Cook's Ancillary Exercises and Recovery

I do this one:

Put your left foot in

Take your left foot out

Put your right foot in

And shake it all about.

Turn yourself around. That's what it's all about.

Wow ! Thanks a bunch Carson. This is exactly the type of information I was hoping for.

Forgive me if I sound like a 5 year old here - So, basically one can use the routine to help facilitate recovery by doing it directly after a hard running workout? Am I understanding that correctly? You also say to "intensify things on more hard days." You could you elaborate on that?

Thanks very much.

In the early going of a person's experience, things like push ups, hurdle walkovers or whatever else it is you choose to use are at a much higher level of a relative intensity sense. Over the career/year this kind of thing becomes a more remedial circuit/effort where the athlete more or less "goes through the motions" to facilitate recovery (endocrine/alter nervous system tone/develop some forms of strength). When it is that easy and used with the intent of recovery, I include them on days where "recovery/easy" is the goal. Theoretically, you could include them on hard days (especially early in the experience) with good benefits.

On more intense days, we'll attempt to match the demands of the session with something that fits well from an auxillary standpoint. Those with bigger training ages may experience some form of strength training with an emphasis on developing limit strength, power, power endurance, etc (depends critically on the time of year and the work we do on the track or trail that day). The gender differences exist here, still, but they'll lift reasonably heavy and or with high bar velocities. With most runners, we don't really have to get too fancy, but sometimes with the middle distance crowd, we are able/need to to keep building the capacity of their glass.

I typically operate on a hard/easy approach with those of a moderate to low training age and as we improve, we'll incorporate hard/hard/easy/? type schemes to prepare for rounds/to not yin and yang our athlete to death. These calls depend on a lot of things beyond just training stressors, by the way.

Regards,

Carson Boddicker

www.BoddickerPerformance.com

Citation?

Citation?

Citation?

That's opinion.

More opinion.

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Yes, studies show that strength training tends to help the body go "anabolic". You can look at T to C ratio's for example.

However, the majority of these studies are with heavy or moderate weights.

Do you really think all these body weight exercises will elicit the same response?

Secondly, what about an interference effect? We know that the adaptation pathways for endurance and strength are interelated. THere's been a lot of research on endurance training's inhibition of many of the pathways that strength training uses. But what about a counter effect? There's theoretical inhibition between the two, although it's much less than the other way.

The question is, does doing 30min or so of general strength interfear with the training signal you just were spent a lot of time working on during that tempo run or track session?

Carson - Thanks for taking the time to elaborate on that. I am starting to get the picture.

Understandably - Great questions.

I think its ancillary training that most people get wrong these days. They either seem to error by not doing any or by doing too much.

I recommend keeping it simple, concise and routine with your goals for the work you do clearly defined and logical and realistic in its goals.

It's very easy to get caught up in the hundreds of different drill you can choose from, the hundreds of different plyometrics you can choose from, the hundreds of strength exercises you can choose from. I recommend picking just a few that give us the best reward for the risk and effort.

The longer and more complicated and involved the routine, the less time and energy you will have do the #1 thing that will improve your running performance: running.

But if you fail to do anything you may be more suseptible to injuries, imbalances and other problems.

The trick is finding the right balance between the two.

Unfortunately I find just as many people these days that get hurt because of overly agressive or incorrect ancillary programs than I do people who get hurt from imbalances or neglect.

Like I said at the beginning, I think this is something that the majority seem to be getting wrong.

I agree with you and appreciate your advice. Again, my concern is not so much about the exercises themselves (duration, intensity etc.) but, with how to time them so that they do not interfere with the most important part of my training -

running.

As someone who was coached by Cook, I think ehhhh has a bit of a point, actually.

If you have limited time or are at a lower level, you should focus the vast majority of your time on running with a few drills here and there.

Cook's program is very time consuming. The GS and drill regimens are in addition to a full load of running.

Warm-ups to workouts take 40-50 minutes. 15 minutes jog. A period of static stretching. A period of dynamic stretching. Selected drills. Accelerations and basic strides.

Then the workout - track, hills, whatever. Same as most.

15 minute jog.

Selected hurdle drills. Selected GS workouts. Whirlpool.

Easy days- usually a 7 mile run, and a scaled down version of drills and/or GS.

Doubles were individualized. Mileage was tracked but there usually was not a stated goal mileage. Just do the scheduled workouts and it added up to whatever it added up to.

He always tinkered with his program so I am sure it is not quite the same now.

