Trampoline Periodization Series: Putting It All Together

Welcome to the Final Article of the Trampoline Periodization Series. So far we have spoken about “Basic Strength”, Hypertrophy”, “Max Strength” and “Power”. Individually all of these programs are very important but equally important is the order in which these phases are prescribed. Here we will wrap up the series by describing how to prescribe these phases and some things to think about while coaching 

                Every sport will go through these phases differently and many sports will have different phases such as a “Speed” phase or “Muscle Endurance” phase. We decide what order will best suit trampoline. There are a few different ways of doing a periodization for trampoline.

                The most logical  way would be to be determining the intensities of each phase and prescribe in the same fashion as our traditional Periodization model. If you remember this is where the intensity starts off high along with the volume and then slowly decreases before competition.  In this case the order of the phases would be the following:

1) Basic Strength

2) Hypertrophy

3) Max Strength

4) Power

By the time the “Power” phase is prescribed the main competition should be about a month and a half away. This allows the athlete to get some good adaptation in before tapering before the competition. No point starting a new phase 2 weeks before a competition. No matter what sport or what level of the sport, “Basic Strength” always comes first. This is because, as mentioned earlier, the body needs to learn how to use the muscles and warm up. “Hypertrophy” is usually the next phase because it is a middle step between “Basic Strength” and “Max power”. The intensity takes quite a jump without the “Hypertrophy” phase in the middle. Then the “Max Strength” phase would be great because it then peaks the strength gains of the athlete before switching the priorities. “Power” is last due to the fact  the other phases have been all in preparation for this phase. Never start with a “Power” phase if the athlete is new in trampoline. Generally for trampoline at the beginning levels this format would be the best. A nice a steady increase of intensity and leaving sufficient time in each phase for adaptation and learning should be the aim.

Another way to do this prescription would be to completely forget about the power phase and focus soley on “Basic Strength”, “Hypertrophy” and “Max Power”. The younger athlete may not need power at this point in his or her career, after all Time of Flight (TOF) is not accounted for so jump height does not matter. I would argue that it teaches proper training mechanics and the athlete should be “shown the ropes” earlier then need be so that when he or she does move up they are already prepared. However if this is the avenue you as a coach wish to take with your athletes then you would want to cycle through these three phases a few times usually decreasing the length of the “Max Strength” phase. Max strength is hard on the body and if the athlete is new at conditioning then potentially the focus should be more on “Basic Strength” and “Hypertrophy” with some max strength added on top as a learning tool.  

Some coaches may chose to extensively prolong the “Basic Strength” phase and keep the athlete doing basic exercises for their entire first competitive season. This is not how I would chose to do it but it is not wrong by any means. It is a slow and steady approach with the long term goal being the focus. As long as the coach explains why he or she is prescribing this format then the athletes should understand and follow without hesitation. Even if you chose to stay in the same phase for a long time you still have to change up the program and cycle though different exercises and keep the children guessing. I would play with trying conditioning at different times of the training. Throw in a conditioning session first thing and make them train on wabbly legs once in a while. Doing conditioning before trampoline may be not the best idea all the time for a few reasons.  If you condition then train your muscles are tighter and most likely not as mobile as before the conditioning. If you try to then stretch before jumping on the trampoline the brain and body relax and essentially the athlete has to re-warm up again and this time the muscles are too loose. Muscles are like Goldilock’s porridge; it can’t be too cold or to warm, it has to be just right.  Once in a while however it will give the athletes a small shock and forces them to work a bit harder that day. Remember the most important thing in these early conditioning programs is to demonstrate the proper intensity and training attitude. Technique will come but attitude has to be instilled right from day one or the athlete will become lazy and have an idea that he or she can do whatever they want.

A coach may choose to try and shuffle the phases interchangeably throughout the weeks. This is not the best idea because the athlete will not get any adaptation, or at least not very much. The phases are a certain length to enable the body to adapt. I do not know about you but my genetics do not allow me to adapt after a few trainings. A form of this training is called Variable Periodization. This is where the athlete tells the coach how he or she feels the day of training and based on a few turns the coach prescribes a plan based on the mental alertness and readiness of the athlete on that particular day. Do not do this for younger athletes. I would argue you should not do this for ANY athlete. For a younger athlete he or she will learn very quickly to “ACT” tired or upset so that you always let them do minimal work. As well, not many athletes come into training 4 days a week in provincial and feel perfect every day. I can count on my fingers that amount of “feeling Perfect” days I have had in the last 17 years of gymnastics and trampoline.  You are almost always going to be slightly sore, upset about a failed test, mad at your parents, friends etc. This is no reason to relax on conditioning. Leave all mental problems at home along with the small physical ones that you can tough through. It helps to develop character and durability as an athlete by fighting through the trainings. No training should feel like it can be accomplished, then it was too easy.  If the athlete believes he or she can accomplish something then obviously the body does not need to adapt because it can already do the desired program. Make that program everyday a program that he or she feels is too hard and if he or she fails then that just means the body has to adapt more. Do not be scared to push younger athletes, they will learn to handle it. Build into it however but after a few months of training the athlete should eb sweating buckets and going to fatigue on the majority of exercises.

