Load Management...

As an athlete, coach, and competitor in the CrossFit space with the goals and aspirations to do big things; improving everyday and reaching my potential. I can relate with the stressors of overloading and stretching the threads thin. When all you feel is the need for more it can get awfully dangerous the amount of stress you put on yourself. And don't limit this to just competitive sport or fitness, this is true amongst all forms of work from desk jobs to haying fields everyone experiences stress and overloading in different ways.

So how do you manage the load? How can you apply it to you and your team? How does load management improve performance?

Load can be managed in two primary ways. Firstly, through identification and maintenance of internal stressors. Internal stressors are both physiological and psychological. Physiological stressors include; for sport: Heart Rate Variability, hormone balance, fatigue (acute and general), and perceived exhaustion. Non sport examples include; physical stress, dehydration, soreness... Psychological stressors include anxiety, depression, stress, mental fatigue/blocks, anger, lack of motivation. If we can identify which one of these stressors we endure we can better take action on correcting them.

Second way to manage load is the identification and maintenance of external stressors. External stressors take the form of our coaches, teammates, bosses, drills, trainings, work expectations/tasks, and competitions/deadlines. They are the parts of our daily lives that we interact with directly but have little control over in terms of planning and production. Our stake in external stressors is our involvement and the intensity/work ethic we bring to it. External stressors like internal stressors have physical and psychological components, but are dictated not entirely by ourselves but the interactions we form in relation to the above forms. Example: Training cycle is strength, working out 5 times a week with 2 x 1.5 hour practices and a recovery pool session. The load is high, as the frequency and volume of tasks at hand are high. This type of high volume week coupled with lack of sleep, stress, pour nutrition/water intake (internal stressors) can call for serious overloading. If an athlete/employee is unable to clearly identify a stressor and take action to reduce load in response than a serious injury/breakdown can occur.

Maintaining internal and external stressors comes when we listen to our mind & body and react accordingly. Taking days off, reducing volume of load, decreasing intensity, re-evaluating approach, reducing time spent in stressful situation etc.

A few key points above is the idea of reducing volume. This doesn't only go for athletes lifting and training. it goes for everyone. If work is stressful, you can reduce the volume of work you are doing by selecting favourable tasks, decreasing time spent on certain tasks, or dividing time up and diversifying your tasks. Volume or total time spent on something can dictate your productivity level, managing volume is the simplest and most effective way to avoid the detriment of overloading.

Quick ways to reduce load:

1) Take an unplanned rest day

2) Perform a de-load

3) Call in sick

4) Diversify tasks

5) Maintain intensity, lower volume

6) Lower intensity, maintain volume

7) Meditate / take a nap / relax

8) Drink some water and eat some wholesome food

How can you apply it to you and your team?

As a coach or a team leader it's your responsibility to maintain your player's load. Using daily logs and surveys allows insight into each individual's current status. It allows for a clear picture of each person's internal and external stressors. Having this data allows you as a leader to maintain an individuals volume in response to their current mental/physical status. If a player is reporting they are fatigued, mad, have under eaten, feel sore, not motivated, or equally pumped and ready to go, you've got clear indicators to base your prescription of load on.

Using the RPE scale (Rate of Perceived Exertion) you can determine volume prescription.

0 Easy

1 Easy

2 Very moderate

3 Moderate

4 Kinda tough

5 Getting tough

6 pretty tough

7 Hard

8 Really hard

9 Super hard

10 Hardest you've ever gone!

Couple this with a quick questionnaire outlining pertinent questions relating to your sport or job and you have direct insight into each player's/employees feelings.

Journalling, tracking sleep patterns, noting how you feel before and after a session using RPE (training or work), are easy ways that we can individually determine our own volume prescription.

Ex: Based on how I feel, am I able to do all of this? Give it my all? Will I hurt myself?

How does load management improve performance?

The easiest thing to do is do more, add more and more crap onto the pile and hope for success. The reality of this is quite different than the intention. Doing more does not often equate to more success. It's often the downfall of many. Managing load allows a coach or an individual to maintain their internal/external stressors and avoid any potential negative impact of overtraining/overworking. Performance is dictated by repeatability, your ability to repeat your highest output on a regular basis. High performance athletes for example like Lionel Messi are scoring champions again and again because of their performance repeatability. This repeatability comes from load management. If you are never in a state of overtraining, you are always primed for high strain and thus can almost exponentially grow. The stigma behind taking rest and recovering is "no pain, no gain". Where growth occurs in a state of high physical demand, it also occurs in a state of complete rest. In order to build muscle for example, you must place your muscle cells under significant stress, that of which it is unconditioned to, thus driving cellular reparation and growth. But this reparation and growth only occurs in a state of rest. Without proper fuel (nutrition) and rest (time off) you effectively cannot grow muscles. Productivity in all aspects of life are equal parts pain (internal/external stressors),rest, and fuel (education/nutrition/physical & mental preparedness). One is not more important than the others, they all go hand in hand. A triangle is the strongest shape, not because of one particular corner, but because together all three corners create a strong base of support. Managing load; whether it be your own or your teams must be done with the intention of improving tomorrow's performance. Listening to your body and mind, taking needed rest, altering intensity and volume, allows the body to return to a state ready for strain. Whether the goal is the olympics, the Great British Baking Show, or getting all your crops in on time, managing load so that your next performance is as good or better than the last has to be the primary goal.

Load management I suppose could be a nifty word for rest, but rest usually implies full cessation of activity, whereas load management is simply the modification of intensity and volume based on internal and external stressors. You can still get work done, just in the most effective way possible based on your current mental/physical state. If you take one thing with you today it is that as a leader, athlete, employee, individual... you must listen to your mind and body, it knows best. React accordingly and mitigate the stressors that will prevent you from adhering to your training/work. Load maintenance is the avoidance of a full stop, it allows you to become your best self.

For inquiries on personal training and coaching feel free to email me at joshbray_9@outlook.com

"Progression is built through consistency and tested by passion"

JB