IMPROVE - Power, Speed, Balance, and Agility
Advanced and Endurance Strength Programs
If you have progressed through the beginner-to-intermediate program, then you have experienced increases in muscle strength, size, and endurance.After preparing your body through those foundational programs, you should be ready to perform even more challenging routines as you seek to improve each fitness variable (power, speed, balance, and agility).
In the programs outlined in this chapter, you will be working harder than you were in the beginner-to-intermediate program, not because you are performing new exercises, but because of changes in the way you train.The training changes in this chapter include super sets (i.e., performing an exercise and then, without stopping or resting, performing another that uses the same muscle or opposing muscle group), small circuits that include cardio-based activity,and “quick workouts,” which typically include high-intensity cardio intervals. You will continue to use circuits, but slightly different from the way you used them in the beginner-to-intermediate program.
Circuits in these programs are made up of sets of four exercises performed for one minute each, with a minute of rest between sets.This chapter also outlines a program for women who focus primarily on endurance training. This chapter maybe particularly useful for women who perform cardiorespiratory training exclusively, with no part of their fitness program incorporating strength training.
Women with this focus often miss the powerful benefits that resistance training and increased core strength can contribute to their weight loss efforts, running economy, speed (if competitive: 5K, 10K , half marathon, marathon,or triathlon), endurance, and stamina, as well as injury prevention. Research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports (Hoff, Gran,and Helgerud 2002) demonstrated that endurance athletes who increased their strength improved their aerobic endurance significantly.The strength programs in this chapter follow the same periodization , featuring the 6-month macrocycle that is broken down into two, 3-month mesocycles, each one consisting of six, 2-week microcycles, with one week of rest between mesocycles for recovery.