EINSTEIN AND BLACK HOLES MISMANAGED MICROCHIPS ANTICANCER DRUGS

SCIENTIFICAMERICANJUNE 1996 $4.95

THE SPACE STATION:THIS ORBITING OUTPOSTPREPARES FOR LAUNCH

AMID MISGIVINGSABOUT ITS MISSION

RESPONDENTS 56

Training the Olympic AthleteSports science and technology are today providing

elite,competitors with the tiny margins neededto win in world-class competition

Thelore of ancient Greece recallsan Olympic athlete who was de-fenraged to b'efcome the, strong-

est person in the world. Every day Mi-

around a stable. As the calf grew, so didMilon's strength, until eventually he wasable to lift the full-grown cow.

Mifon, who won the wrestling contestfive times, intuitively grasp^d"one of thebasic tenets of contemporary sports sci-ence. Progressive resistance training—

by Jay It Kearney

the stressing of muscles with steadily in-c*reasing loads—is something well un-derstood by the more than 10,000 ath-letes from 197 countries who will go toAtlanta, Ga., next month for the centen-nial 6'lthe modern Olympic Games.

During the past half century, howev-er, sports science has refined the ba'sicprinciples of training beyond the under-standing of the Greeks. Exercis^e physi-ologists and coaches draw 6h hew scien-tific knowledge to help athletes developa balance of muscular and metabolicfitness for e^ach of. the 29 sports in theOlympic Games. Biomechanical expertsemploy computers; video arfd specializedsensors tq study thcj dynamics ojjjnpye-ment. Design engineers incorporate ad-

vances in materials and aerodynamicsto fashion streamlined bobsleds or rac-ing bicycles. Sports psychologists buildconfidence through mental-trailaing tech-niques. The integration of these ap-proaches affords the small gains in per-formance that can translate into victory.

? *Working the Body

T Triderstanding how training builds\*J the strength and stamina needed forOlympic events requires basic knowl-edge of how the body produces energy.All human motion depends bn the useand resynthesis of adenosine triphos-phate (ATP), a high-energy moleculeconsisting of a base (adenine), a sugar

(ribose) and three phosphate groups.The breaking of the bond between twophpsphate units releases energy thatpowers muscle contractions and othercellular reactions, rfumans have a verylimited capacity for storing ATP. At amaximum rate of work, the five milli-moles of ATP available for each kilo-gram of muscle is completely depletedin a few seconds. To sustain activity, thebody has three interrelated metabolicprocesses for continually resupplyingthe molecule. Which one predominatesdepends on the muscles' power require-ments at a given moment and on theduration of the activity.

The mostimmediately available sourcefor reconstructing ATP is phosphocrea-tine, itself a high-energy, phosphate-bear-ing molecule. The energy released by thebreakdown of the phosphocreatine mol-ecule is used to resynthesize ATP. Thephosphocreatine system can rechargeATP for only a short while—just five to10 seconds during a sprint. When thesupply of this molecule is exhausted, thebody must rely on two other ATP-gen-erating processes—one that does not re-quire oxygen (anaerobic) and one thatdoes (aerobic).

The anaerobic process, also known asglycolysis, is usually the first to kick in.Cells break down specific carbohydrates(glucose or glycpgen m muscle) to re-lease the energy for resynthesizing ATP.Unfortunately for the athlete, the anaer-

obic metabolism of carbohydrates canyield a buildup of lactic acid, which ac-cumulates in the muscles within twominutes. Lactic acid and assbciated hy-drogen jons cause burning muscle pain.But lactic acid and its metabolite, lactate,which accumulates in muscle, do notalways degrade performance. Throughtraining, the muscles of elite competitorsadapt so that they can tolerate the ele-vated levels of lactate produced duringhigh-intensity exercise.

Even so, lactic acid and lactate even-tually inhibit muscles from contracting.So anaerobic glycolysis can be relied ononly for short bursts of exercise. It can-not supply the ATP needed for the sus-tained activity in endurance events. Thattask falls to' aerobic metabMsm—the'

With the activation of the aerobic pro-cesses, these other systems function at alower level. In the aerobic phase, for in-stance, lactic acid and-lactate are stillproduced, but they are consumed by lessactive muscles or metabolized in the liv-er and so do not accumulate.

Although the aerobic system is highlyefficient, its ability to supply the mus-cles with energy reaches- an upper thresh-old. If still more ATP is needed, the mus-cles must step up the use of various oth-er energy sources. A soccer player in themiddle of a 45-minute half, for example,would depend mostly on aerobic metab-olism. But if he needed to sprint brieflyat full speed, his bodyi would immediate-ly ̂ call on stored ATP or ATP reconsti-tuted by the phosphocreatine system to

i&steife^STf I *

ietsy and Mary I.„ , , ,-,„.„.. t,f>nai rowing tean „ , „

"the twins often train'and compete as a pair, they will participate in the' Olympics as~m"embers'of ah eight-woman crew.

