(The following are extracts from a book I wrote)

Duration

The duration of the training session may be looked at in two ways. First being the total duration of the training session from the time the first warm-up exercise is performed through to the completion of the last cool-down exercise. The second is the duration of the sub-components of the training session. These may be categorized in two ways, general and specific.

Sub-Components of General Categorization:

1. Warm-up
2. Work period
3. Cool down

Sub-Components of Specific Categorization:

1. Self Myofascial Release
2. Integrated Flexibility Training
3. Self Mobilization Techniques
4. Isolated Neuromuscular Activation
5. Facilitated Neuromuscular Activation
6. Core Stabilization Training
7. Neuromuscular Stabilization Training
8. Reactive Neuromuscular Training
9. Integrated Strength Training
10. Integrated Flexibility Training

There a number of factors influence or are influenced by the duration of the training session and all of these should be taken into consideration when developing any programme.

1. Available Time
2. Metabolic and Neural stores
3. Mental Intensity
4. Hormonal Response
5. Multi-Day Training
6. Training Adaptations
7. Optimal Duration
8. Periodization of Duration
9. Recovery Ability

Available Time

The available time that the client has should be the first consideration when determining the duration of the training session however this is often overlooked.

There is no point in developing a programme that takes 75 minutes to complete when the client has only 45 minutes allocated as this would greatly reduce any chance of compliance on behalf of the client.

The available time that the client has to perform their training session should be qualified during the assessment while conducting the initial interview.

It is important to remember that just because a client has 2 hours to train each day does not necessarily mean that the training session should last 2 hours, in saying that there tends to be a common trend to the belief that the training session should be fully completed in 1 hour, this coming about mostly because of personal training sessions are charged by the hour.

Metabolic and Neural Stores

There is only x amount of resting stores of ATP-CP and neuro-transmitters. Going beyond the diminishment of these stores may result in a further shift from neural adaptations to metabolic adaptations which may result in a totally different training .

This is where some supplements may be of benefit in particular creatine monohydrate, which has shown to increase creatine phosphate stores.

Mental Intensity

Longer training durations will result in a decrease in mental intensity thus resulting in decreased performance. The psychological effect from this may last beyond the actual training session, affecting the recovery of the individual.

An increase in psychological stress levels can trigger the release of cortisol and other stress-related hormones. This causes a variety of physiological problems that can inhibit muscle tissue growth and repair, increase muscle tension, depress the inflammatory response, and depress the immune response, while also affect timing and neuromuscular coordination (Bloomfield 1996; Nordfors and Harvig 1997).

Hormonal Response

It has been shown that strength training increases anabolic hormones (growth hormone and testosterone). Increases in these hormones differ from male to female with females having only slight increases in testosterone, where both men and woman have a significant increase in growth hormone from the same resistance training session (Kraemer, 1991).

The above studies where conducted with an exercise programme consisting of three sets of eight exercises at a 10 RM with 1 minute rest between sets and exercises, giving a total training time of approximately 48 minutes (not allowing for warm-up period).

This increase in anabolic hormones may only be true up to a point. It has been theorized that there may be a decline in anabolic response as a result of an increase in catabolic hormones (cortisol, cortisone, etc.), that act inversely to the anabolic hormones. The time frame where these anabolic hormones may decline and the catabolic rise are theorized to be between 40-50 minutes.

Multi-Day Training

One way of possibly decreasing the potential catabolic response due to the duration of the training session without decreasing total daily training volume is through multi-day training. This refers to training more than once in a day, remembering it is far better to perform two 25-35 minute sessions (that’s work sets) than to attempt to perform one long 50-70 minute session.

A simular system has allegedly been used by the Soviet, Romanian, and Hungarian national weightlifting teams where they would perform several shorter in duration training sessions 20-40 minutes. One reason for this is to take advantage of the increased anabolic hormonal response. (Remember, they’re Olympic lifters, they may only perform one lift in each training session. They are also paid to train, eat, & sleep, not to mention what “supplements” may be added to the mix!)

A modem trend in strength coaching is towards decreased training time, which has been referred to as the “Bulgarianisation’ of weightlifting. This methodology of training has been endorsed by Soviet, Romanian, and Hungarian national weightlifting teams. It is often perceived as the “modern’ way of training developed by Bulgarian national weightlifting coach Ivan Abadjiev; however, it was already advocated as a superior form of training in the early l9SOs by the American lifter Charles Ross.

However you should consider that the use of multiple daily training workloads may be realistic only for full-time athletes whose recovery ability exceeds that of the average person who must also work. Of course, we must take into account that consumption of erogenic aids, namely androgenic-anabolic steroids and growth hormone is fairly common among some of these athletes and may shorten the time for adaptive processes to take place.

Training Adaptations

Short training sessions of 20-35 minutes may be more effective for neural training where longer sessions of 35-50 minutes may be more suited to metabolic adaptations (King, 2000).

These times seem very relatively short compared to what has generally been taught. However the rational for this is due to a number . Firstly, the rate of neural fatigue in relationship to training time.

Optimal Duration

The optimal duration of a training session should be somewhere between 20-50 minutes, depending the desired training effect; remembering that this does not include the other components of the workout such as the flexibility training and warm-up sets.

If more of a neural training effect is desired then aim for the lower end of the scale. When more of a metabolic effect is desired then aim for the upper ranges of the scale.

Periodization of Duration

As with all the training variables the duration can be manipulated to induce various responses. Generally longer workouts maybe more associated with a metabolic effect, whereas shorter workouts are more associated with neural adaptations.

