The following information was sourced from Wang et al. 2023.
Define tapering – A training strategy that progressively de-loads in a non-linear manner to induce optimal athletic performance at the desired moment of the season.
Define time to exhaustion (TTE) – This is an athlete’s fatigue tolerance.
Performance can be crudely summarized as: Performance = adaptation – fatigue. The taper intends to decrease fatigue; therefore improving performance. The primary mechanism is to maintain or increase aerobic exercise capacity while cutting down on the psychological and physiological stress accumulated from training.
Wang et al. 2023
A systematic review and meta-analysis published by Wang et al in 2023 studied the response to taper in endurance athletes. They included 14 studies and found significant improvements between pre- and post-tapering in time-trial performance and time to exhaustion performance, with no effect on VO2max and economy of movement (EM, i.e. form). Further, they found that tapering combined with pre-taper overload training had a more significant effect on time-trial performance than the control.
Summary of results
Wang et al summary of tapering benefits:
- 14.2% increase in the cross-sectional area of type IIa (fast-twitch) fiber in cyclists 86.
- Cardiac pump function and work efficiency improved
- Blood testosterone and blood testosterone/cortisol ratio improved significantly
- Blood creatine kinase concentration and cortisol concentration decreased significantly
- Heart rate to rating of perceived exertion (RPE) ratio decreased
- Emotional state improved
- Tapering in endurance athletes significantly increases blood volume, hemoglobin, and erythrocyte pressure volume
- Improved mitochondrial respiratory function
All of the above enable the improvement of oxygen-carrying, and oxygen-transport capacity leading to an improvement in oxygen-utilization capacity, allowing athletes to maintain a higher percentage of oxygen utilization thus increasing endurance performance. The increase in muscle power from taper appears to be greater than the aerobic fitness gains.
Pre-taper overload
The authors conclude that tapering applied in conjunction with a pre-taper overload appears to be most conducive to maximize performance gains. The mean training intensity of a pre-taper overload as recommended by this paper is 23-26% over the mean training intensity of normal training. Thomas et al., a study included in this systematic review, found that an increase in pre-taper training load of 20-30% was effective in improving post-taper performance.
How much volume should I cut?
Current evidence suggests that a less than or equal to 21 day taper in which training volume is progressively reduced by 41-60% without changing training intensity (speed) or frequency (number of distinct training sessions per week) is an effective strategy for tapering. This study found that there was a greater improvement in time-trial times when reducing volume than intensity or frequency.
Jafer et al. found that positive changes to red blood cell count, hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit percentages, all improving performance have been found by reducing volume up to 50% before a competition.
Neary et al. conducted a comparative study in cyclists with three reductions in training volume – 30%, 50%, and 80%. They found that VO2 and O2 pulse were optimized with a 50% reduction in training volume.
When looking at both speed and endurance events, bosquet et al. via meta-analysis found that a 21-40% reduction in volume significantly affected TT improvement.
Taper duration
The best taper is the one that balances fatigue recovery and performance improvement. Wang et al. found that endurance athletes achieved the largest effect size improvement from a taper of 8-14 days.
For cyclists, studies have indicated that 1-2 weeks of reduction is the duration required to optimize power and/or anaerobic capacity in cyclists. Runners may require more time (2-3 weeks) to reach peak performance. However, the main takeaway from the results of this meta-analysis indicate that 8-14 days seems to be optimal for taper duration for cycling and running. Optimal taper duration varies as much as recovery from a reduction in training load can.
Different types of tapering
You can taper off training load in basically two ways: step or progressive. An example of a step taper may involve halfing peak volume the first taper week and then the next week halfing it again. A progressive taper can look something like an exponential taper or a linear taper. Dropping training volume linearly or exponentially over time.
The take home
- Tapering following a pre-taper overload appears to maximize performance gains.
- Less than or equal to a 21 day taper, where volume is progressively reduced by 41-60% without adjusting intensity or frequency, is effective.
Citations
- Wang Z, Wang YT, Gao W, Zhong Y. Effects of tapering on performance in endurance athletes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2023;18(5):e0282838. Published 2023 May 10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0282838