Photography by Ken Regan

-/breakdown of carbohydrate,fat and protein in 'the pres-

•• 'ence'of oxygen. In contrast, with anaerobic glycolysis,'* the aerobic system cannot be

(Switched on quickly. At leastone to two minutes of hard

^ exercise must pass until the5 .increase in breathing and

- heart rate ensures delivery ofoxygeato a muscle cell. Dur-ing that interval, the athlete

' depends on a combinationof stored ATP, the phospho-creatine system or anaerobicglycolysis to provide energy.

supplement the aerobic system. Similar-ly, if this high-intensity sprint continuedfor five to 15 seconds, the player wouldexperience a rapid increase in the rateof anaerobic glycolysis. As the play end-ed, the body would return to its relianceon the aerobic metabolic system, whilethe capacities of the other energy sys-tems regenerated themselves.,

Coaches must understand the require-ments of their sports andt adjust the in-tensity or duration, of training to im-«* J« i v ,' "' *• ,-, "' ,prove/n athlete s aerobic or, anaerobicfunctioning. The fundamental principleof training is that sustained activity willresult in adaptation of the muscles to

SCIENTOEIC AMERICAN June 1996 45

Lse

ever increasing levels of stress—an ideasometimes referred to as the stimulus-respons&modeL Over time, training willinduce physiological changes, which areadapted to the needs of a specific sport.The distance .runner's training, for ex-ample, focuses on enhancing the capa-bilities of: the aerobic system; In 6on-trast, a weight lifter would concentrateoh .strength and power instead of theendurance requirements of the distanceevents. : - , • •

•', Going the Distance - ' • . •

For the Olympic coach, training alsobecomes the judicious; rrianage'ment

of diminishing return's." During the ftrsiyear, an' atMet&might invest SO; to 400hours of training to improve 10 to 15percent in a season. At the peak of hisor her career, the same athlete might putin 1,000 hours of intense and concen-trated effort to achlevean improvementof a single percentage pblnt. Such a snia'llgain appears to be a seefn'ingly pob'r re-turn on investment. But consider thatthe margin of victory-indie track sprintevents in the 1992 Olympics—the aver-age difference between a gold and silvermedal—was only 0.86 percent, littlemore than two tenths of a second.

The details of how coaches and ath-letes tailor trainjngfto specific sports areperhaps best illustrated by the examplesof competitors in widely differing events.At the Atlanta Games, the longest com-petition will be the men's cycling race,which lasts about five hours. The 228-kilometer road race will bring togetherrivals whose training is optimize^ forsustained aerobic effort, while taking

-l.'t ,! " ..H rt^ " "e3|^V'~ ' ̂ '\ * A * s'

advantage of extraordinary advances in' * » '** " ri-.J'r~ £"H I ••. *,l

PREDICTED TIME IMPROVEMENTS

ftwill compete in the Olympics,,won a stage (a day-long seg-ment) of the Tour de France in1995 (above and tight).

the aerodynamics of cyclingtechnology. Lance Armstrongof Austin, Tex*, is expected tobe a strong contender for amedal. Although he did notbring home any medals inthe 1992 Olympics, he wonthe world champioftship in1993 and, in 1995, a day-long segment of the Tour deFrance.

Armstrong's innate abilitywas ̂ evident from an earlyage. At age 15, he demon-strated the aerobic capacitythat places him among theupper 1 to 2 percent of ath-letes worldwide. A measure of overall

100

03Si-a

LUCLo<ceo

PHYSIOLOGY OF CYC'LING

IATP/PHOSPHOCREATINEiGLYCOLYSIS ,• AEROBIC' " :

PACK '"' '' • Hill"' '" : ;FINAL;'!''RIDING .- 'CLIMB .-

EMANDS for cy-clirig vary throughout 'the ev'erit. A ride'rwill tap stored'ATP or the 'pnosphocre^tine system' of will depend: on ariaerbbicglycolysiis to provide the additional ener-gy needed for a hill climb, or a final sprint.

that can be. taken up and-delivered tomuscle cells for use hi making ATP. Italso goes by the name of maximum oxy-gen uptake, or VOimax: Armstrongregistered ra maximum oxygen uptakeof 80 millifiters of oxygen per kilogramof body weight per minute, a rate hecontinues to maintain at the age of 24.This measurement is almost double thatof the average fit male.