This would probably be the best time to discuss a deload session.  This is a training where the conditioning is decreased and the intensity is not as high as a regular training. Undoubtedly for a older Senior athlete this is a must once a week. For a younger athlete however the deload session is not so necessary. First of all the athlete is not training so hard that he or she needs a deload session. I trained 24 hours a week of gymnastics moving up to junior national and we never got a deload session. The odd occasional session would be more relaxed and more fun with jokes and less volume and more chit chat but that would be once a month maybe.  I would argue that it would help an athlete just to take a breather once a week but only if the athlete is doing intense amounts of conditioning a week. A body builder or a power lifter would need a deload training.  This is because a Olympic level weight lifter is in the gym conditioning 20-24 hours a week. In trampoline the conditioning is usually limited to about 4 or five sessions a week usually about an hour long of actual lifts, not including stretching. When you are only doing conditioning 5 hours a week then a deload session is not very use full.

Let’s talk about the Seniors now. Seniors are different from the younger athletes we have been talking about. Their program needs to be amore standardized and by the book so to speak. Senior athletes need to spend less time in the “Basic Strength” phase because they have already been accustom to conditioning so after Worlds they are ready to go and only take a bit of time to get right back into the swing of things. For a senior I would be juggling through “Max Strength” and “Power” with some “Hypertrophy” added in to these trainings. At this point the athlete should be solid as a rock and be able to withstand almost any landing that they may take. Injury should not be an issue at this point because the muscles have been developed so well that there is no rolling of the ankles, wabbles in the knees, looseness in the back etc. With this said, no one is perfect and injuries will still occur but the seniors should be getting less injured then the younger athletes.

With senior level athletes in any sport is when a lot of school education goes out the window. Based on my schooling I have been told to never allow any athlete, ever, to perform a deep knee squat. Have you ever watched Olympic weight lifting? I have been told to always perform a Functional Movement Screen (FMS). Does every athlete need to be standardized to the same model of performance? I have been taught to always have a deload training. Does every athlete condition or train hard enough to need one? The list goes on and on. For the senior athletes I am about to discuss, a lot of it is going to come from my own personal experience in the sports. Here is a few points I would like to mention about seniors.

1)      Use all the phases simutaniously or pick 2 and shuffle back and forth- At this point in the career for a trampolinist the only area of imporvement should be rotation speed, twist speed and height. As the hieght increases the athlete must get stronger so that injury does not occur. The trainings of a senior athlete should be very narrow and focused on these specific areas.  Do not waste your time with a month long “Basic Strength “ phase after worlds. Give the athletes a week of active recovery and then a week of “Basic Strength”, a week of hypertrophy” and then right back into the “Max Strength” and “Power” phases. Remember competition is basiccally all year round so the athlete has to be in tip top shape most of the time. You may say that “ Well a week is not enough for adaptations”. I know but we are not looking for adaptations here. A senior level athlete is not going to get “Basic Strength” gains that are even noticable normally. Remember these are the top athletes and many of them are close to their genetic ceilings if not already. “Basic Strength” for seniors is a welcome package. The imporvements will lie on the trampoline or in the “Max Strength” and “Power” phases.

2)      Some ask “ what about “Muscle Endurance”. Your muscle endurance can be trained simutaniously with any phase by decreasing the rest time. I would not couple this phase with a “Power” phase becasue this contradicts it’s self. Power needs rest in order to keep the neuron firing quickly. Muscle endurance entailes cutting rest to make muscle perform for longer. “Basic Strength”, “Hypertrophy” and “Max Strength” are the phases where “Muscle Endurance” can be focused on.

