June 26th marked the first day of the training, in which we discussed a few key, but overlooked points, regarding training a pregnant client. We went over the questions to consider asking a potential pregnant client and the pertinent medical history to obtain from the client, which also helps to manage how to react to abnormal events that might occur during training.
ACOG, or American Council of Obstetrics and Gynecology recently published a paper outlining exercise considerations for the pregnant client in February ’09. We were able to discuss their suggestions and how that would relate to a training session or how we advise our clients.
When it came to the programming aspect of the training, the main focus was in managing how the client felt about the workout overall. We always want to keep the client in a “moderate” exertion level or below, so determining how best to find that level was interesting.
Overall, I learned a lot and found reassurance in what I am currently doing with my own prenatal client, as well as garnered some additional ideas and concepts to keep her safe, strong and happy in the gym as well as help her recover following the birth.
I would like to thank Annette Lang for her stellar instruction. It was a pleasure to have met and leaned from you.
July 1st marked Day 1 of my research into leg cramping and various ways to reduce the effects of this performance dampening issue as I found myself face-first (literally) in the gravel, reeling from a 5-minute episode of quad cramps.
Since then, I’ve done some reading and come up with these assumptions regarding a few issues that can be associated with muscle cramping in endurance athletes:
1. Training the muscles past their accustomed limit of exertion.
2. Hydration is important to reduce the chance of dehydration, especially during high heat and humidity.
3. Electrolyte replacement is important to replace particular minerals that seem to be the more important electrolytes to replace. Those electrolytes are magnesium and calcium and can be found in supplement form, or even in a roll of Rolaids.
4. Muscle glycogen reserves is important for providing the fuel source for ATP production and proper cell functioning. Specifically, the intake of glycogen sources in a high calorie diet should result in adequate water retention in muscle cells, which should also assist in reducing the occurrence of cramping.
The bottom line is that every individual is unique in how their body responds to certain diets as well as exercise conditions. When exercising, listen to your body as much as possible in order to truly find the perfect balance for you to get what you want (performance-wise) out of each workout.
I now know that I need to eat more carbohydrates (quinoa, couscous, sprouted grain bread) on a daily basis in order to support my body’s needs during 2-4 hour bike rides. Otherwise, I’ll just end up on the side of the road, writhing in pain.
Simon put together an interesting presentation on an advanced method of viewing rugby conditioning, which takes into account the fact that many rugby union players are also involved in other activities, as well as the fact that most people can only take so many hours of instruction per week before there are diminishing returns from “coaching” efforts.
He emphasizes the importance of efficiency with workouts, particularly with integrating skill work, decision-making, and ball work when in a “conditioning” session. His ideas focus on the necessity of the skills coach and the strength & conditioning coach to collaborate for each practice in order to get the optimal benefit from each training session.
To get direct benefits, conditioning-wise, he has used HR monitors to measure players’ HR levels during a match. An article which I have recently read also uses GPS tracking to determine the instances and lengths of various runs and sprints within a game, further enhancing the strength & conditioning professional’s ability to tailor a “conditioning” session towards game-specific circumstances.