As part of his preparation for theOlympics, Armstrong has made severaltrips to the U.S. Olympic Committee'slargest training center, located at thecommittee's headquarters in ColoradoSprings. I am part of the sports scienceteam there that evaluates and advisesathletes and their coaches on trainingimprovements.

| 54o

^365P 52

51

50

I.

53:54.5TRAINING MODIFI-CATIONS ONLY

TRAINING ANDAERODYNAMICMODIFICATIONSCOMBINED

75 75 80 80 85LACTATE THRESHOLD

(PERCENT OF MAXIMUM OXYGEN UPTAKE)

ANALYSIS of Armstrong's cycling was performedat the U.S. Olympic Training Center in ColoradoSprings. Recommendations included changinghis riding position to enhance aerodynamics andtraining scTthat ne increased his lactate threshold,thereby delaying an accumulation of lactate. Byfollowing both suggestions, he could reduce histime in a race spanning 40 kilometers by nearlyf o u r m i n u t e S i , ' - . ' - ' ' -

46 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN June 1996 Training the Olympic Athlete

During one of his stays, Arm-strong completed a metabolicassessment on a cycling ergom-eter, a machine in the sportsphysiology laboratory that pre-cisely controls workload (howhard and fast an athlete ped-als). Tests conducted while AM-strong labored on the ergome-ter measured VO2max, heartrate and lactic acid Ijvels. Arrh-strong registered the highest

PEDAL MOTION of Arm-strong was analyzed at the U.S.training center. The length andangle of the arrows indicate themagnitude and direction offorces applied by Armstrong'sleft foot. The diagram revealedthat he needed to exert force qti.the pedal at both the top andbottSrn of the cycle in the direc-

as much on technology as cycling does.During Armstrong's visits to CojoradoSprings, we have also assessed his ped-aling technique, riding position and bi-cycle design.

In our biomechanjcs laboratory Arm-strong rode a stationary bicycle thatmea's'ured the direction and magnitudeof the forces on the pedals [see illustra-tion at left]. Jeffrey P. Broker, a biome-chanics specialist at the center, deter-mined that Armstrong pedaled almostidentically with the left and right leg.The only flaws identified were minorweaknesses in propulsive force at thetop and bottom of the pedaling cycle.

An analysis of Armstrong's body po-

HANDLEBARSSWEPTFORWARD

SMALL FRONTWHEEL

VO2max of any U.S. cycler. When per-forming at this peak level, he was ableto marshal a world-class 525 watts ofpedaling power.

Physiologists also assess two otherbenchmarks of performance—how effi-ciently the athlete uses oxygen and howquickly lactate builds up in the muscles.This latter measurement, the lactatethreshold, is represented as a percentageof V02max. It is at the threshold that

-I •*• -f ,f J*

lactate begins to accumulate, causingpain and burning.

At the training center, Armstrong'slactate threshold measured 75 percent,which was 10 percentage points less thanthe average for the best cyclists on theU.S. national team. The evaluation teamrecommended that he train more oftenat close to or slightly above his thresh-old. Training at triis intensity produceschanges in circulatory, nervous and en-zymatic functions that can raise the lac-tate threshold, thereby delaying a build-up of lactate.

Training to improve physiologicalcapacity is only one variable—and

sometimes not even the most im-portant one—in streamlining per-formance in a sport that relies

AERODYNAMICS have preoccupied bicycle designers since the early part ofthis century, as is evident in early racing bicycles equipped with canopies,called fairings, that helped to reduce drag (above). The most advanced bicyclestoday are deployed, in track facing. The recently unveiled SB n, ofSuperbike n,(below), has a lightweight carbon-fiber frame. It also has a range of aerody-

' namic design elements^ Similar features are incorporated into bicycles for somerbad-racirig events in wttrch Armstrong competes.

SEAT FASTENINGHIDDEN FROM WIND

SUPPORT ELEMENT ELIMINATEDBETWEEN REAR HUB AND SEAT

SOLID-DISKWHEEL

NARROWEDWHEELHUBS

THIN PROFILE

NARROWEDBOTTOMBRACKET

Li:

"BLADELIKE SPOKES

- SHORTENED WHEEL BASE -

Training the Olympic Athlete SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN June 1996 47

sition provld more constructive.3 "Hiewind drag encountered by rider and bi-cycle'increases as the square of velocityand can dramatically affect speed. Theposition'of the rider,p,n;the bike becomesso critical that some-cyclists have as-sumed bizarre postiifis: Graeme Obree,who won the 1995 world champion-ship in the individual pursuit race andset the one-hour record in 1994, con-trived a'pbsition in which his head waspitched far in front of the handlebars.His arms were completely tucked under

his ch^§t,rwhjch%as1resting"on the han-dlebars. Obree's unconventional ridingposition, one that was difficult for oth-gr cyclists to master, was banned by theInternational Cycling Union because itwas unstable and dangerous.5 > ,The U.S. Olympic Committee evalua--tion team assessed Armstrong's ridingposition through videotapes taken dur-

',ing competitions and at the trainingcenter. The footage revealed that Arm-'strong's trunk needed to be lower to re-duce drag. His relatively wide arm spac-ing permitted wild to stall against his up-per torso, requiring more power at anygiven speed than a flatter, more stream-lined position would. Moreover, his headposition allowed his helmet to projectup into the airstream. We suggested hernove his seat forward and up slightly,his handlebars forward and down andhis hands further forward on the "aero"bars—aerodynamic extensions of thestandard drop handlebars.

We also recommended design chang-es to his helmet, including a longer, tail-like extension in the rear (to keep thewind flowing in a smooth stream overhis head and onto his back). Testing with

power-monitoring equipment showedthat Armstrong's new position resultedin an increase in speed of 1.44 kilome-ters per hour relative to his old position.If combined with the various physiolog-ical improvements recommended, Arm-strong could cut nearly four minutes offhis 40-kilometer race time [see graph atbottom right on page 46].

No matter how they train, Armstrongand other cyclists in Atlanta are sure tocome equipped with bicycles incorpo-rating the latest designs.-To a great 'ex-tent, these innovations have come out ofProject '96, a collaboration between theU.S. Cycling Federation, the U.S. Olym-pic Committee and corporate America,with the mission of combining advancedtraining "and technology to prepare ath-letes for the games in Atlanta.

Designers have inspected every squareinch of the frame to boost aerodynam-ics. They have made the front wheelsmaller and narrower to cut wind resis-tance and to allow teaTmmates to ridecloser to one another. In addition, by us-ing high-strength composite materials,they have minimized the amount ofstructural support needed. The tubing

48 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN June 1996 Training the Olympic Athlete

TIM MeRAE^ a member of the U.S. nationalweight-hfting teaSh, executes a 130-taIogram hftcalled the clean'and jerk at the U.S. training cen-ter (bottom id' top). Two high-speed camerasphotograph the athlete to make ah assessment ofthe pattern of motion (below right). Combiningthe videos provides a three-dimensional stick-fig-ure image for analysis of lifting technique (inset).

found on an ordinary, bicycle has beenreplaced by structural members that ta-per off Jrom front to back in a teardropshape, as does the' wing of an airplane[see bottom illustration on page 47}..Examining every aspect of Arm-

strong's performance has improved hisreadiness for the Olympics. His lactatethreshold has increased from 75 to 79percent. He now practices or competesup to 40,000 kilometers every year.(This performance contrasts with the1,600 kilometers or so, he cycled at theage of 15.) Armstrong has also loggedbetter results in recent races, hi 1995 hewon the U.S. Tour DuPont, and his train-ing helps to explain why he scored anastonishing breakaway victory in a 167-kilometer stretch of the Tour de France,from Montpon-Menestefol to Limoges.

Training the Olympic Athlete

Weight lifting is at the opposite endof the physiological spectrum from cy-cling. Whereas cycling is the longestevent in the Olympics, weight lifting isthe shortest. Weight lifters require ex-treme muscular strength and power, asopposed to endurance. The act of lifting

- a 120- to 250-kilogram barbell demandsup to 3,000 watts of power, enough toilluminate 50 lightbulbs, each 60 watts,

- for a second. For these events, the athleterelies on ATP stored irithe muscles andthe regeneration of ATP by the break-down of phosphocreatine. During the

' long recovery period in training between- each set of five or fewer lifts, these energy, systems replenish themselves aerobically.

Eastern European Training

The U.S. has but a slight chance towin a medal in Atlanta, because the

j championship eastern European weight-lifting programs have ensured in thenewly independent'countries that sur-vived the fracturing of the Soviet bloc.Nevertheless, U.S. athletes have begun toadopt some of the same training meth-ods embraced by their competition.

During the past five years^ DragomirCioroslan, a Romanian-educated coachwho won a bronze medal for that coun-try in the 1984 Olympics, has taken overas the resident weight-hfting coach atthe U.S. Olympic Training Center. .Cio-roslan has instituted a highly structured,year-round program based on his easternEuropean teaining/Iirn McRae is one ofthe coach's ,proteges.EWith his anvillikeupper body, McRde might-have beentapped for the National Football Leagueinstead of the U.S. national weight-jift-ing team if he had not stopped growingat 160 centimeters (five feet three inches).McRae, in fact, took up weight lifting be-cause he hoped it would make him growtaller and more competitive in football.

