Endurance training
Encyclopedia
Endurance training is the deliberate act of exercising to increase stamina
and endurance
. Exercises for endurance
tends to be aerobic
in nature versus anaerobic
movements. Aerobic exercise develops slow twitch muscles. Performing these exercises strengthens and elongates the muscles for preparation of extended periods of use.
and 10k
races, half marathon
s, marathon
s, ultra marathons, triathlon
s, Ironman competitions, Century bike ride
s, mountain biking
, cross-country skiing
and so on. Non-athletes can train similarly with an aerobic workout to burn calories and fat.
, increased stroke volume of the heart increased red blood cell
count, increased blood plasma
which reduces blood viscosity
and increased cardiac output
as well as total mitochondrial volume in the muscle fibers used in the training (i.e. the thigh muscles in runners will have more mitochondria than the thigh muscles of swimmers). Adaptations of the peripheral include capillarization, that is an increase in the surface area that both the venous and arterial capillaries supply. This also allows for increased heat dissipation during strenuous exercise. The muscles heighten their glycogen
and fat storing capabilities in endurance athletes in order to increase the length in time in which they can perform work. Catabolism
also improves increasing the athletes capacity to use fat and glycogen stores as an energy source. These metabolic processes are known as glycogenolysis
, glycolysis
and lipolysis
. In recent years it has been recognized that Oxidative Enzymes such as succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) that enable mitochondria to break down nutrients to form ATP
increase by 2.5 times in well trained endurance athletes In addition to SDH, myoglobin
, increase by 75-80% in well trained endurance athletes.
, and in recent years Tabata intervals
. The periodization method is very common and was accredited to Tudor Bompa and consists of blocks of time, generally 4-12 weeks each. The blocks are called preparation, base, build, and race. The goal of a structured training program with periodization is to bring the athlete into peak fitness at the time of a big race or event. Preparation as the name suggests lays the groundwork for heavier work to follow. For a runner contemplating a competitive marathon the preparation phase might consist of easier runs of 1-4 miles 3-4 times per week and including 2-3 days of core strengthening. In the base phase the athlete now works on building cardiovascular endurance by having several long runs staying in heart rate zone 1-2 every week and each week adding slightly more mileage (using 10% rule for safely increasing the mileage). Core strengthening is continued in the base period. Once the base phase is complete and the athlete has sufficient endurance, the build period is needed to give the athlete the ability to hold a faster pace for the race duration. The build phase is where duration of runs is traded for intensity or heart rate zones 3-5. An easy method to obtain intensity is Interval training
and interval training starts to happen in the build phase. Through interval training during the build phase the athlete can achieve higher Lactate Threshold and in some athletes VO2 max
is increased. Because interval training is demanding on the body, a professional coach should be consulted. In the very least the athlete should do a warm up and active stretching before the interval session and static stretch or yoga after hard interval sessions. It is also advisable to have days of rest or easy workouts the day after interval sessions . Finally the race phase of the periodization approach is where the duration of the workouts decreases but intense workouts remain so as to keep the high lactate threshold that was gained in the build phase. In Ironman training, the race phase is where a long "taper" occurs of up to 4 weeks for highly trained Ironman racers. A final phase is designated transition and is a period of time, where the body is allowed to recover from the hard race effort and some maintenance endurance training is performed so the high fitness level attained in the previous periods will not be lost.
is one of the relatively easy methods to assess fitness in endurance athletes. By comparing heart rate over time fitness gains can be observed when the heart rate decreases for running or cycling at a given speed. In cycling the effect of wind on the cyclists speed is difficult to subtract out and so many cyclists now use power meters built into their bicycles. The Power meter
allows the athlete to actually measure power output over a set duration or course and allows direct comparison of fitness progression. In the 2008 Olympics Michael Phelps
was aided by repeated Lactate Threshold measurement. This allowed his coaches to fine tune his training program so that he could recover between swim events that were sometimes several minutes apart. Much similar to blood glucose for diabetes, lower priced lactate measurement devices are now available but in general the lactate measurement approach is still the domain of the professional coach and elite athlete.
Endurance
Endurance is the ability for a human or animal to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from, and have immunity to trauma, wounds, or fatigue. In humans, it is usually used in aerobic or anaerobic exercise...
and endurance
Endurance
Endurance is the ability for a human or animal to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from, and have immunity to trauma, wounds, or fatigue. In humans, it is usually used in aerobic or anaerobic exercise...
