This article is a companion piece to my previous articles titled, A Paradigm Shift in Bioenergetics and Applied Bioenergetics.
In discussions about energy systems, coaches often make rigid distinctions between the different modes of energy production, discussing anaerobic and aerobic metabolism as if they are entirely compartmentalized processes that occur in isolation. Through this worldview they see things as black or white — aerobic or anaerobic. In figure I, you’ll find two examples depicting this view of energy systems.
I suspect that many of you are familiar with these images, or images like these. You’ll often find them in coaching manuals, undergraduate exercise science textbooks, and personal training certification courses. In essence, these images are depicting the percentage of energy contribution from the various energy pathways on the Y-axis with a time scale on the x-axis. According to these charts, a sustained burst of power lasting under two seconds is largely …
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