Factors In Constructing a Benchmark Workout
Submitted by Got Strength? Blog
Yesterday I discussed what benchmark workouts were and why they were important here. Today I’m going to go over some tips in creating your own benchmark workouts.
The way I look at it, there needs to be three considerations in your benchmark workout schedule. When one is creating some sort of experiment or test, you need to look at the validity and reliability of that test. The first consideration when creating your benchmark workout is that it must be valid. By that I mean that the test needs to measure what you want it to. I realize that sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how that can get screwed up. For example, an age old test for deciding whether or not a football lineman or soccer player (some coaches will use the same test for both athletes, so automatically a flag should go up) is “in shape” is measuring their 1.5 mile run time.
Both of these athletes are power athletes who have a sprint/rest sport. The football player’s split is even more dramatic than the soccer player, but at no point do either of these athletes even come CLOSE to jogging 1.5 miles at one time. So why are their coaches testing it? The 1.5 mile is a test of basic aerobic endurance, when both athletes spend a great deal of time performing anaerobically. That test is not particularly valid for those athletes. A better test would be some highly anaerobic activity (sprinting, bodyweight squats, etc) for a period of time mimicking their sport activity and rest periods. You’d want to look at work performed over time, or work drop-off over time to determine their level of sport-specific preparation.
Reliability of the testing is the ability of the test and results to be duplicated under identical conditions. This is important because we’ll know if the results were a fluke or if they’re an accurate portrayal of the situation. Now, that’s not to say that in regards to benchmark workouts that we always want the same result. For example, if you are testing a player’s 40 time now and again six weeks from now we would like to see improvement (I assume). What it does mean is that you want to mimic testing conditions as closely as possible. You’d want to make sure the distance was the same (duh), the player was equally rested, the same timers were used (if possible), and that the surface was the same.
Two common gym tests I see messed up in the reliability factor all of the time are bodyweight and body composition. Your bodyweight can fluctuate by as much as ten pounds over the course of the day normally. This isn’t a big deal, and it’s common. All sorts of things factor into it including food, waste products, hydration, hormones, and others. If you weigh yourself on Tuesday first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and then on Thursday at 3:00pm after a day of food and water you’re almost guaranteed to weigh more. I recommend that my clients pick a day during the week (away from the weekend) and weigh themselves first thing in the morning, naked, after going to the bathroom.
Body composition is an inexact science anyway, but not just anybody can use the calipers. If you have one trainer pinch you one week and another pinch you the next then the difference could be staggering.
Ok, so benchmark workouts must be valid and reliable. There’s one other factor of benchmark workouts that seems pretty simple but is often ignored, and that’s simply doing them! A lot of people may perform a test or have an idea of where they stand but if they don’t repeat the workout at a later date they don’t have hard evidence.
Tomorrow I’ll go over some of my favorite benchmark workouts.
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