. Exercises for endurance
Endurance
Endurance is the ability for a human or animal to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from, and have immunity to trauma, wounds, or fatigue. In humans, it is usually used in aerobic or anaerobic exercise...
tends to be aerobic
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise is physical exercise of relatively low intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. Aerobic literally means "living in air", and refers to the use of oxygen to adequately meet energy demands during exercise via aerobic metabolism...
in nature versus anaerobic
Anaerobic respiration
Anaerobic respiration is a form of respiration using electron acceptors other than oxygen. Although oxygen is not used as the final electron acceptor, the process still uses a respiratory electron transport chain; it is respiration without oxygen...
movements. Aerobic exercise develops slow twitch muscles. Performing these exercises strengthens and elongates the muscles for preparation of extended periods of use.
Motivation
Athletes train for endurance to compete in 5k5000 metres
The 5000 metres is a popular running distance also known as 5 km or 5K in American English. It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics. "5000 metres" refers to racing on a track and "5K" usually refers to a roadrace or cross country event...
and 10k
10000 metres
The 10,000 metres or 10K is a common long distance running event. As "10,000 metres" it is a track event, and appears in athletics events such as the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics; as "10K" it is a roadrace or cross country running event...
races, half marathon
Half marathon
A half marathon is a road running event of . It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily recently. One of the main reasons for this is that it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a...
s, marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
s, ultra marathons, triathlon
Triathlon
A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances...
s, Ironman competitions, Century bike ride
Challenge riding
Challenge riding is a form of cycling where the riders challenge themselves rather than each other. Some challenge rides are charity events or pledge rides. Some are organised as pre- or early-season training events...
s, mountain biking
Mountain biking
Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain.Mountain biking can...
, cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
and so on. Non-athletes can train similarly with an aerobic workout to burn calories and fat.
Physiological effects
Long-term endurance training induces many physiological adaptations both centrally and peripherally mediated. Central cardiovascular adaptations include decreased heart rateHeart rate
Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time, typically expressed as beats per minute . Heart rate can vary as the body's need to absorb oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide changes, such as during exercise or sleep....
, increased stroke volume of the heart increased red blood cell
Red blood cell
Red blood cells are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate organism's principal means of delivering oxygen to the body tissues via the blood flow through the circulatory system...
count, increased blood plasma
Blood plasma
Blood plasma is the straw-colored liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid...
which reduces blood viscosity
Blood viscosity
Blood viscosity is a measure of the resistance of blood to flow, which is being deformed by either shear or extensional strain.Blood is a liquid that consists of plasma and particles, such as the red blood cells. The viscosity of blood thus depends on the viscosity of the plasma, in combination...
and increased cardiac output
Cardiac output
Cardiac output is the volume of blood being pumped by the heart, in particular by a left or right ventricle in the time interval of one minute. CO may be measured in many ways, for example dm3/min...
as well as total mitochondrial volume in the muscle fibers used in the training (i.e. the thigh muscles in runners will have more mitochondria than the thigh muscles of swimmers). Adaptations of the peripheral include capillarization, that is an increase in the surface area that both the venous and arterial capillaries supply. This also allows for increased heat dissipation during strenuous exercise. The muscles heighten their glycogen
Glycogen
Glycogen is a molecule that serves as the secondary long-term energy storage in animal and fungal cells, with the primary energy stores being held in adipose tissue...
and fat storing capabilities in endurance athletes in order to increase the length in time in which they can perform work. Catabolism
Catabolism
Catabolism is the set of metabolic pathways that break down molecules into smaller units and release energy. In catabolism, large molecules such as polysaccharides, lipids, nucleic acids and proteins are broken down into smaller units such as monosaccharides, fatty acids, nucleotides, and amino...
also improves increasing the athletes capacity to use fat and glycogen stores as an energy source. These metabolic processes are known as glycogenolysis
Glycogenolysis
Glycogenolysis is the conversion of glycogen polymers to glucose monomers. Glycogen is catabolized by removal of a glucose monomer through cleavage with inorganic phosphate to produce glucose-1-phosphate...
, glycolysis
Glycolysis
Glycolysis is the metabolic pathway that converts glucose C6H12O6, into pyruvate, CH3COCOO− + H+...
and lipolysis
Lipolysis
Lipolysis is the breakdown of lipids and involves the hydrolysis of triglycerides into free fatty acids followed by further degradation into acetyl units by beta oxidation. The process produces Ketones, which are found in large quantities in ketosis, a metabolic state that occurs when the liver...
