race walker

Sport Sci Health (2008) 4:5158DOI 10.1007/s11332-008-0067-1

Abstract Race walking can be considered as a long-dis-tance performance and it can be described as the techni-cal and athletic expression of fast walking. The physio-logical determinants of these performances have beenwell documented; moreover, several recent studiesdemonstrated that concurrent strength and endurancetraining can improve performance in endurance athletes.Thus, the purpose of this report was to monitor the adap-tations of a combined strength, performed by circuit re-sistance training (CRT), and endurance programme in twotop level female race walkers. The subjects were exam-ined before and after 12 weeks of CRT and endurancetraining and performed an incremental field test to de-termine maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max), runningeconomy (RE) and lactate threshold (LT). The results

showed that 12 weeks of combined CRT and enduranceprogramme did not correspond to an alteration in VO2maxand RE, while improvements in LT and 5-km perfor-mance were seen.

Key words Race walking Explosive strength Circuit resistance training

Introduction

The general assumption for walking said that process oflocomotion in which the moving body is supported byfirst one leg and then the other. When the moving bodypasses over the supporting leg, the other leg swings for-ward in preparation for its next support phase. One footor the other is always on the ground, and during that pe-riod, when the support of the body is transferred from thetrailing to the leading leg, there is a brief period whenboth feet are on the ground [1].

Race walking can be described as the technical andathletic expression of fast walking; competition walkersattain speeds about double the maximum walking speedof an average person with a less step increase in energyexpenditure, maybe due to two factors: (i) less mechan-ical work done to move forwards and/or (ii) the effi-ciency of positive work [2, 3]. Moreover, race walkinghas some other technical aspects, ruled by InternationalAssociation of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rule 230,which increase the difficulty of locomotion: (i) loss ofcontact; and (ii) bent knee.

The difference between common walking and racewalking and the limits to race walking performance de-rive directly from these technical and ruling aspects, thus,even endowed with extraordinary physiological qualities,

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Received: 23 October 2008 / Accepted: 20 November 2008 Springer-Verlag 2008

Combined endurance and resistance circuit training in highlytrained/top-level female race walkers: a case report

Antonio La Torre Gianluca Vernillo Pierluigi Fiorella Clara Mauri Luca Agnello

A. La Torre G. VernilloFaculty of Exercise SciencesUniversity of MilanMilan, Italy

P.L. Fiorella C. MauriMedicine and Sport Science InstituteItalian National Olympic CommitteeRome, Italy

L. AgnelloDepartment of Basic and Applied Medical SciencesUniversity G. dAnnunzioChieti-Pescara, Italy

A. La Torre ()Istituto di Esercizio Fisico, Salute e Attivit Sportiva (IEFSAS)Via Giuseppe Colombo 7120133 Milan, Italye-mail: [email protected]

051_058_LaTorre:Sport 10-02-2009 10:41 Pagina 51

a race walker without a strong technique may neverachieve significant results.

The physiological determinants of long-distance run-ning performance, as race walking, have been well doc-umented. Traditionally, it has been suggested that thesefactors are: (i) maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max)[46]; (ii) lactate threshold (LT) [6, 7]; (iii) runningeconomy (RE) [4, 6, 8, 9]; and (iv) percent of maxi-mum oxygen uptake (%VO2max) [4]. These determi-nants explain >70% of the between-subject variance inlong-distance running performance [10]. Factors relat-ed to muscular power, such as neuromuscular andanaerobic aspects, have been recently added. Noakes[11] and Green and Patla [12] have suggested thatVO2max and endurance performance may be limited notonly by central factors related to O2 uptake (VO2max)but also by so-called muscle power factors affectedby an interaction of neuromuscular and anaerobic char-acteristics [13].

These factors can limit, and even can be the precur-sors to, endurance performance [1416]. These physio-logical determinants can be considered as intrinsic fac-tors [17], such as genetic [1821] and psychic charac-teristics [22], and extrinsic factors [17], such as lifestyleand daily activity [17, 23, 24], training [23, 25] and en-vironment conditions [26, 27].

It has been suggested that simultaneous training forboth strength and endurance may be associated with lim-ited strength development in endurance athletes [11, 26,27] without changes in the endurance determinants.Whereas, explosive and plyometric training pro-grammes, in endurance athletes, does not behave the de-velopment of the endurance determinants [13, 28, 29].Moreover, a different kind of strength training, circuitresistance training (CRT), deemphasises the brief inter-vals of heavy, local muscle overload in standard resis-tance training, providing a more general conditioningthat improves body composition, muscular resistanceand endurance, and cardiovascular fitness [43, 44].

