Training Zones Review

How to Connect Training Sets with Energy Zones’ Requirements

The Training Targets

Every coach begins their day on deck by writing or revising training sets for their swimmers and groups. From a coach’s perspective, this is an intuitive task: a “set of sets,” or workout, serves as a natural way to communicate training goals and ideas with swimmers. But how do we ensure our ideas are both correct and effective, aligned with long-term plans and the swimmers’ immediate needs?

The science of training, known as the Methodology of Sports Training, is a specialized field that helps organize this process and provides answers to such questions. Unsurprisingly, sports science is rooted in human physiology, where biological energy production mechanisms and their behavior under exercises of different intensities were identified as the leading factors of human performance.  Accordingly, the proper development of different bioenergy pathways can be considered a primary goal of physical training, which, along with technical training, has the most significant impact on athletes’ competitive abilities.

Once the training targets are understood, we must formalize their characteristics and standard reactions in response to standard exercises. These characteristics must be detailed to pinpoint the desired application area and increase the expected training effect.

At Super Sport Systems, our focus is on functional training. This article explores how to structure training sets to align with the requirements of each energy zone to maximize training effectiveness.

Energy Zones: Are We Speaking the Same Language?

Since physical activity can be executed at different intensity levels, it was generally agreed that “functional training” targets should be connected to specific energy production systems. However, while the energy pathways are well studied and universally identified, numerous “training zones” systems still exist. This diversity raises a key question: What is the difference between them, and which one is the “right” one for your needs?

Understanding these differences is difficult due to “media noise” and simply the lack of clarity about each approach. To get through the debris, one requires specialized knowledge in that field. The 3S University course (www.3SUniversity.com ) is a great starting point, offering insights into contemporary sports training methods.

To evaluate any training zone system, it is essential to understand the criteria used to define zone boundaries under each system. These boundaries can be quite different depending on the criteria used and call for different training sets by modality, intensity, and duration to produce the desired training effect.  However, since the final targets, defined as energy pathways, remain the same, the application of different training recommendations to the same zone obviously either misses the target entirely or can be ineffective in achieving the desired physiological adaptations within each zone.  Unfortunately, this situation is quite common.

Here’s a summary of the four most commonly used training zone systems:

1. Color Systems (John Urbanchek, University of Michigan)

John Urbanchek’s “color” system assigns training zones based on swimmers’ skin color after exertion at varying intensities. This approach loosely correlates with lactate accumulation in muscles, which may affect skin tone. Influenced by traditional German methods, this system relies on observable physical parameters. While simple and suitable for beginners, its precision is limited.

2. USA Swimming (Circa 2007)

The USA Swimming Zone System comprises seven levels, resembling classic Western European lactate-based models. However, it struggles to provide clear guidance on specific training set parameters needed to achieve the desired effects. This limitation is a common challenge among physiology-based models, which often lack precise tools for season planning.

3. Jan Olbrecht’s Lactate Dynamics Model

Jan Olbrecht’s system builds on the German-originated lactate threshold training method founded by Dr. Alois Mader in the early 70s. It uses terms such as aerobic power and capacity and anaerobic power and capacity, though their interpretations of power and capacity differ from classic physiology definitions. Despite these differences, Olbrecht’s approach uses the dynamics of physiological markers, such as speed of accumulation and removal of Lactate in blood, to guide training intensities.  Among several drawbacks of this approach is its complexity and lack of a reliable connection with planning concepts (a common issue with practically all physiology-based approaches based on physiological responses to physical activity).

4. Ergometric Training Zone Model

An ergometric concept was offered as an alternative to physiology-only-based training methods, using different criteria for defining energy zones and an approach to training process management in general. Based on the Discrete Time of Maximum Effort-Power Output curve (N.I. Volkov 1972-2000), this system uses the Time of Maximum Effort – Maximum Zonal power as the primary criterion for zone determination.

Pic. 1 Sequence and Contribution of Anaerobic and Aerobic Energy Production Mechanisms

Into Energy Supply Process of Maximum Effort Exercises of Different Duration (N.I. Volkov et All, Kiev, 2000).

Since in sports, we compete in time and power (speed on distance = sustained power) and not on secondary physiological markers, this approach is a logical and the most direct way to define each energy production zone’s boundaries clearly and precisely.  More so, it also establishes a connection between zone requirements in terms of training duration and the modality of exercises that are most effective in each instance.

In addition to its usability and practicality, the Ergometric method has a direct connection with contemporary Periodization theory based on adaptation rules, where the rate of improvement is similar, if not identical, to human adaptation progression rates (“adaptation constants”), thus allowing for intelligent planning of training process and training loads distribution necessary to support desires adaptation at its optimum level.

The ergometric model does not discriminate between physiological parameters; it actually uses all of them as control factors when feasible or needed (for example, at national team level training), thus providing clear guidelines for their readings and determination of training direction.  For example, using the same logic, we can easily receive individual Heart Rate (as well as La, VO2 at any duration of maximal effort):

Pic. 2.  Individual Physiological Models (on Time/and Power), 3S Sport, 2002.

