Here’s the catch…As an athlete becomes more advanced and serious [e.g., training harder/longer and racing more frequently] a much greater amount of stress is placed on the body, and often times, on the mind too. At this point, a one dimensional sport-specific approach to training not only no longer makes sense, but can actually be extremely dangerous, leading to overtraining, burn-out, and even worst, detriments to general health. Now it’s not like all of a sudden a one-dimensional athlete will get hit by a train, but more often than not, cues kick in that it might be time for a shift in paradigm: Stagnant performance, constant minor injuries, a stress fracture, frequent cold, trouble sleeping at night, lethargy during the day, etc, etc...More (in terms of sport-specific training) is better to a point, and even then, only if that “more” is done in the context of a much broader overall training environment.
Enter a more holistic
view of training that will drive performance and ensure good health. Matt Dixon, arguably the most visionary coach/mentor in endurance sports today (just look at the crazy
roster of pros under his guidance) has characterized [and made pragmatic] this holistic philosophy as taking a 4-pillar approach to training: 1. Sport-specific training, 2. Functional strength, 3. Nutrition and 4. Recovery. Much like a building, if one of these pillars is relatively (to the others) weak, the athlete will begin to crumble, and if a pillar is missing altogether, the athlete is likely to fall.
This approach by no means equates to more total hours spent on our sport(s). What it does mean is often a re-balancing of the current hours (e.g., a few less hours running, a few more working on strength and flexibility) and a much broader view of training (including what I eat, when I eat it, and how much I am sleeping). All too often athletes sabotage phenomenal sport-specific training by neglecting functional strength (this can manifest in the all-too-common achilles injury 2 weeks out from your marathon) ignoring nutrition (which involves fueling, or what you eat before, during, and right after exercise as well as general nutrition, which means what you eat during the rest of the day) or short-changing recovery (spending hundreds on the latest shoes, but not $50 on a monthly massage). Making this holistic approach work requires considering all 4 pillars in the greater context of your life. For example, if your current physical training load requires 8 hours of sleep per night for recovery, but your job and kids mean that the most you are ever going to get is 6.5, the answer might not be sleeping more, but it might be re-configuring the physical load. Hence, the 4-pillars can apply to everyone, but often times, in a very individualized way.
What are the implications of this? As a first step, when you design your training (or find a coach to help you do so), be aware of and consider how all 4-pillars fit in. Give each pillar equal weight so you don’t risk crumbling; this may mean learning more about nutrition and making hard behavior changes, cutting out an hour of running to attend a yoga class, and actually planning and building into training sound recovery from the physical work. And in an ideal world, make this equal importance tangible; if are the type that is crazy about tracking weekly mileage and pace, start tracking the calories you burn during a workout and your replacement of them in the glycogen window (more to come on these details in future posts). Keep a sleep diary for a week. Etc, etc.
While at first glance this may seem like a radical approach, once you learn more about the 4-pillars and how they fit together, it turns out that traditional one-dimensional program that only focus on sport-specific training is probably the most radical thing out there. A more holistic and comprehensive approach requires an enormous shift in orientation, and this isn’t just a challenge for age-groupers, but for many pros too.
If this makes at least some sense to you, please stay abreast of the blog over the next month. I will be profiling each individual pillar, and then writing a post showing how they all fit together. If you don’t have the patience and want to learn more now, visit purplepatch fitness and start exploring the wonderful resources Matt Dixon has put together. This week’s articles of the week are also themed around the purplepatch approach and 4 pillars.
As a disclaimer, I am starting to get more and more involved with purplepatch, simply because I really believe in what they are trying to do, and have seen it work in my own training (and no, I am not coached by Matt Dixon, but am lucky to be coached by someone who generally echoes his philosophy, and I’ve seen it work in huge ways). This also means that I will be continuously learning more about the 4 pillars, and to the extent that I can, sharing it with you! To that end, I just joined Twitter, and will use it solely as a vehicle to pass on this type of information, but in much shorter (pretty sure the limit is 140 words) and succinct blurbs (I may join Twitter, but I’ll never say tweet). If you are interested in daily tips and even an inside look at what some of the top pros are up to, follow me at: http://twitter.com/#!/Bstulberg
Until next time, Train Hard, Live Harder!!
This approach by no means equates to more total hours spent on our sport(s). What it does mean is often a re-balancing of the current hours (e.g., a few less hours running, a few more working on strength and flexibility) and a much broader view of training (including what I eat, when I eat it, and how much I am sleeping). All too often athletes sabotage phenomenal sport-specific training by neglecting functional strength (this can manifest in the all-too-common achilles injury 2 weeks out from your marathon) ignoring nutrition (which involves fueling, or what you eat before, during, and right after exercise as well as general nutrition, which means what you eat during the rest of the day) or short-changing recovery (spending hundreds on the latest shoes, but not $50 on a monthly massage). Making this holistic approach work requires considering all 4 pillars in the greater context of your life. For example, if your current physical training load requires 8 hours of sleep per night for recovery, but your job and kids mean that the most you are ever going to get is 6.5, the answer might not be sleeping more, but it might be re-configuring the physical load. Hence, the 4-pillars can apply to everyone, but often times, in a very individualized way.
What are the implications of this? As a first step, when you design your training (or find a coach to help you do so), be aware of and consider how all 4-pillars fit in. Give each pillar equal weight so you don’t risk crumbling; this may mean learning more about nutrition and making hard behavior changes, cutting out an hour of running to attend a yoga class, and actually planning and building into training sound recovery from the physical work. And in an ideal world, make this equal importance tangible; if are the type that is crazy about tracking weekly mileage and pace, start tracking the calories you burn during a workout and your replacement of them in the glycogen window (more to come on these details in future posts). Keep a sleep diary for a week. Etc, etc.
While at first glance this may seem like a radical approach, once you learn more about the 4-pillars and how they fit together, it turns out that traditional one-dimensional program that only focus on sport-specific training is probably the most radical thing out there. A more holistic and comprehensive approach requires an enormous shift in orientation, and this isn’t just a challenge for age-groupers, but for many pros too.
If this makes at least some sense to you, please stay abreast of the blog over the next month. I will be profiling each individual pillar, and then writing a post showing how they all fit together. If you don’t have the patience and want to learn more now, visit purplepatch fitness and start exploring the wonderful resources Matt Dixon has put together. This week’s articles of the week are also themed around the purplepatch approach and 4 pillars.
As a disclaimer, I am starting to get more and more involved with purplepatch, simply because I really believe in what they are trying to do, and have seen it work in my own training (and no, I am not coached by Matt Dixon, but am lucky to be coached by someone who generally echoes his philosophy, and I’ve seen it work in huge ways). This also means that I will be continuously learning more about the 4 pillars, and to the extent that I can, sharing it with you! To that end, I just joined Twitter, and will use it solely as a vehicle to pass on this type of information, but in much shorter (pretty sure the limit is 140 words) and succinct blurbs (I may join Twitter, but I’ll never say tweet). If you are interested in daily tips and even an inside look at what some of the top pros are up to, follow me at: http://twitter.com/#!/Bstulberg
Until next time, Train Hard, Live Harder!!
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