I believe generally that if you disagree the onus is yours. However, here are a few general citations that I'd suggest you look into and see where your perspective comes to be. In reality, I don't expect you to necessarily reach the same conclusions as I. Judging, however, by your omission of my last sentence from my first post, I'd bet we're closer to agreement than you think.

Don't get me wrong, I'm by no means advocating the running component be shortened, just that a well-designed, well-monitored, complete program will yield better results. We're talking about 10% of a program here.

As to your citation demands, see below.

Regarding your first request, I'd have you check Viru's second chapter for a fairly comprehensive evaluation, and a basic exercise physiology text to confirm here (Madarame, 2010; Powers, 2005; Viru, 1995).

Second:

Check Viru (1995) for hormonal response to exercise than correlate with Bachman (2010) and Coviello (2008) among others regarding hematocrit. Additionally check Bompa (2003) and Verkhoshansky (2008, 2009) regarding the myoglobin remark.

Third; Injuries.

See Rauh, et al (2006 and 2007) among many others (some reference in Verkhoshansky, 2009, but didn't look for that page). You can correlate this with data demonstrating typical mechanical patterns associated with specific injuries and a movement pattern based mitigation. Some stuff on the FMS in NFL players, too (Kiesel, 2009) stands out.

Fourth: Evidence based opinion, yes. If you've read it and don't agree, I'd love to hear your counterpoint for the sake of good discussion.

VO2 Finite (Verkhoshansky, 2008 and 2009 has many references). Fractional Utilization Questionable (Stoa, 2010 among others). VO2 Falls or fails to improve (Galy, 2003, Verkhoshansky, 2009). Attenuates loss of stride length during fatiuge see Esteve-Lanao (2008). Running economy check Yamamoto (2008) for a fairly comprehensive review, Paavolainen (1999 and 2000)--admittedly, only decently qualified athletes--as well as Esteve-Lanao's introduction for a brief synopsis of much of the literature concerning RE and specific modes of exercise amongst plenty of others. Regarding power characteristics, again, evidence based opinion supported by Paavolainen (2000), Nummela (2006), and Yamamoto (2010).

Your last point:

I fail to recognize how that's an opinion any more than it's common sense. If we use intelligent program design (including in our running, which is included in athletic development programming) with sensible progressions we reduce the risk of injury, if we improve tissue tolerance, alter mechanical patterns associated with injury via appropriate mobility/dynamic stability/etc we'll be good there. Some good data in basketballers on this end if I recall.

Further, the biggest issue in running quickly is overcoming gravity. Consult a physics book, and obviously we need the staying power to do so repeatedly and efficiently. Weyand (2010) suggests that the rate at which we are able to produce force is the best way to improve maxV times and earlier (2000, I believe) suggested that it was just a mass specific force idea.

Again, you don't have to agree with my assertions, but I'd love to hear your argument.

Citations:

Bachman E, Feng R, Travison T, Li M, Olbina G, Ostland V, Ulloor J, Zhang A, Basaria S, Ganz T, Westerman M, Bhasin S. "Testosterone Suppresses Hepcidin in Men: A Potential Mechanism for Testosterone-Induced Erythrocytosis." Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (2010). Print.

Bompa, Tudor O., Pasquale Mauro G. Di, and Lorenzo Cornacchia. "Chapter 1." Serious Strength Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2003. 13-14. Print.

Coviello AD, Kaplan B, Lakshman KM, Chen T, Singh AB, Bhasin S. "Effects of Graded Doses of Testosterone on Erythropoiesis in Healthy Young and Older Men." Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 93.3 (2008): 914-9. Print.

Esteve-Lanao J, Rhea MR, Fleck SJ, Lucia A. "Running-specific, Periodized Strength Training Attenuates Loss of Stride Length during Intense Endurance Running." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 22.4 (2008): 1176-83. Print.

Galy O, Manetta J, Coste O, Maimoun L, Chamari K, Hue O. "Maximal Oxygen Uptake and Power of Lower Limbs during a Competitive Season in Triathletes." Scandanavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports 13.3 (2003): 185-93. Print.

Madarame H, Sasaki K, Ishii N. "Endocrine Responses to Upper- and Lower-limb Resistance Exercises with Blood Flow Restriction." Acta Physiologica Hungarica 97.2 (2010): 92-100. Print.

Nummela AT, Paavolainen LM, Sharwood KA, Lambert MI, Noakes TD, Rusko HK. "Neuromuscular Factors Determining 5 Km Running Performance and Running Economy in Well-trained Athletes." European Journal of Applied Physiology 97.1 (2006): 1-8. Print.

