<span style="font-weight: 400;">WARNING; During lockdown de-conditioning will likely have occurred in our clients depending upon access to equipment, regular personal training/coaching and possibly low motivation levels.  </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">We may have felt the same but for us this has also been the perfect time to educate ourselves, learn new skills and gain new tools to better serve our clients. This blog is about highlighting something we really must consider to avoid risk of injury for our clients both old and new. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Something we could consider is adding a few simple additional calculations to our programme design. </span>

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<h2><b>Load Management - Why?</b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Risk reduction and optimisation of performance! </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Risk factors can be intrinsic like age, flexibility, previous injury etc and extrinsic factors can be ability/level, load, force etc. That said risk factors can be present but no injuries may occur so understand here we are wanting to demonstrate our duty of care by reducing risk.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">However chronic load application can be missing from training programmes and training really is a balance. As Tim Gabbett says “</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Load being a vehicle to drive clients or athletes to, or from, injury</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">”  If load is ramped up too quickly, performance can decline. Increasing capacity involves more than simply increasing load and so this is what we are exploring here in this blog. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Note; we should also monitor, and take note of, health factors such as sleep, diet, stress, hydration and hormones if not already. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Managing the amount of load our clients bodies go through during our training sessions and programming, overtime is something we are all aware of and holds valuable for very simple and obvious reasons. As a profession we are notoriously reputed for NOT having the kind of assessment and monitoring skills that other practitioners, like clinicians maybe, have. However we can often be the first person a client seeks out when emerging from lockdown.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">One of our industries main roles is to build endurance strength in our clients bodies, whatever their goal, since we are ‘exercise’ professionals, this more often than not means putting their bodies under load. But how do we ‘measure’ that load? When considering the main factor of a strength requirement (aside from aesthetics) the reason we coach strength training is, in basic form, for...</span>

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<h2><b>Building Tissue Tolerance</b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">We want to build tissue tolerance gradually to avoid risk of injury, overtraining or loss of gains or performance. The very basic level of this is in our basic training when we are taught to use reps, sets &amp; kilos in a gym. But this has limitations for measuring tissue tolerance, other than waiting for an injury! </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">If we only think of ‘load’ as the kilos, reps or sets we could miss other important influencing factors. We have all experienced a client with low energy, motivation or post rehab or a weekend warrior who overtrains haven't we!?</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">So to truly understand the loads their body manages over time it takes more than mapping kilos, reps and sets.</span>

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<h2><b>Athletic Spectrum</b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">After attending Tim Gabbett’s ‘</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Load Management’</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> workshop there were so many magic takeaways from the masses of information he gave us and so I would like to share some of his ideas that he shared with us that day. One of the most profound and useful was a pen and paper formula to measure, monitor &amp; evaluate the overall loads our client’s body is put under. So please understand this content has been taken from his workshop and hopefully condensed into something that can be useful to those of you trainers and coaches who are looking for measuring tools to monitor your clients progress, so you can manage their programming.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">We all know once we can measure something, we can manage it !</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">So, Gabbett, recommends if we can put our clients into a load continuum or Athletic Spectrum by calculating a few numbers, then monitor those numbers over time we can identify when they are overtraining or could take advantage of the loads they experience during training based on our monitoring of where they are on the spectrum.</span>

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<h2><b>Frequency + Volume  + intensity = Load</b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">This total load can be measured into units which is something we can then monitor and measure over time.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Often only used in elite sport, why would we NOT use the same simple measuring system for our clients to demonstrate how we are guiding them towards their goals in a calculated way to reduce risk by assessing the overall loads their body is under. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">This can all be added to a simple graph on a spreadsheet &amp; analysed over weeks/months taking into account all influencers BUT we MUST also record their </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">response</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the loads so that overtime we can evaluate their </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">tolerance</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to that load. A balance is required in recognising BOTH negative &amp; positive responses to load, is what Gabbett suggests</span>

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<h2><b>Task Specificity</b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Task specific relative capacity is also key so that load management relates to the task at hand. So finding numbers that relate could be include distance, heart rate and speed for a runner for example</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Everyone is on an Athletic Spectrum to some degree and the principles of progressive overload, specificity and recovery are effectively the same for our regular clients and not just our athletes. Using load measurements allows us to manage, periodise and also amend or alter when necessary depending upon their response &amp; also their schedule.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">The more we measure, the more we can manage, the more options and alternatives for their programme can be utilised.  </span>

