Tapering for competition and your next PR!

            Days and weeks prior to competition athletes often reduce training stimulus to sharpen their form for race day. The simultaneous reduction in volume and frequency assists the athlete psychologically and physically to perform at their highest level come gun time. This practice is often referred to as the taper or taper period.  While the practicality behind the taper period in training is fairly straight forward, the implementation of a successful taper within an athlete’s competitive season is a learned task. While variations of the taper are unique to each athlete, a few foundational principles are necessary ingredients for a successful taper and race day success.

Endurance athletes, triathletes, and swimmers all rely on high amounts of volume to obtain the physiological stimulus necessary to compete at the highest level. With that said, swimmers and triathletes specifically need a practiced tapering protocol that successfully reduces muscle fatigue, which subsequently increases muscular power and strength. In order to illustrate this principle clearly, Trinity and colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin measured maximal power and performance in swimmers going through 3 different tapering protocols from year to year¹. Over a three-week taper, the authors observed maintained maximal arm power, maintained torque and an increase in swim performance in the high intensity group compared to low intensity group¹. Comparatively, the low intensity group experienced a drop off in all three measures over the course of three weeks¹. The findings suggest that athletes looking to compete at the highest level without experiencing detraining or a reduction in maximal arm power and torque should practice high intensity tapering in order to reduce the deleterious effects of reducing training volume and frequency.

A masters swimmer or triathlete looking to take advantage of this protocol should work with their coach to appropriately reduce (40-60%) training volume, slightly reduce training frequency to 80% of peak volume, while maintaining intensity leading into competition².  It is clear a 8-14 day taper is most appropriate for multisport or competitive single sport athletes and if a successful taper is carried out an approximate 3% increase in sports performance can be anticipated in response to a taper².

References:

1 Trinity, J.D., Pahnke, M.D., Sterkel, J.A., Coyle, E.F. Maximal Power and Performance during a Swim Taper. International Journal of Sports Medicine. Vol 29. PP 500-506. 2008.

2    Bompa, T.O., Haff, G, G. Periodization: Theory and Methodology of training. Human kinetics publishing. 5^th edition. 2009. Chp 7 Peaking in competition. PP 191.

High Intensity Interval Training - NO pain, NO gain.

Life is time consuming. So is being an endurance athlete. Attempting to balance work, life, play and training for our favorite endurance events can often become overwhelming and lead to burn out. What if, however, I could suggest an exercise regimen that would match the countless hours one puts in for swim, bike, and run training that would take a quarter of ones time? A magic pill of some-sort your American brain might ask? No not exactly, but here’s the solution. . . .

            Endurance training provides a stimulus that challenges the respiratory and metabolic systems of the body. In doing so, the body adapts to the stimulus, and in turn, creates a more mature and efficient system able to handle the demands of aerobic exercise; I.E the exercise stimulus gets easier. Obviously, this is the desired result any endurance athlete is looking for, because, we are able then, to successfully participate at submaximal exercise competitions (such as a running or triathlon events). The problem with this system, however, is that endurance training requires INSANE AMOUNTS OF TIME!!          

To remedy the situation, a group of researchers from McMaster University out of Ontario Canada conducted research on the usefulness of High Intensity Training (HIT) on endurance performance. 

Through a simple protocol where 1 group participated in HIT and the other group (control group) did nothing, researchers observed a double in length of time (26 min on average to 51min) that exercise could be maintained at a fixed workload. This finding is interesting because the exercise bout that the participants volunteered for were multiple 30second sprints on a loaded stationary bike. What makes the finding even more interesting is that the researchers observed performance gains without significant increases in peakVO2 which suggests that the adaptations are taking place on a cellular level(I.E t.

You may be thinking, “Wait a minute! How can you compare a group of individuals exercising vs a group of non-exercisers? Great thought! That’s just step one. To clarify the role of the mode of exercise more, the authors utilized a similar protocol where individuals performed six sessions of HIT training over 2 weeks (30second bouts of VERY HARD CYCLING) and were compared to the control group who performed 6 session of continuous cycling at 65%peakVo2 for 90-120min (something similar to what your standard triathlete might do in a 1.5-2wk period).

Most surprisingly the two groups demonstrated similar adaptations both from an exercise performance stand point and a skeletal muscle oxidative standpoint (I.E they were utilizing fuel similarly during performance trials).

The current findings by Gibala and colleagues suggest that an athlete who is struggling to make their workouts fit into their daily schedule can exchange long aerobic training session with HIT sessions and obtain similar performance and metabolic (how you utilize fuel) adaptations as if they were performing their long aerobic workouts. Realize (disclaimer), these results must be scaled and an ironman athlete should not think he/she could replace their long ride (~5hrs) with 30second intervals and perform on the same level as if they had spent time in the saddle. Simply, the authors are suggesting that the metabolic and performance gains are similar and an athlete, in some cases, could use HIT training as a supplement or replacement in cases where their time is better spent attending their daughters soft ball game rather then spending 1-4 hours practicing their favorite endurance sport.

