A threshold is a limit, a point that must be exceeded in order for favourable adaptations to occur. One of the thresholds to consider in fitness is the technique/intensity threshold. When you go beyond that threshold in training, technique diminishes at the expense of power output (intensity). Technique is essential to maximising power and therefore fitness, but good technique without optimal speed will in fact stunt fitness.
It’s like motor sports.The best drivers are the ones who find that balance between speed and accuracy. But they only find that balance by tempting speed and by learning to take the vehicle all the way to almost losing control before reigning it in.
That’s what you need to do in training. Just like we stress your cardiorespiratory system for endurance adaptations and your muscular system for strength gains, your “control” must be stressed for it to improve. Fortunately, in training, the consequences aren’t as severe as in motor sports!
Most of this practice refers to metabolic conditioning and not strength work, because in strength work time is generally not an essential factor. So to train your conditioning workouts, develop your control just as the race care driver.
Start off by ensuring you’ve scaled the loads, movements and volume appropriately. The programmed workouts you see on the board are a guideline. When the workout starts, work quickly to a pace you feel you’re able to maintain for the duration of that workout. Once you’ve settled in, up your speed – lower the time cycle of your reps.
Here is where your gray matter – your conscious brain – comes in. You have to be able to feel the difference between good and bad technique. If you haven’t felt your technique going with increased speed, you’ll soon find out. You’ll miss lifts and reps, lose control of your swing on the pull-up bar or rings, land up in the box instead of on top of it. It’s the tail of the race car going too wide for the driver to bring it back, leaving the car in a spin.
You’ve got to slow down before that happens. Regain traction to bring that tail back in, and then ease back on the gas again. This time, holding your speed just under the previous attempt.
As you develop this control your power output begins to increase, and that’s where the results lie.
Will it result in some less than optimal technique? Absolutely, but that’s how you find your control. Will that place you at risk of injury? Unless you keep moving at a speed that is uncontrollable, it shouldn’t. That control is a tricky thing to develop. It’s partly what we as coaches are there for. But it’s important for you to develop it on your own too.
Finding that threshold is also finding the point of most discomfort. Find it, and hang out there for as long as you can!