McRae can lift more than twice hisbody weight, a feat that has helped makehim national champion Jive times andthe U.S. record holder in three weight.classes for :the rwp-jn'ain; competitiveevehts-rrthe' snatch rand^lhe;, clean 'addjerk. In the snatch, an athlete.grips,thebar with hands placed two to.three timesshoulder width. He then pulls it to,chestlevel. He squats under the bar, catchingit overhead with straightened:arms..Thenhe returns to a standing position Withthe bar above his head. The clean ;a'*idjerk proceeds with hands at shoulderwidth. The athlete brings the;bar to chestlevel, squatting underneath, to secure it

on the shoulders before standing. Aftera pause, he finishes with the jerk, a fullextension of the arms. An explosive ver-tical thrust from the legs aids him inlifting the bar.

McRae's stature—short limbs, longtorso and muscular build—suits him wellfor weight lifting. For one, his neightmeans that he need lift the bar only arelatively short distance. Perhaps Mc-Rae's most remarkable physical skillcan be seen when he jumps straight upnearly a meter from a standing position,a demonstration of the kind of leg pow-er needed in lifting.

Weight lifting is the ideal sport to il-lustrate another fundamental conceptof modern athletic training. Periodiza-tion, as it is known, is the structured,

. sequential development of athletic skillor physiological capacity through brga-nizing" training into blocks of time. Thetime'periods involved range from an'in-dividual lesson to annual cycles. Weightlifters prepare 'two to four months for acornpetiiion through a macrocycle, aperiod that itself includes several short-er segments called mesocycles.

Cioroslan takes the athletes on the na- \tional team through three to four mac-rocycles during the year, each leading upto a major .competition. A macrocyclebegins with a preparatory phase,- a hieso-cycle that lasts'about eight to Ifi weeks.Each week during sthis mesocycle, Mc-,Rae and other, athletes will perform 600 •.lifting rjep6titi0ns-§t>..80l to >9Q percent ofthe maximum,amo,unt th£y are>abl&tolift^TheS high-volumej:'medium-,intensity .workouts elicitofhanges in muscle,, con- \nectJYe tissue,'ligaments and .other softtissues. These'changes enable the athletes \

r?

to tolerate heavier-lifting in the nexttraining phase. > < ' ' , • > ' > ' >

In the second mesocycle, which lastsanother four to five weeks, the team'strainin'g objective is to bolst'er strengthand power by doing fewer repetitions(200 to 300 per week) but using heavierweights diat require 90 to 100 percent ofan athlete's lifting capacity; The strongestof Cioroslan's athletes might lift morethan three million kilograms a year.

The final mesocycle includes two phas-es leading up to the event. During thefirst phase, the athlete works at maxi-mum intensity to ensure that the strengthand power gains from earlier trainingperiods translate into competitive per-formances. The last week or so of thismesocycle focuses on tapering-, the re-duction of the volume and intensity ofexercise to allow the athlete to recoverfrom die stresses of training without los-ing me benefits of intensive preparation..

In addition to applying physiologicalprinciples to training, weight lifters, likecyclists, take advantage of an array ofsophisticated monitoring equipment,"weight lifting is one of the most techni-cally demanding sports, requiring use ofa specific sequence of muscles. If eachmuscle group, from the knee and hipextensors to the shoulder and arm mus-cles, does not activate in sequence, thelifter may not raise the bar high enough,

'or else it may sway precariously back'andforth.-' ! ' •'

Sarah L:"Smith; a biomechanical spe-cialist at the Colorado Spf ings trainingcenter, tested McRae to* track thesmoothness of the S-shaped trajectorythat the bat must trace from ground tofull extension. 'The analysis involvestwo cameras and two platforms con-taining sensors that^recofd the forcesapplied through each foot. If the loadon each foiot differs,'the lifter friaylosesymmetry between his harids—that is,he may raise one side of the bar fasterthan the other. Testing showed thatasymmetries in McRae's lifting made itdifficult to catch and stabilize the barduring the snatch, a finding that led toseveral refinements in technique.

Choosing One's Parents

McRae's ability to lift more thantwice his body weight may be a

matter of birthright or his early expo-sure to the sport—or perhaps a little ofboth. Sports scientists often ponder therole of genes and environment in diemakeup of the elite athlete.

