Wednesday, April 25, 2007

endurance sports and kung fu (part 3) - training cycles

the notion of training cycles is pretty well known to athletes, even neophyte ones.

almost every person who has ever engaged in sports knows that training follows a schedule of workouts with very specific goals. most know that athletic growth calls for a progression in workouts of gradually increasing workload. a majority know that progression isn't necessarily consistently or constantly increasing (the mathematical term is "monotonically increasing"), but rather follows a rising-and-falling trend comparable to a furnace being fed by a bellows pump. a large number know that this progression of rising-and-falling trends is marked into training periods with the labels of base, build, peak, and recovery, with each period having very specific objectives with respect to the body's aerobic, anaerobic, and strength capabilities. similarly, many can identify these periods as being organized into micro-cycles of daily and weekly workouts with various duration and intensity, which join to fulfill macro-cycles of monthly or seasonal length building endurance and power.

very few, however, are aware of other perspectives of training cycles.

in my participation in kung fu, i've found a very different take on training cycles, largely drawn from traditional Asian medicine and culture. while not as rigorously researched as modern sports science methods, i still find it offering arguments and logic that is plausible enough to warrant inclusion into existing sports science--if nothing else, as a subject worthy of further study.

i think there's enough substance to each of the differing perspectives on training cycles that both sides (endurance sports and kung fu) could stand to benefit by sharing information with each other.

to see what i mean, reference my cross-posting on my kung fu blog: jonathan on a path: training cycles

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