Excelsior has worked with athletes from various different sports on all aspects of their fitness. This page shows an example of the basic theory behind a commonly used fitness component, and some examples of how this might be incorporated into your personal fitness training programme.

Anaerobic Interval Training

• Anaerobic fitness is the ability to deliver higher levels of energy to the muscles than can be supplied through the use of oxygen by the mitochondria in the cells. It utilises sugar within the muscles and bloodstream to provide energy.
• It has a limited supply of power and fatigue may occur due to the depletion of fuel stores, and also the build up of waste products from the burning of the fuel. These waste products include water, carbon dioxide and lactic acid.
• It is a primary energy system used in most field sports such as rugby, football, hockey and lacrosse.
• Anaerobic training allows the body to adapt to high-energy demands, and creates a more efficient fuel delivery and waste removal system.
• Anaerobic training usually takes the form of interval training, and it should be between 80-95% of your maximum effort. Duration is usually between 20�40 seconds, with recovery intervals between.
• Too short, and too intense a session will mean that the body uses creatine phosphate, too long or too low intensity and the body will use the aerobic, fat based energy systems.
• As interval training is very demanding, care should be taken to introduce it progressively. Starting with longer duration intervals or longer rest periods is a safe way to start. Alternatively keep the work: rest intervals constant and gradually increase the amount of work required completed in the work interval.
• Examples of progression might include: reducing the work: rest ratio from 1:3 to 1:1. increasing the number of repetitions or sets in each work out.
• Shuttle runs, relays, track runs and skipping are good ways of performing anaerobic work outs. The more variety that is introduced, then the more the athletes will maintain interest and motivation.
• It is important to maintain quality of the movement at all times. If quality decreases, then stop the session and resume next time.

Examples:

Exercise	Reps	Sets	Intensity	Rest
300 m run	4	2	50 secs	3 mins walk between sets. 10 mins active movement between sets.
200m runs	6	2	35 secs	2 mins walk between sets. 10 mins active movement between sets.
150 m runs	4	3	22 secs	2 mins walk between sets. 5 mins active movement between sets.
120m relay race teams of 4 players, 2 at each end	6	3	Race	1st player goes to end, hands to next, who runs back, hands to player 3 and so on, until each player has run 6 times. 5 minutes rest between sets.
Skipping	10x 30 secs	1	180 skips/min	2 min jog between reps
150 m runs in pairs	6	2	1st 100m 80%, last 50m race uphill	Rest 3 minutes walking between reps, 10 minutes active movement between sets.
Hill runs	8x 1 min up and down short, steep slope	3	100% up the slope, jog down.	1 minute between reps, 5 minutes active movement between sets.