The physiologist Per-Olof Astrandcoined the often repeated maxim: to be-come an Olympic athlete, choose yourparents well. That genetics probablyplays at least some role has been demon-

STRENGTH TRAINING with weights isa critical part pf the regimen of the Mc-Cagc sisters and the rest of the U.S. row--. 6?. l»" ^ "<tfaa> , r»j . -.« . "T.ing team. But this type or training is justpart of their periodization routine: the pro-.gramffiM scheduling ̂ f training .by year,, quarter^masrocycle, which isjiot ,shown),jnqntgi|me,socycle), week^ancl day (graphs

't . ^ ,•intensjljr and type of training are carefully^yaried juntij tjie^tapering-off . period justbefore the .Olympic Games begin. ,

strated by Claude Bouchard, an anthro-pological geneticist and exercise physi-ologist at Laval University in'Quebec.In the 1980s Bouchard studied paternalarid identical twins. He found that somepairs of sedentary twins were able tonearly double their maximum oxygenuptake after 15 to 20 weeks of physicaltraining, whereas others showed mini-mal gains in fitness. These findings sug-gested a genetic basis for the superiorphysiology of top-notch'athletes. Bou-chard is now looking for genetic mark-ers that would distinguish between thosewith a high response to training andthose who adapt less well.

As yet, no elite training programs seekout competitors with specific "athletic"genes. But they often do the next bestthing. The physical typing of a prospec-tive athlete—die systematic recruitment

50 .SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Jiine 1996 Training the Olympic Athlete

I TRAINING VOLUME (TIME IN PRACTICE)| TRAINING INTENSITY (LEVEL OF EFFORT)I STRENGTH TRAINING WITH WEIGHTS! ROWING TECHNIQUE -

of youngsters based on traits undergenetic control—has become a fix-ture of many national programs,particularly • the now defunct EastGerman sports machine. The Aus-tralians, in fact, have demonstratedthat these principles can be applied ina country that does not exert heavy-handed control over its citizens' lives.The Australian rowing federationworked with coaches and sports sci-entists to develop a profile of wom-en athletes who had the potential tobecome world-class rowers. Quali-ties such as height, body-fat compo-sition, limb length and cardiovascu-lar endurance were surveyed. Ath-letes without these characteristicsare not excluded from considera-tion, however. The Australiansshowed through this program thatthey could field international ath-letes within two years.

If a comparable program existedhi the U.S., two women who wouldhave b,een targeted are the identicaltwins Mary and Betsy McCagg.

,- 'MONDAY^ 'TUESDAY ^WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY -

MORNING

MIDDAY

AFTER-'" NOON

Four sets cat a heart,beats' per"r

AEROBIC -ENDURANCETRAINING ,,

, STRENGTH"TRAINING

WEIGHTS'"

AEROBICENDURANCETRAILING ~

HIGH- "v - i1 tpENSITY" iANAEROBICT

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STRENGTHTRAINING

WEIGHTS $SUSTAINED]RUNNING^

TRAININGAT LACTATETHRESHOLD

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'STRENGTHTRAINING 'WjTH,WEIGHTS i

J.5 sets of 15 strokes Five-mile run J»-.at 1W percent effort Three to ̂ sets

f 25 minutes each > ferent lifting exerrate'6fl48to"160 ' ->\K five to 10 repetltnlnu^e -.„;/' -^ 90 percent of ma

AEROBIC f1

ENDURANCETRAINING

AEROBIC " .ENDURANCETRAILING ',* '-* ~ ^

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15 sets e

TRAINING 'AT LACTATETHRESHOLD

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if 400 meters

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INDIVID- -UA'LIZEDWORKpUTS ,

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of up to 10,dlf- . •• Four sets of 10 minutes eachcises each vvlth at a heart rate of 190 Beatsonsat75tp;X -, per'mlnute" >- ?-'^ >xlmymeffprt' > ',;_ *

MCCAGG SISTERS ready their oars for a dailytraining session on the Tennessee River; theircoach, Hartmut Buschbacher, watches a video ofthe two women rowing.

The McCagg sisters, stalwarts of theU.S. women's rowing team, are perfect-ly endowed for their sport. Both are 188centimeters (six feet two inches) tall andweigh 79 kilograms (175 pdunds). Bothhave body-fat compositions lower thanthat of the average college-age^ male(meaning most of that weight is muscle)as well as long legs that facilitate the ex-ecution of a long, powerful stroke.

The McCaggs also demonstrate thatgenes are only of value in an environ-ment that permits development of one'snatural physical assets through training.The family also had a multigeneration-al tradition of involvement in the sport.The McCaggs' father and grandfather—as well as many other family members-rowed competitively while attendingHarvard University and other easternestablishment colleges.

After finishing their rowing careers inan exceptional high school program,the sisters attended Radcliffe College,with its long tradition in women's row-ing. Expectations for the twins remainedhigh from the outset: they joined theRadcliffe varsity team as freshmen. Intheir sophomore and junior years, theteam went undefeated. Both sisters madethe Olympic team in 1992; their crewof eight scored a sixth-place finish.

