We recently tested the new Under Armour HOVR Infinite 4, which, as we said in the review, are perfect for both beginning running and in any workout where we want to improve our endurance. But by comparing, they are also perfect for those who play other sports and want to use running to improve their performance.
That’s why we brought in Francesco “Frenk” Maurello, athletic trainer and Under Armour ambassador, to delve into the topic, try to understand more about it and thus put every athlete in a position to improve. So here is the first article on what resistance is and how it works.
To him the word!
What is resistance?
Endurance is one of the three conditional skills, along with strength and speed, and can be simply defined as the ability to prolong an effort over time.
Often the word “endurance” is replaced with aerobic endurance, aerobic capacity aerobic power.
In science, a subject’s endurance is quantified by maximum oxygen consumption, better known as VO2max, and represents the maximum amount of O2 that can be used by the body to produce and utilize energy (ATP).
In nature, energy can be produced by 3 mechanisms:
- Anaerobic Lactacid, utilization of phosphocreatine to produce ATP
- Anaerobic Lactacid, utilization of glucose without oxygen to produce ATP
- Aerobic, utilization of glucose and fatty acids with oxygen to produce ATP
However, these 3 mechanisms are not unrelated to each other; rather, they work synergistically, especially the aerobic one since it is through oxidation that phospho-creatine reserves are re-synthesized and it is also through oxidation that lactic acid produced during anaerobic glycolysis is disposed of; therefore, we can deduce that having an efficient aerobic system allows for all-round benefits in whatever sporting activity is practiced.
For example, all team sports have mixed energy consumption, in the soccer the breakdown is 2% Anaerobic Lactacid – 23% Anaerobic Lactacid – 75% Aerobic, in the basketball instead is 60% Anaerobic Lactacid – 20% Anaerobic Lactacid – 20% Aerobic, in the volleyball is 70% Anaerobic Lactacid – 20% Anaerobic Lactacid – 10% Aerobic and so on for all sports. Except for pure sprinting (60 and 100m) and Olympic lifts (Weight-lifting and Power-lifting) it is the aerobic system that plays a key role in the performance of all sports, so that it is essential to train this component during a season or preparation.
Resistance training is also important for all guys who work out in the gym, not for performance reasons but to be able to have more effective recovery during training sets and also between workouts, as well as for all the cardiovascular system benefits it brings.
Two basic types of training methods for improving endurance can be distinguished:
- Continuous training methods: with uniform, variable, progressively accelerated gait
- Interval training methods: interval training, fartlek, repeated trials
In a few days, we will elaborate on these two training methods.