Individual differences in training: What factors really matter? Part I

Main points:

The majority of times, athletes training in a group dynamic are “OK” to train on cookie-cutter training programming.
In the case of specialized performance, such as powerlifting or track and field, coaches and athletes will benefit to have a basic understanding of the basic factors included in individualizing programming
Mobility restrictions are a basic and easy way to individualize programming
“Fast twitch” athletes can handle more violent and explosive training means than “slow twitch” athletes, but also take longer to recover

Lesson #1 if you are on the journey to athletic greatness

“You can’t just take the workout program of a world class athlete, use it yourself, and expect to make athletic gains the way they did from it”

The sixty-four-thousand dollar question: Why is this true?

What are the actual variables that make a program tailored for one athlete vs. another? Training centers, coaches, and trainers always market themselves on how specific they make their programs for the individual. After all, everyone wants to think they are a special butterfly!

Let’s face it though; when it really comes down to it, most sport specific, and even “individualized” programs are a lot of BS. Sprinkling a program over with a few dumbbell exercises representing a sport skill, balance work, and some single-joint weakness building (with a hefty dose of smoke and mirrors) is a great way to make some money, but is it a good way to train athletes? Is trying to individualize too much even an efficient or practical way to train? After all, if you have 24 athletes and they are all on “individualized” programs, where does the adrenaline pumping, testosterone-flyin’-all-over, team dynamic responsible for “all kinds of gainz” go off to?

Maybe Tyler Durden was right when he said that you aren’t “a special snowflake”, sometimes it pays to be the same organic matter as everyone else when it comes to pushing iron around, sucking it up, and saving mental stress for attacking the workout and recovering rather than figuring out if you should add in a zercher squat or elevated snatch grip deadlift to the tail end of the workout.

A strong team environment is important for strength and power gains

Athletes on “cookie cutter” programs in team training situations can and will succeed in gaining strength and power with few exceptions, largely due to the combination of a team dynamic, social pressure, along with perhaps not a 100% optimal, but still effective strength program.

From good to great

The thing to remember, however, is that any athlete can go from “good” to “great” on a cookie cutter program. The difficulty lies in training athletes from good to specialized elite; from first-level black belt to supreme ninja-master.

From good to elite is where a good coach who instinctively knows the differences between athletes can make decisions leading to highest performances. It is at this point in coaching the high level athlete that a watchful eye of a good coach who has experimented with trial and error through the yearly training cycles is critically important in creating a training program that will take an athlete to their highest specialized performance. When it comes to individualizing components of high performance training, there are five things that a coach can and should watch for in building a program to take athletes to the promised land of victory! These five individualizations are:

Mobility and Movement Restrictions
Muscle Twitch Type
Personality
Work Capacity and Training Experience
Anthropometry and Body Type

Let’s spend just a little time talking about each variable in the training equation.

Mobility and Movement Restrictions

Even in team training situations, there is going to be some focus on getting athletes the mobility and movement needed to perform basic lifts and drills. There is a lot of voodoo out there as far as the movement assessment and correction of athletes is concerned. Most, if not all, of this movement can be determined by watching athletes play their sport and perform a few key exercises, such as an overhead squat, rather than having them perform arbitrary quadruped screening movements that don’t represent anything truly athletic.

This isn’t to say that screens, or at least a knowledge of movement isn’t useful, because it is: If an athlete cannot perform their sport, or parts of their sport with the correct technique, there is a good chance that the source lies somewhere in the mobility or strength-based movement patterns of that individual.

It is at this point of movement breakdown where an experienced coach can determine the best course of action to get to the source of the problem. When an athlete’s technique is off, rather than simply barking out a few corrective technique cues each practice, a smart coach bores a hole to the mine of corrective strength and mobility. An expert coach is going to already have a good idea of what is wrong from a biomechanics, muscle, and movement perspective than needing to whip out a screen when technique comes undone. Going over the whole battery of athletic movement assessment would take a few books, let alone the length of this article, so I am just going to leave this one here, and just remind you that technical issues in sport often have underlying movement restrictions that need to be assessed and corrected before optimal technique can happen.

