Website: www.gtpersonaltrainer.co.uk
Fartlek Training
Fartlek Training is Swedish for ‘speed play; and involves
regularly changing the speed and intensity of many forms of cardiovascular
training throughout your session.
This form of training is excellent for the vast majority
of team sports because it replicates the regular changes in speed and intensity
at which a participant will experience throughout a game scenario.
For example, during a game of rugby, players will have
periods where they will walk, jog lightly, jog fast and flat-out sprint.
With this in mind you can structure your training to
include each of these elements, and as a result place a game specific demand on
your body; so that, when game-day comes along, your body is more accustomed to
the changes of speed and intensity.
Away from sport specificity, Fartlek training is an
excellent method of training your cardiovascular and muscular systems
Other benefits to including some form of Fartlek into
your training is that it is predominantly high intensity and short duration. Your
sessions will also be much better quality than just a long ‘steady state’
run/swim.
Because of the demand of the fast component of Fartlek
you will place a higher muscular demand on your body, and also improve your
mental toughness as a result of having to push yourself to the maximum through
the fast component, and yet still work through the walk and jog components
whilst you are experiencing muscular and cardiovascular fatigue.
It is of paramount importance that you perform the Sprint
component of this form of exercise at maximal speed/effort. The Walk and Jog
components are basically ‘active recovery’ following the effort you put into
the Sprints.
You can perform shuttle running Fartlek sessions outside
on practically any surface, for example a large field, cricket pitch,
football/rugby/hockey pitch or inside on a playing court (basketball/tennis/badminton
etc), sports hall etc; you can even incorporate Fartlek into your Hill Sprints
sessions.
You can also perform Fartlek using gym equipment. However,
with the need for changing the speed and intensity quickly, a treadmill is quite
often too slow at increasing/decreasing the necessary speeds. However, you can
use other gym cardiovascular equipment, such as an exercise bike, rowing
machine or cross trainer to good effect.
Structuring your own Fartlek training session is easy.
You only have 3 levels to work with: Easy, Moderate and Hard. Depending on the
form of exercise you choose, these will translate into walk, jog, sprint or slow,
slightly faster and fast.
Shuttle Running Fartlek
You can perform shuttle running Fartlek on any hard or
grassed surface, as long as you have a clear, unobstructed run. Ideally the
distance you choose should reflect your chosen sport; for example, if during a
game you only ever walk, jog or sprint for 20 metres then this is the distance
you would use during your Fartlek training sessions. However, for those of you
who just want to incorporate Fartlek into a personal training session I’d
recommend a distance of 30 - 50 metres.
Sports teams can all perform this form of training
together; staying in line for the walk and jog components, then all sprinting
against each other. In this instance you can use the width or length of a
sports pitch/court; the length of a sports hall etc.
The three different components are walk, jog, sprint.
 WALK 
JOG SPRINT |
30 -
50 metresGym Cardiovascular Equipment Fartlek
When performing Fartlek training on gym cardiovascular
equipment you simply substitute the walk, jog, sprint components for the
equivalent on your chosen piece of equipment:
Exercise bike: pedal slow, pedal slightly faster, pedal
flat out.
Rowing machine: row slow, row slightly faster, row flat
out.
Cross trainer: (using both the handles and the foot pads)
ski slow, ski slightly faster, ski flat out.
One good thing about performing Fartlek on gym
cardiovascular equipment is that you usually have a digital display, which
enables you to make sure that you work to the same time/speed/repetitions per
minute/intensity level etc for all three components throughout your training
session.
It is still important that you perform the Sprint (flat
out) component at maximal speed/effort. Therefore, with gym cardiovascular
equipment you can either perform all three for the same amount of time, or
perform the slow and slightly faster components for the same time period but
reduce the flat out period slightly, to ensure that you are able to perform
this component at your maximal intensity. Or you can decrease the time slightly
for each component. For example:
Training Options
|
Equipment
|
Slow
|
Slightly Faster
|
Flat Out/Maximal Intensity
|
Option One
|
Exercise Bike/Rower/Cross Trainer
|
20 Seconds
|
20 Seconds
|
20 Seconds
|
Option Two
|
Exercise Bike/Rower/Cross Trainer
|
20 Seconds
|
20 Seconds
|
10 - 15 Seconds
|
Option Three
|
Exercise Bike/Rower/Cross Trainer
|
30 Seconds
|
20 Seconds
|
10 Seconds
|
