Hard days are practice or training sessions that require an intensive, all-out level of effort. Athletic improvement comes from these hard days, when the body is stressed. Stress refers to the intensity you put into your workout, not the time (duration) spent working out. The body must be put under stress for a minimum amount of time in order for improvement to take place.

Duration varies from sport to sport, and with the level of your own conditioning. It is the intensity of the workout which increases your pulse rate to an adequate level of stress. For the body to be stressed at the lower level, a pulse rate of 60 percent of the maximum rate must be achieved. An elite athlete may train at 85 percent of their maximum heart rate on a hard day of practice.

Determining Maximal Heart Rate

To determine your Maximal Heart Rate (MHR), use the following formula: subtract your age from 220 to determine your maximum heart rate.

When training on a hard day you need to start taxing your heart at 60 - 85 percent of your Maximal Heart Rate. To determine your Target Heart Rate (THR), multiply your Maximal Heart Rate by .60 and by .85 to get 60 percent and 85 percent of your Maximal Heart Rate, which is your Target Heart Rate for determining the intensity of your training.

You can take your pulse easily at the carotid artery of the neck. To take your carotid pulse, place the index finger and the middle finger at the neck just below the jaw and press gently. You should be able to feel pulsations. Count your pulse for 10 seconds, counting the first beat as "zero."

To check your pulse rate while training, come to an immediate stop, take your pulse for ten seconds. Adjust the speed or intensity of your workout based on that pulse rate.

Easy Days

Hard days, stressing the body has a price. This muscular stress creates minor injuries to the muscle tissue that requires time to heal. This is the reason why easy days must be worked into your training plan.

The athlete will only benefit from hard training if recovery time is built into the training program. If the muscle tissue and supporting ligaments are overly stressed before they are allowed to recover, they begin to breakdown and deteriorate.

There are a number of factors why sports medical personnel recommend recovery time from "hard" training.

Muscle fibers are damaged by hard exercise and, like any other tissue in the body, requires healing time proportionate to the amount of injury.

Muscle fuel - called glycogen is used up on hard days of training. The reloading of glycogen in the body takes ten hours to ten days to effectively replenish the supply.

Potassium, an essential mineral is released from the muscle cell to control heat is also depleted. It takes 48 hours to restore the body's potassium supply.

Recovery Time

A recovery period or an easy day does not mean that the athlete takes a day off. You must still train, but at a lower level of intensity. Performing at an easy relaxed pace hastens the body's recovery.

Coaches and athletes have disagreed for years about what is the optimal recovery period. Most elite athletes we interviewed allow 48 hours of recovery period from hard training or competition.

An Olympic swim coach prefers a 24 hour recovery period. His swimmers workout twice a day, once hard and the other easy. His reasoning is that, "The swimmer's body is in the horizontal position in the water - and the heart doesn't pump against gravity. Buoyancy relieves some overload on the muscles. Thus swimmers can recover faster than runners.

Recovery from competition usually takes longer than recovery from heavy workouts. World class marathons report that they usually require 10-14 days to completely recover from the 26.2 mile race. Weight lifters from the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs generally need 7-10 days to overcome fully the effects of competition.

All of the National Football League teams also adopt the hard day - easy day training program as noted below:

Sunday - competition (hard day)

Monday - review game films, stretching, running and light drills and medical treatments (easy day)

Tuesday - day off

Wednesday - game plan day, tough physical practice (hard day)

Thursday - moderate workout (semi-hard day)

Friday - timing, sharpness, special teams (easy day)

Saturday - polish up game plan, stretch, travel day (very easy day)

To reach a level of maximum performance it is essential to both stress the body and allow it to recover. By applying the principle of hard days and easy days you will see improved results.