It’s also worth mentioning at this stage that our sessions include recovery, but also our training blocks which last 6 weeks at times will have 2 weeks of recovery weeks where the volume drops by half. This doesn’t mean we don’t do much but rather we have a time where we let the 2 weeks of volume or fast weeks settle, this allowing the upwards curve to take effect so improvements can be made. For some athletes this is seen as an option to cram some extra matches or sports in that week, this is a huge mistake and its the responsibility of the athlete to take ownership of the information and the plan set out. Less volume means less volume not an opportunity to do more else where, again layering the fatigue. It is also possible that some athletes want to work hard and enjoy that feeling, again it’s important that there are times in this program that that happens. Equally, there is good reason for the programming of less is to recover and adapt to the stress. Hopefully the diagram above explains visually why this is so important. So important that all your hard work can be lost through thinking “more is better, when in fact less is better”.

Recovery is so important that if you didn’t take it seriously there would be no adaptation. Without adaptation there is no improvement.