60. WHILE SWITCHING HIT INTENSITY THROUGH THE DIFFERENT MESOCYCLES IS IRRELEVANT, REPEATING SIMILAR HIT SESSIONS WITHIN THE MESOCYCLE CAN BE IMPORTANT!

Photo by Ben Guernsey on Unsplash

Recently published data suggested periodizing intensity at the macrocycle level (through the months) can be important to optimize performance. Specifically, performing medium intensity (zone 3 in a 7 zones model) earlier and high intensity (zone 4/5/6/7 in a 7 zones model) later in the periodization (linear periodization) seems to be better when compared to doing the opposite or performing only high intensity training or only medium intensity training all-over the year. We will come back on this in the next KisW notes.

But, after that we have decided when to put high intensity training (HIT) in the annual training plan, should we also periodize the intensity performed during the HIT workout?

When considering the annual periodization of High Intensity Training (HIT) , should we put Zone 4 intervals before Zone 5/Zone 6 intervals, or viceversa? Is the HIT order relevant or not to optimize performance?

A study published by Sylta and Colleagues in 2016 (University of Agder, Kristiansand,, Norway) on Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise tried to answer this question.

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WHAT DID THEY DO?

• They recruited 63 well-trained cyclists (VO2max ~60, age ~40).

• For 12 weeks, they were divided into three groups which all trained 10 hours per week. The only difference between groups consisted in the sequence of the high intensity training (HIT) workouts they performed twice per week:

  1. Group Increasing Intensity (II):

     • Week 1-4: 4x16min

     • Week 5-8: 4x8min

     • Week 9-12: 4x4min

  2. Group Decreasing Intensity (DI):

     • Week 1-4: 4x4min

     • Week 5-8: 4x8min

     • Week 9-12: 4x16min

  3. Group Mixed Intensity (MI):

     Alternated the three workouts during each week throughout all the 12 weeks.

• The three workouts were all performed at the maximum sustainable efforts, and this resulted in the following intensity defined as % of second threshold:

  ~100% (zone 4), ~110% (zone 5) and ~120% (zone 5/6), for 4x16min, 4x8min, and 4x4min respectively.

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WHAT DID THEY FIND?