3)      Seniors should be doing Olympic Lifts atleast 5 times a week if not 6 leaving a rest day. Many come to me and get all upset that I prescribe such high volumes but remember this is Senior not provincial. If you were in Romania training gymnastics then you are doing 7 hours a day, every day with no rest. Your rest is the day that instead of a double training you simply do a morning training and a small afternoon training. If you are in china you are jumping 33 hours a week nevermind the conditioning they do off the trampoline. If you are in the NHL you are condiitoning daily and practicing daily, some times twice a day along with games a few times a week.  The Olympic Lifts will be the main way of increaseing jump height. The more you do the heigher you will jump.

4)      Bounding should be part of the program 5 times a week atleast. As soon as the ankles get time to relax they will and an injury will be the first sign that you relaxed too much.

5)      Do not forget about Aerobic Conditioning. This will increase the amount of work you can do in a training.

6)      Coaches: Do not allow your  Senior athletes to undergo variable periodization. Coaches need to push athletes at any level. The introverted personality is not enough. Every athlete needs that coach to give them a push when they are having a bad day or are tired. No matter how much an athlete wants something internally a push always helps if done the right way. You do not have to yell or scream. The coach talks to the athlete every day before training and they discuss a plan of action for that day. This is not a negotiation!!! This is a “ I expect this, is there anything you would like to focus on ontop of what I have already said?”. The athlete gives his or her two cents and goes on their way. The point of this is that the trainings are similar every day and the athlete gets so good at doing routines that it is second nature even when it is a bad day. Who is to say you are going to have a great day at the olympics. If you train like someone who can not work under bad conditions then you are taking a big gamble the day it really matters. Who is to say you wont twist your ankle in the hall way before march in. If you twist your ankle on the biggest competition of your life are you really going to stop? Most people would fight through no matter what. If you are already use to fighting through because the coach made you do it even when you thought it was impossible then you just have to remember what you did at home.

Take Home Messages:

11)      Instill proper training protocols from day 1

22)      Explain every single piece of information you know to your athlete

33)      Change up the program every few weeks

44)      For seniors focus on a few aspects and train those all at the same time.

55)      All athletes should be pushed everyday but make it fun and have them push them selves

66)      Introverted is not enough to take someone to the Olympics unless naturally they are gifted to extreme levels

77)      Prevent injury by teaching the athlete to take load on their body in different ways such as bounding

88)      Do not let athlete walk away from all injuries. Have them try a few reps on the trampoline and off the 9)trampoline to teach them that they are strong enough to fight through in a worst case scenario

910)      If the progression is too quick injury will most likely occur or minimal gains will be experienced

111)   Coaches need to act the way they want their athletes to act

   This concludes the Trampoline Periodization Series. I hope this has given people some idea for exercises as well as  a general idea of how to prescribe it. As I have said before please feel free to leave comments or questions of any kind. Thanks:)

Trampoline Periodization Series: "Power Phase"

        Hello Everyone thanks you to all of those who have given me feedback on my articles.  I will be continuing the series with the “Power Phase”. This is the next phase after “Max Strength”. Power is a product of strength and speed so it makes sense that the “Power Phase” would fall after the “Max Strength Phase”.

                Power as mentioned in the last article is (Speed x strength). By either increasing speed, maximum strength or both, an athlete can increase his or her power output. In trampoline speed of contraction is important but maximum strength is more influential for jump height. A runner for instance does not need maximum strength but does need a quicker turn over which is the speed portion of the above formula. If a trampolinist is too fast with contraction it will throw off his or her timing in the bed.  I am not saying that speed should be neglected, but it will not have as much influence as strength.Each athlete will have a slightly longer or slower contraction speed depending on their height and weight. A larger athlete will have a slower contraction to time the bed correctly because gravity is acting on the body at a magnitude larger than the force of gravity acting on a lighter individual. Because size is not fully the athlete’s prerogative when taking Time of Flight (TOF) a laser system under the trampoline record the amount of time the athlete is in the bed and subtracts that time from the total timed routine. This is why TOF is lower than a routine timed by a stopwatch.

