Monday, October 26, 2009

Book Review


Block Periodizationby by Vladimir Issurin

I got this a while back and as I design my training blocks this book is one I have paged through every time. It is easily one of the more detailed and comprehensive books on this style of athletic development which is brought to us over seas. It gives straight-forward and obvious reasons for the superiority of this style of training when preparing an athlete for competitions and gives pure and tested science for all of them.

Summary: This book takes you from terminology to structuring. It explains the reasons behind how to set up training stages by showing you the advantages of supercompensation. It gives the reasons for monitoring and why certain emotional and physical qualities can be positive or negative transfer. It is filled with great case studies for almost every training modality presented. Includes a great chapter on altitude training and the science behind the popular technique.

Interesting Facts: A couple important things that this book does a great job explaining is the importance of non-conflicting energy systems. Issurin explains why some dominent modalities are not compatible with others. One other great thing about this book is the sources. There are some great references that I have taken a big interest in form reading this book.

2 comments:

  1. Hey TJ,

    It's Chris...the guy that came in on Saturdays a lot this summer at I-FAST. I assume that you've read Viru's book or at least have skimmed it by now...in terms of energy systems and the physiology content, are there any discrepancies between Viru and Issurin that you've come across?

    Thanks,
    Chris

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  2. Hey!! Whats Up. Generally Viru's text seem to be the "science" that backs up Issurin's principles. This is very evident by the amount of times Viru is cited in Issurins text. I will be sure to look into that and let you know if I find otherwise.

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