UCOL Sport Scientists test training technique

UCOL Sport Scientists test training technique

Two UCOL Exercise and Sport Science lecturers contributed to research concluding that athletes shouldn’t be restricted to traditional interval training methods, often the body knows best.

Michael Mann and Tim Seaholme were part of a team that recently had a research paper titled "Self-pacing in interval training: A teleoanticipatory approach," published in the international Journal of Psychophysiology.

They joined former UCOL academics Andrew Edwards and Maria Bentley in a SPARC funded research project that compared different methods of recovery during interval training, a popular means of improving sports performance involving bursts of high intensity work alternated with periods of rest or low activity.

Michael Mann says, “We were interested in how different methods of recovery would affect performance. We used two traditional methods of recovery either work to rest ratio or heart rate returning to 130 bpm, and a third novel recovery method of Perceived Readiness to resume exercise.”

Research data was collected with the help of ten local Palmerston North runners over a three month period at the Massey Athletic track. The runners were asked to do five 1000 m intervals using one of the three recovery methods on each of their visits to the track.

The traditional Borg Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) method of gauging exercise intensity was used by runners when performing their 1000 m intervals during the research.

Michael Mann says, “Much research is done in sports science labs, however for this to be of practical value to athletes, we decided to collect data where athletes normally compete. Even though it was an outdoor venue, the weather conditions were surprisingly stable.”

The results revealed that runners using the new Perceived Readiness recovery method led to shorter recovery times and less total workout time. That is, the athletes were able to personally “judge” when they were adequately recovered, which resulted in them being able to maintain the same exercise intensity and times in repeated 1000m intervals, despite this shorter recovery.

Andrew Edwards, a former British hurdler and exercise physiologist, says Perceived Readiness gives athletes a systematic approach to work at their own pace, considering the workout as a whole.

“It means that you can have great conscious control over the whole process of training. Runners need to rely on their pacing to finish a race as fast as possible, so it seems sensible to consider pacing during training too.”

ENDS