Squash is the sport of thought, demanding intense concentration while testing arms, back, and even core muscles. Furthermore, squash provides a fantastic aerobic workout which can significantly enhance general health.
Tracking your squash workouts can make them more enjoyable and provide useful insight into your performance. In this article we’ll show you how with Apple Watch Squash TrackR App.
Pyramid Track Session
Pyramid track sessions offer an effective way to mix up your interval training and accelerate speed, improve running efficiency and foster mental toughness by forcing participants through various levels of healthy discomfort.
A typical pyramid session begins with short, intense repetitions that gradually lower in intensity until they transition to longer but lower-intensity reps, gradually adapting the body without producing too much lactic acid build-up. Based on your fitness levels and goals, each interval’s intensity can be tailored accordingly.
This type of session is best suited to runners with an established base who wish to increase both speed and endurance. It is particularly effective at developing top-end running speed; shorter repetitions designed for speed can help develop confidence needed to maintain fast speeds over longer distances.
Pyramid sessions can also help you identify your specific strengths and weaknesses. For instance, some athletes find it easy to cope with longer, slower repetitions but struggle more with shorter, faster ones – this knowledge could prove invaluable when creating training plans tailored specifically to you and an effective fitness tracker tailored specifically to you.
Pyramid sessions offer another benefit of versatility by adjusting rep lengths and recoveries to meet various training goals. If you’re training for a 5k race, using pyramid sessions that start off with shorter sprints that progress to longer, more intense ones could help improve finishing speed.
Pyramid sessions can be very helpful in relieving muscle fatigue and building strength, especially in legs. Pyramid-style sessions also allow you to bypass plateaus; if you find yourself stuck at an unhealthy weight or training volume plateau, attempting a pyramid session might break through it by recruiting different muscle fiber types to stimulate greater growth.
StrengthLog provides the ideal way to track your progress with this and all other great workouts with its workout log feature. Our free basic version is open to anyone; our premium versions provide advanced features like creating and monitoring detailed training programs.
Longer Sprints
Long sprints such as those found in this workout, specifically the 50m distance, are an effective way to build speed endurance and increase overall conditioning. Their all-out effort engages muscle fibers and the central nervous system for an ideal training stimulus for athletes at all levels.
Sprinting intervals are especially helpful for sprinters competing in longer events and runners who wish to improve their lactate tolerance, but they should only be attempted after having built sufficient work capacity through shorter sprints.
Hill sprints, stair sprints and interval sprints are great ways to incorporate longer sprints into your training program. Each provides its own set of benefits while challenging different areas of the body in different ways. But it is important to be mindful that these workouts may be high-intensity; try limiting repetitions per session to no more than 16 to get maximum benefit without risking fatigue or injury.
High-Intensity Intervals
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is one of the best ways to strengthen your squash game. HIIT involves short bursts of intense exercise (usually sprinting) at or above your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), interspersed with periods of rest or low-intensity activity – typically lasting anywhere from seconds to minutes in length and consisting of between 4-6 intervals during every workout session.
Squash is an ideal sport for high-intensity interval training as the game requires tactical skill and quick-twitch muscle activation. Players must remain agile, moving around the court at all times – all this combines to deliver an intensive cardiovascular workout, burn lots of calories and strengthen muscle.
Track sessions using the pyramid format provide squash players with an effective, calorie-burning workout. This style of session involves building up from 200m and working down through all distances before reaching 400m mark – some top players even doing sessions consisting of up to thirty back-to-back 400m reps!
The Squash TrackR app for Apple Watch offers a dedicated tracker for squash workouts. It will record data from your wrist, display it on-screen along with heart rate, time and date as well as upload your workout into Apple Health with court distance and (active) calorie burn data added into Activity Rings.
Whoop device works across all smartwatches and sports types and includes an inbuilt sleep monitor and workout calorie estimator for added functionality.
Short Sprints
Sprint training can be an invaluable addition to any sports-specific or general fitness regime. As previously noted, sprinting increases lactic acid disposal, helping your body recover more rapidly from hard exertion. Furthermore, sprint training also trains fast-twitch muscle fibers essential to speed development that are less fatigue resistant than slow-twitch fibers requiring less rest time for full engagement.
Squash players frequently rely on short sprints as part of their training regimen, yet it is crucial that these workouts be done properly after developing cardiovascular fitness. You should warm up and cool down prior to and after any physical activity and consult your health care provider before undertaking a new program of any sort.
If you want to start adding short sprints into your workouts, the ideal place is a track. Tracks typically follow standard dimensions and markings so it is easy for runners to keep track of distance covered. However, running on flat surfaces like grass fields still yields similar benefits.
Hill sprints can also help develop leg strength. Simply run for 30 seconds followed by 60 second rest periods until you complete a set, repeating this pattern until your set has been completed. Hill sprints provide a great way to work up to more intense sprints while strengthening both power and endurance simultaneously.
Sprinting works both the lower body muscles and fast-twitch fibers to produce power for high speeds, in contrast to jogging which only uses slow-twitch fibers. Furthermore, sprinting’s use of fast-twitch fibers improves stride efficiency and overall performance.
Sprinting can be an invaluable addition to any fitness or sport-specific regimen and should become part of your regular exercise regimen. While sprinting may put a considerable strain on the joints, it should only be undertaken after having developed an adequate cardiovascular fitness foundation. Before and after sprinting sessions it’s also important to warm up and cool down properly – be sure to consult a healthcare provider first to make sure this activity fits with your workout plans.