General Fitness

Mickeyie05

Hey all just wanted to check something. I'm just coming back from injury no niggles and the moment thank god! had an operation on the cartilage of my knee back in Sept. Im a 22 yr old playing gaelic football! Just wanted to check if i would be regarded as any way fit.

Im currently doin 6.1km in 30 mins
I do 5 mins 10.7km/h
then 5mins 13.8km/h
then 5 mins 10.7km/h
then 5mins 13.8km/h
then 5 mins 10.7km/h
then 5mins 13.8km/h

kevpants

Just to warn you, you're about to get told that "those times would mean something if you were a runner" and "when do you run at 13.8km/h inn a gaelic match".

I don't coach gaelic players but a few guys here could recommend or take you on to train you specifically for your requirements.

corkcomp

times look ok but IMO you should be incorporating some sprints also. as for not being relevant to gaelic, thats like sayin theres no point shoulder pressing 50 kg because your never going to be lifting 50 kg during a match (just an analogy)

kevpants

corkcomp wrote: »

times look ok but IMO you should be incorporating some sprints also. as for not being relevant to gaelic, thats like sayin theres no point shoulder pressing 50 kg because your never going to be lifting 50 kg during a match (just an analogy)

No it's not.

When do you run at a constant speed for 10 minutes in a match? What do you usually do? You usually jog, followed by a burst of speed, jog etc etc. It's the old problem of players being given laps until they drop to improve on the field performance.

Shoulder pressing is not comparable because strength is completely transfereable to the pitch. Plodding along at a constand speed is not.

corkcomp

either way being able to run over 6 K in 30 minutes is a good indicator of fitness and running at 12km per hour wouldnt exactly be plodding along. all the strength in the world is no use if aerobic capaity issnt present

digme

Mickey, that's pretty good but now you need to go to the next level and put in some sprints to train your anaerobic fitness more.
How do you compare in sprinting against your team mates?

Train by mimicking how you play on the field
You should add in some 30 seconds sprints at 80% of your max and then a light jog for 60 seconds to recover.Repeat that 5-10 times or no longer than 15-20 minutes.You will notice a huge increase in your fitness.

J-Fit

kevpants wrote: »

No it's not.

When do you run at a constant speed for 10 minutes in a match? What do you usually do? You usually jog, followed by a burst of speed, jog etc etc. It's the old problem of players being given laps until they drop to improve on the field performance.

Shoulder pressing is not comparable because strength is completely transfereable to the pitch. Plodding along at a constand speed is not.

corkcomp wrote: »

either way being able to run over 6 K in 30 minutes is a good indicator of fitness and running at 12km per hour wouldnt exactly be plodding along. all the strength in the world is no use if aerobic capaity issnt present

I think both of you are right to a point. It's often said you have to establish an aerobic base in order to build up some appreciable work capacity but I don't really buy into that because anaerobic work increases aerobic and anaerobic capacity concurrently so why do both?

Just start on a low level of anaerobic work early season and increase it as time goes on before decreasing again before the season begins. Corkcomp is probably correct in saying that there is a high correlation between aerobic capacity and overall match fitness but you have to scratch below the surface to see how the aerobic capacity was attained - by doing long slow jogging or by doing short fast sprints?

Guys who train aerobically will have good 6km times but guys who train anaerobically will have good 6km times and good sprint times.

You need to train for the sport and for any possible eventuality so there is a good way of doing this and a great way of doing this.

Mellor

J-Fit wrote: »

Corkcomp is probably correct in saying that there is a high correlation between aerobic capacity and overall match fitness but you have to scratch below the surface to see how the aerobic capacity was attained - by doing long slow jogging or by doing short fast sprints?

Corkcomp wasn't saying its a best way to train. He was just disagreeing with kevpants notion that it is not relevant at all. Which is obviously ridiculous.

Yes, training for jogging and bursts of speed is need to improve your game play. But you also need to include endurance type work so you can last a full match

BossArky

Mickeyie05 wrote: »

Just wanted to check if i would be regarded as any way fit.

Im currently doin 6.1km in 30 mins

There was a highly technical survey carried out here a couple of years ago. I cannot find the thread right now but the consensus was that you had a better than average level of fitness/strength if you could match these:

• run 5km in 25mins
• bench: bodyweight x1.0
• squat: bodyweight x1.333
• deadlift: bodyweight x1.666
• pull ups: 10
• be able to walk to the shop and have a decent quality of life in old age

So, your 6.1km in 30 mins exceeds the first requirement above.

