I'm not fully aware of the term, so I'm going to be evil and just wildly speculate (to the dismay of Bill Hartman, I'm sure). And besides, Bill can correct me, if I'm wrong.
First off, let's remind ourselves of one simple truth. Adaptations to training (ex. increased hypertrophy, increased mitochondrial density, increased VO2) do not typically occur during training, but rather, during rest. In other words, your muscles do not grow while you lift. They grow while you rest.
The Delayed Training Effect is pretty much what it says--it's a training effect (or adaptation) that occurs after it's "expected" to occur. It's commonly observed after a cycle of increased intensity followed by a cycle of either rest, or tapering (where the workload is far less than normal). Competitive, time-based sports like swimming, cycling, rowing and running use this strategy almost universally. After the intensity cycle, adapations continue to occur, even though the athlete may not be training (or not training at maintenance levels). So, in essence, for these athletes (who are typically training hours a day and are on the verge of overreaching, hopefully balanced by their coaches), go through a cycle of really intense training about 1-2 weeks before a competition, then reduce their training volumes drastically for the 1-2 weeks prior to competition so that they're well-rested for the event, but are still 'accumulating' training effects from the intensity cycle.
This sort of strategy can be appled in 'normal joe' training, in that if you're planning a rest week, you can step up the intensity for a week and thus not lose as much ground over your rest week (which is essential). I'm not sure exactly how much ground anyone would necessarily lose even if they did not employ the intensity cycle prior to a rest week (since it's only ONE week). I suspect it's quite inconsequential though. Most competitive elite athletes will take a month off after their competitive season in which they are instructed NOT to participate in their sport, and to only do enough activity to prevent them from going insane, and no more.
So, does this apply to you? I would say, on average, the typical 3-day a week or even 2 or 3 day split gym rat doesn't really need to worry about losing gains over a week to employ an intensity cycle. However, you may still experience the 'delayed training effect' when you come back from your week of rest anyways.
|
Linear Mode