Improving the Best Rowers

Hl 'he McCaggs compete in either eight-'JL or two-woman crews for sweep

rowing, in which each crew memberpulls one long oar with both arms. Asmuch as any event, the 2,000-meter dis-tance they traverse in six to seven min-utes requires a balance of athletic phys- 'ical capabilities: muscular power com-bined with a highly honed aerobiccapacity, and an ability to tap into one'sanaerobic pathway for more musclepower.

The McCaggs and the rest of the na-tional team came to the training centerin Colorado Springs in 1991 for a phys-iological and biomechanical assessmentto determine why they encountered dif-ficulties in the last 500 meters of a race.To their coaches, it appeared that theyhad failed to develop the requisite an-aerobic capacity—and so were unableto achieve the increase in rowing powerrequired in a final sprint.

Testing at the training center showedthat, in actuality, the team had attaineda level of anaerobic fitness matching thatof the best rowers in the world. Whatthe members lacked was sufficient aerb-

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN June 1996 , 51

f:?i ^j . ':

TAMMY FORSTER prepared for the plympic trials at the 50-meter shooting range atthe U.S. training~'center. Forster did not qualify for the Olympic team.

bic capacity to carry them through thefirst 1,500 meters of a race without ac-cumulating debilitating levels oflactate.

Later in 1991 someone with ideasabout how to solve the problem of theanemic finishes arrived in the U.S. Thatyear Harfmut Buschbacher, the formercoach, of the East German women row-ers, took charge of the U.S. nationalteam. Ironically, it was an East Germanjunior women's team coached by Busch-bacher that had beaten a U.S. team onwhich the McCaggs had rowed in1985—an event that stiffened the sisters'resolve to become more competitive.

Buschbacher soon established a full-time resident athlete program in Chat-tanooga, Term., with a group of 15 care-fully screened women. His philosophyof coaching borrows extensively fromthe systematic training principles Jfor

which the East Germans were known.Buschbacher applied concepts of peri-odization, alternating different mixes ofvolume and intensity of training thathelped to correct the aerobic deficit [seegraphs and table on page 51].

Evidence that Buschbacher's strategymay be helping came last summer whenthe McCaggs, racing in a team of eight,won the world championships in Tarh-pere, Finland.

The Mental Game of Target Practice

The Olympic events that rely less onbrute strength and more on skill

and mental conditioning than any othersport are the shooting and archerycompetitions, in whichwomen can match orbetter the perfor-

mance of men. One female shooter, 2/-year-old Tairimy Forster, started downthe path to becoming a national and in-ternational champion by watching tele-vision. At the age of four, seeing OlgaKorbut's gold-medal-winning gymnas-tic feats made Forster vow to go to theOlympics. The opportunity to becomean Olympic athlete presented itself inForster's backyard, where her father, anexpert rifleman arid an occasional en-trant in shooting contests, showed eachfamily member how to use and takecare of guns. Parental involvement inshaping the young'athlete, a theme inthe McCaggs' career, also encouragedForster. Once her commitment becameclear, her father decided to take classesin how to train shooters—and he nowserves as one of her coaches.

By the time Forster was 15, she wastraining for 90 minutes a day

with an air rifle or 'an un-loaded small-bore (.22 cal-

ACTUAL TARGET SIZE (above left) for aneverit in which athletes aim a rifle without ascope from 10 meters (left). A laser tracking sys-tem detects where Forster aims the rifle (above).

Training the Olympic Athlete

SHOOTING SHOES provide a stable basf tf fifefrom a standing^jositionl

iber) rifle indoors. She is a testament tothe-benefits-of perseverance, showingthat intensive training can in > somesports make up for a lack of innate abil-ity. Not a natural talent, Forster qb-served her sister shoot equally well whilespending only a quarter of the time inpractice. Forster nonetheless stayed withit. By 1985 she had won a silver medalat the junior national competition, andshe chose to go to West Virginia Univer-sity to train with Ed Etzel, an Olympicgold medalist in 1984.

In 1991 Forster took up residency atthe-(Colorado Springs training--center.Her stay has allowed her to devote full'time to training for the 10-meter air-riflecontest and the three-position shootingevent. The latter contest requires firinga small-bore rifle (one shooting a small-diameter-bullet) at targets 50 metersaway while lying, kneeling and stand-ing. She has especially labored on themental-rehearsal techniques she needsin order to muster the focused concen-tration essential to excelling in this event.Her efforts have improved her skills, "al-though she fell short of winning one ofthe two open spots on the women'sOlympic shooting team iri the 10- and50-meter events. Forster's training, how-ever,1 provides-an illustration of the ben-efits psychology brings to sports.

