Long-term programming and athletic development with VBT

In this blog, I am going to expose and explain why long-term periodization is key for athletic development. Most of the blogs covering this topic treat it in a more scientific way explaining the structure and definitions of training time units (i.e., micro-cycle, meso-cycle, macro-cycle) and how the different periodization models affect performance in the long-term. The truth is that all periodization models have been reported to increase performance. However, as practitioners, we always lacked a more practical recommendation than the one exposed in the literature. Therefore, I am going to focus on velocity-based training literature and its limitations for long-term development and programming. I will expose what I believe are key points when trying to program in the long term and in the last place I will give you a couple of practical applications to include in your training methods. Therefore, in this blog you will find:

• Long-term periodization: Establishing the bases
• Velocity-based training: Literature limitations
• Key aspects for long-term periodization to reach the greatest athletic development
• Velocity-based training applications

Long-term periodization

First of all, let’s define what long-term periodization is. According to Issurin (2010), long-term periodization is a structured, scientifically based system designed to manage and organize the training process over time, emphasizing the gradual development of specific physical attributes to enhance sports performance in a team environment. This method helps to ensure that team-sport athletes are at their optimal fitness level for key competitions, by balancing different elements such as strength, endurance, and skill acquisition through the training cycles. 

Especially in team sports, long-term periodization is key for aligning training with the competitive calendar, allowing athletes to peak at critical competitive times while maintaining or developing their physical, technical, and tactical skills. It typically involves the preparatory phase, competitive phase, and recovery phase. 

Different time units can be found in any periodization (i.e., macro-cycle, meso-cycle, micro-cycle) and this has been perfectly defined in most blogs or scientific articles. Therefore, the idea of this blog is to step outside this way of covering the topic and explain the less-treated aspects.

Velocity-based training limitations

Velocity-based training has been proven to be an excellent method to autoregulate training and to provide excellent feedback that should be used to make better and smarter decisions and to reach greater performance. It is well known that in strength training, the greater the velocity achieved by the barbell, the greater the strength adaptations, then, velocity-based training has been reported to encourage athletes to lift at faster velocities by providing instant feedback of the current velocity. Furthermore, lower velocity losses (10-20%) reported significant differences in strength and sports-specific skills (i.e., COD, vertical jump, sprint, etc..) than stopping the set with greater velocity loss (i.e., 30-40%). This has been covered in previous blogs that you can find on our website. 

However, from my point of view, velocity-based studies encounter certain limitations when applying those findings in the long term. First, the typical duration of a velocity-based intervention in studies ranges from 6 to 12 weeks. It is quite complicated to extrapolate these conclusions to the long term. Furthermore, there are plenty of more questions to be asked:

• Lower velocity loss may limit fatigue development enhancing performance in sport-specific skills (i.e., jump, COD, sprint, etc.) in the short term. Certain adaptations that may enhance performance in the short term could limit the development in the long term. Indeed, to increase performance in the long term an increase in the mechanical work may be required, temporarily decreasing performance in sport-specific skills. Importantly, the word TEMPORARILY has been highlighted as with the removal of training volume, and the application of more specific training (i.e., exercises that elicit greater velocities and with the application of lower velocity losses) the performance of sports-specific skills should be significantly increased. Furthermore, when you analyze the velocity-based literature I would recommend to also question:
  • Were the subjects accumulating greater or lower training loads before the study?
  • The competitive level of the sample: Was the sample composed of professional athletes, recreational athletes, or physically active subjects? – The sport-specific skills of lower competitive levels may be more affected by greater training volumes due to increased fatigue. 
  • Sample strength levels: Were the subjects strong or weak? – Weak subjects can easily improve with low training loads and fatigue levels can easily rise with low and moderate volume. When studies analyze low strength levels subjects, it is expected that greater training load (i.e., 30-40% velocity loss) will translate into a greater level of fatigue and lower performance in the sport-specific skills.  

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to say that velocity losses of 10-20% should be avoided but that for long-term development volume accumulation is key. It does not matter which kind of population you are working with, even the most advanced athletes respond in a similar manner. Every athlete needs some kind of volume accumulation to achieve a greater output. That led us to the first key point in long-term athletic development. 

