Finding the Right Load

From Alan Couzens

The more astute coaches have recognized that different athletes respond differently to the same load and rather than adhering to "what we’ve always done" have tailored their programs to the particulars of the athlete.... With the advent of dose-response modelling techniques, these differences in the individual athlete’s rate of adaptation to a given load have for the first time been able to be quantified. This is a big part of what I do as a coach. I prescribe load, see how the individual athlete responds and then "tweak" the individual athlete’s constants so that I can come up with the best combination of load that will lead to the highest performance on a given date.