Anaerobic Exercising

Julie Nielsen

AL 376

March 5, 13

Ken Mannie, “Get After It, Designing an Interval Training Program”

Summary

Ken Mannie begins his article by stressing the importance of designing an off-season program for specific sports. Those sports like football, basketball, sprinting require designs that work anaerobic conditioning. It is important to understand how these physiological systems work in order to design an effective program.

When food is consumed it is broken down into glucose to produce the chemical ATP. The breakdown of ATP provides energy for muscles. Another chemical compound that provides energy is Phosphocreatine, which is stored in muscle cells. The working of ATP-PC system is the initial step of the anaerobic energy system. Because ATP-PC is located right in the muscle cells, they are rapidly available for use. However, the muscle cells can only hold a limited amount of ATP-PC within them. That being said, it is useful for short burst of energy. After this short burst of energy, about 30 seconds, the body switches into aerobic glycolsis, which breaks down carbohydrates and produces lactic acid as a waste. The increase of lactic acid in the blood stream causes fatigue and muscle cramping.

Interval training is the best way to improve anaerobic energy because it focuses on the short burst of energy. In these programs, intensity and time are the most crucial aspects. In his program Mannie focuses on eight different important components; number of reps, distance, interval time, relief interval, relief to work ratio, workout distance, and workout frequency.

Questions

1. Would it be beneficial for all athletes to do some interval training or only those who have participate in sports where anaerobic conditioning is crucial?

2. Does the size of the athletes influence how much anaerobic conditioning they must practice?

Concepts

This article emphasizes the importance of specificity of interval training for sports. We had a discussion about this...