Going for gold: sports conditioning with Dave Brown

Going for gold: sports conditioning with Dave Brown

This month we want to share more details about our sports conditioning sessions. Sports conditioning is one-to-one coaching designed to help you prepare for specific events or sports. The team at Elevate works with you to create a bespoke training programme specifically designed to achieve a higher level of function and optimise athletic performance. The sessions will be tailored depending on your goals; whether you’re training for your first marathon or are a seasoned athlete, we are here to support your training goals.

This week we sat down with Dave Brown, who trains with Foxy here at Elevate fitness studio in Peterborough. Dave’s main event is the 400m in the Master’s category. He represents Great Britain every year in the 400m British Masters and recently placed second.

A focus on explosive strength 

Recently Dave’s PT sessions have focused on building his explosive strength and power using sleds, kettlebells and back squats. We want to keep him strong and powerful without bulking up too much. 

As we’re coming out of the athletics season he’ll progress to his next block of training where we will focus on higher reps and endurance. We will then progress to build strength and power before his season starts up again. 

Hi Dave, please could you introduce yourself to our readers. 

Hello, I’m Dave Brown. I’m 41 years young, and my hobby is Athletics. 

How long have you been training with Foxy?

About 3 years now. I first started training with him when he was at Escape.  

What are your personal goals for PT sessions? 

My goal is to get stronger. I’m not big for a sprinter, I’m leaner and less aerobically fit so the strength side is what I need to work on. I’m old enough to know we didn’t have this kind of gym when I was young or access to gyms at the age when I needed them, so I got into strength training quite late. 

How has Foxy helped you to support your goals? 

During my Personal Training sessions, we tend to focus on classic lifting, but Foxy does bring a few other bits into my training. One of the good things about Foxy is he is a sportsman himself, so he understands both the physical and mental side of training. He’s open-minded and is always researching new techniques and ideas. For example, this year after researching, we’ve starting to do more eccentric lifting https://www.verywellfit.com/definition-of-eccentric-weight-training-3498370  which has helped me to build on my core. 

Primarily, he has helped me with the weight training but he’s great on the mental side of things too. He always shows a keen interest in when my competitions are and understands my training calendar.

It’s not a case of doing the same things all of the time. We’re getting towards the end of the athletic season now. October is a new year so, probably from October to Christmas is the real engine of the year. In January and February time the indoor athletics kicks in. We missed it last year due to Covid, but this year we’re hoping things might be different. 

I’ve ended up doing some PB (personal best) reps with about 130kg, sometimes he’ll add on an extra 5kg to try and trick me into lifting a bit more, and because he understands my capabilities it works and I can do it.

It’s important to train right, some of our younger athletes tend to make the mistake of bulking too much resulting in them not hitting their times, and as soon as we’ve switched up their routine they’ve hit them. You do need to find the right balance. Also, being an older athlete finding the balance is important, which Foxy helps me with.

What do you get up to in your PT sessions?

In a typical session, we start with all the normal Elevate warms-ups; stretching, spiderman’s, hurdles, sometimes we get the bands out and we might do some further dynamic movements with med balls and some sideways movement along with the squat press. We focus on ankle strengthening with the stability discs and occasionally we do box jumps with weights. 

After warming up we’ll go into the main movements. We do back squats, and sled spiriting, which is good because it’s a dynamic running movement, that’s the peak of the session earlier on and then the second phase is the eccentric stuff that we’ve been doing. He’s been getting me into a press-up position, normally with some weight added, and then chins up with a kettlebell attached and we’ll alternate my grip to hold both the wider and closer handles on the bar. 

What are your focuses going forward?

With athletics I run for the Great Britain Masters team, http://bmaf.org.uk/ I’ve done pretty well over the years with 7 international medals and a few domestics ones. But sadly no gold as of yet! I’m going for gold in 2022. 

Apart from the strength side, I’m always going to listen to Foxy and his new research as to how to get that extra 5%, anything which might be the push I need to get the gold. 

What do you think about training here at Elevate?  

The guys are a good team. I once had Josh as he filled in for Foxy for a PT session and did the same trick, adding on an extra 5kg. I always find it funny when they do it, the flip side is you still manage the rep. They all pull the same tricks. I have a lot of equipment at home, but you don’t get that extra 10% with someone spotting you. Also, knowing when to step you up, you don’t always quite know yourself.

The equipment has gone up another level here. I think it’s great that it’s more polished, but there’s still a bit of improvisation which I enjoy because it’s tailored to me and my session. 

I enjoy that training at Elevate Fitness studio. Foxy is always involved in my training calendar. We’ve had quite a few coffees now whilst planning a phase-out, whether it’s 3 months or a year. This year we’re going to go into more detail on the athletics calendar and so hopefully that might be the 5% I’ve been missing.  

If you’re interested in sports conditioning for yourselves or a team please feel free to get in touch, email info@elevatefitnessuk.com

We also offer a fantastic range of classes which are suitable for all abilities, tap below to book:

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