Should energy systems work be left for after a session, or can it be done after a session as well? I’m thinking of utilizing the tabata method once or twice a week after a session, or on an inbetween day. I’m also considering utilizing sprints, agility ladder work, cone drills, and sled dragging just to keep things interesting. The biggest issue I’m wondering about is timing. When is it most effective to use any of the above methods? Just an issue of after a lifting session or doing it the next day.
If you can effectively do tabata, sled drga , sprint etc AFTER a weight session then I say you need to rethink the effectiveness of you weight sessions.
If you can do your weights and then still do those something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the program or more so the amount of effort you are putting into it.
I don’t usually do them that way, no. I was just thinking that it could be done that way after a session. In certain aspects it may not be the most effective path, but it does require a great deal of mental focus and determination to get through it. When I was in HS we would run after lifting, and it was not the best idea but it did force us into giving effort even though we were tired from lifting. It was more of a question should it be done this way, and I don’t think so. I usually can’t do much of anything after lifting because I give great effort when I’m in the gym. Otherwise there would be no point.
In college, my track coach always scheduled our daily activities in the order of decreasing flexibility and complexity. Sprinting or running was always the first activity, because it required the greatest amount of flexibility and compound movement. Next was any plyometrics, then our weighttraining (and the Olympic lifts were always at the front of our weighttraining b/c of their flexibility and compound muscle requirements).
My coach always explained that serious sprinting after lifting was dangerous because lifting tightens up all your muscles, or it greatly imbalances your muscle flexibility temporarily. Think about it, say you hit your quads really hard one day lifting, and then go out and sprint, well now you’ve got a serious temporary muscle imbalance. You’ve got an exhausted quad musculature and a relatively rested hamstring/posterior chain musculature. The entire stabilization scheme around your knee and hip is now compomised because one key portion of that kinetic chain, the quads, is weakened from the lifting.
If you’re really lifting hard and then doing any intense explosive energy system work, your just asking for some kind of strain or joint problem, because you’re doing a compound movement with one stabilizing set of muscles greatly weakened relative to the others.
So I would say do serious energy system work or at least anything that requires the greatest explosiveness or dynamic flexibility first, before your weighttraining. And if you are doing both those things in the same day, like a sprint workout followed by a weight workout, then definitly make sure your getting some mid workout carbs and protein to keep your body from going too catabolic.