Gilles Cometti’s conception of physical conditioning primarily focuses on quality and in a second time on quantity. Even for “long duration” work, high-quality muscle contractions are essentials. Thus, continuous, long-duration exercises are not the most efficient. Conversely, intermittent exercises, alternating exercise and rest periods, seem more effective.

“Classical intermittent exercises” (run / rest) can be declined with different durations depending on the objective. In order to increase contractions intensity, intermittent exercises including jumps or strengthening exercises could be performed. However, runs at maximal aerobic velocity (MAV) should be done regularly to obtain a sufficient solicitation of the cardiovascular system. Heart rate monitors are recommended to control these training sessions.

More information on"intermittent-force" exercises.

More information on the comparison between several types of intermittent work.

 

In team sports, reduced-game is also a convenient method to induce a great solicitation of the aerobic system. We are conducting lots of studies on this topic. For example, it appears that the game duration, number of players, field size… induce different physiological requirements. Indeed, short-duration periods would induce greater solicitations of the neuromuscular system whereas longer periods would affect more the cardiovascular system.

Abstract of a communication on this topic.

 

In some sports (kayaing, rowing…), training methods such as “force endurance” could be performed. The key point is the contractions quality. To that, methods like “decreasing loads” are the most interesting. Adding specific exercises for pre- and post- fatigue is important.

More information "force-endurance" training.