Carbohydrate utilization during exercise & your performance!

            In an effort to increase multisport athlete awareness surrounding nutrition, recovery, racing, training, and bioenergetic adaptation, summaries, briefs, and peer reviewed literature will be discussed in order to stimulate thinking and overall knowledge about the sports we love. I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to ask questions (lovelace.ben@gmail.com) if you ever don’t understand something or would like more information regarding the specific topic being discussed.

The article bellow will be discussed: Mark A. Febbraio, Alison Chiu, Damien J. Angus, Melissa j. Arkinstall, and john a Hawley. Effects of carbohydrate ingestion before and during exercise on glucose kinetics and performance. J Appl Physiol. 89: 2220-2226, 2000.

            Many athletes, specifically endurance athletes, take in some sort of carbohydrate during exercise to prolong their inevitable end to their exercise bout. It is this practice, that allows folks to compete in ironman triathlons, long distance running or cycling events! Often compared to a cars fuel utilization, the human body is thought to burn everything it takes in, but, what if it was not so simple. . . . .  .  
            Carbohydrate (CHO) ingestion has been shown to improve performance and increase time to fatigue. Because of this, Febbraio and colleagues observed seven trained men cycling for 120 min at 63% peak power output, followed by a 7kj/kg body weight (wt) time trial (TT). On four separate occasions subjects received either a placebo beverage before and during (PP); Placebo 30 min before and 2 g/kg body/wt of CHO in 6.4% CHO beverage during (PC); 2g/kg body wt of CHO in a 25.7% CHO beverage 30 min before and a placebo throughout (CP); or 2g/kg body wt of CHO in a 25.7% CHO beverage 30 min before and 2 g/kg of CHO in a 6.4% CHO solution throughout (CC).
            When carbohydrate intake was maintained throughout, plasma glucose concentrations were significantly greater after 90 minutes when compared to placebo. There were no reported differences in plasma glucose between all trials before 90 minutes. This suggests that the individuals exercising with placebo were able to utilized gluconeogenic processes in the liver (i.e the liver changing glycogen into glucose) to maintain blood sugar at levels necessary to continue exercising. Pre-exercise carbohydrate ingestion resulted in higher insulin levels at the beginning of exercise, however, after exercise started there were no observed difference in insulin concentrations between trials suggesting that insulin plays a small role in glucose uptake at the muscle during exercise.
            Between all trials there was no difference between plasma free fatty acids and glycerol (markers found in the blood suggesting fat metabolism) for the first 60 minutes.  However, during the last 60 minutes, both plasma free fatty acids and glycerol concentrations were elevated in only the placebo (PP) group when compared to the CC, CP, and PC group. The reason for the no difference for the first 60 minutes is possibly due to the heavy reliance on muscle glycogen for the first 60 minutes in all trials. As muscle glycogen begins to decrease, the PP group experiences a slight shift to adipose tissue as a substrate and in doing so an elevation of free fatty acids and glycerol are present in the blood.
            Individuals that took in CHO prior to exercise but not throughout exercise oxidized significantly more glucose, in the last 20 minutes, then the individuals that took CHO in during exercise. The observed findings suggest that the individuals that took in glucose prior to exercise experienced a reactive hypoglycemic response that drove down lyposis (fat break down) and increased reliance on muscle glycogen as a fuel source, thus, creating a small, but significant difference in glucose oxidation between these two groups in the later portion of exercise.  Different oxidation rates were also seen in individuals that took in no exogenous glucose prior to, and during, their exercise bout. Individuals in the PP group experienced a shift in fuel utilization, were they were oxidizing more free fatty acids in the last 60 minutes of exercise when compared to the CP, PC and CC group. While there are differences in fuel utilization between treatments, they are observed in the later portion of exercise and the shift in fuel utilization did not result in performance benefits. The findings outlined suggest that athletes exercising at ~70% of VO_2peak  for ~2hrs, regardless of the athletes pre-exercise meal or during exercise nutritional practice oxidize glucose and free fatty acids similarly.
            While oxidation of exogenous glucose is minimal (11% or .4g/min), and oxidation of free fatty acids and glucose are similar between all groups, it is clear through the exercise time trials that exogenous glucose intake during exercise increases performance. The observed results, however, do not support performance benefits for individuals that supplement with CHO prior to exercise. The current findings suggest that maintenance of plasma glucose during exercise has a positive effect on mechanisms other than those associated with substrate oxidation (what the body uses as fuel) and muscle contraction. Therefore, performance gains are possibly due central nervous system preservation and homeostasis rather then direct fuel utilization at the muscle.
            The above findings by Febbraio et al. suggest that athletes must supplement with exogenous glucose (with sugars taken in by mouth) in order to perform at a higher level. The finding flys in the face of common thought that suggest that exogenous glucose is fully oxidized at the muscle during exercise (i.e like our car uses gas). Rather, Febbraio et al. findings suggest that the exogenous glucose, often taken in the form of gels, drinks and bars are essentially meant to keep your brain happy and this leads to increases in performance.
 

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