Individual variability in training response
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating individual variability in adaptive responses to chronic self-paced high-intensity endurance training.
IRAS ID
232692
Contact name
Ciaran O'Grady
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Kent
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, days
Research summary
Regular exercise has many health benefits which result from the cardiovascular, skeletal muscle and metabolic adaptations that occur in response to repeated exercise stimuli. However, large variability in exercise training response occurs in most training interventions, a factor which has numerous issues; particularly relating to interpretation of research results, statistical power of study designs, as well as the fundamental ability to prescribe training that is individually optimized.
The use of effort-based training methodologies has been proposed to be a better method of prescribing training intensities to reduce the observed variability in response. This method requires athletes to self-pace their exercise to produce a “maximal session effort”, and is extensively used in elite sporting environments, and therefore this would possibly aid in reducing variability.
The variability of acute effort-based training session response has been previously investigated by our research group, and the aim of this proposed study is to use effort-based training methodologies in a chronic training intervention. The proposed study protocol aims to compare two different session formats against a control group, and observe the magnitude and variability in training adaptations. We aim to make deep connective insights between the acute and chronic responses to training by using metabolomics and muscle tissue analyses to support more standard physiological measurements.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0016
Date of REC Opinion
18 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion