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Home»Training»Why Training Won’t Make You A Better Athlete
Training

Why Training Won’t Make You A Better Athlete

Jonathan FongBy Jonathan FongNovember 27, 2012Updated:March 5, 20163 Mins Read
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Why Training Won’t Make You A Better Athlete
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Training doesn’t make you a better runner. It makes you physically and mentally tired, wears you down and can lead you to injury or illness.

Where you get your improvement is when you are sitting on the couch eating and drinking after your run, or when you’re asleep in bed. You see, it is not the training that makes you a better runner but the recovery from the training. This recovery process is what leads to adaptation and to improvements in your performance, not the training itself.

Why Training Won’t Make You A Better Athlete

It is a common theme with working athletes to think that more training is better, but unfortunately this is not necessarily the case if you cannot absorb the training and recover from it. We like to refer to this as ‘junk training’ with respect to going for quantity but seriously lacking in quality.

Training is a form of stress but so too are work, financial troubles, kids and marital issues to name but a few. Your body doesn’t know the difference between these stresses but they all greatly effect how you recover from your training. In order for us to improve performance, we first need to learn to better manage the stress in our lives.

Next time you have a stressful day at work or are feeling overly stressed for any reason, try backing off your training volume a little. By reducing your training volume in compensation for other forms of stress in your life, you will find that you are able to absorb the training that you do much more effectively and as a result, improve your running.

Choosing to take a day off running to engage in other forms of activity that are less strenuous such as yoga, pilates, cycling or swimming for example, helps to alleviate symptoms of over-training. Taking the much needed time off your feet will recharge your batteries and have you in a much better training state the day after.

Why Training Won’t Make You A Better Athlete

One off sessions don’t mean a lot in endurance sport because in this game, it is the long game that matters. The person who is the most consistent and can back up training day in and day out will win, so don’t be afraid to listen to your body and compensate by reducing your volume when you need to so that you can recover and train consistently week in and week out.

Training for the upcoming Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2012? Watch this space as Journey Fitness Company will be delivering more tips to help you train to reach your target.

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Jonathan Fong
Jonathan Fong
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Jonathan Fong is the Director and Co Founder of Journey Fitness Company. With over 15 years of endurance sports experience, Jonathan, who was Singaporeʼs National Record Holder and Triathlon Champion between 1996 to 1998, was awarded the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) Meritorious Award over the same period. He was the champion for the 1997 South-East Asian Triathlon and was placed first in the Singapore Biathlon (Open) in 2001. Jonathan has also competed in numerous triathlons from Sarawak to Los Angeles. Using his experience of elite level racing and his qualifications as a sports scientist, Jonathan has worked with and coached many local and international athletes to help them achieve personal bests. Through Journey Fitness Company, he now also supports multinational organizations to improve the health and well being of their employees by implementing strategic programmes that support both talent retention and performance. Jonathan was born in Singapore and has been involved in the triathlon scene since the age of 14.

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