UK Level 4 Coach - Sprints ad Middle Distance

THE proliferation of roofed running tracks, sports centres, weight-training clubs, fitness suites, multi-gyms, and other indoor exercise facilities provide great opportunities for runners not too enthusiastic about training in inclement weather or who are a bit apprehensive about going out on their own, especially during the dark nights.

Although no substitute for outdoor running, indoor training helps to develop and maintain a good aerobic general endurance base. It also improves local muscular endurance in the arms and legs and increases speed and neuro-muscular co-ordination. Equally important, it is enjoyable, challenging, and stimulating.

Most modern fitness centres have state-of-the-art computerised training equipment such as treadmills, rowing machines, and weight-lifting apparatus along with experienced instructors who will devise exercise programmes to accommodate your age, experience, ability, and training and racing goals. You may have to pay high prices, however, as membership costs of some fitness clubs can be quite expensive.

This article is for readers who do not have access to weights or the more sophisticated training equipment of upmarket fitness suites. It lets you see what you can do in a normal school gymnasium or community centre using just your own bodyweight or very basic equipment such as mats, benches, and wall-bars.

One of the most popular ways of getting fit indoors is circuit-training where the athlete starts off by performing the maximum number of repetitions of a prescribed group of exercises such as press-ups, sit-ups, half-squats, bench vaults, back lifts, bench astride jumps, squat thrusts, wall-bar pull-ups, burpees, and squat jumps.

Alternatively you can count the number of times you do these exercises over periods of 30, 45, or 60 seconds depending on your age, ability, and experience. At subsequent sessions you work round a circuit of these exercises aiming to achieve 50 per cent of the total number of repetitions scored during testing for maximum at each exercise.

After two or three minutes' recovery at the end of one complete circuit of the exercises you then work round the circuit twice more. But remember -- if you are overweight, in an older age group, or have any doubts about your health, get medical clearance from your doctor before embarking on circuit training as it can be very demanding with near maximum heart rates being attained in some of the efforts.

You progress by completing your three circuits in a faster time while maintaining quality of effort and good, efficient technique. Each exercise is retested for maximum every four weeks to provide you with new targets

An advanced form of circuit training is where the athlete works through a programme of just a few exercises without pausing for recovery between repetitions or sets. A typical example is four to six sets of ten press-ups, ten sit-ups, and ten half-squats all done non-stop over a period of several minutes.

This type of session was extensively used by sprinter Alan Wells before he won the 100 metres gold medal in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

A slightly different routine is the Oregon Circuit based on between eight and ten exercises performed for between 30 and 60 seconds. Each exercise is followed by jogging four laps of the gymnasium before moving on to the next one. After a complete circuit of exercises you should jog for five minutes then repeat the sequence twice more. Again this can be a real lung-buster so build up gradually to completing the entire programme.

Stage training is similar to circuit training except the athlete performs all the stipulated sets of each exercise with the appropriate recovery between sets before moving on to the next exercise.

You could, for example, do three sets of press-ups for twenty seconds per set with 20 seconds pause between sets. You rest for two minutes after the final set of each exercise then move on to the next of the eight to ten exercises in the circuit using the same work and recovery periods as before.

You progress weekly by reducing the recovery to 15, 10, then 5 seconds between the sets, remembering to count your cumulative totals for each exercise and record them in your training logbook. This total becomes your target every four weeks when you test each exercise for 60 seconds non-stop, trying to beat the scores you recorded when doing the exercises in sets.

Plan your programme intelligently to ensure the main muscle groups are exercised in rotation otherwise you could overload and get injured. Start with an exercise for the arms and shoulders then move on to activities involving the abdominal and dorsal muscles before progressing to the leg and thigh muscle groups.

It is often said the complete training programme is based on the Five 'S's -- suppleness, skill, strength, stamina, and speed. The following indoor session of approximately an hour incorporates all these principles:

(1) Start of with a few laps easy jogging and striding round the gymnasium to raise the heart rate then progress to the first of the six 'S's --suppleness. You perform about a dozen exercises mobilising main joints such as the shoulders, hips, knees, ankles. Circling the arms, swinging each leg while supporting yourself against a wall, shrugging the shoulders, and rotating the neck, trunk, and ankles are useful starters.

Move on to gently stretching large muscles such as the quadriceps, gluteals, soleus, gastrocnemius, trapezius, and deltoids. Avoid bouncing, jerking movements as this overstretches and injures the muscles. Aim is to take the stretch as far as comfortably possible then hold the position for ten seconds then relax. Do this three times for each exercise.

(2) Follow your stretch routine by jogging four laps of the gymnasium then move on to the skill section. This takes the form of various sprint drills such as high knee-lift running, triple-ups (also known as 'bum flicks'), fast knee pick-ups, arm drive practices, and pitter-patter where you run the length of the gymnasium using very short strides. These drills improve neuro-muscular co-ordination, stride rate, and stride length. Each drill is done twice for one gymnasium length.