Conditioning is training designed to help athletes integrate their physical abilities, skills, and performance. Effective coordination is vital in achieving peak performance in soccer, basketball, football, or baseball. By coordinating your conditioning, you can maintain and enhance your skills, allowing you to perform at your best. However, improper conditioning can lead to exhaustion and impede your ability to play at a high level. Therefore, it is essential to coordinate your conditioning for success in your sport.

Many times, conditioning programs are not well-organized, making them less effective and detrimental to your skills on the field. It’s not just about pushing yourself to the limit. You must balance and optimize your training to maximize your results. Everything in your body is interconnected.

Energy Systems

Different energy systems in your body provide energy in different ways.

Alactic System (Anaerobic)

This system provides short bursts of high-intensity energy, typically lasting 10-12 seconds at 98-100% max intensity. It primarily relies on stored ATP and creatine phosphate within the muscles. Activities like sprinting or explosive types of movement use this system.

Recovery Time

• 30 seconds -50%
• 2 minutes- 70%
• 3 minutes- 100%

This system is the most powerful and replenishes. Knowing how to properly train this system to maximize the effect on the field or court is essential.

Anaerobic Energy System (Glycolytic)

The glycolytic system provides energy for activities that require high intensity for a short period, typically between 12 seconds and 3 minutes. Typically, the intensity is between 85-98%. It kicks in when the body wants to continue high intensity but doesn’t have enough oxygen. So, it relies on glucose stored in the muscles.

But there’s a catch! This energy depends on carbohydrates; when it runs out, it’s out and difficult to maintain intensity. This is why consuming carbohydrate-rich foods and drinks before, during, and after physical activity is essential to ensure your body has enough energy to sustain high intensity. This is especially important in sports like football and baseball, where you go on and off the field, and it is easier to refuel this energy system.

However, another way to preserve glycolytic energy is to train your alactic and aerobic systems. These two energy systems are compatible to help you maintain energy levels. The aerobic system helps support your power by avoiding fatigue. When you are fatigued, your strength will be less effective, even if you are very strong. By training these systems, you can reduce the dependence on the glycolytic system and avoid quick fatigue.

Recovery Time

• 30-60 minutes after eating carbohydrates.

Aerobic Energy System

This aerobic system provides energy for activities lasting more than 3 minutes. This system uses oxygen to convert carbohydrates and fats into energy, which helps you in long-duration sports, long-distance running, cycling, or any other sport that needs endurance. It usually involves around 70-85% intensity. But don’t think of endurance like running a marathon. Baseball and football are highly aerobic because the games last for hours.

To perform well in any sport, it’s essential to have a good aerobic system. The aerobic system helps you to sustain your energy levels for a longer time without feeling tired. It’s a foundation that supports your speed and power.

It’s essential to understand the different energy systems in your body and how to fuel them properly to coordinate your energy and improve performance. By understanding the energy systems of your sport, you can train and condition your body better to improve and optimize your performance.

RTE- Residual Training Effect

RTE is another essential piece of information to help coordinate your conditioning. RTE is the range of time before you experience immediate detraining effects.

For example, after 25-30 days, capillary density will decrease in the aerobic system, affecting blood flow and oxygen transport. Or, with alactic training, you will lose your speed and explosiveness in about five days.

By understanding RTE, you can comprehend the sensitivity of training results and effectively coordinate your strength, speed, and power programming to maintain high performance.

• Aerobic System– 25-30 days
• Max Strength- 12-15 days
• Glycolytic System– 15-20 days
• Speed– 3-5 days
• Alactic System– 3-5 days

Retaining adaptations for the most significant length of time is essential. It can help you stay at your maximum condition to prevent overtraining and fatigue.

It’s more efficient and effective to prioritize adaptations with more prolonged residual effects at the beginning of a training cycle. This enables you to allocate training and focus on areas with shorter-lasting adaptations later in the training process.

RTE can help you develop and schedule in-season and off-season training to coordinate, synchronize, and peak simultaneously without fatigue.

Coordinate Your Training – Compatible Methods

Now that you understand how the energy systems function and their RTE, you can train and coordinate your conditioning more effectively for your sport. Specific training modalities work better when trained together. And combining with a secondary method will boost and enhance the acute effects of the primary training method.

This list will help you yield the best results when combing your training programs.

• Aerobic– Maximum Strength, Alactic, and Strength Endurance
• Glycolytic– Strength Endurance and Low Intensity Aerobic
• Alactic- Aerobic Power and Capacity, Explosive Strength, Explosive Speed
• Max Strength– Low Intensity Aerobic

First, make sure you train the primary system of your focus. Your program should contain no more than two training methods in a session. Spend 70% of your training on the primary system and devote 30% to implementing the other.

The primary training system requires sufficient stimulus for adaptations to occur.

Example

iI you play soccer one day, you can focus on alactic sprint power taking full recovery. Another day, you can sprint and use aerobic training to recover during your sprints. This way, your coordination of training integrates into your sports performance.

It’s crucial to be cautious when using multiple training methods. If it is not compatible, it will be detrimental to your training. And this will create setbacks in your results.

Know and Coordinate the Needs of Your Sport

Soccer is primarily an aerobic sport with intermittent bursts of anaerobic activity. Players engage in continuous running and low intensity that highly rely on the aerobic system. At the same time, short sprints, explosive movements, and quick changes in direction involve the anaerobic system. A solid aerobic base is essential for covering ground during 90 minutes of the game and recovering between high-intensity movements.

Basketball is a dynamic sport that combines alactic, glycolytic, and aerobic energy systems. Players engage in frequent high-intensity moments, with sprinting, jumping, and explosive movements relying on the alactic system. Simultaneously, the glycolic system works during continuous, submaximal running and play. Good aerobic endurance is essential for sustaining energy levels during the game since it lasts longer than 15 minutes. At the same time, anaerobic power and strength are needed for explosive moves.

Football is alactic and highly aerobic, meaning that it involves high-intensity efforts with short recovery periods between plays, incomplete passes, time-outs, etc. Players will use the glycolytic system when plays are fast and extended on the field, but not as much as the other two. Players must have a large aerobic gas tank to maintain their maximum output as possible for hours.

Baseball involves explosive moments on the field, like pitching and hitting. Along with this are extended periods of low-intensity activity on the field. Players use different types of energy to run, throw, and perform precise movements. Players also need to develop their hitting, fielding, and throwing abilities. So, having a highly developed alactic system will maximize power, and the aerobic system will be able to maintain that power over the hours of play.

Coordinating your conditioning is vital for achieving peak performance in team sports. Understand the energetic needs of your sport so you can train appropriately. Make sure to consider and coordinate other factors like nutrition timing and recovery strategies to reach your full potential.

Recommended Reading

Check out my INSTANT STRENGTH book for total strength, speed, and power programs.

To maximize stability, mobility, and flexibility, check out my book, THE BALANCED BODY.

To see great exercises, methods, and techniques videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel, BALANCED BODY.

To optimize and coordinate your nutrition with your performance, check out the book Eat to Win.