Concurrent Endurance And Strength Training Program Design For College Runners And The Effects On Running Economy

Objective:Based on the changes of aerobic function and neuromuscular function before and after training,to compare the effects of concurrent endurance and strength training on the endurance level of college runners,and explain the changes of running economy.Methods:Sixteen male college runners were randomly assigned to a concurrent group（n=8）and endurance training group（n=8）.During the 8-week intervention period,the endurance training group received regular endurance training,while the concurrent group received the endurance and strength training but had the same total training volume as endurance group.The aerobic function indexes such as maximum oxygen uptake and anaerobic threshold were obtained by treadmill incremental load test.The running economy was obtained through the constant load test of treadmill;The neuromuscular indexes were obtained by the tests of one repetition maximum squat strength（1RM）,squat jump（SJ）,counter movement jump（CMJ）,standing triple jump and 40 meters.The thesis aims to analyze the correlation between the indicators by comparing the differences between groups and within groups before and after the experiment.Results:（1）Aerobic function:After 8 weeks of training,the maximum oxygen uptake(VO_2max)of the endurance group was significantly increased by 5.43%±3.92%（p<0.05）;There was no significant change in the anaerobic threshold（AT）（p>0.05）.There was no significant change in VO_2maxand AT in the concurrent group（p>0.05）,but the increase of VO_2maxby2.79%±5.03%also reached a moderate effect level（ES=0.7）.There was no significant difference in the increase of VO_2maxand AT between the two groups（p>0.05）.（2）RE:After 8 weeks of training,there was no significant change in RE in the endurance group（p>0.05）,while the RE in the concurrent group increased significantly by 6.9%±5.15%（p<0.05）.The increase was significantly greater than that in the endurance group（p<0.05）.（3）Neuromuscular function:Before and after 8 weeks of training,there were no significant changes in body weight（BM）and body fat percentage（BF%）between the two groups（p>0.05）.No differences between the groups were found（p>0.05）.In the concurrent group,1RM and CMJ were significantly increased by 25.78%±9.37%、13.15%±5.70%（p<0.01）,SJ,EUR and STJ were significantly increased by 6.04%±5.27%、6.75%±3.69%and 1.5%±1.64%（p<0.05）.No significant changes were found in the above indicators in the endurance group（p>0.05）;But by comparison between groups,the increase of 1RM and CMJ in the concurrent group was very significantly higher than that in the endurance group（p<0.01）.（4）Index correlation:After 8 weeks of training,the increase of RE in the concurrent group was significantly correlated with the increase of CMJ peak speed（r=0.747,p<0.05）and the increase of standing triple jump（r=0.732,p<0.05）.Conclusions:（1）Concurrent endurance and strength training does not affect the development of aerobic function of college runners.（2）Concurrent endurance and strength training could improve the running economy of college runners by strengthening neuromuscular functions without affecting body composition.（3）Concurrent endurance and strength training program designed in this study twice a week for 8 weeks can effectively improve the running economy of college runners.