Category Archives: Videos

Science and Application of High Intensity Interval Training – The book

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A preview to: The Science and Application of High Intensity Interval Training

Release date: towards the end of 2018

L&B - Science and Application of HIT

Most of us have heard of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) – that so called time efficient training strategy we should use to improve our cardiorespiratory and metabolic health and performance. Today in fact, HIIT is considered the highest interest topic in our field. But as I’ve written, our ability to link much of the sport science research outputs derived from our academic institutions, including HIIT, into today’s elite sport practice, can often be considered limited by those it matters most to, the coaches and athletes in the trenches of high performance sport.

This past year, my colleague Paul Laursen and I have taken on the project of working towards putting a book together on the topic of HIIT and its real world application in high performance sport. The initiative stems from the popularity of a two-part literature review we wrote on the topic back in 2013 (Part I & Part II, see also the 2013 UKSCA presentation below). As shown in the infographic, Science and application of high-intensity interval training takes the reader though the history of HIIT and its traditional methods, before diving into our scientific understanding of how it can be used to gain a response in certain biological targets of importance for sport performance. From there, we break down the key components of an HIIT session (intensity, duration, recovery, etc) to learn how we can manipulate these factors to form different HIIT formats, or what we term our ‘weapons’. Our HIIT weapons can be further refined to hit the biological targets of importance, in line with the sport type, the individual, and the all-important sport context. Other important considerations covered include concurrent strength programming and health aspects, as well as load monitoring and individual response surveillance.

Most importantly, we are privileged to have gained the generous contributions of practitioners embedded within 20 high profile individual and team-based sports, who tell us precisely how they apply the science of HIIT in their practice to maximise athlete and sport performance. The detail they offer will leave the enthusiastic coach and sport scientist breathless. It is our hope that the work will inspire a future generation of sport scientists to think outside the box when it comes to high performance sport science research and HIIT application, and critically, narrow today’s void between science and practice.

Videos from the 2013 UKSCA Conference

(many thanks to them for making the link available to all)

Nb: White man before Yann Le Meur‘s Infographics 🙂

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Player Tracking with Technology – what if we were all wrong?

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I discussed the pros and cons of the different tracking technologies, meaningfulness of some selected variables, limitations of metabolic power and future areas of interest including accelerometer-related data.

See also the full IJSPP paper that summarizes the talk and a blog piece on the limitation of Metabolic power

Psychometric and physiological responses to a pre-season competitive camp in the heat with a 6-hr time difference in elite soccer players

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Buchheit, M., Cholley Y. and Lambert P. Psychometric and physiological responses to a pre-season competitive camp in the heat with a 6-hr time difference in elite soccer players. IJSPP, In press.

 

Purpose. The aim of the present study was to examine in elite soccer players some psychometric and physiological responses to a competitive camp in the heat, after travelling across 6 time-zones. Methods. Data from 12 elite professional players (24.6±5.3 yr) were analyzed. They participated in an 8-day pre-season summer training camp in Asia (heat index 34.9±2.4 ⁰C). Players’ activity was collected during all training sessions and the friendly game using 15-Hz GPS. Perceived training/playing load was estimated using session rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and training/match duration. Psychometric measures of wellness were collected upon awakening before, during and after the camp using simple questionnaires. HR response to a submaximal 4-min run (12 km/h) and the ratio between velocity and force load (accelerometer-derived measure, a marker of neuromuscular efficiency) response to 4 ~60-m runs (22-24 km/h) were collected before, at the end and after the camp. Results. After a large increase, the RPE/m.min-1 ratio decreased substantially throughout the camp. There were possible small increases in perceived fatigue and small decreases in subjective sleep quality on the 6th day. There were also likely moderate (~3%) decreases in HR response to the submaximal run, both at the end and after the camp, which were contemporary to possible small (~8%) and most-likely moderate (~19%) improvements in neuromuscular efficiency, respectively. Conclusions. Despite transient increases in fatigue and reduced subjective sleep quality by the end of the camp, these elite players showed clear signs of heat acclimatization, which were associated with improved cardiovascular fitness and neuromuscular running efficiency.

Fig 1 final color2

Figure 1. Upper panel: change in locomotor load (measured via GPS) and heat index before, during and after the Asian camp. The flights represent the different flying trips, with their specific duration indicated into brackets. As wearing GPS was not allowed during the official match, the total distance covered was extrapolated from historical club data (Team A) against Team B for illustration. The timing of the monitoring sessions is also indicated, with Run standing for the submaximal run and the 4 60-m runs, and Wellness for the psychometric questionnaires. Lower panel: changes in perceived training load (rate of perceived exertion, RPE, method) and the RPE/distance per min ratio. The gray area represents the Hong Kong (HK) camp, while the grey and shaded area represents the time spent in Beijing. ****: very likely different vs. pre camp.

Keywords: heart rate monitoring, wellness, neuromuscular efficiency, association football, heat training.

