Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Physiological Adaptations of Training



I know a lot of you that I coach, or that are a part of the Power Based Training Clinic, hear me repeatedly talk about the benefits of training in certain zones/levels. Well, here is an eye-candy chart I created from the information provided by the good doctor- Dr. Andy Coggan PhD. Now you don't have to hear it from me..you can see it. It pretty much sums up what we're trying to achieve during interval training. To a lot of you, I know you're not sure what "increases mitochondrial density" means, or why it's good for you. Therefore, I'll do my best to explain what this means:
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- Increased Muscle Glycogen storage= makes more available energy stores.
- Conversion of Type IIb to Type IIa muscle fibers= recruitment of more of the slower muscle
aafibers for better muscular endurance
- Increased Muscle Mitochondrial Enzymes- increases respiratory capacity of muscle
- Increased Lactate Threshold= enhances lactate clearance. Staves off muscle fatigue.
- Hypertrophy of slow twitch muscle fibers= increases muscular strength/endurance
- Increased Plasma Volume= increases blood flow for better oxygen transport
- Increased Muscle Cappillarization- better transport of oxygen, CO2 and nutrients between
aatissues and circulatory system.
- Increased Stroke Volume= lowers heart rate for max cardiac output
- Increased VO2max= increases capacity of cardiovascular system
- Increased Anaerobic Capacity= increases capacity of hi-intensity exercise
- Increased Muscle ATP/PCr= increases Creatine Phosphate energy system production
- Hypertrophy of fast twitch muscle fibers= increases muscle power/strength
- Increased Neuro-muscular power= increases short term muscle power/strength
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Disclaimer..I'm not a physiologist and I didn't have one check to make sure my definitions are correct. So, until I contact the good Dr. again, are there any physiologists out there that can add some "laymans terms" to these definitions/descriptions? Cheers Rob

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