             For an athlete to increase power output he or she must take max strength exercises and turn them into speed exercises. This can be done in many different ways and as I say almost every article, it is up to the coach to try new and fun forms of conditioning. Here are a few ideas:

Bounding:

             I know I talked about this in the alst few articles but it is so important I feel it needs a bit more depth.  The athlete starts on the ground and jumps off the balls of their feet and land on a block. The athlete jumps back down and without stopping and then he or she jumps back up after only making contact with the ground for about 20 milliseconds. The shorter the contact time the better but this of course depends on the skill of the athlete, the height of the block and the material of the floor. Less absorbent is better for a quick contact time but is harder on the body. It would be smarter to start on a tumble track and then move to a gymnastics floor after there has been much improvement. This exercise is easily one of the most important exercises a trampolinist can do.  First of all it teaches the athlete to use their calf muscles which accounts to about 15% of jump height. The athlete will also learn to take stress on the plantar ligament which is on the bottom of the foot. This is NOT A MUSCLE!! Do not stretch if it hurts. Stretching the plantar ligament will cause further problems that will take a long time to heal. The eccentric loads taken upon the calves and shins will strengthen the ankle joint as a whole, decrease the incidents of shin splints and help prevent the calf muscles from tightening up during training. This also teaches the body as a whole how to be tight because the contact time is the time the athlete would be in the bed. When an athlete jumps up from a flat foot stance and not a bound then he or she does not have to strengthen the core. The legs get stronger, core stays the same; the athlete jumps higher but is not strong enough to land and you get an injury. I have seen too many injuries because this exercise is not implemented into training. In this phase the reps should be higher to increase endurance of the calf muscles. In the last phase it was all about getting the body use to the idea of impact and staying tight at the bottom. Now the idea is to push the athlete until he or she feels a burn in the muscle. This means there are microtears which are good. Microtears  cause a signal to be sent to the brain to increase proteins, enzymes and nutrients to the muscle so it can become stronger. The athlete can take this as a good time to reinforce proper breathing techniques as well. Hold breath at the bottom and release in the air.

Elastic Band Runs:

        Take rubber tubing that you can get at wallmart for $6.00 and run behind your athletes with the band wrapped around their waist. I guess this is a good time to get into the appropriate intensities during a “Power Phase” . The athlete should not be trying to run with a lot of resistance. It may seem like a good idea to put really heavy loads on the athlete so that when the loads are not there he or she will feel light as a feather. Yes this is true that the athlete will feel light but that does not mean his or her muscles are any quicker. It is a trick of the brain more than anything. The general rule is about 15% of body weight should be added. That is the weight that has been shown to produce the highest speed gains in an athlete. WHY? Because the body adapts to any stimulus placed on it. Resistance training makes the bones  stronger (Wolfs Law) as well as being open to bacteria makes the body more immune to the same bacteria. Your body learns by experience just like our brains. If you take an athlete that has to go fast then put a ball and chain on him or her and ask them to run they will not be able to go very fast obviously. The adaptations to make the body fast are not the same as the adaptations to make the body be able to list a ball and chain. Train fast to be fast. Train slow to be slow. With a small amount of resistance the body can learn to be fast and support the new weight which will cause an increase of speed when the weight is gone.

V-Snaps (NOT “LIFTS”)

        This is another huge one that I cannot stress enough. If your athlete can not do fast V-Lifts, which are called V-Snaps then he or she will have a hard time activating the muscles that are required for a back  or front flip. The abs are very important in a front flip and if the athlete is unable to “snap” into a tuck or pike then every skill will be straight. Go and try that on a trampoline, not easy. The idea is that the legs dn arms never touch the ground and the contraction is as quick as possible with a controlled eccentric portion of the V-Snap. The athlete should be able to actually get the entire body to hop of the ground a small amount because he or she is contracting so fast.

Reverse V-Snaps:

       This is when the athlete starts in a V position on their backside and slams their hands and feet in the he ground as hard and fast as possible. Have a soft matt under the athlete at first and when the athlete is older toughen him up a bit by making him or her do it on harder surfaces. You may ask “How is a harder surface going to make my athlete strong?” It won’t. It will help increase the impact their body can withstand. It also forces the athlete to be tight. On a soft matt he or she can literally fall loose. On a gymnastics floor with only a sting matt the athlete will have to be really tight throughout entire body or it will not feel very good.  This can be progressed to a fast back raise while the feet are held by a block or coach. Be sure to instruct the athlete to not hyper extend the back. Go to just past horizontal when working on speed. Do not want the athlete to get a disk herniation. More advanced conditioners can push the limits slightly but generally it will not help too much because the back should never hyper extend during a routine. It is good for injury prevention however. Use your own discretion.

Elastic Band Work:

         This is the easiest way to increase power in the shoulders and arms. Many different exercises can be done and as long as they are being done with a fast concentric contraction and controlled eccentric contraction then everything is great. Some exercises include:

1 1)      Arm Circles

2 2)      Front shoulder Raise: stand on band and perform a front shoulder raise to a straight jump position. Good for prebounce arm work.

