Energy Systems Training(1)

More often then not, we train when there are "kakis" and as age groupers we have almost complete autonomy over what training we would like to do.
As such, it become absoultely necessary to understand what are we training for.

In this post, I shall write a bit about training for performance.

Basically there are 3 Major energy systems in our body,

• ATP-PC (Adinosin Triphosphate- Phosphocreatine i.e. breaking down of Phosphate bonds for energy)
• Anaerobic Glycolysis (Breaking down of glycogen to produce ATP)
• Aerobic Glycolysis (Breaking down of Fats, Proteins, Carbohydrates with oxygen to produce energy)

ATP-PC

• Lasts for 2-10 seconds depending on athlete

Anaerobic Glycolysis

• Lasts for up to 2 mins

Aerobic Glycolysis

• Lasts "forever"

Basically in good training, we must be able to train all 3 systems but in different intesity. That means that because our sport is predominently Aerobic in nature, a greater degree of training should be in the aerobic zones.

However training aerobically is not all that simple, to do so requires careful attention spent on watching our heart rate (not the best method but the most convenient). The below is a heavily simplified version of what systems we are training at different heart rates.

• At 55-65%hr we are training our aerobic Fat metabolism
• at 66-75%hr we are training our Aerobic Glycolytic metabolism (no lactate produced)
• at 75%-90% hr we are training our Anaerobic glycolytic metabolism (lactate produced)

*I will write more about lactate soon :)

Hopefully with this knowledge we can better decide on what is are we training for