The roots of the ,sports psychologyfield that are, the basis for Forster's skillsextend back almost a century, whenNorman Triplett discovered that ath-letes performed better when competingagainst one another than when compet-

ing against the clocE Sports psychologybegan to gain a broad appeal in the1970s, when the projfesfsion started ap-plying a set olcqgnjtrge and^ehavioralteQhniquel |p athlltif training. At:.tha|time, new research showed that mentalpractice alone could improve- motor

• ijAsJelejiient̂ of.̂ e|re|̂ |rs|l training,she combines a number of techniques —among them, muscle relaxation exercis-es, mental visualization of a perfor-mance,-and recording of Her accomplish^ments and day-tox-day emotions in ajournal. She also'se'ts but a series of re-alistic, objectives that she can accomplishduring each practice? " J

Relaxation exercises allow the shoot-er to heighten concentratiqn and to rec-ognize sources of muscle tension in dieshoulders and back that can affect theaccuracy of a shot. During visualization,Forster may picture herself aiming andshooting; at other times, she sees herselfas a bystander watching the event fromthe sidelines. The more active imagery,when she actually imagines holding therifle, seems to yield more of a perfor-mance gain. ,

Forster repeats a visualization routinebefore each shot shre takes in competi-tion. In her mind, she moves slowlythrough each step, from standing on thefiring line to bringing the rifle into posi-tion to firing an actual shot. She- goesthrough this mental exercise before eachof the 60 shots in the three-position com-petition. Invoking this state 'of focusedcalm before each shot, a shooter mayspend up tatwo and a half hours in pre-paration and firing^ the time limit fora shooting event. The winner, who isgauged on accuracy,' not speed, will hitdie bullV-eyewith more than 90 percentof the shots made in the two events.

Forster has also worked directly withU.S. Olympic sports psychologist SeanMcGann to allay the perfectionism thathas sometimes caused her to lose confi-dence in the accuracy of her aim. To as-

sess 'her technique, she shot a rifleequipped with an infrared laser. An

.analysis of the placement of the beamon the target showed jhat her aim v?as

•' nearly: flawless. But she continually triedto make adjustments, and so her abilityto remain steadily fixed on the target

.%-deteriorated £ffter fiv^or: six gegonds.j, JJi|cCanji hjlp^^lrsfcilvelop visu-

alization routines that included a seriesof verbal cues to quell these fears—therepeating of simple words like "relax"or '̂re'ady." Persistence has yielded somepayoffs. During her residency, Forsterhas won two world cups, and last yearshe placed second at the national cham-pionships—a testament to the accom-plishments that accrue from the slow,deliberate pace that characterizes thismost cerebral of sporting events.

The combination of physical andmental training employed by the roweror shooter applies across the full rangeof the 29 Olympic sports, from swim-ming to baseball. Sports science and

RECORD RACE TIMES FOR MAN AND HORSE

26Q

•technology have contributed to a trendin which world records in all sports keepfalling. Winning times for horses in theKentucky Derby have declined at aslower rate than records in the one-milerun have. It is certain, moreover, thatthe Olympic Games in Adanta this sum-mer will once again challenge the limitsof human performance. £1

The Author

JAY T. KEARNEY, who holds a doctorate degree in exercise physiology fromthe University of Maryland, is a senior sports physiologist for the U.S. OlympicCommittee. From 1974 to 1986 he was professor of physiology at the Uniyqrsi-ty of Kentucky, and from 1988 to 1992 he served as director of the sports sci-ence and technology division of the U.S. Olympic Training penter in ColoradoSprings. He was on the flat-water canoeing team slated to go to the 1980 Olym-pic Games in Moscow, but the team stayed home because of the Carter admin-istration's boycott protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Professionalsfrom the U.S. Olympic Committee's sports science and technology division con-tributed to this article—in particular, research assistant Susan Mulligan.

Further Reading

, TRAINING FOR SPORT AND ACTIVITY: THE PHY.SIOLOGI-CAL BASIS OF THE CONDITIONING PROCESS. Jack H.Wilmore and David L/Costill. Human Kinetics Pub-hshejrs, 1988.

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF TRAINING: THE KEYTO; ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE. Tudor O. Bompa.'Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1994.., ,THE OLYMPIC FACTBOOK: A SPECTATOR'S GUIDE TOTHE SUMMER GAMES. Edited by Rebecca Nelson andMarie J. MacNee. Visible Ink, 1996. '

Training the Olympic Athlete SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN June 1996 55