The concept of GPP (General Preparation Phase) has been in existence for decades. Although not as fancy and hyped up as training revolved around the competitive phases of the year and Specific Preparation, this cycle of training should not be overlooked and there is much to be gained that can set the stage for development and success in other areas further down the road. In this article I’m going to outline several strategies that you can and should employ with your athletes to get the most out of this phase of training.
#1 Aerobic Base and General Fitness Focus
An “aerobic base” lends well to be able to directly and indirectly generating maximal efforts and higher outputs in sport and competition. After all, a bulk of recovery will occur as athletes come down from the physical exertion highs encountered on the field, court, or in training. Early fatigue can arise if this specific energy system is underdeveloped, not to mention you can help condition and familiarize the athlete on the benefits of accessing the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) through different training approaches (aka mobility circuits, bodyweight work, tempo training, etc.) and educate them on the system’s essential role in effective recovery for any athlete involved in pretty much any sport other than long distance running.
In other words, being able to relax, rest, and actually learn to train at reduced and lowered training intensities is a skill in itself and now is the opportune time to really hammer this mindset into the athlete’s brain!
Moreover, athletes who are returning to training after a longer than anticipated off-season, or those that are attempting to resume training after injury in a quest to return to pre-injury status and hopefully beyond, will only have the physical capacity to train efficiently at aerobic training zones in many cases since their metabolic and structural threshold’s will be lower. Last but not least, there is evidence that shows quicker recovery of the Creatine Phosphate energy reserve with greater ability aerobically.
#2 Muscle Hypertrophy
Look no further than prominent bodybuilders who train all through the volume and repetition range (1-20+ reps) and you can see the inherent value of high rep or repeated effort training methods for muscle gain. There is value to be had at each level within the rep range spectrum and muscular endurance and increases in muscle size are two of the most significant adaptations witnessed by athletes and coaches.
Low load training to volitional failure or even just before failure, where you leave an extra few reps in the tank still does a fantastic job in stimulating growth factors in the body even though it’s not ideal for strength and speed qualities according to research. This is fine, because the training season is long and there is more than enough time to focus on the flashy training skills of speed and power. Additionally, a dedicated phase to increasing local or regional areas of muscle (quads, hams, glutes, calves) could possibly result in slight time reductions and make a difference in the end if the extra mass is associated with increases in usable strength and power. There is definitely a point of diminishing returns with mass gain due to the extra gravity and effort to create movement, so make sure to keep this idea and mind and constantly test and get feedback from your athlete on how they feel.
There is a point of diminishing returns with mass gain, so keep this in mind and constantly be testing KPI’s to assess performance and training effectiveness
Often-times athletes can be in tune with their body pretty well and let you know how the muscle gain is affecting their performance in different areas. Regular testing can remove all of the guesswork when in doubt, and you should be monitoring anyways.
#3 Strength and Power
With low load, high volume approaches strength can be obtained as fatigue arrives and more and potentially larger motor units are required to pick up the slack and continue movement throughout a working set. This poses several benefits during this phase of training. First, there will be a natural reduction in tissue and joint stress since the mechanical load is lighter than at higher percentages of maximum effort. Thus a reduced chance of injury, which is what many of us coaches are dreading at this stage of training. You really get your cake and get to eat it too with this method until more weight is necessary to elicit further strength and power improvements.
The lower load can hone technique and coordination since there is more opportunity to learn, and this will be of importance when the time comes to lift heavier loads. Hopefully by then, the athlete has re-educated their muscles on how to move properly and efficiently and there will be less time focusing on remedial and corrective work to get the maximum benefit in true strength blocks. Lastly, training to failure through high reps is a great evaluation tool both mentally and physically. Fatigue tolerance is a critical factor in performance. Athletes that can still process information through the internal and external environment while under heavy duress and often more successful than those who cannot. There will generally be hidden areas of weakness with these types of controlled challenges to the system, which will naturally indicate where to go to next in terms of exercise selection to remedy the problem.
#4 Establishing Psychological Momentum
I think the GPP sub-topic of psychological momentum is huge and often overlooked. Quite frankly, you should be trying to work on the aforementioned qualities at this point and get the athletes in a good rhythm with an ultimate hope of getting them in the “Zone” mentally more often than not.
Any setback or undue issue that occurs here could set them back mentally and raise doubt of you and themselves. For example, not being clear with your message on how you can help or being able to demonstrate exactly what you expect from the athlete and providing strong evidence to support your training stance. The athlete has no choice but to somehow establish a strong psychological desire to want to be there for each and every session and this evident by their tone, body language, and physical effort. It’s critical to develop trust with your athletes and create small victories every single training session, while showcasing the data and improvements that have been made along the way so that you can in fact build more momentum towards the end goal.
For instance, we get a lot of skeptical parents and athletes that come in because there is a contrast often times between our explained collective strategy and what they’ve heard elsewhere upon our first meeting/consultation. This type of interaction is common and understandable. Fortunately, after we expand on the science of our program and relate it to the athlete’s specific needs and how we are going to get there, showcase our portfolio, and eventually disclose the progress that has been made from their initial baseline measures on skills tests we used compared to present or updated results, the process starts to make more sense and that is where we get more buy-in and long-term client retention! I am definitely no Brett Bartholomew when it comes to this type of stuff, but what I do know is the more headway we can make at the start of the training program, and remove any doubt, the better the athlete will adhere to the program and the better off they are over the long-term.
#5 Fat Loss
Now is also the time to attack any weight management issues that an athlete might have. The higher training volumes and frequencies lend very well to this training focus, and its been proposed time and time again that muscle gain comes a lot easier to those who are already lean, so there is some good incentive. For instance, it has been long proclaimed that insulin resistance follows a unique pattern in liver, muscle, and fat cells specifically. And being that Insulin is a key mediator in MTOR/muscle growth activation, testosterone production (reduced SHBG, increased aromatase conversion) it’s imperative that this specific hormone channel is operating the way it should be. Conversely, someone could possess superior genetic expression for muscle building and the fat mass may not mean much, but at the very least being lean will help with muscle gain efforts.
Also, periods of real “overreaching” are more than likely going to occur later on, unless the athlete or coach has solid knowledge and awareness of programming and recovery science measures (HRV, etc.). Regardless the objective should be to try and pack on as much quality muscle mass as possible during the early season in appropriate regions of the body relative to that individual’s sport, so that you can effectively offset any unwanted losses of muscle that may occur with higher cortisol levels, central fatigue, and other recovery roadblocks that are bound to surface during the competitive season.
I wanted to leave you with a solid GPP ciruit that we use with not only our baseball players but every athlete since they can benefit from the exercise sequence in one way or another.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFeo55RApSU
This series combines upper body power based drills in all three planes of motions and loads different angles and patterns to help with overall development. The volume is obviously low in the video just because we didn’t want to bore you, but we generally add in a lot more reps to touch on everything I’ve mentioned, especially #1. You want to make sure to select drills that are low-impact in nature that athletes can recover from quickly and still derive an effective result, and med-ball work does just that.
About Travis Hansen
Travis Hansen has been involved in the field of Human Performance Enhancement for nearly a decade. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fitness and Wellness, and holds 3 different training certifications from the ISSA, NASM, and NCSF. He was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Reno Bighorns of the NBADL for their 2010 season, and he is currently the Director of The Reno Speed School inside the South Reno Athletic Club. He has worked with hundreds of athletes from almost all sports, ranging from the youth to professional ranks. He is the author of the hot selling “Speed Encyclopedia“, and is also the leading authority on speed development through the International Sports Sciences Association.
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