Pre-training perceived wellness impacts training output in Australian football players

Abstract

The impact of perceived wellness on a range of external load parameters, rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and external load:RPE ratios, was explored during skill-based training in Australian footballers. Fifteen training sessions involving 36 participants were analysed. Each morning before any physical training, players completed a customised perceived wellness questionnaire (sleep quality, fatigue, stress, mood and muscle soreness). Microtechnology devices provided external load (average speed, high-speed running distance, player load and player load slow). Players provided RPE using the modified Borg category-ratio 10 RPE scale. Mixed-effect linear models revealed significant effects of wellness Z-score on player load and player load slow. Effects are reported with 95% confidence limits. A wellness Z-score of -1 corresponded to a -4.9 ± 3.1 and -8.6 ± 3.9% reduction in player load and player load slow, respectively, compared to those without reduced wellness. Small significant effects were also seen in the average speed:RPE and player load slow:RPE models. A wellness Z-score of -1 corresponded to a 0.43 ± 0.38 m·min(-1) and -0.02 ± 0.01 au·min(-1) change in the average speed:RPE and player load slow:RPE ratios, respectively. Magnitude-based analysis revealed that the practical size of the effect of a pre-training perceived wellness Z-score of -1 would have on player load slow was likely negative. The results of this study suggests that monitoring pre-training perceived wellness may provide coaches with information about the intensity of output that can be expected from individual players during a training session.

The Relationships Between Internal and External Measures of Training Load and Intensity in Team Sports: A Meta-Analysis

“…Furthermore, we recommend issues of mathematical coupling should be appropriately considered and avoided. Finally, in agreement with others [10,11,33,51,[81][82][83][84], we encourage the collection of differential RPE in both research and practice as a means of separating an athlete's perception of physiological and biomechanical internal loads to help further understand the dose-response nature of team-sport training.…”

“…Differential RPE-separate session scores for central and peripheral perceived exertion [33]-may well be a suitable indirect alternative to help mitigate such an issue by separating a players' perceptions of physiological and biomechanical load [18]. Independent ratings of perceived breathlessness, leg muscle exertion and upper-body muscle exertion have been proposed as a worthwhile addition to internal load monitoring procedures in team sports [33,81,82] and may help both practitioners and researchers further understand the dose-response nature of training and competition [52], changes in fitness [11], fatigue [83], and the risk of injury or illness [10,84].…”

“…Specifically, changes in internal load with respect to a standard external load may be used to infer on an athletes fitness or fatigue over time or in comparison to their peers [14]. The simplicity of using an external:internal load ratio to provide a normalised metric that may be indicative of fitness or fatigue is conceptually appealing [83,[96][97][98][99] [103,104] that is inherent to training and competition in team sports [33,51]. For the retrospective analyses of larger datasets, we again recommend that ratios are avoided and that practitioners seek to explore their data through more appropriate means.…”

Endurance Training Intensity Does Not Mediate Interference to Maximal Lower-Body Strength Gain during Short-Term Concurrent Training

“…Despite the between-group differences in internal training load responses, the precise relationship between internal training load and external work remains unclear as various factors (e.g., wellness markers such as perceived sleep quality and levels of muscle soreness, etc.) may modify the internal: external load relationship (Gallo et al, 2016; Saw et al, 2016) and therefore perceived training stress to a given training stimulus. Nevertheless, given the discrepancy in total internal training load between the HIT+RT and MICT+RT groups, it is difficult to deduce whether differences in outcomes such as lean mass changes are mediated by endurance training intensity or total training volume per se .…”

Unpacking the Black Box: Applications and Considerations for Using GPS Devices in Sport

“…75,76 Studies have suggested that changes in the accelerometer may reflect changes in lower-limb stiffness, 71,[73][74][75] but users should be aware that upper-body kinematics influence the distribution of load accumulated in each movement vector (plane) when devices are harnessed at the upper trunk. 72,73 Inferences regarding the distribution of loading in different vectors are also constrained in some devices, as changes in the orientation of the unit are not considered by the accelerometer (eg, a rugby tackle).…”