Overuse injury prevention: How the three-one-two-one microcycle training programme can aid your recovery

Rest and recovery are as important for performance as training. Periods of heavy training need to be followed by rest to allow the body to adapt and grow stronger.

Rest and recovery are also important for preventing injury. Many overuse-type injuries (eg Achilles tendinitis, shin splints, anterior knee pain, tennis elbow, rotator cuff tendinitis, etc.) are caused by too much volume of training or too much intensity.

The body is unable to cope with the stresses of the training load and injury results. If the same athlete had trained at a lower volume or intensity and progressed gradually, the injury risks would have been reduced. For example, I work with one recreational runner who can complete a reasonable 25 miles a week injury-free. In the past, when we attempted to increase the weekly mileage, she suffered from low-back and hip pains. Now we know that, for her to train continuously, the upper limit on weekly volume is 25 miles, focusing on high intensity workouts. During the last 18 months she has been injury-free and, touch wood, this should continue to be the case.

The three-one-two-one microcycle
Learning your personal limit of training volume is as important in preventing injury as are the strength, flexibility and stability exercises that you do. A practical way to ensure that you incorporate sufficient recovery into your training week is to follow a three-one-two-one microcycle.

The term 'microcycle' refers to a week's training plan. The week's training is often a repeatable series of training sessions within a larger phase (eg a month). It is common for athletes to train for six days and then rest for one within the weekly cycle. To increase the recovery time within the week, I suggest readjusting your training programme so it fits a weekly cycle involving three days' training, one day's rest, two days' training, one day's rest. This allows you to work more intensely on the training days, but gives two days' recovery instead of one.

Table 1. Six-One weekly cycle

Day	AM	PM
Sunday	-	Match
Monday	-	-
Tuesday	Strength training	Endurance + Club training
Wednesday	-	Power training
Thursday	Strength training	Club training
Friday	-	Endurance
Saturday		Sprints

Table 2. Three-One-Two-One weekly cycle

Day	AM	PM
Sunday	-	Match
Monday	-	Power training
Tuesday	Strength training	Endurance + Club training
Wednesday	-	-
Thursday	Strength training	Club training
Friday	Endurance	Sprints
Saturday	-	-

Programmes for a rugby player
Here are two weekly programmes for a rugby player in season. There are club games each weekend and the total number of training sessions is the same for each weekly routine. There are the same total number of training sessions (nine) in each week; however, by training two or three times on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and shifting the power session to a Monday the athlete is able to rest on Wednesdays and Saturdays instead of just once on the Monday. The effect should be to increase the quality of training on the five work days as well as giving the body more recovery periods to heal and grow stronger. Hence the double benefit of improved performance and reduced injury risk.

Everyone has his or her own limit and different athletes can tolerate different training loads. My suggestion here should not be taken as a golden rule, but instead it is an idea worth trying that may help you. It does not matter what sport you are involved in; simply look at the total number of training sessions per week and try to organise them so you can take two rest days. If you feel that a six-one cycle is fine for you, then so be it.

Paula Radcliffe works to a seven-one cycle during hard training phases and can obviously cope with this well (slight understatement!). Each athlete is different, and experimenting to find what works for you best is important. For example, I work with another rugby player who prefers a five-two cycle, giving her two days' rest before Sunday's game.

The take-home message is that recovery is vital. You may find that more recovery, rather than more training, leads to improved performance.

Less time spent injured means more continuous weeks in training, even if those weeks are slightly lower in volume than you may think is best.

Raphael Brandon