GB athlete jenny Douglas @ T.O.D Coaching

Strength and conditioning for triathlon 1

Exercise selection

When it comes to strength and conditioning for triathlon it is simple to fall into the old body building programmes which is how most sports fell into developing their own programmes and protocols

The demands of the sport are vast and too time consuming to go into each particular bio mechanical demand, stress and requirement of each muscle group, however once you understand the basic requirements of the muscles, exercise prescription and selection should be easy for you.

Firstly we will start from the ground up and look at exercises to increase overall strength in each of the disciplines.
In this article we will look at two types of squat although all squats have unique coaching points to each of them, the basic fundamentals in general are the same

> each squat movement should be initiated with the hips sitting backwards (imagine sitting in a chair) your knees will bend automatically, your back should be kept tight with the abdominals in a braced position, the back must not be allowed to round off at any point, if your lower back rounds a few factors need to be looked at the first and main two are technique and the weight lifted.

> knees must be stable (the knee is a stabilising joint (so allow it to do its job) the knees should not be falling inwards they should follow the line of your toes.

> the descent must be controlled with a slight pause or hold on completion of the downward movement, this allows for a more powerful drive after the initial inertia has stopped. Never bounce out of the squat!

> Your weight must be evenly distributed throughout the exercise your feet should be about shoulder width apart

Exercise 1 Front Squat

The front squat is probably the second least used squat after the overhead owing to a greater degree of difficulty compared with the back squat, the front squat also allows for a bit of variety in your session.

As stated this squat is technical and the biggest obstacle for many people is holding the bar in the correct position.
The bar can be held in the crossed arm position (fig 1) or the clean position (fig 2)

Cross arm position



Flex the elbows and cross your forearms in front of your chest Position the bar evenly on top of the anterior deltoid without use of your hands Place your hands on top of the bar using the fingers (hand open palm down) to keep it in position.
Move the arms upwards so they are parallel to the floor.

Clean position




many struggle with this position owing to a combination of lat and wrist tightness.

Grab the bar with an even closed pronated grip ensuring the hands are just over shoulder width apart Rotate the bar so it rests on the anterior deltoids or clavicles, the hands should be just out with the shoulders with the back of the hands resting on the deltoid or clavicle.

We advocate position 2 as this will be of greater assistance later in the programmes when completing the Clean and Press

Exercise 2


Back Squat
The most commonly used squat and one that probably promotes more incorrect technique than correct technique, mainly owing to the use of a Sissy pad.

Sissy pads promote in correct technique by allowing users to rest the bar using the pad on their shoulders thus promoting incorrect technique by not allowing the user to retract the shoulders making the chest bigger and allowing the back to naturally produce a bed of muscle for the bar to sit on comfortably. if the pad is used it can promote bad posture issues and a loose upper back.

The back squat has two placement positions which is personal to the user dependant on any factors however both are correct and both can be used. All users should regularly attempt to to use both positions in their programme.

Low back position



Grasp the bar and place it across the shoulders in the middle of the trapezius and across the posterior deltoids ensuring the bar is in an even position ensure the grip is closed and pronated and outside shoulder width apart

High Back position





Grasp the bar and place it above the posterior deltoids just below the neck closed pronated grip with hands outside shoulder width apart.

NB for both of the positions the elbows should be raised to promote a shelf with the upper back and shoulders this prevents the bar from slipping.

Strength and conditioning for swimmers 1

Prehabilitation exercise for the shoulders

Prehab is sometimes scoffed at by athletes of various sports, however it is becoming a major and integral part of many an athletes strength programme.

Physiotherapists and sports masseurs have been using pre habilitation to ensure that athletes stay at the top of their game and obviously to minimise the risk of injury and then having to enforce rehabilitation as part of the plan.

One of the best shoulder rehab exercises for swimmers or even upper body athletes is shapes, quite simply the shoulder's make the relevant alphabetical shape during a four movement functional movement pattern. This session can be used as a warm up, part of a conditioning set or on a stretching routine where functional movement patterns form part of the stretching. The following movement pattern may help to improve fine motor skills used during swimming.

Start position - lying face down on a bench or step, ensure your chest down to the top of your knee is supported by he bench, hands hanging down to the front of the bench shoulders relaxed (fig 1)








Execute the following movement pattern ensuring that

Start at the start position for each phase All movement is controlled Perfect technique is conducted throughout the routine for each movement pattern If fatigue sets in do fewer reps

Y (fig 2)





T (fig 3)




M (fig 4)





L (fig 5)



Coaching points

Don't cheat by throwing the arms out
Or moving the chest off the bench
Shrugging the shoulders up towards the ears


Exercise prescription
Start with body weight and progress to light dumb bells no more than 2kg
For best results ensure you start the movement patterns at a different point each time you conduct the sequence, this ensure stat the muscles fatigues at different points.
Vary the sequence as well as in
First time execute one of each movement until required reps sets complete
Next time do only the t's first then the y's and so on.
Also repeat the pattern in reverse.

Variation
Try the movement patterns whilst seated on the edge of a bench ensure the spine is upright and stable.

Watch out for more conditioning drills from T.O.D Coaching.

