It’s a month since we last checked in with Kingsley Ijomah as he prepares for Tokyo 2021. The event remains uncertain and so Kingsley is maintaining his training regime and staying hopeful. With his first water session in over 4 months taking place this week Kingsley is like a child on Christmas morning waiting to get out there. “It will be fun, I’ll just do a 12k paddle to get the feel for the water back.”
“What I’m excited about is seeing the benefits of all the strength and conditioning training I have been doing during lockdown.”
As we have grown to expect from Kingsley, the expectation he puts upon himself is always high, but he always delivers; continuing to knock out PB’s in his training week after week. “I feel my myself getting stronger and my muscles building, each week I feel ready to take it up a level.” Kingsley’s commitment and determination, means he has been able to achieve substantial gains in his strength, however as of 1stApril the training switches yet again. The programme will move from strength building to endurance training. This high aerobic training focuses the body to get used to long periods of rowing. With ten sets of 500m sprints on the rowing machine with just ten minutes rest Kingsley I hoping to go from 18 strokes a minute during a standard ow to up to 40, more than doubling his speed. “The end goal is to complete 2k at 40 strokes a minute. It’s a challenge but each month I will take the challenge, assess with my team then adapt my training programme to increase gains.”
“I feel my myself getting stronger and my muscles building, each week I feel ready to take it up a level.”
Its common that when focusing on a particular area of development, such as strength in Kingsley case, other areas receive less attention. This new programme will take the progress made during the strength and conditioning training and apply this to the endurance training in order for Kingsley to use his developed strength to propel him through the water. “The more muscle bulk you gain the more you feel it when the muscles tire so I have to stay focused.”
As Kingsley waits to hear about the Tokyo Olympics his remains hopeful, as do we.