Paavolainen L, Häkkinen K, Hämäläinen I, Nummela A, Rusko H. "Explosive-strength Training Improves 5-km Running Time by Improving Running Economy and Muscle Power." Journal of Applied Physiology 86.5 (1999): 1527-33. Print.

Paavolainen L, Nummela A, Rusko H. "Muscle Power Factors and VO2max as Determinants of Horizontal and Uphill Running Performance." Scandanavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports 10.5 (2000): 286-91. Print.

Paavolainen LM, Nummela AT, Rusko HK. "Neuromuscular Characteristics and Muscle Power as Determinants of 5-km Running Performance." Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 31.1 (1999): 124-30. Print.

Powers, Scott. Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance, By Scott K Powers and Edward T Howley. [S.l.]: Brown & Benchmark, 2005. Print.

Rauh MJ, Koepsell TD, Rivara FP, Margherita AJ, Rice SG. "Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Injuries among High School Cross-country Runners." American Journal of Epidemology 163.2 (2006): 151-9. Print.

Rauh MJ, Koepsell TD, Rivara FP, Rice SG, Margherita AJ. "Quadriceps Angle and Risk of Injury among High School Cross-country Runners." Journal of Orthopaedic and Sport Physical Therapy 37.12 (2007): 725-33. Print.

Støa EM, Støren Ø, Enoksen E, Ingjer F. "Percent Utilization of VO2 Max at 5-km Competition Velocity Does Not Determine Time Performance at 5 Km among Elite Distance Runners." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 24.5 (2010): 1340-5. Print.

Verkhoshansky, Yuri. Block Training System in Endurance Running. Verkhoshansky, 2008. Print.

Verkhoshansky, Yuri Vitalievitch., and Mel Cunningham. Siff. "4.4 Strength Training and General Endurance." Supertraining. Rome, Italy: Verkhoshansky, 2009. 247-52. Print.

Viru, A. A. "Chapter 2: Hormones in Adaptation to Physical Exercises." Adaptation in Sports Training. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 1995. 21-46. Print.

Yamamoto LM, Lopez RM, Klau JF, Casa DJ, Kraemer WJ, Maresh CM. "The Effects of Resistance Training on Endurance Distance Running Performance among Highly Trained Runners: a Systematic Review." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 22.6 (2008): 2036-44. Print.

Understandably,

I agree with you to an extent.

With Moderate weights and heavy weights, yep. And fast movement velocities, too. This means little in and of itself. Your next question makes it come into perspective.

Does bodyweight elicit the same response? Well, of course, that has to depend on the individual's relative intensity, right? In the early going, bodyweight may very well be a moderate to heavy resistance and still can be provide we manipulate the right variables as the athlete progresses. If bodyweight ain't cutting it, however, loading them up is our next logical progression. The same rules that apply to distance running apply to the ancillary aspects, too. Do we stop only at 50 miles per week or any other arbitrary loading quantity in running? No.

Yes there is definitely some interference, however, the majority of research is very clear that it works predominantly in one way that is: endurance training harms maximal strength development, however, maximal strength training (concurrently) improves performances over specific distances without changes in the energetics of performance. Some of the old Russian theory/sports science suggested even going well beyond general type loading schemes and looking for general fitness quality changes. Verkhoshansky has some pretty profound case study examples doing so, though drugs may have been some part of the athletes' ability to tolerate the levels of stress within said programs, but there is no way of delineating what led to what outcome.

In my mind, that's enough for me to say that we need to, at some level, incorporate these ideas. Again, we're talking about 10% of training time investments.

Regards,

Carson Boddicker

Friendly advice,

I agree quite strongly. The reality is that most are probably not supremely well equipped to design their own programs and in my experience, most distance coaches are not either as it was not a huge part of their developmental culture.

We are just talking about 10% and the reality is that running must be priority number one except in very specific instances with very specific logic behind it.

I, too, agree that most are probably doing things that are not helping them and potentially even hurting themselves. It doesn't mean that, under the guidance of the right staff (harder to do than most would think), they cannot benefit from said training modes. There is definitely a lot of "crap against a wall" in the programming of ancillary work with distance runners even at very high levels. I see it day in and day out.

Regards,

Carson Boddicker

www.BoddickerPerformance.com

Crazy old guy wrote:

I do this one:

Put your left foot in

Take your left foot out

Put your right foot in

And shake it all about.

Turn yourself around. That's what it's all about.

That's what it's all about.

I found this video of Cook's group doing one of their practices.

Hey Dawg - Thanks for posting that.