Muscle Twitch Type

Muscle twitch type (fast-twitch dominant vs. slow twitch dominant) is a critical factor in individualizing training for particular athletes. Being familiar with twitch type for coaching specialized athletes is nearly as important as understanding the difference between “+” and “-“ symbols to pass a math test.

Training mode is going to have a strong bearing on how individualization ends up shaking out when it comes to alterations in volume, intensity, density and frequency. Many coaches don’t realize that recovery time between workouts is going to be different between fast and slow twitch athletes, and fast twitch athletes are going to require different rest periods and “tapering lengths” to be at their best!

For the most part, slower twitch athletes are going to respond better, and more naturally, to higher reps, longer sprints, and lower impact plyometrics compared to their fast twitch counterparts. They also recover faster between workouts than their fast twitch counterparts. This doesn’t mean that slow twitch athletes seeking to get faster shouldn’t train speed; not at all, they just need to lean towards the lower-intensity/more endurance side of their speed pursuits when it comes to all-out exercise, such as squats, plyos and maximal sprints. They also have the added benefit of being able to train more often. This is a prime reason that a lot of athletes are going to gain a heck of a lot more strength on a higher frequency strength training program, such as “Easy Strength” or “Power to the People” than they will on the latest Westside Barbell program that a fast-twitch beast knocked out en route to a 1100lb squat.

Training specific to athlete types

For many, this is somewhat counter-intuitive, as it is easy to think that slower athletes require raw speed work to get faster, and fast athletes require lots of endurance work to have more in-game stamina. The truth is that the bodies of many of these athletes don’t respond all that well to things they aren’t designed for. A marathon runner is going to have a tough time training and responding to a flying 30m workout and overspeed designed for sprinters, their body just isn’t built well for it, and the stress response following a workout will prolong recovery efforts. The need to address weaknesses exists, but when it comes to specializing athletes, most work needs to be catered towards playing to the inherent strengths of the body.

However….

Regardless of twitch type and training responsiveness, every athlete seeking to improve power needs to train power in some form. You still need to train fast to be fast, and understand how to still get job #1 accomplished.

Short acceleration (<20m), multiple throws, Olympic lifting, and plyos within ability level are part of the standard battery of power development tools any athlete can use to improve their abilities. All of these activities are low enough velocity that both slow and fast fibers can contribute to performance. Heavy weightlifting, max velocity sprinting, and intense plyos are things that tend to rely more on the individual’s ability and demonstrated responsiveness to intensity.

All athletes in speed/power sports need to train speed and power, but sometimes the intensity and density can be tweaked to optimized an athlete’s response based on twitch type

Finally, realize that athletes with a good build for their event, and a fast and adaptive CNS can overcome their twitch type to still achieve fantastic performances in the arenas of speed and power events. For example, take track and field jumpers who perform well due to their build and CNS profile: These athletes will often respond better individually to slightly longer and slower sprint sessions, and plyometric sessions oriented to slightly longer durations, such as extended speed bounding, or repeated takeoff drills for time.

Conclusion

Between mobility and twitch-type, there are two great ways to understand how particular athletes will have different responses to the same training dosage. Stay tuned for part 2, where I’ll talk about managing the variables of personality type (and adrenaline release), work capacity and anthropometrics on building specialized programming.

Finally… chances are you aren’t a special snowflake, but if you are looking for some structured programming with a few tweaks in regards to the variables above (and coming in part 2), I offer some great rates on personal programming that would make your local personal trainer extremely jealous. Check it out here

References

“Human alpha-actinin-3 genotype association with exercise induced muscle damage and the repeated-bout effect” Venckunas, Skurvydas, Brazaitis, Kamandulis, Snieckus and Moran

Applied Physiology: Nutrition and Metabolism, 2012