Associations between selected training stress measures and fitness changes in male soccer players

Accepted author manuscript version reprinted, by permission, from International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2018-0462. © Human Kinetics, Inc.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of accumulated Global Positioning System (GPS)-accelerometer-based and heart rate (HR)-based training metrics to changes in high-intensity intermittent running capacity during an in-season phase in professional soccer players. Method: Eleven male professional players (mean ± SD, age: 27.2 ± 4.5 years) performed the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test (30-15IFT) before and after a five-week in-season training phase, and the final velocity (VIFT) was considered as players’ high-intensity intermittent running capacity. During all sessions, Edwards’ training impulse (Edwards’ TRIMP), Banister’s TRIMP, Z5 TRIMP, training duration, total distance covered, New Body Load (NBL), high-intensity running performance (distance covered above 14.4 km•h-1), and very high-intensity running performance (distance covered above 19.8 km•h-1) were recorded. Results: The players’ VIFT showed a most likely moderate improvement (+4.3%, 90% confidence limits [3.1; 5.5%], effect size ES, 0.70 [0.51; 0.89]). Accumulated NBL, Banister’s TRIMP and Edwards’ TRIMP showed large associations (r = 0.51 to 0.54) with changes in VIFT. Very large relationship was also observed between accumulated Z5 TRIMP (r= 0.72) with changes in VIFT. Large-to-nearly perfect within-individual relationships were observed between NBL and some of the other training metrics (i.e., Edwards’ TRIMP, Banister’s TRIMP, training duration, and total distance) in 10 out of 11 players. Conclusions: HR-based training metrics can be used to monitor high-intensity intermittent running capacity changes in professional soccer players. The dose-response relationship is also largely detected using accelerometer-based metrics (i.e., NBL) to track changes in high-intensity intermittent running capacity of professional soccer players