Peaking for Athletic Competition

Peaking for Competition

• Athletes, coaches, and sport scientists aim to optimize physiological adaptations for peak performance.
• Athletes undergo rigorous training plans with high loads and unloading phases.
• Reducing training load before major competitions, known as tapering, helps athletes peak.
• Coaches and athletes should integrate tapers and competitions into annual training plans.

Training Conditions for Peaking

• Superior athletic performance results from morphofunctional adaptations to training stimuli.
• Training is planned over phases, with athletes progressing through training states.
• Peaking is a cumulative process achieved sequentially, not on short notice.

Degree of Training

• Degree of training is the foundation for other training states, involving the development of biomotor abilities, skills, and tactical maneuvers.
• Improvements are reflected in above-average results and test scores at the end of the preparatory phase.
• High degree of training means high physical and psychological adaptation to training programs.
• Degree of training and preparedness are synonymous; low adaptation adversely affects training states and athletic shape.

Preparedness

• Preparedness can be general (adaptation to different training forms) or specific (adaptation to sport-specific training requirements) and serves as the base for athletic shape.
• High preparedness depends on stable factors that require long-term training, such as biomotor abilities and technical skills.

Athletic Shape

• A state achieved during the competitive phase, allowing athletes to perform near maximum capacity based on the dissipation of residual fatigue and maintenance of preparedness.
• Achieved through specialized training programs that include cycling unloading
• Precedes and incorporates peaking for the main competition.
• Athletic shape is the foundation for initiating peaking, where high preparedness and readiness coincide.

Readiness

• It fluctuates and is inversely related to training load.
• Readiness decreases as Training load increases
• Readiness increases as training load decreases during unloading
• Highest performance achieved when preparedness and readiness curves meet.

Peaking

• It is the highlight of athletic shape, resulting in the athlete's best performance.
• A temporary training state involves maximum physical and psychological efficiency, optimal technical and tactical preparation (high preparedness), and absence of residual fatigue (readiness).

Optimizing Performance

• Goal of an athlete’s training plan is to optimize performance in specific competitions through careful sequencing.
• Foundation is built during preparatory and competition phases.
• Peaking, or tapering, is a complex process affected by training volume, frequency, and intensity.
• Correctly implemented tapers result in physiological and psychological adaptations that induce peaking
• Tapers are critical for competition readiness and are widely used across sports.

Defining a Taper

• A taper involves modifying the athlete’s training plan in the days before competition by reducing workload and training load.
• Training workload is reduced progressively and non-linearly to reduce stress and optimize performance (Mujika & Padilla definition).

Primary Aim of a Taper

• Optimize the athlete’s performance at a specific time by reducing cumulative fatigue while maintaining fitness.
• Tapers reduce internal load (residual fatigue), thereby elevating performance.
• Fatigue is reduced, and readiness increases during a taper, improving performance.
• Positive psychological alterations include reduced perception of effort, improved mood, reduced fatigue, and increased vigor.
• Physiological adaptations have already occurred before the initiation of taper, and psychological adaptations occur in response to the taper.
• Physiological AND Psychological fatigue is decreased via the taper for performance gains

Premise of Tapering

• The fitness–fatigue relationship underlies taper implementation.
• An athlete’s readiness is affected by changes in fitness and fatigue levels generated by training
• Readiness is optimized by maximizing fitness and minimizing fatigue
• High training workload lowers readiness due to accumulated fatigue.
• Tapers dissipate accumulated fatigue (higher readiness) while retaining fitness (preparedness).
• Fitness is a slow-changing component, while fatigue is fast-changing and affected by stressors.
• Decreasing training load during taper dissipates fatigue rapidly, while physical potential is maintained.

Complexity of Tapering

• Implementation of taper is complex
• Overly long tapers can dissipate training program readiness, resulting in detraining and reduced performance.
• The reduction in training load involves balancing reduction extent and its duration.
• High training workload prior to taper requires a greater reduction/duration to maximize fatigue decrease
• Tapering involves integrating many factors to elevate athlete readiness and optimize performance.

