The Weekly Model
Key Takeaway
For Tactical Populations and First Responders it is important to understand that the strength and conditioning program you follow needs to fit where you are at in your life and career. Busy schedules, life stressors, shift work, and unpredictable hours make training quite challenging for these professions. For long term progress you will need to remain flexible with your training schedule and understand when it is time to push the intensity or dial it back.
This week we will discuss the training week and how to manage intensity for long term progress.
The Training “Week”
I have previously written how in the We Go Home Human Performance Program I incorporate a variation of something called the High/Low Model. What this essentially means is that we space out our higher intensity training days during the week. This doesn’t necessarily mean we take the other 5 days off, it just means we strategically structure the week to allow for recovery and performance.
Intensity and Stress
One of the late great Track and Field/Strength Coaches, Charlie Francis, popularized this model. The High/Low system has influenced almost every sport on the planet in some capacity. Why the Tactical and First Responder realm hasn’t tried to apply these concepts it beyond me. Stress is ubiquitous in these professions. You have to manage it.
What is a “high” day in this model? The way I would explain this is days where you lift heavy (true strength work close to failure), power/speed work, heavy jumps, sprints, high intensity intervals, etc. Anything that not only stresses your muscles and connective tissue but also your central nervous system. Training sessions like this can require an athlete anywhere between 48-72 hours for true recovery (Simmons, 2015).
Notice I said athlete…not the overworked Police Officer who has worked multiple 12 hour shifts in a row and then got held over because he or she had to respond to a burglary in progress right before their shift was ending. Stacking too many of these days in a row may work for a few weeks, but you will inevitably slide backwards.
Your “best case” scenario after you do this for too long is maybe your progress slows or backtracks a bit and you realize you need to recover. You caught it just in time. What usually happens for motivated populations is you develop an overuse injury that nags you for weeks or longer. Then if you’re truly stubborn it turns into a legitimate injury where sometimes surgery makes you take time off. Proper training structure can help stop this scenario from happening.
How We Do It
With out current phase, this is how we avoid these pitfalls:
Day 1: Strength- Heavy Upper, Dynamic Lower, Upper Accessory
Day 2: Work Capacity or Lower Volume Sprint Work (Depends on Phase)
Day 3: Low Impact Zone 2 or Recovery
Day 4: Strength- Heavy Lower, Dynamic Upper, Lower Accessory
Day 5: Work Capacity, Multi-Directional Work
Day 6: Ruck, Swim, Bike- Longer Duration Zone 2 (Sometimes interval work)
Day 7: Off
Notice if you follow this training split you have two true “High Days” during the training week. Everything else is geared towards building skills and/or work capacity and conditioning. This set up allows for high output efforts on those two total body strength days a week and then time for RECOVERY.
In later phases we will change things up and add have 2 strength training days a week and one speed/power focused day. However, we still put lower intensity or rest days between these sessions. Volume, or the total amount of work you do, is also waved over each 8 week training block.
Closing
The example provided above is just one way to mitigate fatigue and stress through the week. There are many ways to do this. This is how through trial and error I found success for most people. With that said, there is also nothing wrong with stretching out the training “week” a few days if you have had a particularly demanding schedule.
For example, you work nights and you got held over multiple times because your agency is short staffed. I know the feeling when you’re chronically sleep deprived. You’ll probably do more harm than good if you try and go into gym. Particularly if you have a demanding session scheduled.
For situations like this I would:
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Prioritizing sleep on that day.
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Move an easier work capacity or zone 2 session to your first day back.
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Now do your Max Effort lower body session or whatever was actually scheduled
Will this potentially make your training “week” 8 or 9 days? Maybe. Who cares. This is a 20 year career. You still basically got the same amount of work in even if you took an extra day off that week. With that said I will almost guarantee you moving that harder session a couple days forward will be more productive than anything you would have done on your second night of 4 hours of sleep.
Questions? Reach out or comment.
References
Simmons, L. (2015). Special strength development for all sports. Westside Barbell.