Volume accumulation

In the collegiate setting, normally coaches are hand-to-hand with athletes for really long periods (4 years of eligibility plus redshirt). It was at the University of Northern Iowa, a Division I institution where I watched the most impressive change in American Football athletes. They were basing their training on principles that I will expose in this and the following sections. The first one is volume accumulation.  

Volume accumulation refers to the number of sets and repetitions that the athlete performs during the different time units (i.e., session, micro-cycle, meso-cycle, etc…). Volume accumulation is key when trying to increase performance as it will allow the athlete to generate higher outputs. It is true that advanced athletes will need less of the volume a novice athlete would need. Indeed, advanced athletes are more responsive to intensity rather than volume. However, no great increases in performance can be observed without an increase in volume. 

Typically, part of the out-season along with the pre-season are incredible periods to include greater volumes. As we have previously described, sport-specific skills performance can be negatively affected with greater volumes, then it should be used on periods far away from matches. Greater volume accumulation will improve athletes’ work capacity – athletes with greater work capacity can recover faster. Furthermore, it can increase the cross-sectional area affecting the capacity of force application as the capacity to apply force by a muscle is directly proportional to its cross-sectional area (Schoenfeld et al., 2010). Importantly, in some sports, this last adaptation is mostly avoided. Nevertheless, training interventions looking for significant and measurable changes in muscle cross-sectional area would require larger durations (i.e., > 12 to 16 weeks). Then in team sports, as there are not enough large time frames to include that type of work, we should mainly expect improvements in the work capacity instead of the hypertrophy that will take place as a secondary effect. 

When accumulating greater volume, the explosive and reactive capacity will be negatively affected, and lower performance in sport-specific skills is expected. However, by removing training volume and decreasing fatigue those capacities won’t be that much affected. 

**Volume accumulation is key for performance development in the long term**

Exercise selection

Back to the University of Northern Iowa the red-shirt athletes of the Football team typically performed similar sessions on Monday-Wednesday and on Tuesday-Thursday. Mostly the training volume was accumulated in a low number of exercises. That allowed the athlete to constantly overload an exercise. They named that “Neural training”. This makes absolute sense as the constant repetition of the same motor action increases the myelination of axons due to the process of neural adaptation and plasticity (Fields et al., 2010, Holtmaat et al., 2009). Indeed, repeated practice of a motor skill enhances synaptic efficiency and leads to structural changes in the nervous system (i.e., increased myelination of axons that improves the speed and efficiency of signal transmission). Myelination is influenced by neural activity. When neurons are frequently activated, they can signal glial cells to increase myelin production, resulting in thicker myelin sheaths around the axons of those neurons. In the last place, myelination contributes to faster conduction velocities and improved coordination of motor outputs which is essential for refining motor skills and improving overall performance. 

Importantly, the number of different exercises during the session can also affect the training volume a certain motor action is taking. A higher number of exercises will allow for lower training volume accumulation in each. This is quite a mistake for beginners which should focus on a low number of exercises per session. Avoid variability in these cases and simplify everything. As a coach, it will help you with beginners as you won’t have to explain much, and you will be able to better coach the most important aspects. 

**Besides helping with coaching, a limited exercise selection may increase volume accumulation which will lead to enhanced motor outputs in the selected exercises**

Training specificity 

General strength training can improve performance at all levels (i.e., advanced, intermediate, and beginner athletes). It is clear that the higher the competitive level the higher the amount of specific training is recommended. However, improvements in general capacities will automatically translate into a greater specific performance just with the simple practice of the sport. 

First of all, what is specificity?

