| Exercise adaptations to strength, anaerobic and aerobic training
have been extensively studied in adults, however, young people appear
to respond differently to such exercise stimulus in comparison to
adults. In addition, because overtraining in young athletes has received
little attention, this important area is also discussed. Resistance
training in children can be safe and effective. It has the potential
to improve sport performance, enhance body composition and reduce
the rate of sport incurred injury. Furthermore, with the appropriate
stimulus, prepubertal and adolescent athletes can show significant
increments in muscle strength (13 - 30%). Children can improve anaerobic
power (3%-10% Mean Power and 4%-20% in Peak Power), although the mechanisms
responsible for the improvements in children remain unclear. Children
show a 'reduced' trainability of peak VO2 in comparison
to adults. Nevertheless, their aerobic power is trainable, with improvements
reported at approximately 5%. Moreover, improvements in other variables
like exercise economy or lactate threshold may occur without significant
changes in peak VO2 The limited evidence available indicates
that overtraining is occurring in young athletes (30% prevalence),
highlighting the importance of further research in to all the possible
contributing factors - physiological, psychological and emotional
- when investigating overtraining.
KEY
WORDS: Prepubertal and adolescent athletes, trainability, mechanisms,
resistance training, anaerobic training, aerobic training, overtraining.
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