EFFECTS OF LIFEGUARD TRAINING AND YOUR RATE OF LOSS
American Lifeguard Association
During the last weeks, we have faced the threat of Covid-19 or Coronavirus, which has become a global pandemic and has taken the lives of many people ahead. We must remember that with decisive and early action we can slow the spread of the virus and prevent infections so that the majority of those infected will recover.
The most important measure to take is the confinement of the population at home, and that for athletes leads to a significant stoppage in their swimming and lifeguard training since sports facilities remain closed and they are forced to train at home, where many of them don’t have the proper equipment to do it.
If we establish schedules, plan our physical work, hydrate well, and organize a good exercise routine we can improve our physical form, we can perform strength exercises and flexibility exercises that will be totally positive. As far as swimming technique is concerned, we could train part of it, such as grip, but with the sports facilities closed, we cannot train most of the technique involved in swimming.
First of all, we are going to explain in a general way that the effects of training are the changes that occur in the body as a result of training. These effects can be of various types depending on the duration of the work performed and the consequences that occur when completing the training, so that 5 types of training effects are distinguished:
Acute training effect: produced by the execution of a training task, and reflects the changes that occur in the body during exercise.
Immediate training effect: it is identified by the changes in the body that may occur during a training session and/or day.
The cumulative effect of training: it reflects the changes in the body and in the level of physical and technical capacities resulting from a series of sessions and determines whether there is an improvement in the athlete’s performance.
Delayed training effect: a certain time is necessary for physiological and morphological changes to occur, this process is called delayed transformation and the particular type of adaptation in athletes is called the delayed training effect.
The residual effect of training: it is the retention of the capacities developed after the training cessation.
The stoppage of pool training in which we find ourselves will have obvious effects on each swimmer. So that we take into account what it means not to wear the swimsuit for several weeks, we are going to explain the residual effect that this cessation of training will have on athletes.
RESIDUAL EFFECT OF TRAINING
There is a type of cumulative effect that is related to stopping training. During a given period, the trained capacity may remain close to the achieved level, but then a decrease in performance begins. The retention of developed capacities after training cessation is known as the residual training effect or training reserve.
- Thus, there are several types of residual effects :
- In the long term, they are brought on by many years of training.
- In the medium term, they remain for several months.
- In the short term, they reflect the changes in the body caused by the preceding training.
The residual training effect is supported by a wide number of biological and physical systems. These systems have varied and different effects on sports training, and there are different rates of adaptation of the different systems. The system also varies in retention, rate of loss, gain from setup, and its cumulative effects that will define the residual training pool.
Some training reserves are lost within days, while others are held almost indefinitely. To illustrate this point, a model has been developed that illustrates the magnitude, the rate of retention, and loss of each physical system:
The first system is the one corresponding to the anaerobic metabolic productivity, which is reflected in the lactic anaerobic improvement and is the one with the smallest training reserve of all the systems, its retention or rate of loss can be observed in a few days. The aerobic capacity also corresponds to this system, has a reserve of more extensive training, and can be retained for several weeks.
The next system that has a residual effect significantly higher than metabolic productivity is the cardiovascular-respiratory system, which can also be called the circulatory system, including capillary density, heart size, lung mass … Physical changes in This system can be retained for several months.
Changes in the state of the body that mainly affects the muscular and neuromuscular system, such as gains in strength, speed, or specific technique are those that show a lower rate of loss, which can last up to several years with few alterations.
As a conclusion, it can be deduced that feeling a considerable difference in sensations and a notable decrease in times after the stoppage due to the cessation of training in the pool, shows an important technical deficiency in the swimmer since after losing the anaerobic and aerobic metabolic capacities he has lost speed. On the contrary, those swimmers who have worked constantly for a long period of time on coordination, specific technique, strength, and speed, that is, the muscular and neo-muscular systems, working and training correctly for several weeks at home, could stay almost at the same level. same point in which it was before the arrival of the coronavirus.
* It is important to note that this model should not be expected to work equally in all athletes since the level or rate of loss of preparation is always individual.