DOES YOUR STRENGTH TRAINING INCLUDE GPP AND SPP?
When it comes to endurance sports like running, cycling or swimming, you can generally train and race (to some capacity) all year round, and as a result there’s not much of an off season. It’s hard to stay away from the sport you love!
However, during the year there are a few different phases of training which you should look to incorporate into your strength training program in between events and races. Your training schedule should ebb and flow nicely throughout the year, looking to build towards your A, B, and C races, with blocks of GPP and SPP, as well as one to two weeks of race taper.
GENERAL PHYSICAL PREPARATION (GPP)
If you’ve got a nice chunk of time between races and events, you’ve got some time to get back to the basics and work!
Your first step should be looking to include a block of General Physical Preparation (GPP).
Your block of GPP should look to develop your basic strength, muscular endurance and hopefully start to build some muscle. The time you have for this GPP block is going to depend on when your next race is, but ideally you are looking for at least four good weeks of this general physical preparation where you are just going through the motions and understanding the techniques needed to perform squats, deadlifts, push, pulls, etc.
Once you’ve applied this kind of strength work, you should be feeling confident, with minimal muscle soreness where your body has adapted to the stimulus.
SPECIFIC PHYSICAL PREPARATION (SPP)
Your next step is to explore your body in greater detail, and incorporate some more specific work with SPP or Specific Physical Preparation.
This will be working on your key areas of weakness, bringing a bit more complexity and power into the mix, potentially with more sport-specific exercises.
You should now start to see four to six week blocks of GPP, followed by another four to six weeks of SPP on your calendar.
WHAT NEXT?
With both of these kinds of builds, you want to make sure you are tapering in and out of them; having a de-load week that comes within the first week of each new block.
Within this week, you should be simply getting to know the new movements. These should be done with minimal load, with minimal repetitions and sets. Then you can build the following weeks on top of that.
With tapering, you are going to be backing down the intensity, but still going through the motions, making sure you stay sharp! This will be followed by getting yourself ready for your next event, and then tapering back out of it, in order to start the process of GPP and SPP again.
With this in mind, that’s how you should be seeing your weeks ebbing and flowing nicely throughout the year.
If you need help balancing your training year, we can help; get in touch today to find out how.