Integrated Fitness: female athletes and boiling frogs.

Female athletes as a group are different from male athletes, but within the female group there is a vast diversity of attitudes to training, physical development and indeed hard work. I find this divided by sport and background, rather than gender.

 I hear that females don’t like doing weights- well that depends on how they are introduced and what desire they have to achieve. If netball players’ arms get tired doing an overhead passing drill, it isn’t too much of a step to explain to them that resistance training of some sort to strengthen their arms in an overhead position could help them.

 To start, it is a good idea to get them working harder in their existing sporting environment.  I liken it to boiling frogs, you immerse the frog in cold water and then gradually increase the temperature until it is boiling. Before the frog has a chance to realise what is going on, it has been cooked.

 The same with female athletes.

Start off within their environment- make the warm ups tougher and part of the session.

Gradually increase different exercises and implements such as medicine balls or partner work.

Then go into the gym and start using light dumbbells to add resistance to exercises they are already familiar with.

• Increase that load.
• Introduce barbell work.
• Increase that load.

This works from a psychological\ engagement point of view as well as a biomechanical \physiological standpoint.

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