Rest Day:

Futbol and Energy Systems, "...rest while you..."

I wa watching Manchester United this weekend in a futbol game (soccer for the uninitiated.) I was reminded of the chapter in the book Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning . The most salient point from my studying and passing the NSCA'a Strength and Conditioning exam in 1996 was that an athlete should be trained to fit the energy systems of their sport. It has always seemed to me that the study of energy systems has always been the sorely under studied and considered portion of most certifications and "systems" of training. people are too focused on wowing their clients, temas and peers with new exercises rather than the work rest interval for those exercises. But I digress, this month's training topic has to do with energy systems. Particularly carry over from training to other activity or sports.

So in this futbol game, I am watching athletes running for over an hour making powerful bursts of speed and I got to thinking: "how easy must their normal running speed be that although they are moving and working almost constantly that they still are able to tap into their ATP-CP system for sprints, leaps, and tackles at full speed?"

Could it be that they are so efficient at clearing lactate and turning oxygen to energy that their power energy system is fully loaded and ready for the demands that come over and over again during the match?

Although I do not agree with all of hte precepts of mainstream Crossfit, I do find their attention to energy systems (a third of their intro course and mission statement take them inot account) make them the most provocative training systme to avail itself lately (to the dismay of the NSCA).

In a conversation with the trainers at my club today I found their intuitive answers based on a Crossfit workout to point to an answer in the above questions.

The workout was 20 minutes in which one completes as many rounds of the following:

15 BW Squats, 10 Push Ups and 5 Pull Ups

Two different athletes with different training history and experience levels reported that they were resting during one of the three movements. One found the squats the easiest and felt she was "catching her breath" there. The other felt the push ups were where they could make up the oxygen debt from the consistant aerovic work during that movement. So here we have another example of a percieveable rest interval during work - at least that is what both athletes report. That is the same sort of thing one observes when watching World Class Futbol. How do we train for that? What sort fo overload leads to that addaptation? How do we train to imporve ones ability in one area or all areas?

We and the industry should think much more about energy systems.