How Rest Improves Your Performance – Part 2 of 3

Exercise is a great habit to have within your daily life; however, when it becomes an obsession within your life it can actually become counter-productive to your overall health.  Excessive training (in the form of volume and/or intensity) without adequate rest causes the body to become “numb” to external indicators of over training. Some over-training indicators include…

• Mood swings
• Craving of simple sugar
• Interrupted sleep
• Loss of sexual drive
• Loss of body weight
• Suppressed appetite
• Elevated resting heart rate

At this point in your training, your satisfaction associated with consistent activity becomes less rewarding and ultimately affects other elements in your life (relationships, work, etc.) along with having a negative effect on your performance (which ironically makes you think you need to do more or work harder!).

Dr. Ronald Sandler’s research indicates that after twelve weeks of consistent training, cytochrome C reaches a peak and then begins to decline.  [Note: Cytochrome C is a mitochondrial enzyme involved in the production of energy at a cellular level].  In addition to your Cytochrome C levels, so does your maximum oxygen uptake (also known as your VO2 Max.).  At this point, the body must be allowed to rest and re-group for continued progress.
Training creates adaptations within the body’s various systems (muscular, cardio-pulmonary, lymphatic, nervous and connective) and needs to be supported with rest and food for positive adaptations.  Inadequate amounts (and quality) of sleep and food set the body up for a physical break down which leads to negative effects on the body (i.e. suppressed immune system and muscles with less power and endurance).

In addition to adaptations within the body’s systems, training causes changes at a cellular level.  Dr. Sandler notes that cell mitochondria swell, metabolic wastes accumulate, essential nutrients (particularly electrolytes and stored glycogen) deplete, and muscle tissue is torn.  This tearing is known as microtrauma of the cells, and torn muscle tissue doesn’t work efficiently.  As popularly noted, it takes 48 hours for the body to recover from this micro-trauma and has to be supported with rest and food for proper recovery and improved overall health.

If your body doesn’t get the opportunity to rebuild from the “work phase” of training, overall health and associated performance begin to slow down (and in extreme circumstances, cease all together).

The concept of hard training days followed with easy-active recovery days incorporated into your weekly training schedule establishes the balance necessary for maximum improvements in your overall health and ultimately your performance.  Consistent training without physical or mental set backs provides the foundation for your body absorb your training volumes.  The larger the foundation (i.e. quality of overall health) the quicker you will recover from workouts and the quicker your body will progress to new levels of performance.

Think about it this way, if you are not fresh, you will not have the energy (or desire) to push to the next level of performance.  If you body doesn’t experience the next level you will begin to stagnate within your performance cycles.

In part 3, we will discuss how to create a Blueprint for Performance.

How Rest Improves Your Performance – Part 1 of 3

When it comes to human performance, you the racer need to follow a program that adjusts your training
volume and intensity to avoid:

• Physical injury
• Developing a weak immune system
• Mental burn out

By consistently adjusting your workouts, your body is on a schedule to “Peak” at exactly the right
time – also known as your race date or personal goal date (as established on your goal profile).

Let’s review some clinical data about rest:

1. VO2 max, maximal heart rate, maximal speed and workload are maintained for 10 to 28 days with training reductions of 70-80%
2. Muscular power is maintained or improved with a 60-90% reduction in training for 6-21 days. (Joseph Houmard, Ph.D., of Human Performance Laboratory at East Carolina University)
3. Aerobic conditioning effects were not lost until 6-8 weeks of regular training ceased. (Ball State University)

Within our MotoE programs, we never go more than two (2) days without some level of activity
(verses complete inactivity); it is our goal to de-train your body through lower load and intensity levels
through active recovery days to allow your body the opportunity to absorb the higher workloads (volume &
intensity wise).

The key to overcoming your fear of taking time off is to understand how much it will help, rather than
hinder, your performance. Your training program should be created around these elements:

1. What are normal cycles of blood chemistry?
2. Why the cycles happen
3. How rest enhances the body’s performance by following blood chemistry cycles
4. By following a pre-determined work/rest cycle (based on your race date), you can hit your peak performances whenever you want.

Within the MotoE program we focus on leveraging the powerful potential of all your accumulated training
by pulling back your intensity and volume numbers at specific times to maximize your performance
potential. As mentioned earlier, rest allows your body to recover, rebuild and become stronger (from the
inside out).

Next time, we will discuss how training too long without rest results in chemical imbalances which exposes
itself to you in the form of hindered performance, illness and injury.

Seat bouncing is a good technique to use when your approach into a jump is short and you need more height and/or distance and/or don’t have enough time to stand up for the jump.  Since you’re sitting on the seat your body weight is going to go straight into the bike and therefore compress the rear suspension more, causing it to rebound harder and give you more lift (airtime) out of the jump. If you were standing your legs could absorb some of the compression and rebound, keeping you lower.

When seat bouncing, clutch and throttle control are very important and usually pulling back on the bars at the right time is also important for these two things are what control whether your front end is high or low.  You see, you have to deliver the power to the rear wheel just right with the clutch and throttle as that rear wheel compresses into the jump and rebounds out of the jump.

The timing with the clutch and throttle and jerking back on the bars is critical in order to keep the front end from dropping. This is an advanced technique and even then can only be used on short approaches where you’re accelerating all the way through the compression part of the jump.  The jump face also has to be smooth with no kickers in it.

My All About Jumps and Whoops DVD shows and explains this technique very well.  You can see free previews and all my Technique DVDs are currently on sale for 50 and 60% off at http://www.garysemics.com.