What do you think about this training for Stamina?

**skel1983** · 12-31-2009 07:15 PM

Adam especially I would like to know what you think:

I was reading a training routine alot of Tennis players do in the off season for stamina, they do 10 laps of a 400 metre track in 76 seconds with 60 second break in between every lap, so overall they are covering 4000 metres ( around 2.6 miles ) in just over 23 minutes including the break and the 76 second laps, would this be very good for stamina?

**Andre** · 12-31-2009 10:04 PM

Thinking of ugly women or car repairs is good for stamina.

( I hear).

**Andre** · 12-31-2009 10:10 PM

Reminds me of the Irish guy,Paddy Morgan who goes to the doctors cause his sex life is failing him.

The doctor says your just unfit PAddy, you need to run 15 miles a day for two weeks and then give me a call.

He calls in two weeks and the doctor asks "So hows the sex life"?
Paddy says"how Fook would I know? Im 200 miles from home."

**Scrap** · 01-01-2010 02:50 PM

Yes it will improve Fitness Skel. But it depends what there Base fitness is when starting. Ive worked with a few Tennis Players at a good standard, none would accomplish that routine. If they tried they would injure themselves, its the rest period thats important. Its the idea to bring it down, how you come to this is by trial, not error. A good way would be if on a track to do 400 metres, then walk slowly recovery, across the track to the opposite end and corner as recovery. Then you can time the recovery that after 4 laps should give you the measuring stick as regards rest, then biuld on it. Trying to increase time or subtract as you see fit. Dont blow any Gasketts or confidence.

**AdamGB** · 01-07-2010 10:03 AM

Originally Posted by skel1983

Adam especially I would like to know what you think:

I was reading a training routine a lot of Tennis players do in the off season for stamina, they do 10 laps of a 400 metre track in 76 seconds with 60 second break in between every lap, so overall they are covering 4000 metres ( around 2.6 miles ) in just over 23 minutes including the break and the 76 second laps, would this be very good for stamina?

I think I read about Andy Murray doing that?

It would be good, the idea is that they're frequently working at their Anaerobic threshold. The only thing is, like Scrap has said it's relevant to your fitness level, if you're not up to doing that then you'll get the same benefits from doing similar intervals but within your own level.

What I find works for the average person is picking a route that you can do pretty comfortably, ideally with some good hills/stairs etc.

Aim to run the route at a steady pace and then complete 4-5 sets of sprints, the amount of sprints you do per set will depend on the length and intensity of what you're sprinting (ie the longer/steeper it is the less you would do) but aim to do 3-5 per set, jogging back to the starting point in between. As a rule of thumb it shouldn't take longer (you're aiming for about ten!) than 15-20 seconds to complete the sprint, other wise it's too long.

Make sure you break it up too, jog for 10 minutes to get warmed up, complete your first set of sprints and then jog it off to the next place you are going to be sprinting, you should have recovered enough to be able to work at max effort again.

You have to feel like you can do it again, you should have recovered enough to work at high intensity again, listen to your body. It all comes down to the ratio of rest to work, which is going to vary from person to person.

As you can see that's pretty lax but I guarantee that running like that (and mixing it up so you don't get used to one thing) will improve both your endurance and your explosiveness pretty sharply.

the reason I say that it is lax is because you're not working to a strict time or distance, but as long as you're working at a high intensity it will always be relevant to your fitness level and beneficial.

You can only really get away with running set distances/times etc during intervals (distance training is a whole other bag) if you know were your thresholds are and how to work them etc... all the Tennis players have coaches/sports scientists figuring this stuff out for them.

**Cerberus** · 01-07-2010 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by AdamGB

As a rule of thumb it shouldn't take longer than 15-20 seconds to complete the sprint, other wise it's too long.

Hey AdamGB, why is 15 - 20 seconds ideal? And why is longer not?

Thanks!
D

**AdamGB** · 01-07-2010 08:09 PM

The idea is to hit different energy systems.

In this case the ATP-CTP and Anaerobic energy systems. They cannot resynthesize ADP into ATP (to release energy in the working muscles) for longer than about 15 seconds, so if the incline/distance is taking you longer than that to cover then you're at a high enough intensity to be breaking the thresholds for those energy systems to become stressed.

Simply put, you can only work at max intensity/effort for about 15 seconds...

**Cerberus** · 01-13-2010 05:03 AM

Originally Posted by AdamGB

The idea is to hit different energy systems.

In this case the ATP-CTP and Anaerobic energy systems. They cannot resynthesize ADP into ATP (to release energy in the working muscles) for longer than about 15 seconds, so if the incline/distance is taking you longer than that to cover then you're at a high enough intensity to be breaking the thresholds for those energy systems to become stressed.

Simply put, you can only work at max intensity/effort for about 15 seconds...

Gotcha!