A protocol of intermittent exercise (shuttle runs) to train young basketball players.

Zadro, I, Sepulcri, L, Lazzer, S, Fregolent, R, and Zamparo, P. A protocol of intermittent exercise (shuttle runs) to train young basketball players. J Strength Cond Res 25(X): 000-000, 2011-The purpose of this study was to set up a protocol of intermittent exercise to train young basketball players. Twenty-one players were asked to complete (a) an incremental test to determine maximal oxygen uptake (&OV0312;O2max), the speed at the ventilatory threshold (vthr) and the energy cost of "linear" running (Cr) and (b) an intermittent test composed of 10 shuttle runs of 10-second duration and 30-seconds of recovery (total duration: about 6 minutes). The exercise intensity (the running speed, vi) was set at 130\% of vthr. During the intermittent tests, oxygen uptake (&OV0312;O2) and blood lactate concentration (Lab) were measured. The average pretraining &OV0312;O2 calculated for a single bout (131 ± 9 ml·min kg) was about 2.4 times greater than the subjects' measured &OV0312;O2max (54.7 ± 4.6 ml·min·kg). The net energy cost of running (9.2 ± 0.9 J·m·kg) was about 2.4 times higher than that measured at constant "linear" speed (3.9 ± 0.3 J·m·kg). The intermittent test was repeated after 7 weeks of training: 9 subjects (control group [CG]) maintained their traditional training schedule, whereas for 12 subjects (experimental group [EG]) part of the training was replaced by intermittent exercise (the same shuttle test as described above). After training, the &OV0312;O2 measured during the intermittent test was significantly reduced (p < 0.05) in both groups (-10.9\% in EG and - 4.6 in CG \%), whereas Lab decreased significantly only for EG (-31.5\%). These data suggest that this training protocol is effective in reducing lactate accumulation in young basketball players