Although the effect of combined strength and en-durance training on physical performance has become apopular research topic in the last decade [33], a few stud-ies have analysed the impact of resistance training on theendurance disciplines and have reported that: (i) plyo-metric training improves RE and ultimately distance-running performance, although the exact mechanism bywhich this occurs remains unclear [13, 34, 35]; (ii) CRTsets are quantitatively similar to traditional strength train-ing sets, but the cardiovascular load is substantiallygreater. CRT may be an effective training strategy for thepromotion of both strength and cardiovascular adapta-tions and alone induced strength and power improve-ments that were significantly greater than when resis-

52

tance and endurance training were combined [45, 46].Moreover, in the literature, there are no studies con-cerning these aspects in race walking.

Thus, the aim of this report was to monitor the adap-tations of a combined strength, performed by CRT, andendurance programmes in two highly trained female racewalkers.

Materials and methods

Subjects

Two highly trained females with 111 years experience,who competed in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge andWorld Race Walking Cup 2008, were analysed in the pre-sent study. The averages of the subjects physical andphysiological characteristics before and after the trainingperiod are presented in Table 1.

All participants were fully informed about the aims ofthe study, the procedures and the training, and gave theirvoluntary consent before participation. The experimentalprocedures were in agreement with the Declaration ofHelsinki on human experimentation.

Training project

The experimental training period lasted for 12 weeks. Thetotal training volume was 120030 h/year but 10% oftraining hours were replaced by CRT.

CRT sessions lasted for 2030 min at a frequency of3 times per week. The programme included eight differ-ent exercises (Fig. 1) without additional weight or withlow loads but high or maximal movement velocities(64160 contractions/training session and 812 repeti-tions/set). The load of the exercises ranged between 0 and40% of the one-repetition maximum.

Sport Sci Health (2008) 4:5158

Table 1 Physical characteristics and training background of the experimental group

Variable Experimental group

Before After

Age (years) 23Height (cm) 171.50.5Body weight (kg) 53.43.6 524.1BMI 18.11.4 17.71.5Training background 111Training (h/year) 120030Circuit training times/week 2

Values are meansSD


In detail, workload intensities ranged from 20% to75% of the athletes limits, below (75%) or above (20%)the individual lactate threshold (LT), for example 31000or 12000 race walking with 2 min rest between repeti-tions (Fig. 2).

Measurements

Highly trained race walkers were examined before and af-ter 12 weeks of training. The tests were performed inFebruary and then in April before the competition peri-

Sport Sci Health (2008) 4:5158 53

Fig. 2 Relative volumes (%) of different training during course of 12-week simultaneous CRT and aerobic endurance training

0 %

10 %

20 %

30 %

40 %

50 %

60 %

70 %

80 %

90 %

100 %strenghtaerobic endurance95% of the LTabove LT

Fig. 1 CRT programme


od. All tests were performed on a synthetic 400-m trackin a climate of 816C without wind. Two testing sessionswere conducted. In the first one, the subjects performedan incremental field test to determine maximal oxygenuptake (VO2max) where the speed was increased by 1km/h each minute. Two days later, in the second session,RE was measured as steady-state sub-maximal oxygenuptake during incremental steps of eight minutes at con-stant velocity with 30 sec of recovery.

Throughout the incremental test, the subjects adoptedthe required velocity by use of an audio-visual system.This system included guide marks set at 20-m intervalsalong the track and audio signals to determine the speedneeded to cover the intervals.

A peripheral lactate increase over velocity corre-sponding to 4 mmolL1 during an incremental exercisetest can be adopted as an evaluation criterion of the anaer-obic threshold [47]. VO2, VCO2 and VE were measuredthroughout the test using a telemetric system (K4b2,Cosmed, Rome, Italy) [48, 49] and heart rate (HR) wasmonitored continuously for all sessions (Polar Electro,Kempele, Finland). Expired gases were measured breath-by-breath and averaged every 5 s. Before each test, theO2 analysis system was calibrated using ambient air(20.9% O2 and 0.04% CO2) and calibration gas (16% O2and 5% CO2). The calibration of the turbine flow-meterof the analyser was performed with a 3-l syringe.

During the exercise test, a capillary blood sample wasobtained from the ear lobe and analysed for blood lactateconcentration (Lactate Pro LT, Arkay Inc., Kyoto, Japan)[50]. The samples were taken immediately after the warm-up and after each velocity at the end of the incremental test.

54

Results

The VO2max before and after 12 weeks of CRT was3209436 vs. 2882651 mlkg1min1, respectively (Fig. 3). Before and after the 12 week programme, im-mediately after the end of the VO2max test, mean bloodlactate concentration was 8.751.06 mmolL1 and8.850.64 mmolL1, respectively (Fig. 4). The LT at ve-locity corresponding to 4 mmolL1 was, before and af-ter the protocol, 12.40.2 kmh1 and 12.90.1 kmh1,respectively. There were no changes in RE (Fig. 5). Themaximal heart rate was, before and after training, 1898vs. 1907 beatsmin1, respectively (Fig. 6).

Discussion

The main purpose of the present report was to test theeffects of a CRT on race walking performance. As showedby Paavolainen et al. [13], the combined explosivestrength and endurance training improved force, runningvelocity, RE and 5-km running performance in welltrained endurance athletes without any changes in VO2max,according to what we find in the present report, wherethe aerobic capacity of the subjects does not improve af-ter 12 weeks of combined CRT and endurance training.

Moreover, in the literature there are discordant dataabout the possible changes of the LT after concomitantendurance and strength training. Several studies haveshown no changes in LT after the training protocol [13,40], while Marcinik et al. found an improvement in thesubjects LT [42]. Along with Jung [41], we hypothe-


Fig. 3 VO2max and speed relationship before and after 12 weeks of CRT. Values are meansSD

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00

Speed (kmh-1)

prepost

VO2m

ax (m

Lkg-1

m

in-1 )


sise that after CRT the muscle fibres are capable of pro-ducing more absolute force, working at a lower per-centage of maximum strength during endurance activi-ty compared with pre-training. This decrease in effortmay have resulted in a decrease in anaerobic energy pro-duction, resulting in a decrease in blood lactate con-centration [42].

Regarding the RE, but in our opinion it would be bet-ter to refer to race walking economy (RWE), in contrastto the literature [35, 39], we found a worsening. This may

be due to the intrinsic factors of race walking, as the tech-nical and biomechanical aspects may require a longer pe-riod of adaptation after the training.

In conclusion, we have shown that 12 weeks of a com-bined circuit training and endurance programme improvethe 5-km performances but there were no correspondingalterations in VO2max.

Further research is needed to establish whether suchrace walking improvements derive from an increasedstride length or stride frequency or both and, as suggest-


Fig. 4 Blood lactate curve before and after 12 weeks of CRT. Values are meansSD

Speed (kmh-1)

Bloo

d la

ctat

e co

ncen

tratio

n (m

molL

-1 )

0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00

prepost

Fig. 5 RWE and speed relationship before and after the 12 weeks of CRT. Values are meansSD

Speed (kmh-1)

RWE

(mLk

g-1m

in-1 )

0.0

50.0

100.0

150.0

200.0

250.0

300.0

11.00 12.00 13.00

prepost


ed by Nummela et al. [51], if these improvements mightbe due to enhancement in ground contact times.

In our opinion, this improvement might enhance 5-kmperformance (Fig. 7) after 12 weeks of training. Thus, fur-ther research is needed to establish if this improvementis due to combined CRT and endurance training.

According to Hkkinen et al. [52] the present data do notsupport the concept of the interference effect in strength

56

development and muscle hypertrophy when strength train-ing is performed concurrently with endurance training.Instead, in our opinion, explosive strength development inthe subjects seems to be due to an improvement in the rapidneural activation of the trained muscles. In addition, ac-cording to Nummela et al. [51], the results of the presentstudy support the idea that distance runners performance isrelated to neuromuscular capacity to produce force.


Fig. 6 Heart rate and speed relationship before and after 12 weeks of CRT. Values are meansSD

Speed (kmh-1)

Hea

rt ra

te (b

eats

min-1

)

150

160

170

180

190

200

210

11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00

prepost

Fig. 7 Average of the 5-km performance from 2005 to 2008

0.22.11

0.22.28

0.22.45

0.23.02

0.23.20

0.23.37

0.23.54

0.24.12

0.24.29

0.24.46

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009Years

5 km

per

form

ance

(hm

mss)


Practical applications

Collectively, these findings add further support to the in-terpretation of the results of the training study in whichcombined endurance and CRT improved skeletal muscleforcevelocity characteristics, such as, maybe, motor unitrecruitment and synchronisation.

Further research is needed to determine whethermore intense or more prolonged circuit training im-proves RE and the performance of highly trained racewalkers.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the athletes andcoach Vincenzo Fiorillo for his assistance in data collection andtechnical support.

Conflict of interest statement The authors declare that theyhave no conflict of interest related to the publication of this article.

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