However due to increased rest periods between sets with lower reps, higher load the duration of the training may not always be lowered despite the lower volume.

Recovery Ability

Individual recovery ability plays a role in determining the duration of the training session. If an individual is aiming for a metabolic effect but has poor recovery then duration should be kept towards the lower end of the scale (20-40 minutes).

To quote Charles Poliquin, “If your workout takes longer than one hour you are making friends, not training.”

It is important to allow enough time at the end of the workout for the warm-down as this can affect the recovery process or slow any corrective processes in place.

Tempo

Tempo refers to the specific speed of movement at which the body or segments are moved during any given exercise and is the factor in which the duration of the stimulus is controlled.

Tempo for the most part has traditionally been overlooked when considering exercise variables and when it has been mentioned it has only been as a part of a philosophy that promotes a specific tempo as supposedly the best for use on all exercises, for every person, regardless of their individual specific goal.

Even subtle changes in exercise speed can have a profound result for athletes who are looking for above-average gains and performance (Poliquin, 1997).

Tempo can be measured in a number of ways, the most commonly and applicable method to convey to strength training being the number of seconds per contraction.

Arthur Jones, developer of the Nautilus line of equipment was probably one of the first to introduce a two numbered system to tempo, the first representing the eccentric phase and the second the concentric. Latter this formula was refined by Ian King, a leading Australian strength coach who added a third number in the mix to represent the isometric phase. This 3-digit formula was also adopted be by Charles Poliquin, who promoted it in many of his writings. I adapted this formula, making a few modifications along the way, utilizing a slightly different system of a 4-digit tempo formula, which seems to have been also adapted by others (Aaberg, 2002).

Each figure represents the time in seconds to complete that particular phase of movement. These phases of tempo are listed below.

1. Eccentric Phase
2. Eccentric Pause Phase
3. Concentric Phase
4. Concentric Pause Phase

These are detailed as:

1. Eccentric Phase

As illustrated in figure 4.2.27 the first figure represents the eccentric phase (or muscle lengthening phase) of the movement (also referred to as negatives). Eccentric strength may be up to 110-140% greater than concentric strength, it has even been suggested that in highly trained individuals this figure could be even as high as 170%. The use of higher eccentric loading where tempos of greater the 4-5 seconds with high loads should be limited to a client with at least a minimum of 12 months of training - there are however exceptions in rehabilitative situations where the eccentric phase may be exploited however the loads are kept very low.

2. Eccentric Pause Phase

Illustrated in figure 4.2.28 the second figure represents the eccentric pause (or lengthened isometric phase) of the movement. This pause between the end of the eccentric and the start of the concentric phase affects the impact of the elastic energy generated during what is called the “stretch-shortening cycle” (SSC). Generally speaking, the shorter the pause the greater use of the elastic energy to augment or contribute to the concentric phase. This can reduce the muscular work required during the initial part of the concentric phase.

If this SSC is done in less than 0.15 seconds then this may activate more fibres in an emergency (myotatic stretch-reflex) response. An example of this would be with plyometrics style of training training.

3. Concentric Phase

As illustrated in figure 4.2.29 the third figure represents the concentric phase (or muscle shortening phase) of the movement.

4. Concentric Pause Phase

As illustrated in figure 4.2.30 the Forth figure represents the concentric pause (or shortened isometric phase) of the movement. This is more often utilized during rehabilitative situations to ensure control of the movement and the correct positioning of the body before commencing the next repetition.

To get the appropriate training stimulus, you must prescribe the appropriate tempo for all aspects of the exercise.

It has been shown that strength increases more rapidly if training includes various tempos of execution than if exercises are performed at one speed (Chek, 1995).

Tempo (along with other factors) should be used to determine training effect. If the training requires more metabolic type training then a slower tempo (e.g. 4-1-3-1) may be used. When training requires more neural response then a faster tempo (e.g. 2-0-X-1) may be required.

As seen above the velocity at which an exercise is performed significantly affects the tension generated by the muscle. The force-velocity relationship is different during concentric and eccentric muscle contractions.

As the velocity of muscle shortening increases with the concentric muscle contraction, the force that the muscle can generate decreases. Electromyogram (EMG) activity and torque decrease as a muscle shortens at faster contractile velocities, because the muscle may not have sufficient time to develop peak tension.

Although findings are less consistent for eccentric than concentric muscle activity, during an eccentric muscle contraction as the velocity of active muscle lengthening increases, initially force production in the muscle also increases but then quickly levels off. The initial increase in force production may be a protective response of the muscle when it is first overloaded. It is thought that this may be important for shock absorption or rapid deceleration of a limb during quick changes of direction. The rise in tension may also be caused by a stretch of the noncontractile tissue within muscle. Other research indicates that eccentric force production is essentially unaffected by velocity and remains constant at slow and fast velocities.

When prescribing tempo consideration must be taken for time under tension (TUT). If for example a 4-1-2-1 x 10 reps is used for a particular set then the TUT would = 80 seconds, this may not be appropriate if the training requires a more neural training effect as the TUT is just too great. This is a mistake commonly made mainly because of a lack of understanding of these principles of training.

In early stages of programme development progress in training should be done from slower to faster movements.

Generally an individual (especially a novice) should not be taken straight form a programme the primarily consist of very slow tempo (e.g. 4-2-4-1) to a primarily explosive programme (e.g. 1-x-x-1). A more progressive method should be used using a more progressive developmental model.