• 20×200 metres — 30 seconds recovery
• 10×400 metres — 60 to 90 seconds recovery
• 5- to 10-kilometre runs
I thoroughly enjoy the mental and physical challenges of training.Racing is a rush and competitive success is pure joy. However, it’s sharing these moments — the many highs and lows of training and competition — with 22 teammates-turned-friends that makes dragon boat more gratifying than anything I ’ ve previously experienced in sport.
— Andrew Simpson, Toronto
ENERGY SYSTEM RECRUITMENT
All energy systems turn on at the same time and the recruitment of an alternative system occurs when the current energy system is almost depleted. Given that most dragon boaters compete at all events — 200 metres, 500 metres, 1,000 metres, and 2,000 metres, often competing in three to seven races a day — the breakdown of energy systems is estimated best by averaging most of the races at two to four minutes in length. The percentage contribution of the energy pathways for dragon boating has been estimated in the chart that makes comparisons with other sports.
Contribution of Energy Pathways In Sports
Table adapted from Fox E. L. et al,
The Physiological Basis for Exercise and Sport, 1993
Now that the energy systems have been described, a brief look at muscle composition will show how the periodized dragon boat training program, to be outlined next, has resulted in over 1,000 world championship medals and has continued to produce world champions.
FAST AND SLOW TWITCH MUSCSCLES
Are you a better 200-metre dragon boater or 2,000-metre dragon boater? Many people believe that having more fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibres may determine what distances dragon boaters excel at and how they respond to training.
Bundles of individual muscle fibres, or myocytes, make up the skeletal muscle. Each myocyte contains many myofibrils, strands of proteins (actin and myosin), that grab on to each other and pull. This activity shortens the muscle and causes muscle contraction.
Muscle fibres can be broken down into two main types: slow twitch (Type I) muscle fibres and fast twitch (Type II) muscle fibres. Fast twitch fibres can be further categorized into Type IIad Type IIb fibres.
How muscles respond to training and physical activity are influenced by these muscle fibre distinctions. And, each fibre type is unique in its ability to contract in a certain way. Human muscles contain a genetically determined mixture of both slow and fast fibre types. On average, you have about 50 percent slow twitch and 50 percent fast twitch fibres in most of the muscles used for movement.
Slow Twitch (Type I)
The slow twitch muscles are more efficient at using oxygen to generate more fuel (ATP) for continuous, extended muscle contractions over a long time. They fire more slowly than fast twitch fibres and can last a long time before fatigue. Slow twitch fibres are beneficial in helping athletes run marathons or paddle for hours.
Fast Twitch (Type II)
Because fast twitch fibres use anaerobic metabolism to create fuel, they can generate short bursts of strength or speed much better than slow muscles. However, they fatigue more quickly. Although fast twitch fibres generally produce the same amount of force per contraction as slow muscles, they earn their name by firing more rapidly. Given this, more fast twitch fibres can be an asset to sprinters who need to quickly generate a lot of force.
Type IIa Fibres
A sub-category of fast twitch muscles are Type IIa fibres, also known as intermediate fast-twitch fibres. These can use both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism almost equally to create energy. In this way, they are a combination of Type I and Type II muscle fibres.
Type IIb Fibres
The second sub-category of fast twitch fibres are Type IIb fibres that use anaerobic metabolism to create energy. These are the “classic” fast twitch muscle fibres that produce quick, powerful bursts of speed. Of all the muscle fibre types, this one has the highest rate of contraction, or rapid firing. At the same time however, it has a much faster rate of fatigue and cannot last as long before rest is needed.
Fibre Type and Performance
Your muscle fibre type can play a part in determining which distances you are naturally good at or if you are fast or strong. Genetic makeup can determine the sport that is pursued by elite athletes. For example, Olympic sprinters have been shown to possess about 80 percent fast twitch fibres. Athletes who excel in marathons tend to have 80 percent slow twitch fibres.
The key is to determine what your strengths and weaknesses are by testing all physical parameters and training accordingly. Training programs that have been designed in this chapter will allow all beginner and elite dragon boaters to excel with high-intensity training. This is because there is evidence that muscle fibre types, specifically Type IIb, can be changed into Type IIa with proper training. Conditioning can improve personal performance.
This finding is important in the dragon boat world. You can train the fast-twitch, strong, powerful fibres to operate under both anaerobic, as well as aerobic, situations and create highly efficient power endurance muscle fibres.
TESTING
Before the specifics of training are outlined, a brief testing regime with some standards has been put together for reference and comparison.
Testing
BW = Body Weight
R/L = Right/Left
Multistroke = Ergometer
TRAINING PROGRAM
Finally, what you have been waiting for — how to get better on the water by training hard off the water. Before piecing together the perfect program, you must understand your goals and the goals of your crew. Look at the season to come and schedule accordingly. Consider all the regattas, training camps, on-water practices, et cetera, so that the dry land strength and conditioning program can guarantee that you and your crew are strongest and fittest by the final regatta of the season. Too often, paddlers and coaches train hard all winter to peak at the start of the season as opposed to the end of the season. And, paddlers make great strength gains in the winter, then neglect strength training through the spring and summer months, only to start at their same strength level come the following year.
The program is designed to improve your strength and conditioning throughout the year so you peak at the end of the season and continue to improve every year going forward.2 With this program, paddlers have seen their bench presses increase more than 300 percent in three years, pull-ups as much as 500 percent, with other lifts and exercises yielding similar results. These workouts can be done by anyone. The program is designed so that you can adapt at your own pace. There are no secrets; the harder you work and the more weight that you try to lift, the faster you will adapt and progress. You need to complete the specified sets, reps and times. The key, again, is to lift the heaviest weight possible for the reps given for a particular exercise. If the