. In recent years it has been recognized that Oxidative Enzymes such as succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) that enable mitochondria to break down nutrients to form ATP
Adenosine triphosphate
Adenosine-5'-triphosphate is a multifunctional nucleoside triphosphate used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism...
increase by 2.5 times in well trained endurance athletes In addition to SDH, myoglobin
Myoglobin
Myoglobin is an iron- and oxygen-binding protein found in the muscle tissue of vertebrates in general and in almost all mammals. It is related to hemoglobin, which is the iron- and oxygen-binding protein in blood, specifically in the red blood cells. The only time myoglobin is found in the...
, increase by 75-80% in well trained endurance athletes.
Methods and Training plans
Common methods for training include periodization, intervals, hard easy, long slow distanceLong Slow Distance
Long slow distance is a form of aerobic endurance training in running and cycling. Physiological adaptations to LSD training include improved cardiovascular function, improved thermoregulatory function, improved mitochondrial energy production, increased oxidative capacity of skeletal muscle, and...
, and in recent years Tabata intervals
High-intensity interval training
High-intensity interval training or sprint interval training is an exercise strategy that is intended to improve performance with short training sessions. HIIT is a form of cardiovascular exercise which is beneficial to burning fat in a short and intense workout. Usual HIIT sessions may vary from...
. The periodization method is very common and was accredited to Tudor Bompa and consists of blocks of time, generally 4-12 weeks each. The blocks are called preparation, base, build, and race. The goal of a structured training program with periodization is to bring the athlete into peak fitness at the time of a big race or event. Preparation as the name suggests lays the groundwork for heavier work to follow. For a runner contemplating a competitive marathon the preparation phase might consist of easier runs of 1-4 miles 3-4 times per week and including 2-3 days of core strengthening. In the base phase the athlete now works on building cardiovascular endurance by having several long runs staying in heart rate zone 1-2 every week and each week adding slightly more mileage (using 10% rule for safely increasing the mileage). Core strengthening is continued in the base period. Once the base phase is complete and the athlete has sufficient endurance, the build period is needed to give the athlete the ability to hold a faster pace for the race duration. The build phase is where duration of runs is traded for intensity or heart rate zones 3-5. An easy method to obtain intensity is Interval training
Interval training
Interval training is a type of physical training that involves bursts of high-intensity work interspersed with periods of low-intensity work...
and interval training starts to happen in the build phase. Through interval training during the build phase the athlete can achieve higher Lactate Threshold and in some athletes VO2 max
VO2 max
VO2 max is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual...
is increased. Because interval training is demanding on the body, a professional coach should be consulted. In the very least the athlete should do a warm up and active stretching before the interval session and static stretch or yoga after hard interval sessions. It is also advisable to have days of rest or easy workouts the day after interval sessions . Finally the race phase of the periodization approach is where the duration of the workouts decreases but intense workouts remain so as to keep the high lactate threshold that was gained in the build phase. In Ironman training, the race phase is where a long "taper" occurs of up to 4 weeks for highly trained Ironman racers. A final phase is designated transition and is a period of time, where the body is allowed to recover from the hard race effort and some maintenance endurance training is performed so the high fitness level attained in the previous periods will not be lost.
Devices to Assess Endurance Fitness
The Heart rate monitorHeart rate monitor
A heart rate monitor is a personal monitoring device which allows a subject to measure his or her heart rate in real time or record his or her heart rate for later study...
is one of the relatively easy methods to assess fitness in endurance athletes. By comparing heart rate over time fitness gains can be observed when the heart rate decreases for running or cycling at a given speed. In cycling the effect of wind on the cyclists speed is difficult to subtract out and so many cyclists now use power meters built into their bicycles. The Power meter
Cycling power meter
A cycling power meter is a device on a bicycle that allows measuring of the power output of the rider. Most cycling power meters use strain gauges to measure torque applied, and, combined with angular velocity, calculate power...
allows the athlete to actually measure power output over a set duration or course and allows direct comparison of fitness progression. In the 2008 Olympics Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...
was aided by repeated Lactate Threshold measurement. This allowed his coaches to fine tune his training program so that he could recover between swim events that were sometimes several minutes apart. Much similar to blood glucose for diabetes, lower priced lactate measurement devices are now available but in general the lactate measurement approach is still the domain of the professional coach and elite athlete.