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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
ATHLETES have no excuses to fail fitness tests at the end of the Covid-19 lockdown, as most exercises can be done in small spaces.
Government introduced strict measures last month, imposing a blanket ban on gatherings around recreational facilities, which include sports, bars, swimming pools, gyms and sporting activities, until further notice as part of efforts to combat the spread of Covid-19.
Athletes like footballers and rugby players, who were getting ready for their 2020 season, were forced to break camp.
A sports science lecturer at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) Joseph Sibindi encouraged athletes to follow programmes that they were given by their coaches in order to maintain the relative fitness they had gained.
He warned that failure to follow those training programmes will result in athletes losing the fitness they had gained.
Sibindi believes the lockdown should not be a deterrent for athletes.
“They can do circuit training for strength. This requires less than the size of a football penalty area. There are no excuses for players who will fail fitness tests at the end of the lockdown,” said Sibindi.
“Circuit training is some form of strength training where exercises are organised in a circular fashion within stations such as sit-ups, squats, lunges, press ups, jumping jacks, tricep dips, diagonal plank and rope skipping, among others.
“The guiding principle is that exercises are ordered in such a way that participants work on different muscle group from one station to the next. They have to do between five to eight series of these. A series has three to five sets. This is for strength training.”
For speed work, he suggested 30m sprints with a work to rest ratios of 1:3. This means they can work for 10 seconds and rest for 30 seconds or choose to work for a minute and rest for three minutes.
Aerobics have also been recommended, followed by intensive dynamic and static stretches.
Brazil and Spain schooled football trainer Dalubuhle Bhebhe said the Coronavirus layoff will negatively affect the pre-season physical preparations that had been gained. Physical conditioning is increasingly of central importance in the performances of today’s footballers.
“To circumvent the situation, l recommend that they adopt a multilateral approach to training, which integrates strength, speed, suppleness, aerobic capacity, and co-ordination. In terms of strength training, body weight training can be used as a form of resistance training, replacing weights and resistant bands. It is important to also mention that all training programmes should be customised to suit individual player needs,” Bhebhe said.
“When coaches are formulating these training plans, they need to adhere to periodisation principles of concentrated loading and long term delayed training effect. Long term delayed effect in simple terms, shows how the training effect or the improvements gained from concentrated loading will last (residue) for various qualities, for example, strength training lasts for 25-35 days, power and speed lasts for about five days.
“It is very important for the league bosses to give teams a minimum of three weeks preparation before resumption of the competition phase. This will prevent player injuries, improve player performance and most importantly enhance telepathy in the team,” he said.
He urged footballers to monitor their diets, as it will be tempting to just eat anything.
“Those that have access to internet have to download training apps and compute their personal data to customise their training.
“Those without internet access need to try and do aerobics for about 30 minutes, do push ups, sit-ups, jumping Jack’s and some such exercises,” said Bhebhe. — @ZililoR.
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