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SCIENTIFIC BASES FOR PRECOMPETITION TAPERING STRATEGIES
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Vol. 35, No. 7, pp.1182-1187, 2003
By Inigo Mujika, Sabino Padilla, Lawrence E. Armstrong, and Carl M. Maresh

This is a must-read article for any coach. Mujika and Padilla have extensively reviewed 50 scientific articles that focus on the topic of tapering. The authors state that this “paper intends to establish the scientific bases for the precompetition tapering strategies”.



Review

The definition of a taper by the authors is "a progressive nonlinear reduction of the training load during a variable period of time, in an attempt to reduce the physiological and psychological stress of daily training and optimize sports performance".

A mathematical model was used to analyze national and international swimmers response to three tapering models:

1) Reduction of training intensity
2) Reduction in training volume
3) Reduction in training frequency.

The results showed that a high level of training intensity was one of the keys to an effective taper. "Total blood volume, red cell volume, citrate synthase activity, muscle glycogen concentration, muscle strength and running time to fatigue were optimized only with the high-intensity, low volume taper".

In regards to volume, a "better physiological performance results with a low-volume taper than with a moderate volume taper. The authors reviewed the effects of a progressive taper with a 50-75% reduction of volume over 6 days and concluded that a "75% reduction was a more appropriate strategy to optimize adaptations". "The beneficial consequences of significant progressive 50-90% reductions in training volume during the taper have repeatedly been underpinned by several researchers" in a variety of sports.

Johns research with competitive swimmers shows that a 50% reduction in frequency during a 10 and 14 day taper increased power and performance in swimmers. However, after reviewing other studies and factors the authors state "that whereas training adaptations can be readily maintained with quite low training frequencies in moderately trained individuals (30-50% of pretaper values), much higher training frequencies should be recommended for the highly trained, especially in the more "technique-dependent" sports such as swimming (>80%).

"Positive physiological, psychological and performance adaptations have been reported as a result of taper programs lasting 4-14 days in cyclists and triathletes, 6-7 days in middle and long-distance runners, 10 days in strength trained athletes and 10-35 days in swimmers. Kenitzer and Kubukely, et al. recommended that two weeks is an optimum taper duration. "Taper duration must be individually determined for each athlete, in accordance with their specific profiles of adaptation to training on the one hand, and loss of training-induced adaptations on the other hand".

In analysis of Linear, slow Exponential, fast Exponential or a Step taper, it was noted that the fast exponential taper had the greatest improvement in performance.

Summary of optimal tapering strategies