Factors Affecting a Taper

• Strategies include altering training plan to reduce load (volume, intensity, frequency).
• Effectiveness depends on taper duration and relation to preceding training load.
• Overly long tapers decrease both fatigue and preparedness, leading to detraining and ineffective performance.
• Coaches must understand the interactions of training intensity, volume, frequency, and taper duration.

Training Intensity

• When reducing volume and frequency during a taper, training intensity should be maintained or slightly elevated.
• Intensity is related to the ability to maintain training-induced performance adaptations during reduced training load.
• Intensity is a key factor in maintaining physiological adaptations.
• Lower training intensities (≤70% O2max) during taper tend to decrease or maintain endurance performance.
• Higher intensities (≥90% O2max) included in taper tend to increase performance.
• Maintaining intensity during taper, while decreasing volume, enhances strength and power performance.
• Training volume or frequency/duration of taper should be adjusted while intensity is maintained.

Training Volume

• Reducing training volume is the most discussed method for reducing load during a taper.
• Volume can be decreased by reducing session duration, training frequency, or both.
• Decreasing session duration is preferable to reducing training frequency.
• Training volume dictates training volume decrease during taper period to maximize performance
• Tapers ranging between 50% and 90% reduction in training volume have been reported.
• Standardized 50% to 70% reduction in training volume maintains or increases adaptations in endurance athletes.
• Progressive tapers with 75% reduction in training volume optimize taper-induced outcomes compared to 50% reduction.
• Low-volume tapers result in better physiological and performance outcomes.

Optimizing Volume

• A 41% to 60% reduction in training volume during the taper results in optimal performance improvements.
• Reduction percentage is related to pretaper workload and taper duration.
• Heavy training load prior to taper may warrant a 60% to 90% reduction in training volume to dissipate fatigue.
• With substantial volume reduction, a shorter taper duration may be warranted to offset loss of training-induced adaptations

Training Frequency

• Reducing the training is a popular method for reducing the training load.
• Reductions of 50% in pretaper training frequencies can increase performance.
• Decreases in frequency for 2 weeks results in maintenance of training-induced outcomes in athletic groups.
• Modulating training frequencies is a successful method for altering training volume.
• Maintaining physiological adaptations may require 30% to 50% of pretaper training frequencies in moderately trained individuals
• It is suggested that highly trained athletes may need a greater frequency to maintain technical proficiency.
• Frequency should be maintained at 80% or more of pretaper values to optimize performance outcomes and maintain technical proficiency.
• A lower training frequency during the taper, could favour the myosin heavy chain rebound to the fast IIX phenotype, thus improving performance is beneficial for alactic power sports

Team Sports Considerations

• Team sports athletes enter the taper period in an overreaching state due to the long competitive season.
• Sports medicine personnel are advised to check the athlete’s testosterone-to-cortisol ratio and level of free testosterone to help establish training load.

Duration of Taper

• The duration of a taper is hard to determine due to many factors.
• The pre-taper training workload can affect the taper length necessary to dissipate fatigue and elevate readiness.
• Amount of volume reduction or pattern of reduction during the taper affects needed duration to elevate readiness while maintaining high adaptation.
• Larger reduction in volume requires a shorter duration of taper
• Other factors include: body weight, gender, weekly training hours and load-reduction strategy.
• Improvements in performance have been reported for 1- to 4-week tapers (preferably 1-2 weeks for well-trained athletes).
• Eight to 14 days are necessary to dissipate fatigue and avoid negative effects of detraining that might occur.
• Taper duration is highly individualized because of differences in physiological and psychological adaptations to reductions in training load.

Maintaining a Peak

• Time required to reach zone 1 is important for peaking which may differ according to each athlete’s abilities.
• The average time an athlete needs to elevate the capacity from a precompetitive level to the aptitude of zone 1 is four to six microcycles.
• Higher performance is feasible when the athlete has adapted to the training load and a slight decrease in the stress of training allows supercompensation to occur
• The duration of peaking, as well as zone 1, may be affected by the number of starts or competitions the athlete experiences.
• Coach's attention should be drawn to the need for better alternation of stressful exercises with regeneration activities.
• Duration and type of training performed during the preparatory phase, have substantial influence on the duration of peaking.
• Assuming that the coach led and organized an adequate training program, the duration of zone 1 may be 1 to 2 months.
• Researchers suggest that the duration of peaking may be up to 7 to 10 days because the nerve cells can maintain optimal working capacity for that long
• Researchers suggest that there is a need to alternate stress with regeneration, an interplay of dramatic importance in training.

Summary of Major Concepts

• Throughout the training phases, an athlete reaches higher levels of biomotor abilities development and technical and tactical skills, which form a training state called degree of training or preparedness.
• A Taper improve performance approximately 3%, which can make a large difference in the competitive outcome.

Strength and Power Development

Importance of Strength and Power

• Strength and power-generating capacity are critical factors in determining success in a wide variety of sports
• Contemporary scientific data reveal that strength and power are also important for sports with a large endurance component
• The coach and athlete must understand how the development of strength and power can affect performance.
• They also need to understand the principles associated with resistance training to effectively use resistance training to enhance performance.

Relationship Between Biomotor Abilities

• Athletic performance is dominated by combinations of strength, speed, and endurance.
• Every sporting activity has a dominant biomotor ability.
• Contemporary research suggests that sporting activities can be affected by several of the biomotor abilities.
• Strength appears to influence both running speed and endurance.
• Recent evidence suggests that stronger, more powerful athletes perform better on performance tests designed to evaluate agility
• Strength should be considered to be the crucial biomotor ability; strength should always be trained in concert with the other biomotor abilities.

Physiological Bases for Speed and Agility

• Nobody can be fast and agile before being strong
• The start in sprinting and changes of direction in racquet and team sports are typical strength actions.
• Changes of direction relies on strong eccentric force to decelerate and equally strong concentric force to accelerate.

Strength Defined

• Strength is defined as the maximal force or torque that a muscle or muscle group can generate.
• Strength is better defined as the ability of the neuromuscular system to produce force against an external resistance.
• The appropriate application of resistance training can alter the neuromuscular system in a way that improves the athlete’s capacity to produce force and improves sporting performance.

Force, Velocity, Rate of Force Development, and Power

• The ability to generate force against an external resistance seems very important when examining sport activities
• To increase the acceleration of an object, one must apply a greater force.
• Increasing acceleration results in increases in velocity, it is easy to conclude that a high force-generating capacity or strength level is needed to achieve high velocities of movements
• An inverse relationship exist between force and velocity (when increases external resistance that movement velocity subsequently decreases)
• Heavy strength training induces adaptations that are different than those seen with explosive strength training.
• Heavy strength training has a greater potential to alter the high-force portion of the force–velocity curve, whereas the implementation of explosive strength training exercises will alter the high-velocity portion of the curve

Rate of Force Development

• Explosive strength training has the potential to alter an athlete’s explosive strength or rate of force development (RFD)
• The RFD indicates how fast force is developed and is calculated by dividing the change in force by the change in time
• The ability to generate a high RFD is very important for sport activities that involve explosive movements and require force to be generated during a limited time frame
• Maximum strength and the RFD are interrelated and both are associated with sporting performance because both variables appear to relate to the ability to cause acceleration, which affects movement velocity.

Power

• Force and velocity are important in human movement, because the product of these two variables is power
• Power-generating capacity, or the rate of performing work, is the single most important characteristic in sport
• Maximum force-generating capacity appears to be a major effector of power-generating capacity
• Power-generating capacity of various athletes appears to differentiate between levels of sporting performance Two types of power output are relevant in sporting performance:
• Maximum power output is most related to short-duration maximal performances such as jumping, sprinting, weightlifting, changing direction, and striking
• Average power output is related to the performance of repetitive tasks such as endurance running, cycling, and Nordic skiing.

Factors Affecting Strength

• The maximum strength that an athlete can exhibit depends on seven key concepts: the number of motor units involved (recruitment), the motor unit firing rate (rate coding), the amount of motor unit synchronization, the use of the stretch shortening cycle, the degree of neuromuscular inhibition, the muscle fiber type, and the degree of muscle hypertrophy.

Motor Unit Recruitment

• Motor unit recruitment relates to the number of motor units called into play.
• When more motor units are activated, the amount of force generated by the muscle then increases
• Recruitment usually occurs in an orderly pattern from smaller to larger motor units
• Larger motor units, have a higher activation threshold and are activated after smaller motor units.
• The motor unit recruitment pattern is affected by the force exerted, contraction speed, type of muscle contraction, and the metabolic state of the muscle.

Motor Unit Rate Coding

• Rate coding deals with the motor unit firing frequency.
• The force generated by a muscle increases without recruiting additional motor units.
• Higher motor unit firing rates are associated with higher rates of force development.
• Explosive high–power output exercises have the potential to alter the rate coding of motor units because these exercises tend to increase the motor unit firing rate.

Motor Unit Synchronization

• Asynchronous motor unit firing occurs as a result of one motor unit deactivating while another activates.
• Motor unit synchronization occurs as a result of the simultaneous activation of numerous motor units.
• Recent research suggests that motor unit synchronization may not directly enhance maximum force output or maximum strength
• Motor unit synchronization may exert a stronger influence on the rate of force development.
• Motor unit synchronization may exert its greatest influence on performance of activities that require the simultaneous activation of multiple muscles at the same time

Stretch Shortening Cycle

• A stretch shortening cycle (SSC) is defined as a combination of eccentric and concentric muscle actions.
• The most well-known effect of the stretch shortening cycle is an enhancement in performance during the final phase of the cycle.
• The performance enhancement resulting from a stretch shortening cycle most likely occurs because of storage of elastic energy during the eccentric phase, activation of the stretch reflex, and optimization of muscle activation.
• Strength training improves maximum strength as a result of an improved ability to activate stretch shortening cycles.

Neuromuscular Inhibition

• Neural inhibition can occur as a result of neural feedback from various muscle and joint receptors that can reduce force production.
• If neural activation patterns of these protective mechanisms are altered, disinhibition may occur, and force-generating capacity may increase
• Strength training with heavy loads significantly reduced neuromuscular inhibitory responses.
• The resultant decrease in inhibition may partially explain some of the increases in force-generating capacity seen as a result of training

Muscle Fiber Type

• Strength and power athletes have high percentages of type II muscle fibers.
• Muscle fiber type characteristics of an athlete play a significant role in the athlete’s ability to exhibit maximum strength and power-generating capacity
• The type II fiber concentration of weightlifters is significantly correlated to the maximum weight lifted in the snatch and the clean and jerk.
• Athletes who participate in endurance sports generally have higher percentages of type I muscle fibers, which have been shown to correspond to higher maximum oxygen consumption rates and lower maximum force-generating capacities.
• The athlete who possesses higher concentrations of type II muscle fibers appears to have an advantage in sport activities that require high levels of strength and power whereas Athletes with type 1 benefit endurance

Muscle Hypertrophy

• An increase in muscle cross-sectional area is thought to contribute to the increases in muscle hypertrophy seen in response to strength training.
• Increases in the cross-sectional area of a muscle increases the number of contractile units and thus increases force-generating potential
• Type II muscle fibers exhibit a greater plasticity, which is demonstrated by the faster rate of hypertrophy seen in response to training and the faster rate of atrophy seen with detraining.

Physiological Adaptations to Strength Training

• Physiological adaptations to a strength-training program can be categorized as being either neurological or morphological. Neurological adaptations include factors such as changes in motor unit recruitment patterns, motor unit synchronization, motor unit firing rate, and reflex activation. Morphological changes relate to changes in whole muscle size, muscle hypertrophy, muscle fiber type transitions, and alterations to muscle architecture. The degree to which these two broad categories contribute to adaptations can be influenced by many factors, such as training status, type of exercises used in the training program, genetic makeup, age, and gender. Neurological factors affect the development of strength in the early phase of training , in the longer term, training adaptations are limited by the morphological factors.

Neurological Adaptations

• The primary adaptations that affect performance relate to motor learning and coordination.
• Strength training has the potential to alter the motor unit recruitment patterns, motor unit rate coding, and degree of motor unit synchronization.
• Explosive strength training with high loads has been shown to lower the motor unit recruitment thresholds and increase the motor unit rate coding.
• A high loads strength training program has the potential to increase motor unit synchronization and reduce neural inhibition.
• These neurological adaptations appear to alter force-generating capacity and the rate of force generation, which both can affect sports performance.

Morphological Adaptations

• The occurrence of muscle hypertrophy in response to a strength training program results in changes to the muscle architecture.
• The most significant morphological change noted in most strength training studies is an increase in muscle hypertrophy
• Most short-term strength training studies demonstrate significant hypertrophy of type II muscle fibers, whereas long-term studies demonstrate hypertrophy of both type II and type I fibers.
• Another potential positive morphological adaptation to a strength training program is an alteration in the muscle fiber type
• Contemporary research has examined myosin heavy chain (MHC) content when identifying muscle composition.
• MHC Composition is closely associated with the classic fiber typing methods
• Literature reveals that in addition to the major categories of MHC (type I, type IIa, and type IIx), there exists a pool of hybrid fibers.
• This pool of hybrids can be altered by strength training, endurance training, and bed rest.
• As this pool is modified, the percentage of type IIx, IIa, or I fibers can be altered

Repetitions

• The number of repetitions of exercise performed can significantly affect the type of strength adaptations attained.
• Adaptations that are power-based respond best to low-repetition schemes (1-10 repetitions).
• Repetition scheme should be selected based on the goal of the phase of training and the loading scheme being used.
• Repetition scheme is manipulated in a periodized training plan to facilitate specific adaptations.

Buffer

• Buffer relates to the difference between the percentage of 1RM (one repetition maximum) necessary to go to failure and the percentage of 1RM actually used
• A high buffer allows the athlete to perform more technically correct repetitions and more explosive concentrics; it also elicits a lower residual fatigue.
• Sets with a high buffer are used for intermuscular coordination work (technique), for power development, and during unloading microcycles.
• Going to failure or getting close to failure with a slightly higher time under tension per set will elicit gains in absolute strength

Barbell Velocity

• Power is the main ingredient for all sports
• Power is the main ingredient necessary to produce a fast, quick, and agile athlete.
• An athlete can be very strong, yet unable to display power because of an inability to contract already strong muscles in a very short time
• It is possible to measure the power output of each repetition of a strength training session
• The accelerometer can be used as a testing tool, too, both for absolute power and as an internal load or central nervous system residual fatigue monitoring device.