Lately, the most common trend among practitioners has been to mimic the sport-specific actions in the gym. That corresponds to the movement specificity. However, the principle of specificity can be applied in different ways (e.g., metabolic and velocity specificity among others). Most importantly, for this blog, I will be focusing on velocity specificity as we are treating velocity-based training. Therefore, the force-velocity profile of different exercises makes them much more specific than others. I am going to use the power clean and the back squat to give you an example. Indeed, in a power clean, greater velocities can be achieved with the same relative load than in a back squat, making the power clean a more specific exercise. Now, could you imagine the power clean improving just by the training of the power clean? Or would it be required to increase the 1 RM of the back squat to improve performance in the power clean? Then, don’t expect sport-specific skills to improve just by the practice of sport-specific skills, and I will give you another example, this time more specific. 

• The improvement of Top Speed may require the accumulation of sprint (>25 km/h) and high-speed running (19-25 km/h) velocity bands distance or even in the medium intensity running velocity band (14-19 km/h) distance.
  • Why? 

1. Accumulation of distance in the medium-intensity running band (normally working on the aerobic capacity) will improve the work capacity and will increase the athlete’s capability to tolerate more and more meters at high-speed running and sprinting. 
2. By the increase of tolerance for the high-intensity running and sprint distance, the athlete can be exposed to greater volumes. 
3. By the exposure to greater volumes of high-speed and sprint distance, the Top Speed will be maximized. Top Speed is a build-up capability that will reach peak values in the advanced stages of the season. 

**To improve any specific skill the accumulation of general training volume is a must for long-term development**

Velocity based application

Therefore, after exposing what I consider key points for long-term development and programming. I will show you how you can use velocity-based training to improve decision-making and feedback on those points. 

Velocity loss thresholds and advanced techniques:

Give space to 20% and ahead velocity losses in traditional resistance exercises. Let the athlete accumulate volume. Apply the 5-15% of velocity loss in specific periods when sport-specific skills must be maximized. 

• Use the pre-season to accumulate that volume and the no-match periods during the season. 
• Use advanced methods during the season that allow for volume accumulation without developing great fatigue (i.e., intra-set rest periods).

Intra-set rest periods

In contrast with the traditional sets, the cluster sets include a rest time between repetitions. Different cluster sets can be performed but the most common are singles, doubles, and triples. The benefits of cluster sets can be resumed to these:

• Reduction in fatigue development: Cluster sets better maintain force and power production during the set compared to traditional sets. The use of intra-set rest allows for partial recovery of the energy systems and leads to a reduction in metabolic byproducts accumulation that typically contributes to fatigue. 
• Improved performance: A higher total volume training load can be accumulated with the use of cluster sets compared to traditional sets resulting in greater strength adaptations over time. 

An example of velocity loss in traditional sets vs cluster sets can be observed below.

As you can see, the lower the repetitions performed between each rest interval, the lower the velocity loss and therefore the fatigue. CS2 = 3 x 4 x 2, three 30 s intra-set and 90 s inter-set rest; CS1 = 3 x 2 x 4, one 30 s intra-set and 180 s inter-set rest; TRD 3 x 8, no intra-set rest and 225 s inter-set rest. 

Exercise specificity

Different force-velocity profiles are encountered in the different types of exercises. I will be exposing from the more general exercises to the more specific ones.

• Traditional resistance exercises: These exercises are performed at the slowest speeds. Different biomechanical characteristics make them perfect for lifting heavier loads. I would recommend using the mean propulsive velocity to track performance on them.
• Ballistic exercises: This type of exercise lacks the braking phase and allows greater velocities. In this kind of exercise, we can differentiate:
  • Throws
  • Olympic lifts 
  • Loaded jumps
  • Plyometric training
• Olympic lifts enhance the rate of force development and can be performed heavily compared to loaded jumps. However, loaded jumps are still performed at greater velocities compared to traditional exercises. Throws can either be performed heavily (bench throws) or lightly (med-ball throws). The lighter they are performed the greater the velocity and the greater the specificity. 

Exercise selection and velocity-based training applications

To better coach and teach different exercises, low variation and high repetition of those exercises are required. Velocity-based training is of great help in trying to assess the improvements in the technique of our interventions:

• Range of motion can give you incredible insights with beginner athletes. Usually, an advanced athlete will have a more consistent range of motion while a beginner individual will have greater variation. You can use the difference between the maximum and minimum to assess changes in technique.