ENERGY SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

This section can be very exercise physiology intensive so I will try my best to simplify it down as much as possible. There are 3 different primary energy systems in your body (there are others, such as the pentose-phosphate shunt pathway but i will not get into that.) The first energy system that contributes to your energy needs is the Phosphagen (ATP-CP) system which is dominant during the first (0-6 seconds of physical activity.) This energy system is very important for quick and explosive movements. Secondly, the Glycolytic system is the dominant contributor for energy from (6 seconds-2 minutes of physical activity.) This involves sprints, a shift in an ice hockey game, etc. Lastly, once all of your internal energy systems are compromised then your body has to start to resort to oxygen for its energy needs. The third, energy system is the Oxidative System and it is your dominant energy provider for activity that lasts 2 minutes and longer. This involves longer distance runners and cross-country runners. *Important: keep in mind that this is a brief overview of energy systems and that all energy systems are contributing to your energy needs at all times, the times provided for each energy system are when that energy system is the dominant provider of energy. This is relatable to our philosophy of training athletes at Efficiency Strength Training, LLC because we pride ourselves on having a scientific approach to training rather than just killing you in a workout. Also, if you focus on the wrong energy system for an athlete then it can be very detrimental to performance. For instance, Do you think a hockey player should join the cross country team to help enhance his/her conditioning? Our intuition is to say yes, how can it hurt? When the true answer is it can extremely hurt, hockey is a sport of quick shifts and explosiveness requiring a high degree of training in the ATP-CP and Glycolytic pathways. Whereas, cross country is very oxidative dominant. The reason why this is bad for the hockey player is from a physiological perspective. When you train the oxidative pathway you are training your muscles to shrink so oxygen can enter the mitochondria of your cells more effectively. This causes your muscles to be less explosive which in turn effects your hockey performance. This is just a short synapsis to our philosophy for training energy systems at Efficiency Strength Training, LLC, but it is a great look into what the thought process is behind training the efficiency way!