PLEASE NOTE THAT THE WEBSITE IS CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED - 4 April 2017
Science and Cycling stands for monitoring and fine-tuning training prescription to cyclists, based on scientific principles and studies. As the best gains in training status are generally achieved by prescribing high training loads followed by the minimal but still efficient amount of recovery, maintaining a healthy balance is challenging. A mismatch between training load (unless it is a planned overloading stimulus) generally leads to non-functional overreaching and possibly even to an over-training syndrome. As the recovery time of a non-functional overreaching status or over-training syndrome takes months to more a year to recover from, maintaining a healthy balance is extremely important.
Although coaches and cyclists generally have quite a good subjective feeling when they are doing too much and need to build in extra recovery, it also still goes regularly wrong resulting in cyclists not peaking at the right time and/or becoming non-functionally overreached. These unwanted developments are seen in a range of cyclists, ranging from starting amateurs to the best elite cyclists in the world. The most recent example of this is Marianne Vos, a threefold road race and seven-fold cyclo-cross world champion with 2 golden Olympic medals, who developed an over-training syndrome in 2015.
Regularly monitoring changes in training status with the use of a sub-maximal cycle test provides cyclists and coaches with objective measures on which gains are made, while it also in a very early stage can detect symptoms of fatigue and non-functional overreaching. Recognizing these symptoms and adapting training prescription accordingly will result in more effective training programs and prevent the development of non-functional overreaching and the development of a over-training syndrome.
SCIENCE & CYCLING
Science & Cycling was founded in 2011 by Prof. Rob Lamberts, who has a specific interest in professional cycling and rowing. As part of his work as an exercise physiologists he developed the LSCT, which is a sub-maximal cycle test that can be used as warm-up method before training session or race. The LSCT exists of 3 stages in which cyclists are asked to cycle at 60, 80 and 90% of their heart rate maximum. Physiological data and psychological well-being are captured during the test, which provides insight into the training status and fatigue level of a cyclists. This information is highly useful to monitor changes in training status, adapt training programs and monitor for any symptoms of non-functional overreaching.
The LSCT has been developed based multiple scientific studies (to date more than 12 studies), of which most have been published in different internationally peer reviewed scientific journals (see publications link) Although the design of the LSCT is published (British Journal of Sports Medicine (2011) and the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (2014)), the correct interpretation of the LSCT is more complex than analyzing the described three variables (power, rating of perceived exertion and heart rate recovery).
Today, a MULTI WEIGHED FACTOR EQUATION of more than 8 different parameters and
CORRECTION FACTORS for temperature and humidity are used monitor and fie-tune training prescription with the LSCT
SCIENCE & ROWING
DOMAIN NAME SECURED: INFO FOLLOWING SOON
SCIENCE & RUNNING
DOMAIN NAME SECURED: INFO FOLLOWING SOON
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EVIDENCE BASED SUBMAXIMAL CYCLE TEST DESIGNED TO MONITOR AND PREDICT CYCLING PERFORMANCE. - THE LSCT
By: Prof. R.P. LAMBERTS
(ISBN: 987-90-9024959-9)