Sets

• Single-set training program is insufficient for identifying any visible strength improvements
• A multiple-set protocol is necessary to significantly improve adaptation and, as a result, improve strength in both athletes and nonathletes.
• The literature indicates that untrained individuals receive the most benefit from three or four sets, whereas trained individuals will gain the most adaptations from four to eight sets
• The more sets an athlete can tolerate, the greater the stimulus for adaptation and the greater the strength gains
• The phase of training will dictate the makeup of the training set
• Multiplanar sports requires a higher number of exercises and a lower number of sets per exercise has to be employed

Interset Rest Intervals

• Rest interval varies with the goal of the training plan, the type of strength being developed, and the degree of explosiveness of the training exercise
• Rest interval must be long enough to allow for the restoration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and phosphocreatine (PCr), the clearance of fatigue-inducing substrates, and the restoration of force-generating capacity.
• Short recovery periods decrease force- and power-generating capacity

Factors Affecting Aerobic and Anaerobic Endurance Performance

Aerobic Endurance Performance

• Aerobic capabilities are a key component of success in both traditional endurance sports and team sports in which the athlete must log many miles.
• Aerobic capacity, ventilatory threshold, exercise economy, and fraction of maximal oxygen uptake are key components necessary for success.
• The primary method for improving endurance performance is training at or near the velocities associated with the lactate threshold, which occur between 1.0 and 2.5 mmol/L above resting lactate levels
• Increasing the lactate threshold has been shown to allow athletes to tolerate higher training intensities for greater durations.
• Higher exercise economy can improve performance in cycling, running, and rowing
• Adding strength training to the training plan can enhance the components necessary for superior endurance performance

Exercise Economy

• Exercise economy is a key factor dictating endurance exercise performance.
• Exercise economy has been defined as the oxygen uptake required to perform exercise at a given intensity
• Greatest movement economies appear to occur at the speeds or power outputs at which the athlete usually trains.
• Exercise economy is improved as a result of long-term skeletal muscle adaptations and metabolic changes that reduce the energy cost
• Elite athletes express a greater exercise economy compared with their untrained counterparts and thus run more efficiently

Improving Exercise Economy

• Adding strength or low-impact plyometric training can improve running economy.
• Enhancements in mechanical efficiency are caused by improved motor unit recruitment patterns, and increased muscular strength.

Factors Affecting Anaerobic Endurance Performance

• Factors affecting an athlete’s ability to repetitively perform high-intensity exercise include the ability to preferentially activate anaerobic energy systems, the ability to buffer lactic acid, the functioning of the cardiovascular system, and the ability to maintain neuromuscular characteristics related to performance.
• Increases in muscular stores of ATP, phosphocreatine (PCr), and muscle glycogen have been reported to occur in response to sprint or interval training.

Lactic Acid-Buffering Capacity

• One of the most important factors affecting an athlete’s ability to develop HIEE is the ability to buffer lactic acid to lactate
• Increases in H+ ion concentration result in an inhibitory effect on phosphofructokinase (PFK); buffering enhances the ATP yield from glycolysis
• HIEE training methods have been demonstrated to increase buffering capacities.
• Aerobic training does not allow for maximal development of the lactic acid-buffering capacity; it should not be utilized for an athlete relying on HIEE

Cardiovascular System

• Modern strength training, such as resistance and sprint interval training, can increase O2max.
• LIEE training impairs anaerobic performance capacity.
• The use of high-intensity interval training does not impair anaerobic energetic supply or alter the neuromuscular activation patterns unlike LIEE
• High-intensity interval training will allow for the cardiovascular system adaptations needed for the development of HIEE

Neuromuscular System

• LIEE training decreases the athlete’s ability to produce force at the high-velocity, low-frequency region of the force–velocity curve.
• LIEE methods will substantially decrease the rate of force development (RFD) and the ability to generate peak forces.
• Muscle fibers that contain MHC type X and IIa are considerably faster than those containing MHC type I
• Endurance athletes usually contain a higher MHC type I concentration than sprint or strength athletes.

Developing Endurance

• Athletes can develop endurance by using a variety of methods that produce very specific physiological and performance responses
• Traditional methods to develop LIEE call for continuous training performed at a variety of intensities ranging from 60% to 90% of maximal heart rate (141). The use of high-intensity intervals has been reported to improve LIEE
• LIEE training methods appear to decrease HIEE capacity