Aberfeldy cycle update

What goes up, must come down!

My main target for this year is the Aberfeldy Middle Distance Triathlon which consists of 1900m swim in Loch Tay, 56 miles cycle ride and a half marathon (13.1miles) to round it off. All my training this year is aimed at getting me round this course so when I realised the cycle route involved a climb over the saddle of Schiehallion and back again I thought it would be good to check out the bike ride ahead of time.


Last weekend I headed up to Kenmore, along with my very understanding and supportive husband, Jerry. Since it had been my birthday the week before we went up for the full weekend to stay at Kenmore Hotel as a treat, and had a very enjoyable Friday evening. On Saturday we took a look at where the swim goes from but any thoughts of a trial swim were very quickly dispelled by both the water temperature and the howling wind whipping across Loch Tay. I would certainly not go into water like that without a very strong swimmer by my side, at the very least.


We then decided to drive the route so I would know where I was going on Sunday, when Ian from work was coming up to cycle the route with me. Jerry would be our support crew, meeting us in a couple of places with require refreshments and moral support.
On driving out of Kenmore it was pretty quickly apparent that the hill had not been exaggerated, a 1000ft climb in one long drag which seemed to go on forever in the car. Once at the Schiehallion turning the road then undulates, before dropping down the other side into Kinloch Rannoch. The route goes around the north side of the loch back along the south side and then back over the hill to Aberfeldy.

On the return drive it was clear that although the climb is not as high as the first one it is steeper. We saw plenty of cyclists all along the route, as it was the Etape the next weekend we may have seen some people giving it a last minute trial.
I finished the drive a bit worried for the next day, but I had always planned to do it to give myself an idea of the route, compare the hills to ones I was training on and get a feel for how far off ready I was and not worry about how fast I did it. My goal for the race is to cycle it in less than 4 hours, and for the recce I was expecting to complete the route in 5-6 hours.


Sunday dawned reasonably bright with a stiff wind, not as bad as the previous day but still pretty windy. Also the forecast was for rain from midday. Ian arrived just after nine and we headed out straight away. There is a three mile flat road before the hill starts so the legs get some warm up and then the climb starts. I knew it would be quite tough so decided to just pace myself and make sure I could do it in one go. Ian very kindly stayed with me to keep me going and by just thinking about keeping the rhythm and drawing on my training I made it to the top and turned onto the saddle still feeling pretty strong.

The saddle was good after the hill but the wind was swirling about and after the fast drop off the top we were into a head wind all the way into Kinloch Rannoch. We had planned to meet Jerry at a parking spot at the head of Loch Rannoch, I thought it would take us at least 90 mins to get there. In the end we did the 16 miles in 1 hr 13mins so were too early!

We waited ten minutes but the spot was a cold one so after a protein flapjack we headed out. We had to stop after ten minutes when Jerry called to make sure we were OK, and on getting going again I was struggling to get my second cleat to connect. While still trying to do this I lost attention on the road, ran off the side into a huge rut and next thing I knew I was in the middle of the road. I hate falling off, I always feel so stupid. Since nothing seemed badly damaged, my right elbow and hip were just sore I got back on and kept going.

The headwind all along Loch Rannoch was very tough and seemed to go on forever. I was desperate for the turning at the bottom of the loch. It came at last and then we turned and had the wind at our backs, but the south side is more sheltered so there did not seem to be as much benefit as we had difficulty. The route around the loch is mainly undulating with a couple of tricky hills but generally OK. We met Jerry at a car park and stopped for lunch.

It was a relief to get out of the wind and sit in the car for a few minutes. When a few spots of rain started we decided it was time to get going on the last leg. I was very aware that we had a steep hill ahead of us and tried not to worry about it too much. The first few miles were along the loch side and were undulating again, then there was a flat few miles with a nice tailwind before the climb began. It is not as high as the one on the way out at 600 feet but it is very steep and I had to really pace myself to keep going.

The hill does have a respite about half way up where there is a flattish bit then it starts again, with a pretty nasty hairpin and just an unrelenting climb. Again, I managed it without having to stop and the top was definitely a relief. At this point though the rain came in with a vengeance and that swirly wind became a real headwind. The whole ride along the saddle was much harder than the way out, and seemed to go on for ages. I was very relieved to see the T junction at the top of the hill and, even better, the rain stopped at the same time.


The ride down the hill was fabulous, but seemed to be very long. I was very impressed with myself that I had been able to cycle up it in one go! Also, a van behind us decided not to bother passing us as we were making such a good pace. I only slowed for a couple of the tightest bends. The last three miles was a flat ride back to Kenmore (we decided this was better than going to Aberfeldy and needing to come back along the main road and only takes off 2 miles) but the headwind again made this harder than I wanted. It was great to see the Kenmore Hotel come into view!


Overall we took us 4hrs 30mins, actual riding time was 3hrs 41mins and I felt pretty good at the end. The route is tough but I did it in much faster time than I had thought I would, both overall time and actual riding time so I now have loads of confidence that my training is going well and I will be able to do the ride on the day. The idea of checking out the route was a great one, so I am really happy we did it. Roll on August and huge thanks to Ian for keeping with me!!