Changes of direction during high-intensity intermittent runs: neuromuscular and metabolic responses

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Karim Hader, Alberto Mendez-Villanueva, Said Ahmaidi, Ben Williams and Martin
Buchheit. Changes of direction during high-intensity intermittent runs: neuromuscular and metabolic  responses. Accepted to BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation on 19 December 2013.

Abstract
Background: The ability to sustain brief high-intensity intermittent efforts (HIE) is meant to be a major attribute for performance in team sports. Adding changes of direction to HIE is believed to increase the specificity of training drills with respect to game demands. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of 90°-changes of direction (COD) during HIE on metabolic and neuromuscular responses.
Methods: Eleven male, team sport players (30.5±3.6 y, 81±6 kg, 180± 6cm) performed randomly HIE without (straight-line, 2x[10x 22m]) or with (2x[10x ~16.5m]) two 90°-COD. To account for the time lost while changing direction, the distance for COD runs during HIE was individually adjusted using the ratio between straight-line and COD sprints. Players also performed 2 countermovement (CMJ) and 2 drop (DJ) jumps, during and post HIE. Pulmonary oxygen uptake ( O2), quadriceps and hamstring oxygenation, blood lactate concentration (Δ[La]b), electromyography amplitude (RMS) of eight lower limb muscles and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured for each condition.
Results: During HIE, CODs had no substantial effects on changes in  O2, oxygenation, CMJ and DJ performance and RPE (all differences in the changes rated as unclear). Conversely, compared with straight-line runs, COD-runs were associated with a possibly higher Δ[La]b (+9.7±10.4%, with chances for greater/similar/lower values of 57/42/0%). There was also a lower decrease in lateral gastrocnemius (-8.5±9.3%, 1/21/78) and semitendinosus (-11.9 ± 14.6%, 2/13/85) electromyography amplitude; the decrease in electromyography amplitude for the other muscles was not clearly different.
Conclusion: Adding two 90°-CODs on adjusted distance during two sets of HIE is likely to elicit equivalent decreases in CMJ and DJ height, and similar cardiorespiratory and perceptual responses, despite a lower average running speed. A fatigue-induced modification in lower limb control observed with CODs may have elicited a selective reduction of electromyography activity in hamstring muscles and may induce, in turn, a potential mechanical loss of knee stability. Therefore, changing direction during HIE might be an effective training practice 1) to manipulate some components of the acute physiological load of HIE, 2) to promote long-term COD-specific neuromuscular adaptations aimed at improving performance and knee joint stability.
Key Words: cardiorespiratory responses; neuromuscular adjustment; selective activation; knee stabilization.

Full paper available on the Journal Website (open Access)

Tolerance to high-intensity intermittent running exercise

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The straight-line version of the test we used in the following paper:

Front Physiol. 2012 Oct 22;3:406. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2012.00406. eCollection 2012.

Tolerance to high-intensity intermittent running exercise: do oxygen uptake kinetics really matter?

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Physiology Unit, Football Performance and Science Department, ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence Doha, Qatar.

Abstract

We examined the respective associations between aerobic fitness ([Formula: see text]max), metabolic control ([Formula: see text] kinetics) and locomotor function, and various physiological responses to high-intensity intermittent (HIT) running exercise in team sport players. Eleven players (30.5 ± 3.6 year) performed a series of tests to determine their [Formula: see text]max and the associated velocity (v[Formula: see text]max), maximal sprinting speed (MSS) and [Formula: see text] kinetics at exercise onset in the moderate and severe intensity domains, and during recovery ([Formula: see text] SEV). Cardiorespiratory variables, oxygenation and electromyography of lower limbs muscles and blood lactate ([La]) concentration were collected during a standardized HIT protocol consisting in 8 sets of 10, 4-s runs. During HIT, four players could not complete more than two sets; the others finished at least five sets. Metabolic responses to the two first sets of HIT were negatively correlated with [Formula: see text]max, v[Formula: see text]max, and [Formula: see text] SEV (r = -0.6 to -0.8), while there was no clear relationship with the other variables. [Formula: see text], oxygenation and [La] responses to the first two sets of HIT were the only variables that differed between the players which could complete at least five sets or those who could not complete more than two sets. Players that managed to run at least five sets presented, in comparison with the others, greater v[Formula: see text]max [ES = +1.5(0.4; 2.7), MSS(ES = +1.0(0.1; 1.9)] and training load [ES = +3.8 (2.8; 4.9)]. There was no clear between-group difference in any of the [Formula: see text] kinetics measures [e.g., ES = -0.1(-1.4; 1.2) for [Formula: see text] SEV]. While [Formula: see text]max and v[Formula: see text]max are likely determinant for HIT tolerance, the importance of [Formula: see text] kinetics as assessed in this study appears limited in the present population. Knowing the main factors influencing tolerance to HIT running exercise may assist practitioners in personalizing training interventions.