Introduction
When an untrained beginner starts his journey towards selection, it doesn’t require much training to improve. He can start with 2.5 hours of training per week, three 30 minutes runs and two 30 minute strength training sessions, and see great progress.
To see improvement over time though, he’ll have to continuously tweak training variables to ensure his body is receiving a sufficient stimulus. For running, this could mean increasing the pace or duration of the runs. And for lifting, it could mean increasing load or the number of sets and reps.
But as a candidate becomes more advanced in his training journey, at some point it’s no longer feasible to simply do more – either due to time or recovery constraints. Here’s a few client examples (names changed):
- Chris – College Student who works Full Time
A 21 year old college student who also works full time tells us his progress has plateaued, and he’s training at his maximum allowable time of 12 hours per week. Any more training time and his sleep, school, or work would suffer, and that’s not an option for him. He’s not sure how to improve his training and needs help. - Ryan – Recent Graduate Living with Family
A recent graduate living with family tells us he has unlimited time to train. He’s currently training 25 hours per week and his progress has plateaued. He feels constantly fatigued and has started feeling overuse injury symptoms in his shins and knees from rucking twice per week. He’s concerned that doing less will cause him to lose his progress.
These are classic examples of when we would incorporate prefatigue strategies. But before we do a deepdive on practical applications, let’s explain what preexhaustion is and how it can benefit a candidate’s training.
Prefatigue Explained
Prefatigue is a training strategy where we deliberately stimulate and fatigue target body parts prior to our main workout to elicit the same adaptations associated with a long training session earlier in the session. If that’s confusing, here’s an example:
Let’s say Ryan rucks 15 miles with 45lbs each Saturday. He knows his rucking weaknesses are his legs and lower back. By mile 10 in his rucks, his legs will become tight and heavy, which causes him to adjust his rucking position and consequently places more stress on his lower back. He’s worked up to 15 mile rucks over time and wants to maintain this mileage because he wants to break through the 10 mile leg fatigue plateau and work on his technique, but he also feels overtrained and feels overuse injuries coming up in his shins and knees.
The question is, “how do we achieve the same training stimulus and allow for Ryan to practice his rucking form under fatigue with less recovery cost and total mileage?” The answer is to prefatigue Ryan’s weakpoints, so that he enters the ruck with more fatigue in his weakpoint body parts earlier in the session, and thus needs to ruck for less total time and accumulate less total fatigue and damage to the body.
His preeexhaustion circuit may looks like this:
3-4 Rounds
- Walking DB Lunges
- Air Squats
- Light DB Romanian Deadlifts
- Back Extensions
While this may look like an easy circuit, after 3-4 rounds, Ryan will have a massive leg and lower back pump. Following the circuit, he will immediately begin a 5 mile ruck, and from the moment he starts the ruck, Ryan’s legs will feel like he’s at mile 9 or 10.
Ryan can deliberately focus his energy on maintaining core tightness and postural integrity. And rather than rucking for 15 miles, he can simulate the effects and benefits of a 15 mile ruck in only 5 total miles.
Benefits of Prefatigue
- Less Fatigue
The main benefit our clients share after using prefatigue techniques is that they no longer have to endure the significant recovery costs associated with weekly 2 hour or longer rucks. Instead of performing those long rucks, most weeks we’ll program a prefatigue circuit followed by a 45 – 60 minute ruck.
And then every four to eight weeks, we’ll drop the prefatigue circuit and have them complete a long ruck as a diagnostic to measure progress and ensure their psychologically comfortable with the long ruck marches they’ll experience in selection.
From a coaching perspective, we value prefatigue because it allows candidates to be much more fresh going into their following workouts. We find that a hard ruck march over 10 miles can require two to three days for the body to recover.
With prefatigue and then a moderate distance ruck, most guys feel leg and back soreness for a day or two, but they’re able to come back and hit a strength session full force after a day of rest. It’s still fatiguing but there’s a big difference between that and the deep full body fatigue one feels from a long, heavy ruck march in the heat. - Lower Risk of Overuse Injuries
Some newer trainees may not be capable of rucking as fast, long, or hard as our advanced trainees, and so they may not see large differences in recovery costs by employing prefatigue strategies.
But all trainees will experience the lower risk of overuse injuries which comes with prefatigue training. The simple fact the candidates will spend less total time on their feet means a lower risk of shin splints and knee issues. - Less Time Training
Let’s say a candidate is able to comfortably recover from their training and does not feel symptoms of overuse injury or have a history of overuse injury, but they’re in a time crunch. How does prefatigue training benefit him?
Well, let’s use Ryan as an example. Prior to employing prefatigue training he would peform a 50lb ruck march for 15 miles at a 13 minute pace. That’s a 3 hour and 15 minute ruck each week.
After starting preexhaustion training, he would do a 20 minute circuit and a 5 mile ruck march at a 13 minute pace. That’s a total training time of 1 hour and 25 minutes, and a total time savings of 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Who Shouldn’t Use Prefatigue?
So far we have outlined the tremendous benefits of preexhaustion training. But who should leverage preexhaustion training, and how frequently should it be used?
With our clients, we program prefatigue training if any of one of the criteria below is met
- Late Intermediate/Advanced Trainee
- Risk/History of Overuse Injury
- Limited Time to Train
- Extreme Fatigue/Overtraining Symptoms
The main activities we stack with prefatigue circuits are zone 2 runs and heavy rucks. Although, as a candidate nears selection, we will stack work capacity calisthenics circuits with tempo runs to build comfort and resilience to running under full body fatigue.
Conclusion
Prefatigue is a valuable tool in any coach’s or athlete’s toolbox. It’s a great way for advanced athletes or those in a time crunch to have a strong workout with less recovery costs, lower risk of injury, and less total training time.
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