3 3)      Pull downs: Kneel under a bar or rail of some kind and pull down in different directions for different muscle group activation. Good for the Latissimus Dorsi which help solidify the spine to decrease back arch when not wanted.

44)      Shoulder Abduction and Adduction

55)      Shoulder extension

66)      Shoulder Stretches

         Keep the Exercises Simple and fast for the beginner athletes. The do not need to get into the complicated exercises yet when the basics are still being implemented. In all honesty I do not want to go through 50 exercises so i will make a list of some that beginners can use for their “Power Phase”.

Beginners:

11)      Wall runs – run against a wall leaning forward with fast turnover

22)      Wheel barrow runs- very fast wheel barrow

33)      Squat Jumps- flat foot jump up and jump down, pause and repeat

44)      Bounding – jump up and down off the toes with no pause

55)      Single leg hops

66)      Clap push ups

77)      Front support run ups- classic run up but instead of the feet  the athlete is on the ground in the push   up position running on their hands up and down. Elevate feet for increased intensity.

88)      Straight jumps across a floor off the toe. 

                  Here are just a few of many to get the coaches started. Now let us take a minute and talk about the top senior athletes and how they can improve their power output. There are three important exercises that need to be addressed here that normally would not be taught to a younger athlete. These are:

           

           Advanced:

Clean and Jerk and Snatch: 

        This is one of the Olympic Weightlifting exercises. This exercise has been shown to increase jump height in all athletes better than any other exercise. This is because the clean and jerk, as well as the Snatch both use triple extension. This is the concept of using the same mechanics to lift that are used to jump.  The difference between the clean and jerk and the snatch is that the clean and jerk lift pauses at the clavical and a over head jump press is used to get the weight over the head. A snatch is when the weight is directly thrown over the head and the legs squat the weight up.

Jump Squat:

         This exercise is only used for older athletes who can take a loaded bar bell on their back. Put on pounds on either side and instruct the athlete to jump onto a small block. Increase the height of that block but not the weight for reasons discussed above.  Make sure you spot the athlete. I know that there are not many gyms with Olympic weightlifting equipment so I will not go into much detail right now. All you athletes, if you want to jump higher go do clean and jerk and snatch. If you would like me to go into a detailed article about these exercises please let me know.

        OK So we have gone through a lot of different exercises  so let us see how a program for “Power Phase” may look.

Exercise	reps	Sets	Intensity (RPE)	Rest
Bounding	15-20	2	15-17	1 minute
Wheelbarrow Run Ups	45 seconds	2	17-18	2 minutes
V-Snaps	20	2	17-18	2 minutes
Front arm Raises	15	2	17-18	2 minutes
Wall runs	45 seconds sprint	2	18-20	4 minutes
Reverse V -Snaps	20	2	17-18	2 minutes

         You may be wondering why I am including rest intervals in this chart when I have never done it before. Before it was simple, rest until the athlete feels ok to move on. During the “Power Phase” it is a little different. The athlete will feel like his muscles are not tired and will tell you he or she is ready to go again but then the next set will always be slower. This is because speed is not a product of the muscle it is a product of the signal sent from the brain. The neuromuscular portion of the recovery is slower than the muscle recovery. The body will send fast signals to the muscle to contract. After sometimes the signal slows down. As we discussed earlier, train fast to be fast. This is when you should cut the exercise and tell the athlete to rest so speed is the outcome rather than endurance or strength. It usually takes about 5 minutes for an athlete to fully recover from a power exercise. You may be wondering why I have such high reps when the neuromuscular signal will usually slow down after about 6 reps. This is because these exercises are not full intensity and the speed is not 100% yet. These are new athlete who have to get use to speed, not the senior athletes who are performing a snatch or jump squat. After about 5-6 reps of a jump squat the athlete will start slowing down incredibly. After 10 bounds onto a block the athlete will not even feel phased. For the younger athletes it is ok for them to feel like the speed is easy, that means those specific muscles are already working properly.  Get the entire body functioning equally before increasing the reps and sets or compensations will occur. As you can see for the wall runs it is a full sprint and you want them going at 100% effort because the chance of injury is small in this exercise because there is no lifting. Other exercises have to be done more carefully as to not snap a tendon or roll an ankle or wrist. At first it will seem boring and easy and that the athletes did not work very hard but after a month and a half to 3 months you will notice much fast and harder conditioning being performed.

For trampoline that is our last phase. This last article of this series will bring everything together and discuss how to properly administer these phases to your athletes. 

Thank youJ

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