He also presented the first annual plans, which were used by Olympic athletes preparing for ancient competitions. These plans included a preparatory phase prior to participation in the Olympics, during which the athlete also took part in several minor competitions to test his or her skills. These plans also included a resting phase immediately following the Olympics themselves.
After the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC, a training method called tetrads began to be used. It consisted of a four-day training cycle, which was basically a short training micro-cycle. Philostratus described this method in his work "On gymnastics". He wrote that by the tetrad system we understand a cycle of four days, during which, each day is devoted to a different activity.
The first day is a general preparation of the athlete, which "prepares" him for further challenges. It includes exercises that consist of short but intense movements to stimulate the athlete and prepare him for the following day's hard test training.
On the second day, the athlete is subjected to maximum-load exercises that test their capabilities. These are the hardest and most exhausting exercises.
This is followed by the third day, which is completely devoted to rest and relaxation, aimed at regenerating the body and restoring energy.
The fourth day is medium-heavy exercises.
The Philostratus system unfortunately does not provide us with much information about training volume and training load, which is one of the variables in periodisation-based training. As far as we know, this system was not very popular, but this work shows us that already in ancient times the need for cyclic manipulation of training intensity at the level of the training microcycle was realised.
Also the Roman physician Galen, who lived between 129-217 AD, showed his interest in the training intensity of the Greek Olympians. He made a distinction between body and mind and expressed the need for relaxation after training, for example by means of a mentally relaxing bath. In his book 'Keeping Healthy', he suggested that after training, an athlete must take a bath to relax and then should eat a valuable meal. Galen also proposed a simple 10-month training programme for the Olympic Games, followed (immediately before the competition) by one month of very specific training. In turn, after the Olympics, one month was devoted to rest and recovery (what we now call the transition phase).
Although the ideas of the ancient philosophers and sports physicians were forgotten for over a thousand years, they are the basis of modern training science. Many modern sports scientists openly admit to the classical principles described by Philostratus or Galen. But more about that in the next part of this article.