THE SCIENCE OF TRAINING

When ever we embark on a fitness program it is important to keep in mind what your ultimate goal is. Bodybuilders for example primarily focus on muscle atrophy (muscle growth), runners and tri athletes will focus on endurance and strength, soccer players will focus on strength, aerobic conditioning and agility etc.

Regardless of the goal a primary fitness base is required.  Primary fitness training addresses cardiovascular conditioning, endurance, strength and flexibility with one of the primary goals being a healthy body composition of fat to lean muscle.   

Secondary fitness is the next 'level' of fitness where fitness shifts to training for function and/or performance goals.  Performance can be defined as a labourer wanting to function on the job with less injury, a mother engaging in daily activities that involve lifting, bending, squatting or running after the kids or an athlete wanting to improve performance on the playing field.

Secondary fitness essentially moves from the realm of training muscles in isolation to more dynamic and integrated functional movement type of exercises.  FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENTS being those that are used in everyday life whether you are an athlete or not.

Secondary components of fitness that are essential to athlete development include the following :

• co-ordination 
• agility (the ability to link a number of movements into an effecient pattern of movement) 
• reaction time (the ability to read and react to an opponent) 
• balance 
• speed 
• power 

Training as an athlete is demanding and requires a knowledge as to what energy system is being used in the particular activity that is being engaged in.  With this in mind, a few details are outlined below that describe the various energy systems our bodies use for different activities.

Immediate Energy System

This system utilizes what we call ATP (fancy name for the energy molecule) have stored in our muscles.  This storage is used up within 30 seconds of work and takes around 7 minutes to replenish.

Clearly if you are training for very high intensity activity, this would be the energy system to focus on.  For example if you were training to beat the world record in 100m sprint, you would need to train this way.

Anaerobic-Glycolytic Energy System

This energy system uses the carbohydrates (glucose = 'sugar') stored in our muscles.  These carbohydrates act as the 'starting' material to produce the high energy molecule mentioned above .... ATP.

The word anaerobic literally means 'without oxygen' and the work glycolytic literally means lysis (or breakdown) of glucose.  That means that this energy system breaks down our glucose stored in our muscles without the requirement for oxygen.  This doesn't mean that we exercise without breathing, it means that there isn't a requirement for oxyen in the muscles where the energy molecules are being make.

Another chemical this energy system produces is called pyruvic acid which through a series of reactions in our muscles, will produce even more of the ATP through the next energy system described below.

This system is only able to function to full capacity for a relatively short period of time as well, typically lasting from 20 seconds to 3 minutes maximum.

Oxidative Energy System

This is the energy system that is used during activities that most people associate with what they call aerobic activity.  Essentially it is the energy system that is most involved in sustained activity over a period of time beyond 3 minutes. 

This system requires oxygen and is utilized most when we are attempting to build endurance and also maximize the number of calories we burn.

The fuel if you like to sustain this energy system can come from the pyruvic acid mentioned above (that cycles through a specialized reaction in our muscles to produce the ATP molecule), amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and fatty acids (the building blocks of fat).