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- Title
Optimal taper period in female swimmers.
- Authors
Kenitzer Jr, Raymond F.
- Abstract
Despite the wide-spread use of tapering there are few empirically-based guidelines for determining appropriate taper length. Fifteen, well conditioned female collegiate swimmers (five each of sprinters, middle distance, and long distance) were studied during a four week end-of-season taper (EST) to identify the optimal period of decreased training load by monitoring changes in blood-lactate concentration and performance times derived from a test work set (4 × 100 yards @ 1:30 minute intervals at 80% of maximum heart rate). Statistical analysis indicated no significant differences between the groups at baseline for performance or lactate values, nor across the EST for performance or lactate. Therefore the data were collapsed across groups and a significant multivariate effect for time (F(8,7)=0.12, p<0.01) revealed significant trends in both sets of data with inflection points occurring at the end of the second week/beginning of the third week of EST. Performance times and lactate values, which had been decreasing, began to increase back toward starting values. The findings suggest that a taper of approximately two weeks may be the limit of recovery and compensation time before detraining is evident and, therefore, preferable to the commonly utilized four week EST.
- Publication
Journal of Swimming Research, 1998, Vol 13, p31
- ISSN
0747-5993
- Publication type
Academic Journal