117 A Christian Guide to Body Stewardship, Diet and Exercise How Much Endurance Training is Required? Current research suggests that performing between 150-300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity endurance training contributes to substantial health benefits, with additional health benefits occurring from 300+ minutes of moderate-intensity endurance training per week (ACSM 2021; AHA 2018; CDC 2020). Some research suggests that vigorous-intensity endurance training may yield more favorable effects on mortality and disease risk than low- to moderate-intensity endurance training (Swain & Franklin, 2006). However, other research suggests that frequency may be more important than intensity in terms of improving specific parameters of cardiovascular health (Petrick et al., 2021). In terms of application, these findings would suggest that individuals should perform at least some vigorous training each week (e.g., 2-3 times), and then perform low- to moderate-intensity endurance training on the other days. Biological Energy Systems Before learning how to design a personalized endurance training program, it is important to first understand the different biological energy systems used by the body to produce energy. There are three basic energy systems used to replenish levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy used to power muscle contractions: phosphagen, glycolytic and oxidative. The phosphagen system produces ATP primarily for an extremely short duration (≤ 10 seconds) and very high intensity activities such as heavy resistance training and short distance sprints (≤ 100 meters). The glycolytic system produces ATP for short duration (> 10 seconds - < 2 minutes) and high intensity activities such as high-rep resistance training and long-distance sprints (e.g., 200-m, 400-m, 800-m sprints). In contrast, the oxidative system produces ATP for long duration (> 2 minute) and low to moderate intensity activities such as walking, jogging and riding a bike.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=