Theme is defined as a unifying or dominating idea; a motif.
While many remember this term from English/literature class in grade school, it actually plays an important role in the overall training process.
There are two themes to consider when designing a program:
- The theme of the training cycle
- The theme of the training day
Training Cycle Theme
The theme of the training cycle is basically telling us what we are attempting to achieve in a given period of time – 4-weeks, 8-weeks, 12-weeks, etc – however long your mesocycle is. Several mesocycles typically make up a full program, with an emphasis on being fully prepared and ready to compete at the end of the program.
Typically, this would take on names like:
– Work capacity or anatomical adaptation
– Endurance
– Strength or max strength
– Power
– Peaking
– Offseason
– Restoration
Obviously the type of quality you want to express in a mesocycle will be dependant on your goals and what you need to achieve.
As I have talked about before, you wouldn’t want to focus one quality (IE strength) at the expense of not even trying to maintain another (IE power or work capacity). This is where understanding the theme of the training cycle becomes important. Planning your training out, you want to consider what the dominant quality is going to be in each phase of training and then how much volume of the other qualities you are going to perform in an attempt to maintain those qualities and not let them just go down the drain. Obviously, the dominant quality will be trained with great volume than the secondary qualities, but they should still be in there somewhere. A way to ensure that things are staying on track is to establish a theme for the day.
Theme for the day
Much like a theme for the training cycle, a theme for the day tells us what the goal/objective is for that day. The same typeof themes listed above could be applied to each training day to help us decide what we want to accomplish. When combining this with the theme of the training cycle, we can then get an idea of how to plan the mesocycle, as a greater amount of training days will be devoted to the primary quality, while a lesser amount of training days/volume will be devoted to the secondary quality.
An Example
Training with a strength emphasis:
Monday – Lower body strength work
Tuesday – Tempo Runs/med ball circuits
Wednesday – Upper body strength work/moderate conditioning
Thursday – plyos and speed/acceleration training
Friday – restorative training
Saturday – Sprinting workout/Full body workout (low volume power training/strength work)
Sunday – Off
In this example, strength training is performed three days a week – Day 1 is a lower body emphasis, Day 2 an upper body emphasis and on Day 6 we do a full body lifting session. The secondary qualities are power and work capacity. Power is trained using med ball throws, a low volume of plyos and sprinting and some low volume power work before lifting on Saturday (this could be med balls, plyos, olympic lift variations, etc), while the work capacity is trained on Tuesday with tempo runs, Wednesday with some moderate conditioning, and Friday. Friday is restorative training, which can be anything from active rest to easy body weight circuits that emphasize any limitations the athlete may have and are done with an emphasis below 70% effort so as not to be to taxing on the nervous system and conflict with the Saturday’s training or delay recovery from Thursdays power training.
This example is just one week. Typically, I would write out the theme for the day for all of the weeks in the given cycle and then plan from there. I’ll use the following abbreviations of terms in the example below:
S = Strength
P = Power (this can be sprinting, olympic lifts, med balls, speed agility quickness, plyos, etc)
W = Work capacity
R = Restorative
If two qualities are written on the same day, in means that the first quality is the main focus and the second quality is at a low volume and can be dropped if need be depending on how the athlete is performing that day.
Note: If power training is a secondary quality on a strength day, that does not mean that it is trained after the strength training. Train your power exercises or sprinting prior to your actual lifting, so that fatigue from lifting does not break down form and decrease overall power. The volume should be low for power training prior to lifting anyway. Another option would be to perform one workout in the morning and another later in the day.
The themes for each day in week 1 posted above are:
Week 1
Mon – S
Tues – W
Wed – S/W
Thurs – P
Fri – R/Light work capacity
Sat – S/P
Sun – Off
I would then carry out this type of concept for the next 3-weeks (assuming this is a 4-week cycle of training) and have a strength workout at least ever 2-3 days, with the secondary qualities fitting in between:
Week 2
Mon – S/W
Tues – P
Wed – R/Light Work capacity
Thurs – S
Fri – S
Sat – P
Sun – Off
Week 3
Mon – S
Tues – W
Wed – S/P
Thurs – R
Fri – S
Sat – P
Sun – Off
Week 4 – Unloading Week (lower volume on everything and back off intensity)
Mon – S
Tues – W
Wed – S
Thurs – P
Fri – R
Sat – S
Sun – Off
That is just the general theme of everything. From there you would have to plan out the workouts and the intensity and volume and decide on where to take the program – this would be different for each individual, as some individuals have better recovery and work capacity than others. Cookie cutter programs yield undesirable results.
In addition, you need to remember that a template is just a guide. It is not etched in stone. If an athlete walks in and is not ready to train or under-recovered from previous training, then you would need to make sure you have a lighter workout to fall back on or just allow the individual to take a rest day and come back the next day ready to work. You should also evaluate your training program to make sure that the athlete is able to tolerate the volume/intensity of training you have prescribed for them.
As you can see, the above template rotates around the three strength workouts of the week, to ensure that other qualities are trained in the desired training period. One could have a set template that is followed each week and change the variables as needed for the individual. There are many ways you can put together the program and this is just one possible example for one phase of training.
No matter how you slice it, establish a theme for the training cycle and a theme for each day. The theme should reflect your needs and your goals. Work towards your goals, attain your goals, and destroy the competition.