Super Sport Systems’ models are based on the Ergometric concept, which represents a new paradigm in understanding sports training and its methods. This approach allows us to offer the most effective training exercises (training sets) and track dynamic intensities in each zone. Once you start thinking in this logic, you will find out that all elements of the training process, from seasonal planning to daily workouts and specific sets, are intertwined and interdependent.

Summary:

1. While more than one system exists, there are two main philosophies behind all of them:
   1. “Reactive” – based on physiological reactions to exercises of different intensities and
   2. “Direct” – based on sustained power output for the duration of the effort.
2. The precision, usability, and predictive qualities of each system differ depending on the sophistication of the proposed methods, where sophistication, especially in the physiological department, requires more invasive methods, instrumentation, and special knowledge in medicine, making their application expensive and difficult for results interpretation.
3. The “Direct” approach is typically much more straightforward, appropriate to the practice of sports, and also more universal. It allows the application of universal principles and markers throughout all elements of the training process, from season planning to set design.

Preferred Training Modalities for Different Zones

Training zones correspond to specific energy production pathways, each using distinct energy sources. As such, they require specific training formats tailored to their respective demands. From an energy pathway perspective, training methods can be categorized into four main types:

1. Continuous Effort: Sustained activity at a steady intensity.  This type of activity is ideal for training in aerobic oxygenation departments.  Considering the wide range of possible intensity levels within this category, the most effective sets should be pointed at thresholds: aerobic (at ~2 mMol/l lactate accumulation), and anaerobic (at ~4 mMol/l lactate accumulation), where the most effective duration of effort at “critical intensity” should correspond to energy pathway limits.
2. Interval Training: Alternating periods of work and rest, where intensity is set based on the total distance of the set. Example: The effective distance of 10 X 100 set equals 1000.  Interval sets are the most effective for addressing VO2 maximum (aerobic Power and capacity).  Considering the peculiarities of reaching and sustaining effort at levels close to VO2 max, these zones’ total duration of effort is between ~ 6 and 15 minutes, depending on the fraction you aim for.  Rest between repetitions in interval sets serves as regulators of relative intensity ranging between ~15 and 30 seconds, where the shorter rest periods are more effective.
3. Repetitive Training: Repeated efforts with rest intervals in between.  Repetitive sets are most effective in reaching anaerobic mechanisms of energy production.  The total duration of effort in these sets should not exceed 3-4 minutes.  The rest between repetitions, contrary to Interval sets, should be longer to allow recovery of critical functionals between repetitions and usually are within 1-3 minutes range.
4. Maximum Effort: Short bursts of all-out intensity.

By understanding and applying these principles, coaches can design training sets that align with energy zone requirements, creating a more effective and efficient training process.

Maximization of Training Precision: Understanding Power, Capacity, and Efficiency  

At the beginning of this article, we suggested that the appearance of the training zones was initially connected with the need to establish proper training targets that have the most impact on athletes’ performance.  As such, training zones should serve as training guide elements and universal training blocks that comprise our training content at all levels, from season strategy construction to daily set design.  Suppose you look at Zones from this perspective. In that case, you want an even deeper differentiation between zones, translating them into even more specific training efforts necessary for preparing better and faster swimmers.  Therefore, while each zone defines training parameters necessary for each energy pathway’s development, each process’s characteristics should also be distinguished and covered at its range.  Each energy pathway can be viewed as a separate energy production plant.  Any power plant can be characterized by the maximum power it can produce (Power of the process), the duration at which sustained power can be delivered (Capacity of the process), and its efficiency (the cost of a unit of power).  In that sense, efficiency directly correlates with technical skills, allowing them to cover longer distances with lesser effort (lower energy expense per unit of distance/stroke).

Following this logic, training in a particular zone block is insufficient if peak performance and higher results are at stake. We want to cover the whole range of abilities within each zone, where Power, Capacity, and Efficiency become separate targets in each zone, depending on the athlete’s unique abilities and sports specialization (their main event).  And, if you follow global trends in sports training, you can find that specialization and individualization of training with a focus on every possible minutia that can influence athletes’ performance is leading the trend.  Ironically, we still see the largest reserve of reaching peak performance in the quality of the training process.

What 3S Platform can do for you      

In our experience, one of the most common questions we receive from coaches concerns the connection of training exercises with specific training zones. These questions reveal the gap in at least two critical areas of coaches’ education: exercise physiology and contemporary sports training methodology. Super Sport Systems tools are designed to cover this void at all coaching levels, from beginners to Olympic-level swimmers.  In short, our tools (all of them working together, or each of them discretely), will help you with the following daily tasks:

• Set proper training volumes based on your target results and available training time
• Offer optimum training loads distribution by Energy Zone in seasonal cycle depending on selected strategy, such as distance or sprint training
• Provide optimum load distribution by session/day in every weekly cycle with optional manual planning
• Suggest optimum and most effective training sets for every session with the ability to override and adjust any set to your liking.
• Ability to track planned progress using regular training sets.
• Deliver weekly paces for each stroke, distance, and training zone, for every group and swimmer on your team, available on your mobile phone on deck.