Citation

Gallo TF, Cormack SJ, Gabbett TJ, Lorenzen CH. J. Strength Cond. Res. 2016; 31(2): 495-502.

Affiliation

School of Exercise Science, ACU, Melbourne, Australia 2School of Exercise Science, ACU, Brisbane, Australia 3North Melbourne Football Club, Melbourne, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, National Strength and Conditioning Association)

DOI

10.1519/JSC.0000000000001515

PMID

27243912

Abstract

With the prevalence of customized, self-report measures in high-performance sport, and the incomplete understanding of athlete's perceived wellness in response to matches and training load, the objective of this study was to explore weekly wellness profiles within the context of the competitive season of professional Australian football. Internal match load, measured through the session-RPE method, match-to-match micro-cycle, stage of the season and training load were included in multivariate linear models in order to determine their effect on weekly wellness profile (n = 1,835). There was a lower weekly training load on a 6-day micro-cycle compared to a 7- and 8-day micro-cycle. Match load had no significant impact on weekly wellness profile, whilst there was an interaction between micro-cycle and days-post-match. There was a likely moderately lower wellness Z-score 1 d post match for an 8-day micro-cycle (mean; 95% CI = -1.79; -2.02--1.56) compared to a 6- (-1.19; -1.30--1.08) and 7-day (-1.22; -1.34--1.09) cycle (d; 95% CI = -0.82; -1.3--0.36, -0.78; -1.3--0.28, respectively). The second half of the season saw a possibly small reduction in overall wellness Z-score than the first half of the season (0.22; 0.12-0.32). Finally, training load had no effect on wellness Z-score when controlled for days-post-match, micro-cycle and stage of the season. These results provide information on the status of players in response to matches and fixed conditions. Knowing when wellness Z-score returns to baseline relative to the length of the micro-cycle may lead practitioners to prescribe the heaviest load of the week accordingly. Furthermore, wellness 'red flags' should be made relative to the micro-cycles and stage of the season in order to determine an athlete's status relative to their typical weekly profile.

Language: en