Endurance training for speed and power oriented sports

[AJS11]

Just spending a few minutes looking through this forum it seems like the question of how much endurance is needed for sports such as football, basketball, baseball etc.. is a question that is asked constantly and answered very inconsistantly and incorrectly. This is a post i made answering someones question about endurance with regards to football, but it can be applied to all speed/strength/power oriented sports. I hope it helps clear some things up for everyone.


there are 3 different energy systems, the phos****en (ATP-CP) system, the glycolitic system and the oxidative (aerobic) system. The first two are anaerobic because they do not involve the use of oxygen to produce ATP. ATP is the energy source our muscles use to perform work. Without it you wouldn't even be able to stand up out of your chair.

Your phos****en system is the first energy system that is tapped into, no matter what kind of activity you are doing, as it provides the most readily available source of ATP to our muscles. When performing at a high intensity (sprinting all out or lifting heavy weight) the phos****en system can supply our muscles with ATP for about 7 seconds of an all-out effort in a well trained athlete.

After about 7 seconds of high intensity work the phos****en system is no longer able to keep up with the muscle's demands for ATP, so the body begins to break down glycogen (glycogen molecules are basically what the body breaks down carbohydrates into, to make an oversimplication of the process) in order to produce ATP. The process of breaking down glycogen produces more ATP then is produced with the phos****en system, but the process takes place at a slower rate and a by-product of this process is the production of lactic acid (that nice feeling you get in your legs after you've been sprinting all out for an extended period of time and you feel like you can no longer lift your legs off the ground is caused by the build up of lactic acid).

The oxidative energy system uses oxygen to produce ATP (to oversimplify) However, the break down of oxygen into ATP takes the body a long time compared to how fast the first two systems work. Because the oxidative process takes so long it is unable to efficiently provide your muscles with ATP during high intensity work. Therefore, the oxidative system plays a VERY MINOR ROLE in energy production during high intensity activity. However, the oxidative process produces much more ATP then both the phos****en and glycolitic systems, it just does so at a slower rate which makes it best suited for low intensity/longer duration activity.

Football places a very high demand on the phos****en system (most of the actions that take place in football are high intensity and last for less than 7 seconds). A moderate demand on the glycolitic system (in the sense that those high intensity actions need to be repeated over and over again for an entire game). And a VERY LOW demand on the aerobic system (in the sense that a football game lasts for 2 hours or more but the work that is being done is not performed continuously for the entire 2 hours)

So, to finally answer your question, those kids bragging about their mile times are clowns. Improving your mile time from 8 minutes to 5 minutes is not going to make you that much better of a football player if it does anything at all. The time it would take to do so would be much better spent improving a 5.0 40 yd dash to a 4.7 and a 185lb bench press to 250. It is going to be difficult to convince people who are hooked on "building a solid aerobic base" by jogging miles that they need to rethink their program. For some reason coaches and athletes still find the need to emphasize aerobic endurance even though it is common knowledge among strength and conditioning professionals that it is practically useless in speed/power oriented sports such as football. Do your best to understand the concepts i mentioned in this post and be able to explain them as best you can to your teammates. Like my man Millz said, it takes a team to win football games. Your team will be better off focusing on speed, strength and power and scrapping the majority of the endurance running.

[etaylor88]

while i agree with the science behind what you are saying, i don't totally agree with you stating that a football game places a very low amount of stress on that aerobic oxidative energy system. of course, depending on what postion you are playing, this can vary. also, if i'm not mistaken, doesn't the oxidative system aid in the recovery of the other two energy systems after work is done by them?

[AJS11]

while i agree with the science behind what you are saying, i don't totally agree with you stating that a football game places a very low amount of stress on that aerobic oxidative energy system. of course, depending on what postion you are playing, this can vary. also, if i'm not mistaken, doesn't the oxidative system aid in the recovery of the other two energy systems after work is done by them?

There is no position in football where the athlete will be required to maintain a low intensity action for an extended period of time (such as in distance running, swimming or skiing). It takes about 30 seconds of high intensity work in a well trained athlete before the aerobic energy system begins to make significant contributions to the production of energy. There is also no point during a football game where an athlete of any position would be required to maintain a high intensity effort for 30 seconds or more (such as in an 400m or 800m sprint)

I am not saying that aerobic training should be totally ignored. I am simply questioning the need for excessive jogging, mile runs, cardio work, etc... There are more appropriate ways to build the general level of conditioning required for all speed/strength/power sports, football included.

To answer your last question, there is never any point where only one energy system is in use and the others are entirely "shut off" so to speak. The intensity of your activity determines which of the three systems will be the most dominant at any given time, but all three are always in play and each one contributes to the work you are doing. It would be foolish to totally ignore any one system all together, but in a game such as football priority needs to be given to the phos****en first and the glycolitic second. Increasing aerobic capacity can help improve stored levels of ATP and Creatine Phosphate, technically "helping the other systems recover", but lifting weights and speed training has the same effect. You have to consider how you want your muscles to work. You will perform the way that you train and performance in football relies on quick, explosive movement. It is a waste of time to put any serious amount of focus on training the oxidative system in sports such as football, basketball, baseball, volleyball or track and field (short sprints, jumps, throws). General condition needs to be in place but this can be achieved in a variety of ways. Developing your aerobic capacity so you can shave time off your mile run will not make you a better power athlete, bottom line.