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Who is "BrianMac Sports Coach"?

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BrianMac is a Level 4 Performance Coach and Coach Tutor/Assessor with British

Athletics, the Uk's National Governing body for Track and Field Athletics. Brian has 40+
years experience as an endurance athlete competing over distances from 5k to 50k on
the roads, fells and mountains. He has 30+ years experience as an athletics coach
helping sprinters and combined event athletes achieve their aims and objectives. He
has worked with the publishers of Peak Performance writing a monthly newsletter on
"Successful Coaching" and a number of training books.
Brian's aim with the site is to provide information for athletes, fitness enthusiasts,
sports science students and sports coaches on the many topics relating to athletic
development, exercise physiology and successful coaching. Since its conception in 1997
the site now has over a thousand pages thanks to contributions from coaches and
athletes around the world.
To find your topic of interest on the website you can use the menu options to the left,
browse the AZ Page index which provides an alphabetical list of most of the pages on
the website or you can use the Site Search Facility.

Nutrition
Planning
Programs
Psychology

Conditioning

Sports

One of the misconceptions in the sports world is that a sports person gets in shape by
just playing or taking part in his/her chosen sport. If a stationary level of performance,
consistent ability in executing a few limited skills is your goal, then engaging only in
your sport will keep you there. However, if you want the utmost efficiency, consistent
improvement, and balanced abilities sportsmen and women must participate in year
round conditioning programs. The bottom line in sports conditioning and fitness training
is stress, not mental stress, but adaptive body stress. Sportsmen and women must put
their bodies under a certain amount of stress (overload) to increase physical capabilities.
You have to move outside your comfort zone if you wish to improve your level of fitness.

Sport Development
Sports Injury
Sports Merchandise
Track & Field
Training Aids
Website Blog

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Website Information
Web Links

Heart Rate Zones

Heart rate training zones are
calculated by taking into consideration
your maximum heart rate (HRmax) and
your resting heart rate (HRrest).
The zones are:

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Within each training zone, subtle

physiological effects take place to
enhance your fitness.

Sports Work

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Ideal Weight & BMI

Maximum Heart Rate

A method of determining if you have an ideal

body weight is to calculate your Body Mass
Index (BMI). To calculate your BMI divide your
weight in kilograms by your height in metres
squared (weight height). The normal
acceptable range of this measurement is 20.1
to 25.0 for men and 18.7 to 23.8 for women.

Athletes who use a heart rate monitor

as a training aid need to identify their
actual maximum heart rate in order to
determine their appropriate training
zones. Maximum heart rate (HRmax)
can be determined by undertaking a
maximum heart rate stress test which
although relatively short does require
you to push your body and your heart
to the very limit. It can also be
predicted using a formula but the
variation in actual HRmax will lie
within a range of 20 beats/minute.

A more accurate assessment of your ideal

weight takes into account your body
composition.

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Energy Pathways
Energy production is both time and intensity related. Running at a very high intensity, as
in sprinting, means that an athlete can operate effectively for only a very short period.
Running at a low intensity, as in gentle jogging, means that an athlete can sustain
activity for a long period. Training introduces another variable, and the sprinter who

Sports Science

uses sound training principles is able to run at a high intensity for longer periods.
Similarly, the endurance athlete who uses sound training methods can sustain higher
intensities during a set period. There is a relationship between the exercise intensity and
the energy source. So what are they?

Fitness Coach

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Plyometrics
Speed and strength are integral
components of fitness found in varying
degrees in virtually all athletic
movements. Simply put the
combination of speed and strength is
power. Throughout this century and no
doubt long before, jumping, bounding
and hopping exercises have been used
in various ways to enhance athletic
performance. In recent years, this
distinct method of training for power
or explosiveness has been termed
plyometrics. So what are some
examples of plyometric exercises?
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Flexibility

Muscle Types

Flexibility, mobility and suppleness all mean

the range of limb movement around joints. In
any movement there are two groups of
muscles at work - the agonistic muscles which
cause the movement to take place and
opposing the movement and determining the
amount of flexibility are the antagonistic
muscles. Flexibility plays an important part in
the preparation of athletes by developing a
range of movement to allow technical
development and assisting in the prevention of
injury. The various techniques of stretching
may be grouped as Static, Ballistic, Dynamic,
Active, Passive, Isometric and Assisted.

Muscle tissue has four main

properties: Excitability (ability to
respond to stimuli), Contractibility
(ability to contract), Extensibility
(ability to be stretched without
tearing) and Elasticity (ability to return
to its normal shape). Based on certain
structural and functional
characteristics, muscle tissue is
classified into three types: cardiac,
smooth and skeletal. Fascia is the soft
tissue component of the connective
tissue system. It interpenetrates and
surrounds muscles, bones, organs,
nerves, blood vessels and other
structures. Fascia is an uninterrupted,
three-dimensional web of tissue that
extends from head to toe, from front
to back, from interior to exterior

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Sports Psychology
The increased stress of competitions can cause athletes to react both physically and
mentally in a manner that can negatively affect their performance abilities. They may
become tense, their heart rates race, they break into a cold sweat, they worry about the
outcome of the competition, they find it hard to concentrate on the task in hand. This
has led coaches & athletes to take an increasing interest in the field of sport psychology
and in particular in the area of competitive anxiety. That interest has focused on
techniques that athletes can use in the competitive situation to maintain control and
optimise their performance. So what are these techniques?
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Speed Training
Speed is the quickness of movement
of a limb, whether this is the legs of a
runner or the arm of the shot putter.
Speed is an integral part of every
sport and can be expressed as any one
of, or combination of, the following:
maximum speed, elastic strength
(power) and speed endurance. The
two factors that effect speed are stride
length and strike rate. Speed
endurance is used to develop the coordination of muscle contraction.
Repetition methods are used with a
high number of sets, low number of
repetitions per set and intensity
greater than 85% with distances
covered from 60% to 120% of racing
distance.
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Endurance Training

Running Economy

The types of endurance are aerobic endurance,

anaerobic endurance, speed endurance and
strength endurance. A sound basis of aerobic
endurance is fundamental for all events.
During anaerobic work, involving maximum
effort, the body is working so hard that the
demands for oxygen and fuel exceed the rate
of supply and the muscles have to rely on the
stored reserves of fuel. The muscles, being
starved of oxygen, take the body into a state
known as oxygen debt. What are the other
forms of endurance?

In many sports speed is an important

attribute and ways to improve speed
are constantly sought after. To
improve speed you need to increase
stride length and/or strike rate. Many
athletes and coaches initially
concentrate on improving stride length
only to find that both strike rate and
speed decrease. It is more effective to
work on strike rate because this
increases the power in the leg muscles
which in turn increase stride length.
Does breathing have an impact on
running economy?

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