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<h2><b>Tolerance to Load </b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">We can’t predict injury but we can prepare our client’s </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">tolerance to load</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">As suggested, load isn’t the problem BUT the loads that our client’s are not prepared for, are.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Training is needed to allow you to check responses to load and should be followed with adequate recovery. Monitoring over time allows us to adjust their programme according to results.</span>

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<h2><b>What Does The Spreadsheet Look Like?</b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">When we think about numbers to measure we may view RPE as subjective however this measurement does allow for <em>perception</em> that equipment doesn’t. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">We must also remember our vocabulary may affect clarity so if using this score to understand chronic load over time we need to educate our clients what training feels like for this RPE score and how to communicate it. Ideally it should be reported by the client at 30 minutes after the session for how the actual session felt as opposed to during it. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Rating        Descriptor      </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">        </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">0                Resting</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">1                Very, very easy</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">2               Easy</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">3               Moderate</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">4               Somewhat hard</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">5               Hard</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">6              -</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">7               Very Hard</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">8               -</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">9               -</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">10             Maximal</span>

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<img class="size-full wp-image-23307" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-25-at-13.57.41.png" alt="" width="2644" height="936" />

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">So notice in the graph the use of <em>frequency, intensity &amp; duration</em> to give us the load scores. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Frequency is shown by the number of days and training sessions.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Intensity is using the RPE scale x duration which uses the minutes of training.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Using intensity x duration we get = load for that session or day. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Then we can total the weekly numbers to get the weekly load. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">This can then also give us a monthly load and so on. Over time this allows us to monitor and manage the chronic load, thus enabling us to evaluate response and therefore allow us to understand when to manage load by decreasing or increasing it. If our client shows signs of overtraining, fatigue or stress we can reduced load. If they are progressing well we can increase load. Remember noting stressors like overtime at work, family illness, bouts of a cold or even reduced performance during their training session should also be a part of that monitoring response and risk.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">This reduces injury risk as much as possible and allows for performance optimisation at the appropriate time for their goal, race, match, game or simply quality of life.  </span>

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<h2><b>How Do You Decide When &amp; What To Progress or Regress?</b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">With the measurements in place we can analyse how our client is ‘performing’ at any given period. Noticing their response to load is a bIg part of our role. Gabbett, during his lecture, talked about the 10% rule or ‘gossip rule’ of not increasing more than 10% BUT the rule needs to be contextualised he added.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Also he recommended being mindful that it doesn't necessarily address chronic load or current capacity however w</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">e could use a basic 10% in either direction to de-load or increase load. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>What</em> to tweak comes down to your knowledge of the goals, timelines and motivators for your client. So it will to differ from client to client but could be anything from adding or reducing the number of session per week, increasing or decreasing duration of sessions, reducing or increasing recovery, lighter or heavier weights, more or less miles or simply altering from a weights session to a yoga &amp; meditation session. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Communication is key and understanding enough about your client to do the right thing, at the right time, with integrity and from an informed place. Using logic of justification and thinking things through, solutions will come. Just know there are always a variety of options so that's where you must trust your judgement and reasoning since you are the best person to help your client, since you know them best.</span>

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Using a reflective journal along side the other programming tools, allow us to write our critical thinking and ideas for options and is one of my personal favourite tools for subjective monitoring and documentation of thoughts for each clients progress which might offer new ideas future clients.
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<h2><b>Final Words</b></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Your clients need you!</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Don't doubt yourself and what you can offer, simply seek to learn new skills to pull out of the tool box when you feel it is necessary and appropriate for each client. One tool may not be right for one client and another may need lots of tools to help. Hopefully this great idea shared from Tim Gabbett's tool box will become a useful option for you.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">If however you are looking for intrinsic biomechanics assessment tools to add to the mix, to monitor your clients movement and if you would love a deeper level of understanding your clients body PLEASE GET IN TOUCH to arrange a call back to discuss joining our awesome community of <a href="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/biomechanics-coach-diploma-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biomechanics Coaches!</a> We are always looking for the best and most passionate trainers and coaches to join us in improving the movement of the nation and really make a difference!</span>

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<h1>Check out  <a href="https://gabbettperformance.com.au/profile/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tim Gabbett</a></h1>