Mickeyie05

cheers for the advice lads! see im only 5ft6 and weight about 11 stone so pace really has to be my strength cos of my size so i want to be like super fit if that makes any sense

Mickeyie05

I take the sprints part on board and plan to incorporate it into my programme. Would the general consenses be that this is a good cardio workout and if carried out twice a week along with trainin twice a week and one game a week that i should see myself excelling??

senorG

I do 6k in about 27mins and would say that out of our panel of 20 i would be about 7th fittest when doing runs drills etc at training. The top few lads would be have a fair bit in hand. I've found that doing a bit of running, especially longer runs, makes a big differance. With our setup anyway there is lots of sprinting/snappy ballwork drills at training but the endurance stuff gets neglected a bit.

Mickeyie05

senorG thats really good! what grade you playin at if you dont mind me askin! im playin senior wit a club who was in the county final last year

senorG

Playin senior though we're in no danger of winning anything anytime soon. It only took me 3-4 weeks of doing a 6k run 3 times a week to go from 30mins to 28 mins. In fairness i think i still have a way to go, my 10k time is 47mins, i know one of the lads on the team did one in 41mins last year without specifaclly training for it, and as for the times the dedicated runners on the running forum do them in... But if you can even complete a 10k you'd be ahead of a lot of club players..

kevpants

Mickeyie05 wrote: »

I take the sprints part on board and plan to incorporate it into my programme. Would the general consenses be that this is a good cardio workout and if carried out twice a week along with trainin twice a week and one game a week that i should see myself excelling??

Ya see. This was my point. Obviously being able to run at a good pace for a fairly long time is a positive thing.

HOWEVER

The OP, like many amateur sportsmen, sees this as the be all and end all and that by just doing this he can excel.

I'm not the man to tell him how to excel but as a person with a half a brain I'm qualified to say this is wrong.

Barry.Oglesby

Get stronger, simple as. Take that whole model of "how to get fit" and turn it around so the arse faces you. Then go from there. Running is only one indicator of match fitness, but there's an easy question to answer if you want to decide what training to do:

What type of player do you want to be? Do you want to be the guy who can run and keep up with people the whole game, or would you prefer to be faster to the ball, able to leap higher, hold men off and strike harder?

Stop thinking of your game as a marathon that just needs to be finished, instead think of it as a series of strength movements, linked together.

Mickeyie05

well had a fitness test tonight and i was one of the slowest ran 600m in 2.20min. and 40 11m shuttle runs in 2.08min! i was one of the slowest fastest shuttle run was 1.55min and 600m in 2mins flat

bubbleking

Hey OP here are 2 exercises that we do at training that you may find useful - you still need to work on your weights and ball work but this will help you with your general fitness.

exercise 1 - 50m sprints in 30 seconds.

the idea is you sprint 50m as quick possible. when you reach the finish line the time you took is taken away from 30 seconds and that equals your rest period. i.e if you do it in 7 seconds then you have 23 seconds rest before going again. you do 6 in a row before having a 2 min rest. do at least 3 sets.

exercise 2 - 1km repeats

this is torture. you basically run 1km in under 3mins 30 seconds. you get a 2 min break and go again. we started off with 2 the first week of training and wer up to 5 now - never seen so many lads get sick on the last couple of reps but its an excellent exercise.

Mickeyie05

Id imagine ye dont do both exercises in the same night?? the second one seems alot tougher! ive done the first one before! except it was like 400m in 64 secs then 64 secs rest or something on those lines then 20m in watever it was. It is a leinster rugby exercise, we had a coach down for it

bubbleking

Mickeyie05 wrote: »

Id imagine ye dont do both exercises in the same night?? the second one seems alot tougher! ive done the first one before! except it was like 400m in 64 secs then 64 secs rest or something on those lines then 20m in watever it was. It is a leinster rugby exercise, we had a coach down for it

unfortunately we do both in the one night - although i really find that its improving my fitness - i just did a 4.5km run and knocked MINUTES off my best time.

i find its easier to do the sprinting second but from an injury prevention point of view your better off doing the sprints 1st as it is not wise to sprint repeatedly when fatigued - just my opinion