title: High-Intensity Training Improves Exercise Performance in Elite Women Volleyball Players During a Competitive Season.
abstract: Purkhús, E, Krustrup, P, and Mohr, M. High-intensity training improves exercise performance in elite women volleyball players during a competitive season. J Strength Cond Res 30(11): 3066-3072, 2016-Elite women volleyball players (n = 25; mean ± SD: age, 19 ± 5 years; height, 171 ± 7 cm; weight, 63 ± 10 kg) volunteered to participate in the study. They were randomized into a high-intensity training (HIT; n = 13) group and a control (CON; n = 12) group. In addition to the normal team training and games, HIT performed 6-10 × 30-seconds all-out running intervals separated by 3-minute recovery periods 3 times per week during a 4-week in-season period whereas CON only completed the team training sessions and games. Preintervention and postintervention, all players completed the arrowhead agility test (AAT), a repeated sprint test (RST; 5 × 30 meters separated by 25 seconds of recovery), and the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery level 2 test (Yo-Yo IR2) followed by a-10 minute rest period and the Yo-Yo IR1 test. Mean running distance during HIT in week 1 was 152 ± 4 m and increased (p ≤ 0.05) by 4.6% (159 ± 3 m) in week 4. The AAT performance improved (p ≤ 0.05) by 2.3% (18.87 ± 0.97-18.44 ± 1.06 seconds) and RST by 4.3% postintervention in the HIT group only. Baseline RST fatigue index was 7.0 ± 2.9 and 6.2 ± 5.0% in HIT and CON, respectively, but was lowered (p ≤ 0.05) to 2.7 ± 3.0% posttraining in HIT and remained unaltered in CON (5.5 ± 5.0%). In HIT, Yo-Yo IR2 and Yo-Yo IR1 performance improved by 12.6 and 18.3% postintervention, respectively, with greater (p ≤ 0.05) Yo-yo IR1 change scores than in CON. In conclusion, additional high-intensity in-season training performed as interval running improved agility, repeated sprint ability, and high-intensity intermittent exercise performance in elite women volleyball players.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Section of Human Physiology, Copenhagen Centre for Team Sport and Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2Faculty of Natural and Health Sciences, University of the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands; 3Sport and Health Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom; and 4Department of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science, Center of Health and Human Performance, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Purkhús
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krustrup
authors.forename: Magni
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohr
mesh_terms: D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D000072696:High-Intensity Interval Training; D006801:Humans; D011897:Random Allocation; D054798:Volleyball / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult