Tapering for Peak Performance by Juraj Šarić

[This is a guest blog by Juraj Šarić. Juraj is a strength & conditioning coach with a masters degree in Kinesiology from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. He has experience coaching at a variety of levels and is currently working as a conditioning coach for boxing. His background is in swimming, waterpolo and martial arts. At the moment, he is taking part in the Athletic Lab Coaching Mentorship program.]

Sport professionals across the world are increasingly trying to push the limits of human adaptation. To achieve this goal, without breaking the athlete, coaches are presented with a hard task of managing a very high number of variables that mutually interplay. Training load, volume, frequency, exercise order, RPEs, contraction speed, execution of an exercise, nutrition, sleep, and season time are some of the many variables that should be taken into consideration when designing a training program. It is almost impossible to keep all of these under control, yet as professionals, we should always aim for a “bit of perfection” in our training. Having said that, the main objective of this blog is to help coaches optimize their training variables within a taper in an attempt to elicit peak performance. A typical misconception among coaches is that training less will lead to a drop in performance. Despite this belief, research indicates that fitness levels can be maintained or even improved with proper tapering protocols [1]. Though research and anecdotes provide some guidance on the tapering process, designing an effective tapering program is just as much an art as it is a science [2]. Still, there are evidence-based guidelines which one should follow.

What is Tapering?

A taper refers to a strategy which is implemented in a period before major competition with the goal of reducing accumulated fatigue and further increasing (or at least maintaining) positive adaptations that were accumulated in a previous training. Most of the taper-related research has been performed on endurance based athletes. The main reason for this lies in the format of the competitive season. Within this format, there are only a few big events in which the athlete will compete. Therefore, it is easier and more feasible to implement and research tapering strategies in these sports. Sports like cycling, long distance running, and swimming have historically been the main interest of researchers in this field.

A taper represents “a reduction of the training load during a defined period of time, in an attempt to reduce the physiological and psychological stress (accumulated fatigue) of daily training and optimize sports performance” [2]. The training load can be described as a combination of three variables: training intensity, volume, and frequency. By manipulating any of these three, total load can be reduced. This can be tricky due to the fact that athletes might lose their training induced adaptations when insufficient training stimulus is administered (detraining). When programming a taper, coaches should select the most impactful variables to lower the training load.

Almost all studies agree that the training load should not be reduced at the expense of training intensity [3][2][4]. It is crucial to maintain or slightly increase levels of intensity when the goal is to optimize sport performance and maintain training induced adaptations such as aerobic power, cardiac growth, and endurance measures [2][5]. For this reason, coaches mutually agree not to lower intensity when tapering. On the other hand, volume seems to be the best variable to manipulate when wanting to preserve performance. It appears that low-volume taper produces better results in performance, compared to moderate-volume taper [3]. Reduction of training volume ranging from 41-70% of pretaper value seems to be “the way to go” when retaining or slightly improving training-induced adaptations [1]. What’s more, this reduction in load should be achieved by decreasing the duration of training sessions, rather than training frequency [6].

Furthermore, sport science professionals are still unsure when giving recommendations for taper duration. Taper lengths have been reported to range from 6-7 days for middle distance runners and up to 10-35 days for swimmers [2]. What would be an optimal taper duration? It seems that the answer to this question varies depending on the athlete and the pretaper intensity. Higher overload in pretaper training will cause greater stress on the body (ex. a 20% increase over normal training) [3]. Therefore, in this case, higher load reduction and longer taper duration should be utilized. Moreover, taper should be adjusted for an individual. Self-perceived fatigue can be a good “adjusting variable” for taper duration. Implementing questionnaires to see if your athlete feels refreshed and fully energized can help guide you to determine taper duration [3]. Boiled down, 8-14 days of taper seems to be a good duration for fatigue dissipation without potential detraining drawbacks. In summary, we could suggest that the optimal taper duration might be two weeks [3] [1]. With all of that being said, coaches should choose the most appropriate method depending on pretaper training load and individual athlete fatigue [7].

Typical taper strategies

Figure 1. Types of Taper (Mujika & Padilla, 2003)

There is more than one way to go about tapering. Figure 1 defines a few tapering strategies used in research and coaching. Compared to other tapers, step taper is characterized by higher load reduction in an instant, regardless of the pretaper training. Other tapering strategies use progressive lowering of a smaller load over a longer duration [3]. Comparing all of them, exponential taper (fast decay) seems to produce the most beneficial outcomes on performance [2].

Why use a tapering strategy

Awareness of physiological processes in the body is a key element of every successful training protocol. The question is: Which training strategy yields what kind of physiological response in an athlete. Knowing the answer to this question differentiates skillful coaches from less experienced ones. Since 1980, sport science has come a long way in shedding some light on physiological changes associated with the taper. It is hard to encompass all of the aspects regarding tapering physiology, but we will list the ones with the strongest scientific evidence.

Several studies have shown an increase in red cell volume, hemoglobin, and hematocrit values after implementing a taper [2] [5]. This was due to the induced positive balance between haemolysis and erythropoiesis facilitated by reduced training load associated with taper. Moreover, because of a constant exposure to high volume training, It should only be natural to expect for energy stores (like glycogen) to drop significantly due to the chronic overload [1]. Corresponding to this is the data showing an increase in muscle glycogen stores during tapering periods. Replenishing these energy stores seems like a desirable adaptation because of the fact that initial glycogen levels affect endurance performance as well as repeated high-intensity efforts [1].

Furthermore, blood levels of creatine kinase (CK) show steady decrease during taper [2] [5]. CK is often used as an index of training-induced physiological stress and can be a good indicator of fatigue and muscle damage when implementing taper [5]. Likewise, there is evidence showing that maximal oxygen uptake (O2max ) can increase or remain unchanged during periods of taper. On a similar note, studies showed taper-induced increases in peak blood lactate concentration after a maximal exercise. Peak blood lactate concentration value has been shown to be an effective index of anaerobic capacity and a good marker of physiological change during taper [5].

Furthermore, taper-induced positive changes in muscular strength and power seems to be of neuro-muscular nature (improved fiber recruitment). These capacities are usually suppressed by intensive training. Therefore, when implementing reduced training volume through taper, coaches are allowing for a supercompensation process to take place [5]. One final thing to mention, that is usually overlooked, is sleep quality, mood state, and reduced perception of effort are qualities that have been shown to improve when a taper is introduced [5] [2].That being said, reduction in training loads (during taper) will inevitably result in a decreased daily energy expenditure. Keeping this in mind, coaches should pay close attention to avoid energy imbalances [5].

Tapering for Strength & Power

As previously stated, there is limited data on tapering for maximal strength and power. Most of the research observes tapering-induced changes for endurance performance. Having said that, it looks like similar guidelines (like for endurance athletes) should be followed when implementing a taper for strength gains. Preferable choice, when tapering, for endurance based athletes would be a progressive taper. However, step taper has also been proven to be an effective method for performance improvements in strength and power sports [8]. The general recommendation is to reduce volume 30-70% while maintaining or slightly raising intensity [1] [8]. Studies are still inconclusive about reasons for strength gains, but the general belief is that taper helps with reversal of neuromuscular fatigue which would imply better neural activation [1] [8].

Moreover, taper is easy to implement for strength and power sports because it supports “rest-related augmentation” or “super-compensation” concepts. As such, it fits well in a periodized training plan for power and strength athletes, which usually favors high intensities over volume when approaching competition [1]. Similarly, there is evidence suggesting that complete training cessation should maintain or even slightly improve maximal strength when done right [1] [8]. This data goes well with the fact that acquired strength adaptations are more easily preserved compared to endurance based adaptations. Implementing training cessation for at least two days before an important competition seems to be the most optimal approach when maximal strength is a desired outcome. It should be noted that training cessation should not last more than a week (2-6 days). Beyond this threshold, performance tends to drop as the effects of detraining begin to outweigh the impact of fatigue reduction [8].

Figure 2. Recommendations for Max Strength (Adapted from Pritchard et al., 2015)

Tapering in Team Sports

CARY, NC – MAY 22: Denise O’Sullivan #8 of the North Carolina Courage brings the ball up the field during a game between Orlando Pride and North Carolina Courage at Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park on May 22, 2021 in Cary, North Carolina.

Team sports are tricky to taper because the players usually need to perform at a high level for an extended period of time. Therefore, it is not always possible to implement a taper in an annual program for team sports. Despite that, a taper may be used at the end of a preseason to help a team peak and complete a league format competitive season in good condition [3]. If using a taper in a competitive season, coaches may ask themselves, “Would I rather choose to recover from a previous competition and then rebuild my athlete or would I rather maintain intensive training while taking advantage of acquired adaptations from the previous cycle?” Answering this question requires that coaches consider levels of athletes fatigue and the time left till the next competition [3]. Until more research is done on tapering for team sports, practitioners may follow the same recommendation as for individual sports. However, there are some specific guidelines to follow:

• On a yearly basis, more than 2-3 large volume reduction (∼ 50%) tapers (∼ 2 weeks) may be detrimental for performance.
• When incorporating a taper, prioritizing the most important events (2-3 big ones) during a competitive season seems to be the best way to go
• A plentiful training period (at least 2 months) should be incorporated between two big events.
  To get the biggest bank for your buck, there should be a training overload preceding taper [7].
• When used before minor events, short duration tapers (4-7 days) are an option. When implementing these, sport professionals need to be aware that training-induced fatigue might not go away. Therefore, it is a good idea to implement a variety of recovery modalities (sleep, nutrition, massage, hydration…) to optimize performance [3]

Recommendations

1. Taper should minimize fatigue without compromising fitness. Be careful not to detrain your athletes.
2. Maintaining or even increasing training intensity should be a priority. To provide necessary decrease in volume-load, reductions in other training variables will be necessary.
3. Training volume should be reduced by 40-70% (for some athletes going as high as 90% volume reduction still may induce positive performance changes).
4. When lowering training frequency, highly trained athletes should maintain it at 80% or more, while moderately trained athletes can maintain their training induced adaptations with fairly low frequency (30-50% reduction).
5. Test different taper lengths to determine what durations work best for different athletes [3]. Taper length is very individualized and positive changes have been seen in tapers lasting 4–28 days. Having said that, two weeks of taper seems sufficient for improving performance.
6. Progressive, nonlinear tapering design seems to be the best option to use. Specifically, an exponential-fast decay protocol (i.e., low-volume taper) appears to be the best option [2].
7. Tapering is not magical pixie dust. It’s just a good strategy to reap the benefits of previous training. If your athletes are undertrained, they won’t reap any benefit from tapering. The higher the total pre-taper work load, the greater the benefits of a taper will be [7]. Athletes need to accumulate hard, chronic training work when the peak performance is not necessary & fatigue is acceptable. A smart man once said: “Put the hay in the barn while you can & then reap the benefits afterwards.”

If done right, a taper can improve performance by ~3% (ranging from 0.5–6.0%). This is no small change when considering that a 3% improvement in a collegiate 8 kilometer runner’s performance could account for a 50s faster race time [1]

References

1. Murach, K. A. and Bagley, J. R. (2015). Less is more: the physiological basis for tapering in endurance, strength, and power athletes. Sports, 3(3):209–218.
2. Mujika, I. and Padilla, S. (2003). Scientific bases for precompetition tapering strategies. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 35(7):1182–1187.
3. Le Meur, Y., Hausswirth, C., and Mujika, I. (2012). Tapering for competition: A review. Science & Sports, 27(2):77–87.
4. Mujika, I. (1998). The influence of training characteristics and tapering on the adaptation in highly trained individuals: a review. International journal of sports medicine, 19(07):439–446.
5. Mujika, I., Padilla, S., Pyne, D., and Busso, T. (2004). Physiological changes associated with the pre- event taper in athletes. Sports medicine, 34(13):891–927.
6. Bosquet, L., Montpetit, J., Arvisais, D., and Mujika, I. (2007). Effects of tapering on performance: a meta-analysis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 39(8):1358–1365.
7. Vachon, A., Berryman, N., Mujika, I., Paquet, J.-B., Arvisais, D., and Bosquet, L. (2021). Effects of tapering on neuromuscular and metabolic fitness in team sports: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European journal of sport science, 21(3):300–311. 5
8. Pritchard, H., Keogh, J., Barnes, M., and McGuigan, M. (2015). Effects and mechanisms of tapering in maximizing muscular strength. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 37(2):72–83.