09/04/2026
How to build training around stress, recovery, movement, and the athlete
Read on 👉
FOUR FRAMEWORKS, ONE PROGRAM
Every program is built around four things: stress, fatigue, movement demands, and the individual athlete. Understand how they interact and programming becomes a process not guesswork.
GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME
Training disrupts homeostasis 👉 recovery allows adaptation 👉 capacity improves. Push stress beyond recovery capacity for too long and adaptation becomes exhaustion.
FITNESS-FATIGUE MODEL
Every training session simultaneously builds fitness and creates fatigue. Performance improves when fitness is retained while fatigue is properly managed.
CONDENSED CONJUGATE METHOD
For combat athletes, I condense conjugate training into fewer sessions built around the demands of the sport. Skill stays the priority while max effort, dynamic work, and repeated effort are adjusted to the athlete’s recovery capacity.
PROGRAMMING FROM DAILY READINESS
Combine subjective markers like sleep, soreness, stress, and motivation with objective markers like HRV, velocity, jump performance, and resting HR. Don’t react to one number just adjust training based on the overall trend.
STRESS ACCUMULATION & LOAD MANAGEMENT
Training load should progress only as fast as the athlete can adapt and recover. Planned reductions in volume help dissipate accumulated fatigue so the next loading phase can actually produce progress.
INDICATORS OF READINESS
Using both subjective and objective markers of fatigue and create a better understanding of overall readiness.
DARU STRONG / SKOOL
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