In the two previous blogs (this one and this one) I have already shown how you can improve your power and stamina outside the fencing training. In this blog I will show how these routines can be combined to get to an optimal result. I would also like to show what Android apps I use to perform my exercises.
To ensure that these extra training sessions do not get in your way during fencing training, it is important that you start this training set on a Thursday or Friday. Friday is better because you can take a rest on Thursday, so your muscles can recover from the fencing training. If you do start the training cycle on Friday, I advise you to take so-called ‘active rest’ on Thursday.
You can achieve this ‘active rest’ by exercising, but at a much slower pace. The movement ensures that your muscles stay well-blooded and waste products are removed from your muscles. Because you exercise at a slower pace, you also ensure that your muscles are not so severely loaded that you have to appeal to your anaerobic system. Make sure your ‘active rest’ lasts about 30-45 minutes. With this training, think about your normal running round, but at a much lower speed. Cycling a long stretch at a moderate pace is also a good option and cycling is less stressful for your knees than running.
The first real training is leg day, which I described in an earlier blog. Write down the time of your running round and the suicides for this day, so that you can monitor your progress. It is no problem if you are slower one time than the other, but if your performance is getting consistently worse, it is important that you talk to one of the trainers.
The day after is another day for ‘active rest’, so that your leg muscles can recover from the hard work. The day we continue with a good training, namely the Core-stability training. It is important that the warm-up running round has to be run at a reduced speed, although the pace must be higher than with ‘active rest’.
During my training sessions I use a number of Android apps, which help me to do the exercises and keep up the pace. The first app is of course Spotify, because exercising with music in the background is just great. I also use Runkeeper to time my running round, but you can also use it for cycling, for example. The final app that I use a lot, is Exercise Timer, with which I time the circuits. Below I give links to the diagrams that I have made for the exercise routines. You can import these directly into Exercise Timer.
