Aerobic and Anaerobic Power: A Closer Look at Training
Introduction
In athletes, endurance and speed are two things that are essential to activity. A marathon runner and a sprinter may both run, but use completely different techniques. One is paced, and one is maximal effort. The difference is the respiration each athlete is using. The marathon runner is mainly using aerobic respiration and the sprinter is mainly using anaerobic respiration. Aerobic respiration refers to the use of oxygen in exercise and anaerobic refers to the absence of oxygen. Each of these different types of exercise must be trained for athletes to be in top competitive shape. This paper will discuss the factors important for training in both anaerobic and aerobic power,
…show more content…
Higher resistance over a short distance repeated many times will increase ability to perform exercise without oxygen. An example of this could be seen in track using resistance harness belts and making one hundred-meter runners run sprints that are only fifty-meters under high resistance. Protocols to test anaerobic levels could include box drops and other isometric repeated exercises such as a cycle ergometer test (Vandewalle, 1987). Another thing to consider is the reaction time, power, acceleration, stride, and capacity (McArdle, 2010). These must be trained for to increase overall …show more content…
The athlete has a relatively high VO2 max and lactate threshold but is struggling to achieve faster speeds in his event. A training program consistently of high intensity and high frequency. Five factors also need to be considered: Reaction, power, acceleration, stride, and capacity (McArdle, 2010). In order to improve reaction, he will need to practice quick take offs repeatedly with resistance with half recovery. To increase power, weight training with high repetition and increasing weight will help the legs have more power (McArdle, 2010). The stride length will need to be increased as well as rate through short stepping and bounding in order to achieve maximum speeds (Gehad, 2017). Acceleration can be increased by working up to full speed in ever decreasing distances by working on a football field. Finally, Anaerobic capacity must be increased through increased intensity of workouts with an increased duration and frequency to maximize increase in abilities (McArdle,