Increasing the aerobic capacity of orienteering athletes: methods and results

Abstract

The aim of the article is to research and to estimate the efficiency of methods of organization of trainings in the general preparatory stage for the increase of aerobic possibilities of young sportsmen engaged in orienteering.

Methods. The research was conducted with a contingent of members of the youth and school national teams of Ukraine, in general 12 sportsmen aged 13-15 years old. The general preparatory stage was taken for the analysis. To analyze the training data of athletes, methods of data systematization were used, including training records in training diaries. The data were analyzed in terms of the total duration and frequency of training; training time registered by the athlete for different activities - running and orienteering; and time in each of the 3 intensity zones. To assess the level of aerobic capacity of athletes (VO₂max), a 2.4 km running test around the stadium was used. To assess the effectiveness of training, the speed (vVO₂max) at which athletes can work at their VO₂max was determined. To detect statistically significant differences in training characteristics between 4 months of training, a one-dimensional analysis of variance of repeated measures was performed.

Results. In this research 220 training sessions of young orienteers during the general preparatory stage were analyzed. The total volume of trainings was 975,36 hours, of which 1111,5 km are running loads. The main part of running training (74.60%) was held at low intensity (Zone 1), which emphasizes the importance of basic aerobic training. Running of medium (Zone 2) and high intensity (Zone 3) amounted to 16.14% and 9.27%, respectively, which contributed to the development of specific endurance and speed. Orienteering training accounted for 40.58% of the total amount of running training. Interval training and high-intensity continuous training accounted for 37% and 63%, respectively, of high-intensity training, which emphasizes their importance in the training of athletes.

Training performance indicators showed significant progress: VO₂max increased from 50.76 ml/kg/min in December to 55.05 ml/kg/min in March, while vVO₂max increased from 4.43 m/s to 4.49 m/s over the same period. Analysis of variance showed significant improvements (p < 0.001) with a large effect size (η² = 1 for VO₂max, η² = 0.855 for vVO₂max).

Conclusions. The results of the study show the importance of an individual approach to the development of training programs for the improvement of aerobic capacity in young athletes engaged in orienteering. The obtained results confirm the importance of the model of low-intensity training with a large volume, and also indicate the need for further research that will take into account age characteristics and individual differences in responses to training.