feet on a block

        All of these exercises can be done at a slow pace or at a isometric pace where no movement is necessary, within the gym.  These exercises can be changed of course for the athlete but this is up to the coach’s imagination. Make the exercises interesting and creative. Have the athletes do partner conditioning where they are forced to cooperate together. You are not only building an athlete, you are building a team. Next article will discuss the next phase of the periodization, the “hypertrophy” phase.

Thanks J