What is tapering?
Tapering is a natural tool to slingshot performance before an important competition or game!
Athletes who taper would see a maximum reduction in fatigue while keeping the current fitness level they built over the season or training period.
Tapering is a reduction in training while simultaneously lowering fatigue so you can enhance performance.
This is done by temporarily reducing volume and intensity in training, causing athletes to reduce fatigue without seeing a drop in their athletic performance.
There are many different ways to taper, but the most common way is to drop the duration of the training volume while still exercising at a high intensity for most of the tapering period.
When the training has a reduced volume to maintenance or lower, this is when a taper can have a short-term performance-enhancing effect.
When training at a higher fitness level, for a long time, despite what people think, you can’t and won’t automatically lose your gains when you stop training. The reduction period takes longer than we think.
The rate that fatigue drops are faster than someone losing their current fitness level or de-conditioning.
Even by dropping volume down to maintenance, one’s fitness level can remain the same by training at a high intensity.
By tapering for 1-3 weeks prior to a big game or event, you can reduce so much fatigue that will support a higher amount of power and speed to an extent than you normally wouldn’t be able to perform.
Tapering can potentially cause;
- Performance improvement
- Strength
- Speed
- Improve Agility
- Decrease mood disturbance
- Improve the quality of sleep
- Replacement of muscle glycogen
- and much more
In order to taper properly, you must apply the principles of progressive overload and non-functional overreaching. While avoiding non-functional overreaching!
Progressive Overload
Overload Principles related to weight training are when you push your muscles beyond their current limits.
Without overloading the body, you will not see continuous muscle development, finding yourself plateauing more often. Every time you plateau you are forcing yourself to slow down in order to recover.
I used to have the mentality that the only way to overload was by increasing my weight.
But the fact is, there are many different ways to improve muscle development.
Just increasing one style of progressive overload every week will help towards adaptation.
The main objective of progressive overload is to increase the stress on your muscles during your workouts over time.
Either by increasing your weights, sets, reps, changing tempo, or many other ways.
Functional Overreaching
Functional Overreaching is when you push your mind and body just outside your limits for a brief time. Usually 1-3 weeks. This push beyond what your body is capable of is a form of overloading.
Functional Overreaching is a great tool when properly monitored. But make sure this powerful tool doesn’t turn into Non-Functional Overreaching.
A return to normal fatigue levels after overreaching can often cause an increase in fitness performance.
Non-Functional Overreaching
Non-Functional Overreaching happens to someone who isn’t following a workout plan and probably complains about always having “hit a plateau” in their workouts.
Determining the difference between functional and non-functional overreaching comes with experience in building a mind-muscle connection. And understanding when your performance is starting to decline due to fatigue.
The longer you stay overreaching, the more noticeable your capabilities will deteriorate. Once recovered from non-functional overreaching, chances are you will return to baseline and see no improvement. In other words, you are working hard but seeing no additional benefits.
Fatigue accumulation is a normal process that must happen to see the adaptation. But pushing too hard for too long will seize adaptation and could reverse your fitness level.
How To Taper
Start by reducing the duration of your exercises or practices by 50 percent.
The amount of training during the taper can become extremely low.
Typically there is a three-phase approach to tapering for athletes;
- Go into a Functional Overraching phase that will last from 3-7 days
- A low volume, a high-intensity phase that lasts 3-7 days
- Leading into the main event, go into your recovery phase by reducing your workouts to low volume and lower intensity for approximately 2-3 days.
The best part of our Rookie Camp is we designed the overreaching phase to last for 1-3 weeks, followed by muscle re-sensitization. If this recovery week is timed perfectly before the big game, you will see a slingshot in performance.
However, elite athletes and someone with larger muscles could take it one step further by including low-intensity, low-volume training for 2-3 days before the big game. This will relieve even more fatigue while boosting your performance.
For the average person, deload weeks are more than enough to improve performance and relieve fatigue. For elite athletes, the three-step taper could take up to three weeks to properly execute.
It’s up to coaches to implement tapering during the hockey season. Tapering too much can take away from progressing skills and improving athletic performance.
As individuals, we can control when we deload, or taper in the weight room to help relieve fatigue before big games.
Conclusion
Tapering is a natural tool to slingshot performance before an important competition or game!
Athletes who taper would see a maximum reduction in fatigue while keeping the current fitness level they built over the season or training period.
Tapering can potentially cause;
- Performance improvement
- Strength
- Speed
- Improve Agility
- Decrease mood disturbance
- Improve the quality of sleep
- Replacement of muscle glycogen
- and much more
Non-Functional Overreaching happens to someone who isn’t following a workout plan and probably complains about always having “hit a plateau” in their workouts.
Typically there is a three-phase approach to tapering for athletes;
- Go into a Functional Overreaching phase that will last from 3-7 days
- A low volume, a high-intensity phase that lasts 3-7 days
- Leading into the main event, go into your recovery phase by reducing your workouts to low volume and lower intensity for approximately 2-3 days.